quotes / laughs

classroom life can perhaps best be described by those that make me laugh the most. a few examples shall suffice.

a few weeks ago,
me: “guys, it’s september!”
chris: “nooooo, we don’t like september because virus is stronger.”
everyone is super paranoid about the swine flu virus. my kids get their temperatures taken twice every day.

each morning we do the date and weather.
janice - “what is today’s date!”
henny - “today is fried egg day!"

during date and weather, the actual date is a little high on the wall and they need help. sometimes i throw the laminated velcroed numbers against the walls. the number falls or lands upside down. the kids laugh.
max - "Nooooo, be careful, the 17 is not a toy."

during the writing portion of our monthly test.
Q: What are some things that you have that would like to keep forever?
A portion of his essay, Jinseok, 2nd grade, describing his Nintendo Wii,
A: "You can do lots of sports on that you can do golf, baseball, boxing and almost all the sports. And you can do like kind of activities is like clean the toilet or bring the sheep to another place and farting race. If you get first on the finish line it shows you win or did not win. Also you could shoot the bad fat birds and like flush the toilet a billion times untill you are finish flushing all the toilet but it is really hard to let it flush down cause it can be a big poop and cant go in and that the toilet can be broken so you have to fo fix it. so thats why it is fun and I want to keepet for ever."

travel plots,

given the ridiculous nature of overconsumption and accessorization in this culture, i thought it proper to rename this writing section of my stay here. i've dived with excitement into a post-work routine of reading, writing, and thought stirring. i'm catching up on my booklist and making a serious dent in my journal. gabriel garcia marquez and gandhi both occupy my evening reading. recent travels to busan last weekend for a weekend entirely different than my first stay. similar culture,  but much more ocean gazing at various beaches.

i wake up mornings to window sunshine warmth, many times believing i am at the treehouse, minneapolis, realizing i am not. i look forward to travels during chusok, two weekends from now. there was a big fight over poly allowing us to travel, particularly at stake our nine day winter vacation, due to concerns over the swine flu. nearly the entire teaching staff secretly plotted to travel. if we were found out, our boss threatened to fire us. we had a meeting recently which pronounced we were legally entitled to travel. now that i can travel for chusok, i've two weeks to figure out a vacation. i need a $120 visa for china, which i'm not sure would be ready in time. japan, i'm debating. cambodia, vietnam, thailand are all too far for a weekend trip. the likeliest candidate is japan. i've got my cambodia winter vacation back without fear of retribution. we'll see if i can organize chusok in time.

pretending to understand,

there's a trick to living here without knowledge of the language. i slowly learn, bits and pieces, though my proficiency is anything but. in need, i'll ask a question. grocery stores, directions, etc. i follow as best i can, though sometimes it's better to nod and pretend understanding exists. the more you don't understand, the more they try to explain. ooooh, nay, i understand! facial expressions are important, especially in the eyes. eastern culture reads facial expressions through eyes, not so much the western full-face scan. see the difference between the :) [western] and the o.o [eastern].

take a side alleyway, the one you completely did not expect it to be at, follow the rode. remember, you followed six other roads with bad directions previously, so this probably isn't it. okay, well, now you find the seoul museum of art. it's significantly smaller than one would expect. The MIA and walker art are both larger, probably two or three times the size. The Met and MoMa are probably 20 times as large. remember to be disappointed. comfort yourself because you are at the renoir exhibit. the largest single renoir exhibit compiled in 30 years.
60 pieces of the prolific artist you respect so much. be surprised that those 60 pieces fill 6 rooms and that's the entire museum. nothing else. fall in love with renoir all over again, especially his work during the mid-1880s to the mid 1910s. his work of the previous years is all phenomenal, but his brushwork during those later years is remarkable. the thing i found myself most enraptured by was how he paints backgrounds and clothing. i was greatly impressed by the show, but pissed off throughout by the curator. every respectable museum has what is commonly referred as museum lighting. cue extra lights on the art. i was frustrated because the curator cut out museum lighting. i could see the paintings just fine, but was distracted otherwise by the darkness. but to renoir, if the exhibit comes to a city near you, do travel. it's worth it.

of the two images attached:
- juenes filles au piano. brushwork, rich and vivid colors, joy of life, beauty of discovery. there are a few versions of this painting of same name. note the background as the main difference.
- portrait de julie manet. a haunting richness to his color choice. the complete opposite his normal portraiture.
- magnify these thoughts by a factor of ten as you are standing in front of them.