seoul subway song.

Some guy made a video about the Seoul Subway. Since I have extolled its virtues NUMEROUS times on my blog, I thought I’d put his video up for everyone to see. The repeated music sample in the song is the tune that’s played to announce a transfer station on the majority of lines.

잘했다!

Last week I did my open class. This means that I had to prepare a lesson to showcase to the principal, vice principals and a team of other teachers who would mark me.

Most teachers spend a LOT of time preparing for this because this is how they show themselves to the rest of the teachers. They often prepare really special lessons, which are nothing like their normal ones.

For my open class I decided to do one basically like my normal lessons but with a tiny bit more effort. I had to write up a detailed lesson plan (4 pages) to hand in before my lesson.

The lesson went quite well. My co-teacher discussed with them in advance what we would be doing, so they knew what to expect. Grade 6s can be difficult, but they were angels in that class and participated enthusiastically for every activity.

Two weeks passed and we finally had a meeting about the results of our classes. I sat through a 45 minute meeting all in Korean, as usual not knowing what was going on or why I had to be there. My co-teacher slipped me a note mid-way through which said “Strong and weak points of less. Brief discussion.” All the teachers had to give a brief expanation of their lesson. I thought, do I really have to do this? Only about 6-7 people here will actually understand. However, the lesson ended and none of the English teachers spoke.

After the meeting, two of my co-teachers came up to me and said “You must be very happy!” I was, as usual, confused. They said that apparently I was the only teacher that the principal had complimented and that he was very impressed because I had gotten all the grade 6s motivated to participate in my lesson. As well, I wrote the most detailed (read: longest) lesson plan. That would explain the clapping and general looking in my direction during the meeting that I ignored. My co-teachers told me that he said I was a ROLE MODEL for them. This made me really embarrassed because I have been teaching for only 10 months and this is, of course, their career.

So, 잘했다 to me! That means good job. Although this makes zero difference to me since I am resigning and leaving in 8 (EIGHT!) weeks, it’s nice to know I was doing a good job here overall.

See you soon!

Disregard the “12 Rules for Expat Life in Korea”

On May 25, some guy (Kyle Burton) posted an article on cnngo.com. The article can be found here. The article is about twelve things expats should do when living in Korea. The article was reblogged and posted on Facebook and probably tweeted (but not by me). I hope everyone was only sending it around because it was incredibly stupid.

Here are some highlights.

1. Learn to drink like a fish

Your work contract might say 9-5 but you forgot to read the fine print. Birthday parties, staff dinners and other work functions will keep you going late into the night. Just remember that in the South Korean workplace, an invitation is an obligation.

Some of this is true. An invitation is an obligation but that’s not all you should take away. At my school dinners people drink casually. Some of the men get drunk. It’s awkward.  Barely any of the female teachers do.  Some foreign teachers get drunk too, so they say.  But really. You’re at work.

Furthermore, this gives the impression that all Koreans just get drunk all the time. The drinking culture here is strong, but this gives the wrong impression.

Next up…

2. Try not to get ‘celebrified’

Just because you get cat calls on the street from students who are surprised to see a foreigner does not mean you are famous. There might be a certain novelty to being a visible minority here, but try not to let it get to your head.

No one thinks they’re a celebrity here. Sometimes we joke about getting a discount or getting something free because we’re foreigners but more often and not being a celebrity here is the last thing on your mind. You are more like a zoo animal. People stare at you and talk about you like you’re not there. They assume you can’t understand (or don’t think it matters) but the first word we learn after annyong haseyo is “waygookin” (foreigner). So when I’m the only foreigner on the subway and the couple next to me is dropping “waygookin” every 2 words, I’m pretty sure they’re talking about me.

5. Put the gay away

 Korea has its own “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, and although gay rights have come a long way in the last 10 years, there remains a strong prejudice in this uber-conservative society. So, if you are one of the many queer expats in South Korea, keep your homo on the hill.

