Christmas song follow-up

Hello! First, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! I realize it's early, but I'm going to be busy for a while, and then I'm going to Bali for the new year, so here it is. Second, things are good here. The weather is cold, but not too bad yet. Only a little morning ice and less snow so far. I seem to have finally got that cough that I get each year around this time, so I've been going to bed around 10 each school nights. I've spent my weekends playing Wii golf and screen golf and watching movies with dear friends. KakaoTalk has made it easy and fun to stay in touch with friends and family at home. If you have a smart phone, and would like to know more, please let me know. And thirdly, today we had our school Christmas Extravaganza. It was a normal morning and then we all went up to the fifth floor for a classical music concert (with parents) and a visit from Santa. Sadly, I missed all of this because due to stellar planning and foresight, I was teaching elementary students. I did manage to get some adorable pics of my girls in their Christmas attire this morning as well as a video of Robot Class attempting to wish all of "Katie Teacher's America" a Merry Christmas. Maybe you'll get a better sense of what I was talking about in the last post.

Have a warm, safe, and happy holiday season. I'd love to hear from you!!

Sally in her hot-pink "Christmas" wings.

Amy in her sparkly pink "Christmas" ears.

Jesskimo. Looking adorable with a reindeer "handa-baga"

Christmas Song Nightmare

We just spent an hour trying to teach Christmas songs to 50 babies. It didn't go well for multiple reasons. The first being, Christmas songs are HARD. I really just know the chorus to most of them. Who knew? The second being that as soon as they recognized the tune they started screaming the song in Korean and not listening to English at all. I contemplated ripping my hair out of my head. These irrational balls of endless energy. Nightmare in situations like that.

Winding down year two

January first, two thousand and twelve will be the official end of my second full year here and the beginning of my final final five months. However, this is an anniversary that I will be celebrating in Bali. Yay. Anyway, tonight I am presenting a list of things that I have not done for two entire years. For real.

• Driven a car
• Pumped gas
• Used an oven
• Used a dishwasher
• Used a dryer
• Used a sewing machine
• Touched a cow
• Fixed a fence
• Hugged my mother
• Heard only one language for an entire 24 hour period
• Not eaten rice for longer than 48 hours
• Been able to fully understand signs
• Had to worry about open containers, public intox, or being a designated driver
• Tip
• Rake hay
• Swim
• Leave or receive a voice mail
• Fully understand what my boss is asking me to do
• Pierced anything
• Chased cows around a yard
• Really seen the stars
• Known what the lady at the grocery store is asking me
• Carry wood in
• Family reunions
• And some more silly things that I had all mapped out in my head about twelve minutes ago, but that are escaping me at the moment. 

As you can tell, some of them I miss more than others. But I wouldn't trade these past two years for anything. Happy Holiday season guys. Lots of love.