For Laura's 27th birthday we all went iceskating during the day and then out to dinner and downtown at night. 
I hadn't ice skated since I was about 10 years old, but as soon as we got on the ice it was like riding a bike. It all came back to me. Well the rink was filled with tons of little kids in helmets. One by one they would come up to us and say "where are you from?" "what is your name?" they were so cute! About 3 of them wanted to keep practicing their English on us and asked "do you want to play?" I mean how can you say no to them!? They were probably only about 6 or 7 years old, so Laura and I decided to make a "train" with them and they held on to us as we pulled them around the ice. They were soo cute and at the end one little girl came up and said "Thankyou, nice to meet you!"

Teaching a lesson on "Thanksgiving in America," I had all the students write down what they were thankful for....one student raises his hand and says

A Korean teacher and I were walking in the door at the same time, and he stopped and waved so I would go in first, and instead of saying "after you," he said "after me."
haha, I knew what he meant but I had to pause for a second to think, did he want me to go in first or did he actually mean for me to go in after him?

During a lesson in class on "giving directions" the students were supposed to write down how long it took them to get from their home to school. One "wise" student decided to hand in his paper and it said: "It takes me 1 year to get to school." haha gotta love the creativity...I guess.

Today the teacher who sits next to me came back from class after the first bell rang and said, "class is cancelled 5th period."

I said, "oooh why is that?"

She said, "hmmm maybe......(she couldn't think of the word so instead she made smoking gesture with her hands and mouth.)

A bit confused, I asked "oooh you need to smoke?"

she laughed and said, "no no, class smoking."

I was getting more and more confused, knowing these were 12 year old students we were talking about, so I asked: "the students are smoking?"

she went to her computer for a second to look up a translated word and began laughing.

She came back and said "oops! I forget word. I mean they are having a PREVENT smoking class."

HAHA, gotta love the language barrier sometimes, always makes for an interesting conversation.

I may have mentioned that they don't seperate the "special kids" from everyone else at my school. There is this one 2nd grade girl student who may be austistic. The teachers always say she is "very slow" or the other students call her crazy, but I love her! She has her own tea parties with the air in class or is always drawing pictures while class is going on. I always watch her while I am teaching because I find her so interesting. She is always in her own world and I am curious to see what she will do next. I have seen her chase the boys at recess and try to bite them, haha, which I can't help but laugh at a little. Anyways, I always smile at her when I see her or say Hello, but she has not uttered one word of English since day 1 when I began teaching here. She does always smile back at me though beause I give her the time of day I don't think other teachers give her, but no matter what I say or do, she still has never spoken a word of English and even though she always comes up to me in the hall or in class she will only ramble something in Korean. I don't think she fully grasps the fact I have no idea what she is saying. 

Well, it has been over 3 months since I began here. I was walking down the hall after lunch today and I saw her wandering in the hall going to her classroom. As I passed her I said my usual, "Hello" and smiled, (knowing she would just say something Korean) but all of the sudden as I was passing her, she stopped and took my hand and said, "Hello nice to meet you" and walked away. I FROZE! 3 months!! It has been 3 months and these were the first and only English words I had ever heard her say. I literally wanted to run and hug her and tell her how happy I was. I caught up to her and said "very good!!!!!!" and gave her the thumbs up. Haha, she just looked at me and walked down the hall. Maybe she did know some English the entire time or maybe it took her 3 months to learn how to say "Hello." Either way, it was one of the best moments since I've been here. I felt like it was a milestone. My next goal is to get her to actuallly understand what those words mean maybe!  I told the Korean teacher who sits next to me and I'm not sure she found it quite as exciting as I did because she said "ooh yes 'berry cute' but, she is bery slow." Well, I'm not giving up on her just yet ;)

"If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel."

"I travel a lot, I hate having my life disrupted by routine."

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."

"Do what you do, as long as you're happy."

A smile is universal. I can't tell you how many times I have been in situations where it has been impossible to communicate with another Korean because either they know zero English, or I know so little Korean that a conversation is nearly impossible to have. But, if I smile at them or laugh it instantly softens them up and they automatically smile back. Whether I pass a Korean on the street, or even in a market, or anytime I am in a store and I realize that they don't know any English it is as though we are still communicating. It's the kind of thing where we both have an understanding that there is a huge language barrier, but with a simple smile it shows that if we could communicate, then we would, but it's a way to say "hello" and at least acknowledge their presence even if you can't use words. I always knew that no matter where you go in the entire world, that smiling, laughing, and emotions are universal, but it never really sunk in or became as valuable until I experienced it so many times through a language barrier. As emo as it sounds, a simple smile can be like saying a thousand words...at least that's what I've come to learn from it while being here. Once again it's the simple things I'm really beginning to appreciate that I overlooked before.

When I was telling the female Korean teacher that sits next to me about my weekend in Seoul, I told her how we came across one Korean man who had overserved himself so much that he began peeing his pants in the middle of the street. It left all of us bystanders staring in awe and we could not believe what we were seeing in public! The Koreans that were with this man were just standing around him laughing and pointing at him. I told her this and my she began laughing hysterically, as if this was a pretty normal occurence in Korea, and then said:

"Two weeks ago, I get 'berry berry' drunk. I drink too much Soju and....(then she whispered) I wake up in park..."

HAHA, I burst out laughing, and then so did she. I said:

"Oooh you fell asleep in the park?!"
to which she replied:
"Yes, my mother call me and was berry berry angry with me. She said No! no! no! and I in biiiig trouble."

One of my first grade boy students always has a clever comment to any question I ask. One day I was asking him a question in class and he clearly did not know how to say the answer in English so instead he said, "You are Miss Universe!" and smiled. Haha, when in doubt, just butter up the teacher, works like a charm!

November 11, began as a typical morning at school. I arrived at school around 8:15, got some coffee and sat down at my desk to get the day started before class. Around 8:20, one student comes into the teacher's lounge and puts a box of cookie sticks called Pepero's on my desk. I had no idea why but said "Thank you, you are so nice!" and she understood and walked out. Around 8:22, another student came in and did the same thing. For a moment I thought "Wow, they must have really liked yesterday's lesson," HA. Nope, that wasn't it. More and more students kept coming in one by one and giving me boxes of Pepero's. Some had notes that said "Just for You, teacher" and others had a bow and hearts on it. Some of my favorite first grade boy students came in with a big box of Pepero's and turned red in the face. Well it sure got the rest of the teachers laughing and talking and one teacher even said "Sheila, it's like your birthday." I knew my birthday wasn't for about 8 more months, so I finally asked one of the teachers, "What did I do to get all these?" She smiled and laughed a little and said "It's Pepero Day!" She then went on to explain that every year on November 11, since the day is 11/11 it looks like sticks, and the Pepero cookie sticks are a way to celebrate Pepero day. People give them to those they care about. I almost cried! I love my students almost as much as Pepero day! I NEED to bring this "holiday" back to "the states" with me, it's kind of like Valentine's Day, but better.  I can only imagine what next year will be like on Pepero Day when its November 11, 2011. I will post a pic of my big cardboard box of Pepero's. There are still so many boxes of them at my house, if you're lucky maybe you'll get one next year...if they're not extremely stale by then!