hmmm...it's difficult remembering how to use this thing since I'm seeing all the commands in korean...looks like I might have somehow disabled commenting...can't really tell.

I can't believe it's already friday. this week flew by. then again, I feel like I've been here for a while. it's that constant mystery of time I suppose, it's almost always that way.

last night I fell asleep without meaning to...tv on, lights on, maybe even glasses on. I must have been exhausted. but I'm not feeling the fatigue that plagued me the last few months in new york. I've managed to begin a habit of getting out of bed as soon as I wake up, rather than dozing for an extra hour or more...and I'm up by 8:30 every morning, I never have to set an alarm...it's nice.

I can't believe how quickly the days go by at school. I think it has to do with the fact that we teach in thirty minute blocks, so that eliminates the feeling of any particular class dragging on. There are things about the thirty minute blocks that I don't like, mainly the fact that if you have to spend time on any behavior problem you lose a good chunk of teaching time. the way the discipline is set up, we are never supposed to have to spend time on it. if a child acts up we are supposed to immediately send them to the office, where their lecture/punishment will be doled out in korean so that they fully understand it. it's hard for me to do that though, I'm so used to dealing with behavior problems on my own and having the intervention of a higher authority as the very last resort. I'm going to have to get over that though, because if I don't then I have a couple of classes where I'll have to spend the whole time dealing with one or two of the kids.

still, the bottom line is that I love these kids! they are amazing. most of them spend from 7am until at least 7pm, many of them later than that, in school. they go to regular school, then they come to us afterwards, and then many of them have other classes or lessons after they come to us. taking that into consideration, they are remarkably well-behaved. most of them are extremely eager to do well...I can't tell if it is motivation from within or just fear of failure and it's consequences that drives them...probably a combination of both. the downside is that they care more about having the "right" answer written down than they do about actually understanding concepts. I'm trying to work on the concept thing though. if there is a sentence that includes a difficult word or concept I make sure to check their understanding of it...often times they don't get it, so I'll do my best to explain with examples. yesterday I had a group of girls and one of their questions included the word "describe," which they didn't know. I told them that it meant to explain something in detail, and they stared blankly...then I told them that in order to describe something, you can pretend that someone is asking you many questions about the thing...what color is it? how does it feel? what do you do with it? I described for them the pen I was holding, and then had them describe crystal's coat. then as homework, I told them to describe their bedrooms. they still seemed pretty confused about the concept, so I wasn't sure if they'd understood. I ended up having them for another thirty minute block later that afternoon, and we covered some new pages in the book. then at the end of that class I reminded them of their homnework and said "who remembers what "describe means?" and crystal raised her hand and said "teacher's shirt is black and shiny!" not only did she understand, but she had applied the concept to something new all on her own...that was one of my favorite moments so far.
another favorite was during one of my larger (larger meaning about ten kids) classes yesterday, when we were talking about animals that would make good pets. I had them each come up and draw an animal on the board. the rest of the class had to guess what animal it was, and then we decided together whether it would make a good pet.

kids: ellyfahnt!
me: would an elephant make a good pet? would you want to have an elephant in your house?
kids laughing: nooo!
me: why?
kids stretching their arms out: biiig!

kids: dolfeen!
me: do you think you could have a dolphin in your house? where do dolphins usually live?
julia: beach!

sooo cute. so yes, in short, I love the teaching. the little kids are great, and the junior high kids are of course my favorite. the jr. high boys test me a lot, but I have a good rapport with them and when they're on we have good discussions and they crack me up. there are two seventh grade girls, emma and rose, and we've already had some really good discussions. I have to make sure I don't let them keep me off task though, I enjoy talking to them so much and learning how they think about things. they're very smart, quite fluent in english and know how to explain cultural differences, etc.

so yes, I look forward to going to work every day, which is very very nice.

that's been the bulk of my experience so far. the weekend starts today, so we'll see what that brings. I hear dinah might come into daegu, which would be awesome.

tricia is going to lend me a chunk of money to get me through until I get paid, which is phenomenally wonderful and generous of her. I could survive on what I've got, but this will make things a whole lot easier.