The next week-- 7? Have I really been here that long?

I’m getting lazy. Or busy. Not sure which. Or maybe the days have gotten so comfortable, they are blurring together.

This week was finals at my school, so I only taught 1/3 of my usual classes. Which was good and bad. Good because I used the free time to work on my Winter Camp (wait… no classes… but more work? That’s good?). I also used the free time to finish my 20 hours training course for EPIK (the memory is killing me as I type—moving on while I still have a little soul left…). Three straight days later I completed my course, wrote up 10 lesson plans, made a materials list, did several power points, rip several songs and videos, and make some worksheets. I impressed the crap out of my co-teacher.

Mostly because she came in to find me in the completely deserted office happily toiling away (I say happily because the office was SILENT!—no VP making weird smacking noises or Music teacher snapping her gum). She also amazed that I can use powerpoint (my power points would look more fantastic if I could read Korean for animations and hyperlinks).

Obviously it’s my super-amazing levels of concentration I thought had died a slow, agonized death at the forced ADHD multi-tasking uselessness of retail. It revives! Like a zombie…

One of my “lessons” for camp is making gingerbread houses. Finding the materials was a trip and a half. I think I finally got it all nailed down. Korea doesn’t have graham crackers. And I am supposed to be getting powdered sugar, but I’m not sure they understood “POWDERED” sugar verses white sugar. We’ll see. If not, we can always use glue. Lame and the kids can’t eat it but ya know. If that’s how the Lotte Coconut Butter Biscuit crumbles…

But the funny part is I bought a box of crackers to test-build a house. But, of course, I forgot the cardinal rule of food in the Korean office. If its laying out, it’s a free for all. I set it out on a plate to build it and the next thing I know someone’s swiped two crackers. And I couldn’t explain why I needed them and that they weren’t for eating. So I put the sacrificial crackers out and grabbed a different bag for my house. It was a revolving door of co-workers who came in to snag a cracker or two. I also gave a cracker to Miss Chatterbox and another girl. Now to get rid of the other 4 packages… shouldn’t be too hard.

The kids also tried to dupe me. Grade 5 kids came into Grade 3/4’s class and sat down. I went WTF? But kept teaching. Class ended and I dismissed 3/4 and looked at Grade 5. They spent the next 20 minutes trying to explain to me why I should let them go home early. We used an online translator (which seemed to fascinate them) and when I asked if it was okay with a Korean teacher I got guilty looks. UH-HUH, yup. But when Mrs. Chae returned and I asked her, she replied I was the teacher, so it was my decision. I said good-bye! They did an hour of English and really did have exams to study for. I hope they don’t consider trying it again though because they think I was being too easy. Next time I’ll make them do both hours and they won’t like it.

In any case, all I’ll be doing for the next two weeks of after school is Fantasia. No English, colorful, and it has music. The kids aren’t going to be good for anything else, since exams are done. I’m just going to show the movie and ask the usual questions “how many” and “what color” and “what are they doing?” I may incorporate a game into it somehow, but maybe not. Grade 1 & 2 will continue on with phonics and flashcards because they don’t have the attention spans for 40 minutes of movie.

And at some point during this week I was hit on by a (possibly drunk) Korean man. I played the dumb foreigner who doesn't understand Korean card when he asked where I lived. I think he was kinda put off by the fact that the local stray cat ran up to me and started rubbing against my legs. Koreans aren't a big fan of cats. I don't know why this cat "Navi" whom I have named "Arthur" (and no, that is not a Catalia reference) is so friendly, but I feed him jerky and the Koreans feed him random things. He's so skinny though. I'd like to bring him inside during the night but I have no idea how. Its just so cold outside for a half-dead cat.

The most exciting part of my week was the acquisition of a beautifully terrible and intimidating Korean oven. Koreans don’t use ovens to cook. They use stoves and school heaters. The oven is all in Korean, the instructions are in Korean, and the cookbook that came with it is in Korean. However, the oven mitt is not in Korean, so I can use it without fear of mistranslation.

I still can’t believe my school bought it for me! I asked for a toaster oven to bake potatoes in!!

Then I ran around like some demented housewife looking for baking supplies in Korea. Easier said than done… especially when I got distracted in Home Plus by the pencil fish… and the dollar section. And I had to buy some more $10 cheese. Somehow I always come out with more than I intended. I’m sure TESCO is very pleased, like the evil British corporate empire they are.

I really need to sit down and hash out a budget. Having all this money makes living within my means ridiculously easy, but I need to start paying off those debts. The cheese may become limited in the near future… I still think with all my generous spending that I’m still living off less than $500 (even after bills, travel, clothes, and food). I could probably live off of $300 if I ate only Korean food and didn’t travel.

The muffins actually turned out pretty good. I used Korean guinea pigs to test them before taking them to school with me tomorrow. The first batch of banana nut muffins came out square (I know, round muffin tin, square muffins, I don’t have an explanation) and burnt on the top. The second batch came out a little flat but perfect. The pumpkin muffins were an experiment because I had to make the “pumpkin puree” which was really acorn squash puree. They came out really good but “oozed” out of the top, so they look demented. This was all complicated by the fact that my measuring “cups” were not cups but grams and ounces. Yes for the fact that Americans use completely different measuring systems than the rest of the world. I love trying to convert cups to grams in my head! Lots of guestimating here.

I also invited Eun Hee over to help me with the oven which turned into a sleep over. Which might have gone better if I had the heat on (I was gone all day) and could get my comforter dried out. Bad, BAD idea to wash it—no matter how badly it stank. It overloaded the tiny washer and wouldn’t drain. So I had to haul it out (it weighed more than I do) and drape it over the edge to drain the water. I left it overnight, so when I retrieved it the next day it was an icicle. I took the ice-sheet into the bathroom to thaw. It is now spread across the bathroom (the bathroom is smaller than my bed!) drying.

I need to cut back on the church. I’m glad to be included and invited, but I remember why it’s not my scene. Even less so since it’s all in Korean. I enjoy the singing (YES for sight reading!) and I think I’m being used as a distraction for Eun Hee (I’m sure she’s heard her father’s sermons a billion times and needs something to keep her occupied—random subject-verb agreement discussions on paper seem to do the trick). It’s lovely, I enjoy eating lunch and listening to the music and the sermon, but I don’t want to spend hours and hours at church either. 

Next weekend I’ll be out of town anyway. I’m going down to Daegu (uggh, 4 hour trip—I dislike being in the middle of nowhere—I mean Gangwon) to visit an animal shelter. I want to talk to one of the coordinators and meet the animals and check out the shelter. I have told them I’m interested in a dog, but I cannot do anything until after winter vacation (kinda stupid to get a dog for three weeks then have to board it for two weeks). We’ll see. Somehow I imagined my next dog would be… bigger. Not a maltese or mini poodle or yorkie… I was thinking a cockalier or king Charles spaniel. That’s just not practical though, since I don’t own a car or a large apartment.

And on a side note, I am breaking out like crazy. I think it’s the meat. I never had this problem before. And I’m really bad about scratching/popping them too. Maybe that’s why the Korean women cake on the foundation? I suspect this is why they become the dreaded ajummas though. They don’t seem to age gracefully at all. And my skin is drying out like crazy despite the lotion.

My translated "instructions" for the dial-- using it is a little more complicated but I figured it out faster than Eun Hee who was actually reading the manual

I keep meaning to take a picture of one of these. Think ice cream truck that sells veggies, fruits, garlic, tofu, and eggs... and announces its presence with a loudspeaker instead of music.