The moto ride...

If you have ever visited Cambodia or if you've ever had nightmares about the world's scariest roads, then you know how the roads are in Cambodia. Scary pretty much sums it up. Red lights are only suggestions and it doesn't matter that a car/tuk tuk/moto is coming, they will turn anyways. People drive on the wrong side of the road, people don't check mirrors. To anyone who didn't grow up there, it's just chaos! Scary chaos. They can fit a family of 5, or 3 grown men, on a moto. Kinda like this:


Pretty standard to see sleeping babies too and these moto drivers drive like they are not afraid of death! I always said I was way too much of a wuss (or I liked living too much) to ride on the back of a moto. Funny enough, on this particular day, I was even thinking how scared I would be to ride on one through this certain market that we had to take to get back to the home. It was so crowded and people came out of nowhere, which didn't seem to matter to any driver on the road as they kept up their normal speed.

After spending a few hours at a hotel to swim, Vong came to pick me up. He is Remember Nhu's tuk tuk driver. I can't really explain the feeling of panic that swept through me as he motioned to his moto bike that his baby daughter was crawling all over and said, "Sorry, no tuk tuk!" I considered telling him I just wasn't capable of hopping on for this 20-30 minute ride to the end of my life! There wasn't really another option though, and I thought if I could do this, I could do ANYTHING! A little dramatic? Sure, but you have to keep in mind I was about to be dead!

I usually throw the word "terrifying" around lightly, but this was very legitimately TERRIFYING! To be fair, I didn't feel as unstable as I expected and I knew Vong was a good driver. I just didn't trust the other drivers. Then the unthinkable happened...his daughter fell asleep. Of course, neither the little girl nor I had helmets either. I had been holding on pretty tightly to the bar behind me with both hands but now that the child (maybe a year old?) between me and the driver was SLEEPING, someone was gonna have to hold her on!! Here I am, holding a sleeping girl with one hand and gripping the bar behind me with my other hand so tightly thinking, 'Surely this is how I'm going out.' One lady side saddling a passing moto looked at the girl, looked at me, at the girl and back up at me. I gave her a smile that said, "Yeah, isn't my daughter pretty!"

I was trying to look relaxed and natural, like I had done this for years, but I kept imagining how my hand behind me must have looked! I was literally holding on for dear life! It was such a long ride and somehow that girl slept the whole time.

I'll never forget how proud of myself for being alive I was when we rode through the gate at the home. The girls greeted me cheerfully and I handed Vong his still sleeping/still living baby girl.

The moral of the story is...
Apparently, you can trust me with your kids in ANY situation.

Cambodia: the details blog!

Welcome back! This may not be that exciting for all of you and you do not have to read this! I want to tell these stories in detail to my family and Karen and people who were really interested in my trip. Please visit www.remembernhu.org to find out a little more about where these girls came from. Won't be posting any pictures of them here. I will have a lot of pictures in a private album on my facebook. If you are lucky enough to not be blocked, congratulations! haha

If you know anything at all, you know I just went back to Cambodia to visit the most precious little girls. After two years of promising to return and telling everyone around me how much I love them/Cambodia and that I would go back soon, I was finally doing it. I was told the girls did not know I was coming and I was so excited to see their reactions! Turns out they knew, but that didn't make it any less exciting :-)

My final flight that would take me to them was delayed about 2 hours which was a super bummer. I knew everyone would be sleeping and I could only hope the tuk tuk driver Laurie had lined up for me would still be waiting! Thankfully, he was and he was really nice about it. He brought along his son and nephew who were pretty cute. I was WAY beyond excited on the way to the new home. It was raining and I was cold. Weird. I had to keep looking around me to make sure I was actually in Cambodia!

