Summer Camps, Beijing and Country-Name-Dropping

Okay, the last couple of weeks have been a little crazy! We're now working through the second week of camps, which have been really awesome; in fact the perfect way to end my teaching year over here! The kids have been enthusiastic and entertaining. We just had a "Hokey Pokey" dance competition before sending them home for the day. So cute! Mrs. Kim's sister brought in her grade one aged daughter and she's not shy about dancing at the front of the class!

This Friday is my last day of classes, then on Saturday I'll be heading out to the Incheon Airport near Seoul and flying to CHINA!!! I couldn't find anyone who's going to be going to Beijing at the same time (most of the expats are either back to Canada for a visit or already off on their travels since school ended a couple of weeks ago), so it's going to be a solo mission, which I'm pretty excited/scared about!

Places on the agenda:

- The Great Wall of China!! Dude! There are several "sites" along the great wall to see, so I plan to go a few times.

- The Forbidden City (not really forbidden, actually a HUGE tourist attraction)

- The Temple of Heaven

- T'iannamen Square (spelling subject to complete wrongness)

- Shopping at Wangfujin, silk street etc. Oh, there will be lots of shopping

- Beijing Contemporary Art Gallery

- Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

- Random wandering and getting completely lost

- Sweating my ass off and evaporating into a dry shrivelled version of myself.

When I found out that I'd be travelling alone I had a moment's thought that maybe I should just skip it, then kicked myself in the head! What if I never come back to Asia and miss my chance to see the Great Wall?? That would be just plain ridiculous! After my week of sweating it out (apparently it's going to be ridiculously HOT) in Beijing, I will fly back to Korea to hang out for a week before heading back to Canada! Less than three weeks from now I'll be back in Ontario. It's a little surreal at this point.

I've really enjoyed my year over here, but at all costs I will try not to talk about it so much that people back home want to kill me. There's nothing worse than having one of those friends that is constantly Country-Name-Dropping. "You think that bathroom is dirty?? When I was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro-- that's in Africa-- I didn't even have toilet paper, and the mosquitos were the size of my head... etc. etc." I will try to only talk about Korea when asked directly and keep it brief!

Now, for your enjoymeant, some summer camp pictures! Well, I guess to be honest it's for my enjoyment. I'm sure no one else will care!

This is from the first week of summer camp. The kids pretended they were chefs on a cooking show and made themselves sandwiches. Korean sandwich combinations are a little scary for me-- egg with ham and cheese and strawberry jam. Seriously! But when I tried to introduce olives into sandwiches, the kids acted like I was crazy; they'd laugh and point when I'd pop one in my mouth.

The ladies of summer camp one. This was after we'd finished our "flea market" class and everyone had all of the fake American dollars. These kids are obsessed with money. Everyone had to fill out an introduction form and under "hobbies" five or six of them wrote "I like money". Little punks.

The second week group. The rest of these pictures will be the kids doing the hokey pokey. It was hilarious.
And I'm spent.

To Honour Naju's Spirit

School's out for the summer, so all that's left is two weeks of summer camps in the English Town. So today we played some games, did some drawings, ate lunch and sent them on their way. Summer camp is awesome. After summer camps I'll be heading out to Beijing for a week to see some sights (if anyone has any tips, they are very welcome!). Then back to Korea for just over a week until I move back to Canada! Geez! To honour Naju's spirit, I will now post some pictures of Naju's top regional food (well, the restaurant)! Delicious Gomtang!!
Yep, that's a cow coming out of a bowl! Delicious!

Boryeong Mud Prevents Wrinkles!! Let's Have a Festival!!

Daaaammmnn I'm in a pissy mood today. Of course this is due to the sun, lack of sleep and Soju that I experienced over the weekend. On Saturday morning a big gang of people met up in Mokpo at 8am to meet our own personal bus (Thanks to Crystal and Miji for the arrangements!) that would take us to the Boryeong Mud Festival. The morning started off the right way in the bus with jello shots and much conversation on the way. When we got there, (Boryeong's about three hours north of Mokpo along the coast) I was astonished to find a perfect, smog-free sunny day. Maybe the first one EVER in Korea: very rarely are there clear days without a haze in the distance. When we got to the mudfest it was already in full swing with a ridiculous amount of people partaking in the fun. The beach was huge and beautiful but absolutely packed with people. We quickly found a place to get nice and muddy, and after that I had a sort of anti-climactic feeling. So... I got myself into a mudfight, but what do I do for the rest of the day? At this point I started wondering why this Mud Fest was even started (in 1998). I looked it up today and apparently the mud in this area is special, so the citizens of Boryeong wanted to share it with everyone by having them smear it all over eachother (prevents wrinkles!). Even though the mud frenzy wore off quickly, there was still fun to be had because big crowds equals people watching! There were so many big buff foreign guys (probably GI's from Seoul) without shirts; people in speedos to giggle at; men with pink parasols to protect them from the sun (I'm not lying); Korean ladies wearing high-heel flip-flops; and cute little kids playing in the sand and mud. At night we camped out on the beach watching fireworks and drinking, then all went to our "room" which was very big, but there were about fifteen of us packed in like muddy, drunken sardines. Good times! My face is wrinkle free, but very lobster-like at the moment.
The sleeping quarters. I woke up first, so I took a picture of everyone trying to sleep off the booze!These sharks were in a tank sitting in front of a restaurant! The bigger one is at least four feet long! Can you imagine ordering a shark at a restaurant and grilling it at your table??

General Pandemonium

No word of a lie, at least five students cried today (no jerks, it wasn't after I made a face at them). We've been working our way through the younger students, and they are really cute, but can get VERY upset over the whole "stamp reward" procedure! Today's class was very... high energy. I pulled apart several fights, yelled at kids who were screaming and chasing each other around the English Town, a boy got a question wrong on the quiz and went and cried in a corner; general pandemonium. As of today there are only five more classes of English Town students, two weeks of summer camp, then I'll never be in the English Town again. Holy crap!

Last night me, my co-teachers, the principal, a vp and a few other teachers went out for dinner at Venezia. Even though I can't have a conversation with my principal I found myself getting all teary-eyed when he was telling me that he appreciated my work etc. (translated through Mrs. Lee). I'm really going to miss my school!! Even the evil ringleader and his cronies!!

Sidenote: Our extra class with Elementary school students has gotten waaay bigger, so we split the group into two, which was much more bearable! And I also discovered for the first time that the evil ringleader (Gwang-sun) is much smarter than he ever appeared! Smaller classes are genius. In the past he would spend the entire time asking to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, completely unwilling to speak English EVER. Then on Monday after we'd cut the classes in half I was attempting a ghetto form of Bingo. I got all of the students to name some countries as I wrote them on the board. Then I had them draw a four by four grid and write in any of the countries I'd mentioned. Then I called out random countries and the first student to get a line was victorious. And Gwang-sun actually did the exercise and WON!!! Then at the end of class he actually said goodbye to me (albeit in Korean). Geeez! If I had another five years to teach I might actually win this kid over.

Shuddering Even Now

Ahhhh, Seoul. A fun place to visit, but I could NEVER live there. So on Saturday morning I woke up at five thirty so I could catch the train out of Naju, arriving at Yongsan Station around ten to meet up with Laurel. My mission for the weekend was to buy lots of fun touristy items to give to people back home. So first we went to Dongdaemun, then Insadong, then Namdaemun, then finally Hongdae. Yeesh. It was so freaking hot as well; every chance we got we'd stop in a shop that had some sweet sweet air-con! We went out for some dinner at a restaurant called "Carne Station", which was interesting. For whatever reason there was about forty foreigners all having a get-together there and I had my first reverse culture shock moment! There were just so many of them, they were all drunk and loud and acting obnoxious. The girls were all dressed so very skanky. I've just become so accustomed to small town Korea that I was unaccountably annoyed after seeing all those foreigners. Don't get me wrong, it was nice seeing some diversity, but these people were OBNOXIOUS. The restaurant had an open bar, which would could probably account for them terrorizing the staff.

