Today I’m researching ways to teach conversational stress patterns (the English language derives meaning from content words that are emphasized, so the meaning of a sentence can change depending on the choice of words stressed) to the students, but the only stress pattern I can discern is my raising blood temperature.

Since class is resuming, post midterm break, towards the end of the week and the cycle of my lesson plans begin on Mondays, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take the kids outside for a game.  I asked the students to form a circle and let the students ask and answer questions randomly, depending on where the ball gets tossed.   Some of the questions were:

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

“no.”

“What grade did you get?”

“fuck you, asshole.”

They only asked questions to humiliate each other.  They kept breaking the circle and wandering off in little conversation groups.  They refused to catch the ball.  They basically ignored the game or threw the ball as far away as they could.

Okay.  Fine.  No more game.  Back to the classroom.

I had them all write, “When I act as a child, I will be treated as a child.” 50 times.

I told them I was disappointed in them, and if they wanted to have fun like this writing assignment every week, then we can have big fun.

To which they would make comments to each other about me in Korean and break out in howls of laughter.

What kind of idiots are these kids? I’m beginning to have the sneaking suspicion these boys are part masochists and rather enjoy having the teacher be their evil overlords.  Where the fuck is the co-teacher?  Actually, I saw him in the halls as we were heading outside.  He laughed and turned around.

There is a rumor that the school is arranging a trip to the U.S. this summer to tour Ivy League schools and that instead of spending my time teaching an English summer camp, I will be sent to Massachusetts and Connecticut to chaperon.  Sounds like bloody hell.  If my worthless co-teacher is the male chaperon, I will go ballistic.

I miss Thailand and teaching Thai kids.  I wish I was Thai instead of Korean most days.

Your hair is different.  You look older.

So today I got to kind of live my fantasy:

I got to speak to Korea about adoption

While attending Jane’s talk on Beyond Shame and Guilt, there was a reporter there who heard about my struggles with Holt and wanted to interview me.  So we exchanged emails and I answered three questions for her via email.  A couple days later, she emailed again and asked if I could answer some more questions in person.

So yesterday I went and met her and an interpreter, and answered a lot more questions, and a photographer came as well to take some candid shots. Surprisingly, we spent way over an hour talking.

Later the same day, they had me come to the studio for a photo shoot of me holding my Holt orphan picture, blown up. JiSun was proud to point out all the famous celebrities who graced the walls and who’s been shot at their studios, but was sadly disappointed because I had no clue who they were.  Poor JiSun had a fear of heights and part of the shoot was on top of the mechanical tower of the roof of the building, and the photographer had her holding a white board to reflect light, and she was petrified the entire time.  I will say that being professionally photographed by a magazine photographer is a much more pleasant experience than any portrait photography I’ve had to sit for.  I imagine they will be quite stark photos, and I was just wearing my every day clothing.

I had thought this magazine was only an on-line magazine, as she sent me a link to their web-site.  But it turns out that 한겨레21 Hankyoreh21 (which means One Nation) is a weekly glossy equivalent to TIME magazine in the states, and it has stunning photography.  It was the first  journalistic publication in the world to switch from private ownership to co-operative ownership, and there are something like 20,000 member owners, so it has a history of being progressive and publishing progressive articles.

Being a weekly, they typically do a focus segment with several stories.  In honor of the fourth annual adoption day, next week’s issue has a spread of adoption-related stories.  I guess in large part due to their coverage of one adoption case last year, a birth mother who fought with an international adoption agency to have her child returned ACTUALLY WON custody of her child:  the adoption agency backed down due to all the negative press it was getting over the details.  So they have returned to interview her.  And then there will be the portion on me and my struggles with Holt, and they have a couple other interviews as well.  Probably with Jane as well – Jane’s Korean mother tracked her down in America (unknown to little Jane at the time) and later had an atypical open adoption, much to the dismay of her American family.  Her adoptive family was unsupportive of her desire to embrace her birth culture, and they are now estranged.  Unfortunately, her Korean mom passed away before Jane could get to Korea, but she has good relations with her biological siblings and has been living in Korea for the past five years now.

I’m really really really tickled to have been allowed to express my opinion about international adoption to Koreans!  I was asked some pretty probing questions about my abuse, of course, but they were also keenly interested in how Holt handles birth family search.  I felt really listened to when I told them my view:  about how single moms deserve respect, about the unknowns of giving your children to strangers, about the west being different but not better enough to exile your children there, about Korea’s self image and taking care of its own people, about being valued less than biological children and being objectified. I even told them that international adoption agencies need to get out of Korea’s womb!  ha ha ha ha ha (don’t know if that will make it in or not!)

Anyway, next week I’ll get a copy and try and share it here, if I can get it translated by someone.  Also, after it is published, I will post what I sent them here if a lot of it ended up getting edited out.

Wow.  That felt good.  I feel so worthwhile today.

Now, it’s 3:30 am and I haven’t a clue what to do with my students in less than five hours…better get to work…

Or, at least it feels like it.

It’s been beautiful, beautiful weather the last two days. Like summer in Seattle. So spring here is like summer in Washington State. I hear it doesn’t last long, unfortunately.

Soon will come the rainy season, followed by insufferable heat and humidity. I’m imagining Washington D.C. in the summertime. Hope the air conditioner use isn’t as extreme as the heating use here, or I will have to bring sweaters to work in August…

Note the rattan bolster?  You can still buy these – saw them at E-mart and wondered what it was and why it was in the bedding department.  Now that I know what it is, I think it’s genius.