On the way down

Yo. This past week at work was the worst week we have had at the new school. And Jason and I have been at said school for 6 whole months. So we figured that one week out of 24ish isn't too bad. But man was it a rough one. On Tuesday, we had a field trip. We went up to some television station in Seoul. We may have been on TV somewhere. There were cameras everywhere. Some British dude from BBC was there on tour. Mister Maker. He had the kids make alien eyes. Pretty funny. The rest of the time was pretty lame. But it's always nice to have a day out of school. Thursday we had the birthday party for the August birthdays. The kids are so cute.

We've gotten about 9 new students the past 3 weeks or so. I got a new one in my Robot class. I got to name her. I picked Molly. And we got a new puppy named Jessica. So it's like at Wooster! Except they're 4 and Korean. But I still get a kick out of it. (Molly and Jess are my friends from Wooster...duh).

Why was the week so bad? Some serious mis-communication issues as well as mixed ideas about our duties. Hahaha duties. On Friday we sent 3 months worth of worksheets and workbooks home. Our boss was very unhappy because she felt like there were not enough worksheets for 3 months. We explained that since they have been telling us to do more speaking with the kids for the past 2 months we did various speaking activites with extra time rather than worksheets. No. More worksheets and more speaking. Here's the thing. We got yelled at twice. Once in Korean and then translated. It was upsetting. It's hard to find the balance that they want here. I can never really tell if they want the kids to actually learn English or just have the appearance of learning English. For example, I do not give my elementary kids homework because they don't do correctly or at all. So we spend the whole time correcting homework/doing it in class. This seems stupid to me, so instead we do as much work in class as we can. I feel that this way class time is productive, they're doing the work, and they hopefully are remembering and learning stuff. However, parents want to see their kids doing tons and tons of homework. It's a frustrating balance that we thought we had figured out but were wrong. Oh well. I do like my school and my boss and my kids. It was just a bad week.

My friend from Ireland (I can't spell her name that well and I usually call her Ireland anyway) has her parents here for 3 weeks. So I think hanging out with them makes me a little sad too because I want to hang out with my parents.

This Saturday I met SaraBrown in Suwon and we went to a Suwon Bluewing-Seoul soccer game. Suwon won but we left at halftime because we wanted to. It was pretty sweet though. We saw two really nice goals. Then we got on a bus to go back to Suwon Station and then we were going to SB's house. But the bus driver made everyone get off the bus and we didn't know where we were. Typical in the Adventures from the Annex to Asia series. So we got a taxi and eventually made our way to SB's town. Its a little town and I met her coworkers and various Korean friends. It was pretty fun.

Sunday we went to ShabuShabu for food. ShabuShabu is pretty cool. They put broth on the fire (most Korean restaurant tables have grills/fire in the middle of them) and then they bring you a plate of vegetables and a plate of meat. You put it all in the broth and eat it when it cooks. Then when that's gone you put in noodles and dumplings. When that's gone, they put in rice and an egg. It's a lot of food and it takes a while to get through all the courses but it's delicious.

It's pretty crazy that September is on Wednesday.On September 1st it is Mowgli's birthday. One whole year.

It is also my 8 month anniversary. It also means 6 months left. Heyoo! Still working on what to do next.Travis is engaged. Cheney is at college. Ethan is playing football and is a junior. Mom has a full time job at Purdue.

I stopped eating the other night and realized I was eating with chopsticks. Life is weird. September 10th is Dad's 50th birthday. Woah.We have September 21,22,23 off for Chusuk. Korean Thanksgiving. We talked about going to Japan, but flights were expensive. So I think I'm going over winter break.

Oh yeah. Now that I have 6 months left, meaning I'm half way through my contract, its the first time that I'm going down hill. On the way down.

Pictures of my kiddos.
This is my little T-Rex. As an alien. Awesome.
This is Sally and Amy. They are in Puppy class. Meaning Korean age 5. Real life age 3 or 4.
We brush our teeth after lunch everyday.
Jason and Scarlet. She's a firecracker and loves Jason Teacher to death.
This is Alex 1. The smartest kid in Robot class. His birthday is August 16th, the same as GrandmaAmy's! And he talked about his birthday all of July and all of August. He was so excited.
This alien is Clara. From Robot.

I just made a facebook album with more pictures of the kids. If you want more, check it out. I love you all. I miss you all a lot. Enjoy the end of summer/beginning of fall.