The Flood

I've never seen it rain as hard as it did yesterday and today! I knew we were getting a ton of rain, but I didn't realize it was as serious as it was! A family friend from home clued me in to look at the internet at some of these pictures. These pictures are literally 10 minutes from my school! I know exactly where these places are! So hard to believe. Over 20 people died today because of the flooding and mudslides. Hopefully the rain will stop soon...

No!....Not the girl wig!

Yesterday was Crazy Hair day at school. Let's just say it was the school's first experience with crazy hair day, and the American teachers went all out (colored hair, sweet wigs, tons of gel or hairspray). Most of the kids had some really cool and funny hairdos. My big athletic little boy, Ace, has really short hair. The day before, I had wondered what he'd do for crazy hair day. When I walked into the classroom, I seriously didn't know who he was! He was wearing a bandanna wig with long black hair!! Oh man, it was really funny. Not even thinking, I busted out laughing (after I finally recognized him!) He started crying... Oooops! He was so embarrassed of his wig. He refused to wear it. It didn't help that everyone else was laughing at him too. He thought we were laughing at him, but really we were laughing because it was such a good hairdo for the crazy hair day! Anyway, after many tears, and some consulting, he agreed to wear the wig only for a picture. After the picture was snapped, he ripped it off! Who would have ever thought that kids would cry on crazy hair day!?

The rolling roll

Actually I just thought of something else to blog about. I thought I'd give you a few mental pictures to imagine what my classroom is like!

Each day before we start school we have snack time. Sometimes its fruit, yogurt or bread, but this time I wanted to teach them that this was a special kind of bread, called a roll. They can't exactly pronounce the "l" sound, but they try their best. Usually during snack, someone drops their snack on the floor or spills the milk. I've just come to accept that that is just part of snack time. This time, Ace, my favorite, lost control of his roll and it "rolled" all the way across the table, past me and landed on the floor. He let out a big sigh and said, "Teacher! Why didn't you catch it!!?" I guess you kind of had to be there to see his face, but I laughed SO hard. Then the kids were laughing at me laughing and this went on for a good few minutes! We learned a double meaning of "roll" today! Later, I was the one who spilled the milk, and Ashley said to me, "It's ok, Teacher..." :)

High fives are a big thing in kindergarten. One of my kids always winds up like a baseball pitcher before he give me a high five. His arms flail and his face gets this determined "I'm going to hit as hard as I can" look and I'm always a bit worried he'll miss and hit my face or something! Like I've said before, each day is an adventure!

8 days!!

Only 8 more days until my parents come! I am beyond excited. I've been making a plan of what I want to do with them while they are here. I told my students a few days ago that my parents were coming and yesterday he came up to me with genuine concern. He said very seriously, "Teacher, August, you will come to school?" When I said yes, he looked very relieved. He said he thought my parents were coming to take me home! How cute, and smart of him to put that all together!

This weekend I'm going on a retreat with my church! I'm so excited about it. I hope it will be as good as I'm expecting! All of my friends are going and it will just be nice to get out of Seoul for a weekend :)

Alright, I gotta get back to work. I've been really busy and just thought I'd give a quick update to let people know I'm doing well!

I've become a regular

The other day on my walk to school, I saw three other white people! My first thought was, "what's going on!?" Because there are not many foreigners in my area, the storekeepers tend to recognize me. I've becoming a regular at quite a few places in my neighborhood. The first is the coffee shop around the corner from my school. When I walk in, she says, "Hi Sara! Hot white choco mocha?" Yes I always get the same thing. The next place is the flower shop on my block. She knows that I always want one yellow rose for my apartment. The last regular place is the Paris Baguette Cafe. It is embarrassing when I walked up to the counter and the girl (who always seems to be working no matter what day or time) always says hi to me. She knows limited English, but you'd think she was my best friend! I think she just wants to practice her English! Whenever I order something different, she says, "No fruit beengsoo today?" It's a summer fruit, icy, ice cream thing that I must say is delicious! I find myself hoping it will be a different cashier, because they always laugh at me when they see me coming!

Don't see me!

Ocassionally throughout the week I have a 1/2 hour break during the day when I go out and just sit outside in the park. Many, many old people sit outside on the benches in the park, all day long! You would think it would get boring, but they don't seem to have anything else to do! They just sit and talk in the park all day. Anyway, most times I go out and sit in the park, I end up trying to talk to the old people. They always want to give me something! Sometimes they give me ice cream, fruit, or the latest was yogurt! This time I sat down on a bench near three old people. They were singing and it was kind of funny to listen to them. The old woman would sing a line, and then, I guess it was her husband, would say, "No, no, no that's not right!" Then he would continue to sing it the "right" way! It was pretty funny to watch them bicker about these old Korean songs. Ocassionally they would look over at me and ask me who I thought was right! I could only understand some of what they said, but Iassumed that was what they were asking me ;) The lady must have been satisfied with my response because then she presented me with the yogurt! At one point I recognized the song she was "trying" to sing as, "Oh Danny Boy," but it was in Korean. Interesting that they have some of the same old songs!

Lately in class I'm been trying to teach my kids how to be patient, and how to think about others first. Oh man, how do you teach this to 5 year olds? I'm often stumped, thinking, "How did my parents teach these principals to me?" I have no idea. During one of our classroom "How not to be selfish" talks, I noticed I must not be getting through. Two girls were arguing back and forth and they were both embarrassed that I'd pointed it out. The one didn't want people to know she had gotten in trouble, so she was covering her eyes, saying "Don't see me!" assuming that if she could not see them, they could not see her. The other girl, refuses to be wrong, so when one of the other students call her out, she plugs her ears saying, "I can't hear you!" Whew! Every day is an adventure! Most days I just laugh at the things that happen on a regular basis. Hmmm, guess I better try a new approach! :) When they are being silly, constantly I remind them to sit in their chairs and listen to me, but at the same time, they are just being goofy kids. I hate to dampen their funny spirits. I'm still learning about the balance. It makes me wonder what I was like in kindergarten...

A Korean Calligrapher

On Saturday I went to a shopping place because I wanted to buy some Korean artwork to put on my wall. I couldn't really find any that I liked, and it was all expensive...so, I made my own! I had always seen this thick, hand-made paper, almost like material and wondered what to do with it. Today I bought a paint brush and some ink and I made some Korean artwork. I'm actually really happy with the way it turned out!

The rainy season isn't as bad as I'd dreaded. It's really humid, but it doesn't rain non-stop. Some days have sunny patches and it just rains sporatically. I am always sure to carry my umbrella everywhere though, cause sometimes even with bright sun, the rain just pours for about 5 minutes and then stops. So strange. I really have to do some research about the monsoon. I want to know what makes it rain so much during one season.

The other day I walked out to go to the bakery during lunch and I had my big umbrella that day because it was raining SO hard. As I was walking on the sidewalk, I heard a crack. There was construction being done on the sidewalk, so I thought maybe the cement had cracked or something. WRONG. Next thing I knew, a big tree limb broke off a tree, right in front of me! The branches bounced off my umbrella over my head. I stood there for a second, just starring at the tree in front of my face, thinking how bad that could have been. After a few seconds I looked around to see if anyone had seen what had just happened. There was an old man who observed the whole thing, standing there with his mouth open. I'm sure mine was open too! I climed over the tree and just walked away laughing, thinking what a weird thing that was. Turns out umbrellas have more than one purpose!