Typhoon Tuesdays

The typhoon that gave me a day off!

Typhoon Bolaven has ripped its way up through the Eastern Sea (or Japan Sea if you care) and hit the Korean Peninsula. As much as I love having a day off, it’s a little scary to think I’m living in an area that has typhoons. When asked by my students what I was going to do with my day off, I couldn’t help but give them the obvious answers to my “Typhoon Tuesday” plans:

– I’m going to kite-surf the Gapcheon River.

– I’m going to Mary Poppins (which is a verb) off of my building’s roof.

– I’m going to take an against-air-run so that I feel like I’m going super fast.

– I’m going to tweet about each change in wind speed.

Before I found out that typhoon Bolaven was named after the Laotian highlands, I just thought it was funny. My amazingly talented and skilled brother, Braven, now has his own typhoon. Not the same you say? Well, not exactly I agree. But, “Bolaven” sounds like how many of my students, in their newly acquired Korean-English accents would pronounce his name.

A close recreation of the man I saw on my wy home.

As I was running home today (ya, sometimes I like to jog in typhoons just to say, ‘I run in typhoons’) I saw an old man sweeping the sidewalk. Unfortunately, due to a top-heavy elderly community and a lack of government provisions for those people, many old people have government-given jobs such as picking up trash and sweeping. Now, the funny part of this whole scenario was that the wind was blowing, the rain was pouring down, and here was this little old man, sweeping the sidewalk in an endless, futile battle towards cleanliness. Fight on, good sir. Fight on!

A Typhoon-Trapped Typist,

Jordan