#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 44 - I'm in Love with Jamie Teacher <3

LOL - not really. 

But I am in love with a wonderful little program he showed me. It's called ClassDojo and it worked magic on my tiny terrors. 

The Grade Ones were tamed today all because of a program that works via my cellphone and the internet and give points for good behavior and takes points away for bad behavior. 

Thank you Jamie Teacher!!!!!!!

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 43 - A Multiplicity of Santa's.

So what to talk about - it could be the happy hours I spent with my friend this afternoon and evening chatting over a ginger cookie frappicino and Vietnamese food, or maybe the Indian lunch with other friends, or the fact that I made some new purchases, since shopping is always fun - as long as it's not shopping for clothes or shoes. That's not fun. 

But instead I think I will return to another of my favourite topics, the art that jumps up and surprises you all around Korea. 

Today I saw this rather awesome mural at a bus stop. It tickelled my funny bone and made me laugh. But as I was on a crowded bus I did manage to keep the laugh on the inside. Snapped the picture hurriedly through the bus window as the bus pulled away. I think I counted a total of 14 Santa's. Not sure if I got them all in the picture though. 

Enjoy. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 42 - The Happiness File

Reasons to be happy today:

1. It's Sabbath

2. God is on His throne and it doesn't matter what is right or wrong with my world, it'll be all right in the end. 

3. I got to make a new friend. 

4. I got to spend time deepening friendships with people I don't know as well as I would like to, and now I know I want to know them even better. 

5. I got to spend the evening with a couple of old friends who I haven't seen in a while. 

All good reasons to be happy. 

One thing that has struck me from keeping on going with this 100 Days of Happiness Challenge is how much of my happiness revolves around the relationships I have with other people. I think that love really truly is what makes people happy. 

Between The Happy's: Conquering Fear

One thing that gives me enjoyment is reading the stats on my blog. I can see how many people have read each individual posting. I can find out which countries the people come from, just a round figure, not by individual reader. The stats tell me things like what kind of device and browser my audience uses, and what search words bring them to my blog. 

Maybe my favourite feature of the stats is where it shows me which postings have been most popular in the last week/day/now. Quite often I'll go back and reread the posts that are listed. In some ways it's like reading past pages in my diary. (Yes I keep a diary too, for those things that I want to remember but I don't want to make public to the world. But I will confess I don't write in it very often. Lol - I have very few secrets, I much prefer to live my life out loud.)

Anyway this morning I was looking at the stats and the post I ended up rereading was my testimony of how God has worked in my life. I posted it about two years ago. What struck me most forcefully was the fact that God has not ceased working. I have changed from the person I was then. I'm not perfected or finished by any means, but I can see the progress. 

Take for example fear. All my life I have been afraid of men. Some men barely worried me, others scared me so much that I couldn't stay in the same room as them. But God has healed that. I've watched Him do it over the last few years and been amazed. 

The funny thing is that when I stressed about it and prayed and focused on it the fear seemed to grow. But when I prayed and gave it to God and then refused to think about it, the fear shrunk and has slowly disappeared. In the last year I think I've only had one fear reaction. 

That was maybe 6 weeks ago, I ended up shouting at a man in the subway station and then running (literally) away. Turns out I have quite an impressive turn of speed. That incident really upset me. Not because of the man, but because I reacted in fear when I thought I had been fixed. (And because I shouted, that shocked me, I haven't shouted at anyone in almost 20 years.) However thinking about it later I came to two conclusions. 

One was that it was an example of healthy fear. Sometimes we should be afraid, healthy fear is meant to protect us. 

The second thing I concluded was that that man did not mean to scare me. I think it was a clash between Korean culture and my culture. So I will grow from this incident too. 

Now for those few people who read my blog reguarly, you may or may not remember that a few months ago I said that I had made some big decisions/changes. 

One was that I have joined a dating website. Sadly to date that has been a big bust, my computer is not working so well and for some reason the website keeps locking me out. I'm planning to buy a new computer in the next few months and I'll try again then. 

The second change/decision is that I've decided I'm going to go out on a date, at least once, with any guy (SDA) who asks me. Am not expecting, or even wanting to marry the first guy who asks me out, lol. But I kind of feel like I'm growing up. Guess I'm just a late (very late) bloomer. 

Anyway I see this all as evidence of how God is working in my life, bringing me slowly and gently to experiences that have stretched my confidence, built my trust, and quieted my fears. 

Now I have several good male friends, two or three years ago I had none. I spend time with these friends in groups and individually. Two or three years ago to be alone with a guy was unthinkable. Men were creatures to be ignored. 

