So Much Excitement!

So many amazing things are happening in my life right now! I am feeling very blessed. But more on my big news later... gotta build up that anticipation!

First order of business, Royal Idol, ILS' yearly talent show, was last Thursday. After a great deal of brainstorming and failed but brilliant ideas, Mellie and I pulled of a great performance. We did a "music video" (basically re-creating the video or lip syncing to a song) to a song called "That's Not My Name." We basically did a play on the fact that all the Ms. Garcias are constantly getting another's papers. There is a video that exists, but it hasn't been sent to me yet, so pics will have to do for now.

This is at the beginning, shuffling our papers...

And for our grand finale, Ms. Garcia senior and Mr. Garcia (a school-wide celebrity) came out and shuffled papers with us. It was super fun and entertaining, which was the whole point.

Last year's winner of Royal Idol was a freshmen singer (she was one of mine, too!) and this year's winners were also freshmen. I totally called that they were going to win the day they auditioned, and I was pleased to see that I was right. They were freshmen dancers who krupmed (I think that's the official type of dance). It sounds violent, but it was actually really cool.

In other news, last weekend I got to be on the main stage at church playing Esther in the Bible story. Super fun, as always.

Last night were parent/teacher conferences. A couple of parents that I wanted to see came, but the rest were all the parents who always come even when their kids are doing well, like my parents always did. I'm happy to do it, and I think it's necessary, but I just wish the parents of the kids who need it would show up. But then again, if the parent's gave a crap, maybe their kid wouldn't be failing/a pain in my butt/a waste of space/annoying/"special. *sigh* It can be pretty frustrating, especially after 13 consecutive hours at work.

Speaking of, even though we have today off, I'll be at school tomorrow for the SALTT Dance-a-Thon. Last year, if you recall, my team and I won. This year team Austin Powers is planning to do the same. Now if I could only find a bald cap...

Enough of that stuff, on to my exciting news. First, I'll be heading to Costa Rica for spring break! I booked a Caravan tour leaving on April 9th and returning the 18th. Everything is taken care of on the tour: all food, accomidations, even transfers to and from the airport. I'm really excited and can't wait!

Second is more travel news. I was accepted into a Gildher-Lehrman Institute summer seminar at OXFORD!! Yes, THE Oxford! I'm finally going to England! The best part? I'm paying very little--they give each participant a $500 stipend, and cover all food, lodging, and books once I'm there. I can NOT believe it! I'm still a little bit in shock...

It's all happening.

I am SO blessed!

Much love.

Less like vacation

Being here in Miami is starting to seem less like a vacation and more like a life. Things are getting to me. The people here are getting to me. There seems to be something wrong with many of them. The customer service here is heinous, completely and utterly unacceptable. I'm talking, people answer their cellphone in the middle of a transaction horrible. I can't deal with it. In fact, it's so bad that the one time I actually had a pleasant experience, I took the time to write a comment card and send it in because I was so shocked. Serioulsy... palm trees are nice but living here isn't. I like my school, and teaching's growing on me (except for freshmen, who are the most hideous and evil creatures on the planet) but Miami is too hot, people are too mean, and there's too much traffic. For starters.

The BF and I saw a movie on Friday night, my first here. In fact, I haven't seen a movie since the day before I left Michigan. Pretty sad, I know. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be seeing many while I live here. We went to a 7:15 movie and it was crawling with adolescents. Adolescents who feel the need to talk (and not in whispers either, in full on conversational voices) and answer text messages throughout the movie. THE ENTIER TIME. I don't have that much to say to people I haven't seen in three years and I've been to 9 countries. What is WRONG with them? Who told them that sort of behavior was okay? Probably their parents who do the same thing. It's like everyone in this city immature and irresponsible and self-centered. It's driving me crazy.

Anyway, the movie itself was decent. We saw Across the Universe. It wasn't as amazing as I wanted it to be, and it was sort of trippy and weird at times, but still totally worth seeing. Even for $9.50 with people talking the whole time. I must say that "Strawberry Fields" will never be the same for me after that movie. Disturbing in the best possible way.

I haven't really been up to much else of import. I just work a lot and don't do much else. We keep saying we'll have people over but we still have pictures to hang and we need to have time to clean and actually prepare to have people over. T and I are just constantly busy. We hadn't been to the grocery store in two weeks and finally went yesterday. That's how bad it was.

I do have one little story to tell. I changed my pump in the bathroom at school the other day, and it must have been in a vein, or something because I pulled the IV thingy out and it started GUSHING blood. It was SUPER sick and scary. I thought I would bleed to death in a bathroom at LaSalle high school. Horrible. Anyway, this little debacle got me a wicked brise about the size of a fifty-cent piece. I took pictures it was so dang big. Here, check it out:

Here's a zoomed in one... Pretty gross, eh?

