Hamsters in a Pencil Case

I haven't updated the blog in a month. This obviously means I could tell about all the fun and exciting things which have occurred in that stretch of time. I could write about Christmas, New Year's, my trip to China, the new semester at school, etc...but I'd really rather just share some random things from today. Happy Monday.

First, this happened:

Yes, those are hamsters in a pencil case covered with pictures of Korean boy band members (their beautiful, feminine faces soon to be smeared with hamster waste), and yes, a girl brought these to class. The oddity of this occurrence is undermined by the fact that she has done this before. The hamsters involved in the last incident are apparently now dead at this little girl's hands. She is the young, female, Korean version of Lennie from Of Mice and Men. She just wants to love the hamster and pet it and squeeze it...We all remember how that story ended for Lennie.

Next weird occurrence: I have a new student who enrolled on Friday. She didn't have an English name, so after several minutes of telling her it was fine if she wanted to go by her Korean name, offering her anglicized versions of her Korean name (수원  = Su Won. How about Susan? No. How about Sue? No. How about Juan? No.), and offering to let her choose any English name she knew, she finally settled on deciding over the weekend and returning on Monday with a name. I arrived in class today and "Kesha" was written on the attendance sheet as her chosen name. Tragically, she didn't even spell it right; everyone knows Ke$ha is spelled not with an S but with a $...duh.

Lastly, I discovered this train wreck of an excuse for music. This pretty much sums up everything that is hilarious about Korea. First, the name of the band is F.cuz. What in the world does that mean you may be asking? Who knows, but it's pronounced "Focus," and I have a feeling Kpop is contributing to my students' inability to spell or punctuate. Additionally, the man love runs deep throughout the video (no pun intended). Lastly, I don't think I even need to comment on the wardrobe.

Those were the fun things that happened in my day. I'll try to update more, and, because it was an amazing trip even though I didn't write anything about it, here's a picture from my China trip for the road. Au revoir.