A Bottle of Sunshine

I've never really considered myself to be the 'eternally happy' person, or the 'always cheerful' person, 'little-miss-sunshine', or even the most 'positive thinking' person before. I usually gripe when I'm annoyed, I can get bogged down in things, and I really do like a good bitch n' moan once in awhile. I have to say though, lately? Lately, I sure feel like the resident bottle of sunshine!! You know, that person you hate at work because they always seem to be hapy and in a good mood and loving their life and eating truffles or some-such nonsense??

.   I   .   love   .   my   .   job   .

I don't say that because my boss reads my blog (I'm quite sure that he doesn't!), I really mean it - I love my job. I'm a teacher again, and I have the best kids. They bring me little "I love you" pictures and notes that they worked on at home so I can put them up on display. I get paid well, I enjoy my school, my students are amazing (even the duller ones), and I have a boss that really takes care of the school. The boss brings us treats every week from Costco (pretzels, cookies, apple pie, etc), and they provide north american-style coffee as well. I don't work too late most days, I have my weekends totally free, and I get told I'm doing a good job often. I have an awesome apartment that is clean and in a pretty new building in a nice neighbourhood, I live one block from the river system and one block from school, and I can go home on afternoon break if I want to. I am surrounded by amazing restaurants, am only 20 minutes from the 'big city,' and I can get anywhere in the country really cheaply when I'm so inclined. There's lots to do, lots to see, and I even have vacation time coming!

I have days where I miss home, miss my family, miss being able to buy a pair of jeans or shoes easily, miss being understood without effort, but for the most part, I am really, really, happy. At work, almost since I first arrived, the people I work with have been getting more and more negative every week. It feels like they complain all the time from when they get off the bus in the morning until they walk out the doors at the end of the day, and they take every tiny thing (done or said by the boss) personally and critically. The guy really can't do any right for the most part at the moment (it seems), no matter how he tries.

Now not to say he hasn't done a few things to annoy his teachers legitimately, he has, but really as I see it you have 3 choices when you're mad at or annoyed with someone:

• (A) Tell the dum-dum who has irritated or annoyed you why you're mad or annoyed at them, get it off your chest, get it fixed, and let it go
• (B) Bitch to everyone here there and everywhere for next 3-10 days straight about it until they want to throw a can of coffee at your head
  -or -
• (C) Decide if there was something useful in the offensive/annoying conversation you can take away with you, and let the rest of it go.... it doesn't really matter in the big picture anyway!

Now (A) might be the best choice in a lotta places: air the issue, talk about how it might be changed, do something about it. However, I have to say that in my opinion it's not the best choice here in Korea, especially when you're dealing with your boss. You can tell your boss you're annoyed with something he did. You can tell your boss you're not happy with a decision he made about a student or a class, but for the most part it will fall on deaf ears. While you are saying "Listen Bossman, when you interrupted my class AGAIN yesterday to talk to me about my electricity bill I felt all annoyed and it really irritated me," Bossman is just hearing "Ooookaaay.... teacher's mad, smile and nod, smile and nod, say 'ok ok, I understand', smile some more and nod nod nod, give a bit of a bow, say 'ok ok, I'm sorry teacher,' back away slowly, don't make too much eye-contact" until you either stop talking or go away. It's all about saving face over here - they'll just try to smooth it over and make you happy (or make you stop telling them your problem), but they're not likely to change whatever the problem was in the first place.

The part that's the most fun about not being able to use (A) at work is that every little thing you've ever been annoyed about (or things that aren't even about you that just annoyed you by-proxy, seeping into your pores over coffee break) become piled one on top of the other in a precariously teetering tower of madness, particularly if you enjoy keeping a little black book of grievances in your head... I'm waiting for some of the towers in the staffroom to come tumbling down... I plan to be out for a walk in the sunshine when it happens! 

