Curly Hair and Weekends

[During my weekly Sunday walk around Pohang I saw a Korean man with a tattoo that read, "No Pians.  No Gains."  A tattoo is permanent.  Spell check before you ink.  Lesson learned.]

#128.  In Korea the English teachers are sometimes offered to do private lessons for students not in their schools.  Usually they are referred by word of mouth or just by happenstance.  Teaching outside of a teacher's school is highly frowned upon and in some severe cases (very rare) the teacher in question can be deported if found guilty.  If you do private lessons you have to be very careful of who you tell, where you do them, etc.  Generally the pay (usually ranging between $40-70 an hour) is worth the risk.

#129.  In the past I have talked about the curly hair phenomenon that has swept Korea.  Permas are a hot commodity here and all the rage for men or women.  The topic for today is how Koreans respond to foreigners with naturally curly hair.  It is extremely rare for a Korean to be born with anything other than stick straight hair so the idea that I don't share the same type of hair is completely foreign to them. As many of you know,  I have naturally wavy  hair that goes a little nuts in high humidity.  Lately Korea has been intensely humid and my hair has reacted accordingly.  Frizz central.  Students are constantly touching my hair and asking when I got a perma.  Strangers on the street do the same thing.  I know I look different than you but leave my hair alone.  It's a hot mess in the humidity.  I get that.  Thank you for your interest but there is no touching of the tresses.  I'd wear a sign but I can't yet write in Korean.

I have clearly calmed down since my last post.  My kids were much more behaved and I only had to threaten one student.  I love weekends in Korea but they just go by so fast that more often than not I am even more exhausted on Monday because of it.  Having two whole days with no children begging for your attention is more appealing than I can even say.  The foreigners pack the local beaches, bars and noraebongs and try their best to cram in enough fun to get them through the next week.

Now don't get me wrong.  I love my job.  I love my kids.  I love my school (most days).  It is just freeing to be able to leave the confines of my school and be with 40+ foreigners who just had the same kind of week as me.  People who understand the obnoxious children who put gum in each others hair.  Who teach kids that speak in Korean constantly and have no idea what they're saying.  Who have coworkers that speak minimal English which perpetuates the hand signals you all know I love to do.

The list goes on and on.

Just a few of the people that make this experience worthwhile