My New Couch and My New Kids

Not much new going on in the Suj, although it did snow yesterday, a lot. I thought we were done with the snow, but we got a late hit this year. It was kind of cool, but I'm just ready for it to warm the hell up. I started teaching my new advanced class on Saturday, from 3:30 to 5:30. It consists of six women, and most of them have very good English skills. It was nice to actually be able to converse with a Korean and find out what they think about certain world topics. To sum up: They dislike the Chinese, the HATE the Japanese, and they hate Dubya (imagine that!). They love American culture though. After the lesson, I went with a few friends to this social gathering that takes place once a month, where about ten to fifteen Westerners and about thirty to forty Koreans mingle. Basically, it's a bunch of Koreans who really want to improve their English skills and make Western friends. Some of the women are obviously there to meet Western men, which is kind of cool, since I got showered with flirting attention. However, most of them had mediocre English at best, and were painfully obviously trying to create some sort of "connection" with a Western man. It's just a weird thing, but I'm not one to judge. Hey, you like white men, you gotta go for 'em. Anyway, the party was actually a lot of fun and my group won the game we played and got an extra couple of appetizers. Some would argue that we played dirty, but the scoreboard speaks for itself. It's nice to know that my competitive nature hasn't fallen off over here.

I have found a new sports team to live and die by, the Doosan Bears. After randomly selecting a Korean baseball team that seems decent enough, a few of us here in Suji have decided to become the most obnoxious Doosan fans in existence. Hey, if you're going to follow Korean baseball, you might as well go balls deep. Doosan Bears is life!

I acquired the 2nd greatest couch I've ever owned last week, through slightly shady means. Jenn and Fiona, a couple of friends of mine, knew that I needed a couch (as did they) and let me know that there were several great pieces of furniture sitting outside of their school. We decided to make a late-night, stealth mission to obtain said pieces of furniture. The mission was a success and I now sleep on this incredibly comfy couch every night. Honestly, I can't even begin to describe how comfortable this thing is. Plus, the effort required to move all of this furniture took us about two hours and completely wore us out. It made the reward that much sweeter.

Finally, I get to name my new kids next week. I have a class of six incoming five-year-olds, all of whom know absolutely no English. I know I discussed this naming thing a few months ago, but it's finally becoming a reality. The girls are all getting stripper names, and that's not up for debate. I'm naming one Amber b/c I've always thought that is a sweet name for a girl (and it's a bit of a stripper name). Another will be named Tiffani (the "i" ending is important b/c it oozes stripper). There are usually more girls than boys, so I'm banking on four girls and two boys. However, I'm coming up with four names for both sexes. Girls three and four are up for suggestions. For the boys, one of them is getting named Mickey (I love you, baby). Boy number two will probably be named Clyde, in honor of my late lab. However, if the school thinks that's a bit too goofy, I'll go with Butch b/c that's a unique, manly name (plus, you know, Butch Cassidy). Boy names three and four are also up for suggestions. Fire away.

One more thing: I spent a couple of hours writing "notes of inspiration" to my graduating students. They had their ceremony this morning and tomorrow will be their last day (the morning kids). They will become afternoon kids, but I won't be their teacher anymore. I'm really going to miss some of them, especially Gloria. I know Sheena is a good teacher and will be fine with them, but I can't help thinking I should still be teaching them. The ceremony was actually pretty cool, even though it was held in a church. The kids kept bowing when they were introduced, and their grad hats kept falling off, to the point where it finally just got ridiculous. Like I said, the ceremony was really cool though.

That's about it, jotitos. Keep it real!