Deconstruction of an Average Day

So, I've realized that I often leave the descriptions of our days at work pretty vague.  I took notes during the day today in hopes of giving a clear picture of what a decent workday is like.

I realized yesterday that I hadn't shown you guys the little park where we run, so I brought the camera.  But I forgot to put the memory card in it, so I had to bring it back and run with it again today.

The fishy bread stand is much less exciting all wrapped up in the daylight. (It's on our way to the park.)

This kindergarten is really cute and the kids always sound like they're having a blast inside.  (Also on our way)

Mini track!

The usual outdoor exercise equipment.

Big toy!

There is a fenced tennis area (the green fencing), an open tennis area and a mini soccer field with a low fence (to the right).

Gazebos overlook the play areas.

We went to the bus stop today as usual.  Two buses rounded the corner (which is normal), mine first and then Ian's.  I asked Ian to grab my money out of my bag, we kissed goodbye, and I stepped up to the curb.  And the bus just kept going.  We waved at it to no avail.  Ian desperately tried to ask his driver to call the other bus (the Ha So buses only come once an hour),  but the driver just smirked at us and nodded.  So, I had to hail a cab.

The rest of my day was good.  When I got to work all the teachers (and 'Hank') were sitting around drinking coffee and when I went to put my bag away, 'Hank' told me it was "Coffee time."  So, I sat and listened to the teachers gab.  They thought my dark coffee was funny (I don't use sugar in the instant stuff).  'Hank' had me pour a little into his cup so he could try it.  He made a terrible face and the said "It's good!"  No, it isn't.  It's instant coffee.  But, his enthusiasm made me laugh.

In my first class on Thursdays there is a girl named Abigail.  This girl does well on her written work, but it terrible in class.  She is constantly making the types of noises you would expect from a toddler and she actively distracts the other students.  During a listening exercise, she wrote "bolocks" for "blocks."  It was close enough to "bollocks" to give me a laugh.  Later in the class I tried to kick her out of class because she was being so disruptive, she just sat there.  It was an interesting moment, but she was quiet for the rest of class.  I have suspicions that she lost her mother not too long ago.  These feelings come from her reaction to an exercise involving listing your family members in class.  I figure they don't really deal with that here, so her behavior problems maybe stem from that.

In my second class a little girl (Sophia) began to cry to herself for seemingly no reason.  So, I stopped the lesson and tried to talk to her.  But, in the end I decided to go get Chun wha.  Sophia needed to feel like she could talk openly and a language barrier isn't great for that.  It turns out that she was missing her baby cousin.  Poor kid.

In one of my later classes we were doing time and schedules.  I had all my students come up with questions for each other, like, "What time do you do your homework?"  One student (Ryan) cracked me and the class up by asking "What time do you turn Hulk?"

My last class on Thursday is Fluent 1.  Connor, a student in that class told me that he saw 2012 today.  So, it's in Jecheon at TTC!  Not that we were super stoked to see this particular movie, but it will be nice to see a movie on time in the theater.

Ian's day was a little less normal.  He had some folks from the Yoon's in Seoul come and sit in on his classes.  The man was about 30 and the woman was about 50.  Ian said they were very friendly and when he made the joking comment, "I get a little nervous when the up and ups come to check in," the man said "Oh, we're not the up and ups."  His fluency in English made Ian relax a little.

Well, that sums up a mostly normal day.  One more work day until the weekend.  Good night!