the freshmen came back from their 3day Jeju trip.
on thursdays i normally teach 3 classes in the morning but today i only taught 2. the reason being: the freshmen didnt have to come back to school until 2nd period. while waiting for 2nd class to start, one of the teachers in my office who went to Jeju came back and bought everyone in our office a box of chocolates. its called Jeju cactus chocolate which apparently is made from cactus and chocolate. it was really good! she also gave us some barley-red-bean-snack-thing which was also good!

during this whole day there were 2 competitions being held: the techical competition and a junior high school soccer competition between 3 schools.

2nd class: they were soooo tired! i ended up just letting them do the activity planned for the remainder of the class. i felt bad for them bc their plane landed late last night and they had to come back to school.

3rd class: went a lot better. still there were a few students having trouble staying awake so my coT and i just let them be.

during lunch: 2 particular 3rd years named park seung woo and han jeong hyeon sat and talked to me for the entirety of lunch time! i was impressed and super glad! han jeong hyeon kept insisting to me that he was like the sun who shined. at first i thought he was trying to tell me that he was shy. so i said: youre a shy boy like the song by secret? and he said: no no. im shine. lol super cute. and he kept saying: im bad at english. and i said: no, youre good! park seung woo and i have ‘couple phones’. lol we have the same phone. during this discovery, the middle window on the 2nd floor busted out with music. it was a girl singer singing and my only guess would be that it was IU. then out of nowhere: a voice! it was a student’s voice singing along and it was GOOD! we 3 stopped what we were doing and listened while turning our heads to the direction of The Voice. we wanted to know who was singing. to my amazed surprise, im 95% sure that i recognized the top of geun su’s head. but that wasnt geun su’s room. his class room is to the right of the middle window and min gu’s room is to the left of the middle window which is where park seung woo is also at. we continued to watch the middle window in hopes that The Voice would pop his head out but he never did.

back to our 'couple phones’, park seung woo was surprised at my korean song list. then all of a sudden a student by the name of kim tae hoon (same class as park seung woo and min gu) approached me and handed me a milk carton. weird right? well not weird at all. this is the 2nd time ive been handed a milk carton. a lot of the students drink milk like its water. anyways, kim tae hoon said: for teacher. and all i could say was: thank you. bc he left quickly after that. i had some tootsie roll pops with me from my previous classes so i gave one to park seung woo and han jeong hyeon since they were hanging out with me the whole time.

then the right window popped open and the same students who always talk to me through that window were there. they ecstatically yelled out: hellllllo teacher! and i waved back. a few of them came down bc they saw that park seung woo and han jeong hyeon were sitting and chatting with me. they joined our convo and i gave them what was left of the candy. then the bell for 5th class rang and they all headed back to class. all but park seung woo and han jeong hyeon. these 2 stayed until the final bell rang. before the bell rang for the 2nd time, we played bball. yea, i schooled them! and im not even good at bball. lol students watching from the windows were cheering and clapping as i made basket after basket. i only got 3 in a row but i guess even 1 was enough for them. i guess theyve never seen a girl shoot baskets before? lol it was a pretty awesome scene to behold. all park seung woo could do was lower his head in shame and shake it from side to side as he gave in to his defeat. then before leaving for class he asked me: teacher is a sport teacher? and i said: no, i just like to play sports.

5th class: free time for me. went back to my bench and attempted to learn more korean words. but park seung woo and han jeong hyeon came back and they told me that their teacher wasnt in class so their class was cancelled. so then park seung woo and i decided to shoot some hoops again. another student joined us but i didnt catch his name. while playing, 2 of my students: shin gyeong seop (1-1) and kim sang su (1-6), who were directing traffic for the competition came and sat down to watch us play bball. they were pretty surprised to see me play also. then all of a sudden, one of the teachers, han joo hee came and told me to come to the booth he was at to play a korean game when i was done playing ball. i followed him and he and a few teachers were telling me about jae ki cha ki (새기차기) and so i attempted to play. i was only able to do 3… one of the teachers did 47! but i guess its not normal for girls to play this game also so they were really shocked and surprised that was able to get more than 1! i kept practicing and one of the students who was also directing traffic: kim sung sik, a 2nd year, was trying to help me. then han joo hee said: lets go to the other booth to make deok. that booth was right across the soccer field.

we walked across to the other booth and han joo hee asked the halmonies what the next time would be to make deok. they said 3pm so we headed back to the jae ki cha ki booth where i continued to practice. during this time, ji seung pil (micro machine dept) came and tried his best also. then ho nam kyeong (main coT) came and tried also. we had both planned to be spectators to the technical competition so we asked ji seung pil to be our tour guide. he showed us around and we saw students making all these metal things and some were even welding and even making clothes! it was amazing!

