So this morning, I might maybe teach 1-9, 1-10 B with Deokryong and Deukhee and Laryngitis Seonghoon and Governor Yunho, but then again, I might not. School ends early today, then we're off until things reignite in March. These two weeks of winter school inbetween Winter Break and Spring Break have been quite odd, because they are mostly babysitting, and half the time the kids aren't even there to babysit because of construction or other scheduled activities.
Got a present and a note to Co-Teacher today, because she's leaving for another school permanently, and another small present and thank-you note to JY-Teacher. I'm trying to remember all the little gifts and thank-you notes that are due to everybody.
My Yeongchang lost his cellphone this morning, and he told me about it in Korean as if there was something I could do. I wish there was. The piano in the special needs' room is gone, so I wonder how Joonsung is getting by without it. He looked fine this morning, watching his videos of dominoes falling down--he's very fond of domino-stack videos, and preschool English songs.
Got to talk to C-class Joohyun, who's friends with my special-needs boys, but who I'd never really gotten to know before. This morning I asked him how he was doing, just to see if he'd respond and he very carefully told me in English that he was not doing well because he was cold. He did a good job of communicating!
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10:50 AM I did get to babysit 1-9 class, but only that specific class, including their A-ban and C-ban kids. So class was even more of a knot of confusion than usual because I don't know 2/3rds of the kids, but a few of them quickly snapped up the games and card decks I offered.
Also, the construction workers came into our classroom while we were there and started yanking the chalkboards out of the wall with crowbars. Um. I know my boys seem like they're made of steel, dirt, and rubber, but I'm not sure it's best to start using heavy-duty construction equipment around kids that are still running around willy-nilly and acting full-on careless. But there were no injuries today--that I saw.
And I played chess with Yeongju, a delightful A-ban boy I'd never met before. Oh, he was a doll. We played with an audience of six other kids--A-ban and C-ban mixed, who gave Yeongju advice and tried to get me to sing the "Frozen" soundtrack. Now, you don't have to beg very hard to get me to sing princess songs. It's just in me.
Yeongju knew a lot of English songs, so we also sang some Justin Bieber together, and some Beatles, specifically "Let It Be" because it reminde him of "Let it Go" from Frozen. The C-ban boys were trying to figure out what 'let it go' means in English, and Yeongju was translating it to them as "lose everything" but I tried to give it the nuance of "forget it all"...we did pretty well co-translating. We also bellowed the "na nana nananana, better better better hahhhh!" part of "Hey Jude".
On another translation note, one of the C-ban boys that watched us play was Yonghan, and we had to figure out a word together. Yonghan is one of the kids who says he loves me and means it from the bottom of his heart. After his first love confession, I asked his name, so I've always known him even when I don't know many C-ban 1st-graders.
When I came into class, Yonghan said, "Sem...you are..." then he said a Korean word that started with "시"(shee) and I got out my phone dictionary to let him write the word. He seems to be going for "시원하다" which means "cool/refreshing" and the other related words were "open/bright". So whatever he was calling me, it was very nice. I patted his head and gave him chocolate for that.
We had a marvelous time playing chess, and the boys would show me different cute videos on their phones, which I would laugh over. I made short jokes in Korean, they made short jokes in English and everyone was happy. When class was over, Yeongju said, "See you in March!" Ah, I look forward to that.
Oh, and hahaha, Yeongju made the funniest 2-language joke. He started singing, "Isn't she lovely?" and then he replaced intentionally replaced the words "isn't she" with "Ee Soon Shin". Ee Soon Shin is a famous historical figure, a sea admiral who saved Korea a few hundred years ago. He's revered like George Washington or someone like that. So I died laughing to hear Yeongju singing, "Ee Soon Shin lovelyyyy...Ee Soon Shin wonderful..."
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4 PM: Strangest thing happened with Inha before I left school. My special-needs-room boys caught up with me and C-class Jongmin said, "Teacher, Inha...he want kiss!" This was just the usual ribbing the boys do with each other, so I just laughed because they often say things simply to humiliate each other. Yeongchang chimed in, "Yes. Kiss! Inha want to kiss you!"
The kids are rarely this blatant (normally it's a simple "my friend, he like you.") and I was expecting Inha to murder the other boys for teasing him, since he's prone to sudden bouts of sweeping violence. But he didn't hit them--he actually bent his head and looked embarrassed. I didn't know Inha was capable of embarrassment. After all the gross and weird things I've seen him do, I was convinced that I was just family/furniture to him, but maybe not? Inha feels feelings? He's finally maturing emotionally? Still, I bet when I see him in March, I bet he'll be back to hitting his own self in the head with sticks.
Anyhow, I diffused the situation by giving the boys goodbye-chocolate before they trooped off for spring break. Yeongchang said goodbye to me in Chinese, or so he said--I don't know my Mandarin.
Gave Wooseok some chocolate in the middle of the day, though I haven't seen him as much as I would like at school. And it occurs to me that I haven't seen Danhee or Junho at all in the past two weeks. Where were they? Hopefully they'll be back in March, blithe and happy as always.
I went into town after our teacher's lunch was over, and I got a haircut.
Extends About One Inch Further Down Than The Frame Shows.
I went outside and heard, "Leigh!" Across the street it was America Hyunkyeong and 10 of his compatriots, all decked out in their nice suits from yesterday. Apparently, they are spending the day after their graduation roaming the downtown streets looking spiffy and official.
Ran into another small pack of them--Sungyeong and Donghyun and another--close to the bridge. The one of them who never smiles told me happily that they had graduated, and Donghyun made fun of me for crying at their graduation. I didn't think he saw me cry, so the kids who did see it must have spread the word. I think it's cute that they're using this as teasing ammunition. Hope to see more of them in the future!
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