Shame on me...

I'm afraid that being on vacation has made me supremly lax in writing blog entries (sorry mom!)

On a normal school day I teach from 9-12, have lunch from 12-130, then sit until 5 when I'm allowed to go home. The time period between 130-5 is normally when I write entries.

Anyway, here's some highlights of the past two weeks (in relatively chronological order).

END OF MIDDLE SCHOOL CAMP:

New Year's Day was the last time we had to sleep at camp. So of course the Korean teachers rented a karaoke machine! (and of course I got in on the action). We were set up in the gym, ten Korean teachers, and Karen and I. Karen and I were huge microphone hogs (heavily influenced by the soju we were encouraged to drink). The Korean teachers were really inclusive in their songs choices. A couple people sang English songs (unheard of Olivia Newton-John ballads) and sometimes they would translate the Korean lyrics into the microphone for us.

The karaoke machine also counted how many calories we were burning as we were singing.

Everyone had to stand in a circle and 'dance' while the others were singing. 'Dancing' consists of swaying from side to side and clapping your hands to the beat. If Karen or I swayed with no clap they would all yell 'whoooooooooaaaa' and point at us (as if we were dancing champs) anything beyond swaying blew there minds (I was actually told to 'make smaller motions' after I swayed with both hands in the air).

The only teacher in the whole camp who had poor English was the health care teacher (nurse). Obviously since she wasn't teaching English she didn't need to know it. She is also the nurse at my actual school. As I was leaving the gym I hugged some of the females goodbye. She chased me yelling, 'my too! my too!'. It was really cute.

She also cornered me with a few Korean teachers and they translated for her. She wanted to know why I never smile at school, yet I smile all the time at camp. I made up a bullshit excuse but Really? At camp, I could talk to EVERYONE. At school, I am the only fluent English speaker out of 30 teachers and 300 students. Yes, Winnie is pretty decent, and yes, the other teachers sometimes make an effort. But obviously they'd prefer to speak in Korean, and I am a huge burden to them when I am speaking English (on several occasions I have been instructed to 'learn Korean, so I can speak with the teachers' because of course, language aquisition is SO easy). My point is, mostly at school I don't talk to anyone. So why would I smile? Who walks around silently, vacantly, smiling to themselves?

FAN DEATH

I think I've sufficiently related my battles with the heat in this blog, and the Korean obsession with 'fresh air'. Korean people also believe that sleeping with a fan on, and the doors and windows shut can lead to DEATH. Hence, fan death.

Now, some stories of Korean culture have actually turned out to be less extreme than I previously thought. For example, foreigners have told me that Korean women eat nothing but seaweed soup for the three months following giving birth. I asked Winnie about this, and she said that it is considered very healthy for new mothers to eat seaweed soup, but that they can eat anything else as long as it is not spicy (which is not good for breast-feeding). Makes sense.

I asked Winnie if she believes in fan death. She said 'of course, it's on the news all the time'. So I questioned her:

J-Do you believe everything you see on the news?
W-No...but how did these people die if not from fan death?
J-Well I heard that sometimes when people die of drug abuse or suicide, their families will claim 'fan death' to save face.
W-No, I don't think so, doctors preform autopsies.
J-Not always, only if the death is suspicious.
W-...
J-Anyway, this never happens in Canada. No one EVER dies from fans.
W-Well maybe spaces in Korea are smaller.
J-So can you die simply from being in a small room with no fan?
W-No..
J-I mean, rooms aren't airtight! Air comes in around the windows and cracks underneath the doors.
W-Yes, but the fan...
J-How does the fan SUCK air from the room? How does a fan make AIR disappear? HOW?
W-Well, I don't know, maybe you can find out on the internet.

Disclaimer: I know it may sound as if I'm attacking her, but we were laughing the whole time. She still hasn't convinced me that fans kill people though.

And finally..

BUSAN

Yesterday my friend was kind enough to drive four of us to Busan for the day. I got to eat chicken vindaloo for the first time in MONTHS. Dinner was amazing, but the best part was the aquarium.

I think it was my first time at an aquarium. And this aquarium was INCREDIBLE (I sound like such a dork, I know). The aquarium was deep undergroud right next to Hyundae beach. We took escalator after escalator until we were underneath the beach. We saw exhibit after exhibit of really cool creatures. I saw the most venomous fish in the world, and it looks exactly like a rock.

The coolest part was the sharks. They're not huge, maybe six feet long, but they are definitely scary looking. They were in the same area as sting rays, HUGE fish,ginormous turtles, and some little fish too (I don't know why the sharks didn't eat the little fish). And the area they were in was AWESOME. We walked through a seamless glass tunnel with sharks and sting rays all around us. I could look up and see the underside of a shark swimming right over my head! And on TOP of us people were in glass bottomed boats cruising above the sharks and our heads!

To recap: Vacation rocks my socks!