"Oh shit" Tuesday

I've been having a lovely day today. It's a 10-6 day for me today, so I stayed in bed until nearly 7am - quite a sleep in for me. Then I had some left over hamburger patties and half an avocado for breakfast and played some StarWars. Work has been me reading health books (I'm on to the 'Paleo Solution' by Robb Wolf, now. It's pretty good - so far it's the one I'd recommend to people because of its ease of reading and simple concepts.) and surfing the internet. I do have after school class today, though. Assuming any students turn up. I hope they do, I've still got the fun music lesson I planned last week.

So, Mr B has been doing all the teaching today, but I've moved my computer into the English classroom instead of the teacher's room. The teacher's room is just too hot and stuffy. I can at least open the windows, turn of the fans, and even the aircon in the classroom. Mr B. was just 10 minutes late to class, though.. He told me as he was leaving the room that he would teach alone, and I said ok. But he was so late and the kids were actually like "Sam teacher - we learn English now", so I started a game of hangman. They a pretty good class, and were participating well. Anyway, we got halfway through the first word, and Mr B turns up and is like "Oh, no, I said I'd teach alone now". Yeah dude, I know. I was just entertaining them :)

1) The cute kid who always says 'hi' was doing Kpop dances for me at lunch. He's a pretty good dancer, but one weird as little kid.

2) I've decided to try going out for dinner by myself tonight. There's a soup restaurant just down the road from my building that I want to try. 

3) I'm about 1/4 of a level from 50 on StarWars.

4) Day off tomorrow.

5) Ahaha, turns out there is no after school class today. I'm waiting for my students to show up, waiting, waiting (they're often late), then I go in search of Mr B, but can't find him, so wait a few more minutes. I've set up the classroom, etc. Then these boys are like "Sam teacher, what are you doing?". I said I was waiting for my class. They said there was no class today. I mimed strangling Mr B for not telling me. They laughed and one of the boys goes "Oh shit!". Good call, kid.

Crazy T-Shirt Monday

Haha, devine retribution from the lunch god - today's lunch was bony fish and huge lumps of crumbed fried tofu with shiny bbq sauce (which had little lumps of corn and peas in it). Ew. I ate it though, but the best bit of the meal was the boiled broccoli I brought to eat instead of rice. Not a winning lunch day.

Not much to report today. I got to be in one and a half classes, though the one I was told I'd 'teach alone' consisted of Mr B talking at the students for half and hour and me doing read and repeat of their new vocab words for 15 minutes. Then, the next class I got through all the vocab words and Mr B tells he'll teach the rest of the class alone and that I can 'go take a rest' (which is Mr B speak for hang out in the teacher's room). Only as I'm leaving he follows me outside and tells me... well, it wasn't this straight forward, but the general gist was that a naughty student was sitting at my desk so I should find somewhere else to sit. Ooookay - why is the naughty kid at my desk, and not at the coffee table or something? But ok. So, I went and grabbed my laptop and sat at the staff coffee table while the kid sat at my desk. Then, after about 10 minutes another teacher walks in. He's a very nice guy who is always pleasant to me. He sees me and sees the kid at my desk and is like "Sam teacher... what? Why?". I started to explain that Mr B had said.. blah, blah, blah, saw he wasn't following and was just like "Mr. B? I don't know." THIS he got. He made the kid move and gave me my desk back. It was like he thought it was really disrespectful to make me move... and actually it probably was, but I've not got my panties in a twist about it. We all know by know that Mr B is borderline retarded but seems basically harmless. Unless he is just the most passive-aggressive person I've ever met. Which I choose not to believe. Retarded is better than evil. 

I think I should make that into a t-shirt.

Pahah, a quick google and some simple design work later, and I give you my masterpiece:

So, today's five:

1) This one actually belongs to yesterday, but it fits in nicely with today's t-shirt theme:

It reads: "Hamberger friend

I feel happiness when I eat a him".

Good stuff. I guess I should have bought it. They had a range of colours.

2) I had to stand up on the bus to work. I treated it as a whole body workout. Just imagine if in the movie 'Speed' they not only had to keep the bus going at a certain speed, but all the passengers had to play 'twister' the entire time. That's what it's like when I have to stand up on the way to work. 

3) I sent my article away to the editor of an ESL magazine! I'm not rating my chances very highly, as I think it's too academic in tone for them, but at least I did it :)

4) Designing that silly t-shirt was fun!

