a little ketchup

Sunday October 6th.
I slept in... I slept in long and hard. I had the eye cover thing on over my eyes so the light would not wake me... I did not wake up until noon. Granted, that was still only like 9 hours of sleep, but it was refreshing. I decided I was going to do laundry and clean my room. I know cleaning my room is a common thing I talk about doing on Sunday... but the truth of the matter is that I really do not get much (if any) of my room cleaned. For instance, today I decided I wanted to have a movie on in the background as I cleaned. I chose Happy Gilmore. I cleaned for maybe the first 15 minutes of the film.... Then watching the movie was so much more entertaining.
For dinner, Rob, Yuri, and I decided to go to dinner in Hongdae. We went to a place called Reggae Chicken. We have been craving some Jerk Chicken and Jamaican food for a while. Well, we got the Reggae chicken, and it was not jerk chicken.... It had a faint taste of jerk spices, but not like real jerk chicken. We also had the Jamaican salad, which was actually pretty fantastic. So, while the restaurant did not hit the spot we wanted it to, it was good, and used spices other than what most Korean chicken places had. It is always refreshing to get some good different flavors. For me, in NYC, if I wanted Jamaican food, I could go to a Jamaican restaurant operated by Jamaicans and that was frequented by Jamaicans.
We walked around after food and got some icecream.
We got home, and by this time it was already decently late. Late enough where I really could not do anything. So I decided that it was time to start getting ready for bed and winding down for the evening, and that is just what I did.

Monday October 7th.
Today was a Monday... That pretty much is the extent of the day.France, Australia, and Denmark were all pretty good today. About as good as they can be for a Monday, but I was the same way. I love and I hate days when there is not much to talk about with them. Its good because that means there was no drama, but it is bad, because... well I think maybe because it happens so rarely.
I am doing lunch with the kids again... I really dont mind it... but it is kind of difficult doing 9:20-2:30 with no breaks. I would love even a 10 minute break somewhere in there to run and get a coffee, use the bathroom, check my email, eat a snack...
My new afternoon class was a little more difficult for me. We had to draw pictures of things with multiple arms, eyes, legs, mouths, etc.  It seemed most of the kids were too shy to get up in front of the class and show their drawing or answer the questions. That is all that I was supposed to do today other than reading 2 pages in the book (which equates to reading 2 sentences). They also spoke a bit of Korean (which I understand because they are still new to English.
My third graders did write it right today, and they now go quickly. So that class was easy, We played a micro game at the end... they thought it was a game, but I really just had them putting the flash cards in order so I would not have to do it (yay free labor).
We were supposed to be having a field trip tomorrow... but it was cancelled at the end of the day. It is supposed to be raining pretty hard outside tomorrow. So ba humbug to that. I start Hagwon tomorrow!

Tuesday October 8th
Well my no crying rhythm has been broken. When I walked into class Juliet was weeping. She had a Rapunzel doll. Kelly also had one. Kellys was bigger and Juliets was more the size of a barbie doll. I guess someone insulted Juliets, so it caused some tears. Later in class Sharon cried. She had some shoe decoration (the kids wear croc like shoes where little charms can be put into them). She was convinced David kicked it, so she started crying about it. When I looked, it was just on the ground where she could not see. When the kids were telling me what was going on, it sounded like they said David was kissing, not kicking...
In Australia class, I found out that we were not having school on Wednesday. You would think the school would let me know, instead of leaving it to a 7 year old to tell me. So, they asked me if we could watch our cartoon (normally on Wednesday) today. I agreed... because well, without them I would have gone to school tomorrow.
Denmark we caught up! Yay. only 4 days behind. Not too bad. I got in trouble a little because 2 of the kids lost their copy of the supplement for the citizenship class. I just made copies for them to do, but I guess that is not acceptable, and we have to completely make a new citizenship booklet for them... Oh well.
I only had one class in the afternoon. So after Kindy I had a 2 class breaktime. Kind of annoying. But I teach my 4th graders... and I enjoy teaching smart kids that are with it. Today was the award for winning the debate from last Tuesday. So I got the sweet potato pizza. The winners each had one and a half slices, the winners gave the losers a half slice. The next debate topic we are doing is the internet, and it might actually be good. I can already see the class is split on what they think.  I do not know if I will make the people that think the internet is good argue against it, and the people that do not like it argue for it. It might make it interesting...but I am not sure if that would succeed.
I had my first Hagwon experience! Wow... It was only 2 hours (I thought 3). If it was three it would have been too much... I started to zone a little nearing the end of class. Wow... I feel sorry for my kids. Well a little sorry. I was confused for most of it (even though we were only going over the alphabet). There was a little english spoken, but not much, and the only time it was is when we had questions pertaining to what we were learning. It has been 6 years since I have been in school, so being in school again was a shock. A good shock. There was one part at the end of class when we were supposed to be doing an assignment. I had no idea what was going on. I made the comment that I expect my students to know how to do these things, and I cant even do them. It was interesting. We even got assigned homework. I knew most of the stuff that we learned in class, but I feel that I actually learned it more in class than I did practicing alone.
After class, Myself, Yufei (one of my friend that is also at the school, and in my class) and several other class members (2 Japanese guys, one girl from Hawaii, and another girl from another class at the hagwon) went out. Rob was feeling sick so he did not. We went to Gusto Tacos, Holy crikey.... I know that I have had reviews of mexican food before... this place blows them out of the water. By far. The tacos are phenomenal. The burrito was okay... but the tacos... wow. Not cheap... but well worth the price. I would recommend to anyone. After that we went to the park in Hongdae to get a few drinks, and after that we went and got chicken. A great night... especially because we did not have school the next day!!!!

Wednesday September 9th
No School! Hangul Day (Hangul is the written Korean alphabet). Why is it a holiday? No idea, but I am not going to complain. I slept in. I love sleeping in. Even after I woke up, I decided I wanted to go back to sleep, so I did. I could have done so many things, but I did not. Sleeping was what I felt like.
I went to the hardware store to pick up a glass container, and then the mart by my apartment to pick up pickling soju. It was time to turn the ginseng that I picked into ginseng wine. So I got the materials, and back at my apartment, I cleaned and 'peeled' (scraped) the ginseng. I put it in the glass container and poured the soju in. In 3 months, I should have even more ginseng wine. I have no idea what it tastes like... so hopefully it is good.
I watched Star Wars in the afternoon. I took a little nap, then I went out. One of my former students (a student from my old Denmark class... from a while ago, my 13 year olds that I lost several months ago) told me about this mart by his math hagwon that has some foreign foods. So I went out to find it. Find it I did. They had Arizona Ice Tea in America Sized cans, salt and vinegar chips, some American candies and spices, american toothpaste... not a great selection, but good enough. It is a 10 minute walk from ECC, so I will definitely go back. I just wish they had American deodorant, and I would be happy.
I came home and did most of my homework. I could have finished it all... but I have 2 class periods tomorrow where I do not have anything to do, and I kind of what the Korean teachers to see me doing Korean homework. I do not think they would really care, but subconsciously, they may appreciate me trying to learn.
Met up with most of the crew tonight in-front of GS, just to talk, drink, and well, hang out. We also got some food from the restaurant next to the GS (there are 3. Red table, Blue table, and Fish place) We orderd from blue table and got some of the pork cutlet pizza. Pretty good dinner.
Not a productive day off, but a relaxing one, and I appreciate that.