Jeju and Open Class

     The past few weeks have been busy and intense. On May 25th I had one open class where teachers from my school plus the principal and VP observed one of my classes. That was stressful enough, but it went okay, all things considered. Thankfully, I had a long weekend right after that because of Monday's holiday (Buddha's birthday). I had just two days of work that week, then on Thursday I set off with all of the other TaLK scholars in my province to go on our (free!) cultural trip to Jeju.
 

Jusangjeolli. Cool-lookin' natural hexagonal rock formations.

The little islet of Saeseom (Bird Island).

  How was the trip? Good, but exhausting. As is apparently typical of Korean group tours, we were ushered from one attraction to the next in a whirlwind tour of the island. Any one of the many places we went to could have taken a full day of their own. Okay, not EVERY place was worth spending a whole day... but I know many of us were unhappy to not be able to spend more time at one of the beaches, for instance.

  The week after the Jeju trip, I had another open class. This one was a much bigger deal. I was really nervous about it -- especially when I had to keep modifying my lesson plan. I could tell that it was very important to my school that my open class go well. That put a lot of pressure on me. The day of the class I felt okay about the plan, but I left just a few too many small things to prepare, and we ended up with less preparation time than expected. My nervousness grew rapidly until it was time to teach. The lesson went okay -- neither terrible nor great. Perhaps I could share more about what I learned from this whole process... later. I was so glad to have it over with. It is great to be back down to a normal level of stress.

  The weekend after the open class was, in contrast, wonderful. On Saturday I ate lunch with people from my church, then spent the rest of the day with two friends (Jo, who worked at Munpyeong before me; and Hyung Jun, who was one of Jo's co-teachers). What a refreshing day that was! We ate a good dinner, we walked, we played games and watched a movie... and we talked and laughed so much together. Jo stayed with me until Tuesday. We talked, and talked, and talked! She's such a kindred spirit. We were both sad that she had to leave, but we fully enjoyed the time we had together.