cranes and trash bags and little kids, oh my...

So every time Roar and I go to wal-mart or wherever (yes, we shopped at wal-mart. don't judge me. it's convenient and cheap...) I always play the crane/treasure game, where you put in 50 cents and get to use that claw to win things that huey can destroy... well, they have those here, too, but instead of stuffed animals or the jimmy eat world cd that I won once (first try, even...) these feature wine sets or pipe sets. So, for roughly ten cents, you can try to use this industrial claw to win a pack that is surrounded by chicken wire. But seriously, the wine set is a bottle of wine, a corkscrew and two freaking wine glasses. Or a pipe set. Who knows what they give you with that.

Yesterday Roar and I went to EMart, which looks like it ate wal-mart. Very very huge, two stories, and you can take your whole damn shopping cart on the escalator/ramp thing. There are grooves on the ramp that fit the grooves on the wheels. Craziness. We went there for random sundries (hahaha sundries) like hangers and shampoo and...trash bags. We had gone through most of our list and had one more thing on it. Trash bags. They were the first thing we looked for in the store, and they were the last, too. There were Korean chicks in mini skirt/leg warmer uniforms standing at the end of every aisle to help people, so we took turns asking and pointing. We would point to our trash can that we were purchasing from E Mart and then to a bag in the cart and then back to the trash bag, pretend to tie it up and then pretend to throw it away with a disgusted face. I thought it seemed simple enough. I thought I was pretty good at charades. But no one got it. Customer service, especially for Americans in Chuncheon, is pretty impressive, though. We had the king of the grocery store trying to help us--he even went to produce and grabbed Joe Korea, the one dude working who knew some English, but he didn't know "trash bag." At this point we were by the register, where I saw the cashiers loading groceries into bags. I guess they do that at grocery stores... Anyway, so I pointed to the trash can, then these bags and then back to the trash can, then we called the girls at the school. NO LUCK. So we gave up on the trash bag thing. We came home and Rory went out looking at the different little marts/convenience stores around our apartment and came back with bags that looked just like the ones they had at the emart to bag groceries in. Maybe they're recycling bags. But we've seen trash bags everywhere, and they don't look anything like the ones we have in our apartment. And they were expensive. And he's pretty sure the ladies were making fun of him. But I'm convinced that--in this town, anyway--i could walk around after crapping my pants and the Koreans wouldn't make fun of me because I'm an American. I am not joking when I say it's like we're celebrities. Who knew I could be famous for just being born in jeff city...

The kids. The kids are freaking amazing. Everyday when the walk in we have to say "hello Alex, nice to meet you." I think it's lame that they all have English names, but apparently that's part of the deal. I just want the kids to feel like they can be themselves at the school while they're learning English. Or maybe that if I called them their actual names they would respond instead of just looking down at their sticker/stamp books. I mean, somehow I'm good at remembering Korean names. But anyway, today we made cheesy chicken burritos, and the first group spent the whole class preparing them and then didn't want to eat them, so they fed them to their parents. Good thing, too, because our special delivery Velveeta that was supposed to be here on Monday cost the school $15. I guess I should explain the format of the school and teaching.
Monday is cooking, Tuesday is presentation, Wednesday is Art, Thursday is Storytelling and Friday is acting. So every day is different, but the age groups for each hour of the day differ. It's really cool and has the potential to be really rewarding. Korean kids love to learn, and they also love to play--it works out well because I'm good at getting their attention by being a buffoon. You just wave your arms around a bunch, use packing peanuts as a prop and they're hooked. I will get my own class next week. For now I'm migrating between Jamie and Abby's classes. I have to work less because I have more responsibility outside of the class room (i.e. Rory). It's cool that they're looking out for us and that married folk get privileges like that, but it sort of sucks that Jamie has to work more. But who can complain about working 25 hours a week? Or in my case, 12.5...?

Everything is great. These kids are amazing, and I am so thankful to be here.