Foot Care

I thought I'd give some helpful advice on what I've learned about foot care in the last couple of days.

If you think you have athlete's foot but can't get the official cream to get rid of it, then let your DAD mix up his special home remedy HIMSELF; this is not something you should be doing on your own. Although, as a learning experience, you could have the once-in-a-lifetime experience of pouring bleach into the bucket of warm water when your feet are already in it. I say once-in-a-lifetime because after that experience you won't have any skin left. Is Korean bleach stronger than Western bleach??

OK, so the athlete's foot is gone (of course it is, as all of the skin is gone!) but those pesky calluses persist. Since the home remedy turned out so poorly, you decide to go the store route to deal with the calluses. You go to your local Missha and look around and see something labeled "Cooling foot scrub" that has those little abrasive beads in it and nice, natural, mint. Again, soak, then rub the product on and into the skin, then rinse. Yeah, good idea. The all-natural product left a rash on the remaining skin. Perhaps I shouldn't touch my feet for the next little bit!!

The original reason I went into the Missha store was to look for deodorant. A week and a half left and I can't stretch my deodorant any further. I know Wal-mart has the roll-on stuff but it's a little far and out of the way. In the Missha store I looked at everything, then approached the salesgirl. I asked her if she spoke English. She answered "a little" in a way that I truly believed she only spoke a little. I asked if they had deodorant, and she had no clue. I mimed putting it on, and she showed me a tiny spray bottle and let me smell it. No way! That's not deodorant! If I put that under my arms I don't want to even think about what kind of rash I'd get! She obviously doesn't use the product.

At that point the owner approached and asked, in perfect English, if I needed help. He immediately knew what I was looking for, and said that what the girl showed me was perfume. Yeah, no kidding. No deodorant there. I knew I'd seen some in a convenience store somewhere. I looked one place, they had some for men. The second place had for both men and women and sensitive skin for women. After the last several days, I'd better go with the sensitive skin one! The price was outrageous--7500 won ($7) for 45 grams of the spray-on kind. Will that even last until I get home?!

Just a Note

Yesterday and today have been incredibly fantastic. It was drizzling most of the day, but we had fun in Kyungju anyways. I've dropped by the apartment for about an hour between things--I'm meeting Euri, Miran, and Danica for dinner and then we're going to the play that the foreigners are putting on at Ulsan University.

Monster

International Truck and Engine Corp. is producing what it calls the world's biggest production pickup, a 14,500-pound monster capable of towing 20 tons. The 5-passenger CXT is nine feet tall, eight feet wide, 21 1/2 feet long and gets about seven miles on a gallon of diesel. The truck is manfactured in Garland, Texas. (AP Photo/Ketchum Communications, File) Full story

Now I can see the benefits of this for people like contractors or others who do heavy towing but want a decent-looking vehicle to drive at other times (despite the poor mileage). It's pretty expensive ($93,000~ $115,000) but its distinctive look makes me afraid it might become more popular than it needs to be. Look at the size of the thing! It DOES NOT require a commercial license to drive. I can imagine some contractor's 16-year-old borrowing it, speeding off, and at 14,500 pounds, crushing any normal-sized vehicle that I'd be driving.

Extra Care

Some good things from Wednesday: the 5 o'clock class was very curious about my trip home, how many airplanes it takes, how expensive it is, etc. That's the class I invited to come and see me! Ben and Joseph were arguing about pounds and kilograms so asked me which one the USA uses, and Europe, and Canada, and I stopped them—boys, I don't know everything!

At 7 o'clock Paul was my assistant teacher. We were doing the listening book, and after he marked the answer in his book he would rush around the class checking the other students' books and if they didn't know, show them the right answer. It was cute at first, but then the other students got annoyed so I stopped him.

More frustration: I couldn't get Jin to do anything, so put him outside. Stephanie was walking by so stuck her head into class, interrupting my lesson, to ask what he had done. After class she explained that he is a special boy and that I should take "extra care" with him. When he's sitting there boring a hole in his eraser with his pencil, talking about completely non-class related stuff in Korean, and in general being disruptive and disrespectful, I think it would certainly NOT be giving "extra care" to the majority of the students by allowing him to stay in class.

