A weird day after a long weekend. A third grade student didn’t recognize me en route to school at first because I was wearing a black facemask. Almost after we passed each other he lit up with recognition and did a delayed a little bow. “Handsome” student knocked on my classroom door before the day started and brought me candy. Ironic, considering she usually asks asks me for candy. Very sweet. As S was absent due to her son being sick, I went down to lunch by myself and sat with the usual group. G and the subject teachers talked in Korean so I just ate lunch and zoned out.…

You may start your night sharing soju and chips with new friends in the park while watching blowup T-Rexes chase kids and end the night by splitting nuggets in a crowded McDonald’s at 3 AM with a person in a dinosaur costume who’s getting a PhD in physics. That’s just the magic of Halloween.

Where do I even start? Today was the talent show. Third grade class did their fan dance and I am so proud. I didn’t cry though so winning. In the second half of the show I stood near the area where students lineup. I met some very outgoing second graders who shouted hello! I asked one in Korean, are you ready? And he became very shy. So cute. I gave them high-fives as they walked on. They’ll be my students next year. I wished all the students good luck as they walked past me to the stage and before 4-2 went on stage, I chatted with them. My SEVENTEEN fanboy:…

How did I survive sitting at a computer for 8 hours every day? The nice thing about planning time at school is that nobody cares if I am just reading articles or making PowerPoint or lesson planning or doing Korean lessons. As long as my work is done. In a very frank discussion on the school stairs S turned to me and said, do you use tampons? It turns out she bought them thinking they were pads (to be fair, women’s hygiene products are terribly Victorian about showing what the actual product is). The previous teacher stored tampons like a squirrel in winter and every week I find a new…

This morning was a fun moment in mishearing. I had some time before class because I never time the bus schedule so I went to Ediya. The barista asked after she handed me the iced latte if I hated her. What? I stood in confusion as my brain played catch up. Surely she wasn’t asking if I hate her or the latte since I just popped in. She said again, “Syrup?” Loan words to confuse the day! The Korean word for bad/dislike is 싫어 [shee roh] and the Korean pronunciation of syrup is 시럽 [shee rope]. P.S. can you all learn IPA, it kills me to try and transcribe sounds…

Fifth grade played a game in which they were given dialogues with missing words. The full dialogues were posted outside the class and one person from each group had to run outside, read, and report back to the group. We actually spent the whole lesson on this since the students at this school are lower level in English (although I’m not sure what that says about us as teachers versus the system itself). They were surprisingly challenged by my name selections of… Nathan. Nathan?? Very unexpected. But my “handsome “student called me over to review pronunciation and she did an awesome job. So proud. Curly hair bangs in fifth grade…

Various fifth and sixth grade girls pointed out my makeup today: “Wow teacher! Pretty!” I told them, today only. I like to keep the people guessing. A 6-3 boy pretended to shoot me with the air bombs they made in science so I put him in a (very gentle) headlock. I love being able to play with the students. S playfully punches boy students in the shoulder when they forget their homework. Sixth grade is still making basic pronunciation mistakes (a b she, x-uh, eaJy instead of easy, bLeakfast, and generally adding extra syllables everywhere). I’m trying to recognize that I can’t fix or change everything, but damned if I’ll…

What’s your best accomplishment? Others: my child, a promotion, bought a house Me: I FINALLY GOT AN EMART POINTS CARD, THE SAGA IS COMPLETE, PUT THIS ON MY RESUME