As of today I've been in South Korea for seven months, and I have five to go. Seven months. What a time it's been. I can't help but feel nostalgic in how I'll think about this moment of my life in the future. Seven months and so much has happened since I stepped off the plane, swollen-footed and unsure of what lay ahead; lost luggage, friends made, hugs and laughs shared, tears shed, places seen that I'd only imagined in dreams, common life, routines, running paths, walks in parks, simple tasks complicated with language barriers, challenges with children, finding joy in everyday things. That's life, it can be hard, but it sure is beautiful.
I don't know where tomorrow will take me, but I'll do my best to accept everything with a smile and an open heart because in the end I know it will all have been worth while.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A DOZEN!!
That's how many students I have now (Chloe's brand new). Twelve little babies, running like crazies around my classroom. I can't quite believe it myself, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Last night I had a dream that six of them dropped out (for reasons unbeknownst to me), and I woke up in a panic. It's definitely difficult dealing with them, especially since they're so young and they all crave individual attention, all. the. time. But we're learning together, and I'm doing my very best to shape them into little learners and good friends. I think the 'good friends' part is going to be the hardest; the other week my student Kelly bit - yes, she bit - another one of my kids, Top, just for sitting next to her! I shouted at her right as her mouth engulfed his cheek, so there wasn't any physical damage done, but sheesh!! Things are mostly tame now, aside from the everyday pushing and kicking and chopping in the playroom - someone gets excited, flings their limbs around and someone else cries - at least it's not intentional.
Pictures from Roy's birthday, yesterday - he wears the king crown; the kids wear the party hats; I wear a ridiculous floppy hat that looks like a cake.
**I thought I got a shot of all of them together, but I didn't... I'll see if Lily (one of the Korean teachers) got any good group pictures and get them from her - one day... until then, here:
Pictures from Roy's birthday, yesterday - he wears the king crown; the kids wear the party hats; I wear a ridiculous floppy hat that looks like a cake.
**I thought I got a shot of all of them together, but I didn't... I'll see if Lily (one of the Korean teachers) got any good group pictures and get them from her - one day... until then, here:
(Roy and the boys. L-R: Willie, Aden, Danny, Roy, Alex, Top)
(Roy and the girls. L-R: Chloe, Stella, Roy, Jessica, Allie, Kelly, Ashley)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
your lows will have their compliment of highs
Number four marathon completed in the race to finish five before I turn 25 (in June)!!!
But first: Yellow dust in Korea!! The night before my marathon I got a text from a Korean friend warning me to wear my mask (uh, I don't have one... or should I say I didn't have one yet! picture way below as your reward for reading) because Korea was/is experiencing the worst yellow dust, ever!!! Yellow dust, wha-huh? You might say... read more, here. (My friend, Lorna - who also ran the race, and I were commenting on how strange the sky looked on Saturday and how many people were wearing masks, but didn't think much of it.)
The race! The race! I raced in the race! My clock stopped at 4 hours 19 minutes and 31 seconds, but I did fumble around with it for a few seconds at the start... we'll let that slide, because it's better than my last marathon's time and that makes me happy. ^^
For all the worries of how Saturday's weather would affect Sunday, I couldn't have asked for a better day for the race; the sun was shining, the breeze was nice, light and cool, and the runners were smiling (and it was cool, mind you; I was worried I'd be too warm in my running jacket, but my clothing was just right: 2008 Chicago marathon shirt, 2007 STL marathon shirt, running jacket and tights. THERE WERE PEOPLE IN TANK TOPS AND SHORTS!! and not just the elite runners who finished in 2 hours and 6ish minutes!). About 30,000 in all, I was surprised with the lack of crowd attendance for the duration, especially being in a city as big as Seoul. But, then again, Koreans don't seem to be big morning people on the weekends.
I felt like a celebrity, because in addition to all the "Whi-ting!" chants (it's like their "Go! Fight!") and fist raising/pumping going on, there were a lot of excited "Hello!"s shouted my way - I didn't hear any "Annyong haseyo!"ing going on! My friend, Jordan, said school girls would scream as if he were the fifth Beatle when he strode by. Good times. And, even though the crowd was small, I loved every minute of them, and my smiles of appreciation in return pushed me on.
Because my mind kept wandering into sad thoughts, I turned to Yeasayer's "Odd Blood" to get me through the last 45ish minutes. I'm pretty sure I listened to "Ambling Alp" at least five times, for sure.
