Niall's Open Class

Last week, Niall had his open class. Open classes are basically when teachers from around the area come to watch how you conduct class. The vice principal and principal sometimes attend as do representatives from the Office of Education. It's kind of a big deal, but it's not a career changer. Typically, just the new EPIK teachers have to do an open class, so it was a little weird that he had to do one. Niall taught our typical textbook-based class, and it went really well. It was one of his good classes anyway, but they were definitely being on their best behavior and talking a lot because they knew they were being watched. Before the class, I had told 2 classes of students that my fiance would be coming to school today to watch Niall's class. I didn't think it was such a big deal until I walked up to the class, and there were HORDES of students standing outside the windows of the classroom just gawking! At first, I thought they were just curious about all the visitors, but then I went outside to talk to some of them, and they all started asking about Gianni. I made him come and say hello to them, and they all started getting really giggly and embarrassed. It was adorable! After the class, we all sat around to talk about Niall's teaching, and we got some yummy snacks! Gianni hung out for a few more minutes until school was over, and we walked home with Niall. Unfortunately, it started POURING rain right before we left school, and none of us brought our umbrellas. A really nice woman from school just came over and grabbed me and walked me out with her umbrella. As I was leaving, the security guard at the front gate gave me a somewhat broken umbrella that Gianni and I used to get the rest of the way home. Niall at least had a jacket.

We've been trying to get more creative about cooking, so last week we did a big shopping run with planned meals. We already made chicken alfredo and chicken curry. Yum! The cooking has been going better. I'm learning a thing or two!

One night last week, our taekwondo instructor's first foreign student came back for a visit. She lives in Busan now, and her name is Claire. It was such a big deal that, after training, Mr. Hwang took the whole gym out for fried chicken again. It was delicious as usual! This time, there were many more foreign people who came because Serena and I did such a good job hyping up the gym on facebook. We now have 7 foreigners at the gym. It's really nice when we can all get some training and good exercise and then go out together. It's really nice to be a part of something that is both good for us and social. It feels like we are better adapting to living in Korea, making new friends and all.