Northbound

Now I'm finished teaching for the week and have my bags packed for my hiking trip on North Korea's Mt. Geumgang. I'm really excited about it.

At the end of one class today, one of my little girls asked, "Miss EMH, is it true?!"

"Is what true?" I asked her, wondering what could be so unbelievable about the lesson we were finishing on participle adjectives.

"That you're going to North Korea to teach English to Mr. Kim Jong Il?" she said, with a completely serious expression on her face.

"Who told you that?" I asked, laughing.

"Mr. B." she said.

This was the first I had heard the story, and it made me laugh right out loud. Then the other kids had a bunch of questions. It turns out that the directors of my school told some of my students that I'm going to North Korea this weekend to teach Kim Jong Il how to speak English and make hamburgers, and a couple of the kids believed it.

I made them finish the page they were working on before I'd say anything more about it. While they scrambled to finish writing sentences, I just sat there and chuckled.

When they finished, I answered a couple questions about how I'm getting there and what I'll be doing. They asked me to bring pictures back for them. I thought that was sweet. I clarified that I'll be hiking, not teaching English or hamburger-making, and that I'm quite certain I won't see Mr. Kim Jong Il, not in person anyway.