Hello from Korea!
Guess what?! IT'S HOODIE WEATHER! Yes!!! Today, for the first time yet, I came home and threw on a hoodie, and I felt great. The temperature could drop a few more degrees to make it perfect, but it was practically there. For some reason it seems that 2 days ago now, someone threw a switch and Bam! it's Autumn because it's been very comfortable the last couple days. I'm hoping that this keeps up for a while, so that I can continue to enjoy it for weeks and weeks and months and months. That probably won't be the case, though; I doubt that even Korea is that awesome. Not only did I comfortably wear a hoodie today, but I also actually wore a full ensemble to school as well [button down, tie and, of course, sweatervest (by the way, I just looked for the spelling of "sweatervest" and this definition from Urban Dictionary popped up: "An article of clothing often worn by 'ridiculously' good looking teachers that make them somehow even better looking" -- so true; case in point -- yours truly. haha)]. It was great. Up until now it's just been too hot, so tee-shirts have been the norm, and I'm a little tired of it. Go figure. Tee-shirts and shorts to work everyday … how can one get tired of that? I don't know, but it happened. Anyway …
as you might be able to tell from that first paragraph, it's been increasingly uneventful over here for me, so today's message will simply be a collection of little things that I found interesting, fun or funny from the past week. Now, the only drawback from the hood tonight has been this: almost as soon as the cottony warmth enveloped me, a ferocious runny nose also took hold. What a bummer. This is actually irrelevant to life (other than the fact that I'll be sniffling about every 10 words or so throughout this whole message … so you should probably have some extra sympathy for me a give me a pat on the back next time you see me since I'm such a diligent writer and will even compose when the conditions are not favorable … haha), but it does bring me to my actually amusing anecdote: today in class, one student in particular also had a rather ferocious runny nose. [By the way, the Korean word for runny nose is "ko-pi", which translates to basically "nose blood."] On any given day, there's at least one or two students with this same problem, so it's very common during my lectures or presentations or at any time, really, for me to notice a little trickle on a child's face, grab some tissue and wipe it up; with those especially persistent runs, I might even encourage a little "blow" out of the student. On this specific day, though, this case blew the rest away. We were reading and working in our English Land workbook and eventually this student said, "Teacher." I looked, and she was pointing to her nose, and so we went through the typical motion of me grabbing some tissue for her, she cleaned it up, and I thought, "Great. Problem solved." A few minutes passed, and before I knew it I heard that same "Teacher" from the same student, and sure enough, there was that same problem back again. My response, unchanged: grab some tissue and let her clean it up. Again, problem solved. A few more minutes go by, and yet again, "Teacher," this time with a little more urgency. Each time I noticed this runny nose it seemed to be getting a little worse … that trickle seemed to be going down a little farther, and so this time I grabbed the tissue, but I, myself, wiped her nose and coaxed a "Blow" from her. As far as nose blows go, hers was rather lackluster, but I let that go; sometimes you've just gotta work with what you've got. Ok; problem resolved, so I continued on. Up until this point, that was the most often I've had to help one student with a runny nose during a single class, and additionally, most often I'm the one who notices the runny nose before the student starts to complain because you know how kids are … they have sleeves and hands and things like those, so do they usually need tissues? Of course not. So due to both the frequency and severity of this nose run, I tried to pay a little more attention to that student after the third attempted fix. And here's what I saw this time around: about 3 minutes after I wiped her nose clean, and after some "nose blood" had apparently pooled inside her nostrils, she purely and simply exhaled forcefully out her nose. And of course, two torrents of snot just ran straight from her her nose to her lip … and a little beyond. Immediately I grabbed more tissue to wipe her nose … and almost laughed out loud … while simultaneously gagging a little bit. haha. Ok, I don't know if my writing here will actually convey my full amusement at this situation, but truly it was just completely ridiculous that a 5-year-old would blow snot out of her nose and then want a tissue. haha. Again, I have to chuckle.
A few times by now students, both the older ones and the younger ones, have noticed differences about my appearance from what they're accustomed to, and seeing their reactions and/or how they even describe the differences to me has been really interesting to me. On a daily basis, kids will touch my arm hair or (especially) my beard and mustache because the density of my hair is more than what they'd expect to see on other Korean men. It's just something new, and it's cool. Maybe sometimes in the back of my mind, I really just feel like a petting zoo animal, but even in that case I think I'm ok with it. Twice now I've been called/compared to an old man, and both of these times have happened pretty recently. The first instance happened at Haba during my speaking class, and it was the same day as our Chuseok activities. Because I had been outside in the heat for most of the day, I had a little extra sweat built up in my hair, such that I'd run my hand through my hair, the hair would stand up. The kids seemed endlessly amused by this feat, and for some reason (that I still haven't pinned down … although maybe it's the same as the second story) they called me a grandpa and/or just an old man (because the Korean word for these people means both). The second time not only was I compared to grandpa, but I was also apparently similar to grandma. haha. Yesterday at Oedae during my first class, at one point I simply put my hand to my forehead and pushed back my hair, and the kids were surprised/amused by what they saw. They noticed the lines in my forehead when I raised my eyebrows, and they were immediately reminded of wrinkles on old peoples' faces. Once I realized that this was what they were talking about, we talked just a little bit about why that's different for me than for what they expect. This included a quick discussion about how our facial structures are different and why those differences appear. It ended up being a very interesting conversation we had at the beginning of class, and ultimately it just reinforced what Joshua's been saying to me for as long as I've known him … I am pretty much just an old man already.
