Holiday Joy

Quick update for all of you who are so very worried about the state of my health...

I HAVE HEAT! ^^

It decided to start working last night while I was asleep. Boy was I grateful, what with it being winter and all.

I also, apparently, have a Korean mother (of sorts). As I was preparing to leave my favorite porridge store after lunch today, the owner came over and gave me an umbrella. It was snowing and she noticed that I didn't have one.

So not to worry--I'm alright.

And So This Is Christmas

Ok, so I've been, admittedly, pretty bad at keeping up this whole blog-thing. I apologize. But I also have an excuse: the plague.

That's right, the scourge of the fourteenth century has once again made a reappearance in my life, and this time I can't blame it on the mosquitoes (they finally seem to have died out, thank God). I could maybe blame it on my land (slum) lady seeing as I STILL don't have heat...but whatever, I'll take the high road. This time.

So the plague came and is still lingering, but I managed to dispell most of it before Christmas. Which was pretty good, if I don't say so myself...

On the 24th we had Christmas parties all day at school, some were sanctioned by the administration, others not so much. But in my opinion they should never again organize a Christmas party, so whatever. The events THEY planned involved five and six year olds watching a play in which a witch abducts seven children and forces their mother to cut off her own feet before returning them. Our party involved soccer and relay races. Now who do you think the more qualified party-planners are? Ya, that's right.

After school all of the foreign teachers headed back to Caitlin's apartment where we all pitched in and made Christmas dinner. My contribution was, of course, my sparkling personality and the ability to eat more than all of the other teachers combined. Well that and washing the dishes, but who's keeping score?

It was a great night that can essentially be summarized in five words: food, wine, Konglish and belly dancing.

Christmas morning found the boys on a plane bound for Thailand and Caitlin and I opening the stockings (ie: stuffed rugby socks) that we had made for each other, along with all the gifts that Caitlin's family had sent over to her. We than had a lovely Western-style breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast and then headed into Seoul for our hotel stay.
The Grand Hyatt Seoul will forever remain near and dear to my heart. From the bathtub to the bed, the heat and the most amazing breakfast I've ever had, the Hyatt gave me everything I had ever dreamt of and more. Cue cheesy romantic tune now...




After we checked in to the hotel we headed into Itaewon to make a visit to the "Evil Pie Man"--a pastry chef from Maine who makes the most amazing pies. We each picked up a personal-sized pie (pumpkin for me, butter tart for Caitlin) which we promptly ate as soon as we made it back to the hotel.

On Friday we headed out to find Seoul Tower and, after about an hour aimlessly wondering around the forest looking for the trail that leads to the tower, we caught a cab and drove part of the way there. It was a good thing too, seeing as we had been going in the complete opposite direction of where we had needed to go. I could hear Andrea in my head the whole time: "Jacquie, you need to ORIENT the map. Orient the map, Jacquie". Sigh.

Anyway, we did make it to the tower and we even managed to find a spot on the fence for our locks. Tradition has it that if you and your significant other place your locks together on the fence surrounding Seoul Tower and throw the keys over the side of the mountain, then you'll be together forever. As much as Caitlin and I secretly hope to become crazy cat ladies together, we put our locks on the fence facing the Hyatt more for the sake of remembrance than anything else. That and the fact that we were feeling a little left out by all the cuddly smooching couples wearing matching outfits that were surrounding us. But whatever.



And now it's Saturday, December 27th. Christmas has come and gone and so has our stay at the nicest hotel in Seoul. I'm sitting in my apartment, sipping coffee with about five layers of clothing on, already missing the comfort of the hotel and contemplating heading to Caitlin's for the night to steal some of her heat. It was a nice Christmas, although unconventional. There were a lot of changes this year that took some getting used to. I'm thankful that I had Caitlin beside me and a family on the other end of the phone full of happiness and cheerful messages. I'm sorry that I didn't get to talk to everyone--I hope you all had a lovely holiday and thanks for all the well-wishes!

I promise that I'll update more often over the holidays--we have a week and a bit left before we have to go back to work and Caitlin and I are going to try and keep busy. We finally bought a few travel guides on India so a lot of our time will be spent planning the next trip! No doubt the anticipation is going to be what pulls us through to March!

Rose...er, Shiraz... Coloured Glasses

I had almost forgotten how beautiful the world can be when seen through a fresh lens... be it the eyes of a child or an amazing bottle of red wine with a great friend.

Oh the revelations one can make... after three hours at the Outback Steakhouse, no less...

Speaking of the Weather...

Talking about the weather is pretty much a sure bet. When you have nothing else to discuss, have no idea what you and the person you’re sitting next to have in common, there is always this common thread. I’ve met no small number of good friends over a casual conversation about the weather. So, when I realized that the quality of my blog was deteriorating and I needed something to write about, this seemed like a solid option.

We had our first cold snap and our first snowfall this past weekend, but I encourage you to take each statement with a grain of salt. It was around -7 during the cold snap, and the snow melted as soon as it touched the ground. But hey, the Koreans were all going on about it, so when in Rome...

