Also, during class I worked with Woobin (afterschool) and his friend Joohyun, and they both seemed to really want to learn and talk and were asking me all kinds of questions. I'm starting to really love Woobin because he gave me the beautifullest smiles yesterday. Normally his resting face is at a blank, like most of the kids, but when he's happy he turns on the lovely smiles and it's so sweet. He stayed after class yesterday to help me sweep up. He's a prince!
Soonhyuk from 1-1, 1-2 B nearly strangled Yejae, one of my Saturday boys, because I gave Yejae chocolate. I explained that we knew each other from Saturday class, but maybe Soonhyuk has it out for Yejae for other reasons because his ire over Yejae getting chocolate was disproportionate to what went on. Saw little Haebin, the 1st-grade boy who lived in America, again.
Some of my favorite boys have been in trouble lately.
Yesterday, Wooseok was being lectured by no less than five teachers for something that sounded serious. The only word I could make out was "meori" which makes me think he did something to someone's head or hair. Sadly, my boy's just the type to start trouble. He's got a hyper personality, a foul mouth, and a short-fuse temper, and not much in the way of impulse control or discipline. I hope he didn't hurt anyone.
This morning when I got to school, Danhee and Seongsu were in the hallway in front of the office with Mr. B talking to them seriously and emptying out their backpacks. I hope it was just cigarettes. I caught Seongsu smoking before, so it wouldn't be surprising, and smoking's actually one of the milder troubles the boys can get up to.
2-3, 2-4 B was all right. We drew our inventions, then had a ton of fun with the icon game. Goohyun is a smart kid I've never noticed before, and he drew and wrote some terribly clever things. Didn't get to talk to BY much because he doesn't like drawing. Got to tell Afterschool-Jeongmin that his teleporter invention was smart, and tell Emo-Joon that I was glad to run into him yesterday. Tall-Yoonjae made a great invention that was a lot like Google Glass.
And I got a big surprise about Hojin, one of the smart, reserved ones. He started off by making an invention that "Lets me look at people and see their true feelings". A very thoughtful and sensitive thing to create--I praised him for it. Then 10 minutes later when I came to check Sunbin's paper, Hojin had written on his friend's paper and signed it twice.
His words were: "Whenever I see your eyes, Teacher, I know I won't give up." By the expression on his face, I don't think he meant that I inspire him to do better schoolwork. Didn't even know Hojin had feelings like that. The quiet ones have this entire world to themselves and you don't know what they're up to unless they tell you. Most of the boys are open books--what you see is what you get. They like games, they like to run, they like to laugh. However they feel, it is instantly apparent, like with Sejoon in 1-3, 1-4 B who can't be quiet for 5 seconds because he's got to have attention and he's got to have it now.
Daesung wants to play Monopoly again at lunch. Sounds nice to me.
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1:50 PM: Well in 2-9, 2-10 B they wouldn't hardly listen to a word I said, but we still had fun and I made new friends. Jeonghee was a cutiepie as usual, I barely lost an arm-wrestling match to Taesu, and I saw some great art from Yeongmook.
They went crazy for the icon game and Jinseop knew "Pocahontas" right away, when not a single other kid has guessed that one. Donghyuk was precious to the zillionth power as he tried to explain to me that he needed one extra piece of chocolate for his brother.
Then Sungmin, an intelligent boy I'm only just now getting to know, dropped this little bombshell at the end of class, "Teacher, I saw you! In Itaewon! Chuseok!" Dude. DUDE. Chuseok was almost three months ago and you're only just now telling me? Also, this is proof that I can't go anywhere without potentially being seen by students. Because Itaewon is the foreigner district in Seoul, where the foreigners (American, Chinese, Turkish, etc) are at least equal in number to the Koreans, and during Chuseok everyone was visiting family in the countryside. But Sungmin was there and he saw me and he made a mental note to mention it to me...eventually.
Sanghwa sat near me at lunch and I offered him my extra dessert roll, but he politely declined.
Tomorrow all the lady-teachers are making kimchi in the lunch room! Squee! I love this sort of stuff. Making Songpyeon for Chuseok was wondrously fun before.
I needn't have worried about offering Saturday Jeongmin my contact info--he got it for himself today: "Teacher, can I use your phone? If I call my phone, then you'll have my number, and I'll give you my email." I agreed, and soon Jeongminnie had made himself into an entry in my phone contacts, and had even created a new contact group to put himself in--"Favorite Students". Dawwww. Daw. The cute.
