Welcome back, Life

I now officially have my life back. There hasn't been much to it these last couple months since I have been so busy with coaching volleyball, but this weekend was the conference tournament, marking the end of the season. The boys finished in 5th--despite an injured setter and our freshman setter-in-training playing for the whole tournament (he did a great job under so much pressure!)--after winning the final game against Daegu American. It was great to end the season with a win. It was full of ups and downs, but now we are done and I've had a chance look back, I see that it was a great season. I really enjoyed getting know the boys. One of my worries before the season started was being able to form relationships with them like I did the girls on the swim team. Although the relationships were different, I think I found it easier than with the girls and now maybe even feel closer to the boys. Even though we had a losing record, I don't think that reflects how good of a team we actually were and how much improvement was made. Plus, we had so much fun! I am proud of the guys and how they represented TCIS this year. And I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the team. Although I will enjoy having some free time, part of me will miss going to practice everyday. At least I have next year to look forward to! Go Dragons!

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.

Volleyball Overnighter!

Life in Korea is so busy this year. The good news is that it is a different kind of busy from last year at this time (when I was overwhelmed with school work). This year I am busy with volleyball. Since the "flu break," as we are now calling it, we are back to having practice everyday. Plus, we are in full swing with games every weekend and many Wednesdays.

Wednesday of this week we played GSIS, our sister school. In between the boys and girls game there was a big ceremony to commemorate the event since it was the first varsity athletic competition between the schools. My team didn't play well, but pulled off the win in five games. Whew! It makes me nervous when they are so close!

This past weekend we had our first and only overnight in Seoul. All fall sports travel together so there were probably 60 of us setting out after lunch on Friday. That afternoon we played at Korea International School, and Saturday we played Seoul International School. All the volleyball teams played well both matches, but the boys ended up losing to SIS in a really close game. I'm confident we'll get them next time, though!

Because there were back-to-back away games in Seoul, we stayed at SIS; boys on the gym floor and girls in the locker rooms. It was...interesting. I slept better than I thought I would, but it was quite an experience. Everything from no A.C. to a fan that shut off when the lights went off, to really bright exits signs, to students cell phones (that the coaches had collected!) going off at 5 AM, to a strange man walking in in his underwear clearly shocked to see so many girls sleeping in the room! haha. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it (especially my burger for dinner in Itaewon!), but I'm happy we don't have another overnighter!

Back in Session

School is back in session, and boy was everyone happy! Although sleeping in and teaching in my PJs was nice, teaching online was a real challenge! And it wasn't very fun either. We were quarantined...and alone. It was so boring that some days I just had to get out of the house for some social interaction. I felt like I spent all day sitting at my computer replying to emails. The students didn't like it much either and felt overloaded with homework. Poor kids! Some of them didn't even realize lessons were being posted online until this week. Unfortunately, with the way things are going, we may end up closing again. So far about 40 schools in Korea have been shut down.

We started up again on Wednesday. As excited as I was to be returning to face to face instruction, I was dreading the day. I feared it would be mass chaos because the school has begun to implement "Swipe Away the Swine Flu" which requires each student to get their temperatures checked before school starts, dismissing the kids early to wash their hands before lunch, and using paper cups at the drinking fountains. The day went a lot smoother than I was expecting and after today I feel like we are starting to get the hang of the new procedures. Every now and then I forget to stop class early so we can wipe down the desks, computers and doorknobs, but other than that things are back to normal. I can say one thing, this experience made us all a lot more thankful for the chance to come to school each day!

Besides Swine flu excitement, not too much has been going on. We aren't allowed to travel yet, but my friends and I did purchase plane tickets to Japan for Chuseok (hopefully the let us in and out of the country!). I also bought a new road bike so I enjoyed a couple rides during the school closure. Now that school is back in session, volleyball is in full swing (no pun intended! :-P). I enjoy coaching the boys more than I thought I would. They are a great group and it is such a blessing to be around them everyday. They are so encouraging, and there are some really great leaders on the team. We are supposed to have our first game on Wednesday, but it is against our sister school, GSIS, who was closed down all this week due to cases of N1H1. If we don't end up playing, we will play our first game on Friday the 4th. We haven't had much practice, but I am excited with the progress I see already. I can't wait to play some games!

Pass the Swine (Flu)

Ever heard of the game "Pass the Pigs". You know, the one where you roll the pigs and get points for how they land. Well, a friend of mine cleverly gave the game a new name..."Pass the Swine Flu." Unfortunately, but a bit ironically, this title pretty much describes TCIS today.

