Farley

I have discovered my favourite student in Korea, thus far, and impulsively nicknamed him Farley; not after Mowat but Chris. The first day I saw him, I couldn't miss him. He was wearing a bright yellow track suit and greeted me with a deep resonating "Anyong Haseyo," followed by a super serious bow. Before I continue the profile of this prolific school bus of a child (maybe that'll be his alternate nickname) I should mention that instead of recess students have a 10 minute break in between each class where they can go outside and play or sit in the halls and play Gong-gi (jacks). However, the most common thing to do, especially since the weather is getting colder, is stay in the classroom and do whatever the hell you want. This includes playing Gong-gi, tag, baseball or simply fighting, all of which overlap and intertwine. Now Farley has grown significantly more than the rest of his classmates but he still tries to do everything that they do. While chasing a much smaller student he lost his footing  turning a corner and was so close to pulling a Matt Foley (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=XaoM0FyLmGY&NR=1), thankfully he didn't. Watching him is like comparable to a puppy running full speed, tripping over his own legs and not knowing how to stop.

Round 2 of Farley vs. little children. The boys were simulating the most exciting play in baseball: sliding into home plate with a catcher blocking their path. At first Farley was talking to another group, then noticed the game and jumped in front of the entire line to run and slide. He takes four or five steps and slides four inches. Disaster averted. As the class started to settle a boy in the front row starts flipping the bird to some one behind him. I casually walk over to his desk, tap it twice to get his attention, and calmly say, "Don't do that again." Farley sits behind him and sees the whole thing go down and decided to put in his own two cents. He stands up, straight as an arrow,to address me.
"Teacher" pointing his middle finger that's ever-so slightly extended, "Next time, off." There isn't a shred of sarcasm, humor, or questioning in his voice.
Nonchalantly I mutter, "Sure.'
To his pure joy he bellows "Yes!" in that fog horn voice of his and shakes his fist in triumph.
Having only known him for 80 minutes, I am very intrigued about what other surprises Farley will bring to the classroom. Perhaps a three piece suit, a novel knock-knock joke, or something that isn't even known to Westerners.

Today Farley was dressed in Korean-style letterman jacket (the three piece suit of an 11 year old.) with a maple leaf on the shoulder. How can you hate the guy now? He had a very serious demeanor today he shook my hand, upon entering the class room, in typical Korean fashion. Today was a practice test day for their mid-term at the end of the week. Farley seems to take a vow of silence in preparation. If he ever had something to report he would mime with such passion and speed, you couldn’t help but smile: it’s too noisy, they’re talking too much, she’s cheating and so on. The only real let down I had was he told me after the test that there was going to be steak for lunch. Because this is a school cafeteria I expected some sort of beef dish that had bones in it.

Even still, he was wrong. Bland chicken soup, white rice, green onions for the soup, kim chee, and little mini omelets served cold. This is usually a typical lunch here but expecting something good and getting something worse always goes down in a bitter fashion. Back to Farley, his hair is also very hilarious. It grows up, rather than out, so he’s got this out grown eraser head look going for him right now. He’s a very awesome kid and a riot to teach.     

                                                                                                                  
On a completely random note: Beersbee is an amazing drinking game. All you need are 4 sticks (a very challenging feat in Korea) a Frisbee, some patented red plastic cups, and alcohol. Each team takes two sticks and places them in the ground a foot apart, the two sets should be no less than 20 ft away from each other. Place a cup on each stick. The rules are simple: you must ALWAYS have a drink in your hand and you can't go in front of your sticks. The goals and scoring system are a little more complicated. Like most sports the highest point total wins. You get points by knocking the red cups off the stick, but if the team saves their cup before touching the ground its -1 for the team that threw the disc. If hits the ground the throwing team gets 1 point. You can get two points if you throw the Frisbee through the two sticks cleanly if the opposing team does not catch it. If they do no points are awarded to either team.
It's a great game for the beach, in the park, or your own backyard. Actually anywhere you can have open liquor and stick something in the ground is an excellent Beersbee field.