Dance Concert!!

Today was a pretty good day overall -- by the way, I added some stuff to yesterday's gynormous blog post, so if you just can't get your fill of my daily life, be sure to check yesterday's post again!

Anyway, typical school today. I taught 4 classes. My teacher's workshop ended up being canceled because only 2 people showed up. We were supposed to discuss the financial crisis, but we'll save that for next week, I guess! Instead I showed the 2 teachers my absentee ballot. They were surprised that we vote for more things than just President. Also surprised by the "write in" option and the number of candidates for Pres/VP (which, honestly, I'm surprised about that too). I offered, which I thought was quite generous and kind of me, to do a school wide presentation about the elections -- maybe give some background info about each candidate and their policies -- and then someone could translate. We could also have a mock election, where they choose either Obama or McCain. Well, the teachers seemed to be super hesitant about inquiring about the possibility of this or not. They were really concerned with what my intentions were -- I tried to explain that I just wanted to offer more information to everyone since the media here only gives snippets, I wanted to give them a more complete picture since the outcome of this election will affect them too. I explained that the mock vote would just be for fun -- that in America usually schools have mock votes -- heck, I even remember voting at St James in elementary school! Anyway, they seemed very hesitant. I figured they would be super excited about my awesome (at least in my opinion) offer, but I guess they think I am out to influence them all or something? They told me they would think about it ... lol. I'll for sure be doing a lesson on elections in my classroom, and I guess I could have a vote in my classroom -- which would cover 2/3 of the students, but not the teachers. Oh, Korea...

Tonight I went to a dance concert. The middle school girls in my dance classes wanted to go together (our teachers were performing in it). Well, anyway, I got a call from one of their moms while I was on the bus ride home. Due to the loud noise of the bus/street and the poor english, I was basically super confused the whole time! The mom's English is actually decent, but I think she was really nervous to talk to me (as are all Koreans when it comes to native speakers). We talked for maybe 8 minutes and didn't figure anything out -- I tried to say I was going to take the bus there. They wanted me to meet them at the dance center and then they would drive me. But... the dance center is a 35 min walk from my house, so that was not convenient. Finally, through many text messaging, I was able to figure out that they would come to my apt and pick me up.

The dance concert was great. It was free and held at the cultural center, which I will definitely have to start visiting more frequently. There was a modern ballet -- kind of a let down, a musical theater dance to songs from Hairspray -- the girls sucked but the 4 guys were awesome!! yay for awesome male dancers!, 2 traditional korean dances, a lyrical/hip hop fushion, and a hip hop dance to "Sexy Back"-- AMAZING. I really enjoyed the male dancers.

Anyhoo, that's it for now! Bedtime!!