Time capsule disaster

A while ago I made a time capsule with one of my advanced classes. Funnily enough, it was actually part of the curriculum, as instructed by the teacher's guide. (Yeah, fancy that. A lesson dedicated to teaching kids how to dig up people's gardens. XD)

Anyway, I'd promised them that we would go and retrieve it before I left, so today we trooped up to the faux garden on the rooftop of our building and proceeded to get down and dirty with the task.

Upon finding the capsule though, we discovered that someone had made a gaping hole in the lid and consequently a whole bunch of soil had fallen into the box and dirtied the contents.



Sadface.

We figured that perhaps someone had stamped on the ground or something, shattering the lid underneath their feet. Rather disappointing, since some of the kids had placed treasured toys into the box and now they'd become all filthy. Nonetheless, we were just starting to fill up the hole again when suddenly one of my students screamed and jumped back, because right down in front of their feet had rolled.....

.....the body of a dead mouse.

Eek.

Now I personally am not scared of mice, but we're dealing with Korean kids here, most of whom freak out over little things like moths. Just imagine how they would handle seeing a mouse... let alone a dead one.

So I blurted out the first lie that I could think of. "Don't worry, children. It's just.. a toy!"

(Lame, I know. But they actually did buy it. Well... for about 3 seconds. -__-)

After I finally managed to get them calm again, we went back to the classroom to re-distribute all the stuff to the rightful owners. And that was when we discovered that right inside our box was.....

Yup, you guessed it. Another dead mouse.



Total panic ensued, as my kids started jumping over tables and chairs, shrieking and squealing, trying to get away from it.

=__=

I guess some mice had found our box and chewed on it, thus the hole, and had either attempted to make a home out of it, or had fallen in and were unable to get out. Either way, since winter temperatures in Seoul drop below zero, those poor critters must have frozen to death.

In hindsight I guess it was a pretty funny situation, but at the time it was like dealing with a crowd of hypochondriacs who'd just been told a new plague had broken out.

Lesson learned: Don't follow teachers' manuals, lest your students be scarred for the rest of their childhood. XD