Children Say

• Conversation from work yesterday that made me a happy girl:

Lali Bee: I want to sit at your table [for lunch]!
Me: Ohh, I'm going on my break.
Lali Bee: Will you be back after lunch or for nap...?
Me: Yes.
Gabi: (runs towards me to hug me) Oh, I love you! I don't know why! (Then Lali Bee hugged me too.) 

• My Russian Crush is so smart. First of all, when I was briefly in his classroom last week, he counted up to twelve in English on his own! Complete with the Russian "vun" for "one" :D Today, his sweetness came out when he approached me on the playground as his class was lining up to go inside: his teacher had taken their emergency backpack from the hook and knocked another teacher's keys down in the process. Fedor tugged on my jacket and then pointed to the keys on the ground to communicate his concern. SO CUTE! I feel like he's just going to burst into brilliant English one day. I hope I'm around when he starts speaking because, even without verbal language, I feel like I know so much about his character - I'm sure there will be tons more to learn when you add speech into the mix! He must have so many opinions and stories to tell. This is also apparent when his mom picks him up from school - he starts rattling off in Russian as if there aren't enough words to describe his day :) Also, I love his mom. She makes a point to say hi or wave to me whenever I see her/she sees me :)

For The Inauguration (Jan 21)

• Happy Inauguration and Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
• Going into today, I was a bit annoyed. We didn't have kids at the center today, we just had a meeting and then had to attend some of the MLK events on campus. Normally, I wouldn't be too bothered by this. But, seeing as today was also Inauguration Day, I was EXTREMELY disappointed that I didn't even have the option of trying to go to DC for the weekend (I mean, I guess I could have taken the day off, but I missed the last PD day and also would have had to make-up the training hours on my own). Plus, Laura Meyer went with the Michigan (U of M) Democrats group so I was super jealous of her - I think she's going to bring me a t-shirt though :D So I wasn't in the greatest of moods about my professional duties today. But, after our morning meeting, my boss told us that we'd only have to do 2 hours of lecture in the afternoon, instead of three - woo! A lot of the events were 2 hours long and overlapped time-wise, so trying to get 3 hours in without staying into the evening wasn't working very well. I was planning to stay in AA the whole day anyway, because of the lectures I was interested in seeing (they were later in the day) and because I had my dance class tonight. But this change allowed me to hang out with friends almost the whole day! After our meeting, we all walked to the keynote speech together. Then, after the speech, I met up with Mandy, Becky, Ethan, Sarah, and Michelle :) We ate at Panera (woo having a gift card!), hung out there for a while, and then wandered into Caravan, a store on Nichels Arcade. After that, Mandy, Sarah, Michelle and I went to Wesley to study (for me, work on WAY stuff) until the next lecture we wanted to see. When it was time, we walked to the Union and then to the grad library - because the lecture was full and we had to watch it via remote streaming - for the lecture. Later, Mandy and I went back to Wesley and talked about hospitality towards new students at church with Sarah and Becky before heading to her place for dinner. After that, I went to my dance class and had a great time - the choreography that Jayme is teaching is fun and challenging and I really feel like I'm getting it. Then after dance, I went to Meijer (I love being there when hardly anyone else is :)) and came home to watch: President Obama's 2nd Inaugural Speech and his introduction of Michelle and their dance at the Commander-In-Chief ball...the first made me tear up and the 2nd made my heart melt. I loved them both. Very happy to have those two leading our country :)
• I did learn a few things at the lectures I attended today. First, I learned a lot about prison abolition. This is a movement within our country to get rid of the prison system and work solely with restorative justice. The speaker, Dr. Angela Davis, was amazing and it was great to listen to her. I had just never heard of this kind of movement/policy before. Second, post-lecture Q&A sessions are a big gamble. They can be great, but they can also bring forward a lot of self-righteous people and get totally off-topic. Third, I learned a great poem about not smoking from the keynote speaker, Morris Dees. He spoke about many good things but one memorable one was the anti-smoking poem he recited that he was taught as a child by his most influential teacher. If I ever find a video, I'll post it here :) Fourth, I would love to move forward in my profession such that I'm asked to give a lecture as an expert in my field at some kind of special event. That would just be very cool. Lastly, (this isn't really something I learned...) I had a great time acting the part of a U of M student today. I hung out with my U of M friends, attended lectures, walked to and from said lectures in the bitter cold and snow, studied at Wesley, hung out around central campus. It was really fun and a pretty unique experience :)