(B) is very common at my school. Forget (A), no sense going there and we (most of us most of the time) know it, so let's sit down with the other teachers and tell them all why Bossman's a jerk who doesn't know what he's doing, where he's going, or which wheels are gonna gettim there. Repeat B for every 10-minute break during the day (and get so engrossed in the telling that you are at least 5 minutes late for every class), on the walk home from school, and during afternoon break if and when the mood strikes. Add some extra insults and derogatories in about the boss just for good measure so you know for sure that everyone understands how serious you are about being annoyed and irritated. Throw in a few "it just wasn't like this a few years ago" as well while shaking your head and rubbing your chin, while pining for the days of old. Keep doing this until there's something new that irritates or annoys you about the boss, and then take a deep breath, go back to the beginning and start anew.

(C), however, is the way I prefer to deal with annoyance in Korea (for the most part). I get to thinking hey, I live in another country where people don't usually say quite what they mean (translation problems), it's really not necessary to take everything personally or to heart. When Boss does pop into my class unexpectedly for non-school reasons, or when he wants to have a 5th meeting during my breaktime (to talk about the same textbook he pulled me out of my class to talk about yesterday) so he can satisfy himself that I'm teaching it correctly, or when he has feedback (e.g. criticisms) about my tests or homework assignments, I really try hard not to take it personally. I decide if there's anything in it I need to take away from it (e.g. maybe I'm doing something wrong with the book? Maybe he's having a need-for-micro-managing moment that's not even about me or the book?), and then I let it go, let it be, move on. Yes, he sometimes says things that make me scratch my head and raise my eyebrow after he's gone. Yes, he has a couple of sentence-starters that get annoying when you hear them repeatedly in a day (and even more more annoying when 7 other teachers are mimicking and complaining about them). Yes, that headset mic he sometimes forgets he's wearing when shepherding the kids out of the school is irritating... but I get over it... He's the boss of me a few hours a day; he pays my wages, and for the most part as long as he's reasonable in what he's asking for, I'll teach my kids standing on one foot while spinning in a circle patting my head and rubbing my tummy if that's how he'd prefer they be taught - no skin off my nose!

Occasionally I try to break through all of the staff room complaining (it turns into a big stone-soup bitch-session usually where everyone brings their favorite or most-recent complaint to add into the pot). Once in awhile I try to point out how you might take a breath and maybe look at things differently (i.e. how we might think about letting it go), but I'm usually met with "well you don't know how it used to be here, it's just not the same," or just silence (and I'm sure some covert eye-rolling). I want to bang my head on the table some days to make it all stop, but instead I've decided that my MP3 player is a far better option than a self-inflicted head injury (thank you Halvar Jonson Centre :) ). That and a book and I just disappear into my own world for my breaks so I don't have to listen to it all - that way I don't get sucked into the fight that isn't even mine to begin with.

The way I see things, I have a boss who busts his a$$ to keep all of the mothers happy (very difficult job when you have an 80-child kindergarten I would say) so they keep their children in his school, who eats-sleeps-and-breathes a family-run business that is his family's only livelihood (wife is kid-Manager, mother-in-law is cook and cleaner), who tries to keep 8 sometimes very needy, demanding and temperamental teachers happy (while paying between $300 and $500 more per month than similar schools), and who really cares about having a happy school. It seems to me that he tries really hard to make sure things are well run, that the kids are happy and well-taught, and that the teachers do their jobs the way he has designed (we're a lazy lot if you don't keep tabs sometimes!). He rarely gets a thanks from us, and I'm sure it's the same from the mothers, and he's really just trying to do his job the best way he knows how. Give the guy a break... I'm grateful to be where I am, and I'm happy - the whole schabang, kit n' kaboodle. I'll do what I can to keep the Boss happy: happy boss = happy me - I really plan on staying that way!

Now for the moment I'm headed out for a walk with the pup and then back to work. Back to my papers, back to my powerpoints, and back to school (and hopefully to bed early tonight!). I hope your day carries you along somewhere you can be happy, I'm doing my best where I am!!  Talk soon...

