9:30 AM: I'm at school and feeling fine. After sleeping through almost all of yesterday, I feel better. I still can't speak and I'm moving slowly, but my lungs and throat don't hurt. What I've agreed to do is sit in on all my classes today and tomorrow and let them have free study time, assuming that I'll be able to teach properly on Monday.
I've been preparing a lot of extra things for lessons--I feel like last week, I wasn't prepared enough. Now that I've got a CD, I can use that in class, too.
C-class Seonghyun gave me a sucker this morning. That was kind of him. It's the little things that pick you up!
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1:40 PM First two classes were good. SN-Teacher is a temporary teacher and instead of just letting the kids study, she did a bit of a lesson with them when she learned that I couldn't really talk. The baby 1st-graders were inhumanly cute and they're bent on calling me Elsa-Teacher after the movie "Frozen".
They must have heard about me from that one class of 1st-graders I got to teach on Monday, because one of the darlings in the front row said, "Your favorite sport is baseball!" Gah, cute. I told them they were cute and they said, "we know."
They also think I look like someone someone else...it sounded like the whole front row was calling me "Miranda Ko." "Ko" means "nose" in Korean, so that didn't make sense, but when I googled '미란다커' it turns out they meant supermodel Miranda Kerr. Erm. On one hand, that's supremely flattering, on the other hand, she's not exactly known for modesty. Eh, whatever. They're kids, trying to be witty.
Next class with SN-Teacher was 3rd-graders, my delightful boys that I love muchly. I didn't take role, but there was Joonseok, Geon, Seunghoon, Yoonseok, Afterschool Jeongmin, Junsu, Jinseo, Gyuchan, Doil, etc. All wonderful people. She had them learn the English lyrics to "Let It Go" and I wrote some poetry-related things on the board, things about alliteration and repetition.
Joonseok called me "chocolate teacher" which was cute, but it hurt a little bit because it made me wonder for a second if all I was to his class was a source of sugar, but then he started teasing me about other things and I realized Joonseok was just being friendly. Teasing teacher is always a fun pursuit.
(Chocolate-related incident: This morning, Hyunki came to the office and nudged Donghyuk forward. I wondered what this was about, then Donghyuk said in, clear formal English like a cadet requesting leave from the base: "Teacher? I love you. May I have chocolate?" I said yes.)
After lunch, Jeongmin came to get me but TY-Teacher told him I was feeling bad. I went with him anyway, because I never know when he might really need the company. I'm not good at telling people when I'm in trouble, physically or emotionally, and maybe Jeongmin isn't either. We went upstairs to play chess (and went through the whole rigmarole about leaving the door open again...*me gesturing to open the door* J: "But if we leave the door open, the cold air will get in and you'll get worse..." Oy. But still, the rules I established were followed.)
Twin-Eungyo came along to ask why I was still sick; "Leigh-Sem's cold is still not finished? Whoa." I explained to them that my cold had graduated to bronchitis. Another 2nd-grader, Gyuseong, came by to play chess against Jeongmin, and that's what I really wanted--for him to socialize with the other young'uns. And Myeongchun came, too. They were a merry bunch, arguing over the chess game and ending every sentence with "Jahna? ...jahna?" or "isn't it? isn't it? Come on, you know it's like this...."
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5 PM: Made it home! I'm keeping body and soul together just fine. My voice is even better, which is kind of awful because I was counting on not having to use it tomorrow. But still, talking that long does wear me out, so maybe the Lord will bless that I seem just sick enough tomorrow that I don't have to lead a class and truly wear myself out.
First after-lunch class was beautiful bitty-baby 1st-graders. I sat in the front and let them ask me questions, which Mr. B would help me answer with my scratchy voice. These babies were very thoughtful and I got to explain the whole story behind my family.
And heh heh heh, my second round of 1st-graders were very invested in learning if I had a younger sister. Lots of positive feedback when they learned I had two sisters, then lots of muttering in Korean about "eottakae nah-iygah yeongeoro" or "how do you ask 'how old' in English?" I laughed so hard to myself as I realized they were trying to figure out if I had younger sisters within range. Sorry fellas, no. The women in my family only come in editions that are too old or too young for you.
Next, I had 3rd-graders. I told SG2-Teacher she didn't need to stay with us because the boys could just study. Ha. HAH. Remember last year's Demon Class? Virtually all those boys are in this class. But at least they all sorta sat in lines until A-Class Minsu and my Jaehee requested board games. They said they knew I had them because they'd seen them under my desk.
Eh, next thing I know it's like February classes all over again and I've got 4 clumps of kids playing board games. I sent Jihyuk out for the unopened Monopoly set and I played with Kind Jihyuk (who used to sit next to Daehoon), my Saturday boy HH, and Yeonghoon, a new boy who the kids all say looks like TV star Yeo Jingu, and he kinda does.
For a game where I couldn't really talk, we had fun. Jihyuk was having more fun than I've ever seen him do, HH was back to his happy, bossy self, and Yeonghoon was smiling and having a fine time. Yeonghoon actually isn't new--he was in Seonwoo's class last year, but was so quiet in class I overlooked him.
I had asked Yeonghoon his name, then written it in my Korean-learning book so I wouldn't forget. Whereupon, HH and Jihyuk asked to "look" at my book, which led to them writing their own names in the book, in English and hangul. Because it's not fair to have only one kid's name written in there.
On the walk home, Sanghwa chirped a goodbye and Deokryong fell in step with me to talk to me about stuff. Like how I walk home but he takes the bus home. I waked along with the Demon Class for awhile--the exact kids that I'd been telling to shush and pushing back into chairs 30 minutes ago. We waked home companionably and I offfered to buy them food. They turned down the offer, but looked touched. And Hyungmin crowed to his friends for 5 minutes straight after I called him "Rock Star Hyungmin".
Also! Jaehee came by my table to give me some of his bread today. Daww.
It was a good day. Let's pray that tomorrow goes well, too.
Oh, and I just remembered that Mr. B looked so relieved to see me smile this morning. I was beaming at the kids and teachers while walking up the stairs and he said, "It's so good to see your smiling face--it means you're feeling normal again." After the cry-fest on Tuesday, I'm glad I was able to show my co-teacher a happy face once more. Joyfulness should be the default state.
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