As my second favorite movie says...

"Sometimes it's better not to be the best. Because then you can lose - and it's OK."

Well, not this weekend. Please pray for my ankle, it's been wavering between stable and unstable for over 2 weeks. Looking forward to being with my old teammates again. Here we go, yo.

endure suffering

I had a cool teaching moment today. So in my class, the average age is probably about 12, with kids of all sizes. Today I had mostly medium to big kids, and one little 7 year old. He may not be the best, and he was severely undersized, but man that little kid would work. (I *love* people who are just willing to work.)

So we were doing circle sparring (by which one person stays in the circle and has to spar everyone all in a row), and while he was sparring one of the bigger kids (who I specifically told to go light to the face), he got whacked in the front of the face. It wasn't terrible, but this kid also hasn't been hit in the face much before, so he immediately started crying and freaking out.

I looked him over and he was fine - no blood, just tears. Racking my brain (and trying NOT to look at his parents who were probably totally shocked and ready to sue me) I took him to the side and started to distract him.

"Hey Ross! It's OK, I know you're surprised. You have to put your hands up, right? But can you do something for me?"

He hiccups a few times "yes ma'am"

"Can you count to 10?"

"In...in...ko...korean?"

"Yep! Can you count for me?"

hiccup hiccup. "Ha-na....doooool....set..."

So he's thinking and thinking, and gets through 10. "Hey Ross guess what!'

"What?"

"Your face doesn't hurt anymore, right?"

"Uh...no ma'am"

"Alright! High five!"

So he gives me a high five and gets back in the circle.

Ah, kids are so resilient. And easily distracted. Phew. Situation diffused.

After the class, I made each kid tell me something they learned in class. When his turn came, he immediately said "put my hands up!" It's nice to know that sometimes, they actually do learn something.

Tonight's Bible study was on Acts 14 and one of JH's main questions was about Paul and hardships and suffering. As much as I hate to see my kids get whacked in the face - there is really no better way to teach someone to block. And I will guarantee that when you've been hit in the face - you will remember it and learn to put your hands up the next time. So my kids probably think I'm a hardass, but I think I understand a little better why we have to endure what seems like suffering.

I was talking to someone and he comes up to me on the side and sticks his hand out and bows. "Bye Miss Park". Of all the kids in my class, the smallest and lowest rank was the one to remember the proper etiquette. I shook his hand, and put my hand up for a high five. He gave me a big smile and slapped my hand back.

I think that those students who understand that their teacher has their best interest in mind...those are the ones that learn the most. Having that kind of faith in your teacher, that they would let you get kicked in the face by someone bigger than you, and be able to extract the lesson from it...in a strange way, I was inspired by a 7 year old red belt today.

huh

On Wednesdays I have double-duty tutoring a pair of sisters. One is in 3rd grade and the other is in 1st grade. So the 6-year-old is a chatterbox and loves to talk. Usually she tells me about her day, things that happened at school, asks me about why my pencils are so cool (ie. mechanical pencils)...

So one day she's happily plugging away at subtraction and she suddenly stops and looks up, as though she has something really important to say.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No...do you?"

She giggles. "Nooooooo!"

I'm rather proud of myself for diffusing the tangent. What the heck...the little Jewish girl sounds like...every Korean I know.

And PS - the boxing guy was NOT cute because he was OLD. (Hence why I didn't think he was hitting on me in the first place). But it was a good lesson - an hour of sheer pain. Totally fun.

eh?

How do you know if someone hits on you?

I got to PT twice a week, which is at an NYSC. As I was leaving last week, one of the personal trainers came up to me. (Most of the trainers know who I am, vaguely as 'jump rope girl' or 'Taekwondo girl' because I'm at the gym a lot and frequently doing the crazy jump rope thing in the corner).

trainer: "Hey so you're the Taekwondo girl, right?"

me: "Um. Yeah, I guess so."

trainer: "I'm (insert name here). Have you ever tried boxing?"

me: "Yeah, but I'm not very good at it"

trainer: "Would you like to try a personal session in boxing?"

(Now I'm thinking - hello, I don't need a personal trainer. I AM a personal trainer. And we're expensive.)

me: "How much would it cost?"

trainer: "Oh, it's free"

(So I think, huh, offer the first one free and get people to sign up. A pretty sneaky marketing ploy. Sure.)

me: "Um...sure, why not"

trainer: "OK, can I get your number and I can call you to set up a session?"

(Eh? Why does he need my number? That's weird.)

me: "Uh, why don't you give me the number of the gym and I'll call and make an appt. Do you have a business card?"

(He fumbles around his pockets, finds a card and writes a number on it)

trainer: "That's my cell number"

(What do I need that for?)

me: "Well, what days do you give boxing lessons?"

trainer: "What days are you here?"

me: "I have PT Weds and Fri so I can come in Tue or Thu. How about Tue at 7am?"

Yeah so...I'm supposed to go boxing tomorrow. I'm told I got hit on and didn't realize it.

Danny: Does he make you laugh?

Tess: He doesn't make me cry.

-Ocean's 11