5) I sat outside under the tress at lunchtime and the sound of the leaves in the wind was lovely.

Lots of interesting things Sunday

Baseball yesterday was a lot of fun! I'm in the process of making a video/slideshow of the day, so I'll post that in a few days.

Courtney and I met for lunch and had a delicious Korean soup. I'll be going back there again! Then we caught the bus into Seoul and met up with the group to watch the game. I'd never seen baseball before, but Courtney had, so she told me all the rules and stuff. Baseball is an ok sport, but they don't hit the ball enough! The most interesting part of the day was the crowd. They were SO loud and had all these chants and songs. I think they were 75% of the entertainment! The other expats we were with were really nice, and it was a beautiful sunny day, to boot. The game lasted a long time, about 3 hours, and the team I'd randomly picked to support lost :(

Courtney and I got the bus back to Osan, had some dinner, and went home.

On the subject of dinner, we went to the same BBQ restaurant we went to on Friday night. We picked a new one to try on Friday, close to my place, and they had such nice food! We had beef bbq, and the meat was excellent. They also have this thing where they pour egg and onion around the outside of the bbq grill, in a trench kind of thing, and it makes fresh omelette as you eat. It was so nice! So we've been there twice now. However, both times, I've had a bit of an upset stomach the next morning. Suspicious.

Today has been another wonderful day, weather wise. I went for a big walk this morning and saw mountains of garlic for sale! And, as I was crossing the road, so huge fireworks went off, and trailed coloured smoke after them. In the middle of the morning. I didn't get my camera out fast enough to photograph it. They looked a bit like this, though:

Then I walked through the market, and found that in some of the less visited back streets of the market, they're selling dogs to eat. They had them cut open and displayed in glass cases. The didn't have the head on, but you could tell they were dogs. Plus, they had paws. Not sure if you buy the whole dog or a particular cut. Again, I didn't take a photo, I didn't think that many people would want to see a butchered dog.

Also at the market I bought a beautiful skirt and a cute pair of really liget polka-dot shorts, both for $5 each. Score!

Other than that, just a nice, relaxing weekend :)

1) Mid day fireworks

2) New skirt and shorts

3) As a special treat I bought two avocados at the supermarket. They were cheaper than usual at $6 for two.

4) Baseball was fun.

5) Hamburgers for dinner!

Friday's 5

1) I get to go home 'early' again. Mr B really doesn't realise I come in at 8am every day, so 4pm is my normal finish time. I should learn to come in at 9 on Fridays. Though, the minute I do that, the VP will be here every Friday.

2) I gave the cute little boy who likes to say 'hi' to me some chewing gum. He was so happy!

3) Dinner with Courtney tonight, and two skype dates plus baseball tomorrow.

4) I'm still marking student writing. There's work ranging from
"Ah, so bored. What perform? I'm forget homework. I'm do quickly preparation homework. Okay, this is speak homework, but not exist other men". ~ I think the kid is trying to write about how they need to get their homework done, but it's speaking homework and they have no one to practice with. Maybe.

to:

"A: This t-shirt is dirt cheap! I'll take it.
B: Cash or credit card?
A: I'll pay cash. Here you are.
B: Here is your change. Thank you.
(outside)
A: I'm as happy as a king!"
~ This one cracked me up! It was great! Hahaha, 'dirt cheap', 'happy as a king', where did she get that?

5) We didn't have bony fish for lunch all week! Every lunch time I said to the lunch god "please, I don't ask for much, just don't make it bony fish again". Thank you lunch god.

Bummer, Man. Thursday

I tried some new yoga moves this morning, including one or two crazy-ambitious ones. I didn't do particularly well, I'd love to go to a yoga class, but the prospect of finding one, paying for it, and going when the whole thing has to be done in Korean, just isn't appealing. A flier for 'hot yoga' was taped to my apartment door yesterday, but it's all in Korean, I can't even tell where it is. I guess if I really wanted to, I could get Mr B to help me, but that's just more trouble than it's worth!

Anyway, I did my yoga, and then I tried some girl push ups, but my left tricep got cramp or pulled or something. It doesn't hurt now, but I don't think I should use it very hard for a few days. Darn yoga!

