It's been a hard week.

Yesterday I played volleyball with the teachers at my school for the first time, which I was initially excited about. That quickly faded when I realized how competitive this game is for them. I am not a naturally competitive person, and by no means do I have anything remotely close to talent in the sport; I just wail on the ball whenever it comes close to me, and whatever happens after that is up to fate. My co-teachers do not think this is the right way to live. They were constantly yelling commands at me (in Korean) and showing me over, and over, and over, and over how to "correctly" play. There was a lot more yelling and disappointment than laughter and cheering. I just went to show that I'm a "team player" and join in the camaraderie. By some miracle my team won 3 games out of 5 (5 games of volleyball equated to about two hours) and I did a high kick and ran down a row of high fives and they all screamed in laughter. They also insisted I come back and play next week. And.... I don't think I can say no.

My kids have taken a turn toward bratty all of the sudden and have shown even less interest in listening to what I have to say. Normally this doesn't upset me, but for some reason I've been sensitive these past few days. One boy in particular, "Bob," will say things in Korean and the other kids in the class will laugh. This makes me think they are making fun of me. It's disruptive and disrespectful. So today I kicked him out of class and made him do laps around the track (exercise is punishment here). I'm getting through it, but sometimes I really just want to punch some of them.
Teaching middle school is a little bit like serving tables, in the sense that sometimes, you just have to take it on the chin and move on.

I also got my hair cut for the first time in Korea today. I was very nervous (and for good reason). I went to a shop right around the corner from my house that had an English sign out front (Mrs. Ha's Beauty Salon) in hopes of the hairdresser being able to communicate with me a little. Sadly, no dice. She undid the clip in my hair and immediately began to screech and wail and yank on my hair (from what I can understand, I think she was despairing at how much hair I have and yanking on it to see if there were any extensions in there, haha). I had to mime how much to cut off, and she eventually called a second girl over to help in the cutting. All in all, it was ok, and since they know me now, I will go back when needed.

Tomorrow is Friday, and that is great news.