I hate Birthday cake

If I go back in a time machine and tell an eight year old version of myself that I now hate birthday cake it will lead to all sorts of disbelief and strife. One more reason not to build a time machine. But in any case birthday cakes turn children into monsters.

Today we had a 'birthday party' for the kindergarten kids at school. They basically just take all the kids that have birthdays in a given season and celebrate them all at once. Coming in on a Friday with less than adequate sleep it sounded like a great idea at first. Basically one of my classes would be me just watching a mass of kids eat cake and chips. But I remember I had been warned about these days by Matt, one of the former teachers at my school. No birthdays don't turn these kids into greedy little monsters, and there genuinely isn't jealously for the kids getting all the presents. The problem involves a lot of cake and something called blood sugar, and an ever more scientific term called bouncing off the f*in walls. My second period of the day I had to try to teach a class of hyped up 3-4 year olds English. Well if repetition is a good method I'm sure the phrases 'please be quiet', ' sit down' , 'I swear to god i will kill you in cold blood' and 'the big,big pig' are all firmly ingrained in their vocabulary now. Only one of those was part of the lesson but I did say all of those more than once today. They only understood the first two in any case, and would do it for about a second then forget and start doing backflips off the table again.

I'll admit it was my own lack of sleep that compounded my frustration but the rest of the day was just a little sour. No other classes were really bad, but none were especially good either. Found it funny and creepy that following the lesson plan I caught myself asking a nine year old about three times in a row :"What are you wearing Michelle?" felt a little dirty after that.

It didn't help that the lunch served today was basically two tiny pieces of kimchee a bowl of gravy and a bowl of rice. It was kind of like being at Legoland, where you know there must be something cool you're supposed combine those pieces to make, but in the end you end up with a brick. So I just ditched my bowl now full of gravy and rice and looking like a bad bowel movement. I broke into the emergency rations in my backpack of beef jerky and fruit. The apple tasted a little weird as it appeared to have creatine all over it. I keep my bag clean but figured I probably spilled a little bit somewhere along the way. Seemed odd but no big deal. turns out it was a ruptured pack of silica gel from the beef jerky package that had gotten all over it. You know those little packets you find in clothes and pills and nuts that clearly say 'DO NOT EAT', well fyi they are very salty.

After work Ken and I went out for dinner and searched for a long while to try to find something that wasn't fatty bacon or rice. We finally set upon a grillhouse that served beef, in what turned out to be very thin and fatty slices. It was also more expensive than I'm used to here, probably about the same as a decent dinner with several drinks would run back home but still surprising. I am fairly useless when it comes to restaurants here, I can't figure out the words on the menu and I never know any good places. Until Ken got here I never really bothered with them much. I think I'm going to just start inviting him over for dinner instead. I'm no great cook but at least there's some meat on my dishes.

Anyway I'm tired, I pushed through my first crash six hours ago and its time to pay the piper.
But I will relate at least one good note to end off on. I've stocked up on hand sanitizer after my last bout with sickness (doesn't lower immune system like antibacterial soap) and have gotten my kindergartners hooked on the stuff. I think they just like the tactile sense of rubbing their hands together, and they seem to get equal but different enjoyment out of the alcohol scented and peach scented versions I have. But after seeing the way they wash their hands (running water in the vicinity but not always touching their hands) i thought it best to protect myself. Its just little nice that i might be nipping some of my potential viruses in the bud. Plus they see it as a reward and it kills two minutes of classtime.