Flippin' The Finger!

Since, the grade 6 teachers have been so great in welcoming me I brought them a box of strawberries for a snack on Wednesday. They absolutely loved that and couldn't stop thanking me. I was happy to do it after all they've given me. Wednesday I had a combination of grade 6's and grade 3's. I love teaching both those grades, so it was a good day. The same routine happened with the grade 6's as Tuesday with the questions and memory game. The grade 3's were wrapping up lesson one, so they had made masks and now they had to role playing using the masks. Basically, they walk to the front of the class a row at a time and wearing their mask they say, "Hello Everyone!" The class responds, "Hello!" "My name is ......" Then I say, "How are you today?" They respond and then they say "Bye!" It was so adorable because you could tell, which students parents helped them with the masks and who made their own. I had only had one grade 3 class and I never thought I would see the day when this would happen, but as I was observing the kids and their role playing I noticed this one kid at his desk flippin' the finger to his friend at the front of the class. Here's where it get's even better. It wasn't just one hand, he was fingering him with both hands. I was shocked and I just stared him down. He saw me giving him the evil eye and immediately stopped. I'm like, You are in grade 3 and do you even know what that means? IJust when I thought I was clear of the finger I went to lunch with Mrs. Kim, so that means I spent it with grade 3's and 4's. Well, as I was eating I looked up and saw this grade 4 girl standing on one side of the cafeteria with her friend and flip some student on the other side of the cafeteria the finger. I was like, did I not get the memo that today was give someone the finger day. It was ridiculous. Next time I see it happen I'm going to ask the student if they even know what it means.

After school Wednesday, Jiny drove me home again and we attempted the cable and internet for a second time. This time we were successful. The guy came a bit late, but better late than never and he completely dirty my apartment and almost knocked my clean shirt on the laundry rack onto the floor. That could have had detrimental affects on him. While the able guy was installing my stuff the landlord popped in to see how things were going and, so the cable guy could get permission to drill a hole through the window frame to put the cord in it. I had myself, Jiny, cable guy and landlord crammed into my apartment along with a rack full of clean underwear, it really was quite the sight.

After everyone cleared out I went out for dinner in Bupyeong with Karalee, Nathan, Laura, Andrew and their friend Bryn. I took the subway on my own for the first time and managed to survived. Dinner was great and it wasn't bugogi. We had kalbi, which is just bbq'd beef or pork with a bunch of side dishes and we all had a couple of glasses of beer. On the way out of the restaurant we were given a free mini bottle of Soju.

Afterwards, everyone said their goodbyes and Bryn and I headed over to the Lotte Mart in Bupyeong station because he needed a few things and we were taking the same train, so we kept each other company. On the way to Lotte Mart these two Korean guys started to talk to us. They were asking us where we were from and when I said Canada, the one guy was like, "I like that city." I was like, "You mean country." Then he went on to say he liked Vancouver, surprise surprise, he asked how we liked Korea and then came the question that always comes up in Korean conversation. He asked Bryn if I was his girlfriend. We both started laughing and then Bryn was like, "No, we are just friends." And the guy was embarassed and couldn't believe we were just friends. Apparently, a guy walking with a girl is seen as a relationship. The entire trip each way for me is about 45 minutes, which isn't bad at all considering I have to take a bus and then transfer to the subway.

Today I decided I wanted to start getting back into shape, so I was going to walk home from school. I took the bus out of Song-do (because there are no sidewalks to get you out of Song-do, that I've found yet, but I haven't looked that hard) for about 10 minutes and then walked home, which took 30 minutes and was such a great walk. It felt incredible to be outside and to actually do something physically active. I've decided I'm going to walk home from school at least two days a week. I will not be walking all the way from school because it will take over an hour and that is too long. I walked along the bus route, just in case I got too tired. I think I may run one of the two days.

Here are some pictures from today's grade 3 class with their masks and role playing. Mrs. Kim took these pictures and they are the school website as well. In other news, Mrs. Kim updated the school English website, so if you want to check it out there is a little section on me that I wrote and a picture. You can also cruise around the English website and hear me talking for the Koreans, so they can hear the proper pronunciation. The sentences I say have nothing to do with anything. Here is the link: http://www.mwg.es.ko/english