Highlights of my Day... Monday, March 2

1. Must admit that considering how dry most English school textbooks tend to be, the articles in the textbook my classes are using are quite interesting. So far we have only covered three articles but they’ve been pretty cool actually. Doing anything really in another language is hard enough and can be very discouraging and so I am definitely very relieved that although English may is very challenging for many of my students, that at least we’re studying some fun articles together.

“In the Name of Beauty”
Deals with dangerous things people in history use to do to look beautiful, like Queen Elizabeth the First’s hair dye that eventually made her bald.

“Who Took the Tooth?”
Focuses on various cultural myths about what happens and what people do when their children lose a tooth.

This week’s reading: “The Myths of Pimples”
As the title implies, it talks about false ideas concerning the causes and solutions for pimples. The students thought it funny that I use to put toothpaste on random pimples prior to going to sleep. It helped dry the pimple area but it sometimes got messy... hahaha.

2. Students joked with me today, asking me if I had invited Canada to Korea. Last week the weather was very warm and delightfully beautiful but today a chill came to Cheonan. “Canada is visiting” many joked.

3. So Canada was joked about today but the joking didn’t stop there. I was quick to become a joke in class upon pulling out a yogurt drink during class break time. I didn’t know why some were all giggly but the more I drank of my drink, the more they giggled. “That’s a dong [poo] problem drink” one boy finally told me. Great… there I was, standing in front of some 40 students downing down a laxative-type drink which goes to show you how effective advertising is. I had bought in on a sudden whim because I liked the label was colorful and it was two-for-one.

4. My listening and pronunciation class is next to impossible to plan for despite the fact that I’ve already taught this class a couple of semesters ago. This semester I’m not a big fan of the new textbook we’re using and I’m trying to take a different stab at it because the speakers in the classrooms are for the birds. My first listening and pronunciation class of the week is tomorrow morning and they’re a tough, tough crowd.

5. Spent a big, big chunk of my evening planning my Power Point lecture file for my listening class.

6. That university student who I did a photo shoot for and had an interview with the other day texted me tonight. One text turned into a couple and a couple of texts turned into a full-fledge text message conversation. It all started when I ignored his phone call. Talking in Korean, or any second language for that matter, is so hard on the phone and so I answered his call by texting him.

7. Plans are to meet up with him again tomorrow. I didn’t asked Buff Boy the Original to assist me again but instead decided that I’ll rough it out alone.

8. Despite just having had my hair cut this past week, I’m already contemplating changing it. I was initially trying to grow it out but considering my patience with it is wearing thin, I was thinking that maybe I’ll go for a drastic cut or a drastic change in colour. Hmmm….

9. Watched the movie “Changeling” featuring Angelina Jolie, not particularly fond of her but the movie was great. Loved the whole corrupted police theme and the taking-words-out-of-context idea.

10. Gotta love Korea for the fact that you can hold hands with your friends, grandma’s (regardless of if they’re yours are not) feel free to pat you on the bum, you can eat off your friend’s plate, and getting a “I love you” text message from your coach isn’t regarded as something to be concerned about… hahaha . Some days I feel so in love with Korea and all it’s quirks, today was one of those days.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
How can I control my life if I can't control my hair?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
I'm not offended by all the dumb-blonde jokes because I know that I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not blonde.
-- Dolly Parton