Amazing things that happened before 10 am

Two amazing things that happened before 10 am:

(1) Matthew didn't notice that his shirt was on backwards (there's a pocket in the front)

(2) Eric's answer to the question What did you eat for dinner last night? was: I ate meatwater

Spelling

One of today's spelling words was "tolerated".

These are the following answers I got after I read the definition to them:

tolerocious
tolerstand
tolured

Everland

Now that it is warm and sunny I've been trying to get out and about more. Last week we went to Everland, which is kind of like a Korean Disney Land. It was an awesome day but 2 out of the 3 major roller coasters were closed. Fortunately, the line for the pirate ship was super short.


Rachel was super excited to go to the Dutch Village and to go to the Dutch restuarant. I'm not really sure what she was expecting but this is the menu. As you can clearly see there is no stumple. (In a quick side note we were similarly disappointed by Rocky Mountain Tavern's Poutin)

This was a sign posted at the Everland Zoo. It was probably one of the more horrific places I've ever been.

This kid's dad walked up to us while we were sitting at the "American" style burger joint and asked us if his sons could take a picture with us. His little brother is actually sitting directly behind him. They battled over this photo for a solid 5 minutes.

Everland is the most affordable amusement park in the universe. Joel and I were able to feed an entire aviary of budgies for only 1,000 won. Bottles of water were 800 won. Basically the only expensive thing there was the cat-shaped bubble gun. Which was kind of a bummer because I really wanted one.

But the best thing I saw at Everland was this "Gothic Gifts" store that was was all pink and lavender and covered in flowers.


Oh, aaaand Churros are taking over the world.

Teacher Day!

Teacher's Day was a few weeks ago but I haven't posted about it yet. It's kind of a weird situation because, like Mother's and Father's Day, you're suppose to show your appreciation for your teacher by giving them a carnation or a card or a small present. But over here "small" presents turn into rather extravagant ones, especially in Gangnam.

I didn't really get anything extravagant which I was happy about because the last thing I wanted was an awkward situation but I did get a lot of flowers and soap and some anti-wrinkle beads!

But the best part of the day was reading the cards when I got home:

This is from Patty and Eric (clearly). I'm happy they reminded me what day it was.

This one is from Lee. On this paper he has drawn a cresent moon, a star, and algal plant and a pokemon sticker.

I don't remember who drew this one but the giant dead tree is awesome.

This one is from Wendy, the loudest girl in my PK11A class. Sometimes I think she and Junhee can reach decibel levels equivalent to howler monkeys.


...And the WINNER!!

"Thank you Julie Teacher. You teach me all the days and tell a lie every day."

Bonus Picnic Picture

I forgot this picture. Matthew (a.k.a. MP...999, a.k.a. MP Megalodon 999, a.k.a. Dancy-Pants) wore some awesome tights.

I Really Am Moses

So in 2005 I had a Moses themed birthday party. It was awesome and a total surprise. I recall trying to part the waters of my beer. Now it appears that things have come full circle.


This is the Jindo Miracle Sea Parting Festival. In English it's also called the Moses Miracle Festival. 3 times a year the tide gets really low. So low that a weird sand bar/road appears between Jindo and another nearby island. So for a brief period of time one can walk between the two islands.

Joel, Jeff and I caught an early bus down to the island. It was a 5 hour ride but it was also the only route we were navigate by ourselves. So basically, once the road starts opening up you have to book it across the water. As you can see I bought some sweet boots because I thought there was going to be a lot of mud, muck and grossness. Joel decided to go barefoot for most of the way. As it turns out the road is not made of soft muck. it's almost completely composed of asorted crushed bivalve shells. Joel was not pleased. As you can see he did eventually decide to put the Shanbu's back on. So, anyway, we were trying to run to get to the other island when we were stopped by the police and forced to turn around. Boo! We had almost made it...


In this picture Joel has decided that he has enough small cuts on his feet and that he should put his shoes back on.

One of the funny things about this is that there were a bunch of tourists trying to get across the land bridge. BUT there were even more people digging up various clams and mussels. they were also collecting large kelp plants. This woman is very excited because she just found a baby octopus.

All along the road there were these fluorescent blue and orange starfish. I kept picking them up and flinging them back into the water because I wasn't sure how long the tide was going to stay out. It made think of that story I learned at CCD about the guy on the beach who was flinging starfish back into the sea. When asked why he was doing such a pointless task he said something like it makes a difference to that one. I think that's about the closest I've been to church in a decade.

Potato Sack Races Are Hard

Picnics are yet another reason why teaching Kindergarten can be the greatest thing in the universe sometimes. We had the annual Spring picnic at Yangjae Park this year. It had been postponed from last week because the weather had been so bad. I made sure to tell of my students to dress appropriately for the weather because the forcast for this Friday was also questionable. Because they all came in sweatsuits and undershirts the temperature was in the upper 70s.


This picnic was much less of a picture taking fiasco than the one that I went on last fall with my other Kinder class. It was really fun to hang out with my kids and get a chance to play with them in a context that doesn't involve phonics. The above picture was actually one of only two group pictures taken this day.


We got to play with Rachel's class and Kyle's class since they're the other two 3rd year Kinder classes. I like a lot of the kids in their classes so it was fun to hang out with them too. We were given a list of game ideas and such but it seemed to rapidly devolve into just Duck, Duck, Goose and run-from-point-A-to-point-B-as-fast-as-possible. Although my favorite game was the jumping contest because Nathan is such an awesome jumper.






then, of course, was lunch. Helen is clearly not a very good chewer. Although I would like to take this time to talk about the love triangle going on on my class. The little boy below (Eric) likes a girl named Claire (she was in my other kindergarten). BUT since Helen joined out class Eric has been giving her presents. Claire still goes to LCI and plays with Eric all the time. In fact, Kate told me that Eric and Claire were planning on getting married. Oh what tangled webs we weave...


the highlight of the day...TUG OF WAR!!!!

My class (combined with Andy's) won the kindergarten tug of war. I am especially proud of this victory because a tournament win was so narrowly snatched from the tiny hands of my kindergarteners last fall. Good job guys!



And, finally, in other news... this is my favorite kid in LCI. His name is Justin. He walks around like he has no bones. He also writes like he has no bones.