Perhaps I gave you the impression that I dislike ALL my kids.

This isn't true. Yesterday I was just venting about the day ahead of me--Wednesdays beat me down, and this one definitely did. But Tuesdays and Thursdays--I like those kids a lot. I have one difficult class, but I know how to maintain it. It's my turf, I understand certain things.

Anyway, today I have a bunch of great kids. My favorite class is one where everybody gets really excited about role playing. They have so much fun getting up in front of class and acting out the story, which makes me really happy, because some of the other classes just get bored with it. There is one kid in this class who insists on saying "YES SIR CAPTAIN" every time I tell him to do anything. And when they need to, they work quietly, which is a blessing.

My two older classes on Tuesday and Thursday are fun too. Sometimes I can't control the last class, but it's because they fight all the time. And the one kid is bigger than me. The little kid provokes him, and then the big kid attacks him. So flat out, next time I'm just going to tell him that I'm not stopping the fight if the little kid says mean stuff. ^^; That's a terrible teacher move, but what am I supposed to do? My coworker was telling me, actually, that their little brothers are in our school too, and they are also friends, haha. Anyway I get the feeling that these two are the best of friends, and will be that way their whole lives. And that's something I like to see. That class is a lot of fun, when I can actually control them. 

Anyway, I DO like some of my kids. I just dread Wednesdays. You got my residual fear and frustration yesterday. But there is another thing too.. I am realizing that I am the TEACHER. Which is really new to me. I like to hang out with kids--especially the older ones. I feel bad for making them do work that they find boring and irrelevant. Because I know how *I* would behave--I would ignore that teacher and roll my eyes and complete the work just to say "Look I am smarter than your stupid book." And I have students that do that. But I haven't figured out how to fix that yet. So really what it is, is that these bored students make me feel like a bad teacher. Because really, I don't CARE if they do their work or not, so long as they understand me when I talk to them. But they aren't paying tons of money to come here to hang out. Their parents want to see results, and that means paper book work. I want to see understanding, and that definitely does not come from the books. Anyway, I have a whole 11 more months to figure out how this works. And the perks of the situation are that I have a great boss, and I got PAID today, which is fan-freakin-tastic, because I haven't been paid anything since June 30.

Speaking of getting paid! Yesterday I had a bank-account-creating adventure! .. Well I guess it wasn't really an adventure. But I learned the word for bank (은행). Being able to read is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself before you come over here. If you can read, it's so much easier to teach yourself simple words. If you go to a place, you can remember what you get. If you can't understand how to pronounce something, you can write it. If you need to tell a taxi driver where to go, you can write it, instead of trying to get him to struggle through your accent.

OH! And speaking of Taxi drivers!! I had a LADY taxi driver yesterday! A Lady! I've never had a lady taxi driver! I just imagined that she was the queen of badass back at the taxi lair. She was just an older lady--not a grandmother yet, but her kids were grown up, probably my mom's age. She wore driving gloves and I bet she could sock some people pretty bad. I thought it was so cool. :D

And today is the last day of work before a FOUR DAY WEEKEND. Yes, PLEASE, folks. And even better... Stephanie is coming!! Woo!! I also met another religious studies major last night, which was great! He said he went to a temple stay that was actually an "international" temple, which means that there were American folks there, and so their English was impeccable--and they could explain the meaning of things. I am so excited to do that. .. Now I feel bad because I can't remember the guy's name. But I remember his face. It was nice, though. I met a lot of new folks last night. We went out to the other side of the city, where my coworker's sister lives. I recognized a few things from when I went to my Ghanaian friend's apartment (I think, but it was dark), so I think it was in that general direction. Older part of the city. More oomph on the streets. There are a lot of fun and interesting people over there, and I saw a lot of new faces. Including this guy from Brainerd! What? :D Another Minnesota face. People said that there were a lot of folks from Minneapolis here; haha, I said "You know, it is a bigger city than people give it credit for."

Had my first drink of Soju, but it was a little sip. Pretty.. yeah gross. But then again, from what people told me about Palm Wine, it can't be grosser than that. :D Cuz it's certainly not like drinking bacon.