9:10 AM
Thank the sweet Lord above, I have my first two class periods free! Wednesdays are my easy days, just three classes. Right now I'm eating peach jello (gift from one of the 3rd grade teachers) with a tiny white spoon and listening to Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier". The weather is perfect--overcast and cool--I didn't even have to flip on the office fans.
This morning, I got to school early so I could be part of the greeting process. From 8 to 8:20 about 15 of us stood outside the school gates and greeted the kids. It was fine. i got to talk to two of the 2nd-grade girl teachers, both of which had plenty of English. One had a LOT of English and has a sister living in LA. For 6 months I've seen this teacher and I didn't know that we could converse on such a level. The more you know!
Last night, I had a great hangout with SG2, 1st-Art Teacher, and 1st-Grade Math Teacher. 1st-Math has a car, so she drove us to dinner, then to a movie. It was a bit exhausting for me because the conversation was more heavily Korean than before and the movie was Korean with no subtitles, so my brain was right taxed.
But it was still lovely. Their friendship is a blessing. The very fact that such sweet people want to spend time with me is a blessing. 1st-Math complimented my pronunciation--on some basic sentences, I sound nearly Korean.
Deokryong came by. He has broken his arm and it's in a big old sling. He said he fell downstairs, I think? Anyhoo, he wanted one of my bananas for breakfast, so I gave it to him, whereupon he put it in his pocket. I hope it doesn't squash when he gets to class.
Left a Jeju cactus chocolate and a "hope you have a good day!" note for H-Sol teacher, who has been looking tired and worn lately. She has a lot of worries I don't know about, so I want to encourage her.
I'm about to work on next week's game, then on this Saturday's English geniuses lesson, which will be on blackout poetry.
I miss my sisters this morning. Everybody, really, but I'm thinking of my sisters in particular.
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11:45 AM
Had a lovely class with 2-7, 2-8. They did their speaking parts charmingly and by having them do the dialogue twice, I was able to really help them with their pronunciation. Plus, I like getting to spend the extra time with the fellas, which double-dialogues provide.
Also, I got to talk more with them. I focused on their feelings, and we had a great time. When Yunho said "no" to me, I squeezed his cheeks and said, "yep, yep, yep," and he broke into a grin and did his part. Because Yunho loooooves attention. His "no" means "please make me do something".
Also, Gunho, one of the quiet apathetic kids, did his speaking part perfectly. He wandered away from the table where I was talking to him, but I heard him mutter "angyeong," so I knew he was going to go get his glasses so he could read from his book. Gunho was charming, as was Changhee, one kid I used to get frustrated at for not trying, did great. he reacted well when I asked him if he was acquainted with the new Korean-literature teacher.
Before he did his part, I teased Yeonghyun about not trying hard enough, but I did it in such a way that it made him grin. Then when it was time for his part, he did well.
Byeongjo came by my desk to give me a black heart folded out of paper. Sunwoo says that it accurately represents the state of Byeongjo's actual heart.
C-Jeongmin came by to give me bits of the waffle-cracker he was eating. he and Angel-Cheongyu and I sat around and nibbled on bits of the same cracker while we talked about sports.
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