Wed Jul 16, 2003
Today we took the kids on a field trip to Honey Land, so that they could have a swim in the pool. It was a stinking hot summer day, so the timing was perfect. I was worried about the safety of the kids but the kid’s pool was so shallow and they all had inflatable tubes, so there was nothing to worry about. The youngest kids (3 and 4 yr olds) were funny, they just kind of bobbed there not moving with their swimming caps and goggles on, like weird human water buoys. Then about 200 other hot and dusty kids showed up so it just got crazy. We also had a go at grass sledding. During the winter it becomes snow sledding. I was just glad to get out of the classroom for a bit, it feels more like summertime. The kids had a blast too, it was better than the first trip when Nancy fell into the fish pond and none of the rides were running.
In my adult class I decided to read and discuss an article about eating dog meat in Korea, because it was controversial during the Olympic games when the government banned the sale of dog meat for a while. It really is a cultural thing, although dog-meat is supposed to give you stamina on a hot summer’s day. There are special days set aside for eating dogs, so it’s kind of a ritual practice. The dogs are raised for consumption, they don’t eat pets or anything. I don’t have a problem with it, although I hesitate at eating dog myself. Some of my students eat dog, I asked them - “Does it taste like chicken?” “No!”, they said, “It tastes like dog!” We were talking about why some Westerners find the eating of dog repulsive and one of my students said “They have monkey brains!” I had a laugh because I thought he was being derogatory, but what he meant to say was “Westerners (Europeans; he clarified) eat monkey brains, and that is just as unusual” But I’m still not sure which Europeans eat monkey brains exactly…I saw them do it in Indiana Jones but that was Pakistan or India or somewhere in the jungle somewhere. Tomorrow is a holiday (constitution day), sweet! Although I’ll probably spend some of it writing report cards….so and so is an intelligent young man/lady but so and so needs to pay more attention in class….yech! The same dribble my teachers used to deliver to me, how puerile.