if its too hard to use the chopsticks, use a spoon

this may seem like a stupid title, but i think this might be my motto for this trip, or at least a side thought. i always wondered back in the states how chinese people managed to eat every grain of rice with chopsticks when i could hardly manage a whole piece of meat. so i have brought my chopstick skills to south korea, which simply amazes them, why i don't know. :) and they told me that if you can't get the rice out of the bowl with the chopsticks, just use the spoon. they all do. so i think that was a good cultural lesson for me. i dont know if it makes sense, but it does to me.

highlight of my day, i was just sitting at my desk (yes i have a desk!) pretending to read something and this kid comes up to me and puts his arms around me. he says, "annyeong haseyo?" and i replied, "annyeong haseyo." and then he gave me a kiss on the cheek. it was sooooo cute. i hadn't even met that kid before. wow. that is one thing i really love about this place and to me that means so far this country, is that everyone touches the kids like they are their own. in the states there are so many rules and regulations for anyone who works with kids. but here kids roam the streets alone, and everyone loves them. you will see a dad out with his kid or a herd of them at the pizza joint. its refreshing, especially considering i am in the city.

so hmm, right now i am waiting for the simpsons to come on. oh yes! the third person i met in korea, bae jee, said that she works on her english watching the simpsons and i just saw a commercial for it that says it is next. better be. i hope i didn't get my hopes up for nothing. but school went well. tomorrow is really the big day. its entrance day which is where we put on plays and we meet the kids and all that jazz. its a really big deal.

today i taught 2 classes on my own, the first had one student, walter. all the kids have korean names but they also have english names. so i had one student, no books...he already knew his colors pretty well, counting, greetings. so i got out a box of blocks and we just played with legos. randomly i would ask him what color certain blocks were or we would count them. it went well but i was just kind of like, um, what am i supposed to do? the second class i had 3 students who i thought were at a higher level but seemed to understand less of what i had to say. or maybe i raised what i was asking of the kids. so again the blocks but we had races where i would tell them to make a tower of 7 green blocks and whoever finished first won. then we just made towers of one color as tall as we could. amy helped to translate for me. but it was funny because i think the kids know i don't speak korean very well, but they still talk to me in korean. sometimes i can figure out what they are saying. sometimes not at all. but i still kind of like that fact that they give me the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming i have no idea. its nice.

yanny my teaching partner told me today that she studied in canada for a year and so she wants to be language partners and also that she understands what it is like to be in a different country and to be scared and homesick. so i just need to tell her and she will help me. :) seriously everyone is so nice. i do need more of the language under my belt so i can at least pick up things while they talk around me. but honestly i have been working in my book and i can read a good chunk of the alphabet from memory and also can say somethings. so all is well on the new homefront. until next time. :)