Je ne sais pas

Hola mis amigos!

Como estas? I am decent enough, thanks for asking:) Here in Cheongju the new semester has started and I continue to freeze my buns off.......

After my week-long vacation, I was ready to kick off the new semester. I am really pleased with my classes; all of the kids seem well-behaved and at least partially interested in learning English. As each class was spent introducing materials and ourselves, the week was quite low stress. I am pretty excited to try some new lessons out and hopefully inspire some learning. As I have mentioned before, Korean kids are so overwhelmed with endless hours of school that they are oftentimes disillusioned with education. It saddens me that young kids could already dislike their education, so I do my best to create an interactive classroom and encourage participation.

On a side note I wanted to say I am extremely grateful for Dunkin Donuts. Without Dunkin Donuts my life would be significantly less pleasant. Besides my morning bagel, they fuel my new coffee interest and supply a convenient location for my Korean-culture investigations. So thank goodness for Dunkin Donuts! (and no I was not payed for advertisement)

Besides work, I have been focusing on Thanksgiving preparations. As I am in Korea, procuring the necessary Thanksgiving items, is a slight challenge. I think that in many ways being removed from your country makes national holidays more salient. It seems like less of a commercial event and much more an important tradition. So, I really want to create a true Thanksgiving for my coworkers. I think that being away from our loved ones, all of us are going to be sad, and thus having something similar to home will be quite crucial.

This weekend, reading at Dunkin Donuts and observing several Korean couples, I noticed that Korean women seem to transcend the men. Most of them are so perfectly dressed and stunningly beautiful, that their wiry sweethearts seem inferior. Yet, I find their interactions adorable! The younger men, maybe realizing their girlfriends stature, are constantly tending to the women's needs and desires. However, the older men appear indifferent or dispassionate towards their wives. I wonder what encourages this dwindling interest that the men demonstrate. I guess I must continue to observe and make guesses...................

Well the new week has begun and school is going to return to full-speed. I will be thinking of everyone at home as I grade papers and teach English conversation:)

All of my Love,
-Holly-