Happy Valentine's Day to Me

I'm pretty sure everyone has a story about Valentine's Day. As it turns out, I have several.

-My freshman year of high school, the guy I had been talking to told me he didn't want to see me anymore. (Awww.)
-My junior year of high school, my dad was in the hospital. (Awww.)
-My senior year of high school, my cat had to be put down because he'd been run over by a car. (Awww.)
-My senior year of college, my grandmother's best friend died, and I started dating my first real boyfriend. (My first kiss was on a Valentine's Day, let the cheese flow!)

So this year, what with a kind of dull weekend planned (Korean lessons--that were skipped due to tiredness, going away party, church), I didn't expect to have much to report. I think that combining Friday the 13th with Valentine's Day looming is just a recipe for disaster...

We had a field trip to a bug museum yesterday, and it was pretty strange. First off, I swear it's 65 degrees out already, and yesterday it was raining. We were so hot and so wet! But because it was raining, the kids still had all of their winter coats, and really we got quite cranky with each other. One of my students actually threw a hamster. I hope he gets his act together some day. A few other students dropped the hamsters (at a bug museum?), and I got to the point where I couldn't watch them anymore. They weren't listening to me telling them to hold them over the box (aka where the nice, soft wood shavings are). It reminded me of myself when I was younger and in a pet store, and I think I dropped one or I saw someone drop one. I'm not sure, but I felt really badly for the little guys. We got to see some silk worms, and see how they actually harvest the silk. That was pretty interesting.



Afterward, I was goofing off with the owner's daughter, and she ended up running head-first into a metal pole (this is after having already slipped and fallen in front of the school). I felt kind of like I'd just dropped one of the hamsters and sat quietly in the back of the bus willing the day to pass quickly.

Thankfully I got a lot of time for lunch, so Heather and I went and tried to recover over steaming bowls of rice--she got bibambap which is rice, veggies, and a fried egg, and I got kimchi fried rice. I don't know what I'll do without kimchi in America. Somewhat restored (aided by ice cream, it's so hot!) we watched with disdain as beetle larvae were prepared to send home with the kids. BLECH! For the entire hour, Heather obsessed over whether she looked cute enough to go to Seoul to meet her boyfriend's friends. Despite reassurances, the hair went up in a ponytail, and that was that. The bell rang, and I man-handled all of the kids to the fourth floor where we were going to watch another class's play, then perform ours. They behaved about as rottenly as you can imagine (rainy, Friday, field trip), and the three kids who had memorized their scripts were gone. Yuria threatened they'd have to perform in their uniform and not the costume if they didn't memorize their scripts, which was a lot less jail-inducing than what I had in mind.

I was SO relieved when the bell finally chimed and we got to send them (and their larvae) home. After getting in trouble for sitting up front with Megan, I was sulking in the back office, being forced against my will to listen to Olivia complain about the same homeless man she's been complaining about for the last three months. And she wasn't complaining about it to me or a foreigner, she was dragging my beloved Alice into it. And when Olivia speaks to the Koreans, she dumbs down and starts talking like bullies talk to mentally challenged kids--kind of a taunting "I'm above you" slower way. Thank you, thank you, thank you mom for the iPod.

The time came to go to the other school, so I headed out. As I looked up, I saw Albert sprinting away. Fine. Didn't want to talk to him, either. I hunkered down and kept walking (stepping in a puddle, of course!), until I heard the distinct sound of "ate." What with Korean words not ending in "ate," I wondered if someone was calling me. I looked up and saw Albert running towards me, saying, "Kate! Wait!" So I did, and he handed me a coffee and told me he couldn't make it to soju Friday because Jin was having him move desks around and that he was sorry, but next week.

Best Friday the 13th ever.