Cold!!!!

Happy Sabbath Lovely People. I'm at the subway station again, waiting to meet my friend so we can make the journey to church together. 

My topic of conversation today is cold. It is COLD!!!!! that time of the year where you get bone chilling cold but no snow to make it pretty and therefore worthwhile. I have started wearing all my clothes (well about 4 layers anyway) and I look like I've gained at least 20 Kgs. Am in that state where you have so many clothes on that you can't actually bend over or sit down very easily.  But I am warm so I don't actually care.  :-D

Thursday night I went draft hunting, had previously gone to Kim's Club - which is a great big supermarket - and bought rolls of foam strips with sticky stuff on the back. Then I went home and sealed up all the gaps around my window frames. Looks ugly but is warm. The next step - if the cold still seeps through the double glazed windows - will be to cover everything in bubble wrap. Only that will produce internal conflict - pop bubbles or stay warm?  Suspect staying warm will win, but then when spring comes - party time :-D

Have a happy blessed and warm Sabbath. 

Things To Do On The Subway ...

I am spending a lot of time in the subway these days. So I thought I would make a list of "Things to do while I'm on the Subway." Here it is - in no particular order ...

1. Write an entry in my blog. 

2. Check Facebook. ^^

3. Practice my Korean. 

4. Memorise Scripture. 

5. Read a book. 

6. Write a bit more of my book - that would be a better story than JK Rowlings  - she write Harry Potter in a cafe. Imagine the novelty of writing a novel on a train over many many kilometers of track, while listening to announcements in a foriegn language. 

7. Send messages to my friends. 

8. Take suruptitious photos of interesting looking people to write blog entries about. 

9. Talk to random foreigners ... Always an interesting experience. Last week it was a slightly drunk English man. He's been in Korea for 10 years. Teaching in a university. 

10. Read articles towards my thesis. 

11. Write my thesis - so I can work in a university too. 

12. Surf the internet for interesting things ...

13. Think of more productive things to do on the subway ... 

PS I did not take the photo at the top but it's typical of a subway carriage. Except often there are more people standing. But not as many as you see in those photos where people are stuffing other people I to trains. 

Preparing For Winter

I'm spending a lot of time on the subway these days. So I think you can expect more regular blog updates. They will probably be a little eclectic - based on whatever I've been taking pictures of recently. Here is today's offering. 

I was walking with a friend a few weeks back and he pointed out a bunch of trees that were newly wearing hay skirts. He asked if I knew why they were decorated in this way. I said I thought it was to protect them from contact frostbite once the snow starts piling up. Turns our I'm wrong. I should have guessed that since not all the trees had skirts. 

Apparently there are certain insects that attack these trees. In winter they burrow into the ground to keep warm. But if the caretakers of the trees wrap hay around the lower trunks then these insects will huddle up in the hay instead. Then when spring comes the skirts are removed with their load of hibanating insects and burned. The trees are safe for one more year. How clever is that?

New Job

So, it's Wednesday evening, I'm on the subway and I thought I would use the time productively to add to my blog. 

I think tonight I shall update you on my new job. 

I'm back working in a high school. And LOVING it!!!!!!!!!!!! Had forgotten how much I enjoy teenagers. It is a boarding school, all the students stay at the school during the week and go home for the weekend. Even the ones who live in the same town. They can stay over the weekend if they want to - to study more - but they have to apply specially for the privilege. 

This school specialises in languages so every student is studying English, plus at least one other of Japanese or Chinese. Many of the students are close-ish to fluent in English - even if they are majoring in one of the other languages. 

My job is to smooth out the rough edges and help them to sound like native speakers. I have all sorts of great ideas to help achieve this. Including Dr Seuss. ^^ 

Sometimes I feel terribly sorry for these kids. They are so sleep deprived. They get up around 6am and go to bed around midnight. It is not uncommon for me to come into a classroom to find the entire class with their heads down on their desks catching a power nap. I feel almost guilty waking them up for class. 

You can mark the progression of the week by how beautiful they are. Monday they all look lovely, girls hair is smooth, there is a hint of make up etcetera. Boys are bright eyed and bushy tailed. By  about Wednesday those hints are gone, Thursday is pure exhaustion, by Friday I think they get their second wind - or they have mainlined coffee. Partly I think these kids just need someone to show them some love. And teach them about health!!!

I have between 32 and 36 students in each of my three grade 1 classes, the four grade 2 classes have 16 students each, because they split the classes with another teacher. 

Even though those class sizes are large they are really easy to teach. The students are so well behaved, and so focused. Even the first graders who won't be sitting the all important university entrance exam for another 2 years are totally focused on it. Several of them have told me they have gotten rid of their smart phones because they were too much of a distraction. I can't imagine an NZ student of the same age doing that. Actually I can't imagine many NZ students of the same age owing iPhones and the like. These kids are totally wired. 

My first week here they were all giving presentations. I had to grade them, and honestly I would have been impressed if those presentations had come from native English speakers. The fact that they came from ESL students just blew me away. 

I just reread what I wrote above, makes school life seem very dismal. But it isn't, on the whole they seem happy, they horse around in the hallways like normal kids, they goof off and act silly at lunch times, but in class they are totally focused. 

Basically I'm in a school of nerds :-) my favourite kind of people!!!!

One other interesting thing, we have to clock in and out everyday. The machine that scans your thumbprint. Very sci-fi ^^ thrills my nerdy little soul eveytime. 

PS I found the book re my last post. Shall give more details when I post about my new apartment. 

A Mystifying Thing ...

So I ordered a book a few weeks back and I've been waiting and waiting for it to be delivered. Everyday checking the mailbox and the space by my door. Nothing! So I finally asked a friend to call the delivery company and find out where it is. Turns out it was delivered over two weeks ago - the delivery man put it on the water tank on top of my building. What mystifies me is, "Why did he imagine that I would look there?" I mean really??? How often are you possessed by the thought "I'll just climb out on the roof and check if someone left something on the water tower lately?????" Never ever happened to me, not in my entire life.

Also - I know its been a while since I blogged - BIG CHANGES! New job, new apartment, new city. Still in Korea. Also been doing some BIG thinking, some changes there too. Shall blog about all those adventures over the next few days/weeks.

If there is anyone left out there who still reads my blog I hope you have a great day.

P.S. Here is a clue to some of those big changes in my thinking - I made a profile on one of those dating websites. Just one - but for those of you who know me well, you will know just how big a change that is for me. :-) Watch this space.