Captain's Log, Day 43

Okay I don't actually know how many days I've been here but that's gotta be somewhat accurate. I've been writing a lot of fluff posts lately which are mildly entertaining (I hope) but don't really say what's going on with me. So here's the lastest...

Work is pretty routine now. I have classes I like and classes I dislike, same goes for the kids. I find I really like the classes where I have a lot to teach and can use examples, which tend to be the grammar classes. Plus in those classes the kids are older so they are a little easier to handle and fun to be around. The classes that I don't really like are the phonetic classes where all you really do is say the sound or the word and they repeat it. I have two of these classes back to back and they are so repetitive. Plus in these classes the kids are so young and drive me a little bit mental. Literally you can spend a whole class doing 'am' words, ram, ham, dam, etc. and the next class you walk in and write ram on the board and say "okay what's this?" and the kids shout out "A" or "yes" or "blglsjd" and you just want to scream! Fortunately right now I seem to have more of the older kids but rumour has it I might be getting another phonetics class at an even lower level. And if that happens I am just going to start making up my own phonetic sounds, see how fast they learn then! It's funny though in the older classes the girls tend to love me, I said 'shit' by accident in one of my first classes so both the girls and boys thought I was great (they are thirteen, shit is a big deal!), and then they saw my tattoo (which you will not see on Koreans) and one of the girls noticed I have three earring holes in my ears... so all of this adds up to the fact that I am the coolest person they know (not to brag or anything).

I haven't been learning much Korean, okay I haven't been learning any Korean. The phrases I can say are hello/goodbye which I thought was the same word but turns out there is a difference in the start, so for the last six weeks I've been walking out of stores saying "Hello!" when they say good-bye. I know how to say left/right and straight and also the phrase "What are you looking at? Do you want to die?" (kids love it, I haven't said it to them yet but they double over when Lorne says it to them). I think I am gonna try and make an honest effort at it though and one of the Korean teachers is willing to help me with it which is nice.

Weekends are really low key lately, which I like because after a week with the kids it is nice to go out for a drink with the people from work but I like having my alone time after working with the same people all week long. Also I usually take a long walk on Saturdays and explore the city by foot, I must have gone about 20km this past Saturday and am starting to get a fantastic tan. This weekend coming up we are headed to Seoul so I will get a break from being lowkey and also have some new pictures to post.

During the week I don't get up to very much usually just work and the gym, then come home and chat on msn and download episodes of the OC. Lately I have become strangely addicted to a game called Fish Tycoon which is like SimCity but you create a fish shop. So much better than having real fish.

Hmmmmm.... what else? My vacations work out really well for me which is nice being that I had no say in them. I have a 3 or 4 day weekend at least once a month. In October I get a full week because it is Chuchak (sp?) which is the main Korean holiday. (also would be a great time if anyone is planning a visit, hint hint hint) Then at Christmas I have 11 or 12 days, and I'm not 100% positive but I think I will probably come home for it being that I missed it last year and something tells me that Christmas in Korea won't be as fun as Christmas in Oz. Then after Christmas the holidays are fewer and far between but I get five days in May which will be nice being that my contract will just be ending then.

Okay well I think that is about it. Not very exciting and you may now understand a little better why I need to fill my blog with so much fluff. A lot of people also say that they go to comment but have to sign in so they don't, I tried to change this function but I can't seem to find a way around it, if you know how to do it let me know and I will fix it.

Good-bye for now.

Diana

Who Woulda Thought?

Just in case you don't remember all the quirks and bios of those that I work with the head foreign teacher of my school is Lorne, he's 29 and been teaching in Korea for 3 years. His wife, Mary Ann is 19. They met in December while Lorne was on vacation in the Philapines, she was his waitress, he was drunk. They spent the next week together and decided that they should spend the rest of their lives together. Due to visa processing problems with the Korean government Mary Ann actually only arrived in Korea one week before I did.

So they've spent roughly six weeks of wedded bliss together. (this is where the posting turns sarcastic, just in case you didn't catch the tone of this from the title).

For some reason or another Mary Ann has decided that I am her confident and she should tell everything to me. Not at all awkard being that I work with Lorne 5 days a week. They fight about big things, little things, one minute their happy, one minute she's threatening to pack her bags and the next minute she's on my doorstep crying.

Just to make things a little more interesting for everyone, I guess Lorne has also caught Mary Ann conversing with her ex on email quite a few times, and now has figured out her email password and blocked her from her own email. Nice. Now Mary Ann has a new email address which she insists on checking from my apartment. Even better.

