11 AM:
Good day. For my 3rd-graders, we watched Hunger Games while I played cards with the kids in the back. BY is the master of cards and again explained to me this highly complex Western-themed card game. We played with Sujin and Yoonjae, who both thought it was hilarious how I kept saying, "wee!" and "yay!" when something went my way.
Yoonjae took over BY's role as my card-adviser after it became clear that although Yoonjae has less English, he has my best interests at heart, which BY does only when it also serves his purpose in winning the card game.
Jaeehee's wrist is wrenched from playing goalie and getting his hand smacked against a goal post.
Minjoonie's cousin is coming to visit him, so he doesn't have to go to hagwon today. He described his female cousin in English as his 'cousin-sister,' because the terms in Korean run a bit differently than in English.
Twin-Seungho has a makeshift terrarium with a lizard in it, today. I wonder if the frog was released into the wild or taken home for further study.
Didn't get to talk much with H-Sol this morning. We sat together, but my brain was just not functioning highly in question-asking mode, and H-Sol's a gentle soul to start with. If we're going to have a proper convo, I have to keep it going and I was actually distracted by "Finding Nemo".
I recalled that it was the first movie I saw with my baby brother. Maybe...3 days after we got him? He was 6 months old and he was scared by Bruce the Shark. He fell asleep, too, which is about all a 6-month-old can do at the movies. I remember holding him, though maybe I made that memory up and Mom had him the whole time. All I know is that right within that first month of having him, I knew my heart wasn't letting him go, ever.
In my mind, Finding Nemo" is inextricably connected to my littlest brother. He had Nemo sheets when he was little, and a Nemo table when he was a toddler. We watched the movie (on VHS?) a million times.
And also, I know that horrible fear of losing him. I cried in the movie theater when the little fish Nemo is scooped up by a diver, leaving the father fish Marlin to chase after him, calling his name and shouting, "That's my son! My son..." I cried then because it was a sad moment, not because I was specifically connecting the scene with the new baby in the house.
But now when I watched the scene with H-Sol, I was just hit so hard with what it was like to be without Littlest Brother when he was young. Losing a child is a very grown-up sort of fear--the idea that something bad happening to a person in your charge is a thousand times worse than experiencing something bad yourself.
But the movie ends well. The father finds Nemo. And my story ends happily--we got our own little Nemo-fish back as well.
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2:40 PM It seems that my final class of 1st-grade babies was cancelled, because there was zero-zip-nobody when I wandered down to the classroom. I tidied the room, then came back to the office to chill under the gracious influence of the ceiling fans.
Got chocolate crackers from the Ee-ban teacher. So sweet!
Jaehee came by at lunch, to get another chocolate and to play UNO with me. He forced Suho into joining us and told me that Suho's in love with me. I said, no he doesn't. I know which kids love me and he's not one of them. We are, however, friendly.
Jaehee came by yet again to sit by my side and watch "Finding Nemo" with earphones in. He told me "i like English," to which I replied, "I like you," and leaned my head over on his head. Who would have thought that Jaehee would become such a dear kid to me. I never would have called that one, last semester.
HH and I had the best time yesterday in his class. Minsu determined that we should all play board games, so the students split up the various games and I started our movie. HH kept yelling at me in Korean to come explain the Monopoly game rules, which he knows perfectly well since I taught them to him back in December.
Also, the yelling in Korean is done in the name of theatricality because he's fluent in English, but HH has always had a dramatic streak. When Monopoly was over, we played word games and he taught me the word for "needle" while Dawit taught me "pumpkin".
Deokryong tells me that NG's a good teacher, and I'm inclined to agree. He's a smart person who thinks things through. Today we had a discussion about what makes a "good" subtitle file, partly because I dislike the subtitles I got for Nemo. I can tell that the subtitle-makers aren't even trying in some places--the harder conversation pieces aren't even translated.
He mentioned that he played a TV show for one class and that the show had especially horrible subtitles. He would notice that the subtitles lumped the dialogue all together, even if it was one person saying everything even if two people were exchanging lines.
Hyo came by after lunch to watch Finding Nemo (everybody wants to watch movies on my computer these days) and to draw pictures for me. I drew my own picture--quite a dandy rendering of Hello Kitty if I do say so myself--but I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of my drawing before Jaeehee claimed it. He said he liked it and wanted to keep it, so I cut it out of the notebook and gave it to him as a card, with my name signed on the back.
Passed Soonhyuk (2nd) in the hall. We both smiled said 'hi' in a friendly way. Then after he and his posse of cool boys were past, he turned back and said, "How are you?" in a really cool, casual voice. 2nd-graders are getting smooth lately.
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