151 days

1. new trip to the used bookstore, currently reading: Orlando (Virginia Woolf), The Woodlanders (Thomas Hardy), Meditations in an Emergency (Frank O'Hara), Sorry, Tree (Eileen Myles). Spending all of my Saturday reading and skyping with @twcwar.
2. rough week at school, had 2 confrontations in the low-level classes I essentially teach alone, the classes where the co-teacher thinks that me being there means he doesn't have to come. Stopped playing games in Robot Electronics because everyone was screaming and cheating, made them study silently for the rest of class and take a quiz at the end. Had a power struggle with 1 kid in Digital Electronics who completely ignored me every time I talked to him or asked him to do something, who was gambling in the back of the classroom while the rest of the class was writing about their families. He kept pretending he didn't understand me whether I was speaking in English or Korean, just ignoring my existence, to the point where I wasn't actual able to deal with him anymore. Thankfully, it was nearly the end of class by that point, so I made him follow me to the teachers' office and enlisted my co-teachers' help to discipline him. (hashtag: reasons i shouldn't be in a classroom without a Korean co-teacher, reasons I have problems with language immersion education in a non-adult setting)
3. but then, one of my graduated students, Park Sun-Woo, came back to visit me. The graduated students come back occasionally, and I chat with them, but they always come to visit other teachers and to give them presents. This was the first time someone's come back to visit me, and he gave me a huge case of fruit juices to distribute to my department (which is the thing to do) and it made me happy. Thankfully, it happened Friday afternoon, after all the drama of the week, so I started my weekend on a cheerful note. Park Sun-Woo was the cutest and the best and the hardest-working student ever, and now he has a real job making machines.
4. Got my CELTA certificate in the mail yesterday, time to start annoying the Office of Education to give me a raise.
5. Got my after school attendance list for this semester yesterday, it's like 50% shy girls and 25% smart confident girls and 25% boys. Should be weird to have a majority of girls when I've gotten so accustomed to teaching classes that are 90% boys.