i was heading back outside to find han joo hee to go make deok but then i was steered away to the opposite building by this one particular teacher who ALWAYS talks to me in korean! lol mrs ho said that he always wants to talk to me but he doesnt know much english. he took us to visit his office and another round of coffee ensued. in this building we looked at students welding things. that was pretty cool. this was my first time seeing all these different labs at school. i had no idea these existed! after a while that teacher was talking to mrs ho so i looked out the window and saw people making deok. it was already passed 3 and i was beginning to worry if han joo hee thought i had forgotten. i watched the soccer match from the 2nd floor. had a few short conversations with students who saw me from the window. i kept thinking, this must be what it feels like for the 3rd years when theyre having a window conversation with me.

the 6th class bell rang and mrs ho had to go to class. i headed back down with 2 teachers and stayed at the deok booth. there some teachers and students attempted to talk to me while we watched the soccer match. mr shin (aviation teacher) texted me to say that he was at the other booth with han joo hee and he wanted me to come on over. i excused myself and promised to be back before heading to the other side of the field. once there i told han joo hee that i still wanted to make deok and that i had not forgotten. so then we went to the deok booth. we waited for a few mins and then it was time to make deok. a lot of the junior high kids were hungry bc they had been playing soccer all day so they crowded around. i was handed this giant wooden mallet thats almost as big as me and was instructed (by the use of body language from my coach: kim sang sik) how to make deok. basically i was to hit the rice as hard as i could and i would take turns with the person opposite me. the person opposite me was a junior high kid from one of the teams. so then the mallet-ing started. it was pretty fun and i couldnt stop laughing bc i could hear the various: wow! girl! migookeun (american), sonsaengnim (teacher), english… i recognized some of my students and thought: i wonder what theyre thinking… after a while the mallet would stick to the rice and it was an indicator that it was time to dip the mallet in water and bunch the smashed rice back into a ball (this the halmonies did). the 2nd time we were stopped, the teacher who talks to me in korean wanted to mallet the rice with me. i looked around to see if someone wanted to take my spot but they insisted that i continue… so i continued. we were stopped 4 times and the 4th time the halmoni took the rice and basically said the deok was ready for eating. i put my mallet down and FINALLY got a good look at the GIANT crowd that had formulated. i was surprised at the outcome. i turned around and BAM! GYO JANG SONSAENGNIM was right behind me with a handful of official looking men and a camera crew with a photographer!!! OMG! all i could do was look embarrassed and bowed really low and really quick and say: annyeonghaseyo gyo jang sonsaengnim! (hello principal!). he just smiled that jolly smile of his and nodded. then headed to go get some deok with the official looking people. i later found out that those official looking people were all from the poe (provincial of education office), which are the people in charge of all the EPIKers! OMG!

to my complete and utter shock and amazement, i hadnt realize that a bunch of students were crowding around me handing me some deok! this was the deok that i just mallet-ed. my coach handed me 1 and i ate it. then another student handed me one and then another…. i think i stuffed about 5 in my mouth and they all asked me at the same time: teacher, hows it? and all i could respond with my stuffed face was a thumps up, a chubby smile and an attempt to say: mashista which sounded more like maahhhhtaaaa. to which all the students laughed and said some other korean words i couldnt understand. then i was approached by my students whom i knew by face and they said: jen teacher! good! wow! and all i could say was: ehhh thank you?! i finally found han joo hee amongst the crowd, he had gone to get me some deok also, which i ate. before leaving, i wanted to thank the halmonies for letting me experience a korean tradition but all i could saw with my very basic korean was: jungmal komapsmida halmonies! deok choayo! to which students and teachers who overheard smiled, nodded and laughed a little at my korean. after a few high 5’s and more bowing and thank yous, i headed back to the jae ki cha ki booth with han joo hee.

at the booth, mr shin was waiting for us to return so he could show me around the aviation dept. he also showed me the 3 planes that were kept at our school. it was AWESOME! the plane that students and teachers built for the 1st time together was there also! they made a huge headline in the news with this plane and it was a big deal. it took 8 months to build and its pretty legit. theres a motor and everything. it seats 2 pilots. the 3 teachers i was with wanted me to get inside the plane and see from a pilots point of view so i climbed into the plane and they took pics of me in it. they also wanted me to put on the head set. theyre verrrrry proud of this plane! afterwards we started heading back outside but not before a teacher from the aviation office came out and handed me a bunch of snacks! both cookies and chocolate! SUPER cute!

once outside at the jae ki cha ki booth, they were tallying up who got the most and i apparently got 9th place. i was kinda confused bc there were more people who got more than me. but then they told me that it was bc there was a diff set of rules for girls. so i guess i scored the highest for girls. they gave me a prize and it contained a 20,000won gift certificate. SUPER AWESOME!there were a few students playing bball and jae ki cha ki and some of them i knew. they saw all the snacks i had and i gave them some. then min gu came and took them from the students and gave them back to me. LOL! what a great student prez! i told him it was ok and gave them some but kept some for myself bc i didnt want min gu’s effort to go to waste. i also gave some to kim sung sik (coach) bc he helped me out a lot like a true coach with jae ki cha ki and making deok.

FINALLY headed back to the office after a few more words with the students.