Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown

We've made it through the holiday season. It really didn't feel too much like Christmas this year. Thank you to all the friends and family that sent Christmas cards- that was a nice touch and reminder from home. We are actually still getting a few by mail. The last few weeks leading up to Christmas were spent watching lots of Christmas movies- Elf, Home Alone 1&2, Santa Clause 1&2, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original), A Charlie Brown Christmas.

When we woke up on Christmas morning, we opened up the stockings that my mom, aunt Cathy, and cousin Nicole had sent in the mail. I was so excited to find 4 jars of Penzeys Spices.
That has to be one of my favorite stores!

Around 10 AM we invited all the other American teachers over for breakfast. Taylor's gift from me was a griddle for him to make Toad in a Hole (aka Eggs in a Basket) and Pancakes. If you've never heard of Toad in a Hole, don't worry, I hadn't either until I married Taylor. I had my first one a few months into our first year of marriage. Just ask somebody from the south- they'll know. While we enjoyed breakfast, we watched A Christmas Story.We spent the day relaxing and watching Christmas movies. After A Christmas story was the new Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Die Hard. Later on that evening, we invited everyone back for a Christmas Dinner.
I made lemon-rosemary roasted chicken (borrowed an oven from one of the other teachers), my Great Grandma Kitty's creamed corn casserole, glazed carrots, and an apple crisp. A couple other people brought mashed potatoes, rolls, and pasta.
It was a fun night. After dinner, we played a few rounds of Catch Phrase, with It's a Wonderful Life in the background. It was quite animated at times.

One of the best/funniest parts of the night was when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Anyone who knows the true story of Jesus' birth knows that he was not born in December. More than likely it was probably around April. I won't go into the whole story now but there is a reason we celebrate his birthday in December. Some families have a tradition of actually singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas- complete with a cake and candles and everything. Allan, one of the teachers, thought he was escaping that tradition this year. Apparently his mother and aunt force him to sing every year. Rachel (holding the cake), on the other hand, was genuinely excited and enthusiastic about this celebration.

I love the expression on her face in this picture, coupled with Allan's body language. When he saw the cake and realized this was really happening, he silently shook his head with disapproval. Haha. I hope his mother does not read this blog, because I will probably be getting him in trouble. Don't mess with Italian women!

Well, that was pretty much our Christmas. New Year's Eve is tomorrow. We are thinking about going to Seoul for Christmas. To all you people back in America, we will be ringing in the New Year far ahead of you. We'll let you know how 2011 is. :)

Here's a quick look into the past couple months of our lives.

Fall Semester- 83 minute class periods 5x/Week= almost twice as much teacher prep for each week than a normal semester.
This school decided to squeeze a whole year into 1 semester, so classes are longer, there's a lot more homework, and a lot less time to get everything done. Thank goodness that will be changing next year. We are moving to a full year schedule with 2 semesters.

Fall Semester was from August-December. I taught Debate and AP Psychology to Juniors and Seniors. Taylor taught World History to 9th grade and AP World History to Juniors and Seniors.

Originally we thought we would be teaching ESL when we moved here but we soon realized that we were teaching the same classes that are taught in the states, except we have the limitation of teaching to an entire class full of ESL learners. (ESL stands for English as a 2nd language).

The first semester of teaching was EXTREMELY busy, tiring, and stressful. But we made it. Our Fall Semester ended on Wednesday, December 22. We had December 23 and 24th off and back to school with a new semester beginning on Monday, January 27. We went skiing on December 23 and the 24th was Christmas Eve of course. Who wants to do any work on Christmas Eve? So we basically began the semester without any time to plan or prepare. For some of you reading, you might be saying "I only got 2 days off for Christmas." While that may be true, I think it is unheard of for teachers. We need time to plan!!!!!!

This winter semester will only last 7 weeks. Technically it is supposed to be the same number of class hours as a normal semester, which means that each class is approximately 2 1/2 hours long, and classes go from 8:20-4:30 every day for 7 weeks. I am teaching 9th grade English this semester and Taylor is teaching Government/Global Studies.

I hope this winter semester, as well as future semesters, will not be like our first semester here. Our workdays were on average 12 hours a day. We got to school at 7:40 and worked all the way until about 9:30 every night with a few breaks in between. That was a very typical night from August-December. Weekends were full of planning and preparing for the following week.

I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining. This job is very very demanding but it is also very rewarding. I love connecting with these students and reaching them beyond just an educational level. Through the role of a teacher, we have been able to get involved more personally in a few of their lives. We only wish that we had more time to do so.

That's a little update on us. We're still very busy during this winter semester so this blog might not be updated for awhile. We love you and miss you all. Please pray for us. We need those prayers!

Love,
Ashley and Taylor