Kimchi, not for me

I bit one of my students today. On accident, of course, but it didn't make the experience any less traumatizing for either of us. He cried and I almost did. To make matters worse, it was one of my favorite students. Go figure. We were sitting on the floor reading the storybook, and he jokingly pointed his finger in my face and said something (probably "Teresa, lose star!") and I, jokingly, bit at the air near his finger. This made him laugh, of course, and he did it again. (Not to mention that I pretended to bite all my students when we were doing long I words last month.) Well, it was one of those things, we both moved forward at the same time, and he actually stuck his finger in my mouth and I didn't see what he was doing fast enough...and so I bit him. We both looked very surprised for a minute, then he put his head down and started to cry. I told the Korean teacher in my room that I had bit him, and she was (understandably) confused. Anyway, needless to say I felt not only entirely stupid but also REALLY bad. He got five candies at the end of class (everyone else got three). I told everyone in the office, and was completely horrified, but they just found it funny. Donovan made a really rather witty comment about Hannibal Lecter. My favorite joke though was later, when I was asking Kylie why she thought the roof of my mouth was so raw (a problem I had mentioned to her in the morning) and Donovan said, "It's probably the fingernails...they can scratch, you know." It made me laugh pretty hard, and I'm still chuckling just thinking about it.

Over the past month there were over 70 English teachers arrested/deported because their degrees were fake, or they had forged some kind of documents. So the government is cracking down, particularly in Seoul and a nearby province. All foreign teachers have to fill out this form and take themselves, their degree, and the form down to the immigration office. So the four of us from my school had to go this morning - we had to leave our building at 7:30 this morning. I cannot even begin to tell you how rare it is that I am even awake at 7:30, let alone coherent, dressed, and going somewhere. The subway ride took about 90 minutes each way, which was frustrating given that our time in the immigration office was less than 20 minutes. I did get to walk home by myself through the park and kick around some dead leaves. I really reall love autumn. It's so beautiful here.

I might be coming to the States for Christmas. I'm not entirely decided yet, and it's depending on a few more things still...but I just wanted to let you know, so you can make plans to come visit me if you really want to. :) Gonna go read for a bit now...night all.