The Dancing Quin

Thursday was one of those days that reminds me why I teach. One of my girls came up to me during lunch with a huge smile stretched across her little face and handed me a piece of paper all folded up into a small square. She then whispered in my ear, “No read until after school on 5th floor [the teacher’s lounge]” and trotted back to her seat very pleased, grinning ear to ear. I thought, “Cute,” put the secret paper in my pocket, and forgot about it until 5:30 that night when I was getting ready to leave work. At my desk, I unfolded the paper to find one simple message: “Jamie Teacher you are the Dancing Quin.” I literally burst out laughing. Mama Mia is huge in Korea right now. I first came to realize this a week earlier when a bunch of us teachers were sitting in the office doing lesson plans after school and heard music coming from the gymnasium. We all kind of looked and each other and said, “is that what I think it is??” Yep, 30+ little Korean voices enthusiastically belting out the best of ABBA in their after school music class. They love it. They don’t have a clue what they’re singing about, but they love it. So when after a long week Rachel told me via a secret note that I was in her opinion the “Dancing Quin,” little could have meant more or been more hilarious. Made my week.

Clara's birthday party at school. Bdays are a big deal.

On another note, I’ve taken on an additional afternoon class. I didn’t really have a choice in the matter and wasn’t all too pleased about the idea at first since it means an extra three hours of classes each week plus prep time. As soon as I did the math and realized I’d be getting almost $400 more per pay check thanks to the overtime, any annoyance I had felt over having a new class dumped in my lap quickly faded. The extra cash will definitely come in handy for our Thailand Christmas/New Year’s trip.

Picture from our hike. So many gorgeous wild flowers in South Korea.

Not too much else to report. Went on a great hike this past weekend and then proceeded to stay out all night in Seoul...not sure which of the two was the greater contributor to me not being able to walk the next day (just kidding, Mom and Dad!) :P. It was also a weekend of birthdays and food. Went to The Outback Friday night with all the teachers for my roommate’s birthday, out for breakfast Saturday morning at what was billed as an American-style diner with some of the girls (way too fancy to be a real American diner!), and out for Thai food in Seoul Saturday night for another friend’s birthday. Kirb, Dar, Brennen, and Cody...wish you guys could have been with me at the Thai place- you would have LOVED it! Like the Pad Thai place in Winnipeg x1000. SO yummy! No statue at the door to kiss though :P.

Eating Thai food for Jen's birthday in Iteawon- the "foreigners" neighborhood of Seoul.

My current project is to find a salon that isn’t afraid to die my foreign hair. Not sure why I didn’t just go natural before I left home because now I’m stuck with big roots and a bunch of Asian hairdressers that won’t touch my hair with a 10-foot pole.

I’ll leave you with this: I wiped my first bum today. It’s official- I’m a kindergarten teacher!