10:45 AM Calm morning and way too silent, but not unhappy.
The 3rd-graders are all gone on field trips, meaning that the 3rd-grade teachers--my closest friends at school, outside of the English department--are all gone as well. Except for me and B-Teacher, there's nobody in our big ol' office, and it would be terribly lonely if I wasn't listening to peppy music and praying, too.
Today I've had 2 classes and I've only got one with NG left to go. Normally my Fridays are swamped with 5 classes, but my 3rd-grade class is gone and my final 2nd-grade one was switched out because the school has to prepare for hosting the national teacher's exam tomorrow.
The national teacher's exam is a big deal. It's not weird but not super-common to pass it on your first try, so a lot of people are stuck with no jobs or with temporary and non-awesome jobs until they finally pass, and it's only held once a year. SG2 has two friends sitting for the test tomorrow, and SY's boyfriend is also sitting for his test--I'll be praying for them to pass, because I know it's not fun living in limbo, waiting for solid employment.
Observation: I have solid employment.
Wow. Isn't that a blessing from above? I spent years wondering what my next step was, when I'd be settled, and now I am. I may not stay at this school forever and I may not keep teaching English forever, but for now I have a nicely-paying job and a nice cozy apartment, and a cute little town to live in, I'm well provided for.
In 1-1, 1-2 I had to tell my beautiful Changho and Sunwoo that I won't be seeing them on Monday because our afterschool class is over. Last week it wasn't clear to me if we had one more week or not, but it's not. Sunwoo's face just fell when he heard that, which touched my heart. And then, the tought of not seeing my boys in afterschool made me think about the 3rd-graders graduating, which is not something I should allow myself to do.
But the fact remains that my proper teaching of the 3rd-graders is totally done. Their finals are soon and we're just watching movies before and after that. January, we've got no school and I'm going back to the states. Then we have a little snippet of school in February--two random weeks leading up to graduation. So I'll never work with Soccer Minwoo on a worksheet again or listen to BY and BH some up with slightly inappropriate variations on their speaking practice or answer Youngmook's questions about America.
however, they're not gone yet. I will simply take every opportunity possible to appreciate them and let them know how loved they are. Also, like 20 of them have added me as Facebook friends, so I'm not likely to lose track of them.
(Side note: having teenage boys as Facebook friends is a great way to keep track of what is popular in the nation. They are constantly linking to hyper-current comedy videos. Also, they like all my statuses. Every picture I post is the best picture ever, according to them.)
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