I opted not to go swimming with the rest of the students in school yesterday. I'd much rather work on my seemingly never ending pile of prep for summer camp (I take anal retentive preparation and perfectionism to whole new levels lately).  The real reason was that, in a group of 600+ people I'm more helpless than the first graders since I can't follow the verbal directions or help lead the students. Originally, they were just going to have the music teacher watch the kids who stayed behind (broken bones, ear infections, etc) for the 4 hours that we had them. However, she is Really pregnant and I saw no reason that I couldn't help out and supervise for a couple of hours to give her a break.  There was only one student who I don't teach, a tiny first grader who seemed slightly intimidated by the big kids and wacky foreign teacher but relaxed when I asked her what her name was in Korean and introduced myself.  Having 10 kids watch Mr. Bean and draw pictures isn't exactly a taxing way to spend my morning.

On to the spazy part...

They ordered Chinese take out for lunch and stupidly I ate some fried, breaded looking pork along with my black bean noodle dish.  I just didn't stop to think about how it was made. I was ridiculously sick for the next 20 hours, even with some prescription strength medicine. Nothing like teaching on a morning while nauseous and miserable and NO COFFEE. Ugh.  Milk is evil. However, I was feeling better after lunch today and ended the day with some of my favorite 4th and 5th grade classes.

More spaz from yesterday:
For awhile in the afternoon I was alone in the teacher's room when the phone rang. I've been instructed that I can answer and then just say 'hanguk saram absaeyo' (there are no Korean people). Generally they say sorry and hang up or attempt to get the information from me using Konglish.  Yesterday, I did my very best Korean '_____ Elementary School, teacher's room, sorry there are no Korean people' when the person on the other end of the line burst out laughing. It was the principal. He asked where the other teachers were (in Korean and English) but I really had no idea and sort of stammered that maybe they went to the bathroom. Today, he told the story at lunch and in the teacher's room a few more times much to our mutual amusement. It's nice when I can actually have a joking moment with the staff, even if it's at my spaztastic self. 

Coming up: traditional tea ceremony and Dharma talk at Hongbeop Temple on Sunday. If you end up going, look for the girl tripping over her own feet and say hello!