YIKES....BIKES!

Dear Mr. Kim,
Seriously, you are one crazy dude. Next time you cycle next to me, I'm taking your pic.

Here I am sitting in the teachers lounge because it's cold and rainy and I just didn't feel like walking anywhere. I guess this is a major downside for working a split shift and living 2 miles away with no vehicle. However, I'm using the school's electricity and heat and therefore saving bundles on my utilities, right? right.

So these past several days have been a bit of a challenge..don't get me wrong, this week was another eventful and humorous week, but I really think I'm starting to get homesick. It's probably the holidays, birthday, and the fact that for the past however many years of my life, I've had AT LEAST a two week break from school and I could hang out with family and friends pretty much every single day.

Skype really has been wonderful, many times I hear people say, "I don't know how they did it back in the day without cell phones and internet." But I've been beginning to think of the internet and skype as a bit of a tease. It's frustrating when the connection is bad and the conversation is delayed a solid 5 seconds. I mean you skype or talk on the amazing magic jack (thanks MRS. BIVINS) for an hour or so with a group of your friends and it's great while you're talking. But then you hang up the phone or shut off the computer and you're sitting alone in a tiny one room apartment listening to your dwarf hamster obnoxiously drink from her water bottle. And then you begin to think, "I won't really see them for at least another 8 1/2 months." "Will we still talk this regularly in 7 months?"Is the phrase 'out of sight, out of mind' really true?" "When I do see them again, they will have experienced so much without me and vice versa, will we still connect?"

I could go on, but I feel like it would depress you. Needless to say, I miss a lot of people! And although, I just called skype a "tease" it's still pretty great to be able to see and talk to my friends and family. Most of the time after skyping my homesickness is like a 3 instead of a 7.

ANYWAYS, you're probably thinking to yourself, what's this about "bikes." WELL..Tuesday felt like the days when something always out of the ordinary happened on my walk to work. I was walking right past the food garbage place and I look over to my left and about 8 inches from my face was the man on the bicycle who is 100% positive that I'm 18! YES, SAME GUY! I jumped back, startled, and the same thing happened..he rode in line with my walking and asked me my age, and when I told him, he told me I was wrong and that I was 18. So, I asked him how old he was, he's 59. Then he asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Chicago..like I do everyone else who would be confused by the word "Dixon." Then he started spouting out American cities he knew, " San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, California." After he finished his list, he patted me on the back and rode away. I decided to call him Mr. Kim, until I find out his real name..because let's face it there is a 75% chance his name really is Mr. Kim.

A little while later, I saw a nasty accident that involved a school bus and a bicycle. Thank the Lord I didn't walk any earlier than I did. It was just a messed up bicycle and the school bus driver that was still on the scene.

Then I was half a block away from my school and I was about to cross the street and I had to tap into my goalie/catlike reflexes to stop myself from getting hit by yet another man on a bicycle.

So, that walk was a bit treacherous, and I hope it's not a foreshadow into these winter months. Speaking of winter months, early last week it snowed! It was so beautiful and I raced home (and by that I mean I briskly walked) to try to get a picture but it had all melted by the time I got to my camera. I hear the Midwest got hit hard yesterday with a snow storm, SO JEALOUS!

So I think I disappointed a few of my students last week. Last Friday I was on cloud nine when they all called me an "English genius," but I definitely don't deserve that title anymore. On Wednesday we played pictionary and the 12 year olds are absolutely repulsed if they are intermixed with boys and girls and there was only one boy. So, I decided I would be on Jay's team. We would work well together, I thought, he was the one who called me an "English genius." Sparing the bloody details, we got totally annihilated by those little girls...and to add to the humiliation, I was the one who made the pictionary words. Jay just looked at me and said in a disappointed tone, "teacha."

However, I'm pretty sure my adult students still think of me as an "English Genius." Again, they were full of advice for me this week. Sometimes right before class ends, they feel the need to give me advice about my life since I am so young and they are so...experienced. This week they told me that I need to marry rich and if that means waiting a really long time, than so be it (they didn't say "so be it," ...but that would have been awesome!). So, thanks for the advice Mrs. Ko and Mrs. Nam, I'll really keep it close to my heart ;) Mrs. Nam, not only did her results show that she is the most daring person in our class but she also went on and on about how handsome Clint Eastwood is and how if she could spend the day with someone famous, it would definitely be him. Watch out Mr. Nam.

So, I ended the work week by going to see Chronicles of Narnia at the theater with a hot date. You guessed it, Mr. Oh. He was quite the gentleman. He paid for me and opened doors for me. However, I'm pretty sure he could have got us kicked out, because every once in awhile I would hear him snapping pictures of the screen. Mr. Oh is an avid photographer..almost in a stalkerish kind of way. I'm pretty sure he took about 30 pictures of the movie.

The weekend was relaxing, I hardly did anything, but I still feel so tired! And if I read one more facebook status about how people are so happy they are home on a 4-5 week Christmas vacation, I might chuck Lily out the window in a jealous rage!

But seriously, if you are one of the lucky few that is home on an enormously long Christmas break I leave you with the words of Billy Madison, "Cherish it, CHERISH IT!"