So much news, so little time

So it has been a crazy couple of weeks, and I have had very little free time until now. I am going to try and sum up the last two weeks.
I taught on "Thanksgiving Day" in an intermediate class. These students were really great. Their English wasn't as good as the first group of students I taught, but there were very smart, and the activities that I had planned went really well. A great piece of advice that my clinical instructor told me was this, "They may have trouble putting into words what they are thinking. However, this doesn't make them dumb. It just makes it more challenging as a teacher to plan advanced lessons, but having to use simple instructions and wording, so that the students can understand what they are supposed to do." This is so true, and I will definitely reflect on it as I teach throughout the year.
Yesterday was our last official day of Korean language classes! I can't believe that we have been here 5 weeks, and how much that I have learned within that time. I can now hold a basic conversation, and be able to get around the city on my own. I even had an outing to E-mart where I told the taxi driver where to go! (Small but important steps!) We have our Korea language final on Monday, and I will be spending most of the weekend studying. There are four parts on the final- reading, writing, role playing with a partner (acting out a certain situation, such as navigating, asking for, and pricing things in the grocery store, or asking about the weather- I guess it is universal to talk about the weather- haha), and an individual interview in Korean. Please wish me luck with this!
This past week I also received my placement school. I will be teaching in the city of Hwacheon, South Korea. Hwacheon is a very agriculturally rooted city of about 8,000 people. It is north of where we are now, and pretty close to North Korea. I will be teaching at a co-ed middle school, and will have about 350 students. I feel really lucky with this placement, as some of my peers will be teaching over 1000 students per week! There are also two other ETA's in Hwacheon- they will both be teaching elementary students. Later this week, we will know more about our host family- I am so excited to learn who I will be living with for the next year!
Today, our group of ETA's visited the DMZ. We actually drove through Hwacheon to get to the DMZ. It was really cool to able to see my town before I actually move there. It is a very beautifully situated city- surrounded by mountains and a river. At the DMZ, a soldier talked to us, about their job. We went to a very remote portion of the DMZ, so there was no "visitor center" or anything like that. From where we were at (the soldier's observation point), we could see the fences and North Korea. We could also see where the North Korean military grows their own food (even the military is hungry- they only eat 3 times per week :( The area was strangely quiet and peaceful (very abandoned). We could not take pictures looking into the North, but I know that it is something I will never forget.
Assuming that the Korean final goes well, we will have a graduation ceremony on August 13! On Friday, we leave for Seoul, and get to spend the weekend in Seoul together. The U.S. ambassador to South Korea, is having us all over for a pool party and barbeque on Friday evening!!! I can't wait- maybe we'll get grilled hamburgers :) Saturday and Sunday are free days and I am hoping to meet up with Dongmi! On Monday, we will meet our school officials, and they will take us from Seoul to our respective schools and homestays. This will be a very emotional day, as we will be "moving on" to the next phase here in Korea. I know that I will miss the good friends that I have made (most of them are 4 hours away), but am lucky that there are other ETA's in my town. It will be exciting to start our "job" and the reason that I came here for- to teach!

Here are some links for the city and county of Hwacheon!
http://www.ihc.go.kr/foreign/eng/page/sub01/sub01_01.html
http://www.narafestival.com/global/content_view.asp?bc=F001&bo__idx=11961
http://www.invil.org/english/village/gangwon/contents.jsp?con_no=604594&page_no=1

I love you all and hope to talk to you soon!