Christmas Eve Edition

All the clocks in the school are running painfully slow. I can't remember the last time I worked on Christmas Eve and I don't recommend it. In trying to stay positive I keep thinking back to a person I saw this morning while transferring trains. At Daerim Station, in the flood of people coming my way there was a guy, who while being of jockey like stature, stood out from the crowd. Again I have to stress this man was definitely on the lower side of the height curve but his hair was permed so high that to a quick glance he could pass for normal. As this giant head of hair walked powerfully on, I took in his pencil thin mustache that dominated his upper lip before having my eyes sucked down to his velvet leopard print suit jacket that he wore. He was awesome and as a consummate people watcher this was an early Christmas gift.

Christmas Cheer

Our school is morphing into holiday mode. This past week the kids have been heading home just after lunch, halving the total number of classes I have. Next week I have to work on Christmas Eve but get Christmas Day off.

The kids then come in on Boxing day for a small ceremony before they are sent back home an hour later starting their winter break. It may sound odd that kids come in for only an hour before trekking off back home but it's like this so that, we the teachers can head off skiing for the day. I then get a mini vacation and don't have to be back to work until January 2nd for the start of more half days and Winter Camp. I love my job.

Wedding Season

In Korea, traditionally if you are not married around the age 30 something is seriously wrong with you. Men have a few years grace period but women that are single will be tagged with the "undesirable" label. With 2008 fast approaching (Koreans all have a birthday January 1st) Yun Jeong, who normally wears a lot of lace put on a whole lot more and had a nice big wedding in Kangnam.

Sung Ho and Yun Jeong have been going to the same Church since they were kids and this meant that my favorite Korean mom made her way up North for the wedding. Sung Ho's mom is always super cute but watching her holding Ji Hyun's hand and leading her all around the wedding hall was adorable.

The whole gang before the wedding kicked off. It was a nice wedding because there were so many friends there but my only complaint about this one place was that although it was very posh and obviously quite expensive, I hated the lighting. The wedding hall was so dark and the use of a spotlight to walk Yun Jung down the aisle was a huge abuse of technology. But its probably just me because I hate these wedding factories no matter who nice they may be.

Korean Election

Wednesday is Korea's Presidential election with a total of 12 candidates on the bill. For the past 30 days signs and banners have been popping up everywhere. To make the morning walk into the subway even more crowded, lines of people dressed in the candidates colours are set up outside each exit funnelling the mass of people into the station much earlier than normal. By bottle necking the mob they create an audience that they then shout the leader's name and number at before finishing it off with a nice bow for wasting your time.

The bigger parties have all hired these stupid trucks that blare recorded speeches and songs from. If you're lucky some are even stocked with middle aged men and women wearing gloves with their candidates number stamped on the palm. They then do a dance where they flash the number at anyone bored enough to stare.

Korean politics are quite fun. I'm sure you've seen a highlight or two of it without knowing, probably at the end of the newscast where the newscaters shake their heads and show cliups of parlimentarians fighting. In Korea to put forth a bill you must work your way up to a microphone at the front of the house. If it's a controversial bill, the opposition will try everything they can to stop you from making it to the podium. This is where you see what should be respectful men and women dressed up in suits pushing, swearing, fighting and steaming mad.


This year the likely winner will be Lee Myuong Bak the former mayor of Seoul. In the polls he is sitting somewhere near 40 percent despite already having serious corruption charges hanging over his head. From people I've talked to, they are forgiving him of his scandal (it has to do with manipulating stocks) because they think Korea needs a strong leader at the moment and his business background and connections will make everyone prosper. (read: buy stocks in Hyundai).

I definitely wouldn't be voting for him, not because of his scandal (there are scandals every month in Korea) or because I don't like him (I like that he built bus lanes to speed up traffic and a stream that runs downtown Seoul). I wouldn't vote for because it's been pointed out to me that Lee Myoung Bak looks very much like Marilyn Manson.

Korean Oil Spill

Mr. Bae, the sixth grade teacher at my school, is very much into the environment. Each month he and and group of friends get together and consider it fun to try and stump one another about different kinds of plants and animals that make up Korea. Today he sent me a minute long video he put together of images from the oil spill just off Mallipo beach. It hasn't even been a week and the story no longer makes up the front page of the news paper here. The clean up is nowhere near being done and like a true environmentalist, Mr. Bea has committed himself to helping out. The pictures are from a Korean NGO and if you have the time you should check out the horrible mess that awaits him.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:My holidays at the end of January have been approved and because the principal was nice and loves me, he threw in 6 extra days off between Christmas and New Year's.

The Bad:I'm getting a new partner teacher who instead of being it in title only, they will be co-teaching every class with me in the new school year (March). I'm nervous, I like running the class. I like being able to choose what to teach, what to skip and picking the right activity to help teach the lesson. There are a lot of laughs in class and I make sure the kids have fun but I also demand students are respectful to me and others and that no matter their English abilities students have to try. If our teaching styles don't mesh it could be a long half a year. I've already voiced my unease about this and the principal has told me I'm the main teacher and the co-teacher will just help out. I'm sceptical.

