I Think Wrong About You

Many apologies for not maintaining my blog more regularly. To be honest, I find it harder and harder to identify what topics and stories would be interesting. At first I had no trouble knowing what my friends and family back home would find amusing, but the line between what's normal in Korea and what's absurd is becoming less defined. So if you have any questions/comments/concerns/curiosities, don't hesitate to ask. I welcome any and all writing inspiration.

The title for this blog comes from a text I received from a "suitor" who was somewhere between crushed and livid that I bailed on him for a date. He texted me that night saying "I think wrong about you, you're a bad girl. I delete your number." Too true, my friend, I'm no angel. The next week he texted me asking if I had a good day. I guess he forgot he deleted my number.

Koreans love cakes, so much so that we play a game similar to "Punch Buggy!" Anytime you see someone walking by with a cake, you try to be the first one to punch your friend on the arm and yell "cake." (Google images had a disappointing collection of cake box shots; maybe I need to dedicate a photo project to this confectionery insanity.) The game is continuous but punches are nulled if a Paris Baguette, Tour Les Jour or another large bakery is in sight . And you can't punch someone for a cake that's already been spotted.

In March I started teaching kindergarten full time in the mornings. The transition from the first year of kindergarten to the second is a rude awakening for these six and seven year olds. My kids came to SLP last spring as newcomers to the English language. Their days were pretty unstructured and the emphasis was on adjusting them to the ins and outs of classroom dynamics. This year, however, the kids spend the first three hours of their day doing about seven different English instruction books and there's no more time to play. There's simply no time for monkey business. I feel like the Wicked Witch in the moments when the class devolves into chaos and I ask them accusingly if they're six years old, implying that they are now too old to be playing silly games and wanting to color pictures. Seriously, getting to color is a treat for these kids, and only comes in five minute intervals after we finish all of our other work.

A huge motivation for them is stickers. On days they're really good, they can pick two stickers to put on their individual sticker charts. Once they get 20 stickers, they can choose a prize. Purchasing these stickers and prizes have become a bit of an obsession for me. About two drawers of my desk at work are filled with back up supplies of goodies ranging from novelty erasers and colored pens to phone accessories and wind-up toys. Each month the kids also have to learn a "fun speech" and two songs to sing at the monthly birthday party. Their songs this month are the Hokey Pokey and Little Bunny Foo Foo and their speech is "The Ants Go Marching."

I feel lucky that I'll be staying in Korea for another year and will get to see my kids grow up a little more. I'm a very forward-thinking person and I know the time will go fast. When I finish my second contract here, I want to travel SE Asia as much as possible before visiting a friend in Australia and heading home to the States. It's still a long way off, but it's pretty great adventure to look forward to.