Chobok

The adults told me a little about today being cho-bok, then I read more about it in the newspaper.  Bok means the energy of autumn lies down on the ground since the energy of summer is still strong.  Cho means first.  There are three really hot days every summer, determined by the lunar calendar.  This year the other days are July 30 and August 9.  Traditionally, you're supposed to eat samgyetang, a dish of chicken, ginseng, garlic, jujube, and rice on the really hot days.  According to the older generation, if you shower on one of the "bok" days, you become weak.  I don't understand that one--a cool shower is necessary to survive!  Looking outside, it's beautiful--a bright blue sky with white fluffy clouds.  However, actually GOING outside feels like you have entered a sauna--your breath is gone, all of your energy drains out, and you're covered in sweat.  When you take into account the humidity, today felt like 96 degrees with a UV index of 10.  I'm slightly burnt from my walk this morning.   
 
I have seriously considered asking Matt if he wants to start teaching the adults earlier than originally planned.  They (OK, basically Grace) drive me crazy!!  Today she was complaining about the homework I gave them.  She does not seem to understand that without work, she is never going to get any better!  The even bigger problem is she thinks she knows everything all ready.  Sometimes I feel like saying to her, "OK, your turn to teach the class!"  Today I almost lost it when she wanted to hear a "full sentence."  I gritted my teeth and took a breath before calmly and slowly replying, "There are a HUNDRED 'full sentences' that you could use with that word.  It all depends on what you want to say!!"  Today they did a role play, and the other two students (attendance is down because of the kids' summer vacation) did a great job at sounding fairly natural and using intonation and such.  Grace, however, only read, and didn't even do that too well.
 
After their class I wrote the summary of last week's teachers' meeting.  Now I only have to get Matt's paper to have everything ready to give to Joelle.  Instead of spending the rest of the break to correct more journals, Joelle asked me to pick out readers for the foreign teachers to use in teaching a special class over the summer vacation.  I asked Joelle who would be teaching the special class, and she wasn't aware that no one had been asked yet.  Later when she asked Matt and Tanya if they could do it, they didn't quite understand her, so I asked her about it and then explained it to them.  I feel like a translator, but I'm translating Korean English to Canadian English!  I hope they like the books that I picked out--I tried to pick topics that the kids would be interested in and enjoy reading and that wouldn't be too boring for a teacher to teach.
 
During my 3 PM break I took my film to be developed and got some pot-bing-su from Lotteria to try to cool off.  Some middle school girls started talking with me, and we had a good, if strange, conversation.  There was a cute dog in the restaurant, sitting in the chair next to his owner, enjoying the bits of hamburger she gave them.  I couldn't help thinking what would happen if that happened at home!
 
Tanya talked to her mother this morning, and learned about the serial killer who was caught in Seoul.  She commented that she didn't even know a serial killer was on the loose--I'd guess that most foreigners wouldn't have known.  She said it like it was big news, when Matt and I talked about it several times yesterday, when it was front page news.
 
The afternoon classes were quite good.  At 6 PM I only had 3 students.  Harry spent about 10 minutes trying to convince me to buy them a snack.  "Teacher, I am tired from school camping.  I am hungry.  Please, you must buy us ice cream.....and french fries.....and play a game.  The other students are sleeping, but I really wanted to see you, so I came to class.  PLEASE, teacher!"  I haven't done anything special with that class before, and he was very insistent but in an extremely polite way, so I took the three of them to Lotteria.  We spent nearly 30 minutes there, and they did an excellent job of conversing in English.  WOW!  Even Jenny and Rosie, both usually quiet in class, did better with the more personal attention.  (The air conditioner there was great, too!  I could have lived without the Korean pop music playing, though.)  Then we returned to class and played a game.  The next class had only 5 students (normal is 13) so it was actually manageable.  They also pleaded for a game; we played for the last 15 minutes.
 
I figured out early on that I'm not teaching any poor kids, but how rich are these families?!  Elena is going with her father on a 4-day business trip to Paris while her mother goes to Japan.  Harry's family is going to China for 5 days; lots of kids are doing tons of special camps and extra academy classes over the 5-week summer vacation.  Plus they have "vacation homework" to do.  They make it sound so horrible, but if they'd do a little each day it wouldn't be so bad.  It's saving it until the day before school starts back that makes it hard to get done.