Adventure is Everywhere!

I would like to start my post by saying Happy Birthday to my dad! I love you!!

So this past week was Nick's first week teaching in a class room. He did a fantastic job and all of his students loved him. We decided as a teaching team to give Nick the highest level of English students because he did not have teaching experience yet. Here is Nick's account of his week:

The week went really well.  I had 11 kids who were all around 15 years old.  It is amazing to me that at that age they already understand another language well enough to have an effective conversation with someone in that language, albeit a brief one, it is still better than I can manage. 

I focused my lessons on expanding their vocabulary and getting them comfortable speaking with a native English speaker, and I did that by working on describing things.  I first had them describe food, then art, then music.  I think my class really enjoyed my class they even found me right before they left for a class picture.  For some of them it was the last time they would ever attend classes at CEV.  I hope that I made it a good week and a half for them.

I, on the other hand, had the lowest level. Most of my students had never been to our school (because they were too young). I had a rather challenging week but I enjoyed it. I grew a lot and Nick really helped me. Our classes met together for one period and his students helped my students learn about the season winter. They all colored pictures in an easy reader and then gave it to their buddy and helped them learn to read it. At the end of class the younger students could read the book in English. Here are some pictures of that activity.

It was such an awesome day!!

Another thing that made my week so amazing is this.......

I FINALLY HAVE AN OVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been living without an oven for two months and I am very grateful to have this, even though it is small. (Yes it is a toaster oven)

We have already cooked pizza, cookies, and butter toast in it. It took me a while to get the settings down, they are in Korean, and it is in Celsius not Fahrenheit. 

Saturday we went to Homeplus with Adam and Shae for some much needed shopping.

I saw this and had to take a picture. The only words you can see on the right are BABY MAKER. In the top right corner it looks like two people kissing and the print going down the left side says, IDEAL FOR WEANING BABY. I have no idea what this could be other than a wooden spoon.

We also saw this crab that was not happy to be in this tank. He kept trying to get out. We touched him and he went back in and then tried again.

On our way home, when you get on the freeway, there is not a stop sign or light, it is just a place where you play chicken while driving. Well this yellow van tried to go against traffic and up the ramp where cars were coming down to get on our road.. We couldn't stop laughing nor could we get the camera out in time. The van passed us on the freeway and I had to take a picture because the crazy lady had a van full of children.

In our bathroom we have started a theme. In the back corner behind me you can see some green people holding our loofas. I got them for Nick during our Christmas break. Today we found these people. They hold our tooth brushes... oh and Nick put his razor up there as well.

When we got back home from Homeplus we scheduled a double date with Adam and Shae. We walked down the street to ate at the beef and leaf (Don't know the Korean name) place. They bring a bunch of raw beef and sides and we cook it on the grill. I ate a lot of new things including the food in the picture below. It was so good and we aren't sure what it was. Shae was pretty sure that it was a fish cake cut up. Whatever it was I was in love!

This is the dish, it comes with all this stuff. This is just one order of it, and it is large enough for 4 people to share. For some reason I was in an experimenting mood and discovered some of the food was really good. One thing I really enjoyed was cabbage with some kind of vinegar on it. Another thing was the seaweed looking leaf. I put some goodies in it and down it went. Here is a picture of it.

My,"I'm not sure I want to do this" face!

Okay it is wrapped and ready to go, nervous smile.

Not bad, actually it was pretty good.. I had another one!

After dinner Nick was in the mood for ice cream and we decided to join him. We walked to our GS 25 (little convenience store) and the ice cream was 2+1 (buy 2 get 1 free) Nick got chocolate ice cream in a tub and is happy to report that it did not taste like kimchi! However, he did say "Lauren you should caption this picture with this "when Nick opened his ice cream the Cyclops ninja called to him."" 

I had been looking for this fish everywhere. I heard it was super good, and it was! Never thought I would like red bean paste but there have been a few things I have eaten with it and loved it!