Top Of The Roller Coaster (June 16)

• Today, Jeanette, Christian, Joey, Sai and I went to Gyeongju World to continue celebrating Jeanette’s birthday. The bad thing – it’s not as good a deal as Michigan’s Adventure (or even Cedar Point, for that matter)...Gyeongju World and California Beach (the water park) are separate and you have to pay for them separately. GJ World was 26K and CB would have been 46K! Oy. BUT the good thing – we had a lot of fun! We rode a bunch a different rides and – GET THIS – I rode roller coasters! BIG ones! Okay, one big one. But that was all the park had so it’s not my fault. And I rode this ride that was a giant swing AND spun you at the same time (that one was terrible and I would never do it again). But the big roller coaster was fun! :) It was one where your feet dangle and has twists and loops. I did close my eyes the whole time (except for 1 second when I peeked and the sky was under my feet...) but it was a BIG step for me. I honestly think that being in Korea changed me, even in this little instance. Here, I’ve been very open to trying anything at least once, and this counted. And it was awesome! I’m not saying I’m ready to bungee-jump or anything…but the next time I go to Cedar Point I will definitely have more fun. Now, if only the incredibly long lines of people would go away...

• After GJ World, we went to the Love/Sex Museum. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. And yes, that’s all I’m going to write about it. 
• At one of the stops on the bus route back to downtown, I caught a couple of teenage girls looking at me and pointing when they saw me through the bus window. So, I waved back and they literally shrieked and giggled like I was a hot famous guy. It was fabulous :) 
• After dinner at a buffet, we decided that we wanted to end the night with coffee instead of alcohol. So we went to this new coffee shop that Sai has been eager to try. It was adorable. I’m very glad that I live close to GJ so I’ll be able to visit it more often. (I also love that I keep finding amazingly cute coffee places near me. It will be my mission to find these when I get back home.) 

Our group in the loft we chose

View of the cafe from our loft area

 

I love the decorations :)

• Happy birthday to my blog – it is one year old today :)

Blessed Assurance (June 14)

• Today Winter and I visited Garden Lady again. I love just talking with her. Her facial expressions are fabulous and she's so sweet, and quite smart. And she tries to use English every once in awhile. I think she knows about the same amount of English as I know Korean...maybe a little more. After a little while, we headed back to my apartment for the bathroom and a sweatshirt (it's really cool here lately!) before going to search for dinner. I remembered that I wanted to give her some banana bread so I put some on a plate and we headed back there. She wasn't outside when we arrived, so we wandered into the shop. When I said "Hello!" she shouted back from the back room for us to come in! (There was a little kitchenette, office and another small room for her and her children to hang out in when business is slow.) I showed her that I brought bread - she said "Anja! Anja! Anja!" (Sit down! Sit down! Sit down!) and started bustling around to make tea (we had strawberry tea). She and her daughter loved my bread (!) and we got to talk even more, about crocheting, making tea, Korean schools, individualism vs. collectivism, and other things. It was really wonderful. A little while into the conversation, she said she thinks of me as her niece because I live alone and have no one to take care of me. I am so glad I decided to buy a plant from her!
• As Winter and I headed to the bus stop later, I encountered another first in Korea - we saw a woman peeing in the grass near the bus stop! Now, this is not tall grass, nor do I live on a deserted road. But there she was.
• The Heart of Music service tonight was really great. There are a lot of things I love about this Thursday night service - the regularity, the music, the people, the opportunity to shut everything out (and to PRACTICE shutting it all out). But tonight we did more sharing with each other and I loved it. I realized that there are a lot of things that I could/should be praying about right now, and that I need to make time to remember to lift those concerns up. But it also helped me remember/realize that, even though I haven't gone bungee-jumping or white-water rafting or anything else crazy or traveled to a ton of countries, I have had - am having! - an amazing time here because of the truly wonderful human beings that I have met. I am truly 축복받은 - blessed.

