So I haven't posted in a long time. Basically since right before graduation and my birthday. So I apologize that this post will be very out of order and the details won't be great. Hopefully I remember most of what has happened. Also, a few things here actually happened after my Jeju Trip but didn't want to include them in that post. Enjoy. ^.^ Also, I want to say Congratulations again to my sister, Katy, as not only did she get into that awesome honors society (look at my last post), but she got a full scholarship to Dickinson Law School. Congratulations, Katy! You earned it. Also, the cherry blossoms were here and gone again. They looked gorgeous as always. I love cherry blossoms. The ones near Greg's place were really nice. Also, for those of you who know me, I watch a ton of anime. Ever since I started dating again, I have to admit that even I am falling behind in anime.... yes, I just said that ... I am behind in anime. T.T
So I started with a class of seven but only had four graduate because all of them moved far away, one to Seoul, one to Malaysia, and one to America. My kids worked hard for graduation and they did a good job. They were really adorable and did well on their speeches. You could tell some of them were really nervous. Took pictures with the parents afterwards and I got some pretty flowers. Poor Mellisa was sick the entire time so she was glad it was over. I actually have Mellisa and Amy in first grade now. Either way it went well and was a good end to another school year.
New classes began and I got the big 7-3 kindergarten. Though it's a lot harder than the other kindergarten classes that I've taught, especially since it has a full class of ten, it is still enjoyable. The class can be a handful but then again they are kids and any kid can be a handful. But I like them a lot. We are getting ready for Open Class at the moment and so we have more work than we normally do. I can say with certainty we will all be less stressed when Open Class is over. No more fixing decorations, practicing speeches, or doing extra art projects though I really like how our planet posters turned out. Had to take a picture of them because I loved how they turned out. It's a lot of work for everyone involved.
Otherwise, I have two first grade students. Most of them I have taught before which was nice. My old first grade became my second grade and it's my easiest class because they are so smart. When we did the Reading Championships, three of the four students in the class took most of the prizes. I was so proud of them. Sadly Ryan ended up going to another school for second grade but I hear he is coming back for third grade. He actually wrote a pen pal letter to my mom and she wrote back. His mom told my supervisor that he was showing all of his friends the letter from my mom. He is the kid who will see me when I dress up, know I never dressed up, and be like, "Teacher, what happened to you?"
I had a low level third grade which was hard to teach after teaching advanced classes all day. Laura did me a favor and took over that class because I ended up getting really sick and blacked out of the subway. Really scared me and I'm lucky a nice Korean lady realized what was going on and pushed me into a seat. I had known I was sick but if I had known it was that bad I would have had Greg take me home. Sadly, I wasn't coherent enough to thank her before she got off the train. Now Greg is on my case to take better care of myself and I ended up getting my supervisors worried too. They still occasionally ask if I am having problems or how am I doing. Though truth be told, even now I haven't fully recovered but I am much better than I was and keep improving.
Then my third and fourth graders combined into my current fourth grade. I have a fifth grade newspaper class and another sixth grade literature class full of smart students. Sadly, they don't enjoy fantasy as much as my old class did so I may have to make a lot more literature schedules. For the most part my classes are going well. As always, I scare a few students but that is normal and they usually warm up to me after getting to know me. One of my first grade classes calls me Cat Teacher which honestly doesn't bother me as I love cats.
So, let's talk about my very talkative new kindergarten. I have ten students: Ashley, Bella, Cindy, Jordan, Jumee, Matthew, Maychel, Olivia, Sua, and Yebin. I have a few sensitive kids, a few bossy kids, and a kid who's head seems to always be in space, which is fitting since we have a space decorated classroom. Bella I have taught before in afternoon kindergarten and she is amused that she and my cat have the same name. Olivia loves to talk and goes on and on that I have to tell her to slow down as I don't understand a word she is saying. She also loves to write. Cindy is really good at belly dancing, which I find to be an odd hobby for a kid but hey she loves it. Jumee leaves early a lot and Yebin and Jordan are late a lot but they seem to like class. Matthew always has these crazy expressions on his face and seems to be always laughing. Maychel's English is really good and she has an aunt in Texas who is in the army. Sua is really smart and really understands the stories we read.
