Change of plans

The <3 of my (bipedal) life

Coming home on the 18th of February rather than the 3rd of March as originally planned. Or actually that's not right - I originally hoped for the 11th of February, then decided the 3rd of March, and now it's back to the 18th. So I'll be home then, a little older and sadder, but happy to be back with family and friends and maybe even some sunshine by then. Christy thinks I have SAD (Seasonal Acute Depression) and I think she's right - there's nothing like snow to make me mopey and with everything going on right now it's hitting me pretty hard. Not quite the same as last year - last year it was a lot colder, there was more snow and I hadn't been home for a year, so even with Lala around to cheer me up and force me to be social I was still generally irritated by everything and toeing a fine line between unhappy and angry. Now that the home date is in sight, it's definitely reminding me of how happy I was to finally step off the plane, change into my Havvies and rush through those arrival gates into the arms of my family and my old familiar life. Not so great that I still haven't found a job at home and have to sort out mundane things like a new phone contract, re-starting my health insurance, renewing my driver's licence and passport, buying a car and finding a place to live, but hopefully keeping busy with things like that (and jobhunting if I can get organised and give myself a sufficiently good kick up the arse to get moving) will at least stop me from missing things in Korea. Now if only the exchange rate would comply so I don't lose so much money when I transfer it all home! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that our economy is doing so well, but it's a pain in the proverbial nonetheless that I'm probably going to lose at least a couple of thousand one way or another.

Freakin' scary view from the top of the Rainbow run

Anyway, I'm not one for a big farewell (after all, I like to entertain the somewhat sentinmental hope of seeing close friends again at some point and in this day and age, there's really no excuse not to if you're determined enough), so I'm planning on copying dear Lala's idea of eating my way towards a goodbye. I've pretty much done or can do everything else that's a must before I go. I went snowboarding on the weekend at Yongpyeong (where the winter Olympics will be held) and am proud of myself for making it down the green circle/black diamond 1.5km Rainbow run TWICE without serious injury and without having to ask to be towed down. I may or may not have had to walk the last 100m (which should be re-named 'Super Icy Death Alley') on the second run, and wondered once or twice why the hell I'd decided to snowboard it the second time after almost shattering my tailbone and winding myself three times the first, but that's besides the point. Sadly I probably won't have time to go to my beloved Spaland in Busan before I go, so I'll guess I'll have to make do with the Dreamplus one and keep Spaland for next time. Foodwise, these are on my 'must-eat' list:

Bossam

     -Jja-jang-myeon (black bean noodles)
     -Bossam (steamed pork and cabbage bundles)
     -Jogae-gu-i (grilled shellfish)
     -Naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles)
     -Dalk-galbi (sauteed spicy chicken)
     -Samgyetang (spring chicken soup)
     -Soondae (pig blood noodle sausages), preferably with ddokbokkie (stirfried chili rice-cakes)
     -Haejangguk ('hangover' pork bone stew)

Naengmyeon

     -Soondubu-jjigae (soft tofu soup)
     -Samgyopsal (barbecqued pork)
     -Makkolli (a sort of yoghurty-beer-flavoured rice alcohol)

Most of these I can really make at home, but it's nice to have the real thing without also having the washing up :) Hopefully there's also some magic way I can eat all of these without putting on all the weight I've lost recently, especially since I'm also sure to pig out  when I get home too ㅋㅋ

Anyway, on that note I'll leave off. The teachers at my school were supposed to all go hiking today at the fortress, but with it being a balmy 3 degrees outside right now and all - now being 12pm so significantly warmer than it was three hours ago when we were all supposed to set off - only the pro hikers appear to have actually gone for it. I guess they had no choice after turning up to school in their serious outfits and all with all their kit! I think the rest of us are just going to meet them for lunch (which in Korea also means alcohol of course) and defrosting somewhere soon. Happy Monday all and for those of you at home, see you down undah sooner rather than later :)

Random thought

I love my black bondi cut JAG jeans. They're a size 8 which is really a size too small, but I can still squeeze my butt into them, as long as I'm not planning on eating too much. Which means that I may have to change outfits tonight before going for curry at Hungry Eyes in Chungdae with the girls... :D