From there we went in search of a bar called "Tin Pan" (maybe?) that is supposed to be really good. All was well when we were just having a seat people watching. When we decided to get on the over-crowded dance floor, things went a little down hill. This guy came up to me and started flirting, which was a little uncomfortable (he was like thirty-five and more than a little creepy). It started off normally; where are you from? Are you a teacher? etc. etc. Then he decides that it's a good idea to divulge to me that he had slept with a couple of Korean girls but he didn't find them to his liking so he'd "gone back to white girls" all the while stroking my back and holding my hand as I tried to back away.

EWEWWWWWWWWWWW!!! YEEEEECCCCHHHHH!! Why?? Why?? Why would he think that I would want to know??? *shuddering even now* A fellow teacher had a theory about foreign guys in Korea, and I'm starting to believe it's true:

The Characteristics of Foreign Men who move to Korea:
1. Moved here with their girlfriend.
2. Moved to Korea so they could find themselves a Korean girlfriend/wife.
3. Moved to Korea to be bizarre creeps in another country.
(Note: this is a generalization! I know some guys who are none of these things, but for the most part it holds true)

The man I met was a former number two, moving on to a number three. Shortly after our conversation I motioned to Laurel that I was frightened and she informed myself and random creepy guy that we were meeting some friends and had to go. Boys reading this, never try to woo a girl by informing her that she's your race of choice. You may think it, but NEVER say it.

Okay, enough bitching about men! Here are some pictures that summed up this visit to Seoul nicely:

Me, (sporting a burn from shopping all day) in front of the "Luxury Ho Bar". This was one of several "Ho Bars" in the area, and apparently they're just regular bars with unfortunate names.

While walking through Insadong Laurel was just walking along looking at tourist items as an old homeless man walked by slapping her on the arm and laughing. I think he was crazy... and drunk... We were thinking that this might make a good t-shirt slogan so I wrote it down on a napkin and took a picture to preserve the memory. I'm fully aware of how weird I am. (Ruler is Laurel. Her name can be really hard to pronounce due to all the r's and l's, so that is usually what her students end up calling her.)

Veeeerrry Genius!

There are ridiculous amounts of billboards made in Korea. They cover every bit of commercial property and are used for even the most inane sort of advertising. Until now! When I saw this outside one of my co-teachers apartments, I had to take a picture.
Very genius.

Hajiiiiiimmmmaaaa!! (Stop That!)

I hate waiting for my elevator, so every morning I descend the twelve flights of stairs to get out of my building. As I was stepping down to the fifth floor there was an unmistakeable scent of urine. Awesome. Very rarely do people use stairs here, so they also seem to be a receptacle for cigarette butts, empty soju bottles and somewhere to dump pots of water (That's what I choose to believe. Why else would there be a puddle of water in the 10th floor stairwell?) .

I've also decided that my next door neighbours are the Korean version of "rednecks".
- Three or four children, all toddlers. Maybe they practice "natural family planning"?
- The mom is always yelling at her kids in the hallway, in a very public way.
- Instead of wheel-less trucks on cement blocks, all of the kids bikes and tricycles are lying around in the hall/balcony that I walk past to get to my apartment.
- There's a big tupperware container full of fermenting kimchi that's been sitting in the hallway for months. So that's kimchi that must get really HOT during the day. Sometimes I try not to breathe as I walk past.
- They are very nice though! The parents always say hi when the see me, and their kids are really cute (even though they like to play with my electronic door lock. They'll press buttons and wait for me to come out and point my finger at them saying "hajimmmmaaaa!!!". Then they laugh.)