Yikes. What a nightmare.

Anyway... Lots of school stuff coming up. Homecoming weekend is in the middle of October and this year it's a big deal because it's the school's 50th anniversary. There's even going to be a black tie dinner gala thingy. I really want to go (alum is sponsoring seats for faculty and staff) but I don't want to go alone so I'm trying to convince T to come too. It should be interesting, in the very least. Maybe there'll be some hot, single alum who find me irresistable. Or at least some gay boys so I can build up my posse. Either or will do.

I'll try to update more often than I do, I'm just so tired and busy all the time I'm finding it difficult to even get my work done, let alone update my blog. But once again, thanks for reading. I'm sure I miss you.

XOXO

Things don't always turn out the way you planned...

It's been ages and ages since I updated. But of course, I'm supposed to be on vacation right now, and NOT in fact sitting in my paren'ts living room in Holt. See, I had two hours of paradise in the Thailand sun, and then... my insulin pump broke and it was hours upon hours of crying, freaking out, and trying to get a flight home. It was THE worst thing that has EVER happened to me. It was so horrible and scary and I just couldn't... function at that point. So I got on a plane and arrived in Detroit 36 hours later. And I'm not even going to TALK about my LAX experience because the whole thing enrages me. Let's just say things didn't go well, I missed a flight AND I fit the profile of a terrorist. Um...no.


But my doggie was happy to see me, and I was happy to see him. :) He is still the cutest dog ever.


So... let's see. Graduation. Lemme throw in some pics of my kids because I don't have any new ones to post. This is me and my class in their caps and gowns.



It's Jenny in a box!




And a final random one I snapped because I liked the banner. They're singing "Come Sail Away" for the parents.


Saying goodbye to my babies was sad, yes, but they are all amazing people and we both just felt like it was time. I'm sure they're doing well andI'm so happy that I got to know those little people. :)


So now that I'm home I haven't really been up to much. Mostly helping to clean out my parents basement (25 years worth of stuff is a LOOOOOOT of stuff) and make a daily trip to Goodwill. They think we're moving. We are not, in fact, moving. Anyway, it's something useful to do while I sit at home all day.


I helped Leah out wiith her class yesterday, which was super fun, and I have a job interview tomorrow. I'm not even sure what the job is at this point, but, if nothing else, the interview will be good practice. Unfortunately the thing that's plagued me since I got home remains a concern: what to wear. I have a plethora of spring/summer clothes (and shoes) but not many winter things. So coming up with something to wear for an interview is going to be a challenge. Balls.

Went out to lunch with a man from church today, the guy who sort of encouraged me to actually go to Korea when everyone else was really skeptical. We went to a sushi place and it was good, but a LOT of sushi. lol. Anyway, George is a super nice man and he always asked my mom about me when I was gone. And when I was scared about going, he was the one who really encouraged me and told me I'd have a great time, instead of being scared for me or whatever. So that was nice. Plus, getting out of the house is key right now because not having a car kind of sucks.

Anyway... I'm still going to Australia and New Zealand, and I'm looking for jobs and things are going okay. The nightmare of Thailand is behind me, and in front of me lies only possibility.


Much love.

The end is in sight

I had a week like most others at CIS, simply a bit more hectic because I had to finish all the books I've been teaching. Mission accomplished on that front. Also, I was just trying to enjoy my kids for the last week, but somehow they got on my nerves even more than normal. I think we're both just ready to move on; as much as I love them, a year and a half is a long time. I'm excited to see them graduate tomorrow and get another step closer to becoming, like, real people. Crazy.


I'm also getting ready to leave Korea, my home for the past year and a half. That part's not so easy... I'm nearly all packed for my trips, which is amazing. Honestly, I didn't think all my stuff would fit. And it doesn't, but that's because the diabetic girl has to take two months worth of supplies along. Fun. So I just bought a carry on bag and I'll put books/diabetes supplies/a coat in there and then send it along when I get down under, I think. Speaking of sending things home, I think I'm going to send my beloved laptop home, too. I kind of need to cut the cord with the internet, and just really relax. I can always go to an internet cafe to check email and stuff like that. Just typing this is giving me a bit of a panic attack, but I'm dealing. I can live without the internet. I can.


At least, I hope I can because they're probably coming to turn it off tomorrow. Oh balls.

In weekend news, yesterday the parents of my kindergarteners took me out to lunch and got me the most amazing gift EVER. A Swarovski crystal necklace. Serioiusly, it's gorgeous. I almost cried when they gave it to me. And Joon, my little kid that left my class around September, came with his mom so it was great to see him too. Here's a pic of the whole table of beautiful ladies. Seven of 13 ain't bad.



