Jajangmyeon

Funny things happen everyday, but most are forgotten like dreams that fade into memory when you wake up. Some people bring a notebook with them when they sleep to remember the dreams they had and record them as soon as they wake up. They call it a dream journal or something like that. Well I wonder if comedians carry a joke journal because the best materials come from real life.

Sometimes on the way to my office in the morning I meet students who are coming to school early. My office is on the fourth floor and on the way I pass by the second grade students on the second and third floor. These students are just eight years old and they have a tendency to talk about things that have no reference to reality.

While I was going up the stairs a very cute little second grade student started to follow me. She had a little eye patch and coke bottle eye glasses and she just went off talking all by herself. She started rambling on something like this...

"My mom said that I can invite two friends over to our house after school for snacks. I have a new game system and it will be fun. I invited Yoomi and she said she will come. It will be a real fun afternoon. So I think you should come too English teacher."

This put me in a spot. If I reject her then she might feel hurt, but I can't say that I am coming to her house. I told her thank you inviting me, but I'm busy.

She answers out of the blue,

"My mom is twenty nine years old."

That's the age I always tell my kids I am when they ask me how old I am. But I think this kid's mom was telling the truth. Anyway I came back to my senses. This kid only came up to my waist. I said to her,

"Goodbye. Have a good day."

It's not the first time kids have tried to introduced me to their moms. It usually starts with them asking how old I am and then it just escalates to something very direct like, "You should meet my mom."

Anyway that's not the funny thing that happened. The funny thing that happened was later on in the day. I put my bag down at my desk and went to use the bathroom. It's completely normal to use the bathroom when you first come into work. Most of the teachers here have a forty minute or one hour commute each way.

By the time you get to school you find that your breakfast and morning coffee finally catch up. It's nothing to be ashamed of. But in the other bathroom I heard a lot of chatter. That's also not so strange as girl teachers chatter a lot in the bathroom and may powder up before work or whatever they do.

But the strange thing was it was not chattering. The talking was not two people but only one person. She was talking with another teacher on the phone about plans they have after school to meet up and they laughed and gossiped. I didn't want to, but finally I heard that tidal wave of a flush.

That toilet flush should have ended her telephone conversation but she just kept on talking as if nothing happened. Later I saw her in the hall talking to the same friend on the phone. What she didn't know was that the toilet paper she had used was still stuck to the bottom of her shoe. What can I say? She was too busy talking on the phone for me to tell her.

Monsoon

It is monsoon season and in the middle of the day we get sudden thunderstorms or downpours. Today in the afternoon after the last class the sixth graders came running outside to a downpour. Instead of going home they went into the dirt playground we have at school and opened their umbrellas.

Some kids threw their umbrellas to the side and just jumped in the mud puddles. Other kids ran around. one of them even rolled around in the puddle like a pig. As a concerning teacher I asked him what he was doing. He said he was practicing for the mud festival.

The rain stopped by the time I got out of work on my way home. Close to our house I passed a neighbor pacing up and down in front of his house.

He had his head down and he looked pretty anxious as if he was waiting for somebody. Maybe some relative or special guest was coming so I was curious. Maybe his relative was late. Maybe there was something I could do to help him.

I asked concerned,

"Who are you waiting for?"

He answered,

Jajangmyeon

He was waiting for the black noodles that Koreans order from Chinese food restaurants when they are hungry on a rainy day. The delivery boy must have been delayed because of all the heavy rains and piled up orders. When I asked who this guy was waiting for he gave me the name of the food.

It has been a pretty weird but funny day. Monsoon season can do that to you.