We rolled up to a gate and he called the housemother. I was so impressed with the beautiful new home! The housemother's really nice daughter led me up to the rooms upstairs where everyone was sleeping and I could not believe I was actually there. I was even more happy when she started going up to all the beds looking for Kieu and calling her name! Some of the girls started waking up and one girl looked at me and said, "Erica?" I started to feel terrible...I didn't recognize her! I knew ALL my girls! How could I not remember one?! Then I saw that she was new and had been expecting me. Ah, they all knew I was coming! No problem! Where's my daughter?! They all pointed us to a side room and as I walked in, a very sleepy, very TALL Kieu gave me the hug I had been aching for! I definitely teared up:-) "Mom, I miss you!" she kept saying. I settled in a bit and we talked as I handed a few of the suitcase of gifts I had brought! Then some of the other girls woke up and came to say hello. Nhung, with even better English if that's possible! So tall! I couldn't believe it! The new girl came to hang out. I liked her immediately. I started asking if all the girls were still here. Siphat? Pha Ta? Yep, yep, most of them are still here, they told me. *Phew* . Then Siphat walks in and was just as beautiful as ever! I really wished Karen was with me then (Siphat is Karen's daughter, for those who don't know!). Abby and Yao came in a bit later and I was so impressed with Yao's English! She came to the Haven of Hope only 5 days before we left last time. The girls were so much fun and we stayed up a while. Then they asked, "You go to church tomorrow?" "What time?" "7." Oh my gosh. It was already probably 3am or later and going to a church where I don't understand anything they're saying is hard enough! I did end up having to leave early! We went at 8 and they kept telling me it would be over around 11 or maybe later. I was just way too exhausted and a couple of the girls and I walked home so I could nap.

Ah, don't worry! I won't tell every detail of the week! Here are a few thoughts/stories.

There were a lot of new girls. The home is now a mix of Vietnamese and Cambodian which is kind of a breakthrough because of the new Cambodian housemother. Kieu was super proud to introduce her mom! Some of the older girls who were only around me when Kieu was around kept calling me mom. I'm pretty sure they thought that was my name haha

I was really stupid and did not bring any bug repellent with me. The mosquitoes REALLY enjoyed eating me alive. It became painful and I finally went to the shop close to the house to get the only small package of Off that they had. Later, Kieu and a few other girls went and bought a bunch of the little packets for me somewhere else! They didn't really understand that it was to keep them away, they thought it was more to soothe the itching so they kept just applying the Off for me but I didn't complain!

On Monday, I went to the salon to see those girls. I was pretty sad to hear there were only 4 girls working there now. When it opened, there were 9. When I got there I found 2 of the 4 working there now were not even of the 9 original girls! I was happy to see them though cause I thought they just weren't at the home anymore. The salon also changed locations and some of Nhu's family helps out. I was just glad to see Nhu, big Kieu, Lynn and Chia (who I thought was one of the old girls, Nun, for the longest time! Couldn't believe Chia could be so grown up!). A bunch of the girls came with me and hung out/fell asleep at the salon! It was pretty cute. Pha Ta was all curled up in one of the chairs sleeping away. We went about 9 or 10 and Nhu had to leave for a bit to run some errands or something. I had Chia do my nails while I waited. Told her to surprise me and I ended up with all different color nails! They're pretty great though:-) I told Nhu I wanted her to cut and dye my hair so we sent most of the little girls home since it was gonna take a long (very long) time. I ate lunch with Nhu and a friend of hers and unfortunately that's the most time I was able to spend with Nhu! I pretty much let them pick out my hair color and style and was a little shocked how short Nhu cut it, but I like it! Lynn did most of the work dying my hair. She gave awesome head and shoulder massages too. We all watched part of a hilarious Cambodian zombie movie while waiting for Vong, the faithful tuk tuk driver, to pick us up. Everyone in the home had been looking forward to tonight...I was taking them all out for ice cream:-)
We all enjoyed our time, wreaking havoc on Swensons! I pulled out my visa card to pay and what do they tell me? "We don't take visa." Who doesn't take visa?! I've used this very card in Cambodia before so it's not the whole country. Why wouldn't you take visa? It would have been really funny but I was freakin out thinking I took all these people out and am NOT gonna be able to pay!! Ha! (If Tiff, Lori or Saritha is reading, this may remind you of a time in New York...hahaha) It all worked out fine though.

