Pictures I sent InAi today

My lucky friend InAi received quite a few messages and pictures from me today. I thought I'd be generous and share them here as well :)

Picture #1

My afternoon beverage, because some days those kiddos just wear me out with all their arguing and getting out of their seats and asking questions I've already answered. Luckily Coke is full of delicious caffeine that helps me not turn into cranky teacher. But today the label didn't say Coca-Cola, it said I love you. Isn't that sweet. I love you too Coke, which is why I was almost finished with the bottle before I noticed the difference.

Picture #2

The other day a few friends were telling me about yarn bombing, which is apparently when people knit around large existing objects, like benches and statues and bicycles. It seems like a waste of time to me, although it is a pretty beautiful and impressive waste of time. Well on my way home tonight I noticed that the tree across the street at the pub had been yarned. It's funny when you talk about things and then see them in real life. I hope they finish the rest of the tree. 

Picture #3

Bear oh bear. It looks like someone got bored today and discovered the toilet paper. This is the first real mischief he's gotten into and I have to admit, it wasn't that bad. Even as I was scolding him I was laughing to myself because really? Who does this? You have actual toys you could play with, and you choose the toilet paper. His bone was even in the middle of the pile when I came home. I imagine he was chewing on it, then spied the toilet paper and thought, "Yeah, that looks like fun. Let me just gnaw on that like a chipmunk for a little while." All night he's been running around and coming back to me with little shreds of white stuck to his face. Having a puppy is not dull, that's for sure. 

Wonderings

I wonder what my dog is thinking a lot of the time. Like when he suddenly gets up and runs from room to room, and then calmly lays down again? Or when it's 2:30 in the morning and he decides to wake me up to play? I imagine his little brain says something like "Oh, she's so still, she must be bored. I should probably try to jump on the bed and liven things up." And why oh why does he continue to poo right next to the puppy pad?

And in case you're wondering what an unhappy wet dog looks like, here it is:

I wonder why my students show up to class with a backpack that doesn't have any books, pencils, or homework in it. Surprise! This is English class, and those are all things you're going to need to use today. And what are you carrying around if there's no school supplies in your bag?

I also wonder what my student was thinking when he drew this:

When we learn new vocabulary words I sometimes have the kids draw pictures to help them remember. As you can see, the word was bite but the picture was not. When I asked him what he drew he said it was Obama. Usually I can sort of figure out why they do weird things, but on this one I am at a loss for words. 

I wonder if it is ever going to snow in Busan. We're halfway through January and I haven't seen a single flake. Meanwhile everyone back home has pounds and pounds to play in. Share the goodness!

And probably most importantly...I wonder why I've had "Deep in the heart of Texas" stuck in my head all day. I have no idea where it came from. I don't often think of Texas, or hoedowns, or anything else that would make you sing that song. One of life's great mysteries I guess. 

A blog about Bear

Bear is about 3 months old and he has lived with me for almost 2 weeks.

He is honestly so cute. Every time I take him outside at least 3 people tell me he's cute or want to pet him.

His favorite toy is the ball.

He sleeps in a box that he recently learned how to jump out of. I need to upgrade to a kennel soon.

Walking is very challenging. At first Bear would go limp when I put his leash on. Then he would walk but decide to lay down in the middle of the street sporadically. He gets scared of every car and thinks every person is a friend, so he changes directions approx every 10 feet. And he just learned how to run, so he'll go from zero to sprinting in 2 seconds.

He gets the hiccups a lot.

He's pretty quiet, doesn't really bark except for sometimes at his toys.

I took him to the beach and he ate a lot of sand.

He plays for an hour and then sleeps for an hour. Being a growing puppy is very tiring.

He likes to look at himself in the mirror.

He weighs less than 5 pounds and half of him is just fluff.

I love him.

Alllll the parties

Hello again! I sat down to write a Christmas post last week and I just couldn't do it. I was so worn out - it has been a busy, fun, tiring couple of weeks full of all kinds of celebrations and parties and togetherness. I of course missed celebrating with everybody back home and I'm so jealous of  the white Christmases I saw plastered all over facebook, but I have great people here that make Busan feel like home too. 

Christmas Eve is a working day in Korea, so during class the kiddos and I listened to Christmas music and made stockings. 

After that I had a party at my house. I think this was the first time I've planned and hosted a party all by myself, and it was a huge success if I do say so myself. One of the girls told me that it was one of her top moments in Korea, and I felt so proud. We had so much fun! Cookies were decorated, presents were opened, and I'm a little surprised the neighbors didn't complain because we were definitely very loud. We were very cozy in my little apartment but I think that added to the goodness. 

Christmas morning I opened my presents from my family over skype. The box got here a week early and I had to look at it every day and think about what was inside. My mom made me promise not to open it and I obeyed, but I was not happy about it. Then in the afternoon we all gathered at church to celebrate together. We sang some carols and people shared what they were thankful for in 2013, we played games and ate lots of sugar cookies too. 

