My view

Okay, I wrote that last post and then decided that I should show you the view from my apartment. I don't think the pictures do it justice. The is really nice, both during the day and at night. Across the street out one window there are many, many apartment buildings. Out the other window there is a mountain. I like the view. It makes my tiny apartment really nice.

My apartment

This was what you used to see when you came into my apartment. Yep, that's pretty much it. I have a little apartment. About ten steps from the door to the window. The only furniture by job supplied was a bed, so that's all I had. You walked in and you could see my bed and my laundry. I didn't have anywhere to sit except my bed or the floor. There was no place to go in the apartment where you couldn't see my laundry or my dishes. Not all that cozy. The upside is that I like in a corner apartment on the 11th floor, and I have 15ft ceilings. I have two walls of windows. So there was nothing to see in the apartment, but outside was great. Another great thing about my apartment, it is only two blocks from work.

Then I bought a sofa. It took almost six months to choose one, but I finally found one that I liked. Some teachers who were leaving gave me the mirror. Now I have somewhere to sit, but I sit on the floor. It's easier to type that way.

I moved the bed to the other corner, and bought a set of drawers. It's actually a television stand, but I don't have a television. And really, it's drawers. Now, when I sit on the bed, I can't see my dishes. The book shelf makes a wall. Now I have two rooms in my apartment.

This is the book shelf. It is a very good book shelf, and a very good wall. It looks empty in this picture, but now there are a few more things on it, and it looks wonderful.


Now this is what you see when you come into my apartment. There are still only about ten steps from the front door to the window, but now it looks so much cosier and homey. I really like my apartment. I will probably only live here for another few months though. My boss said that after I get married he will find me a bigger apartment. It won't be two blocks from work, but I am willing to take the bus to work if it means that I will get to live with my husband.

Awww

Awww. Aren't we cute? And isn't he incredibly good looking? I sure think so.

I like living in Korea. I get to see Samuel every weekend. I like that. It's like the year and a half in Canada never happened. It feels like we were never apart.

We are planning to go to Jeju Island at the end of July with some friends for a few days. We're going fishing on the ocean! I'm super excited. No one else seems to think this is nearly as exciting as I do. They are all from places that are close to the ocean. Samuel's family lives right next to the beach. I am from Saskatchewan okay. I think fishing on the ocean is pretty exciting. I will have to show you all the fish I catch.

We are starting to get the paper work together so Samuel can come visit at Christmas. I hope you all can meet him then. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated.

New shoes

Samuel went shoe shopping with me yesterday. He told me to take my time and he suggested other stores to look at. He even helped me pick out shoes. Then he carried the bag.

More kids

This is Amy. She is the newest addition to my class. She came about three weeks ago. She is very smart and she can sound out some words already. She is always the first to finish her work. The nice part of that is she will sit quietly when she is finished instead of bothering the kids around her like the other students will do.

This is Rex. He is usually very serious, except during art time when he gets very silly and turns everything we are doing into monsters. Last week I handed out pictures of teddy bears to colour and cut out. He cut off the arms and legs and drew on more eyes to make his a monster. When they were drawing pictures of their classmates he drew a monster. He is very concerned with getting things right. He very much wants to be the leader of the class, but so does Eric, so they don't get along very well at all.

This is Sienna. She is quiet and very sweet. She is always watching the other kids so she can help when they need help. She is always worried about the others' feelings.

Wyatt is a funny kid. He says hi to everyone he sees all day. "Hi Robin Teacher! Hi" Seriously. All day. At least 20 times. It's pretty funny. Last week he was sick and missed two days. It was really quiet. We all missed him.

Cathy is the newest addition to the class. The day she came she pretended that she didn't want to come. She wouldn't go into the classroom without her father and she cried when he left. The next day she had absolutely no problem coming to class. She talks a lot and likes to tease the other kids. She is probably the smartest kid in class.

Jamie is so painfully shy. When I started teaching her she wouldn't ever make eye contact with anyone and you couldn't hear what she said, if she said anything at all. Now she plays with some of the other students and she is much louder. If she is answering a question about phonics or the story she is loud enough to hear from a few people away. If the question is about her or what she wants, then you still have to be right beside her to hear her answer. She won't ask to go to the bathroom. I have to tell her to go. She does the "need to pee" dance, so I can tell when she needs to go, but it would be so much easier if she just asked. She has gotten much braver in the last few months. I'm interested to see what changes the next few months bring.

A few of my students

These are a few of my preschool kids. They are six years old in Korea, which means they
are four or five. They are at school from 9:50 until 2:30 everyday.


This is Molly. She is determined that she is big because she is in the six-year-old class. She has a lot of attitude to match her determination. The other day I wouldn't let her sit where she wanted to so she cried and then sat and glared at me. She will be angry for about two minutes and then forgets that she is angry. She likes to pretend that she is a princess. She is very smart and tries very hard to learn all the words she can in English, probably so she can yell at me better when she is angry. She is pretty cute, don't you think?



Next is Eric. He tries very hard to be good, but it is not easy to be good for that long. He wants to be good so he can get stickers, but he can't seem to be good for more than about 15 minutes at a time, which I think is pretty good for a five-year-old. He likes to talk and tries very hard to always speak English to me. He doesn't always know the right words, but he does very well to get the message across. Last week one of the other teachers was teaching the class and Eric told him "Eric...no good boy." He didn't know the word for naughty, but Brian sure understood what Eric meant. Eric used to be the one that drove me crazy, but now he is one of my favourites. He has a lot of personality. I'm pretty sure he is going to be a ladies man. He likes to sit next to the girls and help them. One day I had him sitting at the next table over from his current interest. He wanted to sit next to Sienna, but the table legs were between them, so he moved his chair over so he could sit closer to her. It is really very cute.



This is Roy. He started out as my favourite, and has pretty much remained there. He has got to be one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. He is the youngest kid in my class. He doesn't know as many words as the other kids, and he knows it, but he speaks louder to make up for it. He tends to yell a lot. He definately knows his name and can spell it and he won't ever let me write his name for him. He will do it himself thank you. He can't say the s sound at the end of words. It always comes out as a t. Absolutely adorable. He really likes busses.

This is Clara. She is going to be a comedian, I'm sure. She loves making the other students laugh. She also likes reading books and will entertain herself for a long time with a few books. This picture was taken after we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to go with the song. Something that you would definately not be able to do in Canada. For that matter, I wouldn't be able to blog about my students and put their pictures up in Canada either. But this is Korea and it's okay. The parents would be thrilled. Anyway, you can see the sandwich on her face. Strawberry jam.

This is Daniel. He has no clue. They all know the alphabet, and we have been working on phonics, so they know the sound that each letter makes. I will ask for words that start with a certain sound, m, for example. He will say dinosaur. No clue. He likes to ignore the teachers and do whatever he wants, which is usually something he shouldn't do. He definately has selective hearing loss. At least he's cute. He likes dinosaurs and books about Thomas the Tank Engine. Unfortuately, there are only two in the library and I am tired of them now.

Well, that was half of my preschool class. I will introduce you to the others another time.

New Year

For Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year to the rest of the world, the kids all dressed up in their hanbok and we took the afternoon to play games instead of studying. They were all very cute. The pictures are from the game I was running. It's a traditional Korean game where they throw arrows into a tall container. It's a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed themselves, but later when I asked my class if they had fun one girl said she had no fun at all. She hadn't won the prizes so she didn't have fun. The girl who had won a prize said she had a great time.