Windows XP is Visually Appealing
I wonder how different Windows Vista will look?

Sometimes my students say things that I find really funny. For instance, the other day the students were repeating (as a class) the vocabulary words for the chapter. One of the words was 'window.' So I hear all the kids yell out, "Window!" Then, from the back of the room, I hear a single kid yell out, "XP!" Hahahahaha!! I started laughing and the kids in front of the room were probably like, "Why is Emily Teacher laughing?"

So one of my co-teachers is really strict with punishment. Which kind of surprised me because she doesn't seem the type to be hardcore punishment-y. She assigned homework to the kids, and then told me, "I will check next class time. If they do not have their homework then I will hit them on their hands with my stick. They will cry [then she mocked boo-hooed with her hands rubbing her eyes] and think I am mean, but I don't care." Sure enough, next classtime she asked who didn't have their homework. Half the class stands up (so like 20 total). She went around and whacked each kid across their upturned hands with this biggish wooden stick she has, ala 1950s style. It was simultaneously amusing and slightly disconcerting. Other punishments she's meted out: 1) pinching their nose between the knuckles of her pointer and middle finger then pulling. 2) Whacking them in the forehead with her knuckles. 3) making them lay on their stomach with their feet against the wall, then making them rise up in a push-up type position. She made one kid do this for at least 25 minutes. He had sweat pouring off his face. At one point he looked at me and wailed, "Help me!" I felt especially bad as this is what got him his punishment: he fell off his chair. He was rocking back on the back legs of the chair and went too far, causing him to topple to the ground. So he had to do that for the rest of the period. Wtf? These are 5th graders. 4) And of course, there's the common hands up in the air, which is often a whole class punishment. Sometimes the students need to kneel with their hands up. And sometimes they have to hold things like books over their heads...or in bad cases (although usually with middle or high schoolers, not elementary kids) hold their chairs/desks over their head. My friend who teaches at a school in Osan (Elissa) made her entire class hold their chairs over their heads for the entire 50 minute period. I'm not sure what they did, but apparently they are a horrid class. Man.

Koreans call letters "alphabets." It really bothers me. To clarify: the letters A, B, and C will be on the board and they'll say, "Look at the alphabets" or "Put the alphabets in order." Ahhh!!!!

My schedule has now been changed (minimized), but I still have no word on the teacher classes. But as of now I only teach 22 student hours a week. And only 3 classes on Wednesday. Which is actually going to be kind of annoying because my co-teacher still has to teach 2 classes in the classroom that up until now I've taught with her, but now she has to do it alone while I do nothing. Meaning, what the hell am I going to do and where the hell am I going to go during those hours? I honestly don't know. The library? I wish I had an office like all my other English teacher friends. Man. I don't want teacher classes!!!

Red patent leather high-heeled shoes are all the rage here right now.

The episode of Lost yesterday featured the Koreans' story. I tried to understand what they were saying when they were speaking Korean, but I had no idea for the most part. And it annoyed me that they had a Korean (in Korea) call the Korean guy, "Mr. Jin." First of all, he wouldn't say "Mr." and second of all, they call people by their full name. I have no idea what Jin's full name is--but I doubt his family name is Mis and his other names are Ter Jin. Then it bothered me that in the captions they used the wrong your--they wrote "you're" when it should have been "your." Pet-peeve of mine. Whatever.

Here's an article on people protesting the military base expansion in Pyeongtaek. One reason people are so upset about it is that the Korean government is just taking people's land with little or no compensation to then 'give' to the US for the base expansion. Upset Pyeongtaek Farmers