1. The tiniest things my students do make my day beautiful.
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| For example, the girl who drew ghosts on the white board with me after class. |
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| Or the girl who made me this origami flower. |
2. The inside of my desk drawer very accurately reflects my job, and I love that.
3. Kindergartners are unspeakably adorable in Hanbok (and all the time, for that matter). Also, I find something striking about the image of traditionally clad children scuttling about merrily on the playground. Lovely.
4. If you eat fruit you are going to be prettier: Wisdom from the window shade. Also, this girl has an unfair advantage because her name is Apple.
5. Rooftops are remarkable. This is the same building in which I vacuum and sleep and burn toast and brush my teeth, but it's just so much more exotic. Almost like another world. Nothing can touch you up there. (Except giant spiders, ugh.)
6. Sometimes you walk past something a thousand times, but just once it finally catches your eyes. I walk past all of the following every single day, but they are so easy to miss when I am just living my life.
7. These boys can be so wild and raucous. (On the bright side, they motivate me to learn Hangul faster, so I can yell their names at them.) However, when I observe these kids closely outside of class, I notice how sweet they are, what sharp sense of humor they have, and how much fun they have together. I remember that they are good kids. They just also happen to be third graders, and therefore have inordinate amounts of energy. Which is good. The last thing I want to see is a robotic, unenthusiastic, too-quickly-become-a-teenager 10-year-old.
8. Language and music have such an interesting relationship. In terms of learning Korean, I can read and write Hangul now (in a scrawling, pathetic, child-like way), but Trevor can actually remember and pronounce words and phrases when he hears them. I also can sightread and analyze classical music, while Trevor can improvise with jazz as if his 'fro reflected his soul. I don't think this is not an in-coincidence.
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| My Hangul practice. Take note: much of this is names of tasty foods. Learn the important words first. |
9 (ugh, lists of nine are so awkward). A couple weekends ago, I prayed the Lord's Prayer in English over skype with my friends in Minnesota, just before Michelle's wedding. The next morning, I prayed the Lord's Prayer in Korean at church in Yangyang. Interesting how prayer so easily transcends language and geography.
10 (because lists of nine are so awkward). Why is the nutella always gone?
