Woohyuk, Beomjoon, and Yunho got me to work with them too, and it was good. Honestly, the boys couldn't do much better because the worksheet was hard, but it's tough on this end too, never being able to find them materials that aren't either baby-level easy or way too over their heads. I try to foresee their level and their needs, but I rarely judge the 1st-graders right.
Alas, poor me. :-) I'm just tired, and that's the reason for the pity party. I've been going to sleep early every night, but I'm still quite draggy anyway--I think it's the weather. No longer fiercely cold, but it is foggy and chilly outside, and the sky is dark. That has to have some effect.
But the boys continue to delight. Yesterday for no good reason, Deokryong asked me in English what my hobby was. And today in class when I sat by him, he asked where in America I was from, and I drew a sad little squiggly map and we discussed the location of Alabama in relation to other places he had heard of in America--New York, Florida, Vegas and Los Angeles. And he helped me along with my Korean vocab, too.
So there are still children who are practicing their second language more because they're interacting with me. And more importantly, Deokryong feels cared for.
Duyeol saw me in the hall this morning and said, "Teacher you. Snow. Me, ahhh!" Miming the time I hit him with a snowball. Then he pointed to his head and smiled, "I thinking." Oh yes, Duyeol has not forgotten the Snowball Incident and is mulling over his revenge. It will be cute, I'm sure.
2-1, 2-2 A was great. Seohyung says I draw like an elementary student, which is true. Barely got to talk to BH, who was wearing a Princeton shirt today. Seongmo accused Byeonghyun of stealing his ideas for a smart-study pencil. Barely got to talk to HH, but I did learn that his birthday is in April. Joohyunnie's B-day is in five days and I'm counting down so I'll remember him.
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2 PM: Our music teacher wants me to slow down at lunchtime. I eat super fast, and I'm sped along by the fact that none of us really talk at lunch--even Korean-to-Korean conversation is minimal. Then there's the fact that I get to the lunchroom at 12:30 and Jeongminnie has to go to the lunchroom at 1 PM, so the longer I take to eat, the less time I have to spend with Jeongmin, who seriously needs some attention.
We rarely get more than ten minutes to talk, and today Jeongmin was walking behind me in the hall and saw me sort of skip-stepping in my Santa shoes. He asked why I was so happy. I said that because I was a Christian, I thought that God makes my heart happy sometimes. I told him that I was tired today, but I was choosing to be happy. He seemed to understand and I was glad to be able to mention the Lord, however briefly.
Jeongmin is also having some kind of serious muscle pain in his legs. He looked up the word for what's wrong with him on my phone dictionary, but I still don't know if he was looking up the name of his sickness or the name of his medicine.
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4 PM: Well, we were supposed to make kimchi all together today, teachers and moms, but something didn't happen? The moms didn't come? So I made one cabbage kimchi thingy for myself and one for Mr. B's stash that he was taking home, but beyond that I didn't know what to do because no one was giving directions. It was rather funny, inside my brain, because I was so confused about what to do. I meant to get lots of pictures, but ended up only snapping this one:
In the hallways, I saw tons of my favorite students, and it's great because I'm always getting new ones that I know. Faces that were just part of the general blur come into focus, now.
Our Vice Principal was asking BY about what it was called when you undergo treatment after an accident. ByY turned to me to ask for the word and I said "physical therapy". The word our VP finally settled on was medical "rehabilitation". I asked BY how his therapy was going and he said he didn't think it was making a difference, but that he chooses to believe that it will make a difference one day. My boy has been through a lot with that leg.
Later I was talking up BY to the VP, saying how smart he was. Our VP told me that yes, he already knew BY was a genius and he hoped that I could make him even better.
Saw Junho in the hallway twice. First time the hall was empty and he squeezed my elbow, getting a handful of puffy purple coat. Second time, the hallway was so crowded I couldn't get around him, so he went in for the hug, as usual. I held up both hands to indicate that he wasn't getting any cuddles today, and he took the opportunity to take my hand and lock fingers, couple-style. After a short gloomy season, Junho is clearly back in top form.
We teachers had some special samgyeopsal and kimchi in the lunch room, all together, and I talked to our PE teacher for the first time. His name is Hyunsoo, he has a little English, and we're the same age! It was so cool to talk with him but I think we started off a round of rumors because we were splitting the same bowl of kimchi. That's some kind of thing here, apparently. One of the older male teachers came by to ask the PE Teacher how on earth we were having a conversation and he replied, "I have some English, she has some Korean, so we're speaking Konglish."
The wind is not up today, the snow is all melted, and it's not even the coldest day of this week, temperature-wise, but for some reason there's a still, strong coldness to the corridors. The cold is like, "hi, let me seep into your muscles and bones!" But I have my coat and my Santa's-Grandma boots to protect me, so. There you have it.
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