Lots of tears....

Wednesday November 6th

Kelly cried. She had a hairband with a plastic bow. The plastic bow broke. So of course tears flowed after that. I took it home and fixed it with super glue.

Ian had another sobbing incident. I do not even remember what it was for. Some little trivial thing. But even the trivial things can set him off. He is often a smart student, but he has a hard time sitting and focusing. Other times he is very emotional. This seems to be an emotional week for him.

My afternoon classes went okay. I enjoy my England class. It is a challenge because of their English level. They are very much like my France class when I started with them. Actually a bit worse. Since these kids are older, breaking them of habits is tough. They are pretty well engrained with Korean. Kindy kids are still learning Korean and then English. These kids know Korean… it is like the core of their knowledge has been placed. These kids have more of the problem that I have in learning Korean… They think in Korean right now, so we are trying to get them to think in English. (I think in English and need to learn how to think in Korean).

My third graders were okay. I have noticed one of the kids that really complains about Roy sort of eggs him on, then when Roy reacts, he complains. Instead of leaving him alone, he gives some attention to Roy and that is when Roy starts to react to it. I think I might try to have them sit on opposite sides of the classroom.

After work, I went out over by Gimpo airport to pick up a situp bench and some weights. It was only 35000 (the price of one weight). It has 2 dumbell bars, a medium sized bar, and about 40 pounds of plate weights that I can put on the bars. A great deal. It was raining. Bah. I had to catch a cab (a 15 minute walk in the rain carrying a cardboard box is not a good thing to do).  It added another 10 bucks onto the cost, but still extremely reasonable.

I used the weights and watched a movie. Not bad.

Thursday November 7th

Sharon fell out of her chair. That did not cause her to cry. She was not paying attention (hence her falling out of her chair). So as soon as she got up, I asked her a question, which she couldn's answer. I didn't let anyone help her. She starts to cry. "Eric Teacher, why is Sharon crying?" Instead of saying it was because she couldnt answer a question (nothing wrong with that- I get asked tons of questions that I cant answer). I said it was because she fell out of her chair. I went on to talk about how I am supposed to erase a star when France class 7 year olds sit like Korea Class 5 year olds. This stopped her crying pretty quickly. I was like I "I should erase a star." I think she stopped crying because she didnt want to lose a star.

Australia class and Denmark both were pretty good. It was a gym day so I only got Denmark once, and that was for Cartoon. The cartoon this month is not entertaining. The kids laughed some… but for me, where I understand what is going on, it is kind of disturbing. So having to watch this for 2 months is not great for me… Most have been at least a little funny… this one does not tickle me.

I forgot my Hagwon books at home, so during my break, I went home and picked them up. Then I had my 4^th graders. It was a vocabulary day. We had a vocabulary test. Wow… I never realized how hard they are. I mean, they are simple in a way… but it is all in English. When I have a Korean test for Hagwon, it is the word in English and I have to write the word in Korean. This has all of the words in English, so the kids have to read the word and definition, both in English. Granted, these kids have been studying for many years…. I always knew the tests were that way… but now drawing similarities to what I am experiencing … wow.

Hagwon was good. I am learing a lot… but my memory sucks. I can see something on paper and get it, but trying to recall the words… I am not there yet.

Afterwards, Yufei and myself got some food. I do not remember what it was called, but it was delicious. I will have to find out. After food, we walked around. We found a small clothing store, and they had a sweater that fit me! I bought it. It was not cheap, but not expensive. I do not really have any fall clothes. I have my winter coat which is too heavy, and I have a hoodie. That is pretty much my selection. So, now I have something that will keep me warm when it is cool out… and the arms actually fit my length. I do have a zip up cotton warm up top, but I did not include that in the list of clothes because the arms are so short. I put it on, and the sleeves end between my elbow and wrist.

Friday November 8th

Juliet wept she couldnt find her math book (which was in her cubby, and her having to sit next to David. Valeria cried I wrote on the board that Christina Teacher should call their moms and say that Australia Class wanted to go to ECC on Saturday. Most kids were saying teacher erase it, or take it down in their laughing fun voices. She started crying. Instead of just erasing it, I kept going. Teacher, I dont like it, erase it. Teacher, 'Valeria is crying'... 'okay.' Eventually she stopped, then she started having fun with it too.

Denmark… I forgot to give the kids diarys and book reports back. Bad. They were sitting on my desk, but since I do not go into the teachers room during the day (class, class, class, class, lunch with class, class, class), it was out of sight and out of mind. Parents get mad. I told Christina as soon as I realized. We both had a freak out…. When did I realize you may be asking… well as soon as I was done with Denmark class and take them to the gym, I go back to my desk. I see them instantly. I grunt. If I only had lunch not with the students, I would see things.

Ronnie asks me if I might want to move out of Bobo. This question shocks me. I tell him I would think about it. I talk to Rob about it for a minute. Then I realize that the chances of my staying at ECC are about 95%. Everything else aside, the other apartments that our school has (in another neighborhood further away) are bigger. I would much rather have a bigger apartment than live at Bobo where the bills are high and the apartments are small. If I move, I would be further away from the Bobo people (4 subway stops) but I would have a bigger place. I of course told Ronnie yes after I thought about it.

With my 3^rd graders… something very cool happened. One of the kids uttered a word that was one of my vocabulary words, and I understood it. The verb was waiting. We were waiting for a video to load, so she says something in Korean about waiting… I hear it, and respond with how I know we are waiting… Very small thing, but it made me smile.

We went to Samurai for dinner for Korean BBQ. Delicious as always. After that, we came back to bobo, played settlers and Jenga till early in the morning, and that was a night.

Saturday November 9^th

I woke up and skyped with my parents. After that, I went with Taylor and Hudson to Yongsan. It was a lovely afternoon and evening with them. The bought some xbox games and a controller. I bought Robs gamecube controllers. We walked around and just looked and talked about stuff. We tried to find Hudson a cell phone. We took a break at a CU (like a GS, but different company) and they had small bottles of whisky called a Scotch Pocked. We all got one, and every time we talked about them, we sang Scotch Pocket (as if it were the Hot Pocket theme song.

We got home, played Golden Eye (a game they bought), had some drinks, then went for 해장국 (Haejanguk). We were going to order pizza instead of getting soup… so we kept calling and they kept hanging up on us. We thought it was because they did not want to deal with foreigners… turns out after looking at their menu card that they were closed for the night… A very simple but fun Saturday.

Sunday November 9^th

Lazy Sunday.

Cleaned a little. Watched cars with Taylor and Hudson. Played some Golden eye with them and Sam. Laundry. It has been a very nothing day. Pretty relaxing, but nothing accomplished. That’s pretty much par for the course for my Sundays. I am ordering McDelivery for dinner because I do not want to have to go out and do anything. I really need to do my dishes.

This weekend Scott and Lucy both bought new refrigerators… ones with a separate freezer. I want to get one too. Not having a freezer sucks.  There is so much more food that I could buy and cook later if I could freeze things. My freezer is pretty much a defroster and uber small. If I buy a bag of dumplings, I am out of freezer space. I could go to  Costco and stock up of easy to cook food, and then be able to pretty much cut out McDelivery….