Independence Day

August 15th is Korean Independence Day, so we get a day off school, there are flags everywhere, and everyone is watching that movie with Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum;

So it seems like a nice time to tackle the issue of the excessive heat in Korea during the summer. They have a rainy season that lasts for around 6 weeks from the beginning of July. Its over 30 degrees every day, and it rains pretty much every day. With rainy season now over, we're back to heat of easily over 30 degrees every day, but at least its not raining all the time. With humidity of over 90% most of the time though, you just get used to living your life drenched in sweat. All the time. And I'm not talking about patches around the armpit. I mean that you start to sweat the second you walk out of the door of your air-conditioned apartment, and about 15 minutes later, you don't have sweat patches, because your shirt has reached a uniform level of dampness. At school, I am quite literally dripping sweat, from my head, my arms, my legs, everywhere. I occasionally have kids saying "Teacher, water why?" and pointing at the water dripping off me. Its not fun, but you do get used to it.
One of the ways I deal with it, is by eating bing-su, a Korean snack involving fruit and lots of shaved ice. You can get small cups of it, but you can also get big bowls of the stuff, and its delicious;

                                              It really is delicious! And best of all, its cold!

Another way to cool down during the summer, is by getting wet. Obviously there's plenty of coastline, and a lot of outdoor swimming pools, but there is also the chance to go white water rafting. Which is something that quite a lot of people, Korean and foreign, do at the weekend. Korea is quite mountainous, so the river water is usually pretty cold. And its a lot of fun;

Now that the rainy season is over, its also time for the baseball season to resume, so I'll be back out there on Saturday. I also hope to resume my football career the next day, after 18 months out with a serious knee injury, we'll see if my creaking joints can hold up.

And on the subject of Korean Independence, I had one of my students come up to me last week, while we were writing stories, and ask me
"Teacher, are we North Korea, or South Korea?"
"We're South Korea." I replied.
"Hmmmm . . . . good. Good." He said, and went back to his seat. I have images of this poor kid watching the news with his parents and thinking "I hope that's not us, they sound like dicks!"

And finally,
The Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle

Well sadly, the Game of Thrones TV series from which Tyrion derives his name, is finished. So my little turtle has nothing to watch on TV. He has made his feelings very clear;