I decided I wanted to spend a few hours just by myself at a pool to read and relax on Tuesday. Now, I love these girls with my whole heart but I had not had a single second by myself since I arrived! Even when I showered, they would stand outside the door and sing or just wait! So I got a cheap hotel room for a few hours and slept/read by the pool. Stupid move #264986 by Erica Jane: I didn't bring/buy/wear any sunscreen. I knew exactly what would happen...lobster redness! Didn't matter though, I didn't wanna wear 50 spf and risk still being white after the day:-) I only stayed by the pool for 2 hours (even borrowing some sunscreen when I felt my skin starting to boil!) then ate an slept for the rest of the time. I was bright red. I knew this would be the most painful sunburn because of how much the girls hang all over me and would be accidentally/purposely rubbing and scratching the burns! Everybody kept asking if I liked being so red cause I had explained that a lot of westerners like to be tan and that's why I was going. Haha definitely NOT beautiful. **Please refer to next blog post for moto ride story which happened at this point in the week:-)**

Pha Ta was attached (literally attached) to me the whole time. I was relieved, because by the time I left last time she wasn't really that interested! Karen, she still has that attitude!!

Went to the market and bought a TON of rambutan, longon and mangosteen which I had missed almost as much as I missed the girls! haha It was all just as delicious as I remembered and I only wish I would have eaten more mangosteen! Actually, after my very first meal at the home, the sweet cook lady brought out a huge bowl of rambutan. Oh man. It was like she knew...

I mostly just played and hung out. It wasn't nearly as hot as it was last time and I think it's just because there was no yard at the old home so we were inside the whole time and it was so stuffy! This place has a yard and little patio so we were outside with the breeze and the flies...oh so many flies.

I wanted to get the salon girls to come over my last night so I could see them and say goodbye to everyone at the same time! Nhung, Kieu and I went to the internet cafe to charge my camera and iphone (and skyped my mom because Kieu wanted to meet "grandmother" :-), then a ran a few errands and finally went to the bakery to get a cake and some treats for us. When we got back to the house, Yao was doing all the girls' makeup! It was hilarious to see the real little ones with all their makeup. I decided to let them do mine which I realized halfway through was a BAD idea. This was my last night and I knew it was gonna end in tears and now would also end with black running down everyone's face! Could be nice to have some comic relief though!

Sure enough, the tears started to pour and when Kieu looked up at me I couldn't help but laugh! We watched some Korean TV show dubbed into Khmer then went upstairs to say goodbye/cry/try and sleep! I walked into the room to see Kieu cryin her little eyes out and Thao taking pictures of her hahaha. So mean but kinda funny. I thought she was mad at them for it until she told me later, "Mom, Thao take picture me cry. You show grandmother." haha!

Some of them wanted me to wake them up at 5 before I left and some wouldn't let me sleep for a while! We spent some more quality time together and girls kept coming in with random gifts for me. They are all so sweet and have generous, loving hearts. Leaving them is always so hard.
4am came way too fast and I took the coldest shower of my life ha. I couldn't believe how many times I had been cold this week...in Cambodia! Not supposed to happen! Woke some girls up and we waited together downstairs. I just could not believe the week had flown by so quickly. I was glad so many people were awake to see me off though! We ate some ramen together and my heart dropped when my tuk tuk arrived. Laurie told/reminded me before I came that it's better to cry after you leave. The last time was a disaster! Siphat even threw up from crying so hard!! I had never ever cried that much in my life. I mean, everyone was just wailing. It was bad. So I wanted it to be better this time. Kieu was crying pretty hard and I couldn't help but cry a little with her! I hopped in my sweet ride and told them once again that I would see them again, a promise!

As soon as the last girl was out of site, I lost it. I was glad Sopath didn't have mirrors so I could weep in peace! Of course, then I cried again in the airport at a coffee place haha.

Traveled for about 30 hours total (with many adventures during that time!) only to arrive at work for my 8 hour day. I was tired, not feeling great and not stoked to have to work. I was early and the Korean teachers were having a meeting and laughed at my sunburn and how tired I was/looked!

But then the best little voice, "ERIIICAA TEACHER!" And Paul ran right up for the biggest hug ever.

I was sad to leave Cambodia but so glad this is what I came back to:-)

You won't like me when I'm angry...

