My babies

March is the start of the new semester in Korea. To me, that means a new schedule and new students. My schedule is pretty good. I don't have to be into work until noon, or sometimes 1. I leave around 7 or 8 pm. That means I have NO excuse not to work out in the mornings! (unless of course I go out the night before) ;)
ANYway, I got a new kindergarten class. They are the youngest kids at the school. Brand-new 5 year-olds. If you remember anything about Korean age, that means they are a mere 3 years old in America. Basically fetuses.
SO, of course they don't speak a lick of English. The entire 80 minute class consists of them babbling to me in Korean (expecting me to answer of course). They call me song-sang-nim, which means teacher in Korean. They are soooooooooooooo cute, and I do love them. They don't pose quite the behavior problems that my previous kindy class did; the problems lie in their young age. They have the attention spans of gnats, which I understand--they are only 3. So I really put on a performance in that class to keep them interested. I am waaay over the top when it comes to voices and facial expressions. It's pretty fun (because of their reactions, they really get a kick out of it) but it's tiring. In addition to their short attention spans, they also aren't used to sitting at a desk for doing workbook pages for 4.5 hours a day. So I get the occasional desk-sleeper, which is also understandable.
Here's the thing that I just can't believe or understand--they can't wipe themselves yet. If you ask me, isn't TOILET TRAINING a little higher on the list than SPEAKING ENGLISH??? Hmmm...Now, not to be insensitive or anything, but in my contract, it says NOTHING about wiping the ass of another human being. Last time I checked, "teaching" didn't involve the bathroom. So anyway, to make a long story short, one kid peed his pants in my class, another kid shit his pants, and now I have an aide. It's great. She's Korean, helps the kids in the bathroom, and also helps translate. I'm in heaven.
Here are some pics of a few kids that I may steal when I leave the country. I love love love them. Pictured here: Edward, Denis, Ryan, and Cara. I get happy just seeing their pictures.