User-agent: Googlebot-Image Disallow: / My (edited) Journal

My (edited) Journal

Observations, events, comparisons, thoughts, rants, linguistics, politics, my students, and anything else I care to write about.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Blog Organization

I spent a couple of hours reorganizing blogs tonight. I had been reading over 50 and even with the aggregator, it was becoming too much. I looked at the blogs on my sidebar and saw a few who were no longer updating, and other good ones that I read that weren't there. I deleted about 20 blogs from my favorites who either don't update often enough (at least once a week) or that I don't really enjoy. I'm down to a more reasonable 30 blogs now.

I caught several kids cheating today. At 5 PM Edward had a tiny 3 by 2 inch paper with all of the words written on it. I ripped up his test paper and made him take the test again, then gave his cheat sheet to Mona for her to do whatever is appropriate here. In the next class Cleo's book was in the chair next to his in a way that he could see it (he swore that it just happened to be on the page that the test was on--he put the book down there when I handed out the test--sure, so believable), while Jenny's eyes were wandering.

In the 5 PM class the girls asked me what I cooked at home and I said not much, it's easier to get Korean food from restaurants. They were amazed that I haven't cooked rice even once in the two years I've been here. When they heard how little I cooked anything, they asked if I had a refrigerator and what was in it. I named off the things for them: milk, orange juice, cola, water, yogurt, bread, eggs, butter, jelly, syrup. Again, amazement from them. No kimchi?!

In the 7 PM class they called Ivan a bear because he's always sleepy. I pointed out that bears sleep in the winter, so now he's a "summer bear."

I had forgotten what taking a shower with water pressure felt like. For the last two weeks it's been barely more than a drip. Now it's back to full pressure. It's happened 5+ times this year. What's up? The sink is also barely draining, despite using the liquid drain unclogger stuff. I don't have these kinds of problems at home. On second thought, maybe occasionally I do, but Dad takes care of them. : )

The headache continues, and nothing helps. Medicine, caffeine, chocolate--no good. Hopefully with some rest and quiet time this weekend it will go away.

Hurricanes and the Bushes

As I read about Hurricane Charley, I wonder if it could influence who is elected president in November.

The facts: Florida, with its 27 electoral votes, is a key state in the too-close-to-call column for the presidential election. A third of Florida's population is in the path of what might be a very strong hurricane.

Partly/sometimes true: People have trouble separating Jeb Bush and George W. Bush.

A line of thinking that popped into my head: Even if the hurricane does severe damage but the state responds well afterwards by providing quick relief and supplies, then people will like Jeb and by association his brother and might vote for him (George W.) in the election.

It's improbable that things would happen like that, but....Jeb has already ordered a lot of people to evacuate--the right thing to do. He's declared a state of emergency, which by itself causes a lot of other things to happen like schools and government offices to close. He's mobilized the Florida National Guard. Law enforcement is on alert, the highways are moving as well as they can with all of the added vehicles, airports and private businesses have limited hours. Lots of things are controlled by local governments and carefully formulated hurricane and disaster plans, but if you're governor and things go well with a minimum of fatalities, injuries, and damage, then it would be easy to take credit. Could this be one of those events that people look back on and say, "Why didn't we guess how that would change things?"

An event like Bonnie (with winds of around 50 MPH and some rain) and Charley (a major storm) striking so close together (something like 12~24 hours apart) hasn't happened since 1906. With all of the development that has taken place since then and all of the rain they've had already this year.....yikes! The flooding could be quite bad, not to mention the damage to mobile homes.

I talked to Mom and Dad last night. Mom was watching Dad prepare for the storm: all of the normal stuff like putting the pool furniture, potted plants, and water hoses inside, but Dad was even climbing up the antenna to anchor it down. Charley is still predicted to hit Tampa Bay, and continues to strengthen. Mom will get the hurricane she's been waiting her whole life for! I wouldn't mind being there myself, actually.

Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service

...HURRICANE CHARLEY LOCAL STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL 249 AM EDT FRI AUG 13 2004
... INTENSIFYING HURRICANE CHARLEY MAY BE A DANGEROUS THREAT TO THE SUNCOAST TODAY...

