Last Ski trip of the year?

Last weekend a few of us headed out for what could be the last ski trip of the year. I was not looking forward to the trip at all. On Friday the temperatures rose high enough that it was raining all day zoom that rain over a mountain and you end up skiing on pure ice with puddles of water scattering the flatter parts of the hill. Here's the view from the elevator in our hotel.


I didn't join everyone until Saturday afternoon and just went skiing with a night lift ticket. This was Saejin's first time skiing and his afternoon ski consisted of a single run down before throwing his skis and walking down the hill. I was given the role of trying to teach him. It wasn't pretty but kind of funny seeing him build up sped, by ignoring everything I told him and crashing out of panic. Our first run took nearly an hour to get down the hill. Eventually somewhere along the way he started to get better and if we'd had more time he probably would make it down without falling.


We woke up to see it snowing. This is the view from our room.


Saejin wanting his picture taken in the snow.


Our last stop at a restaurant for lunch before heading home.

Graduation tomorrow

Tomorrow is Graduation day (aka the one day of the year I wear a suit) so there were many cancelled classes this week. Luckily I came across, mysoju.com so I can now watch what Koreans are watching. The big drama right now is Boys before Flowers and kids have pictures of the main actors that they trade. Wanting to know what it was about I watched the first couple of sub tittled shows and while childish and cheesy I may let myself become hooked. I also started watching 1st Shop of Coffee Prince (last year's big drama) and will watch more. It's a cool little website that also has a bunch of Korean movies that I'll try to get around to watching.

Conversations with Kids

Over the last two weeks I have been calling out the kids who didn't make it to at least a couple days of our five day long English Winter Camp. The kids who didn't make it do tend to be the bad ones at English and mostly respond in Korean. Some had legitimate reasons as they were out of town. But some were just lame, "I don't know" answers you'd expect from bad students.

Two replies really made impressions on me. The first was from a kid who knew zero English a couple of years ago but has really started to improve (he can almost read now and his speaking and listening are normal for his class). He was the last one to get me standing over his desk faking anger about missing camp. While I was asking him why he missed out on a free camp and he played it cool. He stood up and broke out into the "Busy, Busy, Busy" song and dance we learnt this year. I gave him a high five for learning and using English properly.

The other conversation with a suprising answer turned out to be an extremely reasonable reason. It came from a 5th grader. (Remember 5th graders are about 11/12 years old.) His camp was the first to happen and I saw him around the school during the third week of camps. His father is the PTA president and normally this boy is always involved in camp. When I quizzed him on his whereabouts. He told me he was in the hospital. I asked him if he was feeling better and he told me he wasn't sick. I asked if someone in his family was sick and again he told me nobody was sick. He then pointed at my crotch and did a snipping motion with his hand while speaking Korean I didn't know. The poor kid had to be circumcised (Koreans get circumcised when they are older) and this is a very valid reason for not being present.

Full Moon

This weekend is the first full moon of the new year according to the lunar Korean calendar. There are a bunch of traditions that Koreans do for this in hopes that the year is set on the right path. Saejin asked me to join him at his parents house to celebrate but once I heard the ultra healthy vegetarian menu being served I stayed home and gorged myself on a greasy zinger burger from KFC.

Bloated, I headed into work this morning where my co teacher asked me if I had eaten any peanuts. This isn't the normal reply to my "How are you today?" question so I knew there had to be a story here. Sally then told me that for the first full moon, Koreans are supposed to crack open a peanut in their mouth while making a wish for the new year. She then handed me a full bag of peanuts to wish on. I have since finished and my desk is now littered in shells, peanut skins and odd peanuts that looked off. Hopefully I preformed the ritual right and I'm given the right numbers to choose for this weekend's lottery. Fingers crossed.

The Yearly Wasted Week of Work

Back to the grind this week for a couple of days and next week is the year's last full week with Graduation scheduled for Friday. These 7 days of "work" (most classes are canceled) confuse me every year. Final grades are in, students have taken all their books home and every time I walk past a class they are simply hanging out passing the time. So while checking out useless facts about the world and you come across the one detailing school days per country per year put a huge asterisk by the Korean entry because little happens for a bunch of these days.

This weekend will be a busy one. Saturday is both Chan Yeong's birthday and the reopening of Bliss after all it's renovations. For Chan Yeong we will meet up around 5ish for (it's predictable) some bowling madness. We will then all head out for dinner at Ho Lee Chow and later drinks in his bar. We have then been asked to make it down to Bliss for 10ish to help Teddy relaunch the new and improved Bliss. It will be a busy day that I have made more hectic by agreeing to help Ted clean the bar in preparation for his big night. After two days of "work" I can't wait for the fun times Saturday should bring.

Gone

Saturday night was Raymond's going away party. We had (I'll use a phrase from Raymond here) a gorgeous meal at the Bulgarian restaurant before heading into the Bliss which is in the midst of being remodeled.


Here Christine is giving Raymond a goodbye speech.


Eve (aka the wedding planner) was the one to get Raymond up onto the new stage in Bliss to help Christine get through Raymond's speech.


Joel taking his normal chair at the end of the bar.


A preview of the bar. The wall has been knocked down and the outdoor patio has been glassed off. There will be a stand bar where Leoni is standing and more lighting will be added over the tables to make the place comfy again.


Chatting.


Laughing.


Making scary faces.


A rare picture of Tony with his eyes open and smiling normally.


My goodbye hug with Raymond. I had to bail early on them to sort out a argument between Chan Young and Saejin.

A few more days

This morning came early and I was back into the work routine. Up at 6:40 to shower, shave, dress, eat and wax the hair into place before heading for the daily subway into work. A crowded 20 minute subway ride and a ten minute bus ride later I was welcomed to a barren school yard, empty parking lot and a cold building missing staff and students. One quick phone call later to my supervisor and I am back on holiday until Thursday. I really need to learn to listen closer when I am being told my work schedual.