Spiders and Politics

First, sorry I didn't post yesterday. I ate some veggies1 I think I should've cooked first and pretty much just kept my bathroom company for a large percentage of the day. Bleh. But I'm all better today, so "ㅏ뇽하세ㅛ (hello)!" and here's a photo on top of a mountain from a hike I took w/friends about a month ago.

Last week we celebrated Halloween in an assortment of unique ways. We had a story telling contest and speaking presentations on Thursday which I judged--these kids are so smart! I'll include a video of what I helped one of my favorite small classes of girls prepared as soon as I get the copy I requested. Also, I wore the skeleton earrings and bat ring I brought with me and freaked out my students. Also, had them decorate construction paper ghosts and monsters, as well as draw faces with sharpies on persimmons instead of pumpkins. I have no photos right now bc. my camera's memory is full and I don't know how to clear it out yet. Sigh. The challenges of owning my brain. On Friday the school was packed with kids as they collected on good behavior points with a Halloween party. The only thing typical for the season were the decorations, which the other employees put up--I didn't know they were going to decorate! I worked at the food table for a few hours, serving chopped up fried chicken, tater tots and french fries into paper cups with chopsticks! The could also purchase ramen in various sizes and containers and some traditional fish/red sauce/rice pasta dish, but, there were no sweets! The kids didn't care. I served with others until I had to sit down and serve because my back ached and kids tried to crowd in front of each other to get what was there. Movies were shown in another room, I think, and cute stationary in another. I got some Hello Kitty (hugely popular here, despite the undercurrent of animosity toward Japan) post-its and Barbie stickers. :-)

Finally, in honor or Halloween, and the name of this blog, here's one big bad beastly spider that can capture and eat small birds! These webs weathered the horrible typhoons and I freed a tiny bird from one, which is how I know they capture the little things, so I hate these monsters! Its body is almost the size of my thumb.

This creepy crawly, though, is more colorful and spins an exquisitely gorgeous web. Since we've had frost for the last few mornings and the temperatures have dropped, shriveling up a lot of the plant life and felling leaves, the spiders have disappeared. But, they'll be back and spin their webs everywhere in the Spring. It's actually quite lovely to see how many webs there are when coated with morning dew and illuminated by the sunrise. With the Presidential election so close, I feel deeply invested and am going to include a couple of links for my candidate of choice. When I conduct my essay writing classes every Wednesday, I voice my opinion on the topic, but encourage them to do the same. They do! Often, they disagree with me and I applaud it, as long as they back up their reasoning in the essay. Those classes are among my favorites and encourage me to get a job teaching English literature in America too. So, in the spirit of voicing what I believe and encouraging others to do the same, I'm praying for Romney and Ryan. If you disagree with me, please don't be offended, and I won't judge you either! How the heck can we get anything done, ever, if we can't say what we think and hear each other?

http://www.mittromney.com/donate/red-rocks See you next week, after the voters have spoken! https://www.mittromney.com/donate/real-change-day-one/?sc=INTRRP010