Lesson 36

Coloring is an excellent de-stresser.

Yesterday was an exciting day in the office. Not only did I come home from work with a massive headache due to the numerous frustrations I had to deal with, but I also had 15 pages of the outlines of ocean animals. So after writing yesterday's blog, I colored jellyfish, starfish, seahorses, and octopuses until midnight.

This wasn't something I randomly decided to do. We just started a unit about the ocean in my morning and afternoon classes, so I wanted to decorate the room a bit. This morning I got to school an hour early to get stuff done before the construction guys took the offices apart. I laminated and printed things calmly until class started - it's pointless to start the day with your panties in a bunch, and besides I'd done nearly three hours of coloring the night before, so I was calm and collected.

Jeena came downstairs and saw all of the decorations I made and told me about how Miss Anna (a teacher from last year) used to do the same thing. Jeena envied Young (Anna's TP, my math/science TP) because Anna did a lot of her own projects and decorations for the kids and was very creative. "Now I am not jealous because you are like Anna and do nice things for your students. I think it's really wonderful. The kids are lucky you are their teacher and make things instead of just printing them out."

Today was Chuseok Day at Maple Bear, so that meant that I didn't really have to teach today. The kids came to class in their hanbok - 한복 (traditional Korean clothing). I wish they wore those outfits every day - it's simply adorable! It was a nice break in the middle of a frustrating week to just eat rice cakes, learn how to bow and play Yut (the only thing I can compare it to is a traditional Korean boardgame).

Julia and David don't allow us to accept non-food gifts from parents although in Korea it's pretty much the standard for parents to give their child's teacher a gift. So instead of a present, we got lots of little bags of food. In Kristen's case, she got about 15 Korean pears from one student's mother. If you've never seen one, they're bigger than a softball and weigh as much as a cast-iron skillet. And they're delicious.

Sally's baetssi.

Sally, the little fashion model.

John, modeling the boys' hanbok.

Playing Yut with Kelsey and Tara's classes.

Jeena teaching the afternoon girls how to bow.

Jeena and me with the morning class:

(Ethan, John, Sally, Dorothy, and Belle)

Jeena and me with the afternoon class:

(Tobey, Rachel, Yi-Young, Zenia, Julie, Eric, and Jasmine.)