Training...

Saturday June 22

Today... Well I woke up. I headed to ECC to test the stage I made. Not quite perfect yet... There is still some work I want to do... but it is good enough for the first time. I still need to fix the curtains to make them look longer. Also the sign (Which hopefully I will be able to make tomorrow). Also I will probably get a pole for the top that is 2 pieces instead of 3. I think my kids will like it. When I was there, Rachel was there. Every Saturday a Korean teacher comes in and works till one to help students... Today it was Rachel. She got a kick out of it and loved my dedication. She said something about how Ama and I are the best teachers at ECC because all of our students and their parents love us. Rosa (one of the Desk teachers {receptionist/front desk}) thought it was great. She said she has been at ECC for 10 years, and she thinks I am the best and most dedicated teacher she has seen. I texted a picture to Louise and she said she could not believe it and called me a treasure. I dont mind the praise, but I do not do it for the praise. I do it because I love doing things, and I really love making my kids happy. If I can make them excited and happy just a little, that is so much more rewarding to me than anything else. 

So here are pictures of  version 1... I will take a picture with kids on Monday... but this is just so you can put a picture with what I have been working on. When we do it, there is a backdrop that ECC uses. So this will go in front of it (so there wont be a mirror like there is now.

I had training this afternoon. It was okay but not really great. I spoke to one of the ladies and brought up some of the problems I am facing with the materials... She kind of said that we can adapt them to our own teaching methods and schedules... but then I told her about how rigid the schedule was. We also learned a little about a class we are teaching that is still in the development phase. It is called citizenship (not sure if I have spoken about that before). Anyway, the curriculum was made for classes that have computers in them to show video clips. Anyway, the class I teach does not have a computer so I am not able to do everything the teachers guide says... they were surprised that my classroom did not have a computer.

At the training, the 2 people that trained me were there. Turns out that the woman trainer is the head of that department from YBM. Not just a regular trainer, but a VIP. Ama has an interview with her next week for a job at corporate. I only bring this up, because she knew who I was and remembered me. Also I think that Mokdong has told them a little about me. Mokdong is the #2 ECC branch, so they are pretty well known and important. It seemed like they payed more attention to what I was saying than than what others were saying. Though of course a lot of my criticisms were constructive instead of just complaints. I wanted solutions. 

Ama and I stopped by a Lotteria on the way home from training. Lotteria is a Korean fast food chain (like McDonalds). I have had them before, but Ama said I should get the cheese sticks. Holy crikey... DELICIOUS. it was just like regular fried mozzarella sticks. But these were delicious. I have had many bad ones in my life. these were perfect. From a fast food joint no less. Next time instead of a mediocre burger, I will just just get 10 orders of these. They were that good.

Got home and took a nap. Needed a nap. It takes an hour and 15 minutes to get the the training, 4 hours of training, and an hour and 15 back. 

Went to the GS and had a beer with Sarah and Zara (another foreign teacher that lives in Bobo for a different Hagwon). Ama and Hye Jin came down. We were going to get 삼겹살 Samgyeopsal (the pork belly BBQ) but no places by us were open. We ended up eating Samurai. My gosh... that food is really good. Ama and I were not really hungry, HyeJin was. We all ate and ate. One order filled us all up. I would have been content not eating second dinner... but it was so good that I had to. I think I have had it for like 3 weeks straight. The beef is just so tender and succulent.  I will find out the name of the dish is sometime.

That has been my Saturday.