Chapter Fourteen: Another Package and Excellent Monday

Today I received another totally amazing package, this time from the wonderful Nicole, fellow food-blogger/Smithie/LI'er/P2P'er/might as well be my lil' sister. Contained in it was ton of good 'Merican stuff. I loved the fact that she used $5 stamps. I cannot believe they make those or that you could have so many stamps on one thing! Uh-mazing.

CD, letter, and rice-cooker recipes galore! I've been thinking about getting a rice-cooker since it would essentially double my ability to cook and I'm sure I can find one really cheap around here. My last big purchase (hiking boots) was one of the best I've ever made.

The simple pleasures: Annie's and oatmeal (the latter I happen to recognize from Smith dining halls and appreciate more than if she had purchased it herself)!

MMM candy and snacky goodness. I had been theorizing about how to simulate Reese's because of my deep craving for them, but now I don't have to!

Finally, some essentials (yay Burts Bees! How I was in need of the stuff!), more candy, and British chocolates. I feel like getting British chocolates mailed to me in Korea from my Long Island friend who is at Smith is pretty much the definition of my life.

Today was also great because they are repairing the kitchen, thus we got kimbap for lunch! I was going to go purchase my own and eat at home, but it was all there and ready to be consumed, nom-nom-nom. Kimbap, if you'll remember, is the Korean version of sushi. Which we ate on our field trip last time (and probably will on Wednesday's sports' day field trip) in this photo:You take bap (seaweed), moisten it, put down a layer of sticky rice(bap), then a layer of veggies and proteins (typically egg, meat, and fish), then roll it up and roll it through some vinegary-sesame oil to add flavor. No soy sauce, no pickled ginger, no wasabi, just good ol' kimbap. One day, I will make my own and post it.

School today was also just really good (though I'm on break and still have two more classes to teach: 2a, my favorite and 3a, The Complainers). I spent a long time preparing really great lessons for these two upcoming classes and they better appreciate them, or else!

Mars did really well with math today and I think that they are starting to understand me a lot more. I think that in the past few weeks, Liam has really developed physically, socially, and academically. I tried to talk about it but no one else seemed to notice. Either way, I'm really proud of whatever little effect I may have had only teaching their class once a day.

In Pluto and Uranus, I got to read a Berenstain Bears book, which has to be one of my all-time favorite kids' series. They remind me of being little and also make me kind of want that silly, old-fashioned lifestyle. However, this book was a bit... behind in the times. It was very negative about getting "chubbier" in a way that I think would be really bad for a child's self image. It encouraged exercise and healthy eating habits, which I am by no means against, but it portrayed weight gain as just plain wrong. While I can't really talk about that to anyone here, it was good to have something to stimulate the socially-conscious part of myself. I'm thinking a lot more these days about not just what the media teaches children, but what stories geared toward them teach. How much, as educators, are we even aware of this? Do we spend too much time looking for the "moral" and trying to use them to supplement our curricula that we stop paying attention to underlying themes? Questions to ponder on this bright, thoughtful, finally-fall Monday.