I am so terribly sorry for ruining all your thousands, nay, MILLIONS of lives by not posting in ages. I have so many stories I want to share and have no excuse for not writing them here! There is one story that I just cannot let you live without any longer. I must tell it and will later blog about all the other fun/frustrating/sad/awesome/great/awful things (I know, I know, I'm always promising!).

You may remember the class I used to refer to as my "evil class." I used to dread the arrival of 2:40 when I would walk in and hate life for 40 minutes. Things changed after Eddie's mom took him out for a few days. Not sure exactly what happened (she said she talked to him about needing to be good...), but anything was better than me tossing him out a window. Since the change, I absolutely ADORE this class. They can still be a little naughty but I now look forward to the sweet, cuddly hugs and kisses and little voices shouting, "I LUB you Erica Teacher!" Do you remember Ryan?

He's always been a great student and truly adorable. When I taught him during the promo classes, I saw the first bits of the Power Ranger in him. The kids here love Power Rangers and I love when they become them! Well, one day during class, Ryan was angry. I had no idea what his problem was, but he kept yelling at the other kids when they would answer in English and telling them (in Korean) NOT to speak English! I could not figure out what the issue was but thought it was kind of funny.

Then it happened...

The transformation began with a wrinkle in his tiny nose.

He wrinkled his nose as much as a nose so small could wrinkle and then I heard a low growl.

He was looking right at one of the other students who had just used English!

I gave up teaching because watching a kindergartner turn into a power ranger is way more entertaining.

The next thing I knew, Ryan jumped out of his chair saying something about Power Rangers and BAM, he was in a pose quite similar to this one (actually you can just pick one, as he was in each pose at some point during his fighting scene):

It was just about the most amazing thing I've ever seen! I have NO idea why he was so angry about everyone speaking English during English class but it got better...

As he slowly turned back into Ryan the student, he walked back to his chair to TRY and sit down and...

FAILED! Fell right in the floor and I could not hold back the laughter any longer.

Teaching adorable children really has it's perks: SOMETIMES they morph into angry power rangers.

It is test It is good

A few weeks ago, I was lazy after a test and still had class time left. The weather was nice so I told the girls (Sara, Sally, Sunny, Sue) to write a few sentences about what they like to do in the warm weather. I'm gonna go ahead and post all the girls' responses but I will save the BEST for last...these are the things that make me like teaching:

By Sunny (Star is her sister)

I want Play in the Playground.
Star an me is Play a seasaw.
and Play a slide.
and Play jumprope.
and go to home.

That one was pretty good!
This is by Sue

I want to play in playground at Spring weather.
I want to go picnic at Spring weather.
I want to go to shop at Spring weather.

Haha I like that one for some reason!
Sara's cracks me up. Here goes

I like winter
I like summer
I like warm
I like diving
I like seasaw
I like cerry [cherry]

But the very best of all is Sally's and this is why [it takes up the whole page and it written very dark]:

It is warm it is swim
It is warm it is slide
It is warm it is seesaw
It is warm it is diving
It is warm it is nintendo
It is warm it is student
It is warm it is playground

Haha I just love this so much. This class is fun because they speak enough English to be able to have a conversation and since they are all girls, we do have plenty of girl talk! We started talking about a boy Sunny liked and they all started opening up about who they like but were nervous that people would tell their secret. I explained that "girl talk" is ALWAYS a secret and is basically sacred, so don't worry! Sara was going on and on about how she liked Fred and I was so excited cause I love Fred, ya know! He would always come in and mess with the girls after my class because I taught him next so he would come and fetch me. Well, as soon as class was over the girls all rushed into Fred's classroom and Sunny looked like she was going to tell on Sara! I was trying to get her to be quiet but she was just telling him my "secret" and so Sara walks into the classroom, throws her arms out and declares, "I LIKE FRED!!" I was laughing so hard. Classic! Unfortunately for Sara, Fred spent all of our class going, "Sara, bluuueegh (vomit sounds)!" and acting like he was so grossed out that he would just pass out. haha BOYS!! What can ya do? Now she chases him around between classes. Just like a girl, desperately chasing after the boy who doesn't want her!

I have my computer back so there will be more posts and lots of pictures and videos very soon!

Teacher of girl talk,
Erica Jane

What blog?