Look - New Furniture!! (aka: God Help Me Finish This Paper)

I am having the worst time getting anything done on this paper. It's due in the morning, so it has to be done, and here it is almost 8pm - help!! My school brain just won't jump into my head so I'm kinda struggling. So I'm signing off again, even though I just signed ON - I wanted to show you a picture of my apartment sorta redone! I have to move the map (need more dbl-sided tape first) and maybe get a carpet, but look what shopping in the recycling centre can getcha!! You can see I've been studying on my bed instead of at my desk, lol...

My futon (which you can't really see well since it's in the front of the picture being used to dry clothes!), desk drawers (under the desk), desk chair, and night stand all came out of the drop-off centre (for free!) and the comforter someone abandoned at the drycleaners - matches both sets of sheets I brought, yay!! Ok, this is me back to work...

A Month Already, Wow...

So I've been back for more than a month now, coming up on six weeks I guess, and I both (a) can't believe how quickly time has gone, and (b) can't believe it's only been a month. At the end of each month of school we have monthly tests for our kids, so it got me thinking about how the past month has been, and what I'm looking forward to in the near future (including my first real payday!). Here are a few of my feelings about the past few weeks and what's ahead...

I am happy happy happy happy happy to be back, and so glad I decided to make the trip. Though it's certainly different this trip than either of the other 2, I'm really happy most days that I'm here. And really, the days that I'm not are days that I wouldn't be happy being wherever in the world I might be at the time - I get over it!

I am sick of being sick, as I think I've had about 5 days of free-from-sickness since I arrived. I do remember being sick often in Korea, but not THIS much - heading back to the doctor AGAIN later this morning - and I promise it's not just another procrastination technique!! I'm also sick of letting myself get carried away with watching movies (thanks to my coworkers I have discovered torrents, and it's so much faster than limewire - I had 25 new movies (new as in 'still in theatres) downloaded in 2 hours!) and have hidden the folder on my desktop!

I am excited about my upcoming vacation time, even though it is months away. Our school has the first week of August off, so I am scouring my map (yes, still scouring!) and stickin' post-its all over the place trying to decide where-to-go-when, and which place will be best for my 9-day holiday. I waffle back and forth between going somewhere I've already been but seeing a new part of it, or going somewhere entirely new. Still don't know, but I have lots of time to plan. On the list for consideration so far are Laos and Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Northern Thailand, and Shanghai...

I am disappointed that I can't join some friends on a trip to Nepal over vacation time, but our days don't line up so it's 'no dice' for that plan. It might have been fun to go with a group of people and see somewhere new - I'd like to see Nepal! Oh well, I hope they have fun anyway, and I'll keep looking at the map!

I am looking forward to some upcoming local trips and travel, and even to getting out to a baseball game in Seoul soon! Early April I'm going to do a bicycle tour of Gyeongju  - I hope it'll be fun and that I won't die of exhaustion (we'll see!). The trip sounds incredible, I'm looking forward to it! In Mid-April when all of my projects and exams and all that crap are done I'm heading out to the countryside to stay at a buddhist temple. I've always wanted to do it, but never made time! We'll stay in the temple, participate in prayer, chores, and meditation with the monks, I'm really looking forward to it - and it's great timing!!  On the long weekend of Buddha's Birthday in May I'm going to JeollaNamDo... I'll get to visit a couple of temples, go to a green tea plantation, a celadon pottery house, stay in a folk village, visit an ecological reserve and a bamboo forest park with big sequoias, tour an island by boat, stay in a condo on the beach... I can't wait for all of it, can't can't wait! I know that's not everyone cuppa tea, but I am so excited to get out and see some new stuff! I'm also going to Miss Saigon here in April sometime (all in Korean), we'll see what it's like to watch a musical when I can't really understand the words!!
 

I am incredibly glad that it's been pretty easy to keep in touch with home this time around. With the combination of Skype, email, and Blogger it's really felt sometimes like I never even left! I get to chat with mom all the time (almost more than when we lived a couple hours apart!), and now that my besty got herself a camera I'll get to talk with her and her babies sometimes too! Yaaaayy for technology!!

