Tuna Fish: 참치

All my post titles seem to be about food! It's really the easiest way to learn how to say things. I'll buy a tasty snack, and Sandy will help me break down the characters so that I can both say the name of my tasty snack and also identify the characters in other words. I am slowly but surely getting the hang of it!

Monday was my first day of teaching! It went over far better than I expected. I was so nervous about what was going to happen, but everything went amazingly! The kids were chattier than necessary, but overall well behaved, and I managed to be engaging. That was one of my biggest fears, that the students would find me boring and uninteresting. I think I got off on the right foot though. I had each of my classes make name tags for themselves, and then I walked around the room and attempted to pronounce each students name. They all thought it was hysterical listening to me say their Korean names! I had my 6th and 7th grade classes write mini-biographies about themselves, and one of the things I had my first 6th grade class include was a useful word or phrase in Korean. They all came up with very useful things, and laughed as I stumbled over the pronunciation. It sounds like I just let the kids make fun of me, but while they certainly laughed at my expense, they were also very quick to help correct my horrid pronunciation.

My second 6th grade class of the day was amazingly dynamic. They did not take as much time to write and present their mini-biographies as the first class, which worried me at first (what would I do to fill the time?) but it quickly turned into a mutual Q&A session, which was enjoyable for all. One thing that several classes, but particularly these students, have fixated on is the fact that I wear 3 rings. For those who don't know, I wear 2 rings on my left hand and 1 on my right on a daily basis. They all hold sentimental value to me, 2 are from family members and 1 I got for myself in Russia. So while they mean a lot to me, they by no means symbolize marriage, engagement, or my relation status in general. The first question they asked was if I was married, because the one ring is on my left ring-finger. I said no, so they immediately asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said yes. They asked me where he was (in America... which led them to wrongly assume it was Britton, so there may be some explaining to do when he gets back, even though I tried to strongly discourage that assumption) and then they asked me if I had three rings for three boyfriends! I tried to give them a micro-culture lesson about how Americans wear rings just for the sake of wearing them, but they were far to enthralled with the idea that I was "coupled" with someone... Maybe I'll turn Josh into a lesson plan!

The 7th graders were alarmingly quiet. I was quite taken aback! In addition to being quiet they seemed reluctant to want to do anything... hopefully I will find a way to get through to them.

And my 3rd graders? Absolutely crazy in a completely adorable way. I think they will all be good kids.

Our schedule now runs from 1-7, so after work Sandy, Lori, and I went downtown. I bought several pairs of Korean socks (so cute!), and they showed me where a bookstore was that sold English language books. I was ecstatic to find a book of Korean folktales in English. Now to read through them and come up with some fantastic research to get me into Berkeley (ha.ha.)! We met up with Petra (who is still working the 4-9 schedule) and got some fantastic chicken for dinner. It was seriously incredible. It also gave Lori and I the chance to catch up on the Ho/Bro gossip, and reminiscence about a lot of mutual acquaintances (for those who don't know, Lori and I went to the same high school, in addition to both attending Elmira College).

Well, it's technically Tuesday here, so Lyn should arrive sometime tonight! I'm off to get some sleep!

~Hannah