Hope Has A Place (June 13)

• Started the day off with coffee with Ingrid. And we were pleasantly surprised to find Abby at the HomePlus Starbucks when Cafe Enchante across the street was closed! Yay :)
• I relieved some stress tonight by baking banana bread (new recipe + 1 extra banana) and submitting 2 job applications. They would both be great jobs so here's hoping that I get a call from one! (I know, I sound like a total noob, but a girl can hope, right?)

No Sleep Tonight (June 12)

• I really think that the bus drivers in Pohang (at least some of them) definitely go fast (especially over the bridge by my house...I flew in the air this time!), stop quickly and make people run just for the fun of it sometimes.
• I wish I didn't have to sleep. While I enjoy a long sleep every once in a while, more often I wish I could just keep talking to friends and family or working on projects or watching movies instead of wasting several hours doing nothing. What's worse is I can't survive on as little sleep as I used to. I can generally function alright if I wake up after 3-5 hours of sleep - but the problem is actually waking up. I've done it a few times here but not when I really needed to or as often as I'd like too. I think I have to just start accepting that I need 7+ hours of sleep. Boooo.

Open Up The Door (June 11)

• Today was my Open Class. This is when students’ parents, other teachers and administrators come into my classroom to see how I teach and what my students have been learning (these also happen for Korean teachers). A lot of TaLK scholars do special activities for their Open Classes, like games, cooking, projects, etc. It can definitely be nerve-wracking. Winter and I decided though that we weren’t going to do anything special – no way could I imagine trying a cooking project with my first and second graders! So anyways, we got to school early today to get everything ready. After lunch, we went back up to the classroom and, for awhile, I legit didn’t think anyone (including my students) would show up! (Even my mentor teacher said that she wouldn’t be able to come.) But all the students eventually came in and we had an audience of teachers (including my MT...oy) and parents by 1:25. I just did my normal routine with the kids – intro songs, Simon Says, dancing, phonics, special topic (days of the week), game. The kids were pretty good (I was actually happy they weren’t perfect angels, so their parents could see that they weren’t) and I also felt it went well. Afterwards, we were able to have a reflection meeting with some of the parents and teachers. My MT and the gym teacher both said that they got some ideas about teaching in non-traditional ways from me today. One of my first grade girls’ mom was told me that Yeong Che really enjoys our class and comes home speaking English – so she’s trying to learn some now too! Min Ji’s mom (another of my first grade girls), who also teaches at my school, said that she never thought that Min Ji would be taking English classes and now Min Ji loves our class – she gets really upset if she has to miss! Yeun Ju is one of my second graders and her mom said several things that touched me. First she said that She didn’t think Yeon Ju would ever be able to learn English and now she wants to try to get her into a hagwon (private school). Second, she said that Yeon Ju wants to be an English teacher when she grows up! Third, she told a story about how she saw us interact with Yeon Ju outside of the school one day – Yeon Ju hugged both me and Winter and when her mom saw us hug her back, she almost cried! It was so sweet to hear this positive feedback. It was also really empowering (maybe in a weird way) that Winter and I have been able to continue teaching well and make a positive impact, despite many negative feelings towards our school and our situation. Winter also said she thinks a lot of the teachers respect us a lot more now that they’ve seen us teach. Overall, it went really well :) 
• After school, Winter and I had dinner my head teacher. We went to a restaurant down my street, had samgyupsal (not as good as Beef Before Flowers though), and just talked for a while. I really enjoyed it and, hopefully, I can meet up with him and other staff more before I leave. 
• Winter gave a saleslady a piece of her mind, on my behalf, tonight. Even though it made Winter feel a little bad, it really was awesome and I felt very grateful (again) to have her as my friend and co-teacher. 
• I got some great deals at HomePlus and I was very excited. (I feel like I don’t really get to use my deal-finding skills here because there really aren’t clearance racks and there definitely aren’t yard sales.)

