Spring!

Spring has really come! I actually wore capri's and a tee shirt today. The flowers are blooming beautifully, and I want to spend all of my time outside.

I had an interesting day going to church today. My church is really far from my house, but there is a van that goes from a point closer to my house to get there. In the van on the way there, our driver, Quentin, hit a curb and we got a flat tire. I crawled under the van and got the spare out, but there was no jack anywhere to be seen. There wasn't even any insurance information or anything in the glove compartment with a phone number or anything. Somehow, our pastor got us a number for a repair place that would come and help us. When he got the van jacked up, and went to put the spare on, he discovered that the spare had a hole in it also. The van ended up having to be towed to the shop to get a new tire. I had to take a taxi the rest of the way to church, and I took Quentin's 3 year old son with me. Of course, Ethan was aboslutely terrified to leave his dad. He cried the whole way there, and wouldn't let me leave him at the nursery when we got there. After taking him for walks outside, and finding him some cookies, I fianally got him interested in a Thomas the Train Engine video in the nursery.

The last few weeks have been routine. One of my students has a new favorite shirt, that I love and had to get a picture of. If you know me at all, you will know why.

A few of my favorite quotes from the last couple of weeks:

-When I had my parent meetings, I actually put on makeup and tried to look nice. My students are not used to seeing eyelashes on my eyes, so the mascara was a huge change for them. When I walked in, they said "Stacie Teacher, what happened to your eyes! You look like a dog!" Of course, my boss felt the need to tell the parents about this comment when they came in. The director said "It's a compliment, they are saying that you are cute like a dog."......wonderful

-Later that week, I was talking to my afternoon students about when they will be doing presentations for their parents later next month. One of the girls said "And you will decorate your face?" It took me a while to work out that decorating my face meant putting on makeup. (It's not like I wear dramatic makeup or anything, all I do is put on a light brown eyeshadow and mascara.)

-A focus word for one of our stories was "today." I know that all my students know what it means, but I asked them to try to tell me what it means. After a short period of students stuttering over words, one student (5 years old) raised her hand, and said "Today is tomorrow's yesterday." I couldn't have put it better myself.

-Another focus word in the story was "heavy." I asked my students to tell me some things that were heavy: "An elephant...........the apartment building..................Jupider..............Stacie Teacher!" Ouch, being put in the same weight category as Jupider is harsh.

Field Trip!

We went on a field trip to a transportation museum. I didn't think that it was going to be very much of a success, but we had fun. The museum included some guys personal collection of cars and motorcycles, models of some cars from movies, a racecar room, and kind of a play room. We had a 40 minute bus ride there and back, and were there for about an hour. They had the car from Back to the Future, and Herbie. My kids had a lot of fun playing racecar video games.

About half of the way through the kids started getting a little antsy. They were hungry and tired, and after the video games were over, kind of bored. On the bus ride home two of my kids fell asleep. One of them layed down on the lap of her friend next to her. Somehow her feet got on the girl on the other side of her, who proceded to lay her jacket on her.

The last two weekends I went hiking at Namhansanseong. It is a huge walled fortress on top of a mountain. The wall is about 8 kilometers around, and has some stunning views. There is a small town and various folk villages, temples and an old military headquarters inside the wall. I went half-way around and back through the middle each day. Yesterday we were hiking with an old Korean man, who made friends with three women that were hiking together. We ended up going to a late lunch with them afterwards, which was an interesting experience because they spoke no English at all, and both Travis and I speak minimal Korean. I know for sure that I will be back to this mountain again and again.

I'm meeting all of my student's parents this week at a little meet 'n greet type of thing. Wish me luck, the parents here are really picky and demanding.
P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!!

Easter

I really missed being home for Easter. They don't celebrate it here. You couldn't find any candy eggs or decorations or Easter Basket fixin's in stores anywhere. Fortunately I have an amazing mother who sent me an amazing Easter basket in the mail. It was wonderful to get all the corny little things that we have gotten in our baskets since 1990, and some chocolate eggs too!

I brought my bunny glasses to school to let my kids try them on. They don't know what Easter is, but they liked the glasses. I have pictures of most of my kids wearing them, but for the most part they all look the same.

We celebrated Easter at my church with a big BBQ. Everyone brought a dish to share, and they grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. It was for sure a different kind of Easter meal than I have ever had, but it was fun. It was probably the biggest potluck meal that I have ever been to, with around 250 people. Later that day on the subway, the man I was sitting next to gave me a soft-boiled egg. I guess that they have to use real eggs. That was kind of weird.

Next week we will be going on a field trip to a transportation museum. We'll see how much fun that will be....

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Love you all!