I've been trying to take video of my school and its various whatnots since today is Sports Day, when we're all going to play basketball and soccer and tug-of-war, etc. I've got some blurry footage and some good footage, and I hope to post it all later.
Footage of a shootout at the end of a 3rd-grade soccer match. Daeho played well, but he complained that he was a failure:
The hilarious thing was, as I was watching on the sidelines while 2-8 (Cardsharp Minsu and OMG Joonwoo and Boisterous Jinbong) played against 2-2 (Byeonghyun and Seongmo and Seohyung--they won), I was greeted by boys dressed in mascot uniforms. It was Danhee (lion), Seongsu (wolf), Dongjin (dragon), and Tall-Haneul (chicken). Not sure why they, of all the kids, were dressed in wacky animal suits, but they were clearly loving it.It was their moment to shine.
And they stationed themselves around me, effectively ending my view of the game as they herded around and started chatting. There was a lot of hair-holding and various playing-with-hair activities as they tried to think of English words to describe what they were seeing. Haneul kept repeating, "gold, gold, gold," while Danhee put together, "Hair smell is very good. Smells like flower, and your face is like flower!" That's a lot of charm, coming from a kid dressed head to toe in dandelion-colored flannel.
Danhee also got me to sing lines from about 5 Bruno Mars songs, and Haneul revealed that he knew I sang Crayon Pop's "BarBar Bar" at karaoke, because his mom works at the noraebang (singing room) and he lives right above it. I can't do anything without the entire school knowing, not that I mind.
There was much debate among the mascots about why I don't have a boyfriend yet because, "You beautiful!" but they seemed to collectively decide that it's better this way, because it means they get to chat me up as much as they want. All the laughter and hair-touching did not go unnoticed by Need-You-Junho who walked up from nowhere to hold my shoulder and start in with the, "You're my girl, understand?" business. Poor kid's got to do so much maintenance with this relationship.
Junho proceeded to command the other boys, "Don't touch my girl!" (Where is he getting this vocabulary?) in a friendly way, complete with cursing in English and Korean. But his friends were not about to let that slide unchallenged--Seongsu countered with, "She's my girlfriend," Danhee said, "No, YOU don't touch!" and Dongjin upped the ante with, "She's my wife!" This was my highest aspiration in life; to be fought over by teenage boys dressed in chicken suits. I need not accomplish anything else.
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11:40 AM Back indoors because it's so frighteningly cold. Sat down with the 1st-graders and got some footage of Seonghoonie and Yooseok and Sanggyu, then my 2nd-grade pals Yeongchang and Seongyeol from afterschool rolled up.
Sports Day is evidently the day of the broken-down barriers because I got two fresh love confessions from 1st-graders (1: "Your face is very rare!" 2: "You are pretty and I love you!"). I need to make sure I learn those boys' names. Also, Yeongchang now wants to know whether I'm single and how old I am, presumably to gauge whether he's got a chance. And Sharp Sujin was just hanging around, so I invited him to sit down beside me, whereupon he asked for my phone number.
Me: No.
Sujin: Why?
Me: Students don't call teachers.
Sujin: Why?
Me: Geunyang. ("Just" or "just because").
Sujin: *laughing* Okay.
He walked off after that.
Gathering up my strength and drinking coffee so I can go watch some more.
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12:50 PM Dear Lord, please help HH. I have no idea what happened, but when I walked out of the lunch room, there was a fight brewing in the hall. When I got to the source, HH was trying to break free of the grip of his friend Geon, who is half again his size, and was trying to murder somebody else--it wasn't clear who. I tried to calm everybody down, but it wasn't clear what had gone down. I asked HH to stop, but he didn't seem to see me or hear me. I've never seen any of the boys like this, in an absolute unthinking rage.
