So Much to Say

Wow, what an adventure I've had so far! So many experiences, and still a little jet lagged. But I have now been here for over a week, and am comfortable with the subway, can navigate most places, have met and connected with the staff from my school, as well as the kids, and am already planning and preparing for my classroom! I begin Friday, March 2! (Weird day, but I'll explain later.) Fear Not, my faithful readers! I will fill you in on the experiences of the week. I've been making a list of  the things I've felt and experienced to let you know all about it. Since there is so much, I'll try to make a few posts this weekend so you don't have to read a novel at one time. Ready? Set...Go!

The school was so sweet to give us a morning to settle into our housing, contact home, and adjust before we had to be somewhere. Each class at LCI Academy had been working on a song and a story in English for the end of the year "Show Off" performance to their parents. Which happened to be the day after we arrived. So we all met up at school and got a mini-tour, then rode a bus with the rest of the teachers to the performance location. There we met the Owner and Director of our school, Mr. Kim, for the first time and were Welcomed by the rest of the Korean staff. My first impressions of them were that they were extremely sweet and welcoming. They worked so hard to prepare things before the kids came including making them a dinner before their performance of Kimbap (Korean Sushi, My Favorite!). It was delicious, and such a welcoming treat for me. So then the kids came and did a run-through of their performance which we watched as we tried to stay awake from the jet lag. They are so cute!!!! I am so excited to try and get some videos posted of them! I don't think my internet is strong enough at the hotel and I've tried to post several videos and it just hasn't worked :( .

Automatically, I could tell that the parents of the kids were extremely involved in their child's life. Most of the parents I'm told are doctors and lawyers, thus MokDong being located in the financial hub of Seoul, and the students being very well behaved and hard working. I learned that parents pay at least $900 a month for their child to attend the LCI Academy kindergarten program alone. That's not counting the various other activities and lessons that parents pay for their students to be involved in. This was proven by the bouquet stand out in the lobby of the performance hall, and the many parents who bought the elaborate bouquets to give in support of the hard work put in by the teachers and students. The bouquets not only had fresh flowers that were beautiful, but toys hanging from plastic hearts, LED lights that glittered, candies, and handmade paper flowers as well. Every parent fought for the best place on the front row or in the front of the auditorium to get the best possible shot of their student while they were performing. It was really cool :) Here are a couple of pictures from LCI Academy's Performance 2012:

This is the room where all of the students gathered after rehearsals to eat kimbap, and get dressed in the costumes that the school had rented.

Of course, students posing in aegyo, or cuteness. A big thing here in Korea :)

This will be my 7 year old Kindy class in less than a week!!!

The whole LCI Kindergarten grades, both 6 years and 7 years :)

So, another thing I've learned about LCI, is that they have two years of Kindergarten. The first year is Kindy 6 years old because Koreans follow the Lunar calendar. Culture Fact: Everyone has the same birthday on the Lunar New Year though you have an actual birth day. So you get two parties, but are the same age as everyone else. For example, currently I am 23 in Korean years even though my 23 birthday isn't until May. I will stay 23 in Korean years until the Lunar New Year in 2013 when I along with everyone else born after the 1989 Lunar New Year will turn 24. Make sense? Generally the first year Kindy's have had no English experience at all, and are coming in fresh. Then there is the 7 year old Kindy grade. These students have already gone through the first year Kindy program, or are 7 years old.

That leads me to discuss more information about the school. Here's a basic run-down of the day:

*:30am-Korean Teachers report to school

9:00am-Foreign Teachers report to school

9:30-10:30am-Morning Kindy Students arrive; Block 1 of instruction

**15 minute playtime break

10:45-11:30am-Block 2 of instruction

**15 minute playtime break

11:45am-12:30pm-Block 3 of instruction

***Lunch for Teacher and Student (Lunches are made by the kitchen staff at school, they are generally good, but always traditional Korean stuff--they've been fun to eat, and they're free!)

