Thanksgiving stuff and feeling a bit blue.

Sigh. The early dark/return to quiet empty apartment in contrast with full family home combo is making me a little blah. Plus I only taught one class today, which always knocks me down in the dumps. It was a fucking cute ass class though. B ban second graders, so there were moments of feigned "anger" about them going off the rails into rambling, nonsensical Korean jokey joke territory, but basically I just got them onto the track of at least making nonsensical jokes in English and we were alright. It was the 태근 Express's class, and they always meander down the thin line between enthusiastic and fun vs. a little out of hand, but we were doing our Thanksgiving lesson, so I gave a little leeway today.

By the way, I was kind of stumped as to what to do with the second graders this year for Thanksgiving, given that I absolutely refuse to teach any of the mythical "Indians and pilgrims" fucking bullshit that surrounds the holiday, and I already covered the food and being "thankful for" things last year. I gave the internet a good once over, and found something for my A ban that would work -- putting them into groups, and having them imagine that they are turkeys. Then, they have to form an argument for why someone should eat their neighboring group for Thanksgiving instead of their own. My A ban are okay to do a short writing exercise like that, so long as they have a group to work with. But B ban? No way, no how. I mean, they could do it. If I had a month's worth of classes to prep them for it. But I don't.

So I mulled it over for a while and remembered that during last year's Thanksgiving ppt, they were pretty fucking fascinated with the concept of the wishbone. And making one sentence about something they wish for is well within their ability. So I had them make paper wishbones with a partner, writing each of their wishes on either side, and then we all did a big countdown before they pulled them apart to see whose wish would come true. It involved three of their favorite things: competition, noise and destructive behavior. They were fucking well into it.

Another good subject to cover is Black Friday. They could stare at photos of that nonsense for hours, and if you tell a story about how someone got killed in the mad rush to make good on pre-Christmas sales, you'll be the school legend for the day. You can teach a ton of vocabulary like "wait in line" and "overnight" and "before sunrise" and "doors open". My students were also really fascinated to see how mixed the crowds were, racially, and I realized that it may have been the first time they got a really accurate depiction of that aspect of American society.

Blah blah blah. The point is, I'm in an odd mood. But I reckon I'll survive. Day off tomorrow for national exams, but I've got to make a trip into Seoul in the morning for a photo shoot (what?) and then back all the way to the far end of Incheon for -- yeehaw! -- Immigration. Visa renewal. Good thing the red buses are still on strike, hey?

Busan's off down in Busan, as he's been between jobs the past two weeks and, after spending all of last week off work and alone, he couldn't bear to face another week of it. So he went home to see his family (his brother's moved back home now) and his best friend, who's been away in Singapore for a year. He's back up tonight to start his new job in the morning. Here's hoping there are no shitty attempts to get him to visit prostitutes at this one, and as little 야근 as possible, eh?

Ramble ramble. Is this what you were looking for?