It's rare that I blog in the evening, but it's a Monday night and I have nothing to do.  My reward for my consistently crappy Mondays is that I don't have class until fourth period.  Because of this, I tend to stay awake much later and wake up much later.  It also puts me in a pretty good mood.

So...as I blatantly stated in my previous blog, I've been on a mini-emotional low as of late.  I'm really going to try to change that, however, since I've always said that a person makes his or her own happiness.  I kept my weekend pretty chill so I wouldn't feel frazzled, too.  On Friday, Michael, Susan, Dean, and I just went to Sillim and had dinner and drinks.  I was tucked in bed by midnight. 

Saturday was a little different but not crazy.  I'd promised Dorothy Nam I would walk in her fashion show at her Gallery 16 party.  A popular TV and radio personality in Korea, Dorothy also is interested in fashion and designed some modern hanboks.  The party was thrown partly for Blackberry (since they are still doing early promotion in Korea) and partly for her fashion line.  There were six other girls, none of whom I had met before.  The event was slightly stressful (um, who would have ever imagined walking could be so confusing?  We had all these things--walk, pose, stop here, walk now, wait five seconds here, then here, then do a zig zag pattern here) but it was cool.  The actual walking part was a total blur.  I'm kind of dreading the official press pictures.  Believe it or not, I *forgot* my camera!  All I have are some lousy pictures taken on my Blackberry.  D: Distressed face.

Other than that, I've still been having a hard time at work.  The feeling that I'm wasting my time with some classes won't go away and it makes me feel so, so terrible.  I do try to put effort into my lesson planning so it just sucks when you realize that 80% of the kids in a certain class don't give a damn.  Teachers say "Oh, well they are low level so that's why they don't care."  But really, with a lot of them, it's that they don't care and that's why they are low level.  If the teachers never push them and just assume they are "dumb" or "beyond help", then of course the kids will act that way.  It's upsetting. 

I mean, I had to kick out one kid in all four of my classes today!  I hate doing it, but when they don't listen a million times, it just drags the entire class down to have one kid disrupting everything.  One kid kept trying to stand up and walk across the room and I told him three times to sit down.  The fourth time, I had my back turned and was helping another group, when I turned and saw him lunge out of his seat and lob a piece of chalk that he'd stolen at a classmate's face.  Immediately, I went over, pointed to the door, and told him to get out.  Reluctantly and dragging his face with a pained expression, he left and stood in the hallway.

A few minutes later, I went outside with an English newspaper, blank piece of paper, and pen in hand, gave them to him, circled a large passage, and told him to start and writing and not stop until the bell rang.  He immediately started whining loudly in Korean going, "Why???  No!  No, I don't want to!  I'm not a computer! I can't do it!  Whyyy?"  I can't IMAGINE ever whining to a teacher that way.  I told him firmly but not meanly, "Come on, get started, I'll be back to check on you, okay?"  He continued whining loudly through the entire class, but at least did a lot of writing. 

In the other classes, it was pretty much the same thing.  I have this one terrifying little girl who looks like she is about 7 and must be about 4 foot nothing.  REALLY small.  I've never seen a first year middle school girl that small before.  She is just...absolutely tiny and doll-like.  She has chalk white skin, huge black eyes, a babyish but really pretty face, and a little China doll hair cut.  With a high, girlish voice, she always bounces into class with cheerful greetings.  The thing is...she is a little monster.  Her smile is a total act, and so is her little baby girl giggle that she often employs after she's done something bad.  The teachers have caught her in a bathroom stall with TWO boys at the same time before, they've caught her smoking on school grounds, she cheats, she steals from her female classmates who are too terrified to tell on her, etc.  Truly, a tiny horror.  She does something bad and thinks she can get away with it with her little smile, giggle, and big eyed, "SOWEE TEACHER!" When I don't go soft on her, she looks pretty confused.  But yeah, I had to kick her out today because she was cutting up a highlighter and spreading the ink all around the table.  I had to be all, "This isn't arts and crafts, girl!  What the heck are you doing?  Uh...just get out."  So. Weird.

After all my classes, I was drained, but still spent thirty minutes getting stuff for my after school class prepped.  I secretly hoped that the boys wouldn't show because they always drag the class down.  Basically, they just joined because I'm still the fun foreign teacher they want to brag about to their friends.  They spend the class trying to flirt with me and the other girls in really, really bad English.  It's nearly impossible to get them to do any real work.  So I go to my classroom, sit down at one of the desks, and start doodling on an empty sheet of paper.  I must have sat there for about thirty minutes before I realized that they weren't coming.  "Weird," I thought.  Then again, it is the week before exams, and I do usually cancel after school classes since the kids are too busy studying.  A moment later, though, I realized...my after school class was actually FINISHED.  I hadn't looked at my attendance book in a few weeks, but after running everything over in my mind, I realized that last week had been my final session and I hadn't even done my usual last session party.  I left school in a daze at my own stupidity.  But I was cheered up by the idea that I'll soon get paid for all those extra classes, and it will be about 1.8 million won!  Woohoo!

On a random, Kpop related note, can I just say that G-Dragon stans are both scary and funny.  What is UP with some of the comments in the YG plagiarism thread?  "There has been no idol who has achieved so much as G-Dragon" and "Hello??? It was only like, 15 seconds! That is NOT copycatting in my book!"  Seriously?  I've said it before and I have to say it again, I lose interest in Big Bang and 2NE1 solely because of their fans.  Their pop is a small cut above the rest, but the way the fans discuss it, it sounds like they are dissecting a Pope poem.  They make fun, catchy pop music but they are not these saviors of Kpop--if anything, they are just trend followers who happen to follow it better than the other groups.  So hardcore fans who are ready to vouch that G-Dragon is a "genius" or "revolutionary", sit back down and take a chill pill (wow, can't believe I just used the phrase "chill pill"!  90's revival indeed!). 

1. D-Style for Dorothy Nam

The girls and our two "assistants"! I'm the tan one in the silver.


Getting ready and holding my Blackberry.  We had to walk while modeling the Blackberry, so kind of awkward like, "oh hey, ya'll!  I'm just strutting down this gallery in my Korean dress and using my Blackberry!"  But it was still fun.


Jenn and Angela after hair and makeup.


We didn't have a private bathroom, so if we needed to go, we had to put on the men's jackets and sneak away to the nearest one. 


After the show, I hung out in Coffee Bean while we waited for everyone to go to dinner. 


The back of my hair!  It was soooo cool.

2. Random

About to light shoulder cat on fire in Ann House.


Tipsy with teddy bears in Artbox.


What I did while I waited for my students that never came (because I'm an idiot)


This title is "The Calculation" by Regina Spektor

So we made the hard decision
And we each made an incision
Past our muscles and our bones
Saw our hearts were little stones

Pulled 'em out they weren't beating
And we weren't even bleeding
As we lay 'em on the granite counter top

We beat 'em up
Against each other