Today I walked into Miro's 3 PM class and Jenny and Ally performed a choreographed version of the song "Arirang." They might both be actresses some day!!

At 6 o'clock we studied things tourists might see (buildings, bridges, churches, villages, etc.) and adjectives used to describe them (famous, spectacular, lovely, etc.). A student was surprised by a picture of a Gothic-style church. He called it a "devil church." Another student, when making sentences, wrote that "Heaven has a lot of lovely churches."

Tonight I wrote evaluations for 2 classes; I'll write the tests tomorrow and then tape the listening ones on Monday. I basically need to have all of the evaluations written before the kids take the tests. It's doable, but I need to stay on top of things. This is essentially my last weekend with friends since everyone will be traveling next weekend, so I need to be careful not to let work stuff interfere with my social life. If need be I can finish writing evaluations next weekend and leave them in the apartment for Mr. Kim to pick up, or finish grading writing exams and email the results, or wait to correct online diaries. The most important things are to enjoy my time with friends who I'll probably never see again, write the letter of recommendation, and figure out if everything will fit in my suitcases or if I need to ship some stuff home.

Fighting (not the Korean meaning!)

Well, only 8 days of work left but I couldn't restrain myself any longer. Wednesday I snapped and Joelle heard only the slightest bit of what I had been keeping to myself. I am usually a pretty quiet person who doesn't express frustrations, but Korea has taught me to be more aggressive and to protect myself.

The day began with yet another small irritation. In the past we made copies of the phonics book because the parents were already buying too many books. (Anyone who is in Korea knows that copyright doesn't mean much here.) However, today Mona told me she was giving books to our class. I didn't see Jane, who is the co-teacher of the class I was teaching phonics to that day, so I asked Joelle if we were to continue making copies or if the students would buy the book now. She predictably replied, "Ask the Korean teacher." She's not here right now, and I have her class NOW! Are we, AS A SCHOOL, making copies or making them buy the book? "You must talk with the Korean teacher." Excuse me, but who's the manager??

I made the copies, taught that class, and returned to the teachers' room. Before I had even put my books on my desk, Joelle came up to me and said that she needed to talk with me. Uh-oh, that's never good. She went on to say that we had to re-do the speaking, listening, and writing tests for ALL OF THE CLASSES. Wait . . . it gets better! The tests, they've just decided, are next Thursday and Friday. That gives the 3 of us foreign teachers 5 working days to make 15 tests. I don't think so.

Instead of doing the Korean-style, "OK, I'll do it," I did the Western-style, but not so common for me, "WHY??" as I argued about the logic of making new tests when we already had perfectly good ones. She tried to rationalize it, "Oh, but some students repeated the book this time so they can't take the same test again." So it's our fault that the kids are dunces or that they're in too high a level?! Are we going to make new tests every time a kid fails a level? We've never done that before!! The kid couldn't pass the test the first time; perhaps he'll do better the second time. I raised my voice several times, making several heads turn. Matt and Tanya glanced curiously at us but stayed out of it (pretty wise on their part!). Despite my extreme anger at the irrationality of it all, my voice stayed level and no tears came. All right! Perhaps I'm getting better at confrontation!

The part that I particularly loved (sarcasm) was when Joelle said that the Korean teachers had to make new tests, too. Yes, that's true, let's count how many Korean teachers there are. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And how many tests? Reading and grammar X 5 levels=10 tests to make. Now let's count the foreign teachers . . . 1, 2, 3 . . . oh, you mean there aren't any more to count? Now let's see how many tests there are to make . . . speaking, writing, and listening X 5 levels=15 tests. Korean teachers: 3 people with 2 tests and 4 people with 1. Foreign teachers: 3 people with 5 tests. Is my math okay there? I am an English teacher, after all.