1:30-2:15pm-Special Activity, Morning Kindy goes home

**25 minute break between Morning and Afternoon classes

2:40-4:00pm-First afternoon class

**10 minute break between classes

4:10-5:00pm-Second afternoon class; Block 1 instruction

**10 minute rest break

5:10-6:00pm-Block 2 instruction, and classes over for the day

6:30pm-Foreign Teachers can leave

7:00pm-Korean Teachers can leave

It makes for a pretty long day, but nice because the classes change, you get lots of breaks, lunch is fed to you, and you don't have to write the lesson plans. Also, different teachers have different classes on different days. I will have morning Kindy Monday-Friday, Afternoon class 1 Monday-Friday, and Afternoon class 2 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Again, making for long days, but generally less stressful.

Some specifics: The Korean Teachers' role is to make lesson plans, grade some homework, and provide relief and discipline for the Foreign Teacher throughout the day/week. They are also the mediator between the parent and the teacher, making communication between them easier. The Foreign Teacher is the Teacher of Record. They are the one who implement the lessons (mostly out of workbooks--not the best method I've learned but it works for LCI), grade writing assignments, and are in relationship with the students every day of the 20 session days a month. The student may come or go as they please because they are paying per session. Lots of students go on week long vacations, go skiing on the weekends, and a few students leave the country for a session and then come back for the next. It's really very interesting.

The morning Kindy classes learn normal material in English. For example, we will spend a lot of time speaking with them, spelling, writing, reading, working grammar, and doing mathematics. As well as their special activity which will introduce them to science. There are so many other types of Hogwans in our area and Seoul, parents often choose which to send their children to to learn more detail about the other subjects. Our school is primarily focuses on teaching them the English language. The afternoon classes are the ones that are shorter and for older students specializing in specific aspects of English. They use different programs and resources to teach about Reading, Writing, Grammar, Speaking, and Listening in/to/of English.

As well as teaching a class, each teacher also has a special activity that they teach; such as Music, Art, P.E., cooking, Song and Story (literally that), Science, and a Speech or Presentation class. We rotate around to different classes and classrooms each day for the time directly after lunch, and teach our special activity. This coming 6 months, I will teach Music to the first year Kindy classes, and Cooking to the second year Kindy classes! They decided this based upon my resume and interests. ;-)  I'm not totally sure what Music involves, but it sounds like a combination between an elementary Music class in the states and a Theatre class. The school has CD players in each room, and a pretty good selection of plays for me to teach to the students. The goal is to get the students confident to speak or perform in English in front of a large audience. For cooking, I will be teaching simple skills such as how to read a cookbook and recipes, gather ingredients, measure (which should be interesting since they work in the metric system), and make simple things to eat (such as chocolate covered strawberries, PB & J, and Spaghetti). The school provides everything that we need, and I won't have to spend any of my hard-earned Won!!!

What's also interesting is that LCI is primarily a business, not a school with the goal to Educate in the best possible way. It is a Hogwan, or private academy, and therefore gets it's support solely on it's enrollment. We make parents happy-> they send their kids-> we get money-> the school stays in business. Get it? Mr. Kim is the owner of the business, he is not the principal. He pays grattitude and respect at performances, and is often seen around the school, but the students are not sent to him for disciplinary action. Then again, with Asian children who have parents that are doctors and lawyers, and are encouraged to be heavily involved in multiple activities, there aren't too many discipline problems other than talking and minor childish infractions. But they are 6 and 7 year old children.

There is also too much work for the students during the day for them to misbehave, and they miss out on playtimes if they do. They have at least an hour of homework generally every night from LCI alone, and if they don't finish that, they miss playtime. For the most part, they have a pretty good system going, and the kids are incredibly sweet. I haven't seen a single one with a true intent for evil; unlike when I substituted at certain schools back in the states. 

One of the main goals of the school is to make the parents and students happy. If they are happy, they keep coming. It's a very lucritive system, which unfortunately places a lot of pressure on certain people to ensure that everyone is happy. There have been a few stories of teachers getting fired because the students weren't happy. Mostly men, unfortunately because of the kind of lives that some of these students face with their Fathers. Culture Fact: Korean men are mostly the ones who work all day to provide for their families. The mothers are the ones to handle the kids. But a lot of the students in our school have both parents that work very well paying jobs, so they may only have a nanny or other family member watching them. A large population of hard-working Fathers get out of work, go out and drink, and only get involved when their are problems. Some of them are angry and abusive, even without the alcohol. And some of them get too involved with expectations and requirements that to us seem impossible, but somehow the children manage to accomplish them. Then you do have the parents who are wonderful, and truly desire for their children to succeed. They love their children, encourage them, work with them, and support everything they do. Every culture has it's difficulties, and Korea is no different. 

Nevertheless--it is so fun. The children are simply delightful, and their little accents, funny sayings, and treasured hearts make them worth every bit of energy and Love I have! The sweet faces of each child, the quirky things that make them laugh, the way they interact with each other and think so quickly is simply astounding to me, and I look forward to spending many days with them!

Now, my first day of teaching my own classes will be Friday, March 2. That's just an interesting part of the monthly session schedule, and remember, Korean's go to school all year long. Graduation is on February 29, Marth 1 is a Korean Holiday, so the first day of the March session is Friday the 2nd. We get weekends off, about one day a month off for either a Lunar or Korean Holiday, 10 days off in the Summer, and 10 days off in the Winter. This is a full-time job! We'll see how I feel it compares to American schooling after I've been doing it for a little while.

Whew, that's a lot of information, how about some pictures to look at?

Here is the Entrance to LCI Academy. It is on the Fifth floor of a building in MokDong.

This is the Library just to your left and behind you as you walk in.

This is 'The Glass Room' that is the divider between the hallways. There are many lesson materials stored in here, and we have individual meetings in here. The 'Teachers' Room' is on the other side of that back wall. That's where ALL the desks are :-)

The Hallway of classrooms on the right of the glass room.

The hallway of classrooms on the left side of the glass room.

Here is the small playroom that each class gets to use once a week.

(the other times they play inside of the classroom)

And here is the multi-media room that the kids use for many things...such as watching movies, or practicing songs.

Pictures of my classroom will come soon! I get to start setting it up on Tuesday :-) I am so excited!And, God is so good to me...the accent color of it is Purple, and I get LOTS of Natural light!!!



Are you tired of hearing about it yet?? I am thinking that my posts in the future will not be as long. This is just the backgroud informaton that I have now. :-)

Thanks so much for tracking with me, more information about various adventures around the city to come. Peace, Grace, and Love to all :-)

Love,

Madison



I'm Here!!!!

Hello, and Welcome! I'm here!!!! Man, it took us a while, but we have finally arrived to Seoul, South Korea. My year-long journey begins now! Currently, it is 11:40 AM Korean Time, which is about 8:40 back in Texas due to the 15 hour time difference. The weather is about 20 degrees Farenheit, a whopping high of 28 is expected for today, and it is sunny.

After Josh coming up for Valentine's day, and not sleeping a wink the night before, Kristen and I both arrived at the Airport on the morning of the 15 at about 4:30am. We got our tickets from he AA counter, said goodbye to both our families and to sweet Josh, and went to the gate for our flight from Dallas to Chicago. Once we arrived in Chicago, it was about 8:30 or so and we met up with Lora, another teacher our age from South Carolina. I think Lora and I were having a harder time saying goodbye to everyone than Kristen. We all made last minute phone calls (very tearful on my part) and then boarded that steel eagle for our next 15 hours or so.

The plane itself was REALLY nice, there was enough space, it was clean, the stewardesses were very welcoming and respectful, and we had all the necessary ammentities (blankets, pillows, slippers, headphones, etc.). They played a pretty good selection of movies on several channels, and we had a video screen on the back of the seat in front of us. They served us two meals and a lite snack throughout the flight, and I was only able to eat the first due to emotions and anxiety about what everything would be like. My seat was the very middle seat in the row of the aircraft, which made it difficult to stretch out or ever get comfortable enough to fall asleep. I was really only able to nap at all during the flight. Though it was about 15 hours, the flight was not bad unless I tried to sleep. My body did not like all of the stress it was under (not eating, not sleeping, not being active), so I have had a breakout on my face which I would LOVE prayer for :)

Once we arrived in Seoul and stepped off of the plane, it was about 4:30 pm, and the sun was just beginning to head toward the ground. The airport was immacculately clean and neat, not cluttered a bit, and there was NO trash anywhere! We walked for a long time and found the Immigration lines where we got a photo taken(YUK!) and fingerprinted and then let through. Seriously, so much easier than the TSA lines we went through back in America before leaving. We found our bags quickly, except for one of Lora's bags which was missing. We still haven't found it, and it's her main bag, so Please pray God would bring it quickly for her. We were met by a Taxi driver that spoke no English, but was sent from our school with a sign containing our names and we were off!

