I taught five-year-olds possessives!

I yelled, as I burst into the office triumphantly energetic. JoAnne, the native Korean English teacher, looked at Jonathon and said, "what does he mean, possesives?" (It should be noted here, that I talk too fast for Koreans. I have reassured them, saying I talk to fast for some Americans too. JoAnne, despite her excellent grip on the language, and my efforts to slow down, continues to disunderstand me.) Before Jonathon could answer, I sang, "mine and yours, mine and yours, I taught children mine and yours!"

I was excited. This was on day seven in the classroom. Teaching had turned out to be arduous. We had gone from working zero hours a day, for two months, having quit our social-work jobs at the end of June, to working 8-11 hour days overnight. We have been teaching now for two full weks. It has been greulling at times. For our first two days, I was sick in my stomach, having eaten some Bibim Bap that didn't agree with me. Since Wednesday, this week, both Ferial and I have had colds that have kept us weak, sore and tired. Add to all of that the normal stress of starting a new job, the added stress of that new job being in another country and the insane stress of having to deal with kids, American age 3-14, for 6 hours every day, who by the way, don't really speak your language and would rather be doing something else...

So, teaching four-year-olds, the difference between "my book" and "your book" was, in my mind, an enourmous success for the day. Now don't get me wrong, we are really enjoying our jobs. However, we are looking forward to the day when doing lesson plans won't take us two hours every morning. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we don't have to be into the office until 1:30, at the latest. However, we are regularly going in at 9:00 on those days, just so we can prepare for classes. We have been told that preparation gets much easier and we relish the thought of being able to sleep in until 9-ish, get up, have breakie, read some Holy Writ, and head into the office after a light lunch.

Life has been good though. Two days ago, I was out in the courtyard, playing "Red-Light, Green-Light" with some 4th graders, because I didn't want to plan a lesson for that class, when a guy walked up to me, who was definitely not Korean. In the middle of yelling "Red-Light," I heard him say, "Are you American?" I was floored...I think I just stood there with my mouth open for a second. "Like, I mean, you're not Canadian...?" he said. My students were frozen in place, waiting for a chance to speeed ahead again. "Yeah, I'm American. You?" "Yeah," he said. I shook his hand, "I'm John." "Jason." "TEACHER!!!!!!" I asked Jason if he could give me fifteen minutes, to get rid of the Bulgogi Boys and he said he would go and get his wife and meet me back outside in twenty.

Long story short, Ferial and I now have a new set of friends. They are married, 26 year old Christians from Indiana. They are a bi-racial couple and love many of the same movies and tv shows we do. Thus far, we have only spent a couple of hours with them, but it promises to be a good friendship, already.

This is getting long, so I'll quickly fill you in on a few other things: We went to Seoul for the first time, last weekend. The photos are on Ferial's facebook. It was a lot of fun, and we made sure to stop by Starbucks, while we were there. I am reaping the benefits of that, as I type. We had dinner that night with a Korean woman Jonathon and I knew from Briercrest, Annie. We ate at a Brazilian Barbecue restaurant - all you can eat meat! In the Bay Area, it would be called a churiscaria, if you want to find one. Amazing food. It can be pricey, but you won't regret it. Also, this weekend is a three-day holiday, which is a rarity in Korea. It is Korean Thanksgiving, called ChuSok. We are looking forward to resting up, kicking a cold, and getting to know the newest crew members on our rocket.

Happy ChuSok!