I am proud of myself for making a couple of Korean friends! Living in Korea it's really easy to live a completely English/Korea-free life (save for the shopping experience that is) if you want to. And I really and honestly DON'T want to, but it's just so easy!! We kinda flock together, all us ex-pats, so it's easy to just hang out in your home neighbourhood and go to pubs or recreate locally without getting out to do much else. I work with some people who rarely do anything but go to bars in Seoul on weekends and stay home Iweekday evenings - and that's mostly their experience of living in a foreign country... sad I think, but i can understand how it happens.

Last week in the staff office I asked a couple of the Korean teachers if they knew a little bit of English (of course I know they do, but they never ever really speak to us - they don't think they speak well enough to have a conversation so they just don't). I asked a couple of the Korean teachers that I like if they might want to go out for coffee, or go see a movie, or go out to eat together sometime, and I thought their heads were going to explode! It was really funny... one of them broke into a huge smile, squeezed her eyes shut and actually clenched her fists to her chests all excited-like while hopping around in a circle saying 'yes, I'd like to I'd like to I really like it!' I giggled through the rest of my next class thinking about it, lol... I'm still giggling. We'll muddle through the language thing somehow!

I am grateful that I ended up at such a great school (mental note: email thank you note to recruiter - keep forgetting!). My school is well-stocked, very prepared, and the kids really love it. There's a good system for teaching (I don't have to really do much preparation (save for testing at month-end) and the schedule is very routinized so the methods of instruction are often the same day-to-day. I work with 7 other foreigners that I enjoy being around, and I laugh a lot at work (even in exam week). I miss my old work, the people particularly (always) and the job itself (some days!), but all in all this was definitely a good trade!

I am annoyed with myself that I still haven't started an exercise plan. I have come up with lots of great excuses and still haven't made the time. Running has been hurting my knees (thank you athletic therapist for reminding me about why I must have started running with the wrong muscles in the first place!). I'd like to get back into yoga but it really isn't easy to follow it in class in Korean (even with that small class size) and that takes much of the 'relaxing' part out of doing yoga to reduce stress!

I am hopeful that once I'm on a bit of a break from school I'll be able to relax a bit and sort myself out with an exercise and relaxation (that doesn't involve my laptop!) plan. Monthly massage and accupuncture to promote health and relaxation - yes please!

I am thinking about the upcoming trip mom and I are going to make to Hawaii in September - we've never travelled anywhere together as adults really, so I'm excited about it! I'm still waiting on word for when my time off will be... our 'actual' calendar holiday-time falls on a Tue/Wed/Thu so if boss doesn't decide to give up Mon or Fri off I guess I'll be planning to call in sick for one of those days! I though it was a longer holiday, but that will still be wonderful. Mom hasn't done much travelling, especially to anywhere tropical, so I'm really looking forward to it for both of us!

I am in love with my kids, and I actually mean all of them - not just my kindy kids! They are so eager and excited and amazing, and they give me new dose of energy and excitement every day - even after the first month's honeymoon together is over! They work hard, they giggle a lot, they (mostly) listen during my classes, and (thankfully!) they're easily entertained by my teacher antics. Love, love, love 'em... and teaching??! There's no better job in the world...

Well, that's it for now, and as good a place as any to sign off for the time being, wouldn't you agree? I'm off to the grocery store for some more yuja-tea (a honey lemon jin citron tea that makes me feel better when I'm feeling sick n' sucky!) and to see the Dr... have a wonderful day wherever you may be, until next time!

Hints of Spring

It's true, we have snow again. I did however notice some small signs of spring over the weekend when Mags and I were out on Saturday morning... many of the trees along the main drag are starting to have little buds on them, grass in common areas is becoming green instead of winter brown, and I also can't discount the spring greens in the shrubbery almost everywhere I go... In like a lion, out like a lamb - let's go with that, alright? March has been snowy, very cool bridging on cold some days, and covered in yellow dust. April's gonna be all sunshowers and flower blossoms, I can see it now... a girl can dream, right!?!

Spring Got Lost on the Way to Korea

I don't have much time to write at the moment as it's time for bed after much school work and classroom prep. The last Friday of the month at school is always the 'monthly tests' for all of our classes, and I have projects due this Friday, Monday and the following Friday, so I'm busy! busy! busy!

