Aw, my little ones weren't horrible today...

My Super Elite Bratlings weren't as horrible as normal today. Of course, I didn't give them any opportunities for yelling, screaming, and carrying on cranky'(watched B5 last night). I spoke to a couple of them before class started to tell them to leave the Eagle class SE alone (that was the real problem on Wednesday) and they actually did. I suppose that's been my problem. I don't keep the class moving fast enough. We've been having trouble getting everything on the schedule done lately, but today, we actually finished early in both classes. Awesome. I found I didn't dislike the troublemakers nearly as much. :)

We also had a birthday party for Jaime. He's a sweet, if quiet little boy.



You know, it's odd. He hates PE, but to look at him, he seems a fit boy and he enjoys running around with the best of them, but he does not like PE, I had to push him into the gym this morning literally. Thankfully, his Mom was upstairs helping decorate the class. Oh, and he got chocolate cake that was delicious. all to often these kids get white cake. I mean, what's the fun in that. Chocolate is so much better. Another weird thing is that some of the kids didn't like that canned peaches. I mean those things are sweet and tasty.

Some pics from class:





Here's the kid who spent a month at home because she broke her collarbone. Poor thing sleeps a lot. She did it before her accident, so I don't think its related. I found out from Syvia that her Mom runs a restaurant. I think that maybe Amy stays up laten til her Mom gets home and that may be why she sleeps. Of course, the kids might benefit from a naptime, but the parents aren't paying for the kids to sleep. I wonder what we're going to tel Amy's Mom when she asks to see her daughter's workbooks since she rarely does it. We moved her to the front of the class and she's a distracted now as before.



Anyway, wish me a good weekend. So far, I've plans to go to a baseball game with some coworkers. The LG Twins are playing at 2 in Jamsil. I'm going to shop for a nice pair of sandals and some more fabric in Dongdaemun since I've finally finished my first project here in Korea. I'll post some pics after I finish handsewing the hem. Anyway, so good luck everybody and have a great weekend.

My Fav

Plans for the weekend include going to a baseball game and shopping for needles, thread, more fabric, and sandals at Dongdaemun. 2 days and counting :) I made myself nachos for dinner, helped along by the wonderful seasoning sent by my dear sweet parents and guacomole and sour cream and cheese from Costco. Nice.

Now the title of my post is my fav because I'm choosing to showcase my sweet Cheny today. Totally my favorite student. She sort of reminds me of me when I was a kid. Smart, but not overly smart but till giving the impression of smartness. Also she's quiet. Anyway, so here is a couple of random pics from the past few days.





So cute, but there are some disadvantages to being so biased in favor of a child. She knows how to get around me now and I let her get away with things that I wouldn't let the other kids do. Like when we went to the park on Wednesday and she didn't want to wear her coat, I made her bring it, but didn't make her put it on. She did put it on once we got outside and she felt how cold it was. She also complained that her stomach hurt a couple of times and I let her get away with not eating her snack during those time. I also sort of pick her up randomly whenever she walks by. Her new thing is to put her hands on either side of my face and move them to make me shake my head. It sends her into transports of laughter. lol, there are certainly a lot of times when I love my job.

Pics from the Field Trip

Well, we had a field trip a couple of weeks ago and I've been meaning to show off some photos. Here are my wonderful Orions.





My totally favorite kids, like of all of them.



A rare smile from my fav.



Alex the troublemaker...



Rachel's been absent a lot lately, she's a real sweetheart.

TGIF

Awww, Friday, a most wonderful day for me as a teacher. The only problem with it is that I have to deal with my M/W/F Superelite kids and they do rather put a damper on things. Some days everything goes great and I think that teaching is a wonderfully rewarding profession that I could see myself doing back in the states. Then come the days when I come home frustrated and counting the days I have left. (10 months and 2 weeks, 4 weeks of which are childless) So what happened today? Well, my 'wonderful' Super Elite are continuing their downward spiral into slovenly mediocrity and disrespectful idiocy.

Poor mites. About the only thing that shuts them up is saying I will call in Teacher May. These kids just will not do anything I tell them to do. I spend a good 15 minutes of classtime just getting started on MWF. I think part of the problem is that I've got 6 bad kids out of 7 versus 3-4 out of 7 or 8 for my T TH classes. When every kids is a bad kid, they feed off each other. I really wish we could restucture the classes to break up the groups, but the kids would still be horrible and would probably just form different groups, perhaps even worse ones advocating the burning of foreigners and instigation of kimchi parties.



Sigh. So I may have behaved inappropriately today. I called the kids useless brats and who were wasting space. Umm, should I admit this in a public blog? Sure since someone may read who is thinking about doing this and will have both good and bad impressions from me. Yep, I also told this kids I didn't like them. I was definitely ready to come home and every moment I spent with them is a moment gone and irrecoverable and I don't want to give these kids a moment of my time more then their parents have paid for.

At first I worried about what would happen when the kids tell their parents I called them brats and literally pulled them from the classroom, then I realized that I do a pretty good job with the little kids and this is just afterclub and they won't fire me because I can't control one class. The worst they might do is reassign the class(oh happy day) or if the Moms were upset and pulled out of PSA, they would probably open up a new club or find something for me to do. Wow, that would make me so happy. :Peacefully staring off into the distance:


Now I am deliberately not going into what made me become so frustated with the little brats, or dears, since it doesn't really matter and its really boring. Anyway, so I do hope you all wish me luck with the whipersnappers next week. Here's hoping they all quit PSA.





