A Change of Season

It's getting disgustingly hot here in Korea - the last few days at school have seen me set personal records for heat discomfort and sweating. Shannon and I have started bringing deodorant to class now to try and prevent our Korean counterparts from thinking we Westerners lack all sense of personal hygiene, but it's a tough battle the way the weather is going. What's worse is my school recently put in air conditioning into all the classrooms, except mine of course. I instead was given a small fan to put by my desk

At home it's not so bad, as my principal was nice enough to have air conditioning put into our apartment. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop the sewage systems from being heated up, which in turn sends the nastiest stinkiest smells into our bathrooms. Today the smell had already started coming in by 8:30 this morning, which means it's going to be one stinker of a day when I get back home this afternoon. Our dog, Miso, doesn't seem to mind it so much - he's part Chihuahua, and I think the heat does him just fine. I'm pretty sure we'll have to get him a full-body winter suit if he's ever going to survive the Canadian winter though, as what little hair he has on his body will do little to insulate him against anything worse than a chilly autumn day.

With the changing season comes the changing of clothes. Koreans decide the seasons on weather and temperature rather than on a specific day, so what season it is depends on who you talk to and how they're feeling. But when it does change, it changes en masse. Middle and High School students wear uniforms here, and they just recently brought out their summer uniforms. So, all of a sudden the hundreds of kids you see everyday in gray slacks and white shirts are now all dressed like navy blue sailors. My teachers at school have suddenly stopped wearing suits and are all in short sleeve shirts (some so bright and loud you'd think they were on vacation in Hawaii). I have yet to experience it, but beach season also is a very seasonal thing. When it's time to go to the beach, everyone goes to the beach. As soon as beach season is over, the whole place shuts down and there's hardly a soul around. In two weeks we're doing a big beach-camping trip, and I'm curious to see if beach season has begun yet or not.

Teacher, My Crazy!

Living in a poorer area of town gives me a chance to see some of the more colourful people here in Korea. Now, maybe I don't really mean colourful, so much as just drunk, but either way people watching in the neighbourhood is very entertaining. A little disgusting too.

Our building is the only one for blocks around with a parking lot. Most people who pass by will respect this, but at night all the drunk Korean men use it as a urinal. The old men across the street, who are usually drinking every night, will regularly come and pee in our lot. Sometimes it's passerby's who use it. The other day, I ran into one of the men who live in our building peeing in the plants in the parking lot. Eugh.

Sometimes the drunk men on the street are more funny than disgusting, such as when they come up with the ingenious ideas of bringing their scooters into their homes. Okay, so really it was just this once that it happened, though I'm sure it happens more than I'm aware. This poor, tiny, fall-down-drunk man had just ridden his scooter home and was now trying to get it in the front door. His wife was standing there yelling something at him, but he didn't seem to notice. The scooter was still running, there were plants and pots everywhere in the guys way, and he was unable to get it over the little step to the door no matter how hard he tried. I walked past without pausing too long, and when I looked back the both the man and the scooter were now lying on the ground in all the plants, the wife still yelling something at him. Oh, the poor little drunk man.

A source of constant entertainment, there's more than just strange urinations going on in the parking lot. Adjacent to the lot live a few middle aged Korean women. One of them is half crazy, the other is a full-blown lunatic. When she's outside, she's usually talking to herself, yelling at something that isn't really there, or trying to call Miso over to her, which is really funny since the dog absolutely HATES her. She's gotten into the habit of staring at us over the concrete fence when we take Miso out to pee, and will click, cackle and call at him until we finally leave, since he won't pee when she's around. Lately it's gotten even stranger, since she's taken a liking to mimicking our English. While getting Miso to pee, Shannon or I usually say "Go pee! Go pee!" Now, from across the fence we can hear the crazy lady yell back at us "Go pee! Go pee!" Sometimes she's not even at the fence, but off doing some other chore around the house and will just yell when she hears us out there.

Oh, and how could I forget this - she tried to kick the dog too! She came into the parking lot the other day while I was out with Miso, and started coming toward us. I didn't want her near the dog, so we walked past her to the street, but she came too and went in front of us. Miso started growling at her, she bent down to say hi, then *Whoosh!* she let loose this big sweeping leg kick towards the dog. She was a good 5 or 6 feet away, so no harm done at all, but I was still a little surprised and upset at the poor loony lady. I haven't seen her in a few days now, but I can hear her rummaging around her place most times when I'm in the parking lot with Miso.