I know it has been ages and I apologize. A lot has been going on. Piano and Piano and more piano, just like I previously wrote about. The Sunday after the performance were we played for the embassadors, we played our first hour long performance in the lobby. In the past we were told only a few people watch and then leave and the some more people wander in, listen to a few songs and then leave. However when we arrived there were chairs set up and everything for people to sit and listen and we had a group watching us. It was nerve wracking. Especially since the children had learned most of the 15 songs just that week, cause we had a lot of last minute joiners. When we performed it was terrible. No other word for it. We left music on the bus so we didn’t have everything we needed, the piano cut in and out, the children started off key, music went flying with the fan, I played terribly, it was bad. So bad that Sharon had us take off two class periods for the next week to have extra practice. She also had a new piano bought that works. All the extra practice worked and the following Sunday they sang beautifully and this past Sunday was awesome as well as the Christmas eve program and the Christmas day program. I love those kids and I am so proud of them! They worked so hard and they amaze me :D
The Christmas program on Thursday went well. Kinda surprised me. During practices it seemed like there was no hope of ever being organized and I felt like I failed at organizing a Christmas program. I didn’t even realize that I even was in charge of the whole Christmas program till the week of, and then I realized that was what everyone was expecting me to do. I am still not sure if I was in charge… anyways it is over with, the drama skit is over with and I am FREE!!!!!!!!
I am so thankful Christmas is over with, because I was involved with so much I had no time to do my teaching stuff such as grading and lesson planning. Now it is catch up time… :/ Not the funnest thing to do.
Christmas day was a strange normal day. On Christmas Eve we went over to Tim and Fay’s and we stayed over night. In the morning we had a pancake breakfast. We then went over to school and got ready to leave to go the Royal to perform. At the Royal we only sang for ½ hour instead of a hour, which was good but kinda disappointing cause I wanted to go out with a bang. But they sang beautifully and played decent. Afterward we came back and did laundry, cleaned up some, and finshed wrapping Christmas presents. We then went over to Tim and Fay’s again for supper and ate lots of food. We then watched the Nativity. Actually a decent movie.
Today a normal Sabbath day, except we are planning for Thailand! Kristie, BJ, and I bought tickets to Thailand and are spending a week there for Christmas break. Yeah!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
It's December!
Story of my Life right now:
Teach
Christmas Music
Being hated by 10th graders
Piano and More Christmas Music
Korea
Christmas Music
Drama
Explaination.
I cannot remember what I last wrote about and I am writing in Word right now and I do not have the internet so I cannot check so I will write about what has been happening lately.
As you can tell Christmas music is playing a large role in my life right now. Being the only CAS teacher willing to play the piano makes me a very busy person. I am the leader for the Christmas program. Since English Christmas music is not a very familiar topic to the Khmer teachers I now teach choir to all grades pre-k to 8th. So I can officially say I have taught all grades in the school except 9th grade. I’m enjoying it because I am meeting more students and the eighth grade girls now are my new little sisters, but the down side is I lost all my planning times and my library times to do this. So all my grading and lesson planning is down outside of school. But there is not enough time, so lesson planning has kinda been placed on hold. I think my students are loving it, cause lessons have not been too tough lately. Sometimes I want to go crazy and just hide so I no longer have to play the piano, but God is good he’s getting me through. See the Christmas program is not the only program I am playing the piano for. I also am the pianoist for the special choir which sings for a hotel in the city. So on top of that there are days through this month were after school or on Sunday I have to go to the hotel and play for the choir. I’m a little scared for when that starts. The first day is on Monday. Please pray for me and for the choir so that we can be a witness. Not only do I play for that but random special musics that I get asked to do. This Sabbath I played accompaniment for all the Korean volunteers (Kristie, Hannah, Grace, David Kim’s wife) as they all play the flute. Also I was asked to play for the 12th grade class vespers, but I told David I would rather not. Hopefully I can get out of it. All of this takes practice time and well, lets just say the piano is not pretty for all that I am doing. I don’t think the people realize how limited I am with the piano. Sure I can play the notes if they are in front of me, but all Khmer pianists here only play by sound and so they expect all pianists to do the same. That is not me. Oh well… I’m doing my best. I actually have learned how to play by chords (like a book that just has chords for the guitar). It’s not too pretty but the basic background noise to a song. But I’m proud that I have learned that much. So as you can see Christmas music is taking over my life.
