Problem Child

In the summer of my freshmen year of college, there was one Sunday where I had a particularly good meal at VIP. I remember the 짜장면 making me so sleepy on the road that I fell asleep as soon as I had gotten home. That turned into a five hour nap, which is the longest nap I've ever taken in my life, if you can even call it a nap.

Fast forward eight years to my super senior in Korea. Yesterday, I finished a 고빼기 짜장면 with 탕수욕 at my favorite 짜장면 place in 영등포. The crazy thing is that I had taken a nap before eating this. The even crazier thing is that I fell asleep again but didn't wake up til 5 this morning. And it was only because a mosquito was eating on my face. Anyway, that's my superfluous introduction for yesterday's annual Children's Day.

It never occurred to me why this country even has a day dedicated to children. There really isn't anything special that a child does that merits their parents' (or teachers') gratitude or care. I'm definitely all for Parents' Day and Teachers' Day (yes!), but Children's Day where millions of kids expect another undeserved gift from an adult? I don't see the reasoning.

I feel even stronger about this conviction after my newest student of two months acted up during our last class. He'd been whining and sighing loudly for the past couple of weeks throughout our lessons, but he finally "blew up" after he refused to answer any of my questions and just sat there in pout. That's when I had to bust out my broken Korean and analyze the situation for him until his tears finally started to come out.

After our class was over, I asked his mom if we could push back our class to 30 minutes earlier due to a scheduling conflict. But because this would take away some of my student's playing time after school, he shouted and slammed the bedroom door. I guess expecting a proper goodbye from little Jeff would make me a fool. Can't we just replace Children's Day with a Teachers' Day #2?

Thought of the Day: Ron Artest

Song of the Day: Big Bang-Love Song