Hello everyone! Well it’s been a great week here in South Korea! I happily made it through the big flu and cold epidemic among students and staff at English Village with just a few days of sniffles and fatigue. Now we are practically in a heat wave with three days in a row of weather above freezing. Amazing!
I made my way to Seoul again last weekend and was so grateful to connect with a local Soka Gokkai International chapter, a buddhist group of which I am a member. It was so much fun! I joined the International group of SGI in Seoul. There were members from the United States, Japan, and South Korea. The nice thing for me is that everyone speaks English and it felt like a little taste of home. It was comforting to connect with a new group of people who were so welcoming and open.
I learned about this SGI group through a connection from a friend and great SGI supporter back in New Orleans. She heard that there was an SGI member who used to live in New Orleans who now lives in Seoul. So she reached out to him and let him know I was here and within a day I was connected by email with other SGI members in the area and within a week I was directed to the meeting closest to me.
We met in the private home of one of the members who lives on a US Residential base for the military in Seoul. Their spacious apartment had all the comforts of “home”… a kitchen stocked with American food, a dishwasher, and plenty of good company. What was on the menu that day? Good ol’ American chilli! What a treat.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting every member of the SGI group and look forward to attending regularly. They could not have been more generous, supportive and welcoming with their time, energy and attention. I am so grateful and it will be nice to have connections in Seoul outside of my English Village life in Paju.
This week of teaching has been good, but has felt busy to me. At English Village we get new students every week, therefore my schedule changes very much from week to week. This week I have taught elementary students and high school students from South Korea.
Here at the English Village our curriculum is developed for us and our job is to teach it. Many of the classes here are created to be fun and engaging for the students with topics like Drama and Cooking. This week I assisted with a class that learned about gravity. They were given a piece of newspaper, string, tape and straws to create a “home” for an egg. At the end of the class they drop it from a second story and hope it lands safely on the ground… in one piece… (some do… some don’t…) We teach all classes only in English and students are encouraged to only speak English and not Korean (or whatever their native language is)… This, as you can imagine, can be challenging for some students.
It is Thursday and it has been a full week for me and I must say I am looking forward to the weekend. Friday is a light day for us as our students have classes just in the morning and then leave in the afternoon for home. This weekend I will be heading to Seoul again. It is nice to teach and work during the week… and then satisfying to have a few days off to do something different!
Thanks for reading and for staying connected! As always, I would love to hear from you!
Top photo is a truly foreign sight in Seoul – Girl Scouts! And Girl Scout cookies! Yes it’s Girl Scout cookie time, even in South Korea! Here are a few Girl Scouts I spotted selling cookies on a US Military base in Seoul.
Gypsy Woman 
Nanci, it’s always fun reading your posts. My hairdresser is from Korea and I couldn’t remember the name of your village and city yesterday, but you refreshed my memory again. Her son is serving in the Army in Korea and she has a lot of family near where he is stationed. So, she is happy for that. Keep the posts coming and enjoy your experience.
Hi Mary Anne! Thanks for writing… and for reading! It is quite an adventure to be here. And good to hear from people from home, too!
good hearing from you Nancy.
Hi Tom, Thanks for writing! Good to hear from you too.