And Now For Something a Little Different
...or maybe just some random comments.

Korean snowmen are only made from 2 huge snowballs, not 3. My co-teacher and I discussed this and her explanation was this: “Koreans are short.” They also strictly stick to winter hats. They choose not to don top hats. Although I have seen a few that appear to be wearing hats that could also double as metal pails. And they always wear scarves.

Whenever I say the word ‘family’ in class, my students parrot back, “Emily!” Not because the words are related in any way or that they consider me family…simply because they sound the same to them. They also can’t tell the difference between ‘dad’ and ‘dead’. After enunciating the different vowel sounds numerous times to help them hear the difference, I became horrified by the ‘a’ sound I was making for ‘dad’. I sounded like Fran Drescher.

I saw King Kong a while back. I actually think I may have seen it on opening day (for the US as well as Korea). It was enjoyable enough as long as you find the over-the-topness humorous and not simply insanely unbelievable. It was a very pretty movie. Adrian Brody is weird. King Kong obviously never received the “don’t shake the baby” memo.

Weird thing overheard at school: I was sitting at my desk. A student runs by my room in the hallway singing the early 90s dance hit, “Everybody dance now!” A 5th grade Korean student singing that song…I was not expecting that one. This song also makes me laugh because way back in the day when it was popular my mom mis-sung the lyrics and said instead, “Everybody sit down!” Funny stuff.

I’ve also heard a large number of my students ‘singing’ that really annoying ditty that used to be played on a commercial in Madison (possible nation-wide, I don’t recall). It’s hard to explain since there are no words; it’s just an annoying sound. I would write it as thus: “Wah-wah, wah-wah-wah! Wah-wah! Wah-wah-wah!” Over and over again. I think it was a commercial for some sort of internet service. And it was super loud. You’d leave the room during a commercial break and wouldn’t hear any commercials until that came on and it’d be crystal clear.

On Saturdays my co-teacher has to go into school. Sometimes she teaches a few classes. A couple of weeks ago she played some Christmas songs for a class form a cd I had burned of Christmas songs and brought in. I walked in the classroom the next Monday and see written on the board, “Last Christmas I gave you my heart. But the very next day you gave it away. This year I’ll send it from tears, I’ll give it to someone special.” Interesting choice. I don’t even really understand those lyrics. I can’t imagine Korean 4th and 5th graders would. Haha, George Michael. But I think that song (or possibly a remake of it) was popular here this year around Christmastime.

The baby in the apartment next to me is crying its head off. Usually I don’t hear it. I hope it’s not being killed.

When did the whole giving-celebrity-couples-one-name thing start up? I find it both humorous and stupid. Was Bennifer (as in Affleck and J Lo) the first? Are Affleck and Garner now referred to as Bennifer II? I think I read that somewhere. We also now have Brangelina and TomKat. Any others out there I’m missing? Any funny ones we can make up ourselves?

I bought a thing of Kraft parmesan cheese the other day. It cost about $8. I thought it was ridiculously exorbitant, but Joleen has informed me it’s expensive in the US as well. It’s dried cheese, for Christ’s sake!

I was reading the news on yahoo.com a bit ago and was both surprised and confused when I read the headline, “Zellweger, Chesney said found in Outback.” First off, I didn’t know they were missing. Second, it’s just bizarre. But upon further inspection, I discovered that I merged two headlines together. The first headline read, “Zellweger, Chesney union annulled in LA” and the headline directly beneath it read, “Ice Age footprints said found in Outback.’ Ahh, makes much more sense…But they do make a nice trio, eh?

Koreans and Japanese people don’t like each other. Granted, I’m sure that is a pretty big blanket statement (haha…fallacies), but generally speaking it seems to be true. I’m sure there’s a lot of history behind this animosity. Koreans hate that people call the Sea of Japan the ‘Sea of Japan’. To them it is called the East Sea. When I said the map on my wall (from the US) called it the Sea of Japan the student I was talking to was abhorred. But really, the Sea of Japan makes much more sense than the East Sea. I mean, it’s pretty much only the East Sea to Korea. It’s not as if the US gets all pissed about it being the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the Southern Gulf, damn it!!! There’s also this tiny island in the East Sea/Sea of Japan called Dokdo. Apparently both Korea and Japan claim it. I don’t know why they care about it. Actually, I think there is some reason related to fishing, but I can’t remember. Anyway, I always get asked, “Who do you think Dokdo belongs to?? Who does America think it belongs to??” Umm, I had never heard of it before coming here. And I’m sure the US couldn’t care less. But for future reference, if a Korean ever asks you that, say Dokdo belongs to Korea. Also, Some Koreans want to change the English spelling of Korea to Corea. I was told by someone that this was because they wanted to be able to march before Japan at the Olympics. If this isn’t taking it a little too far, I don’t know what is.

Another reason my school is idiotic (and another example of the idiocy that is the bureaucratic system here): For a while my school had me teach 1.5 hour teacher classes. So, at the end of the month my total number of OT hours was something like 22.5 (or something…the important thing being it had a .5). So I turn in my OT hours but am later told that they can’t pay me for a half an hour because “there’s no official document telling us what to do about it.” Ok, it’s not rocket science. I get paid 20,000 won/hour, therefore just pay me 10,000 for that half hour. Come on, you’re Asians…aren’t you supposed to be good at math?? But no, they can’t do this because they don’t have a document telling them that this is what to do. So then they tried telling me that they were just going to drop the half hour from my OT pay, prompting me to say, “So I’m not going to get paid for it??” Wtf? You’re the morons who made me teach 1.5 hour classes in the first place. You’re gonna friggin’ pay me for it. I think they could sense my irritation so they planned out this intricate process by which they can pay me (which I seriously doubt will end up working out, but whatever). In case you couldn’t tell, I am extremely annoyed and frustrated at my school. They completely suck. And if they wonder why I’m not going to stay another year they’re crazy (as I’m also the only person in the school who has to work all winter break…even if it means coming to school and sitting in my classroom for 8 hours staring at a wall).

So I’m super excited about my trip to Thailand and the visit from Joleen. Joleen says it best when she wrote, “But this trip (Asia) is gonna be awesome. We've got amazing island beaches, Thai prostitutes, swimming in waterfalls, elephant riding, bamboo rafting, riding bicycles through buddist temples, and a city overrun with 2 rival monkey gangs (yes, actual monkeys) all lined up. And this crap is cheap.” Come on, can you think of better vacation?? :D