Stuffy day

It rained a lot this morning. I was surprised with surprise survey. My co-teacher walked in with the survey to be filled in by students about my performance. It was enerving and indeed many of them find English hard, difficult and uninteresting. I would be too, if I have to be cooped up with 39 other noisy kids.

They want games, games, games. In other words, they don't want to study and learn -- just wanna play. I understand it completely. Is there a place where kids can learn, study and have fun at the same time? This guy calls for more one-to-one attention to all kids. It should be provided by the community - high school kids, college teachers, house-wives and others.
I totally agree. http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/233

The supplementary class I run, these kids never ask for attention in the normal classes. They are screaming for my attention in the semi-private class of 6 kids.

More field trip

I'm looking forward to another field trip. This time it may be with the 4th graders but promises to be a nice location - Kanghwa island. It has a story of one of the kings of Chosun dynasty who was having a peaceful life there completely unaware of his destiny. He was used as a political scapegoat and died young. There are full of brutal stories in Korea, as anywhere else probably.

I feel awful about the Chinese earth quake victims and survivers.

Teachers' day

5th graders were leaving for a day trip. The VP went with them and that was great. One of the teachers was on sick leave and took a couple of days off. We're glad he's back. There were many flowers and cakes being delivered all day. I got a small vitamin drink with a label plus a card made by students with slight challenges in learning. They were so cute. Basically it said thanks for teaching us with love, We love you. Sniff. The drink was re-labeled to say it will give me a boost in energy and confidence cos it contained their good will and love. Picture of me posing with the general bouquet and the concoction by the special kids.

Dreamt of catastrophy

I had a catastrophic cream. I felt a gush of humidity like it's going to rain in a hurry and felt eerie. I saw the sky and saw that there were a thin layer of clouds on one side, a strip of empty sky then another thin layer of clouds. Then there was a huge thunderous noise and that strip of empty sky seemed to slide down to the ground and as it reached the earth, it started a huge explosion of red cloud of smoke and it started roll coming very fast towards me. It looked like the dust cloud behind a race car, except it's size of a small mountain. I am with my aunt and mother. I am shouting that we need to open the door and run to one side as fast as possible. In my head, I'm thinking - gosh "We're all dead". Some moments later, I hear the noise subsided and when I went to see what happened the firing cloud stopped about 10 feet away.

Sleepless in Anyang again

I had a dream that I was moving with my mother. We had a very few things. In Canada I never felt poor. However even with all the abundance and low prices of things I feel poor maybe because I don't have the big spacious appartment that I was able to afford in Montreal. Or maybe because everyone seems so uptight, stressed and rude beyond words in ordinary day to day life here.

I love being with some people here but otherwise I wish I don't have to deal with the crowd and the noise. Generally speaking, there seems to be a total lack of consideration for others - even though Koreans are supposed to be the most polite people in the East.

Maybe it's because they (we - it's confusing sometimes) are so forced to be polite next our parents, bosses and teachers, we just completely let loose in other public places - I find myself being rude and I justify myself saying my consideration only calls for more abuses.

Just had a wonderful long conversation with my friend who shared "El Camino" in 2001. She was going through some breakthroughs in her life and it was interesting for me how similar my machinary is. I get into this "Rescue" mode. I am willing to give it up and let it go. It just isn't healthy for anyone - especially myself.

I shared about the mastery course with her and it was so great. In that moment I got it again and learned that I already forgot.

Just finished re-reading the Pilgrimmage by Paulo Cohelho. It reminded me of the adventures we had in Spain and brought me back to the miracles of each of our lives. How easily we forget.

Medical tests

I had a day off because it's the Labor day here. Except, everyone is working. I had the day off because I was going for a physical. There are no classes and all the kids went hiking today with the teachers. It was an amazing operation. EKG took less than 1 minute. Eye, ear exam also each took less than a minute. All in all, it took about 1/2 in total with all the changing and going up and down the stairs. So it was a beautiful day so I went downtown. The bus is already blowing full version of cold air-conditioning air.

I spend sometime at the luxurious department store - somehow I feel right at home and it reminds me of home - well the Montreal home town. It has all the expensive products from around the world. I sprayed myself with some new Chanel perfume. I got a scented candle and had Sushi for lunch. You pick up this traveling dishes and you can tell how much it costs by the color of the dish. It was absolutely delicious. I did missed some company though but my friend from Montreal is in Busan today.