Three Train Rides in a Day

I write a lot about trains, I suppose, because I spend so much of my life on them. Yesterday, I took the train three times. I had slept in Prague on Friday night and came home yesterday morning. Then, I went back into the city for the afternoon and evening, taking a train home at night.

On Saturday morning, I was walking along the road on the way home from the train station when I spotted a gutter-dwelling colony of snails. I crouched down and took this photo, saying softly, "Hey guys, there's got to be a better place to live." As I continued to walk, the colony got bigger and bigger! Snails everywhere! I maintain, the gutter is probably not the most hospitable environment and they could easily move to that patch of grass on the left. But there's such good decomposing plant matter in that gutter!

On the way to the train in the afternoon, I didn't notice any new creatures, but on the way home, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, this little guy scurrying in the bushes. Hedgehogs are nocturnal, so I was pretty lucky to get a picture of him. "You remind me of an old friend, little friend," I said to him. Then, I discovered, I was not alone. It's embarrassing enough to be found talking to animals or taking photos, but the combination was mortifying. The man who saw me asked why I was taking a picture. Our conversation, in Czech, went something like this:

"Why are you taking photos?"

"I'm sorry, I speak little and bad Czech, but it is a hedgehog, right?"

"Yes, hedgehog."

"So, in America, we don't have hedgehogs. I like hedgehogs, but I don't see them. Here, I see a hedgehog so I am happy. So, I take photos."

"Do you want to get a drink?"

"No, I have water."

"Do you want to come to a restaurant with me?"

"Oh, no, no thank you. Good night!"

I'm trying to imagine the thought process that went on there. You take pictures of rodents and don't speak my language. I find that attractive in a woman. ?

We Find Magic Everywhere

When your job involves reading fairy tales at least three times a day, you start to view the world like one. I used to look for magic in the world, but lately, it just appears everywhere. We had a bunch of short willow branches in water from making pomlazka (willow whips, oh Central Europe) for Easter. I noticed that they were starting to bud and thought they would make a beautiful little fairy house. I stuck them into the ground to make a little hut. I explained to the children that this will attract the fairies to our garden as long as we took good care of it. As soon as I explained this to one student, he went and found flowers to put on top. Another found an empty snail shell while a third (for reasons I don't quite understand) sifted some small stones out of the sand table to put in the house. I then went around and collected the snails from all over the garden. I placed them in the house, explaining that the fairies ride on snails like we ride on horses. This also kept the snails safe from little feet that are wont to trod on them. Accidentally squishing a garden snail is much more heartbreaking than accidentally squishing a spider. The look of horror on one boy's face when he stepped on a chestnut that he thought was a snail was reason enough to corral the little guys.

But the fairy house quickly became known the the children as the snail house. "Šnek šnek šnek!" seems to be all I hear in the garden these days. They love to look in on the snails, give them little things to eat, and place flowers on the top of their house. The snails, to me, are magical little creatures in their own right, even if we've forgotten about the fairies who ride on them. My only previous knowledge of garden snails from Strawberry Shortcake. Snails, to me, were always aquatic and less than adorable. So, to see real life eye stalks is like stepping into a fairy tale!

I watch them and can't help but imagine being a fairy or Strawberry Shortcake riding on them myself. I recognize that in reality, it might be less than thrilling to ride on a snail, no matter how small I might be, but but... the eye stalks! They wiggle around and when they poke something, they go back in or wrap around it. They're incredible! And I've got about thirty more snail pictures, but I'll leave the šneky for another time.

Sometimes, magic comes in the form of an ambrosian Sunday morning cocktail. The Magical Mermaid Mimosa was born out of the desire to have root beer floats at brunch. Unfortunately, root beer does not exist here and vanilla ice cream is scarce (or topped with things). So, I picked up orange soda and strawberry ice cream one morning and figured it would do. It certainly did. We discussed how to make this delightful drink a bit more... alcoholic. Vodka? No. Rum? Perhaps. Tequila? Yes, but it is Sunday morning. So, champagne! Thus was born the Magical Mermaid Mimosa. Champagne, orange soda, and strawberry ice cream. "This is what girls in frilly pink dresses grow up to drink!" said Lauren.

It was hard to get a picture that properly showed the beautiful foam on the Magical Mermaid Mimosa or how it made one feel like one had just stepped into a victorian fairy tale, but this does show it a bit. Lauren coined the term Magical Mermaid Mimosa and later on I thought more about the use of "mermaid" here. In Hans Christen Andersen's original Little Mermaid, sea people live three hundred years but have no immortal soul, as humans do. So when they die, their spirit doesn't rise into the ether. They simply turn into foam and float on the sea. The foam on top of the Magical Mermaid Mimosa is like the sea foam that holds the essence of such magical creatures.

