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!)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Kindy Cuteness
I'm still not quite in blog-mode, so I thought I'd make good on my promise of updates and share a couple of adorable videos I've taken recently.
The first is a song the Kinders had to learn for "Open Class." Open Class is when the mothers get to come into the classroom for 40 minutes and watch a well-rehearsed and generally well-acted production of our normal, day-to-day activities. It was sort of like a smaller-scale Festival. The song they had to learn was "In a Cabin, In a Wood"... we never sing this song, except for Open Class. If it was a REAL day, you'd find them singing Ghostbusters :)
The second video is from art today. We had to make chickens. It was a mess. But the kids were so cute and having so much fun, I had to record it.
Ok, it felt good to blog a little. Maybe this will whet my appetite for more updating :)
Love you all!
The first is a song the Kinders had to learn for "Open Class." Open Class is when the mothers get to come into the classroom for 40 minutes and watch a well-rehearsed and generally well-acted production of our normal, day-to-day activities. It was sort of like a smaller-scale Festival. The song they had to learn was "In a Cabin, In a Wood"... we never sing this song, except for Open Class. If it was a REAL day, you'd find them singing Ghostbusters :)
The second video is from art today. We had to make chickens. It was a mess. But the kids were so cute and having so much fun, I had to record it.
Ok, it felt good to blog a little. Maybe this will whet my appetite for more updating :)
Love you all!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I'm a huge slacker...
... I know. New blogs coming soon, I promise!
For now the news is (and I think I posted it once on here, but can't remember) that I won't be home in August. I'll be back for a visit at Christmas, but I extended my contract through February of 2010.
Love you all!
For now the news is (and I think I posted it once on here, but can't remember) that I won't be home in August. I'll be back for a visit at Christmas, but I extended my contract through February of 2010.
Love you all!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Relationship Advice...
...from a 9 year old. In her second language:
"I think if you like someone, you should just see them a lot and make sure you do things once. Fight once. Eat once. Play once. Then if you still love them, you can marry them."
At this point her classmates balked at the idea of fighting. "Fight once?! You don't want to fight once with people you love!"
To which she replied, "It's like fighting with your friends or family. You still love them. But you have to know how he fights. If you never fight, then you get married and if he's very bad when he fights, then you won't know until it's too late. But if you fight once first, and he's very bad when he fights, then you just dump him and get a new boyfriend."
At this point I had to ask the class, now deeply invested in this discussion and far more opinionated about it than I ever could have anticipated, "How does a person just find a new boyfriend?"
From one of the boys in the class, "You have to just make him love you. Wear a lot of makeup and be a little mean to him. Then go find a book called '100 Ways to Find a Boyfriend' and read it. There's probably a book like that, right?"
I love my job. I love my students (yes, this is the highest level class at school). I love the way their brains work (enough to write all this down while still trying to teach, haha).
And I love you all!
"I think if you like someone, you should just see them a lot and make sure you do things once. Fight once. Eat once. Play once. Then if you still love them, you can marry them."
At this point her classmates balked at the idea of fighting. "Fight once?! You don't want to fight once with people you love!"
To which she replied, "It's like fighting with your friends or family. You still love them. But you have to know how he fights. If you never fight, then you get married and if he's very bad when he fights, then you won't know until it's too late. But if you fight once first, and he's very bad when he fights, then you just dump him and get a new boyfriend."
At this point I had to ask the class, now deeply invested in this discussion and far more opinionated about it than I ever could have anticipated, "How does a person just find a new boyfriend?"
From one of the boys in the class, "You have to just make him love you. Wear a lot of makeup and be a little mean to him. Then go find a book called '100 Ways to Find a Boyfriend' and read it. There's probably a book like that, right?"
I love my job. I love my students (yes, this is the highest level class at school). I love the way their brains work (enough to write all this down while still trying to teach, haha).
And I love you all!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sports in Korea
Two posts in one night?!! Can you handle it?!?!
So I've been lucky enough to go to two sporting events in Korea recently, and I'd like to share the proof with you here.
First, I went to a World Cup qualifying match between South Korea and North Korea. Stacy invited me to go with her and Eric, and the first thought I had was "Holy Cow, how can I pass this up?!" It was a school-night, so we didn't make it there until half-time, but that was plenty of time to watch SoKo score the one and only goal of the game!! Yay Democracy!
The World Cup Stadium in Seoul:
It was so noisy here... We kept trying to pick up the chants, but the closest we got was "Hey, Puerto Rico!" (I later found out it's actually "Dae Han Min Guk" which means "Republic of Korea!")
