Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Random Thoughts...

Life has become fairly routine here, so there hasn't been a lot of blog updating. I thought I'd share with you some of the things I appreciate from this life I'm living:

- I love my kids. I found myself watching them in playgym today and already getting sad about leaving them in February. They are so fun and unpredictable and smart and adaptive, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have gotten to know them this well.

- I love everyone else's kids too. I'm kind of the fun aunt in the hallway, playing and joking and teaching them "Freeze!" and "Gimme five, up high, down low, too slow!"

- A while back another student said hello to me in the hallway. Evelyn (one of my kinders) pulled me down to whisper in my ear, "Everyone knows Emily Teacher!" It made me smile.

- A few weeks ago I was on my way to the coffee shop and a child yelled "Emily Teacher!!" on the sidewalk. I said hello and smiled and waved, and realized I had no idea who she was. It was pretty ego-boosting :)

- I love the coffee shop patio. Jordan and Tyler were going all the time, so one day I brought my book with me and went down there. It's heaven. Coffee and fresh air and comfy seats and reading. I've gone through books like water since that day.

- I love that I'm teaching the older students. They ask such intelligent questions and love to learn more and more about any topic. I love when that light comes on, and they connect something we discuss to a previous conversation.

- I love that my Kinders are learning so much. We have a class beetle named "Diggy" who we raised from a wee larva :) Today Sun Q decided, on his own during playtime, that he was going to make a book. He called it "Diggy's Day." Each page had an illustration of one of Diggy's activities, which were "Diggy is sleeping. Diggy is waking up. Diggy is eating banana jelly now. Diggy is climbing." I was so impressed!

- They're also maturing socially and emotionally. Laura, who used to cry every morning because she didn't want to talk in front of the class, is now volunteering to go first for our morning questions! Evelyn, who used to be a huge diva-brat and is now only a minor diva-brat, takes my teasing about her whining with a smile, and is trying not to be so bossy. Philip, who was so competitive and always talking about being first, now says "We're the winners! Just kidding, everyone's a winner!"

- I love Korean baseball. Even though I'm pretty sure I'm a bad-luck-charm, as any team I root for loses unexpectedly whenever I show up to a game, it's such a fun time!

- I'm getting a little sad, as all the people I began this journey with will be gone by the end of August. But I'm also excited for something different, some bit of change.

- Also sad is the fact that I won't see my family until Christmas, and even then I won't get there till Christmas Day at the earliest. I was just thinking about Halloween this year, and how I hope I'm in the haunted house again, and realized that'll be two Halloweens away from home. Far away from home. It made me feel a little disoriented.

- I'm excited to do some more traveling. On the 27th Jordan and I are going to Jeju Island (Korea's Hawaii) for the weekend. I'm really looking forward to some beach time! Also, at the end of July, I'm meeting Audra in Bali. On the way, I'm stopping in Kuala Lumpur to squeeze in some sight seeing, then I'm going to Singapore for a few days on the way back. I think, by the time I leave here, I'll have most of Southeast Asia covered :)

- I like being alone. This is extremely surprising to me, as I've always NEEDED to be in the company of others to feel like I'm having fun. But I like living alone. I like taking little walks alone. I still love people, and WANT to be around them to have fun, but I really like my own company as well :)

- I have no idea what's going to come after this, but I'm comfortably back in "wait-and-see" mode. I like it here. I don't think I'm ready to jump into a career yet, so I'll just sit back and see what kinds of opportunities are available after this!

I feel like there are so many more anecdotes I could be sharing, but of course none are coming to mind right now. I'll try to find some fun pictures to share, since I just bombarded you with words :)

Love you all! (and leave comments, dammit! I'm so much more motivated to post when there is a lot going on in the comments section!)

1 comment:

Jordan said...

I like your thoughts. Just letting you know I was reading them.