The Library

Well, James and I made it into the library for his class, and then back home again without an incident. We hiked to the bus station, caught the "expensive bus" (~1.75 1-way) since Mommy was not about to take a chance that the "cheap bus"(~1.30) really was coming by 5 minutes later and then there were no buses for 30 minutes. When we arrived in SeoSan, Professor Aaron Jolly picked us up in front of the Baskin Robbins. (Yes, they have a BR! But we only peeked into the window.) Even though it was only a 2 minute car ride, he will escort us the first couple times until we learn the way by foot. He gave us a grand tour of the library...which was smaller than the smallest library in the US...just one small-med. room that would likely be the size of most of your living rooms. I found that this was actually a "university library"; yet it is still the largest thing to an English library outside of Seoul! It is basically all childrens books, from beginner levels up to novels like "Pride & Prejudice," "Call of the Wild," and books by C.S.Lewis. James took a scoring test for there system, which is different than the US. He placed right at high 3rd/lower 4th grade level where he should be. Then I was able to sit and read my first book since coming here...it was a wonderful respite.

James attended two 1-hour classes. The first was more on reading /comprehension /literature...stories on Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt. The second class seemed more of an English/grammer/composition book to me...If any of you might be familiar with the books, they are: US 4th grade Harcourt Trophies, a langauge-arts text from the US, and Read 180 - a program for middle schoolers in the US with reading difficulties, it is also used in gifted programs with elementary kids. He enjoyed both classes and the children were very well-mannered and polite.

I have found that there seems to be one commodity I have that can go far here...teaching English!! I was presented with a deal...receive library benefits for free for my whole family in return for - you guessed it! - teaching an English class a week there at the library. I tentatively agreed since I learned that it is not just a $50 charge per family to use the library for 3 months, it is $50 per person! And the book limit is 5 books! However, Aaron is working on getting us all in for free if I do a class each week.

So if it all works out, I probably will teach since it is very, very nice to have access to a library again! In East Peoria we were regular visitors every week, bringing home a pile each! The kids love books, and I don't want that to stop.