Home!!

Happy holidays, everyone!! We hope you're all doing well! Daniel and I are sorry that we have been remiss in blogging the last couple of months! I finally have some time to write and add pictures and will therefore attempt to summarize some of the highlights from our lives recently. Since December 19th, we have been home in the United States! We spent the first week and a half with my family--it was wonderful to be home with them--and yesterday, we arrived at Daniel's house and had a lovely second Christmas Eve (including my first lefse-making) with his family. We plan to spend the next week and a half visiting with family and friends and, unfortunately, finishing some grading once we get back to Seoul on the 8th. Here are some pictures with brief explanations from the last month...


This is the resort on Korea's east coast where we spent Thanksgiving (thanks to a discount from the school) with a few friends. It was beautiful!


The ocean!


Daniel on top of Seorak Mountain (near the resort).


A statue of the Buddha at Seorak Mountain National Park.


Shopping with Clara in Insadong (a nice but touristy part of Seoul).


Home!!! Daniel with Diana.


Our gingerbread party!


My gingerbread house.


Our finished products! A fun day with Alison, Claire, Ruhan, Robby, and Danny!


With Diana in front of our tree.


Our tree.


Lefse-making at Daniel's house!!!


I'm about to flip the lefse, while Sarah is rolling out a new one.


Daniel and Sarah setting up the nativity.


Happy New Year!!

Love,
Leslie

The Silence of the Aitches

Today in Social Studies, we took a quiz on the geography of South Asia. One of the most diabolically fun things about my job is that I get to make my pupils learn whatever geographical locations and features I think are important. Few moments here in Korea have given me greater pleasure than the time I leaned back in my chair, steepled my fingers, and with a faraway gleam in my eye, said to myself..."Yeessss...very good...they will be required to learn the locations of the Indus and Ganges rivers. The Brahmaputra will be extra credit. Mwahahahahahaha. Mwahahahahahaha! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HAH!"

But I digress.

South Asia includes such countries as Bhutan, and such national capitals as New Delhi, Kathmandu, Thimphu, Dhaka, and such landforms the Brahmaputra river, etc. Of course, all these silent aitches present a challenge to memorization. So correcting the quizzes, I've seen a lot of Dehli, Thimpu, Dakha, etc. The most entertaining is when they throw a silent aitch into a country name that has none. I have seen both "Bhurma" and "Burmha" given as names for Burma (the country immediately to the east of India whose oppressive military government would rather that people called it Myanmar).

A Very Special Episode of "Korean Eighth Graders Write the Darndest Things!"

Assignment: write a critique of the story "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" from the perspective of the article "Homeless in America."  (Basically: is the story's portrayal of Lemon Brown, a homeless character, realistic?)

"In the last part, Lemon Brown said that he'll be moving to East St. Louis so he could be safe from the thugs who are trying to hurt him.  It's unknown how he'll move and why moving to East St. Louis rather than any other places.  Homeless people wouldn't have money for expensive transportation unless they manage to hide inside an empty backpack, hitchhike, or hijack a vehicle."

"He picks [food] out of the trash sometimes, but he doesn't seem weak from hunger.  Either he gets a lot of good food from the trash or it's just not real."

"I wonder how he [Lemon Brown] ate, how he washed, and how he slept because in the story it did not tell about Lemon Brown's supplies like toothbrush, sleeping bag."

"I researched in google and it says that the most reason homeless people doesn't leave their place is that other people might steal their seats."

Gratuitous Song Post #2

Dear fellow pirates,

I miss you.  Please come to Korea and visit Leslie and me.  We live right next to Wolgye station in Nowon-gu.  Bring a guitar or two.  We have a copy of Rise Up Singing and easy access to a photocopier (although I think the principal wouldn't be too happy if she found out we were using it for non-school-related things).  I will bake you cookies (which will have no structural integrity whatsoever, probably because the flour is different here) and give you glasses of milk (which you will think tastes funny), and we will sit around the living room and eat and drink and sing.

