11.23.2009

Hello -
It has been a few weeks since the last update, not a whole lot of new stories but I have a few.

First, this was a few weeks ago but I think that I forgot to write about it. I have to call each student and ask easy questions, it really is a waste of time, but I have to do it nonetheless. (Phone teaching) I called one student who I teach almost every day and I know her really well. She is actually one student that can have a conversation with me, or at least try to do so. I asked her, "Mary, what are you doing?" She said, "mmm mmm mmm (eating sound) dog." I laughed and said, "Mary, what? You are playing with your dog?" She said, "No, I am eating dog." It was just one of the funny phone teaching moments, and there have been many. I know how to say "Is ______ home?" or something like that. (Name) Pah Quaw Jew Say O. Then if the student isn't home the parents speaks in Korean and I say "Up Sow?" I think that means something like "None" but it seems to work. They say yes and I say thanks and hang up.

So, the only new story is that I went to a place called LotteWorld. It is kind of like a Disney-type place. The weird thing is that about 3/4 is inside. There are 4 floors and an ice-skating rink in the basement. It is almost like a huge arena with lots of rides and other things to do inside. The funny thing was that all of the rides were less than 2 minutes. It seemed like a lot of time was spent waiting in lines but it was a really good time. There were a few rollercoasters, some 'it's a small world'-type rides, and the typical other carnival rides. One of the highlights was a Christmas parade. There was classic Christmas music and the parade lasted about a half hour. There was a lot of foreign people in the parade, I was surprised that it wasn't all Korean's, but it was really entertaining. Another highlight of the place was a hot air balloon. They weren't real but they ran on a track along the whole top of the building. It was a really cool sight. The big inside room was lit by sunlight and when the sun went down it was lit up with lights and it looked really cool. You can see some of the sights in the pictures below. It was a really good experience and a great Saturday night.

I am getting really excited to be coming home in the next month, I think that it's almost exactly one month from today and I will be home for one week. Again, I still have the same money problems with my boss and things are the same at work. I took my camera to work today and took some pictures with a few of my classes, I hope to take it again and get some pictures with some more outgoing kids, but these are the ones that I teach on Monday. There are some pictures with 3 young kids (younger than the rest) This is a class that really doesn't speak English, they are in their first few months of classes. They are one of my favorites, the little girl in the pictures is probably my favorite student. Her name is Lily and she always comes to my desk and tries to talk (Do you like eraser? Do you like bathroom? Do you like Lily?) Ha, just a few examples. This class does not involve much teaching. The kids love to be picked up and they beg for it the whole class. There is one picture of me picking up a student named Ryan and another one of me and the other boy, Alex, flexing. They all think that I am so strong because I can pick up all 3 of them at the same time. It is quite funny but I have a good time with them. The kids didn't really like to be in pictures so I had to kind of sneak pictures but I have some more outgoing students throughout the week and I hope that works out a little bit better.

Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hopefully I will have a chance to see a lot of you around X-mas time and thanks for keeping up with me.

































I don't know if you can read this but it says "Not allowed to pregnant" "Not allowed to medical sensitivity" and "No drunken ride"