Meltin' and Chillin'

So, since it's been a while, let me update things a little bit - the first week of July from the 2nd through to the 7th or 8th, the weather here was absolutely disgusting.  It rained consistently for basically 24 hours a day, and with the rain, there was heat, making the humidity incredibly nasty!  And the rain wasn't light either - it was heavy and came straight down - you could get completely soaked in less than a minute.  Actually it was kind of fascinating exactly how straight it was... *Note to anyone who has to walk to work in this weather - either wear bare feet or bring an extra pair of socks, because they will be soaked!  Your pants too...* I officially do NOT like the rainy season at all.  The plus side though was there was some awesome thunder and lightning!

This week though, all of that nasty rain and humidity has cleared off and we are left with simply HOT!  The best way I can explain this is that when I come home from work and walk into my apartment - it feels pleasantly cool inside, even though the thermostat says it's 29.  Oh, and if you walk outside in the sunshine, you get an instant sweat.  If it stays nice this weekend, I think another visit to the beach is in order.

This past week has been kind of stressful at work, however, I was able to have a lot of fun with my students, which helped to make up for that. One morning break time (there is 'rest time' between 10:30 and 11) I went outside to enjoy the sunshine, and my students decided to come talk with me.  This led into a conversation about who was crazy, and I do believe it was decided that everyone in general was crazy, although when one student told another teacher walking by about this, I think he definitely thought we were all crazy based on the look he gave us. haha.... The next morning break, I went out again, and the crazy topic came up again, although not for long this time.  This time they wanted to know what skipping ropes were called in English.  And after that they challenged me to show them that I knew how to use one.  Done!  As I was jumping, they all chanted, "A-man-da, A-man-da..."  And then I had to join in on all of the different games they were playing with the skipping ropes.  It was a lot of fun!  When I went back to my classroom after break, my co-teacher just looked at me and said, "Why do you look so happy? What happened in the last 20 minutes?"  Didn't know it was odd to look happy... Anyway, then during lunch, on my way back to my office, I got ambushed by a pair of grade 3 girls, who spent the next 20-30 minutes saying random things in English to me and making me repeat phrases in Korean after them.  About 5 minutes in we were joined by a pair of grade 3 boys who also jumped into our conversation, and they started being pretty silly, standing on the window ledge - at which point we got scolded by a Korean teacher, looked innocent, and went back to what we were doing. :P  Eventually we were joined by a pair of grade 4 boys who decided it was time to teach me how to say their names (and then I got made fun of by a Korean teacher for my bad pronunciation).  Oh, and then they (the grade 4 boys) each told me that the other liked me.  Awesome - because that's what I need - children crushin' on me...lol

And that segways me into my next mini-story - I was taking in some sunshine, when one of the younger teachers walks by and comments on how hot it is, and so I responded that I thought it was nice (more about the sun after that nasty rain...). Five or ten minutes later that same teacher comes back with two cups and hands me one, saying, "Amanda, iced coffee.  DRINK!!!!!!" uh...but I don't like coffee though.... hahaha....
Hmm, upon reflection, I think they like feeding me because as I was doing some photocopying one of the staff brought me a couple of plums to eat (and she told me they were plums, even though I could see that myself) ;)

Apparently today was also "Teach Amanda Teacher Korean Day".  During that morning break, a few of my grade 3 girls stayed after class to write random things in English on the board.  Then they started pointing to the things they wrote, and made me read them.  This turned into writing things in Korean on the board and making me read them.  Pop quiz on Hangul!!  After the quiz, (well at the same time actually) they also started saying words and phrases, and made me say them slowly, and then faster, and I had to repeat them if I pronounced them wrong. Enter the demon dragonfly!!  I've noticed that Korean kids seem to be scared/freaked out by any kind of bug, even butterflies!  So when the dragonfly flew in, chaos erupted!!  After it got chased out of the room, they started dragging me around the room to different objects, telling me the names in Korean.  It was a great impromptu practice!  Although, I can't say how much I'll remember...
Then at lunch, as I was chilling out enjoying some of the sunshine, one of the admin staff found me, and decided to teach me the names of some sports in Korean.  Not sure that that will really be useful to me at all, but I appreciate the thought.
And to finish the day off, as I was heading home after work, the principal calls me over, and 'teaches' me how to say goodbye.  No worries, I can pretend like I didn't know that one ;)

The only other adventure I've had recently was getting a haircut.  Now, if you know me really well, you know how much I don't like getting my hair cut, so it was naturally incredibly nerve wracking to go in and find out the hairdresser knew basically no English, and yet still get a haircut.  I think the only words I got from him in English were: cut, ok, and layers (although this last one was repeating after me).  And with my limited Korean, I am very happy I brought a picture with me! His cutting process was also very different than what I'm used to - he didn't wash my hair first - just misted and went straight to cutting.  After a few "Oh no, what've I got myself into" thoughts, it came down to - "too late now, gotta go with it"!  No worries though, in the end it turned out alright, even if it's a bit shorter that I wanted.  And is it even possible to get a haircut for only $12 at home? Somehow I don't think so.

Cross your fingers for good weather for me this weekend!!

Next weekend = a trip to Daegu with the ladies to see Cirque du Soleil!  Excited for that - stay tuned...