Halloween

I love Halloween even though I have long stopped dressing up for it. I have been building the day up for my kids this last week and almost 80 percent of the school (it's a small school) came with make-up or a mask on to get some "Canadian Candy" today at lunch. To make it fit the curriculum more, when they came into the classroom I made them sing an English song to get their fatty calories from me. It was good fun but not as much fun as I will have tonight.

Saejin and I are meeting up for dinner but unbeknownst to him, Chan Yeong is joining us too and he told me he will be in Halloween spirit (he owns a bar here) he will be dressed up in a Wonder Woman outfit. Seeing as Saejin ran away from Heidi and Rachel Lynn when they were all decked out in wigs and fishnet stockings on for Saint Patrick's Day a few years back I can't wait to see what he will do tonight. Good times.

Vivaldi weekend

Three weeks ago Saejin, Tony, Don, Joon and I took advantage of the long weekend and headed out of town bright and early (we left Tony's place at seven am to avoid traffic). We headed East of the city heading to Vivaldi Resort where there is a ski hill, hiking and a giant Water park.


Being much too early to check in we decided to get sporty with dance offs,


Air hockey,


and a ping pong tourney.


From here we headed up to the top of the hill to check out the views.



Joon did all the shopping for us so we had bags full of goodies to take up to the room and more cases of beer than make logical sense for a two night excursion (we ended up lugging half of it back down when we went home.) Somehow we managed to get it all up there in a single trip and took in the view from the balcony.


While others took an afternoon nap Saejin and i went for a mini hike up one of the trails and had a drink at one of the outdoor cafes.




Joon met us a bit later and we went to check out the water park that we were going to the next day. Ocean World was a blast. The slides weren't the best I have been on but their wave pool is amazing. You have to wear a lifejacket for this one because every five minutes a single giant sized wave spills out to eerie music carrying you away.


We went back to the room and tried to put a dent in the beer. Once we had a good belly full we headed out for the evenings fun. An hour of singing.


A couple of games of bowling.


And back in time for an outdoor barbecue.


The next day we had a lie in, hit Ocean World and Sauna before going out to eat some more Korean goodness. A good time was had by all and we may try returning sometime this winter to try out the ski hill.

Cough, Hack, Sniffle, Snort.

The fall here has been long, warm and the perfect breading grounds for giant, hungry mosquitoes. (I hadn't really noticed them until Seajin went off to Singapore for a few days and because they tend to ignore my blood when other options are available I suddenly became popular and woke up with a head spotted like a fourteen year old.) the week thought the weather has suddenly moved into it's late fall stage being a wet, cold mess that reminds people that they own jackets.

It has also brought on a rash of maladies and because parents in Korea will send a kid to school as long as they can walk, it seems that everyone around has a cough or a sniffle. I was feeling rough from Wednesday to Friday and while teaching my sixth graders there was a point early in the class right after I coughed into my armpit the rest of the class picked up on their own need to spread germs. It was interrupting the reading we were doing so I stopped and made everyone cover their mouths (Korean kids aren't taught this) and gave them permisson to hack away. They obediently responded and I then made a new rule that the next person to cough, hack, sniffle or snort would be sent out. Unfortunately for me the kids were listening and when I next sniffled they quickly called me out. I hate hypocrites so I bowed my head and took the next couple of minutes staring into the class through the big double glass doors.

Test day

Every so often a test day pops up on the schedual. For the kids it means having four periods of tests in the morning and the afternoons off to relax. For the other teachers it means a dreaded day of checking out the kids results as our school has some of the lowest scoring kids in all of Gwangmeyong. The teachers feel the stress but when they bring up the grades to the parents they tend to not care, our school is one of the only ones in Korea where parents are more concerned with kids enjoying their Elementary School life rather than turning them into studybots. For me the day is a beautiful break from the norm, it means a day to:

a...catch up on movies
b...watch some hockey on the huge touch screen in class
c...read
d...nap at my desk

In my opinion this is the best way to make a wage.

A New Law

Driving has and never will be my strong point (ask the garage door I backed into to validate this statement). What I am good at is back seat driving. No matter how unappreciated this valuable skill is I still freely give it. I am proud of my sense of direction, take me somewhere once and 97 percent of the time (I've done the math) I can navigate my way back. Unfortunately for me when I see a GPS mounted on a car's dashboard I'm left feeling redundant. These things in theory are amazing and they turn driving into the ultimate video game. Windows pop up when you near a new task, distances count down and the estimated time shown gives you a goal to beat. When you add in a warning voice that wisely champions you along with charm suddenly you have made driving fun. It really is a fool proof system.

