Quarter of a century

Wednesday is Jessica Sender's birthday. Jess is my best friend and an avid blog reader. Jess, this is for you. Enjoy.

What else do I have for you? Mark's got two things that he said today that are pretty funny/interesting. In art today, we made finger puppets. Mark finished first and ran to the front of the class. He held his green tiger in front of the class and SCREAMED: HELLO ROBOT CLASS! I AM A TIGER. BUT, UH, MARK IS MY FRIEND. WHERE IS MARK? UMMM MARK IS ON A DOUBLE-DECKER BUS. GOODBYE ROBOT CLASS. That made me giggle. I usually sit with him at lunch to make him eat his kim-chi. The past week or so, we've had this conversation. M: Teacher, do you like Japan? K: Yes I do. M: I do not like Japan. K: Ohhh, why? M: Because Japan eats Korea. K: Ohh. M: Do you like Korea? K: Yes, I do. M:Why? etc etc etc.

We had a field trip to Canny Village. I believe they talked about why you should recycle. Pretty boring.

Me and Tom. He was giggling through the entire performance. It was cracking me up.

Robot Class. Mark, Amy, Daniel, Tom, Jenny, Jessica, Sally.

Daniel's SWEET new fire shoes. Yeah, your eyes are working. They do light up.

My favorite part of the field trip. A rhino made from Cass cans.

Thanksgiving on Thursday. I hope you enjoy time with your family and turkey. I think I'll probably ignore that holiday. I mostly hang out with Canadians anyway.

December next week. Weird. It's getting cold here. There was ice on the walk to work yesterday. I'm not ready for that nonsense.

Happy happy holiday season! I love you and I miss you. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!!!

Snot Here

November is on the way out. The weather's getting colder. The kiddos are starting to speak of things like Christmas and being 7 years old. (since they will get a year older on January first. I mean I will too I guess, making me officially 26 in Korea, but still 24 in real life) I've been conducting phone interviews for the person coming at the end of February when Peter leaves. It's only logical that at this time of year the snot comes. These kids. Seriously. How is there so much in such tiny people. This is what I've seen done with the stuff. Wiped on the floor, wiped on desks, wiped on chairs, wiped on their clothes, wiped on their friends' clothes, wiped on my clothes, wiped in their hair, wiped in their friends' hair, eaten, ignored, and finally, WIPED IN/ON A TISSUE FOR THE WIN! Seriously. I know it's gross, but it's what I've been dealing with lately and thought you'd want to share all of my experiences.

Funny thing happened in my elementary class the other day. There are four of them. Liam loves to talk and does not take his turn doing so. I asked him a question and Sally knew the answer and was too excited to wait for Liam to think. As a result they were both yelling the answer at the same time so I could hear nothing that was intelligible. They then started yelling at each other and Liam's temper got the best of him and he took the physical route of hitting Sally. I finally got them calmed down and tried to have a conversation about what had happened with Liam. It went like this. K-"Liam, why did you get so mad?" L-" Because Sally no be quiet when I talk." K"Ok, Liam so that was hard for you, right?" L-"Yes" K-"Ok, so do you think that maybe you should be quiet when its not your turn to talk? Do you think your friends get mad when you do that to them?" About half way through that sentence, Liam put his fingers in his ears and started yelling "WHAT!? WHAT?! TEACHER I CAN'T HEAR YOU!?" I was on the edge of laughing and wanting to lose my mind.

These kids. I tell you what. They make me crazy.

 I started working out again two weeks ago. That's been weird. Easier than I thought it'd be, but not that fun. We'll see how long it lasts.

Standard weekend. Hanging out with friends, nothing too fun. I did come across this quote while reading this week and I like it. Here it is. "In nature, there are no rewards or punishments. There are consequences."

Happy second half of November! I hope everyone's getting their Thanksgiving plans situated. I think I will ignore that holiday this year. We'll see.

Kisses and misses!

News and pictures

1. I have tickets to Bali for Christmas break. Yay.

2. I'm staying here until the end of May. (That's why I changed the title of this blog.)

3. We had a field trip. Here are pictures.

4. Since I'll be here for a while, you should come for spring break.

Some puppies. Elly Julie Tei and James

A troll and Julie. We've been talking about belly buttons. When you pushed the troll's belly button, he talked. Puppy class loved it.

Daniel and Tom in a bubble.

Princess Jessica.

Tei and James. Love his dimples.

Gazebo. Beautiful fall day.

Danimal and Tomman.

Robot Girls. Amy Jessica Sally and Jenny.

Amy and "my baby". Her little sister-shes 4. They are very similar-loud and a handful.

5. Happy November!