The best part of the whole thing? Lucy's mom brought Lucy and baby sister, the cutest kid IN THE WORLD. Seriously. Look.



Seriously, I can't even stand it.


Last night I went out with school people (Rodney, SeetandJames) and some of my friends came as a sort of farewell last hurrah. Beer and nori bong were in order and it was a late but enjoyable evening. It's all getting very sad, though. Gah...


I hate change and wish everyone I love in the world lived in the same damn place. Balls.

Today I met with Jade, the lady I used to do Language Exchange with and whose wedding I went to. It was great to see her again and catch up. Then I went to church and now I'm home making the CDs for my kids for tomorrow. I'm putting the movie I made on a CD for them, after buying 38 CDs that don't work I finally got 15 that do. That is NOT awesome. But I'm watching Ugly Betty while doing it, so life isn't all that bad.


Graduation tomorrow, packing, packing, Thailand!! I'll try to update again when I can, but don't know how soon that will be. Definately by April...when I'm home. :)


Here's my kids' last Performance Theater from Thursday. Enjoy. ;)


Much love.

I'm still alive... don't worry!

I realize I haven't posted in ages but I'm still alive, I assure you all. I've been busy trying to get my travel itinerary together, buy plane tickets, find places to stay, all that garbage. Shoot, finding a backpack to take was hard enough work... BUT, I found one and I've (kinda sorta) packed it and now I'm just counting down the days. I doesn't seem real yet. It really doesn't. I mean, part of me is SO READY to go and part of me just wants to stay because so much of my heart is here now. I mean, there are 13 little babies here that I just adore, not to mention the co-workers and friends I'll leave. I need to just have a nervous breakdown about it all, and then I'll be fine, but it's just not ready yet.

As far as life goes, I had a really busy last Saturday, running all over town for a haircut, a backpack search and hanging out, too. I went with Phillip (and entourage) to a street fortune teller for fun and it ended up being hilarious. She told me I'd get married when I'm 30 to a guy who's a designer of some kind. So I guess I am destined to marry a gay guy! lol. Hmm, what else? Oh, she said I heard music in the womb, and that I have "music in my heart and hear music in my dreams." I don't know if all that's true, but it was nice to hear. I also took silly photos in a photobooth with Mark (and entourage) and then played Jenga at a board game cafe. It was a busy but super fun day.

I've also been running around trying to get last minute stuff done, which is tough cause I'm super broke til Monday when I'm (supposed to) get paid. We'll see if that actually happens. Plus I'm sending home an entire life and several seasons of clothes so the post office is my new hang out. Balls. And let me just mention that carting a crapload of stuff to the post office alone is NOT my idea of a good way to start a morning. I'm just sayin'...

Now let's move on to the photo portion of the program. First, my haircut. I got a different style this time, and my boyfriend who cuts it said I should be a hair model about 5 times. I'm just saying... :)

It's a little shorter than it should be, but he cut it short 'cause I'm traveling. So yeah... a gay boy told me I look like Liza circa the Cabaret years, so I'm okay with it.

Next are a couple of funny ones. This first one is on the back of a van in the parking lot of the apartments where I live.

Um... it's called grammar. Check it out.

And this one is a sign on a clothing store in Suyu. It may not appear funny, but the humor's in the placement of the space. Really.

Awesome. And finally, here's the video I made for my kids. It kinda makes me cry. Whatever.

Okay... don't know when my internet's gonna be shut off but I should be able to update once more before I leave. Which is in a week. For Thailand. To lay on a beach for 10 days. And then go to Hong Kong. And China. And Australia. Oh, and New Zealand. Because that's how I roll.

I can't wait!

Much love.

Christmas and other varioius items

It's safe to say it's been a while since I updated. I've been... busy. I had Christmas Performance, then my trip home, then my trip back and some semi-brutal jet lag which I overcame yesterday.

So I'll begin at the beginning. Christmas Performance. I was really proud of my kids and I feel like they all did their best, so that's all I really care about. After the show, I got a bunch of flowers from my kids (one bouquet was literally the size of one of my kids) and felt like Miss America between the flowers and the million pictures I took with my class. Pictures with each kid, each kid and thier mom, a couple kids, a couple kids and their moms... Gah. Anyway, I guess that's the price you pay for looking nice and teaching the same kids for over a year. After the show, the teachers all went out to Pizza Hut (the principal wanted to take us ous somewhere but we all hate her and had already made plans) and had a nice lunch. Nothing really outstanding or special to report, so here are the pics. A couple of my class in costume on the stage. I think they're singing "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" in this one.

And this is Pitt, Jenny, Grace and Lucy singing "We Three Kings."

Finally, one of me and a few of my kids and their moms (and my new supervisor who snuck in...Balls!).

I love Lucy's mom (second mom in with the white shirt). She is UBER cute and makes me earrings. Fab.