That is until you enter humans into the equation and getting lost three times today I should blame the principal at the wheel but he isn't alone. Sadly I have now been in cars having to reroute mid drive more times than I want to admit. Sure, I should of done more than willing the drivers to turn with mind control and hidden arm restures to point out the drivers blindness/deafness but I believe in these GPS'. So seeing as I just watched the last American debate I want to talk presidential for a moment and put forth a new law. I propose that before anyone is sold one of these gizmos they must climb into a booth where they prove they understand how the f'ing things work.

One of the (many) pitfalls of being Canadian

When I came over to Korea I had the whole Canadiana thing down. I had a flag on my backpack (removed quickly and quietly after arriving), loved beer and followed hockey scores as closely as I could. It was much harder back then but has improved with companies realising the Internet is our friend.

Four years ago, I got highlights from TSN. Three years ago I could find the torrents and if I successfully avoided scores it was like watching live. Last year I found some illegal sites that let you watch live but this meant some fuzzy, jumpy action but when you needed a fix it was all good. This year I am in heaven. I just bought a years subscription to the NHL Gamecentre Live and this let's me see any game being televised live with perfect sound and little to no buffering. To make the day even more orgasmic I can watch four games at a time and click over to the ones where good stuff is happening. Completely over the top but I can live with this and I did.

I took advantage of a morning with a couple of spares and caught most of the Calgary game. Unfortunately lunch made me miss all but the last three minutes of the third period and when I got home tonight to check out the highlights I see that TSN (because they televised it) now has the full game minus commercials on demand. (The hockey gods are real!) In their honour I bought a beer and am now watching all the fun. Life is good.

To end this giant piece of Canada, I have to bring up a subject only Canadians will understand and talk about. The hockey song on TSN is wrong. It doesn't belong on any other network than our beloved CBC. What makes it worse is that TSN are seriously addicted to it and have abused its history by using it way too much. It is to be used on a Saturday only and then just at the beginning of the game. OK, I'm done I have to get back to the Flames first win.

Canadian Election

Great little video that helps explain the boring and very unnecessary Canadian election.

The Daily Show

Half my family is American and I do honestly love America. What I don't like are the political choices that have been made (and given) over the last eight years. A TV staple of mine is The Daily Show and I just watched Jon Stewart sum up the last couple of election choices by pointing how the Conservatives win. They smugly win by saying:

"You know, I'm from a small town and we've got good values and anybody else who isn't in it. (Head tilt for angry Jon to take over) Stop pretending like a small town is any different than New York City. You know what New York City is, it's a small town stuck together in one building. I'm very angry."

And you are right Jon. Small towns hide their social problems and pretend (because of scale) that all is good and nowhere near what the evil cities vices offer but come on shake your heads middle America people all over are the same. I hope beyond hope that Obama actually wins because while I don't hate McCain (if he can be his old self) his running mate as interviews have shown is a moron. America and the World deserves better.

Ajuma Life

Exhausted from the day in the sun I got to school with a less than stellar work ethic. This funk lasted until one minute into my first class when the third grade teacher told me we all had the afternoon off. It was just the pick me up I needed.

I took advantage of the afternoon off and walked home instead of taking the subway. While checking out some of the backstreets I can across these two ajumas lugging huge bags of red peppers through town. I'm glad tomorrow is the start of the long weekend and a car full of us are headed out to Daemyung Resort for some R and R.

The scorekeeper

Today was sports day at school and I was given the all important role of manning the scoreboard quickly popping up points whenever a blue or white flag was raised at the end of a game. Sounds easy except the teachers forgot to raise said flags.

This forced me into a state of attention (most of the time) but whenever it came to the kindies, 1st and 2nd graders' games it was next to impossible to tell who had won because the kids didn't care who won. They used the final whistle to simply jump around and scream as kids are wont to do. When the third and fourth graders (who all suffer from horrible attention spans) did battle their games proved to be much too long and tended to end with a mob of kids chasing each other all over school yard recreating K-1 fights. As the scorekeeper, the real pressure came from the oldest kids and their set of eyes followed each and every point that graced the board.

It was a perfect fall day in a blue sky, cool breeze, round sun sort of way. The only imperfection in my day came from having only one side of my face catching the suns rays. This has me with a great new look, skittle red on the left and toothpaste white owning the right. As for the score the blue team made a miraculous come back in the final relay race and forced a draw of 600 points each.