Construction, Earthquakes, Fire, Floods and General Ramblings....

My school is old. Old old old. I have no idea when it may have been built, but I do know that there were pictures of it in the black and white photographs on display at the Mokpo History Museum, complete with dirt roads, ox carts and ladies in kimonos (photos were mostly from the Japanese occupation). It's obviously been renovated, re-wired, plumbing added... whatever.

The latest renovation has been demolishing the ground floor (it's a 3-storey building). The floorboards and dirt foundation were dug-up, new dirt was put in and packed down, and now a concrete floor has been poured (I've heard a rumour that a certain English teacher from Canada may or may not have accidentally stepped on the fresh concrete, then clumsily tried to cover it up in the hopes that it would look like a child did it... but I digress). The children have been generally playing around either old floorboards full of rusty nails, piles of dirt and mud puddles, digging machines, a crane (!!!!) and so on. So, right... it's been fun. Yesterday, the only way to get into the VP's office was to go outside and then climb a ladder to enter through the window, hop on the couch and from there to the floor (and then you have to bow, right? To appear dignified and all that....).

Last week, in response to the earthquakes in China, all the school children in Korea had to learn about emergency procedures. I wasn't witness to the video they watched, but I know that there were a lot of kids sitting under their desks at one point. This afternoon, they are (from what I can understand) burning something and putting it out. Or burning down the school?

Finally, one of Korea's most distinct seasons is back upon us - that being the really humid and rainy one (we had 100mm the other day, which turned all the stairways in my neighbourhood into waterfalls). No Meron, I don't know if these are the fabled "long rains" or "short rains" of which you speak...

Sonagi met a bunch of my teachers the other day. I was being a bit cheeky by introducing a kitten to a pile of people who generally hate cats, and I was quite happy and surprised by their reaction, which was mostly positive (except for the inevitable "dog soup" comments -- yes, fine, you beat dogs to death to make a cure for your impotence.... that's surely something to be proud of!). And, unless my school is really in denial, they will certainly have figured out by now that a) I have 2 cats in the apartment that last year's VP told me didn't allow pets (not true, there are dogs in the building) and b) Ty lives there too.

I'm feeling better and better about the coming year (my 3rd in Korea!!!) and, aside from a serious bout of culture shock - I've been through all the stages a million times since coming here - I'm actually looking forward to it.