The funny thing is that each of these male friends treats me as some kind if agony aunt. They tell me the trials and tribulations of their love lives. It's very interesting. I've learned that guys are just as messed up as girls. 

Anyway the take home message from this is that God is still on the throne, that we can trust Him, that He works in our lives according to His timetable, and that I know my life story is going to work out in a way that will bring glory to Him. 

And that when the fair maid gets out of the way God will happily slay the dragon. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 41 - Spring has Sprung

Today I had firm evidence that spring has arrived. A white blossoming cherry tree at my school, and a pink blossomed apricot, yellow 개나리, white magnolias and deep purple violets popping up in the most unlikely places. Lots of beauty everywhere. 

And then I found this recycled beauty. It forced me to put all my bags down and take a photo. Someone has been very creative with their rubbish. 

The punk thing that has been used for the blossom is the covering you will get around a narshi pear (that's the NZ name, I forget the Korean one) to protect it from bruising. This lovely 'blossom' has been installed on an Aloe Vera cacti. 

It made me laugh. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 40 - A Whale Of A Time

The most trumatic part of my week is the three hours I have to spend teaching grade 1 each week. They are loud and naughty and they run around and mess up my classroom. They are also cute. 

Today I taught them how to make origami whales. I was rather dubious about this activity but it was what had been dictated as today's activity. 

Much to my amazement they all went head down and tail up and quietly made their whales. 

Here are a couple of pics of the finished product. 

And then just to add an ahhhhhh factor, as I was taking them all downstairs one of the little girls said "I love you Cat Teacher."

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 39 - General Happy

I can't think of a specific happy moment today - not one that stands out from the general milieu of basic contentedness. 

Maybe having a student tell me that science is fun, or having two other students voluntarily drop into my classroom to share their candy with me, or other students who dropped by just to chat, or the fact that I'm starting to feel ever so slightly like maybe I'm on top of this job, or leaving school and relaxing at the jjimjilbang (public bath house) this evening, or the fact that it is 9pm and I will be turning the light out and going to sleep in 5 minutes. Nothing major or life shatteringly wonderful, just general happiness. 

It may be boring to read about but it is a good way to be. ^^

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 38 - Ummmmmmmm

Today I was teaching my classes about classification, particularly the idea that classifying is dividing large groups into smaller groups according to specific rules. To illustrate this I got them to play a life sized version of 'Guess Who.'

For this games I choose two people. One if them is the 'Guesser' and everybody knows who they are. The other one is 'The Secret Person,' only I know who they are. 

All the other students stand up and the guesser has to ask me as few 'yes/no' questions as possible to determine who the secret person is. Each round takes about 3 minutes. The winner is the person who identifies the secret person with the least number of guesses. 

So we were playing this game. It was the last round of the class. A boy was holding the record for least number of guesses. It was a girls turn to play. The first question revealed that the secret person was a boy. The boys were desperate that the girl not win. So they immediately started stripping off all identifying features. Blazers, ties, jumpers, glasses, anything that would make a distinction. 

Within about 30 seconds I had two and a half rows of boys with black hair, black eyes, wearing almost identicle white shirts, all squinting (some because they couldn't see, some just trying to match).  I laughed and laughed and laughed. I laughed even harder when the girl won anyway :-D

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 36 - Chin Wagging

Just to be clear, today's happy thing was not the pizza. Although it was exceeding delicious. Rather it was the long and wandering chat I enjoyed at Pizza Hut with two of my co-workers this evening. But I wasn't about to whip out my phone and say "Please pose for my blog." Especially since I've only known them for three weeks. 

We talked about life, the universe and the meaning of everything. Highly enjoyable. Even if my brain feels like it's going to explode from all the new perspectives. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 35 - Public Acts of Art

One thing I love about Korea, is the art. I found these examples of kindergarten art adorning the walls of a train station. They made me smile. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 34 - Bowling

Another Late Report

Last night I went bowling with friends. First time I've been bowling in about five years. It was fun. Guess which score was mine ...

Just so you can know just how bad I am at bowling I should tell you that my friend Bob used his left hand and he still got a better score than me. And Christen got the best score she has ever gotten in her whole life. ^^

Then we went to an exercise park and played on the exercise machines. I have no idea what the real name of these places is, but they are all over Korea. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 33 - Defilement: It's A Good Thing ^^

So yet again this is late, I really tried to post it last night, but I was so tired I kept going to sleep mid-sentence. Then waking up, shaking myself and typing another word or two. The last time that happened I managed to delete 10 minutes of work. So I gave up and decided to just do if in the morning.

