So every month while we’re here in Korea we have to get tested for intestinal parasites. I’m not really sure why, but apparently it’s part of the new visa requirements. Go figure. Anyway, this requires a trip to the university hospital in Suwon a few minutes drive away from Jookjeon. After navigating through indecipherable forms and donning the appropriate pink scrubs, we get to hang out in a waiting room full of other patients and watch some Korean soap operas until they call our names. Once the incredibly polite nurse calls us up we begin our trip through the cattle chutes. At some point along the way they have to draw blood and have us poo in a cup. That’s right. In a cup.
Actually, this week we’re giving our kids their monthly exams. Regarding English. In theory, they will have studied hard throughout the month, learned a lot of new English, and developed some superb language arts skills. Then they will show off by absolutely acing the tests and demonstrating to us that they actually were paying attention in class when it looked as though they were trading stickers instead. As it turns out, Korea has far more cool stickers than we have interesting lectures. So we put together tests that we hope will be pretty easy. Then we panic a little bit as the test date approaches and start literally telling our students exactly what will be on the test. Exactly. In no uncertain terms. And still, when test day arrives, we find that the stickers and tamagochi and dried squid snacks somehow prevented the answers we gave them from reaching their long term memories. The end result is that, more often than we like, we attempt to find discreet ways to say “the answer to number 3 is B, little dude, B, B, B!”
The up side of the week is that we have a lot less preparation and busy work to do in between classes. So we went to lunch today with a colleague at one of the restaurants on the second floor. It was quite tasty. And we’ve been able to leave work right after class is over. And go get coffee at breaks. Kinda nice. Maybe we’ll make it.
K
J
