Mint Car

Venus arts and crafts - Eddy and Chloe

Christine

Justin (Grace's brother)

Lucy and Ryan

Alex

Mercury story book class - Matthew

Christine

John working on his story book pages

The sun is shining, the weather is warm, I am happy. This past weekend I totally took advantage of the great outdoors…taking long walks along the river, sitting on the rocks with my journal, taking in the warmth. On Sunday, as I sat writing, I was able to take off my jacket. It was BEAUTIFUL! Many people were out and about – walking, running, blading. Perhaps spring really is in the air! Next week will be March, after all…

Birthday love from me, Elly, and Phil

Saturday night was Tony’s birthday party. His girlfriend arranged a surprise dinner at this amazing tavern in Seoul. It was a buffet spread, with AMAZING food. I was laughing because we had forks and knives at our place settings…not something I’m used to seeing! Everywhere else it’s chopsticks and spoons. There was a great turnout of people, and we went to a club afterwards. Once again, I met some more fun people that I will likely hang out with again!

With Hana, party-planner extraordinaire - out in Hongdae

Happy Birthday, Tony!

I can’t believe next week I’ll have new classes, A few of my students will be staying behind in Mercury, simply because of how young they are – Liang, Alvin, and Grace. Of course I’ll still see them every day but I’ll miss having them in my class! Alvin will ALWAYS be the cutest kid to me. Almost every day he blows his nose into his hand, without a tissue, and I have to tend to it. It never phases me and I still think he’s adorable. I have to say though, when I hold the tissue to his nose, he has skills. Not all kids have that ability, and at his age too; it’s really quite impressive!

Slight change in plans, as usual. I will still be teaching my current Mercury kids (they are the 5-1 class: Korean 5-year olds in their first year of English), but come March they will be the 6-2 class, Venus. I was supposed to have the 7-2 class as well, which would be SO awesome for planning, because they have a lot of the same course books. However, I'll now be teaching the 7-3 class instead. This is the most senior of the kindergarten classes. I am really pumped to have them actually. They are the current Venus class, and I already know them from teaching them twice a week: arts and crafts, and multimedia. I love these kids. I would feel safe if we left it up to them to run the world. Such great kids. More work, but such is life. Minor details, really, and not necessarily things you need to worry about, or follow. I'm just rambling.

I’ve been going through each letter of the alphabet with my Mercury kids, brainstorming as many words as they can that begin with that letter. We started a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, we were on the letter “S”. My kids came up with SIXTY words!!! I am so proud of them.

Out for Korean BBQ with Jennifer

Today we went on a field trip to see a musical - Treasure Island. It was so cheesy with flashy lights and strobe lights...a kids' show! The students all loved it. Unfortunately it was all in Korean so I really couldn't follow it! Haha. Today was also Jennifer's last day, one of the foreign staff. Colin, who is replacing her, started today so changes are happening already. Thursday will be the graduation ceremony for the 7-year olds, and then only the 5- and 6-year olds will be left for Friday and Monday classes. Tuesday there is an orientation for the new students coming in, then Wednesday, March 2 marks the commence of the new school year. Bah!

Oh! Took Ashley out for dinner on Sunday for her birthday. It's always great to hang out with her. I skipped out on Happidus on Friday again, and opted for an early night. I think I was still recovering from the previous weekend! Haha. I was awoken by phone calls - one at 12:30am and one at 1:30am, from friends wanting me to come out. Sorry guys, rain check. You woke me up!

Time for bed now! xo