Class management

Everyday is an adventure even when you aren't looking for one.

What comes to mind when you think of underrated painful life experiences? Cutting a finger nail too short? Paper cuts? If you have ever had a pimple in your nose, you know how one simple clogged pore can ruin your week.

So i had a pimple in my nose. It was terrible. I couldn't think for 5 days. The only thought in my head was "damn it this hurts." To make matters worse my nose turned as red as an Old Spice Deodorant stick. Terrible.

For the record, Koreans take great care of their appearance. There are mirrors everywhere. Everywhere. 60% of their buildings are concrete, 20% is made of mirrors. You cant get on an elevator without someone fixing their perfectly fine hair, straightening their collar, or picking non-existent lint of their shiny blazer. Even the dudes invest copious amounts of time in their presentation of self.

So i had to teach all week with an active volcano brewing inside my sniffer. It was red, swollen and painful. Terrible. If the kids can notice that i clipped my fingernails they were surely going to notice their teacher has a flaming, red hot infected nose. They did.

I walk into class to them whispering in Korean. Finally one of them says, "Teacher drinky soju?"

Ha! they thought the reason i had a red clown nose was because i was drinking before class! (They've never noticed before...)

"Teacher Noodle poo!"

Now what is "noodle poo" one may ask? Well it stumped me the first time i heard it too. I had no f'in clue. "What the hell are you calling me?" After some miming and KONGLISH it came to my realization they were trying to say Rudolph- You know THE red nosed reindeer?

Noodle Poo = Rudolph

Each class i pretended to know nothing about "noodle poo" to steer their concentration away from the massive zit in the middle of my face. It worked with some of the kids, others drew some pretty decent pictures of cartoon "noodle poos." oh well you win some and you lose some...