Tests and Fight Part II

In the adult class we talked about their holiday activities. Several of them went to a Buddhist temple. Vivian went to 3 temples in Kyungju and at each temple, she paid to write her family name and a wish on a lantern. Supposedly you make a wish and it comes true. Since her son is a senior in high school, she wished for him to get into a good university. It's not cheap--anywhere from 10,000~30,000 won ($8~25), depending on the size and placement of the lantern.

I got the In2Books letters finished before classes began, which was a relief to not have to finish them later. Matt came in and asked where to change money. I walked him down to my bank, which was surprisingly empty, and helped him change $100 USD to 114,000 won. They wouldn't even look at his Canadian money. Mr. Kim is supposed to take him to the Korea Exchange Bank on Tuesday morning. Matt also asked me about trash bags, so I taught him the Korean word--su-re-gy-tong--to ask for at the corner store. Stephanie wrote it down for him in Korean. I also made them an "idiot card"--their address in Korean, to ensure a taxi driver can always get them home, also emergency phone numbers (Mr. Kim and Joelle).

The speaking tests went fine, but I only got one class of evaluations finished. I did finish grading most of the essays. Sandra was in for several hours, to return the completed evaluations and finish some other work. At one point she said something about me knowing her too well. That's so right--several times I could see her tension building up, like strangling Tanya was only seconds away. Tanya sure is hyper! I wonder how it'll work when Sandra gets back?! We said a more meaningful goodbye, with me congratulating her and wishing her a pleasant trip, and her saying she'll really miss talking with me everyday, so I should email. We did talk a lot!

Around 8:20 the same woman as Monday showed up, this time with an older man, too. Jennifer and the couple started shouting at each other and doing the slapping thing. Mr. Kim and Joelle were at the desk to intervene, while the laptop guy and five teachers came running to help. I stayed out of the danger zone. After all, I don't know how they fight, or what they were fighting about, or anything. The one point I started to get involved was when "our" side pushed Jennifer into the teachers' room to keep her away from the couple. (She was shouting and fighting just as strongly as them.) She started to go back out, so Joelle came in to keep her from going back out into the lobby. Then the woman came into the teachers' room and there was only little Joelle between the two furious women. Don't kill Joelle!

Several teachers stayed in the teachers' room with a sobbing Jennifer. She stopped crying long enough to call the police. She gave the address and asked them to come quickly. I timed it--less than 4 minutes until three middle-aged, fairly strong-looking policemen walked in. By that point Mr. Kim had the couple sitting down at the counter talking with him, with Jennifer still in the teachers' room. I was in the hall by Kiwi classroom giving a speaking test. The policemen walked in and looked around, trying to find the problem. When Jennifer saw them she came out of the teachers' room shouting, ready to go at the couple again. I'm not quite sure what the policemen did, but I think the people went downstairs or at least into the stairwell because it got quieter. I was relieved to see that the police officers who respond to emergency calls aren't the same 18-year-olds who direct traffic and do crowd-control. I still don't know that these officers carried guns, but they looked more intimidating than the young guys.

I left school just after 9:30, but was absolutely exhausted with a fairly bad headache. I just wanted to go home and not necessarily sleep, but at least lie down, especially considering tomorrow morning is another early morning with adults. So no Bible study tonight, only sleep.