Yesterday's happy thing - well the one I'm going to tell you about - happened early in the morning. I had to go to immigration to renew my visa. (Incidental happy thing; outside Immigration was a truck selling my favourite street food. Guess what I had for breakfast... )

Anyway I got to Immigration with my beautiful new passport, (the NZ passport really is beautiful - I'm giving you a picture of the cover - and every page on the inside has a different gorgeous picture.) Immigration put a big ugly stamp in the middle of one of the nice clean pages. I felt rather as if my passport had been defiled. On the other hand that big ugly stamp lets me stay in the country for another year so I'm not going to complain. Sometimes it's a good thing to have something defiled. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 32 - Happy Surprises

Today was Mother's Day at my school. That means the Mothers all come in and have meetings with the Korean teachers and then come and meet the Foreign teachers. Imagine my surprise and delight when one of the mothers walked into my class room and turned out to be my friend Liz. She was one of my students when I first moved to Korea. 

And here is a token picture from me to illustrate my delight. 

Another Happy Day. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 31 - From the Mouth of Kids

This is the response I got from one of the homework questions I handed out this week. 

Pleasant dreams. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 30 - One Man's Trash ...

One thing that continues to shock me here in Korea is the ease at which people throw away perfectly good items. Things that in NZ we would put on trademe and someone would happily pay a few dollars or more to take them off our hands. 

Well today it worked in my favour. Somebody put a large large cupboard outside on the road, so my neighbour and I retrieved it. The one thing my new apartment is lacking is storage space. Problem solved!

The cupboard is in perfectly good condition except that the doors have been removed, but I'm sure I can rehang them. It has six shelves, is strong, stable and sturdy. 

All we need to do now is ask her father in law to take off the window bars so we can lift the cupboard in through the  window. It is surprisingly light considering that it is too big to bring in through the door. 

This photo shows an end of the cupboard and two of the four doors in their temporary home by my entrance. Not exactly an aesthetically pleasing photo, but I wasn't thinking of taking pictures when we brought the cupboard home. When I get it inside, cleaned up and filled I'll take another one. 

PS Remind me to tell you the story of how God provided me with a new apartment and all the furniture and pots and pans and everything I need. In fact He has given me so much stuff I'm getting to give it away to other people. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 29 - Cute

One of my lovely students have me this today :-)

I think she likes me :-D

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 28 - More with the friends. ^^

I know I'm a day late with this post. 

The thing that made me happy yesterday was going to the Indian restaurant with my friends. I say 'the' Indian restaurant because it is the only one I go to with this group of friends. We go there often. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 27 - Nom Nom Nom

How does one take a photo of a smell?? 

Lots of happy things happened today but the thing that made me happiest was a smell. 

I went to the apartment of one of my friends for their house warming party and in the hall ways was a strong strong smell of paint and solvents. 

So delicious!!!! Sometimes I really miss my lab. 

Since I need a picture to illustrate my happy day here is one I found on the internet. Solvents and paint are not flowers, but I don't care, I enjoy them equally. 

 PS Here us the link to the article that accompanied this picture. It's all about smell and rather fascinating. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/science/05angier.html?_r=0

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 26 - White Day

Today in Korea it is/was White Day. (Technically I'm late with this post, Technically it's tomorrow now.) 

White Day is an entirely commercial holiday designed to make people spend money. And as far as I'm concerned it is exceedingly unfair!! 

Here in Korea Valentines Day has morphed into a strange kind of day where women buy chocolate for their special men. Then one month later on March 14 the men buy candy to give to the women. That's the unfair part. How come the men get the chocolate??? And the women only get candy??? 

Then on the 14th of April, Black Day, all the women without boyfriends go and eat black noodles because they are meant to be sad and desperate. 

But the purpose of this post is not to rant. It is to tell you what made me happy today. 

One of my grade 5 boys bought me candy and while it is not chocolate I totally appreciate the guesture :-D even more so because it was completely unexpected. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 25 - ...

Today I am happy that the day is over!!! It has been a good day, but soooooo long. 

Here is a picture of the thing that has made me happiest today. 

That is my bed. Here it is again, but now it is ready to get into. 

Funny really - as a kid I thought making the bed was such a hard job. Now I not only make it, I roll it up and put it away. Life is such an ironic thing. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 24 - Cute

Cute 1:

On my way to work this morning I was walking along a long wall that looks lie this ...

... Something on top caught my eye so I lifted the camera high to investigate. The photo I came back with was this ...

Obviously a little boy in the apartment complexly thought this was the perfect place to play at earthmoving. Very cute. 

