Monkeys at the Zoo

Hello all! Maria here.

I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how difficult they technicalities of Internet usage are in Korea since all of the the basic computer functions are in Korean. We have to guess what the words mean based on our memory of the order of things like copy or paste, etc. I have already deleted this once by guessing on how to rotate the picture below. Since I am pretty tired I'm just going to let you turn your head to view it. I hope you don't mind!

We have survived our first two days of work!

Since Ethan's school is small and brand new his director wanted him to shadow classes at my school (which is bigger and more established) this week.

It was fun to experience our first couple days in a school together. Most of the students reacted to us in one of the following ways

1. startled: jumping when they first saw us, and then any time they saw us come around a corner or enter a room, etc. (even when they had already seen us several times that day.)

2. running away and hiding

3. giggling profusely

4. shouting hello, hi or how are you over and over again

4. Some gathered their composure and asked us "what is your name," then when we spoke ran and hid

5. Of Ethan, we heard them say "many hair!" meaning that Ethan has a lot of hair on his head and face, but most impressively on his arms. Many kids reached out and touched Ethan's arms in disbelief.

6. Staring at us with their faces plastered to the windows of the teachers' office like we are animals in the zoo.

I taught four classes on my own today, which went pretty well. Definitely interesting. The classes we shadowed or taught were either so excited to have us in them that they were bouncing off the walls, or extra well behaved. Regardless of their behavior, these kids are SMART. It's insane how smart they are. Most are spelling words in English words that American kids of their same age might find difficult. Many times today and yesterday Ethan and I would exchange looks of utter disbelief in their sheer genius. The only thing more impressive is how excessively cute they are. You can't believe it until you see them. We forgot to take pictures of today, but we will soon. It has been a very busy past 2 days! We are so happy it's the weekend!

Top photo: This is a shoe rack. Everyone must take off shoes in the building and go bare footed or wear slippers. It's very cool to see all their shoes neatly aligned.

Bottom photo: The kids all share this cup when they are thirsty.

Thank you all for your e-mails and comments. Hearing from you makes us feel not so far from home.