... HURRICANE WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT FOR THE ENTIRE WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA COASTAL AREA...

... THE INLAND HURRICANE WIND WATCH HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING FOR WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA.

... A FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA...

... A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR CHARLOTTE AND LEE COUNTIES...

A HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS IN WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA:

CITRUS CHARLOTTE DE SOTO HERNANDO HILLSBOROUGH LEE LEVY MANATEE PASCO PINELLAS SARASOTA INCLUDING... THE COASTAL WATERS FROM BONITA BEACH TO THE MOUTH OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER... CHARLOTTE HARBOR AND TAMPA BAY.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS IN WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA:

HARDEE HIGHLANDS POLK SUMTER

... STORM LOCATION... AT 2 AM EDT... THE CENTER OF HURRICANE CHARLEY WAS LOCATED NEAR 23.0 NORTH... 82.6 WEST... OR ABOUT 335 MILES SOUTH OF TAMPA. CHARLEY WAS MOVING TO THE NORTH NORTHWEST AT 14 MPH... AND IS EXPECTED TO GRADUALLY TURN TO THE NORTH TODAY. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 105 MPH... AND ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST AS THE STORM MOVES OUT OVER THE WARM WATERS OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. CHARLEY COULD BECOME A MAJOR HURRICANE LATER TODAY. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE WAS 973 MB... 28.73 INCHES.

... STORM SURGE FLOOD AND STORM TIDE IMPACTS... WITH CHARLEY EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY... THEN ACCELERATE... ALONG THE SUNCOAST... THE THREAT OF A RAPIDLY DEVELOPING STORM SURGE IN THE STORM'S SOUTHERN SEMICIRCLE IS GREAT. CURRENT INDICATIONS SUGGEST THE HIGHEST SURGE WILL OCCUR FROM THE COUNTIES NEAR TAMPA BAY SOUTH TO LEE COUNTY.

A STORM SURGE OF 10 TO 13 FEET IS POSSIBLE TO SOUTH OF WHERE CHARLEY MAKES LANDFALL. A STORM SURGE OF 6 TO 9 FEET IS POSSIBLE NORTH OF WHERE THE CHARLEY MOVES ON SHORE AS THE WINDS COME AROUND TO ONSHORE BEHIND THE STORM.

... WIND IMPACTS... CHARLEY IS FORECAST TO INTENSIFY AND COULD BECOME A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE AS IT APPROACHES THE SUNCOAST ON FRIDAY... WITH WINDS IN THE INNER EYEWALL PERHAPS AT LEAST 130 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. HOWEVER... NO MATTER WHERE THE CENTER CROSSES... CURRENT FORECAST DATA SUGGEST TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS OF AT LEAST 40 MPH WILL AFFECT ALL AREAS OF WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA BETWEEN FRIDAY EARLY SATURDAY.

... VERY DANGEROUS WINDS WILL PRODUCE WIDESPREAD DAMAGE... ... DESTRUCTION OF MOBILE HOMES NEAR THE CENTER OF THE STORM IS POSSIBLE...

... STRUCTURAL DAMAGE... THE MAJORITY OF MOBILE HOMES WILL BE SEVERELY DAMAGED NEAR WHERE THE STORM MAKES LANDFALL. HOUSES OF POOR TO AVERAGE CONSTRUCTION WILL HAVE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE... INCLUDING PARTIAL WALL COLLAPSE AND ROOFS BEING LIFTED OFF. MANY WILL BE UNINHABITABLE. WELL CONSTRUCTED HOUSES WILL INCUR MINOR DAMAGE TO SHINGLES... SIDING... GUTTERS... AS WELL AS BLOWN OUT WINDOWS.

PARTIAL ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED AT INDUSTRIAL PARKS... ESPECIALLY TO THOSE BUILDINGS WITH LIGHT WEIGHT STEEL AND ALUMINUM COVERINGS. OLDER LOW RISING APARTMENT ROOFS MAY ALSO BE TORN OFF... AS WELL AS RECEIVING SIDING AND SHINGLE DAMAGE. MUCH OF THE GLASS IN HIGH RISE OFFICE BUILDINGS WILL BE BLOWN OUT. AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL CAUSE DAMAGE... INJURY... AND POSSIBLE FATALITIES.