And after all my grand talk about keeping non-Jeongmin students from calling me, now at least two 3rd-graders (and potentially all of them) have my number. Because I ridiculously brought my phone with me to today's Monopoly game, to take pictures. Jinhwan picked up my phone the second he saw it, and within half a minute he had called himself. He immediately began Kakao-messaging me, but I have nothing to worry about because his messages go like this: "Hi. Li. Li. 리. 리리리. Lee! Li. Hi." Again, the cute. He and Yeonghyo are in class right now, or I'd surely have more such messages.
Wooseok won't let me get a picture of him, though he likes to hang around and talk as much as we can. He tried to explain to me what he got in trouble for yesterday, but I couldn't understand. He stole the Monopoly money as I was packing up, then he gave it back to me bill by bill, announcing that he was giving me my "allowance," using the term for money that parents give to children, and sighing over how expensive it all was.
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3:30 PM 3-1, 3-2 B was good. Just watched our movie, and I played cards with Dongyoung, Juseong, and two new kids, Guhyun and Junki.
Sungyoung didn't want to play and he had one blood-red eye from a fight or an accident, but he did mess with my hair and steal my bracelet, so I guess he's feeling okay. He told me he was Kakashi, an animated character from Naruto who has one black eye and one red eye.
Teacher's-Pet-Jeongmin came by a class he's not even in to get chocolate. He's so darling. Dongyeong said he loves me, but he only says that when there's chocolate in it for him. Dongho wanted to know how old I am, and from the positive sound of the Korean words he replied with, it must be a good age.
Sujin followed me down two full hallways, linked arm in arm with his friend, who was apparently drafted to be wingman. How does one ask one's buddy to do that? "We're going to follow Sem everywhere and your job is to look cool and be my moral support." It was precious. And Sujin told me, "I'm thankful for you. I will never forget. My birthday present." So one little gift mattered a huge deal to one kid. That's an invaluable moment.
Daeho came by to ask for my number again, and now I feel guilty because I told him he couldn't when he asked like a gentlemen, while Jinhwan has already got the number because he went behind my back and stole my phone. It's like the underhanded kids get rewarded while the good kids are left hanging. This is the case in so many classes--the rough kids act up and as a consequence, I spend more time with them and they become favorites.
But it'll all turn out okay. Everything's fine and it's going to keep being fine. :-)
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8:30 PM Afterschool was good. Dull, but good and at the end I got to play cards with Woobin and Gunoh and Sangmin and Taewoo. Woobin asked my age and told me that his mother's sister is the same age--I'm in "Auntie" territory for Woobin, who is fast, fast, fast becoming one of my favorites. Woobin has a white birthmark over his whole throat, turning it a much lighter shade, and some of his eyelashes are white also, so he has a very distinct look.
Met O-Teacher for coffee tonight because she's leaving tomorrow, going on vacation then going to start grad school. I'll miss her dreadfully because she welcomed me into a new place. It was a mildly scary, semi-confusing, and super stressful place to be for the first few weeks, and O-Teacher became a calm, safe harbor for me. I could always go see her when I felt down. Because she lived int he States for a year--she knows what it's like. I bought her a bunch of cute, tiny presents and put them in a special box with a pink flowery thank you note. She liked them!
But Jinhwan's turning the Kakao thing into a "Where is teacher Now?" tool. He sent me a message "Where is Li teacher?" and I said, "Coffee shop," just to help his reading skills, then he replied with "_____ 커피숖!", naming my exact location. He knew where I was already, just wanted me to know he knew. Either he or another kid was out in the street outside the shop, so I suppose this is just an extension of what they do anyway, keeping tabs on where I am and telling each other about it.
B-Teacher thought it was funny when I told him they'd gotten my phone--he says the kids always end up getting his number and he thinks it's adorably harmless. So far, I have to agree.
Walked part of the way home with BY, who told me that I should call Wooseok "insane" not "crazy," because Wooseok doesn't have a big enough vocab to know what insane means. When I said it was mean to use vocabulary that students didn't understand, he said "You're a teacher! It's your job to use new words so they learn!" Oh, cutiepie, you can be so malicious with your superior language skills.
Speaking of Wooseok, here's the shot I managed to get of him:
Wooseok, Disappearing Up The Stairs.
Never fear, though. Photos of Wooseok will happen. And as far as I can read the situation, he doesn't have an "I'm ugly" complex like Jiwoong or some intense desire to remain private and undocumented. It's just a game to him to see how long he can evade me.
ANNNNND....Seongwon! My darling friend O-Teacher took pictures of me and Seongwon while we weren't looking, so Seongwonnie does not look like a contorted muppet. This is what he actually looks like. He is a beautiful child.
