Today I was stopped in the hallway at work by one of my Korean co-teachers. She had something to tell me. "Emily, I just wanted to let you know that David's mom and grandma wanted to thank you for being such a good teacher to David. He says you're really fun and energetic and that he always enjoys coming to your class. They also went on to say that before coming to ILS (my school) and being in my class, that David was always really unhappy and kind of depressed. This surprises me because he's always really happy and outgoing in my class. Equally surprised were his mom and grandma, but for the opposite reason! T o my co-teacher this may seem small, but for me it means so much. Getting through the difficult days that leave me wanting to scream makes it all worth it to be thanked by my students' parents.

Remember my difficult 4 year old? Well, he seemed to have had a breakthrough last week. This time when he looked up at me and his little black eyes were dripping with tears, and he started screaming and wailing, he actually let me comfort him. Before he would have just pushed me and walked away sobbing. This time he let me hold him and even though we don't understand each other, I am really happy to see him caving a little! His mom also told a different co-teacher of mine to thank me for being so nice to Su-in even though he hates me. I promise- those were the words used. The kid hates me. But I also know it's because he's 4 and he's frustrated. Well, I'm 27 and I'm frustrated, too!! That's another thing his mom said- that she knows it's got to be difficult for me to teach her son because he is very difficult in general. I taught him a new game yesterday though. He has now started to hate learning from the book, but I make him learn the same material in a different way aka I trick him. Yesterday we spent 80 minutes giggling and tossing a stuffed doll back and forth. "Catch! Throw!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again- teaching these kids has taught me that I have an incredible reserve of patience that I would have forever sworn didn't exist if I never came here to do this. Maybe it's because I'm so used to working with adults, and my patience for those who should know better is very limited. Children have an excuse- they shouldn't know better! They're kids. I like the youngest ones best. It's so rewarding to see them understand something that even a week ago was out of the realm of their comprehension. I still have a class of three boys (ok, ok- my favorite class) that insist on pronouncing "pennies" as "penis" and another class slips in the word dong (feces) in wherever they can. It's hard being the authority sometimes! When I was in school I know for a fact that everyone was doing the same thing to teachers. We never had a foreign teacher come in, but I can best compare my position to being a substitute teacher. I don't quite receive the respect I deserve because the kids think they can get away with anything. In a way, this is a similar situation to subbing. It's transient. In 10 months I'll be back in the US and my kids will be hanging off their new teacher- "Emily Teacher" long forgotten!

To end this I'll tell a funny little story about my morning at the gym today.
Ok- I know and accept the fact that I am very particular about tiny little things that most people don't even think about or notice. In restaurants Greg and I do a mental scan to locate the table farthest away from all the other tables, and the most out of the way. We hate feeling crowded or being bumped into. On the subway platform I head to either the front or the back- statistically the 2 least likely crowded locations. (Not the case in NYC...) Since my gym assigns lockers upon each visit and I can't choose mine in the farthest back corner, I silently pray each time that I won't be directly across from a naked butt bending over to apply lotion that might accidentally rub up against me (the butt, not the lotion). I can only guess I'm not alone in hoping that no strangers' butts will touch me during my gym visits. Anyway, so today I enter the lockeroom. Turn into the aisle in which locker #83 is located, and can hardly contain my gasping surprise to see not 1, not 3, but 8-10 elderly special needs naked Koreans all sitting/ standing, mumbling to themselves. Some partially dressed thanks to some nurses. Guess where locker 83 is located? Yup. right in the middle of this gaggle. I think I was touched by perhaps 3 naked butts this morning. Now, that's just too much to handle before I've had my morning coffee!!!