Just a little update....

So the weather sure makes me feel like home around here. In the month of March I wore my flip flops one day and a winter coat and scarf the next. We even saw a little bit of snow.

So, I'm loving that the newbies are pushing me to get off my butt and get out. Suzie found a community theater group of expats and we went and did a "24 hour theater" with them. I had so much fun I went back the next weekend and auditioned for their up coming show just for fun.

We also discovered a hiking group and had high hopes of joining them on a trip outside of the city for a 7 hour hike to the beach. Sadly we were all geared up and ready to go Saturday morning, but at the wrong station. Wahwah. I ended up leading the pack to Buckhansan and we still did a 7 hour hike. It was amazing.

Sarah K has finally had her first cry free day as of week 5 of school. She is now all smiles all the time. Go figure. I also got a new girl, Olivia. She seems like a smart one. It should be all good.

The on set of Spring is bring some fun and exciting things coming up. More soon I'm sure.

Ah, the Irish....

Had myself a nice little St. Patrick's Day. We had a green day at school talking about clovers and leprechauns. The school day culminated with a dance party in the gym with the entire student body. These are always ridiculously unorganized and awkward, but since I have the smallest kids my class gets the best seat. We were right up front and my kids ended up dancing on the stage most of the time. They loved it and I loved watching it. Claire is all about the dancing and would jump up on stage by herself for everyone and bowed when the song ended. Sunny broke out some break dancing moves on the floor and I about peed my pants. Sarah K is still crying, but she had a great time too. All my kids really are adorable.

Post work I went with Megan to further explore and new neighborhood in the beautiful weather we've got going on finally. We have been trying to break out of our comfort zone that we have built up over the winter. Included in this is the embracing of Korean style clothing. I bought a 4 piece outfit for 20,000 won tonight which includes leggings, short skirt, tanks top and over sized hooded t-shirt. I'm not going to be able to recognize my wardrobe by the time I leave here. A quite walk turned into discovering an Irish pub, which turned into a beer with Megan, Maranda and Megan's friend Chris from Chicago and his co-workers including two actual Irish peps. In short, a successful day. No, I did not have a Guinness tonight, but only because it would have been 15,000 won. I don't like Guinness that much.

And now I leave you with my favorite rendition of a leprechaun done by Warrick. Enjoy.

Those Crazy Canadians

I've been meaning to document some of the Canadian cultural discoveries that have blown me away. My passion was recently reignited, and you will see why below. Here is a short list of the things that still get me.

1. Poutine: a dish consisting of French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients. It is a quintessential Canadian comfort food, especially in Quebec. I had never heard of it before. It now comes up in conversation at least once week.

2. Pie Assassins of Canada: instead of shooting politicians they are pissed at, they pie them. And it's no joke.


3. Kraft Dinner: One of the first major differences that struck me to my core was the fact that Canadians called macaronni and cheese "Kraft Dinner" or "KD". This craked me up. I simply thought that they had made up a nickname based on the brand that had spread country wide, while still picturing the blue box with "Macaronni and Cheese" in big yellow letters. Just this week I had my mind blown again when one of the newbies got a care package from home including Kraft Dinner, and she pulled out a box that looked like this:

WHAT!?!?


Oh, and Happy White Day! The 14th of every month is a love holiday in Korea, but only February, March and April are really talked about. On V-day girls gave boys chocolate. White is the time for boys to pay up. I'm not profiting form this in anyway of course, but luckily it's pretty much over shadowed by impending St. Patrick's Day and the extended celebration around here in the ex-pat community. It all just reminds me that I missed the South Side Irish festivities last year because I was in class to get certified to come here. Can't believe that was just a year ago...my, how times have changed.

"Obma" by Robin

Here is an essay about a famous person done by one of our 9 year old students. He isn't even one of my kids, but this is just too good. Apparently Obama wasn't on the list of recommended of people, but Robin really wanted to write about our president. The following is a word for word, letter for letter transcription.

Hello, my name is Robin. I will tell you about Obma. He is alive.

Obma is very famous in United States because he is a first president. Everyone loved him. He was good at speeking. When he speeks, everyone was proud of him. When he was baby he speeked very good. When he visited Africa. He wanted to help people. He was the first black person in the United States.

When I see a Obma I will clap the hands.

I want to be a Obma.

I think Obma will help the people today.

Warrick

That's my new kid's name. I was worried at first since he came to first class with his mom and wouldn't let go of her leg to come into the classroom. They disappeared for the rest of the class, but he was there by second class and did just fine. Thank God. I can't handle another crier. Oh, Sarah K....

shopping splurg

I finally broke down and bought my very first ipod this weekend. It's purely a work purchase. I've been thinking about getting one since I arrived here, but was debating too much one which one to get. I finally decided to just go with pure function. Walked up to the the apple counter in Techno Mart and asked for a ipod classic. I got a black classic with a charger and case for 350,000 won = $225 U.S. right now. I am personally pretty excited to have a 120GB (I know, way more space then I will ever need) with Hangul engraved on the back.

Pics of the new kids and classroom are up. I'm in love with them already of course. =)
Many new decorations in the room are contributed by my wonderful teacher college roommates Dom and Steph. Thanks ladies! Everyone says the room looks great thanks to you guys.

6 months!

Wow.

I have been anticipating this day since I got here. March marks the start of a new school year, bringing new students, new class curriculum, a new classroom and 6 new co-workers along with the lose of 4 vets. Kyle and Krystle have run off to India together, Heather is going back to school in Canada and Breanne is back in the states to hang out until she goes off to San Fran for school in the fall. Work was so surreal today. Everything just keeps pushing forward without too much fanfare at work. I think the turnover still hasn't really sunk in. It was really bizarre to be one of the go-to people for all the newbie question. I'm trying my best to do Kyle and Krystal proud because I really feel like they were kind of my mentors. It help that all the newbies are pretty cool and I genuinely want to get to know them and help them out. I should elaborate on all of them now, because it will hilarious to look back at my first impressions of them later, but I just don't have the energy now.

First day of class was relatively successful. Since I was going in expecting a total stressful disaster of a day the issues that did arise didn't seem too bad. One girl cried so much I had to carry her on my hip for the last 10 mins of class right before lunch. By the end of lunch she was sleep in the helper teacher's room and her grandfather came to pick her up. He ended up sitting in the classroom with her on his lap the rest of the day. Then I had a little boy next to him fall alseep. No biggy really.

Pictures to follow soon.