New Ways to die in Korea:

So the time has come to update the list. A couple of months ago I wrote a blog about the dangers of living in Korea and I have recently been informed of a couple more things that just may kill you in this country. Before I inform you of my newest discoveries I will give you a quick briefing on updates from the last "killers' I wrote about.
1.The Red Pen: So, in our speaking classes we have to fill out score sheets about kids performanaces. As a teacher, I always seem to have a red pen on hand. Kids Freak out when you write ther name in red, it is pretty hilarious. They will rummage through their bag for a black pen and lunge towards you yelling "teacher, my name, this color, no red". I have one student who thinks the whole thing is looney, and she always tells me "Write my name in red...three times". (It seems as though that would be triple death, but she is miraculously resilient and is still alive and kickin').
2. Fan Death: the latest explanation is that fan death kills you by freezing you to death...hmmmm
3. Flower Death: Well I am pretty certain that I killed my orchid, so you can all stop losing sleep over it maybe killing me in my sleep.

OK so the newest: In Korea kids learn in their science books that it is very dangerous to sail to far out to sea, because if you end up on a ship in the middle of the ocean there is no oxygen. What is it with Koreans fear of lack of oxygen and suffocation? The only explanation I can think of for this phenomena is that there are no trees nearby to take up CO2, but really osmosis should take care of any unequal distribution, right? When my kids told me this I was not really sure how to respond other than, "huh, I have never heard of that before". So if you come to visit me in Korea be sure to splurge for a plane ticket, because you might suffocate if you try and take a boat here...
My second new discovery is also a way you suffocate in Korea, except this is something that actually does happen. People in Korea eat live octopus. I have never seen it with my own two eyes but it is rather common I hear, I know some people who have done it. It sounds a little creepy to me, apparently as you are eating it squirms around and tries to wiggle its way off the plate (I don't blame it). Personally I could never even be at the same table where it was happening. In any case, if you do choose to sample this meal you have to know what you are doing....or you may bite the dust. If you do not chew properly, or enough, the suction cups on the tenticals will stick to your throat and suffocate you. Who ever heard of such a thing? I can't imagine octopus (especially raw/live octopus) ever tasting good enough to risk your life in order to eat it!!! I prefer a safe burrito myself.

In other news, last night I had my first experience at a real Korean spa. What a crazy experience. Korean spas are famous for exfoliating scubs. After soaking in tubs, saunas and steam rooms (one was 92 degrees C) you lye down on a table and a mostly naked Korean woman gets to work on you, scrubbing off all your dead skin. Koreans are not shy at all. They have no shame in nakedness, which I have experienced in the shower room of my gym...but this was a whole new level. So there I lye for about 20 minutes while a complete stranger who was topless scrubbed every single part of my body, except my face. It actually felt really good though. I have never felt so clean and my skin has never been so smooth.
I posted some pics of my kiddos from last term. We got new schedules and I am teaching mostly older kids now, I think it will be a lot better.