Writing this is like pulling teeth.

Apple Festival

Sunday I'm heading back to Mung Yeoung Sae Jae for their annual apple fesitival where Courtney will join me in watching Mi Hyang perform. I can't wait! It should be a wonderful trip.More great photos are on the way!!

Everyone wants to be liked.

I'm having a little trouble figuring out how to interact with my girl students. I so often want to just hang out with them but then they say something so immature and I remember that they're just high schoolers. A lot of them see me as their friend, some as their older sister, and that really makes it hard in the classroom. They don't listen at all and when I punnish them they look at me like I betrayed them. I wish I only taught boys. Boys are so much easier. If you punnish them, they laugh about it and forget it happened before the next time you see them. Girls, they hold grudges; they're vindictive. If you make one wash desks after class, she and all of her friends will hate you all year. What do I do?? Grr.

Give me twenty!

Along those same lines, I've come up with creative punnishments for my students (I really don't feel like beating them will make things better). On Monday I had two boys come to class 15 minutes late and then sleep through my lesson. Their punnishment: 40 pushups and two minutes of wall sits. After class I made them stay and I lectured them too about respect. I reminded them that if they don't want to participate in my class then I will find them a Korean class to attend. That did the trick. One of them--Mr. Cool-smarty-pants--picked up the baton on the podium (left from the last class) and handed it to me, expecting me to beat him. I told him no, I don't beat my students, but that I would kick him out of my class if it happened again. I've made a few other students do wall sits too and quite a few boys have been doing pushups in my classes. Among other punnishments: I made one girl stand in front of the class for 20 minutes while I taught because she was talking while I was; On Tuesday I had four girls stand in the back of the class and hold their chairs high above their heads with no rests for five minutes. I really don't like punnishing students but I guess it's got to be done.

DVD Adventures

I decided to return my DVD player when I found out that my friend Tyler's worked and that he bought his at the same store I did. What a hassle though! During lunch on Wednesday a fellow teacher took me to the electronic store to make the exhange and they pretty much refused to do it! In fact, they started yelling at my teacher when he told them it was only a simple exchange, saying things like: "You are not the manager of this store!! I make the decisions!!" At one point we left but decided to go back and give it another try. Thanks goodness for the determination of my friend! I think that he was frustrating them enough that they eventually decided to do the trade. PTL! Now I can finally watch the movies I brought from home! Grandma--if you want to send me some, I will surely receive them with open arms!! The same goes for you, Stacy!! I'm starting to miss my collection. :)

New Friends

This week I learned that another EPIK teacher has arrived in Mung Yeoung. His name is Romeo Giovanni--great name, eh? He's coming over to my place for dinner and a movie with all the other EPIK teachers on Monday. Should be fun! We've only emailed a few times but he seems like a really outgoing person. I'm excited to have yet another travel buddy!