Now onto home... I don't really wanna talk to much about it because then I'll start to miss everyone again (I didn't feel how much I missed them until I saw them, funny enough.) and I just want to live in the memories for a little bit longer. But anyway, here are a couple of pics from my trip.

I spent Christmas Eve with my dad's family (like we always do, and it was great) and I ate Cuban food and it was SO GOOD. Seeing everyone again was great, although it was a one-time deal 'cause they all went to Florida soon after the New Year. My cousins are nearly ladies at this point; they've grown so much in a year and a half. Anyway, a picture of Abita with Lancelot, whom EVERYONE loved.

He's such a good baby and he LOVED all the attention.

Christmas Day at home (monkey bread, mmmmmmm) and then to Mema and Grumpa's. It was pretty sad, though, not having Grumpa there but I understand why Mema decided not to bring him home. We did go visit him around dinner time, so Mema could feed him and we could all see him. It was pretty sad to see him the way he is now, compared to how he was when I left, but he's doing the best he can. He didn't know me at first, because of his bad eyesight he couldn't see me, but after he did he goes, "Hey, I love you." It was really sweet. Everyone knows I love HIM more than life, so I was just happy to see him and hug him again. Here's a picture of Mema, Grumpa, and Lancelot, who cheered up a lot of people at that care home.

I love that my dog's the only one posing. lol

Um, the rest of break was a whirlwind of seeing friends and eating and laughing and remembering. A couple more pics, then I'm calling it quits. Here's one from the Fab Reunion, the first time we've all been together since Annie moved away.

I'm not really sure what I'm about in that one but oh well. We haven't shared pictures yet so this is what you get. Also, I haven't stolen pictures from Facebook yet either, so you're stuck with these couple from New Year's Eve weekend. This is one of all the usual suspects at the Y.J., home of my old friend the Pink Drink. I felt like I was in college again.

And here's a last one of the VanCooter family. We're gonna use it for Christmas in July cards this year, or so I hear... ;)

Don't we look happy and functional? LOVE the Christmas sweaters. They were all extremely bad in such a good way.

In a lot of ways, I wish I didn't have to leave. I feel like I lost a little bit of my steam when I came back, and now I'm just... blah. But I paid in full for my trips to Australia to New Zealand, so I really have to go now. All I need now are plane tickets and a more concrete plan for China.

I'll see you all again in a couple months!

Much love.

This is what I do instead of packing...

We had "Santa Day" at school today, which I recieved the schedule for AFTER the fact. Um... I'm not even gonna comment on it because I can't deal with work anymore. I need a break like WOAH! ANYway, Rodney, Adam, and Nate dressed up as Santa and gave the kids presents that the parents sent earlier in the week. I also gave my kids the presents I got them (books) and presents Lucy's mom made. Grace kept tallying up the score, "Teacher, I have four presents!" "Teacher, I have five presents!" She is so cute sometimes.

Elly, my old supervisor, even came for a little while and it was super nice. She gave the kids a gift and we hung out for a bit. It was nice to remember the days when I liked my job and the people I worked with, instead of thinking they're incompetant idiots with IQs lower than cheese.

Mooooving on, here are a couple pics. This is my class in front of our tree, the only real tree I've had in two years. It even had presents under it.

I love Eric smilling like a doof, and Caroline looking PISSED. Pitt looks pretty cute, too. Oh man, I'm gonna miss these guys.

And this one is me messing around with Jinni's headband. The kids kept telling me I looked like an adjuma, which is the term for a married (middle-aged) woman in Korea. Niiiice.

Willy's SUCH an attention hog...

Okay. I should get back to (kind of) packing and getting ready for my epic journey home.

Day after tomorrow!!

Much love.

The last birthdays of the year

Yesterday we had the last couple birthdays in Sponge Bob class. Eric and Jenny celebrated their second birthday at C.I.S. with me. I have a couple pictures, of course. The obligatory class pic. I still sometimes don't recognize myself with the short hair...

And here's another of Christina and Caroline. Pretty cute. I feel guilty that I don't have a lot of pictures of Christina, since I've only taught her a couple of months, so I try to take pictures with her on birthday days. Whatever.

Stuff at school is like it always is. A complete and total farse of a school run by complete idiots who couldn't educate their way out of...something you need to educate your way out of. Basically, I'm counting the days until I'm done and I can black-list the school. Yay!

I did pay a deposit on my Australia/New Zealand trips today, so those are confirmed. I just have to pay my final balance by January 15th, which is gonna be a stretch but will be possible. There is so much to look forward to but still so much crap to deal with until then...

Balls.

T-minus 10 days til I come home!!

Much love.

