kimchi chine

If you count winning a small battle in an ongoing power struggle with 5 year olds a success... Which I do so... I think I've already mentioned how much I hate my first class of the day. They're loud, rude, and generally do not listen at all. The teacher for that class loves them but mysteriously spends her time outside of the classroom whenever they're there. So basically it's my everyday goal to make one of ten cry and send a message (I don't wish this on any other class mind you. Whenever I make a kid cry, which is often, I usually feel really bad) So you know I have the tonsillitis, and yesterday I was forced to come in and teach so I was not happy at all. Plus I had just taken my medicine that makes me nausious... So the kids start acting up as usual and all of my usual tactics for settling them down were not working (I used my scary voice/face, moved the kids.. Nothing!) so I decide I'm going to tell on them (yeah lame I know but I didn't care). I s...

So clearly November has not been my strong month for publishing posts. Sorry about that, I've been busy with Swine flu and tonsillitis and generally hating my job (but what 22 year old doesn't hate their job, right).  Let's start from the beginning of the month, shall we... The month started with really fucking high winds and below freezing temperatures.  It was like we completely skipped over Fall altogether and screwed us over. Luckily, most Korean style homes have underfloor heating, which is simply marvelous.  I've spent hours upon hours laying on my floor while watching Ghost Whisperer  CNN and feeling warm and fuzzy inside. I'm getting used to city life.  I like that I can either walk or take the subway anywhere here.  The public transportation is great.  Not having to drive a car everyday is nice and I feel so green too! I often worry about how much my driving skills are deteriorating day by day, but whatever, northern Va drivers aren't good...

So we're learning countries today and the kids just have the darndest things to say! When introducing Korea they, of course, scream the loudest, haha. But this little girl, Letty, is in one of my classes and she knows quite a bit of English (just the other day we had a full conversation about her going to the dentist to get a tooth pulled... Keep in Ind my kids are Korean age 6... Western age 5) but I know her mother is Chinese/English and obvously knows English vey well. So we're talking about where we're from and everyone says Korea (she was born here as well) and I say america and everyone finds that hysterical (kindergartener are so easy to entertain). Anyway Letty comes up to me after class and confirms that I'm from America, and then starts saying other people are from there too. And then she says "Daddy is from Korea," and I ask "Where is Mommy from?" and she says she doesn't know and I point to china and say "Who's from China?...

I've been hearing this song everywhere since I first came here in August, and I could not for the life of me figure out who sang it, but today I figured it out! Yay! The song is called "Abracadabra" from Brown Eyed Girl s .  Thought I'd share this with you. I am totally doing the dance right now... don't judge me.

My newest obsession is this Korean drama called You're Beautiful.  It is about the behind-the-scenes look at an idol boy band. The newest member, Go Mi Nam, is actually a girl pretending to be her twin brother while he's away in America getting his eye surgery fixed.  So that his absence does not cause a scandal for him, she secretly portrays him whilst picking up his quest to find their long-lost mother who abandoned them in an orphanage so many years ago.  How long can she keep her secret hidden?  What will happen to her relationships with the band members, the fans, and herself? Well, I don't actually know yet, but I'm super excited to find out.  Here's a clip of it, and though it is in Korean, the acting is so over-the-top that you'll be able to follow along like the best telenovelas around! This happens to be the part that I stumbled upon while flipping through the channels a few weeks ago...

Oh my goodness, this was the funniest thing.  My school had exercise day in our auditorium last week, and the little kids were sooo cute! I took as much video/pictures as my little phone could handle before running out of memory.  Anyway, these little ones in the videos are the kids that I actually teach... I like the light green class the best.  The dark green class, the ones that unfortunately kept winning, I like the least... the VERY least. Anyway, enjoy the videos/pics.  Absolute highlight of the day, (and I really wish I had gotten video of this) was when the 5 year olds (Western age 4-year-olds) were racing, and one of the boys, Jae-ho, was in the lead, and then lost his footing. He didn't fall, but he fell behind and lost the race and then burst into tears!  It was sooo cute! Vlog 5.1: Exercise Day from Chine Anikwe on Vimeo . Hit the jump for more video and pictures.

Sooooo, it turns out that the doctor may have been right about the whole flu thing.. go figure.  Not only did I work through the pain all last week without treatment, but developed bronchitis and mysteriously half of Purple class (one of about 4 groups of classes that I teach) was absent last Friday.  Something about the flu.  Anyway, I still maintain the fact that they gave it to me.  Now, I'm holed up in my apartment for 7 days (well, about 4 more now) because in SK, anyone who contracts the disease must quarantine themselves for 7 days to protect the general public. Sigh. What have I been doing for these past few days? Mostly sleeping. And watching both good and bad TV.  Example of good TV? The Real Housewives of New York City 2 (haha, sooo good). Bad TV? Ghost Whisperer... I am still so ashamed.  Also! I've been reading through these FABULOUS magazines that Jo sent me and eating chocolate and cookies... and then feeling like I'm going to throw up beca...