Lots of new things have happened

So here are some of the things that happened over this past week. I will try to give as much detail as I remember

1. this week I was super excited because last time i went to home plus i got candy for my kids to see if maybe this way they would participate more. so i got a bag of 200 lolies- figured this would last me quite a while. Well, the candy did work. Everybody wanted to participate, which was good. But I went through a lot more candy i thought i would. So today I bought 4 new bags of candy- smaller candy this time but more variation. hoping it will last me at least for the next 2 weeks or so. So this was good

2. i was on my way to the pool the other day and started a conversation with some kid that was on his way to the pool too. i was super proud of myself because I was able to hold a super basic conversation with him. I was able to ask his name, how old he was, and what he was doing over at the suwon youth center. So this was uber exciting because he acutually understood me! then the other night on the way back from the pool i started to talk to this one girl who always comes back home from the pool at the same time I do. We started speaking a little english (her english was basic but she understood me) it turns out, her name is chi-in and she is 13 and in january she is going to be coming to my school! so i will most likely be her english teacher. Apparently she lives in my same apartment complex or close by or something because she says she has seen me before many times walking around.

3. i had a wonderful dinner over at dana's. she made some kind of meat dish and some noodles. SO good !!!! And guess what!>!>! she also got me a pumpkin!!! i had told her about how i have never carved a pumpkin before and so she went out and looked for one so we can carve a pumpkin together for Halloween. I am so excited about it. No idea how it is going to go but definitely looking forward to it.

4. my weekend was amazing. First, because well, my girl cancelled on me going to the pool (which is not great) but this meant that I was able to stay after school and help Jacky with her extra class. the kids were learning the parts of the body and so i looked up a video on YouTube- the one that goes "head, shoulders, knees and toes knees and toes..." and so on. And so i made the kids sing along and dance with me and then we played Simon says. It was SO fun! I think all the kids officially think i am crazy cuz i love dancing and I am a bit too animate in class. But it I really think it helps them learn and keeps them engaged in the classroom

5. i also had a proud moment. It was my first time this past week teaching this 3-2 class that I had not yet had and afterwards, Grace, my co-teacher, who had also never seen me teach told me that there is a special ed girl in her class that never pays attention, and always just sleep... and of course they cannot do anything about it... anyways,,, but after class she told me that she was super surprised because it was the first time that this one girl stayed up for the whole class, did not fall asleep and actually participated and was interested in learning. So I was very happy about this. Happy that I was able to keep her engaged in the classroom

6. also on Wednesday Jacky took me to another school to see an open class. honestly it was not so great. too fake. too practiced. This is supposed to be the "ideal" class and people come watch and stuff and evaluate the teacher etc etc etc.... but I really thought they tried a little too hard, the teacher seemed super nervous and the kids were too fake. BUT I did learn about a cool application that you can use to put a timer on the computer and so now when i do exercises in class and give the kids a time limit I can just set that timer and there is not need to me yelling that the time is up AND because it beeps really loudly when time is over, the kids actually quiet down a lot quicker.

7. another thing in relation to the open class. i was a bit upset because Wednesday was supposed to be my first class for the teacher training (i am now teaching the English teachers once a week) and I had prepared a very cool lesson and was looking forward to it, but because of the open class Jacky told me it was going to have to wait until this coming Wednesday, which is ok. but not great. Anyways... at least this week I do get to teach the teachers. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully they will like the lesson .

8. Saturday was great. I met up with Jacky at 10am in Seoul for our English lesson. We did some English, some Spanish, some french and then her friend Mi-chong met up with us. We had a really good time, walked around, got some lunch, went to the park, did some dancing, got something to drink, walked around, chatted a lot, went to see a Korean comedy at a small theater I guess you could call, then got some more food.... really good. Jacky is such a cutie and she is so nice... I just seriously have never met someone as nice as she (she is probably just as nice as Ruthie) and Ruthie is super hard to beat. She sets the bar high. Oh, and we had some super spicy foods that were simply delicious. spicy but delicious. BTW. I have officially decided I am gonna start calling Jacky boss once in a while. Just to give her a hard time since she is always "bossing me around" but just to be nice and to joke... so now I am like "hey boss. what are you up to boss. wanna go out to lunch boss..." cracks me up :-)

9. today i just took a bus the opposite direction i usually take just to see where it would take me. It was an ok bus ride. I rode for about 40 minutes and then just got off, walked around a bit, walked through a market, then went to a dunkin doughnuts and did some Korean there for a couple hours and then headed back home. Oh, and on the way back I finally figured out what I have been hearing in the bus this past month. When I first got here it was just noise, but now I actually understand!!! which i was super proud of. So when you are on the bus they say "this is..... station. The next station is..... final destination... " so now I was able to listen to what they were saying and got off at the right station without really having to look around to see if the surrounding looked familiar, which is always a plus! Also, my reading is improving and so it really helps with reading signs quickly and figuring out stops for the buses and all.

10. Now all I gotta worry about is this tax info stuff that I have to turn in to the school. but that's about it. Looking forward to the new week and to lots of fun :-)