Things are getting more heated by the day and my bet is another 6 weeks before she is on a plane back to the Philapines.

So lesson of this posting: If you meet someone on vacation and have fun for one week consider it to be a great vacation, don't consider it signs that you are meant to be together forever!

You miss me! You really miss me!

Best day ever!

Before leaving for work - got a package from my sister

Got to work - had a package from my mom

Got home from work - had a card from my mom, sister and dad

Canada vs Korea? 3-1

Now that's Instant!

Probably one of the weirdest things thus far about Korea is their under-appreciation for coffee. I have yet to see people walking around with take out coffees or a store that sells hot coffee to go (probably why I don't see people with take out).

With the exception of Starbucks.

There is plenty of canned cold coffee by Maxwell House and various Korean brands and prepackaged cold cappucinos, lattes, frappucinos, etc. but a cup of hot cofee is next to impossible to find.

Yesterday morning I ran out of my instant coffee brought from Canada. On my way to work I stopped at the 7/11 and grabbed a canned cold coffee, which is good but not 'real' coffee or hot.

With a few hours to go in the school day I was dragging my feet and showing even less tolerance for kids than normal (second kid in the corner!). During break I went to the foyer of the school and grabbed one of the instant coffee packets, which I have previously avoided due to the fact that there is no sign of milk anywhere to add to it; however, I was desperate. To my surprise I added hot water and it mixed together looking like it had milk in it, oh yes, their instant coffee has coffee, powdered creamer, and sugar already mixed in. And it tasted great!

Korea vs Canada? 1-0

Ah report cards...

Every kid's dream, to get a report card once a month. Of course writing them proves to be somewhat challenging when parents are paying to have their kids attend the school and saying the wrong thing means they will take their kid elsewhere, and saying the wrong thing pretty much means stating anything other than the fact that their kids are geniuses, so we have to carefully pick our words. My report cards basically go somewhat like this:


Want to write:__________________________________Translates into:
Your child is the dumbest child EVER!___________Great work!
Definitely the smelly kid in class______________Stands out in class!
I don’t even know who your kid is?!?!___________Great participation!
Cheats off the kid beside him/her_______________Very high test scores!
Cute but stupid_________________________________Pleasure to teach!


And so on....

What happened???

I thought the days of me saying "I'm never drinking again," and "I really don't remember much about last night," were phrases of the past, only to be brought up when looking at embarrassing pictures or in the retelling of drunken nights.

And then there was last night.

One of our teachers, Joseph, is off to England and his last day of work was yesterday so we all went out for a good-bye drink after we finished work. A few of us were only going to stay for one drink because we had plans to climb some mountain today and wanted to make a day of it.

Of course up until last night when I've gone out drinking it's been with other foreigners. Meaning we all like to think we can handle our alcohol...but compared to Koreans we don't stand a chance.

The first pitcher of beer was great, and then they switched over to Soju. Which is drank by the shot glass. The other few times I've had soju here it's been great, we've had lemon soju, kiwi soju, and you really don't taste the alcohol in it. Last night they brought out the real soju, which is pretty much like vodka. They said they were going easy on us and ordered the weaker type (and I can only assume when they drink the stronger stuff they are pouring it right out of the bleach bottle into the shot glass).

About a billion shots later we were off to noribong (the singing rooms) and they got me to sing, which says just how drunk I was. Actually it was pretty impressive I could even read the words to go along with the song being that the room was spinning and I couldn't focus.

After that I knew I had to leave and Richard (one of the Korean teachers) walked me home, which I thought was a little unneccessary at the time, but looking back on it I probably would have ended up sleeping in the park down the street had it not been for him.

Today after about 16 hours of sleep and the worst hangover of my life, I was able to make it out of bed and walk almost a block to the store. And this time I mean it when I say I'm never drinking again! Well...I'm never drinking soju again.

Top ten reasons I'm never having kids

Please refer to posting immediately below.

Top 10 Common Knowledges Among Kids

C'mon who doesn't like top ten lists???


10. The word dong (poop) is the funniest word. Ever.
9. Scribbling on your homework isn't near as funny as scribbling on the kid's next to you.
8. Something that is dirty after being dropped on the floor can be cleaned immediately if you stick it in your mouth.
7. Farting can be done at anytime, no matter who's around, it is also pretty funny.
6. Nose picking can be done at anytime, no matter who's around.
5. If you punch/hit/kick someone, you will get in less trouble if you immediately start to cry after doing so.
4. Everything sounds better if you scream it at the top of your lungs.
3. You should never sit still for more than 3 minutes. Rock back in your chair, climb under your desk or just start wandering around.
2. There is nothing wrong with sticking your hands down your pants or lifting your shirt for long periods of time, no matter who is around.
1. Calling someone a monkey is the meanest thing you can call somebody. It is the ultimate put down.

