11:30 AM Soooooo much computer trouble today, but I think I got it settled by getting a mouse for the school laptop.
Saw BY this morning and he looked exhausted, but I made sure to smile big at him as he went of the stairs. Later, we passed in the hallway and he looked so miserable. He said, "I'm so tired. I stayed up until 1 AM; I'm like a zombie!" Then he made a move to "attack" me as a zombie and got a hug for himself. Aww.
Later, after our class together today, I asked him why he stayed up so late. I pointed out that his final exams were over. He said his older brother (he has lots of them) told him that he should be studying all the time, starting now, for the Korean SAT exams he will be taking his senior year of high school.
My boy is losing sleep over something he won't do for four years. Oy. But I encouraged him. I told him, "Well, this is bad. But there are still lots of wonderful things in life. You're good at school, everyone thinks you're smart, and I'm very proud of you."
Just before I gave him this little speech, he was talking about being a tired-zombie again, and decided that it was a good idea to hug-attack me from behind while I was talking to Minwoo. That was just fine, but then he started burrowing his face against the side of my face and neck, like a puppy. I wasn't mad, but I still had to stop him.
I get it--he's 14 (15?), he's depressed and exhausted, there aren't that many soft or nice-smelling things at our tough masculine school, and there are still fewer of those things that will let you hug them. But we've got to set a limit on our touchy-feely-ness, because this particular thing doesn't need to be replicated. I can't have more of the kids trying the same stunt, plus I don't want Junho getting any ideas.
Discovered that my 3rd-grader Sooncheonnie is the actual older brother of my 1st-grader Soonhyuk! Dude. That is so cool.
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1 PM: More on the Soonhyuk-Sooncheon connection. After 1st grade class was over, Soonhyuk came up to me and said,
Soonhyuk: "My brother Sooncheon. Three."
Me: "Sooncheon is your brother?" *shock/disbelief/rapidly searching his face for a resemblance*
Soonhyuk: 네. (yes) *huge smile*
Me: 순천이 삼학년? 진짜? (Sooncheonie in 3rd grade? Seriously?) *matching smile*
Soonhyuk: 진짜요. 오반. (Seriously. Class number 5.)
Me: With the 머리카락(hair)...*gestures to indicate Sooncheonnie's disheveled new hairstyle*
Soonhyuk: 네! 우리 형. (Yes! That's our (my) older brother.)
We just stood there beaming at each other for a few seconds, because I just discovered that one of my favorite boys is the big brother of a boy I'm growing to really like.
Soonhyuk is terribly intelligent, despite being B-class. He answers most questions for his side of the room, and we've been getting closer because a week ago I picked him out of a crowd of mingled 1st and 2nd-graders who were wanting candy, and I remembered his name. He smiled, and I knew Soonhyuk and I were going to hit it off in the future because he was so happy to be remembered.
The two brothers are quite different. Sooncheonnie is popular and has friends, but he's a Good Boy. You can't imagine Sooncheon starting a ruckus over anything. He's very much a beta male, and is helpful and sweet as sugar.
Soonhyuk is a Cool Kid and is more outspoken and alpha than his hyung. The only reason Soonhyuk isn't running 1-1, 1-2 B is because we've already got his jjang-friends Won and Sangho in there, and they are even more dudely and loud than he is. When they all get wound up, it's like a like a tornado in the center of the room. It's no wonder it took me so long to get to know Prince Woobin and Tiny Joohyun with boys like the jjangs in there.
I wonder why Soonhyuk decided to tell me now about the connection. I wonder if he and his brother had a conversation about it, like "I played Monopoly with Sem on Monday." -"Huh. She never plays games with us." -"Maybe you should tell her you're my brother. That should get the ball rolling."
Artist-Joohyun tried to tell me that Simyong was stupid because he only got a 20 on his math exam, but I said that Simyong was smart. I wasn't too worried about Joohyun's statement because he and Simyong are best friends, but still, Joohyunnie is A-ban and Simyong is C-ban, and it's not fair to insult intelligence. I said, "And he's not just smart--he's handsome!" Simyong brightened and taunted Joohyun with that statement.
Saturday Jeongmin says he's getting a laptop for his trip to Canada at the end of the month. I'm glad he'll have another tool of communication.
