Hooooooorayyyyy! I have now been in korea for ten months, and have some pretty exciting news: I finally made up my mind about whether I wanted to renew or not, and most importantly, my school, and the Seoul Office of Education decided as well, and I'm staying for a second year! I have signed my new contract, and will go in to renew my visa and health check within the next few weeks. Deep inside, I think I knew all along that I wanted to stay, my hesitation came from feeling guilty about being away from my family, and letting more time pass by before I succumb to expectations about where I should be at this point in my life. Thankfully, even though I know my mom isn't thrilled about the idea of me staying a second year, she has been supportive and was happy when I told her I had passed my evaluations.
Now that renewal is out of the way, I'm spending my time preparing for Summer camp. I have already finished the workbook, next will be making power points, and coming up with activities that will fill ten day, and four hours each day -___-;
It is really hot and humid now, they say the monsoon season has started so we've had more cloudy days than sunny days lately. My school doesn't really like turning on the air conditioning, so teaching has gotten really difficult; not only do I feel exhausted, but It's hard to get the students excited about learning and participating when everybody is busy fanning themselves or trying to stay completely still to stay cool.
To cope with the heat, I keep my mind thinking about my vacations coming up within the next couple of months! In August, I'm finally going to visit my friends in Japan for two weeks! I will be spending most of the time in Tokyo, but I'm hoping to travel to the Kyoto/Osaka area. In university I had may Japanese friends, some of whom I haven't seen in a few years, so I'm really looking forward to that reunion. Then in mid September Korea will celebrate Chuseok (similar to American Thanksgiving) and I will have a five day break from school. During that time, some of my friends and I have booked a mini vacation to Beijing, China! If you take a look back at my Asia travel wishlist that I wrote while I was still in the States, none of these places were on it! but, they are still places I'm happy to be going to. While in Beijing, I'm most looking forward to climbing the Great Wall. Although I miss my family very much, I don't have plans to return the the U.S. until I'm finished working abroad for good. I just think I owe it to myself to take advantage of these opportunities and travel and and see as much as I can. Depending on my winter schedule though, I am hoping to visit my grandparents in Guatemala and hopefully my parents can fly down and meet me there. If that doesn't work out, perhaps I will tackle another country from my list.
Whatever happens, or wherever I go next, I'm just relieved that at least my job and living arrangements have been sorted out for the next 14 months. Luckily, my closest friends in Seoul have all signed on for a second year as well, so I'm looking forward to making more memories together with them~
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