I'm revisiting my teenage years by re-watching Gossip Girl.
Needless to say, I hate every item of clothing I own. Looking back on when this show was uber relevant to my silly life, I really have to give my mother credit for paying attention to the fashion trends. My mother was a fantastic shopper... I need my mother to dress me now. I kind of look like a hobo.. hey it's a good thing that loose fitting cotton & denim shirts are in style right now in Korea!! Still, a small part of me cringes when I think about how much more stylish my mother is.. the woman knows how to dress and I am such a raggamuff on the best of days. I did, however, do all of my laundry today & iron my ironables! I know she would approve of that.
Maybe this weekend I'll wear a dress & paint my nails? We'll see, that may require me to leave my apartment and this stomach upset business makes that seem a bit unlikely.
I have decided to focus my anxious energy into keeping my apartment tidy. When I get paid, I am buying a printer so that I can print out my photographs & decorate my apartment. My brother has been posting adorable photos of my Gerald and I am thinking he deserves his own wall of honour. I miss my baby so much!!
I also managed to wash every dirty dish in my apartment and cleaned out my refrigerator. This is miraculous. This is so unLauren, I am going to see how long I can keep this going for. I'm going to try to eat in more often, now that my kitchen is spic & span. I also have more plates & bowls at my disposal for usage. I am thrilled that Jenny has an oven, Victoria & I are going over for a baking night to make some lasagna, as well as some cookies or brownies for dessert! I can't wait!!
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Orange class makes menopause look as mild as a hang nail.
Believe it or not, family and friends, somedays teaching kindergarten is not all fun and glitter.
Somedays there's snot, tears, poop, and endless screaming. Today all of those things were the unfortunate products of the excessive amount of sugar my co-teacher decided to contribute to snack time.
It is a well known fact that under most stressful circumstances I can man up and hold my own. Today, guys, I was pwned by 7 4 year olds with sticky fingers and runny noses. IT. WAS. AWFUL.
There was so much going on that I will give you a play by play, organized by head.
Mickey:
Normally he is my little angel baby. Mickey always uses full sentences and stays in his seat. He raises his hand and waits quietly to be called on. Mickey on a sugar high is a completely different bag of potatoes: he is LOUD, he is wiggly, and, quite possibly the cutest part, he kisses EVERYONE! He is just so full of love that he has to run around and express it. Cute, but not good for class time unfortunately :(
John:
As of late John has been the least enthusiastic student in orange class. John does not want to be in class, John wants to play. He's 4, I get it.. I'm not insulted. I'd rather play with them too most days. However, with John, this disinterest translates to angry outbursts and disruption. Today John was all smiles, which was awesome.. but he was all -Lauren-teacher-i'm-way-too-cool-for-pants-shoes-or-my-chair! It was just... special. I could not keep him in one place, or his pants? i don't know what was up with him. Maybe he'll move to vancouver in his adult life and frequent wreck beach? i don't even know.
Sally:
Bless her, she may have been the most chill out of everyone. I feel so sorry for this little girl as she is the ONLY girl out of 7 children. Sometimes she shouts, but I don't think she realizes she's doing it. For the most part she just stares at the goofy boys with her mouth open with the most adorable expression of contempt. You know when they graduate to peach class she's going to be the boss. Sally didn't finish her lolly, so Sally kind of just sat there with wide eyes watching the boys terrorize me.
Alliot:
Alliot is trouble. I love Alliot, he's adorable and so so sweet.. he just has a lot of energy. he actually handles sugar really well, but somedays his eyes glaze over and he just does the strangest things. Today, he was perfect. i was so surprised considering how insane the other boys were being... UP UNTIL SCIENCE CLASS. He came up to the front of the class when I called him to help me, reached for the cup of water off my desk and dumped it over his own head. He did it so quickly I couldn't do anything to stop it.. it was a trainwreck in the blink of an eye. like.. THANKS KID! Then ofcourse the principal walks in & gives me the stink eye.
TBC...
Somedays there's snot, tears, poop, and endless screaming. Today all of those things were the unfortunate products of the excessive amount of sugar my co-teacher decided to contribute to snack time.
