My New Duvet...

...is awesome. For the first time in five nights, I didn't lie in bed, wearing a long sleeve, shirt, sweatshirt and jacket, shivering. That is all.

I'm a Monster

"We must buy you underwear," Kyeong said. Mr. Shin nodded seriously. It was a strange Tuesday.

I came down with a cold over the weekend and called in sick to work on Monday. Today, when I returned, my co-teachers asked if they could take me shopping to buy warmer clothes. I am very obvious in my cluelessness about how to dress for weather more severe than 60 degrees farenheit and partly cloudy.

Since it's so cold here, everyone wears long johns (thermal underwear. Possibly only my family calls them 'long johns'?). So, Mr. Shin and Kyeong agreed that I should get some also and took me to the underclothes department.

The saleswoman there tried to help us find the right size. There was a lot of debating in Korean between she and Kyeong, then gesturing to me (arms stretching outward in an attempt to show my measurements), then debating more. Finally, Kyeong showed me a size 100 and asked 'is this alright?' Which she probably asked because a size 100 is a size XL. Hah. I'm a monster.

"It's just for the arm length," she said, though I couldn't help feeling I'd just been called many unflattering euphemisms during the sale and was glad I understood none of it.

My feeling of giant-Godzilla-esqueness only increased when Mr. Shin suggested I also needed to buy shoes. 'They don't have my size here,' I told him, 'I'm a 270.'

'Oh!' he said, 'that is my size!'

Rawr.

I can't complain, though. They bought me a duvet! And they fed me! They even tried to buy me Ugg boots. They are so great, even if saying these things makes me feel a little bit like a 14-year-old girl.

Conversation Class & Relationship Advice

I teach a conversation class once a week for the other English teachers at my school. This week's class was on giving advice and suggestions. So, I found some hypothetical situations on the web and we all discussed advice we could give.

In one situation, Barbara and her boyfriend both work long hours and have difficulty finding time to see each other. Yeong Deuk said that everyone emails now and it is too easy and impersonal. He suggested that the couple write each other love letters to keep in touch. Everyone else agreed this was very romantic.

Kyeong followed this by offering her own advice. "Have you ever heard the saying 'out of sight, out of mind'?" Hah.

I was amused at the gender stereotype reversal. Although, it's hard to say exactly what the gender stereotypes are in Korea. Traditionally, women are supposed to be submissive. But, it's also traditional for Korean women to handle all of the family's finances. And, this is the land of men riding around together on pink mopeds. I never sure what what to expect.

Afterward, Kyeong asked me if Eric and I ever wrote love letters to each other.

"Uh, no," I said, trying to picture what kind of love letter I'd receive if Eric ever did send me one. This is a guy who has never bought me flowers but has, 'out of love,' shot me with his airsoft gun multiple times. We aren't really 'Hallmark your love' type people.

I pondered all this for a minute, then told Kyeong I agreed more with her advice. There are fewer chances for a stray BB to hit you in the teeth.

Demo Classes & Shabu-Shabu

This blog has been embarrassingly devoid of posting lately. I had a demo class last week which kept me very busy and was very scary. I had to do a lesson in front of a bunch of other teachers from my district who assessed my teaching ability.

The assessment was funny, though. Sometimes you feel like you might be getting discussed in a foreign language and its uncomfortable. It's much more so when you know you're being discussed. Usually when my korean colleagues talk about things in Korean, I just smile and try to look pretty without letting my eyes glaze over too obviously. I wasn't sure if this would be the appropriate response when a bunch of women were possibly telling me how awful I am.

The good news is that I'm apparently not awful. Although, I think this is mostly thanks to Kyeong. Our principal was happy though, so he took the entire English department out to shabu-shabu.

If you have never had shabu-shabu, that is very tragic because it is delicious. You get platters and platters of meat and a huge pot filled with broth to cook it at. We got the seafood and beef combo. I ate fish intestines! Surprisingly, pretty good. After you cook all your food, the server uses what's left of your broth to make jook (rice porridge), which is pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Field Day

Last week, we were going to have the school festival on Thursday and a field day on Friday until everyone came down with swine flu. So, only teachers came to school on those two days. On the upside, though, we still had field day.
Here is our badminton tournament. Isn't the gym nice-looking? It is brand spanking new - I went to the opening ceremony on Wednesday. We also played some very intense games of ping-pong.

After all that strenuous physical activity, we needed to re-energize with some nutritious food.


And, of course, rehydrate.

For the record, Chinese food in Korea is so, so different. (during an after school class on food, one of my students told me "I like Chinese food the least because they eat insects." I didn't see any insects in the chow mein but I was nonetheless a little underimpressed.