sorry for the silence

Just wanted to briefly make an excuse for our very irregular posts and lack of photos. Our computer is still broken, so I'm afraid sitting down and finding time to write a post in the internet cafe has been difficult. Also, I haven't figured out how to download our photos onto a online album from the internet cafe, so no photos yet, but they will come!

We are thinking of all of you and still love getting emails and news from home!

Red Rover's resurgence

There is nothing like playing with kindergarteners. They are precious. We have short afternoon classes with our kindergarten students and on Fridays I teach the gym class. I used to dread these classes a bit because of how wild the kids were--I basically spent 3/4 of an hour yelling myself hoarse and running around like a madwoman trying to keep 30 5 year-olds from seriously maiming one another.

Fortunately, with the kindy graduation, the 7 boys we called the Wolf Pack have moved on an 8 new and slightly less maniacal children have joined our kindy classes. Now, Gym is like the MOST FUN I HAVE EVER HAD! I spend the rest of the day enjoying the subsequent elation and twittering to anyone that will listen about how awesome our students are. Ryan's been coming in with me for extra support and we do lots of silly stretching and jumping and running with the kids and they're so funny! Some of them can't coordinate a jumping jack and others can't balance on one foot so they fall all over the place and giggle. And then they love to just run around and dance, and a couple always want to hold hands with me, so we'll just hold hands and run around in circles laughing.

The most fun though, has been playing Red Rover. Do you remember it? So much fun. The students actually grasped it really quickly and got really into it. This week, my team was the Strong Rainbow Dragons and Ryan's was the Horse Dragons (dragons obviously being very popular right now). Of course, there is all the normal running and pushing and screaming, but the funniest part is seeing how each kid reacts differently. The most precious little girl in my class named Claire, who is always blissfully calm and sweet, skipped over when the other team called her name and made a very feeble but good-natured attempt to push through the other team's defenses. Then one tiny boy, who I wasn't really sure even understood what the whole point of the game was, dashed over to my team and went right under my arms to get to the other side. It was so funny and clever that I couldn't really scold him for his efforts.

If you have need for a great laugh and some very good fun, Red Rover is really the thing. Of course, just acting like a five year old for a short while will do the job, too.

Good Guys and Bad Guys

The Korean War. Sometimes, when the class curriculum runs stale, I ask my kids about the war. I ask whose grandparents fought in it, whose parents talk about it, what they learn in school. It is amazing that this is one topic that the kids never get tired of discussing. The other day I asked a class of three above average 6th grade girls to tell me what they know about the history of the war. Surprisingly, they are quite knowledgeable for being early teens, but they understandingly tell a different story than the ones I know. I had them write a short paper on "The good guys and the bad guys in the Korean War." Here they are, completely unedited:

"In the korean war, I think 김구(Kim-Gu), UN, USA, MacCarther were good team but 김일성(Kim Il-Sung), 이승안(Lee Sung-An), USSR, China were bad team. Kim-Gu wanted one goverment in one country so he hated to do 38 line but Lee Sung-An said its ok because he only belived USA and no thinking. USSR and China helped Kim Il-Sung who made North Korea. so they attacked 25th, June 4 o'clock on morning. USA and UN helped SK but in BuSan, MacCather, who can fly with airplane, come to Incheon and fighted with communist so we went up. In that time China came Korea so we made 38 line, which is a cease line." -Anna, 11

"In the Korean war, I think Kim Il-Sung, Russia, Japan are the Bad people because Kim Il-Sung caused the Korean war. He wanted to have South Korea's territory so he caused the war with Soviet Union (Russia). Also, Soviet Union, which is named Russia, persuaded North Korea so they united together. Plus, Japan is the bad guy too, because before the Korean war Japan controlled Korea. Then, suddenly USA did something to Japan so Japan went to their country. Koreans, thought that USA helped Korea. However, USA and RUSSIA fought." -Sandy, 11

"In Korea war there were many countries who spent military to help us, so Korea can exist until now. Russia helped North Korea, who were communist, to support weapons and give military. In our text book, North Korea attack South Korea first, so we had to escape from communistary to Busan. While we were escaping many people died from NK & Russia. Therefore I think NK and Russia were bad and NK, which is communism, is bad. For that reason, NK killed their citizens, they lied to nations and attacked SK first. Also, China is bad too because they support NK while we were won." -Jane, 12