Molding the minds of youth

I teach elementary school in Daegu, South Korea. I teach grades 3-6. That's 23 classes a week, roughly 580 students. I have to say that I wasn't too much of a fan of kids in the States, but I love my job.
Teaching elementary school kids has its perks.

For instance, I teach by entertaining. Unfortunately some of my day has to be spent drilling vocabulary, but I try to have fun the majority of the time. I don't necessarily want to be known as the "game teacher," but I enjoy my classes as much as the kids do. I think that's what counts. We're getting learning done in an environment that is positive and motivating.

The kids seem to like me. At first, I was the strange foreigner. In fact, I'm still the strange foreigner, but now they are less terrified of me. I feel like a celebrity sometimes, actually. All day long, as I'm walking down the halls I get kids rushing up to me, waving, saying, "Hello, Kuh-ris-oo-teen!" Occasionally, I'll have students try to have conversation with me in English. Mostly they ask me simple questions like:
"You have boyfriend?"
"You have married?"
"You wear lenses? Colored? Your eyes blue!"
"You have no boyfriend, so other teacha, yes?" (with this question they offered me their homeroom teacher. Now whenever I teach with him, they make little "ooo"s and kissing noises. I guess they either don't know, or care, that he is married already.)

I have certain students that have already made an impression with me. One of my fourth graders is my "yes man." He follows everything I say with a series of yes's.
Okay, we're going to go over the vocabulary of the lesson.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Yes?
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Are you really excited?
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!"
Okay! Let's do vocabulary!
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"

One of my fifth graders doesn't know much English, but he's such a sweetie. Most of the time, instead of actually doing the work, or answering a question, he will look at me and say, "Teacha, so beautiful! Fantastic! I love you!!" While he says "I love you," he generally puts is arms over his head in a heart shape and leans sideways. He's adorable.

Of course, I have already found the "Hermiones" in my classes. The kids that just can't take it, they HAVE to answer the question. Their arms almost detach themselves and keep floating just so they get called on. Most of the time they are the only ones with their hands up, so they do get called on a lot.

That's just a taste of my everyday work life. I'm sure in the following months I will have good days and bad days, but so far it's been nothing but golden. *knock on wood*