Wow. It’s been a VERY long time since I posted. Sorry!

The start of our year in Korea has been nothing if not busy. And full of the unexpected. But we are both alive and well, and look to be heading into about 9 more months of Jeju life.

I’ll give you a quick recap of the first six weeks here, then add some posts to catch up on summer and other fun things.

Flying back to Korea!

We arrived on Jeju, exhausted and dripping from the humidity, on Sunday night, August 10. On Monday morning, we reported to work. Patrick to set up the school tech systems, and me to orientation sessions.

Every evening and the first full weekend were spent unpacking, organizing, and de-molding. Yes, we washed EVERY item in our apartment, many of which had thin bits of mold from a stagnant and very humid summer without use. Temps and humidity are finally dropping and I think we can see the light at the end of our fight against mold.

Mold can grow on plastic appliances. And plaster ceilings. And…

Classes started August 20. Several days before school began, I found out that our elementary music teacher had to leave for personal reasons and the school needed to rehire and get a new teacher here. In the mean-time, as the school’s full-time sub, I would be covering classes!

My music class working hard.

At least I was comfortable with the subject matter! Who knew all those Girl Scout camp songs would be a marketable skill? But the first three weeks were a crash course in elementary classroom management. I had no idea how hard elementary teachers work. Wow.

Our new music teacher arrived last Thursday. On Friday at recess, one of the first-grade teachers seriously broke her ankle. She had surgery, and is out recovering. Guess who’s the new first grade teacher?? Yep, this girl.

A group of first and second graders I chaperoned on our field trip to Hallim Park gardens and animal park.

Hopefully the “real” teacher will be back on Monday, at least half-time. First graders, in September, are a huge challenge. Everything is new. Washing our hands, sharing our crayons, sitting still, lining up. Some have great English, and some have almost none, which makes giving (and following) instructions an extra challenge.

There is one other first grade teacher, who has been doing LOTS of extra work to help me out. And thankfully my class is the “easy” one. Mine are antsy and self-centered in a normal 6-year-old way, but she has some fighters. I’ve already broken up 2 full-on fist fights with her kids. Yikes.

It’s a secret, but there are some parts of first grade teaching that have been really fun. The kids get SO excited when they get to explore hands-on things. We dropped water with eye droppers onto pennies (surface tension!) and they were enthralled. They tell lots of stories, and adore singing, dancing, and storytime. But they have SO much energy.

So rather than being a mostly-bored substitute with nothing to do, I’ve been a full-time music teacher and first grade teacher, and still helped manage a couple teachers going out sick, etc. It’s been pretty crazy. And Patrick’s dealing with lots of new teachers, systems, and challenges in the school technology world.

When we do have free-time, we’ve been good about getting OUT, reconnecting with old friends, making new friends, and not sitting at the computer. So no blog posts. But here are some of the best photos of our adventures so far:

Table-top-grilled duck with ALL the fixings, and great friends.

Friends bought a rum “gift box” that came with masks. Game night-turned masquerade!

Chegum Jeju! That’s what we cheer at the local pro soccer games. We’ve been to 2 this year.

It rained a lot the first month we were here. That meant FULL waterfalls. Our Korean photographer told us to strike this pose. Cute. 🙂

Rocks at the start of Olle 6 – our first hike of this year. Ocean! Lava rocks! Green!

A typical Jeju grandfather statue, except this one has a pig…

View from the top of an oreum (“failed” volcano) on Olle 6.

Waterfall shower. Thankfully it was pretty warm that day, because the water was COLD.

The only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the ocean.

One of our favorite Korean street-snacks: an ice cream cane.

We also already had our first school break. 4-day “Chuseok”, or Korean Thanksgiving. We took a camping and hiking trip. I’ll throw up stories and pictures from that in a separate post.

We miss the U.S. and all our friends and family so much! Please leave a note if you read. Wishing you all the best!!