Vanila Ice Up My Hair.

You can always rely on students to keep life interesting during the times when they are not making life hell.

Two days back I passed one of my students on my way home. Normally there are no students on that road that time of day. That, however was not the strange thing.

He went for his haircut, but with a "style" that would no way have been allowed in the school. I could see in his worried eyes that he was expecting me to say something, but I chose not to call him Vanilla Ice to his face.

For those of you who don't know him or don't remember Vanilla Ice, here is a picture...


Vanilla Ice was one of the first really famous white rappers,as far as I know. I can still remember some of the words to "Ice, Ice, Baby". He was not just white, but he brought bling in to the white world, big time. One well known thing about him was his hairstyle. There was the obvious Elvis impersonation, but if you look at the spot just above his ear you will see the pattern shaved in to his hair.

This is what I was seeing on the student, except that it was much larger and looked a bit like a Reebuck logo. Basically, one of those attempts to be cool with no sense of where to stop. We had the same thing happen 15 years ago when I was in High School, even with the same exaggeration and same lack of style sense.

After reminiscing about how cool Vanilla Ice was, I started wondering what would happen to him at school and whether they would allow it. Sure enough, I saw him in the teacher's room the next morning.

He entered the teacher room trailing behind his home class teacher with a look on his face of impending doom. Everyone saw the "problem" very quickly and kept on sneaking looks at the silliness. He was berated by more than one teacher and was seemingly not allowed back to class till the "problem" had been solved.

At one point, a few hours later, his home teacher was talking to a woman whom I suspect to be his mother. I have no idea what was being said, but I have to wonder how she let her son come to school like this. Did she somehow think the school turned in to a academy for Korean rappers? Did she maybe not see it or did he just manage to hide it from her the whole time?

I really wanted to ask what was happening, with precise details, but I decided that it was more interesting to make up my own story that might make it look worse than it really was. Maybe I will ask someone today if I get a chance.

Just after lunch yesterday, I think, I saw the student return with what looked like a army haircut and this morning I rightly saw him arrive at school with his little woolen pull down hat thing. For the life of me I can't think what they are called now. I hope that will be the only lesson he will need that being stupidly led my "coolness" will embarrass you more than not being "cool".

Sad things we worry about.

I read a Blog every day where a guy takes Korean news stories and translates them. It is a nice way if hearing about interesting news here n Korea. They are mostly useless stories that are just nice to read, but today he had something disturbing to publish.

I read this translated story and then the comment he wrote afterwards. There was a link in there that I followed about how foreigners get treated. It is really disturbing stuff.

To read the news article, click here, and to read the disturbing part, click here.

I knew about things like this even before I coming to Korea, so it is nothing new to me, but I am glad I have not really had a problem like this before. I just have to wonder why Asia is like this and when it will happen to me?

What I've learnerd about Snow

1. Watch out for that ice!

This first one is very important. I already mentioned this in a previous post. When people walk on the snow or cars go over it, the compacted snow turns to solid ice. Now, if you didn't know this before, then listen up. Ice is slippery stuff. Don't run on ice. Don't even walk on it if you don't have to. Stick the fluffy white stuff or the rough solid brown stuff.

Also remember to watch out for the ice that is so thin you can hardly see it. In England they called it Black Ice. The problem is not that it is more slippery that the compacted snow. Quite the contrary. It is normally not nearly as slippery. The problem with this ice is that you don't see it and walk as if there is noting there. That is what will get you because you will loose your footing when you are not ready for it.

2. Snow is as pretty as I thought it would be.

In South African we have the traditions of a North European White Christmas, but we hardly ever get snow or even a chance to see it. Our Christmases normally ends up with a little plastic tree that is getting more Africanized every year, a day at the beach and a Braai (barbecue). In other words, we only see the beautiful scenes in photographs and films.

One of the main reasons I wanted to see the snow was for the photo opportunities. As you can see I already got a few nice shots in. They were more than I expected I didn't think my first attempts would look so nice. I always had ideas in my head of what it would be like to take snaps in winter, but these were nothing like it.

The other thing that is really beautiful is the white you see every time you look out the window. For the first two days, when there was lots of snow, I was surprised every time I looked out to see the serene pure scene. You forget what is happening outside when you are inside in the heated rooms.

3. Snowball fights are more fun than I thought it would be.

Need I say more? If you are too old to do this then you are just to old, period. No one should ever be to old for a little bit if fluff throwing.

I was having a snowball fight with 5 girls. It was funny. More to the point, I was minding my own business when they attacked me. (Translation: They were the only targets around and they are not allowed to retaliate.)

These were really slow in making their ammunition and when they did eventually throw they were just useless. I would hunch down and made my stash of 5 shots, ignoring them completely. They never even got close to me while I was doing it. By the time they got the courage to come closer for a better chance I had my stash ready and would start peppering them with it.

You would think they would do the logical thing and just disperse, but they all turned tail at the first shot and ran away in a group. That means I just had to launch the remaining 4 snowball into the middle and hit nearly every time.

As I walked home there was normally nice snow on the side of the road and every day I ended up making about 20 snowballs to chuck at some kind of target along the way. That would satisfy my craving for throwing things about for the rest of the day.

Aaaaaah. I can hardly wait for the next snow to come.

4. Snowmen need special snow.

When the snow was coming down the first time it was real nice for making small men. However, by the next morning the ice seemed to have become dry and lost it's stickiness. I was unable to get a decent amount to stick together to make a nice little man. The little one I already showed you is all that I could manage.

My students tell me we will get lots more snow and that I'll be able to make a large one, if I wish. I do wish and can't wait to make a jumbo man. I have to go get carrots or maybe some kind of Korean vegetable.

5. Indeed, it is not that cold outside.

It was about 5 degrees outside after the snow, much warmer than the preceding days. I've heard people say that when you go skiing the temperature outside is much higher than people seem to think. I don't think the temperature went under 2 degrees the whole time we had the snow.


There you have it, the things I learned in just a few days.

So far people have not complained about the slide show format, so I include some nice snow shots as another Photobucket slide show.