December post?

As my dear, wise, and loving older brother Benjamin has pointed out to me, I have not posted anything for December yet. So here is a short attempt, anyway.

Korea is still treating me just fine. I'm enjoying weekends of sight-seeing, culture immersion, and shopping. This weekend I am planning on doing a lot of my Christmas shopping with my good friend Tiffany, as well as some girls from work. We might also hit up Forever 21 for our own shopping. :)

Work has been quite stressful this week. Tension has been high in the school because a new English school has opened up around the corner and we've lost some students. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about everything, but the Christmas break is coming at an impeccable time.

I finally got to part ways with my Class of Terrors, and, let me assure you, no tears were shed upon this departure. I also had to let go of my favorite class, but I think it was a fair enough trade because I inherited two really, really good classes, full of students who are sweet and obedient. Now ALL my classes on Monday/Wednesday/Friday are enjoyable. Praise God.


What else, what else.........................

I'm really enjoying teaching my students about Christmas. Either they all really love Christmas too, or my enthusiasm is contagious. At any rate, my classroom is totally decked out in Christmas decorations. We had a paper-snowflake-making day, and my second graders attacked my door with pictures of Christmas trees and Santa Claus. I have tinsel hung up and wrapped around anything you can imagine in the classroom, and tomorrow I do believe we are going to make paper stockings to hang up with each student's name on them, for when Santa comes, of course!! Santa and I, we're friends. So I managed to convince him to come to Suwon on Dec. 22 AND Dec. 23 to deliver presents for the kids (granted, I hear he's going to be relatively cheap this year and probably only leave some candy in the stockings). It should be a fun last two weeks.

Tiffany and I are planning our vacation for the Chinese New Year (January 29). We're leaning toward Taiwan right now. Our first choice had been Thailand, but there are some protests going on there right now that closed the airports...plus it's a little too far away for a four day weekend. Our other option is Japan, but we both agree that Taiwan would be a little more interesting and cheaper. I'll let ya'll know as those plans progress.

I hope this update is sufficient for now. More interesting posts later, I promise!

Love,

Melissa