This little piggy . . .

Success! I managed to fairly effectively traumatise a child in science class last week.
We were making little wooden pigs, which involved quite a lot of hammering little nails into these little bits of wood, as the individual legs and ears of the pig had to be nailed on to the body. As the kids I teach are about 7 years old, and there are 60 kids, each making their own little pig, each one involving 6 individual nails hammered into the wood, I had to do a fair amount of prep work so that each kid could get to bang the hammer a little in the lesson, and the pigs would actually be completed. I would do half of each pig (i.e. two legs and one ear) beforehand, and then I would get the fiddly bit out of the way, by starting off each nail, so the kids could then hammer in the remaining two legs and one ear during the lesson.
Now it really was quite small and fiddly, and I am a giant, with massive clown hands, so inevitably, I hit my finger with the hammer on occasion. No big deal, I'm tough, I can take it (with only a few manly tears). However, it did lead to me having quite a decent sized blood blister on my index finger. So there I was, in the lesson, holding this little kid's half finished pig in my hand, tapping at the nail, as the kid sits there patiently waiting his turn to use the hammer. And sure enough, I hit my finger again, popping the blood blister, which duly squirted a surprisingly large amount of blood all over this poor little kid's toy pig, right in front of his startled eyes. "TEACHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!!!"
My Korean co-teacher handed me some tissue to wipe off the kid's little pig before I handed it back so he could finish colouring it in. Something tells me he won't be treasuring that little toy pig forever and ever . . .


Away from mentally scarring young children, I joined a group called Adventure Korea, which I highly recommend. Every week, they run expeditions; white water rafting, bungee jumping, hiking, surfing, that kind of thing, so last weekend, I joined them to go paragliding. We met up early on Sunday morning in Seoul, and took the bus down to Amyeoung-do, an island off the west coast. After a hike up to the top of some hills, and a brief and confusing, multi-lingual instruction in what to do (basically, run until you're in the air), I was off! Here I am, about to soar like an eagle;

 
And here I am, actually soaring like an eagle (if an eagle had a massive parachute obviously);

It was awesome fun, and I will most definitely be trying to do it again. And I highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking of trying it. Its very popular in Korea, as Koreans love anything that involves lots of accessories, so there are plenty of paragliding clubs that you can join.


Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

Well this week, so he wouldn't get jealous, I made Tyrion a tiny parachute, so he can go paragliding round the apartment. And he is loving it! Airborne turtles are the future . . . .