On a happier note, the wonderful, stupendous, marvelous parents of mine sent me a care package of many things intended to make my stay here in Korea just that much more enjoyable, and it sure will. Smile. I guess Priority Mail (ridiculously expensive) goes really fast. It took a week. I worried that it might have a problem with customs, but nope, sailed right on through. That package waiting for me seriously helped me get through the torturous Super Elite. I will NOT think about going in a Monday. NOT AT ALL.

Peaceful Evening

I went to church this morning to view General Conference with everyone. It was really nice. I was a bit late since I was counting on taking the bus in, but when I went to get on the bus after another girl, the busdriver closed the door in my face. He probably didn't notice me and pulled away from the curb as he was closing the door. I stood there for a couple of moments, a bit flommoxed, when I decided to just take the subway even though it takes 30 minutes more and I was already running late.

They do like their food in this ward. After the first session, we have lunch for about an hour, then came the afternoon session. Okay, confession time. I am lazy and have kinda not been to church for the past few weeks since at first my hay fever was bothering me and then the idea of the trip into Seoul exhausted me. I mean its 3 hours in total on a subway if I don't take the bus. But I siked myself up for it last night and am happy I did. I met several other ward members that are awesome. There are actually 2 other girls that live in Bundang and are very nice. One used to work in a library, shares a love of reading (recommended Twilight to mean) and love bellydancing. The other girl was less effulgent and fell asleep on the bus back (if I'd been on my own, I wouldn't have tried to buses again and stayed with the subway, but they convinced me to give Seoul busdrivers another chance. lol

I think I need to reevaluate my food plan. I was looking at my dinner tonight (I made steak, broccoli, and pasta) and realized I'm eating an unbalanced diet without enough fruit and veggies. I do okay during the week with school lunches and snacks, but I just don't eat enough veggies in the evenings or weekend. I reckon I'll pick up some random veggies tomorrow, and some oranges. I've been buying bananas, but they are expensive and go bad quickly and I can't exactly use the spoiled ones without an oven. Hmmm, maybe I should look for some recipes anyway.

So, to my peaceful evening. I heard today about the Central Park in Bundang. I thought it was farther away, but its right around the corner from me. You see, there's a fork in the river and I always take the bigger fork, but tonight took the smaller stream-like fork and it was wonderful. There were plenty of other people walking along, but it still felt pretty peaceful. I walked up to the lake which is wonderous at night. One odd thing about Korea, is that they've built this beautiful, historical park, and attach neon lights to all the bridges. It's cool, if a bit unexpected. I kept trying to find a comparison in my head, but something about the feel of the air, temperature, and surroundings, reminds me of Germany, and not just any time in Germany, but my last trip in June and July when I traveled to Heidleberg and an assortment of other West German cities. I've no idea why, but the idea persists. :sigh: A very nice evening.

My Day Off

Here's a pic from last Friday that I forgot to post.

Aw, the first blooms of Spring. At the time, this was the only tree I saw with blooms, but now most are blooming.

Here are some pics of my kids.



Michelle is cute, but on vacation right now.



Aw, my afternoon kids. They are essentially good, but have their wacked out moments.

Oh, and here's a pic of Lottemart. This is my grocery store. It's a bit pricy, but they same as the other grocery stores within walking distance. I went to Homever last night and its a bit cheaper and has more foreign food. More awesome store, but I have to take the subway to Yatap to go there (2 stops) and that's a bit much for a quick stop.



So what did I do on this, my wonderful day off? (Thank you Korean politics)

Well, I slept til 6 am and read a book until 10 whence I had breakfast and took Luna on a walk. The days a bit overcast, so I didn't bother taking any gloomy pictures of the day. Anyway, after we got back, I hooked up my mp3 player to charge since I was heading to Itaewon for linner and to see what the fuss was about. I didn't end up leaving until at 2, but that was fine, so I took the subway in (the subway website was down so I had to map out my own route, but it was fine) for over an hour with 3 transfers. Anyway, so Itaewon is nice. I wish I'd been there on a less rainy day and I forgot my umbrella so got a bit wet. So I went on my search for Taco Amigo which I'd heard about on Geek in Korea and Galbijim and I must say the food there is great. What's not great is trying to find the place based on directions from eiher site the depend on you knowing where some bar named Gecko's is and the directions on Galbijim are downright wrong. They had me looking at the Hamilton Hotel which is across the street from the place, a major street.

So my directions are to take the subway to Itaewon and go ahead and use Exit 4. After emerging, turn around because the place is not straight ahead, it is behind you on the street that runs ito the street you are standing at. To make it clearer, youo emerge from the exit at an intersection and the road behind you slopes downward and it is on that street that Taco Amigo is. Once you start down the street, look up and the sign is very large. I kept walking up and down the main drag because someone said straight ahead and another site said look for the Burger King. Anyway, the food was worth it. I got the chorizo/sausage burrito because that's all they had left. I don't think they were expecting it to be so busy on a holiday with everyone off work. Well, the burrito still tasted great. It had cilatro, was really big and spicy and I got sour cream and guacamole for 2000 won extra. With a bottled water, it all came up to 8500 won. A really good price when I think what it would cost here in Bundang and it tasted good. I'll definitely go back sometime soon to try out more on the menu and see more of Seoul. Nice.

I also did do a little shopping. I've been getting really sick of my normal Luna walk/jog-wear. I need more stuff to wear on her walks and more shirts for work. So I discovered one store with a sale rack outside of clothes in my size for $5-$10, nice for Seoul. I picked up 3 shirts and went in a bought a pair of exercise pants for $15. In total, I brought $50 to spend to day and spent nearly all of it. I still haven't bought any shoes, but I've tried some on. I've found that I can usually fit into a size 250, which is the biggest size most stores carry for women, although a 255 might be better. 250 is about a size 8 US. Here are some pics of my lovely purchases.

Red Baton Twirling Korean Soldiers

One of the oddest sights I've witnessed in Korea was this long line of Korean soldiers carrying these batons with red lights on them. This was last night and it still seems a bit odd. Therer were a lot of them too and they were walking along the Tanchon. Hmmm. No idea why.

Also, you can certainly tell its Spring now, some trees are blooming, we're growing a plant in class (totally unfair too since we get no direct sunlight, but I'm making the kids talk to the plant every day, so maybe that will help:-P), and there were a lot of people on the Tanchon this morning. Many playing soccer, basketball, and walking. The strange thing was that I didn't see many dogs, just a couple. Last week there were many more, but it was a bit on the warm side. Note for anyone thinking of moving to Korea, these electronic door locks are awesome, but if open to long, them alarm and to stop them, you just close the door and re-enter the code.

So yesterday, one of our Moms came in. Tayon's mom to be precise. He's the kid I think that I was warned about. Either him or Alex is raised by his nanny and acts out. Actually both act out, but after seeing Tayon with his Mom, I think he may be the one. His Mom mentioned that she doesn't get to see him much (she brought Baskin Robbins for the class and it was delicious) and I didn't know quite how to respond. Do you say anything? I figured no response was necessary and thankfully one of the other kids from class came out and was ready to brush his teeth (we were waiting outside of the cafeteria beside some sinks were all the kids brush their teeth after lunch) so I didn't need to respond and couldn't think of anything to say anyway. I guess I do understand Tayon better now.

We had our weekly foreign teacher meeting yesterday and I found out them my kids aren't the only ones who get injured. One kid got a bloody nose last week and his mom came to school all week because the kid was so freaked out by it. I guess mine haven't been so bad. We also talked about our Mom's Day program and will meet specifically to talk about it next week. Yay.

Eureka, Luna's Feeling Better

That's right, she's eating her food again and not having any problems. Thank goodness, I was worrying about the poor little thing.

I've started watching Eureka and I'm trying to space out the viewing so I can make it last. It seems really interesting. I know the episodes were broadcast out of order, just like the rusade episodes but with happier consequences. I'm really looking forward to watching it for at least a few weeks. One episode a day is my vow :)

So I bought that MAC Studio Fix Liquid foundation. I am such a sucker for a salesperson. The foundation is okay (I've had better drugstore version, but i really needed a liquid since my skin has been feeling really dry lately), but the Concealer is HG. I love it. 'nuff said its awesome for undereye circles (Moisture something or other). I mix it with the Sweet Potato Tinted Moisturizer from Skin Food and that makes it truly wonderful. The TM is HG and I will totally miss it back home :( It lasts awhile, evens out skin tone, makes skin look fresh and smooth, blends well, and comes in 3 different shades. I was uncertain about it when I first tried the sample because it seemed really dark and yellow, but that was the middle shaded and the lighter one is perfect. So, what else? I have 2000 won until Monday(payday:dances in a circle:), but anyone who's seen my kitchen would know that I love to stock up and have plenty of food to make for the next few days. Nice.

I sang at some of my afternoon kids yesterday. I didn't sing at the little ones during the day, nor at my first group of kids in the afternoon, but it was such a pretty day that I sung to my second group of kids and in the homework club. You know, I would just sing the instructions to them or sing, 'you must get into you're chair or I will keep on singing' or something like that. You know what's great? By the end of homework class, 2 of them were singing back to me :) I love having an effect on young pepple today!

It's a good day

It's a good day here at PSA. It's beautiful. The sun is shining, the air is fresh and breezy, the temperature is probably around 65. It's so nice. I took a walk while my coteacher was teaching the little ones her subject to a walk around the corner from the school. Maybe 5 minutes each way counting the trip down the stairs. Yes snack was those icky rice balls with the sweet bean paste inside, but that's okay since we had some good snacks this week too. And for lunch tomorrow, we get spaghetti and garlic bread. That's going to be fun to eat with chop sticks. It's so weird to use chopsticks everyday for lunch. The kids get forks, but the adults only get chopsticks. I suppose you could ask for a foork, but they aren't given to you.

Anyway, I've just got a moment and wanted to share this beautiful Korean day with you all. Oh and I have next Wednesday off because it's election day and we get paid on Monday and a lot of us are probably going to go to Kangnam for Carne Station (Korean barbeque all you can eat) on Tuesday night. You know celebrate our money by spending it :)

Freaky Saturday Night Walk

It's 1 AM here and I just got back from taking Luna on her evening walk by the Tanchon River. Normally we do go at about 9 PM, but I was busy doing nothing and didn't get motivated to take out the Luna-meister until midnight. Yes, midnight hit and I was thinking, 'Wow, better do it now or make Luna wait until morning' and I hate to make her wait when she doesn't have to. Aw, my sweet Luna.

