Photos of Anyang, Lesson Planning, and Halloween Preparations

I finally did go out last Sunday and take some pictures around Anyang with the good camera, but I was too busy to upload them until now. Photobucket is being kind of a dinkus, however, so I've put them up on Facebook. I'll try to post some here another time, for those of you who either aren't on the Facebook or don't have me friended (my albums are always friends-only, sorry).

I spent the past week working on lesson plans for the Library Program with my co-teacher, Nana. Because we are super awesome and lucky, we have to plan for 10 different classes per week. That's 40 different lessons per month, and 120 lesson plans per semester. I might add that we don't get a textbook for this. We have certain assigned library books and a few pre-chosen topics, and some of the higher levels even come with already made worksheets, but we're expected to fill in all the blanks ourselves. I'm not complaining, mind, but I'm just pointing out that this is a lot of work to get done in one week. We've got crafts, flash-cards, worksheets, PowerPoint presentations, videos and songs to queue, and a slew of other things to create and/or find.

Realizing there was no way we were going to do a semester's worth of lesson planning in the space of a week, we decided to focus on planning the first month. Then, we set about creating the materials for the first week. After much hump-busting, we're most of the way finished, though we still have a few more things to do Monday morning before the first kids arrive around noonish. Oh, and I'll normally be teaching classes between the hours of 10:30am and (I think) 5:45pm. So, not a lot of morning prep time for me, but a couple hours at the end of the day for clean-up and prepping for the next day. Whew!

Things are a little tight right now, money-wise, but I should have enough food to last me the week. Our manager put in a request for us to get our first paychecks a little early, so I should have money by Friday if all goes well. If not, well... I think I have enough pancake ingredients, rice, and eggs to last me until November 10th. It's a good thing I make decent pancakes.

In the meantime, I'm taking it easy this weekend. Just a bit of sweeping and laundry to stay on top of my household chores, but no excursions into the mountains or even much walking about town. Nana was nursing a cold all week, and I think I caught it, so I spent most of today sleeping in late and guzzling water and OJ. I feel a lot better now, though there is still a suspicious tickle in my throat and a bit of a cough. Please, PLEASE don't let me get sick for my first week of classes. That's all I need. T_T

Tomorrow is my favorite day of the year, of course: Halloween! If you haven't heard about it, Neil Gaiman has started a new tradition called "All Hallow's Read", where you give scary books to your loved ones (or even strangers) for Halloween. Lacking many books or money to buy them at the moment (and most of the ones I could get around here would be in Korean), I am instead running a game called Dread for my fellow FTs. There will also be scary movies, and presumably a little bit of drinking (but hopefully not a lot, as it is a work night, and some of us actually need to be at work in the morning).

What is Dread, you may ask? It's probably the most perfect blend of a role-playing game and a party game. It's a game about survival horror, and instead of using dice or cards, you use a Jenga tower. When the tower falls, somebody dies. It's an absolutely elegant game, and the only one I've ever been able to run with any success. My friend Rhianna and I came up with a pretty spiffy scenario for it, too, which I will be running for the FTs. I can't wait. Pictures and full report to come later this week.

Now to marathon one of the many TV shows I've got sitting around on my computer. Have a happy and safe Halloween, everyone!

Cheers,


-Maria