Let me take you to the Wild Wild West.....

....and allow me to kill two cowboys with one gun.

Our school is on the outskirts of the city, so each morning I leave my apartment, 7:55am sharp and wait for the yellow bus. There are some days when teachers are running for the bus, shoes untied, hair unbrushed, but we have a twenty minute drive so these can be fixed easily in that time. I will admit, there is the rare occasion that I have stayed up too late and missed the shuttle, but thankfully there is a public bus that goes to our school, and in the worst case, a taxi. Trust me, I try not to make a habit of missing the shuttle, not only because it is a huge inconvenience for me, but as soon as the bus pulls away without a teacher on it, the murmurs start. It is only a matter of time before "So and so teacher missed the bus because they were fighting alligators in the streets of Jungang while drinking copious amounts of soju, and has probably ran away to Japan after the shame of loosing a tug of war battle with an ajima."

Our morning commute is usually pretty quiet. I listen to music, or read a book (okay, most of the time I sleep for a little bit), while we make two other stops to pick up teachers coming in from other places. Once spring came, and we leave the city, our scenery is actually quite beautiful. Rice fields every which way.

And then we pull up. Our school is fairly small compared to some schools, but unlike a lot of hagwons, we are spoiled by a soccer field, basketball court and picnic tables.

Our school has 12 classrooms, all designed as "situational"; we have a hospital, post office, market, science, cinema class..... Our school is used as a place where Korean students can practice the English they already know in "real life" situations.

One of the best classes in our school is Ecology. We have a room with a few animals, and after a lesson about animals, they students can "play" with the animals. We have mice, hedgehogs, toads, scorpions, a tarantula and hamsters. Can you believe that I have touched and taken out a tarantula????? Its true!!!! But my all time favorite animal is Vernon. The snake. To be completely honest, when I found out I was teaching ecology, I was terrified! And it took me a good 20 minutes to take him out of the cage my first time. But after about the second time of taking him out, I realized he wasn't nearly as scary as I thought he was and actually really enjoyed taking him out. (Don't worry mum, I know what your thinking, I am not thinking of getting a snake as a pet- I didn't like him that much). One time I even got to feed him a hamster in front of the students. Okay. I know. Its morbid that I actually enjoyed it, but hey...... circle of life. Plus the kids were absolutely enthralled, down to the last open mouthed swallow.
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We have a culture class that talks about 5 different "English Speaking" countries. While that genre choice is up for debate, Canada is featured, and of course, so are the typical Canadian artifacts: maple syrup, beavers, and hockey sticks. But one of the cool things about the Canada section is the famous person listed: Terry Fox. I am actually really proud when I get to talk to the kids about him. I have never had one student know who he was, and they are in awe when I talk about his life, and what he did.

I always include a question about him at the end of class, because he is awesome, and well I think its cool that the kids can learn about Terry Fox, and not just maple syrup!!!!

Currently all of our classes have been transformed to fit this years Summer Camp theme "The Wild Wild West".

 I am teaching Newsroom class. Normally in this class teachers talk about Newspapers and the kids make up their own articles. But for Summer Camp they are making WANTED posters. Its amazing what the kids can come up with. Mr. Shawn was one of my favorites.

Most of the kids love the fact that they get to hold a gun, but a lot of higher level students have a great
time thinking of "bad" things they would do if they were an outlawed cowboy.


At the end of each week, every teachers homeroom team has to come up with a performance. It could be singing, dancing, role play, but it has to be related to out summer camp theme. My team developed a role play where there was good cowgirls and bad cowboys. The good cowgirls are drinking at a saloon, when the bad cowboys come in. One of the students did not show up on the last day, so the kids asked me if I would say her lines.

 Actually, I think I had the best role in the house. I got to have a shoot out with the "main bad cowboy"!!!!

Summer Camp is exhausting, with more students, more classes and an overnight camp out. But I get to wear a cowboy hat everyday, and can validate having Korean children listen to country music! Nothing could have thrilled me more than a Western theme! The shootouts, line dancing and moonshine making has made the business of the past couple weeks completely worth it!!!!!