For our first field trip, we went to a Pororo play. What I understood of the play, as it was in Korean, was that the car was looking for someone to play with and the dinosaur was having gas problems because he didn't eat healthy foods. I remember a lot of spinning lights that made me dizzy as this was right after I blacked out but the kids enjoyed it a lot. They have also been doing little dramas in class. So far we have done Shoemaker and the Elves, Scary Dino, and now Gingerbread Man. They like to sing the songs but sadly we haven't had much time to do the plays as we have been so busy with other things. I'm so behind in that class T.T and I never seem to be able to catch up.
So the kindergarteners have started project class with polar bears which they loved. They actually made the adorable polar bear hats with Hanna Teacher (who is really helpful when you need someone to help you when Korean is involved) but I helped take pictures. Cindy seems to not like to take pictures when there are hats involved. We also did the ice and fat activity again where they stick their hands in ice, one in a "fat butter bag" and the other with no protection to show how the polar bear's fat keeps it warm. Though this time the kids talked me into doing it and yes, the water was very, very cold. They wouldn't let me take the igloo down after we finished the polar bear unit. Otherwise, we are doing jobs now and we made a career collage with lots of different jobs on it. It turned out pretty cool.
I've had two birthday parties so far with my class. (I wasn't joking when I said it has been a long time since my last post which was before my birthday.) First was Olivia's and she made all these adorable curious looking faces as she watched Sunny Teacher set up the cake and all. I think I took more pictures of her face than the actual party. Then it was Yebin's birthday and she had a Frozen cake and a princess castle to set up with princesses and knights. Probably the most elaborate birthday party I have had. It was cute and all the kids wanted the Elsa plates except for Yebin. Thankfully, there were enough Elsa plates for those who wanted Elsa. The kids are so obsessed with Frozen that some even tried to hide their dirty Anna napkins to try and take home.
Speaking of Frozen, it is crazy here. You cannot do anything without someone starting to sing Let It Go or some other Frozen song. Thankfully, I actually like the songs, but it is distracting as you are trying to get work done. The students, especially the kindergarteners, have Frozen everything. They come to school wearing Frozen dresses (which I believe are actually pajamas) and when it first came out all the students would bring in the English lyrics to learn it. And this includes older male students. Kids are always trading Frozen stickers and you can't walk down the street without hearing Let It Go on some store's radio. The kids give each other Frozen gifts for each others' birthdays, too. If Open Class wasn't coming up, I would fully have expected the last song contest to be all Frozen songs. It is that crazy. ^.^
Children's Day was our next big event and after doing all work, work, and no play, the kids deserved a break. We had an all day event for the kindergarteners and did Market Day for the older students. For kindergarten, we played games, did face painting, chased bubbles on the rooftop, had a rooftop lunch, and Song Contest. My class was with Charles Teacher's class. They enjoyed the bubbles and all the kids were coming up to me to try and make big bubble balls with my bubble gun. I painted my students' faces which included a few snow flakes (as I said, Frozen is scary popular here). Then we played Duck, Duck, Goose and musical chairs with hula hoops before lunch. Thankfully I brought my own lunch as I don't eat kimbab and one of my student's didn't like it either so she had some of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A water bottle flew into my head because it was so windy. That hurt enough I accidentally said a word I shouldn't though thankfully none of the kids noticed. Then we had Song Contest, and, as per usual, I volunteered to be the MC. My class didn't place but I think they did a good enough job.
After that, we had Parent's Day where we made paper carnations for the parents. Following that was Teacher's Day where my kindergarten class spoiled me. I actually got some pretty nice gifts though I am not exactly sure how to use them. Not that I need gifts, but it is nice to know that the students and their parents seem to like me. Sometimes you just can't tell. I think that is most of the school stuff that has happened and now on to the stuff not related to school. Remember that a lot of what follows happened intermixed with all this stuff as I can't remember well when I did certain things. Hopefully I am not forgetting anything important.
