London's Suji South Korea Adventure: Half Way

I am officially over the half way point. I now have about 6 months left. It is hard to believe that time has gone so fast. When I first arrived in Korea I was ready to turn around and head home. I am happy to say that my time here has only gotten better. I have grown to love my classes and students. I am adjusted well and finally truly absorbing Korean culture. Soon it will be spring and the rest of my time will hopefully fly by!

Over the past few weeks I have been reminded that kids really do say the darnedest things. On day Samuel, one of my Kinder boys, came to school and ran up to me explaining that his tooth was gone. I said, "Wow you lost your tooth!" What I got in response was a very confused look and, "No teacher. It's at home." How could I correct his 5 year old when he was right?! It was really not lost!

Lately 'Avatar' has been the talk at LCI. One of my older 11 year old students, Lion, had seen it when it was first released. He came to school a few weeks ago talking about it. In the middle of our newspaper class, he raised his hand. Once I called on him he asked me, "Teacher, is son of a bitch bad?" Apparently, during the movie (which is in English with Korean subtitles) he read the term in Korean and knew that it was bad. He remember it in English so that he could ask me about it. I had no response. I sat there in shock for a few seconds before telling him it is bad and to not say it again!

Last week two of my Kinder boys had been fighting, what else is new? Anyway, we were on our way to the bathroom after PE class and Daniel and Lex were fighting. I ushered them into the bathroom and went to wait for everyone to finish. Soon Daniel came out all wet. He told me that Lex had put water on him. As I was lecturing Lex not to dump water on his friends, Daniel tapped me on the arm. He soon admitted, "Teacher no water. Lex pee-pee." As it turns out the fight continued into the bathroom and they peed on each other!! Only 5 year old boys!

I have spent the past two weekends in Pohang. Two weeks ago Fred and I relaxed and saw 'Avatar.' Last weekend we went to the new Steel Art Museum opened by the resident steel company, POSCO. Fred had been there on a field trip with his students. It was very nice even though we couldn't read the descriptions. We had dinner at a really good vegetarian buffet. I am always sad to come back to Suji.

The other week my recruiter Don was in Korea. All of us from MN met him for dinner on Thursday and then he came to LCI on Friday. It was really nice to see him and fill him in on our life in Korea. Later, he ventured to Pohang and saw Fred as well.

This week has gone well. Unfortunately, it is a six day work week due to a snow day we had a few weeks ago. It will be interesting to see how many students show up on Saturday for classes. We had spent a lot of class time practicing for our upcoming 'Festival.' On February 20th we will have a huge show where all of the parents come to watch. My kids have been learning a song and story where each kid has a speech. They were all very fast to memorize their lines and I am actually excited for the end result.