Random thought

I love my black bondi cut JAG jeans. They're a size 8 which is really a size too small, but I can still squeeze my butt into them, as long as I'm not planning on eating too much. Which means that I may have to change outfits tonight before going for curry at Hungry Eyes in Chungdae with the girls... :D

Plans for the weekend include: giving banana bread a whirl thanks to my new toaster oven. Fran actually found me a rice-cooker recipe, but I quite like the sweet crispy edges you get with baked banana bread so that's probably a last resort. Other plans include sleeping, going to the gym before my crazy 14 hours of after school classes start next week, and going downtown to get some goodies for various people :) I may also have to go back to the cake shop (Nat I blame you as much as I ♥ you for putting me onto this addiction!) for some study weekend sustenance, and then while I'm there drop back in at Homeplus to ogle the hedgehogs again ^_^

They will also much less glamourously include knocking out at least 3 TESOL units (hopefully) and finishing revising my lesson plans for the next three weeks for the current chapter of the 1st and 2nd year English textbooks, which are, for the record, awful. I'm really hopeless with technology stuff but if I can figure it out I'm going to post lesson plans and ideas somewhere so that newbies to the Thomas Orr kitty cat books don't feel as aghast and perplexed as I did in the first few weeks trying to figure out what on earth to do with it. I do realise that it's only Thursday, but a little wishful thinking can't hurt. Copious amounts of milky tea will probably be needed.

Anyway, some funny stuff from my lovely students to see me (and hopefully) you through today. This week we have been deciding on some class rules, and the results have been quite telling on what sort of year to expect I think:

Girls:
- Do not eat bad foods in class (apparently good foods are ok!)
- No bite to friends, even if they say bad things at you
- You should not chatting with friends
- No touch your friends especially their hair
- Do not bathroom in class
- Open your ears

Boys:
- We don't smoke in class.
- No soju or beer or makkoli or whiskey.
- Don't touch friend's body
- Don't speak Ipod (I still have no idea what that was supposed to mean)
- No weapons
- We must wear clothes every time
- Don't leg screw ( =Don't cross your legs... I have no idea why this is meant to be bad)
- We must love Amy teacher and Ms Kwon all the time!

There were also quite a few about swearing. Although most of them phrased it as 'no bad language' or 'no bad words', there were a few that were more direct saying 'don't say <expletive>' or even 'don't f*** in class' who couldn't understand why I was trying not to laugh (they are also all single-sex classes so the boys in that class probably would have made a huge uproar if I had explained exactly what they were saying).

And haha we were talking about differences between Primary and Middle school students/student life, and I thought it was hilarious that one of them said "This year we have very much delicious lunches!" It's true, we have an awesome school nutritionist ^__^

And also, Neil and Geri, if you are reading this, I have some of your old students! I asked some first years about which school they'd been at and if they'd had you guys, and one of them piped up with "white hair Geri teacher!" Looks like you are fondly remembered :)

** Addendum: one of the boys came up to me later and shouted "YOU KNOW NIL?? WHERE IS NIL???" (apparently he does not have a dial for volume control) and it took me a while to figure out he was saying "Neil" and not talking about some new K-pop band.**

Oh and against all probability, class 2-8 is once again looking to be the worst behaved. *sigh*
But I've also been told that I'm going on the 2nd year excursion this year (to the same place as last time) and my 2nd year co-teacher has a homeroom class with some of my favourite girls from last year so I'm quite looking forward to it. Hopefully our VP doesn't come with us like last year though.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm going to try and stay offline as much as possible for the rest of today and tomorrow so that I can get through some work.  ♥'s to everyone though - if you're in Korea, get outside and enjoy the lovely sunshine!

*** So much for staying offline. I had to come back on to add these student gems from my last class todayMe: What are some differences between elementary school and middle school?
Gyeong-Cheon: Elementary school teachers are very nice, but middle school teachers are very scary.
Jin-Su: Middle school time is 5 minutes plus. Oh no! (Middle school classes are 5 minutes longer than in Elementary school).

Me: What are some things that you are lucky to have?
Sang-Hyeop: We are very lucky to have met Amy teacher!
Me: (laughing) Awww! Thankyou... but that probably remains to be seen.
Sang-Hyeop: ... what?
Yeong-Ho: No, we always lucky to see you! Because we see you only one time a week.

Haha, I couldn't figure out if Yeong-Ho meant that as a compliment or not so I just gave them class points and changed the topic ^_^ Class 1-4 (first year boys) were already my favourites because they actually talk, but I love them even more now that they can make me laugh. They are classic!***