Halfway home!

We are officially halfway home! Yay! Today marks our 6 months and it now seems like it's going by much faster. School is mostly enjoyable for me now. I have pretty good classes, and LOTS of breaks throughout the day, which is nice. Two teacher are leaving soon, so we will be given many more classes, so hopefully getting overtime, which will be nice.

This past weekend we went to Busan, a big city about 40 minutes from here with another couple we met recently. We spent all day shopping (I got some red new balance knock-off tennis shoes for about $22) and checking out the "World Famous Fish Market." It was interesting, but pretty gross. A HUGE indoor fish market is bound to get a bit messy and smelly. After walking around all day, we went to a Mexican resturant (oh, how we have missed out Mexican) and had a few drinks while waiting for more people to join us. A couple hours later, we finally had a delicious dinner or burritos and fajitas...wow, it was amazing. The bus is only $1 each way, so I may have to drag Jared back there this weekend!

After dinner, we went to a casino...one of a few in Korea I think. It is illegal for Koreans to gamble, so there are only foreigneers in the casnio, and most of them Japaneese it seemed. We stayed for a few hours and didn't lose too much money compared to others in the group...two of the people we were with each actually won over $100, so it was a pretty sucessful night overall. After the hour long busride home, we didn't get to bed until after 3AM...very late for Kate teacher!

I am learning more and more each day, as far as teaching goes. I moslty like my babies...the youngest kids in the school. They are 5 years old Korean age, so between 3 and 4 American age. They are so fun to sing a dance around with.

One of my babies is named Blue. His Mom wanted his English name to be David, but he insists on Blue. He is incredibly smart. While the rest of the class has recently learned "Hello Kate teacher," he reads the name of the current book I'm reading (which is "Lamb," and is amazing, if anyone is interested). He is so funny and smart. It always puts me in a good mood to go say hello to him.

My terrible child, Kevin, has finally mellowed out a bit, and I'm learning how to work with him more. I still have to constantly remind him to speak in a quiet voice and to stop speaking Korean, but he hasn't spit on me or stuck his tongue out at me in almost two weeks. So theres is progress.

Jared brother sent us a Nintendo Wii...it's been really fun so far. We have downloaded Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, Pacman, Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Mariocart...all old Super NES games. I don't know anythign about Wii games, so if anyone knows anything good, let us know. I am planning on getting Wii fit, as my gym membership is running out in a few days, and I'm not one to make up my own routine.

We find out today if we are accepted into a rock climbing club that will start in a few weeks. Regardless, we have ordered shoes and harnesses that should arrive in the mail next week...exciting!

Hope everyone is happy! I'll try to attach more videos.

Awhemawhey!!

Here's my 6 yr. olds doing...in the jungle. They are soo adorable, aren't they?

Bad Day!

This is video of my 8 year olds singing "Bad Day, by Daniel Powter...they got pretty into it.

We are now over two weeks into our new semester and still have yet to get all our books in for our classes...frustration is a daily emotion now, whether or not we try to avoid it. For most classes we have to come up with busy work, or find something to teach the kids...or like some of the teachers, just talk to the kids for 25 minutes. Luckily, there are a lot of us in the same boat and we can share resources. I think after this weekend, all the books will be in and we can finally start a more normal routine with the kids. Yay!

I have really enjoyed my classes this semester, for the most part. They gave me the problem child again, but this time in a smaller classroom that gives him no room to get up and down from his seat. He also has better classmates that encourage him to stop speaking Korean, and to behave better. He has still been somewhat of an issue, but he hasn't hit me or spit on me...yet. He has, on the other hand, stuck his tongue out at me and a number of occasions, but now that he has a meaner Korean charge teacher, he is starting to figure out he doesn't want to be kicked out of class...it's starting to work better with him. So that's good news.

I also have the babies of the school. They are 5 yrs. old, Korean age...so that is between 3 and 4 American age. It's pretty tough because they don't even know how to pick up a pencil, yet the school has ordered them books that has them tracing full words already...ahh, again, frustration with the school. Luckily their Korean charge teacher is great and has allowed me to make them an alphabet book that consists of coloring and tracing one letter on each page. After this, I hope to slowly start their phonics book. They are adorable and I love singing songs and dancing around with them, but it's definitely the biggest language barrier I have throughout the day. I get by with a lot of hand gestures.

This past weekend, we went to Jingu, a city 2 hours away. Our friends Hannah and Daniel had been there previously and told us they had delicious thin crust pizza and Red Rock Oregon beer at a cool Italian-style Restaurant. We went with them, and had a great time. The restaurant had a live jazz band, and we ended up staying for 3 hours, eating tons of pizza, drinking beer, and playing games. The pizza was no Local Myth, but it was better than anything we've had in Korea. The beer, same...not amazing, but better than anything we have had here. We also spent a few hours at a huge fortress and an interesting museum about some Japan-Korean war. We spent a lot of time in the kids room and made some awesome artwork, using some ink pads and patterns...all in all, really fun weekend.

This weekend, we plan on hiking on Saturday, then going to see 3D Alice in Wonderland on Sunday. Oh, how I love weekends!! Tomorrow, we have bus duty in the morning, which despite the fact that we have to wake up a couple hours earlier, is actually pretty fun...then only 9 classes (for me) til finishie!!

It snowed a few days ago and has been cloudy/rainy for over a week..back to cold weather. But today was sunny and beautiful, so hoping it'll stay nice. Jared's back is feeling better and he is looking forward to getting back on the trail this weekend.

My parents said it was 70 degrees in STL a couple days ago...I wonder if Washington is getting warm already too??

Miss and Love to All!