On Monday, Jia had her birthday. Birthdays are pretty unimportant here since she already turned seven at New Years. But her parents (and by that I mean mom) sent her with a cake, strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, and little gift bags for all of the other kids. She doesn't like to smile as you can tell from this photo series.

Still not smiling, but adorable nonetheless. I heart Jia and am really sad she will be moving to a different kindergarten next week. The other person pictured is my Korean coteacher Soe (Sew-ee).


Daniel giving Jia the really large present his mom told him to give her. He is so adorable.


David secretly wanting to unwrap the gift himself. But his favorite color is gold, so he really liked the hat.


We love eachother!!!!!!!!!!!~


And the other day we went to see Aladdin the musical in Korean at Homeplus. It was a bizarre field trip. Homeplus is like the Korean Wal-mart. Or Target. Or something. But not where you would expect to go to watch a musical. The kids loved it for the most part, though. And it was a good break from teaching.

Happy Hearts Day.

A little late. I failed to carry on the tradition of heart-shaped food. Which is really too bad. Because it is the only thing that has made the holiday any fun. At least it was a different holiday altogether here.

To make up for my inability to keep traditions I learned how to make origami hearts. But they all turned out looking broken. Go figure I guess.

I thought they were kind of cute though. And I am in Asia afterall...


Hope all is well at home! Miss you.

Seollal

Yesterday was Korea's most important traditional holiday, Lunar New Year. So, I have today off of work! And on Friday the school had a special New Year's activity thing, and all of the kids came dressed up in hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing. I got to wear some, too but looked pretty ridiculous and unfortunately failed to get a picture. In class, we made these little yellow money bags and then the kids all had to go formally bow to the director of the school, and she gave them each an American dollar. Strange day.

Here are the kids in their hanbok:

Andy


Scott with his money/luck bag that we made as a New Year's craft and the $1 bill that he got from Director Lee. And his favorite photo face.

Jia
June- my newest student.
Daniel
Annie

And David.

Here the kids are all lined up in the auditorium getting lessons on the proper way to bow before they all had to bow to the director to get their dollars. This part was kind of stressful for me because I was worried that they would do something terrible and make me look bad in front of the director, but since all the instructions and everything were in Korean they did a pretty good job.

Eating gross things in Korea.

Bars in Korea always give you snacks. This one served Kyle and me seashells. You had to suck the whateverkindofanimallivesinthere out of them. This is a part of my new plan to not be a wuss about eating scary food. Not pictured are the chicken feet that we accidentally ordered.

Earthquake!

There was just an earthquake in Seoul. I thought it was a plane when I was in class. Or people moving furniture. And jokingly said ahhh earthquake to my students and then forgot about it. One of the kids dad's called, though, and I got mad at him for answering his cell phone in class. And he just kept saying 25 earthquake which I didn't understand and forgot about. But then I got home and facebook informed me that it actually was an earthquake! Crazy.

Field Trip!!!!

Best day ever. We went on a field trip with the kindergarten kids to a place where you play with flour. A flour museum? A flour shop? Idk. But it was solid fun.


Nicky.

Shane Teacher is excited. Annie not so much.

"Daniel are you sad?" "No." "Are you sleepy?" "No." "Are you happy?" "No. Fine. I fine."

Andy, too, seems only fine.

A truck full of snakes.

Sheep statues.

Jia and David walking through flour. This part was cool.

Scott's a mess. But happy.

Daniel, still just fine.

June and Andy making some cookies.

Annie and David. Check out David's popped collar.

Making something.


Making a snake.

Nicky destroying things.

David showing his true colors.

Me being a bully.

Scott winking? Or with flour in his eye.