Christmas

I had a very low key Christmas, which is probably for the best. I remember a line in Apocalypse Now when the Air Cavalry was having a BBQ and Captain Willard commented about how the more they tried to make things feel like home, the more they missed it.

This Christmas I had no tree or gifts that arrived on time (my fault). I think this was better in the end since I wasn't reenacting Christmases of the past but without all the key players. It was mostly just a normal day though I did make a nice breakfast fajita with chicken, bacon, egg, cheese and grilled onions. For dinner I went out with a friend for some Outback and beer.

All-in-all a good day.

On the bus the other day the driver decorated his bus with Christmas lights and he was wearing a full-on Santa suit (bag of gifts and beard included!) You can sort of see him in the picture above, but I decided to make a bad picture worse for "arts" sake.

Caulk

The principal must have been inspired by Obama's "Cash for Caulkers" plan. All week men have been hanging from the roof caulking all the windows in sight. This would seem like a good plan for keeping the school warm, but there is one fatal flaw. Look at the picture closely, what do you see? Open windows.

I know central air/heat is somewhat new to Korea, but this is something they really need to get a grip on. Many times I will walk into my classroom to see the thermostat set at 30˚C (86˚F) and the windows open. I will close the windows but students complain that it is hot. Of course they are wearing a scarf and 2 coats that they never thought to take off. It's the same on the buses. It is full out heat or nothing.

Today school is freezing. All the doors are wide open and wind is blowing through the halls freezing everyone to the bone. I go and close the doors (including those that lead into the teaching office) but see them opened and left open not more than 5 minutes later.

Finally

The iPhone has finally made it's way to Korea. I have fallen in love with it's not so great camera and all of the applications for making it better.

A dialog that my students had to learn:

W: Did you hear the news about the terrorist?
M: Oh, yes. I think he should be sentenced to death.
W: I'm against the death penalty.
M: Sorry to disagree with you, but in order to reduce the crime rate, I think the crime rate is necessary.
W: I understand what you're saying. But I don't think it reduces the crime rate.

I had to give the students a speaking test this week. 3 weeks ago we gave them a list of 10 questions and told them that I would ask 3-5 of those questions for their test. They all wrote out answers and memorized them to some extent but most couldn't answer any secondary questions, for example-

Me: What will you do for winter vacation? (primary question)
Them: I go Jeju iceland. Jeju Iceland very beautiful. (some say "iceland" for island somewhat understandably)
Me: Who will you go with? (secondary question)
Them: Durrr.... skip skip (no, their friend's name is not "skip")

Some did quite well but there were enough with little to no clue what was going on. With that in mind I am wondering how the dialog I wrote at the beginning of the post will in any way help them. Also, 90% of the students were shocked to learn that there was a death penalty in Korea.

I do like my students though...well, mostly.

Thanksgiving and the whatnot of November

I celebrated my birthday quietly with 2 Korean friends who were kind enough to buy me a cake from Costco. I hadn't had a proper Costco cake since I lived in Alaska in the early 90s. I forgot how big they were and having to eat the entire thing by myself added a bit of bulk to my frame.


The following week we had a mandatory "teacher PE day". It consisted of us leaving school after lunch and choosing to hike up a mountain or take a walk along the coast. I chose the coast as it was easier and closer to the bars that we would inevitably end up at anyway. After an hour we were done and our leader, the vice principal, jumped in a car and vanished. We all quickly came to the consensus that we needed booze (it was 1:30pm after all) and looked for a good place to swig some makali (rice wine). There was a big buffet dinner planned for 5:30, so we had to waste time until then and we did it in style. There was some hole in the wall place that welcomed us and the drinks flowed freely and at one point one teacher (a man) told me that I look "quite fetching in the sunlight".

I hate asking others to take my picture, they can never do it right.

After too many bottles of the white stuff we made it to the buffet which provided loads more beer. I really like these types of get-togethers as a lot of teachers relax around me and a surprising number of them can speak English quite well.


After some time I tried to sneak out with a couple of the younger female interns for a few more beers in a much quieter setting. Unfortunately we were caught and forced to join the old men teachers in a seedy bar with a live lounge band (first time I have seen one of those here) that reminded me of the band in Swingers. Much more beer and lots of excessive touching of my upper thigh by all the male teachers was had.

The next day it snowed.



There was supposed to be a big meteor shower one evening so I woke up at 3am to try and photograph some of it. I tried a few shots and thought I caught one on film but it turned out to be an airplane. Damn cold out.


Thanksgiving was spent with 2 teachers. We ate chicken since the Turkey I wanted was $70 and I wasn't even sure if it would fit in my little oven. I had mashed potatoes (the delicious powdered kind) horrible shrink wrapped corn on the cob and what I thought was a brown sauce that turned out to be meatballs sized for Spaghetti-O's.