Wonderful advice! You’ve probably been out of the closet for awhile, but you should probably get back in. No. Rude. Maybe it’s not the wisest thing in the world to come out to your students,  but that’s at everyone’s own discretion. This suggestion is pretty offensive and just unnecessary. Korean culture is extremely touchy. If two women or two men were touching each other affectionately, I doubt anyone would bat an eye. Yes, some people are homophobes here. There are homophobes in lots of places. Sometimes I think this place needs to be shaken up, anyway.

6. Buy good face cream

 I’m not sure if it’s the pollution, the stress, or the water, but living in Korea will age you, and your pimples and wrinkles will battle it out to see who can destroy your face the quickest. No wonder there’s a cosmetic surgery shop on every corner.

This is on the top 10 list? Ridiculous. I have nothing else to say. Except that the cosmetics here are fantastic.

This article was on a CNN affiliated website. It’s ridiculous. Sure, it’s supposed to be funny, but it’s mostly just dumb and not actually helpful. If someone wrote this on a blog then no one would care, but this is a CNN journalist. Emabarrassing.

K-blogger Roboseyo wrote his alternative top 12, and I think it’s pretty good.

Here are the ones I like.

1. Get online.

He recommends checking out the NUMEROUS amazing websites that have tonnes of information for you. I like Korea4Expats and 10Magazine.

2. Learn Korean.

Definitely! As I am only here for a year (2.5 months to go!) I learned the basics. How to read and write, basic communication. And it has helped me massively! Simply learning to read and write will help you out a lot. Do it!

3. Get out of the city.

I haven’t done this as much as I’d have liked to, but leaving Seoul is wonderful. I’m heading to Jeju Island this weekend and can’t wait!

4. Learn to use the transportation infrastructure.

Yes! I’ve extolled the virtues of the subway before, but the buses, oh the buses. They can be great if you want to go somewhere that’s not directly on the subway line. But watch out, they sometimes can take a lot longer due to traffic, so budget time wisely!

You can read his full list here.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

 

 

 

 

 

Just some quick thoughts.

Today I wore a scarf to school. I suppose it looks a bit ‘tribal’ and has fringe.

Two unrelated incidents:
“You look like a cowboy, teacher.” -student

“Howw?!” – me

“The scarf! It is like cowboy.”

Next…

“You look like Indian, teacher.” -student

“I’m sure you mean like a Native American.”

“Yes.”

….

I am the only person in the office of 5 people who ever goes to the bathroom at school.  How is this, you ask? Well, no one drinks anything except for instant coffee. But they still don’t pee. I have no answers. I pee about 3-4 times a day. I know they think I have a problem.

Also, I might have strep throat.

But the real good news is I am flying out of here on August 18th to San Francisco for three days! There I will stay with my cousin Lisa and her family and my Aunt Diane will be coming to visit. I have never been to northern California and I am extremely excited. I will be home to Toronto on August 21st at 7:00 am (sorry parents)! Only 82 days.

Fire safety.

Just a quick post about what happened today.

Yesterday my co-teacher told me that we’d have a fire drill or something like that from 11:00-11:50 am, so I’d have to heard my grade 3s outside. I was uneasy about this but said ok. Today I was told that I just had to end the class at 11:00 and the homeroom teacher would come and take the kids outside. Good.

At around 10:00 am I looked out the window and noticed that the custodial staff had built a fairly large bonfire in the middle of the “field.” The “field” is just a sand/dirt covered area. Clearly this fire drill was serious.

At 11:00 am an announcement went over the PA (which lasted for about 30 minutes) which was about the drill and asking us to pretend it was real. I waited in the English office with my co-teachers for a few minutes before we headed out. All of the students were sitting about 50 feet away from the fire. They were talking and chatting, standing up etc. Their homeroom teachers were trying to control them, but how could they, when there was a raging bonfire in front of them?

Eventually, two grade 5 students walked up to the fire and were given fire extinguishers. After some sort of conversation, they eventually began to spray the bonfire with the extinguishers. The fire didn’t go out completely, and after a few minutes started to get bigger again.

I looked at my co-teachers. They smiled back and said “It didn’t seem to work, did it?” No, it didn’t.

