mother nature

about a month ago, my friend lindsey and i took a trip with our (korean) friend jane to the ship festival on jindo. while it is quite close to mokpo geographically, jindo is a small island with a great deal of agriculture (please see pictures on facebook).

being that jindo is still dominated by nature, we had multiple encounters with earthworms throughout the day, much to jane's excitement. puzzled by her reaction to these worms, lindsey asked what was so special about them. jane explained, "korea used to have much more nature than it does now. when i was a child, i used to see worms all the time. now, i hardly see them in mokpo. to me, it is very exciting to see a worm."

turns out, jane is not alone in her excitement for mother nature. last week, one of my students approached me with a plastic cup. she said, "look teacher," tilting the cup to reveal the contents; inside, there was a caterpillar. not a cute, green caterpillar like you see in cartoons. no, this one looked more like a transparent slug. nasty. but, to her, it might as well have been a puppy.

and, quite frequently on my walk to and from lunch, students will be gathered around some bug or another: a praying mantis, a snail, a spider. my high school girls love to pick these bugs up, inspect them and, sometimes, chase each other with them. it reminds me of my childhood in the desert, catching lizards and horny toads.

kinda makes me appreciate mother nature all over again.