Bring On February

Do you ever have those moments where you suddenly realize a good chunk of time has passed without you realizing it? I had one of those last night. I was heading home, tired, and realized it was Friday. Then I realized it was the end of January. How did that happen? For a month where days seemed to drag on, it flew.

Intensives are over, at last. I am back to my beautiful, relaxed schedule complete with a 3PM start time on Mondays. Nothing has really changed from my December schedule, with one notable exception. I am now teaching a Kinder Warm Up class on Thursdays. This class is for kids starting our kindergarten program in March. I am excited/nervous. For the last little while I have been thinking that I want to teach our Apple class once the new session starts (Kindergarten runs from March-February and my class is graduating). Apple class is the youngest class (5 years old in Korean years, 4 in Western years), and brand new to school. I just like the idea of starting fresh with classroom routines and the little ones are super cute. That being said, they speak no English. My kindies now are one of my most fluent classes - I often find myself having more engaging conversations with them than my oldest students... even if it mostly about stickers or someone's pencil case. Anyways, this Warm Up class will be full of non-English speakers, so it will be good practice for March. They are giving me a textbook, but I feel like I will mostly ignore it in favor of my own lessons. I am slowly realizing many of the books we are given are useless.

In other news, I joined the gym down the street from my apartment. I'd been feeling really anxious and restless for a few weeks and figured it was the best way to channel my energy. I'm aiming for 4 times a week and (after one week) seem to be able to pull it off. Of course, I woke up with a cold today, so ask me again Monday night if it's still working out (geddit? working out? oh, shut up). I am also starting my Spec Ed Part 1 AQ course on Monday. I'm excited to do it - I actually miss school.

China in two weeks!