Oh my how I wish I could update every week! I've got such great pictures and stories to share but without my computer it's been tough! I don't want to sit on the computer at work for hours at a time....ah wait I already do that. My mom has shipped the new power cord so don't you worry, faithful readers! You will be getting updates soon and very soon. There have been GREAT times had by all (mostly) in the last couple weeks and I can't wait to write about them!!

Non-Blogger,
Erica Jane O'Rourke

If you can't beat them, give them stickers

Welcome back! To those of you joining us for the first time, welcome! To those of you who refuse to read and have never visited my blog, you're really missing out, aren't you? You don't even know I'm talking about you right now. Joke's on you!

This week was pretty nice, actually. The whole extra class at the kindergarten next door thing wasn't too bad, since I only teach over there Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It's 25 minutes and I just teach the same lesson to 3 classes once a week. Did that make sense? The part that sucks is that I am handed the book when I actually walk into the class I'm supposed to be teaching! There are a lot more kids in these classes and the kids in my "evil" class are there. I don't particularly like doing it, but it's not a big deal and not worth complaining about! Also, I love the kindergarten teachers so it's fun to be in their classes for a little bit.
*update! I hate teaching over there haha

I believe I have a couple funny class stories.
I asked my class (Sunny, Sally, Sue, Sara, no more Subin) if they had done their homework. I hear one little voice, "You say no homework" and then one after the other they each pipe up, "You say no homework!" I giggled to myself and just for my own amusement asked, "What did I say?" And they answered IN unison, "YOU SAY NO HOMEWORK!" I don't know why they each felt the need to say it but it made me laugh.
I have some other stories from this class but they are inappropriate to post here..ah! Too bad!

That same day, I was waiting outside the classroom where I teach Fred and Aidan. Aidan opened the door for me and said, "Come on in, baby!" WHAT?! I doubled over with laughter and was so tickled by it, I had to interrupt Sophie in her class to tell her the story! You have to understand, Aidan speaks hardly any English. Where does he learn these things?!

I had a few of the foreign teachers over Tuesday night for games and even though I don't actually own any games, it worked. Turns out, Phase 10 is JUST too hard for some guys. I'm pretty sure most females would catch on but what's wrong with these men? :-) It was a really fun night and another one is already being planned for this week! Maybe it will be a weekly thing. I hope so!

Charlie and Monica (my directors) have just moved to Jangyu. They had all the teachers over to their new (and VERY nice) apartment on Thursday night. Everybody from the Korean kindergarten and our academy was there so it was a pretty full house! Wow, there was so much delicious food and of course plenty of Soju. This is Korea, after all. I sat with my co-teachers while I ate but soon moved over to be with my old friends from the kindergarten! If you've read old posts, you know about them! There were games led by our gym teachers (one drives the van that says, "Dreaming Event" and has starts and hearts on it haha) and it was great to just be silly with people you work with AND for! Our English Academy crew is not half as fun as the Korean kindergarten crew and they skipped out early. Everybody was a lot of fun and Monica gave Joey and me boxes to take home food. Since it was Thursday, I was planning on meeting the foreigners (sounds like a cult!) out at Wa Bar. As Joey and I were in the elevator with the two gym teachers, I asked if they knew about Wa to see if they wanted to join us. THEN, when we got outside we ran into all the other teachers and the guys invited them too! We rolled in with all these people to join the several foreign teachers and it was really fun/funny and all that. Good times all around!!

Friday turned out to be birthday party day for all the kids who had birthdays during the month, I guess. It was real funny how seriously the moms must take this. The girls were dressed in their MOST princessy ball gowns, tiaras included. They had makeup on and their hair done. It was pretty amazing. We were pulled out of our classes to join the photo shoots. The birthday kids from each class would get a picture in front of their cakes first, then their class would give them presents (after presenting the presents, the class would offer a big "congratulations" for living another year) and then the whole class stood behind the table full of cakes and that's where we foreign teachers were able/forced to jump in. It was just silly but it got me out of two classes. Awesome. Then snack time came around and we got to eat the yummy cake!