Then we went back inside and taught fourth period. 

Yay to Busan!

On a sunny weekend in April, Jacob and I headed down to Busan for the weekend. Busan is known as Korea’s “Miami” because there are some lovely beaches. As far as I know, there isn’t a lot of cocaine like the real Miami.

Friday evening we raced down to Seoul Station from my work to make the 5:50 KTX. I finished work at 4:40, but sneaked out early and caught a 4:30something subway there. The ride to Seoul Station would take 50 minutes, plus an approximately 10 minute walk to the KTX station. We also needed to get our tickets, as we only had an internet reservation. So in total, that takes at least 70 minutes, and we had about 80. We were just a bit rushed. I was only a BIT cranky due to this, but with some speedy footwork (literally RUNNING through the subway station and to the KTX station) and made it on the train with 10 minutes to spare. Note to self, give yourself at least 1.5 hours before heading to the KTX! Oh, also here’s some info on the KTX. Pretty cool stuff.

The ride to Busan was really nice. Jacob had packed us some food for the ride (2+ hours) and we watched Dawson’s Creek on my laptop.

Jacob and I.

We arrived at Busan station around 8:30 pm or so and made the subway ride trek to Haeundae station, which is where our love motel was. Oh yes, did I mention we stayed in a lovely love motel called Santa Fe Motel? We did. Love motels are great, really, but they sound kind of strange and/or gross. They are cheap (around $40 a night) and come with lots of little freebies.  However, here’s the story. In Korea people usually live at home until they get married. This means that there isn’t a lot of uh…private time for young couples. So they will often stay in love motels for the night (or a few hours). Of course, lots of sleazier people stay in them too, but tonnes of frugal tourists use them all over the country. The one we stayed at was cheap, clean, nice, quiet, and about 4 minutes from Haeundae station.

Santa Fe Motel

We stayed in that night, but woke up bright and early (8:30!) on Saturday morning. I was desperate to find somewhere to eat a western style breakfast, so after some quick Googling we headed down towards the beach to a restaurant that claimed to serve just that. It wasn’t open until 10 am so we walked along the beach and had some coffee. It was beautiful.

Haeundae Beach

After a satisfying breakfast at Breeze Burn’s, we decided to go to the Busan Aquarium. It was pricey compared to the regular price for attractions in Korea (usually around $4) as it was about $15, but worth it for sure. It was quite large and had TONNES of fish. The coolest part was the tanks that you arched over the walkway, so the fish were surrounding you. There was also an opportunity for a shark dive (eep) that Jacob tried to persuade me to do (I’m not sure he was even convinced) but we left that out.

A blurry photo of the massive tanks.

After that we wandered around to the APEC house. It’s the house built for the 2005 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation which was hosted in Busan. Jacob put it best when he said they built a house for a luncheon. Anyway, the house was beautiful and on a great plot of land. We walked up a winding path surrounded by trees and flowers and wandered up to the house which was on the water. It was free to wander around there and was pretty cool to see.

Jacob and the APEC house.

After lunch we headed to the Busan Art Gallery. It WOULD have been nice, but instead was pretty unpleasant due to a children’s event which was being held there. Basically there were people screaming in Korean over a mic and dozens of children shouting non-stop. This was all reverberating off the marble walls of the building. Just what I like to hear when I’m perusing art.

In the evening, after some deliberation, we made the decision to head to Ulsan to meet Jacob’s friend Laura who has lived there for a couple of years. We took the Saemaul train there and in an hour arrived in the small (2 million people) town of Ulsan. Laura met us at the train station and we headed to a fish market to eat some sashimi andddd sannakji. What’s that you say? Live octopus. Yes. We ate it. I have a video to prove it.

It's sticking because it's "alive."

The octopus was (unfortunately) cut up while it was alive and then it’s served to us on a plate, wriggling, with a sesame oil sauce. Ours stayed moving for a good hour. It really tasted like nothing, but was tough to chew. You have to chew pretty hard to make sure it’s done wriggling, or else it can potentially stick to your esophagus, and that’s a bad thing.  After we finished up our deliciously fresh meal we headed to a makgeolli (rice wine) bar and then headed home pretty late. It was a great time and Jacob’s friend was a lovely host.

