Can you _____? Yes, I can. No, I can't.

I made the mistake of taking too much on here in the past couple weeks. A couple weeks ago I signed up to take an online class at CMU, to get a head start on finishing my MA. I emailed my advisor about it, whereby he was generous and enrolled me in two classes. For a while I didn't think was a big deal. Well after staying in my apartment the past two weekends spending countless hours behind the computer writing (in my estimation at this point) senseless papers, I'm wondering why I didn't complain when he did so. He's a smart man though, because he has me enrolled now and it's probably too late to drop any of them.

Yesterday was fun day for my classes, and probably will be all this week. I am not required to teach any particular lessons to the students, so this week I'm teaching how to relieve stress. In second grade, we went right in to playing "Simon Says" and then the Moose Song --- didn't even think twice. Wrapped it up with a little:

"Can you ____?"
"Yes, I can."
"No, I can't."

Yeah, we had a good time. We were learning English (and Korean). No questions about it.

Last week the high schools had the big college entrance exam. I was told there were guards in front of the school to block out anyone who may interfere with it. The test started when the school opened and lasted until that evening, twelve hours later. I have not checked but last year, the day after the exam, there were even reported a few suicides nationwide. Some people take this stuff way too seriously. Kids, enjoy elementary while you still can.

These are some of my students at Hwangji Elementary School. If you are wondering what is covering their faces, it is what they call a 마스크 or "mask-uh" used to stop the spread of any disease or illnesses, or sometimes worn as a fashion statement. They are cute, but imagine if we tried to get the kids to wear these in the U.S.