You just know as I sit here I'm dreaming of July's upcoming sandy beaches, greeny blue water, palm trees and some kinda fruity drink with an umbrella!! Hope you're having a great day... brrrrrrrrrr.....

Thank U Card to Mongolia, Northern China, and Kazakhstan

Dear Mongolia, Northern China, and Kazakhstan:

     What do you think of the colour of ink I chose, a nice sunny kind of yellow, right? You know, I always kinda wanted to visit you Mongolia, and maybe even you Kazakhstan (sorry Northern China, not you so much), but after today's run-in with the yellow dust that you so thoughtfully sent our way, I have to say that you have moved yourselves much further down the list of 'must-see' places on the new map hanging on my apartment wall.
     My lungs feel heavy and my eyes are burning, and right now I can say that I don't like you very much. Now perhaps if in the future you could restrain your winds and keep the dust on YOUR side of the continent, I think I can speak for most of us here when I tell that we'd really appreciate it. Maybe I'd even consider moving you back up the travel list at some point. But I digress. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take a shower - after going for an innocent walk: I feel so dirty!

     Sincerely yours,

          Dusty in Korea

Earlier this week when I'd been out for a couple of walks I noticed that my eyes were near burning when I got back. Nothing looked amiss outside, so I assumed it was just another one of those cases of mysterious flyabouts in the Korean air that occasionally irritate me. Today around noon when I was sitting at the computer working on my paper, and while staring off into space out the window I noticed that the sun never really had come out for the day - when I examined the sky more closely, I thought it kinda looked strange and hazy, a weird pinkish colour that didn't belong in the middle of the day. But, when I took Mags out for her walks nothing seemed up, other than the sore red eyes I had when I got back into the apartment building.

Turns out that for the next 2 days (i.e. today and tomorrow) were are supposed to stay home or otherwise severely limit any outdoor pursuits (e.g. long walks in the park with my pup), due to a yellow dust storm out of China. Notice how it doesn't look so yellow in the sky? Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky...

Now I've always heard about this dust, but never really have I been affected by it, until this year. It started raining this afternoon and you could actually see the dust in the run-off looking suspicially like pollen, though you can't see it in the air when you're walking. You can see it on cars that have been parked for awhile and have since gotten a bit wet from the rain - icky and gross!

The photo above shows what the sky looked like from about since I woke up this morning... that's not gray cloud in the sky, that's the famed dust. People were walking around here and there in face masks, some, not all, but once I heard that's what it was I was a little put off about being out walking around in it and made my way back home (where I will stay now until the weekend's over). I have about everything I need in my building so I don't need to go out anyway, other than to take Mags out (short pee walks only for now!). I'm off shortly to a shower after reading that wikipedia article, I don't really want it all over me and now I'm obsessing about maybe feeling it in my lungs - must breathe some clean steam - now!!! (Oh, and Mom - it's not toxic or anything just desert dust for the most part, not to worry!).

Tonight before I knew about the ick in the sky I met a couple of old friends for dinner, shabu-shabu, yummy! For this meal that boiling broth in the centre is used to cook the noodles, dumplings, veggies and meat, and then you just pull out what you want to eat and plop it into your bowl, adding more uncooked stuff as you empty out the pot. At the end of the meal (i.e. once you eat all your meat n' veggies) they bring a rice, chive and egg mix that they cook in the bottom of the very hot pot, making a kind of porridge once the soup is all done... very nice, very nice. 

Though I didn't really feel all that full after we ate, we topped it off with a Baskin-Robbins double-junior cup (who could go wrong with Twinberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse?!) and that was better!  :)  Korea has the greatest looking cakes - baking in general usually looks so amazing. Unfortunately, it is rare that it tastes as good as it looks, but you can ALWAYS count on good ole' Baskin-Robbins. (sorry for the terrible camera reflections in the glass, I took the shots in a hurry!)

