Scary stories, and Happy New Year!

"You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting."

This line from the movie "Gladiator" always had a way of shaking me up. I mean the power with which Russell Crow says it to Maximus at the end is so victorious! Then I realized just today that the line was taken from a horror story in the Bible. In Daniel 6, when King Belshazzar brings out the stolen golden goblets, stolen from the temple of the Lord, to serve his nobles and concubines and praises the gods of gold and silver. Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appear and writes something on the plaster walls. When enchanter or diviner is able to interpret the writing, Belshazzar summons Daniel, who was appointed chief of the magicians, enchanters and diviners, a title which would probably ostracize Daniel if he were living among Christians today. Daniel interprets the writing and in v. 27 tells the king, "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting."

The story is a reminder that God is so much less caucasian, conservative, Western, lecture-style, linear-minded, white bread, pews and liturgies than we thought. He's horrific! I mean Belshazzar kicks back for a weekend party, busts out the fine china for his guests, and the group, impressed by the gold goblets, praise the maker of gold and silver, which they believe to be a divine being. Then, all of the sudden, a human finger forms and begins writing on the wall. Belshazzar collapsed out of fear! How different is the scene from "The Shining," when "Redrum" appears on the walls? Belshazzar is told that God has numbered his days, that he falls short and that his glory will be given to his neighbors. Then, that evening, Belshazzar is slain.

God is horrific! And it's all over the Bible, but unfortunately, reading the same passages about exorcisms and miracles can sometimes take all the magic out of the truth. I realize to some people that sounds like an oxymoron--magic and truth. But I don't think it is. I suppose the words magic and miracles carry different connotations for Christians, but essentially, they're the same kind of happening, each drawing the power from different sources.

A few weeks ago, I was leaving the house to meet my friends downtown when something peculiar happened. I bundled up for the cold winter air that had almost kept me from going out at all and stumbled down 3 flights of stairs to find Hyunsuk on the main level, talking.... I looked around the dark room and saw no one with whom she might be talking. She wasn't holding the cell phone to her ear either, but she appeared to be talking to someone outdoors. She stared out the glass entrance to the church and chattered away. When she saw me coming, she turned to acknowlege me, and I asked her, "who are you talking to?"

"Church member," she replied.

"Outside?" I asked.

"No," she said calmly, smiling as she shook her head. And that was it!

I looked around the room again, checking the corners for hidden people, but again, I saw no one.

Dumbfounded and speechless, I said "o...ok?" and "goodnight." Heading outside, I did a couple double-takes to see if she was still standing there, making conversation with her invisible church member friend.

Later, when I relayed this story to my friends, Eli and Heidi, and my coworker, Patrick, they were just as weirded out. Patrick tried to think of other explanations and asked, "are you sure she wasn't talking on her phone?" But the truth is, I'm sure she was talking to a ghost or some sort of spiritual being. Why not? God is spooky.

I don't think God would ever send me a ghost or an isolated hand writing death curses on walls because I think he knows it would scare me, even if I do believe in them.

Anyway, speaking of things that are a little bit strange yet awesome, 2009 is over! Happy New Year everyone!

One year ago, Nick and I went to a party together to celebrate the new year. I remember being crazy in love with each other that night. I thought he was going to propose any day during our winter vacation. And he did propose, two and half months later.

In the past year, I got engaged, graduated from college, and came to Korea to teach English to children. Not too shabby. And in the year to come, I'll come home, get married and,... well, only God knows what's to come in this adventure.

Last night, I celebrated with many of the wonderful people I've met! It was a really sweet time. (Also in weird news, it was pretty weird to not hear Auld Lang Syne coming out of the televisions speakers at The New Yorker, a local restaurant/bar, last night. They played this other song, which sang, "Happy New Year! Happy New Year!" Fitting, I guess.)

Blessings to you all in 2010!

Playing Santa, Beautiful Busan

Playing Santa

Christmas is not as big in Korea as it is in the states. In fact, most of my students had no plans for Christmas day because the national holiday is for couples and Christians rather than families and heavy commercialism. JiHey told me a few times that no gifts would be given on

Christmas, but I couldn't imagine a Christmas without gifts. So I made it my mission to play

Santa Clause this year and spent Christmas eve shopping along Youngdae for the Kim family.

