Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

Spring has come, bringing with it such beautiful flowers; Magnolias, cherry blossoms…and those are the only ones I can name…but so many wonderful colors and flowers!

V-School Stories
1) Starcraft mania
We have one student who loves to watch Starcraft on TV. For those of you who don’t know, Starcraft is a very popular Role Playing Game here in Korea, and it’s actually becoming quite a problem here; Many young kids, under age 10, are addicted and will sneak off to PC Bangs (like an internet cafe) to play the game. Anyway, the game also has its own spot on TV, where viewers can watch the game with commentary over top. As I was saying, one of our students loves to watch this channel, which is a concern, but also loves to watch it 1 foot away from the screen. We do our best to distract him from that.

2) A different style of teaching
We struggle with another student who excels at their homework (perfect spelling and grammar), but really struggles in class. We wondered about this contradiction, until we found out that it is very normal in Korea for parents to essentially do their children’s homework for them. We were told that’s how children learn here. We have our doubts about this, but have to trust that this student will in fact learn something by the end of the term.

3) Positive things
One of my After School classes finished level one, so we celebrated with a teddy bear cake, after I made them write a nice long test. One of my After School students gave me a cute little plant, and with it was a note that she wrote, saying: To 어나 teacher, Hi! teacher. Congratulation. Your Baby. Thank you for teaching me.” Another student in that class is the most eager student I have yet seen in Korea; She has come to expect and feel gratification from the check marks I put on my students’ homework, so much that she actually drew a box in her homework for me to put my usual check mark in.

The plant my student gave me:

4) Special kind of homework
We were invited to one of our Day School students’ cooking classes, where we would partake of the food they prepared. This student lives in a beautiful home in the mountains, one of the few houses we have visited in our time here. There was such beautiful scenery and places to play that I was shocked knowing that this particular student never goes outside, or so they say. I announced at their home that from now on, part of their homework will be to go outside for one hour a day. They laughed, thinking I was joking, and I was pretty sure they wouldn’t do it. However, I was pleased to read in one of their journals that they indeed went outside to play with their dog. I asked the student if they just wrote that to make me happy, but they seemed genuine when they insisted that they really did go outside. I’m happy with that.

5) New Class
I was able to express my displeasure with the singing class, and to my relief, the class was canceled and replaced by a guitar class, which some of the students seem genuinely interested in. It is so rare to get a sense of real interest in these kids, that when I see it, I feel excited.

Pregnancy Update
So, the realities of having a child in a foreign country are sinking in. We hadn’t had too many problems, except when they asked us not to bring a translator anymore, for reasons we are unsure of. At our most recent appointment, however, only when we had already arrived were we told that our doctor wasn’t there, as he was at emergency surgery. The first nurse who tried to tell us didn’t know a word of English (and this is where having a translator would have been handy), so she got another nurse to try, who suggested another doctor in the clinic. He knew much less English, so our ability to ask questions at this appointment was more limited than usual. This would be more of a problem if my pregnancy wasn’t a normal healthy one, so I am very thankful for that.

On the bright side, I will never cease to be amazed at technology these days. We have been seeing our baby on the screen right from the beginning, and at this last appointment saw the intricate little bones of it’s fingers and toes, it’s spine, etc. I even saw it gulping the amniotic fluid with it’s little mouth. Wow.

Another positive to being pregnant is I seem to get free meals this way. We were invited for supper last week, by one of our cell group members, and she said it was because I am pregnant. Oh, wow!

Knitting/Cooking Club
As I feared, my knitting/cooking club is kind of petering off, as one by one members drop out because of busyness. I knew this would happen eventually, and was told it would, but didn’t think it would happen so soon. I was down to 3 faithful members, and now one more has announced extreme busyness, and may return when the busyness subsides. Sigh. However, last week we had a great class, where I taught them to make banana bread, and we worked on our various knitting projects while the bread baked, then of course we ate some. I have finished 2 baby sweaters, and am working on some pants now.

The sweater:

Visit from Brother and Girlfriend
At last, we were able to meet up with my brother and his girlfriend, who are also living in Korea now. We were excited to introduce them to the Chuncheon speciality, Dakgalbi, for the first time, take them to Samaksan, where they saw a mountain stream for the first time in Korea, and paddled around in swan boats, providing some fresh lake air that they don’t get in Seoul. It was wonderful to have deep discussions again, without language limitations, and to make use of the wonderful guest room we have at our new apartment.

From L to R: The lake where we brought them