Towards the end Joelle thought to add that Mr. Kim was the one who told us to make the new tests. Uh, don't you think that might have been an important thing to say at the beginning?! Is that even true? How talking with Joelle works: she says something, you respond and she pretends like she's listening, then she says, "Yeah, but…." and repeats what she said before. You voice another objection, she pretends to listen, then says, "That's right, but…." and repeats what she said before. Do you see the pattern? It's very frustrating talking with someone that ignores everything you say.

When I told Matt and Tanya the glad tidings, my voice began shaking a little, but I was still mostly composed, though furious. I had a break that hour—one of the reasons why I was so strong in my argument—I didn't have to get ready for my next class and I knew that I had some time to calm down before facing children again. I hightailed it out of there at that point—had to get some fresh air and get some of the adrenalin out of my system. I walked the 2 blocks to the bank and did the money transfer. It took 30 minutes, but the teller seemed to know what she was doing and didn't do anything weird like call the school for their tax ID number. The exchange rate was the best it's ever been when I've transferred money. When that was finished I walked down to the river and took the long way back to school, arriving just as classes were finishing.

Well, guess what Joelle did? Or shall I call her Miss Tattletale? Yes, before long I was being called in to see Mr. Kim. He handled it really well. Joelle has studied overseas; why doesn't she understand foreigners better? Mr. Kim was able to give his instructions without making me feel like an idiot (Joelle's preferred form of communication). He said he realized that I was leaving soon but that the new tests needed to be made. He said that I could have the other foreign teachers do more than me. Yeah, like that's real fair. If we have to do it, I'm going to do my fair share. But can you explain WHY we're doing it? I was completely calm with him, although I must say the fact that Joelle talked with him about it made me think even less of her, then think that she must be insecure. She walked by once as we were talking and was that a GLOAT on her face?! Well look at me, Joelle, with my head held high and completely confident—you didn't do anything to me!

Mr. Kim's explanation was slightly better, but still not completely satisfactory. Something along the lines of maybe the students tell their friends what's on the test. Yeah, right. First of all, like they can remember many of the questions. Secondly, since when have we been concerned about cheating? It's a fairly frequent thing. His second big reason was that they wanted to have a bank of tests to choose from so that the teachers could be compared to each other. He implied that some teachers are trying to teach the test to the kids. That's not what he needs to be concerned about. I have seen some teachers tell the kids the answers while they're taking the test. Anyway, as we finished our conversation I couldn't help but add that the timing was difficult and that in the future it would be helpful if they gave us more time to make the tests. He apologized, but said that because of Chuseok the tests were earlier than they had expected. Yeah, so the date for Chuseok hasn't been the same all year? Did it suddenly jump up on the calendar?

On my dinner break I was going in a million different directions at once trying to figure out stuff about the tests. Finally I got my brain under control and got it to concentrate on one thing at a time and actually got some stuff done. Matt and Tanya were also not thrilled about making the tests, but I think may have appreciated my effort to keep us from having to make the tests. They were cooperative and willing to do whatever I assigned them. I guess it's not terrible, but I have so many things to get done before I leave that adding another few hours worth of work was the last thing I wanted to do.

Tickets

The tickets arrived! All right! And yesterday I transferred money, so I'm getting closer to being ready to go home. The break today was spent mostly getting ready for tests, so yesterday's events will have to wait until tonight.

How to . . .

From a Pink 2 class--we were studying processes, and these are the students' instructions on how to do different things:

From the girls, how to cook rice:

1. wash the hands
2. bowl in the water
3. bowl in the rices
4. in the pot
5. set the timer
6. wait long time
7. bowl in the rices
8. eat!

From the boys--how to make a green salad

1. in the dynamite
2. in the ddong (Konglish for "poop")
3. in the knife
4. in the computer
5. in the ketchup
6. in the rice
7. in the ham
8. finish

The girls again--how to get on the bus

1. get on the bus
2. pay the money
3. sit on the chair

A better boys' group--how to get on the train

1. go to the train station
2. go ticket sell the man
3. buy the ticket

Yes, I know, that class needs some work!!

