A week of laptops, f-bombs and the search for Ranch!

Wow! Another week gone by already! Our first full week of teaching (last week was just three days) & it went quite nicely! Each day my Kindie class gets less...um, chaotic? Babe-like? ADD-riddled? And more like the little potential-people they will one day be! (Our director often jokes that these 4 & 5 year olds aren't even really humans yet, which is silly of course, but funny all the same). And BOY ARE THEY CUTE! As soon as I can snag a picture (or they stand still long enough for it to be more than a twelve-child blur) I will post it 😄

Also, did she say 4 & 5 year olds?!? Why yes, I did. The kids in my Kindie class are 'new' to the program at DOCS, aka, no english & they are six years old in Korean age (some other Kindie classes are all seven, but I got the young'ins), but Korea scales age differently than the rest of the world ('Korean age' vs 'international age'), so a six year old in Korea could actually be 5, or even 4(!), in America. Pretty crazy! Here's how they calculate age:

When a child is born they are considered 1, then they turn two when it becomes a new year. A simple way to understand this takes a wee bit of math:

Current year - birth year + 1 = your Korean age!

So for me:

2015 - 1991 + 1 = 25!

But even after my birthday, I will still be 25 until Jan 1, 2016 when I will be 26. Basically the year matters, not your birthdate. But I digress, my point was that I am teaching toddlers 😆

Now after that beast of a rabbit trail, back to the title of this post (in the order in which they appear). Laptops! Yes Taylor & I have taken a chunk out of our credit card (thank you American Express for your aid) & each bought a laptop to stay in communication with the world, our family & friends, & of course, so that Taylor may game 😝

Here's my beaut (HP Pavilion)

And Tay's (Lenovo Y50 series)

Pretty snazzy! 😎

We have been thoroughly enjoying them & Taylor set them up yesterday so that we can now watch Netflix even (which is usually only offered in certain countries, SK not being one of them), though we haven't actually watched anything on it yet beyond a test.

I usually have to browse my photos to remember my week in enough detail to write accurately, & in my pictures I found this gem. I give you...my work folder!! In all its SHINee glory!! (This has made me a hit with my female students)

But again, I digress, again. Back to the title's secondary spot: F-bombs. Don't worry, you can keep reading, I promise these stories are clean & appropriate, it was just funny that both Taylor & I had an experience with the word at school this past Wednesday. Mine with 8 year olds & Taylor with 11 year olds.

Since my story happened earlier in the day, I will start with mine. I went into my first (non-Kindie) class which is Magic Time (basically the lowest you can get without being Kindie) & began taking roll (this class was named by the teacher before me, Danielle, & all have names from Buffy, it's a hoot), when in comes the principal/director/CEO 😮 He says to me in a hushed voice that he got a complaint from a mother 😲 about one of the kids throwing around a 'certain four letter word which starts with the letter after E' in the lobby before class 😵 He asked if he could speak with the class  in Korean & I said by all means! I still don't know how eight year olds in Korea learned that word! But my heart skipped a few beats when Simon (the director) came in, thinking a mother had complained about me! Once I learned it wasn't me but a child's dirty little mouth that was the reason for the complaint, I saw the humor in the situation.

No sooner had I walked into the teachers lounge after class than did I hear Taylor saying a kid in his class had purposefully, & numerously, mispronounced the word 'foggy' to be the same word I had just dealt with! Apparently Taylor has a difficult student who was doing an oral exercise in class where Taylor asked 'what is the weather like?' & the kids reply with a set of answers, like 'cold & foggy' or 'warm & sunny', but one child thought 'cold & **** you' was funnier. Taylor sent him out of class & he didn't act up today (Friday) so hopefully Tay has laid down the law & the kids now know what their limits are! (Also, I lent Taylor gummy bears for that class...so that may have helped too)

In short, there are many, many stories I could tell of the kids we get to teach, but most of the time it's just chaos, hugs & acting out words or drawing funny (& poor) pictures on the board to help with memory. As one of the teachers said "we're basically just clowns" which I find rather accurate, especially in the Kindie classes 😝 But still some stories are more easily remembered, like Taylor being invited to a little girl's birthday party at the school his very first week, or seeing the kids in a class come together to help the last one finish her homework before the bell rings, or putting bows in the hair of a classmate who is upset to cheer her up, or playing hangman with my classes when they get through their work early & seeing the sheer joy of being called on to pick a letter or when they known they've solved it, or when students try to piece together their limited English to ask a new question, or seeing the understanding dawn on one of my student's faces when he understands what 'to dare' means, or when my Kindie class schemed to tackle me with flying hugs & (loving?) tiny-bodied body-slams today. The list goes on & on, it really is pretty fantastic working with kiddos, even when they are little snots sometimes 😋

One (more) noteworthy tidbit; hugging, wrestling, carrying or any other playful/silly physical contact with the kids seems fine in Korea, which, after working in two psychiatric facilities with kids/youth, seems VERY strange to me. I've been taught time & time again at work to NEVER TOUCH A KID! But it's actually very nice to have little kids catapult themselves at you, climb on your back & pet your hair with innocent, enthusiastic love 😊

It makes me sad that so often kids are victimized in the US (& in other places as well) that treating children like children becomes something that makes adults (myself included) uncomfortable, but I am working on adapting to the culture here & accepting the hugs & love from my little kiddos as I should. As an additional side-note, there are many, many cameras at work, so all the kids are very safe from any form of abuse, I also don't know any statistics on abuse in Korea, I've just noticed the wide cultural difference in child treatment in regards to play so far.

And now finally...

THE SEARCH FOR RANCH!

I miss it. I want it. I need it.

S. O. S. Send ranch. 

Please send ranch.

No really. Send ranch.

Thus far I have probably spent at least 3 hours of computer time searching for ranch dressing in Seoul. Most of the time has been in between classes at work, but still! I am missing my creamy, goes-with-everything condiment companion! I have searched the foreign food aisle in the three-story market by our apartment meticulously. No ranch. I have googled foreign markets in the area. No ranch.  I have researched how other expats got ranch. Dead ends. I have even googled delivery stores in Seoul that have ranch. Sold out. I am now planning to make a special trip into the city this weekend to a couple places that may hold the delicious semi-solid, fatty substance. I will keep you posted, as I know you are weeping with me on the inside!

More to come!

All of my love,

Tea