So as I said before, I met Anna and she introduced me to the table top crew. Anna's birthday is near mine so we decided to have a joint birthday party. We invited the table top gang and some of our co-workers to go to a galbi restaurant and then do karaoke. Nathaniel came to join, too, and his gifts were perfect. He didn't know that I had gotten a cat and had gotten me cat things (a stuffed tiger, fish stickers, fish shaped snacks, and a cat toy) as a joke. He walked in and Bella practically jumps on the cat toy and he laughed, saying it wasn't quite the cat he intended the gift for but it worked out quite well. I basically had him play with Bella as Anna and I got ready. Wasn't quite sure where the restaurant was but we found it. It was funny because Greg, the person who is usually last to show up, was first and already waiting for us. Dinner went well and then karaoke. It was nice to sing loudly and with a bunch of people. The songs chosen by others weren't too bad and I was able to sing Eternal Snow in Japanese well enough.
It didn't take long after the birthday party for Greg to ask me out on a date. As always, I was clueless and had no clue that he had even noticed me though I knew I had liked him and was kind of my normal obvious self. Anyway, he took me out to dinner and we started dating. We've been dating two months now and I'm loving every bit of it. I like feeling special and not having to make all the choices in a relationship. ^.^ If only he wasn't allergic to cats. T.T At least he likes Bella and Bella likes him. Sadly we have completely different schedules so I can only really see him on the weekends. He is making me try a lot of new things and even better yet he likes video games and anime. ^.^
Table top went well and I'm a little sad that it is over. We finished off Shadowrun with a big magical showdown and of course I can't roll to save my life. Not sure how I managed to survive with how badly I rolled. But it was a lot of fun. We also played a big of Adventure Conqueror King which basically has you looking for treasures to save up money and eventually try to become king of the world in which you play in. We didn't get very far in it because we wanted to finish Shadowrun before Adam returned to America. Now that Adam is gone, we haven't played, but I hope we get a chance to play again sometime, though perhaps not every week as I do enjoy having some down time where I don't have to think about plans every weekend. Besides, my sleep schedule on weekends now is awful. Hahaha.
Before Adam left, we did an Easter brunch with him, his wife Jessica, Greg, and Anna. Kyle and Tony already had other plans. Greg made cupcakes for everyone and the icing was so good. He baked and I did the cleanup which works out well for me as I hate cooking and don't mind doing the dishes. Greg also made cupcakes for when Adam left. Either way, the Easter brunch was at a place called Craftworks and everyone else liked the food. I didn't care much for the food but I enjoyed spending time with everyone and then having cupcakes on the roof of Greg's building.
I took Bella to the vet for the first time and they did an x-ray to see if anything was causing her vomiting and gave her some vaccinations. There weren't any problems, and the vomiting seems to just be a nervous habit sadly. I will have to take her back to the vet to get her rabies vaccine updated. I should have already done that. T.T I'm a bad owner sometime. Maybe this Friday, since I won't be going anywhere Friday off and I now get off early at 5:30 on Fridays since I don't have the third grade class anymore.
Otherwise, I have been to more bars in the last two weeks than I have in my entire life. We were trying to help a friend become more comfortable with meeting new guys and they needed a third person. Why that third person is me I have no idea, probably just because I'd be around anyway. Either way, it was an interesting experience for me and I tried a few drinks. Some I liked, many I didn't but that's just how I am. It was fun dressing up and I've been trying to add blue into my hair but I haven't figured out how to get it to stay in my hair. It's mostly come out into my brush and fades way before I take a shower to wash it out. At least it comes out easily and doesn't seem to bleed unless you are actually touching it. I've used temporary dyes and they would bleed all over my face and into my clothes, so this chalk stuff isn't too bad.
Anyway, I think that is most of what I have been up to other than the Jeju trip that I went on and that will be a separate post on its own. Sorry for the long wait for those of you who actually read this. ^.^ The next post should be about Jeju Island.
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