The Ugly:The Korean government is finally trying to clamp down on "undesirables" (their word not mine) who are teaching in Korea. New applicants will have to have a university degree, pass a physical,a drug test (coming straight out of University, thank god that wasn't in place when I came here), get a criminal background check and have an interview at a Korean consulate in their home country before coming over. Working for the public system I've already done all this (minus the gov't interview which is totally unfeasible)but it has led to a huge panic for those working in Hogwon's (private academies). I do like most of the new rules and they are a good start to weed out the bad ones but I think they need to do more. What I think needs to change is:

1: Stop paying for people's airfare over here. Make them pay and reimbursed them at the end of the contract.
2: Stop hiring people based on their appearance and actually read resumes. Hogwon owners insist mom's want young good looking white teachers but I think what their money should be demanding are for good teachers.
3: Stop handing out 6 month tourist visa's, nobody is here to travel for six months.

2 Down 2 To Go

The wedding season continued this weekend and Sunday it was Myoung Soo's turn to wed the ever cute Ji Young. It was definitely a different wedding from Sung Ho's Catholic wedding a few weeks ago. This one was held in a wedding hall (read wedding Factory). This one was a little less tacky than some I've been to (imagine bubble machines, moving carriages on tracks, neon lighting and a timer counting down the wedding in the corner)but you still could not escape the fact that the wedding fell into a time slot and was just one of four other weddings taking place that day.

The wedding hall was to the right of the the main holding area. Here the groom and bride had a table set up where you dropped off your money and got a ticket to get into the buffet area. Myoung Soo and Ji Young both work for E-Mart leaving coworkers very confused as to which table they should put the money stuffed envelopes on. Saejin and I were very early and soon got tired of waiting for Sung Ill (his wedding is January 5th) to arrive so we went into the buffet area.

I thought it was a rude idea as we would definitely miss the start of the wedding but there were huge screens set up to watch the wedding while stuffing your face. There were also a lot of the guests from the previous wedding not yet ready to go. We did eventually find an empty table and tried our best to keep up with the wedding but the food was a lot more exciting.

We caught the end of the wedding where they cut the cake and in a very non Korean sort of way, they actually kissed. Twice.

After the wedding we met up with Sung Ill (who actually missed the whole twenty minute ceremony) and his fiancee and went back into the buffet. Because Sung Ill and Myoung Soo constantly try to out cheap one another, Myoun Soo made sure Sung Ill handed over an extra thick envelope of money before he let him go into the dinning area. While we drank the free beer and more food the happy couple then changed and made rounds in their hanboks thanking the guest.

Saejin was given the task of taking care of Myoung Soo's phone during the wedding so we had to wait around until the very end. Here Myoung Soo came out wearing jeans and parka and met up with his old University crew. If you ignored his caked on make-up on you'd never know it was his wedding. They then went off to a posh hotel for the night before heading off to Bali today.

Christmas Fever

With last nights dusting of snow, it's slowly starting to feel like Christmas. Last weekend the Lotte Department Store downtown had all it's lights up and in action. The restaurant we then went to were proudly playing all Christmas music and seeing as this was my first time of the year hearing them I'll admit to singing along at times. I have a feeling this won't last. Next time I hear songs I'll start singing the less popular (but more fun) dirty version of songs.



All the kids in the school were outside playing in the snow when we got here. In both classes I taught this morning there was a lot of pantomiming going on. They all wanted me to know that the grade six students were being bullies handing out "snow jobs" to anyone slow enough to get caught in their path. (For those not in the know I found this definition for a Snow Job: Canadian Prank in which one person holds the others face in the snow and packs the snow around their head and ideally in their coat. Causing the victim to become cold, and wet from melting snow)

A Winter Storm!

Last night's news had a whole segment devoted to an upcoming winter storm. The people interviewed all looked official and somber making you think that what lay ahead was the storm of the century. But as it turned out today's forecast calls for a mere 1 to 5 cm of snow. In Canada this five minute clip would of been reduced to a single word, "Flurries."

Wine vs Soju

Saturday night Michelle had a bunch of her friends over for a Housewarming/Christmas/Wine Party. It was a cozy quiet affair with loads of finger foods, amazing baking and with everyone bringing a bottle of wine there was huge a variety to sample from. Wine used to be difficult to track down and when you found a kind you liked you made sure to buy as many as you could. But thankfully it's no longer this way.

Recently I read (on the front page of the newspaper nonetheless) that wine sales in Korea were on the rise. Some of the reasons for this were because of a more global Korea, a well travelled citizenry and a change in people palates and tastes.

What made me laugh was the author credited the developed palate to the lowering of alcohol in soju making Koreans more attracted to weaker drinks. There is no way that wine and soju can be compared. Soju is harsh and manly. Wine is calming and complimentary. Soju is used to clean grease off tables and frying pans, in cases of emergency it can be used to sterilize medical equipment or to corrode open locked doors. Wine should never be wasted like this. I'm not opposed to using it for cleaning but you must make sure you are drinking it.

Malaysia Truly Asia

My winter vacation has been booked and it looks like I'm heading off to Malaysia from January 25th to February 9th. Two weeks of touring and relaxing await me. I can't wait to buy a guide book to figure it all out.