Day 14: Love Overdose

Every day in class this week, the elementary students have been learning the words to a Westlife song, entitled "My Love." When I first heard that this was going to be our fun way of helping the kids practice their English, I thought "great idea!" What could be more fun than learning the words to a good ol' fashioned cheesey pop song and then watching the video? Well this was a blast at first, but it became really old, REALLY FAST. We play (and sing along to) the song *at least* three times in each class. You multiple this by three classes a day, times five days this week...you can do the math pretty quickly and see that I've sung "My Love" WAY TOO MANY times this week!!! It's an okay song, but now it's started to seep into my 'outside of school' life...I find myself singing it in the shower, while making dinner, while walking home... I CAN'T ESCAPE!!!!

At first I thought that we were doing this tortuous, errrr.....fun exercise just for the hell of it, but I learned yesterday that there's a method to the madness... Turns out that all the elementary school kids are going to be doing a real live performance of "My Love" in front of all the parents for the kindergartens' graduation tomorrow! I'm hoping that I don't have to sing with them (I have an absolutely terrible singing voice, which is a shame cause it looks like I could be in a boy band...haha!) Most likely I will have to though, being the token celebrity foreigner and all, I'm sure that they'll want me up there... I'm so nervous! :-)

I received my first piece of mail today, and I was so excited!!! It was from my friend Arion, who lives near Seattle. I was honestly really surprised to see that the package had arrived safe and sound, and had somehow made its way to me. The Korean postal system seems so crazy I have no idea how it functions... Most streets don't have names (unless they're major ones) and the addresses of houses and buildings are completely chaotic. House #6 could be next to #38 next to #629 next to #103. Apparently they're numbered based on a system of *when* they were built, not in any kind of numerical order! And supposedly that in order to be a mailman here you have to train and have lived in a neighbourhood for years, because you literally have to have every single address in your area memorized! WOW!! I have a new respect for postal workers now! Anyways, it was awesome to get a package from a familiar name back home (he sent me a newspaper and a Lonely Planet book!) and it totally made my day! THANKS ARION!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!

On my way to the grocery store tonight I came across a very upsetting scene... I saw a man walking down the street near my home with his dog...but the dog was pulling (against his will) this large tire attached to him by a chain. The dog was completely exhausted and looked weak and poorly fed. He also looked to be in extreme pain, and I felt so bad for the dog. The most disgusting thing about this all is that this is *not* the first time I've seen this man forcing his dog to drag heavy objects down the street! God knows how many times this horrible man has made his dog do this... Now, as a foreigner, I know there's going to be a lot of things that I see here in Korea that I don't agree with, and so I've tried all along to not be judgemental and keep an open mind, but with this I just can't. I think it's cruel and disgusting and I was really upset by seeing it. I wanted to just yell and scream at this man, but yelling out in English would do absolutely no good as I'm sure he doesn't speak it. I almost feel like sneaking into his house and stealing his dog and letting him free, but the last thing I need is the Korean police on my tail. I'm just so frustrated with having witnessed the whole thing, and feeling powerless to do anything about it...

On a lighter note, for the first time ever, I found butter at the grocery store tonight! I haven't seen butter ANYWHERE here yet until tonight, and I'm really excited to break it out tomorrow for breakfast!! haha! Yes, the simplest things in life do give the most pleasure...haha! I've got such high expectations for this butter though, being that I've been deprived from it for so long, let's hope it measures up! :-)