Yet another adorable letter

"To Ann teacher
Hi? Anne teacher?
Fifth grade, two and a half,
I'm called Sim Young Su.
Birthday They said the day next Saturday.
Happy Birthday.
And I'm always fun, Thank you for teaching us.
Class read a story, and I really can not wait.
Anne teacher please tell
me the future more
interesting.
Birthday have a good~
Preety Anne teacher <3"

So cute. Reallllly not sure how to reply though. Does she like the stories I read, or does she want the future ones to be more interesting? Also  note in the upper right corner it says "This is hand made!" haha I don't think so...

I am surrounded by love!

I am not an overly positive person. I swear. In fact if I had a dollar for every time I was called sarcastic I would have a lot of dollars. So the fact that I am feeling so great really is cause things are awesome, not because I am some cock-eye optimist!

Today my wonderful co-teacher, suffering from a pretty rough cold, brought me a cheesecake for my birthday! She asked if I liked cheesecake.

UM. YES.

We ate it at break and everyone sang happy birthday for me :)

I was wished happy birthday by tons of kids, in English and Korean. One kid cracked me up when he wanted me to say "Happy Birthday" in Korean and told me "Listen and Repeat!" because that's what their book (and I) always say. Apparently it translates roughly to congratulations, which is why they all have been writing that on my cards. Anyways many many happy birthdays, more cards, more gifts, and to top it all off, my last class a little group of boys danced for me. Normally the love is showered onto me by the girls, so this was extra endearing. It was a pretty cool little dance too. It's just so awesome that I can be so far from home and be shown such kindness. 

Sadly my photos didn't turn out too well but I have a LOT of letters to reply to so you will have to deal with these shaky shots.

This is a pic of my birthday hoard. I didn't include all the letters because there's just too many! The gifts include that tin of goodies, winter socks, and a notebook. So amazingly lovely.

"Ann Teacher,
Hello! Teacher I'm 5-6 Lee Ye-song. Teacher, happy birthday to you. I like you. I give cookie and candy it is yummy have a nice day~!!"

"Hi?
I'm Clara. Happy Birthday! I give for little present ^^ Do you like notebook? ^^ I think you like this note book. Happy Birthday Teacher Anne! (drawing)<-- This is Cake!"

Cards don't have to include gifts or elaborate stationary to be sweet!
"Hello? My name is Won Ye Ryoung.
I'm fifth grade, and class 2.
I heard this Sunday is your birthday. Isn't it?
I want to happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you~! Happy birthday you!
You are so funny. And so pretty."

This kid sure knows the way to my heart!

LOVE. IT.

Another day

A couple amusing anecdotes.

Firstly, there is a sportswear store here called Kolon Sport. That in itself is pretty damn hilarious. Anyways, they wear sportswear here all the time as casual wear, so there are Kolon Sport's everywhere. Today I told the gym teacher what colon meant.. he has limited English so the only way I could explain was the inaccurate but close description of "poo hole." He then looked it up and laughed and I could hear his computer saying "colon" as he pushed the "listen to" button. Then I heard his computer saying "anus" and him repeating to practice. Then for the next while every time a teacher came into the teacher room I could hear him speaking in Korean and saying "colon" a lot and the other teacher would laugh haha. He even told the vice principle, who then said to me "Korean style! With a K!" It was amusing. This colon conversation ended with the gym teacher saying his colon was full and he needed toilet. Classy. Same guy said his name is "HIV (pronounced super weird I'm really not sure what he was saying. Hee Bee or something) the AIDS virus! Because mom said I looked like a virus" hahaha.

Secondly, I got a phone call (already amusing enough because I never expected the phone in the teacher room to be for me!) from my grade 5 coteacher asking me to come upstairs. When I went a student had a birthday present for me!! I will take a pic of all the cards/presents I get from the kids once I get them all. So far, it's been a good haul! Anyways, after I thanked her, another student pulled a stray hair off my blazer. Holding it and bouncing and speaking excitedly in Korean, she convinced her friends that they all wanted one. I then had a little pack of grade 5 girls picking as my shoulders looking for stray hairs. I felt like a monkey being groomed. Soon all but one had a hair of their own, but she looked sad so I ran my hands through my hair to find her one. She was so happy! My coteacher said that they were talking about how every detail of me was different. I feel way too special here. I've never felt like having thin hair was cool before!

I found this really cute. Why would I dislike
red? Also those symbols make the Korean
version of :'(

Moose sent by mommy being used in a class not taught by
me. They're so popular!

I laughed so much when I saw a student
wearing this coat. The kids all keep
asking me why I wanted a pic of it and I
really don't know how much detail I can get
into explaining. Anyways all I've said is
"illegal. go to jail" haha.

This is my first letter of the second wave.
This girl is actually so sweet. Last class when
I handed my replies they all grabbed theirs and
ran away before I could see which student
she was. I am determined to find out next
time! Also today I got five letters written
in Korean haha oops.

An unexpected difference...

My amazing parents recently sent me a birthday package filled to the brim with candy canes. I have shown my coteachers to magic of letting one dissolve into coffee/tea. It's almost like I have DavidsTea Santa's Secret out here :) Anyways, when I was brought out candy candes I mentioned that I loved Christmas. I was surprised by a teacher's confused response of "But you have no boyfriend?"

Um.. what?

Well it turns out that here Christmas for the non religious isn't about family and gift giving, but about going on a date with your lover on Christmas Eve. Just another little tidbit of Korea!

PS  I am depressed thinking about missing Christmas. Lotsa love in this blog post to those of you who I'll be missing! You better believe we'll be Skyping.