My friend InAi's birthday is on Christmas, so later that night we had her birthday party. We ate at a restaurant with the most beautiful view, and then crammed 17 people into her apartment afterwards to open presents and eat cake. 

The day after Christmas I got a puppy! I admit it was not the most thought-out decision I've ever made, but oh well. Sometimes in life you just have to be spontaneous. His name is Bear and I adopted him because he was abandoned. It's been a week and so far so good. The biggest struggle has been getting him to walk on a leash - unexpected. In the beginning he would just go limp when I put his leash on, or he'd decide to be done walking and lay down in the middle of the street. The vet says he's part Pomeranian, 2 or 3 months old, and he'll grow to 20 pounds max. 

And then it was new years. We got dressed up, went out to dinner at a new restaurant, and then did the countdown and lit off sparklers in the balcony of an apartment. At first I thought it was a super dangerous, terrible idea. It maybe was, but it was the highlight of the party for me. 

Oofda, I just got tired recapping all that. It's been wonderful, but I'm glad the holidays only roll around once a year. I hope you had Merry Christmases and Happy New Years!

Pen Pals

This is my friend Katie. We went to the same college, and for about 3 years we had almost every class together. We built starburst towers in the back of the classroom and she made me a checklist of the due dates of all our assignments to keep me from going crazy. Then we did our student teaching in the same school. Then we came to Korea together. Then she left me to go back to Wisconsin and I cried. 

Now she teaches 4th grade and we decided to make our students be pen pals. When I first told my kiddos what we were going to do I had to explain it a few times before they really understood it. "I will write a letter to America? And America will write a letter to me? Teacher real? (sometimes they just say real instead of really)" They giggled at all the silly American names like Drake and Sophie and told their new friends about their families and how they like chicken and pizza but they don't like studying.

Then 2 weeks later Katie's letters came, and oh my gosh. I've never answered so many questions about mail in my life. 

"Teacher how did this get here?" 

"It came in the mail kids." 

"From America? Real?" 

"Yes."

"But how?"

"On an airplane."

"Teacher did you write this letter?"

"No I didn't write that letter! Your American friend wrote to you."

"Sophie is a real person?"

Needless to say their little minds were blown and I told my boss we better plan a field trip to the post office, because mail is apparently very confusing.

We've done this a few times now and after they got pictures of their American friends I think it finally sunk in that there is a real child out there they are communicating with. They know about how long it takes to hear back after we've written and they ask for days when their mail is coming. And no matter what kind of mood they're in when class starts, they get so excited and happy to read their letters from their pen pals. It's adorable. Our most recent ones were Christmas cards with Christmas pencils. So cute!

So thanks for doing this Katie! I'm having just as much fun with it as the students are. 

My students are funny

The kiddos did some pretty cute stuff this week. I've been teaching them for a few months now and I think they're starting to feel more comfortable with me and they're showing off more of their personalities. They say the funniest things, and the best part to me is that half the time they don't even know they're being funny. 

ShinWoo is in 5th grade and he's becoming one of my favorites. He's the quiet but quirky type. And he's so small - looking at him I'd guess he was in 2nd or 3rd grade. He sat down in class this week and I asked him if he did his homework and he said, "Yes teacher, because I am handsome." And then smiled at his own joke. Because handsome = smart I guess? A few days later we were reading a story titled A Difficult Decision about a boy who finds a toy in the park and has to decide whether he should keep it or return it. Riveting literature. I asked the class what would be a difficult decision for them to make and ShinWoo raised his hand and said, "Choosing between SunWoo (a girl he apparently likes) and my mom. That would be hard." And he was so serious about it that I couldn't even laugh. 

In another class I was writing something on the whiteboard, and when I turned around I saw a boy blowing up a giant green balloon. He obviously knew that wasn't something he should be doing in English class, so he tried to hide it under his desk when I caught him. I'm sure he expected me to get mad but I just laughed so hard...where did that even come from and why do you want to blow it up right now?! And how do you think you're going to hide it from me? Then I started to wonder what his thought process was - English is a little boring today so I'll spice it up a little bit with this balloon? 

My students are pen pals with my friend Katie's students in Wisconsin, and we started writing them Christmas cards on Friday. There's one boy who is so quiet, he hardly ever shows emotion. I think I've seen him smile 3 times. When I told the class they were going to write Christmas cards for their American friends, he put his head down and started writing and didn't look up till I told him it was time to go. He made this:

He made letters into pictures, he used a million exclamation points, he drew a giant tree behind the whole thing. And he would have done more but it was time to go home. It was so sweet. I'm glad I finally found something that gets him excited. 

One of my highest level classes is only boys and I look forward to teaching them every day. They're all upper elementary and they can speak well enough to really express themselves - to me and to each other. They're all friends and they're all so funny. One of them was making this really strange helicopter noise while they were writing and another kid said, "Why you make that stupid noise?!" and helicopter boy shrugged and said, "Just because." The rest of us laughed so hard and he continued being a helicopter for a little while longer. 

Oh kids. Stuff like this is why I love teaching. 

Oh no

So bad, so funny.  I couldn't not take a picture.