Monster Hospital (Jan 19)

• Being at the hospital with Krystle over the weekend brought some thoughts to the front of my mind: 
• I’ve never been in the hospital, other than for emergency stuff. 
• In fact, I haven’t been in the hospital since the car accident. 
• It was crazy seeing my incredibly strong best friend stuck in a bed, connected to an IV, because her body couldn’t handle what nature was throwing at her. 
• The chair that turned into a bed in her room was quite comfortable. 
• Unexpected perk – got to visit Katie, John and Charlie and finally see their house! Kyle came over too, because he lives right up the street, and it was so fun to just hang out with all of them. I love their little house and just seeing what they do from day to day. I also LOVE watching John with Charlie! He is so caring and loving but also very chill, like it’s just the most natural thing for him to feed and diaper and play with Charlie – which is how it should be :) 
• I got to see Kyle’s house too! It’s really nice – he’s so grown up! 
• Confession: I love taking care of people’s kids, especially children of my friends. But I HATE taking care of those kids in front of them. I know that I am a competent caregiver, but in front of a child’s parents, I am very self-conscious. What if I do things differently than they do/would and they realize that they can’t trust me? What if I do something wrong? I also don’t want to seem like I know best – more so than they do - when I continue holding their crying baby, trying my own ways to settle him or her down. And I don’t want them to think that I think of myself as a caregiver first, such that I will take care of the child over hanging out or that I see them just to see their child/children. I think that explanation makes sense…

Friends Will Be Friends

• I miss my friends. Right now, my closest/nearest close friend is Cara and she lives 20 minutes away. Now, I do realize that for some people, living only 20 minutes from a good friend is a luxury. However, most people that I know in this situation live with a significant other who (one would hope) could be counted as a close friend. Since moving to Kalamazoo almost 10 years ago, I have been lucky to be, at most, 5 minutes away from one of my best friends. In college, I lived with at least 2 during any given year. The one exception was when I was in Korea - but I saw Winter or another friend in Pohang/Gyeongju almost every day. And right now, I'm missing ALL of my friends. Carlee. Krystle. Katie. PP. Anna. WIFE. Camp friends. ER friends. Korea friends. Korea friends. Korea friends. I wish I could have all my people in one place. Obviously, not possible. But a girl can dream.

Better & Better

• Yesterday, I was over an hour late to work because I didn't hear my alarms :/ I felt terrible and embarrassed - this is my real job after all, not some college part-time work - even though my coworkers were understanding and my boss wasn't angry because she knew it "was out of character" for me. (I felt a little less terrible after I got half the kids in the Willow room down for a nap and also realized that my alarms didn't go off because I got a text before the time they were set for...still obnoxious but I can blame my phone.) But today was better. First, I was really needed in the classroom that I worked in today. I'm almost always needed but today I was filling for 2 core teachers - so I was really needed. And I like working with Mel, the other teacher in the classroom. Also, when we were on the playground, Will (a child in Evergreen, which is the classroom I was in for all of last week), ran up to and hugged me, flapping his hands and yelling "Emily!" It was ADORABLE! Then (also on the playground), the little Korean girl in the Maple classroom, Ye Bom - whom I try to converse with in both Korean and English as much as possible - basically dragged her mother over to me on her way back inside to say goodbye to me (in English). She was so excited and I loved it :)
• Now, I'm watching NCIS, New Girl and Big Bang Theory (from last week), in Cara's living room (with Cara) in front of a lovely fire :)

Bells And Whistles (Jan 9)

