Updates

What's going on here in Kimchi Land...

-I had my greatest triumph and greatest defeat as a pre-school teacher in the same half hour. The youngest class I teach, Leshi, has two developmentally challenged kids who are about 3 years old. There is a Korean assistant in that class who is SUPPOSED to help me keep them under control while I teach the other three kids in the class but she's pretty flippin' useless and I usually spend the class running after them instead of getting anything accomplished.

So...one of them, Jae Min, I've been teaching for about 5 months now and he's picking up things here and there. He loves singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he knows to say "hello" rather than "annyong" to me so he's getting there. This week, though, for the first time in 5 months, he did the Hokey Pokey on his own. I was so proud of him, I was totally crying and trying to hide it. It totally made my week and I still get all weepy when I think about it.

Then, about 25 minutes later, Seog Hyun threw the big story book out the window. It was hilarious but...damn it!

-I've finally started kumdo (검도 in Korean)! To recap briefly, my friend Steve's roommate Dan has been taking lessons for a while now and I thought it would a really cool thing to do. Dan's also been talking it up to other people so there's a group of 4 adult foreigners and 5 Korean elementary school students in the class. It's pretty funny, the instructor treats us (Dan not included) like very slow kids. We even get dropped off at the subway station in the school van with the other kids.

The kumdo itself is pretty cool. We wear blue outfits and have bamboo swords. So far, I've learned the basic foot movements, how to hold my sword, and basic arm movements. I totally make light saber noises because yeah, I feel like a Jedi. Assah!