Finally, some Korean teachers came to suss out the situation and I decided to leave to not compound the embarrassment. I went into classroom 1-10 to watch Sanggyu play computer games and let Donghyun play guitar for me and take part in Seonghyun's magic tricks. When I left the classroom ten minutes later, HH was still in the hallway, still being restrained by friends and teachers, still swearing a blue streak in Korean.
I don't know. I just don't know.
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3:15 PM Well, I had to sequester myself in the office for about two hours to finish some work that had to be done. Then I walked up to the 2nd floor to see if HH was still in the office. When I reached the landing, I saw a green gym suit walking down the deserted hall, and it was HH. I stopped him and told him that I had been worried about him. I said I didn't know what upset him earlier, but that I was sorry for whatever it was. I think he's going to be okay, but I don't know if I'll ever find out why he went crazy today.
Passed Junho in the hall after lunch. He spread his arms out for a hug, so wide he took up most of the hallway. I was preparing to duck under him, but Shotputter Jinseong saved me the trouble! He came up behind his friend and side-tackled him so I could pass by, unhugged. So sweet. Jinseong's definitely trying to mess with his friend, but I think he's also trying to spare me discomfort, like he did weeks upon weeks ago when he shoved Junho for shouting at me in the lunchline. It's quite touching that the big guy is there when I need him.
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4:15 PM Still at the office, but the final ceremonies for Sports Day are going on outside, still. It's been a lovely day!
I was getting some great footage of the footraces and the 3rd-grade side of the field when Furcoat-Dongho asked me to try playing basketball. Dongho's a 3rd-grade C-class, and I only just met him this week. He thought it was important for us to meet, so I committed him to memory. He wants to be a singer when he grows up, but a singer in musicals, not a regular performing artist. He's really good at math, he wants me to know.
missed my basketball shot horribly, but I stayed on the mini-court and watched the 3rd-graders shoot basketball. BY came over and scared me by grabbing my arm, but I made him pay with a punch to the back--not enough to do damage, of course. BY's wellbeing's a priority. We talked about everything in the world--he saw me on Sunday night at the movie theater, but didn't say hi because I was walking away and he would have had to yell and he didn't want to seem weird.
He told me that he went to America by himself and lived with his aunt, but that he'd only met his aunt once before going to the States. I told him that he'd been independent from a very young age and that he should be proud of himself. We discussed the Korean SAT (nightmare) vs. the American SAT (not so bad), discussed which of the 3rd-graders looked like they could play basketball, and talked about family--he says he's the youngest of five brothers, the next oldest of whom goes to the all-boys high school next door.
Finally, Dongho and the other came by to quiz BY about why he was so doggone good at English. They really seemed in awe of his skills, which was cool since he's a 2nd-grader, who they'd normally never talk to. I rattled off the names of five 3rd-graders standing around me, then when I patted Byeongyoon's head and said his name he added, "I'm her favorite." I told him he was in the Top 10, which isn't bad for a school of 1,000 boys. He said it's more of an honor because I'm popular. I said I have kids who hate me too, and he said it's just because English is difficult.
Outside, I gave Daeho my extra pair of gloves because he was wandering around in a soccer jersey and shorts. He came by a couple of minutes ago to return them. :-)
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5:30 PM Made it home fine. Talked more with Jeongmin the walk out, talked with Dongho and friends, gave Oreos to Jinseop, gave Oreos to Junho, and received a...sandwich from 1st-grade Sangyeop. Child had bought a sandwich and he just handed me half. It didn't look tampered with or dropped or anything, and Sangyeop likes me though he's mischievous, so I figured it was safe to eat but I had to eventually set it down on the ground because my hand was getting cold and I had to buy gimbap for Yeongchang and Inha.
Yeah, this getting-out-of-school-early business is throwing me steadily into the path of hungry boys. Yeongchang, Inha and I went into a different convenience store than the one I went to yesterday and the clerks at this store were also really tickled that I was accompanying the boys and getting them food. I feel like I'm earning good citizen points in our community for being my boys' keeper. But I'd do it in any case.
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