So we went on our walk on this Saturday night after a rainy Saturday and there was NO ONE on the river. If you aren't familiar with city parks or living in Korea, you may not understand how unusual it is to see no one, at all. I think the closest I came to seeing a real person in that hour-long walk, was the sleeping guy who usually opens the gates to drive out of the parking area. He must have put it on automatic because someone was driving off when I was walking by and the gate came up despite the man in the box not moving a muscle. Strange. There was sort of an eerie feeling to it. I may have also see someone on a bicycle down by the river, but cannot be sure since it was sort of far away. This isn't the latest I've taken Luna out either. I took her out for a short walk at 3 AM not long after my arrival when I was still jetlagged and then there was at least 2 other people on the river, although we didn't go out to it. That night was stickly a chance for Luna to do her business given the late/early hour.

Seeing no one out there, no one in the whole hour, makes me think of Doctor Who. I know, weird. For some reason I think of the Doctor connected mostly to urban situations and there are a couple of really places down by the river that look positively alien invasion final confrontation worthy. There's the areas on the bridges and the pathways under the main streets. These are long, straight semi-confined areas where the Doctor and whatever nefarious ne'er-do-well he was up against for that week could have it out. Hmm. Strange the thoughts that occur to you when you are a little paranoid about the lack of people in your favorite walking path. I mean NO ONE. Totally weird and I feel the need to share it with you, my wonderful freinds and family. XOXO.

Another interesting thing about the Tanchon River Park, they play music in the mornings. Although not every morning, just some mornings. It seems to start between 7:45 AM and 8:15 AM and is just classical music. The first time I heard it, I wondered if something was wrong with my mp3 player, but the sound kept getting louder and then I saw the speaker. Hmmm, really makes you think. Also, I went out at 6:30 one morning last week and found people doing some form of Yoga or Tai Chi or something practicing not down by the river, but in the area nearer the street. Okay, here's a description, the river flows down the middle and on either side are these bike and walking tracks and some flat mostly grazzy land and several footbridges now the river and these paths are recessed into the ground and you have to take stairs down (there are a few paths down for bikes from the street too) Now, in my area, you take the stairs from this thin strip of wooded area between the street and the stairs and there's woods, paths, and those music speakers in this strip. It's not that narrow. How's that for my description? Can you picture it? I'll see what I can do about getting a picture and I can guarentee the pic will not be nearly as deserted as what I jsut saw. NO ONE I tell you. Strange.

An Easter Egg Hunt and Some Pizza School

Well, the kids got to go on an Easter egg hunt on Wednesday and they seemed to enjoy it well enough. Actually they enjoyed it a lot. Those kids never get ouside time at PSA except for special occaisions. The only play time a gym time is inside. I really wish we could have 30 minutes of outdoor time a couple of times a week when the weather is good. So here are some pics.

Some of the kids


Rachel and Teacher Jinnie






Class Photo


Oh, and on the way back, I noticed this somewhat odd and random seller.



Yep, I've never seen this here before, but they see underclothes near my school. Odd thing is that this is the only seller right there and the only one except the food vendor who is out in the area at this time of day. Later, there are several vendors further up the road.



So I got to meet the parents of my kids on Thursday. They came in to school and met with the principal and vice principal. Basically, me and my coteacher came in to introduce ourselves and say how wonderful the children are. At least, that's what I said. My coteacher talked to them in Korean. It was really interesting to see the moms of the kids and try to see how they can raise the kids they raise. I wish I could speak to them. During our staff meeting this morning (weekly staff meeting) we were told we could and should send messages home with the kids once in awhile. I'm thinking I'll try for Tuesdays. It'll be difficult to do it though because most of them time I would think to do it, my coteacher is writing in them. Of courses, she has to write in them every day, poor thing.

We had some injuries this week too. Those kids have had a lot of energy with the beautiful weather we've been having. We had one girl who fell and broke her front 2 teeth on Thursday and that same day another boy got a scratch under his chin. It's hard to stop them running pell mell into things and people and to get them to sit on chairs properly. I mean they're so young and some have the attention span of a gnat. 'Ooh, shiny object'. I suppose I'm much older and my attention span isn't the best either, hmm, there really is a shiny object over there. Right, so back to it. OMG, one of my kids did his work this afternoon without too much help from me. He is a whiner "Teacher help" is his favorite refrain, but I was teaching the whole class at the time and couldn't stop for just one kid and he did it almost on his own, I think the kid who sits with him help. I was so proud of him. G

I've realized that my my MWF afterclub is definitely my least favorite, I would rather teach either of my TTH afterclubs more often. I guess if yu count each class, I see the MWF 6 times a week and the TTH clubs 2 times each. None of them are particularly well behaved, but the MW are the worst and all but one are troublemakers(only 8 total) versus only 2 or 3 in the other 2 classes. I've taken to making them all sit with one seat between them so they can't talk as easily and we have to stay really on task or they get distracted. I'm going to try some games as bribery next week to keep them focused.

Here are the little darlings.


