Baseball & Relaxation

I am coming to you in this post a little aimlessly. I have no direct purpose for it, but I have gone so long without writing that I felt I ought to. So get ready, this should be good!!! *cue sarcasm, for my mom's benefit

Time has flown by since Chuseok. I have been having a great time the last few weeks despite coming under the influence of a bad cold just a few days ago. I think a trip to a Korean sauna is in the works; they are supposed to be quite wonderful (and cheap!).

I just got done watching my beloved SK Wyverns beat the Kia Tigers in Game 4 of the Championship series. We won 4-3, evening us at 2-2. The next 3 games will be played in Seoul. It is a bit of a strange format, with 2 games in Gwangju, 2 in Incheon and the remaining 3 (if necessary in this best-of-7) in Seoul. I won't complain though since Incheon is the little brother city and shouldn't have too much trouble flooding the stadium.

I have only been able to read up on the Horns recently. I was scheduled to go watch the RRS, (I refuse to call it the Red River Rivalry), but my phone died in Seoul that night and I was a little worried that I'd be in dire straits if I got lost going from the group of friends I was hanging out with to the friend watching the game that night. It was ugly, so I hear, but we won and that's all that counts.

School has been a series of highs and lows. With the enormous amount of time I have spent with kids in the past 8 years, I can't help but hold myself to high standards with this teaching gig. It is hard to realize that I have started something new in regards to some lesson plans being great and some being just OK. I want my students to be engaged at all times - and when they are in school for literally 12-14 hours a day, sometimes I just have to come to terms with the fact that they won't be running on all cylinders at all times. That being said, my immersion classes which I was originally stressing over are much improved. I see them 4 times a week (M,T,W,F), with a joint class for 1st and 2nd grade, 3rd and 4th grade, and a 5th grade class by themselves. I have been having trouble tailoring most of my teaching stuff to the 1st and 2nd graders, but the 3-4 and the 5 classes have been going really really well. My other half of teaching (the regular public school hours), along with the English courses I run for teachers, have been great too. If I can get the 1-2 class up to my standards, I will be about as happy as I can be for a new teacher 2 months into the job!!

For now though, I am off to Skype with my parents!! Hope all is well with everybody!! Hook Em!!

Oh and P.S.
I have been growing out a bit of a beard, mostly out of apathy after being sick and a little out of motivation for my Halloween costume (I am going as my friend Joe - there may be pictures of him up and I need to have some appropriate length for the sideburns!). Today, however, one of the teachers asked me if I hadn't shaved because I was so busy. This has shamed me enough into chopping off the beard tomorrow morning!