Well on my way....

Well, I've added a week's worth of time...I'm getting there. Only what, 3 more weeks, and then I'll be caught up? Something like that. Anyway, now, for some more random journaled thoughts from Tori. Ahem...

July 8
School today was fine, aside from the sweating I did all day! I really enjoy teaching with Olivia. She's so animated, and the kids really seem to enjoy her teaching. It's good when you can tell that the kids like and respect their teacher. Tonight I went with Deborah, LeeEllen, David, Dr. Han, Dr. Kim, and one other professor to a high school to speak about KNU's English Dept. We were posing as KNU professors, which is kind of funny. We got into groups with kids and they asked us questions. Then they had to recite what they knew about us in sentence form. I had an enthusiastic group of girls that were into music-they were stoked when they heard that I was a music teacher. Oh, and I got asked my blood type...again! Haha! After that we went with Dr. Han to McD's for ice cream, and Dr. Kim asked me to proofread a paper for him...here's a little preview. The title is "A Corpus-based Lexical Analysis of the Text of Speech: A Collocational View." Yeah, I'm going to enjoy this....

July 9
Today, it rained. Turns out it's monsoon season here right now! So, I put on my rainboots, opened my umbrella & headed out the door. Oh, sidenote, they must not have the same superstitions here about umbrellas, because I see people opening them inside all the time! I found out today that the women in my school play badminton and the men play this foot volleyball game. It's like volleyball, but with a tennis net and you play with your feet instead of your hands. Tonight I did laundry, and I found out that at the end of a load, the washer plays a little victory song. It's funny...the washer just does its thing, as if to say "You have set the challenge before me to clean your clothes and BEHOLD...I am victorious!" Haha...it's the little things in life.

July 12
I had the most restless sleep last night! From nightmares about messing up at school to the buzzing of a mosquito in my ear, I'd find myself waking up time and time again scratching my skin (really hard). I still don't know, as I sit here fully coherently, what was wrong with my skin! Weird. Anyway, it POURED rain this morning. It's been raining pretty much all day, but it seemed to rain just a bit harder as we tried to make out way across campus to church. We met a girl at church today named Jolie, and she's Korean-American. It's always funny whenever you see a Korean-American here...it totally takes you off guard! It's like wait a second...you're speaking English...fluently...with an American accent. Haha.

July 13
I just have to say that it's wonderful that Koreans use the same calendar system as the US. I just find slight comfort in being able to look at the calendar and not have to use my brain to decifer. So there's this pet peeve of mine...mouth noises. I can't stand when people make unecessary noises with their mouths. The unfortunate thing about that is that Koreans are LOUD eaters. The even more unfortunate thing about that is that there's a lady in my office who is really nice....and REALLY loud when she eats. It drives me bonkers, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. On a different note, I had a really good God experience yesterday in church. We sang the song Blessed Be Your Name, which I think we've sang all 3 Sundays since we've been here. My favorite part of that song has always been where we sing "You give and take away...my heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be Your name." I just started thinking about the critical attitude I've had toward church here and how I was stuck on the fact of missing "real worship" and my church. However, when I think of all I've been "given" when that was "taken away," I rejoice in God's blessings. God has given me such an awesome opportunity, and with that things will be taken away. But I made the choice yesterday in church to accept those changes and say Blessed be Your name. I had to consciously decide to allow my heart to choose to follow His will for me . It's a very freeing feeling though...duh Tori.
As I sit here at my desk waiting for my next class, I remember that I've yet to tell you the conclusion to my skin-itching mystery. I woke up today with HUGE mosquito bites all over me. Huge probably because I scratched them to death that night! So, I just counted, and I have 34 bites, just on my arms...maybe more, but there's 34 that I can see. The mosquitos here are ridiculous! Jenny says I have sweet blood...haha. Ok, let's take this moment to talk about corporal punishment, AKA discipline in Korean schools. I'm REALLY not sure what I think of this. It's such an odd concept to me that it doesn't seem good..but is it? Is it even better than American schools' punishment systems? I have seen kids get paddled, do squats, get whacked by a stick or knuckles on their heads, chest, back and hands. It seems to me that either this method doesn't work, that there are a lot of kids who misbehave, or that the teachers are more strict with who gets punished for what...because there are constantly kids in the office getting their punishment from the previous class. I don't know, but either way, the verdict's still out on my decision on the issue. At the end of my day today I got to help this girl who's preparing for a singing competition in English. So I got to help here sing with correct English pronunciation...isn't that fun? Granted, the song she was singing was "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, but nonetheless...it was fun to be back in the element of music in school! Tonight I'm hoping that I don't get eaten alive again by mosquitoes!!!