Abiding

The second semester is well underway now. Luckily, I only had to change one elementary school, so I get to keep all of my student friends that I've made. The weather is becoming cooler (thankfully) and there aren't as many bugs around now. People are moving in and out of the apartments, and so the new initiations begin. We have a good mixed crowd of drinkers and hermits who mostly get along. I have considered applying to move to Jeonju next year, which would be a much bigger city, but I am happy here for now.

Yesterday at my middle school, I walked into a 7th grade classroom and it felt like a morgue. In a flash of inspiration I gave the students step-by-step instruction on how to check their pulse, though only some of them really got the joke. The day before was also interesting. During lunchtime, I kicked the 6th grader's soccer ball on to the roof of the gym. They were so crestfallen that I offered to pay them, but fortunately we found a teacher willing to get a ladder and retrieve their prized possession. That same day, I think I experienced my loudest 4th grade class ever. This is ironic, because it happened while I was trying to get a class of 30 students to play a "whisper game." The problem was that my co-teacher stepped out of the class for 10 minutes to make photocopies. When the children want their friends to be quiet they yell at the top of their lungs in frustration, which only adds to the chaos. Woe to those who lose control of their classroom and want it back! The lesson learned is to draw a diagram of the lines the students must get in and give them a very short amount of time to do so.

Next week is Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) and I will have a four day vacation. I plan on going to Jeju Island (basically Hawaii for Koreans) with some new friends. To my dear readers: sorry this post was so long in coming. Also, I will send postcards soon, so please give me your address via Facebook or email.