Thank List:
151. Wise words from my mother.
152. Having a mirror that matches JY's--we
bought 2 little desk mirrors.
153. Governor Yunho, always winking and blowing
kisses, being his beautifully wacky and charming self.
154. The scald of a hot coffee cup, on the front
and backs of hands.
155. Jaehoon, his glowing little face lighting
up the office.
156. A note from one of King Sejong's famous
letters to the people, hand-scratched by Jeongminnie and delivered to me. It's
the equivalent of writing out the Gettysburg address and passing it along to
your Spanish teacher.
157. Learning that Korean wasn't always written
left-to-right like English. It used to be up-to-down on the page, like Chinese.
It changed over recently--JY's mom used to read up-and-down books in school.
158. Finding Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
GIFS on the internet. It's probably my favorite musical (splitting time with
Singin' in the Rain, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music.). Reminds me of
childhood.
159. Silver shiny sequins on the bag I carry to
class. Reflection, illumination.
160. Brave 2nd-graders, making conversation on
the porch while watching the soccer game.
10:20 AM
Slept a little in the English room and now I
feel better. I was not in the best mood this morning, and rest seems to improve
everything.
I think a lot of my goal for this school year
will simply be staying well-rested enough to get classes handled.
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11:26 AM
First and only class went well, had nice
3rd-graders. Jonghyuk is a smart kid I've seen around town a lot, but I've
never taught him until now. He and Guitar-Sanghwi understood basically
everything I said. Yunho was Yunho. Everyone was pretty well entertained by the
film and the discussion.
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1 PM
After lunch, I stood outside and watched the
soccer game while various 2nd-graders came by to chat. I talked with Byeong-il,
Jaehoon, Dohyun, Dongchann, Joongsu, Jeongmook, Hansem and more. It was fun,
despite the cold, and there were several more low-levels who got comfortable
enough to come around and make a few comments.
Dohyun gave me his extra fruit juice cup, and
I really appreciated the gesture.
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2 PM
One of the 1st grade babies followed me up the
stairs asking, "Why are you so pretty?" In Korean. Dawwww. We
proceeded to have a conversation about his previous elementary school's native teacher, all in
Korean. What I figure happened was the little ones spread the word that I
understand some Korean, and over time, kids began to understand 'some' as
'all'.
4 PM
Another small horde of 1st-graders came into the
English room busy as I was leaving. They were there to clean the place, but
their main order of business was to find out how old I was. I told them it's a
secret, since I've stopped telling the kids my age.
I used to think complete disclosure was helpful,
but it turns out the kids are plenty happy without the knowledge.
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