Or "Part sixof approximately 48"
or "BattleKorea"
or "A quickie,cause I'm realbusy"
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| Bug spray and body bug spray |
A war isbeing waged at 102-403 Ssangbuk Ahpahtah (Korean pronunciation ofApartment). Every nightwhen they lights go out and sometimes while the lamp is still on, themosquitoes in my flat attack! The mosquitoes launch their aerialattack at everypart ofmy body, forcing me to remain under covers despite the heat; they areruthless. It got to a point where I slept with a can of Koreandoom next to my bed and just blasted it at the slightest sound, which obviouslywas stupid because eventually I had to leave the room or die, so I ended up sleeping in myspare room that night on the floor. Mozzies 1:Vasti 0. In my artilleryI now havedoom, bug spraythat you spray onto your skin, a bed slipper and the netting over my windowsglued shut. It helps a lot that every now and then a truck drives around Buyeothat pumps out this white powdery bug repellent. Most foreigners complainthat it gets into their chests and what ever, but I am justgrateful.
It's theend of the first semester and teachers are scrambling to get all their workdone in time. I have completed all my curriculum lessons for this semester and I'mmostly watching movies or playing English games with my classes. How ever, somehome room teachers are so behind that they call individual pupils out of myclasses for extra instruction or otherwise cancel English class altogether justso that they can have an extra lesson on what ever it is they are behind on.This is all done secretly because the principal would be pissed if she foundout English class is being cancelled. The Korean home room teachers don'twant the principal to know they are behind in their work so they come up with allsorts of strange reasons asto why class is cancelled. The grade four teacher told me that myclass was cancelled because the grade six class is writing an important examand English class is louder than other classes. The grade three teacher didn'teven try, she said class is cancelled because it's raining outside. Monsoonseason is looking up :-) I kid, I am sure that she probably had a verylegitimate reason for cancelling the class but she doesn't have enough Englishto explain it to me and thought:"Vasti really doesn't have to know why,let me just tell her anything."
Ok thatwas about two weeks ago, tomorrow I finish my first two weeks of summer Englishcamp. I am exhausted; I couldcurl up and sleep right now. I haven't written anything in this email for about two weeks anddidn't even notice my usual deadline slip by (neither did you so I don't feel too bad about that).Sjoe, eks moeg!
(Here isa passage I wrote back when I still had time to speak of)
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| My Ex-VP/the Yoga instructor at my school and my Mum. |
I don't knowif I told you guys in a previous email but on my first day at my small school(JangAm elementary) the school was having sports day. And before the sports bitof it commenced the entire school warmed up together by doing kiddies yoga. Theteachers were the instructors and the kids stretched and contorted to a catchytune playing in the back ground. I thought: welcome to East AsiaVasti. Last week I found out that my vice principal runs an hour long yogaclass every Monday andFriday from 3:00pm-4:20pm and I joined. Free yoga! Is there anything better tostart and end you working week? Turns out my vice principal is basically acontortionist. She'sprobably around 40 years old (Asian 60) and she's still more flexible than most of the kids. There is agrade one girl who keeps up with her, but that’s probably only because she's grade one and doesn't know thathuman bodies are not suspose to be able to assume those positions. Anotherdistinctly Asian thing that happens at my school is that the new grade twoteacher performs acupuncture on my fellow staff members in the staff room everyonce and a while. I have been too shy to ask him to do it for me but I'm keen.Hopefully someone volunteers my arm soon or I'll have to ask and hope he'sfriendly to foreigners. Adding to my twice weekly low impact workout is aseries of outside gyms conveniently placed all around scenic places in Buyeo.These pieces of exercise equipment aren't hardcore, they more like ellipticalmachines and that circle that you stand and twist on. There are three sets ofwork out equipment within walking distance of my apartment. I'll add pictureswhen i can.
That’s it folks,
Subpar, I know but I needrest... you guys write for a while, I'm going to sleep.
I'll catchyou again it about two weeks :-)
Be sureto check out this cute link... and if you're moved by it feel free to adopt a Koreanchild.Adoptionisn't really sociallyacceptedhere so the majority of Koreanorphans are adopted by foreigners... grab one before they notice their mistake:-)
If you geta chance, send me topics you'd like to hear about...
Be good
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