IKEA Day

Yesterday I went to two different classes, and 8th grade English class from 850-935 and then a 5th grade English class from 1145-120. This 8th grade class is definitely the most difficult class so far, I had that class again this morning for a double lesson and the teacher and I were talking about them and he was telling me how it is his most frustrating class because they are so disobedient and disinterested in class. There are a few good students in the class, but it is definitely going to be a challenging semester with this class. The teacher wants me to take a small group of students each class into a different room and have discussion topics to start conversations so they can practice speaking English more. They have a test next Wednesday so I am assuming I would start that after the test. My 5th grade class yesterday though was awesome. They were really interested in me and throughout the class I would see kids just turn around and stare at me. The teacher let them ask me questions at the beginning of class, but since this is thier first year taking English I got questions like "What's your favorite color?", "What's your favorite movie?", etc. During the class they were working on a dialogue activity where they listened to a tape read a portion of text while they followed along in the book so they can learn how to pronounce the words. After they listened to the tape, the teacher had me read the passage for the students. The man on the tape is British, and clearly I am American so our accents were differnet. She asked the students to point out the differences in how the man on the tape and I pronounced words differently. The biggest difference and most obvious difference to them was the way I pronounced "daughter." Apparently it was very different than the tape and then they all tried to pronounce it like me, but they failed at it because I definitely do not say it the way they were saying it. Probably doesn't help that on some words I have more of a southern accent. Speaking of which, when I went out with my British friends the other night we were all trying to do different accents and I said the only one I could do was a southern one, just because that is what I am around, so I did it for them and they were amazed. They loved the southern accent and like wanted to meet someone with like a real thick one, so I just told them to come to Kentucky!

After I was finished with class for the day, Sophie and I went to IKEA. It only took like a 20 minute subway ride, and the stop was right in front of the store so it was pretty sweet. We went through IKEA and got stuff for our rooms, and we ate in the cafe before returing home. I bought: silverware, a candle, a pan, a placemat, a towel, 2 rugs, and 2 pillows and I think it really makes a difference in my room. I will post pictures on facebook so you can see the updates.

Once we got back from IKEA, I put everything up in my room, then went to go see Morning Glory at an English theater. The movie was much better than I thought it was going to be, I actually really liked it. Emilie, Angharad, and I met some other people at Taco Loco for a drink after the movie before we came back to the dorm.

I was thinking about it last night, and I think I am going to come home with a British accent, since I hang around with British people all the time. I think that would be awesome, so I am going to try and make it happen!