11 AM: First class went well. We played our video game for slightly too long, and instead of giving directions in English, the teams gave them in Korean. But they're first grade babies and they had fun, so we'll call it all even.
Instead of remaining in their seats, they all crowded around my computer, and there were so many kids Baby-Hyo couldn't see. I lifted him up, but even that wasn't high enough, so I finally got him a chair to stand on. It was kind of a sweet bonding experience, being huddled around the monitor with 15 students, everybody in jackets and parkas and murmuring with excitement over the game.
The A-class 1st graders spilled into class pretty quickly at the end and they were all telling me their names, trying to get recognition so they could have a chance at candy. The boys are catching on to the fact that if I know your name, your chances of candy increase hugely.
Saturday-Jeongmin was waiting for me outside of class. He gave me a chocolate that looked like a soccer ball, and I gave him one of my chocolates in return. Now that I think about it, Jeongmin's given me a lot this month--candy bar, first slice of "pumpkin pie," and now the soccer ball. I think he's a Gifts person.
Acapella-Hyunho met me in the hall to ask for chocolate. He adorably answered the question and other passing kids were in awe of his bravery.
Tangerines in the office today! Vitamin C for the win. And KBR-Teacher's friend drove me to school so I didn't have to walk in the cold. Everybody's so nice.
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6 PM: Good day. Mondays are terrifyingly exhausting for me, but this one went fine. I don't have time to spend with the special needs and C-class kids on Mondays because my schedule is so packed, but I stole a minute here and a minute there. Both Spritely-Yeongchang and C-Class-Jeongmin can play most of both parts of Heart and Soul. I keep saying it, but I gotta learn a new song for them.
I walked by the room one time and Jaehyung and Little-Byeongsu were standing outside the door, waiting for me to get there. Then they both smiled hugely and waved: "Leigh! Leigh Sem!" Byeongsu interacts with me regularly now, greeting me and being a part of the group.
Taught Acapella-Hyunho the cups game that Jaehyung knows. One kid at a time, we will master this.
Made Cardsharp-Minsu insanely happy in afterschool by giving him four helping of popcorn. And I found him in the hallway after and gave him chocolate. And he still wanted another when he saw me giving one to Diamond-Seonghyun. Patted all the heads of my afterschool boys and gave them all popcorn and asked them all how they were feeling, which resulted in a broad range of answers. Sanghwa was in a good mood and said he was feeling, "fine".
I tried to teach my afterschool crew the cups game, but they have so little rhythm, they might as well be white boys. Seongmo pouted and quit trying to move his cup at all because he couldn't be the best. I've seen Seongmo do a lot of pout-quits. It's cute, but he needs to grow out of it because he's getting too old for that kind of thing.
When Tiny-Minho, a 2nd-grader who isn't in my afterschool but who always hangs around anyway, came through the doors I greeted him with a sunny, "Minho! Hello, sweetheart." Byeonghyun and Seongmo simultaneously said, "WHAT?" Then they said, "Minho is "sweetheart"?" plus several expressions of disbelief/dismay in Korean. I had no idea that the boys had registered how often I do the Southern lady thing by calling them "sweetheart, dear, darling," but they do, and they have some idea what it means, too, because they think that kids that are not them shouldn't get these nicknames.
Seongmo got my full name in the wrong order, so I told him the proper order for first-middle-last, and Byeonghyun said my full name was beautiful. What a sweetheart.
Emphasized that the word "red" is one syllable long to Seongmo and Jinseop, who finally stopped pronouncing it "Reh-duh'.
I wondered how long it would take Daehoon to find a new thing to tease me about besides my penchant for yelling, but today he decided to say that all fans of a particular pop group I like are scary. I gave him a big, overblown reaction of denial so he could enjoy seeing that his joke had hit home.
Smart-Yeongjoon has graduated from suggesting that we play baseball near my house, to saying we should exchange Kakao numbers. Kakao is the main text-messaging service in Korea and I use it quite a bit, but it'll be a cold day in August before I ever let Yeongjoonie get access to my phone.
Lunchtime UNO with the 3rd-graders was good. They were precious and We-Are-the-World-Dongyeong joined us.
Was greeted by an alarming number of kids on the way home. Normally, many of them will talk to me on the way home but today's count was about twice the usual number. B-Class Minwoo slowed down his bike to ride by me for a while. Duyeol weaved his bike around me in a serpentine. Taegyoon shouted and waved out the window of his passing bus.
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8 PM: Also, my boys are often extra-hungry at afterschool. I was feeding them popcorn and Byeonghyun mentioned that he was hungry because in the lunch line, the lunch ladies just "throw the food," plopping out a portion of everything for each kid, but not having the time or ability to give them as much as they want.
I felt so guilty. The teachers have our own food line where we spoon out our own portions. If you want double veggies or extra meat, you can have it. The few days when the food wasn't set up for us, I remember getting in the student-food line and receiving nowhere near the amount of food I wanted. And there are no snack machines at school. Some of the boys pack food from home, but never very much because it could get squished or lost or, more likely, taken.
So I'm going to keep bringing snacks for the boys. I can't carry enough food to school for real-food meals, but I can do something.
