Lately...

I haven't posted for a week...  Sorry.  I'm been keeping busy (and at times, delightfully un-busy too) doing nothing particularly exciting.

Last week was super easy.  Since it was midterms until Wednesday, I didn't do too much other than relaxing, enjoying the fresh air through open windows in my apartment and doing some experimental cooking.  Even though I live in this treasure trove of a country, sometimes it's nice to spend some time with myself, doing nothing.  So, nothing exciting to report there... 

Saturday, Diane and I did some shopping and went to Water for Elephants.  I had just finished reading the book a little over a week before, so it was perfect timing to see the movie.  Both the book and movie were decent, though not life changing by any means in my eyes...  The best part of the experience was the onion flavored popcorn we ate.  I'd been dreaming of that popcorn ever since I sat next to the adorable little boy at Harry Potter and could smell the salty scent of onion powder wafting from his popcorn bucket.  YUM! 

This week is also proving to be pretty chill.  Tuesday was Buddha's birthday so we had the day off from school as it is a national holiday.  Diane and I took this opportunity to visit the Korean National Museum.  It shows Korean history from prehistoric times up to the Joseon Dynasty in the 19th century.  It was pretty hard to get into the information because there were really lengthy Korean descriptions of the artifacts and the English would say something like "old rock" or "metal tool"  But, it was a treasure trove for people watching (as is most of Korea) and we did end up seeing some pretty cool stuff...  We spent the rest of the day looking for a book I'm supposed to be reading for a little book club I'm a part of (Shout out to the 300+ Club :) ) and walking around several shopping centers.  I am continually blown away by the vast amounts of shopping opportunities in this country.  Yikes.  And, most of the stores are the same no matter where you go, or at least very, very similar...  Interesting.

Yesterday we only had the first four periods of class because there was a special church service for all of the schools.  It was supposed to have been held in the Kyunghwa Bowl (the outdoor stadium) but it had rained all day, so it was held in the auditorium instead.  We had no idea was the occasion was, so Dionne and I were baffled to find that the school had brought in a Christian boy band for a concert!  The girls were so so funny to watch.  They were falling over themselves as if Elvis or the Beatles were in the building...  Adorable.

A new term of after school conversation class started yesterday.  This is how I found out:  At 4:15, Mr. Shin came to my desk.

Mr. Shin: Uh, excuse me, Noelle Teacher.  Are you busy?
Noelle: Nope.  What's up? (so professional, right?!)
M.S.: Did you know after school class starts today?
N:  Haha... Nope! 
M.S.: I didn't know either.  Is it okay?
N: Sounds good to me...  I'll figure something out...
M.S. Sounds good to you?  Sounds good to me too!  (Mr. Shin has the most delightful infectious laugh.  He demonstrated it here.)

I have six students this time, four from the last class and two new ones.  All delightful, adorable, bright eyed and smiley... just the way I like them :)  I'm going to love the next five weeks for sure!

Today is Fitness Test Day so there are no classes.  I'm relegated to my desk while the other teachers help measure how much each student has grown, what they weigh, their body fat percentage, etc.  As everyone was gearing up for Fitness Day, Chan Yang gave me a new task to complete before the end of the year...  There is a list of 1000 vocabulary words that we teach over the course of the year in Morning English.  The Vice Principal asked him to make the example sentences more conversational - like true to how we would use them in an everyday sense.  So, I have to write sentences for each possible meaning of each of the 1000 words like we would use them in everyday conversation...  I'm kind of looking forward to it... (I'm such a word nerd!  Did you know there is an application on dictionary.com that tells you what weird things are called - like the gook in the corners of your eyes when you wake up in the morning that I grew up calling sleep or eye boogers is actually called rheum?  There's a reason I asked for a dictionary for my 18th birthday :)  )  But, some of the words are hard because I never use them - like intent or memorization or exhibition.  Yikes.  This could get fun...  Chan Yang told me there's no hurry, but I wonder what that means...  After working fairly steadily all morning, I'm on number 61.  This is going to take longer than I thought...