So, no classes for me today. I've planned my after school class, though. We're doing some more work on music, only today I've tried to make it a bit more exciting. We're doing some stuff for talking about what you like, and different music genres. Also today, I've had to check maybe 60+ bits of student writing ranging from perfect to completely unintelligible.

And I'm bummed about a thing I can't tell you about because I don't know who reads my blog and it might (slim chance, but still) get someone in trouble. Cryptic, yes? Well, it has the potential to make my last few months in Korea not as awesome as they could be. I am determined not to let it. It's just going to mean I have to put on my big girl undies and get out there.

I have been very bad lately about getting out and doing new things alone. I get very lazy, and I need to kick-start my courage and get out there and do all the things I want to before my time in Korea has slipped away. I'm about 2/3rds through my year here and there are still a few things I want to see and do. I want to get a dress made, get my hair permed, see the garden of the morning calm, re-visit Insadong, and so on. I'd better go back through my lonely planet books and make a list.

And now, today's five things:

1) I picked the first publication I'm going to submit my article to. I've fixed the reference section, and am just waiting for an email back about article requirements (they didn't have them on their website), and then next week I'll send off my first try! I am quite scared about doing it, which = all the more reason to do it!

2) Dark chocolate and almonds.

3) I took some photos of myself this morning and compared them to the ones from the start of April, and there's an actual difference in my body shape. My curves are better!

4) I started watching a new show 'Revenge' last night. I watch two episodes and am already totally hooked!

5) I finished the first Game of Thrones book. It was great! Is Eddard Stark really dead? I'm having doubts from the way it was written. Everyone *thinks* he's dead.... but I don't reckon he is. Well, I hope not, anyway.

Memorise this Wednesday

Mr B. to the class: "koreankoreankoreankorean .... easy question-uh ...korean korean korean korean ... normal questions-uh... koreankoreankoreankorean... hard questions-uh. And then koreankoreankoreankorean three stars, two stars, one stars [sic], koreankoreankoreankorean. Sam teacher, can you memorise, please?"

Me: "Uh, what?"

Mr B: "Memorise."

Me: *look of total confusion*

Mr B: Ok, later.

*sigh*. Normal day :) Still don't know what he was talking about. I think it was for when I write the questions for the next English test, but who knows, really. He's stopped telling me anything unless I specifically ask about it. It's a good thing I pay attention and can read the school calendar without help! And score! Next week is a short week too - no work on Wednesday :)

Today's five things:

1) It was curried chicken drumstick day at lunch. Yum!

2) I wrote the abstract for my article. Tomorrow I'll edit it for the first two publications.

3) I have no classes tomorrow or Friday (apart from after school class).

4) I have painted my nails sparkly aqua. 

5) I'm going to do an at home yoga routine in the morning.

Weekend at the beach Monday

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend in Busan with Courtney. She ended up being able to come for the whole three days, which was actually really awesome. We caught the train down on Saturday morning, travelling in first class on the KTX (Korea's fast train). It's really spacious and totally the way to travel! Not to mention it makes the trip only 2.5 hours compared to 5-6 on the bus.

So, we got to Busan about mid-day, then caught the subway to the beach and found out hostel. It has just moved to a new building so the whole place was brand new and really nicely done. Our room, while not very big, was comfortable and clean. The shared facilities like TV room, kitchen, and rooftop terrace were really great. And our bathroom was nice as!

The lounge

Dining room

Kitchen

World art

Deck

Officially became the best hostel ever when I found StarWars on the wall

After that we went and had lunch at TGI Friday's where we both had cocktails (non-alcoholic for me), and I had a tropical shrimp salad, which was delicious. Then we put on out swimming costumes in the restaurant bathroom, and headed across the road to the beach.

Me and my lunch

Haeundae Beach

Lovely! But freezing cold.

It was about 3pm and we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and sitting in the sun. Then we went and got an ice cream at Baskin Robbins (I had 'lunar cheesecake flavour) and went back to the hostel to read/relax for a bit before dinner. For dinner we went to a Korean restaurant and had a kimchi-pork rib stew. Yum! Then Courtney went to hang out at the foreigner bar and I went to bed.

