What's your blood type? Huh?!?!

In Korea, rather than the  North American question, “What’s your sign? you are more likely to be asked, “What’s your blood type?” Koreans link blood type to personality and the question of blood type is asked often. I hadn't thought about it much until yesterday when I was tutoring. Tuesday evenings I teach two University professors who have pretty advanced English skills. We were talking about nature vs. nurture and the role that genetics play in a child's intelligence. The topic of blood type came up with Paul said, "But what about bloo type. That determines a lot, just like genetics." So, I researched it some more and here are the personality traits ascribed to the basic blood types: A, B, AB and O.

Blood Type A:
Positive Traits: Conservative, introverted, reserved, patient, punctual and inclined to be perfectionists.
Worst Traits: Obsessive, stubborn, self conscious and uptight.
Referred as ‘farmers’ in some descriptions, Type A’s are said to be considerate of others and loyal to a fault. They can also be secretive and reluctant to share their feelings. Apparently they don’t hold their liquor well, either.

Blood Type B:
Best Traits: Animal-loving, creative, flexible, individualistic, optimistic and passionate.
Worst Traits: Forgetful, irresponsible and self-centered.
Referred to as ‘hunters’, Type B’s have very independent natures and tend not to be concerned about what other people think of them. Although often described as shallow and lazy, they can be quite passionate about the things they hold dear. Patience is not their strong suit either.
Type B men have acquired a very negative reputation in Korea and are not considered by many to be good husband material. Often described as ‘players’, they are perceived as being selfish and mercurial, quick to anger and not terribly reliable. That said, their bad boy image makes them very attractive to women, but not for the long term. (Type B women do not share in this bad rep, for some unexplained reason).

Blood Type AB: Best Traits: Cool, controlled, empathic, introverted and rational.
Worst Traits: Aloof, critical, indecisive and unforgiving.
Referred to as ‘humanists’, Type AB’s are said to be controlled more by their heads, than by their hearts. They are rational, good with money, but unpredictable. Although inclined to be distant, they prefer harmony and as such, work well with mediators. Some consider them two-faced, and therefore untrustworthy.

Blood Type O: Best Traits: Ambitious, athletic, robust and self-confident.
Worst Traits: Arrogant, insensitive, ruthless and vain.
Referred to as ‘warriors’, Type O’s are viewed as natural leaders and are often, also, natural athletes. They tend to be outgoing, expressive and passionate, but can also bore others to death with their obsessive drive for success coupled with their absolute convictions that they are winners. This certainty that they will always win explains why they aren’t afraid to take risks or gamble. They have a strong physical presence and are unlikely to ever be overlooked.

Interesting, right??!

Worms, worms, worms!

At BIS I mostly teach social classes, but I also teach novel classes to grades 1, 2, 3 and 4. Every month we study a new book. These classes are really fun because we don't have a set schedule or things that we have to accomplish every month. So, I plan fun activities like crafts, debates and writing activities.
This month the third graders and I are studying "How to Eat Fried Worms." This is a book about a boy named Billy who bets that he can eat 15 worms in 15 days. If he does, he will get $50 from his friends, and will be able to buy a new bicycle he has been wanting. The boys in the story come up with many different ways to eat worms and it's pretty hilarious. The kids LOVE gross things like this and every week so far they have been reading MORE pages than I assigned them to read. (A teachers dream!!)




This week in class we made worm cups, and the kids LOVED it! In a cup you put chocolate ice cream for the mud (usually you use pudding but I couldn't find that in Korea) then add crushed up oreos for the dirt
 and finally add gummy worms. Easy!
Here are some pictures from our fun day in novel class:

Showing the kids all of our ingredients

Handing out supplies

Jenny crushing her cookies into the "mud"

Jenny and Eunice

Lisa's (front, right) face in this one is hilarious. She was unsure about eating the treat and was acting like it was REAL worms! Perfect!

Stella and Lisa

Julia and Annie

Brandon and Chris

Handing out gummy worms

Kay, Jenny and Eunice

Julia

Kay didn't want to eat it either. But, once she did she loved it!