It is a well known fact that under most stressful circumstances I can man up and hold my own. Today, guys, I was pwned by 7 4 year olds with sticky fingers and runny noses. IT. WAS. AWFUL.
There was so much going on that I will give you a play by play, organized by head.
Mickey:
Normally he is my little angel baby. Mickey always uses full sentences and stays in his seat. He raises his hand and waits quietly to be called on. Mickey on a sugar high is a completely different bag of potatoes: he is LOUD, he is wiggly, and, quite possibly the cutest part, he kisses EVERYONE! He is just so full of love that he has to run around and express it. Cute, but not good for class time unfortunately :(
John:
As of late John has been the least enthusiastic student in orange class. John does not want to be in class, John wants to play. He's 4, I get it.. I'm not insulted. I'd rather play with them too most days. However, with John, this disinterest translates to angry outbursts and disruption. Today John was all smiles, which was awesome.. but he was all -Lauren-teacher-i'm-way-too-cool-for-pants-shoes-or-my-chair! It was just... special. I could not keep him in one place, or his pants? i don't know what was up with him. Maybe he'll move to vancouver in his adult life and frequent wreck beach? i don't even know.
Sally:
Bless her, she may have been the most chill out of everyone. I feel so sorry for this little girl as she is the ONLY girl out of 7 children. Sometimes she shouts, but I don't think she realizes she's doing it. For the most part she just stares at the goofy boys with her mouth open with the most adorable expression of contempt. You know when they graduate to peach class she's going to be the boss. Sally didn't finish her lolly, so Sally kind of just sat there with wide eyes watching the boys terrorize me.
Alliot:
Alliot is trouble. I love Alliot, he's adorable and so so sweet.. he just has a lot of energy. he actually handles sugar really well, but somedays his eyes glaze over and he just does the strangest things. Today, he was perfect. i was so surprised considering how insane the other boys were being... UP UNTIL SCIENCE CLASS. He came up to the front of the class when I called him to help me, reached for the cup of water off my desk and dumped it over his own head. He did it so quickly I couldn't do anything to stop it.. it was a trainwreck in the blink of an eye. like.. THANKS KID! Then ofcourse the principal walks in & gives me the stink eye.
TBC...
Monday, 19 August 2013
Bored Games
So this weekend was a well-budgeted, fairly relaxing scene. Friday night, post private tutoring, I basically went home to my book. I spoke with my mama on the phone and then went to sleep.
Saturday I woke up really early and attempted AGAIN to take a bus to the Israel House in Centum City where I am supposed to be helping them set up a Holocaust Education exhibit. It is accessible by a train, a long walk and then a city bus. The director told me to take the 181 3 stops past the KT Tower... and he assured me that they would announce that as a stop. First of all, if they did it was in Korean. Second, '3 or 4 stops' is pretty nondescript. I heard no announcement, and ended up in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere. Needless to say, I was a little choked and it was very hot outside. I was a sweaty, overwhelmed mess of a Lu.
I apologized for being a no-show for the second weekend in a row, and asked for more detailed travel directions (Hello! I'm new to this city! I'm not Korean! I'm providing free labour!) and the response was, well, unsatisfying. "A taxi from Centum City is 2,800 kw". So I'm helping you, for free, undertaking a very complicated job that trained professionals (such as myself) would under normal circumstances charge a hefty fee for. Now, I realize that I am new to the field and volunteer experience is necessary in order to contract myself out int he future.. and this space is in an arena that I have loads of experience in as a researcher and a curator. But this is frustrating. I should not have to pay to volunteer.. that is the first thing they teach you in volunteer resource management courses. RED FLAGS?! We'll see. If they could just email me photos of some of the artefacts I could begin my work from home & have an idea of what sort of collection that I am working with... alas.. "There are too many artefacts for that". THEN SEND SOME.
Anyways, Saturday night I napped and then went to Seomyeon to Rock & Roll Bar to meet Jenny. Mark and his friend Brian joined us after. We played Rumi and Poker, then Jenny and I explored Seomyeon at night. LOUD music everywhere, with drunk koreans stumbling or napping in the streets. This man tried to escort us into a club called BLACK FUN! Gimme some of that!
