On the sly

It's 2:55 pm and I'm quite pleased with myself. The school has certain websites blocked from being accessed (such as myspace, blogspot, livejournal, etc), but I found a way around it and now I can update my blog while I'm at work! This way, I'll probably update on a more frequent basis though not always with photos.

Today was my first day back in the saddle, although I didn't have to do any actual teaching. Since today was the first day of the school year, there was a ceremony in the classrooms to welcome the incoming 1st graders (7th graders) and then the students all left early. I can't say that I was particularly thrilled with today, though. I don't really know the person sitting next to me (many teachers changed desks) and I have two new co-teachers. They seem like nice women, but I'm definitely going to miss having Yunhee around. Her English was just top-notch.

So I've sat here at my desk all day. I made a lesson plan for tomorrow, which is just a simple introduction with a powerpoint presentation of WV, DC, family, etc. Then, I have a game for them to play using classroom vocabulary (notebook, eraser, blackboard, etc). I finished that plan around 10 AM, and have just been browsing the facebook and studying Korean ever since. The internet really is an amazing invention. I found this HUGE site with hundreds of flashcard sets for learning Korean--they were all taken from different Korean textbooks or made by the users of the site. So I can flip through standard verbs or nouns (ask = 질문하다, alone =혼자) or I could choose a more specific card set, such as one for astronomy (asteroid = 소행성), tree names (bamboo = 대나무) or even "the dark side" (paganism = 이교!!). It's a great way to kill time and beef up my vocab.

The office is covered in these beautiful flowers. Parents send in huge potted plants at the start of a new semester with colorful ribbons streaming down the front. I took a picture and will post it next time.