I woke up Saturday with a very sore throat. I've been sick the last week or so but I was determined to get better for Saturday night! For weeks I've been hearing about this particular norebong (singing room/karaoke room) that has costumes. I already LOVE norebongs without wigs and santa costumes and I just knew it would be amazing! **IT WAS WAY AMAZING check facebook for pictures**
saturday-trying to get better for dinner and norebong! amazing costumes
sunday-lazy day then dinner, dvd bang, dinner
being "saved by the bell"


AAAND that's all you get:-) I'm surprised that much of it saved and since my computer is down (power cord died and I'll have to wait a few weeks for the new one) I'll have to go ahead and get this one posted, without pictures:-( I had some really great pics and videos for this post too!! Well, enjoy what you can I guess!

~Computerless Teacher,
Erica Jane~

"Do you want an X?! No? Sit down."

Hello world, I'm feeling good today!
WHAT no get that song out of my head!!
Anyways, so this post comes right after I finished writing my post from 2 weeks ago....woops. I was able to get into the routine this week and things were a bit better. I learned that kids are absolutely terrified of getting an "X" on the board next to their name. This means I am now back in power in my classrooms. It works SO well in my evil class that all I have to is make the slightest movement towards the board and they run back to their seats and stay there. One day, I had such a great morning with the kindergarten classes and decided I WAS going to have a good afternoon. Instead of only punishing for bad behavior, I was going to reward any good behavior. As soon as I got into the evil class, I wrote all their names on the board like I always do, but this time, I put checks beside each name. I was in such a great mood and just so determined to love this class. I held up a flashcard and EDDIE said what color the animal was. I quickly began acting like I had won a million dollars and dove over the table to give him a high-five, a sticker AND another check mark on the board. Well this was just too much for them. All of a sudden, every kid was really into answering "A YELLOW DUCK, A GREEN FROG, A BLUE HORSE" and by the end there were stickers all over their faces, hands and even one on my face. When they misbehaved, I just erased a check instead of wrote an X. This worked just as well. I was so pleased with the class and the day! I did the same thing with Aidan, Alex and Fred. I just said 3 checks equaled a sticker. Stickers are seriously like crack to these kids. It's amazing. I think it was the next day in my other afternoon kindergarten class when I was trying to teach a song to the kids. They were all putting their heads on the desks or talking to each other. There was only one girl who was doing the motions along with me. Boom, she got a sticker and of course I made a huge deal about it like no one in the world had this blue smiley face sticker. All of a sudden the kids were wide awake and eagerly motioning, "What did you see? I saw a red bird looking at me." It was just too funny!

Now, I'm not bragging about my "teaching skills" or anything of the sort! I just think it's hilarious!

One day while using the X's, Ryan and Daniel were fighting. Ryan is the smartest/cutest/sweetest kid but he bit Daniel and was kinda acting up. I put an X by his name and pointed it out to him when he released Daniel from his jaws. You would think this kid has NEVER seen an X so close to his name. He looked up at it, threw his head back and burst into tears. What?! I had never gotten this reaction! I hugged him and he just sobbed on my shoulder for a good 3 1/2 minutes. I was sad to have to make such a cutie cry. He was ok after a while though.

This may have been last week, I don't remember but I'm telling it now anyways. Fred was really bein bad one day and would NOT do his work. He gets this way sometimes. Aidan and Alex were doin fine but Fred just would not cooperate. I had already told them, if they got 4 X's they had to stand at the front of the class with their hands up. Fred quickly had 4 X's to my dismay and even worse, he would NOT come to the front of the class. He had a nervous smile at first as I gestured and sternly told him exactly what he needed to do, NOW, but he didn't move. I told him he either needed to stand up here or get out! Alex and Aidan were really into this punishment and I knew I had to follow through with something. I was hating it because I just adore Fred! Then it got worse. Fred was looking down for a while and when he looked up I saw....no....tears!! My heart dropped. They were just welling up in his eyes, no rolling tears, thank goodness. Finally, I explained that if he did the page of work, I would erase one X. I had to help him a lot but he finally finished and I joyfully erased an X! I was basically crying as I finished up and left class!