I talked to a guy named Charlie (I can't remember his Korean name, but he gave me the go ahead on "Charlie"), who crazily enough is from Youngtong, too! There was a man running in a thong loin cloth with crazy hair, and that was about it. I said "Oh my! What is he wearing?" and laughed to myself. I saw Charlie tilt his head in recognition out of the corner of my eye, strides later he struck up a conversation in pretty good English. We talked about our pace goals, number of marathons under our belt (his second, my fourth), living in YT, and wished each other well as he split off to use the facilities - that was at 32-ish km, iPod went in soon after.
There was also a man in the beginning who was jump rope-running!! I was shocked! There was a Canadian next to me at the time (I know this because of the flags tattooed all over his face and clothes ^^) and we wondered whether or not he would keep it up the whole distance - he had a pretty good pace to him. Jordan also said he saw a man stretching and smoking a cigarette around 34km. Korea!
As with most races, there were men relieving themselves all over the sides of the course - lucky ducks, going wherever they please!
And we finished in the Olympic Stadium!! So, that was fun.
But first: Yellow dust in Korea!! The night before my marathon I got a text from a Korean friend warning me to wear my mask (uh, I don't have one... or should I say I didn't have one yet! picture way below as your reward for reading) because Korea was/is experiencing the worst yellow dust, ever!!! Yellow dust, wha-huh? You might say... read more, here. (My friend, Lorna - who also ran the race, and I were commenting on how strange the sky looked on Saturday and how many people were wearing masks, but didn't think much of it.)
(So cold pre-race with my friend, Jordan, also from Chi City!)
The race! The race! I raced in the race! My clock stopped at 4 hours 19 minutes and 31 seconds, but I did fumble around with it for a few seconds at the start... we'll let that slide, because it's better than my last marathon's time and that makes me happy. ^^
For all the worries of how Saturday's weather would affect Sunday, I couldn't have asked for a better day for the race; the sun was shining, the breeze was nice, light and cool, and the runners were smiling (and it was cool, mind you; I was worried I'd be too warm in my running jacket, but my clothing was just right: 2008 Chicago marathon shirt, 2007 STL marathon shirt, running jacket and tights. THERE WERE PEOPLE IN TANK TOPS AND SHORTS!! and not just the elite runners who finished in 2 hours and 6ish minutes!). About 30,000 in all, I was surprised with the lack of crowd attendance for the duration, especially being in a city as big as Seoul. But, then again, Koreans don't seem to be big morning people on the weekends.
I felt like a celebrity, because in addition to all the "Whi-ting!" chants (it's like their "Go! Fight!") and fist raising/pumping going on, there were a lot of excited "Hello!"s shouted my way - I didn't hear any "Annyong haseyo!"ing going on! My friend, Jordan, said school girls would scream as if he were the fifth Beatle when he strode by. Good times. And, even though the crowd was small, I loved every minute of them, and my smiles of appreciation in return pushed me on.
(I saw my friend, Sarah, 9km in!! So exciting!! I stayed a few seconds for jumping, cheering and hugging!)
I saw my friends! While I was running!! Sarah, Rachel, Andrea, Jennie, Kat and Annie all came out to cheer! I saw Sarah multiple times, and every time I saw anyone there was a frog in my throat. They helped me more than I can say, especially since my left hip and right knee started acting up around kilometer 32 or so.
In addition to the pain in my body, there was a pain in my heart; on Friday I received the devastating news that my dear Aunt Sandy passed away. There's no good time to get this news, or give it. I am so incredibly sad, and the wound is still so fresh that I'm not sure how to deal with it... I was talking to Alex and he said that it's been so long since someone he knew died and he had forgotten how much it hurt. Going through the stages of grief has been difficult, and I think right now I'm stuck in the angry category. I'm really sad that I didn't get to say "good-bye" but more than that I'm mad that I even have/had to say "good-bye", and I miss her already; telling her funny stories about my kids or getting advice about how to deal with them and "bribe" them, in a sense, into good behavior. She gave the best advice, and she had the best laugh, and always made me so happy to talk with her. I'm trying to comprehend all this still, and it's hard, but I am so grateful for the time I got to share with her, and in addition to the memories I'll keep of her, she gave me the gift of Lasik surgery, so every time I see the world clearly I can smile and think of her. And another thing, her kids (she was an elementary teacher in sunny CA) used to call her "Mommy" when she first started and my kids called me "Mommy" today, and in addition to how weirded out I was by that, it also made me smile and think of her. I'm so sad that I won't be able to share of these things with her, but I am happy to know she isn't in pain any more, and that I'm left with so many good memories. Where I was going with all that is that I ran for her, because she thought I was so crazy for doing it, but proud of me at the same time.
