11 AM: Class with the baby 1st-graders went fine. They were precious.
I am overwhelmingly tired today because of a full weekend. Saturday, I got up early and caught a ninety-minute train to Seoul for an all-day test question writing workshop. I was really excited to go because of 80 people who attended the first 2 1/2 day workshop, only 25 of us passed the requirements and were invited back to become official test question writers.
It was lovely. I got to hang out with older people who were all professors in their 30s and 40s, and their conversation was just so enjoyable (Britain's colonization of South Africa, prison culture in Korea, erosion problems when laying the foundation for a house in the mountains, favorite episodes of Sesame Street...). We got some ideas for future questions and it was great for our brains.
I stayed the night in Seoul because my best local female friend (L-Friend) won tickets to a concert on Sunday night, so we needed to be in town for that. The concert started at 7, doors opened at 5:30, and we checked out of our hotel at 11, so we thought we had plenty of time to get there and just hang out before the concert.
Not so. Because Seoul is BIG. It is as big as three big things, laid end to end and magnified to the second power. It takes forever to get from Banghwa to Daehwa, even though they're physically close on the map, the Han River separates the two places, so you have to ride the train waaaay far down and transfer a few lines and come back.
We got to the concert venue and the staff had no record of our tickets. This was the first ever concert of its type, and I think the event-runners were still getting their ducks in a row. But, wonder of wonders, they gave us wristbands anyway. Even though they couldn't confirm that we were telling the truth because they couldn't read the English email that said we won. Anyhoo, with wristbands obtained, we ate lunch then marched back to the station to stow our things in the station lockers.
Procedure: you pick a locker, put in your backpack, purse, etc, then let the machine scan your index finger. Pay 1,500 won (a buck and half), and your stuff is secure until midnight, when you use your fingerprint to unlock it. I knew the standing-room concert would be a misery if I carried more than the basic necessities and a water bottle, and I was right. Travelling light was the best policy.
We came back to the venue at 5:30, expecting to just walk in, but we were ushered into a vast warehouse full of about 1200 people, mostly Korean, mostly college-age, who had won tickets or bought them from other sources. We thought we'd be stuck in the back of the auditorium, but it was a stand-where-you-want-to style of concert. L-Friend and I both have experience shuffling through crowds, so we started out in the 13th row at 5:40, then got up to the 3rd row by concert time.
You don't even have to push anybody or be rude to move up through the ranks--just look for gaps and move up when the crowd moves sideways. When there was a sudden noise or a light-test or sound-check, people would shift to see what the commotion was, and I would advance six more inches forward. Crowd-strategy is almost as much fun as listening to music.One time I got caught behind two girls who were standing on step-stools. Stepstools. They were short, so I understood their reasoning, but it was quite a puzzle to navigate around.
The crowd was very tight the whole time, but the final act was so popular, the crowd tightened until I couldn't physically move. I was moved by others, as the entire crowd shifted 15 feet to the right to get a better look at the far-stage, then shifted back 15 feet to the left when the final act moved to the near-stage and they had to shift their perspective. I kept my feet under me, and thanked God that none of the smaller people got swept under the ocean of scrambling shoes.
Popular music in Korea is an intense business! The fans of the final act were not fans of the intro acts, so while they would cheer for the intro acts, they didn't sing along. Come on, guys, surely you can be nice to bands other than your favorite band, right? And for the final act, the college/career-age girls around me didn't sing the songs...they did fanchants.
I don't know if fanchants are strictly a Korean phenomenon, but I've never heard anything like them at home. Apparently if you're really into a particular pop act in Korea, you can go online to their fan website and download instructions for the "fanchant" for every song. It's a sort of call-and-response style of shouting.
During the intro music, fans of the final act shouted the names of the band members, but they shouted them in unison and with rhythm, so it sounded almost like a horde of cheerleaders hollering, "We got spirit, yes we do, we got spirit, how 'bout you?" The intonation was identical. During the chorus, fans would shout only certain parts of the chorus. L-Friend and I were the only ones singing the whole thing.