I was asked to cover IA(International Academy) upstair for almost 2 hours after afterclub. IA are the older students. I don't think PSA has kids in the after clubs over 8 years old and at 9 they transition to IA. I actually really liked it. The older kids clearly understood everything I said and were a bit older and thus seemed more able to sit still. Of course, they were still only 9, but I did notice a difference for both classes. First I oversaw the writing class and that was fun. There weree 9 kids and we got through everything pretty quickly, but they seemed to get it anyway. We ended up with 15 minutes on the end of class and I did some quick thinking and extended the lesson on what makes a quotation. We were talking about the parts of it and we came up with a senario (alien comes to IA) and what the alien should look like and the alien's name. He was hideous and named Jogrulgrub. In the end, we actually ran out of time and the kids were really interested. They were also a bit rambunctious, but I could tell they were getting something out of the lesson. Hopefully.

The second IA class was a science class and while smaller (5 9-year olds) it was a bit more difficult to control. These are the extra-smart kids and were easily bored. We actually ran short on time with them. We were supposed to read and review one chapter, then do a review for the entire unit and we'd only just started the review for the entire unit when class ended. The time went really fast though.

New rules at PSA next week. We get one ream of paper per month and have to justify any more we recieve. Ditto for plastic for the laminating machines. This is going to be weird, but I suppose its understandable since PSA seems to use a lot of paper. No more unlimited supplies.

I found out we had teahcer's books for the student textbooks for afterclub today. I had no idea. we also have the teacher's book for the Harcourt Math book we use for the kids and that's great because there have been a couple of pages where I really wasn't sure what they wanted.

Anything else new? Still watching my money, 9 days until my first paycheck here in Korea and while it will have an additional 3.75 hours overtime, it will lack $200 for the accomodation deposit. We pay $600 in 3 monthly installments that will hopefully we paid back. I haven't heard any problems with the people who just left, so hopefully everything's gone well.

Oh, and I picked up some Pizza School on the way home. I got the combination and while good, I prefer the pepperoni. Here's a pic

Miserable Saturday

Yep, I'm not sure what to make of today since I spent it mostly inside. Nothing is even blooming and my hay fever is worse then ever. I ended up spending most of the day inside due to the whole itchy eyes, stuffed up nose, post-nasal sniffling, lack of energy, and feeling of fever. I don't reckon my claritin or Flonase is having any effect. I take them and a nasal decongestant in the morning for the past week and have noticed no improvement. Of course, it could be helping me right after I take it and I could just not be noticing the effect since I tend to take it and go to work. Botheration. Oh well, its all I've got and I'll keep using it. I think I'll try 3 squirts of the Flonase and taking the claritin twice a day rather than once to see if that improves my symptoms.

:tear: Well at least the day hasn't been completely wasted. It seems that a lot of my coworkers also stayed in today since I saw 2 while out walking, another when I was getting lunch, and another when I was taking Luna on another walk. I also discovered some blooper reels on YouTube and got caught up with ANTM and did some laundry and swept up the apt and picked up some groceries (many of which were cookies because hay fever makes me really want sweets). Still, I spent most of the day with Luna.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my afterschool kids. I only bothered with one of the three classes I teach and it happens to be the one that meets in my classroom since I'd left the camera there for the other class.

This is all but one who did not want to participate in picture time.







Oh, and here's a better pic of Dongdaemun Gate for a few weeks ago.

3 Birthdays

So we had a birthday party for 3 of the kids on Friday. I guess that since there are 18 kids in class, if we tried to have all the birthdays on the actual days, that would be too many birthdays. This means we celebrated the birthdays of June, Alicia, and Cheny. Cheny and June's moms came and Alicia's dad came. The dad did surprise me since I think its usually the moms who come in. Alicia is a sweet little girl who isn't as needy as some of the kids and not as boisterous either. She's great. June is similar. He will misbehave once in awhile, but usually doesn't and will stop when you notice it. He has a great mom too, very pleasant and smily. I see where he gets it from. Ditto for Cheny, you know, the non-smiler I mentioned. Her mom didn't smile either. Hmmm, parents and kids. It was a nice party and afterward I had enough food for dinner last night and breakfast today and tomorrow. Awesome way to save some money I suppose. Here are some pics of my sweet class.

Here's the birthday girl Cheny, Emily, and Ted. These pics were actually taken the day before and both Cheny and Alicia wore beautiful white dresses.



And this is Sydney, a kidder who now that she's more comfortable around me, loves to jump on my back, randomly.



And this is Alicia (the other birthday girl wearing red), Michelle, and Kate.



Tayon, Tayon, Tayon. I was certainly warned about him and the warning are true.



Our newest little one Eugene.



This is Jun(one of the littler boys) and June (the birthday boy)



This is Alex, who hasn't come to class for the last couple of days. I wonder if it was my fault since I made him sit in a timeout twice last week for hitting other students. Poor thing, he's smart and has a lot of energy and just loves to be noticed.



Rachel(very quiet sort, but she's growing on me and always has a smile except in this picture) and Alicia



Oh, and the terminally late Jamie. He's usually at least 20 minutes late, sometimes 30 and so has the fewest stickers of all the kids.



Jenny trying to pay attention.



The class paying attention to Sylvia.