Within ten minutes, I readily committed to a scarf and two matching fleece pullovers for Hyunsuk and the girls. However, despite having five brothers, I've always been terrible at picking out gifts for male recipients. It's not that I have any sort of major failure on my record to crush my confidence, but I just can never seem to think of a super gift for the men in my life. Add in a few cultural differences and the task becomes even more challenging. Luckily, my coworker Patrick introduced me to a few of his Korean friends who had the afternoon off and were able to help me out a bit. With the help of HyungWoo and ByungMoo, I found a scarf and tie in KyungSan suitable for both MinWoo and Moxanim. (Yes, men wear all kinds scarves, and it's totally masculine and stylish!) Meanwhile, Patrick's chingus (friends) taught me several Korean idioms and cultural rules. For example, a comic book is an inappropriate Christmas gift because it doesn't promote studiousness. I taught them the expression "out of my league," and they returned the favor by teaching me "keurim y duk," or painting of a rice cake--an idiom used for a person who is unapproachably attractive.

On Christmas morning, I laid out their gifts anonymously before anyone was up and about, then I coached myself to plead Santa, should they try to thank me. I think they were on to me anyway. Hyunsuk was the first to notice the gifts and thanked me right away. When I acted ignorant and suggested Santa Clause, she said something "yea, ...ok, thank you!" JiMin laughed at my Santa excuse and asked me, "Are you Santa Claus?" Then she wrote a thank you note addressed to "Sally Santa." It was fun playing Santa! I look forward to doing it again someday with my children.

Beautiful Busan

At noon, I met Gloria, one of my Korean friends, at Dongdaegu Station to take a KTX train to Busan for the day. Couple with linked arms were everywhere, and to be honest, it made me want to cry a few times. (At one point, I was on a busy subway in the middle of three different couples, cuddling and flirting with each other. I had to keep changing my gaze to keep from staring and missing that sort of affection.) It was a good day to be in the company of girls and experiencing new aspects of Korea. A good day to want to be in Korea. It was also a good time to come visit my friend Heidi because we're both in serious relationships but away from the person we love. Heidi's boyfriend is working in China until February.

Gloria and I met up with another Korean friend, Linda, who is from Busan and knows her way around pretty well. We went to Jagalchi Market, which is basically rows and rows of people selling different kinds of fish. Linda taught us the Jagalchi Market expression "Come and see and buy!" After avoiding eye contact with several aggressive merchants, a trustworthy fish merchant put a live flounder and two other unknown fishes in a deep red basket and then directed us to the dining area to eat our purchases--fresh and raw--and served with rice, stew, and sides, of course. I surprised myself. Delicious!

After eating our fill of sashimi, we squeezed our way through the crowds to browse through other market items, including socks with Obama, Starbucks and Korean won bill prints for 1,00o won each ($1.) It takes a long time to get through the crowds. It's exhilarating for the first hour, then it's tiresome. Heidi finished work and met up with us for dinner, coffee and a movie in her small studio apartment. We watched "Four Christmases" on her laptop computer and enjoyed the warmth of being with friends on Christmas night.

On Saturday, Gloria, Linda and I went to Haeundai Beach, which was beautiful beyond words. My favorite part was the seagulls. Take a look at the video down below.

We also visited Nurimaru, the site of the 2005 APEC summit, an event which put Busan on the world map for global tourism. It sort of baffled me how the building was made for the sole purpose of a single global leader meeting, but is now being used as a tourist attraction. Anyway, here's a picture of George W. Bush in hanbok. I wonder if he was wearing traditional garb as he discussed WTO negotiations with other foreign leaders.

After walking around the beach for a while, we rushed off to a subway so that I could catch a train with enough time to get back to Jilyang for my Saturday class Christmas party. All in all, it was a good time and a merry Christmas, indeed!

Not an eggzact science

I earned my lowest ACT score in high school for the science competency test. I've never really liked science. Partially because science always seemed much less scientific to me than it did to others around me. When I was in high school, my experiments never turned out right. I mean the vials rarely had the color or texture they were supposed to have, though I'd followed the directions verbatim. I often handed in lab logs with my fingers crossed, hoping my instructor would give me an 'A' for effort despite my failed results. Precision is not my forte.