And I think we were the only ones smiling! I was having a lovely time, but the Korean fans seemed so intense, it made me wonder if they were really having fun or if they were just supernaturally focused. Of course, they might have been feeling bad because of the crowd. It was warm and sweaty and jostle-y, and most girls were still wearing their winter coats--I had ditched mine at the lockers. And because I'm tall, I had better access to oxygen, and some of the shorter people were surely having trouble breathing (though I did see at least 25 Korean girls who were considerably taller than me--whoever says that all Asians are petite is lying).
So L-Friend and I had fun and we had an hour and a half to take the subway back to Seoul Station and catch our train home. Plenty of time, yes? No. Because Seoul is big. It is bigger than Korea itself, I think. And at night, the metro runs every 30 minutes in some places instead of every 5.
So we were delayed, then we were stuck at a platform where no metro was coming for an hour. If we stayed there, we'd miss our train home--the last train home until 6 AM. We run up some stairs to find a taxi to Seoul Station, but the street was vacant. We went down and came up another exist and blessedly found one lone taxi on the empty road. At Seoul Station, we sprinted up 5 flights of stairs to get to our platform, then collapsed into our train seats in pure, refined exhaustion.
90 minutes later, we were in our very cold, very dark hometown in which everyone goes to sleep at 10 PM. I went to sleep at 1:30, woke up at 6, and compiled my materials for class.
Considering the mad rush of the weekend, my first class was plenty calm and full of beautiful boys that I care about. Not a bad scene to come home to.
---------------------------------------------------
1:50 PM: My 5th period class didn't happen--not sure why. When I got to class, S-Teacher was there already, and she was talking to some of the C-class boys, so the schedule has obviously flipped around again. Going to confirm it soon--this week is weird because the 3rd-graders have tests and the other grades don't, and the 2nd-graders have another field trip while the other grades don't and we have Thursday off, so it's all a big muddle.
At lunch, Saturday-Jeongmin, Friend-Woohyuk, and Baby-Hyo came by to play the forest game. Hyo's little hands were cracked, so I put some lotion on his hands and he said thank you. The lotion container I keep on my desk is shaped like a small pink owl, because I couldn't resist buying the cutest version of the product.
Jeongmin asked about my health and if I had a cold, still. Nope, I just look sleepy. We chatted and played the game for a while, then my group of three 1st-graders exploded into ten first-graders as new friends joined from the hallway. Most of them were B-class students in my classes, notably Chanjin from this morning. When I asked the students to name fruits for Scattergories, most kids were going for "apple" and "banana" while Chanjin came up with "durian" and "mangosteen". You go, child. Myeongchun asked to play UNO, and I told him we'd do it during cleaning time, today.
Played piano in the special needs room. Teaching Yeongchang how to play Heart and Seoul with a 3-note chord instead of two, and the chord is tricky because he has fingers that don't want to bend. Jaehyung keeps asking me to repeat things in Korean, and I try my hardest.
----------------------------------------------------------------
6:20 PM: Good day. Had no Mr. B for 2-7, 2-8 B, so we didn't get a lot done, but the boys didn't run wild--they just had other things to do. I couldn't get the video working at the beginning, so my boys called in Jiwoong of all people to fix it, and I praised him vehemently for his help (and also gave him two pieces of chocolate after class for being so handy).
Of course, almost none of the boys did their worksheets, but Mischievous-Changyo and Smart-Jungbok went out of their way to come over and sit where I was and fill out the worksheet with me. They had great answers, and they made me laugh. Jungbok's a really good artist and I praised his doodles and he seemed touched that I remembered he had been sewing last week--he's a creative, artsy one.
Duyeol and I had a mighty debate over whether an avocado constituted a fruit, and Jungbok declared passionately that green grapes and purple grapes were not the same fruit at all--and he's right in Korean, because the names of the grape-types differ quite a bit. Duyeol is really starting to become a favorite of mine, and Jungbok and Changyo charmed me completely today. I let them play the forest game for the last 8 minutes, and they were having a time of it. Cardsharp-Minsu was offering advice to everyone who played, Duyeol kept trying to commandeer the computer, and a good time was had.
