Second Grade Smackdown

Today, I walked into my second grade phonics class and found a kid, Alex, sobbing uncontrollably. Why was Alex sobbing? He had just been hit in the face with a pair of nunchucks. Yes, you read that right: Alex got nunchucked – in the face – at his English academy.

When I found Alex, he was sobbing too much to speak to me. So, I had no idea why he was crying. I asked the other kids but, no one would even look at me, let alone answer me. So, I took Alex to the office staff to see if they could figure out what was wrong with him. Since he’s young, he tends to lose his ability to speak English when he’s upset.

Back in the classroom, the remaining students and I started our lesson. Once again, no one would own up to knowing why Alex was so upset. Then, an administrator came and called two students out. When one student, Daniel, got up wearing his hapkido uniform with a pair of nunchucks on his belt, I knew.

Apparently, Daniel had come straight from hapkido class and didn’t drop off his stuff at home. So, he had the nunchucks with him. Also, it seems that Daniel’s hapkido academy is run by idiots. Instead of giving Daniel rubber foam nunchucks for children studying martial arts, they gave him a pair of real, metal nunchucks.

It turns that the other boys in the room had been playing with the nunchucks before class and Alex got hit by one kid who was wildly flailing his arm with the nunchucks in his hand. It’s not exactly a surprise that children and weapons turned out to be a bad combination.

Later, Alex came back to class but, he was still whimpering and clutching his face. He ended up leaving to go to the doctor to get checked out. At the end of the day, I asked the office staff if Alex was ok. They said he was fine, just in pain. It had to be a pretty dramatic day for a kid too. So, some of his tears were probably from the shock of being nunchucked in English class.

So, it looks like I’m going to have to start patting down my students before the come to class. Who knew that teaching middle and upper middle class Korean kids could be so dangerous?

These are pretty similar to Daniel's nunchucks.

Jen vs. The Washer

So, if you’ve read my blog before, you know that I have a bit of a problem with Korean household items. All you have to do is look back and you will see that I have not only had a showdown with the stove but, I was also beat down by the broom. Well, this time around in Korea, I was deceived by the dryer. Yes, you read that right. The dryer got the best of me.

Since we took a break from Korea, we moved into a new apartment in a new building. This apartment, like our old one, has a washer/dryer combo machine. Since it was the same brand as the old one, I (foolishly) assumed that I knew how to use it. That was my mistake.

A few days after I got here, I decided to do some laundry. There wasn’t much but, I didn’t want it to pile up. So, I loaded up the machine. When the wash/dry cycle was finished, the clothes smelled a little burned but, nothing serious. I put them away and went on with my business. This happened for about two weeks.

Then, one day at work, I smelled something. It was not a smell I could place. It was like burn, and, to be frank, a little BO. Where was that coming from? To my absolute horror, it was coming from me! It caught me by surprise. It was only 10am. I showered and put on clean clothes that morning, how could I smell?

When I got home, I investigated the problem. I found that several of my “clean” shirts had that same odor. I had to figure it out. I didn’t want to be the smelly one at work. No one ever likes the smelly kid.

I decided there must be something wrong with my washing machine. That had to be the only explanation. My shirts didn’t start out like that. So, it must be a laundry related issue. First, I checked that I was indeed using detergent and not, like, more fabric softener by accident. No, my detergent was definitely detergent. It said so, in English, on the bottle.

To further my investigation, I decided to set up the washer/dryer and start a cycle just to see what happens. The fact that my clothes smelled burned made me wonder about the machine. So, I started up the cycle and sat in front of the machine to see what happened.

Lo and behold – the mystery was solved! No water filled the machine. It just started to spin and get really hot. Then, it dawned on me. I was putting my clothes in the machine for a 3 hour dry cycle with no wash cycle. The clothes weren’t being washed at all. I was just drying dirty clothes for hours. Ew.

Now, in my defense, the washer/dryer is exceptionally sneaky. Even though it was just drying the clothes, it still shot water into the soap and softener trays. So, I was hearing the sound of running water but, my clothes never actually got wet. I still wonder where all of that soap and softener went.

There is no question who won this battle. Although I now know how to actually wash and dry a load of launder, the washer/dryer managed to fool me for weeks. It totally won.

The Deceptive Dryer in action.