The next morning we headed to OPS Bakery, which looked and smelled as close to a real bakery as I’d found. We ate some fresh baked goods and coffee and almost forgot where we were.

That's my coffee he's drinking.

We decided to head back to Busan station for the rest of the day and our first stop was the Noryangjin Fish market. It was a massive complex full of writhing, live fish, octopus, small sharks, snails, clams, etc. etc. We wandered around but since we’d had our fill of fresh fish the night before we didn’t partake in the possible feast, but it was still interesting to see.

Fish.

We were leaving that afternoon so we didn’t have a lot of time. We headed up to Busan Tower to finish up the afternoon and have a view of the city. It was a nice walk up a path and we paid the entrance fee to get some great pictures.

Busan

We decided to take the bus back because it was cheaper and we weren’t in a rush, so we took the hour long subway ride to the bus terminal. We were actually early this time, so we wanted something to eat. Unfortunately, all that was available was Lotteria, which is a Korean fast food chain that I happen to dislike. I’d promised Jacob we’d go there eventually, as it’s too gross to pass up, so we did. I had a (not terrible) shrimp burger but he had this nasty Hanoo Burger which made me feel sick to just look at (although he claims it wasn’t bad.  We were then ready for our five hour bus ride home. We spent that time sleeping and watching…Dawson’s Creek.

Overall, a lovely and refreshing weekend.

toilets.

Wow.

It’s been awhile. I will do a better post soon but I had this one written and thought I’d better throw ‘er up there. It’s about bathrooms.

Here are some descriptions of the bathrooms I encounter.

My home bathroom:

My home bathroom is quite large! It’s about 1/4 of my entire apt. Much larger than most people’s bathrooms actually, despite the fact that my apartment is much smaller than everyone else’s. It consists of the usual things, like a toilet (which I’m not supposed to put toilet paper in but do), a small medicine cabinet (filled to the brim with my random belongings), a mirror, a drain on the floor and a shower head on the wall right beside the sink. I also have a shower curtain. This prevents the entire room from getting covered in water, but the floor is still soaked. I squeegee it off afterwards and usually wander in and out post shower and soak the bottom of my pjs or my socks. I had to buy slippers to wear in there. I now own 2 pairs of slippers for my apt the size of a regular bathroom. I don’t really have to wash the floor though.

The average bathroom:

Is pretty gross. These are the ones that you have to go to at a coffee shop or restaurant. It does not contain toilet paper. It MAY be a squatting toilet. It does not have soap, or if it does have it, it will be a tiny ball of used hard soap that thousands of other hands have used. It will smell ferociously like urine.There will be no paper towel. There will be no hot water. There WILL be a garbage bin filled with pee and feces crusted toilet paper because the pipes can’t handle it. This from a country that has one of the best (the best?) subway system in the world and can build an entire anything in 3 days. It usually isn’t in the restaurant/store that you are in when you realize you need a toilet immediately. You will probably have to go outside, down 2 flights of stairs to an unmarked room with a codepad on it and you will have to type in the code that someone who doesn’t speak English has told you. It will probably be unisex, so some man can walk in on you at any time.

My school bathroom:

Has 2 regular toilets and 6 squatting toilets in each room.  It’s important to note that squatting toilets ARE better for your health. However, they’re awkward to use and I’m always worried I’ll pee on my pants or fall in or something. Anyway, there are always little girls in there screeching at the tops of their lungs. There are usually at least 3 children in a stall at one time. They like to go in together. They will come out and yell “TEACHER!!!!!” and then “HI TEACHER!!!” and then skip away and not wash their hands at all. They probably didn’t use toilet paper because they would have had to bring it from their classroom as it is not supplied in the washrooms. There is soap there. It will always be a bar and it will always be covered in brown grime. I always wonder if it’s better to use it or not. There will not be paper towel. There will probably not be hot water. There is rarely a hand dryer, although sometimes there is. If there is, it will be cold air. It will smell SO MUCH like pee. When the ajummas go to wash it, they will throw water over the entire floor, all over the toilet, and it will smell more like urine than before. But now everything is just soaked in water. That’s how you know it’s been cleaned.There might also be some children playing tag in there. Or someone might be brushing her teeth.

