Like the Energizer Bunny - Monday Oct. 29, 2007

I slept for maybe 2 hours, got up, got dressed, and scurried on out. I asked a man where Kangnam station was and he pointed acrossed the street. I followed a woman that was headed in the same direction. I entered a building that appeared to be a bus station and asked yet another guy about Kyongbu line. He pointed me in a direction that looked quite familiar. I saw the ticket desk and was able to find where my bus was supposed to pick me up. Hmm...remembering last night and the hour and a half it took me to find the station and the jimjilbang, I looked at my watch and realized it had taken me a grand total of 15 minutes to find the exact same station this morning.

I sat in the station for about an hour until my bus came. I got on my bus and slept all the way home. This trip only took an hour and a half which means there was no traffic. I took a taxi home and got in around 7:30AM. I dropped my stuff off, hugged my host mom, and soon sat down to breakfast.

I headed to school at the usual 8:20AM pretty darn close to exhausted. Normally, it isn't a problem to go in and plan a lesson in the hour and a half I have before school starts. Well, this week is different; it's Halloween week. I was at a loss of what to do for Halloween. I found a coloring by color words sheet and decided to do that. I started my classes the same way I always do, then went into the three sign language letters for the day "d, e, f," discussed Halloween, and had them color the jack-o-lantern sheet.

I was tired and managed to still be super friendly and upbeat in my classes, except the first one. Even with them, I was pretty darn with it, until they would not stop talking for anything. I yelled at them after telling them to be quiet repeatedly and made two kids stand. This class is not well behaved at all!! Well, after that I felt like a horrible human being and almost started crying. I hate yelling at children!! I managed to pull it together for the next two classes.

After school, I watched a bit of the 4th graders school festival. I don't like the way our school festival is set up. A grade goes during the day and a grade goes right after school. So, many fathers and some mothers cannot see their children perform, other teachers can't see the students perform, and I couldn't see any of them perform. 4th grade, the only grade I have no connections to, is the only grade I got to see a bit of. I teach 1st and 2nd grade, my host sister is in 3rd grade, my host brother is in 5th grade, and my co-teacher teaches 6th grade, and I saw 4th grade.

I couldn't stay for all of it, because my host mom picked me up to go to Seongaewon, the orphanage I'm volunteering at. We had a hard time finding it, because the GPS unit wasn't accurate. Luckily, my incredible navigational memory got us there! LOL! I sat with the adults for a while when I got there and drank coffee. I then headed into the boys' dormitory-type living. I worked with 17 little ones, ranging from age 5 to maybe 9 or 10. They are so stinkin' cute! I fell in love with each and every one of them! I sat around trying to learn names. The kids get a kick out of hearing me try to pronounce names. When I would say a name right, they would clap and make an "O" above their heads. When I was wrong, they would make an "X" above their heads. It was adorable! It's going to take me a while to learn names, but it will be much easier than learning 560 names.

We colored coloring sheets of Whinnie the Pooh, Tigger, Pigglet, and Mickey Mouse. Then, we cut out pumpkins, and the children decorated their pumpkins with faces. I glued on stems afterward. I was driven home by a public service worker and their live-in mom/caretaker. They were taking three children to the hospital, because they caught colds, so they dropped me off on the way.

When I got home, I put my pics from NoKo on my computer and edited them before dinner. I ate dinner and did some more editing. I went to bed around 9:30PM, finally, after one crazy weekend.