We drove about 20-25 minutes into the city and met the Master Teacher Sara, another teacher named Kate, and Samuel the "Daddy Fix-It-All" for the foreign teachers at our apartment building. They dropped off the luggage and Samuel took Sara, Kate, Lora, Kristen, and me out to dinner at a japanese restaurant within walking distance from the building. Everything is so compact and easily accessable here! It felt like the alley ways you might find in New York or even in Europe (I could imagine). People were out everywhere, and it was dark at this point. SO safe! Many girls walking by themselves and in pairs, and vehicle drivers (who have no traffic regulations it seems) just wait for you to move or go around you. So neat!

Everything hit me really hard at dinner when I didn't understand the menu, didn't know what I was going to eat, didn't even want to eat, was sitting japanese style at a table that served warm rice water to drink in little teacups (no big water glasses with refills, ugh-my heart broke!), hadn't been able to communicate with my family yet, was physically and emotionally exhausted, and just couldn't hold it in anymore. I couldn't even answer questions without crying! I felt so bad that I could just be a normal human and talk, and I was so hungry but felt too nauseated to eat. I just wanted to go to wherever the heck I was staying and cry!

Rabbit trail: Don (our recruiter) told us a couple of days before we left that Normally, the new teachers stay at a hotel nearby for two weeks until the teachers who they are replacing leave Seoul. Then the housing switch is made. Luckily, there were two rooms available already, and Kristen and Lora's names were drawn to recieve those two upon immediate arrival. Which means that I, by myself, am staying at the hotel about a 5-10 minute drive away from the others. At first is was nerveous about this, especially since I've never been outside of the US. But then I just asked God what His plan for it was, and He told me that He would meet me here in such a sweet place, and that I would feel like Royalty in the accommodations.

After eating a little, Kristen, Lora, and I were nodding off and just unresponsive to anything the others were saying, so we went back to the building and Samuel and I drove to the hotel. It took every last bit of strength I had to not weep everywhere and my voice was not steady at all. Samuel and the Hotel manager explained things to me, took my bags up, and got me a big bottle of water and then left around 9 pm. I lost it. Every emotion that I had left at once and I just cried and cried for about an hour. Soon after I got somewhat settled (crying the whole time), I was able to log onto the internet and connect to Skype and check my e-mail to find sweet e-mails from my mom and dad and Josh. Cried some more, unpacked enough to take a shower, still crying, and then got dressed and was able to connect with Josh via Skype for the first time. SO GOOD!!! Josh and I just Skyped until about 11, and then prayed for each other and said goodnight.

What a miracle, I slept ALL NIGHT and woke up at about 7:15 am. A full 8 hours! It has done Wonders for me :)  I made a quick video tour of my hotel room, but it is now 12:25 and I've got to meet a woman at the Subway to head up to the school and meet the others for a Welcome Performance for us by the kids and other teachers at LCI. I can't get the video to attatch, and I've gotta get to the subway to meet the woman to get to our school, so I'll update with that later.

Welcome to South Korea, Madison Elise!



My Journey: The Story of the Korean Adventure

So, today is the 7th. We fly on the 15th. Less than 10 days. Whoa! I can honestly say that I have no idea what I'm feeling. It's not bad, it's not good, it's just a feeling. I can feel God continuously preparing me for what's ahead, and I already feel like I'm in Korea. He is so faithful. :-) I just took my last weekend trip to Austin to see some of the people that I love the last time before I go, and it felt weird driving back today. I wasn't ready to be back in my college town again. Though boyfriend and so many others live here, it is strange to know that this is my last week to see all of them---some forever perhaps. But I know this is what God has for me and that it will be amazing. A one-of-a-kind experience that I will never forget. I am so thankful for it :-)

I'd like to just share some of God's faithfulness to me through this experience, and give you (the reader) some more background of my decision and from my journey to South Korea.

