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So, cicadas are just the weirdest coolest insects. I have been fascinated by them since I first came to Korea over a decade ago. I had never heard a cicada chorus until coming here, and the first time I heard one I thought it was the sound of haphazardly hung electrical wires arcing in the humid heat! If you have never heard how cicadas get down, check it out!
One thing that is so peculiar about cicadas is that they have such a CRAZY range of sounds (and styles?). They make a kind of clicky, buzzy sound that kind of winds up to a drone, then clumsily jerks to a stop. The cicada "chorus," aparrently, is a bunch of male cicadas making this sound together. And it can be damn loud! But what I love most are the individual "songs," which are really more like solos. Often time there will be a chorus going, and then you will have a cicada just straight berzerking on a branch by himself. There is one funny pattern that builds up, up, UP, UP! then DOOOOooooooooowwwwn. My favorite, though, is that signature self-destruct mode-sounding "song." Really, the best way to describe it is the sound of some robot from the future short-circuiting in the wet heat. The sounds of Dr. Jekyl turning into Mr. Hyde. IT'S WEIRD AND COOL AND I JUST LOVE IT.
Another interesting thing about cicada music is the way they make it. Rather than rubbing one body part against another, like crickets, they vibrate their abdominal muscles which causes this special membrane/rib structure called a tymbal to buckle. So, picture flexing and unflexing your abs in rapid succession to make your chest hum! It's funny to watch them do this, because they kind of twerk (for lack of a better term) as they sing to articulate different sounds. What is even weirder about all of this, is that their abdomens are almost completely hollow. They are basically a flying music box. And interestingly, this is pretty much all adult cicadas do!
I kept coming across all these exoskeletons with the kids (I guess the term for empty exoskeletons is actually 'exuviae.' Thanks wikipedia!). We couldn't figure out whose exuviae they were---they looked like cicadas but not quite. Well, it turns out they are the exuviae of nymph cicadas left over from adults off partying with their buds in the trees. A nymph is a stage of life for some insects in between the larvae and adult phases. Nymphs resemble the adult form, which explains why these exuviae were so puzzling. Come to find out, cicadas live most of their lives as nymphs. Apparently adults only live for about two months, while the nymph phase can last for years! So, cicadas live underground feeding on root sap for years and years, then emerge as adults to fly around and sing and have orgies with all their buddies for one hot summer. What a finale, right? (This also explains why cicadas fly like they're drunk!). Adults hardly even eat anything, apparently. They just jam, jive, and...die.
There is a concept album here somewhere...
So my own little bugs have become quite the bookworms. Our oldest daughter has figured out how to read Korean and English, and reads everything in the house now. She has always loved reading, and developed language skills very early. Her little brother is really benefitting from her reading skills, because every morning after they wake up (and before I actually get out of bed) she reads books to him for thirty minutes to an hour. Sometimes even longer. All throughout the day we are reading books here and there, and before bed we always read a stack of books. At this point they are reading for at least two hours a day, but often more than that. They just read on their own even. It's their go-to activity.
Our one year old will sit quietly on his own looking through the pages of books he knows and will "read" or re-tell the story aloud to himself. He likes to pretend to eat things out of the pictures, especially inedible things. He thinks it is hilarious to kid like this. For a while he would ask me so so sweetly to go inside the pictures. I think I accidently gave him the idea by mentioning it playfully one day, and he just kept trying after that.
One kind of sad thing about his book habits is that he will use books to tell us about places he wants to go. He always opens this one book up that pictures this playground with slides and a sandbox. He was born just a few months before the pandemic started, so he hasn't gotten to do a lot of typical outdoor kid stuff; or at least not as much as he should. Right now all of the playgrounds are blocked off around here, so we can't even take him to play in the playground when he asks us so sweetly with his books (his sad puppy dog "please" is really hard to say no to!).
And speaking of bookworms, I have been working more on my dissertation. It is so painfully slow-going, but I'm glad to be making progress. Hopefully I can do my defense this semester (before our third child is born!). The other day my daughter asked me if I'm going to just keep writing my "book" or if I am going to graduate. >_<
I think we are all ready for a new chapter.
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