They're Here!

Weezer and Padre have landed in Korea.

I repeat.

Weezer and Padre have landed in Korea.

All went well with the flight and we're headed to Busan this evening until Sunday!

Every-day-but-Friday Class! (4:00-5:30)

My Second Graders (Tiger, Sophia, Lina, Elvis, Jackson)

Don't their names sound like they should be the members of a 60s multi-racial rock band?

I decided to blog about this group next for a couple reasons. One, they are my smallest afternoon class and this week is CRAZY busy with end of the month evaluations and my parents arrival in 3 DAYS! And two, they are notably my favorite and I am a firm believer in doing the things you want to do first, because you may die before you ever have to do the other ones :-). This class has been at Kid's College together since their first year of kindergarten. They speak very well, and read and write better than most second graders in America. They are a lot of fun.

Tiger. He is Gina's older brother. Remember Gina? She was in my kindergarten class for about 2 days before her birthday party and her mom switched her to the older class. Well, Tiger's as awesome as Gina is. He's super nice, very studious, and absolutely adorable. He turns in his homework everyday, and if he doesn't he has a perfectly good, well-thought, well-versed explanation as to why it's not finished. He's the tame one of the bunch, but still has me rolling on the floor daily with some of his jokes.

Elvis - every class has one: the bully/sweetheart/class clown/prankster/baby. He's hilarious and really wants to understand everything. Which sometimes totally stinks because there are a lot of things in English that are "just because" and he always wants to know why. You might be thinking, "Suck it up, Molly, you're a teacher. That's your job." But, I'd like to see you try to explain the reason why "tough," "through" and "though" are pronounced the way they are! He is very curious, and easily likable... when he's not whining.

Sophia is a rare bird. She often says things that are completely irrelevent and off the wall, or tells jokes no one laughs at (you know the kind). I have to gear up for her arrival after a day with babies, but with the proper pep talk, I can usually manage. She's the worst student in terms of her English, and is usually found staring out the window. But, she has a huge heart and I have a soft spot for her anyway.

Lina is my brown-nosing teacher's pet. She does all of her homework, has it ready to go on my desk and let's me know that she's done both of these things everyday. When she gets a high score on her vocabulary test, she announces it to me as if I'm going to award her with a gold medal or something. She is very sweet, extremely competitive and cute as a button.

Jackson, who after a brief Spanish lesson we dubbed Hahksone, calls me fat at least twice a week, but other than that I can't complain about this kid. He understands most everything, applies the concepts we learn regularly, and proves his knowledge by studying and doing well on exams (so I look good). He loves to tell me about his evenings, weekends, and anything else he can get his little words around. He's been sick for the past few weeks and hasn't been operating at full-speed, but I expect him back shortly!

I meet with these kids every afternoon but Friday (so, Monday-Thursday) from 4:00 until 5:30. We study grammar, reading comprehension, and have a debate once a week. They are looking for penpals around their age that would be interested in continuing through the summer... any takers?

Kindergarten Bios

I thought I'd spend this week doing some bios of each of my students. I had this thought on Sunday, it's now Thursday. Sorry.

I'm going camping with my Korean family this weekend, so I may interrupt the bios with camping adventure photos, but I hope to wrap up the bios by the time my parents get here! One week!

I'll start these off the way I start everyday, with my kinder kids.

Joshua, Sunny, and Alice... They are mischevious, to say the least, and they keep me very entertained.

They are happy all day long, but I can't get them to smile for a photo. It's like they are trained not to. They just might be.
We'll start with Sunny. I've nicknamed her Sunny Bear on accident, and now that has become her name to both Alice and Joshua. They will say, "Sunny Bear, colah colah" when she has gotten up from her chair when she should be coloring. I also say things like "color, color" instead of just "color." They are learning the weirdest spoken English ever.

She is the baby. She is pampered by all of the helper teachers, who just think she is so cute they want to play with her all the time. About once an hour, a helper teacher comes in and asks if Sunny needs to go to the bathroom. She always says yes, and away they go. It's not out of concern for her blatter, they just want to spend time with her.

If they had her all day, they'd know better.

She likes to color on Alice's papers and make her cry. She pushes Joshua regularly, which actually doesn't get her anywhere because he's twice her size. She is a little rascal and is not the little princess everyone wants her to be. But, she's tiny, so we love her anyway.

Joshua is the 3 year old love of my life. He laughs all day long; he loves to snuggle; he listens; he's the slowest learner; he gets frustrated when we do worksheets and it's just so darn cute I let him stop. I. just. love. him. If it weren't illegal to bring him home with me, I would. No questions asked. He's the only boy, and when we combine with Zach Teacher's class of five girls for music and art he is completely outnumbered and holds his on with no problems.

