The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good: Nelson is coming to Korea in exactly 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went on our monthly field trip this past Thursday with the kindergarteners to a sweet potato farm. It was the shiiiiiiz, especially considering how much I love Korean sweet potatoes. I picked a couple of sweet potatoes and one of my coworkers gave me a bag full that she got.  

The teachers helped the little ones pick their own sweet potatoes.

The students were shouting, "Teacher, teacher look!" every 2 seconds. Very entertaining.

My Korean son picked many.

The pre-kinder students brought so much food; it was a junk food feast. Of course no one wanted to eat their lunch.

The bad: Ownership has changed at my school. I want to be optimistic about this change, but so far the transition has been really rough. I missed picture day with the kindergarteners and got dressed up for nothing because of poor management and idiocy. So...I took pictures for myself. Not as professional and not very well posed, but I like these better.

I don't know how professional photographers get these kids to sit still!

They love photobombing! Hahaha

The ugly: I made banana bread with my coworker, Samantha, and her Dutch Oven. She showed me how to use this contraption that she learned to use while in the Peace Corps in Mozambique. A dutch oven is basically a pot inside another pot, like a rice cooker, but without the steam vent so no heat escapes. I was extremely impressed. Although this banana bread doesn't look particularly appetizing in the picture, it was SLAMMING! I will be making this again...many times.

At the end of the field trip, one of my pre-kinder students decided she wanted to use my camera.

I was really tired because I just let her do it.

She took many funny shots of her classmate, Kevin.

Goofball :)

That's the photographer on the right, Dionisia.

Planting for Earth Day

It seems Earth Day works. I gardened today! I've been meaning to do this for months, but got lazy. My indoor garden is small but slowly growing. I started off with a jade tree almost 4 years ago. It’s a succulent so I figured I couldn’t kill it…I haven’t killed it but it hasn’t gotten much larger. I’ve recently added peppermint (thanks Alex!), some other succulent (this nice grandma lady gave me a couple clippings last summer), rosemary, chives, and cilantro. My cilantro and chives are not doing so well. Actually this is my second try on the cilantro, the last plant died completely.

I replanted all of the herbs into larger planters and planted seeds for several new veggies with Plato's helpful advice. (Well, he really just nosed around a lot and whined whenever he saw neighbors who didn't come to pet him.) In a couple of months, I hope to have tomatoes, onions, mustard greens, and Japanese eggplants. This is my first time trying to grow vegetables and I'm not really known for having a green thumb. Unfortunately gardening is outside my comfort zone. Getting the amount of sunlight, water, drainage, type of soil, fertilizers, etc. for each plant right is lots of work and usually overwhelms me. But, I'm trying to master the ability to feed myself.


Below is a picture of my pride and joy: rosemary. Rosemary must be really easy to grow because mine seems to thrive even when I forget about it. ;) If only cilantro was so easy.

 

I got something good and worthwhile done today...making it a sunny and happy Earth Day for me.