Sandra's Email

Sandra wrote me an email telling about her wedding and honeymoon which included the following:

What's happening at the school? Joelle sent me an e-mail and she made it sound awful. She said all the teachers want to quit. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds. She also said that a lot of students have quit. Is it really that bad or is it the same old thing.

How to respond to that? Especially after what happened today!! (I'll fill you in on that tomorrow; it was quite a day and I'm quite proud of the way I handled things.) I wrote quite a long email with the frustrations of the last several weeks, but then thought better of sending it. It's one thing bashing people on a blog on the WWW where they're unlikely to find it, but sending an email to a co-worker who has a decent relationship with the bashee perhaps isn't such a good idea. My original email, after answering her questions and commenting on the honeymoon and making some small talk:

I'm not really sure what's going on at school. I was planning on
filling you in before you came back, so now's a good time, I guess. Are you sure you want to hear all this?!

It's hard to put my finger exactly on it, but the atmosphere is certainly different. Not terrible, but different. I know the foreign teachers are frustrated, primarily due to Joelle's lack of managing. The lack of information (even among the Korean teachers) is miserable.

As far as a lot of students have quit--totally not true. Joelle was
using that line with Tanya about how many students had quit over the last month. The foreign teachers compared classes, and if anything we've GAINED a few students over the last month or two.

One day Joelle went through EVERY SINGLE CLASS and wrote down the days that daily reports were missing from the computer, then spent the time to divide them up into which teacher was teaching that day, and then placed a paper on each
teacher's desk. No explanation, no "hey, you need to do your daily reports," just a paper laying on the desk (half of which weren't even my classes and some were from before we started using the computer system). Some of the teachers have stopped doing daily reports in the computer completely (guess who) and don't seem to care if it upsets Joelle or not.

In one of my classes that only sees a foreign teacher once a week I'm having trouble getting through the Impact book. I've talked with the Korean teacher about needing help to get through the book, but the teacher doesn't go beyond explaining the word box words, if even that much. I mentioned the situation to Joelle, and she said I needed to talk with the Korean teacher. I told her that I had already done that but it didn't change anything. A good manager would step in and address the problem at that
point, but Joelle did nothing.

They've been changing classes around without letting us know why, which is annoying. Again, the lack of information is pretty bad. Mostly we guess as to what's happening next. It sounds like, aside from the returning class, that you'll probably be getting most of my classes when you come back (a hunch).

There's extra work in the form of grading student diaries on paper again. Again, an area that hasn't been made clear, despite repeated questions. The Pink level kids aren't writing online diaries anymore, but the more advanced kids are for the time being but might not be starting next month??

Joelle just happened to mention that we have to do speaking test **in our class time** this session instead of on a special test day, yet still hasn't told us when the tests are so we know when we need to plan to give the speaking tests. There seems to be some whispering going on amongst the Korean teachers; I can only guess that they're just as frustrated at being ignored or not being told anything until they're being chewed out for doing something wrong.

So there, that's a very blunt and very unorganized idea of what's going on. I love my students and most of my classes, but the administration side of things isn't good. Mr. Kim isn't around much so I'm not sure what he knows about what's going on. Joelle is a good teacher, but she's not a good manager. I know she was forced into the role, but Mr. Kim needs to find someone better suited for the job or risk losing teachers.

And the kinder, much shorter version, which I plan to sleep on before sending:

I'm not really sure what's going on at school. It's hard to put my
finger exactly on it, but the atmosphere is certainly different. I know Matt and I are frustrated, primarily due to Joelle's lack of managing, but also her ignoring everything we say. Tanya is more easygoing. I could go on for pages about the problems I've been having with Joelle, but I won't. The last couple of months have been progressively worse; if I didn't have the finishline to look forward to, I might not have made it.

There seems to be some whispering going on amongst the Korean teachers; I can only guess that they're just as frustrated at not being told anything until they're being chewed out for doing something wrong.

As far as a lot of students have quit--totally not true. The
foreign teachers compared classes a few weeks ago, and if anything we've GAINED a few students over the last month or two.