I talked to a guy named Charlie (I can't remember his Korean name, but he gave me the go ahead on "Charlie"), who crazily enough is from Youngtong, too! There was a man running in a thong loin cloth with crazy hair, and that was about it. I said "Oh my! What is he wearing?" and laughed to myself. I saw Charlie tilt his head in recognition out of the corner of my eye, strides later he struck up a conversation in pretty good English. We talked about our pace goals, number of marathons under our belt (his second, my fourth), living in YT, and wished each other well as he split off to use the facilities - that was at 32-ish km, iPod went in soon after.
(Almost done!!)
There was also a man in the beginning who was jump rope-running!! I was shocked! There was a Canadian next to me at the time (I know this because of the flags tattooed all over his face and clothes ^^) and we wondered whether or not he would keep it up the whole distance - he had a pretty good pace to him. Jordan also said he saw a man stretching and smoking a cigarette around 34km. Korea!
As with most races, there were men relieving themselves all over the sides of the course - lucky ducks, going wherever they please!
And we finished in the Olympic Stadium!! So, that was fun.
(Stretching it out with Lorna; laughing about life, pain and love! So important to do[!] - stretching and laughing.)
(Lorna, Jordan and me as Seoul Marathon finishers!!)
And as I promised - POW!! Annyong Haseyo!
(I bought this yesterday! I wanted to jump on the cute mask bandwagon - only 2,500 won!! So cute, so cute... and creeeeeeeeeepy - I think my face is too pointy because the elastic ear bands[?] pull my ears forward. I asked my Korean friend if she thought people would think I was mocking them, but she said that they'd just think, "Cute!" and appreciate my safety efforts! ^^ Oh, Korea! I <3 you!)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Cooking and Geology
The two go together hand-in-hand, right? Of course! Well, in our curriculum they do.
The directors recently decided to change up a lot of our extracurricular courses - the new science and art are great because there is less gluing of materials that aren't meant to be glued and there is actually tape included when it's required!! They also added cooking, which sounded like so much fun, and it is for the kids... I wouldn't call it cooking so much as mixing and placing, but I have 4 and 5 year olds, so there's not much else they're capable of, or at least trusted to be capable of, because I'm pretty sure if these kids lived on the American prairies of the 1800s that they'd be rising with the rooster and milking the cows, or in the very least collecting eggs or something along those lines.
Two Thursdays ago (was supposed to be Tuesday, but materials arrived late/early and we had to use them right away because they were "fresh") was our first special session: making sandwiches(!) to learn about the stratum... erm, okay... layers, I can see that. But the sandwiches weren't any regular sandwiches - ingredients: bread, ham, cheese... normal so far... tomato, lettuce - okay... and jam... who'sawhat?! The kids loved 'em though! One kid even ate his after it fell on the floor (I won't name names and I won't say that I encouraged it, or discouraged it either, for that matter)!
Oh, and the best part was that they were given those big tapioca tea straws to jam into the sandwich and check out the layers. They did that and then continued to eat like that for the rest of the sandwich (see pictures below) - hey, it helped to take up time, at least.
Unfortunately, I left the flashcards downstairs, though I'm not sure they would have been much help... you be the judge.
Two Thursdays ago (was supposed to be Tuesday, but materials arrived late/early and we had to use them right away because they were "fresh") was our first special session: making sandwiches(!) to learn about the stratum... erm, okay... layers, I can see that. But the sandwiches weren't any regular sandwiches - ingredients: bread, ham, cheese... normal so far... tomato, lettuce - okay... and jam... who'sawhat?! The kids loved 'em though! One kid even ate his after it fell on the floor (I won't name names and I won't say that I encouraged it, or discouraged it either, for that matter)!
Oh, and the best part was that they were given those big tapioca tea straws to jam into the sandwich and check out the layers. They did that and then continued to eat like that for the rest of the sandwich (see pictures below) - hey, it helped to take up time, at least.
(this is Stella, and don't you worry, I make sure to yell, "Steeeeeeeeeeella!" at least once a day ^^)
(Jessica is a great student; she always smiles and works really hard at improving her English)
(Roy, Danny and Willie show each other their layers and enjoy the tasty treats)
(Willie loves to laugh!)
