What have I been doing other than slacking off in the blog updates?

Let's see..I went to the Baekjae festival in Buyeo with my school last week Friday. It was fun, but the festival there wasn't as exciting as the one in Gongju. The museum on the other hand was way more fun than the previous time I went (last year). Since going last year, they have built a HUGE reconstruction of Sabi Palace, where the royal family lived when the Baekjae capital was in Buyeo. It was a lot of fun to walk around through it with the kids and take fun pictures. John, the student with a crush on me, finally sneaked in a kiss, as we were walking through a rather crowded doorway. He was holding my hand and pulled it in front of his face and kissed it. No one could see it because it was so crowded, but I saw and felt it. It was sweet, but awkward. Sweet because that's how I always think of parents kissing their kids (I really like the book The Kissing Hand, read it if you haven't). It was awkward because he's my student, not my child. Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that these are not my children, and that they're just my students.

The students all lined up at Sabi Palace

The students really like feeding me at lunchtime.

This past weekend...I did nothing. Andrea, a South African woman from church, had a pasta dinner for the younger girls at church. It was good food. Then she asked me to share my testimony. That was pretty terrifying. On Sunday...I went to see Eat, Pray, Love with Andrea and Ms. Kim. It was an alright movie. Not really my style, but okay. It made me miss Max.



This past week at school, I've felt pretty crazy. I feel like school and teaching have been a lot of work lately but I couldn't figure out why. Until yesterday, when my mentor teacher asked me to e-mail my lesson plans and daily plans to her. I realized that I didn't have any! And that's why my days have seemed so hard. Making it up as you go takes a lot of effort and classes usually feel like they're lacking something. So I'm trying to get back ahead of myself. I have next week planned out already, but I want to get the week after that also planned out. I'd like to always stay at least two weeks ahead of schedule.



All this past week, the other teachers have all been really busy, so my mentor teacher couldn't take me home. Instead, the vice-principal has been driving me home. He's really funny. He can't speak English, so in the car, we just listen to music and don't say a word, unless there is a bug in the car, in which case, he rolls down the windows and talks like mad. I don't quite know what he's saying, but I understand that he's trying to get the bug out of the car, so I try and hurry it out.
At school today, I was helping to clean up my classroom because there is some sort of event going on in there tomorrow. In the classroom, it's me, Jaehwa, and my mentor teacher. Suddenly, the vice-principal shows up and says to me "Kayla! You like chi-can? Chi-Kan?" I say "Chicken? Yes, I like chicken." He then cracks me up by saying "OKay! You like chi-can! Chop chop!" and grabs my arm and starts pulling me out of the classroom. I was so confused, but I followed him. Turns out, someone bought a lot of fried chicken in the office, so they wanted to share it with me. I had a good time eating a few pieces. They kept asking me what one part of the chicken was, but I had no idea what it was. I THINK it might have been a chicken testicle? Do they even have them? I don't know, but they kept laughing, saying bathroom, and saying in English "say-back pocket". They tried getting me to eat one, but I didn't want to try it. Then they tried getting me to eat a chicken foot. They kept picking it up, and scratching it on their hand. The vice-principal thought it was funny that it was called a chicken foot.

One day this past week, I recorded my 3/4 grade class singing the Hello Song to send to Suzie, the TaLK scholar before me. She's really nice, and I'm super glad I talked with her. I know she misses the kids, and so I'm trying to keep her updated and included in what is going on. The students are really shocked that I 'know' Suzie. They keep asking me "You know Suzie teacher? You are friends?" Suzie wants to make a video for the kids and have me show it to them. I'm really excited about that idea, and I can't wait for her to make it. BUT, she's in school right now, so she's pretty busy and hasn't had a chance to make a video. I haven't told my kids about it yet, but I'm dying to tell them.





About this weeks picture....It was a rainy Monday. The weather was pretty cold, and I can tell it's Autumn, even though the leaves haven't changed yet. The mornings are freezing, and the days are warm.