Coco-Wa spills

The other night I went on a search for a massage parlor, specifically for a foot massage.  To my happiness, with much ease, I stumbled across a salon with pictures of feet.  Just what I needed.    Their menu book of services, was nicely translated into English, making my shopping quite painless.  I ordered the, "foot massage".  You can imagine my surprise when she had me lay face down on the massage table and began massaging my butt for about 10 minutes--followed by a leg massage.  I can only assume this was another case of "lost in translation", and somehow "foot massage" was typoed in as a "butt & leg massage".  I am sure other people are experiencing the same confusion, when they order a "deep-tissue" back massage and end up getting my "foot massage".     I think I am officially giving up on Korean massages.  

After teaching elementary school aged kids for a year, I have officially turned over a new leaf in my life, and now I am my parents.  How did this happen???!!    I hear my parents words & tone being channeled through me, without effort, as I am telling them, "Don't do that!" or "Now, why did you do that?" "Shut the door".    Kids do the darnedest things though--all the time.   I see some of the stuff these kids do, and I know I used to do the same things...but looking on it through adult eyes, the sense of 'logic' is mind boggling.    The other day one of my 4rth graders spilled hot cocoa on the floor.  Seemingly, a minor problem.  However, he decides to grab one of his classmates suede boots to clean up the mess and hide the evidence.  Fortunately, about an inch before suede met hot chocolate, I intercepted as a slow motion, "NoOoOOoooooooooo" came out of my mouth.  When I asked "What are you doing?".  He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know", as casual as if I was asking him what the weather was supposed to be like tomorrow.

The other day, a different student also spilt her hot chocolate all over a desk.  Rather than be concerned with cleaning it up, or the fact that it is now dripping all over the floor and she is standing in it, she turns to me frantically and says, "Teachah, one more!! One more!".     I tell her to clean it up first.  After much insistence from me, she finally goes and gets some toilet paper.  She then proceeds to clean it up one TP square at a time--and then takes one dripping square at a time and drips it across the floor into the trash can.  Ohhhhhh kids are soooooo painful to watch.

I knowwwww, I should not feed them hot cocoa, but I can't help myself.  It is our special morning treat.  When they aren't spilling it all over themselves and the floor, they just enjoy it so much.  It is sort of my 'signature' winter camp treat.  Every day at 10:30 it is "Hot Cocoa 10:30"  But they pronounce it 'CoCoWa'.  When 10:30 rolls around, they say, "Teacha Hot Coco-Wa".  These kids do an awful lot of studying, so their breaks are well earned---and spilt hot cocoa is a small price to pay to witness their happiness.  What can I say?  I'm a sucker...and I love these guys--sticky messes and all.

Tid Bits:

My landlord's English is above average, so we made a bit of casual conversation the other day.   She says to me, "When you cook, you smell like a Canadian".  She had spent some time in Canada, so I know what she meant by that statement, but the wording got a little tied up.  I can honestly say that is the first time anyone has ever told me I smell like a Canadian though!