Sleep Jesus And A Trip To Seoul

Remember those magical times in school when you had "The Most Important Test Ever" coming up and you'd get really angry at your teachers for still pushing you in class and giving you homework because you KNOW they know you have "The Most Important Test Ever" coming up?

I'm not so old that I've forgotten what a National Exam feels like (Shout out to everyone in NY who had to suffer through the TONYSS and REGENTS for 13 years- what what!!). Maybe I'm too soft a teacher. Maybe I'm a push-over. For whatever reason, I spent the last week going kind of easy on my older classes who have exams coming up. We get through the lesson quickly and I give them some time to unwind with a game or study. Normally my older students are reserved in class. It's hard to get them to participate, they're too tired and hungry to want to play along with you. So I was surprised at how much my normally stoic group of teenagers shared with me just by letting them play a game of cards.

"My friend is Sleep Jesus." Says one of my boys completely out of the blue.

"Sweet Jesus?"

"아니아니 (no no). SLEEP Jesus."

"I don't know what that is."

"He knows all the best ways to sleep during class without teacher knowing. Want to see?"

"Sure." My student then shows me no less than half a dozen positions that make it look like he is totally captivated by his work, then emphasizes the fact that his eyes are closed. If he hadn't told me he would be pretending to sleep I'd never know it! I laughed at the time and told him about ring tones that old (read: Teacher) ears can't hear. Then the other boy in class showed me a magic trick and we are henceforth and forevermore bros just by sharing a bit of classroom trickery. Little did I know that Sleep Jesus would become my savior as well...

Saturday I was woken up at 7:00 and told to get in the school van. We had an impromptu workshop for our school franchise, located conveniently in Seoul four hours away. I spent the four hours having a long, hard grump over losing my weekend to work. On the bright side of things, I literally drove from one end of the country to the other for free. Lots of sight-seeing even if the weather was crazy-varied from province to province. My own town is averaging about 70-75 degrees now. We ended up in Seoul a whole 15 degrees colder. Brrrrr.

At one point we drove through a snow storm. But only for about a half hour. Crazy weather...

We stopped on the way there at a rest stop for some food. My co-workers indulged in some greasy street food before we ate, but with me not having a gallbladder and wanting to shape up before my Hapkido competition next month, I held off for a proper meal.

Two of my coworkers getting their eat on street-style.

                  

Not a bad layout for a gas station, right?

 We get dropped off at the university our workshop is being held at and filtered into an auditorium with tons of other foreigners who work at any one of the other 400 schools in my franchise. I look at the speakers lined up with their fake smiles and condescending power points. No, I don't need to learn how to get a visa- I've had one for three months. Yes, Korean culture is "weird". Oh, you mean the school system is different here? Wow! Cue Sleep Jesus. Laughing a little bit to myself, I slipped my tablet on the table and employed the most effective of Sleep Jesus' tactics. I felt a bit immature sitting in a teaching workshop while texting, napping, and playing on Facebook but we'll call it my Testimonial after being woken and carted and cold all day.

And by the time the first speaker was finished, I definitely wasn't the only one praying to Sleep Jesus.

Amen.