10:35 AM First classes were fine. Speaking tests for the 1st-graders and some super basic speaking practice for 2-7, 2-8.
The Yunho antics were in a whole different level today. He wasn't being bad, but he was in High Frolic. He and Gicheol had brought a board game to play and I took away their pieces, largely because even if the kids read comics and sleep that's fine, but I really can't bear to let any class other than the giant one actually play games during class time.
So Yunho and Gicheol would periodically walk up to me to plead their case. Eventually they stopped pleading and just hung around me and whoever I was working with. Yunho and Gicheol tend to play with my hair a lot, and they requested to be taught how to braid.
So I taught them, and for the next ten minutes, I had little-boy-hands industriously working on braiding my hair. Hyunshik joined in, and Dohyung, and while they were speculating on how many centimeters long my hair was, it was determined that it was two times the length of Taehoon's (very tall) head. My hair is 2 Taehoon-Heads long.
When asked by Haneul why such a fuss was being kicked up over my hair, Hyunshik replied in Korean without looking up from the strands he was sifting through, "Because it's amazing, obviously."
I'm also terribly pleased with how soft-hearted Gicheol seems lately.
I started exercise at a dance academy with SY, one of my best friends at school. We had so much fun doing it, and I'm glad I've been working out hard on my own because I can only just barely keep up with our tiny dance instructor. Nobody wants to be the only person in the room who can't do the endless crunches and lunges. SY and I are thrilled to have a hobby to share, and we're considering trying ballet or traditional Korean dance (complete with hanbok!) in the future. We just only have time for one thing at a time.
I took my Korean language exam on Sunday morning in Seoul, and it was an excellent experience. During my practice tests, it was easier for me to do Reading and almost impossible to do Listening, but at the actual lest I found the opposite to be true--Listening was fine, but reading was hard because I'd never timed myself on the reading before. I ran out of time for the last four questions and marked random ones, but I still feel like my score was okay. Maybe I didn't get the level-2 that I wanted, but I'm sure that I got a level-1.
I'm going to study for the level-3 next year in November. I figure one year might be time enough for me to gear up for that. I'll have to put my nose to the studying grindstone, but I think I can get it done.
SG2's problem student skipped four classes yesterday and was wandering around the hallway with inexplicably wet hair, looking dramatically forlorn. Not sure what's going on there.
Thanksgiving is this week, as is my baby brother's birthday. It's an eventful last-little-smidgen of November, isn't it? I promised to bake stuff for the native English teacher's get-together on Friday, because I still don't have a handle on cooking meals, but I'm fine at breads and cakes and cookies.
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