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!