In other news, no classes for the next couple of days since exams are coming again. So I've been preparing power points for the upcoming summer camp. Power point is my friend.

What a Wando-ful Hurricane it Was!

Today Mrs. Lee was checking out my blog and got me in trouble for not writing in it recently, so here I am!

So... this weekend: Stu decided it was a good idea to have a big party in Wando to celebrate the full moon and the birth of Canada, and I was all for it. Yes, it may be monsoon season, but up until now I hadn't experienced anything "monsoon-like"; just a bit of rain and a lot of humidity. So about a group of twenty crazy waygooks decided to pitch some tents near the beach. Saturday afternoon was beautiful! Nice and warm, and even a bit of sun. Once the sun had gone down though, it got a little cold and rainy, but that wasn't a big deal either. In the middle of the night, the wind really began to pick up. It sounded and felt like something was shaking the tent insessantly. I thought to myself "okay, that kind of sucks, but okay". Then the torrential downpour began. I was in a tent with Monique and Alex, and this tent wasn't so waterproof, so I was just trying to stay away from the edges. Then the thunder and lightning began, once striking so close that I FELT the reverberations (yeah... we were all in tents set up around the only trees in the area as well...). The rain was still pounding down soaking our tent so when the lightning let up, we took refuge in a big public restroom. Of course as I was running through the dark in the rain to the restroom I fell down twice, once into a huge puddle. Magnificent. Monique followed shortly thereafter and lost her sandal to the very same puddle I had fallen in! At this point sleep was certainly not an option and the sun had begun to rise somewhere behind the dreary dreary clouds. At about 5:30am we left the bathroom to start cleaning up our stuff and assess the damage. Someones motorcycle had fallen into the mud and broken the clutch, a big tent Stu had erected had fallen down, peoples tents were flooded and broken, and most heinous of all, I couldn't find my Korean won boxers (I'd left them to dry on a bench the previous evening and I thought they'd blown away. I later found them in my backpack). So we left camp at shortly after six (pouring rain still) to catch a bus back to our respective homes.

The guy wearing the Canada hat umbrella is just a random guy. Monique and I were on the beach and he came up to us asking to take pictures, and we gave him a bit of a glare, said no and walked away. Then as we were all sitting around drinking and chatting he came over again, telling us he was an "off duty coast guard", and wanting everyone's picture. So someone gave him a beer and we posed for some pictures.

All in all, a fun weekend! Thanks for the organization (and the curry!) Stu! A true adventure/disaster (there is no such thing as an adventure if there's no disaster!)!

Cathy's "Oh Crap I Fell Down Again!" Count: 2 678 895 and gaining everyday.

Just Me Being Random

- Yesterday I finally sent home a BIG box of some of the crap I've accumulated. It was so cheap I may send home another!
- Today we have a grade four class in. This means total anarchy and a lot of "mulaiyo's" (I don't understand), but the cuteness factor cancels it out.
- On the weekend, a foreigner (meaning a non-Korean) came up to me in Club Vanilla and started talking to me. He asked me if I was his sister, and I said "Ummmm... yes." I realized how un-hip I am.
- Did you know that "westerners" only eat sandwiches? It's a little known fact. I'm munching on a big sandwich as I write this.
- The humidity over here is sucking my will to live.
- Yesterday our computers were all shut down because my entire school's network got some sort of virus. 1) I have no idea what to do with myself at work without internet. 2) Mrs. Lee let me read her "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul" (in English) to pass the time. It only reinforced my hatred of teenagers.; well, perhaps not hatred so much as some sort of fear. 3) I don't handle sentimentality well.

Sajik Party and Other Disasters (not that the Sajik Party was a Disaster...)