Inbetween classes, I had hi to Sanghwa as he was cleaning the steps and he happily observed, "New haircut?" I told him yes, I hadn't gotten my bangs cut. I was on cloud nine after that: the rest of the day can go however, because Sanghwa noticed my haircut. :-)
Had lots of great joking in afterschool. Jinseop's using more English with me, and I fed all of our boys and most of the 15 spare kids that wandered in. Yeongchang wandered into our room during the break, and he played UNO with just me. Seongmo was more than ready to kick him out when the time came, though--sharing attention is not something Seongmo appreciates.
And today Seongmo didn't pout-quit any games. He kept asking me, "Teacher, can I quit?" And I kept saying, "No, you should stay with us. You need to be strong. You need to keep trying, even if you're not doing well." I was so proud of him.
Snappy-Seongsu sat with us for about four different 5-minute intervals. He's comfortable with me, now. I played the English-Korean wordgame with Kwangsu, a new C-class student I just met today. Jinseop explained the rules to him and they thought of four words together. Redhair-Joonyeong came into class to demand Chocopies until I told him he'd have to wait. Then he was so bossy about asking, I told him he'd have to play the word game with me in order to get his treat. He did fine.
Something--I know not what--happened with Sanghwa in the middle of afterschool, and when I got up to check on him, he said "please sit down?" in the cutest way imaginable. Baby boy is saying please all over the place, lately.
I pretended to steal Keundeok's cheese stick, only to find that he was 100% willing to let me have it. I had to quickly backtrack and reverse-protest that I didn't really want it. Taehoonie was polite as always, but pensive, like he was thinking about a lot. Jiwoong was feeling sunny because I gave him two chocopies. Afterschool-Jeongmin was terribly sleepy and said to me, "I am sleepy. I want to go home!" Poor kid.
Some 2nd-graders I don't recall seeing before came into class during the break to inform me that I'm "very pretty girl" and "I love you". I gave an embarrassed reaction because I wasn't expecting to hear that--I don't blink an eye when Need-You-Junho says that stuff anymore, because I can see it coming. So of course, they repeated their statements with renewed vigor. Oy.
And that wasn't the end of the love confessions. Toward the end of aftershcool, my new student Myeongkeun came over to talk to Byeonghyun and ask Byeonghyun to explain to me that Minsu had ordered Myeongkeun to say that he (Myeongkeun) loved me. Yeah, I didn't understand it either. I had to double-check that Minsu wasn't ordering Myeongkeun to be the messenger and say that Minsu loved me. Minsu flamboyantly denied any such feelings.
Funny thing was, I heard them practicing the confession. While I was in the corner with my boys, I could hear big snippets of English coming from Minsu, Myeongkeun, and Hyun. C'mon guys, you're 10 feet away and my ears are a magnet for my own language. Even more hilariously, they seem to have been debating whether to try calling me "noona" or "older sister," which is both incorrect (I should be called by my job or name+job), and comedic-flirty. They opted to forgo it, thankfully.
But that wasn't the end of it! At the very end of class, there was a furious hum of conversation among Minsu, Myeongkeun, and Hyun, and I heard Minsu emphasize, "timing, timing!" in English. Then little bitty-baby Hyun rushed up and said, "I love you!" to me before dashing back to the safety of Cardsharp-Minsu's vicinity. Obviously, it was part of a dare that was still playing out, because Myeognkeun then rushed forward, made a little heart sign with his hands, and said, "I love you, I'm sorry!" before dashing off.
It was adorable and baffling, and though it doesn't matter any which way, I figure there are three possible options for why they did that: 1. They just enjoy dares, and for some reason this idea seemed forbidden enough to make the dare fun. 2. Myeongkeun likes me, which is possible because he's new and isn't used to me like the other kids are. 3. Minsu likes me, and he's using other kids to engage/bother me in that annoying-you-means-I-care kind of way.
The last option seems the least likely, since Minsu only tolerated me for the longest time, and he doesn't even like schoolwork, and we once had an impromptu wrestling match over who was going to get possession of his jacket. But however Minsu feels, I'm happy about where he is in life because he's smiling and cheerful, and he's speaking English and tutoring other kids in English, all for the sake of crafting the best dare.
