Keeping cool in the South Korea classroom

Keeping cool in the South Korea classroom

To the editor:
    Summer has finally come to the Sun Chang valley. It is hot, humid, and hazy. We do have air conditioning in the classroom buildings but the units are set on timers. To keep energy usage down the government limits use of air conditioners in public buildings. So my students are well practiced in prepping the room for the time when the AC does come on. At the sound of the fan coming on, the scramble is on to close all the windows and doors. Then it is sit down and enjoy the cool air. 

    Keeping cool is a profession here. Students have hand fans and some of them have small battery powered personal fans. Seems like a lot of effort to keep cool. Still at times its tough to be cool. Watermelon is popular and you can find yourself eating lots and lots of slices. It probably is one of the best inventions around: Cool sliced watermelon!
    Soccer was big this week as both the U.S. and Korea teams met their challenges on the way to the World Cup. The nickname of the Korean team, the Taigeuk Warriors, are the red devils. So every store with some spare space has a rack of fan merchandise. And every work place had a lot of bleary eyed people who had stayed up late for the Wednesday night game. Saturday of course, both Korea and the U.S. had their games. While the enthusiasm was there from the hometown crowds, neither team was successful. Still it was fun watching the game and wishing that the score had gone the other way. It’s a game after all.
    So the valley is quiet once again. The rains have come and they have cooled down the temperature a little while dampening the dust. There are corn plants that seem to have leaped another foot out of the ground and a few other plants flowering in time for the next rays of sunshine to come over the mountains. School is still going on and there is a lot to be learned from a simple game and the passing of the day.