Aaron Goes Spear Fishing

This morning I went down to Oedulgae, which is a series of tidal pools and cliffs just outside of Seogwipo. It’s a really nice area, the same place I spent looking for my clothes a few weeks ago.

Wednesday I had been invited to go spear fishing. Spear fishing is illegal very popular in South Korea. I found this out while I was in the water, when the guy with me, Weston, said to keep my spear below the water that I was doing a great job.

Anyway, it turned out to be mostly snorkling with a spear in my hand. Initially I thought it was a harpoon, since Weston’s spear broke when he first aimed and the spear tip came shooting off. I thought I was doing something wrong because mine stayed on. Eventually, once I realized that the spear was just supposed to be, well, a spear, I got the hang of thrusting it forward, but I was wearing a wet suit which made it really difficult for me to dive below the surface, and that was where all the big fish were.

At one point I trapped a fish, and later on, when one of the fish was seemingly taunting me, I thought I had got it, but it ran away beneath a rock. I had been instructed not to spear little fish, the pretty ones with the blue and white stripes, and the puffer fish (because they’re poisonous to eat). In the end, the only thing I actually speared was my spear, which unscrewed and so I had to use the rest to get it back.

It was a very worthwhile experience though, since I did not have to endure any of the moral (or legal) implications of spear fishing. Also, Weston caught a giant flounder which later became a delicious lunch of sashimi and “wado-bop” (spelling is definitely wrong, my pronunciation), which is a bowl of spicy rice and vegetables with raw fish in it.

As you can see from the photos, flounders are strange and ugly creatures, whose second eye moves around its head as it matures so that both eyes are on the same side of its face, like a Picasso painting.

Earlier this week, I went with some of the Yale teachers to an island at the edge of the harbor, connected to Seogwipo by the Bridge to Nowhere (last seen on this blog several weeks ago). It’s a beautiful little island with tidal pools, rocky cliffs, and a tiny forest in the middle. Save for a very very small wooden platform, the island is confusedly blocked off to pedestrians, but everyone ignores this, and it doesn’t make sense anyway, as once you jump over the fence there are footpaths and pedestrian signs. Later on in the day, the rumor was that excessive garbage had caused the island to be ‘blocked off.’ Here are some pictures of me being myself on the rocks:

Also, some pictures of me pretending to be badass with a scooter, in Seogwipo harbor:

At school, I continue to be amazed at how much I am enjoying teaching little children. With the second graders I just be silly and we play word games and draw pictures. My second graders took their assignment to draw their dream house very seriously, they’ve already spent two classes more on the project than I had originally anticipated it would take, which is lovely, since my responsibilities in those classes are mostly to walk around, permit students to use the bathroom, and hum.

The older kids have been spottier. Sometimes they behave, sometimes, they don’t. Some of my middle schoolers continue, for the most part, to be little monsters. I gave one 8th grade girl a 500-won piece because she had won a game on Tuesday, and she complained that she couldn’t buy anything good with it, so I snatched it back out of her hand and she won nothing.

For your information, girly, 500 won can buy you about 15 balls at the batting cages.

The later students, far from appreciating the value of having a native English-speaker at their disposal, demanded that I play noxious K-Pop music for them, for 50 minutes. We compromised on Tuesday, with me playing 2 songs from my playlist for every trashy K-Pop song they recommended. But today there was no K-Pop, and although they argued “we’re in Korea!” I told them that my classroom was a little island of America, and when they entered, I was the King and we were going to do what I said, when I said it.

This concept, that the teacher makes the decisions, can be very difficult to enforce at times. There is also a communication barrier, which today sort of played a role in a misunderstanding between me and a student. A student refused today to leave the back of the room and sit closer to me, and I took this as insuborination, however when I sent her to the director, Jinhee, she explained to me that the student simply didn’t want to be near her friend, Lauren, because Lauren was too talkative and would distract her.

This student, Kelly, was so sincere in her desire to learn from me that 20 minutes later she was talking to Lauren from across the room.

This weekend I’m going to be playing in a volleyball tournament. My turtles will be in the good hands of my co-teacher, Jenna, but my Mike Piazza doll will have to brave the weekend all alone.

I’ll conclude with this very serious picture of me taking a picture of myself: