Old McDonald Had a Farm

My Seed 1 class is always entertaining. Not only is Joy/T-ara/Girls Generation in it, but he seems to of rubbed off on the other boys in the class. Today Alex/Monkey goes, "Teacher, new name, Ryan." Well, I thought he said Ryan, but he really said, "Lion" which then triggered Tom/After School to want "Frog" as his new name and then Joy/T-ara/Girls Generation to change his name to "Cow." I gave up on changing their names on the attendance because 1.) they change their names every day and 2.) report cards. The names on the attendance is the name on their report card and I just couldn't get myself to write to their parents about their child, Girls Generation or Monkey. Can you imagine?

Dear Mr. and Mrs. So and So,

Monkey is a wonderful student to have in class. Monkey should continue to work hard and remember to do his homework.

I don't think so. It's funny because Joy/T-ara/Girls Generation/Cow saw that I changed his name back to Joy on the attendance and he got offended and said, "Teacher, not Joy. Girls Generation!" Oops.

Side-note: Today a boy came in with a huge bandaid on his knee and of course was playing with the it and got it all stuck together, but he goes, "Teacher, my knee is sick." Not sick as in cool, but sick as in injured, haha.

When in Doubt, Sing and Dance

Tomorrow is the last day of Spring Term and reflecting on the past three months, I realize that I did a lot of singing and dancing to entertain my classes. Here's a list of my favorite performances:

1.) The Chicken Dance- One of my Seed 2 classes (pretty young) got a kick out of the chicken dance. Every class, I would hear, "Teacher, chicken dance!" so I would bust out humming the chicken dance tune and doing the motions. They would stand up with me and dance. I would even switch it up and say "Ok, fast!" or "Ok, sloooowwww" and they loved it. This week I even showed them a clip of the infamous chicken dance on YouTube.

2.) "Switch it, Change it"- At dance camp, we would learn dances in lines. Every few run throughs, the front line would go the back and then the other lines would move up so that everyone got a chance to be in the front. During this transition we would shout, "switch it, change it, rearrange it" and clap in sync with each other. So, during the speaking section of class there's a dialogue section where you have to switch parts. I taught my class this little chant (I hate to say cheer because Maple Motion always made a big deal about the fact that we were NOT cheerleaders ha) and my Sprout 2 class performs it perfectly! They even started saying it when we switch classes. I'm slowing turning them into mini-motioners. Love it.

3.) The Macarena- I'm bringing it back. Watch out.

4.) "Who Let the Dogs Out"- One day while making up their own dialogue during acting, a word was switched it 'dog house' and a student broke out singing, "Who let the dogs out, woof, woof, woof, woof." A definite oldie, but goodie.

Let's be honest, I wish my life was a musical (or Glee).

Happy Birthday Buddha!

To celebrate Buddha's Birthday, I headed to Busan to enjoy a long weekend of sunshine and relaxation on the beach. Unfortunately it rained the.whole.weekend. and not just a drizzle, drip, drop, but a monsoon type downpour.

Actually, Friday was quite nice, so after a two hour KTX ride (not bad at all!), we went to Haehundae Beach which is the main beach, especially for foreigners. In honor of the holiday a man was making a huge Buddha sand sculpture which was pretty neat to see. Oh, by the way, Haehundae Beach set the world record for the most number of parasols at a location. Back in 2008 there was almost 8,000 parasols lined up on the beach. Not only does Busan hold a parasol world record, but it's also the home to Shinsegae, the world's largest department store! Because of the bad weather, we spent a lot of time there. Shinsegae was nine floors of happiness, it included every designer you could possibly think of, an ice rink, movie theater, and so much more. Later that night, we had dinner at TGIFriday's, walked the beach, wandered into a fish market and an amusement park.

The bad weather started Saturday and lasted until we left on Sunday, but we still managed to have a good time. We went to a temple which was still decorated for Buddha's Birthday, did a city bus tour that lasted forever due to the awful traffic, saw Robin Hood, and checked out Seomyeon- Busan's shopping district. On the city bus tour, I saw PIFF Square which is where the Pusan International Film Festival takes place and there's a 'star street' similar to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So being obsessed with everything entertainment, I was happy to see it and I'm still planning on going to the PIFF and DMing Justin Chon (Twilight) to meet up... no joke.

