I had 7 kids cry today and one wet her pants--a new record. This is not exactly the effect I'm aiming for.

I have a cold or sinus infection or something and am losing my voice, so I can't yell. Dr. Kim gave me some medicine, but I have no idea what it is. When the noise levels get high in the classroom or the kids start acting up, I just stand there completely quiet and start writing on the attendance chart. The kids all think I'm writing about them and get quiet fast, because if there is a note about them on the attendance chart, their parents will be called, and if they're really bad, Brother Lee might paddle them. He's been walking around with a big stick lately.

Lunch today was tofu, fried mushrooms, tiny dried anchovies, seaweed, and of course kimchi and rice. It was actually pretty good, considering that dinner one night was spicy raw squid, hard boiled quail eggs, raw fish eggs, and pickled silk worms (with kimchi and rice, of course). I actually ate two pickled silk worms. I didn't really want to, but I didn't want to be rude either. I was only going to eat one, but I accidentally got two in my chopsticks, and there wasn't a graceful way to put one down, so I ate them both. Korean meals are served in communal dishes, so it's bad form to pick something out of the dish with your chop sticks and then put it back down. You touch it, you eat it. I thought the silk worms were pretty gross. I don't ever need to have another one.

Korea has the best strawberries, and they're in season right now. They build greenhouses right over the strawberry beds to create a good climate for them even in winter. We buy a box of strawberries at the public market, which is every fourth day.

It's starting to get warmer here, which is really nice. That's all the news for now.