“His name is Jayden, it used by Steven, but he doesn’t like that name anymore.”

After school on Thursday I was informed I was getting a new student on Friday and I was meeting this new student in 10 minutes. The short notice of the information did not surprise me all that much because it is Korean culture to not let you know anything until the very last minute. My new student came in with his mom and one of the administrator’s who doesn’t speak any English. This was a fun interaction to try and handle; a shy, scared boy, who clung to his Mom, and two Koreans who spoke no English, and me, who speaks no Korean. After a few minutes the boy let go of his Mom and came over to me and I showed him around the room. Turns out this boy speaks more English than the Mom and administrator combined. I kept trying to ask him his name and he wouldn’t tell me, which I found odd. And of course, no one else in the room could really help me. After they left I ran into Liz, my Korean helper, who informed me his name is Jayden. It used to me Steven, but he didn’t like that name anymore so his Mom changed it to Jayden. This explains why the boy had no idea what his name was when I was asking him. I honestly believe it would be easier if all the children kept their Korean names and we just had to learn how to say them. I had crazy names back in Renton, so I am sure I could handle it.

Jayden’s presence in my class now brings my total up to 8, at the end of the month, when Julie, my other new student begins, I will have 9 students. I was a little sad because this means my nice, small, easy going class is no longer there. Jayden’s first day went pretty well. He definitely is not the shy little boy he portrayed with his Mom in the room. He came right in and began talking to everyone and getting into anything and everything he could. He does speak a lot of English though, which is very helpful. He adds a lot of energy into the classroom, and definitely did about 10 things on Friday that if any of my other students would have done I would have taken a star away. Within the first 10 minutes of school he said 2 bad words in Korean. I knew one already because one of the other classes says it and I learned quickly it was a bad word. The other word my students informed me was bad. I have to say I love my original 6 students. They are so cautious about following the rules and get really upset when one of their classmates is not following the rules. Today I was in Gordon’s class talking to him real quick, and Tong Hu came in with a very serious look on his face and took my hand and led me back to class to show me how Jayden had dumped all the markers out and then walked away. The rest of my students would have never done this and knew I would not allow them to do that. I do think Jayden will be a good addition to the classroom, and will quickly learn what he can and cannot do in my class.

An update on the changes blog I wrote last week. After Casey and Toriann both calmed down a bit and the four of us 6 year teachers spoke again as a group, we decided to keep the classes as they are now reevaluate at the semester mark. Toriann and Casey decided to switch around a bit what they are teaching, in order to make both of them more comfortable and happy with what they are teaching. Gordon and I are staying the same, and the kids won’t really have to adjust because the schedule stays the same. It seems like such an easy change now and solution to the problem, but at the time when we were all talking the problem seemed so hard and complicated! It’s amazing what a weekend can do to clear everyone’s head and make the solution to the problem seem so simply. Again, it was good to know that both Gordon and the director support us and will help us. Gordon informed us again about how happy the director is with our floor and what a great job we are doing. I have found Koreans don’t give compliments and praise all that often, so I take this as a great sign of encouragement and respect from the director.

I went hiking last weekend, and added some of the pictures. The hike was only a few subway stops away from my house. Throughout Seoul there are various mountains you can hike and it makes you feel like you are out of the city for awhile. I realized one thing I miss a lot about Seattle is the landscape. Seattle varies from city skyline, to water, and mountains. In my Seoul, particularly my neighborhood, all I see is buildings. Now that spring is here it is a little better because the trees are in bloom. I miss Seattle’s beauty and realize how lucky I am to live in such an amazing city. Other pictures I included were of an area of town Toriann and I found by accident. We were trying to navigate the bus system and meet some girl’s we met awhile ago for dinner, but took the bus the wrong direction. We didn’t figure this out until we were half an hour from our house, meaning we were another hour from our real destination. We tried to find the bus going the opposite direction, but we couldn’t. In the end we decided the area we found was interesting and so different from where we live that we would just skip dinner with the girls and explore this new area. We found where the U.S. Embassy is in case we ever need it too. We decided we should play this game a few times a month, where we get on a random bus and see where it takes us. We were pretty proud of ourselves for using the bus on the way home too. We are never truly lost because we can always use the subway, it is just more fun to try and figure out the buses. When I finally learn to read Korean this task will be much simpler