Duke Class

I found it ironic that the name of my 6-year-old, 2nd year class is Duke, for two reasons: 1. I'm from North Carolina and 2. When I was 7 or 8 years old I went with a childhood friend and his dad (who worked as a wrestling coach at Duke) to visit the campus. He and I goofed off all over that school - played in the arcade, on the tennis courts, in the gym and walked all around. It was great fun.

All of the classes are named after prestigious colleges. My other older classes are MIT and Yale. MIT is extremely high spirited. I need to be careful not to have too much fun with them and actually discipline. They tend to get out of hand, but I'd rather just laugh at their antics. I met Yale for the first time today. They're quieter. One kid in that class, Harry, will be an interesting challenge. I was warned that he might have learning disabilities, which I could gather upon meeting him. He's socially inept and says exactly what he wants and whatever pops into his head. Once I told him to please raise his hand and not speak when I was speaking, he was very well-behaved. I find him endearing. Mainly because he's left-handed.

Koreans believe that if you're left-handed that this habit must be changed, that it is wrong. I feel so strongly on this topic: a child should NOT be made to change their writing hand to suit a culture or parent's whim. A left-handed child uses a different part of their brain than a right-handed one and being forced to change will create learning difficulties. I've seen it happen and I think it's blasphemous. I've noticed at this school, the lefties that were forced into right-handedness cannot sit still and are always disruptive in class. I cannot hate this rule enough. Can you guess which hand I write with? ;-)

Back to Duke class - they are precious. We had an excellent circle time today. We talked and did flashcards and laughed a lot. They are a giggly bunch. I received two gifts:

As you can see, Jolly gave me a letter. "To: Margy Teacher." <3

It's a drawing of two girls sitting at a table and eating cake. I can tell it's cake because there's an obvious cherry on top of two layers, on a fork. I'm so fascinated by children of other cultures and their art. ISN'T THIS ADORABLE?!?!

Christina handed me a gift as well:

That's pretty good handwriting! Written by a parent, obviously.

It's a handheld mirror. Excellent! I actually was wanting a mirror to have other than the one in my bathroom.

I'll take my camera some day this week to grab some candids of the kids. I really think they're wonderful and I would love to show them off. I've had to discipline here and there, which kills me, but it must be done.

I got home and stuffed my face with a peanut-buttered english muffin while I was waiting for my pasta to cook. Perhaps the most frustrating thing for me here is trying to go grocery shopping and cook things that will taste like what I can make in the States. I keep messing up! I'll buy something that looks similar only to find that it tastes totally different. EEEEESH. I tried to make spaghetti with a white sauce. The white sauce usually calls for garlic, parm cheese, olive oil, mushrooms, and whipping cream. I bought the whipping cream (and I thought I had tried the same kind before) but I failed to realize that is was "Cream: for whipping," which meant it was sweet. I can't handle it. Everything here is sweet. Nothing salty. And if it tries to be salty, it has a sweet aftertaste. Oooyyyyyy where's my Italian food?! So. I looked up some easy stove top recipes (because I have no oven) and copied the ingredients. I'm going to the grocery store tomorrow after work and will try again. I will conquer this.