• I had dinner with Melissa at a Korean restaurant near work tonight! It was pretty yummy - but it was definitely Americanized Korean food...hehe I'm proud I can tell the difference :)
• I went to my first handbells rehearsal tonight! It was good :) There are some awesome people in the choir and everyone seemed so excited to meet me. The lady I'm sharing a stand with was the head librarian at the EMU library until last year; now she's at UofM-Dearborn. And the man who is ringing on my other side used to be the dean of EMU's College of Ed! Like, relatively recently. He has a great Southern accent too. I'm ringing the E4/F4 position right now...a good one to do reentry with because it's pretty "quiet" - at least, the parts in the songs we read are pretty easy. At first, I was like, "Oh no, I won't remember anything!" But it got easier very quickly and the director (and some others) seemed impressed that I had rung for 10 years and in several of the positions. It was weird being directed by someone that wasn't my dad though! But it was really fun :) AND I got to see my friends from Wesley afterwards. I, along with Marshal and Dave, successfully taught Sarah and Jon how to play Euchre! It was awesome :) A good Wednesday night.
• I hate throwing away chocolate! Especially the yummy Lindt/Lindor kind :(
• I still have my Christmas decorations up. In fact, I keep adding ornaments to my tree. On the 15th day of Christmas...

Brave New Girl

Thoughts for the day:

• What classifies something as a muffin and not a cupcake (and vice versa)? English is so confusing.
• I feel like Biggby is Starbucks' crazy, younger, pre-teen sister. I think it's because of the bright colors they use in their ads and the funny names they have for their drinks. I just feel like Starbucks is classier. Is that me being sucked in by their (Starbucks') marketing? Anyone care to weigh in?
• Being in Korea made me braver. I've been noticing it in very subtle ways lately. I don't mind asking strangers to take pictures of me and my friends. I don't feel uncomfortable talking to random strangers at the store or giving compliments. I don't feel as scared now about my career as I did in summer 2011. I don't feel as intimidated when I think about living/teaching abroad again. There is still a lot of stuff that makes me feel not brave, but I hope that list becomes shorter as my life goes on :)
• [I love Korea. I miss Korea.]

Cute As A Bug

• Cute things that happened at work today:
• Will "sent" me an "email" this morning. After making me a couple of notes on scrolls, he folded a piece of paper very small and declared it was an email.
• Will patted my hand and said "It's okay" after I only got 8 cards in a Memory game (and he got 14).
• Finn's shirt was buttoned one button off and he was like, "That's weird. Oh yeah, Dad dressed me today."
• Will, Jeremy, and Oliver danced to and sang Gangnam Style as we got ready to go outside.
• Gabi said she didn't want to go outside because she didn't want to have too much fun - she needed to save some for home.
• I taught Zoey (who speaks almost no English) to successfully play Memory.
• Julia got really excited when she saw me from her car as I walked into this center.

The Power Of Resolution

So I don't ever remember consciously making New Year's Resolutions. But yesterday, on my drive back home to Ypsi, I started thinking of things I want to do this year and whole bunch of resolution-type thoughts came tumbling out. I am going to print and post this list in my apartment but I also think this list is flexible - that I will be adding things to it throughout the year. Hopefully, by the end of 2013, I will be able to cross them all off!

New Year’s Resolutions 2013

• Explore the music and culture scene of Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti 
• Have more open communication with my friends and any boys that may come around 
• Continue making new friends and maintain those friendships (if desired) 
• Visit old friends as often as possible 
• Decorate my apartment as if I’m not moving in 8 months 
• Reply to snail mail with snail mail whenever I receive it 
• Start a new hobby (playing guitar or knitting) 
• Improve a current hobby (sewing, dance, baking, etc.) 
• See a therapist before the end of the year 
• Finish and print my “Adventures” blog (by the end of June) 
• Dress up and attend a fancy dinner 
• Be late to work less than 3 times per month 
• Put more Korea into my life (eating out, cooking, decorating, sending mail to friends in Korea/everywhere else etc.) 
• Try to transition into really living my (grown-up) life in Ann Arbor 

(And these things aren't really resolutions...more like reminders)

• Other things to do: 
• Back up hard drive more often 
• Make an infinity scarf 
• Put bumper stickers on my car 
• Finish posting pictures from 2012 to Facebook 
• Buy a smartphone 
• Finish missing blog posts