Justin studied chemical engineering in college, and even his rationale for English grammar rules is strangely reminiscent of a chemist or mathematician. He outlines the rules for difficult grammar questions with a simple formula. He liked to talk about how not to catch H1N1 and knows about why MSGs are bad. Justin likes science.

When I first arrived in Korea, he had me teaching a science course for the English camp. I found it funny that they would need to learn science at English camp, but to really learn a language, one must learn the vocabulary associated with everything! Now, Korean students are on winter vacation, so a science/conversation course has been added to entertain and educate during the break. And I'm teaching it. Justin gave me a thick, spiral-bound book called 730 Science Experiments for Kids. (He said he was going to use it for his daughter someday, but they're packing to move back to the states, and he thought I could use it.) The new class is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I thought we could do a simple science experiment once per week and use the other two sessions to review science vocabulary and just practice simple non-scientific conversational English.

Today, we conducted an experiment titled "Detecting a Hard-Boiled Egg." According to the book, a cooked egg spins and will stop when touched lightly with one finger, but an uncooked egg wobbles and doesn't stop moving when touched lightly with one finger. The raw egg keeps moving due to the laws of intertia, which state that moving things have a tendency to keep moving and still things have a tendency to stay still. I bought about two dozen eggs from a local grocery mart and mixed the cooked eggs with the uncooked ones in the egg carton. I brought two clear glasses, so that we could test our hypothesis by cracking the eggs open. I explained the idea and taught the students "spin," "wobble," "cooked" and "raw." Then we conducted our experiment.

On one hand, the book was right. A cooked egg spins very quickly while a raw egg wobbles like a penguin doing the hokey-pokey, turning itself around. On the other hand, the book was not exactly right because it's not impossible to spin a raw egg if you use enough force. And I was working with three little boys! Also, a hard-boiled egg sometimes moves when stopped as well, if the "light" touch of a little boy's finger is actually quite forceful and abrupt for example. The type of motion that marks the difference. A cooked egg still sways a bit, but a raw egg rolls.

Thus as we conducted the experiment, we sometimes guessed a cooked egg and found out it was actually raw, or vice versa. We got it right several times, though, and teacher got better at recognizing the egg behaviors.

Two things were concretely accomplished through today's experiment: 1. I realized how important it is to train young scientists in the technique of accuracy in order to achieve accurate results. If I were to do it again, I would emphasize that they use a one-handed spin and stop the egg with a light finger-touch rather than a full-handed stop. Then, they should wait a moment after releasing the egg and observe the type of motion. 2. They had a lot of fun spinning and cracking eggs in English class! Even despite our inaccuracies.

White elephant gift exchanges are not an exact science, either. That's obvious, I suppose. Yesterday, we had a Christmas party after Dongshin service and introduced the white elephant gift game to the Koreans. My friend, Nate, and I were pretty certain that getting a high number is better than a low number, because those who go toward the end have a roomful of gifts to steal while those with a low numbers are usually too enticed by the pile of unopened packages to steal even a covetable gift from someone else. My number was 5 out of about 30. Nate had a twentyish number.

I grabbed the most interestingly wrapped package I could see and unopened a fake yellow tulip plant with a little green frog charm sticking out of it. Pretty cute, but useless for someone like me who doesn't care for cutesy decorations without a semi-permanent home in which to display them. I acted amused and settled down to watching others unwrap, thinking to myself, "No one is going to steal a fake plant." A Hello-Kitty recorder, a nose massager, a giant jar of Prego, pink bunny slippers and a pair of numb chucks, which Nate proudly bought at a Home Plus Mart, were some of the more interesting gifts. (I contributed a gold piggy bank, hwajangsil sticker and some chocolates.) White elephant gift exchanges are a spectacle anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed.

But to my surprise, some middle-aged Korean woman eventually stole away my fake plant, giving me another chance at the pile. This time I looked for texture and unwrapped a large bag of pumpkin-flavored jelly candy. Several Koreans seemed impressed, but I don't even like pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. I was surely finished. Nate even commented that my pumpkin candy was a done deal. Yet again, to our surprise, another Korean woman envied the pumpkin jellies. I shopped around the room and stole a gift bag with a neat looking coffee cup and nice teas. I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure, especially when playing with a diverse crowd. It's not a science, but it was a really great time!

