Week 16, Friday

The sound of the devil’s instrument called my attention and I peeked into the 5-3 homeroom to see what was happening at 1:45 on a Friday. It must have been play time— kids were spread out over the room indulging in various activities.

Tank Boy must have caught me peaking because as I walked away he bolted out of the classroom to say “hi teacher!” I asked him who could play “my heart will go on” because that’s the only intelligible recorder song I’ve heard ricocheting through the hallways this year. He didn’t know but did tell me he could play Hey Jude on the guitar.

Yesterday I saw him getting chewed out by his homeroom teacher in the hallway and my heart clenched. I don’t know what happened, all I saw was Tank Boy mopping the floor in front of the trough sink which seems to leak once a month. G and I agree: he’s a good kid.

My 6-2 fan club told me, again, “teacher you have a high nose bridge!”

“Uh is that good or bad?”

“Very good!” They said, shooting me a thumbs up. They must have been discussing my nose at some length beforehand because two stared and their fingers inched closer. I gave the go ahead and they touched the tip of my nose in awe.

(In another strange incident— I completely forgot about this but yesterday the male music teacher asked “do Americans eat just bread for dinner?” This was before the oyster question and like… did he never talk to the foreign teachers before me? But he also rode a plane for the first time last month. A domestic flight. So I shouldn’t expect too much from him.)

The apathy of 6-3 (surprise!) annoyed me again but I’ve long since started preserving my energy for 6-4. 6-4 was great, one smart girl and some friends came to my desk before class in a very 6-2 move to ask what I was doing. I told her in English to which she responded in English “sorry I don’t know English well”.

Psh that’s okay girl, I got you! You’re trying! I told her in Korean that I was checking the tracking of my sent Christmas gifts. “Oh wow teacher you speak Korean very well.” Thank you *wipes tear*

I’ve upped my game recently with more vocab and TOPIK review on the bus, at the gym, during free planning hours. Next week I’ll be doing a trial with a private tutor. Hopefully I won’t argue with her like the last teacher (if she’s good that won’t be necessary).