Hump day of the final week is complete.

I can't tell if this week is genuinely awesome, or if I'm just over the hump of worrying about everything.

As I mentioned before, I have high school kids this week, and they've been fantastic. Today was especially fun. In the afternoon they had time to work on two different projects I'd assigned, and I went from group to group, answering questions about papers they had found, questions about the paper I'd assigned, and general questions about life at American universities, the American educational system, and being a research scientist. These kids are just so cool. I walked out an hour later than usual, feeling like I was falling in love. I couldn't stop smiling, just wondering how I was having this much fun. The idea of leaving with my masters to teach high school just got a lot more realistic. I haven't had this much fun "working" since I don't know when.

One of the boys is really excited to be paying devil's advocate in the whole climate debate, constantly looking for alternate explanations for rising temperatures than increased CO2 emissions. He isn't stubborn, he just wants to see the other side explored, and see why alternate explanations do or don't satisfy him. So more power to him. His parents want him to go into business, because he's a "people person," but he thinks science is fun. I pointed out there was always science education or science policy work. He wants to go to an American liberal arts school, because he hears it's very different from Korean schools, where it's all lecture based. He loves the idea of project and discussion based learning. But he's worried about whether that kind of education will really serve him well if he wants to get a job in Korea when he's done. And I don't know. But it was a really interesting conversation to have.

Another girl told me when I sat down that she loved my lecture today, and she was really interested in today's topics. This was the same girl who chatted with me yesterday for a long while about wanting to go to American schools, and wanting to know the difference between big public universities and private colleges, and whether any financial aid was available for international students. She had great questions about her paper today, and really latched on to everything I could explain about how Spitzer and Hubble work. And she told me I should go talk to her shy friend, who had a really good question that morning, but was too scared to ask. Such a cool kid.

I went over, and the first girl says something to her friend in Korean, who immediately ducks her head and shakes her head at me. I told her I wanted to answer her question, so she finally asked how we know whether life on Earth is a good representative of life in the universe; what if we're a really weird, unusual example? Are we even looking for the right kids of things? It's SUCH A GOOD QUESTION!! So I told her no, we're not sure at all, but if we're going to look for life, the only kind we're likely to recognize from lightyears away is life like us. So we look for life like us, and planets reasonably like ours. But that we could be totally wrong. She said she's had this question since the third grade, but she remembered it today, and she'd never had an answer before. Cool teacher moment, or coolest teacher moment ever?

Seriously, I'm smiling again just thinking about it. And tomorrow I'm doing a lab about penguin colonies in Antarctica, and they have to piece together a flowchart of climate change and the ecosystem, from a bunch of information about penguin and krill populations, snowfall, and sea temperature. I'm really excited. I think we're going to have a lot of fun. 

I got dinner at this place called Eat2Heal next to the cafeteria, and maybe it's the lack of fresh vegetables in general over here, but the salad I got, and the sandwich with tomatoes and caramelized onions tasted like the best salad and sandwich I've ever had. Then Sara and Neil and I went to the jim jil bong in town. It's a spa/hang out joint. There's a spa on one floor for the women, another for the men, a floor with games and karaoke rooms and a little theater and food, an exercise floor, a patio on the ceiling, and little caves where you can sleep if you stay the night (but it's just a pad on the floor). Apparently a lot of dates happen there, and a lot of family hang out time. There are people who walk around the sleeping areas to make sure no hanky-panky is happening, and the single sex spas are totally naked, like the other one I went to. It's $7 for most of that, but food and massages cost extra. The exercise room, the basic spa, and the games are all included though, as far as I could tell, which means you can get quite a lot for your money.

On Sara's recommendation, since she'd gotten one at the other spa, I got a scrub while I was in the spa. They put this exfoliating lotion on and then rub you all over. And, as Sara said before, it is ALL over. She didn't care where her hands went. Not as weird as I expected it to be, maybe because she was so straightforward about it. And everything smelled nice. Not too strong, just mineral or herb scents, even the halls of the buildings.

