161. The pretty face of my dear friend, SG, who
is a dear ally in class.
162. The kindness of my vice principal.
163. Cracking myself up, preparing to relate a
new joke to friends.
164. Warm inside-shoes at school. I Gary to stay
toasty and insulated for another few weeks.
165. Knowing that while we're in Lion-March now
(as in, March comes in like a lion), Lamb-March is not far away.
166. Emily Dickinson poetry, written by me on
the whiteboard of the English room.
167. People who make anagrams for fun.
168. Strawberries for lunch, a red surprise.
169. Minhee's loud, brash voice blaring
"hellooo!" While smiling sweetly.
170. SY's thinking about me, reminding me that
we've got a vacation coming up.
11 AM: First two classes went fine. Darling 2nd
grades, then quiet 3rd-graders, except for Jongyoon, who couldn't be quiet if
his life depended on it. He was a bit annoying, but me and SG still handled
things fine.
In funny news, JY is gone today, to take care of
something, and when her desk phone rang I answered it haltingly, not sure of
phone etiquette. I asked our vice principal how to answer the phone, like what
set Korean phrases to use, and he said I didn't need to worry about it.
He solved my problem by sending out a message to
every teacher in the school, asking them not to call JY's phone because I am
there by myself, and I'm perplexed about how to answer.
It's exactly the kind of thing that would have
mortified me once upon a time. But now I just has the reaction of surpressing
wild laughter, because it's pretty funny that I'm a single woman earning my own
living half a world away from my family, but to the older men in my life, I'm
someone who needs to be protected from the hardships of phone-answering. It was
awfully sweet of him, and I treasure that level of kindness.
1 PM : Lunch over, and it's right lonely without JY
here. In 30 minutes, I'll be teaching SG's homeroom with her, which sounds fun.
Passed Jongyoon in the hallway, ducked out of an
attempted hug-ambush from him, only to have Gyuhee do the same thing, only
Gyuhee refused to be turned aside. Normally, if let him have one because Gyuhee
is sweet as pie, but at the time there were older Guy-Teachers coming down the
hall and I didn't want to look like a pushover.
So when I couldn't physically move him, I told
him to quit, and that made him move. Gyuhee is a gentleman at heart.
2:30 PM: Had class with SG's homeroom! Suuuuuuper cute.
And one of the tiny ones remembered me saving him last week. I saw a tall
1st-grader teasing an unfathomably small child by keeping his phone away, holding
it just out of reach.
I could tell that it was done between at least
acquaintances and possibly friend--they seemed to know each other and there was
no fear or anger. But I could sense that the little guy was reaching his limit.
I told the tall one to stop, so he did.
The little one is Seungwoo, and he told me in
Korean, "You helped me." So. Sweet.
Also in that class is Youngmin, an unfailingly
polite student with mild autism. He wanted to shake my hand many times and to
ask me if I know how to sing Arirang. I do!
