Christmas is approaching

Because Christmas is on Saturday, the whole week at school I spent teaching my students Christmas vocabulary and why we celebrate Christmas. I asked them a lot of questions about what they were doing and what presents they wanted. And sometimes there were some really funny answers. These are the ones that made me laugh out loud.

Me: What would you want Santa to bring you?
3 girls: A boyfriend!
Boy: Superpowers!
Another Boy: The Universe.

Can you see a trend? All the girls want a boyfriend and the boys want supreme power. Awesome...

Me: Who was Jesus' mother?
Girl: Mary.
Me: Right, and Jesus was born in a stable.
Boy: What's a stable?
Me: A place where horses and cows live.
Boy: Mary was a horse?!?

After doubling over in laughter, I was able to explain that, no Marry was not a horse. But it was probably the best class, just because it was so funny. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that my little stories have brought a smile to your face. Merry Christmas!

It still makes me laugh

I had the following conversation with one of my male Korean coworkers -

Me: Hey Son Ho, have you found a place where we can play basketball?
Son Ho: Not yet, but I'm looking.
Me: Really? Because I asked you like a week ago.
Son Ho: I'm looking I promise. Don't worry.
Me: I don't believe you.
Son Ho: You SPICY woman!
Me (doubled over in laughter): Did you just call me spicy?
Son Ho: Yes, all you American women are spicy and scary.
Me: Am I scary?
Son Ho: No, you're cute.

I'm still not sure what to make of this conversation. It's the first time anyone's ever called me spicy. I'm going to take it as a compliment...

Sometimes I wonder...

Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out to be a teacher. For the most part I really like my job. It's a whole lot more interesting than the desk job I had in D.C. And I get to joke around with kids and ask them silly questions and call it work.

But sometimes I don't know what they're thinking or feeling. Today I made a 12-year-old boy cry, and I don't even know what I did. Okay, I do know what I did - I scolded him for talking in Korean and then playfully, and I mean playfully, tapped the brim of his baseball hat. And apparently that made him really upset because he told me that he wasn't the one that had spoken in Korean. I said it was because I liked his hat, but the next thing I know his head is down, with his hat brim covering his face and tears streaming down his cheeks. I felt awful! But I swear I wasn't being mean, I was just doing my job. So after that I took him out in the hall and apologized. But I'm pretty sure he was still mad at me. So I felt really bad, but then I thought, "I didn't do anything wrong! And he's 12, he should not be crying." And then I felt bad for thinking like that.

Ugh, it can be an ugly cycle. Let's just hope that when I see him again on Thursday that he won't hate my stinking guts.