Like in Ontario, the weather here is bipolar. With a touch of ADHD and a dash of OCD to top it all off. Hot, cold, sunny, raining, freezing, hot... you never know exactly what to expect. That being said, even when it’s been cold here, it’s still got nothing on winter back home. There’s very little snow and, while the wind chill can be bitterly cold (think Montreal wind tunnels in the middle of February...), it’s alright if you’re sheltered. I’m mentioning this because it hasn’t gotten so cold that I’ve had to turn my heat on. Yet.

Apparently this is a problem. At least for my landlady. Concerned that she hadn’t gotten a gas bill for my apartment yet, she called my principal to make sure that I wasn’t freezing to death and that I know how to work my heating. Or at least to ensure that someone was indeed living in apartment 103...

The reality of the situation? I had no idea how to turn my heating on, but that was just because I hadn’t been cold enough to explore the dark recesses beneath my kitchen sink where, logically, the heat controls are located. But it’s good to know that I have a landlady who cares. Even if she is more of a slumlord... lady?... than a landlady. Whatever. She cares.

Kodak moment for sure.

Anyway, I doubt I’ll be needing to turn the heat on anytime soon. It’s been averaging about 7 degrees for the past few days and I don’t think it’s going to drop substantially in the near future. And for the record, I’m rather enjoying the not-so-snowy-not-uber-freezing weather, although it is a little difficult to feel festive without snow.

That may change seeing as Caitlin and I just helped Alister decorate his Christmas tree; a celebration we marked with several bottles of wine, a little vodka and cranberry juice, and the always-festive Mama Mia and Madagascar 2. They may not be The Muppet Christmas Carol or Frosty the Snowman, but we have all been belting out the Abba for several days now... We’re also heading into Seoul this weekend to check out the Christmas lights and debate the merits of a white Christmas over those of a summer Christmas. Two Canadians and a Kiwi... I’m pretty sure we can all predict which argument will reign supreme...

Teaching as Colour by Number

Now there’s been a lot of really crappy stuff happening recently, so I thought that everyone could use a laugh and might appreciate this little beauty...

Nothing in life is ever black or white. In teaching, it's never gray either. There's a clear colour distinction in the field of education: pink and blue.

Sometimes these colours align nicely. Seeing as my students are five years old, the majority of my time is spent making sure that both the blues and the pinks don’t pick their noses (it’s a bonus if I can stop them eating it too), that they not hit each other and don’t go running out of my classroom whenever they feel like it. Oh, and making sure they don’t hop on the elevator on the way to the bathroom (our school is on the sixth floor... it’s Korea. Tiny country + large population = high rises for everything). Sometimes we even get actual school work done.

Because of the elevator issue, we do a lot of group trips to the bathroom. Obviously, there is a strong colour distinction in this area. Pink: they must not all go into one bathroom stall together, they must flush the toilets and wash their hands. Blue: they must wash their hands and attempt to aim. But that's just scraping the surface.

Being a girl, I didn’t know that “situations” often occur with little boys in bathrooms. But they do. Frequently. Trips to the blue bathroom often involve helping each other aim and even peeing on one another. Going to the bathroom might be a group activity for girls, but nothing like that ever happens on the pink side of life.

One of these “situations” occurred this past week. Three of my blues went into the bathroom and it wasn’t long before I heard yelling. As I stepped into the washroom to see what was happening, one of my students quickly ran into a bathroom stall and the other two were standing in the middle of the bathroom doing up their pants in tears. Through the sobs I managed to decipher “He saw our gochus, but we didn’t get to see his!” When I asked if that was really a big deal, I was met with renewed tears and a lot of head nodding.

After calming the boys down, confirming that “gochu” actually did mean penis and singing my way through group circle time, I informed my Korean teacher of the problem. She said she would talk to the boys. Assuming all was well with the world, I continued my day as planned.

The next day as I was teaching my class their phonics lesson my Korean teacher came rushing into the room, a little stressed out and obviously flustered. After a lot of gesturing I finally realized that she wanted to talk about penises, so I spent a solid five minutes teaching her the word “penis” in front of a classroom full of five year olds, before I learnt that the mother of the boy who had rushed into the bathroom stall was concerned about what had happened the day before. I assured her that I would keep an eye on all the boys and not allow them to go to the bathroom together.

Since that day it has been a struggle to keep them separated, keep their hands out of their pants, and keep other parts of their bodies in them. All three boys now feel the need to expose themselves on a regular basis. My pinks have no idea what to make of this situation. Now, being made of sugar and spice myself, I had no idea what to do with this situation, so I turned to the only solution I know: stickers. You now receive stickers in my class for staying fully clothed.

So really, it all worked out in the end. There is no more nudity in my class, my kids get more stickers and my pink Korean teacher and I have both expanded our blue vocabularies. The colours are, for a little while anyway, nicely aligned. Like a two-toned rainbow of sorts.

Irony

You know those times when things are really ironic? Truly ironic?

Like when you're living on one side of the world having earth-shattering epiphanies, like how much you like mornings, while life back at home is crashing down around everyone?

Ya, those times.