Love ya'll :)

The allergies are here again

Yes, so my allergies were still really affecting me today. My voice is harsh and pitchy and it takes a lot of effort to talk loudly enough to get the attention of these young whipper-snappers. I also wore my glasses today and they were fine, except for one girl who told me they were ugly. I sewt her straight that glasses are just another way to accesorize



So I took Luna on her walk this evening and we went a bit longer than normal. We walked along the river, then up to my school, then over to Samsung Plaza. I take the Luna-meister to Samsung Plaza at least 3 times a week to let her meet more people. She loves it and most people are pretty friendly to her. Of course, there are usually a good number of weirdos at Samsung Plaza. Either the people dressed as Batman, a fish, very scantily clad, or the people in long robes, or just those people that walk around calling out something in Korean, the plaza is a happening place. :-P. So Luna is getting a bit skinny, I need to fatten her up a bit. Sort of the opposite of me. I was feeling down today because of my allergies and because I'm running a bit short of dough at the moment and don't get paid until the 7th of April. Long time and I still need to pay my bills which will hopfully be less than 200,ooo won because that's all that's budgeted for it and I have about 100,000 won to eat off of for the next 3 weeks. So what do I do? I eat a Baskin Robbins cheesecake berry ice cream cone. Yum and a small pizza after work that has filled me up. I bought some salad to go with it and had only intended to eat half the pizza, but when it came down to it, I just couldn't eat a salad with such sweet dressing. The pizza was decent and cheap.

So I'd intended to go down to Iaewon this weekend, but with the month Dad and list of everything I needed and have since found out they threw out a lot of my stuff. How sweet. I will tell myself i love my family several times now until I believe it. Hmmm, still not happening. It's probably best that I haven't spoken much to them since I left because I do not want to be held responsible for what I am think by saying it aloud. That would not be a good idea. I just hope that my 'dear', 'sweet' father will be wonderful enough to send me that which I've sent for and it had better be available also another note to my family. Yes, I now know about Kat's wreck in my car and know she's fine. I understand that you've already spent the $2000 you got for my car and rather wish I'd heard about it sooner. You've not paid me any of the promised money in case you are unaware.

Sorry for the lack of photos, I'll try to do better.

More from Korea

So I haven't any new pics since I keep forgetting my camera at home. Allergy season is certainly here. I felt sort of off all weekend and ended up staying home from church and not going to Seoul as planned on Saturday because I thought I had a cold that should not be passed on, but today I felt much more distinctly allergistic. Itchy eyes, dry throat, constant mucus, no energy, you know the drill. So I took my meds this morning. They usually take a couple of days to start really working, so wish me luck that they work on Korean pollen, you know how kimchi strengthens everything, maybe it strengthens pollen too. Hmmm.

So because of the allergy issue, i had little energy to deal with my sweet little angels, aka rambunctious little monsters. It was fine until this afternoon after lunch. One girl brought in candy for after lunch and they were all pretty hyper afterward. As in, constantly talking no matter what hyper. No sooner would I get half the class quiet when the other half would start off and I had no energy to make it really interesting for them. Also, I was sort of unprepared for the afternoon because my wonderful coteacher insisted on talking to me about the plans for Mother's Day (very big) and talking about how I should do something different that afternoon. She says this to me while the kids are getting their books out for the afternoon writing time. Arghh. I wasn't at my best so I eventually told her that today we would do what was on the lesson plan and I would prepare something for Thursday. By the time that conversation was over, we had to start the class with the kids who had no desire whatsoever to pay attention, even the normally good ones. I guess chocolate will do that to a kid. So eventually I decided I didn't care and had them close their books and put their heads down on their desk for 2 minutes and any that made noise missed 2 minutes of free time. That got them quiet and I let them put their books up and play. You know, the kids are supposed to get 10 minutes of free time after lunch, but it never happens because they take so long to eat and brush their teeth. Yes, PSA believes in dental hygeine(sp?). :)

My little ones started clubs today. We have 3 in clubs on Monday, 1 on Friday, and 5 on Tuesdays and Thursday. Of the Monday ones, one had real problems. I guess she'd never been in after-school clubs before. This was Cheny (you know, the one who never smiles and looks very solemn and whome I make a point of making smile at least once a day) who started crying the minute I took her to her new club (the teacher wasn't there yet and neither were any of the students, so I waited with her) so I styaed with her and hugged her and told her how much fun the club would be and what sort of things she would make, but she was having nothing of it and kept crying. This is odd because she's not one of the criers in class. I had to leave after the other teacher came in because I had to go to my club upstairs, but I really felt sorry for her and hated to leave her because she was really clinging. I guess this means the kids are more used to me now. It's kinda sweet. During play time today, she crawled on my lap and gave me a hug. Cheny is a sweet kid and settled down after she went to phonics club when she go to be with one of the boys from class, Tayon.

What else is happening?

I actually have a show need. I never thought I would have so few shoes that I would actually need to buy some. My Korean size is 250-260 and the Yatap station actually has so nice looking shoes ranging from $10-$20. My comfy brown ones are dying since at one point they were very went and these small cracks started on the sides and the more I wear them, the larger the crack/tear gets. After them, all I have are my tennis shoes and black ballet flats and plaid ballet flats. Oh, and that pair of sandals.

There's a really nice Korean Italian placec I discovered here in Bundang on Saturday. It's Milli's and is right off the Samsung Plaza area, like across the street and it had a very modern restaurant feel. You know, stainless steel and stone. Now the pizza looks really good. So far, I've had the chicken spagetti alfreda and the spaghetti carbonara. Both were good, but the carbonara was better.

I went to Yatap last week and picked up some chips and queso and they were decent, not good, but edible. I also discovered a thrift store in the basement and a 15,000 won shoe kiosk and movie theater. Btw, I bought the foreign food in Homever whose prices seem comparable to Lottemart even though everyone says Homever is cheaper. Whatever.