When I first arrived I wondered if there was a special washroom I should use as a teacher. They said, “At the end of the hall!” So… the regular washroom. My presence is always a surprise and a cause for conversation about me. I am mostly the only one to use the regular toilets. All of my co-workers use the squatting ones and can do so in about 1 minute, even though they’re definitely wearing heels and a skirt. They will possibly not wash their hands.

better for you but do i care?

Wonderful bathrooms:

Some bathrooms are amazing. They are clean.They have heated toilet seats which can also be a bidet, or a variety of other things I haven’t tried. They have liquid soap, paper towels, amazingly fast hand dryers which make my skin flap around. They will possibly  smell like smoke though, because women like to secretly smoke and it’s not really acceptable in public. It’s illegal to smoke in there, but the fine is about $20. These are usually found in movie theatres, upscale restaurants and malls.  OR. Subway stations. Seoul has the best subway bathrooms (and often bathrooms). I’m pretty sure they’re rated as the best subway bathrooms in the world. They are always clean, have soap, toilet paper, smell fine and there’s probably an ajumma hanging out in there cleaning. It’s so strange coming from the land of the TTC where you’d rather die than use the Finch station washroom. I did once and barely lived to tell the tale.

heres some guy using a seoul metro bathroom.

That’s all!

christmas, new year’s, homecoming.

hello!

i’ve been trying to put this off until i get a new laptop, but  i have some free time now, so i thought i’d just shoot of a lil’ post now.

back we go to christmas!

christmas was very strange, although enjoyable. it’s not a big deal here , so there was no christmas feeling in the air or anything like that. on the eve sarah, casey and i went for a prix fixe dinner at between.

here’s me looking lovely:

photo by sarah o'sullivan

then we went to the noraebang with a few friends. i got to dress up as a rodent (?).

photo by casey park

then i went home. christmas day i met up with sarah and casey again and we went skating at city hall. it was 1,000 won (or like 85 cents) to rent skates and then skate. it was freezing cold and packed with people. we only stayed for 30 minutes but it was tonnes of fun. casey said it was his favourite thing he has done so far.

photo by casey park

then went to the frypan for dinner. just like a normal turkey dinner, except fried. koreans love fried chicken, and they do it so well. at the frypan  it is also on a bed of homemade potato chips. the chicken was delicious. the chips made me want to die later. it was too much grease. the salad we had was actually delicious. real, shaved parmesan cheese. so good.

at the frypan

then christmas was over. i did shed a few tears but then realized that i would get to celebrate christmas with my family at home, so i wasn’t really missing out.

on new year’s i went for dinner with some friends at an overpriced sushi placee, then to a bar called the social. ironically, it was empty at first but then filled up later with korean b-boys.

d, sam and i at the social club.

overall, it was a really fun night, but once again there was no excitement in the air! koreans celebrate the lunar new year (feb 2-4) so this was not really a big deal. oh well. it’s only new year’s.

after that weekend winter camp started. let me tell you: i LOVE winter camp! i only work until 12 pm every day and get to play games and do fun lessons with a small group of students who just love me. for the first two weeks of camp i worked at a different school, with 5 other foreign teachers and 6 korean co-teachers. it was super fun and i really liked it. this week i’ve been working at my own school teaching grades 3 and 4 and it’s just as fun. i love my students. i feel a real connection with them, as opposed to my regular students who are mostly indifferent. i guess winter camp is just a different environment.

two winter camp students.

