Charpie's Travels

The couple sitting beside me is perfectly stereotypical. She uses her baby voice and whines. They each ordered a coffee and waffle, but he still feeds her his food. Partway through, they break for a cute cellphone photo op. It occurs to me that, of all the solo patrons here, I am the only female. And while the others appear to be doing important things on their laptops and cellphones, I bet you a latte at least half of them are just putting on a good show. Like me. The guy in the corner quit pretending a while back and settled in for a nap. A group of women occupies a few tables in front of me. Their conversation is animated but incredibly quiet. As they sign back and forth, they pause occasionally to pass stacks of Won across the table. If I ever write a mystery novel, they'll be in it.

I am no longer a Pre-Kinder teacher. The semester (for my school) ended Friday, and I've been assigned to a Kindergarten class for the new school year. I'll have a couple of my Pre-K students again, but the rest will be new faces. Considering that I haven't even been here three full months, I didn't anticipate saying many goodbyes already. Starting next week, we all have different afternoon (elementary) teaching schedules, so I have no idea which kids I'll see again. The last couple days were rough for some of my youngest kids. Rebecca sobbed through the entire last class, and Andrew hid in a corner. When my co-teacher congratulated the class for moving up to kindergarten, Grace snapped. "Stop saying kindergarten! I do not want to go!"  The foreign teachers are all paired with different Korean teachers for the new semester. So, while we do still work for the same school, it felt like I was saying goodbye to my co-teacher. She was super. Also, Friday was