Juice Boxes

For lunch today my school served juice boxes as a bit of a treat.

Somehow seeing the principal and vice principal sipping on juice boxes renders them just a little bit less scary....

Backup

Since the weather has become significantly warmer it has become necessary to have the windows beside my desk open. They only open to the hallway but, with all the windows open, a nice breeze comes through the building.

Unfortunately, more often than not, there are delinquent students sitting outside in the hallway writing lines or sitting with their hands in the air or doing push ups or standing with their hands on their heads...all sorts of fun punishments.

Even more unfortunate is that these delinquent students have discovered that I can't say no when they ask for candy....

Also, today, the exam papers are being sorted and divided and put away into a very unsecure cabinet. Students were forbidden from coming into my office and at least half of the teachers in my school were on the other side of my desk helping out with the sorting.

So, when I student leaned in through the window to ask for candy and didn't leave right away when I said now (because they were stealing it and I had none left) at least 10 teachers yelled at him to 가! or GO!

They probably didn't realise they were helping me, and if they had known they probably wouldn't have done it, but man, these teachers make good backup.

Borrowing and Lending

In my position as English Teacher at Jochiwon Boys Middle School I somehow managed to inherit a rather beat up soccer ball. A few weeks ago my students discovered the existence of this ball and gained the courage to ask me for it. At first they would ask by just saying "teacher, ball please" and I would let them go but, the last few days, students have come up to my desk, a little nervous, and tried to say more than 3 words to me (potentially on the command of my CT)....these are some of their attempts:

S:"Teacher, I need your help."
Me (not yet understanding what was happening at this point): Really? With what?
S: "Teacher, we want to play soccer but we don't have a soccer ball. Please lend a ball please."

...

S: "Teacher, I want to play baseball"
Me: "...oh?"
S: "Teacher, I need your soccer ball to play baseball"
...

S: "Excuse me sir, I need your help"
Me: "Ok" (staunchly ignoring the 'sir' part)
S: "I need to play soccer. I need to lend you a ball."
...

S: "Please teacher, can I lend a ball?"
Me (trying, fruitlessly, to help them): "Can I BORROW a ball."
S (already taking the ball and walking away): "Yes, ok teacher. Thank you"

A Rich Man's World

One downside about Korea is the lack of higher denominations in bills. They have 1000, 5000, 10,000, and 50,000 won bills but no higher. The 50,000 won bills are only distributed are very specific ATMs and are difficult to get rid of because many stores will refuse to take them...not that I blame them.

At the bank today I withdrew a certain amount of money to pay my bills (give the bill and the money to the bank people and voila! bill paid). Unfortunately my hands were full and...let's face it, I'm a klutz, and I dropped all the money in my hands, including the change in my wallet which also fell, on the floor....

Amazingly, even with 3 people helping me pick up my money, every last cent was returned to me.

Makes me wonder if that would happen if this happened anywhere else....