I was running wild this morning, trying to get everything together. I had been planning a little all week, trying to get ready for this, but the trouble with new things at school is that I can plan all I want, but the situation is always going to look very different up close. You can only pick a good direction for your activities, plus some alternate games and ideas and rewards, because nothing will go according to plan.
So I had some plans downloaded for a Detective Camp, where the kids will solve a mystery over the course of the next two weeks. I altered some things, took out some things, and had a loose structure that could be collapsed and re-arranged in any fashion.
I got to school and printed out stuff. Then I was given my class list--I hadn't known whether to prepare for 5 first-graders or 25, but I assumed there would be a lot. There were just 11 names on the list, which made me happy. Then I realized that I only recognized 4 of the names, so I was going to be getting all-new younguns I hadn't met before, which is another curveball since I don't know if they're A-class, C-class, studious or crazy. But whatevs, they're my assigned kids, and we'll make this work.
After walking upstairs, I realized that I didn't know which classroom I was supposed to be in. The English Center, I was told, but it was locked and the only two teachers who have keys were absent (there are people at school, both teachers and kids, but it's like a skeleton crew manning the ship). Finally, one of the older female teachers decided to just let me hang out in 2-6 with my kids, and that was good enough for us.
15 minutes late, we got going. I had eleven kids on my list and only five in class! Yosep from 1-7, 1-8 B, a nice kid who doesn't say much. Seongyo, a deeply serious tiny tot from 1-3, 1-4 B, Sangho, a big, strong kid with good English for a B-class from 1-1, 1-2 B, Jinsu, a sly and foxlike boy from my afterschool (and the only A-class boy in Winter Camp), and Jonghoon, a nice boy I just met today.
They all sat way far apart, but I did a little getting-to-know-you exercise and we started warming up. I had to continually use my phone dictionary to translate English to Korean, but things worked out and the boys seemed to like how I was trying to find solutions.
Just before breaktime two more kids got there; a Jeongmin (heaven help me, another Jeongmin? This one is christened Wintercamp Jeongmin) and Yoonmo, a clever kid who is actually C-class.
During the break, I pulled out the UNO cards and played Yoonmo, Yosep, Wintercamp-Jeongmin, and Seongyo. They looooved it, because two of them are totally new to me, and two of them are in my classes but haven't made themselves "my boys" yet. So they haven't gotten to hang out with me and just laugh and have fun yet.
I was so glad I got to play with them, because of Seongyo. In my head, I've been calling him something like "Sad Seongyo" because he sits all alone in class with a mournful expression on his face. When he does speak, what he says is intelligent but he's so quiet, it's easy for the other kids to overshadow him. But boy, when he gets going with UNO he's a small tornado.
Seongyo was out at the bathroom when we started playing, but I called him over to watch us, then to join in the second game. When he played a card that made me draw 4 cards, I announced that I was mad at him and I swatted his knee a few times. I smile lit his whole face. It's so wonderful to be fussed at by somebody who obviously likes you. Before long, he was whistling to himself, hollering "nice-uh!" when he got a good card and laying down combinations like a pro.
Seongyo also laid his head down on his desk before that and said, "Teacher, 배고파요. Teacher I'm hungry." You know just how to hurt my heart, don't you Seongyo? A tiny, sad-looking boy telling me he needs food. I only had chocolate with me for the end of class, but I gave him a few pieces early. Tomorrow, I will bring a food-like substance in case that baby is hungry again.
We made detective badges, then I ran a black pastel chalk over their thumb and forefinger so we could fingerprint them. We had to wash our hands after that one. Next, we did a "what kind of detective are you?" quiz to see what roles they could fulfill. I collected their materials and promised we'd start working on our real mystery tomorrow--today was just prep for it.
We had a good time! Though by no means were we all in harmony, diligently working together on our English. I didn't have their full attention and I doubt they learned a single new word, but we did enjoy each other's company, and I got to see Seongyo smile. Mission accomplished.
Then 2nd-grade Taekyoon started beating up 1st-grade Sangho, but Sangho probably had it coming, plus Sangho is one of the biggest first-grader ever, so he could take whatever punishment Taekyoon was dealing out. I made us all laugh by stopping Taekyoon on the grounds that he was a big 2nd-grader and Sangho was "just a little first-grader!" Sangho looked tearful and nodded his agreement--that it was unthinkable that a defenseless waif such as himself should be attacked. It's funny because Sangho is man-sized and probably outweighs Taekyoon, despite being the 동생 (younger kid).
To get their chocolate, I made Taekyoon and Sangwook answer the question 'what is your favorite movie"? Sangwook grinned and answered with something inappropriate, so I started hitting his head, which he quickly protected. I can't tell you how happy he was to be the object of such violence. He looked so pleased with himself--I was only pretending to be upset and he was only pretending to be bad, so it was like what happens when you annoy your mom or your sister.
Sangwook also wanted to know if I paid $100 for the basic packages of Reeses I gave to them. He and Taekyoon gradually made it known to me that they thought I'd been spending boocoodles of cash on Reeses, since they can scarcely be found anywhere in Korea. Sangwook looked up some pricing on his phone and showed me a Korean site where a family sized bag of Reeses cups was being sold for 100,000 won--about a hundred dollars.
