Highlights of my Day... Friday, March 21

1. Next week almost all of my students are leaving on Wednesday for their M.T... it's basically a school overnight trip that isn't exactly academic based. They'll be staying up late, singing, acting like foolish students, and doing lots of drinking... and the school organizes it. Anyways, this meant that all this week I've had to deal with students begging and pleading to let them join my Monday and Tuesday classes, but, with about 120 students wanting to attend these classes, obviously I had to turn lots down.

2. Am expecting the attendance to be in the single digits for my Thursday classes but as for my Friday classes, I was able to convince those not going on the M.T. to attend my Friday morning class... I guess 'convince' isn't the correct word here, 'bribe' is. Promised them all I'd bring them banana milk... hehehe. Laugh as you may but I have you know it just turned my 8 hour Friday into 2 hours... sweet!!!

3. For the most part I am really enjoying my students this semester. Sure, I've got some sleepers and the occasional attention-lacking student, but they're pretty fun to teach. Having said this though, I have one student who really concerns me and he's in one of my Friday classes. He's a senior in the class and so, given the Korean culture and manners, he has a lot of say over his younger students. Throw in the fact that he's quite the joker and apparently seems to think that blurting out "interesting" comments and whatnot is appropriate, I sense he's going to be a hard one to crack. His English is pretty good but today he really got to me. He blurted out something that was definitely not called for in class and so I just stopped. I stopped and starred at him. Students all hushed and he stopped laughing. Everything stopped.

4. Class resumed and things were going good, real good, but then that one student spoke out again. I swung around and in Korean, I told him, "I don't like trouble makers. I like you but don't be a trouble maker or you will fail my class!" And on that note, everyone got super serious. I felt kind of bad for making it so serious and so, to lighten the mood, I threw out, "Don't you know I'm a boxer... be careful. I have a mean right hook!" and with that the class all laughed. I guess bouncing up to him and throwing jabs and hooks in the air like I was Rocky had something to do with breaking the ice too... hehehe.

5. We've got a new assistant in our office, I'll refer to him as Happy-Go-Lucky cause, well, he's quite the cheery guy. Today I got a chance to have lunch with him and chat, after which, I asked him if he wanted a coffee. He joked so much about the fact that I was the first professor to make him a coffee. I didn't think much of it at first but later I did.

6. Lately I've been noticing groups forming in our staff room. In one corner you've got the newly arrived teachers who are overly chatty and very sociable. In another corner you've got all the teachers from last semester who are chummy with each other. They chat at work and hang out after work. Then you've got the Korean assistants who mingle together and never seem to be invited or included in after school stuff, like birthdays or whatnot. Then you have those in the middle that don't really hang out with any particular group. So where do I fit in, you ask... hmm... right in the middle, well the not-so-middle that is. I don't really get invited out by my coworkers, maybe it's cause I always make excuses or am busy. If anything actually, I hang with the assistants. They're a hardworking group of people who always seem to be happy and I just really feel comfortable with them.

7. Later on in the evening I got a phone call from Arirang. This Thursday I'll be interviewed and then next Saturday their TV filming crew is going to come to Cheonan to film their mini showcase on me... cool.

8. Met up with Q and off we went to boxing where we were greeted by Junior Mint gearing up. Training along side him is always interesting cause I end up kind of making a competition out of it. He skips for 25 minutes, so I skip for 30. He shadow boxes for 6 rounds, so I do 7. Tonight we really got to compete though.. sparring. I laced up the head gear, popped in my mouth guard and then jumped in the ring for 6 rounds with him.

9. Junior Mint wasn't wearing any head gear. I guess he was thinking I couldn't pull a fast one on him... guess again. In the 4th round I gave him a brutal punch to the head. Everyone heard it and my hand definitely felt it, as did he. We continued on but it was so hard to concentrate cause he kept on sticking his tongue out at me. Once I caught his tongue though with a good jab. That was the last time he did that... hehehe.

10. With no real plans tonight cause of the fact that we didn't leave training till about 11:30pm, Q and I went back to his house. We tried to convince Junior Mint to go out with us but he was tired. Sometimes I feel sad leaving Junior Mint. I mean, he's at the gym from 10am to 11pm, 5 days a week and so it really doesn't mean much free time for meeting friends or his girlfriend. He pours everything he has into his gym and so sometimes when I leave, I turn back to look at him. He usually looks so drained, so lonely. I wonder how things are for him outside of boxing.

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
When he's not a coach, what is he?

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
A person's world is only as big as their heart.
-- Tanya A. Moore