Dogs, Soviets, and the Great Wall

We are settling into our apartment just fine. Still lots of unopened boxes, but now we have a room to store the stuff and our motivation weakened. Aslan is enjoying herself. There is a park next door, so we go there to toss the ball around for her. In general, Koreans are afraid of dogs bigger than a handbag, so most run when they see her. Yes, they run in the opposite direction. Some scream. I met a woman at the park and talked to her about this. She said that the reason for it is that since the dogs learn commands in English, they think the dog won't stop attacking when they say "No" in Korean. They are discriminating against my dog because she doesn't speak Korean! It's as if they think that all Americans train their dogs to attack little Asian kids. There is a school nearby, so lots of kids are around, and I try to get them to pet Aslan to not be afraid of "American" dogs. Some enjoy throwing the ball for her to retrieve. Others cry. Perhaps I'm perpetuating an unfounded fear.

Our Itinerary
Kristie and I are going to Beijing, China, over Thanksgiving. We are leaving on Thanksgiving morning and returning on Sunday evening. We are excited. It's hard to believe that I'll be on the Great Wall in two days. I want a picture of me climbing the wall and getting chased by Communist guards. That'll make a fine Christmas card.

The school is sending me to Tokyo for a technology conference on December 6-10. They pay for everything; we just buy Kristie's airline ticket for her to go also.

Over Christmas break, we are going to Hawaii for a week.

I knew that we would travel, but I didn't expect so much so soon.

Teaching
Teaching at Osan has been going well. The kids are, overall, pretty good. For classes, I teach English, U.S. History, and Psychology. I am the National Honor Society sponsor, as well as the literary magazine director. I've made four kids cry so far, and it's only second quarter.

Here's my best story: we had a unit on the Civil War which included reading, discussions, videos, etc. Lots of talk on several of the angles. They took a test on it last week with one of the questions being as follows:

____________ surrendered to ________________ to end the war.

Put in your own answer. The South surrendered to the North, Lee surrendered to Grant, whatever. One student filled it in like this:

The North surrendered to the Soviets to end the war.

I suppose that's expected when the school makes an English teacher teach History.


Here's how to call us from the States. 011-8231-667-4046.

That's all for now.

Ron and Kristie
(and the soon-to-be Korean-speaking Aslan)