The next morning I got up early and walked the length of the beach, plus did a loop of the headland. Then went back to the hostel and cooked some eggs for our breakfast. Then, we bought some sunscreen, got an icy drink (I got a delicious blueberry iced tea) and we hit the beach.. We just went swimming and sunbathed all day, apart from lunch when we had some more Korea food. And another ice cream - this time I had pistachio-almond flavour. We stayed at the beach until 5 or 6pm (!!), then went back to our room to shower and clean up. We got a little burnt, but most of it was gone by the morning. I've got a little bit of a tan now. The swimming was really good, too. Although the water was freezing! It got deep quite fast, and apparently Koreans don't really swim. The only people in the water (or in swimming costumes) were foreigners. Some of the Koreans went in the water, but it was just to splash around and they went in fully clothed. Weird! There were also lots of jet-skis and sailing boats and stuff.

Also, the beach was pretty busy, but huge bits of it were taken up by massive piles of sand that were being turned into amazing sand sculptures. There's a sculpture competition/exhibition next weekend.

Anyway, Courtney and I got cleaned up and then went and hung out at the bar for a little while. Then we went to a hamburger place and had dinner. I had a really good burger, but took the bun off. I think it was truly nicer without the crappy bread! Then we met up with Courtney's boyfriend and a couple of his friends and they got drunk on the beach. It was bit cold for me, and I went to bed about 11.30.

I got up early again the next morning and did my walk around the headland, taking some photos this time. 

Busan early morning

The loop I walked

Coastal walk

Mermaid statue

Swing bridge

View of Busan city

Some pretty roses

Then it was time to check out and go home :( Sadly, we miscalculated the timing and Courtney missed her train. She was able to get a bus with Mike, her boyfriend, though. I caught my train and was back in overcast, rainy Osan by 4pm.

Busan/ Haeudae beach was totally lovely and I had a super relaxing, really fun weekend! What's more, I still want to be friends with Courtney and never once wanted to strangle her or poke her in the ye with a pencil (as so often happens when I spend too long with someone). So, huge success!

I was a bit bummed to come back to Osan. I really like Osan, but being by the sea is amazing, and it was gorgeous sunshine and fresh breezes there, and it's muggy and overcast here. I just kept reminding myself that soon I'll be able to go Thailand and hang out at the beach all I want for a little while. I decided while I was away that it is my goal to live in summer for the next 12 months :)

A bit shocking, though, is that I only have about 4.5 months left in Korea. I'd better do all the things I've been meaning to, like the botanical gardens and stuff. I'd better make a list, and also leave some stuff for when Brook comes to visit.

I'm back at work today for a short week. I just helped the student teacher teach her first EVER lesson. Poor lady! It went ok, and I think the kids were very tolerant. I really hope the Korean teachers who were watching give her some good pointers :) 

Also, a new random goal. I want to grow my hair long enough so I can donate it to charity. There's some that make wigs for sick kids. So, I'm going to grow my hair until it can make a 10 inch ponytail (maybe 4-6 months time) and then I'm going to cut it off. And by 'cut it off', I mean for real. Like this:

Or this:

Serious. I'm excited!

What else have I been up to? Well, over the weekend I finished reading 'Wheat Belly', which is about how awful modern wheat is for us to eat. Luckily, I have actually naturally not been too much of a wheat eater recently anyway, so cutting it out has been easy. This book just cemented my resolve to really minimise it in my diet. I've been probably 95% wheat free for two moths now (along with maybe 75-80% sugar free) and I'm feeling amazing. Like a lot of the day I can't wipe the smile off my face. Now I'm reading the 4 hour body by Tim Ferris, who also wrote the 4 hour work week. While I think he has some interesting things to say, his approach is not really my cup of tea. He's all into supplementing with this and that and doing little tricks to allow you to 'cheat' (for want of a better word), and he recommends having one day a week where you eat whatever you want, and even recommends having one of those days a month where you stuff yourself so full of crap you feel ill so you wont want it so much during the rest of the month. That just doesn't sound like a good idea! It obviously works for some people, but I'd rather keep doing my best all the time, eat what I want when I want, but do it consciously. Luckily, at the moment all I want is good stuff anyway (apart from the odd ice cream).

Also, my article is nearly finished. I just wrote the abstract today. For the next three days I'm going to specifically edit it for each journal, and then next week = finishing touches and send it out to the first lucky publication! I'm not going to hold my breath for anyone wanting it, it's not very original or anything (and a bit more of a literature review than anything else), but it was more for the practice of doing it, and I might get lucky :)

All of today's five things are how awesome my weekend holiday was :D