22: What is it?

Well, the wet season continues. It doesn't rain very often at all, although when it does it's an absolute downpour. Still, all remains in a constantly damp state. This dampness is quite clearly a combination of extremely high humidity and excessive perspiration. It makes hanging ones clothes to dry a three day enterprise, despite the intense heat. My fan has been rendered useless as it now just blows hot, wet air at me. However, to look on the bright side of things, this weather appears to have two favourable aspects. For one, the mosquitoes appear to despise it more than I do and have failed to appear for a number of days. Now that I've said that, though, I'm sure they'll come back in force. The other benefit is that for about five to ten seconds after turning on the tap after getting home from work, I have hot water! Not that I want a hot shower or anything, but its nice to not have to boil water to wash the dishes. This discovery has led me to question the source of my water. I've deduced that the water storage is on the roof, thus the heating during the day and the large cistern sitting up there. So, is my water rain water? Or does it come from the water treatment plant I've heard so much about? I don't know. But it is at least pumped to the roof, if it does not fall there, where lately it gets well heated by this steaming country.

It was in this palpably hot, damp air that all of the kids (every class except the TOEIC class and the 15 year old girl) and teachers went out on a field trip today. We went down to the river, pretty much the same place I took the the TOEIC class last week. It was interesting in that it seemed an awful lot like they were taking me on a field trip as well as the other way around. They showed me things, told me what they were in Korean, and I told them what they were in English. All in all, I didn't serve that much of a real purpose on the trip as James and Cathy (who varies the spelling of her name between 'K' and 'C') translated the English words for them so they understood them more quickly, and then proceeded to help them with pronunciation too. I really felt more like a participant today, not a teacher. As for the heat, it is good to know that this heat is not normal, as everybody was uncomfortable and commenting on how hot it was, not just the weakling foreigner.

Before the field trip today, I had a rather entertaining TOEIC class. I think I mentioned before that I'm alternating every Friday between field trips and music study. Well, this week was music study. I had a request last time for something a little heavier (I played the Cure last time), and specifically for Skid Row. Now, I don't have any Skid Row on my mp3 player, nor do I ever intend to. But, I wanted to find something that would appeal to them. So, I thought about it and decided on Epic by Faith No More. Half the class liked the song, the other half didn't. Two of the guys only like lighter stuff and one guy wanted really heavy music. Next time, I play two songs, a soft-ish one by a band I haven't determined yet and one heavy song, maybe something by Kittie. Anyway, after we discussed what we thought of the song musically, we moved on to the lyrics. After explaining what slang was and definining such words/phrases as 'groovy', 'outta sight', and 'knock you off your feet' we began to discuss what the song meant. Unfortunately, we ran out of time, so their homework assignment is to tell me in English their opinion of what the answer is to the question, "What is it?" And I stressed that "it's it" is not what I'm looking for. And to be fair, as those lyrics are so vague, I promised them I would come in with an interpretation as well.

My TOEIC class is so very easily my most entertaining. Just getting to sit around talking about stuff and have it called teaching is great. The week, up until today's class, was spent working on their skills in giving directions and describing people and places. I had them describe me, and was told by Chang-won that I have sexy lips. Obviously, I haven't broken him of his pick-up line habit yet. Still, they're my best class. I really like how they're willing to try to explain things to me even if they have no idea how. It makes classes go by so much better than those with my more reluctant students.

Well, on a completely different subject, I went on a bit of a walking adventure a few nights ago. I figured I'd spend the hour or so after work but before dark wandering around taking pictures. I ended up in a part of town I'd never been before, then I went around a corner and realized I was no longer actually in town at all. I walked along this farm road behind the hill that the temple in what I thought was the middle of town is on, knowing that it would lead me back in the general direction of home. It did just that, but once I'd gotten around the hill I noticed that the water level in the river had risen considerably and the road was washed out the rest of the way. It was really starting to get dark at this point and it was a long way back if I went around on the unlit road I had come in on which, incidentally, was also infested with rather large spiders. My only other option was to go over the hill. The hill is steep. The paths are narrow, windy and and at points slippery. Darkness was truly my enemy at this point. I decided that the quick route over the hill was the best route (really, any route that avoids large spiders is a good choice)in order to take advantage of the little bit of light left. I scrambled and slipped my way unscathed to the other side and got home with what I hope will be some good pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I do have some to share with you. The nature-ish ones are from my hike up to the Buddhist temple as recorded in Korean Dispatch #5. The social scenes are from 20: Can't come up with a clever title this time, sorry.

Well, here they are:


this is actually a house just across the street from the school


this is a Buddhist temple at the bottom of the mountain


and this is some bamboo part of the way up the mountain.

Debb did all the borders for these ones. It's kind of funny, really, to think that I had to take these pictures and develop them in Korea, but I sent them to Canada to be scanned in, then they got sent back to me in digital form to be posted here so people in Canada and elsewhere can see them.

These next shots were all taken by Edward at our last outing:


Cathy on the left, and two new people whose names I sadly don't remember. I do remember that the girl on the right is Cathy's friend from Pusan, though.


Me (with glowing redeye), Chu-Myun, Cathy and one of the two girls from the previous photo whose name I can't recall. She came in with Chu-Myun, though.


Peter on the right, and yet another person whose name eludes me. In my defence, I was introduced to many people that night and that was two weeks ago. Haven't seen any of them since (except Cathy, who I work with) to help drill their names into my head. You're lucky I remember the ones I do.


and this is me with the girls from the previous pictures.


at the Blue Moon bar, at the end of the evening. Note the elaborate fruit plate.

So, yes. You are now up to date, and have some pictures. As I get more pictures from Debb, I'll post them for you all. Have a lovely time.

Steave