"You're the Meanest Teacher Ever!"

Okay maybe that is a little extreme...really I'm more like a push over as a teacher...didn't do your homework? do it for next class (they know by now I'm not gonna check for it again), not paying attention in class? i'll remind you of where we are, don't know the sentence the entire class just read through one by one? i'll go through it with you word by word.... me as a teacher? pushover!

However kids talking while I'm talking or while others are talking drives me up the wall. Up the wall! So yesterday in class this kid, Samuel, would not listen and would distract everyone else around him (and when there's only 7 kids in the class, distracting everyone around you is pretty much the entire class), so after about five warnings I told him to go to the corner.

Him and the rest of the class kinda looked at me like "Really?" And the custom here seems to be go to the corner and put your hands in the air..but I didn't want to be too mean... BUT it worked so well! The class totally shut up and listened, it was great...I might stick someone in the corner each day, it made me smile the entire class!

Remember Orbitz?

Does anyone remember that drink in Canada that came out about 10 years ago, it was like pop but had jelly bubbles floating around in it? I think it was called Orbitz, it didn't last very long.

Well today I figured I needed to expand my choice in drinks from coffee, tea (both brought from Canada), and coke zero. So I took the beverage section by storm and bought almost one of everything (not nearly as extreme as you would imagine...individual drinks are about 30 cents for a can and about 250ml each). I bought juices, canned coffee (other than Starbucks I have yet to find a to go coffee place that serves warm coffee), and other things that looked interesting, tho I wasn't entirely sure what they were.

For instance, I assumed the can with the coconut on it would be a coconut juice/soda of sorts. Actually, it is grape soda with coconut cubes floating around in it, which are pretty much like jelly squares, and not too bad once I realized what it was. Before that it was like "what the hell did i just swallow," and the brief flash of all the possibilities that could have been contaminating my "coconut" juice.

So what I have begun to realize with my adventures in grocery shopping is that Koreans pretty much like to add something to everything. I've bought bread with peanut butter already added, little buns with syrup already added (think premade pancakes), and now juice with jelly added.

What an odd little country....

Woo hoo!

Yay it's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One for the road

It occured to me earlier today that I haven't really mentioned alcohol at all since I've been here which is a real indication that I am definetly NOT in Oz anymore. This time in Oz and we were chugging wine by the box (and yes, I have the pictures to prove it).

Actually alcohol is everywhere and it is dirt cheap. I mainly realized this tonight as I was in the grocery store trying to decide what juice to buy and checked out the beer and coolers right next to the juice. A bottle of OJ? About $1.50. A bottle of beer? $0.97. Wine seems to be pretty sparse and more expensive unfortunately but I did manage to pick up this bottle called Sansachun...I'm not really sure what it is but the label reads:

Sansa is a fruit bearing, broad leafed, plant belonging to the rose species. Red and a pleasant scent. Good for treating weak stomachs, backaches and cut. (Sweet and I can get drunk off of it too!)

I don't really know how to describe what it tastes like, kinda like a cross between skunky wine and sherry..not entirely bad, tho not entirely good. Meh, it's 14%.

Beer is surprisingly good here considering I don't like beer. We were out the other night and David and Lorne ordered us an oak barrel, which looks like a mini keg and is the equivalent to ten beers...all this for $18, not a bad way to pass a few hours on a Friday night.

Okay one more thing about alcohol and then I'm done. They have this beer can that is identical to Labatt Blue cans, colour, print, everything and they call it LOB, which coincidentally is what they call Lake of Bays (where our cottage is) so I think I've already decided what my duty free purchase will be en route home.

Can you tell the difference?

Interesting Fact about Korea #1

I feel like I am learning something new each day I am here about the culture, expectations or way of life, so if I come across the odd one from time to time I will post it here.

Fact: Store fronts with one barber shop pole means barber shop
Interesting Fact: Store fronts with two barber shop poles means whore house

There are at least three store fronts with two barber shop poles in my neighbourhood. Lorne says that is a low number for most neighbourhoods. Yesterday while out downtown I started counting them and have come to the conclusion that whore houses are the Tim Hortons of Korea...they are everywhere!