Mosquitos SUCK

Mosquitos suck quite literally, as I'm sure many of you know.  But Korean mosquitos are particularly heinous.  For one thing, they're about half the size of American mosquitos (in my experience) so you can't feel them on you at all.  Then the bites are about twice the size, and far itchier.  A few of the bites on the back of my calf are no longer pink or slightly red, but completely crimson.  There is no relief.  The whole experience is extremely frustrating.  Also, they only seem to like my legs below the knee.  I have five bites on one leg, all below the knee, and nine bites on the other, all below the knee.  I only have one other bite, on my finger.  I don't understand why this might be, but that's how it is.

One of the other new teachers came today.  Her name is Tonya and she is from Oklahoma.  She seems pretty cool so far, which is good.  Shannon and I are have been getting along really well also, though she was sick today.  Allison was sick too, and so were half the kids in her class, so they think that the illness started there, since Shannon teaches Allison's class part of the day.  I really hope I don't get it.  Apparently (from what I’ve heard and read), Korean people tend to overuse medicine, to the point where viruses and bacteria have mutated into superbugs.  In order to get over them you HAVE to take medicine.  There is no riding it out.  So I'm hoping I don't get too sick while I’m here.

One thing at school and in homes that is different from schools and homes in the states is shoes.  Koreans have one pair of outside shoes that they wear outside and on the stairs, but once you get to the hallways and the classrooms, you switch your outside shoes for indoor slippers.  If you want to go to the bathroom, there are several pairs of bathroom shoes, and you have to take off your indoor slippers, use bathroom shoes, then take off the bathroom shoes and put your indoor slippers back on.  It's an interesting idea actually, and the floors in the school are extremely clean, so it's obviously effective.  I had to go buy myself some indoor slippers the other day, so that I wouldn't have to keep using the school's slippers.

I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday, because it will be nice to have another weekend.  I like teaching at the school a lot, but I am looking forward to some time off.  Maybe I'll go back to Oasis this weekend and get some more of the pork.  It was so good I've been craving it since the moment I stopped eating it.  On the other hand, it might be interesting to try something new.  One of the great things about a lot of the restaurants here is that they have pictures on the walls.  So even if you don’t speak the language, you can look at the pictures and point to something that looks good.  It can be a little problematic for me because of my shellfish allergy (and Koreans do like to put shrimp in stuff sometimes), but it still makes things a lot more convenient, and it’s an adventurous way to try eating.