Plans for the weekend include: giving banana bread a whirl thanks to my new toaster oven. Fran actually found me a rice-cooker recipe, but I quite like the sweet crispy edges you get with baked banana bread so that's probably a last resort. Other plans include sleeping, going to the gym before my crazy 14 hours of after school classes start next week, and going downtown to get some goodies for various people :) I may also have to go back to the cake shop (Nat I blame you as much as I ♥ you for putting me onto this addiction!) for some study weekend sustenance, and then while I'm there drop back in at Homeplus to ogle the hedgehogs again ^_^

They will also much less glamourously include knocking out at least 3 TESOL units (hopefully) and finishing revising my lesson plans for the next three weeks for the current chapter of the 1st and 2nd year English textbooks, which are, for the record, awful. I'm really hopeless with technology stuff but if I can figure it out I'm going to post lesson plans and ideas somewhere so that newbies to the Thomas Orr kitty cat books don't feel as aghast and perplexed as I did in the first few weeks trying to figure out what on earth to do with it. I do realise that it's only Thursday, but a little wishful thinking can't hurt. Copious amounts of milky tea will probably be needed.

Anyway, some funny stuff from my lovely students to see me (and hopefully) you through today. This week we have been deciding on some class rules, and the results have been quite telling on what sort of year to expect I think:

Girls:
- Do not eat bad foods in class (apparently good foods are ok!)
- No bite to friends, even if they say bad things at you
- You should not chatting with friends
- No touch your friends especially their hair
- Do not bathroom in class
- Open your ears

Boys:
- We don't smoke in class.
- No soju or beer or makkoli or whiskey.
- Don't touch friend's body
- Don't speak Ipod (I still have no idea what that was supposed to mean)
- No weapons
- We must wear clothes every time
- Don't leg screw ( =Don't cross your legs... I have no idea why this is meant to be bad)
- We must love Amy teacher and Ms Kwon all the time!

There were also quite a few about swearing. Although most of them phrased it as 'no bad language' or 'no bad words', there were a few that were more direct saying 'don't say <expletive>' or even 'don't f*** in class' who couldn't understand why I was trying not to laugh (they are also all single-sex classes so the boys in that class probably would have made a huge uproar if I had explained exactly what they were saying).

And haha we were talking about differences between Primary and Middle school students/student life, and I thought it was hilarious that one of them said "This year we have very much delicious lunches!" It's true, we have an awesome school nutritionist ^__^

And also, Neil and Geri, if you are reading this, I have some of your old students! I asked some first years about which school they'd been at and if they'd had you guys, and one of them piped up with "white hair Geri teacher!" Looks like you are fondly remembered :)

** Addendum: one of the boys came up to me later and shouted "YOU KNOW NIL?? WHERE IS NIL???" (apparently he does not have a dial for volume control) and it took me a while to figure out he was saying "Neil" and not talking about some new K-pop band.**

Oh and against all probability, class 2-8 is once again looking to be the worst behaved. *sigh*
But I've also been told that I'm going on the 2nd year excursion this year (to the same place as last time) and my 2nd year co-teacher has a homeroom class with some of my favourite girls from last year so I'm quite looking forward to it. Hopefully our VP doesn't come with us like last year though.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm going to try and stay offline as much as possible for the rest of today and tomorrow so that I can get through some work.  ♥'s to everyone though - if you're in Korea, get outside and enjoy the lovely sunshine!

*** So much for staying offline. I had to come back on to add these student gems from my last class todayMe: What are some differences between elementary school and middle school?
Gyeong-Cheon: Elementary school teachers are very nice, but middle school teachers are very scary.
Jin-Su: Middle school time is 5 minutes plus. Oh no! (Middle school classes are 5 minutes longer than in Elementary school).

Me: What are some things that you are lucky to have?
Sang-Hyeop: We are very lucky to have met Amy teacher!
Me: (laughing) Awww! Thankyou... but that probably remains to be seen.
Sang-Hyeop: ... what?
Yeong-Ho: No, we always lucky to see you! Because we see you only one time a week.