so i now have just 2 days more of winter camp, then i’m heading home this weekend! saturday cannot come soon enough. i have tonnes of wonderful plans for the 3 weeks i’ll be home, such as going to stay in hamilton for a week with jacob (yes, hamilton is wonderful), celebrating christmas with my family, going to my friend’s cottage, generally relaxing, hanging out with my friends and family and eating lots of food. i cannot wait. hopefully i can fit in all my friends and family! three weeks will go by in a second.

hope your holidays were lovely,

see you soon!

yes, i’m alive.

hello!

so i’m awfully sorry i haven’t posted. it’s just with the war here and everything…it’s been an upheaval. really. well no. not at all. for anyone living in north america, your lives probably changed more than mine did during this tense period between north and south korea (which one is the good one anyway, palin?). my life did not change whatsoever. well, i was supposed to have a half day off once and then they said all the teachers had to stay at school because of the conflict. i have no idea what that had to do with anything. i was just robbed of a half day off for nothing.

that’s probably the most exciting thing that’s happened here. was i scared when i heard about the north attacking the south? not really. life in general did not change, so there was no reason for me to be frightened. after talking to my co-teachers i realized that while it was a serious attack, it was probably not a real reason to worry. i also am signed up with the canadian consulate, who got in touch with all canadians the night of the attack to tell us not to worry and that they would let us know about further developments. their lack of information up until this point, i assume, only means positive things. from what i understand things are really just winding down and there isn’t much of a worry anymore. yes, many foreigners were quite scared, which is understandable. i just wasn’t really one of them.

so currently i have 3 weeks left of regular school before winter camp begins. winter camp means i teach english camp for 15 days from 8:40-12:30 and then i get to go home! i will teach the same two lessons every day for 2 weeks at a district camp. at the camp there are 6 foreign teachers and 6 korean co-teachers, which is actually a nice change.  i might die of boredom due to teaching the same lessons so many times  but then again i teach the same lesson 9 times a week regularly, so maybe it won’t be that terrible. from what i hear, winter camp is quite enjoyable because you see the same students every day and actually get to know them. after that i have one week of winter camp at my own school. i have received just about no information about that. i have no idea how much i have to plan for it or what i have to do, but i’m sure they will help me when the time comes.

after winter camp i am returning to canada for three glorious weeks. i leave january 15 and return to seoul february 4. i am extremely excited to see my friends, family and boyfriend again. it will have been just almost 5 months at that point, which is long enough to be away from anyone you love, in my opinion.

in terms of homesickness, i have definitely been feeling it with the upcoming holiday season. seoul isn’t really that cozy or anything like that. it’s certainly not full of my home friends and family which you want to be around at this time. however, christmas is just one day, and my family and i are going to celebrate when i return, which is going to be very lovely and i can’t wait. however. the country is full of christmas lights everywhere, so i’ll hopefully take some photos of that to get up here. there is no snow though. today was quite mild. around 15 degrees celsius. it has snowed apparently, but i have yet to see it from my windowless cavern.

well, anyway i’m off now. 42 days until i’m back on canadian soil!

halloween has come and gone.

halloween has come and gone.

i apologize for taking so long to write something. it’s been ages i know. my one excuse is that the “a” button on my keyboard stopped working and i haven’t yet bought a new one. i didn’t want to write a message without “As.” it’s terrible, really. so i’m writing this at work and sending it to myself in an email.

i’m pretty sure the last thing i wrote about was how i get to go home in january now. well that is still true. what have i done since that time period?

shopping at dongdaemun: i have gone shopping to this area a couple of times now, not ever really buying anything but seeing a lot to buy. dongdaemun is a strange area of mall type stores. basically there are two major malls that i visited, each about 9 floors high. the inside reminds me more of a market or something, especially in the cheaper mall. each store is about the size of a closet, and is just packed with stuff to buy. usually there are no prices and no changerooms. you can haggle, although i’ve been mostly afraid to do so and have relied upon others to get me 5,000 won off (like $4). the better of the two, doosan, is more expensive and only opens at 7 pm! this is because it stays open until like 4:30 am. why? i have no idea. we left around 11:30 on friday and that was late enough for me. plus the subway closes at like midnight or something equally ridiculous.

