The "Orientation"...

Well, this has certainly been an interesting weekend! We started the weekend on the right foot by having Bev & Joanna over for a Gran Torino 'screening' on Friday...followed by some tasty ribs that evening with our buddy Jim. One important note about Jim...he reads my blog faithfully and knows all of the characters from the Housewives of the OC ...his favorite is Vickie...just fyi! :-)

The attached photo is a building being reflected in another building...Hong Kong. This was an 'artistic' photo attempt!

Saturday we went for my Kindergarten orientation. Chris went with me (just to make sure I made it) and he explored that part of Seoul while I had the meeting. The group consisted of 4 Korean men wearing nice suits/ties, 3 Canadian guys wearing t-shirts/jeans, 1 Canadian (OSU grad) wearing a dress-shirt/tie (and being ridiculed by the other guys), 1 British gal wearing an off-the-shoulder blouse, me (dressing appropriately of course!) , and another very talkative American. :-) The two Korean gals who appear to be coordinating the program are both graduates of US Universities...1 from NYU (Modern Dance) and the other from MSU (I have no idea what her area of study was...but she seemed to have had a really fun college experience!) She just kept saying "I love the Spartans!" Anyway, we were welcomed by the Korean gentlemen with the NYU grad giving us an English translation. Then we all bowed and the fellows exited the room. Now...I was face to face with these Canadian guys who seemed to know a lot about teaching...inline skating...and hockey (but I'm sure more than that!) The gal to my right started asking questions right off the bat about getting these kids reading in 100 days or something like that...the tallest/most athletic of the group said "Well, to be honest, working on the letter "A" could burn up a whole month"..."they are only 3 and 4 "...silence followed...the Korean gals tried to redirect the conversation and mentioned something about 'flash cards" being helpful. I became thankful that I would be mostly involved with the music program and swimming....and introducing these kids to English in a positive/fun/functional way....hopefully! Once I had a better understanding of the goals...I could see why these sports minded guys were recruited...plus the kids went wild over the guys, when we were asked to introduce ourselves and give a little background. The two Korean ladies mentioned that they hoped the kids were not scared of the big guys....and I wondered how they would respond also. When one of them finished speaking, a young boy in the back yelled "See you soon!" (They loved him!) The auditorium was packed with parents and children...all on a Saturday morning...it was nice to see so much enthusiasm for learning! (Or maybe they were curious to see who in the heck these Westerners were!) The only instructor I was unsure about said he was a dual Citizen of US/Canada...and appeared to have just stumbled out of a disco and into this orientation. He smelled like a combination of Soju and a pack of cigarettes....it's going to be an interesting year. :-)

One final 'funny' of the day. When the Korean gals were giving us instructions regarding the importance of smiling, being on-time for class, and being prepared...she mentioned to one of the Canadians..."please bring your speedo"....the look on his face was hilarious...he went from looking like 'I'm a cool hockey dude" to utter fear at the thought of donning a Speedo for his swimming class (I'll be in the same class...can't wait!). She did clarify and said "or swimming pants"...:-)