school slippers in korea

Earlier today I knelt down a bit to help a student with his worksheet.  When I tried to stand up, I noticed that something was blocking my foot's movement a bit, so I turned around to see what the kids behind me were up to.  They were in the act of standing up and returning to their seats when I gave them the "What gives?" look, but since I smiled when I did it, ha, they happily explained that they were interested in my shoes - they must have been crouching behind me while my back was turned and measuring them, ha.

My shoes, or slippers, really, are pretty darn high, readers.  Maybe an inch and a half or two inches - platform sorts of things.  It took me forever to find them, and while I was happy with them at first - and still am, in many ways - I think they really hurt my feet, ha.  This weekend I noticed that I still had red marks on my feet on Sunday evening from wearing them during the prior week.  That's with two days of slipper-free recovery, people, and those marks aren't the usual friction blisters - they are just like ... pressure wounds, ha.  The slipper band is hard and my feet are weak and not fatty enough to take that sort of hard line without injury, haha.

Anyway, I bought them (as I explained to my curious students) because my winter pants are all long - I have most of them tailored for heels.  If I wear flat slippers, I'd have to roll up my pants to keep from stepping on them.  Lame.  So since one is not allowed to wear normal footwear in school over here, people go out and buy slippers.  They don't have to be slipper slippers - just something clearly not normal, ha.  Most people -- well, most male teachers and all students -- tend to wear athletic looking, super-cheap slippers.  The female teachers are a bit more discerning.  One of my fellow teachers has Coach knockoff heeled slippers, another has Croc slippers (like, Croc ballet slippers - that's what they look like, ha), and several have shoes just like mine - platform slippers in black.

After hearing my explanation on the pant height issue, my students (a few young men) stood up to compare themselves with me.  I laughed and stepped out of my shoes to show them how much of a boost they gave me - this pleased them immensely since they are all clearly taller than me when I'm out of my shoes, but shorter when I am in them, haha.  They like being tall, and they really like being taller than their female teacher, ha.

When summer rolls around, I'll switch to lower, flatter, and hopefully more comfortable slippers.  I won't have to worry about pant length if I'm wearing skirts all the time, so I'll be able to have more flexibility when it comes to slipper choice.  Before that, though, maybe I can get some slipper pictures up here for your viewing pleasure, ha.