Last week seemed to progress pretty slowly, so by the time the weekend arrived it felt more than due. On Friday night Alex came to visit Naju, so Alex, Monique and myself went out on the town in Naju. Of course we had to go to the Golden Kettle aka Sience 96, which is our own little hang-out place. The owner is a freindly ajumma who laughs at everything we say and likes to give us service-uh (which means discounts and stuff for free!). Then the next day it was off to Gwang-ju to catch an open-mic type night in Sajik Park. We got there early so we decided to see a movie called Lobe Troubles (Love and Other Disasters to those in Canada/States). It was really bad, but in English so I enjoyed it. Then we met up with Jessica and it was off to dinner at a restaurant serving Shabu Shabu (사부 사부), a delicious Japanese style meal. Everyone shares a big red pepper soup with lots of veggies, and throughout the meal you can add meat and noodles. At the end the server fries some rice and veggies up then you eat that as well. Delicious and filling.

After that we met up with more friends and it was off to Sajik Park to watch some people sing and play guitar etc, and they were all really good. After watching a bunch of performances, we all went to Club Banilla (hahahaha.. Club Vanilla), where we proceeded to dance to some hip-hop music and get stared at a lot. THEN we went to the WA Bar (not sure what WA stands for...) and sat around eating snacks for a while and people watching. After that everyone was ready to head back to the motel to get some sleep.

I guess Virginia got mad at me at one point... but Jessica's looking angelic in the background.Monique and former Najuite Stu. What a deserter he is!There are three types of Korean beer (well, I've only seen three...) Hite, OB (which makes me think of tampons), and Cass.

Layer of Wetness

Monsoon season has officially begun. I just went to the bank to pay some bills and it wasn't raining so much as just... misting. By the time I got back into the English town I had a layer of wetness everywhere (even though I was using an umbrella). Apparently this "rainy season" is going to last for about a month, then it will just be "so damn unbearably hot". Yeesh.

Not much happening in the English Town at the moment. Pretty much just waiting for the day to end. I had an funny (not funny ha ha)/angry moment in the classroom today. Whilst the class was in the middle of learning dialogues, I was asked to pronounce a word. She did this by pressing an imaginary button and looking at me, saying "play". Needless to say I was not amused.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!! And Pat as well!! (both upcoming, both getting pretty OLD, muahahahahaha). Seriously, love you guys, please help me find a car when I get back to Canada.

I'm far too lazy to speak in full sentences and remember things in chronological order. Thus:

- The apartment above mine has some leaky pipes happening which has caused a section of my wallpaper to get all wet and moldy and nasty. Of course I couldn't just talk to my upstairs neighbour, so I had to enlist the help of Mrs. Lee, who called the owners and we arranged a meeting. The only thing I understood was the man saying "chiosonghamnida", which means sorry. Apparently he's going to fix whatevers wrong. Wow, that's sort of a boring story. Sorry bout that!
- This weekend I'm going to go about getting a visa in order, so I can go to Beijing for a week!! (Aug. 4-11). Great Wall, here I come!
- Mrs. Lee is getting administration to pay for my flight home directly (instead of me paying then being reimbursed), which is awesome!! I'll be arriving in Canada the evening of August 21st.
- It's getting HOT over here. Monsoon season is supposed to be starting next week as well, which will make things interesting. HUMID. Weather here is pretty predictable compared to Canada. But I guess it's not a fair comparison since the weather in Canada is always insane.
- Today I started thinking about all of the photos of myself there are floating around the greater Jeolla area right now. Kids take pictures of me on their cell phones; people on the street will try to (and suceed in) taking pictures of me since I'm such an oddity; all of the teachers who bring their classes in make sure to get the waygook monster (i.e. me) into every shot; and I must admit there have been many times that I've wanted pictures with Hangookin (Korean) people, and then they end up taking pictures of me as well. So I was trying to think of how many pictures of me there are out there. Hundreds! Literally hundreds! *shudder* There goes my soul.
- Everyone who's contract is ending in August has begun to talk about "reverse culture shock". The theory is that when we go back to Canada, we're all going to wonder why the food is so bland, and wish we didn't have to understand EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION. I have to say, for the most part I kind of enjoy not understanding conversations. Then I can zone out and spend some time in my own little Cathy world, and later someone can explain a half hour conversation in two sentences. Of course this doesn't always go well and I get some mixed messages, but, meh.
- Spending time in Cathy world. Sigh. It's not such a great place for others, but for me it's a joyous occasion. I have great conversations with random people and find myself winning every argument. Everyone tells me how witty I am; I react with humour and humility when complimented etc. etc.
- Ha! Funny story. Last night I get a call on my home phone. Most of the time it's a random person with the wrong number, and this was the case again. In response to my "Hello", I got the usual "ahhh... yoboseyo?" (Korean phone greeting). At this point I gave my usual "I'm sorry, you have the wrong number" and hung up. He called right back, but at this point I was thinking he might realize he was calling the wrong number so I decided not to answer. After letting it ring for a looonnngg time, he gave up. Then directly after I get a THIRD call which I pick up and he starts trying to talk to me in English, apparently convinced that the person he wants to talk to has just made some waygook answer the phone as an elabourate joke. After saying hello again and telling him I'm a "waygook saram" he asks "You... in Korea?" At this point I could only laugh. Did he think he was accidently calling a foreign country (three times!!)? Did he think that he had accidently called another dimension where all people in Korea had been forced to learn English (maybe that is more of a "future" than an "alternate dimension" thing, if you get my drift)?
- I am the queen of digression.