Now the 10th graders do not hate me, or at least I hope not. They are just “disappointed” with me. I was a judge for a debate about abortion and the 10th graders were pro-choice and the 9th graders were pro-life. The MC for the debate did not try to hide how teachers judged and so all know that I was the one to cause the 10th graders to lose the debate. Also the day earlier I promised to do Christmas decorating with them for Algebra. Now who would I be to take time out of a math class to decorate without doing math. So I was going to have them make a paper chain and on each piece they would have to solve one algebraic equation since they are learning to solve for a variable. Well, they had started cutting the paper, but when I introduced what they were going to do. They pushed the paper aside and said they were not going to do it cause that is no fun. I said fine. You get homework then. Previously I said I would not assign homework. According to some I disappointed them cause I broke my promise. Whatever. They irritated me. I sound like a kid I know, but they were just so ungrateful so I gave homework. I even brought Christmas music. They have not learned that when they irritate me they get homework. Let’s just say they get a lot of homework. :D lol
Some exciting news is I think I am going to Korea for Christmas break. We (Kristie and I) found tickets to go at a discounted price and we reserved the tickets. However they did not tell us we had to pay by a certain day so when we went in they said we lost the tickets. The price went up and so then we were thinking of not going. They on Friday the travel agent lady called and the discount sale had extended and is now cheaper! So yeah we still might go!
I’m in charge of drama class which is a challenge for me since I have never participated in drama except to make props. We have two productions this month. Scary.
What is really exciting is David Kim a Korean Missionary is starting a project to get the teens in the church active. Every Sabbath after church they get together have a choir practice, potluck and then go out into parts of the town and have classes for the kids. It’s cool to see the students getting active and having them do the “mission” work instead of the foreigners. Kids who are shy in school are getting involved and it is neat seeing them doing something that is not in their norm. I think it is a great start to keeping students in the church. They have the same problem here as in America. Students get baptized and then leave the church when they get bored. So hopefully this will give them a sense of purpose. Next step is to reach the collegiate level and that is where I think all us SM’s will step in since we are their age.
Now for a new list of why I can tell I’m starting to fit in here.
I have sandle tan lines.
When I open a packet of roman noodles and there are ants inside I just brush them off, cook the noodles and pick out the few ants I didn’t see.
I get cold at night. It is probably 75 degrees
I can ride a bike with a 12th grader on the back. (while going on a dirt road that is all potholes)
When I greet someone I hit them on the shoulder. (a terrible habit that I need to stop. Everyone hits each other here…. lightly though)
I got my makeup done for a wedding. (It was scarylooking. Kristy and I were so embarrassed walking home)
When someone yells teacher I responder quicker than if they yell my name
When I see another white person I think… oh that tourist and I laugh silently to myself
I crave unripe mango with salt and chili power. It is yummy
I crave durian especially in duk kru lok, which is a fruit shake. Durian smells like rotten trash. No lie
I don’t want to leave ever and I am 100% sure I will be back in the future. One reason is I promised Orng I would go to his wedding when ever that is… he says 6-8 years, but we’ll see, his girlfriend lives in another country. I just want to see what see my students where they are older and see how they have changed. It would be awesome to see. I was told that we would have culture shock. And there are moments that I think to my self… life would be so much easier at home. But those instances last two hours at the most and then I again love it here. There has not been a moment that I thought I would rather be at home. I am very blessed to have such a great support system here and at home. It makes me feel more comfortable know that I still have friends at home and so I want to thank you for all your prayers and for answering my phone calls and for the emails or facebook messages cause even though I may not respond cause I forget to, it really helps me out.
