1st Day of School

Well, the first day was pretty good. I had 4 classes, and my 2 "breaks" were full of students...nothing unlike last semester :) But that makes for happy students, and happy talk times for me. It was so nice to see the campus full of life again with new freshmen getting oriented to their surroundings, and older students catching up on the last 2 months of break.

Junie got a job working full time as the ESWP go-to man, so it'll be great to have him around lots. I saw quite a few old students, and got lots and lots of hugs which was a first for me here in Korea. And it was wonderful!!

During my first break, a group of 3 guys speaking almost no English popped in to say hello and ended up staying with a bunch of their other buddies coming to join them for a full hour and a half. It was nice meeting new students, especially freshmen. I want to make them feel comfortable and welcome at KBU. They said they wanted to stop by each day, so we'll see how that goes. I need to be careful not to misuse my break time, but how can I pass up opportunities to help students who want to speak English??!! Funny thing is that none of them are in the English program. They just heard about an "Amy" around campus and wanted to check it out. They came into my room asking, "Do you know what is 'Amy'??" Haha :) It was so cute!

After my classes end, I have a 1 hour break before the other teachers finish. So that's nice. It'll be great to use that time (hopefully) to grade tests and make homework sheets. Then it's off to taekwondo to exercise.

But today I got to meet Jamie's boyfriend!!! It was the first time I've met him, and it was such a pleasure. He's so nice and kind to Jamie. Plus, by the conversations we had, he wants to serve God with all his being, even if that means doing things he doesn't necessarily want to do. Wow! I was so encouraged to live my life in that sort of a way.

Yesterday I was in the kimbap shop when I was approached by a Canadian girl about my age named Alice. After we got to talking, she asked if I knew anywhere to take taekwondo lessons. So we went together today to sign her up, and she starts with me tomorrow. It'll be nice to have another English speaking person there, and it's nice she's a girl too. I hope she doesn't show me up on the exercises though. I hope it's a Western thing about not being able to do half the warm-up things they do and not a "me" thing... :)

After taking the bus home, I stopped by the kimbap restaurant to hello to my Korean mom. She said, "I've been waiting for Amy all day!" It was so sweet. She made me a tuna kimbap with kimchi (yum, yum...) and I helped her husband caulk a broom pan back together. We talked for a while about school, and I walked out without paying...oops!! I've done that twice now without thinking about it. I caught myself a little late yesterday, but went back and paid. And then today I did it, went back, and she laughed and refused to take my money. Ah!! I'd better remember to pay...It seems so simple, but in Korea they don't usually give a bill or wait at the counter. It's up to you to remember. I'll bet I could have walked out of any restaurant without paying up to $20 and no one would say anything. 1, because I speak English. 2, they wouldn't even see me. That doesn't make it right, and I'd never do that on purpose, but just saying...