Wave Index Finger in a Circular Motion Beside My Head, Indicating CRAZY

My Extra Class today:

Me: Students! Listen!!

Students: (talking amongst themselves, completely ignoring me).

Me: Me!! (pointing at myself) You!! (pointing at students) You make Cathy teacher, make Me, CRAZY! (wave index finger in a circular motion beside my head, indicating crazy) Crazy!!

Students: (not listening, some are writing on the whiteboard thinking I don't notice what they're doing)

Me: YOU make ME want to kill myself!! (makes motions of tying a rope around my neck and killing myself)

Students: (still chatting. Maybe one or two students are attempting to decipher what Candy Teacher has said)

Me: (gives a desperate/resigned laugh, moves on to making the kids talk about what time they get up in the morning)

Enough said about those little punks! This weekend I went off to Mokpo yet again, to check out an island called Waydaldo. It was a fun afternoon of beach, gossip and cooking a couple of hotdogs on a stick. After a rainstorm I got a sweet picture of the sun breaking through the clouds in a very picturesque and aesthetically pleasing fashion. More pics can be viewed on my flickr site, which is linked to the right!

Butt

A student that came in today was wearing a shirt that said "BUTT" in big red letters. I tried to explain what it means but she just gave me a confused look and walked off. Sigh.

Better Than Christmas

I was sitting in my apartment last night watching some horrible reality show when I hear this god awful noise below. I look out my balcony window and there's this truck in the parking lot with a man sitting in the bed with what looks like a big huge gun!! Being the alarmist I am, my mind immediately goes to all sorts of crazy situations, then he presses a button and an engine starts up. It sounds sort of like a REALLY loud lawnmower and the man presses the trigger. Out flies a HUGE cloud of white smoke and I realize it's the MOGGY MAN!!! (Moggy is the Korean word for Mosquito). He was spraying bug repellent all over the place! I was inordinantly excited.
The best thing about it is that a bunch of the kids were running after the truck and playing in the toxic fumes. Mmmmm... healthy!!