I quickly explained that Reeses were cheaper in the States, and that I had gotten packages from my mother (well, the international postage does make it expensive after all, but still it wasn't pricey in the way they were thinking). I thought it was cool that the Reeses treats were the subject of so much love, the boys were actually going online to try to order their own. Cute. Then I said goodbye to my 2nd-grade boys and packed up for home.
This morning, I got to hug Piano-Jaehyung as he came into the office. I saw Daesung and I thought he was commenting on how my hair was different today, but he was trying to get me to notice that his hair is different. He put a dark brown rinse in it, so it is now no longer precisely pitch black. I told him it looked cool.
Pictures of my Dutch Coffee from Saturday:
It's only called "Dutch coffee" in Korea, and I'm pretty sure it's not Dutch. It's a major craze here, with everybody wanting to try it, but a Google search reveals no information about the beverage, probably because it's called something else in the States.
You get a small pitcher of milk, which has been foamed a bit. And you get a glass full of coffee ice cubes and a bit of cold coffee. I always order with a friend, so we split the coffee cubes between two glasses, pour milk over the cubes, then pour in the little sliver pitcher of hazelnut syrup for sweetness.
It's a fun little do-it-yourself drink, and it's extra fun because normally with a cold drink, the coffee gets more watery as the ice cubes melt, but with this one, the milk gets more coffee-flavored as the cubes melt.
Also, at my favorite coffee shop, most of the cubes are shaped to looked like coffee beans, but for whatever reason, precisely one cube is always shaped like a Lego Man.
He Thinks He's Camouflaged.
I Have You Now!
And yesterday I went to my first Korean wedding! It was very Disney-Vegas as other people have said, what with the catwalk, the flashing neon lights, the mirrored chandelier stuff, and the explosion of golden streamers at the end. The bride was one of the prettiest I've ever seen--she looked like she had stepped out of an enchanted garden.
I had only met the couple once in passing, but they invited me to their wedding because in Korea, it's generally good to have a ton of people at your wedding, so the more the merrier.
On my way to the train station yesterday, I met Proposal-Heejoon and his crew of other first-graders on the bridge. We walked together and chatted about the movie they were going to see and the movies I had recently seen. I complimented one of the boys on his outlandish red-and-orange winter break hair (he couldn't wear it like that to school). It was a lovely time.
Over the weekend, I got a couple of inappropriate texts from Jinhwan's phone number, but I knew it wasn't him because his English wasn't good enough to write the messages, plus he loves me too much to be crude. He immediately sent me a half dozen horrified, apologetic texts in formal Korean, explaining that his friends stole his phone ("Teacher, I didn't say that, it honestly wasn't me! Really. I love you and that won't ever happen again.) I told him in Korean that it was okay and that I understood. he replied in Korean, "Hee hee hee. I love you." Good to know, kiddo. Good to know.
Saturday Jeongmin texted me from the airport--he's off to Canada on his adventure! I'm praying for him to be safe.
Last night, me and my friends had a girls' night and watched a movie, A Werewolf Boy (늑대소년) that made me cry.
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Don't Watch Unless You Enjoy Weeping All the Tears.
It's a story set in 1970's South Korea, where a family with a teenage daughter finds a feral teenage boy in the woods. At first it seems like he's just a regular person who has been living with animals, because he acts like an animal and can't speak, but then it becomes apparent that he's actually a supernatural creature. And of course, people want to kill him, but the girl fights to save him from the bad guy.
I really like the main actor, Song Joongki, in his other projects. He's older than me, but in this movie he's just like a child; a hungry, hurt child who has never been cared for. This is something I've seen before, both because my family has done foster care and because some of my students are...well, if they're not "neglected," let's say they're certainly not highly valued or carefully provided for.
The mom in the movie is good to the wolf boy, but it's the girl who really becomes his champion and you can just see it changing his whole world, not just because he's learning how to eat with utensils or how to write his alphabet like a civilized person, but because no one has ever cared before.
Kids wear visible signs of love and care like they would wear a coat. If they are cherished and valued, everyone sees it. It's like a little sign hanging over their head that says "somebody loves this one". While watching the movie, I kept seeing how uncared-for the main character was, and then everything the girl did to take care of him inevitably reminded me of my students. Such as:
-The girl keeps saying "gidaryeo" or "wait" to him. It's probably the most frequently spoken and significant word in the movie. I say this word in Korean to the kids all the time, because they have no patience and they're in the process of learning how to be grown-ups. Wait, I tell them. Wait a little. Good things are coming your way, you just have to wait for now.
-Every time the boy does something good, the girl pats his head. I do the same thing to my boys, reassuring them that everything's okay.
-The boy clearly has a world of things to say, but he can't talk to the girl. She talks incessantly to him, but he's not really getting most of the words. My students often can't communicate with me at all, and even though I say a lot, they only get a word here and there.
In short, the film made me think about how big a difference some love and care can make. It's not an exact analogy of course, because none of the foster kids I've met are feral supernatural creatures and none of my students have been literally raised by wolves. But the world is full of horrifically hurt, neglected, and consistently overlooked people. Even if you can't talk to them, you should love them anyway. You might be the only person in their life who does so.
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