YAY.

MY MOM IS COMING!
On Saturday, we will be picking her up from Incheon International Airport.  We have a fun week planned ahead.  Because of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), Ben and I have no school Monday through Wednesday next week, so we will have Saturday through Wednesday free to spend time with my mother.  Thursday and Friday, we plan to drag Mom to school so she can meet the kiddos.  (The kids are so excited. I spoke to one of the kindergarten moms yesterday. Apparently he told his mom all about my mom coming to school.)  On our time off, we're going to go to the Korean Folk Village in Suwon, COEX (there's an aquarium in the basement and a Buddhist temple right across the street), and eat lots of Korean food.

I am so excited about seeing my mom.  It's been eight months since I've gotten to hug her, so it's pretty amazing that she's coming to Korea to see us!

In other news, Ben and I are coming home for Christmas! We got the tickets purchased last weekend. We will be arriving Saturday afternoon (Dec. 22nd) and leaving Sunday morning (December 30th).  We'll be dividing our time between Russellville and Jonesboro and walking around like zombies, but we're thoroughly excited to get to go home for a little while.

Well, it's time for school!  Will update when Mom arrives!

Open classes and friends.

Two weeks ago, we had our first open class of the year.  An open class is basically a chance for parents to sit in on a class and see how their children are doing.  In other words, it's like a performance.  We were all on needles worried about how the classes would go.  You can't predict how students will act, and Korean moms are extremely fickle.

The day of open classes came, and every mom was present.  We set up chairs in the back of every class and prepped all of our students for the big "show".

My class actually went fairly well.  All three of my students participated actively, and they were enthusiastic and speaking in full sentences.  Everything was going swimmingly until one of my students could not figure out how to spell "long ago," and he got flustered when I corrected him.  He started crying during the lesson.  His mom was so embarrassed that she apologized after class.

Overall I think the open classes were a success.  Nevertheless, we had several more students leave this past week.  It's been a pretty huge blow to the school financially, but we are trucking through it.  We are determined to survive!  The new semester starts tomorrow, and we have been making changes.

All of the classrooms got computers and projecting systems.

We got new laptops for the outdated computer lab.

 We are hoping these new changes will attract more parents.  I guess we'll see!

In other news, Fanni and Danny arrived yesterday and have moved into their apartment.  They have been cleaning since they got here, but I think they will eventually enjoy living in Seongnam.  Last night we showed them the basics around the neighborhood.  This evening we will be meeting up with Zach for a dak galbi dinner.  Dak galbi is a dish of chicken, rice cakes, vegetables, and hot pepper paste cooked over a hot plate in the center of your restaurant table.

We'll let you all know how the next couple of weeks go with all the changes.  Hopefully some good things are to come!