Such Great Fortunes

I am so utterly lucky. It is strange that my time in Korea is dominated by two contradictory feelings: that of utter loneliness and incredible love. I received a package from a Boston friend today that was beyond generous. I opened it at work because of the cheese. Yes, more cheese. I might have a cheese party. If this were prison my foreigner coworkers would by my bitches because I have cheese and chocolate. I control the spice.

The coworker whose friend crashed at my place brought me a giant bar of chocolate as a thank you for helping her out. I was surprised. It seems completely natural to help when you can so...it's weird being thanked for stuff that just should be done. I don't know. Anyways, it was nice. Here's my update from the weekend:


Oh and I made a student cry today. I made one cry last week: He wasn't paying attention in class and I gave him a warning and then I caught him flipping through the book (I have a class rule about not flipping through the book) and instructed him to step outside of the class (this is SOP). He wouldn't get out of his chair so I tried to use my understanding of behavior modification from my mother. I told him that he needed to step outside at my request or I would have the office contact his mother. I remained calm but the kid refused to leave the room and broke down in tears and after establishing that he had made the choice I continued with the class discussion.

Today one of the teenage students in my most frustrating class was extremely disrespectful and I told him that he was getting study hall because I knew he would never treat a Korean teacher that way. Possibly foolishly, I said, "I am 28, twice your age, I have a Master's degree, and I am your teacher and you will treat me with respect!" He started crying to himself. This is a continual problem with this student, I need to find the time and opportunity to reach out to him but I don't know him well. The teacher that is leaving observed that this behavior was unusual for the student and I asked him if he could find out what the problem was and he said, "I don't care." But he backed off and seemed to offer to assist and I told him that would be appreciated. I think a teenage boy will respond better to a male teacher he knows that to a new, female teacher.