4.02.2009

Take a rest.

I need to take a rest.

Last night I stayed up until past one making these stupid super hero geek face whatever battle cards in English. I am not a fucking crafty person. And because of this, after I made it through my first five classes of the day, I nearly killed a kid in my sixth. And it was the good after school class as well. What really happened was I set them loose with the game, which they loved, but they immediately started stuffing the cards down their pants, blowing their noses on them, chomping on them with their slimy little mouths....

Actually, they just sort of got a little over excited and were being a bit grabby, but after spending approximately three years making them, it felt damn well like sacrilege. And then some kid had a cell phone out and refused to hand it over and I nearly ate his face.

Or rather, I sent him out in the hall with the explanation that I needed not to see his face for just a few minutes.

Scared the living shit out of everyone, which I didn't mean to do, but as my co-teacher put it earlier this week, he crossed the invisible line -- the one between super fun time cool teacher and psychotic physically violent teacher.

I'm not into hitting. So Teacher needed a time out.

Today it wasn't their fault -- I'm on an unusually short fuse. I used to have pretty serious temper problems, and every now and then, if I get overly tired, they resurface a bit. I'm perfectly capable of controlling myself outwardly, but the inside still gets a bit fiery from time to time.

And maybe it was because of this that the students seemed more touchy than usual today. "Don't touch me" came out of my mouth more than once. Also, some of the third graders have taken to laying their heads on my shoulders when I crouch down to help them with their assignments. I'm pretty sure that's not okay.

One student decided to tell me, through translation, that he can't speak English, but he will communicate to me with his feelings. Great. That's one more bar line that's going to make a sixteen year old flash in front of my face when I get it out of a grown-ass man. And I get that one a lot.

I dunno. I'm grumpy. And next week sees the start of the "business trips" and the parents class, in addition to everything I'm already juggling.

And tomorrow we have "some meeting" after work. Seriously, guys. Fridays are for friends. Find some. I don't have many, but when 4:30 on Friday afternoon rolls around, I'd like to go and see the few that I do.

On the upside of today, I did manage to make a couple of students grin from ear to ear. We were working on "why don't you" and one example had them giving advice again -- trying to drive these concepts home. The partners of those who were particularly vertically recessed took to writing their "problem" as, "I am short."

"This is a problem....?"

"Neh?"

"Being short isn't a problem...."

"But Teacher he a boy!"

"Yeah. I dunno. I like short men."

Fuck you. They're going to hear that for the rest of their lives, in Korea. Someone needs to tell these boys that height doesn't matter, once you're horizontal....

10 comments:

I'm no Picasso said...

Meh. I won't die. I am starting to rethink that whole the extra money is worth it thing, though....

After school classes, as far as I understand it, end at the end of the month. So not much longer with this madness.

Also, how are you feeling, Comrade?

MikejGrey said...

The cold is gone, but the harsh sting of reality has been setting in.

I need whiskey stat.

I'm no Picasso said...

There's a place I wanna take you to in Sinchon, if not this weekend, then eventually. It's just what we've been looking for. Good music, small, dark, and an extremely social atmosphere. Ask Kel. It was awesome.

Also, maybe if we go back we can find my effing glasses....

Now that I've been there, Goose Goose seems extremely fucking depressing....

MikejGrey said...

sounds good.

Do you have a gut feeling that you'll be around tomorrow night, or should i stock up on emart wine and start watching ER after work?

I'm no Picasso said...

Gut feeling? Haha. Sure. What do you want to do? Having dinner with the workmates, apparently, and probably coming home for a quick shower after, as the grubby little monsters have had their disease-ridden hands all over me this week. But after that....

I'm going to ditch the soju party at a reasonable hour. And by "reasonable", I mean before seven....

MikejGrey said...

I dunno. Do you want to go to Goose Goose or somewhere else?

I'm no Picasso said...

Somewhere else, if that option's on the table....

I know you don't fancy the idea of missing the train out of Seoul, though....

MikejGrey said...

I dunno. See how I feel. How much was the cab from seoul?

I'm no Picasso said...

Thirty thousand something... I'm not sure. The sun was up and I really had to piss. I just kind of threw some money. But it was under 40, would be even less if we split it back to BP.

cherry garcia said...

i need rest too.

*sobs*