Chris and Brandon, buddies and the only boys in the class

Han River Cruise

This weekend we went on a Han River night cruise with two of our friends from Fort Rucker, Pieter and Melissa. It's funny how Alabama wasn't home for very long, but having friends here that we were friends with there really helps Korea feel like home too.
Before meeting up with Pieter and Melissa Josh and I went out to dinner together, which was very fun. We have both been so busy with work lately that having a date night was so wonderful.  We decided it would be better to use public transportation instead of driving so we took the bus from our house to Sunae, where I work. That is where we had dinner.
Then we hopped on the subway and two transfers and about 40 minutes later we were in Jamsil, ready to meet up with Pieter and Melissa. After we met up with them we walked about 15 minutes to the river cruise location. I was surprised at how nice it was, to be honest. There were lots of families digging in the sand, having picnics and just spending time together in the warm weather. There was also a fairly large beach volleyball tournament going.

We went to go buy our tickets, but learned that the tour we wanted was sold out and that we had to wait an hour for the next one. So, we bought some drinks and went back to the beach volleyball area. We were on the outskirts watching, thinking that we needed tickets to sit down. After a few minutes a security man walked toward us, and we thought we were getting kicked out! But, he said, "SIT, SIT!" and walked us to the bleachers, where we sat and watched for a while! Random, but very fun!

The volleyball tournament even had cheerleaders! Weird!

After an hour we headed back to the boat and started our Han River cruise. It lasted about an hour and was really beautiful to see all the city lights. Josh flies over this area a lot, so to him the view wasn't as good as the view from the helicopter, but I enjoyed it a lot. The Han River is not a long river, but it's fairly wide, considering it runs throught the third largest city in the world! The river runs about 319 miles in length.

Isn't this beautiful? This is Banpo bridge. We were hoping our little river crusie would take us by this bridge, but we didn't travel this far down the river. At night lights light up the water and it's really pretty to see when you are driving across the bridge. Melissa told us that online she read the bridges are powered by solar engery and that each bridge costs about 35,000won per day to operate. That is only about $32 US dollars!

 

Us on the river cruise

 

Pieter and Melissa

Flat Stanley Part 2

The second graders and I have been working hard on our Flat Stanley project lately. People have been so generous in taking pictures all over the US and getting them back to me. We have more and more pictures coming in every day, and the kids LOVE it! Here are some of the recent photos, and some new ones of the kids also. We got a huge US map and are displaying the pictures in the classroom. Here are the shots of it, even though it's not all the way done yet.

 

Flat Elly with the Sequim cheerleaders at the Irrigation Festival Parade

 

Flat Eddie in DisneyLand

 

Flat Elly riding a horse in Sequim

 

Flat Elly at the Irrigation Festival Parade

 

Irrigation Festival Parade

 

Flat Elly is a Clallam County firefighter :)

 

Flat Elly with Jessica and Daniel's new baby girl, Olivia

 

Baby Olivia and Flat Elly

 

Flat Eddie with a class in Washington

 

Elly loves the Irrigation Festival

 

Flat Eddie with his class again

 

Elly has developed a little love for Jessica and baby Olivia. Every time she comes to class she comes with a new letter to mail them :)

 

Flat Eddie teaching a university class in CA

 

Flat Elly 

 

Flat Candy with baby Owen in Oregon

 

Flat Candy with Erin and Kristen in Oregon 

 

Elly

 

Eddie at the Golden Gate Bridge

 

Elly

 

San Francisco

 

Elly

 

Eddie in CA

 

Elly at the pool in Utah

 

Flat Eddie with Brittney in DC

 

Eddie loved this picture and learning about how and where US money is made!

 

All of our pictures are arranged based on where in the US they come from. Here are photos from California

 

Here is the class with all the photos. I printed off two copies of each photo, so they were able to take pictures home to keep. 

 

The start of the map. We printed off little Flat Stanely's to show more exact locations within the states.

 

Lots of pictures from Washington!

 

Flat Elly in Washington

 

Flat Candy in Oregon

 

California

 

Alaska

 

A shot of the board, although since I took this picture we have added quite a few pictures as well as some string to show which pictures come from which state.

 

Chloe in Spokane, WA

 

Virginia and Washington DC from Brittney and Jamie

 

Flat Elly in Utah with Jessica and baby Olivia

 

The kids love this picture of Flat Candy and baby Owen

 

Flat Elly

 

Elly with her favorite photos taken in Utah

 

Lucy with her favorite photo

 

Eddie with his favorite photo