End of an era

So our first semester here in Korea is over and we are three weeks into the new one. I just thought I'd share some highlights

LEARNING ABOUT VIRGINS

Yes, it's true one of the words on the many word lists was virgin. "Teacher, what does virgin mean?" But the time I was done half decided they'd lost their virginity because they sleep with their brother or sister in the same bed. I changed my line to something about moms and dads and I don't think I included anything about babies being born and I left it at that.

JUST LIKE MOMMA TOLD YOU

Contrary to popular belief they don't really love school more than the kids at home they just have no choice. Remember when your mom told you to feel lucky because in Asia the kids go to school 6 days a week and you didn't believe her? It's all true. My last class of middle school students leaves the school at 9:50 PM and sometimes I get home before their buses leave. And Saturday when I go out the streets are full of school students with their uniforms on heading to private tutoring sessions. My Favorite was marking a journal about having a time machine. This kid is in grade 4 and all he wanted was to be 5 again. "All I do is school now and it makes me want to die." That's what I used to think and I never even did my homework.

ROCKSTAR

I love my kids (most of them). If you ever want to feel like a rockstar though you've got to teach the grade ones. I've got two classes of the little cuties and they drive you crazy. Can't sit still, can't stop talking and can't stop pretending that their pencil is a space ship as they act out their own little movie drama on their desks instead of doing phonics! But they love their teacher. I walk in and they cheer themselves horse. I leave to teach the next class for one hour and then we walk everyone out to the bus. As we leave I'm spotted by my grade ones and they lose it like they haven't seen me for weeks! Teacher! Teacher! Goodbye teacher!!!!! Goodbye! High fives teacher! Bye teacher!! If I ever wondered what it's like to be in the spot light you've got to spend time with the little rug rats.

HERE COMES THE SUN SHINE

I know I have no sympathy here but -10 is cold when everything you do is outside. They don't build for the cold like at home so when you go out you usually spend hours of your time with three jackets on. All the markets and sights are outdoors. So the fact that it's warming up has been fantastic. I've climbed the mountain behind our apartment a couple times and it was so beautiful. I put a couple pics on facebook if you'd like to look. Eileen is actually off to Japan this weekend to get the new visa straightened out and says she saw mount Fugi. Things seem to be finally settling into a routine. This Sunday is our last training session to spend our Saturdays working in some of the orphanages here in Seoul. Next Saturday we are taking a week of our holidays and heading to Thailand. Should be very good. We are sad we can't be home for our new church building but I guess we'll let you all break it in for us. Just remember we need to keep the pews!

Cheers, Randall& Eileen,

PS these are videos that I took to show Eileen the view from the mountain They are not spectacular quality but you can see our neighborhood in Seoul! It was a smoggy day and it started to snow by the time I got to the top.

MOUNTAIN 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTbEQCEls0g

MOUNTAIN 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0jwc2o0TsY