Love,

Daniel

Warning to non-pirates: strong language (G-- D---) in the following video.

Gratuitous Song Post

One of the best things about not sleeping for a really long time (say, 36-40 hours), or being sleep-deprived for an extended period (say a week or two) is the moment when you realize that you don't have to (or can't) stay awake any longer: you can (must) just lie down and sleep.  The very best thing is the feeling you get when you lie down, pull the covers up around you, and put all worries from your mind.  At that point, you can't worry: you're too tired to worry anymore.  I think at those moments I am more carefree than I ever have been since I was a child.  It almost makes it worth staying up for that long.  Maybe that's why I still have such bad sleep habits.

This song reminds me of those moments, and maybe that's why I love it so much.

[FIRST NAME REDACTED] Kim's mom just gave me cologne and aftershave

That's the kind of gift that says, "[FIRST NAME REDACTED] told me you smell bad, so I thought I would do something to help you out."

It's parent-teacher conference time here at APIS. We had a half-day today (with 25-minute long periods). Then we spent the afternoon into the evening talking with parents. We'll spend the whole day tomorrow in conferences. Yay.

The mom who gave me cologne was the first one to come in. (The students all came with their parents, so [FIRST NAME REDACTED] was there too.) Her son is in my homeroom, so I gave them his report card. Most of the rest of the conference was taken up by the mother yelling at her son in Korean, pointing to his religion grade and saying "F!" and pointing to his GPA and saying "2.58!" It was not a very productive discussion.

My final conference of the day was with a kid whose father is the CEO of a huge company in Korea. The mother spoke no English. The father thought he spoke better English than he did. I asked him after we had talked for a while if he had any further concerns. He proceeded to talk for about five minutes about his concern that his son have enough time to study and also play sports so he would stay healthy. I was not sure how to respond to it. He seemed to expect a response, but there didn't seem to be an appropriate response besides, "Well, in my expert opinion, [FIRST NAME REDACTED] should be studying for three hours every night, so that would probably leave him time for about an hour and a half of sports every day." And I wasn't going to say that. Then he talked for another five minutes--I really don't know what he was trying to get at, but it had something to do with prestigious high schools and colleges. Again, he seemed to expect an answer but did not provide me with anything to respond to, so I was a little baffled.

Now I'm really tired. That was oddly taxing, just like everyone said it would be. Just one more day of it: they can hurt you, but they can't stop the clock.


Leslie's Addendum:

I didn't get cologne, but I did get chocolates, tea, an umbrella, Burt's Bees lip balm, and sweet Korean dumplings. One more thing--we got to see the awesome Clara Kim on Saturday!! This was her house-warming present--delicious tira misu:



I can't wait until conferences are over! I saw seven homeroom kids and twelve other kids that I teach this afternoon and evening. Some conferences were very pleasant, while others were very awkward. During one conference, the 10th grader looked like he was about to cry the entire time. I felt really bad, but he got a 91% in my class. I think he was mostly upset about his other grades. Oh well! A few parents wanted to talk to me about college and AP classes. One 6th grade mother is already very worried about her son getting into a great college, and he's an amazing kid! He has a 98 in my class and has almost perfect grades in every other class. I told her she shouldn't start worrying for another few years... :)

Daniel's addendum:

Not only did Leslie get chocolates, tea, an umbrella, Burt's Bees lip balm, and sweet Korean dumplings, but she also got four Halloween candygrams from her students.  I didn't get any.  It's pretty obvious whose students love their teacher more.  Not that I'm jealous or anything.  (He wrote, and resolutely blinked back his tears.)

The Scariest Thing I've Ever Read

From a student's journal:

[Discussing an episode of CSI: New York, which his mother encourages him to watch to help his English, and in which there was some bad language]

"My mom said you have to learn swear words, too. Because I can use in situation like bar fighting."

I'm so glad I'm preparing these young minds for success in every aspect of their lives...