Luckily, we bought our returning KTX tickets beforehand, so assuming that we would want to soak up every last ray of sunshine on the beach, our tickets were for a train that left at 5 p.m. However, due to the awful weather, we wanted to head home earlier so we went to Busan Station to see if we could trade our tickets in for an earlier train. The scene of Busan Station was straight out of a movie where everyone is stranded at an airport. I really think all of Korea went to Busan for the holiday weekend and wanted to head home early, just like us. So, there weren't any earlier tickets, but we did make it back to Daejeon safe, sound and only a little wet.

The Name Game Pt. 2

Besides the fact that the top boy and girl names of the year are 'Twilight' inspired, Isabella and Jacob, everyone should take note of the names in my Seed 1 class.

The infamous, Joy, renamed, T-ara, is now 'Girls Generation' another popular K-pop music group. Another boy previously named, Tom, was inspired by Joy/T-ara/Girls Generation name changes and is now 'After School' yet another K-pop group. The only other boy in the class, Alex, didn't want to be left out so he is now 'Monkey'. I can't help, but laugh every time I call on Girls Generation, After School, or Monkey in class.

I also want to mention that when there is more than one student with the same name in a class, instead of using last names or initials, they are numbered. I don't think I have any numbered students in my classes this term, but last term I had an Eric and Eric-1. Oh I take that back, I have a class with a Peter and a Peter-1. He literally writes Peter-1 on all of his papers and won't answer unless I say 'one' after Peter even if the other Peter is absent.

P.S. My Korean name is Eun Gee (spelling?) Kim. I always thought it was pronounced N-G Kim, but I was wrong. Eun is like the 'oo' +n sound from 'moon' and then the rest was right, Gee Kim. I'm still working on my Korean, but at least I can say my name correctly now.

The 14th Strikes Again

As if Valentine's Day isn't enough to remember the fact that you're single and alone (just kidding, I love being single!), Koreans get to remember it the 14th of every month. May 14th was Rose Day. A kind co-worker got every women in the office a beautiful red rose. May 15th was Teacher's Day! It fell on a Saturday this year, but my students still remembered it and gifted me with soaps, candies, homemade bread, and random things from their backpacks after they realized they forgot about it. One of my students even brought in donuts and strawberries for all of the instructors and staff which was so thoughtful. It was nice to be recognized and coming up next month is 'Kiss Day'. XOXO.

Doctor, Doctor Give me the News

When I was younger I was a self (or parent)-diagnosed hypochondriac. I used to complain about every cut, bruise, ache and pain on my body. Being a figure skater and having my knees and butt (those butt pads only did so much) permanently bruised, I must've given my parents an everlasting headache with all of the complaining that I did.

However, I would like to bring up the time I broke my arm. It was the last week of kindergarden and I was obviously playing an aggressive game of boys chase girls and I just happened to fall off the monkey bars. After telling my mom I hurt my arm, she just assumed it was another one of my hypochondriac moments and told me to "tough it out" (typical parent response). After three days (maybe even five) of dealing with my complaining, she finally took me to the doctor to get an x-ray only to find out that I really did have a broken arm. She's never going to live that one down.

Working with kids I now know what I put my family through. At the sight of a microscopic drop of blood, which could even easily be a red pen marking, my kids freak out and ask to go to the front desk to get a bandaid. It's amazing how bandaids (it's a bonus if it's Hello Kitty) can cure everything and make the pain, or lack there of, go away. I constantly hear, "Teacher, I'm hot/I have a headache/I hurt my :::insert body part here:::/my stomach hurts/no words, just throwing up motion (in this case I rush them to the bathroom)/etc. I've caught myself telling them to "tough it out" or "you'll be fine."

So after 20 something years of being a hypochondriac, I'm finally getting a dose of my own medicine.

Talk to the Hand

Hand gestures are similar to a universal language.

For example, thumbs up is good and thumbs down is bad, the middle finger is never ok and in the 90's a hand in the face meant to "talk to the hand because the ear's not listening" ohhh, snap.

Today I learned that in my students other schools, there are a variety of hand signals to make when they raise their hand and they each mean something different.

Peace sign = Agree

Four fingers = Question

One finger = Disagree

A-OK = Bathroom

What a great idea.