The weather has finally lifted and is hovering in the high 50s, low 60s in the daytime. I've loved walking back to the apartment in this weather, and the yellow dust hasn't really kicked in, either.
On a more wide-scale note, there has been some big controversy in Korea as of late. They just got a new president, Ee Myung Bak, who was a former mayor of Seoul. One of his greatest achievements was the restoration of the Chyeonggye stream that runs through Seoul. Now, he plans on building a giant canal/waterway from Seoul all the way to Busan (on the south eastern coast of the peninsula). There are many that favor this plan, for it aims to create thousands of new jobs, invigorate the more central/rural parts of the country, and bring in more tourists from China. However, there are plenty that are completely opposed to this idea. For it to work, they would have to widen and deepen parts of the rivers and environmentalists are extremely concerned. During monsoon season, this could have serious repercussions. Plus, the construction of such a canal would cost about $52 billion USD. I asked some of my students about the canal idea, and they responded with grimaces. One of my more English-fluent students proclaimed, "He's terrible. Ugh" and then made the finger cutting across the throat movement. Well, only...what, 4.10 more years?
Ok, here are at lot of pictures from this week! I took my DSLR to school so I could take some quality pics of the kiddies.
These are some 9th graders in one of my favorite classes
Here is a group of boys who are super excited about the game we played today. They were just turning around to call me over to check their answer when I took the picture. Very, very enthusiastic class!
Another one of my 9th grade classes. My co-teacher, Mrs. Ryu, is in the background. Compared to some other classes, these students are fairly serious. They do their work quietly, they don't ask many questions, but strangely enough, they participate well when I ask for volunteers. Usually, quiet classes are like pulling teeth--it's impossible to get them to share their answers with the class. But these kids are fairly stellar.
I love this class! These are 2 7th graders. The one on the right actually lived in Philly for a year and her English is fantastic. I asked if she'd lived there for a couple years, but she was like, "Nope, just a year!" She kind of intimidates the rest of the class (they are very embarrassed to speak sometimes, because they know she's so advanced).
So what's interesting about this picture? Maybe the fact that some military men are just chilling in the background. Since the military is so large and they don't have tons of room, they sometimes come to schools and have meetings/some sort of training. They came during the lunchtime and were discussing something in the back of the playground. Meanwhile, the kids were running around them, playing soccer and basketball.
Here are some of my 9th grade girls. They're usually so shy about other people taking their pictures (even though they take tons of self-taken pics) so I have to get them while they're working.
This was taken while walking home. The flood of students from Doksan High School has just begun--you can see them all in the background. It's kind of like walking the gauntlet--you get tons of shouts, waves, and enthusiastic statements of, "Oh, Miss Jen!!! Hello!!! Hello!!!" (Many of my students who graduated this Feb are now at Doksan)
Taken during lunchtime today. It was gorgeous and there were a million kids running around.
Finally, me and Blue!
Alright, I have tons more pictures I could post but this update is already very full. Check out my flickr.com site if you want to see the rest.
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