ikea rant

grumble grumble

one question for you:

HOW ON EARTH IS IKEA SO POPULAR WHEN IT TAKES 5+ HOURS TO PUT THEIR FURNITURE TOGETHER?

Did I mention that their instructions are PURELY PICTORIAL? what?

Did I also mention that they never tell you that you have to assemble it yourself and that it will take 5 hours???

[Nevermind that, through basic logic, one could deduce that if a large chest of drawers comes in a small package, there will be some assemblage required.]

BUT STILL

they really should tell you that it will take five hours

FIVE HOURS of time that should have been spent eating, sleeping, and planning (in that order).

Oh and what's the worst thing that could happen after five hours of assemblage?

What's that, you say? THE DRAWERS NOT FITTING IN?

yeah I could only imagine. . . until it actually HAPPENED JUST NOW. so funny.

ha ha ha....


Dear ikea, dear dear ikea.

I don't care if everyone likes your meatballs. I don't think I'm ever going to buy anything from you again. Unless I'm really bored.

Or unless I have a sudden urge to eat european chocolate.

Cordially,
Callused-hand L

Sunday thoughts

Today has been a contemplative day. I went on a Sunday stroll up the canyon and it was beautiful. I feel more peace in nature than I do almost anywhere else. My mind and heart are full of all sorts of things and feelings and yet empty at the same time.

Mnt Olympus

One time I went hiking up Mnt Olympus and my friend Bethany came.

And the leaves were absolutely gorgeous and I was happy.

And I got to see Aspens, which I love.

And lots of pretty leaves, which I also love

And after 4 miles up steep uphill, I was on top of the world!

There was an amazing view on the top - you could see for miles all the way down to Draper/point of the mountain.

And you could see all of Salt Lake Valley

Me on drugs on the top of Mnt Olympus

The group: Me, Bethany, Jason, & John

I decided to take a "Mom" picture. You know how she always does this?

The trailhead - just miles from my house! How cool is that!

teacher-life perks

1. kid art - I love looking at the things kids draw. The other day I asked the kids to invent stories to go along with their own addition sentence and then draw pictures of it. One kid decided to draw about peas. Yes, peas. For some reason, I thought this was hilarious (of all the things you could draw about, you choose peas??) and once the other kids realized I thought it was funny, they were all drawing about peas. So cute.

Today one of my students gave me this picture she drew of me. It's of me climbing a mountain! I told the kids a while back that I love hiking. This picture just made me melt.

2. free t-shirts- anyone who knows me knows that I live for these. And who cares if it's tie-dye and ugly and the same shirt that 7-year-old's wear.

3. blissful fridays - hard weeks make wonderful weekends. There never, in the history of time, has been a more wonderful weekend as this.

Singapore directions

Here is how you do cool stuff.

Miss Sicky

It's a Sunday morning and I'm sitting in the quiet of my SLC apartment contemplating deep thoughts.

I realize I haven't posted in a while, and I don't really know why.

Well, part of it is that I'm not getting paid to blog like I was at my last job > < (that's an asian squinty face).

And part of it is, I don't have enough leisure time to think up witty, clever posts.

And part of it is, I just don't know what to post about!

What?.....

I've always had junk to post about, even if it's something stupid like, like "Things I find creepy" or "My clay Fetus." Maybe I should join a ceramics place so I can create.

Let's be honest, I don't have time to create anything except lesson plans for those small chillin's and maybe an occasional work-out. 

Things have been pretty good lately (no, honestly). The past two weeks I have been sick. I hate being sick. I am a miserable sick person. Like, someone-spoon-feed-me-pudding-while-I-pout-on-the-couch-for-days-on-end sick.

Ok, maybe not that bad.

But kind of. So last week when I was feeling a truck-load of sickness coming for me, I decided I needed to take the day off work.

Simple, right?

