This is Probably the Happiest Year of my Life

You know what folks, I'm pretty sure everybody has years of happiness and also years of sadness.

This is however, is my year of happiness. What's interesting to philosophize about is whether this year of happiness comes at a cost.

Anyway, let's bring it back to Earth for a sec.

I've had a really intense past few days, but the hard work has paid off.

First, I had 7 classes on Thursday, but they all went well AND we had pork cutlet for lunch.

Second, I had 3 classes today, plus m first official class at the Damyang teachers workshop (I, along with the other TaLK scholars teach the Damyang English teachers). It was fantastic. It's a quite different dynamic teaching adults. To be honest, I'm not used to getting great intellectual responses and idea exchange from my elementary students ("Teacher! What do?"), so it was a breath of fresh air to hear my adult students come up with creative things to say during our lesson.

On a sadder note, I made one of my students cry today.

Context: there's a group of grade 5 students who always do everything together. Today however, one of them, the shyest, most unsure, most reserved one, came in by herself. Her name is Ga Eun.

She was avoiding eye contact (normal--Koreans try not to make eye contact with their superiors much). We got to the part of the lesson with a small worksheet (1/4 of a page really). My co-teacher went to help the boys and I went to help Ga Eun since she was the only girl today. She was pretty quiet and I did most of the talking and doing, but she was getting the answers right.

We were just finishing the last question when Su Min, her smart best friend came in. Ga Eun was having trouble, so I asked Su Min if she knew what the answer was (of course she did, she's great at English).

Ga Eun locked eyes with Su Min and I heard the sound of a tear falling on her paper. I didn't realize how stressful of a situation this was for her.... I quickly told them they were both finished for the day and they could leave. Ga Eun needed to be out of that classroom.

Anyway, that story is a bit of a downer, but these things help one be a better teacher in the future.

To leave you on a good note, I want to tell you a story about my colleagues.

After the workshop, Hyeong Ah generously offered to drive me and Mimi back to our houses in Gwangju. On the car ride there we talked about aaaall sorts of things, like our plans for the weekend, how awesome it is that Hyeong Ah has a compact car because Korea is difficult to drive in, and who our favourite actors and actresses are.

Mimi recently watched a romantic comedy with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet (that sounds like a really romantic movie!) in it. She was practically melting in the front seat, she enjoyed it so much. She said she could "get lost in Cameron Diaz's eyes", and that Jude Law is "so sekshi, but he is getting bald. It's so sad :'(" I asked Hyeong Ah who her favourite actors were and she said Jude Law and the guy from Twilight.

"Not the vampire, the wolf." she said.

"Jacob?" I replied.

"YEEEES!" both Mimi and Hyeong Ah screamed and then started yelling in Korean. "I'M SO EXCITED!!" Hyeong Ah exclaimed!

Lol. I love my co-workers :)