It sounds like, aside from the returning class, that you'll be getting most of my classes when you come back. There's also extra work in the form of grading student diaries on paper again, in addition to on the internet site, though nothing is very clear, despite us asking for clarification.

So that's sort of what's going on.

Bad Words

I felt like a dictator today, especially in the early classes. There were 3 hours between adult and afternoon classes so I was quite bored, to the point of nearly falling asleep. Tomas and Sera's class was so-so, but Miro's 4 PM class was pretty bad. I took away a game and a comic book and gave one kid a good yelling-at in the first 5 minutes of class. I hate yelling at them and I don't do it frequently, but sometimes raising my voice and letting loose a tirade of words too fast for them to understand is enough for them to realize just how serious I am. Then for the rest of class I gave any misbehaving kids a sharp look.

Fred asked for his comic book back at the end of class, explaining that it's due at the store tomorrow (the kids rent comic books for around 10~30 cents, depending on how big or popular the book is). I originally told him I'd give it back next week, but it is the first time he's done it so I suppose I'll give him the option tomorrow of staying after class and writing a bunch of lines to get the book back early.

The middle schoolers were a little better than normal, although few of them can tell time. Reasons for being late ranged from sleeping to playing computer games. Come on! Be on time for class! Kara's class was GREAT. The final class was also good. Brandon (a different Brandon from yesterday) really benefited from his trip to the Philippines. His English is greatly improved and he now understands at least some about the world outside Korea. He shared with us that when he was in the Philippines he couldn't understand what a boy was saying so he started cursing at the boy in Korean. The boy kept saying, "What? What?" I can imagine what a funny scene it must have been.

Tonight Brandon (remember, a different one from yesterday) said "Shut up!" to another student and Julie acted shocked as she said what a bad word that was. I told them that while "be quiet" is a nicer way to say it, "shut up" isn't a bad word, maybe only a little bad. Then Brandon asked me if "go to hell" was bad. Uh, yeah, I'd say so. Don't say that. Then he asked which was worse, "go to hell" or "fuck you."

The difference between this Brandon and yesterday's Brandon saying the exact same thing is, of course, in how they said it. Today's Brandon was curious; yesterday's Brandon wanted to shock and annoy me. I told them that both expressions were pretty bad and that they shouldn't say them. "But HOW bad, teacher? I say it and man kill me? I go to police station?" Well, it totally depends on how you say it. If it's to a friend in a not-so-serious way, your friend is maybe just a little angry. But if it's to a stranger when you're really angry, then they're really angry too and maybe they'll fight you. It's all in the intonation of things, body language, etc., so you kids shouldn't even think about using English curse words with native speakers!

A Dam?

The Marmot has a good analysis of the latest from North Korea--why attributing the explosion to building a dam is implausible.

The Chosun Ilbo also questions the North's explanation, saying that the geography of that area isn't consistent with having a hydroelectric dam.

Catching Mr. Kim

It was a pretty typical day for a Monday. Brandon hates me, but whatever. He and Kane were both being bad the entire class, so I kept them after class to clean the classroom--straighten the tables, push the chairs under the tables, erase the board, and pick up trash from the floor. It took all of 2 minutes. As he was finishing up, Brandon felt the need to say "fuck you" for the fourth and fifth times this evening. Even though not necessarily directed at me, it still annoyed me so I dragged him in to see Kara after class. Yes, dragged. I took hold of the back of his backpack and used it to propel him down the hall and to Kara. She saw us coming and I could see the "Oh no!" look on her face. (She can't do anything with Brandon, either.) I explained the problem and listened to her yell at him about not doing his writing like he's supposed to, bringing a pencil or eraser to class, asked if he was a baby, etc. My Korean is finally getting decent just as I'm about to leave. : ( Then she sent him into the lobby to hold his heavy backpack over his head. Since he missed the bus after his class, I suppose he had to stand there for a whole hour until the next class got out. Maybe someone will get through to him someday.