... NATURAL DAMAGE... ALL TREES WITH ROTTING BASES WILL BECOME UPROOTED OR SNAP. NEARLY ALL LARGE BRANCHES WILL SNAP... AND MAJOR DAMAGE IS CAN BE EXPECTED TO CITRUS GROVES... INCLUDING NUMEROUS UPROOTED TREES... MOST COMMON WHERE THE GROUND IS SATURATED.

RESIDENTS IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS SHOULD RUSH TO COMPLETION PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT THEIR PROPERTY... THEN MOVE TO A PLACE OF SAFETY.

IN RURAL LOCATIONS... SMALL STREAMS AND CREEKS WILL SURPASS BANK FULL FOR MORE THAN 6 HOURS.

URBAN AREAS WILL SEE SIGNIFICANT FLOODING AS RAINFALL OF 3 TO 6 INCHES WITH ISOLATED AMOUNTS AS HIGH AS 8 INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED AND THE STORM SURGE WILL LIMIT EVACUATION OF THE WATER.

HEAVY RAIN WILL CAUSE RIVERS TO SWELL LONG AFTER THE STORM PASSES. PERSONS LIVING ALONG RIVERS SHOULD MONITOR EVENTS THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK.

THE NEXT HURRICANE LOCAL STATEMENT FROM THE TAMPA BAY AREA FORECAST OFFICE WILL BE ISSUED AROUND 6 AM EDT.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS DANGEROUS FLOOD. HEED ALL EVACUATION ORDERS FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT OR MILITARY PERSONNEL.

In2Books Survey

Today I received a survey to rate the 2003-2004 pen pal experience. Wouldn't it have made more sense to do it immediately following the last letter instead of as the next year is starting?! It was multiple choice, but I didn't really like some of the choices as answers.

1. What have you found most meaningful in your student correspondence this year?
Uh, nothing? If you force me to choose, "Student relating book content to his/her life."

2. Which of the following do you feel would most increase your engagement in the In2Books program?
Getting the books on time? "Viewing scientific assessment of In2Books impact on student progress," if there is progress.

3. Which of the following In2Books program activities are you most interested in learning more about?
"Classroom implementation (including photos and narrative)"—have the teachers gone to university?

4. Did you feel the frequency of In2Books-initiated communication with you was:
"About the right amount" (6 letters in the school year)

5. Please rate your overall pen pal experience:
"Not rewarding"

6. Are you planning to participate as an In2Books pen pal this coming school year? If not, why not?
No--Not receiving materials at all or receiving them too late to easily meet deadlines. It's hard to write a letter about a book that I haven't read. If you can't allow time for international shipping or properly address the package, then you shouldn't accept pen pals outside of the U.S.

7. Will you recommend volunteering as an In2Books pen pal to others?
No--The students didn't seem to show any improvement over the course of the year. They seldom answered questions I asked them or added a personal touch to their letters. In most cases the letters sounded like a dry book report. In one cycle their beginning paragraphs were virtually identical and with the same difficult word misspelled, leading me to believe that their teacher told them what to write and the teacher doesn't know how to spell.

8. Please offer any other comments you have about the In2Books program, your personal experiences with it, and/or your recommendations on how we can improve the program:
It's a great idea but it needs to be more organized with better teacher training.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

A Mickle of Annoyances

Day 4 of the headache. I know my mother would tell me to go to the doctor, but I already know what he would say. He would ask my symptoms, try not to act surprised at me coming to see him with only one minor thing wrong, blame it on the heat or the air conditioners at work or something, give me some medicine, tell me to drink lots of water, and send me on my way. I can take medicine and drink lots of water on my own. The idea of preventative medicine doesn't seem to exist here. The medical care seems similar to how they treat typhoons: don't do anything to get ready but then solicit donations to repair all of the damage. Nearly every summer the same storms come, yet nothing is done before the typhoons hit. My head could explode tomorrow and they'd talk about how it was too bad that it happened, but then not change how anything is done. Such is Korea.

