Things That Don't Even Phase Me Anymore.

1.) Temper tantrums in school.
2.) Mothers talking to me in Korean.
3.) Not understanding what someone wants me to do.
4.) Closing and locking up the school.
5.) Hearing my name repeatedly while someone is shouting in Korean.
6.) Ruby giving half instructions for some seemingly impossible unnecessary task.
7.) Loud whiny Korean.
8.) Ruby's ringtone.

There are so many things to which I have become desensitized since being here. There are so many things that should be upsetting. There are so many times I surprise myself by laughing instead of shouting.

Whenever Narky comes into my room to try and discipline my kids in Korean, I wait until he's done and gone to tell my kids to disregard all directions that don't come from me. I won't have my kids crying in class everytime Narky feels the need to prove he's a necessary functioning member of this educational establishment. He has proven to me that more than 90% of the time he has no idea what he's talking about and just needs someone to yell at to blow off steam. Join a gym, kid. You're messing with my class vibe.

I used to worry about what he would tell his sister about our interactions. Now I don't. He usually comes out of them looking foolish. Who wants to run to their sister whining about how the foreign teacher made them look bad? It's a good thing he doesn't realize how much Korean I know. My, that would be embarrassing.

It's not like these moments of embarrassment are that hard to avoid, either. All he has to do is ask me why my kids are doing something before barging in and screaming in Korean. One of these days, he's going to realize that the kids aren't afraid of him either. They just don't understand why he screams all the time.

These little daily tantrums of his have nothing to do with what my kids are or aren't doing and everything to do with his DUI. Man, I wish someone would fake fire him. And then real fire him.

Class Flags.

My Steeler boys have weekly presentations and today's assignment was to design a class flag. How awesome are these?

And the back of that one flag is Polamalu. Do my kids know me or what?

Mine Hunting.

Ever since I signed up for this trip, I wondered how this mine hunting was going to work. Aren't they kind of big? How can someone lose a mine? What kinds of mines are these anyways? Coal? Gold? Do we get a souvenir from this mine?

No. Not gold mines or coal mines. Land mines. I can't believe I didn't connect the dots on that one. Even after seeing all of the signs along the barbed wire fences warning of the deadly mines hidden all around, I still walked around wondering how anyone could be dumb enough to lose a mine.

On the way back, we stopped to buy N. Korean soju. Just another set of drinks to hide on the top shelf of the pantry back home. And bungee jumping was cancelled due to flooding. Lame.

I'm Heading to the DMZ Again.

I realize that there are so few former presidents left, but I can't pass up an opportunity to go camping by the DMZ. I'm rushing around packing so I'll leave you with my favorite answer of the week. So often, Korean students have problems answering opinion questions. They look at the question, can't find the answer in the text and draw a little star over the number. It's taken me a while, but I have finally gotten them to stop skipping and starring them and confirmed what I have always believed: My kids are full of good opinions.

Jane Yolen wrote a new poetry book about egrets.


"What do you think of Jane Yolen's poems?"

K: "I think that Yolen's poems are nice to hear when you are not bored, so that you can be bored."

Erin! These Are the Worst Class Notes For You Ever!

She didn't mean that I wrote bad notes, just that I was really hard on my kids. I came right out and called their vocab definitions terrible and commented on their poor preparation for the vocab test.

I assign my kids a list of words once a week and it is their responsibility to look the words up and memorize definitions. Then they come to class, I read the definitions and they write the words. They thought they'd get it easy this week by writing the words in as many definitions as they could. It wasn't too hard to see what they were up to.

4.) apoplectic: having apoplexy
7.) concoction: what you have after concocting
11.) launch: launching a rocket
15.) obedient: being obede

I cancelled the vocab test and made them do the list again. "Being obede"? Really?

"Teacher! He Is Not a Monster!"

I forget how impressionable the little ones are sometimes. That monster guy sat in on my Teddy Bear class again today. I was informed last Friday that on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that class will be extended a half hour to accommodate the two extra students we will have three days a week. ("Erin you were confused, that class is 90 minutes." -Narky. "Oh, it's not confused, that means I didn't understand. I didn't even know."- me. "Wha?"- Narky)

I love my new Teddy Bears, too. They may not be as eager to speak, but they have their own charms. But Lucy and Leah had a chance to think about the new teacher all of yesterday in hopes that he would be sitting in on class again. And the new girls were totally curious about the new monster teacher who has to duck to enter doorways.

We were in the middle of our Let's Go quizzing before leveling up to the next text book, when all of a sudden, one of the Bears looks back and stares at the new guy. "Teacher! He is not a monster! Eyes same color as yesterday!" Well look at that. I almost died laughing.

They were getting a little upset that his eyes were still blue/grey and not green, so I tried to explain that he was wearing a blue shirt, so of course his eyes would be blue.

E: "Maybe tomorrow he will wear a green shirt."
L1: "Or a yellow shirt?"
B: "Mayb-"
L2: "Or a pink shirt!"
B: "I don't think-"
K: "Or a purple one!"
L1: "A black one!"
C: "A white one!"
B: "Wait a-"
E: "Or maybe a rainbow one. Ask him to wear a rainbow shirt."
L1,L2, C, K: "Rainbow eyes?! Oh Teacher so crazy! Yeah rainbow!!"


I should've felt bad for egging the kids on and making fun of the new teacher, but I just have so much fun with my kids. And rainbow eyes would be totally awesome. That Boston guy is gonna have to learn to think on his feet. And talk hella faster.

Yeah, I HAVE Been In Town For Kind of a While.

I guess somewhere in my subconscious I was afraid to leave my roommate alone in the apartment again after the nightmare of last time. Tell a girl not to let strangers in the house and it just doesn't take until she has the boss's younger brother over to get crazy enough to attempt some drunk driving. Admit it, you wouldn't leave her alone either.

But this is the last weekend I can play babysitter. The time has come for me to leave her behind again. I trust that Shadow will be able to keep her in line. As long as someone is here to keep an eye on her, it should be okay. I hope.

Man, I REALLY hope. I am so close to the end now that I can't afford to have a roommate who can't get the rules down. These Canadian chicks and their drama... sorry, Renee. It's probably not all the Canadian chicks.

Just mine apparently.

Though it is kind of fun rooming with a Canadian. We never end up telling the same story. I doubt I'll ever have a story with a punchline of "And my dad was more mad because I didn't call and let him come by and butcher the moose himself. He hardly said anything about the fact that I totaled the car."

Yeah. We're not gonna have a whole lot of stories that overlap...