Another week closer to the end... :)

Not much of note happened this week other than school aggrivation. My new supervisor showed up to learn her job and I made her cry on her first day. And I wasn't even mean. Plus, she's an idiot. AND a baby. Here's an example: Her mom's a teacher and gets up early and her dad overslept one morning so SHE DIDN'T EAT BREAKFAST because no one was there to make it for her. Clearly, a genius. I can tell it's gonna work out well. OR NOT.

I did manage a cute pic and a video, though. First, the pic. This is what my children do at ANY random thirty free seconds in the day. Taken by my little Eric, who's gonna grow up and be a photographer.

Don'tcha love how Willy snuck his way in?

And SPEAKING of Willy click on this, you won't be dissapointed. I promise. I especially love the part when Caroline grabs my arm and the camera shakes.

This, ladies and gentleman, is how I spend my days. Clearly, I am changing lives.

And as for my weekend, I finished Christmas shopping and did a little bit for myself. Like ya do. Nothing really to report. I went shopping in Itaewon and Meyongdong where I managed to find some treasures. Yay for finishing my shopping. :) Also, I booked a plane ticket to Australia (!!!!!) which is about the best thing ever. Saturday night a friend came over and we watched Elf and it was awesome. I haven't watched it since LAST Christmas, so it was hilarious all over again. I <3> Will Ferrell.

Also on Saturday I managed to find a little treasure that helped put ME in the Christmas spirit, but made a little doggie I know pretty pissed.

Um, I may be a bad person.

Today I went to church and then came home and chilled out, then went out for Thai food. Which was yummy. Eating rice out of a pineapple is awesome.

Wish I had more to say but it was too cold to be outside too much this weekend. 'Course, inside my apartment it's just as cold. AWEsome.

Much love.

NOT how we roll

What little security I have in life was interrupted on Tuesday. Usually we have our fieldtrips on
Thursdays but what with The B!^@# running things now, apparenlty we just do things all willy-nilly and shake up my tiny little routinely structured life. PLUS my class and I had to ride on a bus with a different class then we've ridden with SINCE THE FIRST FIELDTRIP WE EVER WENT ON. Um, hi, clearly heads have been inserted into @$$es. It's fine.

Anyway, we went to some robot museum that was full of, well, robots. And then we watched a 3D movie. And then we came back to school. It was SUPER lame, especially since NOTHING was in English so I couldn't even read about any of the displays. Whatever. Anyway, here are pics.

This is the kids playing with a remote control robot. It would have been cool, had there been another robot for it to fight with and we could have had real robot wars, but alas, there was only one. So it spun around and went forward and backwards. Thrilling.


I'm not even sure who's controlling it at this point. Maybe Caroline.

The movie was in Korean so I missed pretty much all of it, but the kids looked super cute in 3D glasses, and watching them watch the movie was funny. They kept reaching for stuff and trying to dodge the stuff coming at them. Kinda the cutest thing ever. Check out Jenny in the shades...


She kinda looks like she might be on some illegal mind altering drugs, but still, super cute. And here's Karen with Jinni, Christina, and Julie. And the glasses, of course.

Man it's gonna SUCK when Karen leaves. It's. Gonna. SUCK.

It's not gonna suck when I leave... I can't even wait!!

Weekend plans are underway, and I might be spending the most money I've ever spent in one weekend. Looking forward to it.

Much love.

The Halloween Post

So... Halloween was on Tuesday. As can be expected it was a whirlwind of costumes, kids, and enough candy to send anyone into a diabetic coma. It was actally pretty fun. The kids were all excited, of course, so that kind of made it cool. You forget what Halloween was like once you get old like me, but they still feel it. They still get that it's about fun and free candy, and don't we all need a little more of that in our lives?

The way it worked was each class rotated to each classroom, where the teacher had some sort of activity. In my class they were supposed to Trick or Treat... for 10 minutes. So I hid the candy and made them find it. Exciting, I know. Anyway, without further ado, here's Halloween 2K6 at C.I.S. This first one is me in my costume.


I was a penguin, which was super cute because all the kids knew what I was, and it's a lot more fun than what I was going to be, which was a cow girl. And it cost me about $8 to do it. That RULES.

Next we have the obligatory class picture.


From the back left we have Grace the witch, Julie the princess, Jenny the wizard, Jennifer the witch, Caroline the angel, Jinni the princess, Lucy as Snow White, Alicia Teacher the penguin, (and down to the front row left) Willy the gay pirate (really he was Captain Hook sans the hook but COME ON... the costume's so gay!), Pitt the reaper, Eric the dinosaur, James as Spiderman, and Christina the unicorn. They are cute, I know.

Next we have my favorite costume of the day. Now, this is the tiniest kid in the school (he comes up to a little above my knee... SO TINY) and he's friggin' CUTE as heck. And here he is on Halloween:


Louie as Harry Potter. I know, I died too.

