Tonga Jerry

Ever heard of Tonga Jerry? Sure you have, it's just that you've never heard it pronounced that way. See, somehow Koreans (or at least the kids) have turned Tom and Jerry into Tonga Jerry, though the etymology is a little beyond me, since the Korean language is fully capable of saying "Tom an-duh Jerry" which is much closer. My grade 4's really wanted to watch "Tonga Jerry" the other day, and I can't stop them from saying it so oddly.

In case you missed it on the news, a hurricane blew through town last week. Though really, if I hadn't been told by others that it was going to happen, I would never have known a hurricane was taking place either. Sure it was a little rainy and windy, but watching CNN the day after, they made it look like we were one of those small Caribbean islands that gets all but wiped off the map every time a storm blows through. A few hours south of us, a few dozen people died, there was damage to buildings and flipped over cars. I hardly had to close my windows it seemed so mild up here.

Still, there was a lot of rain, and it made me realize just how shoddy our apartment building is. Every time it rains, it floods. Every window in the building leaks, so depending on the prevailing wind, you get floods all across the building. Our hallway slants away from the doors, which was probably done on purpose so that the water pools away from the apartment. Our apartment windows leak too, so our laundry room was absolutely soaked as well this time. The stairwells get puddles all through them normally, and this time even the elevator got washed out and had to be repaired.

There's another hurricane (though the Asian term for them is Typhoon) coming this week. Last I saw the projected path had it traveling just north of us, but a quick look at the weather forecast still says we'll get a bunch of rain. Probably just enough to pool half the hallway.

Geez, the humidity today is through the roof. It was sunny, then raining, and now it's scorching again, and I'm so hot and sweaty I feel like I'm drowning in myself. Hey, speaking of drowning, I had an amazing choking incident the other day. Shannon and I had made a Korean-style soup, and while eating it I inhaled a small portion of it the wrong way. I was still able to get some air down my windpipe, but it was a scary enough ordeal that Shannon got behind me and starting doing a mild heimlich maneuver on me. I think I would have been just fine without it, but it was a little reassuring having her get on it for me.

It's volleyball day today too, which isn't really different than any other day this month, except I'm told in advance I should play. Every day at 3pm, "Richard, you want to play volleyball?" Actually, they don't ask me if I want to, they tell me it's happening in a tone that suggests I really should come. I have come up with the semi-ingenious plan of never bringing sports wear, which 90% of the time works, though yesterday they pleaded with me and suggested there wasn't enough players to play without me. This is kind of true in Korea, since amateur volleyball has 9 players on each side of the court. Anyway, all the teachers are supposed to play, but I really don't enjoy it. Today we're supposed to play for 2 1/2 hours. It's ridiculous the effort and importance they put on volleyball, and I feel as though there's no way for me to say I don't enjoy it without serious issues being raised by my co teachers. Why, just the other day, my Vice Principal was noticing how I never eat all my food in the cafeteria, which irked him enough to start talking about me at the table. Afterwards, we played on the same team at volleyball and he couldn't get enough of me.

All right, enough of the volleyball talk. It's lunch time now, and our new lunch lady hasn't done me any favours with the food served so far this year. It's not bad, it's just never any good, resulting in comments from other teachers about my eating habits. Phew, the drama never ends. So long!