Sunday night silliness

When I got home on Saturday from my late night Bible study in Daegu, JiHey was shuffling around the house to a recognizable tune of sniffles and sneezes. She had somehow caught my cold. I felt bad about giving it to her, but I felt even worse as I tried to conduct class over her Kleenex swipes and nose blows. A couple other students were missing due to final exams, which left only two, so I concluded we should take a week off.

JiHey took some medicine and settled in for a nap as I headed to Hayang to meet SuJung and search for a winter coat that might blend in with the big city blacks and charcoal grays of Daegu. (I’d started to feel a bit silly in my red Columbia coat among a sea of neutral toned pea coats and formal parkas.) SuJung helped me find a beautiful gray coat for a reasonable price. We ate duk-buki at a small duk-buki diner and watched a Korean game show, which she translated for me. SuJung had to study, so I went home to entertain myself. I downloaded “My Sister’s Keeper” and balled my eyes out. (It’s a good one.)

On Sunday, I went out to Papa John’s for some pizza with my Dongshin friends. Some of the pizza in Korea has been less than impressive to me. Really lacking in sauce. But the Papa John’s was pretty good! Then someone suggested that we go to a Norae Bong with the objective of singing only Christmas songs. For the first 30 minutes or so, we successfully maintained a purely Christmas playlist. But sooner or later, American pop songs made their way into sing-a-long. Here’s a video of us singing, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town.”

Singing rooms usually include a couple of microphones, tambourines and maracas. As opposed to karaoke in the U.S., a singing room feels a bit less like performance and more like a bunch of friends singing together.

After an hour of singing, we met a few other people at a local coffee shop, where we snagged a glass-enclosed, private room in the back corner. We sat around a big table and played a Korean drinking game with a twist. Usually, one player points a gun-shaped hand at others and says “Gong!” “Gong!” “Chil!” or “Bang!”--passing an imaginary bullet from person to person around the room. Gong means 0 and chil is 7, so, in other words--007 Bang! Instead of drinking, we forced the messer-uppers (would-be-drinkers) to perform a sort of dare for the rest of us. Due to my blunders, I wound up balancing a book on my head for several minutes and performing ten seconds of the macarena.

The coffee shop closed at 11 p.m. and pushed us out in the chilly air once more. Our group dwindled down, and those who were left found warmth in a hookah bar with an Arabian ambience. (Maybe they’re all Arabian. Not sure. It was my first time in a hookah bar, though I tried hookah one time with Saudi friends.) According to the menu, the tobacco in hookah is nicotine and tar free. People who enjoy hookah like to entertain ways to release the smoke from their body. Straw props included. The remaining six of us enjoyed mint-flavored hookah and talked about our dream jobs and our childhood memories.

I stayed out too late to catch the bus home, but woke up early enough to make it home with a shower and a meal before work.

As I sat on the subway, I thought about how much my social life has changed since I’ve been in Korea. I’ve had more fun going out at night in Korea than I ever had in college. My roommate in college used to tell me that I should stay out late more. She considered it part of the college experience. But in college, I often did what I thought was the responsible thing. I always had something to do the next day. Sometimes I knew of a more “sensible” social event to attend.

But she was right. It’s fun to stay out late with people. It takes time, hours, to have a shared experience. Stick around because the sweetest, richest fellowship doesn’t come from a quick round of prayer requests. It’s fun to be with people. Whether silly or serious.

So as I sat at the bus stop on a Monday morning, watching people go off to work, to their somewhere-to-be, I felt very thankful. Thankful, somehow, that God put me in a situation where I would be so lonely and desperate for friendship that I wouldn’t take my opportunities for granted. It’s a gift, I think.

Speaking of gifts, the anticipation of Christmas is in the air. As an exercise in speaking directions last week, I asked my students tell me how to draw a snow man on the board, playing devil’s advocate, of course. I made them specify "big circle" and "above," "between" or "next to." Most of my kids enjoyed decorating the snowmen with scarves, mittens and bucket-hats. (It’s a Korean thing. As well as strawberry noses, I learned!)