Pho! (June 10)

• Had Pho for the first time today – Liz, Darryl, Joey, Christian and Sai love it so I was happy to try it. It wasn’t awesome - Liz said the restaurant wasn’t that great - but I could see how it would be good comfort/hangover food :)
• After that, I went to church, which was on the beach today :) It was a fabulous way to worship. It was good to be back too – I’ve missed the last few Sundays. Memorable quotes from the service: 

“We love not to convert but just because we are converted” - Pastor Richie

“You don't need to change to be a Christian. Jesus will change you.” – Mario

Plus we had burgers from King Kong. And I met a great girl who lives in Canada but is from Grand Rapids! (I’ve met her brother at church before.) She was really friendly and it was great to hear her say that her heart is definitely in MI :)

 

After the service, I got to talk with Ingrid about lots of faith things. We both seem to be at a similar point in our journey and it was really good to realize that.

• And then I had 2nd dinner with Sai and Liz – we talked about Disney movies and Sai read our palms.

No Wedding Cake (June 9)

• Today I went to my 3rd Korean wedding. And it was different from the other two! This one was for the Office Girl at my school, Hye Sun. Out of the 3 weddings I’ve been to, I know here the best so I was excited. It was a very interesting experience. They held it at one of the big wedding halls that I see all over the city. We arrived and went up to the hall they had rented on the 6th floor. Since the wedding scheduled before Hye Sun’s wasn’t finished yet, her guests hung out in the back of the room while the other people finished their ceremony and pictures. That was the start of the very business-like structure of the hall. I went into the “bride room” to see Hye Sun. She was sitting under a tree and looked beautiful :)

  

  

After that, Mi Hye and I went to find a seat (many people stayed at the back of the room – but I wanted pictures!). The wedding started and the family was directed/led in by 2 bridesmaids – but they weren’t Hye Sun’s friends, just girls who work at the hall. They basically wear a cute dress and show the family of each wedding where to stand and what to do. Business-like. The ceremony was nice, but not necessarily catered to Hye Sun or her husband’s wishes – just whatever was available from the hall. And the room never got completely quiet because soon after we started, guests from the next wedding started arriving! And since they didn’t know Hye Sun, they didn’t bother to keep quiet :/ Friends of Hye Sun and her husband did perform for them, to make the ceremony a little more personal (which is actually something that has happened at all 3 weddings I’ve been to). And she looked so beautiful, so the rest kinda didn't matter :)

• After the ceremony, we headed to the dining hall – but we had to wait to get in, because there wasn’t enough seats for us at the moment, what with the guests from the previous wedding still eating and all. I thought this is where the party would be...but nope, it was literally just eating. And it wasn’t even a very social meal – by the time we got there, the only other people we knew at the wedding (the staff from my school) were finished eating and getting ready to leave. So Mi Hye and I enjoyed our meal (the food was pretty good) and waited for Hye Sun and her husband to come greet everyone. There was no big announcement when they arrived, they just slipped in and started thanking their guests. It was really nice to meet her husband. He spoke English and was very sweet – he even said he’d like to have me over to dinner before I leave! It was so cute. Overall, I’m definitely glad that I went and that I’ve gotten to experience 3 very different Korean weddings. I’m excited to go to my next American wedding and actually party though :)
• After the wedding, I met up with Winter and we met Liz, Ruby, Darryl, Tony, Joe, Sai, Christian, and Joey at the beach. We had dinner and coffee downtown, and even played at the arcade! Haha :) Then Sai, Liz, Christian, Joey, Darryl and I went out in Mundeok again. It was fun that it was the same crew as the night before and we drank, played drinking games (well and not-so-well), and briefly went to norebang. Fun times :)

Up On The Rooftop (Jun 8)

• Tonight, I met Sai, Darryl, Liz, Christian, and Joey in Mundeok for dinner. After that though, we went back to Liz’s and hung out on the rooftop for hours. We played games, drank a little, experimented with balance and gravity and learned a lot about each other. And there were numerous references to Friends (Sai is also an expert on the series :D). I was so glad to see them…it had been over a month since I’d hung out with them. I missed my friends. And I realized how lucky I am to have met the friends I have here. Before now, I have recognized how fantastic they are but I’m finally realizing that they have accepted me for who I truly am, faults/weirdness and all. I’m so happy and lucky to have them in my life and hope that post-Korea distance will not prevent us from sustaining our relationships.

