Finally, Some Future Plans

On Thursday, we had a placement ceremony, and it was finally announced where we would all be spending the upcoming year.  As is common in Korea, the announcement of this event occurred at the very last minute, but we were all excited to finally get some more tangible information about the future.  I am thrilled to say that I was placed on Jeju, an island off the southern coast of Korea.  It was my first choice for placement, and in fact I received good news all around, as I was selected to teach at an all-girls high school in Jeju City.  My students will be very advanced English speakers, which is wonderful because it means that I will be able to become very close with them without the language barrier causing too many difficulties.  I will also be seeing each of my students twice a week rather than the once a week that is common for English conversation classes.  It means more work for me in terms of lesson planning, but I know I'll be able to teach them a lot more as a result, which is exciting.  I'll have about 300-500 students out of the 1400 at the school, and herein lies the most exciting news: I have my own classroom!  Instead of moving from homeroom to homeroom, the students will come to me, which means I can decorate for holidays and prepare activities in advance.  In addition, I'm thrilled about the opportunities I'll have by living on an island.  I'm hoping to learn how to scuba dive and eat lots of seafood.  One of my best friends here was placed in Seougipo, which is a smaller town only an hour away on the other end of the island, which is also exciting.  Besides being a honeymoon destination, Jeju is known for its tangerines, statues carved of volcanic rock, and a breezier attitude than the rest of the mainland.  I foresee lots of swimming in my future!  I've included some pictures of my new home: