Today proved, yet again, how susceptible my mood is to weather. It was a beautiful sunny day—hot, even, and too bright outside for good pictures!—and I was deliriously happy. But then, the day was going well even before I ventured outside, so maybe I was just lucky. I feel that I’m really connecting with my students lately…as in, they seek out random conversations with me beyond the usual “Hi!” Not all of them, of course, but enough to give me hope that I’m actually making a difference. And I’m usually quick enough to use vocabulary and phrases we’ve learned together…many of them are retaining things well! I lunched with the fifth graders, which I haven’t done in a really long time, and that was fun, too. I don’t see I Bin all that much anymore, but I sat by her and ate her vegetables and she told me about her water rocket she’d built for a science experiment. And other students wanted to sit by me, too! I probably need to seek out more of these contacts before I leave. I cannot expect everyone to come to me.
But I was visited by the fifth grade teacher after lunch, as per our agreement. I really didn’t expect him to follow through. Everyone else, in my experience, says they want to practice English but then rarely talk to me. It seems they feel obligated, almost, to want to learn, but when it comes down to it, they are actually not interested or else really shy about speaking. This guy is defying my categorizations. First I thought he was one of those who would avoid talking to me or would speak only in Korean; then I thought he would be one of the shy ones who would claim to want to learn but would never actually try. It seems he is sincere. Today he shared a vitamin C candy and we talked about my classroom English handout, which the sixth grade teacher has apparently shared with everyone. He also gave me some style tips, just as I’d hoped—evidently, I look best in braids. And here I thought they made me look childish! Guess Koreans do tend to like everything cutesy. I’m still waiting on clothes guidance—I suspect he will advise me to invest in more shiny and/or purple items (he wore that combo again today).
I did watch the water rockets for a while this afternoon, but it was too nice to stay—the hills were calling me! I took a long hike on my usual trail—it was probably 12 km or so and 1100 vertical. I was surprised at the vertical reading, but the trail does go up and down a lot. There are at least four significant climbs. I was ill-equipped this afternoon, too…I didn’t bring any water. When it’s cooler, I usually don’t need any, but it was hot today and I could feel myself fading as I trudged on. I ended up running across an abandoned water bottle and guzzled from that—hope I don’t get sick!