January 2011, God spoke to me that it would be a year of Promises fulfilled ;-) One of those promises was that I would travel on my own before I got married. Right after the new year, I was talking with a mentor of mine about how I didn't really want to teach in the states right now, and that I just needed a different experience than the two and a half years of in-school training I recieved with my Undergraduate degree. My mentor suggested that I look into teaching abroad, knowing that I am adventurous, risk-taking, and bold. I began to dream with God about where I could go, and was immediately drawn to Europe. I nixed the DoD route real quick because if I was going to be in a different country, I needed to experience that culture fully--not just be under the American system in another country. That seemed to safe for me. After doing some research and talking with a couple of different organizations, God showed me that Asia was a very popular place to go, and specifically South Korea. Asia was one of the easiest countries to get to, required very little to actually get there, and after looking at it, God began to open about 3-4 different connections that I had with South Korea. I would hear from several different places about Korea, hear of people that I knew going there, here all the great things about it, lived with a roommate for 3 years who loved South Korea, and even had a Zumba instructor and friend who was passionate about them! It was Blatantly obvious that's where I was supposed to be. God fulfills the dreams of your heart :-)

In February, a friend of mine named Kristen and I were talking one night about how neither of us really wanted to teach in the states for various reasons. I told her what I was researching and she quickly hopped on board with the idea. Turns out, God had promised her the same thing for the year 2011 as He had promised me! Once praying about it and talking it over with her parents, she was all in! Her parents had actually met in Japan through the Military and were very supportive of this plan and her dream to Explore the world as well. God brings you people to run with :-)

In the following months, Kristen and I both did countless hours of research about different organizations, different certifications, and finally found an organization that we would interview with and be accepted. All the while, God kept throwing clues at us about South Korea through the people that we met, the television we began to watch, and even flipping through the Radio! I mean literally every day there would be some new connection or hint toward South Korea, it was just so obviously God. Though we were accepted with a program, I didn't feel quite right about it and kept all of the processes on hold. Kristen, myself, and my other roommate Tiffany decided to move in together for the summer while we got things worked out. 

While we lived together, things happened and the organization we were going to go with fell through. This was a blessing in disguise, and we felt so much more peaceful about this. Then Josh came along in July, and that's a whole different story! Sometime in mid-late August and after a two week period of praying about going to Korea or staying for Josh, I decided that I needed to go to Korea for sure, and I was committing to going with Kristen.

By September Kristen had taken the lead and after talking with some of her professors made contact with a very reliable recruiter through www.asia-teachers.org . We got some great recommendations, put in our resumes, and both got offered VERY nice jobs at a private school in a VERY nice part of Seoul. What a blessing! The school turned out to be everything I was wanting and asking for, younger children, lesson plans written for us, flight paid for, great salary, a chance to save and pay back college loans, many foreign teachers employed, furnished housing paid for and within short walking distance....We waited a long time for it, but God provided everything I wanted and immediately I felt a complete peace about this school.

Continuing to hear more and more about South Korea, God ushered me through the process pretty painlessly, and I became more confident that this is where God was leading me. The paperwork was easy, our headmaster is very kind, and God has given me great favor with local elementary schools and teachers that called me pretty consistantly, averaging about 2-3 substitute jobs a week. Enough to pay for our $234 rent and $60 utilities, as well as eat! It wasn't easy learning how to do all of that and managing my money, but God was faithful and I made it!

There are many more details, but for your sake I'll leave this off here today with the knowledge that God is good, and He WILL provide for not only your needs, but wants too :-) He has given me some living supplies that I couldn't bring including a yoga mat (I LOVE YOGA!) through a friend that I met my freshman year of college who lived in Seoul and worked in the building my school is in. He has hooked me up with a pastor through a dear friend that I went to college with and visited the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry over Spring Break 2011. AND has even made a way for another friend of ours who has a heart for Korea and studied abroad there fall 2010 to go back and be with us there in Seoul doing her own thing from March to September! She is a Zumba instructor, and God knows how much I LOVE ZUMBA!!!! Oh my gosh, could it get any more perfect? OH! God has also given us another girl to travel with who will be teaching with us the whole time we teach! We will meet her when we fly to Chicago, and we will all three fly to Korea together! She is our age, and interested in the same things we are! Seriously, God?!?  

Oh, My God- I am so Thankful for everything I have been given! It is all from His hands, and just because He Loves Me :-)


Much Loved Princess, and Daughter of the King,
Madison Elise