quotes

Our office can sometimes be quite funny. A few weeks ago, as the new teachers were getting settled in, we were walking to the only restaurant that is within walking distance (on a cold day anyway) from our campus. The dinner wasn't so enticing in the cafeteria, so on the spur of the moment, a few of us decided to walk to this little hole in the wall restaurant. It was very cold, and I hadn't planned on going out, so I was just wearing a shirt, jeans, and a coat. It wasn't enough. As we ran with teeth chattering to the restaurant, somebody said that we should make a TV show of our life here. Then somebody said, "Well, we could! It seems like anything is possible in Yanji!" We've been quoting that line ever since.

That same teacher often says quite funny stuff. She was the one who inspired me to make a schedule for myself to keep on track as I study Korean, because she had made one for herself to study MCAT. So, I was asking her if she'd kept up with her MCAT study schedule. I have tried to keep up with mine, but I decided to also count watching my Korean drama as study time. So, she said: "Oh, I wish there were an MCAT drama!"

One more, just for good measure. Three of us went to a meeting on Sunday downtown and we saw another teacher there. The next day, one of our group said to the other teacher: "Remember that day we saw you downtown?" It took us a few seconds to realize it, but she was talking about yesterday. So, I said "Do you mean yesterday?" and we all laughed. Sometimes we feel like time flies, but then some days are so long!

We have a board in the office where we put funny things people say. Needless to say, it's never empty.

I am reading the essays from my intermediate class. They were supposed to make a timeline of important events in their life and then choose one event and write about it. One of my students wrote about her first job. It was a year ago during winter break. She got a job for 3 yuan an hour and worked two hours per day. That's less than one dollar for two hours of waitressing. She said she walked instead of taking the bus in -12 degrees Celsius weather in order to save more money. Wow.

good things about warm weather

The high today was supposed to be 48 degrees. It was really a lovely day...blue skies, not much wind....
So, I got started thinking about all the good things that go along with warmer weather:

We walked outside from the office to the cafeteria to lunch and back and enjoyed it.
Soon we'll be able to sit outside on the grassy hill after lunch or play frisbee after classes.
They took the extra makeshift wooden door off the outside of the doors.
Soon the nasty, dirty curtains that they have on all the doors downtown (to keep the warm air in) will come off and my hands will stay so much cleaner.
Now, we can take walks/jogs around the school instead of hiking it to the gym everytime we want to do something other than play badminton in the gym or jumprope inside.
We can go outside without two layers plus all the outerwear. So much simpler. We can even wear skirts now!
Soon, we'll be wearing flip-flops and we might even be able to get a little color in our skin. Who knows.

Although, there are some downsides to the warm weather too. One friend was going to get some chestnuts tonight, but the roasted chestnut vendor has apparently packed up for the year. Only a cold weather treat. Also, I bought some frozen stuff at the supermarket tonight and it'll be totally melted if I don't get it back soon. A month ago, it would have lasted quite a while longer. So, I better get it home.

already a week!

This past week went by so quickly! I'm spending most of my Saturday, again, in the office e-mailing, writing tests, entering grades in the computer, and trying to get stuff ready so I can leave my classes for a day and a half with another teacher. I got three teachers to cover my three classes for Friday and Monday morning. They were all very gracious, even though they don't get anything for it except what I can give them by way of thank you (like some homemade cookies, or perhaps a special find from Korea).

I finished interviewing all my 80-or-so students except for one this week. That's a big accomplishment. Now I can use my time in the office to get work done.

I taught Rascal Flatt's song "Broken Road" to my intermediate class on Friday. It sort of goes with life lessons and the idiom that we learned on Friday was "blessing in disguise." They like learning songs, and it's fun to teach them, too. I'm gonna teach George Strait's "Run" this week to my beginner class. We're doing a unit on entertainment, so they are learning about the different names for genres of music. Most of them say they like country music, but I'm not sure they really understand what country music is. I've played a few samples for them, and I even did a few steps of the two step, which they thought was funny.

