To Re-sign is the answer!

I just wanted to let you all know that I have decided to renew my contract, so I will be here at TCIS for another 2 years! Although the decision was a difficult one, after listing the pros and cons both sides the list appeared very lopsided in favor of staying. Now that the decision has been officially made I am super excited about all the opportunities and experiences I will have in the next two years. It also means I won't have to make any more life decisions for awhile. Yay! :-D

APAC VB-Dragon Pride!

I wanted to update you on the amazing weekend I had in Beijing! Last Wednesday at 2 AM I awoke from the floor of a basement room in the high school (although I don't know if I ever really fell asleep thanks to lots of snoring going on around me :-P). Then, I woke up the 12 volleyball boys so that we could head to Beijing for the Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC) tournament. It was an early morning, but ended up being a great day! Upon arriving in China, both the boys and girls teams were picked up at the airport, and after a wonderful Chinese lunch, we visited the Great Wall. It was the same part of the wall I went to in June, but it was beautiful with all the fall colors. I walked the other way on the wall this time. The students had a really great and memorable time. We bought panda souvenirs, hats, and t-shirts; jump-roped on the wall; took pics with Samarai--and lots of others of course; and rode the toboggan down. One of the boys even took a loose brick from the wall! (Shh! haha) It was a really good bonding time for our team, and it was nice to have time to enjoy hanging out and being in China before playing volleyball for the next three days.

The tourney was held at Western Academy of Beijing. It was quite an impressive school and they ran a very smooth tournament. There was an opening ceremony in which all the teams paraded out holding their school's flag (similar to the Olympics) and then they had some dancers and guys doing martial arts, etc. After that the games began. We played three games everyday and when we weren't playing the girls were, so we watched them. Since we hadn't won a game in 5 weeks, the guys didn't have much confidence going into the tournament. The competition was really good, but after a slow start, the team came the second day ready to play. After beating Hong Kong International School in straight sets, we became a different team. It was amazing to me how much we improved in just a couple days with a newly found confidence. We played two more great matches that day, including a play-off match with Brent International School of Manila that went to five close sets before we pulled it off and earned their way into the 3rd place match. We ended up in 4th after a hard fought game in which we were leading the first two games and then they slipped away. The guys played so well, though, and I am so proud of them for being able to battle back!

Besides watching my team and the girls (they got 3rd!) play great, there were several things I enjoyed about the weekend. I got to watch GREAT volleyball. The boys team from WAB was one of the best I've ever seen. One of the guys is going to try out for the Austrian national team, and two others have parents who played on national teams of their respective countries. The girls Championship Match was also quite a spectacle; 5 sets in which every point mattered. It was back and forth all the way until the end. APAC was also a great opportunity to get to know people from all the other schools. The students have homestays and all the coaches stay in a hotel. We ate together every night (really good food, btw; we even had Mexican one night) and got to know each other a bit. I feel like I now have friends all over the world in the international ed. community. We all hugged goodbye at the end of the weekend and said, "See you next year!"

Luckily we have had a couple days of professional development so I have been able to gradually adjust back to teaching. I haven't been able to catch up on my sleep though.  Tomorrow it will be back to normal school for a couple days before the KAIAC conference tournament this Friday and Saturday in Seoul. After that I will have so much free time I won't know what to do with myself. hehe.

To resign or re-sign? That is the question.

Contracts were put in our mailboxes at the end of last week. Now the madness begins; everyone always asking what you are going to do, trying to figure out who's staying or going, stressing out themselves with making another big decision.  We have until November 13 to decide to resign, renew the contract for 1 year, or renew the contract for 2 years. It's kinda funny because it is such a difficult decision, but the process is so simple. Check the box and sign. Such a big decision in a little task! I have some more thinking and praying to do before I make my decision, but I will let you know when I do. I'm sure it will be a huge relief. Next life decision...check!

Hai Japan :)

Today was the first day back at school after a wonderful, much-needed break. September ended with SEW, Spiritual Emphasis Week, so we did not have any class. Instead, the day is structured more like a youth conference. It was a ton of fun! I went to noraebang with a group of 6th grade girls, played soccer, took some awesome pics with my homeroom group, squirted kids with squirt guns, worshiped with a talented musician from the U.S., played a giant 'prisoner's base'-type game, and made some great connections with the middle schoolers. It was great!

After SEW we had a five day weekend for Chuseok, the Korean harvest holiday. I went to Osaka and Kyoto with 5 friends and had a fast and busy break. We arrived on Thursday night in Kyoto and stayed through Sunday morning. In that short time we ate a ton of good Japanese food, including sushi; visited monkeys and a bamboo forest at Arashiyama Park; shopped outside the Silver Pavilion; pondered life along the Philosopher's Walk :-P; visited Nara, the first capital of Japan and the origin of Buddha; took pics with deer that roamed around Nara; saw Kiyomizu-dera at sunset (where Bethany and Ike got engaged, I think); walked around the many gates at Fushimi Inari; and woke up at 6:30 AM to shop for random goods at a monthly flea market. Kyoto is a beautiful city, and I had a fantastic time.

On Sunday morning we left for Osaka. When we arrived we dropped our bags at our hostel and then headed to Osaka Castle. It is in a really nice park and provided a great view of the city. After, we met up with Sarah's cousin, who works for Cirque du Soleil. He gave us a backstage tour of the show and we saw the sound equipment, walked behind and under the stage where the techies do, touched some of the props (like the trampoline bed and the giant rings), saw the performers--including the giant and the little man--resting between the shows, and visited the house where the audience watches. It was so cool! We even got to wear guest tags. It's funny because we all agreed that it was exactly like what we were expecting the circus to be like. :-D After our tour we hopped a train to Universal Studios. I had never been there, even in the U.S., but it was so much fun. It was dark while we were there, making rides like Jurassic Park and Jaws even better. Plus, we got to see the magical starlight parade, which made a feel like kids again. We returned to our hotel pooped, but not too tired to dress in our bathrobes like ninjas for a photo shoot. hehe. What a great, but fast, trip to Japan!

Then today it was back to the real world. After not having class for so long it was a little strange. Luckily, I only taught one class because this morning and tomorrow morning the students are taking standardized tests. Tomorrow and Friday I have away volleyball games, too, so Thursday is my only full day of classes. This week is going to fly by...in fact, I think this month is going to fly by and before I know it November will be here! I will try to update more than I did last month. It's looking to be a pretty eventful one!

Be sure to check out my pictures. Here you can find pics from my Chuseok trip to Japan, and here are pics from SEW, volleyball, and other random happenings of this year.