SImple, Yet Entertaining

What games did you play in your recesses in middle school? I remember playing b-ball sometimes and pogs (milk caps)... though most of the time was spent hanging around try to look "cool."

My middle school students like to play a game I like to call "Kai Bai Boh -- slap!"

Kai Bai Boh is the Korean name for "rock, paper, scissors" (we call it 'jon ken po' in Hawaii, though I have no clue why).

KBB is quite simple: two people play and the winner gets to hit the loser. Despite the complexity of their academics (learning excel function code and learning about asymptotes for example), they are entertained by giving and receiving physical abuse from friends.

Though KBB seems like a simple game, some have suggested that it is quite intricate in nature. Although everyone has an equal chance of winning, the psychological factors can possibly give a tremendous advantage to one party. Maybe that's how I went 0-3 with a student yesterday.

A Bamboo Girlfriend

I planned a group activity in my class. We were studying advertisements in class, so I decided to have my students choose a product and then try to convince me to buy it. One particular product befuddled me: a bamboo girlfriend. One group member explained to me and the rest of the class that you can sleep with their product at night and it will keep you cool. He then asked me if I had a girlfriend. "No." He then said that I can sleep with it if I am lonely.

"A bamboo girlfriend??? This kid must be smoking kim chi," I thought to myself.

After class, my Korean co-teacher explained to me that traditionally, Korean people slept with a bamboo piece during the summer. The bamboo material stays cool and it made summer nights more bearable. Aha... so my student wasn't puffing on the magic dragon afterall.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is "jukbuin," which literally translates to "bamboo wife" in Korean.

Shit, I could've used this during the summer.

Beijing

A lot has happened since I last updated. Let's see...

-Went to the ice bar in Hongdae (Seoul). The temperature was about -5 C. It's basically a giant meat refrigerator where you waltz around taking pictures and dance to the hip hop music blaring overhead. They also have frozen piss there... which is from people trying to break the how-long-you-can-stay-in-the-ice-bar record, without leaving. The record stands at about 12 hours by a group of crazy Americans.

-Finished my summer camp. I enjoyed the smaller ratio and most of my students honestly wanted to learn. I was also able to remember everyone's names! That's quite a feat for an American looking at names that look similar like Jae Hyun, Hyeh Yun, Dong Eon.

-Went to Beijing!

Beijing is quite an illustrious city, full of life, tradition and funny smells. An acronym entry would be suitable, I feel.

B is for the public bathrooms that don't have stalls or even dividers... for the TOILET. Believe me when I say the first trip to the bathroom with other men in there was an awkward experience.

E is for the great things to eat. From delicious meat kabobs of the Muslim-Xinjiang area to one of the best eggplant dishes (and dishes in general) I've ever had to plain ol' fried noodles, China has some incredibly tasty food. Korean food seems simple and lacking in diversity in comparison.

I is for cheap intoxication. It costs me about $.50 for a big bottle o

f domestic beer. Even when going out to fancy bars or clubs, the drinks were still reasonably priced. Domestic beer is watery though... about 4%.

J is for all the juice and water I drank. It's about 32 C, humid, and the pollution is stagnant in the lower city atmosphere sometimes -- it looks like fog, but it's actually just Beijing pollution.

I is for indecency (well, it's not really indecency, but moreso a culture difference). Chinese tourists visiting the sites in Beijing all let their kids roam free with no diapers. When nature calls, the children simply go off the trees or bushes to urinate and even drop the deuce. Even historical sites like the Emperor's former Summer Palace were not free of little kiddies leaving some brown dumplings on the royal garden.

N is for the non-ethical people (I had to get that N in there, didn't I?). Beijing is full of hustlers and most people who run businesses, whether they're street merchants, rickshaw drivers, or bars, will try to rip-you-the-fuck-off if you give them an opportunity ... or if you look like a foreigner. Every tourist should always look at or declare prices before ordering/buying anything.

G is for all the beautiful northern Chinese girls. They're tall and they've got curves. I need to borrow my friend's picture of the Hooters girls to serve as evidence. The girls in Beijing are now in a heated competition with Seoul girls for my affection.

Overall though, it made for a great vacation.