Things to do in Bali for a week stay

Here's a schedule I made before my adventures to Bali. It's only a week long itinerary. There's a lot of stuff. Remember it's not about the destination, but the journey. This should be a good guidance of what there is to do and see, but don't fret if you can't do all of it. It's possible, but I, myself, didn't get to do a few of these listed.

My favorite places were tegalalang, driving down southwest to beach hop--make sure you have locals take you to the hidden spots of beautiful blue beaches. There was this hidden beach called green bowl beach, which became my favorite beach out of all the touristy beaches. Another favorite place was Ubud. There's nothing that beats beautiful art, culture, and historical sites. And of course simply the amazing nature.

For transporation, we had a personal driver take us all over Bali for $40-50.

TO BE CONTINUED....

Sion Children's Home

I was able to find and get the opportunity to volunteer at Sion Children's Home in Daejeon, South Korea. Sion is one of many childrens' home in Daejeon. It is a very small children's home of up to only 16 children. The head volunteer organizer did a splendid job organizing a trip to Everland amusement park. He amazes me with his hard work, time, and dedication volunteering to as many Daejeon children's home as possible. I'm hoping the Facebook volunteer group, Daejeon Cares, turns into a non-profit organization. Thank you, Kevin and all of the donors and volunteers, for all you do! Having worked in a non-profit organization as an Event manager, I know the feeling of the accomplishment to provide for the needs of the children.

My Lifestyle in Korea

After almost 4 months, I can finally say that I am living in Korea. Why do I say this this late?

Well, I feel like I am more settled in than before. The first month was full of getting paper work done (ARC, phone, bank, etc.) and learning GnB's teaching style and material. The second month consisted of meeting new people, traveling, and trying new things (food, places, etc.) On my third month, I found a routine that makes me feel happier and home though it can get lonely sometimes.

So this is a brief summary of my lifestyle in Korea---

On the week days, I try to wake up 9-10 am. I catch up on others' lives on Facebook or skype/Facetime my friends and family from home for about a good hour. I put in 20 minutes of yoga and then cook myself a quick brunch meal and dinner for later. I finally get ready for work. Once I hit the door, I bike to work. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get there. I'm usually 30min-1 hour early so I'd prep materials, prints, etc. for my lessons of the day/week. I work 1:30-8:30 pm and then I'm off to the gym for a good hour. Afterwards, I do the basics: shower, surf the internet, and try to sleep.

On the weekends, I either hike, bike, travel to a different city, or stay in and around town.

This is my life in Korea and I love it!

Laos and its Beauty

I've spoken to many foreigners teaching in Korea about their travel destinations and a lot of them mention southeast asia except for Laos. I understand why Laos is not a very touristy area "yet" though it's slowly becoming one. First, it's not easy to get around Laos because of the narrow, winding, and undeveloped roads. Second, not very many Laotians speak English and other languages. Third, the money system is ridiculously confusing (at least for me). So I can understand why many people bypass Laos. 

I'm happy to say my cousin and I were able to, not just visit Laos, but our family as well. Laos is the most beautiful country! I was very fortunate to have my relative take us up to Phousavahn and Xieng Khuan from Vientianne. Sadly, we weren't able to make it to Luang Prabang. It's nice to know that I was able to visit my parents' ancestor's home country.

In my opinion, the Hmong culture in Laos is the most preserved compared to other countries. I can understand the Hmong-Lao dialect language more than I can understand the Hmong-Chinese dialect language. Not only that, the traditional practices are seen and done a lot more in Laos. That is what I appreciate about the Hmong-Lao. I hope it stays and doesn't fade. 

------Here's a video I compiled from my Thailand and Laos trip in Nov 2013--------

Happy Wednesday

CAUSE I'M HAPPY!! #nowplaying #pharell #happy #song

"In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself."

Alright enough hashtagging. What a wonderful week or month it has been! The start of May was a little rough since I started receiving more students and classes. Not only that, parents were calling complaining about every little thing, and we were losing quite a bit of students. I'm not sure what the deal was, but a lot of the middle school students were busy studying for his or her public school English tests. In the beginning of May, I was also working over time on the weekend and after work since we incorporated presentations, and simply because I was beat on so many final speaking tests to grade.

I now keep a thorough weekly lesson plan for each of my classes, and review constantly. I, especially, review heavily for the little kindergartners. I've also incorporated more debate and casual speaking activities for my older kids so it's not too focused on just lecturing and bookwork. Instead it's a variety of both bookwork and interactive activities. I'm slowly adjusting to each of my classes and being an English teacher though I'd much prefer myself as a tutor than a teacher. The role as a teacher in Korea is highly respected which I definitely admire. I mean it should be that way anyhow? Ha ha, I suppose I a lot more respected? I don't know.