Hot N Cold

• All I have to say today is THANK GOODNESS my room has 2 different air conditioners and 4 fans and that Office Guy said I could turn them all on. There are perks to being on the 4th floor. Sometimes.

Market Girl

• Today was a national holiday so we got the day off...WOOHOO!!! I working to cross as much as I can off my Korea To-Do List, so today was devoted to visiting Jukdo Market, which I pass whenever I go downtown but have never been to. It is a HUGE traditional-style market where you can buy clothes (mostly geared towards older people), bedding, fabric (!), dishes/kitchen things, pottery, plants, and FOOD. Fruit, vegetables, seafood, chicken/other meats, grains, rice cakes, prepared side dishes. Everything! Abby and I were marveling (even though she's been before). It was amazing. And, quite honestly, overwhelming. We don't know what a lot of the things are, let alone how to cook with them - and forget trying to cook Korean dishes with them. It really was incredible. The seafood selection was crazy - dried fish, live fish, octopus, shellfish, crab, sea squirts, sea slugs, and WHALE. Yes, you could buy whale. For eating. And yes, people were buying the whale. Besides the dried fish, most of the products were moving. It was very strange! And we must have been the only foreigners to pass by for awhile - or we just looked incredibly vulnerable, being women, and snapping pictures at everything - because ALL of the fish salesmen tried to sell us things. Coming up behind us, shoving things in our faces, speaking English to us (to try and impress us), saying we were beautiful...yep. At one point, I said to Abby, "I'm so glad we speak a little Korean. And aren't stupid." After that, we managed to get dinner at one of the stalls. The woman told us (by pointing to the bills in my wallet) that it would be 26K for both of us to eat. We hesitated for a few seconds and she dropped the price down to 21K (yay for bargaining on DINNER without words!) and basically shoved us into the restaurant. With our restaurant lingo (which I feel the most accomplished at) we got rice, kimchi and soup, in addition to our fish, and they didn't charge extra for any of it! We were very full and happy :) It was a day well-spent.

I would like that one...on the bottom...

 

Since every piece looked different, we could only assume
they were all handmade.

 

GREENS!

Dried fish of all shapes and sizes (many stalls also had
these fan contraptions, with streamers on them, going -
to keep flies away!)

Sea slugs. They were still moving.

Shellfish. They were also still moving/snapping.

Aaaand the whale stand.

Octopi. Complete with handy carrying handles.

Goodnight Jukdo :)

Haircut And Attitude (June 5)

• Today started out great because Winter and I met up before school for coffee. We went to one of our new favorite places, a shop called "Coffee Enchante", across from the HomePlus. The owner is really nice (he bowed to me later tonight when I saw him through the window) and the coffee/tea is really good. I brought some cookies along with me and we relaxed in the air conditioning before heading to school. We even considered just staying there all day. Not really. But kind of.
• Ashley and I got haircuts tonight. This has been on my to-do list since I came to Korea, because I wasn’t able to get one before I left. This last week or so, my hair just started bugging me – and it was so hot! – so Ashley got a recommendation for an English-speaking hairdresser (named Happy!) near Bukbu beach. We went there tonight and it was great. Happy was so nice and spoke English really well, so I could tell her exactly what I wanted. She wasn’t the one who cut my hair – but the girl I got was SO good. She just snip-snip-snipped but it was so skillful and she made it look so easy. She also pulled down on my hair on both sides every once in a while, to make sure she was cutting evenly. THANK YOU. Oh and she was rocking 4-inch+ heels that I’m sure she had been wearing all day. She cut my hair all short-ish (same style as when I got it cut last summer, but a little shorter) and then I got a shampoo AND she styled it...all for only 20K! (Which, if you aren’t keeping up, is only about $17.) I wish I needed my haircut again before I leave! Or that I could go to her for all my haircuts! Now I have to find a stylist at home who will do all this stuff for cheap – because I realized that part of the reason I’m always insecure about my new haircuts is because, since they spritz it with water to cut it, my hair is poufy and unstraightened and I don’t like it that way. I mean, she cut way more off this time than normal and I still love it! :D :D :D 