It was another relatively early night, but I still managed to sleep until noon on Sunday. Sunday was another fun board game night at Fully Booked full of delicious Paninis, Lattes, Trivial Pursuit, Catan, Checkers, Jenga... and ofcourse CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY!!! That game is hilarious.
I'm really a fan of this sunday funday business, hoorah! If more cute boys with accents decided to tag along I would not be opposed to that.
But now it's time to walk to work & teach the babies.
xo
Saturday I woke up really early and attempted AGAIN to take a bus to the Israel House in Centum City where I am supposed to be helping them set up a Holocaust Education exhibit. It is accessible by a train, a long walk and then a city bus. The director told me to take the 181 3 stops past the KT Tower... and he assured me that they would announce that as a stop. First of all, if they did it was in Korean. Second, '3 or 4 stops' is pretty nondescript. I heard no announcement, and ended up in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere. Needless to say, I was a little choked and it was very hot outside. I was a sweaty, overwhelmed mess of a Lu.
I apologized for being a no-show for the second weekend in a row, and asked for more detailed travel directions (Hello! I'm new to this city! I'm not Korean! I'm providing free labour!) and the response was, well, unsatisfying. "A taxi from Centum City is 2,800 kw". So I'm helping you, for free, undertaking a very complicated job that trained professionals (such as myself) would under normal circumstances charge a hefty fee for. Now, I realize that I am new to the field and volunteer experience is necessary in order to contract myself out int he future.. and this space is in an arena that I have loads of experience in as a researcher and a curator. But this is frustrating. I should not have to pay to volunteer.. that is the first thing they teach you in volunteer resource management courses. RED FLAGS?! We'll see. If they could just email me photos of some of the artefacts I could begin my work from home & have an idea of what sort of collection that I am working with... alas.. "There are too many artefacts for that". THEN SEND SOME.
Anyways, Saturday night I napped and then went to Seomyeon to Rock & Roll Bar to meet Jenny. Mark and his friend Brian joined us after. We played Rumi and Poker, then Jenny and I explored Seomyeon at night. LOUD music everywhere, with drunk koreans stumbling or napping in the streets. This man tried to escort us into a club called BLACK FUN! Gimme some of that!
It was another relatively early night, but I still managed to sleep until noon on Sunday. Sunday was another fun board game night at Fully Booked full of delicious Paninis, Lattes, Trivial Pursuit, Catan, Checkers, Jenga... and ofcourse CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY!!! That game is hilarious.
I'm really a fan of this sunday funday business, hoorah! If more cute boys with accents decided to tag along I would not be opposed to that.
But now it's time to walk to work & teach the babies.
xo
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Friday, 9 August 2013
Art Class
Today in Kristi's art class with her 6 year olds, they had to draw portraits of their favourite teachers.
I GOT MY PORTRAIT DRAWN!!! This is not MY class, this is a class that I see for one hour every Wednesday for Science & Gym!
The little girl who drew me is named Aliya, she is super cute. She always wears the cutest dresses, and is always smiling. Whenever I walk by this particular classroom, if the students see me, they yell HELLO LAUREN TEACHER!! LAUREN TEACHER!!!! and I'll poke my head in and say a great big HELLO PEACH CLASS!!!! I always give them little stickers & prizes in Science, so maybe that is why I am the favourite??
I will snap a picture of this masterpiece and post it.. she drew me with black hair, and caused a class debate over my hair colour. They decided that my hair is "Golden".
ALL THE FEELS!!
I love children. <3
I GOT MY PORTRAIT DRAWN!!! This is not MY class, this is a class that I see for one hour every Wednesday for Science & Gym!
The little girl who drew me is named Aliya, she is super cute. She always wears the cutest dresses, and is always smiling. Whenever I walk by this particular classroom, if the students see me, they yell HELLO LAUREN TEACHER!! LAUREN TEACHER!!!! and I'll poke my head in and say a great big HELLO PEACH CLASS!!!! I always give them little stickers & prizes in Science, so maybe that is why I am the favourite??
I will snap a picture of this masterpiece and post it.. she drew me with black hair, and caused a class debate over my hair colour. They decided that my hair is "Golden".
ALL THE FEELS!!
I love children. <3
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Is that too much to ask for?
Maybe do some Yoga.
In this moment, I am the happiest I have been in years.
My life is beautiful.
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