I'm practically an actress!

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater."
Gail Godwin

The things I do for my kiddos!  This is an "example" of what their roleplay should look like in class tomorrow!  I'm not always this cheesy!  I promise!  Please don't judge me!

Samgyupsal and a Shmooch!

Last night, one of Aaron's old co-workers invited the two of us to his apartment for dinner with his family!  He was a 4th grade teacher at Aaron's school last year and the two of them taught a fun English sports class together 4 times a week last year!  It was one of the highlights of Aaron's job at Yeongdo Elem!  

So, he picked us both up yesterday and drove to his apartment in the middle of Busan, where we parked in an underground parking structure (under his apartment complex) and rode the elevator to his apartment on the 13th floor (eeehhh!) where we were met by his beautiful wife and A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E baby boy!  

 

We sat and played on the living room floor for a long time, and looked through professional photo albums/ books of their wedding and honeymoon pictures in Europe!  

Then... the table was brought out from the bedroom, set on the floor, and loaded with veggies, sauces, kimchi, lettuce (grown from Jin's mom's garden), salad...

and the Samgyupsal was loaded onto the makeshift grill, where Jin cooked for us!

Their little boy was so sweet the whole night and never cried or fussed!  When we sat down to dinner, Jin's wife loaded him in her baby backpack, where he just quietly hung out while she ate!  Love him!

We had such a good time with them, and were pleasantly surprised by how much English they could actually understand and speak!   Their apartment is about a 20 minute walk from the Lotte Giants basbeall stadium, so we've planned to attend a baseball game with the three of them during summer vacation!

Confucianism

While Korea is slowly changing and evolving into a more liberal and accepting society, it's roots in Confucianism still hold strong, and the older generations drag their feet and cling to the ideas of Confucianism!  For example, today, I received a message about tomorrow's teacher outing.  It said that the ladies need to arrive at school 20 minutes early to prepare the snacks! Could you imagine if this message were sent to the staff at a school in America, telling the female teachers to come 20 minutes before the male teachers to cut fruit and sort cookies!  There would be an uproar about equality!  Instead, the women here just secretly shake their heads and abide by the request...  and I can't blame them, because I'll be arriving 20 minutes early too.  Uuughhh 

Spontaneity is the spice of life!

... A spontaneous jumping competition during a walk around the neighborhood!

It may seem like a strange life, but it's mine, and I love it!

Asian stereotype!

My school's staff completely lived up to the stereotype of Asian's loving ping pong today!  I was just told to report to the school auditorium for teacher PE class... today's form of exercise - Ping Pong!  Fabulous!

I originally went to just check it out, but before long I was reeled into playing along!  Not that it took much!  I love ping pong!  I, however, had never played with a paddle like this one!  This is serious and is held completely differently than the paddles I've played with before!    

My oppossers!  (the school's head teacher, and Okk!)

Me and my teammate... 나래 (pronounced NaRae).  She's awesome, and I was decent, but we lost both games!  FAIL.

I'll leave you with this funny picture of my Principal!  Check out that determination!

Korea, thank you for living up to your Asian ping pong stereotype!  I enjoyed taking a break from my lesson planning to indulge in your passion this afternoon!