teacher’s hike: last week i went for a hike with my co-workers and then for dinner. the hike itself was very light (a walk) and only about 30 minutes long. it was a lovely opportunity to talk at length with julia on the way up and mia on the way down. then we went to some restaurant and ate these delicious soups and drank 덩덩 주 (dong dong ju), a sweet rice wine. i accidentally told mia that i’d be leaving after my one year contract here was up. she was surprised. apparently they expect you to stay longer, despite the fact that the majority of people do not. i just hope this doesn’t negatively affect me in any way. sometimes they hesitate to give extra vacation because you’re not as trusted. oh well. there’s nothing i can do now.

halloween: halloween in korea left something to be desired. it doesn’t really exist, especially not in the schools. i suppose it’s up to the foreign teacher to bring it in, in the form of costumes and candy, but i wasn’t planning on buying treats for 800 students, and i think i stand out enough without wearing a costume. we went out on saturday night in hongdae to celebrate the day. i dressed up as a widow, as it was easiest. overally, i was unimpressed. lackluster costumes (everyone was probably in the same mindset as me) combined with the fact that it just didn’t FEEL like halloween had me a bit blue. although it was only for one day, i suddenly felt very far from home. i always miss people from home terribly, but it was worse than usual on halloween weekend. all i wanted to do was be back with my friends and seeing little kids in costumes running around. halloween is just such a wonderful time and i really missed it. it made me mostly worried about how i’d be feeling in decemeber when christmas and new year’s rolls around. obviously horrible. i’ll just remind myself on those days that it’s only for one day then too. on the plus side, my family is waiting to celebrate christmas and channukah until i return in january. a nice silver lining on that cloud.

on top of this, i had to come to terms with my financial reality. despite coming to this country to learn and experience, a large motivation was that it was simply a job that i am getting paid to do. i have to save a large sum of money in order to afford going to college next year, so at this point i’m almost putting away half of my take home pay a month to do that. i still can live a reasonably good life, but i had to realize that i probably wouldn’t be going on as many of the trips i had hoped to take. it simply isn’t possible with the amount i need to save. i’ve tried to be positive about this and to think that i’ll just  spend more time in korea itself instead of traipsing around over asia, but i really did want to traipse around asia. i’m still planning on going to japan for a bit in may with jacob, but i don’t know how likely it is that i’ll head over to china in the summer. right now there’s no real need to dwell on this, because who knows what the future will bring. however, it is a choice that i’ve made to attend college and saving money is just a sad fact of life. although, if i don’t get in i’ll be a bit mad.

one of the more odd things that happened on the weekend was at coex mall. dave and i noticed there was some g20 thing going on, and so we were invited to take a photo with the g20 leader of our choice on a green screen. of course we chose stephen (probably the only ones who will) and then also recorded a 20 second video “to the leaders.” i have received the video in my email and have no idea where else it went. an interesting aspect of this booth was that there were caricatures of all the leaders. in one, obama had a basketball, the india pm was on a flying carpet, and stephen was holding a beer. can you imagine what would happen if that went on in canada? the world would probably be up in arms. all dave and i could do was sigh and say, “oh, korea” and just move on.

my last thoughts will be about the upcoming winter. i am dreading it. the reason for this is because the school keeps the windows open, or has up to this point. the heat is not on. all the teachers are wearing coats and blankets in the office and the children wear coats to class. this is normal. as well, everyone is sick. well, i wonder why! i’m sure the fact that it’s 10 degrees indoors and the children seem to be inexperienced with the thought of covering one’s mouth when sneezing or coughing have nothing to do with it. or the communal bar soaps everywhere. actually, the majority of subway goers (from my experience) do not cover their mouths to sneeze or cough. HOWEVER! they do wear those masks! i don’t know if they wear them because they’re sick or because they don’t want to get sick, or both. either way, i’m sure some basic hygiene could do a world of good here. i know that comes off as “white man knows best” but sometimes the western world’s fear of germs is just appropriate in flu season.

alright. i’m going to buy electronics accessories.