Thursday, July 23, 2009

Let me sum up

Tomorrow is my last day of teaching! I've finished my 1 year of teaching in Jeju. Already. This week I'm trying to fit all the beach time, acupuncture*, and yoga classes I can before my month trip to the states. (*A note on the Acupuncture: it's really helping my neck. I've been going about 3x a week and I get needles in my hips, neck and spine. The doctor is also trying to fix my spinal alignment and whatever else he finds in there. I think I'll keep going to the doctor after my vacation.) And as a fitting ending, I'm teaching all about America tomorrow in my last day of English camp. I've still got tons to do before I hop on a plane next weekend, but I'm sure it'll fly. 7 short days!

So it seems an appropriate time to evaluate this years goals. From my very first Korea blog:

"-Learn to speak and read Korean (Yikes!)
-Improve my classroom teaching skills
-Teach community Yoga
-Take any adventure that comes my way"

I'd say check, check, check and check! My Korean is ever improving and I'm pretty happy with what I've learned in the past 11 months. I've learned immeasurable amounts of new teaching skills. I've been teaching community yoga for 10 months, and there's hardly an adventure I've passed up! I'm already planning a trip to Japan after I get back in September and trying to finagle my winter break so I can go back to S.E. Asia and do some sort of yoga training in February. This year has been all about trying new things on a tremendous learning curve. Next year will be the first time I've lived in the same place for more than a year since college. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm sure it will be good. I'll set some new goals when I come back to Jeju and settle in again.

See you this summer!
Namaste

6 comments:

Nic George said...

Em and I are going on Japan Trip #2 in April. If you can wait that long you could meet up with us!

Karissa aka Grace said...

Where are you going? It's really easy to get to Korea from Japan...We'll have to meet up in Asia!

Nic George said...

Just back to Tokyo. We didn't see a lot of it on our last trip since we hit up Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima and Itsukashima.

Karissa aka Grace said...

I could totally go to Tokyo for a weekend!

Unknown said...

Hi Karissa!

This is Katie Elder from Miss WA 2001! I just recently began studying voice with Janeanne Houston and she shared a link to your blog. Sounds like you're doing amazing things with your life!

Thought it could be fun to reconnect. :)

Karissa aka Grace said...

Hi Katie!

How are you?? How's Seattle? I was back for a few weeks this summer and busy, busy, busy! Please email me at bryantka55@hotmail.com and we can catch up.

~Karissa