Since school began we have been giving our student H1N1 questionnaires each morning. I really hadn't been taken them too seriously and thought the measure was a bit ridiculous. However, this week a ton of people have become sick so the Korean health officials came and tested many people who had been sent home this week. It hasn't been as noticeable in the MS, but about half the senior class was gone as well as some faculty. Today, as school came to an end we got an interesting announcement. School will be closed until further notice due to confirmed cases of H1N1!!! All school activities were canceled, dorm students were sent home, and we were told that we will most likely be closed at least the rest of the week...maybe longer. I guess normal procedure is that a school is closed for 6 days! After an all-staff meeting to update us on the situation, media crews were swarming the front gate. It was surreal! We are the first international school to be closed by the Korean health officials, but more are expected to follow. Apparently there are already two people who tested positive at KIS in Seoul. I'm starting to think it will be a miracle if we get all of our volleyball games in this year...I mean, it would require that neither school has been shut down due to the virus. :-S

Although I am kinda looking forward to these free personal days (we aren't supposed to be in groups with TCIS people or anywhere with large groups of people), this will bring great challenges to a school year that was off to a smooth start. We are going to be transitioning to online learning so that students aren't sitting at home doing nothing. It means that I am going to have to rethink some of my lessons and come up with things the students can do at home. Most of them do not have their textbooks (and the school is closed as of 10 AM tomorrow so I can't even scan pages) so I will have to get creative. I think overall it will be a great learning experience with ODL (Online Distance Learning) and using various technologies to communicate with students; but it means I have a lot of work to do!

Be praying for the members of our community that have H1N1 and pray also that we are able to reopen soon. I have a feeling this no school, no friend gathering, no traveling stuff is going to get real boring real fast!

Arrrrgreat Weekend!

Saturday a group of RAs and teachers decided it would be fun to escape the heat by heading to Caribbean Bay, a huge pirate-themed water park outside Seoul. Unfortunately, due to Saturday being Korean Liberation Day everyone else in the country had the same idea! We arrived at the park around 12 only to learn that we couldn't get in until 5 since the place was over capacity. Stupid overpopulation! However, after pondering for awhile about what we should do, some fellow foreigners told us that we could buy the tickets to Caribbean Bay and get into Everland, the amusement park next door, for my favorite price of FREE! So...we spent about 5 hours at Everland where I rode a couple rides (including the T-Express...the best wooden coaster I've ever ridden), ate some great burgers, sweated out every cold drink I purchased. By 5 I was ready to hop into the pool! When we got to Caribbean Bay it was still packed. After finally finding a locker we hit up the wave pool, which looked more like a wave of human bodies. It was fun though because instead of many waves in a row. there is one big tidal wave that pushes everyone back about 20 ft. See video here (but with even more people!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQleV-uw_yY&feature=related. We also went on an awesome waterslide that was like a rollar coaster because we were in tubes and the slide went up and down hills. Tons of fun! Not to mention we had a great time floating along the lazy river.

Even though I was pooped after a long day of fun, I decided to join my friend Christine and head to Seoul to visit Sylvia, another friend who used to teach at TCIS. We spent the night catching up on our summer travels, current lives, and the new school year. The next day we slept in and met some of Christine's friends for lunch. We ate at Dos Tacos...a pleasant hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. Such a great find! It was a fabulous weekend, but today I'm exhausted. Time for some much-needed rest. Good night!

I'm back!

I have safely and smoothly arrived in Korea after a wonderful summer traveling, visiting friends, and spending time with my family. I have many stories from my around-the-world trip so if you want to hear some shoot me an email. In the meantime, I will be posting links to the pics I have. I also had a great time on RAGBRAI--Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa--with Tami (my roommate from college), Sarah (who taught with me here in Korea last year), and many new friends. It was a great feeling of accomplishment when I finished the 7-day, 442 mile ride. It was definitely a challenge, but it was also a ton of fun. Training consumed most of my summer days which prevented me from getting bored in Washington, too.

Although the summer and the break from work were awesome, it feels good to be back. The community here is so caring and supportive. I had missed them. There are some really great new staff members as well. I got in early on Friday morning so I am almost over jet lag. I have spent my time so far doing things around my apartment that I wanted to do all last year and never had time to do. In addition I have been preparing for the first day of school which is quickly approaching on Monday the 10th. I can't believe it is here already! There is a lot to do, but I feel so much more prepared than last year when I had no idea what I was doing. My class load is exactly the same; 5 Spanish classes and 1 7th Sheltered Bible. The biggest adjustment this year will be that I do not have a heavy and light day/week. I teach 3 and have 2 free periods everyday. I am curious to see how I will like it or if it will make time go by slower or faster. This fall I will be helping coach JV volleyball so that will be really fun, but will also be another adjustment as I will be busy everyday after school. In general, I am very very excited to see my students and start the school year. I will be busy, but I am going to try to keep my blog updated regularly. Thanks for reading!