사랑해요.

So maybe the reason I haven't been blogging as frequently lately is because I usually try to only blog when I'm in a good mood and generally positive about Korea, or when I have something really cool to say or a good story to share. My mood's just been up and down lately. I'll qualify that by saying that I really don't think it has anything to do with Korea. I think it's entirely a result of me... I've stopped exercising regularly (I went jogging last night for the first time in about two weeks--it felt really good.) And I've stopped studying Korean regularly. My two big goals before Christmas were to lose 20 pounds and learn a lot of Korean, so my recent exercise/studying slump has inevitably brought down my mood. I'm back on the bandwagon now, thankfully, and hopefully I'll be able to stick to it. I can justify the exercise cutdown a little based on the shin splints I was developing, and luckily I didn't feel any shin pain last night.


I'm also surprisingly ahead on lesson planning. I've already done my first grade object pronouns lesson and my second and third grade directions lessons. I made the powerpoint I needed to talk about the Shel Silverstein "Homework" poem. Unfortunately the two lessons I haven't done yet are the ones I need to teach tomorrow. Darn. Today's directions lessons was pretty awesome, actually. I was really hesitant at first, because I didn't know how my kids would react to any of the activities, but they didn't hate the first part, and they liked the second part. I projected a maze onto the white board and blindfolded some kids, then had the others direct them how to get through the maze in English. The moment I put the maze up my favorite kid (JK) goes "Oh... good idea," which made me so happy. They got really into it, at least some of them, and I got a lot of compliments "Miss Camp today lesson fun." I wouldn't say they're now great conversationalists, but they've mastered left, right, up, down, and back, even the boys who usually don't try.


Speaking of those boys... I didn't tell this story yet. SB and YH were my two biggest troublemakers, and recently they've become, if not angels, much better. I can see that they're still little punks amongst their friends sometimes, but I think I've finally managed to commandeer some respect, because they're downright nice to me now. SB, the most talkative and bad-behaved before, randomly came into my class one day recently and started asking me to put on Eminem's "Lose Yourself" (I was listening to music while doing lesson prep.) After we listened to it together for a bit, they realized that they were supposed to be upstairs learning from the other teacher with all the rest of their class. Oh. But SB is so cute. After the Halloween lesson I put on "Lose Yourself" again for him and he came and sat in the back next to me to watch it. After it, as he's leaving, he goes... "Teacher... lose yourself... what mean?" My heart melted. (This is a good example of my heart melting for a non-attractive student.) He loves the song so much, but doesn't know anything about it. Sigh. I tried to find something that approximated the meaning on Yahoo Dictionary, which he appreciated, but then I asked my co-teacher for a more precise translation and gave it to him the other day. He was on his way to the doctor, but then he came back in time for class and said the longest English sentence he could... "Lose Yourself thank you."


The other boy, YH, has been much better lately. I sent him a message on Cyworld that said in Korean "These days you are a good student." He replied with "thank you" and a lot of hearts. And yesterday my co-teacher told me that he said he really likes me. Aww. His hair is kind of unruly, so we tease him and call him koala (it's the subject of Lesson 7 in my stupid English textbook), but today as I was blindfolding him he goes "me handsome koala" and looked to me for confirmation. Cute.

And I have a new favorite student to add to the list (and possibly one to remove!) JS, my handsomest gold jacket student, didn't come to the third grade party I threw on Sunday, although he said he would. (16 kids came out of about 34, which was a pretty amazing turnout.) So Monday morning he came into class. I was showing the kids who came the pictures I'd put on Cyworld, and then he came up and I teasingly said "Who are you?" in Korean. He figured out why and went back to his seat and flopped down sadly. I felt bad, because I didn't really mean to hurt his feelings. But he was pretty sad all class period. After class I grabbed him on his way out and another girl translated as he appeared sheepish. She said, "You JS angry?"

"A little."
"He... picture... high school... take."
"Oh."
"He... sorry."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I'm not angry."


I think he was most upset because I said he was no longer Korean #1 Handsome boy. I didn't see him again until basketball today, but I hope he gets over his devastation, because we've got festival to prepare for!


