Never Gets Old

This week my Sprout 2 lesson was about a lion who lived at the zoo. He had to pass a variety of hunting games so he could go to Africa to see his parents. Obviously, the story reminded me of "Christian the Lion" so I showed all of my classes a YouTube clip of it. This one's for you Ehoel. XO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5vRPKIS5UM

Pretty in Pink

The other day I joked that I should do PR for the Daejeon Aquarium because after telling everyone about their grand opening and pink dolphin, everyone was planning to visit this weekend. Seriously, though. My students asked what day and time I was going because they wanted to go at the same time. How cute.

Anyways, the topic of this week's thinking project was good and bad luck charms. Because of all of the pink dolphin excitement, many students made pink dolphins their lucky charm. The pictures were actually really good.

It's hard to see, but she drew a red bow on it. P.S. This is the student who loves Hello Kitty and asked if stars had babies.

Such a good little artist, but camera shy.

Left: Alex. His sister lives in Chicago; Right: Peter. He's going to California next summer.

Jinx

I really think I keep jinxing myself.

As many of you know, over the past few months I've been bragging about seeing a pink dolphin. I was first supposed to see them in Hong Kong and now at the Daejeon Aquarium. After a student told me a detailed story about his pink dolphin adventure at the Daejeon Aquarium, he had me convinced that it was open. Then finding their web site online, really had me convinced it was open and pee-my-pants excited. I got a big group of people together to go to the aquarium and marvel at the pink dolphin with me. We were supposed to meet in the lobby at noon today...

It's 12:05 p.m. and I'm sitting here writing this, not in the lobby, not on my way to the aquarium. Last night a Korean co-worker told me that on the Korean web site it says it's not open until next month. I really didn't believe her so I made her call the aquarium this morning just to make sure and...

IT'S NOT OPEN!

I still can't believe it.

I don't want to talk it.

I guess I shouldn't keep getting my hopes up because my pink dolphin sized heart can't handle all of the ups and downs of Operation: Pink Dolphin.

Until further notice, I'll be pouting the rest of the day.

Happy Pepero Day!

Pepero Day is like Valentine's Day, but in November. The stick shape resembles the number one so Pepero Day is celebrated on 11/11. The past few days my students have forced Pepero sticks upon me and I just couldn't resist the chocolatey, crunchy "yummy." These sweet treats come in a variety of flavors and sizes and I may explode if I eat another one today. All of the convenient stores have had huge displays of Pepero sticks in anticipation of this popular holiday.

So many different kinds!

I love the hearts made out of Pepero boxes!

My favorite kind: Pepero sticks with almonds.

Quote of the Day

"Do stars have babies?" -Julie, a Hello Kitty loving student

Lost in Translation

The pink dolphin saga continues...

Within the past 48 hours I've heard approximately five different stories about the Daejeon Aquarium and the infamous pink dolphins.

1. A student told me that the aquarium is now open. He said he went to it on Saturday and saw two, twin, baby pink dolphins. You can only imagine my reaction.
2. Today, a student (the one who originally told me about them last term) said that he saw on the news that the aquarium is NOT open.
3. Another class told me that it's opening in a few weeks.
4. Someone else told me that it's open, but there aren't any fish (let alone pink dolphins) in it yet.
5. Finally, this one boy told me that he read in the newspaper that the pink dolphins are fake and that there are only paintings of them. This one almost broke my heart.

Well...

It's real. It's open. I'm going on Saturday. There's a pink dolphin from the Amazon at the aquarium named, Boto. The details are here: http://www.djaqua.co.kr/eng/.

The weird thing is that I had a dream about swimming with pink dolphins on Sunday night. No joke. The next day scenario #1 happened. Dreams really do come true!

Stay tuned as the pink dolphin saga continues...

Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser

24.

It sounds so old.

However, Korean age is always a year or two older than western age. When you are born you are automatically one year old. They count the pregnancy period as one year. They also count another year on the Korean (Lunar) New Year. So if you are born right before the New Year, even if you are only a few days old, after the New Year you will be counted as two years old. So in Korean age, I could potentially be 26 years old. Oy.