Joelle . . . I'm glad that name isn't too common, because for the rest of my life whenever I hear it I'll cringe. Today I asked her if Mr. Kim would be in today because I needed to talk with him about the ticket home since it's coming up soon. "When?" she asked in her blunt way. "Chuseok Day," I replied, equally as coarse and to-the-point as possible. "You can't get a ticket then," said in a certain voice. "Well, I already have a ticket, it just needs to be paid for," said in an equally certain voice. It's lucky that we don't have to work together for much longer because if I didn't see the end in sight, I just might break into a yelling match with her. Then she asked me if I knew when Sandra was coming back. "Yeah, sure, sometime during the Chuseok vacation." "But when, exactly? We have to make sure of when she'll be back before you leave." Do not even try to pull that. I've stayed a month past the end of my contract and I'm not staying any longer. Joelle was writing Sandra an email as we were talking. Fine, write an email, but Sandra may very well be on her honeymoon now or too busy preparing to come back to reply. The way foreigners (at least responsible ones like Sandra) work, is that if anything had changed from what was originally set up, ONLY THEN would she have contacted us to let us know about the change. There's no need for her to email saying, "Hi guys, I'll be back when we arranged for me to be back." Who cares when she's coming back to Korea! It just matters when she's coming back to work. I was worried that Joelle would say the ticket couldn't be paid for until after they made sure of when Sandra was coming back--again, don't try it!

A little later I asked Joelle when the tests will be for the advanced kids. Her reply: "at the end of September." Yeah, but WHEN? "Before or after Chuseok?" (So I know how quickly to move through the last little bit of the books and if I need to write the 100 +/- evaluations before the tests or not.) She looked at a calendar, "Next week, maybe." But WHEN? "Is that a yes or a no?" "I have to talk to Mr. Kim." Are you the manager, or is there someone else that I should ask? Pick a date and let us know! Do you have to ask Mr. Kim about every little thing?! Take some initiative and make some decisions on your own!!

Mr. Kim came in around 3 PM. I went into the teachers' room to make a copy of the book for a kid who had forgotten her book and saw him. I asked him if he'd be around later for me to talk with him a little. Over the next several hours he disappeared between classes, or was talking with a parent or on the phone. Finally between the 6 and 7 PM classes I caught him free. I gave him the paper with the info to pay for the plane ticket, telling him that since it was coming up soon, if he could pay for it tomorrow it would be best because the price might go up otherwise. (Throwing in the possibility of having to pay more is always a good way to get prompt action!) Then I mentioned the other important issue right away--a letter of recommendation. "You know, most jobs in the USA want a letter from the last job saying what kind of a worker the person was, etc." I didn't quite get around to asking him to write one when he suggested that I write it and he'd sign it and put his stamp on it. So I'm going to write a letter of recommendation . . . for myself?? Let's see . . . "Beth is the best teacher on the planet; you should pay her oodles of money . . . " This won't necessarily be easy!

As I was heading to my next class I saw Mr. Kim showing the secretary the info about wiring the money, so probably first thing tomorrow it'll be wired. The travel agent contacted me today that he reserved the tickets and as soon as he got the money he'd send them to me. I've got to check with Mom about my American bank info and perhaps Wednesday morning transfer a bunch of money home, and then see if Mr. Kim will pay my severance and last paycheck next week a day or two early so that I can close my account and change the won into dollars at the bank, where I'll get a better rate than the airport. I also need to find out what to do about the keys to the apartment.

The radio/tape/CD player goes to David on Sunday; the Christmas tree/nativity scene/snowman go to Ryan. That leaves some shelves and fans to find a new home for, if possible--no sense my employer getting stuff I've bought (a new teacher won't be moving into my place--they'll be emptying it out).

This has turned into a to-do list for me--sorry. It's hard to think about all of the things that need to be done in the next two weeks! Saturday's the Kyungju trip, Sunday's the going away party (a week early because of the Chuseok holiday), Sunday I'll also say goodbye to John and Octavia and the kids at Bible study, next week might be tests--writing and speaking and the evaluations to write and saying goodbye to my students. The adults want to take me out for lunch--a 3-hour ordeal. It's hard to believe that I've already spent more than 2 years here and now there are only 2 weeks left before I leave, with no definite plan to ever return.