I've started watching a new Korean drama this week: 넌 어느 별에서 왔니? And I finally called my Korean tutor from last semester, so we are going to start meeting once a week. I set up a Korean study schedule for myself which I'm trying to keep, and I have the number for a girl who wants to tutor me in Chinese, so I'm gonna start that this week or next. So much to learn!

an amazing snow

You can't really understand how impressive this snow was by looking at the picture, but you have to try to imagine this:
Yesterday, it was snowing small flakes as I walked to the office before my 8:00 class. During my 9:00 class, it turned into rain, then at about 11:00, it began snowing these HUGE flakes of snow. All of us who were in the English conversation office lined up at the windows to watch it.
Here were some of the comments:
"If you wanted to have a snowball fight with this, all you'd have to do is catch one flake and throw it!"
"What kind of environmental conditions would cause the snow to come down in such large clumps?"
"I've never seen anything like this before!"

It was all gone an hour or so after lunch, because the temperature has really warmed up in the past week, but it was amazing while it lasted.

Yesterday afternoon, I went on an adventure to try to get a return ticket from Korea to Yanji. I am planning on going for just the weekend, so I booked my return flight on the ticket that I used to get here last summer. Since one way tickets are not that much more expensive than round trip tickets, I just planned on getting a ticket from Seoul to Yanji. I called the three companies that run these flights and found that Korean air had the cheapest price. So, I went to their office and waited for fifteen minutes or so for the ticket to be booked at another office and then was going to pay for it, but it turned out to be much more expensive than the price they quoted to me. They said it was because of oil taxes. Well, why couldn't they tell me that before I withdraw the cash to pay for it? I didn't have enough cash on me, and cash was all they were able to take. So, I went to another company to purchase the same flight from them, because it turned out to be cheaper, but they couldn't book me a ticket that began in Seoul.

A bit frustrated with all this, I walked to the gym to get in a short workout before a scheduled meeting with someone in the evening. I was hungry, because I'd had only a little roll of kimbap for lunch, so I stopped by a Korean style snack vendor for some spicy rice patty on a stick to give me some fuel for my workout. I asked for what I wanted in Korean, because I figured someone selling Korean snacks would speak Korean. She told me how much it was in Chinese, and I thought she said 5 yuan. I thought she was ripping me off because I was a foreigner, so I looked at the little girl next to me with a confused look, and then the little girl translated the price into Korean. Then I realized that she'd said 5 mao (6 cents) and not 5 yuan (6o cents). It's kinda funny that I would even consider paying 54 cents more for a rice patty a rip off.

some things i love now

1. drinking hot water, even with no tea or anything else to flavor it
when i first saw/experienced this in Korea, I thought it was pretty strange. now, i drink it at home, especially on cool nights when i've already brushed my teeth.

2. quail eggs
they have beautiful little spotted shells. you can boil them, peel them, and eat them with salt and pepper, or after peeling, cook and let soak in some soy sauce and eat them as a side dish. i had a friend over last night who helped me peel a batch and she said "i love everything about these things...their size, their taste, the look of the shells..."

3. running to rap music
i never have really liked rap, but a friend gave me some so that she could upload it from my computer to her mp3 and i put it on my ipod and used it for music while running. i don't run for long, but the energy and the beat in the music made the time go by faster

caffeine

So, I decided to go off cokes and coffee for a while as a form of giving something up and to see what extent of detox my body would go through. I guess lent inspired me, but I started a day after lent and I don't think I'll go the whole period of lent. I didn't give up all caffeine, though. I still drink an occassional cup of hot chocolate (a previous teacher sent our office a big box of hot chocolate mix) and an occassional cup of tea. Still, the effects have been interesting. I didn't have big headaches like I thought I would, but even yesterday, on my fifth day of this experiment, I felt a little light headed around dinner time. I read up a little this morning on the effects of caffeine and found this. I took the caffeine quiz, and even at the most I think I would drink in one day, this was my result:

Your total estimated caffeine intake is 280 milligrams each day. This is
equivalent to 3.5 strong cups of instant coffee (where 1 cup = 80mg). For
most adults there's virtually no risk in consuming this amount of caffeine per
day. At these levels it can boost your mood, alertness and physical
performance. However, some individuals can be particularly sensitive to
the effects of caffeine with only small amounts causing jitters and anxiety. If
you're aware that you're sensitive it would be wise to switch to decaffeinated
drinks. For children, even levels of 100mg can cause increased anxiety
levels.

So, I guess there's no real reason for me to be off caffeine except for the reason of giving something up in order to deny myself. I guess it's the same with a full on fast. There's no reason to give up food unless you have a higher reason.