Fan Death and more

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I teach two Korean boys English in the afternoon. They are both elementary school age, and can speak and understand English fairly well. I had heard that most Koreans believe that sleeping with a fan on can kill you, so I decided to ask them what they knew. Apparently when you sleep with a fan on, you will get too cold and die. When I told them that I sleep with a fan on they told me I am very lucky not to be dead. I have researched the "Fan Death" legend and I guess that it is very common in Korea. Most people believe that you will die. My research also points out that it most likely started out as a reason to explain unexplainable or unhonorable deaths, such as an alcohol or drug overdose.

Every month I have to teach a gym class and a cooking class and I am looking for ideas for each. the cooking must be simple, and the gym class must teach a skill or accomplish some sort of goal. This month, the Korean English teacher planned the gym class for me. She called it "Hand Operation Partnership Activity". When I heard that it sounded like they were going to repair tendons in each other's hands. Really what it meant was a motor skills activity where the kids were partnered up together. They tied knots with cloth on their legs, and then they partnered up and tied their legs together and had a three-legged race. If you have any ideas on what I can do I would appreciate your input.

I am probably going to join a hiking and rock climbing group that is lead by my recruiter. He has a website at www.climbinginkorea.com. I figure it would be a good way to meet some people that speak English.

Last night I went to a casino near the COEX Mall with Daniel. I lost money at the blackjack tables, but I won most of it back at roulette. I have my birthday, my family's birthdays, and St. Patrick's day to thank for that. Luck o' the Irish. I also had some Korean barbecue. Basically you grill your own meat at the table, and then wrap it in a lettuce leaf and eat it. It was pretty good. The side dishes weren't my favorite. There was a coleslaw salad that was pretty gross, some other salad that tasted like sesame oil that wasn't too bad, some butternut squash that was okay, and some spicy crab that I wouldn't eat because I hate crab. And then there was Kimchi. Kimchi is pickled cabbage, seasoned with red chili pepper and some other seasonings. I thought it was going to be gross, but it wasn't too bad. It's not my favorite, but it is edibile. In Korea you eat with metal chopsticks, so everything slips out when you try to pick it up. I am already horrible with wood chopsticks, so this was even worse. Afterwards we walked around the neighborhood and I saw a Buddhist Temple that was pretty cool.

My air conditioner's remote control broke, which seemed pretty devastating at the time. Then I decided to pull open the AC unit, where I found a tiny little switch to turn it on manually. I have no idea what the temperature is now, since there is no display on the unit. On the remote there is an LCD panel that tells you the temperature in Celsius. I am happy that one of the things I remember from school is the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit (Celsius temperature multiplied by 9/5 plus 32).

At the market near my apartment I found some Korean beef jerkey, which was fairly cheap considering the cost of beef. It tastes pretty good, too. Other than that, there's not much else to report on.