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Week 14- Y4(Jun 15th to Jun 21st) |
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Tuesday (June 17):
Last week of school! Finally! I left school today kind of on a bittersweet note. I was really proud of my 1st year Iksan students, not because they're excessively talented, but because most of them have great attitudes, and they all work really hard. But my 1st year Seoul students . . . what a huge disappointment. I've never had a class with such poor attendance and preparation. Listening to that class makes me feel like a failure of a teacher. I guess I have to learn not to take it so personally, and that every once in awhile there will just be a bad batch of students, but still, it's so frustrating.
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Thursday:
Having finished most of my marking during the day, I met Summer and Mark Baker down at Bricx for Ladies Night (free drinks for the girls!) We ended up having a great night, just the three of us hanging out, having great conversations, without running into anyone we knew. Perfect.
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Friday:
FINISHED!!! Yes!
Today was another bittersweet day, but for entirely different reasons-- one of my favourite students, Jini, is battling cancer for the 3rd time. She's taking next semester off, because she's having a surgery, and then chemotherapy. I'm really worried, especially since this is the 3rd time! What amazes me about Jini is that despite all of this, she's always in high spirits, and she may be the most focused and attentive student I have. In fact, she even asked me if I could still teach her private lessons in the fall, even if she's not enrolled in school! Also, Jini is planning on studying English and getting her TOEFL score in the hospital. I'm absolutely amazed at Jini's strength and drive, and I am going to miss having her around school A LOT.
And speaking of school, I've been a little down about teaching this semester, because I haven't developed any emotional connection to any of the 1st year students yet. That's probably a good thing, but it's a lot more fun to teach when you actually like and care about your students. Maybe I'm becoming jaded already.
Anyway, after work, Summer's friend Joe drove us to Costco, where Summer and I got a couple membership to save 35 bucks! We expected them to hassle us a little bit, but no one blinked an eye! At Costco, we stocked up on most of the things that we need for . . . our rooftop bbq on Sunday! I always find Costco kind of overwhelming, but it's really useful when you need to buy for a lot of people |
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Saturday:
Tonight, I was the lead teacher and Bryan was my assistant this time, and everything went perfectly! The students all understood the moves better, they danced with better rhythm, and everyone seemed happy and relaxed. Now Bryan and I have to find a way to strike a balance . . .
After class, it was discovered that there was a live salsa band from Latin America playing at the Hard Rock Cafe! The Hard Rock Cafe is ridiculous and way way way overpriced, but it's so rare to get live Latin music here that I just had to go. And it was well worth it! We all danced for hours, and though I was supposed to meet some friends in Hongdae to check out a band, I didn't end up going because my feet hurt so much!
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