Slacking Again

Shooting back Kimchi like it's nothing!

But what else is new? Oh, right, lots of things :/ I will not be updating for a little while after this because it's the end of the semester, and a bum rush to get the kids ready for their exams. I have to say that though I love it here, this has been the toughest, more disappointing, and yet most rewarding week of work for me. Even though I have pissed off probably half my school, I'm ok with that. They have been looking for my kids pronunciation to improve but honestly I haven't been working on how quickly and clearly they can say sentences, I've been working on whether or not they can understand those sentences. Maybe they don't have perfect accents, but I would rather have them understand me and vice versa over perfection anyday. How do I know my kids are improving? In the last week I have had kids not only request movies, specific genres, and learn what word to say when I point to something (my kinders are making remarkable improvement), but I have had them hold (albeit small) genuine conversations with me. Kids who, at the beginning of the year, were too scared to even say hello for fear of being bullied for their lack of language skills are STARTING conversations with me. Why? Because my emphasis is not on saying every word perfectly, but in understanding what that word means and how to use it. My philosophy on teaching has gone from teaching these kids english, to helping them accept not being perfect at english. Maybe they can't pronounce a word perfectly, but they can understand it. OK, sorry for going off like that. Like I said, it was a tough week and I just had to throw out the good part. It makes me feel all fluffy when I have 5 year olds ask for "cat and mouse movie" and when I leave they say "see you later" :D lil darlins!

Ok, back to my life and away from my lil saplings. Not too much has happened. Only two big things really, Thanksgiving and Kimchi making. So about a week, not even, after I did my last post I finally did the one most epic thing that this blog gets it's title from. I made Kimchi, with the help of my mentor teacher of course! It was spectacular, not only did we get to make it but we learned all about it. The woman who was giving us the "lecture" had such a similar food mantra to my own :D She kept saying how kids these days don't appreciate the tradition and the time and effort that goes in to making something so essentially Korean.

The woman knows all there is to know about Kimchi.

I feel that way with a lot of things nowadays. Maybe I'm secretly an old fuddy duddy, but it's sad to think that people don't appreciate good home cooking anymore.

The fuddiest of duddies, makin' kimchi

Then was Thanksgiving :D One of the best food holidays of the year. They don't have many turkeys laying around at the supermarket, so I ended up braising a duck on the stovetop for about 2 hours. I was soooo yummy. I just cut up some onions and potatoes, sauteed them until they were brown, and filled my pot with about an inch of liquid, put the duck in and let it simmer for about two hours with the cover on, checking every 20 minutes or so. It's especially awesome because as the duck cooked, the fat was drawn into the pan and the veggies were essentially cooked in duck fat for a solid hour mmmmmmmm. After it was done I took all the yummy fat and made a gravy, duck fat gravy! yummmmm. Everyone else brought fruit and vegetables, corn mashed and roasted potatoes. It was a most splendid feast. I have to say that I miss pumpkin pie, but that having such an amazing family over here makes up for anything.

You can juuuust see the spread on the table here

Making dessert, After all was said and done we needed some apple crisp so I threw it together on the stove top! let me know if you want any of these recipes btw.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully the weeks start getting better after this one, like I said it was rough, but if this is rough I don't really have much to complain about :D Have a good weekend, I hope the world is being kind to you. Happy Friday!

Sara