July 15, Sign Hae Juseyo
Jennie stopped by the elementary school in the afternoon to pick up the final student evaluations and update me on the debate teacher seminar.
“Some teachers have high level students and other teachers said they also have low level students. They recommended doing smaller group or pair work, like mini debates with you, to get the students talking.”
We agreed that was a good idea. She said the teachers also discussed making debate less intense and treating the class more casually. I thought of the disastrous Myanmar debate and silently agreed.
The local taekwondo coach, cute but very young, led out a line of little uniformed ducklings and looked at us in curiosity. Jennie patted me on the hand then danced off to her illegally parked car while I returned back to the office for the final stretch of the day. Neither coworker asked why I had disappeared for ten minutes and returned with an iced latte.
Earlier in the day, the girls of 4-2 asked for their characteristic high fives which I happily gave, until they leveled up and asked for my autograph.
O…kay? Just don’t try to steal my identity.
Not do be outdone, the other students hopped on the bandwagon and soon I had a literal line of kids asking for my autograph. One girl pet the hair on my arm in wonder while I clamored to attend to the crowd.
“What is happening? This is weird,” I commented, while two boys not in line giggled at the absurdity of it all.
When I had finally escaped from my contracted desk time in the afternoon, I ran into a sixth grader on my shortcut.
Her crocs were appallingly blue.
“Are these new?” I asked her. She confirmed.
She told me she was on her way to ballet class.
“Where is it?”
“Go straight and then uh…” We both broke down into giggles when she used the lesson five directions vocabulary. She also demonstrated two split jumps for me, in crocs no less, before she split down the other path. It was a nice moment to clear away some of the weird vibes that have been going on in the English office lately.
Are my coworkers sick? Tired? Sick and tired of me? I don’t know, but the end of the semester cannot come fast enough.