Spiders; Headache; Dream Date; In2Books

Ally was funny on Monday. There was a spider on the wall so she asked me to kill it. I explained that spiders eat mosquitoes and that it wouldn't hurt her, but she refused to study with it in the classroom. I got some tissue and grabbed the spider and took it outside to let it go. I didn't take it all the way outside, but only to the stairs. When I came back into class Ally asked me where I had put the spider, and she made a big deal out of how when she went home the spider would get her, so she made me agree to walk down the stairs with her. After class she took my hand and we ran down the stairs together. She's so silly!

Also in that class Jenny, as her usual talkative self, was chattering on about whatever she chatters about, and asked me the word for a "girl uncle." It's "aunt," don't you remember?

The heat in the Pineapple classroom caused/contributed to a horrid headache. I thought I was going to die. After the 4 PM class I took some ibuprofen but the headache persisted throughout the next three classes, on the bus, and even at home. When I woke up today it was still there, but in a much milder form. Most of the day it didn't bother me, but began to get stronger in the evening. What's up? Anyway, the headache left me totally unable to do anything at home Monday night--I went to bed incredibly early. That left me scrambling after adult class today to prepare for the next "How to Write an English Diary" class. I got it done in time, largely because I already had some stuff printed out from earlier this year. Today's topic was punctuation and capitalization, things the kids attending the class probably already know, but other students ignore.

The adults' homework was to describe either their dream date, a real date from the past, or a date they take with their husbands. It's a little weird having that topic in a class where everyone is married! Grace's was about a guy she knew in university and how he was poor so they just went on walks as a date. He believed that if he climbed Namsan (a moutain in Seoul, I think) 100 times that his wish would come true. She never learned his wish, but she did climb the mountain with him--100 times! Jennifer wrote something that sounded like a cross between Cinderella and a romance novel. By the third or fourth sentence I started to blush, wondering where she was going with it. It stayed decent enough, and ended with, "To be continued." I told her I was expecting the continuation next class! They misused a couple of idioms in class. They were trying to describe someone who is agreeable or easygoing, in Korean a "yes man" but Grace said an "easy guy." NO! I laughed, and explained what it means to say that someone is "easy."

At 2 PM there's a new 12-year-old with the five 9-year-olds (Western ages 11 and 7-8). It's just for summer vacation, but the difference between kids at those ages is immense. Physically, but mentally, too. The younger kids understand and catch on to English a lot faster, learning less from the book and more naturally, but they're also little monkeys. The older boy sat in his chair for the entire class, but if he didn't understand every word of what I said, then he refused to answer the question. I got tired of repeating myself.

My 6 PM class that is normally pretty good was absolutely horrible today. The boys were passing notes and playing around. I put Cleo outside of class for a long time because I was close to killing him, then I kept four of the boys after class to copy the story into their notebooks, which took about 5 minutes.

The next class that is normally bad was excellent. Has the earth started spinning in the opposite direction?! They got a little too hyper when we started playing a game at the end, but otherwise they listened, they read, they spoke, they did nearly everything they were supposed to!

The In2Books thing is insane. I had originally replied (back in May or June) that I would do another year. I didn't hear anything further from them until 8/3 when I got an email with the subject line, "URGENT! Your Introductory Package is Due August 13!" Then the following day I got another email titled "Your Introductory Project is due {taskDueDate}!" That email said that my deadline had already passed but there was still time to submit the materials. If I hadn't received my welcome package yet, I should contact them. I wasn't ready for another year of getting materials late or not at all, so I sent them an email on Saturday (8/7). I thought about going into how unorganized they are and how they don't understand how long international mail can take, but just said that I didn't have the time to devote to the program this year (which is true, when they give me short deadlines or I have to go searching the web to find enough info about a book that I haven't read to write two letters about it pretending that I've read it).

On Monday (8/9) I received the welcome package, postmarked 7/22, with a letter in it dated 6/8 that gave a deadline of 6/28 for the welcome package. Goodness! This one had my correct address on it, but it had another sticker on it that said South Africa. Someone is really confused about their geography. At least before they sent it to Asia (China). Where did "Africa" come from?! I don't know that it made a stop there, but it couldn't have sped the package along when two different country names were on it! No response from my email, as they're probably busy getting things organized and there's really no response to make. I felt a little bad about bailing out after I had already said yes, but I really can't deal with the lack of organization, especially with finishing my contract soon, and possibly doing a little traveling, then returning home. Things may be a little crazy and I don't need any added craziness.