My new favorite student's name is SB2, and he's just awesome. I actually didn't even notice him until like the third week of school. They were all kinda a blur at that point, but randomly the third week he busted out some crazy good English knowledge, so from that point I remembered him. His name's actually really funny sounding. Despite always being shy and never talking to me, he always seemed to be around when I was visiting in the third grade homeroom, and he always waved shyly to me or something. Then he friended me on Cyworld and was one of the first ones to send me a little Cyworld message. "Hi Miss Camp. What are you doing now?" So we had a couple small conversations via Cyworld. Then he came to the party on Saturday and was just cute. His girlfriend's cute and quiet too. I literally ran into him in the hallway on Monday and spilled some of my water, and he was like "Oh... are you okay?" (There are a few sentences Korean people can say and sound almost like native speakers, and that's one of them.) He also cracked me up yesterday when I got to school. I've finally come to understand one aspect of school that had previously confused me. Every morning there's two third grade students standing out at the gate. I didn't know why--I thought maybe they had greeting duty, like at church, but yesterday I learned that they're doing uniform inspections, and seeing who's late to school, so they can make them walk a lap around the playing field.


Here's a Korean conversation I understood. SB2 was the greeter/inspector for the day.
SB2: Necktie.
YH: I know.
SB2: Go.


So I walked in and he jokingly said the word for the lap punishment, or whatever. I didn't understand, obviously, so I said "What?" and asked him to say it again. He was suddenly shy and afraid I wouldn't take the joke, or get it, so he wouldn't say it again, until his girlfriend badgered him into explaining. He gestured to the field, so I understood that he was suggesting I perform the punishment, but I still didn't know why. After much contemplation, he said very quietly and shyly "Late to school." I made like I was going to do it, and he, mortified, stopped me.


So I've been trying to work up the nerve to play basketball at Noan all week, especially since my success at Dongkang. But some of the boys who play are intimidating (two in particular), so I was nervous. But, on Monday when I asked SB2 and the other basketball boys, they said "No." What I actually asked was 'Today... basketball?' They said no, which I assumed meant they weren't playing, rather than no, I wasn't allowed to play. But then they did play! I was devastated. Yesterday I lamented to the girls I usually sit with at lunch that I wanted to play, so one of them, my favorite, started yelling at a few of the boys to let me play, which was successful, though somewhat embarrassing. But there were only 2 minutes left, and I didn't get to wow anyone with my mad skills. So today I just abandoned all hope and stayed in my classroom after lunch (which was CURRY!) But then three of the 3rd graders I love (who came to the bowling party) came in and hemmed and hawed the way Koreans do when they want to say something but don't know English.


S: "Miss Camp... sick?"
M: "Umm... no."
S: "A little?"
M: "No."
S: "Umm..."
M: "Sad. A little."
S: "A little sad?"
M: "Yes."
S: "Why?"
M: "Difficult to explain." (I said that in Korean, by the way. It's one of my most used phrases.)
S: "Ah... *thoughtful* Basketball?"
M: "Me?"
S: "Yes."
M: "Really?"
S: "Yes! Play."
M: "Yay!"


At which point I ran and put on my shorts and t-shirt I'd brought to school Monday for this purpose, which led to a lot of ribbing from the students. (Wow. Miss Camp fashion good.) [By the way, the only reason they know the word "fashion" is because it's a Konglish word.] But although they can play in their uniforms, I can't play in my nice slacks. And I got to play on the team of three of my favorite students-SB2, SC and another boy HJ. HJ bowled as Meghan's partner at the party, and she informed me that he was really cute, busting out such amazing English knowledge as "Good try" and "Nice"--he's shy in class, so I had no idea. We soundly trounced the other team, and although my shooting percentage was quite low, it was substantially higher, I suspect, than the overall percentage. I jammed my finger, which is painful, but it was definitely worth it for the added points to my street rep. Actually, my finger hurts pretty bad, and is swollen. I'll just play through it tomorrow, like Michael Jordan does.