The latest on the North Korean explosion: it was planned? Sounds like an excuse for an accident. If it was indeed planned, why wouldn't they have let their neighbors know, or responded quicker instead of having everyone wonder what it was and preparing for the worst?

Books, Anyone?

I still have some books to give away; I can mail them if anyone wants them. They're all novels, pretty light and easily read. Read them, then pass them on.

1. Brad Meltzer's The Millionaires --thriller/mystery--"A tale of two brothers trying to hide in a world where every step you take can be traced."--very good book
2. Mitch Albom's the five people you meet in heaven --not quite as good as Tuesdays with Morrie, but still ok
3. Nicholas Sparks' The Rescue--tasteful romance
4. Nicholas Sparks' The Guardian--same

That's not all I read, but I'm keeping most of my Korea-related books and I haven't finished wading through the U.S. foreign policy or in-depth Korean war books yet.

Foreign Drivers

The rain wasn't too bad today, mostly just in the morning and an occasional sprinkle the rest of the day. After church I rode with Ryan (who is using Scott's car while he's in the States on vacation) to Shelly and Kendall's neighborhood. On the way we saw Adam so picked him up to come along to eat with us. We had--what was the name of that--some kind of fried rice and vegetables and meat dish. Yeah, I know, really helpful, that describes a lot of things. I don't know the names of half the stuff I eat here, but most of it is good. I tend to remember the names of stuff I don't like so I don't order it again. Ooh, and this place used cheese--delicious!

As we walked to the car I asked Ryan if he had to get a Korean driver's license. He replied, "No, I guess I might get one eventually." HELLO! He didn't mention having an international driver's license, and even if he did have one of those, since he also has a work visa here I don't think he would be able to drive with just his American license. ??? Actually, I don't think he has the work visa yet (even though he's been working for 5 weeks now). Anytime I ride with a foreigner here I'm somewhat nervous--the unwritten rules of the road here and at home are completely different. People parking anywhere, crazy taxis, cars swerving in and out of lanes, narrow streets . . . insane!

North Korea Explosion

For those of you not in Korea, you may or may not have heard about the series of explosions in North Korea late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. The thing is, even those of us in (South) Korea are just hearing about it today!! What if there was a real issue like northern troop movement or a possible invasion--would they let us know ahead of time or just let people go about their daily activities?!

As usual, no one knows anything yet and the North hasn't admitted anything. The explosion was bigger than the April train explosion; the damage is big enough to be seen by satellites. At first because of the mushroom shape of the cloud people feared a nuclear test, but now officials are saying such a thing would have been easily picked up by whatever equipment they have, besides it being too dangerous to the North Korean people. It also took place near the Chinese border, making a nuclear test a suicide move. The explosion occurred near a base where weapons are stored, so perhaps it was an intentional or accidental thing there. Others are speculating an earthquake or forest fire (???) or volcanic activity. In other words, no one knows anything. For a few of the facts (which I've summarized here) see the Korea Time's account .

Rain and Photos

I had planned to do some shopping in Busan today, but didn't want to make the trip in the drizzling rain. All day was dreary, with sudden heavy rain at times. It's feeling more and more like fall--it's cool enough that I had to close the windows. Besides a brief walk during one of the breaks in the rain, I stayed home--doing some cleaning and laundry, then putting some photos into albums. I haven't done that in a while--still have several rolls left. There may be more rain tomorrow, so perhaps I'll finish then.

Before I closed the windows a very big mosquito managed to get in (I think through the hole at the bottom of the window for water that drips in through the screen to drain out of) and now it continues to fly in and out of my field of vision. It even landed on my hand, yet disappeared before I could kill it. It's already big and healthy enough, it doesn't need to feed on my blood all night! I must go mosquito-hunting now. After I kill him, then I can get some sleep.