• After our awesome haircuts, we met Abby at HomePlus – we spent almost 2 hours shopping and browsing, looking up and down almost every food aisle. And fighting with Ashley about Tesco brand cereal. And when I checked out, the cashier handed me my receipt, circled the bottom where my points balance was, said stuff in Korean and motioned to the Customer Service desk. I went over there, they handed me a scratch card and a 10-won piece, so I scratched it away and then they handed me a new folding-pully-cart thing! I don’t know how I won it but I/we were so excited! The sales ladies were looking at us a little strangely – I don’t think they usually get that reaction. It was really funny :) 
• After HomePlus, we dragged our bags, ourselves and my new cart onto the bus and went to Tilt – mostly because Happy told us we needed to go somewhere more fun/cool than HomePlus, with our new dos. We don’t have school tomorrow, so we were all game. Plus, I got to cross “Go to Tilt” off my Korea To-Do list. Tilt is a bar owned by a couple foreigners frequented by MANY Pohang foreigners ALL the time. They even have cookouts and game nights. But I’ve never been before! We walked it and it wasn’t sketchy at all, which was a fantastic surprise. There were lots of people, lots of fun, and pretty good drinks. The bartender was really nice and fun - he thought we handed him 21K (two 10s and 1 one), instead of the 30K (3 tens) that we actually gave him, so he offered us the 9K change or a free shot each. We decided the shot would be fun and he took it with us! Fire Water is kind of good ;) He also brought us another shot later, so we basically got 2 shots and a mixed drink for less than $10, which is pretty good. We also found Nida and Ingrid and got to hang out with them for a while. Ingrid hadn’t met Ashley yet, so when Nida introduced her she said “And this is the third one!” It was so cute. I’m very glad we went!

The Secret Life of Plants (June 4)

• I'm so happy and lucky to have Winter on my side. She said exactly the right thing to MT today - basically what I would say if MT spoke English or I spoke Korean :)
• After school, we got ice cream bars. We were hoping for walnut ice cream - no such luck but still had yumminess. We also stopped and said hi to Plant Lady - whose real name is Eun Jun. She told us that the Chinese characters of her name mean silver, gold and pearl. How cool!
• I decided to make pizza for dinner. I needed some things from the store and passed by Eun Jun's store again. I waved and she introduced me to her children, who knew some English. She asked what I was doing for dinner and I told her I was headed to the store to figure it out. On my way home, I saw her again and told her I was going to make pizza and showed her what I bought. Then she said something about melons and disappeared into her shop. She emerged a few minutes later with 2 Korean melons and a small bag of dried chamomile, for tea! It was soooooooooo cute. I'm so glad I met her!

Ingredients

So colorful!

Cheeeeeese

Nom nom nom :)

• A giant bug came out from behind my wardrobe to freak the hell out of me tonight. I trapped it under a cup and left it there for a couple hours. Then I decided that I needed to get rid of it because otherwise it'd stress me out as I fell asleep and then I'd forget about it in the morning and probably trip  over it and tip the cup over and set it free. AHHHH. Couldn't let that happen. So I mustered up some gumption and threw it out my window. Woohoo!

Scooter Chase (June 3)

• Happy Birthday to my lovely Mama!
• I got to talk to Shelby's parents with her today. They seem so awesome and down-to-earth; I think it would be cool to meet them in “real life”.
• I decided to stay in Andong today and go to the historic Hahoe village with Shelby and her friend Leozanda. It was a really hot day but it was also really neat to go to the village. We saw a traditional Andong Mask Dance, bought some awesome cheap souvenirs and – best of all – rode 3-wheeled stand-up scooters around the village for half an hour! They were 10K for 30 minutes but it was so hot and we needed to get around fast that we didn’t care. And they were soooo fun! And lots of the Korean people we passed (who were also sight-seeing) smiled or laughed in a “Oh the foreigners are so cute” kind of way.