Here's my quick list of firsts for this past week as well: I made a boat out of a leaf for the first time ever; I ate intestine for the first time ever; and I just bought lots of chocolate for my first chocolate party ever. On Sunday I went hiking with Sunny and her two kids, aged 7 and 9. Not only was the day exceptionally pleasant, but it was also fun to spend some time with kids who happen to be the same age as my two youngest brothers. Additionally, even though Sunny has a boy and girl, they were very good natured and with bruises up and down their legs from their activities, I could tell that their resemblance to Adam and Jesse didn't stop at age only. We spent a couple hours on the mountain, and at least half of that time was spent with the kids just playing with the outdoor equipment or taking a break or something else, which was such a pleasant change from when I hike alone; it's during those solo hikes that I take a few breaks (until I've reached the summit) as possible, so the pacing on Sunday was phe-nomenal. At the end of the hike, the little boy took a bamboo leaf and asked, through his mom, if I could make a boat, which I didn't even know was possible, and then his sister proceeded to bend and tear and contort the leaf into a sweet little boat. After she finished, I grabbed two more leaves, and asked her to show me, thus now I've been a bamboo-leaf-shipwright-extraordinaire, and my first vessel is currently docked atop my TV. Mmmm. What a sight. haha. A little bit later Sunday evening, I ended up going to dinner with Dianne, and we went to a little shop that's actually pretty close to my apartment and just down the street from Oedae. There we had two dishes, "maw-ri gook bap" and "chal soon deh." The first dish was a soup that had pork and bean sprouts and various other little vegetables, and it was very tasty. "Maw-ri" in Korean means "head," so the meat in the soup probably came mostly from the face and ears and that part of the pig. The second dish was served on a plate, and it looked like one had taken a sausage, cut slices and turned those slices sideways on the plate, which is essentially what it was. The skin of the "chal soon deh," though, came from an intestine … according to an internet article, it's usually a pig's or cow's intestine … I didn't really ask the owner which one this came from though. haha. This was also a very enjoyable food, and the texture was especially interesting. As has been the trend so far, I was very pleased with both of these dishes and look forward to having them again in the future.
Last but not least, chocolate party! Woo hoo! haha. At Oedae, as you may remember, there's only one class that I have 5 times a week, so I've obviously grown a little closer to this group of students than students in my other classes, and this week we've been working on another bigger writing assignment. I've been trying to spend more time with all my classes on writing -- getting them to put pen to paper more often, so this week's writing is a "How To" essay. Partly because I do want to reward them for good work and party because I just want to do fun things during class I promised them that if their writing was very good, we would have a chocolate party on Wednesday. That was Monday; today in class, each student stood up and read his/her essay, and I was very impressed by what they did. Granted, I have, since then, proofed all but one of the essays for grammar, syntax and mechanics, and the students did make quite a few mistakes, but true to my word, we will have a chocolate party tomorrow. Thus I had to go shopping for chocolate items, and it was pretty pleasant. Out of this quick anecdote come two reflections that I've had of late: first (and the more trivial of the two), I've been having a serious love affair with peanuts ever since arriving in Korea. Whew. I didn't know that I ever liked them so much until lately. I've been pounding peanut butter and dry roasted peanuts like none other, and tonight I bought one 2-pack of Atlas candy bars, which I had intended to save until tomorrow, then I arrived home and noticed the peanut on the packaging … and the rest is history. Needless to say, we'll be short 2 Atlas candy bars at tomorrow's party. haha. And in case you wondered, the Atlas bar tasted pretty awesome. If you can find them wherever you are, I recommend you get one … right about now. To sum up: peanuts are awesome; eat them. Unless, like Tabitha, they are your Achilles' heal, in which case my advice is this: avoid them like the plague because I like you and don't want you to die from something silly like eating a peanut. Second, with this bigger emphasis on writing, I have had to spend more time proofing my students' work outside of class, and you know, I really do thoroughly enjoy it. During my short time here, I've been reminded time and time again of two things that I really enjoy: proofing work and speaking help (I don't know the proper term here, but it's essentially speech pathology). In both of these areas, my joy and excitement stems from the idea that I can actually help someone improve and ultimately do a better job for him/herself in this skill. I look forward to times when I'm continually able to employ both of these abilities and keep aiding others.
Alright. It's now time to do some Korean studying and hit the hay. Woo hoo! I hope that this email finds you well and happy and all that jazz. I will say, before I reach the typical "ps" section, I'm feeling a little lazy and unmotivated right now, so I'm not yet going to upload the 3 pictures that correspond the contents of this message -- partly because I'm lazy and partly because it's only 3 images. I should get them up soonish, though. I will try to step it up a notch and keep taking pictures to keep you all engaged … even if the subjects end up being little more than flash cards and sweaty socks foam a long hike. haha.
Much love to you all.
pfn,
bg
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