A Korean Winter Wonderland

This past winter in Korean hosted an unusual amount of snow, including one record-breaking trial of 26 centimetres over the course of a single day.   While this type of storm is quite commonplace in my hometown of Ottawa, it is not usually met with such trepidation and hysteria, as it was in the gu of Korea.  As a result of this inclement weather, my school was closed for two days, while the uniform-clad army worked hard to manually shovel the streets around the districts.  As I perused the streets, I noticed managers in suits and ties throwing salt on the street and parking lots with their bare hands, as teams of employees swept the snow away from the entrances to the shops and department stores with brooms.  Several weeks later, a light snowstorm postponed my school’s field trip to see the Wizard of Oz.  I’ve also noticed that Koreans use umbrellas during all four seasons.  Not simply for rain, but also for sun, snow, and I think falling leaves in autumn too.  

Nicknames

Today, I renamed one of the kids in my class "Tom Bosely." 

Add that to "T-Bone, Tedward, Jay-Z, Hank, Annapolis, and Jimbo" and you've got my favourite class.

Christmas Quotes

Just a few quotes from some of the kids that I teach.

"Teacher, Friday is... Happy Birthday Jesus."

"Teacher is... Santa is... Jaguar class coming?"

Student: "Teacher, look I have snowflake."

Teacher: "You have what? Snowplay??"

Student: "NO... Teacher you are not listen carefully!!!"

Haunted House

Halloween at my school was fun.  Groups of teachers were put in charge of making it entertaining for the preschool kids.  One group was put in charge of arts and crafts.  Another was storytelling.  Two other teachers and I put together a haunted house.   The necessary tools were gathered: probably a box full of black plastic garbage bags to cover the walls, some construction paper to cover up the lights, some loud bass notes on the piano, and the will to make as many kids as possible cry.  What followed was the fun that WE got out of Halloween.  Most children refused to even go into the haunted house because of the quick reputation that it adopted with our first initial successes.  My yelling at the children I get to teach everyday, and jumping out and spooking them, coupled with their screams and subsequent sobs was all I needed to make this Halloween special. 

Korean Halloween

Koreans don’t really celebrate Halloween.  Foreign teachers in Korea do.  A few of us got together and had some drinks at home then took a couple of cabs to get to Seoul.  Well traffic got in the way of us being able to hold it in any longer… so we barked at the taxi to get to the side of the road and let us off.  We paid, and he drove away.  We met up with another cab full of our friends taking the same pee break as us.  We enjoyed ourselves that night, waiting to come home until 5:30 AM until the subway and busses started circulating again.  At that time my friend Pikachu and I (I was dressed as a pirate) saw ourselves walking around Seoul looking for a subway station.  Seoul tends to be busy all the time, including this time of morning.   My eye patch, leather knee high boots and frilly shirt attracted enough attention from the morning subway riders.  The last stop for Pikachu and I was McDonalds for breakfast, which is becoming somewhat of a tradition on those loooong nights.

Pepero Day

Today is November 11th.  Everyone knows that once a year people gather around on this special day of commemoration.  Although in this country we don't remember the sacrifices in the quest for an armistice, but those necessary to drive the sales by wealthy department store chains on chocolate covered pretzel sticks.  So Remembrance Day for me was overshadowed by Pepero Day!

Pepero - a chocolate coated, maybe pretzel/wafer stick.  

Pepero Day - everyone buy pepero and give it to your friends, coworkers, and teachers.  

I got bombarded today with boxes of chocolate coated wafers.  Some were chocolate and almond coated, come coffee flavoured, and some strawberry flavoured.  Then there is the "naked" pepero, which is filled with chocolate instead of coated, so that it won't melt.  

Now I have enough snacks to tide me over for a new while.  Thank you greedy trying to sell a buck, yet perhaps genius inventor of Pepero Day.  

Hooker Hill

Some buddies and I were walking in Itaewon recently on our way to meet up with some friends at a drinking establishment.  We were walking up a hill with some bars and clubs on either side of the road.  Two hookers ran out of a building, latched on to my sweater, and attempted to drag me in towards their party zone.  I resisted, and got away safely.  Fast forward and my friend and I are sitting down together when two hookers and this older, larger, unfortunately scantily clad woman begin asking us questions like if we were looking for a good time.  My friend thought it would be funny to ask how much.  It turned out that it was funny.  For a few minutes we had a pretty heated debate about how their first offer was outrageous, and how our counter offer was insulting to their... profession?  The conversation of course ended with us walking away with our pants on and wallets just as heavy as when we started, without ever having an intention to change that.