The Korean staff didn't dress up (party poopin' lame @$$es) so the foreign staff monkies had to pose for the camera and make nice like we love Halloween more than life itself. Here's the result.


As you can see, I'm CLEARLY thrilled about Rodney wearing that damn mask. Which he wore for two days before hand, and continues to wear at random times to terrify me. It's awesome. Or not really. Anyway, there's Rodney as a scary monster, me, Miriam as Kart Rider (a video game character here), Nate as Space Ghost, James as Marc Antony, Seeta as Cleopatra, Phil as Woody from Toy Story, Gareth as himself (okay, he was really a pirate but that's pretty much what he looks like every day, lol), Ben as Mr. Tumuns from Narnia, and Adam as...something we have yet to figure out. The missing member of Kiss? I don't know.

Now I've saved this last one because it's so special. This is a picture of the pumpkin my class carved (read: I carved while my class played with the gook inside and got it all over the room).



Now, the special part is not that I managed to carve a bat in a pumpkin without a serrated knife, but that the idiots we work with can't even figure out that the candle is supposed to go INSIDE the pumpkin, not tower above it like a freakin' beacon in the night. CLEARLY I work with geniuses.

So that was my Tuesday. Not much else to report about my week except that I saw The Prestige on Thursday night. A)Christian Bale. 2)Hugh Jackman. D) DAVID BOWIE! CLEARLY this movie was awesome and I recommend you go see it if you haven't. There is a secret Christian Bale treasure at the end of the movie that is JOYOUS. I can't say what it is without spoiling the whole thing, but it's key. This was the best movie I've seen in a long time. Go see it.

Much love.

I wanted to update but my internet HATED me...

My internet died on Friday after school, and was not reborn until today, despite numerous efforts and epic struggles to fix it earlier. My weekend, therefore, seemed a lot longer than it should have. But it was okay. :)

So let's back track. Willy's birthday party was last Wednesday. It was much like last year's party, although we only had to wait about 20 minutes for pictures instead of an hour. I can't deny Willy's cuteness. Clearly, this is a kid who will get by in life on good looks and personality rather than brains. And of course, here are some pics, especially for The BF, who loves Willy. :) Here he is with his cake... I think this is round two of pretending to blow out the candles.

And here's me and Willy. I saw this picture and freaked out for a second because I forgot my hair is short now. I didn't realize it was me in the picture!


Then Thursday was our fieldtrip. We went to the African Culture Center, which is a trip by itself. See, Koreans are still fairly racist. Like, they think black people are monkies and the color will rub off and stuff, like a black person's skin is dirty. Um... get with the program. Anyway, first we went to a show (dancing and stuff) and then walked around a museum (sculptures) where the class wanted to know "Why everything ta-tas?" Yes, I taught them ta-tas. I figured it was better than what they knew before, which was pointing and saying "this one." ANYway... we finished up with the kids banging on some African drums and then we ate lunch and came back to school. Oh, the excitement. Again, pics for your enjoyment. This first one is my kids dancing with one of the African dancers.

Then of course the obligatory class picture with the dancers. Can I just say the dudes were RIPPED up? 'Cause they were. Oh, and the lady on the end let me wear her head thingy. It was awesome.

Finally, this is a cute sculpture and a cute picture of my kids being cute by it. Key word here: cute.
There was major drama at school on Friday that I don't feel I really need to discuss here, but let's just say it was WAY too much for a Performance Theater/Big Test Friday. Balls. But Friday night I went to Rodney's and it was relaxing and funny. Phil is my new gay husband and he was telling me a story about a lip sync he did to George Michael's "Faith" while wearing his karate outfit and impersonating a preist. Yeah... I died of laughter and came back to life only to laugh some more. It was THAT funny. Oh man... LOVE that guy.

So I think I'd better make Saturday and Sunday thier own entry, as Blogger is hating me and not letting me post any more pictures. So... until it stops hating me...

Much love!

"This was pretty much the best week ever."

It didn't start off that way. Monday I was sick. Like, I woke up and felt like I was gonna barf all over... and then I did. Twice. Turns out, Christa was sick too, which was excellent because I wouldn't have made it to the doctor without her. Seriously. Anyway, the doctor said it was food poisioning and dehydration. Around 3:00, I started to feel better, and managed to make it out of the house to buy some dinner. Korean Traditional porridge is KEY for a sick day meal. I'm just saying...

Tuesday was a day as usual, but I have an hour and a half break now, so that pretty much rules. I've been doing a lot of decorating and redecorating, and it makes me feel like a good teacher. So that's nice.

Wednesday was also business as usual. Blah.

Thursday was a fieldtrip day. We went to the sweet potato farm, just like we did last year. It's actually one of the better field trips, 'cause the kids can be active and run around, not just walk around in a line. This is key. So... here are some pics. This is Willy with the smallest sweet potato ever.