Ok, another Fred story:-) He's just the best. I almost cried because of him again but this time it was the sweetest thing! Friday was test day. Alex and Aidan were being loud and a little annoying when I first came in, not really listening. My throat was hurting and at one point I tried yelling at them to stop but grabbed my throat. Fred, the darling, saw and asked super worried, "Teacher, are you ok?" A little bit later they all wanted to go get water. They came back and Fred took a sip of his and then...yes...gave it to me!!! He came along before class ended to collect and throw away the cup as well. I gave stickers to them at the end and he sneakily grabbed 3 when the other boys got 2. Aidan was extremely upset about it (he's extremely upset about anything really) and I gave one more to Alex and Aidan. But Fred then gave ME all his stickers! How could you not love Fred?

Now I shall talk about how adorable Paul is.
He makes everything ok. I mean I'll be having a bad day and I'll be eating lunch in the teacher's room dreading my afternoon classes and then I hear a noise at the door, look over, and see him running over to me like this. Every.Single.Day. I don't know what happened but he really loves me so much and I just absolutely love him to death! It's to the point now that if the Korean teachers can't find him when his ride comes, they look for me in the teacher's room cause they know he'll be with me. I get to hang out with him twice a day. Once at lunch for a little bit and then for a little longer after my last class. Sophie and I are totally wrapped around his tiny little finger now! Here are some videos of him:-) He didn't know I was taking a video so he kept posing trying to get me to take the picture already.

** how very irritating. The other very cute video just will not load. I will try again soon!**

Things have been getting better at school and then as we were leaving Friday, Linda comes up and says, "On Monday you'll start teaching a class next door from 1-1:30. The kids don't have books." I was disappointed to hear that my break would be shortened cause that's when I plan afternoon lessons but ok..."Umm ok, so what are we teaching?" "Oh...I don't know. Hannah will tell you!" Ha! Yes, Hannah will tell us on Monday at 12:50 and it won't make any sense. So tomorrow should be very interesting but you just gotta roll with the punches here.


Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day of course and a few of us went to O'Brien's in Changwon. I had the best chicken burrito and chips and salsa ever. Ok, not best ever but when you have been craving it....yumm!! I also found this on a big poster thing with names and crests from Ireland:
In case you didn't know, my last name is O'Rourke. See the two lions? Yes, O'Rourke.
















AAAAND then I forgot to post this gem from the noribang-2 of my favorite guys singing what? Mmmbopp:-) Welcome to the magic of the noribang!! (Hmm just re-watched it on here. It's not this dark on my computer...oh well. You'll live.)


I've got to share this with you as well. I've been introduced to La Roux, who is just amazing. This is my favorite (too bad it's just one of the remixes) but all her stuff is good! Listen to La Roux.
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9E1MWMFym8&feature=related **

Sophie had a really good idea for getting Aidan to settle down. He absolutely CANNOT sit still so she suggested making him jump. Just jump up and down until he doesn't want to be out of his seat! One day he was particularly restless so I pulled him over to a clear space and said, "Jump. 5 minutes." At first he thought it was a game and Alex even wanted to join in (not Fred, he knew they were idiots). Alex tired pretty quickly and sat down and Aidan thought he would do the same. I pointed to the clock, "Noooo, you still have 2 minutes." "WHY teacher?!" "Because you can't sit in your seat!!" It didn't take 5 minutes for him to be exhausted and when I finally let him stop, he sat down and didn't even WANT to get out of his seat for anything the rest of the class. Success. Thanks Sophie:-)

Oh a good Sue story! She's always got silly things to say! We were staring a test on Friday and a very loud noise from above shook us and was making one of the lights vibrate. Sunny said there were workers on the roof but it kept happening and I don't remember what I said about it but Sue tried to be helpful, "I don't think there's an animal up there..." Ha what?! I'm not sure what she heard. But thanks Sue, I don't think there was an animal in the light/on the roof either:-)


I'll end with pictures of Paul being cute.





















Well now that wasn't too long, was it? I won't forget to post again though, because this was annoying for me. Typing 2 posts in one day? It just makes me realize how jumbled the weeks and months become in my mind. Hopefully I can get those videos to load at some point. They're pretty great. Thanks for reading!

Listening to great music,
Erica Jane O'Rourke