RAVING/HAPPY SH!T MEGATHREAD

Some people would hate it but I really enjoy teaching Elementary, Middle and High school throughout the week.  I have high energy days (normally Elementary and 1st/2nd year middle school) and low energy days (High school and middle 3rd) .  My High school students find it hilarious when I forget to transition from bouncy and energetic Elementary teacher to somewhat serious but happy High school teacher.

 So I went to my HS class today after lesson planning for tomorrows Elementary class:

Me: *opens the door quickly * Hello Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HS students: *look up from sleeping at their desks*
Me: ..... *laughs*
HS boys at back: *in fake high pitched voice* HI TEACH~~~ER~~~!
Me: *in normal voice*  Thanks! Everyone ready for class? 

My students probably think I'm crazy but they complain if my class gets cancelled *shrugs*

Nervously asked my boss if I could take a couple days off immediately following Chuseok in order to go to Europe for a week.  He replied, "Oh yeah sure.  What days?" 

Sometimes, hagwons aren't all that bad.

Walking into the bathroom and Ode to Joy starts playing...

One of my elementary schools plays classical music in the bathroom. It always makes me chuckle, hahah

There's a special needs kid at one of my schools. It warms my heart that his classmates are all nice and always try to help and include him, rather than ostracize. Though a pretty rambunctious bunch, their hearts are all in a good place.

In one of my classes today, the lesson was about "Where are you from?" One kid yelled "I'm from 똥개!!" (aka dog shite) 

One of my elementary schools plays classical music in the bathroom. It always makes me chuckle, hahah

There's a special needs kid at one of my schools. It warms my heart that his classmates are all nice and always try to help and include him, rather than ostracize. Though a pretty rambunctious bunch, their hearts are all in a good place.

In one of my classes today, the lesson was about "Where are you from?" One kid yelled "I'm from 똥개!!" (aka dog shite) 

똥개 is also slang for like a street/stray dog, so I wonder if that was his equivalent of saying "street urchin" a la Aladdin

Lol he's a pretty bright kid, so who knows what he meant!!

There's a special needs kid at one of my schools. It warms my heart that his classmates are all nice and always try to help and include him, rather than ostracize. Though a pretty rambunctious bunch, their hearts are all in a good place.

I've had a fair number of special needs students and I find the other students are usually super great with them. One that I have now is in the sixth grade and doesn't talk. Last year he had a helper who would bring him to class and pick him up when class was finished. The kid would scribble for about ten minutes and then inevitably pass right out for the rest of the class. I feel like he was heavily medicated as it was often difficult to wake him back up. This year however I think they changed his meds. He still requires a helper but he's so much more lively and seems really happy. He's always smiling and ALWAYS waves and grins like crazy when he sees me. These days he really brightens up my days.

I came to school today and there is an academic yearly calendar on my desk!  I didn't even ask for it!

Strawberry BANANZA!! Piles of strawberries! All I can eat in the teacher's office. 

My coteacher has 'spies' in the other teachers' offices in the school who tell us when the good snacks arrive... and then she goes and brings some back to our office ^.^ Today, there were chocolate bars~!

We're going on a field trip the day before election day 

I am super sick so I took yesterday off. Friday is the school's birthday. Even though I'm sick, I'm pretty happy I managed to make this into a three day work week.

I'm also a rural one.  I'm starting to notice that I'm having some positive effect on my school and students.  Despite many uphill battles and feelings of isolation and lack of belonging, trying hard to be a good example and teach whatever I know to be true and constructive.  When I see people picking up on it, I get a rush of confidence and self esteem.  Teaching and leading is more natural to me now than a year or two before. 

We've had a change of staff and now they are all pretty much awesome, kind, genuine hard working people.  Principal, VP, everyone is so so nice and humble.  I'm such an intense introvert a lot of the time, especially in this case that requires being on guard and independent, but I'm learning to relax and smile more so hopefully it reflects back on people at work.

I have a clean, quiet, relatively spacious single housing unit which I am very grateful for and can afford to make more comfortable with my own income.

My kids, especially the littler ones, always make me happy and warm inside.  I want to help them grow better and give them opportunities.  I get a lot of maternal feelings toward them. 

After always having multiple pets for my whole life, it's been strange and stressful living here without any. However, a beautiful cat followed me home a few nights ago and is turning out to be very loving and mostly well-behaved. I feel so much more relaxed and happy 

Nicole,

I'm not sure that I understand your post, exactly, but if you are taking in a stray, please think it through before you continue.

If you aren't willing to make a commitment for the life of this cat, please stop now.

It's far crueler to provide for this cat temporarily and then abandon later, as well as incredibly selfish on your part (quite apparent from your post).

You stress level and comfort are important to you, but the well-being of the cat needs to come first.

Nicole,

I'm not sure that I understand your post, exactly, but if you are taking in a stray, please think it through before you continue.

If you aren't willing to make a commitment for the life of this cat, please stop now.

It's far crueler to provide for this cat temporarily and then abandon later, as well as incredibly selfish on your part (quite apparent from your post).

You stress level and comfort are important to you, but the well-being of the cat needs to come first.

It's strange that you would assume that I would abandon him with just the information in the post I made. As this thread was intended for happy things, of course I focused on a happy part of the event instead of the mundane parts of worrying about the process of getting him home with me (thanks for your concern, though).
In the interest of keeping this thread happy, let's focus on happy moments and leave the advice for other threads. For example, the cat seems to be getting less stressed about food after a few days of having regular meals, and is a very friendly cat who likes to have a lot of human contact.

I only have two classes today, and the foreign language teachers (who I all really like) are all going out for lunch today 

^^^ I love Nomadicmadda's seal picture.  It makes me smile.

Nicole,

I'm not sure that I understand your post, exactly, but if you are taking in a stray, please think it through before you continue.

If you aren't willing to make a commitment for the life of this cat, please stop now.

It's far crueler to provide for this cat temporarily and then abandon later, as well as incredibly selfish on your part (quite apparent from your post).

You stress level and comfort are important to you, but the well-being of the cat needs to come first.

It's strange that you would assume that I would abandon him with just the information in the post I made. As this thread was intended for happy things, of course I focused on a happy part of the event instead of the mundane parts of worrying about the process of getting him home with me (thanks for your concern, though).
In the interest of keeping this thread happy, let's focus on happy moments and leave the advice for other threads. For example, the cat seems to be getting less stressed about food after a few days of having regular meals, and is a very friendly cat who likes to have a lot of human contact.

Nicole,

You need to ignore some of the posters on here as they just reply like a gun that's been shot, but not fully loaded beforehand! I posted that i was happy to have strawberries all winter and got a reply something about crappy berries that freeze or something. And you know that if one buys cheap crap that sits outside all day, one will have cheap crap to eat...But I digress, this is the happy thread, so I'll note that i got a cat four years ago and she brightens my home...Enjoy your kitty!

I've entered the zen calming eye of the storm that is Korea.

Weeks seem to fly past these days. That makes me happy.