Oh, so I've accepted the chance to stay after for an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays for some afterclub homework time. Basically, the kids just sit down and do their homework and I go around helping them. For this 2 hours a week, or 8 hours a month, I get $150. Not bad, that's like $18 an hour or something.

Til later. :)

More about Teaching Preschoolers...

Sometimes it feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall with the kinder. It's easier during the day with the younger ones because they mostly want to do what the teacher says, but the school aged kids in the afternoon have already put in a full day of school and do not want to bw at school and do the work. Poor mites.

One thing I am surprised by is that I can remember moth of the names. There are 17 in my preschool class and usually only 5-9 in he afternoon clubs. Now, the clubs are just as hard as the preschoolers with half the students because they just want to play after school and have to stay at PSA for an additional hour. Poor mites again.

Aw, my preschoolers are so cute. As they get used to me, they seem to feel more comfortable coming to me for hugs and hitting me on the behind. None of them have tried to poke me anywhere yet (I've been warned about that), but you can tell they are becoming more comfortable with me and teacher Sylvia. It's gotten to the point where I don't think too much about the criers. I've distracted some from crying and so has Sylvia. You know, its weird, but I tnd to think of my coteacher as Teacher Sylvia and even call myself Teacher S#### in my head sometimes. Don't laugh.

I think Sylvia and I are working out a schedule and way of doing things now. I will say this for teachers preschoolers and after school kids. There's no time to think, at all. You go from one activity to another and have no time to worry about other matters because you have to remain focused on the kids. One moment of distraction and suddenly boys are chasing each other around the classroom and girls are in a corner talking loudy to each other.

Weird phenomenon #whatever. I don't know if I mentioned this from the graduation, but these kids sign in a very high-pitched and nasaly manner. I guess they sing like they yell. I noticed it in the cafeteria today when a neighboring class was singing their song. I still don't have teacher Sylvia's song down, but hope to learn it within a couple of weeks. She's already teaching the kids some songs and making them move. I make them move with 'Teacher Sallie Says" You know, i reckon I should start giving out a sticker to the winner when they do especially well. Hopefully all this will help us when it gets to be time to prepare for any of the performances. Our next one is Mother's Day in May and I know its a big deal for PSA since if the parent isn't happy, there are plenty of other hagwons who would be happy to get more kids. I think my kids are starting to like me more. We did have one who wanted to go home after lunch. He's sort of at the bottom of the class, English-wise. Now the crier Emily did not cry either today or yesterday and she seems to be having fun in class and even huged me after I asked for one before she left. It's such a balancing act, education and fun. These are young kids and they need to have fun, but the parents are spending a lot of money so they can learn too.

I put out the students' work today. It was really hard to find something for every student. I'm not sure I did find anything for Jun (the one who wanted to go home early). I found something with his name on it, but it was a drawing of class and could have been from any student. Poor Jun doesn't like to complete his work. He's one who knows a lot, but you have to stand over him telling him everything to write down.

Now, who are my clingers, I would say Ted and Jenny and both clingers, thankfully not at the same time though. I could imagine them ripping me apart. Now Ted is so cute and smart that you want to spend time with him and Jenny is so smart, but easily distracted and doesn't want to do the work. She's bored a bit in class sometimes i think.

Btw, these names I'm using for the kids are not their official names. They select them only for English class and like to change them. I would not use the kid's real names in a public blog (just in case anyone was wondering about privacy issues).

Okay, my nails are growing pretty fast here in Korea, must be the kimshi. I know I am eating pretty healthily, no fast food for the most part. I did have KFC to try it and it was okay, but more expensive and heavier then I needed so it'll be a special treat place. I discovered 2 other special treaat places, an Indian place and an omelet fusion place with reasonable prices (not cheap, but reasonable). I've just heard of a Brazillian restaurant in the area so that's going on my list too. I'm trying to go to one restaurant per week. I don't worry about B-fast or Lunch because of work (pick up a pastry for breakfast and eat at the school). Dinner has so far been a cheap sandwich place downstairs. You get a good-sized sub for less than $3 and there's a convenience store across the hall that has chips of many Korean types and sodas. In all dinner costs less than $5. That makes my total food outlay for the day $6. I reckon this means I can afford to spend $20 for one meal on the weekend if the rest of the meals are in the $5 range.

Oh, and Derrick continues to be pretty awesome. He gave me some pots and pans he'd gotten from teachers who were leaving and tipped me off to a free couch in the stairwell that is a really nice size for a studio apartment. It's sort of beige and wide, but its really a 2 seater that maybe could fit a skinny third person on it as well. Maybe It came with 3 pillows whose cover I plan to sew squares of blue and white flowered fabric onto. This is great because I bout 4 yard of the stuff and I can use it for small things as well. Anyway, Derrick is also the guy who found me a converter and before ya'll ask, not its not like THAT, his girlfriend should be here in a couple of weeks and he's just really friendly to the newbies. I think I just ask him about more stuff so he gives it to me. That's certainly why I got the converter and pans and I also metioned I was looking for seating and he told me about this chair/sofa. Now the only bad thing about it is that the seat cusion is really dirty, but I've just plopped all the cushion covers into the washing machine and will use baby wipes to clean the non-washable upholstry.

Anyway, this is enough for now. Sorry about the pic-less post, but the next one should certainly have some pics.