The field:
Us loving being there:
The final score:
Also, on easter weekend I got to go to my first baseball game in Korea: LG Twins vs Doosan Bears. Talk about another noisy venue... The fans never stopped! Each side had all these intense cheers and the stadium wasn't even moderately calm at any point! I will definitely be going to more of these!
The stadium:
Some Doosan Bears fans:
Proof that I was there:
The score: (the Bears were winning, for the record)
So, in short, I'm enjoying the fact that it's finally great weather again here...
OH! PS - I'm not sure I've announced this here yet, but I've decided to go ahead and extend another 6 months, so I'm in Korea until the end of February, 2010. I'll be back in ICT for a week in August, but otherwise you all need to start booking tickets to come visit :)
Love you all!
So I've been lucky enough to go to two sporting events in Korea recently, and I'd like to share the proof with you here.
First, I went to a World Cup qualifying match between South Korea and North Korea. Stacy invited me to go with her and Eric, and the first thought I had was "Holy Cow, how can I pass this up?!" It was a school-night, so we didn't make it there until half-time, but that was plenty of time to watch SoKo score the one and only goal of the game!! Yay Democracy!
The World Cup Stadium in Seoul:
It was so noisy here... We kept trying to pick up the chants, but the closest we got was "Hey, Puerto Rico!" (I later found out it's actually "Dae Han Min Guk" which means "Republic of Korea!")
The field:
Us loving being there:
The final score:
Also, on easter weekend I got to go to my first baseball game in Korea: LG Twins vs Doosan Bears. Talk about another noisy venue... The fans never stopped! Each side had all these intense cheers and the stadium wasn't even moderately calm at any point! I will definitely be going to more of these!
The stadium:
Some Doosan Bears fans:
Proof that I was there:
The score: (the Bears were winning, for the record)
So, in short, I'm enjoying the fact that it's finally great weather again here...
OH! PS - I'm not sure I've announced this here yet, but I've decided to go ahead and extend another 6 months, so I'm in Korea until the end of February, 2010. I'll be back in ICT for a week in August, but otherwise you all need to start booking tickets to come visit :)
Love you all!
Easter in Korea
Happy Easter everyone!! You've all heard the Good News, right? :)
I had a fantatic Easter... it wasn't Ham and Cheesy Potatoes with the family, but it was Brunch with some damn fine people :)
Catherine, Trish (the Dish), Andrew and I went into Seoul for a fancy champagne brunch at the Hilton Millenium Hotel... It was amazing!
And Catherine came prepared with little candy-filled plastic eggs and fun fuzzy ears for all of us to wear:
We stayed there for about three hours gorging ourselves on shrimp, scallops, duck, chicken, beef, and BREAD PUDDING!!! (my first bread pudding in over 8 months)... Then we went walking around Namdaemun Market and buying up some fun Korean-ized shirts (I got one that says "Can the It-Bag Change Your Life?"). It was a very happy Easter! I hope everyone at home had a great Easter, too!
Fun Bonus Pictures:
I have to have a diagram of the human body with parts labeled as part of my "required classroom decoration." Well I didn't want it to be boring (or hard), so here's what Brett, Jordan, and I came up with:
And here's my smartest class posing in front of it:
And for Michele - This is what a Korean Girl Scout Uniform looks like:
Love you all!
I had a fantatic Easter... it wasn't Ham and Cheesy Potatoes with the family, but it was Brunch with some damn fine people :)
Catherine, Trish (the Dish), Andrew and I went into Seoul for a fancy champagne brunch at the Hilton Millenium Hotel... It was amazing!
And Catherine came prepared with little candy-filled plastic eggs and fun fuzzy ears for all of us to wear:
We stayed there for about three hours gorging ourselves on shrimp, scallops, duck, chicken, beef, and BREAD PUDDING!!! (my first bread pudding in over 8 months)... Then we went walking around Namdaemun Market and buying up some fun Korean-ized shirts (I got one that says "Can the It-Bag Change Your Life?"). It was a very happy Easter! I hope everyone at home had a great Easter, too!
Fun Bonus Pictures:
I have to have a diagram of the human body with parts labeled as part of my "required classroom decoration." Well I didn't want it to be boring (or hard), so here's what Brett, Jordan, and I came up with:
And here's my smartest class posing in front of it:
And for Michele - This is what a Korean Girl Scout Uniform looks like:
Love you all!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Happy Birthday Breea!
For my best friend in the whole wide world...
I love you so much. I'm glad you were born!
(ps - I swear they're saying "Breea")
I love you so much. I'm glad you were born!
(ps - I swear they're saying "Breea")
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