Easter Picnic and Evening Class
We entered the city, and a big grocery store. I won't make you read through another shopping story of us fighting the crowds, all you have to know is that WE FOUND RANCH!!! I was happy, but Luke was ecstatic. I mean... do you SEE the look on his face?! :) (Seriously though, he's super pumped.)
Okay, anyway...
On Easter Sunday, the teachers all went to a nearby park for a picnic. It was the first weekend of true spring weather - temperature in the 70's, flowers blooming and gorgeous! We dyed and decorated eggs and then participated in one of the teacher's family traditions: The Egg Crack Off. How it's played: two opponents hold their hard boiled egg and at the same time ram them into each other. The person whose egg cracks, loses, and the other player continues on in the Crack Off Tournament. Unfortunately, neither Luke nor I made it past our first round. Hannah won, and was even awarded a sweet medal! We also had a balloon toss. We used bunny balloons (they had ears!) and played a couple rounds of tossing it around/across the circle and then taking a step back. There were also a few children playing around in the park and spraying each other with water balloons and even came up to us and gave us a balloon. A couple of us got in on it and started chasing and spraying them -- they loved it!
Evening classes have been going well and I really appreciate being able to talk to them about different subjects other than the basics that we teach every other day. The other night we learned about friendships. (People, animals, bullying, etc.) I was trying to teach them about endangered and extinct animals and I got to use a new phrase I learned! I told them "extinct" means it doesn't exist anymore and they had no idea what I was saying. So I said, "Dinosaurs, up-seo-yo" (to not exist). I watched all of their light bulbs turn on which helped me explain endangered. I think my exact words were "almost up-seo-yo" haha, but they understood.
I also got to explain what the word "embarrassing" meant. I couldn't think of a good word or phrase to help explain since shy, nervous and anxious all mean something else. So I told them, "If you go to the bathroom, and you leave and have toilet paper in your pants...you are embarrassed. It is embarrassing." They all laughed but definitely knew the feeling after that. I've found my examples to often be pretty weird but I like to think that will help them remember things better. :)
At the end of one class, we had a short and simple debate as to who thought it was fair or unfair that women don't have to sign up for the military (in both Korea and USA). There is an older brother and younger sister both in our class so it was funny to see them bicker and tease as siblings do when this topic came up, but it was a good topic to get some of them talking more than usual.
Every week, we give them a short homework assignment to turn in the following week. One day a student turned in her homework in the cutest little handmade envelope. It was like a folded up secret note that had her name on it haha, I took step by step pictures because there is no way to explain it. She is super sweet.
In a couple of weeks, Luke and I will be switching out with Hannah and Cameron and taking over Cyber School for the next 8 or 9 weeks --- teaching online classes. We are starting with a positive attitude but still slightly hopefully it will go quickly. Our schedule will be opposite the rest of the group as we will teach at 5:00, 7:00 and 9:00 while they teach in the afternoon, and there isn't a book to follow along so we will find and provide all of the content they will learn. It's a lot more work, and we will be using headsets in a closed cubicle instead of being able to interact with the students in person, but again - we're starting with a positive attitude. :)