He is the happiest little boy on the planet and his hair bounces when he laughs.

He never does his homework and isn't learning half as much as the other students. I don't care. I adore him.

Oh, Alice. She is Jasmine's little sister and boy, is she the typical youngest child. She is the center of her universe and everyone else's. She likes to yell, "Teacher!" whenever she needs me, regardless of what I'm doing or who I'm helping.

She cries at least once a day, which is fine because she's 3 and doesn't get a nap, but I like it when the cry is over at the beginning of the day. She's cries at the same times Jasmine used to: when she doesn't get her way.

They have a mother that helps them immensely with their homework and Alice is soaring through her phonics book. She is the reason anyone else is learning anything because she can say the answers in class.

She has a lisp and her Ps come out like Bs and her Zs come out like Js and no matter how much I try to correct her it stays that way. It's pretty cute, so I don't try that hard.

Are you sensing the apathetic trend with only 4 and some change months to go?

Here's an awesome video of them singing the ABCs together. Edible, right?

19 days!

So you know that fancy countdown thingie I had up when Karen was on her way?

Well, I took a lot of heat a couple of days ago because I don't have one posted for my parents' arrival yet. In my defense, well, I have no defense. I just forgot.

But, that doesn't mean that I'm not SUPER excited about their arrival. My mom and dad will land in Seoul on Thursday, April 29 at 9:15 pm (8:15 am EST).

I've tried to find the same countdown program, but no luck. I'll look some more today to see if I can found one.

We have lots of plans in the works for the 10 days they are here, including a trip to Busan, a southeast coast town in South Korea. It is the second largest city in the country, and a very popular spot for teachers, as well.

When we stay in Dongbaek, my parents will stay in my apartment because they closest hotel is not close at all. I ordered a futon yesterday and it will be delivered today! I can't wait until it's here, it'll be official!

My dad has asked repeatedly if I will have forks waiting for him (in lieu of chopsticks). I told him he'd have to bring his own, but if he wanted to practice on the children's Thomas the Train training chopsticks, he could do that, too. :-)

Anyways, my apologies to anyone's feelings that were hurt (ahem, Weezer), by the lack of the parental arrival countdown. I will hopefully get one up before the weekend's over.

Can't wait until they're here!!!! 19 days!!!!!!

Bob Dylan Live in Seoul

On Wednesday, March 31, I saw Bob Dylan at Olympic Park!



He played a concert in the gymnastics stadium... so not only did I get to see Bob, I got to be where people did flips for gold medals!



We were pretty far back so these shots were the best I could do:




I knew 70% of the songs he played, which was nice beause I barely know any new stuff. I was glad he played a lot of his older songs, but he played all electric so sometimes the songs were hiding behind the electric-ness, and his incoherent-ness. But, whatever.... I saw Bob Dylan live in Seoul, no complaints allowed.



Here's a sample of Like a Rolling Stone.

Ho Dduk

Last weekend, I tried my hand at making some Ho dduk. Ho dduk is a street food that you can find many vendors serving all of the country in little pop up shops on sidewalks. It's a "dduk" pancake with cinnamon, sugar and ground peanuts on the inside.

Dduk, like I've told you, is a Korean rice "cake." They take rice powder (made from ground dried rice), mix with water and reform it into different shapes. Dduk is a chewy, dumpling-like substance with not much taste, but is a huge component in the Korean diet.

I bought a mix, because I wasn't about to try it without. Everything on the package that I needed to be able to read was in Korean, though, so I had to wing it:

Inside, there was a package for the mixture for the inside: Cinnamon, sugar and crushed peanuts:

Then, there was a flour-y mixture for the dduk part,

and some instant yeast for the dough.

From the back of the package, I gathered that I needed to mix the flour and yeast with 260 mL of warm water, then cover it, and let it rise for 30 minutes. Yeah, I got all that from Korean characters and pictures.

Here's the dough all mixed up!

...and covered.
Then, the dough is really sticky, so I coated my hands in grapeseed oil, along with the frying pan on low heat.
I took a chunk of dough and patted it into a circular shape,

put a spoonful of the inside mixture in the middle,
rolled it up into a ball,

and flattened it like a pancake and put it in the grapeseed oil-greased pan.

Repeat, and flip the pancakes until desired brown, crispy, goodness.

My fellow Dongbaek-ians, Ryan, Betsy and Dustin came over after their dinners to enjoy, which was awesome because, otherwise, I would have eaten them all myself! There was about 10-11!

They were not as good as the ones you can buy on the street, I didn't put enough filling in them because I was concerned about the filling falling out. I don't think the men on the street who whip these out care if the filling leaks out. Noted for next time. Yumm-o!