One last thought. What is really cool about helping out with ESL is seeing them improve. When we first started the ESL class could not sing any song in English. Now they can all read and all love to sing and would like to have worship last forever if possible. I teach the hour after lunch and at the start of this quarter I made a new rule of no Khmer during that class hour. I expect complaints about how that is impossible, but they have surprised me and have taken it to heart. I told them I would give them a warning if I heard Khmer and then points would be taken away the second time. I have only given warnings and no points have been taken away. They love the idea that they can go an whole hour just speaking English and they are doing well. Even kids who would not even respond to ‘how are you?’ are talking to me asking me questions. It makes me so happy seeing how they are improving. Kristie is doing a great job with that class. A sad thing though is that Orng is leaving us :( He is now sponsored to go to Mission college in Thailand and is leaving in Jan. AHHHHH!!!! I don’t know what we are going to do. He is the one Khmer Teacher’s assistant that is always there, knows all the students, only speaks Khmer when he has to, is not lazy, and works his but off for that class, and the kids love him. I’m going to be very sad. He walks like a grandpa when he wears tennis shoes cause he is use to only wearing flip flops so I call him Lok Da which means Mr. Grandpa and so ne now calls me Lok Yey- Ms. Grandma and his is the one who always fixes our problems whether it be with the sink, finding glue, our bikes, finding a noodle place. Life will not be the same without him. and Kagna left us for the Philippines and the girls deans Sok Cheng and Souphea may leave as well! All our Khmer friends are leaving us! New Mission College graduates are going to start working here in Jan. so maybe we’ll make new friends.
May I also say, this Thursday is our next senior fundraiser and it will be a carnival. I'm nervous about this one cause there is a lot going on.... Praise God that Sopeap is another advisor and she is willing to help.
Any ways. Have a great night!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125268&id=735963980&l=bcb2fe5646
Teach
Christmas Music
Being hated by 10th graders
Piano and More Christmas Music
Korea
Christmas Music
Drama
Explaination.
I cannot remember what I last wrote about and I am writing in Word right now and I do not have the internet so I cannot check so I will write about what has been happening lately.
As you can tell Christmas music is playing a large role in my life right now. Being the only CAS teacher willing to play the piano makes me a very busy person. I am the leader for the Christmas program. Since English Christmas music is not a very familiar topic to the Khmer teachers I now teach choir to all grades pre-k to 8th. So I can officially say I have taught all grades in the school except 9th grade. I’m enjoying it because I am meeting more students and the eighth grade girls now are my new little sisters, but the down side is I lost all my planning times and my library times to do this. So all my grading and lesson planning is down outside of school. But there is not enough time, so lesson planning has kinda been placed on hold. I think my students are loving it, cause lessons have not been too tough lately. Sometimes I want to go crazy and just hide so I no longer have to play the piano, but God is good he’s getting me through. See the Christmas program is not the only program I am playing the piano for. I also am the pianoist for the special choir which sings for a hotel in the city. So on top of that there are days through this month were after school or on Sunday I have to go to the hotel and play for the choir. I’m a little scared for when that starts. The first day is on Monday. Please pray for me and for the choir so that we can be a witness. Not only do I play for that but random special musics that I get asked to do. This Sabbath I played accompaniment for all the Korean volunteers (Kristie, Hannah, Grace, David Kim’s wife) as they all play the flute. Also I was asked to play for the 12th grade class vespers, but I told David I would rather not. Hopefully I can get out of it. All of this takes practice time and well, lets just say the piano is not pretty for all that I am doing. I don’t think the people realize how limited I am with the piano. Sure I can play the notes if they are in front of me, but all Khmer pianists here only play by sound and so they expect all pianists to do the same. That is not me. Oh well… I’m doing my best. I actually have learned how to play by chords (like a book that just has chords for the guitar). It’s not too pretty but the basic background noise to a song. But I’m proud that I have learned that much. So as you can see Christmas music is taking over my life.
Now the 10th graders do not hate me, or at least I hope not. They are just “disappointed” with me. I was a judge for a debate about abortion and the 10th graders were pro-choice and the 9th graders were pro-life. The MC for the debate did not try to hide how teachers judged and so all know that I was the one to cause the 10th graders to lose the debate. Also the day earlier I promised to do Christmas decorating with them for Algebra. Now who would I be to take time out of a math class to decorate without doing math. So I was going to have them make a paper chain and on each piece they would have to solve one algebraic equation since they are learning to solve for a variable. Well, they had started cutting the paper, but when I introduced what they were going to do. They pushed the paper aside and said they were not going to do it cause that is no fun. I said fine. You get homework then. Previously I said I would not assign homework. According to some I disappointed them cause I broke my promise. Whatever. They irritated me. I sound like a kid I know, but they were just so ungrateful so I gave homework. I even brought Christmas music. They have not learned that when they irritate me they get homework. Let’s just say they get a lot of homework. :D lol
Some exciting news is I think I am going to Korea for Christmas break. We (Kristie and I) found tickets to go at a discounted price and we reserved the tickets. However they did not tell us we had to pay by a certain day so when we went in they said we lost the tickets. The price went up and so then we were thinking of not going. They on Friday the travel agent lady called and the discount sale had extended and is now cheaper! So yeah we still might go!
