Fear the Flu!

Greetings from Busan! Not a whole lot is going on in these parts nowadays, but I still thought I should check in and give what updates I can. So here goes...

I suppose the biggest news right now is the H1N1 flu virus. It's got Koreans in a panic, which has an upside and a downside. The positives are that they are more worried about germs being spread, so they're taking some necessary measures to help prevent against that. This includes installing paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms at our schools, so we don't all have to share one disgusting bath towel that probably is washed about once a month if you're lucky. Obviously it's ridiculous that it took the threat of this flu for them to do what's been practiced in western countries for decades, but at least they figured it out. Hand sanitizer is also more readily available at school now and our students have their temperatures checked every morning before they are allowed in the building. Some schools, including Brent's, are even checking the teacher's temperatures every morning too. Now, this sounds like a good idea at first, but leave it to the Koreans to confuse you as to whether they truly understand how germs are spread. I say this because when checking students temperatures every morning, they use the same ear thermometer without a cover on it for every student. You'd think there would be some sort of plastic cover that would get used once, popped off and thrown away, before a new one was placed on to check the next student. Unless there's something I don't know, like maybe germs can't be spread from ear to ear, this just seems to defeat the purpose of the daily checks. I've confirmed with other English teachers here that this is the same method practiced at their schools and we're all quite baffled.

The biggest downside of this whole flu fear is that we're kind of trapped here. Middle school teachers have actually received word from their education offices that they cannot travel out of the country. There's a big holiday coming up called Chuseok, which is like their Thanksgiving, and we get a couple days off of school. Basically we end up with a four day weekend and some people were planning on using that time to travel, but now they can't. Even Brent and I briefly considered a quick trip to Japan, because it's so close, but had to nix that idea when it became apparent his school wasn't going to allow him to go. My school was a little more relaxed about letting me go, but I'm sure they would have been nervous. Anyway, it's just kind of a bummer to be stuck here for that long weekend. We thought a Korean road trip might be fun, but the problem is that practically everyone in Korea is traveling during Chuseok, because it's tradition to go to your hometown and visit ancestor's graves. This means traffic everywhere, which is not something we're interested in dealing with. So it's going to be a long weekend in dynamic Busan!

With the flu being a hot topic around these parts, I decided it was finally time for me to prepare the health lesson I've been wanting to do almost since the first month I was here. My desire to teach a lesson on healthy practices stems from the staggering number of people I see everyday who cough and sneeze without covering their mouths. It's quite amazing to watch people get coughed and sneezed on by other people and not even flinch. Gross. I feel it's my duty to help educate these youngsters on how not to be like their parents in this regard. So I showed a couple videos and some still frames of sneezes, coughs and germs spreading that proved to be a real eye opener for not only the students, but my co-teacher as well. In fact, she mentioned my lesson to the vice principal and he requested one of the videos I used to be shown to the whole school during the weekly announcements. That was indeed a proud moment for me. Of course the lesson had English components, because quite frankly it had to. After all, I'm not the health teacher, if that's even a thing here.

Here's something totally random for you, but something I've been meaning to mention for a while and keep forgetting. Shopping carts in Korea rule! You all know what it's like to get that loud, bumpy shopping cart that's impossible to turn without lifting up at the grocery store or Target or something. Well here, not only have I never come across a shopping cart that is loud or bumpy, but the carts actually move left and right as well as the typical front and back motion. They are so smooth and are the easiest carts to maneuver, which does enhance the shopping experience just a little bit. The one thing they lack is that cool bar at the bottom that I like to rest my foot on, but I'll still take a Korean shopping cart over an American shopping cart any day.

Thanks to the assistance of one Mrs. Jaime Quattrocchi, my students are going to have themselves some good old American pen pals. I thought this would be a great way for them to practice their English, and also make a friend halfway across the world. I have a faint memory of having a pen pal when I was in elementary school, but I don't think it really went anywhere. She was just looking for something a little too serious and I wasn't ready for that. I'm joking of course, but I honestly don't remember what happened with my pen pal. I can't even remember what country he/she was from. Whatever, like I said, the memory is very faint. Anyway, I took a survey of students who would be interested this week and got a pretty good response. They are totally excited and can't wait to write their first letters. I'm going to get them all together next week and do that. I was even thinking how in this day and age, they probably can just exchange actual letters once, then move right into e-mailing each other. I just hope it works out a little better than the relationship I had with my pen pal. If I even had one. Who knows. It's a faint memory, did I mention that?

That's all I've got for now. Like I said, not a whole lot is going on. I thought I'd leave you though with some of the new popular tunes the kids are bumping these days here in Korea. Super Junior and Wonder Girls are so four months ago!

"Indian Boy" - MC Mong

This song just simply wouldn't fly in America. Pay special attention to the English lyrics and some of the dance moves. Apparently the "trail of tears" didn't run through Seoul.

"I Don't Care" - 2NE1

This may be the most played song here right now. It's pretty hard to go a day without hearing this song, especially because it's also used in a commercial. And yes, the group's name is pronounced "twenty one."

"Genie" - Girls Generation

A good song, despite what Mariana says.

"Abracadabra" - Brown Eyed Girls

This one is really for the guys. If you watch any of these videos all the way through, I suggest you let it be this one. I think you'll see why pretty much right away.