I walked into the school this morning to the most amazing intro music, courtesy of Daesung.
The second I stepped through the doors, I thought I heard the jinglebell/musicbox twinkly intro notes from Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." I was a bit disoriented because I couldn't see a soul in the hallway, and it would be very weird for our school to be blaring Christmas music over the PA system, on New Year's Eve. Also, I wondered why the opening chords were exactly timed to my entrance through the doors.
Then I saw him. Daesung was walking down the staircase, holding up his phone, from which the song was playing very loudly. He was smiling and taking the stairs one at a time, in step with the music. All this happened within about five seconds. I started singing along with the opening lines, which made him even happier, then I walked down the hall to my office, still singing.
After that, it hit me why Daesung just happened to be playing my favorite non-hymn Christmas song the moment I walked in the door. Last week, I was singing all kinds of Christmas songs as I walked through the halls, but "All I Want For Christmas" probably got some extra vocal time because it's fun to sing.
Daesung heard me last week and found the song on his phone. Then this morning, he saw me through the window and positioned himself on the staircase just out of sight so that he could play the song when I walked in, then make a dramatic down-stair walk. The darlingness of this boy. I just can't.
Arrived to find a present from my aunt and uncle on my desk!
Thank Youuuuuuu.
And within were Christmas decorations, and a musical card that was perfectly cheery:
And a silver "L" necklace! Silver's my favorite metal color and I was just needing some necklaces because I only have one with a cross and one with a bird's wing emblem. And the bird wing looks likely to break soon.
Pretty-Pretty!
Class went really well, considering that we accomplished almost nothing. I got to school this morning and the printer wouldn't work, so I had to go to two different people's computers to print off my stuff. And then I got to class to find only three kids! Fox-Jinsu, Food-Seongyo, and Quiet-Yosep.
But we were fine. I just moved from table to table and helped each boy individually. And I had gone to Paris Baguette to pick up some pound cake bread for the boys, since Seongyo said he was hungry yesterday. Sure enough, when I produced the bread, he was ready to eat. I gave him two slices and he said, "One person..두개? (one person, two pieces?)" I told him that he got two because he was special.
Everyonbe ended up getting two pieces at the end, except Jinsu. He wouldn't eat his pound cake for a long time, then eventually I meandered back to his part of the room and found it had been scarfed down. After the first class period was over, Quick-Yoonmo and Wintercamp-Jeongmin showed up, and they were happy to eat two slices of poundcake, too. Seongyo eat three, all told.
And what a difference it made in Seongyo's attitude! He was talking to me all the time. I had no earthly clue that Seongyo had so much English, but he used every last word at his disposal to discuss things with me. He told me that today was the very last day of our year, and we chatted about that for a while.
At the end, when I asked the boys if they wanted more poundcake, I said in English, "I think boys are always hungry" and Seongyo said "Yes. 청소년 is a hungry time." I was blown away by his almost-totally-English sentence and the way he comprehended what I was saying, then added on to it. I didn't know what the Korean word meant, so he typed it into my phone dictionary and came up with "adolescence" or "youth". Seongyo told me that youth is a hungry time. Maybe I can make it less hungry for him, for these few days.
Well, the peppermint chocolate is not a big hit. Some kids want more, but by and large they are perplexed by the taste, like I was perplexed at burnt rice candy and ginseng candy once upon a time. Byeongjo looked like he was going to combust when he tried it. I attempted to stop laughing, but it was no use. He just looked too horrified at the peppermint taste.
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1:15 PM I'm at home, drinking a Mountain Dew with my lunch because one of my boys met me on the street and gave it to me.
A Mystic Aura Surrounds the Dew.
I had gotten home and was heading back outside to pay a bill at the bank (you put your card in the ATM and press in the transfer amount and the bank number of the recipient--bill paying made super easy!). I sensed a guy running up and falling into step close behind me, and since grown men don't do this I knew it had to be one of my boys.
Sure enough, beside me was Joah Kid. He's a 3rd-grader, presumably C-class, with the cutest glasses and the biggest smile, and a penchant for singing "Joah" to me in the halls. Some kids tease me in this way some of the time--Joah Kid does it all the time, to the extent that it's become the main thing I associate with him.
He walked beside me and asked where I was going in polite Korean. Well, that earned him points right there--I love it when the students are polite. I told him in English and Korean that I was going to the bank, and he asked if it was the one around the corner, and wondered why I was going. I produced a little yellow piece of paper--my electricity bill--and he nodded sagely. I asked where he was going and he said to a friend's house.
Then he handed me a can of Mountain Dew. Or he tried to, and I refused it because you're supposed to refuse things the first time and I didn't know if he might need it for himself. Then he showed me his own Mountain Dew can and said, "One plus one," meaning the standard special deal in Korean stores of buy-one-get-one-free. (We have sooooo much buy-one-get-one-free stuff in Korea. Sometimes you don't even want the extra thing because it'll be hard to carry both items, but the store clerks make you take it anyway.)
Once I knew that the Mountain Dew can was a spare he had, I accepted it and put it in my huge coat pocket. Then I asked him his name. It's Seonghoon, like little baby Laryngitis Seonghoon in 1-9, 1-10 B. I took out a pen and wrote his name on my hand so he could see it, then I told him I'd remember.
He walked me to the bank and asked if I lived close by. I said I did, in one of the small studio buildings. I tried to tell him that this was the last day of the year, but I think I ended up telling him it was my last day. As in, my lat day of work. He asked when I'd be back, but at this point I had to step inside the bank. So I had a lovely conversation and a much-needed caffeine fix, all thanks to the generosity of Joah-Seonghoon. What a cool kid.
In camp this morning, the boys were supposed to start solving a mystery, but we were only just able to fill out more detective information, answering quiz questions about what kind of detectives we were and designing a detective agency name and logo. They were supposed to collaborate and make an agency together, but I quickly learned that even the best friends wanted separate things and preferred making their own agencies.
Fox-Jinsu was strangely quiet today without his friends there. He looked depressed and distant, but I kept going back to sit with him and work with him on his papers and start UNO games with him during the break. Jinsu was such a wild one during afterschool, I never suspected that he had feelings. But now I see more than one side to him.
This is His Detective Logo--Orange Arrow Shape and Blue Star.
And here's Food-Seongyo's--he's a "Hacker" class of detective, so his company name is Master of Hacker, and his logo is a square of binary code at the center of an X.
Clever One, This Is.
And Here's Wintercamp Jeongmin, Working Away.
And. And then there is Quiet-Yosep's detective agency...which he named "Goat History Book".
I Have No Idea What's Happening Here, But I Like It.
Co-Teacher showed me the list of kids that got into the Saturday gifted program, and Jeongminnie and Hyungro are in! Whew. I wasn't worried because they're geniuses, but I also was a bit on edge for them, since the class means so much to them.
It's New Year's Eve! Let's be thankful!
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