The Duck and the Penguin: September 2009

I assigned my eighth graders a paper comparing and contrasting the poem "Richard Cory" by E.A. Robinson and the song "Richard Cory" by Simon & Garfunkel. Here are a few quotes from their rough drafts that I thought were funny, and I think some of you might like them too.

"After I listened to this song, I felt hollowness inside me. Maybe it was just because I was hungry but maybe it's because I felt pity for the man who wanted to become Richard Cory."

"The song was bright and cheerful even though it had one line that shows sorrow; the part when Richard Cory put a bullet through his head."

"'The Song Richard Cory' was about two singers named Simon and Garfunkel. The song was about the two singer that expressed their feelings and facts about Richard Cory. When you listen to the chorus part, you'll understand how Simon and Garfunkel felt working in Richard Cory's factory."

"The poem, 'Richard Cory' was a man who was rich but committed suicide. Except for being rich, he was clean, wearing modestly dressed. Also he was well taught. But the problem was, he fluttered when he talked. For example, "Good-morning."

That's all for now...I'm not giving these back tomorrow after all, and I may find a few more good ones as I continue to work through them.

Good night from tonight! (It is now tonight for most of you, right?)

Well, H1N1 did hit our school--four kids tested positive for the flu in less than a week, so the Ministry of Health advised our school to close for at least a week. Since the fourth diagnosis arrived Wednesday evening, the school was closed on Thursday and Friday and for the rest of this week. We (the teachers) will be at school on Friday for an "in-service day" (apparently we attend a lot of meetings), but we won't see the students again until the 14th. But because this week is supposed to count as "school" (so we don't have to make up the days at the end of the year), we still have to assign and grade homework for when we would normally meet. Most of my kids have been very good about emailing me their work on time, but I still haven't heard a word from a couple of them (and they don't respond to my emails)--they'll definitely get points deducted. :) The advantages to working from home have been that we can sleep in three hours later than usual (we've been waking up around 9:30 or 10) and we can correct assignments in our pajamas. ;) On top of that, we've had more time to hang out with the other teachers. Thursday night, we went out with thirteen of the others for Korean BBQ. This involves eating a lot of meat (in this case, pork) in lettuce leaves, along with some side dishes. I had a really good hot tofu dish and enjoyed the sides of garlic and pickled radish. We then went to one of the teacher's apartments and played the game Apples to Apples for a few hours--it was lots of fun (I won)! I've never played the game with so many people before. Daniel and I made a few shopping trips on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday--the first day, we went to this gigantic grocery/everything you need store (Home Plus), which includes a pet store and dry cleaners; the second day, I went to E-Mart with a couple of the other teachers; and yesterday, Daniel went back to HomePlus to get a few things that we were missing.

Yesterday morning, Daniel and I went to the International Lutheran Church in the center of the city. Daniel had checked it out last weekend and liked it; the congregation is, apparently, about 35% North American, 35% Korean, and 30% everything else. Afterward, we walked to Itaewon (which was about 15 minutes away) and had lunch at a Thai restaurant for our three-month anniversary. It was delicious! We also found a Body Shop, so I bought some shower gel. Last night, we had our first party as a married couple. We invited all of the teachers over, but we weren't sure how many of them were going to show up. It was very nice!! About 16 people came over, and we had a lovely time talking with all of them, while eating cheese and crackers and other snacks and drinking wine. Daniel also made cookies, which was more of an adventure than we expected it to be. First of all, we had a very hard time finding chocolate chips (this was one of the reasons Daniel went back to Home Plus yesterday), and for some reason, his batter turned out much more buttery than usual. So, between each batch, he had to add more flour to the mix. On top of that, our oven is missing racks that fit it, so we tried to bake them on a small rack at the bottom of the oven, but it was slanted, so the cookies started sliding toward the back of the oven. We changed tactics and ended up cooking them in the toaster oven. It worked in the end (everyone loved the cookies!), but the baking process took much longer than usual. :) Now, we have a bunch of glasses to clean and homework to grade. Love you!

Some pictures from the last couple of days: