I finally tracked down Anthony after two weeks of attempts to give him his US gift. “Did you give this to everyone in the school?” He asked. “No, just a few,” I said, to his pleasure. We took a walk and were intercepted by teacher Kim who made a joke to Anthony about us walking together, after goofily sliding around the corner as if we couldn’t see him. We then went to look at the volleyball court to kill time and intercepted more teachers. I stood to the side pretending to be very interested in the lighting while the rest chatted at length in the hallway. After the other teachers…

“The other girls are good at studying.” Seoyeon, one of my debate girls, told me as she and another girl, Gahyun, led me to the vending machine at the high school campus. It was my second attempt; the first yielded shadowy abandoned hallways with no snacks in sight. “They’re smart. They always make the best grades.” She added. Gahyun nodded sympathetically. But then who were the two sweet girls taking me in an adventure to the vending machine? I scoffed. “Grades aren’t everything.” I told them, knowing how little their other talents might be valued in the environment of Korean high school that emphasizes endless studying and academic competition at…

I had to review the pronunciation of “delicious” with my fifth graders. I feel like I teach them phonics and then they work really hard to unlearn it, so we embark on a neverending cycle of practicing and then forgetting short vowels. Is it because once a week with me isn’t enough? Or do the other English teachers in their academic life, whether public school or hagwon, have a strong accent? So we reviewed “delicious” which the kids tend to pronounce evenly spaced and with even syllables, very uncommon for English as it is a stress-timed language. Korean is a syllable-timed language, which is why sometimes Korean speakers might sound…

I arrived to my thankfully not fly-infested nor flooded apartment after 2.5 weeks away somewhere around three in the morning. I hadn’t slept for 36 hours and it didn’t look like I’d be sleeping much more– I had to teach debate a mere six hours later. I unpacked my entire suitcase, I am that person, and then tried on a bunch of unrelated fitness outfits that were a little tighter after the post American vacation weight gain. I think I slept a full two hours and then rolled out of bed to run to the elementary school to pick up all the debate materials I had forgotten. Despite my body…