I was going to take a day off from exercising yesterday, but found myself too hyper to not do anything. I went a shorter distance than normal, but when I returned home the new shoes had rubbed the back of my feet so badly that my sock was soaked with blood and sweat. Yuck! Today I used band-aids before going out, so have kept the damage from getting any worse, although it doesn't seem to be any better.

As for yesterday's classes, Tomas (3 PM) made a big deal of saying that Sam was his friend, so I asked Sam (4 PM) if Tomas was his friend. Sam very emphatically said "NO! Tomas is a bad boy!!" I thought maybe they'd had a fight (they're in the 3rd grade) but Sam went on to explain how Tomas takes things from the supermarket.

At 5 PM we read a story about teenagers stealing a car and the owner hanging onto the car as it drove away. The 7th and 8th graders said that they felt bad for the teenagers because their future was damaged, but that as long as their parents paid lots of money to the car's owner then they wouldn't have to go to "teenager jail" for very long. I asked them what would happen if the parents were poor and couldn't pay anything. Sally said that the teenager would have to go to jail for longer. She added that if the kid is under a certain age (14 or 15 Korean/12~14 Western, she wasn't sure exactly) then the parents had to go to jail, too. I asked her why, and she clearly explained that if a young kid does something wrong, then their parents didn't teach them well. Then Ben asked how Sally knew all of these things--was she spending a lot of time at the police station in trouble?!

The day ended with samgyetang since we missed eating it on whatever day we were supposed to have it. I was not at all impressed. I don't like ginseng, and the soup consisted of half a chicken and a little rice, with a lot of spicy side dishes. Not a great dinner.

I finally got my resident ID card back today. I asked Mr. Kim about it again on Tuesday, and he said that the director of the academy out by the airport picked it up and would give it to Mr. Kim when they got together Wednesday evening. Today Joelle gave my card back to me. I don't like it going through so many hands--more chance of it getting lost that way! The new expiration date for the visa is written by hand on the back of the card. The previous time it was typed/computer generated. Is that something to be concerned about? I guess I'll find out when I try to leave the country!

Word of the day: mickle. One of the adults (Grace) used it today and at first I thought she was remembering a word wrong or pronouncing it incorrectly (or making up a word, she's been known to do that, too!). She showed me the word in the dictionary, and I had no clue--I'd NEVER heard or read it before. After class I looked it up in two different English dictionaries--not there. Then I looked it up online and found it, but there was very minimal information like how old of a word it is and if it is still in common usage and if so, in what countries. My feeling was that it's an old word but the limited etymology didn't help. I had Mom look it up in the 1828 dictionary we have at home and it said that it was obsolete but still used in Scotland. The word was obsolete in 1828--what's it doing in a present-day Korean-English dictionary?!?! It means great, a lot of, much, etc. and is also written muckle and mockle. Synonyms are: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mint, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad, whole lot, whole slew.

Joelle....................sometimes I want to scream!! Today she was going through the various Daily Reports and writing down which ones hadn't been done. She asked me if the other foreign teachers knew that they had to be done at least once a week and I told her that I was pretty sure they knew. Later I asked them and they both told me that they do them most of the time, but then Tanya said that Matt had stopped doing them because of his extra classes. Matt's attitude got to me today--yeah Joelle is annoying, but she is the manager. His feeling is that he shouldn't have to hang around after work putting the reports into the computer because he doesn't have "breaks" during the day to get them done. I'd much rather have a streamlined schedule than have two days where I have an hour off in the middle of classes and then have to be at work later.

Back to what I was talking about.....later Joelle put papers on everyone's desk showing what daily reports that person had missed. She didn't say anything, the paper was just waiting when I came back from my first class. It made me angry, especially when I started looking at the classes she had written down that I had missed. She wrote down classes starting in the first week of June, the week before we were told to put them into the computer. Hello! Then one class wasn't mine, while another I share with Matt so it's unreasonable to expect him to tell me what he did in his class and me to input that into the computer. (The system is designed such that only one foreign teacher and one Korean teacher can have a class listed on their online schedule, or so they say. It sounds strange to me.) Yet another couple of classes I looked back on the paper record that I keep and saw a check next to them showing that I entered them into the computer. Either there's a problem with the computer program, or someone deleted them, which isn't so difficult to do as there's no confirmation "are you sure you want to delete this" warning that comes up. I wrote notes on the paper as to some of the major things, and then filed it away. I have 7 weeks left. While I'm still working hard at teaching, I'm not about to go back over 2 months to put data into the computer that no one will ever use! Matt told me that he had torn his paper up into tiny little pieces and placed it in the paper recycling box. That Joelle had enough time to do all of this tells me that she needs more to do! Wow was she ever pulling the power trip today.

