putting my money where my mouth is…

I’ve been back here in the USA for several weeks now (in essence, I am back.), and I’ve decided to create another website for some of the teachers I’ve had the very good fortune to meet  while I was working in South Korea this last year.  The site Far-flung teachers is a site where we (all of the teachers that I am in the process of inviting) will be able to share information, media (photos, videos, etc.) documents (even presentations), as well as a forum to discuss almost any topic. I am hoping that this site will allow some of my friends to interact (as proxies for their classes) and start with some things as simple as exchanging e-mails from class to class. I also have starting to upload a variety of pictures and videos for them to use as they see fit.

In any case, this idea came to me while i was working as an English teacher in South Korea. There were so many good teachers I had the chance to work with, I though “ why does it have to end here?”.

So, there you have it

p.s. with this started (i.e. about 50% of my work may be done, at least for the near term), I might be able to get back to posting to this little blog! Oh yeah, this is my driveway…

some test…

The previous post was merely my testing to see if I could upload photos to this blog by phone. Great. Now I need to be able to add some text too! (sheesh…)

Testing. 1. 2. 3

Coffee shop

settling in…

After taking a week to get beyond the throes of 14 hour jet lag, as well ass to re-acclimatize myself to US culture, I think I am finally getting settled in here. I have some of the ‘must have’ American accoutrements, a cell phone (iPhone) and a car (96 Saturn station wagon), so I guess that I am ‘back’, at least to the degree that i can now spend money… I now need to start finding ways to make a little bit of it too!

 

I suppose I should mention that in the relatively near future (within a month or so) I will be starting up a ‘real’ blog. That is, a blog on a self hosted site (my site instead of WordPress.com). I will most likely continue with this blog, but the main thrust of this will start to change into a ‘personal blog’ . My new blog (name pending, along with a lot of other details as of now…) will start off will content for Korean middle school students (and anyone who may find this interesting…). I am also planning on developing some content to help seniors (e.g. anyone older than me…) who would like to get a deeper experience out of computers and the internet, after this I still have a lot of increasingly vague ideas (all my ideas start out pretty vague, more on that at a later date….self referential vagueness here!).

In the mean time, I am luxuriating in my return to one of the lands of coffee drinking (!), and will try to keep you posted!

I’m back…

A week ago I was just leaving Samnye South Korea, and now I am starting to get settled (just a bit) back in Grand Rapids Minnesota (USA). For good or ill, this last week feels like it took about 5 years to get through.

So…last week…

and now, this week…

I am thankfully past the 14 hour jet lag (!), and now I can start to get on with some of my agendas regarding providing some online content for my friends (and students) back in Gimje and Jeonju South Korea.

More later…

my life in Korea is winding down…

I finally finished my stay at the language camp (21 days…sheesh!), and now I only have about 48 hours until I leave Jeonju for good. There are so many things that I enjoyed during my stay in this city. I’ve had the very good fortune to meet and work with some great teachers, to teach some very good students (who are also amazingly friendly and sweet), and to meet and work with quite a few fellow expatriates during this time. I will miss them all.

Almost any travel involves some sort of adventure, that is a set of experiences that are a mixture of good and bad, fun and frustrating, sometimes rewarding and at other times almost surreal. This certainly describes my time in Jeonju and teaching in the much smaller city of Gimje. For me, it was an adventure. I have also had the chance to hone my teaching chops, especially regarding teaching non-English speakers (something which may become a growing need in the USA, for good or bad). IN this regard I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot.

My next post will undoubtedly come from the USA, so I guess this is my blog’s farewell to Korea.

Annyong He Gasayo

a quick update from language camp…

I haven’t got much to say other than the fact that I am almost done with camp and will be in the USA within seven days (a prospect that is pretty exciting to me!). I will hopefully be leaving Incheon International Airport on August 19th.

Most of the work in camp is done, now we have just a lot of Korean ritualism to get through and it will be over!