Fall, Sicknesses, and Poopy Pants

Obscene amounts of overtime at work and lesson-plans fit for 40-year-olds instead of 4-year-olds--I believe that's where I last left you. Since then, the overtime has dwindled into non-existence and the lesson plans have become more manageable (i.e. I've quit following them verbatim). Life is finally starting to settle down a bit in the grimy city of Ulsan. Fall is trying to make it's way into October, but it's failing somewhat miserably. There were a few days of chilly breezes last week, but they have quickly been replaced by sticky humidity and mildly warm temperatures. Maybe most people would be okay with summer lingering a little longer, but I miss the cool autumns that force me to bust out my sweaters and hideously pink (but ridiculously comfortable) fuzzy slippers. But maybe by the time November rolls around, the weather around here will finally decide to act according to the season.

With the changing of the seasons--no matter how small the changes may be--inevitably comes various illnesses, most typically the flu and head colds. I have not at all been immune to any such illnesses. If anything, I seem to be the carrier and primary sufferer of them. I have yet another head cold at the moment and it is acting suspiciously like a sinus infection (green snot and the works!). This weekend was number four out of the five weekends we've been here that I've been too sick to go out and do anything. (Poor me, yadda yadda. Remedy advice is welcome.) To top off the boredom that has been spawned from my current situation, I'm feeling a teeny bit guilty for exposing my itty bitty students to the nasty germs that seem to be seeping from my pores. A number of my students were absent due to flu-like symptoms on Friday, and I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for infecting the little tykes. (Then again, since Koreans insist on working through sickness and health and expect their foreigner employees to do the same, can I really be blamed?)

Moving on to other student-related news: I have a little boy in one of my 4-year-old classes named Jimmy, who I think is at least borderline retarded. Aside from his odd behavior during class (he randomly screams in neither English nor Korean at times and then stares off into space with his mouth gaping open for sometimes up to 10 minutes), he seems to have a hitting problem (he doesn't discriminate between teachers and other students), and he is always running into things--namely the wall (he likes to hit students and then run away while looking over his shoulder and, consequently, usually ends up in a head-on collision with the nearest wall or door). There is clearly something askew with the poor little guy, but his mother seems to be in complete denial and insists on sending him to a regular kindergarten, in spite of his inability to interact normally with other students, let alone with the teachers. All of that aside, Jimmy has a pooping problem. As in, he does it frequently. And he usually does it in his pants. While teaching his math class on Tuesday, I suddenly got a whiff of something fowl that resembled a ripe, poopy diaper. The smell was so strong that it immediately hit my gag reflex and I let out a dry heave. The two students on either side of Jimmy crinkled their noses up a little bit, but simply scooched a few more inches away from him, without tearing their faithful little gazes away from the chalk board. This was my first sign that maybe this happens to Jimmy a lot. I signaled a nearby Korean teacher to haul Jimmy out of class, as the foreign teachers are not allowed to take a student into the bathroom (a rule that I'm even more thankful for nowadays). She returned with Jimmy, who was clad in a new pair of pants, about 15 minutes later, a disgusted look planted on her face and a relaxed and rejuvenated look on his. On Thursday, my hunch about Jimmy having a pooping problem turned out to be correct, as the same scenario repeated itself in my P.E. class. Lucky, lucky me. Here's hoping I can keep my gag reflex under control for the remainder of the year.

Well, the believed-to-be-cold-medicine (one can never be sure when they don't speak the language of the pharmacist!) I took earlier seems to be kicking in and I'm getting a little too drowsy to be writing my deep, insightful stories on life in Korea. But I promise, more stories will come....