Fashion Ad-Visor

Many apologies for my neglect of the blog over the past few weeks. The cushy subbing job that afforded me evenings to practice the trumpet, learn Korean and ponder blog entries has given way to full-time teaching. For the next three months I will be teaching biology, chemistry and AP chemistry as I cover for a colleague on maternity leave.

Chemistry! Plank's constant and Bohr's model, moles and thermodynamics, electronegativity and Van Der Waals forces: it's been a dizzying process of relearning terms and concepts I haven't thought about since sophomore year of college. The funny thing is, I love it. Throughout my education I was never very smitten with the 'central science', but teaching it has given me the chance to try and creatively reshape its curriculum. Less lecturing and more burning, boiling, and mixing of chemicals. Fewer pencils and textbooks and more Bunsen burners and goggles. But enough about chemistry and onto the topic at hand.

Visors. Korea is a country awash in the self-contained sun shade. With all due apologies to the college softball team population Korea has to be the number one consumer of the visor. On any given day in this country you will probably come in contact with well over a hundred people donning this piece of apparel.

Worn predominately by ajumma, older married Korean women (although it occasionally can been seen resting upon a man's brow: see picture above), the visor comes in two forms. The traditional, albeit lengthened, head dress and the movable tinted visor/face-shield. Both come in a spectrum of colors ranging from understated black and white to flashy red, pink or purple; however, when choosing your particular visor you must first ask yourself "Do I want square area or am I searching for a more futuristic Buck Rogers-ish look?"

If you desire an awning that would comfortably protect a small family from a monsoon then the traditional is probably your choice. Side note: I'm not sure if it's my fascination with physics or my many talks with Bruce about the properties of laminar flow; however, I often find myself wondering if the large wing-like structure hanging off the front of an ajumma's head would actually propel that person airborne during a gust of wind.

But what about the rest of the population who want to still look stylish yet lack the adequate neck muscles to support a 10kg extension cloth rooftop on their head? No worries, the stream-lined adjustable visor will fill all your vising needs. If Darth Vader ever wanted a visor this would be the one he would choose. In the world of the visor the future is now here in South Korea.

Christmas presents anyone?