Since the last post, I had my practice teaching session, completed my TEFL certification courses (woot woot!!), got on a plane to Mongolia, unpacked my bags in my apartment, attended a Mongolian Sunday service, went to staff training at a ger (pronounced gare, like dare or hare) camp, ate goat, slept in a ger for 3 nights, attended a Korean/English Sunday service, met my co-teachers, interviewed students for placement, and .......... survived my first day as a real teacher!
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| Ger camp in the Mongolian countryside |
I don't know how to tell you about all that has happened, but let me give you the highlights:
My bedroom walls are bubblegum pink with flowers and sparkles. However, I must say that the best part is we have a huge apartment with a living room, kitchen, bathroom (including washing machine!!), two bedrooms (one for me and one for Ann), and lots of closet space. Our apartment building is right next to a supermarket and an American-inspired cafe. It is also on a busy intersection, which means we can hop on a bus to get to school in the mornings, but it also means all night long we hear the lullaby of the city....traffic cop whistles, car horns, sirens, etc.
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| View from my apartment's kitchen ... Milk advertisement billboard and all! |
Goat tastes just like pot roast, onions and potatoes included.
I love the other Western teachers that I've met. They are an amazing group of people and a real family. They are making this transition MUCH easier.
A ger can get really hot especially if you have a fire going in the stove and you forget to open some of the roof to let the cool night air in. Just in case, you know, you ever find yourself in a ger.
I'm really excited to attend the Sunday services at my school... I'll get to know some students better that way, and the service is in English so I can keep up!
My students (total I have about 80) all have names that I can't pronounce.... so that will be fun to learn. I have Mongolian, Korean, Russian, and Chinese students. They are really endearing. My first class has a decent vocabulary. We will mainly be working on pronunciation and speaking about more complex concepts. Two of my classes are low beginners, but they seem to really want to work hard (and they love that they have an American teacher!) And one of my classes is really, really new to speaking English, so I'll have to put a lot of thought into how to make the class fun for them. I don't want them to get discouraged and check-out.
While I just teach speaking, there are Mongolian and Russian teachers who teach grammar, reading, and listening/writing. The goal is to prepare them to take a college entrance exam in English, or to just help them improve for whatever personal goals they may have.
So that is all I can think of for now :) I will definitely be posting more about Mongolian culture and school and what amazing things are happening here. This will be a very challenging year. Everything just seems to take so much longer - traveling on the bus, grocery shopping, cooking, making copies at school - but there is a very clear need here for teachers, and the school community is very welcoming.
I miss you all! Go eat some Mexican food for me!
