Damn Kids!

Once again a kid has stolen something from me at school, and again it only took a few days and a lot of asking about it to have it returned. Last time it was my wallet, this time it was my MP3 player, and both times the kid who took it has been the one to find it.

I'm not sure if I went into much detail on it before, but a month or two back, a student in grade 3 came into my classroom while I was away playing volleyball and nabbed my wallet. Within 2 days, I had the whole school looking for my wallet, and soon this kid, whom I was so nice to and would play with all the time, took me to where my wallet was. He had stashed it in a drawer outside his classroom, and the only thing missing was the $40 in it (credit and bank cards were fine).

Of course, everyone knew it was the kid that found it who took it - he was a little underprivileged and struggled in school, and when I asked what would happen to him, I was told nothing would be done. "He needs lots of love" was what I was told.

Now my MP3 player was stolen, and this time I was pretty sure who took it right from the start. Same kind of situation, only this student is not so underprivileged but just a little insane. I caught him hiding my MP3 player on me once before, so it didn't surprise me that when I told his class my MP3 player was missing, he said he had seen my headphones only the day before. Five minutes later, he's running up to me with my MP3 player in his hands, having found it stashed in a desk.

I'm not quite so hurt this time after having my things stolen from me. Maybe I've grown a little thicker skin after having my wallet taken, or maybe I just understand what the kids are thinking a little more. There's no money to be had in my MP3 player (maybe it could be sold at a pawn shop) so this time I'm pretty sure it was something that the kid himself couldn't quite explain. He saw something that looked cool, expensive, and probably a lot of fun to have. He knew I wanted it, he like playing with it, so he just kinda took it. Not to keep, not to steal, but just to have for a little while. Putting it in the desk meant maybe I would forget about it, and maybe he could "find" it in a while and it would be his. I think I'm trying to read too much into this, but since these aren't bad kids taking my things, I still wonder a bit about why they take my things. Some people have mentioned maybe these kids think I (and other teachers) are so well off, they don't need all this money and fancy things, so why shouldn't they have some. Well, other than the $40 I've gotten everything back, so other than having to lock my classroom all the time, it's nothing to worry about anymore.

Hygiene

Every Monday morning we have staff meetings at school. My attendance is never really necessary since the whole thing is in Korean, but for some reason I'm kind of expected to be there so I go. This morning, the guy next to me spent a good five minutes chewing on his nails. If you're going to have a bad habit, I suppose that' snot a bad one to have, what really threw me for a loop though was that he would spit it all out onto the desk in front of him. No one seemed to mind at all, and he continued doing it until he was satisfied with his now freshly chewed nails.

On the other hand, blowing your nose is a big faux pas in public, and only recently has having your mouth open at all been accepted. I have many students who will cover their mouths when they laugh. and when I make them pronounce words that mean opening their mouths wide they giggle and look away from me. Coughing and sneezing though aren't seen as being so bad, and covering your mouth isn't necessary unless you're going to be coughing right on someone's face. Of course nothing has been stranger so far than Shannon's trip to China.

Shannon went to China back in February and was so incredibly grossed out by some of the things she saw, she nearly puked in the street. There was the bum walking around the street with no pants on, the men who would blow their noses right onto the street with no tissue, and the families who would let their kids pee wherever they were at the time by just pulling down their pants. While walking past a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, not only had someone vomited all over the front walkway of the restaurant, but there was a lady vomiting into the store's garbage can. So, whatever bad things I may think of Korean hygiene standards, relatively they're pretty good.

Well, that's all for this week. Thanks for reading.