Cheny's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Cheny's birthday. She came to school in a very fancy pink and black dress, complete with matching pink hair bow. Her mother brought a snowman cake, birthday hats and pre-packaged trays of food for each student. We had muffins, candy, yogurt, cake and orange juice. After each student was full, Cheny opened her presents. She got lots of art supplies, hairbows, pencils and stockings. We had a great day and it was a nice way to celebrate before vacation.

Jingle Bell Rock

Here is my class singing Jingle Bell Rock.

Fred's Christmas Song

Here is Fred's class singing Up on the Housetop by the Jackson 5. Two of his students left for the day right before we started singing so they were down a few key members.

Santa Comes to LCI

Today Santa came to LCI. Each class got to see Santa and get a present from him. They were all very excited and full of Christmas joy. After a visit from the young Korean man dressed in a Santa suit, who was speaking and acting as if he was 85 years old, we all went back to our classrooms to practice our Christmas songs. After lunch we all got together for our Christmas song competition. I am sad to say that neither Fred or I placed in the top three! Here is a video of the entire Kinder population singing Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer in Korean at the beginning of the song competition.

Staff Christmas Party

Last night we had our staff Christmas party. After work we all headed to Jeongja, an area near to Suji, for dinner. We rented out a huge room at an American style Chinese restaurant called Rok'n'Wok. We had eaten at this restaurant before and it worked perfectly for our event. We have been exchanging secret santa gifts over the past few weeks and last night we gave our final gifts. Fred had one of our supervisors, Joanne, who also had him. He received movie tickets to go see "The Tourist" this Tuesday night. I had another supervisor, Michelle. Our head supervisor, Lucy, had me. She gave me a very nice set of fur lined gloves. After dinner we went to a Noreabong which is Korea's version of a karaoke room. It was a wonderful night and a great way to celebrate together for the holidays.


Fred and I at dinner

Me, Lucy and Michelle

Joanne and Fred

Michelle, Ann, Me, Maria, Britney

Middle of December

It is hard to believe that it is almost the middle of December. The past few weeks have been really rough at school. We have struggled with our classes and our daily life at LCI. There has been an overwhelming feel of exhaustion within the office. We are all getting worn down by our lack of positive reinforcement at work and our overall workload. Fred and I have questioned if we made the right decision on coming back to LCI. However, things are now looking up as we only have 9 school days left until we go to the Philippines for 9 days.

On Friday after work we headed to a western style buffet. There were great salads, pizza, gnocchi, pasta, steak, soups and desserts. It was so nice to fill up on food that reminded us of home. Today we went into Seoul in search of new cameras for our trip. Fred ended up buying a new digial Panasonic and I got a Canon DSLR camera. I do not know a lot about high quality cameras so I chose a model that is easy to use and takes great pictures. I upgraded the lens so I have one nice lens and will not have to switch lens while taking pictures. We are excited to try out our cameras and get some great pictures from the Philippines.

Saying goodbye to students

This past Friday both Fred and I had to say goodbye to a Kinder student. Kevin, in Fred's class, left LCI because he is moving to Japan. His mom came into school on Friday after lunch and their class had a going away party. Many of the students in the class were crying and avoiding having to say goodbye. Fred's class has been together since they were 5 years old, for a total of three years. They have a pretty tight bond and it was hard for them to lose a class member.





My class had to say goodbye to cute, troubled and social Annie. She is moving to Seoul. All of the students made going away cards for Annie and we spent most of the day playing and enjoying Annie's company. Her mom came at the end of day and brought cakes for the teachers and a present for me. Although Annie has caused stress in my life she is going to be missed. She is always cute and full of love and kisses. As teachers we know that our kids will come and go but that does not make saying goodbye easier. We spend 4.5 hours a day with these Kinder students and we really fall in love with them. It is hard to know that our classes will now each be missing a member.