11 AM: Well, my birthday's tomorrow, and it'll be my first birthday away from school.
The happy bits have already started happening. This morning, one of the 1st-grade female teachers and one of the 2nd-grade male teacher saw me walking and gave me a ride to school. We made some conversation in Korean.
When I got to school, there were two pretty wrapped packages on my desk--one in pink and one in pastel blue. They had riddles written on them and said "Do not open until tomorrow". I asked KBR about them--she thought they were from a student and sure enough, the pretty boxes were from Jeongmin.
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2:40 PM: So Jeongminnie had me open one present and save one present for tomorrow. The one he had me open was chocolate--some seriously good chocolate because Jeongmin has killer taste in chocolate. Seriously, this child knows the good stuff from the imitators. I thanked him bunches and I will try to keep thanking him for it. Jeongmin even wrote a cute little riddle on the paper.
After lunch, I had to stop Hyunho from ripping the paper off my remaining present, though. Because he came by my desk and saw it and was curious. He tore one tiny corner before I stopped him and Jeongmin showed up a few seconds later. I don't like to think what would happen if Jeongmin saw Hyuunho opening the present I'm supposed to avoid seeing until tomorrow.
Background: Jeongmin and Hyunho got into a fight on Friday wherein no blows were exchanged, but both kids started flipping tables. I've never seen the like. If Mr. B hadn't told me that Hyunho was known for destructive tantrums I wouldn't have believed my eyes. Hyunho knocked over 5 tables before I could cross the room and wrap him in a hug to stop him.
(Note: Whenever I begin to describe student violence, my mother says it always sounds like it takes me an eternity to stop it. Truly it does feel like an eternity, but I'm always moving toward the problem as quickly as possible, it's just that the rooms are large and there are often tables, chairs, and other students between me and the kids who have a problem.)
But then once I had Hyunho stabilized and calm, patting his back and asking him to stop, Jeongmin went nuts and flipped a couple of tables of his own. I held on to Hyunho and ordered Jeongmin to stop. Because Jeongmin responds to verbal commands but Hyunho doesn't. I let Hyunho go, then I went to sit in the window of Sa-ban.
As I sat in the window, Jeongmin came up to me to explain his plight. Hyunho had been cheating and he's just always annoying in general. I talked with Jeongmin and said I would pray for Hyunho to calm down and for him to have patience with Hyunho. Then Jeongmin left and Hyunho came to the window to discuss his beef with Jeongmin.
Today they were okay, aside from some snippy remarks. Hyunho had bloody scratches around his eye from a fight with Kyeongwon, which I'm assuming broke his glasses, judging by the depth of the cuts and Hyunho's lack of glasses. Later, Kyeongwon walked in and I asked him why he'd hurt Jeongmin--he raised a bandaged hand and showed me where Hyunho's glasses had completely cut up his right hand.
Boys.
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