During the 5 PM Hacking test I caught Allan cheating. One of the kids said something to him in Korean and I looked at him at about the time he moved his backpack slightly and handed his paper to me saying "I don't know." All of the words were spelled correctly except for the last two which he had left blank. I looked at his bag and found his hacking book (5"X7" size) propped up inside such that he could see it but the bag would keep it from being seen by other people. I didn't want to accuse him unfairly, but the evidence was looking pretty strong. I asked him one of the harder words that he had written correctly on his paper and he couldn't answer it orally. He then admitted cheating and tore up his own paper and begged me not to tell Miro. I wanted to keep him for an hour after class for him to study and retake the test but he had a doctor's appointment. I ended up giving him a stern lecture and having him retake the test before he went home. He got 5 of 30. He promised that he would never cheat again. Or at least be more careful about how he does it, I guess!

Miscellaneous tidbits: Billy kept saying "hair driver" instead of "hair dryer." Kane guessed that the girl in the story we read was getting a bomb for her birthday gift because her boyfriend didn't like her anymore. Brandon said that I looked like a sumo wrestler with short arms, while Jessie disagreed--I look like a chimpanzee with long arms. Great students I have!

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Spiders; Headache; Dream Date; In2Books

Ally was funny on Monday. There was a spider on the wall so she asked me to kill it. I explained that spiders eat mosquitoes and that it wouldn't hurt her, but she refused to study with it in the classroom. I got some tissue and grabbed the spider and took it outside to let it go. I didn't take it all the way outside, but only to the stairs. When I came back into class Ally asked me where I had put the spider, and she made a big deal out of how when she went home the spider would get her, so she made me agree to walk down the stairs with her. After class she took my hand and we ran down the stairs together. She's so silly!

Also in that class Jenny, as her usual talkative self, was chattering on about whatever she chatters about, and asked me the word for a "girl uncle." It's "aunt," don't you remember?

The heat in the Pineapple classroom caused/contributed to a horrid headache. I thought I was going to die. After the 4 PM class I took some ibuprofen but the headache persisted throughout the next three classes, on the bus, and even at home. When I woke up today it was still there, but in a much milder form. Most of the day it didn't bother me, but began to get stronger in the evening. What's up? Anyway, the headache left me totally unable to do anything at home Monday night--I went to bed incredibly early. That left me scrambling after adult class today to prepare for the next "How to Write an English Diary" class. I got it done in time, largely because I already had some stuff printed out from earlier this year. Today's topic was punctuation and capitalization, things the kids attending the class probably already know, but other students ignore.

The adults' homework was to describe either their dream date, a real date from the past, or a date they take with their husbands. It's a little weird having that topic in a class where everyone is married! Grace's was about a guy she knew in university and how he was poor so they just went on walks as a date. He believed that if he climbed Namsan (a moutain in Seoul, I think) 100 times that his wish would come true. She never learned his wish, but she did climb the mountain with him--100 times! Jennifer wrote something that sounded like a cross between Cinderella and a romance novel. By the third or fourth sentence I started to blush, wondering where she was going with it. It stayed decent enough, and ended with, "To be continued." I told her I was expecting the continuation next class! They misused a couple of idioms in class. They were trying to describe someone who is agreeable or easygoing, in Korean a "yes man" but Grace said an "easy guy." NO! I laughed, and explained what it means to say that someone is "easy."

At 2 PM there's a new 12-year-old with the five 9-year-olds (Western ages 11 and 7-8). It's just for summer vacation, but the difference between kids at those ages is immense. Physically, but mentally, too. The younger kids understand and catch on to English a lot faster, learning less from the book and more naturally, but they're also little monkeys. The older boy sat in his chair for the entire class, but if he didn't understand every word of what I said, then he refused to answer the question. I got tired of repeating myself.

