I got a ticket, I got a ticket, I got a ticket, hey, hey, hey, HEY!

That's right folks. I have a ticket. Two actually! I am officially going to Cambodia on January 15th. I am officially going to Kuwait on February 7th. (SOPHIA!) That's all I have worked out so far. I'll keep you posted.

School is good. I have a new student from Japan. He has a genetic disease called MELAS. I've done some googling on that and all I can really make out is that it has something to do with lactic acid. His mom told me she doesn't think he'll live past the teenage years. He's 11, but due to 4 strokes/seizures in January he functions at about a 5 year old level. However, he functions in Chinese, Japanese, and English. It's been stressful and my other students do really well with him sometimes and less so others.

I am being observed on Thursday by pretty much everyone in the school. All first year teachers get to experience this pleasure. Luckily, the homeroom teachers get observed fairly regularly anyway so that both myself and the kiddos are sort of used to it. This one is the most serious one though, so I'm a bit nervous. It'll be fine though probably.

We found a bar that has amazing Western food so I went there with the ladies last night.

Today is shaping up to be a Katie Day. I'm reading Dracula.

The internet has been very annoying still. Sorry. I miss contacting you too.


Oh yeah! Happy Thanksgiving!! The Americans made some food, but I had tutoring and then some skyping with Ian and the family. CHENEY was home and I finally got to see that muscle princess. It sounds like things are good on the home front.

Muscles. Cheney!

Wooster cup coffee. Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been swimming a few times each week and trying to run at least once. I'm also in the process of forcing a Chinese co-teacher to be my friend. I made him go swimming this week. That's been my project since the internet is making watching tv while knitting very un-relaxing.

Love!

SameSame

Not much to report. Just checking in. I'm super excited that Obama was reelected. I haven't been able to check in on all the election day results due to the Chinese "election". What? Oh, let me tell you. China is appointing a new president that noone knows anything about. My assistant tells me that this is because China is too big to know the people in it. As a result, the internet has been much harder to use than normal, and I find it very frustrating. Therefore, I have not been on it much. Thing are expected to go back to just the normal Chinese frustrations that come from trying to use the internet by next week. Fingers crossed.

I woke up today due to a phone call from my co-worker, Peter. Peter is an Australian-Chinese man who is a subject teacher. (I am a homeroom teacher, there are 5 of us and 14 subject teachers in the English section) He was calling to invite me to his home to hang out with his family. I said "Ok!" so I went and hung out with a Chinese family. It was way less awkward than I thought. He has a 7 year old daughter who I played with. His mom made a delicious lunch. Not too bad.

I'm finally getting around to planning my vacation. As noted earlier, the internet has made it super challenging. I am going to Cambodia for 3ish weeks, Kuwait for a few days and to SEE SOPHIA! FINALLY AFTER A MAJORITY OF OUR RELATIONSHIP HAS BEEN LONG DISTANCE AND I"M SO EXCITED. Then we are going to Sri Lanka. I think the actual traveling will be a bit pricey, but the rest of it should be AWESOME. I am unsure as to if I will be doing Cambodia on my own or not. I think I will get my scuba certs though, so that's cool.

Work was good this week. I started a language exchange with one of the school administrators, so hopefully I can pick up some Mandrin. I  know a bit, but I usually just panic and speak Korean, which is weird because I didn't really speak much Korean in Korea. Ehh, what can you do?

Bathrooms.

The homeroom teachers after I was observed by about 30 teachers all day. Brendon has grades 3-4, Chris has the juniors, I have 5-6, Emma has 1-2, Dave has the seniors. And he's the boss.

Life is good. It's getting cold. It snows sometimes. I found the yarn shops, so I have a hobby going. Finally.

Oh, hey November! Fancy meeting you here.

Happy November! Happy Election week! We had a Halloween thing last week. Now we have Exams coming up. I've picked up a few more tutoring hours. I'm trying to plan my winter vacation trip. (Anyone want to meet me in Cambodia January 15-Feb 1st?) It's supposed to snow this week.

Mom, thank you. It was a big hit.

Myself and Emmathedilemma on the Halloween Pub-Crawl.

Happy Halloween!

Minsoo, Veda, Misuzu, Anna Teacher, Amelia, Sofia, Susan, Bieru.

The girls.

Bieru made his ninja costume out of a shirt. He's very proud of himself.

 

 

That's all. I know nothing too exciting. Love and miss.