Played Monopoly with the 3rd-graders. Heechan and Byeongkeun spent the entire time accusing each other of being perverts and trying to translate what naughty things the other guy supposedly said, but neither of them had good enough English to translate anything intelligible. I did smack the back of Heechan's head once when he said something inappropriate I thought I understood. He wasn't upset by it. He figured he had it coming, then said he loved me.
Jaehwan's not going to the high school next door when he graduates--he's going to some new school. I'll never see him unless we run into each other in town.
Walked into the special needs room and sat with their teacher and Joonseong and Beyongsu while they cut up blocks of gelatin to make soap from little molds. Joonseong said in English, "Help me..." and later he got frustrated and said "Hwaganayo!" (I'm angry!) I was so happy to understand him because I just learned the Korean word for "angry" two days ago in my vocab studies.
For 2-9, 2-10 B, they had their hearts so set on a movie and had so little energy, I let them watch one. I played word games with Sangwoon and Seulbin, then Jinseop, Seonghoon, and Jeonghee. The boys keep saying that Sangwoon has a bad face and can't get a girlfriend because he's ugly, but I don't see it at all. Sometimes the kids seem to have a skewed view of what constitutes ugly. And what they also don't see is that Sangwoon is a witty charmer with a sense of humor--girls are going to love that 'round about college, if not sooner.
Minchan, a kid who has spoken 10 words to me all semester, gave me a 2-paragraph English/Korean explanation of why I owed him a chocolate because I promised him one a week ago, and he meant to remind me after class, but I was headed to the bathroom and therefore he couldn't. I was breathless, just listening to this taciturn kid unleash his entire flood of rhetoric, which had clearly been building up for awhile. He got his candy, and I gained a new favorite.
Huge-Eyes Jeonghee glowed after I called him smart, and he presented me with torn up bits of his textbook as a "present".
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4 PM: I'm home! After the 3rd-graders class was over, the vice principal said we could go.
One random 3rd-grader on the stairs today told me, "My English is better than yours." I told him that was great and I was proud of him. Then he said, "And I am stronger than you. Do you want to fight me?" He was smiling, but that's the weirdest set of words said to me at my school thus far. I smiled and waved bye to him as he walked out the door to play soccer.
After my last class, I got bundled up and exited the school, but something told me to walk slowly and not put my earmuffs on because Jeongminnie might be getting out of school at the same time. Sure enough, just as I was about to walk out the front gate I heard a distant voice calling out, "Leigh!"
It was Jeongminnie, running toward me. And when I say he was distant, I mean he was faaar away, clear across the soccer field and close to the 1st-grade wing. I'm shocked that his voice even carried that far. But he kept running and I stood waiting for him, so we got to walk to the bus stop together.
Jeongmin asked me to wait for him outside one of the little snack shops by the school, and he emerged with a piece of fried chicken on a stick, drizzled with three sauces. He offered me a bite and when I said I was okay without eating, he told me in a deflated sort of way that he thought I would really like it. So I took a bite of his chicken, and we proceeded on our walk.
Various kids greeted me and I pulled one huge 3rd-grader off of Jaehwan. Jaehwan's a brat and might have genuinely done something to tick off the big kid, but still, he's so physically fragile compared to the other 3rd-graders, and even most of the 2nd and 1st-graders. I just held the sleeve of the big one for a while to give Jaehwan a chance to get away.
Jeongminnie thinks he's going to get to go to Saturday class next year after all and is looking forward to when I have to "interview" him for his spot in the program.
When Jeongmin and I parted ways, Jaehyung started walking with me and we had a great conversation, considering that he's special needs and has not much English vocabulary. For the first time today, I understood that he was asking me "How do you say this in English?" Jaehyung often starts sentences with "Yeongeo-ro..." and I finally understand that he's asking me in Korean to translate a Korean word into English.
On our walk, I was able to tell Jaehyung the difference between the English words "happy," "hungry," and "angry." We got the strangest looks from passers-by who aren't used to seeing an American woman and a Korean student blithely chatting away in Konglish.
Also! I've been in Korea for 4 months today--that's 1/3rd of my contract. It's been a blast. :-)
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