"They are all Liars!"

I love how relatively innocent kids are here...with one big exception: excuses to get out of school.

There were dozens of kids in the office on Friday. One particularly cheerful boy turned to me and said, "Do you see all these students?  They are all liars".  The students need to get permission to leave school on a weekend.  Being that final exams are coming soon and the students are expected to be studying all the time, the teachers are hesitant to approve this. Apparently a lot of kids had emergencies this weekend and wanted to go home (and watch Korea in the World Cup!).

I would have doubted the kids were lying until a few days ago when I learned how some students get extra free time. They say they are sick and want to go to another town's hospital for treatment.  Much of the time they are faking so they can slip away and have some free time to play.  The teachers are on to them, so the students have to be very clever. A couple of girls explained their 5 part process for faking:

Step 1: sleep in class.  Your face will look drowsy for the teachers.

Step 2: put make-up on your lips.  This will make you look more pale.

Step 3:get a cup, put water in it and a couple of coins (this will apparently make it a bit nasty).        Open your eyes and put the nasty water in there to make them good and red.

Step 4 Put hot water in your ear to throw off the thermometer.  You must be careful on the temperature and timing since some kids have gotten caught for having extremely high temperatures.

Step 5 Go to the teacher with your best sad face. 

Voila! You have your permission to take the bus and have lunch with your friend who has done a similar version of the scam.