Cute 2:

One of the girls walked into my classroom this morning. "Teacher, I made this." She said and then she gave me ...

I like cute things ^^ they make me smile. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 23 - Friendship

One thing I've realized from writing this blog is how many of my happy moments involve other people - ie friends. Korea has made me a MUCH more social person.  I don't get to read nearly as much these days as I used to. Today is no exception to this rule. I ate my third meal of Mexican food of the week - each meal has been in a different restaurant with different friends - and I enjoyed a long and winding conversation with one of my favouritest friends. Y

It has been a happy day. ^^

Here is a picture of my burrito. It was delicious. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 22 - Serendipity

Today I had a happy lovely surprise. I was in the subway system, hurrying along with the flow of people transferring from one train to another and just as my train was arriving I looked up and much to my delight discovered one of my old students standing right next to me. Some how the flow of people had brought us side by side. Seoul has so many people in it that you never expect to run into someone you know just by accident. (I've lived here 2.5 years and it's only happened 2 times before today.)

My students name is Neo and I haven't seen him in several months, ever since he got a new job and became too busy to come to Enhlish Club. We had a great chat on the train - hardly stopped talking all the way to his stop. 

That was the icing of happiness on what was an altogether happy day. :-D

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 21 - The Dubious Delights of Non-Coffee Drinks

Today's Happinesses ^^

The day isn't even over and I have had an entirely happy day so far. Don't expect that to change. 

I met one of my friends for brunch. It has been almost a year since I last saw her. Am determined that it will not be that long before we meet again. We had a mushroom omelette each and lattes. 

Now one thing that fascinates me is the range of non-coffee drinks available in Korea.

Green tea latte - tastes like grass.

Ginseng latte - tastes like dirt.

Sweet potato latte - tastes like thin sweet potato soup - not delicious.

Ginger latte - very delicious.

Black bean latte - oddly this one is actually rather good. Even though it doesn't sound like it. 

There are more - I tend to try them once and go back to hot chocolate ...

Today I had a new one. Broccoli latte!! It was terrible!!!!!!!!!! I had two sips - below is a pic of my tentative first taste. My friend however really liked it and said she would order it again. 

We also found an organic market. The prices were terrible, but I tried a sample of the strawberry jam - it was wonderful. I am planning to go back and buy some. ^^

Fancy a candle with a burnable holder??

And following the broccoli theme, how about some broccoli soap??

Ps At the end of today, just as I was coming home, I saw an old man sucking a lolly pop. That made me smile :-). And he was very handsome. That made me smile too. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 20 - My Korean Family

There are a group of foreigners who I jokingly call "My Korean Family."  As opposed to my New Zealand family. Korean because while none of us is Korean - except Sunny who now lives in the States - we all live in Korea. This group is rather transient, but there is a core group of about 7 who don't change. Over the Christmas period several of them have been off traveling. Today all of us except 2 got back together. 

That made me happy. 

Here is a picture of me and my Korean daughters. One is from Uganda and one is from Kenya. We had a lovely lovely day together. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 19 - Late Happies

I know I'm a few hours late with this post but there were a few things that made me happy yesterday. 

One thing that makes me smile and even laugh out loud sometimes is the absurd mental images I get to represent certain things. 

For example one of my new coworkers has an exceedingly large back pack. It has pockets for everything. Really!! I have a small case of backpack envy. However the picture in my head that goes with the image of coworker wearing the giant pack is that of a camel. Complete with the song 'Alice the Camel has Nine Humps.' (Coworkers name is not Alice.) I have to be careful not to hum the tune when I see my coworker. And it makes me smile everytime. 

Another internet photo accompanies this post as I have yet to take a photo of coworker and pack. 

Ps The photo is 'slightly' exaggerated. And my coworker is better looking.  

PSs I hope the tune is now securely lodged in your head for the next few hours, hahaha. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 18 - Blue Dyed Hands

I've had a few misadventures with buses this week. Today's was totally my fault. I wasn't paying attention and I misheard the stop. Jumped up and off the bus, and then realized I didn't know where I was. Big I decided to grab dinner before I worried about getting home. 

So I went into a nearby restaurant and serendipitously discovered two German girls with perfect English who wanted to chat. One of them had a smurf blue hand, from dying her hair without gloves. The bottom 6inches of her long dark hair was also smurf blue. 

Again this picture is from the internet - didn't think It was quite appropriate to say "Can I take a picture of your hand for my Happiness File after just five minutes of chatting." 

PS I did get home safely. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 17 - Random Happinesses

Lots of small things made me happy today. Things like:

* The cold morning air that let me puff fog clouds like a dragon all the way to work - well the part of going to work that is walking outside in the fresh/crisp air rather than on a nice warm bus.

