A bunch of random stuff... Cause it's Random News

So I don't have anything really interesting to say today, but I do have a random string of stuff that you may or may not find interesting. You know.

So first off, today, I went hiking farther than I've ever been before. I had been told several times that there was a spring past the rice paddies that I typically stop at, but hadn't ever been brave enough to walk through them. Not because they're scary, they're actually very pretty, but they belong to somebody, and my American training says that if you walk on other people's property, you may be shot. Ok, maybe that's just my Texas training. The spring itself was pretty small, but they had the little dippers that you use to drink with, so I drank a little of the spring water and then walked back to my apt. The hike from our apt to the spring is about an hour, but it's a really easy hike after the stairs at the beginning. Once I got there, a nice Korean man was trying to chat with me about something, but of course I quickly shot that down as I don't speak enough to say much. He smiled and waved goodbye to me all the same. On the way home, I passed by a black squirrel. It was really pretty although I had a good pace going so I didn't slow down and go look at it too close. Black is really an inaccurate description, it was actually more of a chocolate brown color. Very pretty, but so strange that it made me do a double take. I'm lucky I didn't fall over, because Korean hiking trails are nice, but have lots of tree roots and rocks.

Speaking of tripping, I passed a dude on the trails the other day, and as I walked past him I looked and smiled at him, basically my way of making up for my inability to properly let him know that I was cutting in front. When he saw me he tripped over himself, I suppose because I'm a foreigner, and then he laughed and waved at me. I suppose it could also be because I'd been hiking for 45 minutes to an hour and was sweaty and stinky, and he was horrified. I'm sticking with the foreigner excuse either way.

Actually it's pretty regular that people on the trails wave at me or smile at me, or do a double take when they see me. Some of them try to tell me that I'm hiking, which I appreciate, because before they tell me I'm often in the dark about what's happening, and some of them simply say hello and get excited when I respond with a hello. I'm not sure that I will ever be happy in the real world after this place where me sweaty and dirty and just grunting out a quick hello is enough to get people laughing. I basically don't have to do anything and I'm entertaining.

Yesterday, due to my lack of motivation to blowdry my hair, I flat ironed it. Now, my previous hair stylist always told me that I should not wash my hair everyday because I would be stripping it of it's natural oils. I hadn't really ever had a chance to put that to the test since I was always covered in chlorine and what not after a night at ESS, but I've been trying it out here. I don't know if my hair is just ruined after 4 years of chemicals and chloramines, or if I just have really fine hair, but if I don't wash it each day, it seems to be pretty greasy looking by the end of the day. But still, being unwilling to give up on this quest to healthier hair I continue to try. So I decided to try flat ironing it yesterday, but not washing it. The result looked pretty cute in the morning, but by the evening, my hair had apparently played out on me, and was looking pretty limp and oily. At least my bangs and sides were, probably because I mess with that hair the most. So I get to my TMKJ class which is older kids, and they immediately start asking me what happened to my hair. These kids have pretty good English, so they express themselves pretty well, although sometimes they're pretty blunt, which is honestly just the Korean way. So they began by saying things like "Oh teacher, your hair. Why?" After laughing and explaining that I flat ironed it and there was more product in it than usual, I asked them if it looked bad, because whenever someone adds the statement "why?" I get the impression that more than likely I may not be onto a hot new trend. The girls just kinda laughed but didn't say much but one of the boys blurted out "Teacher, the other way is better. Next time, the other way." Which was his way of using the English that I had so carefully taught him to let me know that I had not done a good job with my hair that day. The funnier thing was that the girl who usually sits next to me was very concerned about my hair all the way through the lesson and didn't like that my bangs fell into my eyes, and eventually pushed them up while I was talking.

This brings to light a fact that I realize more and more everyday. Koreans are much more physical that Americans in most respects, and it seems to be truest of the children. In America, two little girls might hold hands up to the age of 6 or 7, but after that they tend to leave the hand holding for their boyfriends right? Well one of my favorite classes is a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds. By American age standards I think they're 9 and 10ish. My Korean little boys have always been much more willing to caress and touch each other than any good American boys would, but the other day I nearly laughed in class at two of my boys. We were reading the story book for class, and one of the boys had forgotten his copy. He happily climbed into the lap of the other little boy who sits in front of him, wrapped his arm around his neck and sat there like that through all of the reading. Can you imagine what would have happened in America? They would have launched into horrible name calling and he would have crawled back into his seat. But here, while the other children did laugh, it wasn't because he was being socially inappropriate, just that he was being a little silly. It was very adorable. And they rub each other's heads and pat each other on the back, and just enjoy physical contact much more than we do in the states.

I spent a lot of time discussing American discipline with my kids this week. I have a class of very intelligent pre-teen girls that wanted to know how teachers discipline their students in America. They went on to describe what I would say was some over the top teaching even for Korea. Apparently their teachers sometimes kick them and make them stand in crouching positions with their arms out for 45 minutes at a time. Some of them yank on their ears and whack them. Overall, I tend to think it might be a little too much. Plus, where do you go from there right? I think that's some of the problem that I encounter here. I'm all for the mae-mae sticks, but when they get kicked and beaten continually, how can you discipline them with just words? Anyhow, so they start posing all of these situations to me, and after it, each time "Would that teacher go to jail in America teacher?" Several times I admitted that the teacher would probably be imprisoned in America (especially with the kicking) and then they would ask "How long teacher?" I don't really know the legal set up for attacking students, but I would assume some of the stuff they told me would have gone under assault. So I said maybe 6 months. And then then always seemed a little disappointed, like they were hoping that in America they would be put in for life. I did tell them that I felt that they were much better educated in Korea in general and tried to give them that, but they didn't seem to care so much.

So on that note, I walk into one of my classes the other day, and one of the boys tells me he's sad because his Korean teacher hit him. So I asked him why and he replies "Because she's boring teacher." Which of course made me laugh.

On a final note, we got paid today which is super exciting, as we seem perfectly capable of living on about 1.2 million won a month, which means we have a little over half our pay checks left over to put into savings and paying off student loans.

Hope everyone is doing well back in the states. I can't believe we've been over here for 3 months now. I was talking to my students about 9-11 today, and I can't believe how far away and foreign it sounded. None of them were so interested in it, but when we come to World War II they love to hear how the Americans nuked the Japanese, because most Koreans either have a slight distaste for Japan or a full out antipathy for Japan. "Teacher, did America blow up Japan?" "Yep." "Oh teacher, so good! Oh Yeah."

Have a great day!