Yesterday the weather was quite warm. The seasonal transition from early Spring to late Spring has materialized, right on schedule. At work, the air conditioning is still not really operating yet – I'm not sure if this is due to recalcitrance on the part of those who make the decision to operate it, or some technical issue with priming it for the new season. Koreans often turn on and turn off heating and air conditioning systems based on calendar dates rather than actual weather.
Classroom 204 was therefore beastly hot. Normally, I wear a kind of casual wool blazer at work – partly because it is kind of my uniform, partly because both in winter, when heating is inadequate, and in summer, when the air conditioning is too strong, it keeps me warm. Anyway, I took it off. It was too hot.
When I went to my next class, I still didn't have it. I guess since I wear it most of the time, it was notable that I didn't have it.
"Teacher!" a fifth-grader named Jenny said. "Where is your jacket?"
"I took it off."
"Why?" she asked quite seriously, tilting her head, conveying a gravity and bafflement that seemed incommensurate with the triviality of the issue.
"It's too hot," I explained.
There was a period of silence. Then Jenny said, "Teacher! You need your jacket." Although she fishes around a lot for vocabulary, she has really good English intonation patterns, and this sounded impressively native.
I was surprised. "Need? Why?"
"It's more stylish," she explained, as if this was a critical and important factor.
"Ah. Good point."
Jenny and the other students waited for me to put on my jacket, before class proceeded.
[daily log: walking, 6.5km]