The Wheels on the Bus

Well, most of the snow has melted off again, and truthfully I hope I don't see it again until next winter! It was disheartening to wake up this morning and see snow covering everything, but I guess it's really only mid-March, and spring doesn't really come until April, right? That's what I'm going to tell myself anyway... It's funny here to see everyone outside with their umbrellas in the snow. Children don't run around catching snowflakes on their tongues here because their parents have told them it's frozen acid rain (due to the pollution levels)... a little sad the kids miss out on that small bit of winter fun that I remember from my own childhood - they think I'm crazy when I tell them they should try to catch them (but I saw 2 of them trying it after school the other day). When they get home I know that their mothers will be convinced I'm trying to poison them... "Mommy, Shauna Teacher said it's okay, really, look at me!"

So here's a little bit about school that I haven't really mentioned much about. Every morning at school I start my day with a ride on the bus to pick up the kindergarten kids and bring them to school. Best Kids has 6 buses, and every week we alternate to a new one with a new driver and group of kids. Though the old teachers complain about it I think it's kind of nice because I get to meet all of the little ones and they get to know me a little. We chat and make funny sentences and otherwise kill time until we get to school ('look teacher, a green bus/blue bus/red bus/gray/bus/city bus/school bus...' Oh, my head...). I started on Bus 1 and this week I'm on Bus 3, so I'm slowly moving through the kiddies.

Each Monday so far since I started on my own buses the kids hardly talk at all - for that matter, they barely even look up from their seats they're so shy! However, by Wednesday they're full of stories and silly sentences and funny faces and they're excited to see me when the bus arrives, so it makes it easy for me to enjoy the morning ride!

 This isn't something that most kindergartens here do as there are usually Korean teachers who have this part of the job, but in my opinion it's brilliant business sense on the part of my boss! There are other parents with their children at each stop in the morning (waiting for another school's bus with a Korean teacher), and they seem to take great interest in our English comings and goings. I'm sure we get new students as a result of it, and the 10 second pick-up is really the only contact we get with our kindy parents (they're not allowed to observe classes at all), so it's easy to make a good impression.

On Monday I arrived 10 minutes late for the bus because I didn't know it had a different departure time (the kids live a bit farther away, so it leaves at 8:30 instead of 8:40 like the others). To add to my 10 minute delay, this is what the traffic looked like the whole way there thanks to the strange Korean aversion to driving in the rain... Needless to say we were up to 30 minutes late picking up the last of the kids, and we didn't actually get to school until 10 minutes after classes were supposed to have started, late late late! Since the Koreans don't seem to use phone trees, the poor driver had to field calls from each of the moms throughout the traffic jam... "I'm sorry, traffic is very bad on the freeway," "I'm sorry, we're still 15 minutes from your apartment, please go wait out of the rain," and though he could have he didn't once say "I'm sorry but my teacher was a dohdoh-head and compounded the traffic problem by arriving 10 minutes late!" He was excellent the whole way, didn't get frustrated once during the whole trip. I was really impressed, because I'd have come unglued myself!! He just put in a dvd of a Simon & Garfunkel tribute concert and chilled out until we got there, it was excellent (check out the dashboard GPS monitor that doubles as a TV)!!

Here are a few pictures of the kids on the bus and getting to school, I really think they're adorable and I'm in love with every one of them!

May thinks Ricky is the best thing in the world... he's a 2nd year student (6 years old) and she's 1st year (5 years old) and he absolutely adores it that she's in love with him

Esther was very proud that she brought her baby sister's puppet to school, the milkmaid from France (I didn't know milkmaids were a french thing??)... apparently puppet came to school for the day so she could go back home and teach the other puppets some English!

Daniel is very cute, quiet and shy on the bus but a monster in the hallways once he's on familiar turf... adorable...

Believe it or not, these 2 pictures are of the same Sally, I couldn't believe how much more grown up her 5-year old self seemed by the 3rd day on the bus with me - she was busy adoring Ricky with May when I took the side shot... and how cute is her sweater????

Best friends

Got there safe!

Dear Mother Nature...