Clearly, James found the biggest sweet potato ever.


The look on his face is classic James. He's secretly my favorite, let's be honest. :) Here's Caroline with a pretty big one, too.


Here's everyone digging. Eric is clearly happy about something. Probably his mullet. Or the potato he found.

Finally, here's a class pic. It's a little different from last years as Joon is gone, Christina is here, my supervisor is now Karen and I'm wearing a different outfit. Oh, and they put creepy, weird scarecrows in the background. Nice touch.


So that was that. Overall, a good fieldtrip and day.

Friday was Performance Theater. I put the performance on YouTube, and you can watch it here if you are so inclined. :)

Friday night I made baked spaghetti and Chritsa and I drank wine and watched 2001:A Space Odyessy. Interesting movie... Glad I watched it but still kinda freaked about it. It's kinda creepy, let's be honest.

Saturday. Ahh, Saturday. I had it free because last week was my last Korean class. Christa and I made appointments to get haircuts, but before that I had to finalize my China stuff and eat a pita. Seriously, the pita's at Pita Time contain crack because I've eaten one EVERY weekend for about 4 weeks in a row now. OUT of control.

Moving on... China's all ready to rock and roll, and I even think my pal Kelly's gonna watch Lancelot, so I don't even have to take him to the vet. Yay!! After Itaewon, we hightailed it to Head Rush and I proceeded to chop my hair off. Yep, it's gone. Here, see for yourself:


I like it more today than yesterday, because I styled it myself and it's a bit more messy. Key. Sorry about my ghost-like face... not really sure what's up with that. Anyway, that's my new hair. I'm excited about it 'cause it's back to natural now, no more color at the bottom, no more perm. I'm starting new, and it feels really good. Seriously, once all the grossness hit the floor, I felt free. It feels so good to have my old hair back again!

After the cuts, Christa and I shopped around a bit and lamented the fact that we don't get paid until Wednesday. I bought a new hat and dangly earrings, in honor of my new hair and the neew ease with which I can now wear both. I also bought an AWESOME coat for you don' t even wanna know HOW much... But I love it. Anyway, later that night my new hair and I went out to Sortino's to eat. Seeta's parents came to visit her (she's been here four months... I've been here a year... whatever) and she and James took them to Sortino's for dinner. Adam and Christa came too. I had spaghetti and meatballs and it was yummy. Mmmmmm.

Today I skipped church and went with SeetaandJamie and momma and daddy to Insadong. But before Insadong, we went to Cold Stone Creamery, which I just recently found out exists here. It. Was. GLORIOUS. I can't even describe how magical it was. I had chocolate icecream with peanut butter, peanuts, and caramel in it. It was heavenly.

Then we went shopping. I bought a "you moved to Georgia for a job" gift for Brigette and a birthday gift for Annie. Clearly these purchases were key as I've been meaning to buy them for ages, just haven't been able to find the time. I also bought two Christmas presents because I rule. :)

Insadong is clearly the most evil place on earth because I LOVE pretty much EVERYTHING there. I fell DEEPLY and HOPELESSLY in love with these paintings I saw. They are $200. There are three of them. I am buying them before I leave. They are THAT awesome. *sigh* Oh man, I could seriously spend an entire paycheck there. It's so bad. Evil, evil place.

Walking around, I spotted this little doosey and had to take a picture in it.

You can clearly see why. Everyone who walked by wanted to be my friend. I'm so cool.

Much love.

"See you later... crocodile!"--Benjamin

Only Thursday and I'm posting. Must have been an interesting week already, huh? Well, never fear faithful friends, indeed so far it has been.

It all happened on Tuesday. First we had a birthday party. Now, usually there's, like, one or two kids in the same class with a birthday in the same month. Oh, not in my class. I had four September birthdays. FOUR. Balls. Anyway, yeah, we got through it and of course I have pictures. The first is a class pic, the first since Joon left and Christina joined. So here we all are. I kinda forgot about the birthdays that day and dressed kind of slobby and wore my Lisa Loeb glasses. Whatever.

This picture is of Willy in this totally Korean shirt he wears. It's pretty much my favorite shirt ever. You can see why...

Um... right. WHAT does that even mean? Who knows. Okay, this final one is awesome. My kids discovered the magic color-changing properties of Now & Laters.

Kinda the cutest thing ever, right?

Birthday fun was not the only thing on the docket on Tuesday, however. Let's just say that CIS is down another teacher.

