i adore korean children

Had a particularly nice evening.  On my way home I ran into 3 different students.  I just love running into my students outside of the classroom.  They just get beside themselves happy and all but trip over themselves to give me a big hello.  They're just being kids and they have no idea what happiness they are adding to my life.  It's very grounding in this foreign world to have people, of any age, recognize you and enthusiastically acknowledge you.  It just makes my heart happy.

Before I got to my apartment I stopped into a little store to buy water and, um cookies, before heading home. (just for the record they are "digestive" cookies, but I'll get to why I shouldn't be confessing to buying cookies later).  Outside of the store, I ran into one of my 5th graders and I said hello to her before she saw me, and she was so happy. There was a woman near with a few small children, and I assumed that was her mother, but she kept walking with me and I found out that was not her mother.  It was after 8 o'clock and a pretty intense fog had rolled in, and she said that she was scared.  I found out she was going home, so I asked if she wanted me to walk her home.  She said, "WOULD YOU?? OHHHhH THank you Christine Teacher!! YES, I AM SCARED, OH please".   So we proceeded to walk up and through the fog covered allies eating the cookies I just bought.  :)      It was fun and in truth as it was happening I thought, I would rather be doing nothing else, but walking through this creepy, fog covered alley in Korea, eating cookies with a 10 year old girl.  Life doesn't get much better than that.   She is one of the brighter students, so we were able to have a pretty basic conversation (weather, scared, cookies, straight, left, right, apartment).   Anyway, I love my kids.  I really do.   Walking back from her apartment, I just kept thinking, that even though I have had a few struggles these past few months, moments like these make it all worth it.

Moving on to different kid stories:  The kids that don't know you in Korea are a lot of fun too.  Sometimes a little awkward.  I was out to dinner a few weeks ago and this little girl comes up to our table and just stands there  and stares.  I say "hello" "how are you" "what's your name"...mostly just trying to get a feel for her level of English.  Anyway, after we covered the 5 basic topics, she just kept standing and staring with her nose pretty much on the table.  It went on for an uncomfortably long time (5 or more minutes), but I kept cracking up over it.     It happened earlier this week too.  This little girl kept staring and I would say hi, hello and then I could hear her mimicking some of my expressive words like, "woowwwww".   She then comes over to start showing off a bit (blowing bubbles, doing twirls), so I would say, "wowwwwwww" to her and she just loved it.   So then, I threw in a couple of other expressive words.   It's the little things really.

Last child story:  I was asked AGAIN by children at my other school if I was pregnant (message received loud and clear korea).  I decided to say that I was, because I wanted to see what they would do.  Well, they started putting their heads up to my stomach to listen to the baby's heartbeat and they were all putting their hands on my stomach too.  This is why I should not be skipping along the streets of korea eating cookies.  Well, I started running like a mad woman these past few weeks, so hopefully my cookie fat will start to recede.  Until then, I am lovin' my bundle of joy!

Tid Bits: 

Every morning I am given a military salute by the crosswalk guard and every day I salute him back.  I have come to look forward to our exchange. 

One of my students wore a shirt the other day that said, "I have a sweat smile" with pictures of hearts and cookies.  I adore lost in translations and there are an abundance here!