"Mah-tah-toom!"

Thank goodness it's Friday!! Woohoo!! Today was a really relaxed day, especially after working through midterms the past two days. I had a few really funny encounters with my students today:

1. I wore my pink Ron Jon shirt, and on the back it says, "I don't do mornings." My middle school students didn't know what that meant, so I was trying to explain it to them. One of them said, "How you not do mornings?" I explained to them that I'm not a morning person. They said, "Ohh!! Tired?" So I explained that I don't have energy in the mornings. They said, "You not sleep?" So I explained to them that I'm just not happy in the mornings until I am completely awake. One of the students starting speaking in Korean to the rest of them. Their response, "Ohhhh!! Hahaha!" I asked what was said, and a girl replied, "It means you lazy, yes?" I guess I wasn't successful with THAT conversation! :)

2. When I went to Suwon Medical Center earlier this week, I had my blood drawn for testing. Just like last time, I developed a huge bruise from the needle. One of my younger students saw it today, pointed at me, and said, "mah-tah-toom!! mah-ta-toom!" I asked him what he was talking about, and he grabbed his arm where my bruise is. I said, "oh, hospital! doctor!" He looked really upset, so I asked him what "mah-ta-toom" is. He said, "fight!" and started punching the air. I realized that he thought I had gotten in a fight and went to the hospital. Oh geez...I explained it to him, and he felt much better :)

I'm definitely going to have to keep learning Korean so I don't have these little misunderstandings with my students. They end up being funny, but we struggle sometimes in understanding each other. It's all part of the learning experience, I guess :)

At the school, we have an empty classroom called "Room 5" which is the punishment classroom for students. If they act up in class, they are sent to Room 5 where they have to do extra work, and their parents are called. (A lot of the students think Darren is mean because he's the one who's typically monitoring Room 5.) Anyway, today I saw something that I haven't seen before. There were four students standing in the hallway holding chairs over their heads. They were there for about 7-8 minutes. I asked Darren about it later, and he told me that if the students are really disrespectful they have to stand in the hallway and either hold their arms over their heads or hold a chair over their heads as punishment. It obviously works, because the students straightened up really quickly after that.

I really hope it stops raining for at least a few hours this weekend. It will be refreshing to see the sun and maybe get outside for a little bit :)