First full week

Missy has been doing most of the blogging, but I thought I should sit down and add my perspective today.

Well, it was our first full week of school, and it was full of fun and adventure. I have some pretty challenging names of students to learn. My favorite name to say is Ji Wook pronounced "Gee Wook". He is an interesting kid and likes to tug on my arm to get my attention while saying, "Mr. L, Mr. L." I am co-teaching an English and Math class, along with quite a few periods of Learning Support.

I pulled a student into my room that was having some issues with behavior and is on my caseload. I wanted to talk to him about teacher concerns and to offer him extra help in the classroom. I didn't want to start off by scolding him for behavior. I just wanted to start getting to know him before I imposed any consequences. As I pulled him in he kept saying, "Am I in trouble?" I asked if he had a guilty conscience, but he answered no. I told him not to worry about it if he didn't do anything. I then proceeded to talk about who I was and how I could help him out in the classroom. He immediately started saying, "Oh, are you going to torture me?" I asked, "Why would I torture you?" He then said, "I need to be tortured." I replied, "Why do you want to be tortured?" And he said, "Because I need help in Maths." It was then I figured out that he was trying to say TUTOR. I could hardly keep a straight face. I just told him that I would be able to help tutor him and tried to correct him by saying that torture and tutor have very different meanings.

I also bought a used Suzuki Epicuro 150cc Scooter. It is OK for the price I paid ($500USD). I probably over paid a bit, but the seller drove it out to my area. We live outside the city a bit and driving on the highway was something I wanted to avoid. And honestly I just really wanted a scooter to drive around An Phu (the name of our area in Ho Chi Minh). I took it to the grocery store today and bought a few things. It was nice to just jump on the bike and be at the store in five minutes. My next challenge is going to be finding a bike shop that will fix flats and change the oil. Here are a few pictures (the bike on the end):




The bike is fast for a scooter. It gets past 35mph no problem. I haven't pushed it any further, but look forward to taking it to the country side soon (as soon as I figure out how to get out of the city!) Well, that is it for now.