I've Just Gotten Used to Everything

I kind of feel like my blogs are lacking in the stories I usually have. It's not because nothing ever happens to me now, it's just that nothing seems strange here anymore! I've gotten used to the mountains, the ajummas, the stares; and I have mastered a sort of "Survival Korean" that includes gesturing, pointing, one word responses and smiling, which has begun to serve me quite well. One day I had just gotten onto my elevator and an old woman got on with me. In Korean, she asked me what floor I lived on and I responded in Korean. Then she asked my how much I had spent to acquire the watermelon in my hand, and again I was able to tell her in Korean (chil chun or $7, which is pretty cheap in Korea). As I'm walking along the Naju river kids walk past me, talking about me and I can always understand what they're saying. It's either "Hey, it's Candy the English teacher at Naju English Town!" or "Look!! An American/foreign person!!".

Enough of that. Virginia, a new Mokpoer had a "Housewarming-Rooftop-BBQ-get-together" on Saturday night. The theme: dress up as a song title. So Alex and I joined forces and came up with "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot(s)" by the flaming lips.

Lyrics:

Her name is Yoshimi

she's a black belt in karate

working for the city

she has to discipline her body'

Cause she knows that

it's demanding

to defeat those evil machines

I know she can beat them

Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me

but you won't let those robots eat me

Yoshimi, they don't believe me

but you won't let those robots defeat me

Those evil-natured robots

they're programmed to destroy us

she's gotta be strong to fight them

so she's taking lots of vitamins... (and so on)

If you look closely you can see that I'm holding a case that says "VITAMIN", I'm wearing a black belt, and I have chopsticks (from Japan!!) in my hair, AND I"m wearing a pair of Yen boxers (which you can't see). I have WAAAAYYY too much time on my hands, but my costume pales in comparison to Alex's. He had to paint a bunch of boxes pink, and whined about it a lot.

I just had my extra class. The evil ringleader and his cronies showed up half way through the class so I locked them out of the room. It was awesome. I'm well aware that they didn't learn their lesson but for once I didn't have to spend half the class trying to make them shut their pie-holes, so it was a positively blissful class.

This Morning's Dream

I'm eating a big bowl of this weird iridescent soup (but that's not the weird part). It's sitting on my lap, and for some reason I'm bent right over it, eating away. My hair is down, and hanging right above the soup as I eat, so I notice one of my hairs has gotten into the soup. I pick it out, but since it's my hair, I'm not too disturbed, so I keep eating. All of the sudden there are ten more hairs (apparently from my head) in the soup, and I have to painstakingly fish out these big long thick curly hairs. Just as I've put the last hair in the garbage (conveniently sitting next to me) I look back at my soup and there is literally half of my hair (and that's a lot of hair) in the soup. So I gave up on the soup and awoke feeling hungry.

Facebook is an EVIL little program.

Gettin' on in years...

Sometimes I feel so very old.
If someone had told me in high school that I'd end up teaching, I would have laughed scornfully at them. "Me? Teaching? I hate teachers. I hate school. Impossible." But here I am yelling at kids and trying to teach them to say sentences like "Birds eat bugs" (taught my extra class kids about food today).

Calm Down Candy Teacher!

I've been so unaccountably angry today, and for the past few days (I credit my oncoming period... too much information?). Usually I can see the humour in most situations, and handle small changes in schedule with a shrug and a "meh". Today about thirty men in suits had to come in today to "see Naju English Town". Sigh. It's not the visit that's the annoying part, its that no one knows what the hell is going on, least of all me since I can't understand what is being said at any given time! After changing the schedule, changing the schedule back to the way it usually is (multiple times), being interrupted during a class, fussing again and again over details, people showing up late, etc. etc. the group of visitors stayed long enough to have a glass of orange juice and take some pictures with eachother.

The reason I'm not on a rampage over stupid little things beyond my control:

1. Everyday as I enter the gates at school this little boy runs up to me and shakes my hand. He doesn't say anything, he just smiles in a goofy way and shakes my hand very enthusiastically. Then sometimes as I'm walking away after he's already shaken my hand he'll run up and shake my hand again. Elementary school kids are so ridiculously cute.

2. I was sent a picture of me with the bikers we met on the weekend.