My favorite character in the mask dan

On the train ride home :)

•  We got back to Andong city in time for me to catch the train. It was actually cheaper than the bus and way smoother. I technically had a standing-room ticket but, luckily I found an empty seat and grabbed it before the Korean teen girl got to it. I also successfully got a small refund on my ticket when I decided to stay in Gyeongju for a little while to get dinner with Jeanette. We ate at Beef Before Flowers and it was yummy – as always.

Good Ones and Bad Ones (June 2)

Today was interesting... 

• Shelby, Lindsay, and I (and an EPIK teacher from Andong, named Cassie) were invited to a wedding in a small mountain village, because of the connection between Shelby's mentor teacher and the village leader. But the ulterior motive of our invitation to the wedding was to advertise that the village had beautiful female foreign visitors, so we were posed and photographed all day. Shelby's mentor teacher (who also accompanied us) was urging us to give him gifts at a later time as repayment for hooking us up with such a unique opportunity. It was very frustrating at times and we ended up not staying the night as we had originally planned, because it was so uncomfortable :/ 

However there were some very good parts to the day:

• The traditional wedding ceremony that we witnessed was a really cool experience. I wish I understood what was happening (or that someone had translated for us) but it was still neat. I loved how bright the colors were, as opposed to the normal white/black/one other color. Also, Lindsay and I kind of came to the conclusion that this was not their primary ceremony – at one point, there were kids running around/talking and chickens flying off tables and the bride didn’t bat an eye...we figured this was only possible if she knew she had another ceremony as well haha :)

• The views around the village were really fantastic.

• We were asked to read poetry later in the evening. I’m not a huge poetry fan, so this wasn’t that great. BUT there was a guitarist there and, after the poetry reading, he played some folk songs that everyone (well, the Koreans) knew and it reminded me of Firebowl :) 
• After the poetry “slam” and dinner, we had a chance to speak with an old man, who used to be a professor. We were impressed when he read a poem in French (with a great accent) earlier, and even more amazed when he spoke to us about English language and history (he taught us the etymology of “beef”, “pork” and “mutton”...even though he is Korean!). Plus, he called us his angels and said that I had mystery in my smile. (Honestly, if her were about 50 years younger, I would TOTALLY be attracted to him.) He was adorable and definitely made the night worthwhile. 

• Then, of course, there was Mr. Park (Shelby’s mentor teacher) on the drive home. It’s difficult to describe Mr. Park, other than to say that speaking to him is like speaking to a rather oblivious 10-year-old. You could even compare him to a less adorable/lovable Luna Lovegood. Memorable moments on the way home:
• He told us to please be careful...even though he was driving.
• He told us to watch out for falling rocks...and then locked the doors.
• He told us he lost his road and couldn’t find it again.
• He decided that my question "Is that the Andong dam?" was too difficult and asked us different questions to explain to us what easy questions were. To Lindsay, he asked, "What is your favorite season and why?" To me, he asked, "Which American political party do you affliliate yourself with and why?" To Shelby, he asked, "What are the two qualities you like most in your boyfriend?" Yeah, those aren't difficult at all.
• He ran a red light and stopped at a green. 
• When Shelby and I got back to her apartment, we watched HP7.2 and polished off a bottle of wine and a bowl of guacamole, to melt away our very strange day. I also successfully kept her awake after we climbed into bed and turned the lights out - she always falls asleep right away, but we just couldn't stop laughing!

School Daze (June 1)