(Aden, most likely judging the child who ate their sandwich off the floor; his English is amazing, and yesterday for Show and Tell he recited his dinosaur book and proceeded to rattle off facts about each of the eight dinosaurs he brought to show - needless to say, my jaw was on the floor.)
Last week's cooking was "making jellies" aka jell-oish. This week's cooking was making the messiest syrup-coated trail mix in the world! New hurdle to tackle: getting the director to approve cooking before lunch (as the schedule shows) instead of after so the teachers aren't in a mad dash to get everything ready to go home... but sometimes we need the fridge, so it probably won't happen... we'll see, we'll see.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
A little song and dance...
February was a month of madness. Most-to-all classroom activities were put on hold and all educational efforts were shifted to practicing for the kindergarten graduation performance (all day practice sessions for the whole school - it was a little intense and towards the end, when we were sitting through all the older classes speeches, pretty boring, too). But, with all the ups and downs, I'm happy to say that two-ish weeks ago, Friday, February 26 the show went off without a hitch!
It was pretty stressful while it was happening, in the preparation and the actual show with all the last minute changes made by the bosses, but everything was worth it in the end, and I think the kids even had fun - well, that might be a stretch - at least no one cried. Throughout the whole experience of rushing children this way and that for their stage cues and dodging flying costumes and catching half naked children trying to run off to play, I kept saying, "Just think, in twenty years we'll look back on this and laugh."
My kids performed "Boogie Shoes" by KC & the Sunshine Band, and here's a little clip for you (again - a fb vid so you just need to be logged in to see):
The 5-6 year olds sang "Hello Goodbye" and the whole school sang "Yellow Submarine." I don't really have good videos of either of those, but I just got the whole performance DVD so maybe I can make a video of the video... we'll see on quality.
It was pretty stressful while it was happening, in the preparation and the actual show with all the last minute changes made by the bosses, but everything was worth it in the end, and I think the kids even had fun - well, that might be a stretch - at least no one cried. Throughout the whole experience of rushing children this way and that for their stage cues and dodging flying costumes and catching half naked children trying to run off to play, I kept saying, "Just think, in twenty years we'll look back on this and laugh."
My kids performed "Boogie Shoes" by KC & the Sunshine Band, and here's a little clip for you (again - a fb vid so you just need to be logged in to see):
The 5-6 year olds sang "Hello Goodbye" and the whole school sang "Yellow Submarine." I don't really have good videos of either of those, but I just got the whole performance DVD so maybe I can make a video of the video... we'll see on quality.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Unusual Punishment
I always try to give my kids a second chance when they misbehave - well, depending on the severity of the situation - but sometimes punishment is the only way to get positive results. Taking stars away from the misbehave-rs usually does the trick, but sometimes that isn't enough to hit the message home and then I have to resort to the "three strikes and you're out" rule. Three strikes and you're on the 'Thinking Feet', not only are you on the 'Thinking Feet', but you have to stand with your arms raised straight above your head and you can't come back to sit down until your arms ache. Ouch! I know, but I didn't come up with it; Katie Teacher, one of the Korean staffers used to make the unruly kids do it if they misbehaved after lunch (there's some all school activity every day after lunch, on the sixth floor) and then Morganne made one of her kids stand on the 'Feet' and I guess the kid was leaning on the wall and Morganne said, "Off!" but the kid thought she said "Up!" and up went their arms. It worked.
Another instance of punishment is when two (or I suppose more, too) kids get in a fight they have to hold hands and look into each other's eyes when they apologize and then they're made to stand, hugging, for a matter of minutes. Two of my elementary-aged boys got into a fight during one of the play breaks and when I was going upstairs they were in the process of the minutes-long hugging, it was all I could do not to laugh at them.
Classes changed for the new semester this week, and I really hope that I don't have to go into wall standing right away. I have 11 students!! I went from three to 11!! It's a little overwhelming and I worry that I won't be able to give them each enough attention, but I'm trying. They are all really amazing little people, outrageous personalities from the meek but wild to the goody-too-shoes "Teacher! Teacher!" to the sweet and docile - and more! We practiced silence in the halls today, and it went okay. Day by day. I'm going to continue teaching straight through M, W, F's and I starting next week I'm going to teach a Drama Class on Tu and Th's which I'm pretty stoked about. So, again, with this many children, I'm really hoping for no unusual punishments. Cross your fingers for me (and them)! ^^
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