Leonardo da Kimchi

I apologize to all of my loyal fans for not updating in so long!  The whole month of January went by and I felt like nothing happened...so I didn't write.  The most notable thing that happened was that it was so. so. cold.  It was the coldest January in Korea for 30 years. It didn't get above -10C for the entire month.  There were mornings I'd wake up and it would be -17C.  No joke.  Actually, Seoul isn't even the coldest part of Korea.  Some of my friends live in Cheorwon which is nestled in the mountains near the DMZ.  There were days that it was colder there than in Siberia.  I wish i was kidding.  Needless to say, I spent most of the month snuggled under my electric blanket with a glass (...bottle) of wine.  You should have seen my recycling bin each week. 

Stuff that DID happen:

When they're causing my early-onset wrinkles, my students are, of course, cracking me up.  They say funny stuff every day.  I should start writing it down, huh?  Here's a few I can remember off the top of my head...

-Here is the story of Cinderella told by one of my students (this one i DID write down. It was THAT good):

   Cinderella doesn't have mom, so not really mom come.  Not really mom

has two daughters.  Not really mom and her daughters go to dancing
party, but cinderella can't go to the dancing party.  But  witch helps
Cinderella.  So cinderella go to the dancing party.  And Prince and
Cinderella marry. So happy.

- We were studying Italian artists and one of them was Leonardo daVinci.  One of my witty guys blurts out: "Leonardo Da Kimchi!!"*

*If you don't know what Kimchi is, this probably isn't funny.  It's the national dish of Korea.. fermented cabbage with red pepper paste..they literally eat it with every single meal and it's everyone's favorite food

-On one of Andrew's tests, the answer was "parachute" and some kid clearly got confused and wrote his answer as "Putagraper"

-My kids were drawing pictures of stuff and one of my girls calls me over and goes "Teacher.... mermaid have arms?"  I look down and it's a drawing of a mermaid with NO arms.

-Here's a video of my Pre-K class singing and dancing to "Party in My Tummy.." They got camera shy and couldn't remember the words but it's still funny to watch them all.   They're just goofing off the whole time. Only one girl (Sadie) keeps up dancing the whole time.  The chubby girl all the way on the right (Chloe) is hilarious... she just stands there moving her arm a little bit. She tries so hard!  And best of all, check out the boy and the girl on the left... about a minute in, he grabs her ass.  He's like.... 5.  Pervert.

 

After being here for almost 6 months, my work does feel more fulfilling.  I have seen a lot of kids improve a ton.  I'm especially proud of my pre-K class (seen above).   They came in knowing nothing (hence, PreK) and they've improved a lot!  They soak new information up like little sponges.  I'm really proud of them and it's really fulfilling seeing how far they've come.  I also feel like I've become a better teacher (which NEEDED to happen because I came in disliking children and having NO idea what I was doing).  We've done some really cool projects in my Pre-K class.  We studied "the hungry caterpillar" (the other benefit of teaching youngins is that I get to revisit all the things I loved during my childhood).  In the hungry caterpillar, he goes through each day and eats 1 apple, 2 oranges, 3 pears, etc. So we read the book and then, they made their own "hungry caterpillar" books.... but instead of hungry caterpillar, it was "hungry John," "hungry felix" or "hungry Layla."  They had to draw themselves on the cover. Then on each page they had to draw a number and foods. 1 orange, 2 cakes, 3 apples, 4 kimchis, etc.  Whatever foods they wanted to draw.  Actually, Chloe, the adorable chubby girl, did it all correctly until the end...  1 apple, 2 cakes, 3 ice creams...and then...... 7 houses.  She clearly misunderstood the assignment.   We also studied Goodnight Moon.  We read the book and then they made their own Goodnight Moon Books.  I made the template but left blanks for them to fill in with words and drawings. For example, there's a page in the book about "the cow jumping over the moon," but where the cow would be, I put a big blank circle, so they could pick whatever animal they wanted to jump over the moon and fill in the blank.  So they could do "a snake jumping over the moon" or "a monkey jumping over the moon."  Or instead of "the big green room," they could color the walls and fill in the blank with whatever color they chose.  It came out really cute!  And I must say, I was pretty proud of them.  I love seeing how far they've come since they first got here and didn't even know their names.  Now, they can fill in the blanks with numbers, animals, and colors.  Plus, they're so friggin small and adorable!

On another note, we had a week off for Chinese New Year.  I went to the Philippines and it. was. awesome. I'm obsessed and want to go back.  NOW.  We only had a week we stuck in Boracay which was amazing.  It's one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. 

I want to go back NOW.

Here's my friend Andrew snoozing under his mosquito net.  Why can't I ever go on a vacation to a place that doesn't require a mosquito net?

My friend Johanna and I relaxing on bean bag chairs on the beach.  Genius!

Johanna with a lobster... it's rainbow!

Happy Hour on the beach.

Here I am!

JoJo and I making a sand gingerbread man.  It was a hit!  People walking by took pictures of it.

So yeah, I'm pretty much ready for vacation again!  Or at least for the winter to be over.  I'm really looking forward to the spring/summer!  MudFest, Jisan Rock Fest, Any kind of Fest, biking, hiking, running outside on the Bulgwan-chi! Eating outside! Drinking outside! Road trips! The beach! Buddha's birthday! Cherry Blossoms! Trips to Jeju! Bunjee Jumping!  It will be awesome. And the thought of these things are the only thing getting me through the winter!