The Luna-Meister in Korea

Aw, my poor sweet Luna has been asked after. That's so sweet. Well Luna seems to be doing okay here. She touches noses with at least 1 dog every morning and another in the evening when we go on out walks. Luna is usually much bigger than the other dogs, but we have run across a couple of other labs. They do like em small here. Luna has lost some weight, darn it. We've been walking more and I didn't think to increase her caloric intake since she seemed to be the perfect weight for her build before.

So Korea is pretty cool with dogs. There's a vet right across the street with someone there who understands English. I still haven't found a groomer, but have faith one will turn up or I can do it myself and risk clogging the drains.

There have been a couple of girls who screamed at the sight of Luna and ran away, but many more people come up and pet her and think she's so cute. There are still a lot of people who walk to the other side of the sidewalk when we aproach and there have been several who pick up their wee little dogs when they see me and Luna coming. I suppose its okay since those tiny dogs tend to be mean biters. Seriously, we had one who didn't want to leave Luna alone.

I think Luna does miss home and the back yard and Mom and Dad and meine sisters and her alcove beneath the bed, she just doesn't have that cave right now. Maybe when I cover the crate with a dark tablecloth she will use it as her own personal sanctuary.

We've been eating Alpo and I think she really likes it, I think she may also be hungrier here in Korea, I hope she doesn't have a tapeworm or something. jk, sort of, she hasn't lost that much weight. Really only I would notice, but I am feeding her a bit more and giving her more snacks. I try to play apartment fetch and practice sit down stay and come and watch me for 5 minutes every day. I've found some treats other than peanut butter that she likes well enough to behave for. I am thinking of getting one of those bark collars in Seoul next weekend though since she does bark, although not too much and she usually does stop when I say quiet. She woke me several times last night to quiet her, so I reckon it might be better to try the collar. I don't know.

So Luna seems happy enough, yay, except for missing everyone, just like me. :)

I Found My People...

So how long did ya'll think it would take me to find the sewing paraphrenalia area? I did spend about $30 on fabric, but I got some good ones. Here they are waiting for their chance in the washing machine.



So what else did I do today on this my second Saturday in Korea? Well, Luna got her morning walk, then I read up on good places to eat and stuff to see in Seoul and wrote down the routes for the subway, I so need a subway map, seriously.

Then came the shopping in Dongdaemun. Weird thing about the sewing fair was that there were as many men as women and more men than women selling the fabric. The cheapest fabric was 1000 won per yard and the most expensive I asked about was 5000 won per yard. Nice and reasonably priced. On the first floor are buttons, zippers, thread, scissors, seam rippers, etc (you get the idea. There are also some store toward the end that actually sew as well as sell fabric. Also there were a lot of what I can only assume are design students, you women mostly carrying around notebooks with fashions drawn inside and colored. It's kinda cool to see. I wonder if there are any other areas where I can see a lot of sewing stuff and I doubt it. From what I can tell, Koreans like to go to specific areas to shop. For example, the book sellers area or jewelry area. Yes you can find the items elsewhere, but they are more expensive and a lot less variety. One this I can certainly say is that this market was packed with people and fabric. It's like a maze and I did get lost a few times, not lost as in, how do I get out of here, but lost like, I just saw some really nice jersey or a nice cotton print and want to go back to it, but can't remember where it is. bummer.

Okay, so after spending hours at the Dongdaemon shopping center, I took the subway to Sinchon and got some tex, On the Border style. Yep, you heard me right.



It was nice if a bit expensive. On the bright side, I don't mind spending $20 for a meal I would pay $12 for back in the states since I'm not paying for breakfast or lunch during the week and have mostly spend less than $10 a day for food. Nice. One other nice thing about the area is the Burger King and McDonalds that are right beside the subway exit, if I hadn't been able to find OTB, I'd still been set for western style food. Oh and OTB had a pretty large collection of westerners. I think I saw 7 other ones in the restaurant. I also saw some at Dongdaemon and got some help on the subway from a pleasant Aussie chick who had a map. Why do the Seoul subway people not put maps on the walls of the routes. Seriously, they usually seem to post a map of the area around the subway stop, but no maps of the subway route. Hurumph. But back to Sinchon, they also have a rather large Skin Food, as in almost twice as big as the one here in Bundang and that explains how I spent my $100 budgeted for today. One of the benefits of not using cards is definitely that I have to think of what I can afford to spend and bring only that. So $50 went to lunch and the fabric store and the other $50 went to Skin Food, Etude House, and Face Shop. Of the 3 (which are essentially the same sorts of shops), I prefer Skin Food. Etude House seems to be reaching for the teenager clinetelle, but they do have some nice products and Face shop is more expensive. They all give out free samples, but Skin Food gave more out then the other 2.

So this is my haul



Nice, oh and this is a cute dog clothes stand I saw on my way home.



Aww, so cute and only 5000 won a pop. I think I'll buy Luna a tshirt next time we go out in the evenings since that may make people a little less scared of her. Some people do not react when to dogs begger than a few pounds, but I've heard frilly stuff works like a charm. There also seems to be a bit of racism going on since Luna's black :-P

Hmm, so after Sinchon I was tired and out of money so I came home and did laundry and took the trash out and took Luna for a walk and read a book and sorted through my DvDs. Yep, I'm going to tell you all the details of my day because I just know ya'll are totally interested.


Oh and btw, this is Dondaemon gate, for some reason Seoul put roads around all it's gates, i guess it makes sense since that was the point of the gates, traffic, but it still seems strange to me.