Mysterious as the dark side of the moooon!

During the twenty-minute break between morning classes, many of the kids congregate in the auditorium/gym.  (It's really just a biggish classroom.)  One of the teachers puts on the Disney movie du jour, and the kids sit on their heels and watch and giggle.  I teach in the gym just after the break, so at first it was a bit of a nuisance to have to wade through a sea of wee-wahs in the dark while trying to set up.  But this week I've found a new perspective.

Have y'all ever seen Mulan?  If not, go out and rent it right now.  It's a fabulous movie--no, seriously.  And if you can get ahold of some, I'd recommend watching it with about forty Korean six-year-olds.

Y'all, these kids pull on my heartstrings.  Last week they watched Aladdin, and they loved it....but Mulan is seriously their kind of hero.  She's an Asian chick!  Kicking butt!  In an AMERICAN MOVIE!  Today while I was setting up, I looked around at their faces and got such a spark of joy from it.  And their giggling....oh man.  It's easy to become overwhelmed with the constant amount of noise when you teach kids, but this morning, hearing the choruses of laughter brightened my whole day.  Kids are kind of awesome.

All this was kind of an incoherent string of thoughts, but there you go.  Little kids laughing = melodious and beautiful.  Mulan = awesome movie.  And me = now much more observant and content during that lovely twenty-minute slice of morning.