The hair salon. It's a frightening thought to walk into a hair salon in a different country with limited language abilities, knowing that when you exit, you'll never be the same. Such was the case yesterday. I had one of those days where I needed a change. It's been a rough couple of days, and I needed a pick me up. I'm the type of person that if I break up with a boyfriend, or bomb a test, I go to the hair salon... not the bars. I'm vain. Whatever. There's something therapeutic about going to the salon and having other people wash and style your hair. You feel, for a moment, a brand new person. It's refreshing.
I asked my co-teachers how to say "please trim just a little" and "deep condition" in Korean. All I wanted was just a trim. I went to one of my favorite salons in the city, conveyed the message (success!!!), and relaxed for what seemed to be a walk in the park. Then, impulse struck with a BANG! (literally). As the assistant was touching up my roots, I "yoh-gi-ohed" the stylist and said I wanted some bangs- blunt, short bangs. With a quick snip, I had bangs. Last time I had bangs this short was back in middle school. But I had a perm then. That was bad news.
I met up with one of the Korean teachers at school for dinner and her first words were, "so refreshing, you have such a small face now!" (Did I have a larger one before??) Then she continued, saying "your student's are going to flip... out... tomorrow." (She's proficient enough to say "flip out" and truly mean it in its context.)
Today, Tuesday April 24. 8:00am. I walked into my office and of course, all the teachers "flipped out," commenting that I not only look like a movie star, but I now will distract my students even more in class. Great.
Period 1, Class 1-9, my favorite boys class.
Lesson of the day: Describing people and creating your own superhero! (thank you Lauryn M.)
I braced myself as I walked into the classroom. All 35 boys greeted me with thunderous applause, chuckles, and a few "SEXY TEACHER!" "BEAUTIFUL!" "HAIR... CHANGE-EEEE!" Super. Now my new haircut has distracted the 13-year olds even more from focusing on writing new vocab words and speaking in complete and civilized sentences.
After teaching a new list of adjectives and descriptors, we started creating our own super hero.
My example:
Super hero name: Super Julienne Teacher, "SJT"
Super power: I can fly through walls, catch students cheating on tests, and zap them with my magic pens!
Enemy: All my students, especially class 1-9.
Now it was time to hear the responses from my students, who have been incredible attentive and enjoyable for once...
My favorite response...
Super hero name: "Sexy Boy!"
Super power: "Killer good looks!"
Enemy: "Ugly People!"
What a job well done. :)
