Oh, the Rains

Things I miss about dry season...

• Carrying gum in my bag without it melting into liquid.
• Keeping my bottle of vitamins on my bathroom sink without them growing fuzz.
• Wearing skirts.
• Feeling warm.
• Going anywhere any time of day without getting drenched.
• Not having to carry an umbrella everywhere I go.
• Going for drives.
• Growing plants and not having them drown.
• Having nice hair.
• Having clothes that don't always smell musty.
• Drying clothes in one day instead of three.
• Electricity staying on more consistently.
• My house not being struck by lightning on a regular basis.
• Pulling out a pair of shoes I just wore three days ago and not finding mold all over them.
• Major cities not flooding.
• The beach.
• Picnics.
• Soccer games.
• Health.
• Sunshine in the morning. Sunshine after school. Sunshine.
• Not caring when the hot water goes out.
• Wildlife living outside instead of always trying to come in my house.
• Having a conversation at a normal volume.
• Showing up to places with dry clothes on.
• Not having muddy footprints all over the floor.
• Working out after school.
• Predictable weather patterns.
• Having a dry helmet that doesn't make my hair smell musty.

Things I sometimes begrudgingly enjoy about rainy season...

• Hot beverages.
• Cardigans.
• Hot showers.
• Socks.
• Falling asleep to the sound of rain on the roof.
• How green everything is.

Oh, Children...

Student 1: Have you ever done drugs?
Me: No.
Student 2: Have you ever used nail polish remover?
Me: Yes, when I want to remove my nail polish...
Student 2: Then you've done drugs!
Me: How do you figure?
Student 2: You inhale it.
Me: But I'm not smoking, snorting, or injecting it, so I don't think that counts as doing drugs...
Student 1: Can you remember back to art time? Like when you were our age and you had art class. Because the markers...
Me: ...I was homeschooled. I didn't have art class.
*long pause while wheels turn*
Student 1: Did you have computers??
Me: Um... Yes.
Student 1: Did you have LUNCH??
Me: No. Lunch wasn't invented yet when I was in 9th grade.
Student 1: Oh...

TA

My sweet teaching assistant came back from making photocopies of a geometry test for me, and she started ripping up papers and throwing them in the trash! When I asked her why, she gave this very clear response:

I was trying to do the back and forth, back and forth with the thingie, but I didn't know how. And so I failed many times. And then the GRRRRRRCHUCKACHUCKACHUCKAGRRRRRRRRRR was full!! But I can't leave it, so I had to do it here!

The really weird thing (as if that wasn't strange enough) is that I immediately understood exactly what she meant. Here's the translation:

I was trying to copy the test front and back, but I didn't know how to do that. So I messed up some copies. And then the paper shredder was full. But since it's a test, I couldn't just throw it in the recycle bin there, so I'm ripping them up here!

I'm getting really good at Korean English. kk

Note to Self

Next time you give homemade body scrub to all your friends for Christmas, you should probably tell them what it is.

Before they eat it.
With a spoon.
And then kindly thank you for the delicious gift.

First Day Back

Me: I always had a hard time remembering which one was the less than sign and which one was the greater than sign. I used to get them mixed up a lot until I was in, like, high school.
Student 1: What?? How could you NOT remember that?
Me: I don't know.... Maybe because I didn't have a math teacher to explain things like that since I was homeschooled.
Student 2: You were HOMESCHOOLED?
Student 3: Dude! You didn't know that? She talks about it a LOT!
Student 4: Yeah, she was taught by goats. They studied pentagrams. Beneath the tree.

Sometimes I really wonder what I have said in the past that has caused them to think these things...

The Super Sniffer

I never really thought that I had any kind of extraordinarily olfactory ability. But I do have the often unwanted gift - usually while driving - to be able to tell that someone, somewhere is eating a durian.

Back to school tomorrow.
Bali post coming soon! Stay tuned.