I don't know what happened, and of course there's the version of the story that Paul tells and the version that CIS tells, but the actual truth is probably somewhere closer to Paul's version of events. He says he was fired, the school says he resigned, which he technically did over two months ago but the school did not accept. Funny how, when it was convenient to them and served thier purposes, they decided to accept it. Anyway... yeah. So Paul's gone and the principal has a meeting about it (Which I find interesting. I asked for one concerning the Christmas performance, which everyone was confused about and our supervisors also were unsure about, and she didn't bother to show. Yet when she looks like the bad guy, she has a meeting as fast as possible. Hmm... Can anyone say evil b!%@# from hell?). Anyway... CIS drama that I'm not involved in is FINE by me. I feel bad for Paul and all, but let's be honest, that $#!t hole is no place for a seasoned teacher. Heck, it's no place for a just-out-of-school-and-trying-to-pay-off-loans teacher. It gets more aweful and ridiculous by the day.

When am I done?

So yeah... oh! This brings me to the quote that is my title for the entry. Paul teaches one class on T/Th. afternoons, which I agreed to take over until someone new shows up. The class is three kids, one of whom I've taught before, Benjamin. He totally has a cruch on me, which is so cute, and today at the end of class I'm telling them goodbye and he busts out with, "See you later, crocodile!" It was SO CUTE. I even watched him process the thought and I could tell he kinda knew what to say but not really. SO CUTE! Anyway... it made my day.

It really doesn't take much.

I finished a book this week too, The Rule of Four. I don't recommend it, but props to two best friends from Princeton attempting to write a book. Cute.

80's prom is Saturday so you can bet I'll be posting pics and stories as soon as I can! I can't wait!!

XOXO

"It tastes so much better when it's on the house!"--Christa

It's been an eventful week, and it's only Wednesday. So, I figured I'd better update before my usual weekend entry gets too long.

So last Tuesday, I lost a kid from kindy. I asked Karen, "Am I going to get another kid?" and she said probably not. And what happened yesterday? A new kid shows up. NEAT. Just when I put the extra chair in the hallway... Anyway, I guess she'd been going to the Uijeongbu campus of our school where the teachers apparently smoke large amounts of illegal substances because she is no where NEAR where my class is. She's not close to the same place in the books (Her math book, which was supposed to last THE WHOLE YEAR is finished. Um, hello?) and she can't really read or write, which, I'm proud to say, all my kids can. So... yeah. Balls. And of course she can't be in any of the other classes... gah! It just bugs me. And now I have to get a new kid used to the routine that's been going on for over a year now. Sweet.

Anyway, she's a sweet little girl named Christina, and of course I'll do my best to catch her up, but still. It just bugs me that once again, a teacher's opinion or expertise isn't wanted. So nice. But... here's her picture. She's cute, of course, and all the kids in my class have been really helpful trying to get her into the groove. I <3 my class.

In other school news, one of my favorite kids, Cindy, quit CIS. She was in Rodney's class but she was super cute and every day she'd give me a hug. It was so sweet! But... oh well. Bye bye Cindy.

And apparently my Young-Hoon class quit so I now have no class on Tuesdays/Thursday. At least, that's what I thought. I found it funny: when I was teaching the class the way I wanted to, the kids were happy and liked coming to class. Once the class changed because some psycho mom who had NO CLUE about what her kid needed/wanted/could do, everyone quit. Makes me feel pretty good, actually. I am SO GLAD I don't have to deal with that psycho mom any more. But anyway, I'm sitting at the desk doing my work yesterday, and John (one of my two Y.H.ers) walks in. I straight up told him to go home. lol. So apparently they really DIDN'T quit. John had no clue. But he doesn't want to study alone and the school doesn't really want him to because God forbid I teach one student who wants to learn when there are potential others who could make the school more money. Because teaching isn't about kids, it's clearly about money. Again, niiiiice. I can't WAIT to be done.

Oh, and we got a new "principal" on Tuesday who seems like a total b!$@#. So I'm excited about that, too. She's already saying stupid crap that pisses me off. Um... I've been at that sorry excuse for a professional school for over a year. DON'T tell me what to do.

But I did manage to have some fun on Tuesday. Christa has been doing a detox diet for the past 30 days, and yesterday was the end of it. She planned dinner at this really good Italian restaurant, and we all went after school. We drank wine and ate our faces off, and it was SO GOOD until one person didn't get thier dinner because the waiter screwed up. So in the end we got a free bottle of wine and 3 free desserts (tiaramisu... YUM!!), which was kind of awesome. Here's a pic of the boys, Jamie, Adam, and Nate.


They all look a little... wined up. lol. It was super fun and waaaaay yummy. Clearly, key to my life.

So that's been my week so far. A little too much excitement if you ask me.

I do have a couple more pictures though. James in my class is my little monkey and he does whatever I tell him. One day round about last week, I was bored and this was the result.


That's his shirt around his head.


I think he's secretly my favorite kid. NEVER tell. ;)

Much love.