It's been a pretty busy week in Chuncheon. First, there was the whole North Korea/South Korea entanglement. I do not follow any news very well, so if you want to know more about what's going on with North Korea, you should probably check out CNN or something. Anywho, South Korea officially came out last week and said that North Korea sunk the Cheonan back in March. Insanity ensued and the won dropped a billion points. At one point, it was 1270 won to a dollar. I was freaking out. It's down to 1210 now and hopefully will go back to the low 1100s by next week where I hope it will stay. Some foreigners have been pretty worried about the whole North Korea issue, but our school - the students, other teachers, and director - has not said a single thing about it, so we haven't really thought about it too much. At the moment, we're in kind of a waiting game to see if China will back up the US, Japan and South Korea's desire for sanctions against North Korea. If they do, anything could happen. Looking at issues between the two countries in the past, this will probably (and hopefully) amount to nothing.
Elections are coming up on June 2nd. A lot of schools will be closed so everyone can go out and vote, but we don't know about ours. Maybe, maybe not. No one has said anything to us about it, and it isn't marked on the calendar, so I am thinking no. Michael thinks they will wait until the day before to tell us. We're not sure. The campaigns are out in full force, and frankly, are annoying. Basically, as far as we can figure, people drive around in campaign trucks and bring out a bunch of "groupies" that sing and dance to campaign music. Those who have the best songs and dance routines win the election!
We decided that we could never vote for #7 because his campaign music is to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it" and "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer." "Jessica," one of my really smart 2nd graders, told me that on election day, you just write the number of the person you like. You don't even have to remember their names! That makes it easy when there are more than 10 people running. We actually have no idea what these people are running for. Could be mayor, could be the president. None of the kids know, and everyone else at the Hagwon thinks we're too dumb to understand.
I've spent the most part of this week sick. I have a head cold that is finally on the getting better side of things. Surprisingly, I have not been to the doctor. I have been taking plenty of Dayquil and Ibuprofen to get me through the days here at the Hagwon. Yesterday, I had almost no voice, but I only had two classes to teach and the kids that I tutored were really nice to me. Michael is starting to get it now, too, so hopefully he won't be too sick to go to the Mime Festival this weekend.
Finally, the word "crazy" has been banned at our Hagwon. Why? People think that the word actually means mentally challenged. I ask you all for your comments. Is crazy too strong of a word? We say things like, "Sit down, crazy." "That liger is crazy!" and "You're driving me crazy, Tommy" After losing a couple of students, our school is having a crackdown on "offensive words." It is still okay for the students to say "F--- you!" but the word crazy is not allowed.
Well, that's our week in a nutshell. I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
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Crazy is banned here, too, for exactly the same reason. I don't think "crazy" is too strong a word in English (with language comes culture). I think they're confusing it with a word like "retarded," which shouldn't be used in a school setting.
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