Greetings friends and family! Maria here from the other side of the world. It's 10:30 at night here, so you might be just starting your day in the good ol' U S of A.

We are slowly adjusting to our new weekly schedule. I'm not going to lie, it is significantly more work than we were expecting. We leave for work around 11:30am, then we usually get home around 9:45pm. I eat lunch and dinner at school. Our director's mother makes our lunch for us every day, so I'm experiencing the real thing every day. It's usually really good. Today I bit into something green, only to find that my mouth was on fire like I ate the hottest hot pepper there is. My throat didn't stop burning for 10 minutes! It was crazy.

Like I mentioned before, my students are so smart. I feel bad giving them homework because I know they have so much homework already, and most go to several other hogwans (specialized schools) after regular school, each one giving them homework. I don't know how they have time to do any of it. Most of them are very enthusiastic about learning English, but that doesn't mean that they are all that much better behaved than American kids. I was expecting only perfect angels before getting here, but I have since realized that, well, kids are kids. They are loud. They aren't allowed to speak Korean in my school, and if they do it 3 times I have to take them to the director who makes them write "I will not speak Korean in class" 100 times. My hand hurts just thinking about it. They also use corporal punishment here when kids are really poorly behaved. They have to stand with their hands straight in the air for 3 or 5 minutes, or they get hit on the hand. It's not so bad. Just think how much better my Afterschoolers would have been if I could threaten them with such things. HA! Also, heard my student's think I look like Julia Roberts. I'm OK with that.

In other news, they drink this cactus juice here that is SO GOOD! It has little pieces of floating cactus pulp in it, and it is so sweet. I've asked if there is much sugar in it, but alas, they don't mark such things on packages here. Let me tell you, ignorance is bliss.

Oh, we've just found out that we have a separate address for packages. Let us know if you want that address.

That's all for now. Have a great day!