McCoKorea: October 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

An Alliteration Assignment Accomplished by Astute Adolescents

Today I (Laura) taught a lesson on alliteration to my 3rd graders. Here are some of the poems they came up with:

S by Sally

Sally sells shells

Sally asks her parents

Shall I eat shells?

Sally's parents said, "Certainly not, silly!

Let's eat spicy salmon."

"Smart solution," Sally said.

Poem Formed with F by Billy

Francisco finds a friend in France

But Francisco flies to Florida

He finds french fries for a friend

A fly that flies in France finds frozen fajitas

That the fly finds fantastic

Happy Hoonie Hates Henry by Hoonie

Happy Hoonie hates Henry having a huge house

Happy Hoonie has Hacky, a hat, and a hatching chick

Happy Hoonie sees the egg hatching

And hears the chick say,

"Hello Hoonie, I am Hoonster."

Who Said Like This? by Ann

Ann ate an apple after academy

Dain's dad drives in the desert

My mom made melon milk

Francisco finds fish in France

Chris likes chocolate cake

Lemons by Lyn

Laughing lions love living lemons

Lemons don't love laughing lions

Lemons love lovely pigs

Lovely pigs love lions

Flying Flowers by Jessica

Follow flying flower

that tries to meet her handsome husband

Follow flying flowers

That are trying to find their fantastic baby

Follow flying flowers

that are living happy long, long lives

With their fantastic families

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Summer Vacation Extravaganza: Philippines Edition

A 2 week vacation was more than we ever dreamed of as former academy workers. But with a new and better job came much more vacation time, and even allowed us to go to both the Philippines and Thailand this August. In the Philippines we ate grilled bananas on the beach and went island hopping. In Thailand we took a cooking class, rode elephants, went hiking to a waterfall, went white water and bamboo rafting, and drove a motorcycle up a mountain to a temple. It was an amazing vacation to say the least. Here is a picture story of what we did:

10 days in the Philippines: Manila, Puerto Princesa, and El Nido

First stop: Manila. Delicious food everywhere you look.

And this restaurant, which we didn't try, where all of the waiters are midgets.

We rode around in some awesome jeepeneys.

The view from the open back of the jeepeney.

And we went to a bar where a dude had a wild cat as a pet like it was something normal people do.

Then we headed to Puerto Princesa, which is really just a jumping off point to other more beautiful places in Palawan. Among its many charms, the city boasts a large crocodile farm with minimal interest in safety and security. So if you're in the market for having a limb gnawed off by a baby croc, Puerto Princesa is your town. This crocodile is saying "Hi, I am your future."

Baby crocodiles in a bathtub.

Some Philipino guys airing out their bellies.

And finally we arrive at the city we were journeying towards this whole time: El Nido. We stayed at this wonderful guesthouse in a cabin right on the beach.

This is the view from the balcony of our cabin. (10 bucks a night, yall.)

El Nido at dusk.

Most of our meals were at restaurants that set up tables on the beach.

Most of my meals ended with a grilled and sugared banana.

Livin the life.

One day, Chris and I kayaked to a private island. It was beautiful and we even saw some wild pigs come to the ocean to take a bath. But while kayaking back to the mainland, a storm was quickly chasing us and we thought we might be on the next episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive".

This is Chris' face when we saw the wild pigs.

Fun in the sun on a private beach.

Laura and Chris.

Another day, we took an island hopping tour.

Our guide grilled up some delicious fish at one of the stops.

But mostly we just did a lot of nothing.

-C/L

Summer Vacation Extravaganza: Thailand Edition (part 2 of 2)

This is a continuation of the post above.

5 days in Thailand: Bangkok and Chiang Mai

First things first: Get to a hostel and find a kitty, stat.

Our hostel in Bangkok was right on the river.

Second thing on the to do list for Bangkok: Find a creepy teddy bear themed bakery in which to eat breakfast. Check.

Chris and bears. Any guess as to what AACP is?

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, we saw some really opulent temples and palaces.

Like this huge reclining Buddha.

Buddha's feet.

A line of Buddha statues.

Shrimp pad thai worth the entire cost of the flight, but only about 50 cents.

Soups 2 die 4.

Chris got a straight razor shave from a giggly Thai man. Luckily he was able to keep it under control enough to hold the razor still.

I met a deaf guy from Bangkok who knew fluent ASL. He showed me a picture of an American woman who's the love of his life but she left Thailand and they lost touch. He told me I have to go back to America and find her. I'll probably run into her at the next meeting of young Americans who have been to Thailand. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

Here starts Chiang Mai: We took an amazing 6 hour cooking class where we learned to make about 10 different dishes and got to eat even more than that.