All Caught Up!

I told myself I had to be all caught up on my blog before day end February 28, 2010. This date is important because it marks the end of my first 6 months in Korea. I will recap my January and February briefly in this blog post, and if time allows in the future (or if anyone wants more of something), I will revisit any of these events. I want to "clean up shop" on this blog before I start in with a new school year (and the second half of my year here).

I'll do this chronologically the best I can, starting with my return to school after break on Wednesday, January 6, 2010. Remember, school was supposed to start Monday but we had a snow day, and I used a sick day on Tuesday after I was awake with food poisoning all night.

On Wednesday, I was very excited to see Jasmine and Grace, and also to meet my new students, Vicky and Olivia. As I was adjusting to the additions, and they to me, I also had to plan for a visit of 3 other prospective students, Eugene, Micky, and Kevin. They visited for two periods on Wednesday, and began school on Thursday. My class jumped from 2 students to 7 in a matter of 24 hours! On Friday, January 8, 2010 (my 24th birthday!), we had a little party. Jasmine's mother brought us a cake, and Grace's mommy brought me some flowers.

From left: Vicky, Micky, Eugene, Kevin, Molly, Olivia, Jasmine, Grace

Here is a video of the kids singing "Happy Birthday" to me. Please note Grace's perfect attention... to her cake.




After school, all the staff of Kid's College went to eat some duck for our holiday party. After dinner, some of the Korean teachers went with us foreign teachers to norebong to do some karaoke celebrations for Molly Teacher's birthday.


After, norebong, the festivities continued at the WABar where the rest of the evening is a little fuzzy and probably not worth mentioning. It did involve Dustin buying a very large Corona for Luke, and then begging (by the birthday girl) of the bar owner to let Dustin take the bottle home.

On Monday, Jan. 11, I returned to school with a class of only four. Eugene, Mickey, and Kevin decided that going to school in English all day long was too stressful and that they were going to return to their old school.

All girls, yet again: Olivia, Vicky, Jasmine and Grace.

I was told, though, that a new student, Rian (pronounced Ree uhn), would be starting school on Monday, Jan 18. So, I soaked up what was left of our girl time for a week in anticipation of Rian's arrival.

With 3 new permanent students, the group dynamic was very different. The new students read better than my originals, but mine were more confident in their speaking.

Olivia, oh Olivia, she was an active one. She loved to speak Korean, and get out of her seat, and talk all day long, and generally just do what she wanted. Remind you of anyone? Yeah. I love her and she makes me crazy all at the same time.

Vicky was very shy when she began, but grew into a big contributor to class. She worked hard and fast, and was, overall, a positive addition to the classroom. She listened well, asked questions when she didn't know, remembered when I told her different way to say things, etc.

Rian was very quiet and sleepy when he started. I could pretty much count on him to say nothing unless prompted, speak Korean to me regularly, and life hysterically when I responded to him in English. He seemed a lot smaller and younger than the other girls, and I wanted to hold him all day long. Only after he washed his hands, though, because his fingers seem to always be in his nose.

Grace got a lot more spacey as the class grew because I wasn't able to sit next to her and walk her through everything. She was having fun, though, and that's all that really matters.

Jasmine grew into a leadership role because she was able to help everyone with the ways of my classroom. She led by shining example and I will be grateful to her always.

So, once the dust settled, there were five little sort-of-English-speaking Asian babies for me to play with everyday (and get paid for it). My life is awesome.

We celebrated Olivia, Vicky and Rian's birthdays over the course of the 2 months that I had them. For birthdays, we hand-make cards and then the birthday child's mommy brings in cake, fruit, chicken and pizza for everyone to share.

On January 28, we had a field trip to a local ski mountain to go sledding. The kids had so much fun and were so cute! Grace didn't come. Her mom took her shopping instead. It kind of makes sense, she is the future Miss Korea after all. Can't hurt that pretty face.

February 13-15 marked the Seol-Nal (Lunar New Year) in Korea. We had a Seol-Nal party at school on Friday, February 12, complete with hanboks (the traditional dress), a bowing tutorial (the kids receive money if they bow properly to their elders on this holiday), and some traditional games.

After school that day, Liz Teacher, John Teacher and I went to Susan's apartment to help her/learn how to make mondue. Mondue is a Korean dumpling filled with meat or kimchi, and vegetables. They can then be either steamed or fried.

On February 25, they graduated :-(. March begins a new school year nation-wide in Korea and our schedule is the same. My kids will move on to John Teacher's class. My students sang "This Little Light of Mine" at graduation. The video is posted in the post below.

Rian, Vicky, Grace, Jasmine and Olivia... all ready to graduate! :-(

On February 27, I moved! Liz Teacher's contract ended Feb 26, and she took a job at another school in Seoul. Because enrollment's down, our boss opted out of hiring a teacher to replace her, so... John gets my apartment (an upgrade, believe it or not), and I get Liz's! Pictures to follow, once I get unpacked.

Which brings us to now. I am assigned to the 5/6 year old beginning Kinder class. They will barely know the alphabet. It will be hilarious.

Winter is over in Korea. It has been much warmer and rainier this week. Spring is finally here!