My illness was definitely bad-food-related because I'm at almost 100% capacity today. Oh, and I'm so enjoying the day. Here's some thankfulnesses I found in the past week:
234. Apple scented face wash.
235. Warm running water.
236. Learning my new 1st graders names.
237. Post-sickness, eating all the crackers in the
world.
238. A dream of contentment, showing me that I
already have the life I want, the one of deep joy.
239. Smell of vanilla from cookies, floating on
the air.
240. Consolidating my notebooks. Tearing out old
notes, reviewing my vocabulary, keeping my writing space productive.
And I'm working out how to do baking with my conversation boys on Monday. The budget still hasn't come through for the class, one month into it, but it shouldn't cost more than $20 for me to get the supplies we need. Mainly, it's just re-buying bowls and utensils from the Korean equivalent of Dollar General, so that we're not using stuff from my house.
My notes, they look like thus:
Current biggest issue is that the cookies need to cool, and they do that best in a freezer. Nearest freezer to us is a floor away because there are no offices on the 2nd floor. And since this is during class time, I have to be careful about sending kids trotting off to go put stuff in far-away fridges, just in case somebody objects.
Anyhoosier, I think I'm on the right track. Monday's gonna be exhaustrifrying without me trying to bake with the babies, but I'm gonna do it anyway, I think. It'll be good for all of us to try a project.
Tomorrow's Easter! Whooo! Preschool egg hunts, then brunch with the other Americans, then English worship service, then small groups, then Easter dinner at my friend's house! 'Tis a full and happy day, the day of resurrection. :-)
In other news, one of my from-last-year kiddos, Chaehwan, friended me on Facebook. I added him because I actually could remember him...
Only One of These Ducklings Is Your Duckling.
Good Luck Finding Him.
The big and hilarious problem with sorting out Facebook friend requests from Korean teenagers is that I'll only accept the requests of children I personally know ( I get asks from high-school kids who are friends with my former boys), and they make it next to impossible to discern their identity.
Reasons Why I Can't Tell Who My Kids Are:
1. Inaccurate Profile Pictures. Instead of having a picture of themselves, even a fuzzy-grainy photo, a distance shot, or a pic of them in the midst of ten other people, the boys will choose to display their favorite female celebrity.
If I get a request from a kid, I will certainly remember his face, without a doubt. But his profile picture will not be his face, but rather a face which he enjoys looking at. For example:
Eunji, from A-Pink
Chorong, from A-Pink
Hyeri, from Girls' Day
And the students all like the same girls, so it's not just one boy with these as his profile picture! If you believed photos, I'm friends with 5 Eunjis at least.
2. Inaccurate Extra Photos. Facebook has an option where you can look at all the photos a person has uploaded, if they make that public. If I get a request from a kid and he's got a standard Eunji-pic on his profile, I check his extra photos to see if there's one that's, you know, actually him. And in about half of the cases, there will be an old selfie in there. It will refresh my memory and I'll know that yes, I did teach this particular Youngjin, back in fall of 2013. He was smart and I often saw him hanging out at my neighborhood playground.
But.
Sometimes you click the "Photos" tab and it's just more Eunjis.
Student Un-Identifiability Increases
As the Amount of Eunjis Approaches Infinity
3. Video posts. Grown-ups sometimes post videos to Facebook, but we write about our lives, too. The kids are more prone to post funny video after funny video, with no content related to their life, which would be helpful in figuring out if they're my student. If a kid has written a timely post in Korean that says, "Sports Day was boring!" then since every school has different sports days and he can only be talking about one event, I'll know if he's one of mine. but they only sometimes write real-world-related things.
So,
back to Chaehwan. I saw him last week, in the window of the boys' high school next door. Often, when me and JY go for our lunchtime walk around the soccer field, our former students will be at the windows and they'll yell down at us through the giant fence. It's darling.
I hollered a hi to Woojin, Duyeol, Hojin, Other Hojin, Junsu, Taegyoon, and a few others, but when I saw Chaehwan's face, his name escaped me. I knew it wasn't Chansu or Changyo, but I couldn't place which "Ch"-name he was.
Next day, I got a friend request from him and remembered, "Oh right! It's 'Chaehwan"!" Whew. Request accepted, name-remembering crisis averted.
I remembered his face well because he was A-level and I taught him for three semesters. However, Chaehwan was never one of the ones who tried to be close to me. He was unfailingly pleasant, but he wasn't funny or brilliant and he didn't try to make conversation.
Today, he asked in English on one of my posted pictures, "Teacher, do you remember me?" Youngjoon, one of my old favorites, took the liberty of replying to him, "no she doesn't," before I had a chance to write back. What I wrote was, "Chaehwan, you always helped me and KBR by locking the door when class was done, and you have a new baby sister, don't you?" He "liked" my comment, and I knew I'd gotten my info correct.
Crazy thing is, I never-never would have pegged sweet Chaehwan as a kid who cared about being remembered. But he noticed that I didn't call his name at the window. And he still wasn't sure if he was known, so he asked in public forum. And thank the Lord I had a few key facts set aside in my mind, to produce so that Chaehwan could be validated in front of Youngjoon (who was just teasing him, but these things are always more important than they seem).
You never know who wants to matter. Might as well value all of them and commit as many of their details to memory as you can. Because one day, someone surprising and unlooked-for will want to know if you remember their new baby sister.
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