it's been a while

ok, so it's been a while. i didn't knotice that i haven't blogged in a while. also i forgot my mom reads this. haha, i was on the phone with her tonight and she was like, you make me sound mean on your blog - which isn't true, i told her most of the responses i got thought she was hilarious/hysterical/baller, so 엄마 don't worry ppl love you.

anyway, since last tudesday .... hmmm .... well

i had my 1st grade classes .... WHICH ARE NOTHING LIKE MY 2nd GRADE CLASSES!!!! 1st graders are little monkeys who can't sit still and need ritalin for their morning snack. haha i'm jsut keeeeding. it wasn't that bad. altho it IS true that they have LOADS of energy and can't focus for as long. which sin't really all their fault since i'm just tanding up there blathering in a language that they don't know. i would probably do the same in their situation. but they were really sweet. mostly. one of the teacher's came to watch the class after her bc she was so ashamed of how badly hers behaved. then she brought me some pomegranate juice to revive my spirits/energy. i wanted to give her class 1 star sticker but she was so nice i gave them 2 (1 for them and 1 for her...haha)

anyway, it was a good first week of classes. lesson planning is not going to be as hard as i thoughtit would be. altho i might get sick of 7 classes of "what's this? it's a pencil/pen/notebook/monkey/pineapple/MYBRAINISFALLINGAPART" then i have 6 classes of "runcandyruncomeherecandycomeheregooddog" anyway, it's fun. so on to the fun part.

on thursday, 5-3 homeroom teacher (the tech one who wants to leaern engrish) sent me pizza for breakfast. haha. i dont think koreans understand that americans eat diffrent foods for each MEAL. like there are certain BREAKFAST foods, LUNCH foods, and DINNER foods. maybe bc koreans eat rice and stew for every meal they dont thikn there are differentiations. bc earlier in the week, one of the other teachers brought me a burger from lotteria for breakfast. and i was unable to eat/digest it. so i felt bad. but i saved the pizza for lunch, which was clutch bc i didnt have time to go eat in the caf. i did so many errands on thursday. it was great. altho i was soooooooo tired like death. the week ended well. my advanced class ALL showed up (they had been sporadically missing due to millions of hakwons they cannot miss).

the advanced boys turned into monkeys, too once they overcame their shyness. they would like pet each other and poke each other and laugh and stuff. oh hahahaha. one time i laughed so hard i almost peed my pants. so my advanced class gets nytimes articles that i pick and questions that i make up to discuss. we were doing one on how the venezuelan govt wnats to pass a law that limits all new baby names to a list of 100 compilled by govt "experts". and for one boy's argument/debate he used the example of having the name "idiot" and how that could negatively affect one's life. one of the other boys (my hostbro) starts CONTROLLING his uncontrollable laughter ...which lasts for like 10 minutes AT LEAST ... he can't breathe and is turning red and it was soooo funny i fell on the floor laughing (it was very professional) i hope they did well at their bankimoon competition yesterday. =) i will miss them.

since my classes end on thursday, i went to see lydia this weekend!!! oh first, bryan came to school to pick me up on thursday! he met my coteacher and we laughed about how my english head teacher will be so jealous and disappointed she missed him. bryan was impressed by my sweet english zone. yes, i know, it's an amazing facility and i can't wait to take advantage of it. then we hung out a lil and he helped me run some errands before PIZZA HUT and me heading out to gongju by bus.

which reminds me, i went to eat dinner with tom oppa on wednesday. tom oppa went to church with me at home and he's been teachng english in this area for 2.5 years. so it was soooo random that i was placed here too and im so glad to jsut have friends (english speaking friends). we had the MOST delicious italian food in all of korea. the lasagna is EASILY my favorite food in korea. anyway, so yes, itwas nice to have dinner with an old friend and chat about life in korea.

so i get to lydia's and we went to school together on friday. her school is an all boys boarding high school (elite). the boys were great! and so was she! lydia's lesson was sooo good it made me cry. a little. she was trying to inspire her boys to "think outside the box" and teaching them greek/roman roots for words and phrases like "supermetaimposed goals" (i totally got that wrong-but that just shows u her boys are more advanced tha i am). i was so excited by her lesson and how responsive her boys were. we also got to guest-talk (entertain) 4 of the 3rd year english classes. i got to talk about myself (my FAVORITE topic) and we had a lot of fun. we left for seoul a little tlater than we had planned and hit MAJOR traffic. but when we finally got there we met up with bryan and joan for dinner and that was really nice. i hadn't seen joan unni since yonsei day so i was so happy to talk with her.

oh, p.s. lydia's students bought her a BIKE. i got so excited about my PENCIL and she got a BICYCLE. an orange bike with a bell and a BASKET!!! haha. i'm gonna tell my kids about this. just kididng. i love my little ones.

highlights of seoul: lydia's 이모's cooking and bookstore with huuuuge (relatively) english section. i stayed at lydia's aunt's house (THANK YOU) and her cooking was sooooo good. i was soooo psyched. hehe. also, we got to go to bandi and luni's where they had a relatively HUGE english book section (and we got to see lots of americans/foreigners) and i got to buy a few books (YES!!!) and also it was so nice just to touch/feel/handle/smell books. yes, i am quite nerdy and yes i love books that much. hehe.

this week i'm teaching my first lessons from the textbook. i HOPE the kids think it's fun. i prepped for my 2nd graders. i think from now on im going to spend less time on aim/facebook/nytimes at school in my free time and just finish lesson planning really quickly and then READ in my free time. i bought a bunch of books and would LOVE to read them. i'm also worrying a little what to do with all my books when i leave (esp since i want to use this year to catch up on my reading wish list-so please feel free to send me books-used or new). i'm going to start dead poets society even tho i haven't finished beloved. also i bought books for my host siblings, because i thought it'd be nice to bring them small gifts, esp cuz the parents are so nice to me and i always feel the best way to show thanks to paretns is to be nice to their kids.

TODAY!!! i had vips for dinner. MMMMMMMMmmmMMMMmmMMMMMmmmm for steak! hehe. it was soooo delicious but now my stomach is a little upset bc its not used to large chunks of meat.

anyway, today i offered to "tutor" my host siblings in conversational english. my hostmom pays for cake/green tea latte and i have 1 hour of "cafe talk/chat" per sibling. the host bro is psyched but the girl not so much. this weekend i realized (talking ot the other GIKs) that i'm the only one who doesn't regularly tutor her host siblings. and i figured this was the easiest most enjoyable way to do it. this way i also get to eat free cake. =)