This morning before class, I groaned quietly and looked away from my computer that had blue screened once again. Little did I know I’d need the same stress tactic for later in the day. 5-5 was once again late and unprepared. They had trouble singing our class song and setting up for class. I was so disappointed and frustrated that I had to take a moment to look out the window of their classroom and remind myself that they are kids and no one will learn if I hold my irritation against them. I reminded them again about being prepared and arriving on time and the rest of the class…

Due to what I can only describe as a freak accident, all the wind patterns aligned in such a way that the fine dust (pollution) and yellow dust (sand from deserts of China) amalgamated to the maximum to produce the smoggiest day I’ve ever seen in my nearly two years here. I left the house this morning in a standard surgical mask but I should have worn a KF94. I exclaimed to myself, is there fog or something? Why are the mountains in my little town suddenly covered in a weird gray mist? I checked the AQI reading and almost missed my crosswalk signal as I stared at my phone…

By now, it’s a well-established fact that Jack has a special place in his heart for bananas. After hearing him recount another childhood banana story, I asked if he eats bananas everyday now that he has affordable access to them. He replied. “Actually, I don’t really like the taste.”

My tiny travel school is up a mountain as the groaning of my thighs reminded me. At the school locker entrance, I proudly slipped on my Emart slides and cast away the school slippers that were so loose I tripped going both up and down the stairs last week. These kids are definitely a little more rough than those of my main school. Yana and I talked at length about who is lacking and what we can possibly do to help. “Those two boys,” she pointed at a now unoccupied table, “are from the orphanage. They don’t know how to read or write English. The orphanage doesn’t have academy classes.”…

“Teacher, we love you!” Three girls of 6-1 claimed as they suddenly back hug tackled me in the hallway. I then proceeded to act like a quarterback and stomped my feet down in order to trip them. They had fun trying to slide me down the hallway. On top of being really sweet, this was something reminiscent of the Before Times. I like to think it’s a mark that things might be returning to some sense of normalcy. My sixth graders are overall affectionate and clever. Today I taught 6-2 “glamping”. I really love 6-4 and 6-2 for the supportive and engaged homeroom teachers and 6-1 for their wild affection.…

I don’t know what on earth the sixth graders were on, but they were incredibly juiced up for a Monday. One of the target phrases from the chapter was “I like flying a kite.” Since we had a few extra minutes, I proceeded to tell 6-4 a story from a few weeks ago. “I was walking at Jinhae-ro. Jinhae-ru?” Ru, they confirmed. “I was walking at Jinhae-ru and saw a boy flying a kite.” The star of the show was the power line, but I had no idea how to say this in Korean and my drawing was eliciting guesses of “soccer goal” and “fence” so I took a stab…

Since I was heading to class in Busan, I figured I might as well go early and make a day of it. Two friends from the Busan expat group joined me for a morning of thrift shopping in Nampo-dong. There’s so much I don’t know, but thrifting is my area of expertise in any country. After all, thrift tends to find me. We had a snack from some street vendors then I led us through the maze of the market, not quite remembering where the cluster of used clothing stores was, but not too worried. Getting lost in Korea usually means finding something better. At our third stall, I sorted…

The morning was cold and rainy so I threw on my oversized hiking jacket and called for a cab. Today was the day– I was going to get my Korean driver’s license! I crawled into the backseat of the taxi and took note of the driver’s magnificent beard. If a casting call needed “generic mystical Asian teacher” I could give you no one more perfect for this. The ride to the center was over thirty minutes, through mountains and over bridges. We chatted in Korean about the best cars to buy and living in Seoul since he did as well. My language still has a lot of gaps because he…

I think Yana will become my new S. She has the same shyness and optimism, and seems eager to bond. After our once-weekly classes together, where I found out 8 of my students do in fact come from the orphanage, we ate lunch and took a walk around our tiny school. We then spent a long moment in the teacher’s lounge where all the ladies updated me about the American woman Maria competing on Miss Trot, which is a musical competition featuring my favorite genre of Korean music. I watch a lot of Mister Trot reruns on cable because I don’t need a high level of language skill to guess…

“What do Americans think of Korea?” asked Jack at lunch. “Honestly, Americans don’t know much about Korea. If I’m being frank, the question I get asked most often is ‘do they eat dog?'” Americans aren’t taught much (any) history or culture of Asia which is strange given that a country like China was and is a major and influential world power that drove much of technical advancement and trade throughout late human history. I told him I think Korea is more efficient in a lot of ways and he responded, “but in America the land is wide and you can own guns.” Sometimes I want to tell people, if America…