Dear Mother Nature,

Hope this letter finds you tucked away somewhere warm and sunny, not like us over here in Korea. In case someone hasn't already mentioned it to you (not that I want to speak out of turn or anything), it is past mid-March now, and therefore supposed to be: the start of Spring.

Now as I remember it, (though I spent most of winter in Canada, so my recollection from spring soooooooooo long ago is quite fuzzy!), Spring usually involves some rain, some flowers blooming, warmer weather and all things like that - so what's up with this SNOW??? Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger and blah blah blah, but we're dyyyyyyyyyin' for Spring over here, could you please send some (ths sunshine, raindrops and flowers and all that) our way??

With all due respect,
Shauna

Heart Gifts

From out of nowhere many days in class (often in mid-sentence during a grammar lesson, now that I think about it!) kids give me little presents... some of them hang around shyly after the lesson has ended to drop something in my palm (see the cats-eye marble?) and run away, others boldy block the doorway before class begins with a "teacher, wait - this me give you!" I've gotten lots of sweaty-palmed candy (um, yum, thanx for sharing <put in pencil case to toss when child has gone home>!), and strange little things that they bring from home or get from other friends. I don't ever remember making little things like this for my teachers, but the kids here in my afternoon classes seem to do it a lot, so I thought I would share some of the cuteness with you...

One boy, Billy, in my PM1 grammar class made me the cranes during a break-time... the folded blue and purple paper came from Lauren in PM2 grammar class...

The beaded butterfly came from Jinny in my PM2 Grammar Class, the marble and pink scrap of drawings from Hellen in PM3 grammar, the throwing star from Daniel in PM2 grammar...

 

and the paper crab from Mina in PM2 grammar...

I know they're not much, but they're tiny little heart gifts from my kids and I adore them... perhaps minus the sticky-palmed candy, but I still appreciate the gesture!!!  Kids are incredible, and I love my job...

Gym Drawing, Science, and the Magic Show

Here are some more shots of my kids in "Gym Drawing" class... the boss and the Korean teachers cover the floor of the whole common area with paper and all the kids get to come out and draw on it! My kids loved it when I got down with them to draw (apparently teachers never did before I came, but I wasn't missin' out on the fun!!)... kites, fishies, and flowers for the girls, submarines, cars, trains and boats with the boys - I loved it too!

Jay absorbed in his drawing...

Daniel immersed in the drawing project... on the bus he loves to yell out random English words followed by "ga-ga" (like, Teacher-Ga-Ga!!) at the top of his lungs and then giggle his little heart out... I just laugh and shake my head, he's adorable...

This little ham is Eric, he's lovely and wonderful, and smart-smart-smart. He thinks all kids in our class should strictly follow all rules, so I'm currently attempting to break him of his tattling addiction

Aran is lovey and cuddly, smart and hardworking, and she's fast becoming teachers pet!

You didn't get to meet my Justin when I posted all the pics of my kids in the playroom... he's a darlin', I love him!

Princess-Ants-in-Her-Pants-and-Beans-in-Her-Ears Sandy

Sean and Daniel love love love me, but only half as much as I adore them

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The other day we also had a magic show (boss is quite the magician, he even swallowed a glowing thumb and I'm not going to tell you where it popped out of!) and the kids LOVED it... we made piggy banks in science class that same day (or the next?) so there are a couple of pictures here from the classroom too...

Sean and Becky hard at work on pig-design...

Miss Ants-in-her-Pants always manages to lose a part of her projects, you'll notice her pig has no nose, and it's already had a new back leg glued on because the other disappeared, lol...

Here's boss's magic show...

A couple shots of Justin lovin' the magic show with the other boys, since you didn't really get to meet him earlier...?

This is my Melody, who you didn't get a chance to meet earlier on in the month... she's very quiet and spends most of her time speaking Korean in class with my little Jay - she's very smart though, we're working on the confidence level... she loved the magic show! 

I hope seeing some of these photos of my happy kids has brought you a smile or 2, I know it has for me... I'm so grateful to have my job and my kids, they're joyful joyful little rays of sunshine no matter what the day brings!