Muay Thai Kickboxing

So I started a new routine this week with Keith. We are running in the morning...Monday and Friday we run hills either at Sarabong or another big hill right down our street (when I first ran this I didn't think I would make it running to the top, but now we run it 5x!). This day is more sprinting and crosstraining. Tuesday and Thursday are shorter runs, which is about 5-6 miles. And our Wednesday is a little longer run, while Saturday is our longest run...right now we're at 7-8 miles...it will increase over time. And SUNDAY is amazing= a day off, rest time! Ok, so this is our morning routine, which I wake up around 5:45am to be out the door a little before 6, to get back at 7 in order to shower, have breakfast and get ready before teaching. Then, as soon as we get home around 5:50 or so, we have a snack, change clothes, and run (only 10 mins. but all uphill!!) to Muay Tai Kickboxing. This is an insane 1 hr bootcamp (sometimes it goes longer or we can stay longer if we want to do abs, pushups, jumprope, etc.). We work on jabs/punches, kicks, jumping, situps, knee high kicks, lunges...everything! We also work on the bag and I will eventually be able to fight against Keith!! lol :) We were told by our teacher to practice at home and I told him I hope I don't come back with a blackeye! Keith's a killer at boxing! It's so helpful that he's in the class with me, because our teacher is amazing, very nice and is great at teaching it; however, sometimes there is a language barrier so since Keith knows a little already about boxing, he's able to help me with my form. Our teacher is such a nice guy, and even brings his little 1 year-old daughter with and is sometimes carrying her while he shows us some moves....he is definitely a family guy and his daughter is definitely gonna grow up to be a tough girl! The gym has lots of things available for us to use...like mats to do abs and pushups, jumping ropes, bags, pullup bars, bike, treadmill, gloves, etc.

This week at school was relaxed for me since I wasn't teaching, but it was so boring! The students had midterms and the 3rd grade students (8th graders) had their big test that places them in high-school. All the teachers were a little stressed and busy running around making sure tests were ready and everything was prepared. Even though I don't teach 3rd graders, I had to help monitor the classroom with another teacher yesterday and today. It wasn't bad, but there were 3 classes, each 70 minutes long each day. I had to walk around or sit in a chair and make sure the stude

nts were not cheating or helped them if they needed to white something out. The hardest part was not falling asleep and thinking of things to distract the time. I was supposed to watch the boys' classes, but I was switched last minute to girls. My co-teachers said that it was because they didn't want the boys all to be distracted, since I haven't taught them before! :) I did cause a loud cheering to all of the girls' classrooms when I entered each time though. That's how it is most of the time here at school. The students are just very excited and curious about foreigners.

They will say, "teacher, small face, and what color eyes?...contacts?, and hair...real?"...and ask "how tall are you?" This is because Koreans all have the same color hair and eyes and tend to have wider faces and are all definitely shorter than me! And for male teachers, the students all seem to be very interested in their arm and facial hair, since Koreans do not have much hair on their body.

Anyways, I got my boring monitoring classes done and was actually able to finish pretty much all of my planning for the semester...I'm way ahead of the game and it feels great! Now I just have to get used to my busy schedule and try to get to bed earlier, since I now have the tendancy to yawn during class, which probably doesn't look the best in front of my students.

One very interesting thing that happened today was when my principal sneaked up behind me and placed a gift wrapped in toilet paper (they use it as tissue) on my desk. This came out of nowhere so I was pretty surprised, even that he was there, and when I opened it up I found a little clay hand-made islander (stone carved character that are found on the island). My co-teachers then told me that he went on a field trip with some of the students and they all made these clay figures and he made this one for me!! It was so kind and the islander was so cute! I'll put up a pic. of it soon. The best part was later when my supervisor, Aun Mi Lee, who is the nicest person ever, came to chat with me and saw it and laughed because she said it was Bart Simpson! I cracked up at this because all of the students love the Simpsons and it did kind of look like him...sorta..maybe a lil. Well, I never really know if anything is for real here b/c of the huge language barrier, but it makes it kinda fun, because you can believe anything you want.

So my principal made me a clay sculpture of Bart Simpson! End of story:) That ended my boring school day and woke me up for my kickboxing after school.

Ooh and this friday I get to go on a field trip with my 1st grade students! Can't wait! Don't ask me where yet because I really do not know. But I'll find out soon and that means no teaching, just exploring more of the island with my students!

*Nail Popsida....."talk to ya tomorrow"