field trip

Our field trip this month (on the 14th) was to the Outback Steakhouse.
In the morning, once all of the kids were there, we piled all of the Milky Way class (A-mine and B-Stephanie's) into the school bus and headed off.

[SeungWoo on the bus]
We got to the restaurant and the kids all put on little Outback Steakhouse aprons and chef's hats.[a group shot]
Once they were all ready, we split into the two groups and went on a tour.[Steve][going through the kitchen]Once the tour was done, we all sat down for a 'snack'. The kids all got chicken fingers, french fries and soda. We (the teachers) shared a few dishes - salad with grilled chicken, spaghetti, and some sort of steak. Everyone got to take home some of their bread. Yum.

It's A Boy!!

A congratulations goes out to my best friend back home. She just had a baby boy. They named him Lucas Viktor.
I only wish I could have been there to see her pregnant and to see the new baby. I may not see him until he is a year old!!!

hanging out in Icheon

A couple of weekends ago I went to Icheon city to hang out. I took the bus there in the morning and they met me at the bus station. We wandered around downtown for a while, had brunch at a little bakery (pastries and cake), and then hopped on a bus for where they work and live to cook some food, eat, and hang out a bit more. Where they work is a little ways in the country. Beautiful. I always like seeing the countryside of any country.[an interesting looking bar][me with rice paddies behind me][an elk farm - One of the biggest imports from Canada are elk antlers, for the medicinal velvet. There are a few elk farms around Korea but they are very small, in animal numbers and in space. I feel bad for the elk on these farms. They have such tiny spaces to live in.][Korean ginseng crops - the plants are very light sensitive and so are always grown under black shades.]

behind...

I'm so far behind in everything.... in my posts, in my laundry, in cleaning my home, etc.
ARGH.

So, Harisu is now married. Good for her.[photo from Digital ChosunIlbo]

South Korea's top transgender beauty ties knot
South Korean transgender beauty Harisu tied the knot in Seoul today with her boyfriend singer, pledging to become a "sexy and caring" wife.
Harisu, 32, married 27-year-old rap singer Micky Chung in an upmarket hotel in Seoul. She has been dating the singer since 2005 after they met online.
The marriage ceremony was carried out by Kim Suk-Kwon, a surgeon who performed Harisu's male-to-female sex reassignment surgery in late 1990s.
"I'll become a housewife who is cooking well, sexy and caring," a beaming Harisu told journalists before the wedding ceremony.
"We originally planned to adopt 10 children but decided to settle for only four kids because of the objections from our parents," she said.
Accompanied by both sets of parents, they will leave for the Thai resort island of Koh Samui tomorrow for a honeymoon.
Harisu is the stage name of the transgender entertainer who was born Lee Kyung-Yup.
She made her name by featuring in an advertisement for a cosmetics company in 2001.
She has since branched out into music and acting, producing five albums and starring in a film, Yellow Hair II.
In December 2002, the Incheon District Court recognised her as legally female and she changed her official name to Lee Kyung-Eun.
[thewest.com.au]

Cooking Class

One of the after-school classes at the kindy is a cooking class. I am the cooking class teacher. I don't cook much. Every week I have to teach a different thing. It has to take about one hour to prepare and cook, and then there is about 30 minutes left to eat. Thank goodness for the Internet!!! Every week I have to search for something or anything that the kids would like and isn't too extensive. I'm trying to alternate between main course, snacks and deserts. We've made vegetable soup, bagel pizzas, cheesy bread sticks, M&M cookies, strawberry shortcake, soft bread pretzels, etc.
Last Thursday, we made Peanut Butter cookies. There were only 3 students, all boys - Tim, JiWon and HeeJun (all from the 7 year old class that day - I think not yet 6 years old). They had never had peanut butter cookies before. They loved them. One student, Tim, after taking one bite, said something in Korean that made Miss Young, who is sort of the helper for the class, turn her head very quickly to look at him. She asked him to repeat what he said and then started to laugh. He said something along the lines of "I've been dreaming of this!" So funny.[JiWon enjoying his cookies][JiWon and Tim]
Today we made Sloppy Joes. The kids absolutely loved them and kept asking for more. Today there were 5. Along with the 3 from the previous week, there were two girls from the 6 year old classes - Jasmine from the other class and Sarah from mine.

birthday parties and happy kids

Last week, Wednesday was the birthday party for the month of May. I had one student celebrating this month - SeungWoo.[My 10 regular kids - David, SukMin, Steve, Sarah, HyunSang, SeungWoo, Lisa, ChaeYeon, Annie, YongKyu. My 11th student, Jin, doesn't come until lunch time, as he goes to kindergarten at an international school in the mornings.]
The food on the table in the picture is a selection of what the birthday kids' parents sent in. It is standard for the parents of the birthday student to send some sort of food item for the class. His mom went way beyond what was expected. We had fried chicken, pizza, watermelon, juice, rice cake and chocolate cake. AND she sent a big box of special rice cakes for Gina (the Korean teacher) and I.
Before lunch, since the weather was nice, we went outside on the little patio area for some play time. The kids loved it, of course. We played some games (In the pond, Ring Around the Rosey, etc) and they had some free time. The little outside play area is on the 2nd floor, above the 7 year old classroom, and just around the corner from my classroom.

Japanese kids.

Most of the students in the school are, of course, Korean, but there are also some others that attend. There are a few mixed children, with one Korean parent and one western parent. There are also several Japanese kids. The Japanese kids are all so cute. I teach 4 of them - Maho and Aono are two girls in the other 6 (4/5) year old class, Luna is a girl in one of the 5 (3/4) year old classes, and Yudai (pronounced "you die") is a boy in one of the 5 year old classes. They all speak a strange mix of Japanese, Korean and English.[Luna - during the fashion show]
[Aono waiting to be picked up on Children's Day][Maho and I - She was waiting to be picked up. Yes, I had my hair in pigtails. :P]

Children's Day

May 5th is Children's Day in Korea. Friday, the 4th, we had a bit party at the kindy.
The morning started out with performances (of a sort) by all of the teachers. I brought in Tokki, as sort of a show and tell. Krystal made a volcano. Stephanie and Miss Young did magic tricks. Jeannie did a song - "This Little Pig". The Korean teachers did a play of the 3 little pigs. As I expected, when the wolf came out, half of the babies started screaming and crying and all of the teachers that weren't in the play had to run in and take the crying babies out (it is a kindy and a daycare, so there are kids ages 2 to 6).

We sent a note to the parents earlier in the week asking them to have the kids dress up. Some came in suits and dresses, some in costumes, most of them very expensive. They were all soooooooooooooooooooo cute.

[Lisa - the skirt of the dress has silk flower petals (pink) and little white flowers in it that move around freely.][Seung Woo][Sarah][SukMin - Captain Hook][Steve][HyunSang and ChaeYeon]
After the teachers' performances, the children then had a fashion show. They went up in groups of 2 to 5 to strut their stuff and pose for a professional photographer. We had them practicing a few times for the fashion show.[YongKyu - Power Ranger (The light is strange in this shot. I think it was at the same time as the photographer's flash.)]
We also asked the parents to send food for the party. There was SO MUCH food. We had asked that each child bring enough for 2 people. They each brought enough for the entire class.

[My class's lunch - sandwiches, kimbap, other rice things, fruit, deep fried vegetables, salad, yogurt, etc. This was AFTER we filled our dishes.]
At the end of the day, all of the kids got a Children's Day present from the school - a cap.

[David - Buzz Lightyear]