(Thanks to Jess for her M.M.M. photos)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Fall On the Sincheon

This weekend I spent a lot of time wandering around by the Sincheon River. It seemed like the rest of Daegu did as well. There were families playing, people biking, couples sharing headphones, old men lying in the grass, children playing basketball. Everyone was in full fall reverie.
This is the direction of Apsan, which you can see in the distance. I generally walk the other way.

Under the big bridge near my apartment.

Still nearby. That sign up ahead says something about otters. I was on otter patrol all weekend; I have yet to see one.

The birds love man-made waterfalls.

Just stuff growing in the water.

View from under a weeping willow.

Foliage on the trees lining the road. I also love the lamp post.

I love the colors this bush is changing, as well as it's beautiful red berries. It looks like the transformation of fall into winter.

Neverthless, there are flowers everywhere! I cannot believe how many flowers there are! It's mid-November and they continue to bloom.

The river had a lot of man-made features, like fountains that change and make pretty shapes.

Fountain on the left with Apsan in the background.

I call this section "the birds of Daegu."

The huge flock of pigeons was not deterred by bikers or pedestrians. They remind me of New York pigeons and made me a little homesick.

More fountains.

I love when ivy changes colors, so beautiful!

This train bridge had some really beautiful designs on it.

Yellow flowers in November are one thing, but look at the purple! I still can't believe it. I've got many more pictures of the neighborhood that I should post later.

Chapter Six: In Which We Analyze Children's Art or God, I Love Seeing What They Will Make

I created a workbook for my kindergarten classes. We had been discussing "where animals live" and I wanted to push them to use "habitat." I thought it would be best if they saw the word a lot, so I created these little workbooks for them. They loved drawing them but not nearly as much as I love looking at them.
Above: The front page implied that you should draw yourself as a zookeeper, but apparently only Dustin understood this. Do you see his key? Amazing! I'm a little confused about his resemblance to Willy Wonka (note the purple top hat). I guess Willy Wonka is a zookeeper of sorts...

This giraffe is the only picture that seems to follow all the "universal" rules I learned in that awful education class about how children draw. Honestly, I may send them over to Topal and see what she thinks about her universal rules now! Apparently, Asia is not part of her universe.

Again, Dustin, really thinking about his drawings. I imagine that his thought process was like this: How can I draw a camel? What is important about a camel? Camel's store water in their humps! YES! Not going to lie, this made me love Dustin more than ever before.


Mike's favorite habitat was the sea, but then he must have decided that a whale is a better habitat. The only possible explanation is that Ashley leaned over and "corrected" him as she is known to do. Ah well. But look at that lion. Is that not the coolest lion you've ever seen? I am thinking about maybe getting it as a tattoo.

But wait, maybe I should get Mike's jaguar instead? I'm impressed with how he conveys movement. Doesn't it look like it's running toward that snake?

Welcome to Anna's zoo, where she is apparently playing a new game based on "duck, duck, goose" called "rabbit, rabbit, cat."

I instructed her that rabbits don't live in the desert and explained what a hare is. I think she got the idea that they have bigger ears than rabbits and I guess that's what counts.

If you're wondering what a winter rabbit is, my best explanation is that it's a strange literal translation from Korean. But that's right, that's an underwater rabbit. I later made her draw a snorkel and goggles on the underwater rabbit, but did not get a picture of this! I apologize, for it was amazing.

"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit, CAT! HAHAHAHA!" Later, she decided, that no, her favorite farm animal was actually... you guessed it, the rabbit. I love Anna. She's brilliant and intense. I always feel like there's so much going on inside her head that no one gets to see. She spends so much time looking closely at things or just quietly thinking. I was probably a lot like her when I was a kid, but less prickly and more shy. I love that she has a sense of a really unique sense of humor.

I love Sally's giraffe. She got the idea that it was tall, at least.

Her camel also has no humps and lives in the forest. So it goes. But aren't her ants precious?

I think these are Eric's. I love that bird! I think some of these show a drawing style that is very different from what I've experienced in children's art at home. I wonder if it has something to do with the culture or something to do with the script used in writing? Ponder away and let me know if you have any explanations!

I'm not sure if the grasshopper ant is a real creature or something from his imagination. Either way, I like it!

I also love how this bird is going to dive-bomb that tree. Drama! Now that's art.

I love Lynn's "star zoo" and that she has a word bubble!

Lastly, a totally badass shark! There were so many good sharks in these books, but most of them came after the next class so I didn't get pictures.

I love looking at their artwork, how about you? Should I continue to make these silly posts or are they not really relevant to my "Korean" experience?