Yesterday in class, one of my better students was feeling terrible. Her tooth was killing her because it needed to come out. It wasn't because she'd had too much candy, but rather it was just time for a new tooth. So I sent her to the receptionist and she came back a few minutes later, tooth in hand. This led to a discussion (you can actually DISCUSS things with elementary school kids in English here, as compared to Japan) about what they do with old teeth.
Korean kids throw their old teeth onto the roof. I'm not sure what they do if they live in a giant apartment box, but... whatever. Evidently a bird comes along and takes the tooth away. Then the new one is allowed to grow. When I told them about the tooth fairy, they thought I was pulling their legs. I was inundated with "really?"s. They were terribly jealous.
Last weekend Pam and I headed to the beach. We both needed just to get out of town and see something new. It took about 3 hours and we arrived to late in the afternoon to catch a ferry to a nearby island, but there was plenty to do at the beach resort. We spent about an hour roaming through the fresh seafood markets by the water. Everything was still alive. Crabs and octopi were crawling out of their buckets while fish splashed around. The oysters could only manage a few bubbles of life.
In the end we purchased a giant bucket of shellfish for about $18. They throw them straight onto a barbeque while your sit on a plastic stool. They start popping open immediately and you use chopsticks and a knife to get at them. You wear one glove to hold the hot shells while trying to avoid the mussel guts splattering your clothes. It was a tremendous meal but once you're full, shellfish starts to look really slimy and struggles to go down.
After dark, the Koreans stumbled out of the hundreds of seafood restaurants to shoot fireworks out on the beach. Drunken men and women, little kids, and fireworks is not a healthy combination. Pam thought it was great, but I was a bit weary especially when they started shooting them at other people rather than into the sky. Oh well, at least they were having a good time.
I recently bought a bicycle so I can cruise around and discover the nearby area. But I also recently discovered that I'm poor. So I probably won't be going anywhere until payday. Some things never change.
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