Booglie Boo

I have the found memories of playing Booglie Boo with my sweet kitty Jilly-Willy on my mind. Such a rambunctious gal; always running about, causing ciaos and making a ruckus about the house, jumping up onto high places and knocking off breakable things from counters she isn't supposed to be on. Good thing she's cute! Running to the door when I get home, we would always begin the evening with a game of Booglie Boo. After settling down on my couch, bed, or desk chair, she would always creep up to me, and then I would act surprised, throw my hands in the air, and say in a deep voice "Booglie Boo!" Frightened, she would run away, but then would soon come back asking for more. I would often even creep up on her to start us off.. Just a good memory I had. That poor, sweet, spoiled kitty doesn't even know her momma is half-way around the world missing her terribly.

November has been quite busy for me. I can't even believe it's almost over. It sure does help a great deal that I met Jen and whole bunch of others through facebook. There are tons of foreigners (Canadians, South Africans, Americans, Scottish, British, Irish, etc) in Korea, but most of them are in separate cities or at different schools, and would otherwise have no way of meeting one another if it wasn't for the modern technology of things like Facebook to bring us together. I sure do wish I tapped into this technology a bit sooner though. When I found no Oido groups while in Uijeongbu, I stopped looking, and never really thought about it again until October came around and I was crazy lonely. So lonely, I spent 60,000W phoning my family that month. But since then, I've been to two weddings, six group dinners, two brunches at Jen's, been hiking, took bachata lessons, and will co-host an American Thanksgiving dinner at Jen's on Sunday.

About the North Korean attack on a South Korean Island a bit west of Incheon.... Incheon is about a 30minute or so drive from me, but so far, nothing has happened on mainland, and we are safe for now. I have always carried around my alien registration card (ARC), but am now carrying around my passport and perhaps my bank account info as well. I have signed up with the American Embassy in Seoul, so I should receive text and email alerts on upcoming news that would affect Americans as necessary. I hear from the Associated Press (AP) news from the American Forces Network (AFN) that there were South Korean casualties in the attack, and the island looks as though a hurricane hit, with various depris everywhere. This is all I know.

I think I'm finally taking a different approach to "teaching." As long as I don't care, I'm not frustrated about the things I have no control over. If I was to be a teacher, I think I'd be better doing so state side, as I'm the type to invest in my job (school), the people I work with (faculty) and those I work for (students). I go all the way, work until the job is done, and do it right. But here, it's different. Winter and summer camp are mine, but the rest of the year I'm just a puppet. Sure, I make and change the lesson plans, and throw in cultural interest and differences as they arise, just to make things a little more interesting, but no one really cares, so it's hard for me to. The kids still talk, throw things about the classroom, write on the desk, fool around, touch or hit their friends, don't respond to any question I ask, and so on. Even though Min Chan is spending the duration of this class chewing out the students as I type, and he'll sometimes interrupt my lesson to talk to a student in the middle of class, his approach to discipline is either passive or not at all, making it very difficult to me to speak. I don't mind creating the lessons and teaching the whole class, but I need his help controlling everybody so that I can do so. He is a really good man, and wishes to help me in anyway he can. He lets me leave early to pay my bills before the bank closes, or take special days off (to pick dad up from the airport and get travel visas) if I need them and ask, etc. However, the co-teaching is another story. I told Jen I would really love to have her co-teacher. Her name is Swan, she about the same age as us, speaks and understands really good English, and is an overall really sweet person. Jen says they work really well together too.

I'm hoping to build a future and career in the states, and am banking on that happening! So I don't wanna say what I'll do if it doesn't, because it will. Oh course, this is the same confidence I had coming out of college and look where that got me, but hey, whatever. The next time I write will most likely be next week, as I will be in Seoul all day tomorrow buying ingredients for Sunday's dinner, and cooking all day the next.