* The sparkle in the naughty boys eyes - the one that says "I have an imagination! I like to learn and achieve things, but I also like to have fun and I'm willing to break the rules to do it." - I love that sparkle, even though I know they will be a handful to teach. I also know I will enjoy doing it and feeding and curbing their minds at the same time. That is like the best game in the world. I rarely see that sparkle in a girls eyes - but when I do it is even better.

* Seeing a student who has given up on learning walk out after their first class with me with a tiny seed of hope tentatively poking out one petal - again it's in the eyes.

* Making documents to organise my teaching plans :-) Perfectionist, OCD, workaholic Cat kicking into full flow - and I like it - but I'm more controlled now, I've learned a few things since LAC days.

* My new NZ passport arrived today and it is soooooooo pretty. I spent a good 20 minutes looking at all the pictures and making my friends admire it.

* Discovering a bus that takes me directly to work instead of having to catch two different trains.

* Discovering a stall that makes my favourite breakfast time street food - that actually is healthy too. I know it's open in the afternoon, tomorrow I shall find out if it is open in the morning. I HOPE SO!

* Sitting on the bus chatting with my friend on Kakao Talk (an instant messanger app). I love Technology. And discovering that my friend has started the 100HappyDays Challenge too.

Those are some of the things that made me happy today. The hardest part of this challenge is remembering to take pictures of something that made me happy. Today I forgot, so I found this picture on the internet. It pretty much illustrates me breathing my entire way to work. I've been trying to make 'fog rings' but with 0.0% success.

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 16 - The One Rule

Today was my first day with the kids - 4 classes. I did my standard spiel, "The One Rule to bind them all..." Aka "Do NOT annoy the teacher." Then I let them suggest all the copious things that might annoy the teacher. They thought of things I've never even dreamed of putting on my list - but I solumnly nodded and agreed that those things might definitely annoy the teacher and they certainly had better avoid doing them. (Eg. Screaming, singing, and dying featured in their list ... I agreed that it is particularly wise to avoid dying in class.) So proud of myself for not cracking a smile.

I also took mug shot photos of the students holding a piece of pace with their name written in big letters - students almost unanimously agreed that it was like having a prison photo taken. I just nodded and agreed, told them to smile and clicked the camera, now I will make pages of class photos and start learning their names. 

I also had my first 'silence practice' victim - I'm in the middle of explaining what will happen if they annoy the teacher and this particularly silly boy does those very things. Couldn't very well ignore that behavior ... 

Altogether it was a most enjoyable day :-)

Here is a picture of my first class. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 15 - More Perspective.

So today was my first day at my new job. This year I will be having another new adventure - teaching Grade 5 Science in an elementary school in Seoul. Korean students who go to and English Immersion school. They have half their subjects in English and half in Korean. 

But today was rather boring. It was all meetings. The closest I got to the students was to stand on the stage and wave while I was introduced this morning. Tomorrow is the real big day. 

One interesting thing is that I got the hear and see the Korean National Anthem sung for the first time. All the students and teachers stood to attention and faced the flag, they put their right hand on their hearts, (which apparently is located somewhere between the left nipple and the left armpit.)  Actually it was quite sweet watching the kids, they were so solumn and focused. 

But I never got pictures if that. 

Today my 'this makes me happy picture' is another one on perspective. This was taken by me on an escalator. The lines on the wall and the escalator railing meet in such a way that they can give you a rather mind bending experience, if you tip your head on just the right angle, and block out other things that would force your perspective to make the people vertical. 

I tried to capture this experience with my camera ... Kind of succeeded ... Kind of ... I still think the real experience is more brain altering than these pics, but they give you the idea. 

Another thing that amazed me was that no one even realized I was taking their photo...

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 14 - Perspective.

Finding clever pictures on the internet makes me happy. Particularly when if makes me change my perspective on something even if only momentarily. 

#100HappyDays Challenge: Day 13 - Sabbath

Today many things made me happy ^^. It's Sabbath, I spent the day with my friends, I had Indian for dinner, one of my friends surprised us by telling us it was his birthday tomorrow. We sang lots of old hymns for the afternoon program - I love hymns. 

And then in the cafe we went to to celebrate the birthday I found this book which made me laugh. 

And then I found a magazine with pictures of some teachers I know. 

And the evening finished off with the taxi driver explaining why all the streets had suddenly sprouted flags in the last 24 hours. I love it when mysteries are solved. Here's a picture of my street adorned with flags. 

And I have two friends staying for a sleepover :-)