Wednesdays and Fridays are my longest days! However, I enjoy them very much! The students are great and my teaching skills are slowly increasing or should I say I'm getting into a better routine? Let's say I enjoy all of my classes! I really can't wait to see the improvements of my children learning English! It will take time, but I have confidence that I am doing a well enough job (hopefully better in the future) to help my kids learn English. Boy is English hard. Like I said before, there are English grammars that I never once had to think about too much until now. I'm also learning along the way (from culture, language, my kids, boss, everything!!). It has been almost 3 months and I have learned so much already.

One thing I fear the most about going back home is coming back to the "job/career hunting" phase. Sigh. I'm trying to keep up with the other side of the world and keep my American head up as I'm kind of trying to learn Korean culture. It's quite difficult, but it's going to be a challenge. Learning Korean hasn't been too great. Ahhhh, well I'm trying to make the best out of what I have within this one year of teaching. So far it has been nothing but amazing. Yes, there are its ups and downs, but I've found counting my blessings a lot more than complaining. Although I do find me and my coworker complaining about work sometimes. Ha ha. It's normal right?

Stay happy, inspired, and driven =)

Jeju Island

Alright so I'm rewriting this post because I lazily wrote it at the time. 

Jeju Island was my first excursion trip with a group of foreigners. It was very beautiful though the Koreans made it more of a "paradise" than it actually looked. I suppose I'm bias because I've seen better islands such as St. Croix and Hawaii. After all, it is Korea's go to - getaway island paradise. 

I went on this trip alone not knowing anyone. Hey, give me a break. Its only been about 1.5 months for me since I've lived in Korea. I met a lot of great people! I, especially, met a great group of girls who I connected well with.

Surprisingly, I hiked the highest mountain peak in South Korea - Hallasan Mountain (1950 m high). My Korea hiking experience is all backwards. Obongsan mountain should have been my first hike, which was only 262 m high. The Hallasan hike wasn't hard, it was just very long. I definitely think Gyeryongsan mountain (845 m) was a lot harder because of it's steepness and rockyness (if that's even a word?). 

My favorite part on the trip was definitely Sunrise Peak. It only took 20 minutes to get up. The view was just soooooo breathtaking for such a short walk after hiking Hallasan for 6-8 hours!

1st photo: where our beach pension was located in Hamdoek beach

2nd & 3rd photo: Sunrise Peak/Seoungsan llchulbong

4th photo: Oedolgae 

My hallasan hiking photos didn't turn out as well due to the foggy, rainy, and windy weather. Overall, I'm glad I was able to visit Jeju!! It is definitely a must see while in Korea.

Almost 2 months of teaching in Korea

Its been almost 2 months since I've been teaching in Korea. Teaching English as a second language is a lot harder than I had imagined. It's very challenging because English grammar comes so natural to me, and the thought of teaching the basic grammars have never crossed my mind of why and how I use such grammar into forming sentences. As a Foreign English teacher, it's hard to explain to the students how to grammatically create sentences with the language barrier. 

Many of my older students, aged 9-12, can read, but a lot of them don't understand the meaning. Personally, I've come to realize, after studying the Hangul alphabet, that I can read, but I don't entirely understand or know what it means. I'm sure this is exactly how my students feel. So what can I do to help my students understand what they are reading? This has been the most challenging question I have yet to solve. 

The provided GnB books are great, but it doesn't help me enough, and having the kids for only 50 minutes for two days per week isn't enough either. On top of different leveled students in each class as well. So, how can I make the students catch up to their higher leveled students? How can the Korean teachers help the English teachers improve the students' understanding (phonics, grammar, and etc.)? What other things need to be incorporated? 

I can understand why education is so complicated in various ways because of these problems. If I put myself into my students' shoes. Not understanding what the English teacher is fully saying when making instructions can be very intimidating. Being asked to answer a question when you don't know is also intimidating. It doesn't help when that "one" classmate always shouts out the answer as well. So what are a few ways that I, as a teacher, can help my students feel more at ease in these types of situations? 

Yes, its been quite the challenge, but I'm still learning, experience, growing, and experimenting (trial and error) as I teach and observe my students. I hope to answer my questions little by little along the way. If it's one thing to do, I need to teach grammar a lot more. I need to incorporate it even if it's not in the GnB books. Korean and English have very different grammar structures. Let's hope for the best and wish me luck!