Tuttle News Wrap

1) I am scheduled to present my "demo class" on Monday, in front of the "supervisor in charge and Assigned Judges". This is part of the renewal process for my job with SMOE. They are coming to see my sixth period second grade class, who are doing Week 2 of the Invention project, making presentations about the invention they were assigned to the class.

Some of my co-teachers are surprised that I do not appear worried. Frankly, as long as I don't whip out a hash pipe in class or rape a student across my desk, I will be renewed. After school, I'm taking anyone that wants to come for chicken and beer at the local hof.

2) I've been to Bongcheon for lamb and makkuli twice this weekend. First, with Andy, Nick, Max and Max's GF Jennifer, who I met for the first time. She seems quite nice--far too nice for Max ...

The second time was an unscheduled visit, ostensibly with Steve W and Gavin, after meeting Saturday at Seouldae. We met at Liebe Hof, which is Gav's haunt, but where he admits the food is not so great, so we took a fifteen minute stroll to Bongcheon. Well, Steve and I did, Gav decided to take a cab home before we arrived.

The food and conversation were excellent, though an email from Steve later told me a harrowing tale of his subway ride:

As we went on, each stop the train was emitting these popping sounds at each stop (brakes??? duh-h). Jamsil: BANG!!!! I thought someone jumped in front of the train to commit suicide (as if someone ever does that here). Two stops later, bang!! Smoke, more smoke - get off the train. Leave the subway (pay 11,000 won to the taxi driver to get home). It looked like the brakes to me. To know what was going on, I was fortunate to have a young, English-speaking Korean guy to lead the way and tell me the situation. His help was just another example of how helpful and caring Korean citizens are to foreigners.
As I was riding home in the taxi, I thought of DiCaprio's line from Titanic as he's dying from hypothermia: "I don't know about you, but I plan on writing a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line."

3) With a 2 - 0 win on Saturday over UAE, South Korea has earned a berth in South Africa for World Cup 2010. This was my predicted score as I walked to school with Mr Hwang the other morning, as I will be reminding him tomorrow. The winning goal was scored in the fifth minute. Hmmmm.

4) "A growing number of South Korean students are underweight and nearsighted, largely due to an unbalanced diet and bad living habits, government data showed Sunday, according to Yonhap News," as reported in The Korea Herald. The article gives the number as 42.7% of students being nearsighted--apparently there is something in the water in Gangseo-gu, since at my school the students who don't wear glasses have had Lasik surgery. I'm pretty sure.