It's Raining! Free AC!

In no particular order:

1. Cold Stone in Korean. Ha ha...
2. I made cinnamon apple crepes for my kids. they hated the cinnamon.
3. The most green we ever see.
4. Bye Jon:(
5. Soondae (sausage cooked in blood) and steamed pork. The steamed pork was good.
6. Steven and Martin!
7. Sticker pictures with Korean friends
8. Pig skin! Terrifying. Football + jello = texture



OH NO. It has been far too long! I'm sorry!

BUT- ever since the weather's gotten nicer, I spend minimal time in my apartment. At this moment, I am completely exhausted because every night after work I stay out until around 2. I JUST LOVE THIS WEATHER!!! I can't get enough of people and outside and... etc.


Anything strange? There's a 10 foot tall plant in my apartment. I'm also sleeping next to it, downstairs, by the window, because upstairs is unbearably hot and I don't want to use the air conditioning again like I did last night. I'm trying to steal a fan from work but it's too difficult so far because in addition to our boss there are two new Korean staff. I haven't talked to the girl but the man is just GREAT. He is so professional and works so hard and PRAISE JESUS I'm not ashamed or afraid of where I'm working right now, which was very different two weeks ago. WOOP!

Things with the kids are tumultuous. Let's start with the 5-7 year olds. I now have nine of them. Theodore is Cranky Pants McGee because he needs attention. He acts out to get it. How do you convince a child that you'll give them attention no matter what? I try to praise him when he's good. I guess I should get even more on top of that. Today he turned his back to everyone when we were sitting on the floor in a circle because I wouldn't give him the "j" card. (If they can say the letter and sound they get the card.) And now I'm home 10 hours later and I'm like... augh... I should've given Theodore that dang J card. That's the hard thing about being a teacher for me. I want to spoil them rotten but if I do it makes my life terrible. But, later, things got better when I let helped him play the matching game with cards we were playing and helped him with his reading (they're starting to read!! AHH! SO EXCITING!!) and he pulled up my blazer sleeve and was shocked I didn't have a bracelet on. Sorry, Theodore. I got ready for work in 10 minutes this morning. That's why I'm wearing this blazer in the first place. I thought it would help my t-shirt and jeans.

I gave them all puzzles to do while I'm trying to help them read. Whew. It's not good when you're not on top of your game and there are nine rambunctious children who can't understand any of your instructions, ever. Martin sat at his desk hollering about something (he recently lost his front tooth and it is just the CUTEST thing ever) while I was helping Theodore read words like " cat" and "fill" and I just motioned Martin over and swung him up into my lap. Theodore and I continued to read and Martin contentedly sat there bouncing on my knee. Really? Come to find out, Martin wanted an eraser for his zoo animals word search. He KNOWS the English word. And obviously I don't know the Korean.

My next class is 2nd- 3rd graders. They were impossible to deal with until I further explored the magical world of operant conditioning. I am currently convinced that an education education should forgo the traditional teaching methodology classes and focus on psychological manipulation. It is some powerful stuff and if you can master it, your classes will go great. I put all their names up on the board, and when they do something good I draw a smiley face. When they get 5 smiley faces, they get a fake dollar. Amazing how they will instantly stare at their books or start working the moment I pick up a board marker. I used to pick up the board marker for discipline purposes, I give them tallies on their name card for being bad and if they get 3 they have to give me a dollar. However, now the marker has the power for good, and not fear. Today Judy brought me these really awesome spicy corn chips and Max brought me a whole pill bottle of gum. We ate the chips, and then after that I gave them all gum. Then when about 4 pieces of mine had lost their flavor, I made them spit it out.

My last class is 11-12 year olds. Today was one of those days where I wanted to crawl in a hole with a very tight and securely locked door at the top and just stay down there in a dark cave until the 2 hours had passed. There's only 7 of them. 2 of them have emotional issues big enough for 10 people. I feel like if I picked them up and hung them upside down, I could fill an entire bathtub with hormones. (That's a gross thought, I know. But seriously. I've never seen human beings so ridiculously cranky). I know that they're tired, and overworked, and their lives are stressful, and I'm supposed to help, but.... they take it out on me. AUGGHH!!! Lewis, the boy who hates girls, really gave us a great class last time by making this face which is the most hilarious face all of us have ever seen. He scrunches his chin down into his neck, sticks out his bottom lip, and pulls his eyebrows up with his fingers. I'm giggling right now just thinking about it. TODAY, HOWEVER, there were no funny faces. There was only complaining, which causes the girls to complain, which causes him to complain even louder, and then complain at me, and then get angry when I discipline him, and then to corrupt Justin (who is so smart, augh, augh). Then there's a girl who singlehandedly manipulated all the other girls to ostracize a girl smarter than her, emotionally torturing her to the point where she quit the academy. She had one friend. And now that one friend seems to be fighting the same isolation. She is also incredibly smart. And today, it seemed brain-control girl was trying to manipulate all the girls in the class to hate the teacher.

Today was one of those days where I had the thought, "Hmm... what if I worked with adults, where at least we pretended to be nice to each other, and had mastered common social norms."

What do you do with a scowling, cranky, blank-faced 12 year old who hates her life and everyone in it? What does it take for my life to be like that movie Hillary Swank was in? Where the kids write in journals and then fall in love with the teacher and want to be with her forever?

I'm thankful it's Friday. Saying it that calmly is quite the understatement, but I'm tired.

I fear teaching. HAHA. I'm not kidding. That laugh was ... nervousness? There are up days, and down days. Very up or very down. I was talking to my friend last night, and now I want to go home and study for the G.R.E., and try to get a scholarship for grad school in international relations (do what with that? I don't know), but it would take a miracle because I'm not the type of smart who gets chosen 2 out of 528. Also I'm not a minority. I don't have enough cool stuff to put on a resume. I'm not very competitive. I want to do what God wants and I know what He wants until next May but... I just want to do great things. I don't want to waste my brain or my time.

But my mindset should be what Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing." He's right. "Abide in Me." Ok. "You will bear much fruit if you do." Ok.

The answers are so simple. It's just living them out that is sooo difficult to do, often even believe. But I guess if I'm not doing something I don't believe it. Food for thought.

BEDTIME!

Korea is great. The food is really growing on me. All I do is eat Korean food. Last night I had some weird soup that has meat in it, the vat of it is in the front of the restaurant, just cooking and cooking with that beef in it, day and night, they always leave the fire on. But the meat was mostly fat. It was scary. I didn't eat most of it. But I ate the soup, and the soup was good!

Time is flying. People keep coming and going. I say goodbye to someone (told Jon bye on Sunday, that was terrible), and meet someone else. This is bad but I don't want new friends because I feel like I just met the ones I have. A year? At first it seems so long, and then.... there's 2 months of it left. Wow.