We had a crazy cab driver on the way over. Neil and Sara were chatting pretty loudly, and he basically told us, with miming, that we should shut up, because he couldn't concentrate on his driving. His driving was absolutely terrifying. And I should say here that I think most Korean drivers' reputations in the US are unearned here in Korea. None but the biggest roads have stoplights, so you just cross at crosswalks everywhere, with no guarantee the traffic will stop. And they don't stop way back like they do in the US, but they've never come close to hitting anyone. I think the drivers here mostly pay attention a lot more. And a lot of the sidestreets don't have sidewalks, and are only wide enough for one-way traffic, so you have to crowd way to the side when a car wants to go by. But anyway, this first driver was actually nuts. I don't care if it's Korea, that had to be illegal. And he flat out refused to try to communicate with us, just snapped in Korean and mimed that he spoke no English. Which: fair enough. But others have at least tried to understand us.

On the way back, Sarah and I were saying to each other that we really needed to learn left, right, and straight in Korean. And the driver points ahead and goes, "Straight! Jigjin!" So we repeat it a few times, and then he points left, and that's oenjjog, and right is oleunjjog (I was spelling it my way, but google has told me this is the better way to spell them). It was the most helpful cab ride ever, and of course we get this lesson now, three days before we leave. Oh, well. So worst cab ride over, and best cab ride back. I guess it evens out. The second cabbie, and all the people in the spa, drove home for me once again how nice everyone is here.

I'm pretty sure if a Korean traveler came to America and wandered into a spa, or a cab or bus, or a hotel, and tried to mime things and speak Korean at the Americans, they would get cussed out, ignored, and flipped off. And here, our cab driver this evening is the only person I can think of who has flat out dismissed us. Everyone else has tried very hard to understand what we were asking or saying, whether that involved pantomime, their attempts at English, or asking passersby if anyone else could translate. I realize the immigration histories of our countries are totally different, and there are lot of reasons you can't just invert the situation and compare it, but I'm really grateful that even if people here think we're idiots, at least they're trying really hard to help the dumb Americans.

Anyway. Two teaching days left, and one day to go to the airport and get on a plane. I am looking forward to everything.

Last week!

Oh, thank God. I have high school kids this week. It's such a great change. They ask interesting questions, they can do real labs (most of them), and I don't have to talk down to them at all. We can have normal conversations! One kid wants to play devil's advocate for saying increased CO2 levels don't cause increased temperatures! I mean, I disagree, but he's asking good questions, and I want to see him explore the problem. It's really exciting. Another girl is interested in ocean currents, but also worried about how her imaginary testing would hurt imaginary ocean life. It's so great.

Of course, I'm also changing classrooms again, because we're not actually allowed in the building I used yesterday and today. The working lab people here are getting annoyed, because there are high school and middle school aged kids clogging up the building and slowing down their wireless connections. And the internet is slow, so I believe them that it's our fault.

Having smart kids is really making this week a lot better than it could be. I was super stressed this past weekend. Teachers were snapping at each other, and I was trying to keep cool and keep peace when I could, I was planning a three hour lecture for kids outside my age range, and I was planning new lecture material for high school kids out of what I had. But I found a bunch of cool labs for my kids, they're good English speakers who are interested in the stuff we're learning, and I only have three and a half days left here.

On Sunday, Sara and I were being lazy, and didn't want cafeteria food, so we went to the Burger King on campus. It was wonderful. They use real sugar, not corn syrup, in their soda here, so the coke was amazing. No salt on the fries, but ketchup, and you could ask for salt separately, so it was just like home, only with better soda. Mmmm, America. They also had spaghetti for lunch on Monday. I've been here long enough that eating American food has become novel again. But when I get home, I'm totally making my friends go to a Korean barbeque. They're a ton of fun.

Fast food: a taste of home.