Sister: 자매

I had an amazing weekend, but I'm starting to feel a little depressed. Why? Because Lori and Petra are leaving Saturday morning. We've been cramming in as much time together as possible before they leave, but it's hard because I have work and they have to clean out Lori's apartment (Petra has moved out of her place and is staying with Lori so that the new teacher's at Petra's school (a couple) have a place to stay) and they also have to pack for their trip to Germany. I've gotten very close to my "big sisters," I'm sad to see them go. Fortunately I got an AMAZING last weekend with them! It started on Saturday morning. Lori and Petra have both heard so much about Josh that they demanded a chance to skype with him and make sure they approved of the relationship. After that they told me to come over later in the evening, so I did. A decent sized group had congregated to say goodbye to them, and we ate pizza and then went out. A few blocks from the apartment is a bowling alley and a Nori Bang (Korean Karaoke). First we went to the Nori Bang, and then we went "backwards bowling." Due to an injury, Petra cannot use her left hand (which is her dominant hand), so the point of backwards bowling was that everyone had to use their 'wrong' hand. It was fun. I'm just as bad at left handed bowling as I am at right handed bowling.

The next day I had more "sister" time. We all went up to the bamboo forest and I met a Korean couple that Lori and Petra have befriended. We went to a traditional Korean style restaurant, which involved sitting on the floor (in a skirt! whoops!) and just eating rice and side dishes! It was interesting, and fun. We also tried bamboo wine, which tasted a little like watered down whiskey. Overall we didn't spend too much time there, but it was neat to see the forest and know what is around the area.

Teaching is going very well, I'm back on the easy week. I had a great moment with one of my 6th graders yesterday. Overall I'm pretty lax on discipline. I don't waste a lot of time telling individuals to pay attention or doling out 'minus points.' My logic is that if they are paying attention it will reflect in their grades because they will know the answers to the tests and know how to complete the homework. So the other day while reading a story that they would be quizzed on (all announced) over half the class failed to pay attention or ask any questions. And then they failed the quiz. The great moment occurred the following day when I handed the graded quizzes back and the students apologized and promised to pay more attention. The rest of the class they had perfect behavior!

I've been super busy working organizing grad school stuff, which is kinda dominating my life. I'm not going to weigh everyone down with that stuff here in the blog, but if you're interested in hearing about it, feel free to ask me! I've also been doing a lot of thinking about Korean relationships and cultural differences and definitions. I will probably make a long scholarly post on that, but I want to write that more like a real paper and less like a blog post, so you will have to wait awhile to read it, sorry!

Hope all is well with everyone. I miss a lot of people, but as you can probably tell I'm having a great time, even if I'm getting sad about the thought of Lori and Petra leaving.

~Hannah