6-3 was like pulling teeth, I actually had to stop and laugh helplessly during class because at one point I asked boys to raise their hands and only saw two in the air. “Uh we only have two boys in class? Hello? Are y’all okay?” After that, hearing 6-4 noisily barrel down the hallway into class was a huge relief. Energy I can handle but a class that doesn’t even understand the question “are you a boy” is a challenge. I don’t know what to do with apathy. I wish I could have all my classes from the year beginning, and I also wish I could teach in the other…

I had all of my precious adorable third graders today. The sub started off class which confused the students a little (and me but gotta roll with it, he’s my senior after all) as we normally start with a vowel sing along. I did get to interact more with them during his section as I walked around class and made the kids practice with me. One girl asked me a question in very fast Korean and I told her in 천천히 말해 주세요 “please speak more slowly”. She repeated and I understood! Poor girl wanted to know 오늘은 노래를 안해요? “teacher are we not singing today?”. Ugh my heart! Sorry…

I told my co-teacher about my homework bar adventure and she was so surprised: “you went… alone? You like drinking?” The surprise seemed unwarranted given that South Koreans drink more liquor than any other country in the world: twice as much as Russians, four times as much as Americans. You don’t know drinking culture until you see a man urinate himself in broad daylight outside of a major metro station which is an image that continues to haunt me. As it turns out, she has never been to a bar. She made me fist bump promise that we will go together one day. More importantly she told me the proper…

The back hugging fourth grade girl insisted on it again and then LIFTED me off the ground. What is Korea feeding its children… I had fun torturing, I mean teaching, the third graders. One wanted to play “I will pretend to give this to you then hold on to it” and I’m too old to play that so I made him answer “how old are you” which… he couldn’t. Mild embarrassment is the best discipline tool for disruptive kids! I saw Strong Girl and Weak Boy three times today so my mission is secretly depositing nuggets of English on them. One of the fifth grade girls kept calling me “handsome”…

There was a misunderstanding on my end today which set me on the edge of tears, mostly fueled by lack of sleep and feeling lonely over the holiday. My coteacher watched me leave the room to get water and when I came back she was still looking at me. She asked “are you OK? you look sad” and I almost lost it. But luckily 4-1 came and knocked it all away. In one game they practiced prepositions by following the command I gave. I said “you are under the teacher’s hand” and the next thing I knew there were 24 10-year-olds piled around my feet. One played with my anklet…

Chuseok: Ten miles of walking through traditional villages, babies in Hanbok, and Namsan Tower on the busiest day of the year. Our tour guide was a retired middle school English teacher. She said both her sons are out of the country, one is studying in Philadelphia and the other working in Indonesia, so she volunteered to work Chuseok (one of the biggest family holidays is the year). She said “so today you are my…” and couldn’t finish. But we understood just fine. Happy Chuseok.

Chuseok Holiday begins now! Today I only had fourth grade. I watched over the kids as they drew sports posters while small groups were taken outside for their speaking test. 4-1 was incredibly invested in my answer to “teacher do you like or hate Japan??” (I pretended to lose all my Korean knowledge at this point but then my sweeper friend rephrased in English). And then he asked me to translate “boycott”. Seungkwan Junior (I will learn their names… eventually) told him “no we have to make a SPORTS poster.” I followed up with “Japan is not a sport, you’re making SPORT posters.” (For reference: anti-Japan sentiment is high in…

Today was a hard day for no other reason than that there will always be hard days, especially as a foreign transplant. In the last obstacle before I could go home the subway turnstile once again blocked me too early and I didn’t know what to do, because every card scan after that yielded a noisy ERROR message and I physically could not leave the metro station unless I jumped a fence. Like last time though, a helpful stranger noticed my distress and called the attendant (“a foreigner can’t get through”) who buzzed me through the handicapped gate. I felt grateful but also frustrated because it was a log in…

Due to student swimming this week, my schedule was moved around and I found myself sitting at my desk during fourth grade ethics class. But before class started, the teacher told me we would make Chuseok envelopes (like Hongbao). In the beginning of class I sat at an empty desk, causing waves throughout class, and the students around me helped me fold and glue the envelope. They were very excited that I joined them and they made sure I had paper and glue. I wanted to participate and asked if I could put something in it for the kids. My coteacher got excited and pulled out a basket of candy.…

I’m so out of it I stared at my coteacher several seconds trying to formulate a question. TGIF! 6-2 and 6-3 are really… something else but my angels in 6-1 and 6-4 sandwich the baddies so I end on a good note. I mistook one of the sixth grade boys for Tank Boy. He was extremely confused and I realized my mistake after class when real Tank Boy ran by class saying HELLO I AM TANK BOY. He’s in fifth grade so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that they’re related. So I tell myself. I do have twins in 3-1 and 3-2. My bad. 6-4 made up a…