WRONG

First I have to actually go into work (even if I'm dead), and spell out my day step-by-step for the sub. THEN I have to secure a Chinese-speaking sub. (oh yeah, most people don't speak this language!) THEN I have to walk away from my classroom when I KNOW it's just going to be a disaster and somehow "rest."

Well, I was right.

Somehow, overnight, the 53 children I teach turned into MONSTERS. Yes, monsters. 

I come back the next day after being "rested," and guess what they had done? Taken ALL of the "Tiger Pride" tickets on my desk (that every teacher gives out to students on-task, responsible, safe, or helpful) and dispersed them amongst themselves (8 per child). In addition, every student had written his/her name on them and checked "what they had done right." Isn't that so nice of them?

Slash incredibly dishonest?

Oh I forgot to mention that they were also found screaming and running around the classroom (literally) while the sub was sitting there in his own little world. 

Bless his heart.

They were so bad that all the teachers heard about it. 

Whatevs. I'm back now, and never going to get sick again!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Last weekend my roommate invited me to go hiking with her and (my future new roommate) Sarah. It was beautiful. I love where I live. I do.

This is just up Little Cottonwood Canyon (you know, like 15 minutes from my house, oh hey). And can I just say that this picture totally DOES NOT do it justice. The sun was a burning red/orange. That's my roommate Kassidy on the right.

  

I love running through the hills, I love hiking up the canyons, one day (when I'm rich and can afford a bike) I will love biking the streets, I love that people are super health-conscious here. I love that I have a CHIPOTLE right next to my house. 



 

My life as a Chinese 2nd grade dual immersion teacher

What am I doing? (Because for some reason, a lot of you still don't know)

Am I teaching Chinese to Americans or Chinese kids? 

American kids at a public school.

What do I teach?

I teach Chinese literacy, science, and math. 

What's your day like?

I have to classes. Each class gets half the day in Chinese and half in English. I teach the part in Chinese. They are learning English literacy/reading and reviewing some math in the English portion of the day.

So I have just finished my first two weeks of teaching 2nd grade dual immersion. I knew it would be difficult, and it has not proved me wrong. There are lots of challenges but I am getting used to the challenges and stresses and I actually like it! I love that I feel tired every day (ok maybe I wish I wasn't AS TIRED), I love feeling like I'm stretching myself daily, I love working with kids (they are so funny), I love seeing and witnessed them learn, I love their smiles, I love being forced to be creative, I love seeing their tiny little hands writing characters. I love the new challenge that it is. 

I don't like that I feel stressed all the time (here's to hoping it will get less stressful). I don't like that I have to wake up so early and that I have to go to bed so late planning. I don't like that my personal/social life is non-existent (hopefully I'll find that balance soon). I don't like that there is not much real support/training at the school. 

But do you know what? It's ok. Despite the challenges (99% of which I knew would be there when I got into it), I still like it and I'm still happy most days. I still feel like I have made the right decision to come out here. I can attribute all of this to God. Really, I think I would be struggling a lot more than I am if I didn't have my family praying for me and if I didn't feel that extra strength that comes when I start out my day praying for some serious help. 

Here is my classroom. It looks a little warped, but you get the idea, right?

Here is my favorite part of my room- the reading/art corner. The fans are some crafts the kids made for Back to School Night. One of my favorite parts of teaching is seeing the art they make (especially self-portraits)!

Here is the front of my classroom (cool rug from Ikea!)

Here I am in my classroom being corny. It's what I do. 

Here's at the end of a hard day. Ernie (pictured) is my co-worker's 11-year old son who helps me out a lot with cutting things out, tearing up tickets, etc. This is the face he made after I told him he had to pull apart 3 packages of tickets (to use as a rewards system). You can also see on my desk the jars I use for rewards as a class (put a pom-pom in every time the class is on-task and one in "teacher's jar" every time they are off task) and as individuals (tickets for Friday lottery). It's amazing to me what kids will do for a free shiny pencil.