Kids can say and do the funniest things. They can be so entertaining! This is exactly why everyone should have kids- to make sure they laugh and come wholesome entertainment every day. When I am in the classroom I always have a good laugh because of the random, silly things the students do or say. I never thought I could love kids so much. But other times I swear I will never have kid because my students are just so hard to handle! They’re loud and don't listen to me when I try to get them to be quiet and sit down. Today was absolutely nuts trying to get my kids to clean up and get ready to go home. I was helping one of my slower student finish the project before leaving, so for a brief minute I let my kids loose running and shouting in the classroom when suddenly I had three criers. Amy was baalllling about god-knows-what, and Tommy and Will crashed headfirst into each other! I felt so horrible and just took turns holding, rubbing and consoling each of them. When I was finally able to get them to stop crying and out the door, I went straight to the teachers room. Unfortunately Will is my boss’s son so he came to the teacher room too and they put a Band-Aid on his face. When I saw him with the Band-Aid I started crying because I felt to bad! I was rushing around trying to hurry and get things ready for my next classes, trying to calm down from the stress of the previous class, scared that Sue would be mad that I let the kids run in my class, and felt so horrible that it was my fault her son was hurt. Man oh man, how the hell do people have multiple kids!??!!?? Never!

I’ve been talking to Colin quite a bit, its pretty easy when the time difference in Australia is only a half-hour ahead, and he was making comments about how I don't have any pictures showing what the city looks like or anything other than my friends and students. Pretty much saying that he is interested to see what it looks like in Korea and I’m doing a crappy job of taking pictures of things I see. I just want to mention that the reason why I don't take pictures of the city I live in, Dongtan, is because its not that cool. The city is new and doesn't have a lot to see or do like most of Korea’s older cities. I don't find a bunch of really tall condo buildings picture-worthy, so you probably wont see many pictures of the city I live in online. I might take some pictures of the grocery store or the city when I go up to Seoul from now on… Also, now that the weather is FIIIINALLY getting warmer, we will be out doing things more often and I will be able to take more interesting pictures. I’ve just figured that I am here for 13 months, there is plenty of time for the scenic pictures.

Anywho… not much else going on here. I promised myself that after I finished my TEFL that I would start getting serious about learning Korean so I decided to get started on that. I started teaching myself the Korean alphabet for a while the other day. Its going to take me a long time to learn how to read Korean because I'm going to get all of the symbols mixed up, but I know that reading is crucial and the first step. For now I am just doing a little at a time and treating myself like one of my students, like going back to kindergarten to learn the very basics of the language. I have a notebook that I keep with me all of the time so I can write down words that I think of that would be helpful to know, then later I go back to look up and learn the word. So far this week I have: read, small, big, and ‘see you tomorrow’. Doesn't sound like much, but its HARD and I'm pretty proud of myself ☺ Hopefully once I get the alphabet and reading down my progress will speed up. I think the hardest part is going to be finding the time to study. Lately I have only had time to go to work, go to the gym, make dinner and go to bed early. I’ve been trying really hard to go to sleep really early so I can wake up at 6 so I can get on Skype to talk to people from home. The time difference makes it really hard to keep in touch with friends from home! By the time I get home from my day, its 4 am at home, so I have to get my butt up about 2 and a half hours early to talk to friends at home. Its pretty challenging to get myself out of bed that early, but I always leave for work in such a good mood when I have just chatted with someone.

Welp, thats me...