My 6 PM class that is normally pretty good was absolutely horrible today. The boys were passing notes and playing around. I put Cleo outside of class for a long time because I was close to killing him, then I kept four of the boys after class to copy the story into their notebooks, which took about 5 minutes.

The next class that is normally bad was excellent. Has the earth started spinning in the opposite direction?! They got a little too hyper when we started playing a game at the end, but otherwise they listened, they read, they spoke, they did nearly everything they were supposed to!

The In2Books thing is insane. I had originally replied (back in May or June) that I would do another year. I didn't hear anything further from them until 8/3 when I got an email with the subject line, "URGENT! Your Introductory Package is Due August 13!" Then the following day I got another email titled "Your Introductory Project is due {taskDueDate}!" That email said that my deadline had already passed but there was still time to submit the materials. If I hadn't received my welcome package yet, I should contact them. I wasn't ready for another year of getting materials late or not at all, so I sent them an email on Saturday (8/7). I thought about going into how unorganized they are and how they don't understand how long international mail can take, but just said that I didn't have the time to devote to the program this year (which is true, when they give me short deadlines or I have to go searching the web to find enough info about a book that I haven't read to write two letters about it pretending that I've read it).

On Monday (8/9) I received the welcome package, postmarked 7/22, with a letter in it dated 6/8 that gave a deadline of 6/28 for the welcome package. Goodness! This one had my correct address on it, but it had another sticker on it that said South Africa. Someone is really confused about their geography. At least before they sent it to Asia (China). Where did "Africa" come from?! I don't know that it made a stop there, but it couldn't have sped the package along when two different country names were on it! No response from my email, as they're probably busy getting things organized and there's really no response to make. I felt a little bad about bailing out after I had already said yes, but I really can't deal with the lack of organization, especially with finishing my contract soon, and possibly doing a little traveling, then returning home. Things may be a little crazy and I don't need any added craziness.

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Curiosity

Bill's on vacation so Pastor Cho preached. It was better than last time, but still a little difficult to follow. At Shinbok we ate lunch before leading 6 very hyperactive boys in studying the next verse in John. We started earlier than usual so the two sisters showed up as we were finishing. It didn't take them long to study the verse, although the younger one kept messing up the pronunciation. Having "through" and "truth" in the same sentence is hard to say! Then we waited around for Octavia to meet her friend about something and then she drove me home.

After putting my bag inside I went for a long walk near Munsu. I now have a different take on the expression "Curiosity killed the cat." Curiosity threatens other things, too! I saw some stairs up a steep bank, so I followed them to see what was there. At the top of the stairs I had to climb up some loose dirt/mulch/rocks. It was a construction zone, I guess. I walked around a bit and when I turned to go back down, the bank looked a lot steeper than when I had gone up. I was wearing white capris, so didn't relish the idea of sliding down on my rear end, so I decided to look for another way down. I walked a short distance to what looked like a road down. I carefully descended, to find that the "road" ended with a jungle between it and a paved road. I took some careful steps in before determining that it only got thicker. Especially with sandals on, I wasn't about to step where I couldn't see the ground! Snakes aren't common here (as far as I know) but I still wasn't going to chance it. So I went back up that part.

On the way up I lost my balance and sunk into the soil, leaving my hands and feet covered. By that point I was sweating so intensely that sweat was running down into my eyes and I couldn't very well wipe my face with my muddy hands, so I wiped the mud on my (black) shirt before wiping my face. Then I went back to puzzle over where I came up. I studied it from several different angles and saw that where I had first started to go down wasn't the exact place that I had gone up. I tried the other place and descended without incident. Another parallel to life--sometimes looking at a situation more than once and from a different angle presents a solution.

At home I stepped directly into the bathroom from the entry and took a cold shower, not wanting to get the apartment dirty by walking through to turn on the water heater. The cold shower was perfect. The evening was typical. I should have worked on stuff for my special class, but I figured that it wasn't until Tuesday, so I'd work on it later.