The weather is not at all snowy. Sometimes it’s even warmish in the middle of day. But the subway stations have holiday trees on display and someone put up Christmas lights in the front of the Jilyang church today. My church has been rocking around the advent wreath each Sunday, and next week, we will have a white elephant gift exchange after service. Meanwhile, I got a Christmas package in the mail. Thanks, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa!

Conquering a cold

After my long rest on Sunday night, JiMin presented me with a kitty-cat face mask to cover my mouth and nose when I go out. Despite being a bit (for some reason) miffed at the offering, I thanked her and reminded myself of the good intentions behind her actions. Face masks in all shapes, sizes and designs are very popular in Korea. Joel even said once that he saw a music video with a Korean pop star wearing a sequined mask. They're a fashion statement. The first time I saw someone with a mask on I almost took it personally. What? They think I carry diseases or something... I thought. Kinda stupid, right? I vowed to never succumb to the mask. But I have to admit I've considered it more than once this week. The picture above is a display of some masks at a local stationary store.

A cold came over me on Wednesday morning. It was pretty much just a runny nose thing, so I started to pump up the fluids and vitamin-c drinks. Mrs. Joe asked me if I was sick, and I said only a little. One can never be too careful about admitting illness in Korea, unless one prefers to be smothered. I tossed and turned that night, trying to find a position in which my air flow wouldn't be obscured by my snot. Falling in and out of sleep makes for a long, unrestful night. So in the morning, when I'd almost completed a full roll of toilet paper and couldn't do much of anything without sneezing, I realized it was time to admit I needed some medicine, lest I spray my students with germs during class.

Moxanim almost immediately recommended I go to the hospital. I said I didn't want to, and could we try some medication at the pharmacy first? Moxanim questioned me about my throat and asked if I was cold at night, just in case I'd played down any other cold symptoms. I assured him it was only a runny nose. In the United States, we self-medicate a lot because health care is so expensive. In Korea, health care is free, and so many people go to the doctor when they feel even a little under the weather, which is exactly the kind of behavior that most Americans fear. But people don't talk about it like it's a terrible thing to do when you get a cold. It's just what people do!

I've pondered this phenomenon quite a bit since I've been here. I wonder if a hospital full of common cold patients is more of a scare in the states because there are not enough hospital workers in America. These days, most Americans are too lazy to go to school for that long. Koreans on the other hand don't fear hard work as much. (At least this is how it seems to me.) Or if it's just because, of course, private health care would be in danger if there were a public health option, and there's already an economic crisis in the world. Also, Koreans, in general, are more concerned about their health than Americans are. They probably do so much preventive health care that they don't have as many major surgeries or operations as we have that cost the health insurance companies a ton of money. All of this is just observation and reflection anyway. I haven't followed the health care debate real closely in Korea, but I understand that currently the Senate is considering the public option as a last resort and trying first to pressure private insurance companies to make health care more affordable.

Anyway, my trip to the pharmacy... Moxanim did the talking, and I was given a small paper bag with three things in it: a set of 3 pills, 3 packets of a brown powdery substance, and one plastic packet of a Chinese medicinal juice. According to Moxanim's instructions, I could drink the juice right away and take the other two after eating lunch. The juice was bitter but bearable. It was the brown powdery substance that made me gag. (Moxanim sort of chuckled to himself after giving me the instructions and grabbed a candy from a jar in the kitchen.) The light blue wrapping had a picture of a cartoon red face with a drippy nose. It was cute and seemingly important to stop my symptoms, so I poured the powder in my mouth and chased it down with water.

My runny nose persisted off and on throughout the day, but I fell into a deep sleep last night. And I'm feeling much better today, though my throat was scratchy this morning. I bought some Halls this morning at a convenience store, and the packaging said "vapor-action, honey lemon candy." Candy? Now, that's my kind of medicine!

What a weekend!

