Toler Talk: First week down!

This week has been such an exciting week on many different levels. We had our very first day of school with classes, an embarrassing moment, and a fantastic bike ride. School is absolutely fantastic! The kids are great. There really is an interesting schedule that takes some getting used to, but I'm sure everything will smooth out in a few weeks.

I didn't really know what to expect in the levels of learning with the students here. It really is a mixed bag. There are some students who are very proficient with the English language, while others are struggling. It's been a quite the challenge in not only changing from a 10th grade curriculum to an 8th grade, but also to a room full of English language learners. So, the students are enrolled into nine classes. On Mondays, school begins at 9:00 a.m. Teachers are scheduled to have a faculty meeting at 8 a.m. Then the kids go to the first seven classes for 40 minutes each. Something that is really neat is the 20 minute break all the students and faculty have after 3rd period. Makes total sense! Tuesday through Friday is set up in a block schedule. Each student goes to 4 class periods a day for 80 minutes at a time. Every student has a Reading class on Wednesday, while on Friday everyone attends an advisory class. After school, the students get a 20 minute break, and then after school activities begin until 4:40 p.m. It's really cool--they have a quite the selection of activities to choose from. They have the major sports: soccer, basketball, swimming, volleyball and so on. They also have to choose a non-sport activity such as yoga, crocheting, writing, board games, student council, newspaper, photography, art, cooking, global issues, and a rock band style of activity. Crazy!

Something that I have found to really enjoy is that the school has an on-campus convenience store. Do you know how awesome it is to buy an ice cream after lunch and on the way back to class. Fantastic! They have a popsicle that I really enjoy--Honeydew Melon flavor. YUM! It is so refreshing!

II.
Every Monday the school provides a bus for the staff to travel to the local "Wal-mart" style market: E-Mart. This week was like any other, we needed to go for more supplies. Being the school provides us with 3 meals everyday, we are only in need of the basics for day we don't wake up for breakfast or those late night cravings of Oreos. This week, however, became quite the embarrassing adventure. The bus dropped us off and we went in like a pack of dogs in search of goodies. We went from one of the store to the other and found many wonderful things (Mom, they even have Toffifee!!). However, we finished 45 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave. We hooked up with a friend of ours who was also finished and we decided to catch a cab back. The great thing about here is that plastic or paper bags have to be paid for. It is really convenient to bring your own cloth bags to carry everything back home. Unfortunately, we forgot ours at home. For cases like ours and for anyone else, the store provides an area near the exit for customers to tape a box together to put their groceries inside. We caught the cab and made our way back to campus. When we arrived, I hoisted the box on my shoulder and proudly walked into the dorm with Leigh Anne in tow. As we walked in, there were a group of girls that burst out laughing and kept pointing at the box. Finally one of them composed herself long enough to yell out, "ADULT DIAPERS!!" It was then I noticed in small letters below the Korean characters the dreadful words of "adult diapers." Leigh Anne began explaining vehemently that it was our groceries and as the elevator doors closed, I yelled, "Their hers!" while pointing at Leigh Anne...HAHA! Awesome!

This past weekend, we had a chance to catch up on work, have a bible study, go on a fantastic three hour bike ride and even climbed a mountain in the process. It was fantastic as you can see from the pictures!

Till next time, lots of love and we miss you dearly!

Joe and Leigh Anne