A Disaster Averted!

It isn't often that I can say something like this, but today I rescued 35 girls from what was surely a fate worse than death. I base this statement not so much on the reality of the danger as I perceived it, but on the ferocity of reactions both during and after the event at hand.

You see, there was a disturbance in my classroom today. It was unexpected. I'm not entirely sure where he came from. He definitely wasn't there when we started class, but about 5 minutes into my warm up activity, there he was. At first, it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure many of my students didn't even notice him. He moved around the classroom a bit, but he wasn't bothering anyone.

Perhaps I should have taken action then, but I really didn't see the need for intervention. He started to become a bit more active, but again... It wasn't much of a disruption. Then, this unfortunate representative of his race decided that it would be ok for him to touch one of my girls. She froze and was completely unable to move, but I managed to make him leave her alone. Just as I returned to the front of the classroom, he went after the same girl again. Of course, all of my other students were freaking out. I was trying to calmly handle the situation. Naturally, it was a little difficult given the language barrier.

Lest you think I'm dealing with truly appalling situations in Korea, let me show you a picture of my unruly invader this morning.

That's right... There was a wasp in my classroom. And every single girl in it was freaking out. They were curled up in balls on their chairs. They were trying to cover themselves with their books. Chairs were scooting across the floor as far as they could from where he was flying. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

I decided that my only option was to show these city girls a thing or two about how we do things in the country. So I very calmly took my book, walked to the back door of the classroom near where the wasp was, and I whacked him out the door.

The girls cheered and applauded and spoke more English than I'd heard from them all day.

I went back to the front of the class, opened my book, and recommenced with the day's lesson. It was a good way to start the morning ;)