Despite such a strong new beginning, loneliness, which I'd forgotten about during Nick's stay, made a reappearance in my life toward the end of last week. I resolved to be extra social on the weekend to compensate. I'm the sort of person that declines invitations to socialize when I think the outing might be too expensive or tiring. But I acted against my lazy brain and went out two nights in a row this weekend. Again, I was so pooped on Sunday that I fell asleep at 5 p.m. and stayed in bed until 5:45 a.m. with the exception of a short wake at midnight or so. Hyunsuk asked me the next morning if I was sick. Said she tried to wake me but had no luck. I got a kick out of the thought of Hyunsuk waking me like she does her kids in the morning before school--first Jihey, then JiMin, then MinWoo.

On Friday night, we took a breather from Bible study and went out to this Japanese restaurant, where we ate okonomiyaki and drank black raspberry wine. Eli told me her oven would be available for me to make brownies. (I'd tried to think of ways to make brownies on a stove top, but the solution escaped me.) So immediately after my Saturday class, I hopped back on the bus for some more fun in Daegu. The brownies were yummy! (So yummy that my Korean teacher ate almost the whole container I'd packed on Sunday morning. Was it the first time you made them? He asked. Said they were way better than the ones you buy at the bakeries in Korea. I wondered if he had any idea how common brownie boxes are in the states.)

Heidi is a friend from Busan who used to belong to Dongshin Church when she lived in Daegu. She comes up for visits quite frequently though, and often ends up sharing Eli's bed with me on those weekends. Heidi pushed for me to visit her, and I suggested Christmas day. She has to work (not kidding) but will finish by 5 or so and wants me to make the effort. Hooray for Christmas day plans! Looks like I might not be alone on Christmas after all.

After baking the brownies, we went out for a night on the town again. For the first time, Eli and Tharine introduced me to a "cocktail in a bag," which can be ordered from an outdoor stand, so that people can drink as they walk around and shop. An ethnic food restaurant called "2nd" was our second stop (no pun intended.) 2nd had a very classy, international menu with an artsy atmosphere. A small pool and fountain in the center of the restaurant was decorated with a staggered display of wine bottles and flowers. The Korean style tables (low to the ground) with small, comfy booths were sectioned off by hanging beads all around the restaurant. When I walked to the bathroom, I felt like an invader of privacy as I fought the temptation to look through the beads at couples and friends enjoying themselves. Dimmed lighting made everyone look beautiful. I doubted other people in the room appreciated their company as much as I appreciated mine. The fruit and cheese sampler with sangria was delicious but the girl talk really hit the spot! It'd been a while since I'd spoken so openly about body image and boys with good friends.

We went to another place after that...then another, but by the next, I was done... My need-for-sleep instinct won out over the social instinct. When I got into a cab and saw that it was 4:20 a.m., I realized that the hundreds of people still out dancing and drinking were the crazy ones.

It wasn't until my Korean teacher Sam said something about how exhausted I looked that I realized I was tired. I trudged through the lesson happily anyway and made my way to church on time. By the grace of God, Ken's sermon about Matthew 6, the "Don't Worry" passage, didn't miss my interest, though my eyes drooped at several points throughout. It helped me to realize how illogical worrying is--how worrying discounts God's faithfulness. However, I wasn't enthralled enough to stick around for small groups. I made a bee-line for the door and didn't stop buzzing until I reached my bed. Zzzzzzz.

On my mind: Education

Monday was pretty upbeat for me this week. I wouldn't go so far to say I was excited about going back to work. But I wasn't dreading it either. My heart was light and chipper.

A few months ago, I substituted taught for Ms. Yoon--one class, one student. No biggy. But she thought the deed was worthy of a box full of muffins, which she presented to me the following week. I substituted for Patrick when he got the swine flu, and he brought me cookies. (I think food is a popular way of showing appreciation in Korea. My boss said once in a meeting that he encouraged the moms to bring food by when they wanted to say thanks.) Having witnessed the cultural rule, I knew it was my turn to offer my gratitude through baked goods. After perusing several overpriced items at a local bakery, I decided to purchase rice cakes at an outdoor stand instead--that way I wouldn't be tempted to sample the gift. (Not a fan.) The stationary store nearby sells cards for about 50 cents, so I also bought a card to go along with each plate of rice cakes. I even wrote a short note to Mrs. Joe in Korean.

