Yesterday began with an exciting trip to the bank to pay my bills. You see, here in Korea there are no such things as personal checks so when it comes time to pay the piper, there are a couple things that can be done. First off the company can withdraw the money from your account directly. This is the most convient, but to my knowledge only phone companies will do this. The second thing that can be done is go to the post office and give the clerk there the money for you bills. The final option is use the awesome bill paying machine at the bank. I’m not sure if all banks have this feature or just mine (KB), but anyway that’s what I did yesterday…or at least tried to do.
When I arrived at the bank there was already a line of people at the two bank machines. Finally when there was one woman in front of me, she did something that put the machine out of commission. A bank employee began work on it and told us to use the other machine. Again, ten minutes pass, the woman steps up to get her bank on and lo and behold, the machine crashes again. I believe at this point I proclaimed, “You gotta be kidding me!” After another 10 minutes or so a machine was up and running and I could final pay my bills…Hooray!
Now yesterday is the day I have my kindergarten class. They come in we read a story, play some games, sing, have a snack, and use a workbook in which 90% of the activities involve coloring. Yesterday’s class was really good. The kids were well behaved, and were doing really well. The workbook activity for the class was a connect the dots puzzle, that when completed formed a desk (they were learning about “classrooms” and “schools” this unit). Upon completion of the puzzle the students called out, “I’m finished!”
When the students finish their work (and after the proclaim loudly that they have done so), I check the work that they have done, and either give them a sticker or write something like “Awesome!” or draw a happy face or a star…something to show them that I approve of their work. Yesterday the two girls in the class finished first and wanted me to draw, “Princess please.” So I drew a couple of hastily assembled princesses. The boy asked for a prince. Below is an exact replica of the drawing the boy recieved.
Upon seeing this drawing the boy burst into tears. Granted I’m not an great artist, and I will never be doing police sketches for America’s Most Wanted, but there was nothing wrong with this drawing to bring on uncontrolled sobbing. I asked him what was wrong and between sobs he was able to give a one word answer: “수염 (su-yeom)…”, which means “beard.” “코밑수염 (Komeet su-yeom)” is a more accurate translation for “moustache,” but I got the picture, and learned a valuable lesson: moustaches make small Korean children cry.
