Let me just say that Dean has a LOT of the desired traits for Korean males--tall, clear skin, low voice, nice eyes, and a sharp nose. I can't take him anywhere without people asking if he's a model.
Anyway, we stayed out with our friends very late the evening before, so we got started a lot later than we had planned. The subway ride took about an hour and by the time we got there, most of the students were finishing up the walk. So we decided to go to Lotteria (a Korean-style burger joint), which was close to the meeting point for the kids. As the students finished up, many began migrating towards Lotteria to grab something to eat, and it was then that the madness began. At a public school, a foreign teacher is often treated as a celebrity figure. Being the youngest teacher by about a decade has also fueled this for me--I'm closer in age to my kids than I am to my co-workers. So I always have the students that come up to my desk just to say, "Pretty!" or "You think I handsome? I smart and handsome!" and occasionally take a picture with their cellphone camera when they think I'm not looking. But the incident at Olympic Park was INSANE. Students, hearing that Dean and I were at Lotteria, began arriving in huge groups just to stare through the windows and basically freak out the students from another middle school that was also visiting. When we left, we were basically followed everywhere. Cameras and phones with cameras were appeared in the hands of hundreds of students (there were 1,000 students from my school there), we were trapped, the kids were giggling and screaming, shaking our hands, and basically being insane.
Dean teaches at a middle school fairly close to mine, and many of my students have friends at his school. So somehow, they got wind that I had a boyfriend at Seil Middle School, and the students there told my students that Dean was really handsome. The students had been pestering me about my "boy-pu-ren-du" (boyfriend) all semester, and so they were really, really excited. The other teachers didn't come up and talk to me, except for Yunhee and Sally. The rest hung back and looked extremely amused as Dean and I tried to break through a circle of snapping photos only to become trapped in another. It was a crazy morning.
I did get to introduce Dean to some of my favorite students--I have some boys and a big group of girls that speak very well and that are genuinely fun teens. It was great conversing to them outside of the school environment. Many were dressed fantastically, and the teachers explained that--since they wear uniforms all the time--this is one of their few times to show off in front of each other. I saw some girls in 3-inch heels and skirts--apparently, they walked the entire 1-2 hour course in them. Even many of my boys were decked out in their snazziest dressy-casual wear, making them all seem so different from when they are in their wrinkled and stained uniforms.
Oh, and Olympic Park is really pretty. After the kids had finally said their goodbyes, Dean and I planned on walking around the area but it was SO COLD and windy that we had to leave.
Dean shaking his head in amusement at the crazy fandom that is Munsung Middle School.
Some of my first year students. The girl in the pink and the two on her right are in my "JA" after-school class--they are fantastic.
Me with some more of my first year students. The girl in the red-tangerine jacket is also one of my students from the "JA."
Stalker camera phone students. The boy in the background is also one of my favorite students. He goes to an English-language academy after school, so his English is quite advanced. He hopes to get into one of Seoul's prestigious foreign language high schools next year.
The mob.
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