just a few days

Friday August 23
Today, I made one student cry. Not on purpose, but I know I could have mitigated the situation so they would not cry. It was Hayden from my Australia class. We have been in school for 6 months. He is a second year, so that means he has been going to ECC for 1 year and 6 months. Long enough so where a student should know how things work. Well, Hayden, several times a week forgets his pencil in his cubby. He grabs his books and then sits down, and as soon as we start to work he says "Can I go get my pencil?' Normally I let him, but it is about time that he gets weened off of that. So I told him no. So without his pencil, he was not able to work. So I told him that after he was done eating lunch, instead of playing, he could finish his work then. So he more or less sobbed for the rest of class. Though I continued to treat him like all of the other students and still called on him to answer questions. So, I know I could have let him get his pencil, or not told him that he was not allowed to play during lunch... but I didnt. I told Niamh teacher what I was doing (she is their lunch room teacher) and she agreed.
It was a speakers corner for my firstgraders, and yet again, they had to do the writing part again. So... being the nice guy I am, I bought the class mechanical pencils. For older kids, it would be no big deal, but for first graders, it is a great cheap gift... but by the end of the class, there were 3 broken ones (in a class of 11). And they weren't like good breaks... as a kid, I used to take stuff apart to play with... no, these were like kids just being too rough with them and breaking them.
Third graders were okay. I had to do some of Angela Teachers work with the kids because she was behind and I was not.
I rode the school bus home again.
I did not do anything at night. I watched the wire.

Saturday August 24th
Slept in pretty late. For whatever reason, going to bed is tough, but sleeping in the morning... super easy.
I was going to watch my First Grade Chloe in a contest at the school right by ECC.  I show up. I find her Korean name, go to the room. Turns out it is not a contest like we thought. I thought it was a speaking contest... but it was a writing contest in a classroom. So, I did not see her nor did I stay.
At night, Rob, Callum, Mike, Sarah and I all went to Paradise Casino. We were thinking of going to Busan, but we just decided that going to the casino was closer. So we all went in expecting to loose the money we would have spent on Busan. We were just going for the fun of it. The casino was nice. Alcoholic drinks were free. We just placed an order and they brought us a drink. Food was free. We placed an order at the table, and when it was ready, they came and got us. So, while I wasted a lot of money, I ate 3 meals, and have a pretty decent number of drinks. We were at the casino for about 8 hours.
After the casino, we went to Kongdae... Konkuk University... not the university itself, but the area around the university. The place with the bars.  The area was pretty similar to Hongdae. Hongdae is near Hongik University.  I do not know if I have described where the name comes from before... but I might as well tell again.  So, for Hongdae, the name for the university is 홍익대학교 which is 홍익 Hongik 대학교 daehakgyo. Hongik is the name and Daehakgyo means university. So, just like the chicken and beer, ChiMaek (taking Chi from chicken and Maek from Maekju). Hongik becomes Hong and Daehakgyo beacomes Dae. You get Hongdae.
So we stay there for a while. While there, we play a game where we dare eachother to do things. We play rock paper sissors and the loser has to do something. They said they had to be careful about what they would dare me to do, because I would actually do it. I have no shame, and I do not get embarassed easy.
We then went to a bar that had TV sets in the booth. You could look at other booths on the screen, select them, look at them, and send them drinks and food. So we tried sending bottles of Soju (cheap) to other booths, but nobody was accepting it... we were kind of let down.
All in all tonight was an expensive but really fun night.

Sunday August 25th
Slept in. Did not get home till after 5 am. I did nothing today. I went on a walk around Mokdong. Went to home plus. I skyped with my parents at night. But the day was more or less a wasted day. When I was shopping, I did buy 2 usb wifi adapters for 2 of the classrooms that do not have internet. I am hoping to get the Greece class computer fixed by the end of the week. I am proactive... I do not like the process of waiting around until the school does something... I would rather waste my own money and not have to worry nor get frustrated. 20 bucks buys me piece of mind. I am okay with that.

Monday August 26th.
Today was our cartoon presentation. So, was the awesome contraption that I made used? Nope. The lighted sign and the shower curtains were...but the stand was not.... I do not think they understand that I made it to be like a stage, where the students can walk out from behind it.... oh well. It still looked okay, and better than what it was.
All of my kindy classes went well. the people that cry more often were not at school. So it was a tearless day. I am ready for August to be over... in my Denmark and Australia class... I am tired of the story we did in August... it was boring... and the work is also boring. There are good stories, and stories that are just dull. This one was a dull one. I am not sure what we will have next month, but I hope it is more entertaining and exciting that this months.
With my firstgraders, I started to make them stand up again... I got soft... I am not any more. I think they do not like the discipline, but I think they crave it. They need it, even though they will not like it. I gave them class points today even though they were not that well behaved... they get really excited when points are given... so hopefully that small taste of it keeps them going.
My third graders have a test on Wednesday, so we did some review... I was going to take them to the gym for fun at the end of class. I told them to leave their bags in the class. Several still lined up with their backpacks. I told them again... and several went "awwwww" so I said "Okay, we just wont go" and I did not take them to the gym. We just kept on reviewing in the class.
I took the ECC bus home again today. I like it... There is one girl, I have no idea who she is... I need to find out though. I think she is a kindy... maybe a 6year old. But she just stares at me the entire ride and smiles. She seems very shy and afraid to talk to me. She could be older... but just her reactions are so kindy student like. Its kind of cute. After one of the kids was dropped off, she went and took her seat which was a row away from me, and she just spent the rest of the ride watching me and smiling, and laughing whenever I made a funny face.
Did nothing tonight... we were going to go to costco... but that got pushed off until later...