The perils of winter in Korea

Overall I have been having a very positive time in Korea. Great kids, great location, great coteachers, etc. I do have a major qualm, however, with Korea. I come from Montreal, where it gets COLD in the winter. I never liked the cold, but it was bearable due to fun snow times and cozy hot chocolate evenings. The winter here is so far lacking in both snow and indoor warmth! While the temperature is not as low here as it would get to back home, I am finding myself much colder due to the fact that they are  still opening the windows. Going to the bathroom is like an arctic survival mission. Seriously. Mix that in with the fact that toilet paper is kept outside of the stalls, and the fact that there is no dryer OR paper towels, AND the fact that the sink water is often ice cold (or scathingly boiling)... well let's just say I do not enjoy using the bathroom at school. After sitting in the cold all day by the time I get home I truly feel like the cold has seeped into the marrow of my bones.

Anyways, whining aside, I haven't really been doing as many fun things to blog about. The festivals are over due to the horrible weather, and I am not inclined to go on any scenic out door treks. Hopefully soon I'll get myself over to the Gyeongju Museum or something.

This weekend was American Thanksgiving, and some of my new friends were kind enough to invite me over for a potluck. It was astonishingly amazing. I made a side of squash, onion, spinach, herbs and (my new favourite vegetable) bacon. It was a hit, at least, I liked it. There was also a gigantic turkey reminiscent of Dr. Seuss' roast beast, cranberry sauce, and about 5 different types of potatoes. Oh and a glorious pumpkin soup. It was so amazing to taste so many homey flavours. I haven't been that full in a long time and while it was painful, it was a good pain.

Thanksgiving in Korea. Delicious!!!

Today a girl said to me "I hope class finishes soon" at
the beginning of class haha. Then she gave me this.
MIXED SIGNALS GIRL.

Adorable t-shirt letter

Me! I used to hate the girls who would suck
up to teachers by drawing them... buuuuut
let's just say my perspective has changed ;)
Love this.

How impressive is this? And he (or she I really can't tell by
the names or the handwritting) got a perfect test score too.
In Korea a circle means correct, not incorrect. Anyways
the last question on the test is "What are you going to
do tomorrow?" and s/he wrote "I'm going to draw pictures."
Good!! Because this is so amazing!

I will leave you today with some food for thought. Teaching English has made me realize that our language is insane. The mixture of germanic and latin has left us with just a total mishmash devoid of all logic. The future in English is absolutely insane. I am stating to think French verb tenses, the bane of my childhood, are easier. Why? Because the future tenses are always future tenses. Check this out:

What are you going to do this weekend?
What will you do this weekend?
What are you doing this weekend? --> SERIOUSLY THIS ISN'T FUTURE WHY IS THIS THE MOST NATURAL SOUNDING SENTENCE?

"I'm going to the store in an hour. I'm going to get some candy. It will be awesome." Seriously what is this?

Attack of the cuteness

Ok before we get to the uber cute, hello everyone. Quick update: I am down to my last block of gruyere but still just above the halfway mark for the giant block of cheddar. Here I was thinking I had bought too much...

Today I GAVE A TEST. I felt so mean. There was a written portion, which they completed in class, and a speaking portion with me out in the hallway (WHERE THE WINDOWS WERE OPEN).
It should have been easy but obviously they were scared. What does dumb Anne do? She tells a boy named Mi Nu that his name is kitty in french! (Minou.. pronounced exactly the same. How adorable?) The poor boy was SO CONFUSED and thought he was failing the test hahaha. ANyways I gave him easy oral questions and he did alright.. but then he bombed the written. It's pretty funny when they bomb cause I get to read funnilly filled in blanks like "We are having a shirt party. It's on could you come to. She is pool than him." Poor Minou.. I will always remember his name now though! Another incorrect answer that made me laugh was "How often do you clean your room? I'm sorry I can't. I have piano lesson." Haha it's almost like he's saying he can't clean his room because of piano. Sadly though I think he was answering "Would you like to come to my party" which was the previous question.

When I did the speaking test with pretty boy, he didn't quite answer eeverything correctly.. but then he said I LOVE YOU. A? I looooooooooooove you!
haha

ANYWAYS, that was for my grade 6. Grade 5's, the cutesies, have begun to write me letters!! OH MY GAWD the cuteness.

One letter says "I'm first!" on the outside. Inside it says
"Dear Anne Teacher!! Hello! My name is Seo Hee.
I'm very love you!
Do you have boyfriend?
I love you <3"

It is from a girl  surprisingly!


Another letter is from a little girl where she accidentally wrote "Anne Theater" instead of "Anne Teacher" the whole letter haha.

Another letter includes the following sentence that made me laugh out loud: "I am nervous before the class starts I like hamburger they are very delicious what do you like?"

Finally, this letter pretty much made me want to cry. I could not believe how sweet it was. It's a little long so I'll cut out a bit...

"Teacher's way of talking is very fun and your gesture is very good too. So I like you. Commencement, you look so pretty and funny. But now, I think you are so pretty, funny... popular and great!!! My english is poor but teacher was promote me, so I respect Anne teacher. Teacher was my first great teacher. Anne Teacher! I LOVE YOU. I respect you. Teacher~ HAHAHAHA"

Like seriously? That's one of the nicest things I will ever receive.

PS I have finally discovered why Koreans write ~'s everywhere. It's used to elongate the word. So whereas I would type Huurrrryyyyyyyy, they would type Hurry~!

Here are some pics of the grade 5 mailbox, and the first letters I received.

Note the adorable way in which they fold their letters
so no one else can read them. We were never that smart.