Sick Kittens, more gifts, and sleepless nights

I don't know what is wrong with me, but it seems that all the little things around me are sort of falling apart. It's a miracle I can stand in front of my classes with any semblance of legitimacy given my general lack of preparation as of late. I really try to get everything in order, but I manage to let go of all the strings holding everything together and I have to flip into crazy mode to get everything back together. Examples: a) Last Wednesday I started teaching a class thinking it was the first time I had seen them that year, and I was suddenly reminded that I had, in fact, taught them once already and had nothing prepared to teach them that day. Luckily I whipped out the name cards and stuttered my way through a new explanation. b) Wednesday is the shittiest day every weekbecause I teach four classes, and two of them are to learn previous week's lesson while the other two are on the upcoming week. This means that I have to prepare a new lesson on Tuesday when I have a shit schedule and don't really want to make anything. This week, Tuesday came and went with a search on waygook to find things but nothing solidified. Wednesday morning I threw something together but decided to change the second half of class to accomodate a new lesson (in an attempt to get my classes back on track, and with a new week's lesson starting on THURSDAY!) So I looked online for ideas and nothing really great came of it. I'm trying to change my approach to teaching, trying to incorporate what they are learning in their other English classes, so my class doesn't seem so left field to them. Unfortunately, I can't get all my thoughts down together. So, Wednesday I essentially found nothing and then at 4:15 (I leave at 4:30) I discovered that due to a schedule change my class would start at 8:30 as opposed to 9:00 which is a huge difference when you have nothing prepared. So I brought the texts home but hardly looked at them between frisbee practice, desperately trying to stay awake on the subway, eating, and passing out at 11:00. I woke up early and left for work at 7:30 this morning just so I could arrive early enough to work undistracted until my class begin at 8:30. Luckily, my lesson plan went over just fine. PHEW.

On another note, Nova is sick. I have been taking him to the vet everyday since Monday (it is now Thursday and supposed to be my last day of vet visits) and that has been a huge time drain. I have to go home, get nova ready for the vet, go to the vet, come back home, all before I can do anything I need to do. He gets two shots everyday, one on his back and one is his back left leg. He hates them, but he is getting better at dealing with the shots. He had a big ol' scratch on his nose as well (I to this day still have no idea where it came from... maybe his nose was too dry and cracked. That's my suspicion) and the scab got pulled off Sunday night and he started bleeding EVERYWHERE, which was pretty effing terrifying. Luckily I had noticed the scab on his nose on Saturday so I at least knew that it wasn't something that Baram had caused or something. Luckily, the blood didn't seem to bother anyone buy me. Nova just kept playing around with his nose all bloody, getting blood on some textbooks, his paws, Baram, my planner, and my floor. Luckily that is healing. Then on Monday I came home to Nova throwing up and with more gunk built up in his eyes than could ever possibly be considered healthy. So straight to the vet who doesn't speak english. I stammered out a foolish sounding explanation of what happened and stuff, and he says a bunch of things I didn't understand but nodded to anyways. He gave the shots and we were off told to return each day for another round of shots.

On a more positive note, I've gotten some more presents this week.

I got Hello Kitty stickers, more hella sexy Taeyang/Daesung/TOP pictures and the 2011 FILA BIGBANG back to school planner. Jackpot, right? Well, I'm definitely pretty darn happy with the turnout, I'd say. I was really surprised about the planner, but I guess she's not a huge bigbang fan and just got it with some big fila purchase so now I have it!! hehehehehe. It's amazing.

Wow. Love me some BIGBANG and Hello Kitty

Also, Monday was White Day, but I couldn't meet Hoon because we were crazy busy. Instead, he came over on Tuesday and I made that delicious tomato cream sauce pasta and some deliciously amazing rice krispie treats (thanks melly for shipping me some marshmallows and krispies). Hoon basically fell in love with the krispie treats. He ate almost an entire batch. It was cray cray. I was really surprised that he got me anything for White Day because he thinks that all the Korean couple days are played out. But I like them. And he knows I like them, so he got me a big box and filled it with lots and lots and lots of candy and gave me this adorable clear plastic hello kitty zipper cosmetic bag. SOOOO cute. And, he wrote me an amazingly sweet letter on Hello Kitty stationary. Even down to the little details (the kitty stationary and padding the box with the shredded paper to make it pretty) he did a perfect job. I am so thankful. Also, white day is awesome!

Really love my man!

xoxo

A

Updates from the start of the school year

Well, another school year has started and this means, a couple hundred new students who are completely enthralled with a) my blonde hair, b) my eyes which are green/gray/brown with gold flecks, c) my long eyelashes, d) my height or e) my extremely good grasp of English and ability to type English quickly on a keyboard.

This also means that I get a round of introduction lessons and a pretty painless first two weeks of school. My grade threes are creating facebook accounts and joining class groups so I can send out class information and extra credit opportunities to the students to use English in fun ways outside of the classroom. Hopefully there will be enough participation to do scavenger hunts, crosswords, video game quizzes, etc.

My grade one and twos will be making name cards this week. This of course means we get to do a whole bunch  introductions and I get to learn lots of ridiculous things about my students. For example, a grade two student (this is a girl who is 14 years old mind you), wrote, "My dream is to be a femme fatale." Legitimately, that's what she wrote. As her future job goal. Ridiculous.

My grade ones are adorable and love me and today I got some gifts from my students: a Hello Kitty pen and some really really really sexy Taeyang stickers. SCORE.

Frisbee practice has started up and it looks like we're going pretty hard this year with practicing and stuff. It's gonna be intense me thinks... Track workouts, strategy meetings, all sorts of fun stuff to keep me super busy.

And my babies survived their first few weeks at home TOGETHER without mommy. Nova barely escaped death once when Baram decided to push a bath gift set box (containing a full bottle of body wash and a full bottle of body lotion) off a table and onto Nova's leg. Luckily I was home to hear Nova's howl of pain and I cared for him while scolding Baram who thought that immediately after doing this, with Nova walking around on just three legs, it was the perfect time to play fight with Nova. I had to keep them separate as little Nova kept crying and I was so worried. But the next morning (it was about 11pm when it happened, and no emergency clinics to be found) he was hopping all around everywhere and attacking Baram with as much playful energy as he had been before the injury. So everything seems to be all fine now. But, he's got a vet appointment to get his shots next week and I'll be double checking with the doc to verify everything is all clear.

That's it for now.

xoxo
A