• Happy June! 
• I had a GOOD day at school! 
• First, some background info: In my classroom, I don't use desks. Winter and I quickly realized that the lightweight desks provided in my classroom were going to be both a distraction (kids could - and did - move them all over, rocked them back and forth, etc.) and a danger (especially when they decided to stand on them when we were practicing understanding "Stand up"). So we shoved them to the back of the room and started taping the students' nametags on the floor for each class. 2 weeks ago, we finally decided that we no longer wanted to deal with taping the nametags down every class (it took about 10-15 minutes on days that we were both working on it and we used about a roll of tape each week) or with the students pulling them up (and us then having to retape them). Because of THAT habit they’d gotten into, we made a rule that pulling up your nametag was an automatic X for you team. (Early in the semester, we divided the students into teams. Misbehavior gets their team an X. If the team has no Xs at the end of class, each student gets 2 stickers. 1 X and each student gets 1 sticker. 2 Xs and no one gets stickers. 3 Xs and they have to go down to their homeroom teacher for punishment (which we haven’t done yet).) Anyways, we changed from nametags to electrical-taped name-squares and they are working very well.
• Back to today. Ji Won (this is the student with whom I had a standoff a couple weeks ago and who ran away from our classroom in March) ripped off part of the tape of his name-square when he didn't win Simon says (a regular reaction of his). So, as per my system, his team got an X for that. He shut down after that (unfortunately, also normal) and tried to get attention by not participating and banging a marble against a desk. I ignored him and about 5 minutes later, I saw him trying to unroll the ball of tape he'd made out of his name-square tape...he was trying to fix it! So I brought him a roll of new tape and scissors instead and showed him what to do. He cut the pieces himself and, even though it’s not a perfect square anymore, I'm going to leave it - hopefully it will remind him to keep his temper or at least make him not want to mess up his own work. I was so proud of him that he did that though! I gave him a sticker and took away his X (which I don't ever do). 
• In general, the kids were just better behaved today. Still loud but no one came in running or kicking or punching. Hyeok Jin was almost on time (he usually either comes in late or skips altogether). Se Hyeong (he skips more often that Hyeok Jin and is just a jerk when he does come) was 25 minutes late but came in without much fuss and stayed relatively quiet. They all participated in dancing and got really excited when I wrote "+1" on the board, meaning they all got an extra sticker for good dancing. (The place where I write it on the board is right under the chart where I record Xs, so when I go over there they get really quiet because they think someone is getting an X. Today they were so cute and cheered very loudly when I told them everyone got 1 extra sticker.) They were excited to sing the Days of the Week song (Addams family version) that I taught them this week, and even asked to do it again. And when I waited for them to get quiet to get their stickers they ALL shushed each other, sat up straight, and sat crossed-legged with their hands on their knees. For at least a month (though probably more like 2), we've been trying to get them to wait while each team comes up to get their stickers at the end of class. I now say "Okay, which team is ready for stickers?", pretend like I'm thinking really hard and they quiet down pretty fast. BUT they've never been this quiet though so it was really cute. 
• Then, third graders were cute too! They came in and Chae Yeong asked for a cup for water and offered to get me some. While she was gone, In Ho and Dong Yun got Uno ready. When she came back with my water, Chae Yeong and I both drank some and were like, “ahhhh” – and In Ho and Dong Yun were both like, “One shot! One shot!” It was really funny but I was thinking, “WHERE did you learn that???” We played a few games of Uno because they were working really hard to speak English during the game (a rule I try to enforce when we aren’t really doing English activities...). Then it was time for Simon Says – and they were enjoying it so much and I wasn’t feeling well, so they just played it on their own for the last 25 minutes of class! It was so cute and they loved it. 
• After that, Chan Gi came in – he’s in 4th grade and supposed to have class with the 3rd graders. Oy. But we went over days of the week, which he did well with, and then played several games of Uno. He practiced his English and we kept score, which was good number/math practice. Then Su Hyeon, Da Bin and Woo Seok joined us. We taught Woo Seok how to play and they were so excited-loud about it and it was really cute. They even stayed late to play again. They weren't speaking as much English as I would have liked, but they were being so funny and having so much fun, that I just let it go. Su Hyeon and Woo Seok even granted us a "tango" dancing performance at the end of class...
• Plus, the vice principal said (in English) that I looked gorgeous (I wore a new dress today) and Hye Sun, Office Guy and I had a good conversation at lunch, even without Winter or Mi Hye translating. And we had my favorite yummy anchovy thing (called멸치볶음) for lunch. Mmmm. 
• (I also arrived in Andong tonight, to visit Shelby’s – and, though I was glad to finally get there, that was more stressful than anything else, so I’m not going to include details.)