Just a glimpse

Baby its been way too long...

I had a really good hair day today. Why is this significant enough to make the blog? Well, my last good hair day (ie. I wake up and it looks good) was July 14, 2007 (yes, I actually made a note of it in my journal). My co-teacher said my hair looked "cool" today when I walked in...I wasn't sure how to take that coming from a 40 year old Korean woman, but she's just so cute...so a compliment it shall be.

I had my lower level after school class this afternoon. It is populated with 3rd graders and low-level 4th graders. They can't spell. They can't read very well. There are some who don't even know the ABC's. But man - we have so much fun! They picked English names at the beginning of the session, so they will now and forever be known as Mark, John, Steven, Andy, Kenny, Kevin, Chloe, Susie, Ann and Tony. Some quick facts about them:

• Mark is cute, well-behaved, and a baby genius...he would follow me to the ends of the Earth
• John is quite mature (for being 8 years old), and very wise...not quite as naive as Mark
• Steven is very smart, and yet...if I had a dollar for every time that kid fell out of his chair...
• Andy is a jerk. So much so that I have kind of forgotten his English name because I use his Korean name (Eun Chan) when I yell at him. He is older, and I think he feels outsmarted by the younger kids.
• Kenny is hilarious and has Chia Pet hair
• Kevin is sweet and uber-cute...he wears a glasses strap every day!
• Chloe is TINY! It's like Honey I Shrunk the Korean.
• Susie chooses to tell me everything in Korean (in detail) and then just keeps barreling on even when I give her the "I'm clueless" look. She then proceeds to repeat everything, only slightly slower. Kinda sounds like what I do all day every day.
• Ann is neither here nor there.
• Tony is adorable, and my only wish is that he could fit in my pocket so I could carry him around with me all the time.

In other news, the Olympic Torch made its way through Seoul on Sunday. After church a few of us went down to City Hall to get a glimpse of the madness. To read all about it and see some pictures, feel free to check out Hil's blog.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole China/Olympics situation. I mean, Asian pride (represent), but in Sunday school this week we talked about martyrdom and read a story about a woman imprisoned for her Christian activities in China. I'm curious to hear what your guys' takes on it are.

So...many of you have been asking...just when exactly is Jessica coming back to the grand ol' US of A?

Well, the short, uncomplicated story is I don't know exactly. My contract ends on August 24th (4 months away!!!) so I will obviously remain in Korea until then. By law, I am required to leave Korea on that day. But, as our good friends of Semisonic once told us, "Closing time - you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." So, at this point, I am leaning toward not coming home right away, and just taking some time to travel around so I have some good stories to tell my grandkids someday.

So...when? Well, I can say that I'll be back before November 4th. There's no way I'm gonna miss that chaos.

Asia is lovely, but America certainly is home. So with that said, barring any heavenly revelation, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "I'll be back."

Enjoy your Tuesday - I've already had mine, so I can tell you its gonna be awesome :)