Updates

---

(Jen writing) Well as many of you have noticed (and commented on) we have not updated our journal in quite some time. The reason for this was actually not pure laziness. We have not been able to access the site from overseas for about a month and a half. We had to wait until I was in the U.S. in order to switch it over. The new site is http://jeren.blogspot.com/

We hope to be updating this one quite often. We hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all and hope to see you soon.



School Life
(Jen writing) Well, another week is almost done. I certainly have my days where teaching frustrates me, but I have to say I do like it more than I thought I would. The children here, for the most part, are very respectful and eager to learn. I feel bad for them though. They literally go to school Monday through Friday from about 8am until 9 or 10pm. They are bused from school to school for every class you could imagine. They also go to school on Saturdays, but for less hours. They get nu summer vacation either. They go year round and typically only get a few days off in July and their national holidays. For this reason, they are actually allowed to do whatever they want until the age of 4 or 5. The parents figure they should be allowed to do so because they will be in school for the rest of their childhoods. Some take this to the extreme and allow their children to yell at them and even hit them.

Once they get to school, they are very appreciative of their teachers. My students bring me food every single day. I like it because I get to try every type of cookie and chip they sell in the area without having to worry about what the Korean writing says. They are huge fans of seafood here, especially squid flavoring. I am not and more than once I have been tricked into trying a cracker or chip that tastes like squid. They even have a snack (my least favorite) that is a squid flavored cookie with a peanut in the middle, peanut butter around it and a little bit of chocolate on the covering. A lot of people love it, but I can't bring myself to adjust to the flavoring of it. The children are also rather affectionate here. They will give us notes that say "I love you teacher". My students like to give my back and neck massages too. Surprisingly, they give really good ones. I can't believe how strong their little hands are. The most affectionate of all my classes is kindergarten though. They crawl all over us. They hug us, sit in our laps, and cling onto our legs and knees whenever we enter the room.

Recently, the kindergarten class Jeremy and I both teach has been very entertaining. They found out that Jeremy and I are dating and now their favorite thing to do is say, "Jennifer teacher, Jeremy teacher" then they chant wedding music. They also have started to have boyfriends and girlfriends in the class. We have had a couple "couples". They sit next to each other and write their boyfriends name at the top with a heart next to it. They also draw pictures of themselves marrying their boy of choice. The problem is that there is only 3 boys and nine girls. They fight over the boys a lot. Their latest thing is to pretend that they are pregnant. They actually refer to the stomach as "the baby's home". It's almost as if they completely forgot the vocabulary we have taught them.

---