Haha, I couldn't figure out if Yeong-Ho meant that as a compliment or not so I just gave them class points and changed the topic ^_^ Class 1-4 (first year boys) were already my favourites because they actually talk, but I love them even more now that they can make me laugh. They are classic!***

Ho hum

Hello dear readers! Profuse apologies for being so lax of late and essentially being so lazy as to not post for a very long time. There is not really a very good reason for doing so, merely that I have been enjoying being home so much that I've rather put my blog on the backburner for a while. Henceforth however, I will probably be posting with more regularity as I return to icy Korea and my even icier school and many hours of deskwarming (although contrary to what the name suggests, really my desk is freezing). For you see, this will be my last post from Australia for a good while, possibly for 13 months until I finish my contract on February 26th, 2012. Unless of course North Korea does actually decide they have nothing left to lose (having already said goodbye to their last shred of sanity) and decide to go out guns (or nuclear missiles) blazing, or something else equally calamitous happens that brings me back early, or that I really do just get completely sick of being there, in which case I might be back a little earlier, but at present I'm trying to steel my resolve and aim to stick it out for the year, irregardless of personal feelings on the matter.

Which is not to say that I am not looking forward to going back to Korea! Although I'm dreading having to go back to the cold and the insularity of Korean society and the lack of multiculturalism (ok, the lack of multicultural food options really) and of course, having to go back to work, I'm also looking forward to lots of things - Korean food, shopping, the convenience of Korean life, and of course, my friends. Actually, to be honest, I feel a bit ambiguous about seeing many of them, because for quite a few who have been important people in my life last year, it's not just about looking forward to seeing them again. Many of them will be leaving now that they have completed their year of teaching, and although this is thing I hate to believe is true and can never quite bring myself to say, it may very well be the last time I'll see them again, so for many, it's a goodbye too. Now those of you who are either Australian or are acquainted with Australians (which you should all be since you know me and to channel a Westie I know, you can't get much better than what's already awesome! :D) know that we are a nation of long distance travellers. We have to be if we want to go anywhere outside of the country. So there is a fairly large likelihood that of the many friends I have been lucky enough to make this year, I will see them again. In the words of someone well-meaning who probably ended up with a long line of Australian couch-surfers: "never invite an Aussie to stay with you if they're ever in the country unless you actually mean it, because they'll actually take you up on it." Nevertheless, depressing thoughts and accomodation-cadging aside, it will be good to go back and spend my last week of school-less freedom seeing everyone again, just in case. And frankly, also because some of them would also be likely to send me long abusive emails about my moral deficiencies as a friend if I did not see them at least once before they go and this is something I wish to avoid :)

Which brings me back to my original point (kind of) about my last day in Oz. The weather has actually cleared up a little and turned out semi-nice, so a swim with Fran later on in the (hopefully) less burny time of day is definitely on the cards. I'm also baking sticky-date pudding with butterscotch sauce (two actually, one for our grandparents and one for us), if we have any room for it after dinner with mum, dad, Fran, Edna and Allen (some family friends visiting from Wales) at Altitude 1146 perched on Bulli Tops, which according to a friend with an inside scoop on the owners (....) does some mean curries since they actually have a curry chef. I'm hoping the sticky date pudding will also make me less sentimental when I go to say goodbye to my grandparents for yet another year - a kind of Trojan horse I guess - but I'm glad that we at least have the miracle of Skype to keep in touch. I also have the last of my packing to do, or rather, re-packing, now that I've gathered all of these things that I somehow managed without for a whole year but have now decided I can't, and also all of my shopping for stuff I can't get in Korea, like Dilmah tea, peppermint tea, herbs and a decent stain remover which you'd think would be a cinch for a country that uses as much chilli as Korea.

Anyway, rather than writing about it and sitting on my butt enjoying the campness of Peter on Ready Steady Cook, I should probably get onto actually doing some of that stuff. My second sticky-date pudding is almost done so I should check on it too, and of course the crickets and cicadas chirruping outside in the sunshine are reminding me of my 'one last swim' resolution with Fran. Here are a few of my favourite photos from my trip to tide you over until my next post (I'll probably be whingeing about how cold I am). Bon voyage!





With Miss Lucy and Jini

With Lyss and Tracey

With the 2009 Wollongong OPSM girls :)

MC multi-tasking her way to fabulousness as usual