Beware Fan Death

For those of you that haven't had the pleasure opportunity to live and work in South Korea I will enlighten you on a little phenomenon known as Fan Death. For those of you that know about Fan Death, scroll passed the description to: **).


Fan death is an apparently a legitimate cause of death in South Korea, but really only accepted and believed here (as far as I know). The idea that leaving a fan on while in an enclosed room can cause suffocation and hypothermia (the latter only being remotely possible if the room is as hot as body temperature).  A 교포 (gyopo) friend has even told me me that when she was young, her mother warned her that leaving a fan on can suck the oxygen right out of the room.

Sidebar: her parents recently came to visit (for the 3rd time in 11 months, this time during the piping hot Korean summer), and consistently turned her fan off in the middle of the night, after she'd turn it back on, refusing to also allow her to leave her air conditioning on (in her own apartment). Parents, pffft. 

*** I digress. The purpose of this post is to explain my work situation.
Today I came arrived at work, a reluctant ten minutes early as usual to a note on the door in broken English reading:

Deer Lyon Teacher,

Yesterday night class fans left on. Very danger. Please watch students very careful today. I turned fans off because it dangerous for students. Please no turn fans on today. Air con also no.  Fan on all night so classroom will be okay. I worry about Fan Death. Please watch students to not die.
Thankyou Lyon Teacher,
Miss Choi

Gee, my bad. It's a wonder I haven't died yet, sitting in this room without any oxygen.  You know what is a possibility though, passing out from heat exhaustion. It's going to be 40°C (105°F) today and I'm not allowed to ask for the air conditioning to be turned on nor risk student suffocation by turning the fans on. Today's going to be fun.

Post Script: Doing it anyway.

Foreigner, Yes. Aaron, No.

My name is not Aaron.
(curious? more).

You Smell Like my Dad

Peeling the crust from my sodden eyelids, I begrudgingly dropped one foot to the floor. I sat up -- yawning and stretching like an old dog. Cracking my neck, I looked at the alarm clock that had been buzzing for the last forty minutes. It flashed 8:15.  I had to be at work in fifteen minutes. I shrugged and couldn’t have cared less.  I threw on a pair of shorts and an old T-shirt. It’s too hot for nice clothes and I knew my co-teacher would be wearing sweats so I thought why not dress a schluppy today. I was too hung-over to even make an excuse up as to why I was going to be 5 minutes late so I planned to just stroll in and hope no one said anything.  

Someone did.  I walked into my office and my coworker said:  “Ohh, your hair is berry, berry messy and you dressed like street person.”  (In her defense, I did look like shit warmed over).

I smiled, laughed, and said: “Yeah, I know.” As I walked back to my desk to mentally prepare for the apocalypse that I was about to face, all I could think about was how bad I wanted McDonald’s breakfast. Gutted.

I sat in my office, dreading the sounding of the ear-piercing bell. It was coming and there was nothing I can do to stop it.  It’s almost a Pavlonian now. I hear it and immediately I am filled with anger and frustration.   

35 kids running down the hallway is almost as bad as the electric shock the dogs got. They’re here.  It’s worse than the electric shock.

Me: “Hello students (I sigh). How are you doing today?”

Sophie: “Teacher, you smell like my dad.”   (lifting her hand and pretending to drink from an imaginary bottle)

Me: “Does that make you happy or sad?”

Shit.

Standing in your B-Boy stance

                 
This past weekend (July 3-4) I went to the R-16 Urban Arts Festival in Olympic Park, Seoul. Artists and dancers came from all over the world to compete in both visual art and some badass break-dancing competitions. The graffiti was amazing and the B-Boy competition was very entertaining.  Here are some shots from the Semi-Final Singles competition.

A little gutted I missed the finale and the crews but still a wicked night all together.

Technorati Tags: Korea R16 World Urban Arts Festival Seoul Olympic Park

Major Lazer

For my birthday, my friends and I gathered our crew and took off to Ax Hall in Seoul to see Major Lazer for a measly 10,000 won.  I was told I wasn't allowed to bring in an DSLR so I grabbed my Lomo with a terribly fitted roll of film. Of the 36 shots I took, these were the best, and that's saying a lot. 

The majority of them were just plain black or had half of 2 photos on one frame. Reference 2nd last picture. 

Gutted. 

친구

Party people

Soo-Hon

We party everyday, we party everyday.

Frontman.

A happy birthday