Feeling refreshed from my time off, I decided to try some new things this week. I persuaded myself toward a new attitude about teaching. I'm still an amateur teacher, thus still a work in progress. Be open to suggestion and new ideas! I thought.

In a class with two young active boys, I found a way to incorporated more exercise into learning. We were reviewing the short "i" sound. Usually, we point to pictures with in the book, identify the objects, spell them, and circle the objects with the short i sound. After each row, I had the boys stand up and do jumping jacks as they chanted, "Ih! Ih! Ih-ih-ih!" I don't know if they memorized the short i, but it certainly channeled their energy.

My other experiment failed miserably. I read something online about teaching ESL to 3-5 year olds. Ms. Shelley Ann Vernon suggested singing songs as a way to make learning entertaining for preschool children. Others gave me similar advice, so I thought I'd give it a shot. A silly video on YouTube would assist me in teaching "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" to little Sung-Ah. Little Sung-Ah liked the video, but she wasn't at all interested in learning the song. Not even in the least bit.

Ms. Vernon also said to change the activity every 5-10 minutes as their attention span is short. So we tried alphabet bingo, which worked for about 10 minutes, then reading a book, which worked for about two. Then she just pouted and spoke in Korean as if I could understand her. Tried tickling and candy but to no avail. Eventually, she just sat on my lap, and we watched Sesame Street ABC songs. I felt guilty about not being able to teach her anything.

Part of the issue is she doesn't respond to my authority like she does to her mom, Mrs. Yoon or Mrs. Joe. Last week, She grabbed a toy flashlight from her bag and played with it and wouldn't let me take it from her. I feel stupid tugging something away from a 3-year-old. I feel stupid struggling with a 3-year-old. Do I enforce my authority even through whining and tears like I might with a child twice or three times her age? Also, I think she gets genuinely frustrated when I can't understand her and so must ignore what she's saying.

Sometimes I want to say, "Look, I'm neither trained nor able to teach English to a 3-year-old. Find someone else." Yet other times, I see it as a challenge, another age group that I must learn to teach. I don't want to give up. I want to work at it until I find a solution, but I can't think of anything! I figured out the seven-year-old class. I'm learning how to amuse the adolescent girls. I've started to conquer the little unruly boys. Now this!

On top of my toddler concerns, we've had several students drop this week for various reasons. Several of the reasons were out of our hands, but one of them had to do with not enough vocabulary review. I know I could be doing more to hammer in vocabulary. It worries me, but Justin seems rather confident that they'll come back after they shop around. (Note to self: Do not try to be a business owner. You couldn't handle the ups and downs.) Korean parents are really involved in their children's education, which is great, to a point. Korean parents are the clientele of an English academy.

I remember praising Chris teacher for his outlook when he trained me my first week. Thirty minutes of work then 10-15 minutes of play time. It made sense to me, but when students begin to expect play time and demand play time, then I started to doubt his philosophy. Maybe I just don't get as much done in 30 minutes as he does. He is way more experienced. The default mode of a classroom should be learning, I think. The learning curve for me as a teacher is still way steep.

These days I've started to consider my next plan of action (other than get married, of course) after I return to the states. I wonder if my own education should continue. Should I pursue an ESL degree or certification? I'm still uncertain. If I did, I think I would put an age restriction on my employment possibilities.

The stationary store has some Christmas cards with funny cartoon Santas and reindeer on display. The pictures and broken English gave me a good laugh! For the last 15 years of my life, Christmas card displays meant I was approaching a significant 2-4 week break from the hustle and bustle of life. For the last four years, that meant going home to my family. I looked forward to stepping in the front door to the smell of a cinnamon, pine tree, or other Yankee candle scent, eating licorice from a glass jar on the counter, and commenting on the Christmas tree ornaments (if they were up yet.)

Guess how many days I get off this year? One. Christmas day. Korean kids get a few weeks off of school, but they spend their break time going to hogwans to study. It's too early to complain as I'm fresh off a week-long break, and my work weeks haven't been anything like the sort of schedule I managed during college. However, I'm really going to miss being home for the holidays.

Apparently, Obama wants to adopt a Korean-style of education in the U.S. There could definitely be advantages to longer school hours, but I can't support that much studying on holiday break. No way! Hopefully, that's not what Barack has in mind.