Walking the Dog…

My friend Marietjie is in Thailand at the moment, and I’ve been persuaded to take her dog for a walk while she’s away. Today we chose a little path that meanders through the woods, beside a pond, over hill and over dale. It’s really quite pretty – today I watched tiny tadpoles using impossibly tiny tails to propel impossibly rotund bodies through a puddle. I saw little butterflies with perriwinkle wings, and dragonflies with irradescent blue bodies careening through the air. I saw copious amounts of white flowers on long green stems crowding the hills, and I saw green leafy plant-like kinds of things…as one would expect to see in the woods. Overall, the experience made me absolutely thrilled to be alive, excited about life, and incredibly pleased that I don’t own a dog of my own.

Today my summer students wrote their midterm exams, and seem to have done a pretty good job of it. When they sign up for a class, the teachers name is in Korean. For my name, that looks like 제니스 힐머 – but when the students translate it back into the Roman Alphabet, it tends to come out as “Jenis Hirma” instead of Janice Hillmer. It makes me smile.

16 more sleeps until I sleep in Canada (excluding possible naps, or dozing on the plane)

I Love Learning New Things…

I love living in Korea, because I learn so many new things. Today I was lucky enough to get a double whammy.

1st I learned that just because the pop machine says “Mountain Dew”, doesn’t mean you won’t get a cup full of Pineapple Demi-Soda.

2nd I learned that if you have just procured a cup of Pineapple Demi-Soda, (which you thought was Mountain Dew) and your student brings you a coffee … you need to make a choice. Pick one and stick to it. Don’t try to alternate sips of Pineapple Demi-Soda and Coffee during your lesson. You’ll wind up with a mouth full of curdled milk taste, with a tinge of coffied pineapple and nothing you can do to fix it. That can be unpleasant.

Drip…Drip..Drip

Ugh. It’s hot…it’s humid…and then hot some more. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot weather I’ve just lately found myself to be getting quite jealous. I’m sweating away like crazy, and my Korean friends AREN’T. I don’t know if it’s physiological, biological, environmental or dietary..but whatever it is it’s just not fair.

The regular semster here has ended, and some of my students did really well. I was pleased. My student evaluations seem pretty good too – so my students either really like me, or just raced through the evaluation without reading the questions.

One of my most cheerful students is off to join the army this summer, but he made sure I’d still be here in 2 years when he’s done so he can take my 2nd semester class in 2006.

Now I’m 3 days in to my intensive course. That’s an entire semester taught in 3 weeks. Seriously – I started teaching the classes on Tuesday, and their midterm is next week. And my class is HUGE! Most conversation classes are capped at 33 students ~ since this is a special class I’ve got 53 in it instead. I can’t even move up and down the aisles to check their work!

23 more sleeps until I sleep in Canada. For those of you good at Math like me… then not counting today and the day I go home, that’s only 22 more days.

Take care, and I hope to see lots of you soon.