I’m in charge of drama class which is a challenge for me since I have never participated in drama except to make props. We have two productions this month. Scary.
What is really exciting is David Kim a Korean Missionary is starting a project to get the teens in the church active. Every Sabbath after church they get together have a choir practice, potluck and then go out into parts of the town and have classes for the kids. It’s cool to see the students getting active and having them do the “mission” work instead of the foreigners. Kids who are shy in school are getting involved and it is neat seeing them doing something that is not in their norm. I think it is a great start to keeping students in the church. They have the same problem here as in America. Students get baptized and then leave the church when they get bored. So hopefully this will give them a sense of purpose. Next step is to reach the collegiate level and that is where I think all us SM’s will step in since we are their age.
Now for a new list of why I can tell I’m starting to fit in here.
I have sandle tan lines.
When I open a packet of roman noodles and there are ants inside I just brush them off, cook the noodles and pick out the few ants I didn’t see.
I get cold at night. It is probably 75 degrees
I can ride a bike with a 12th grader on the back. (while going on a dirt road that is all potholes)
When I greet someone I hit them on the shoulder. (a terrible habit that I need to stop. Everyone hits each other here…. lightly though)
I got my makeup done for a wedding. (It was scarylooking. Kristy and I were so embarrassed walking home)
When someone yells teacher I responder quicker than if they yell my name
When I see another white person I think… oh that tourist and I laugh silently to myself
I crave unripe mango with salt and chili power. It is yummy
I crave durian especially in duk kru lok, which is a fruit shake. Durian smells like rotten trash. No lie
I don’t want to leave ever and I am 100% sure I will be back in the future. One reason is I promised Orng I would go to his wedding when ever that is… he says 6-8 years, but we’ll see, his girlfriend lives in another country. I just want to see what see my students where they are older and see how they have changed. It would be awesome to see. I was told that we would have culture shock. And there are moments that I think to my self… life would be so much easier at home. But those instances last two hours at the most and then I again love it here. There has not been a moment that I thought I would rather be at home. I am very blessed to have such a great support system here and at home. It makes me feel more comfortable know that I still have friends at home and so I want to thank you for all your prayers and for answering my phone calls and for the emails or facebook messages cause even though I may not respond cause I forget to, it really helps me out.
One last thought. What is really cool about helping out with ESL is seeing them improve. When we first started the ESL class could not sing any song in English. Now they can all read and all love to sing and would like to have worship last forever if possible. I teach the hour after lunch and at the start of this quarter I made a new rule of no Khmer during that class hour. I expect complaints about how that is impossible, but they have surprised me and have taken it to heart. I told them I would give them a warning if I heard Khmer and then points would be taken away the second time. I have only given warnings and no points have been taken away. They love the idea that they can go an whole hour just speaking English and they are doing well. Even kids who would not even respond to ‘how are you?’ are talking to me asking me questions. It makes me so happy seeing how they are improving. Kristie is doing a great job with that class. A sad thing though is that Orng is leaving us :( He is now sponsored to go to Mission college in Thailand and is leaving in Jan. AHHHHH!!!! I don’t know what we are going to do. He is the one Khmer Teacher’s assistant that is always there, knows all the students, only speaks Khmer when he has to, is not lazy, and works his but off for that class, and the kids love him. I’m going to be very sad. He walks like a grandpa when he wears tennis shoes cause he is use to only wearing flip flops so I call him Lok Da which means Mr. Grandpa and so ne now calls me Lok Yey- Ms. Grandma and his is the one who always fixes our problems whether it be with the sink, finding glue, our bikes, finding a noodle place. Life will not be the same without him. and Kagna left us for the Philippines and the girls deans Sok Cheng and Souphea may leave as well! All our Khmer friends are leaving us! New Mission College graduates are going to start working here in Jan. so maybe we’ll make new friends.
May I also say, this Thursday is our next senior fundraiser and it will be a carnival. I'm nervous about this one cause there is a lot going on.... Praise God that Sopeap is another advisor and she is willing to help.
Any ways. Have a great night!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125268&id=735963980&l=bcb2fe5646
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