Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and we're working . . . 6:30am until 10pm. They just don't get it here. Happily though, after work it's off to Kevin's for some family time.

Toasty Bums!

You know that horrible feeling when it's so cold outside and you go to use the restroom and you sit down on a freezing cold toilet seat? Do you ever think, "They should invent something to help with this problem."

Well believe it or not, Korea has done something to solve this problem. We have heated toilet seats at work! It's awesome! Sometimes I just go in there and sit down to warm up because it feels so good. Our apartment doesn't offer the same luxury but we spend more time at work anyway. I'm going to look into this invention when we go back home. It comes complete with a key pad to control temperature. It has other buttons too but I don't know what they do because it's all in Korean.

Christmas All Around

Koreans don't typically celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a national holiday but most people give it the same amount of attention as any other day off. However, the strange thing about Seoul right now is the massive amounts of Christmas decorations everywhere. Every store, mall, restaurant, cafe and corporate building at least has a Christmas tree and garland with small reindeer and some of the bigger buildings are decked out in lights and decorations. The building next to our school has officially gone overboard and is beginning to look gawdy. One of my students works in a 40 floor building that is covered from top to bottom in garland. She was complaining that they can't see out the windows anymore. No one seems to really understand why they decorate for a holiday that has little significance in their country. My students have told me that the businesses do it because other businesses do it and nobody knows why but they have to outdo their neighbors by making the displays bigger every year. I have to admit, I enjoy the decorations but I'm not sure that is the common perception.

Last Day of the Session

I love the last day of each session! We are free to do whatever we want with our classes. Last night, both of my classes suggested that we go out and celebrate. So my business writing class took me out for coffee and dessert and my advanced conversation class took me out for drinks and appetizers. The evening culminated with all of the teachers going out together for . . . you guessed it, more drinks. I woke up with a little headache this morning but the night was worth it.

Congratulations Kevin & Monica!

My brother proposed to his girlfriend on Saturday night in Seoul! He convinced her they were going to the symphony and he took her to get her hair and nails done. After dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, he led her to a cafe that he had completely rented out. He had 1000 candles lit and rose petals everywhere. He played a movie for her that was a collection of pictures of them. He proposed with a beautiful ring. He also hired a photographer to take pictures of them all dressed up.

I have to say I was really impressed with his elaborate proposal. Nice work, Kevin. And I'm so happy to have Monica in the family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! You're all in our thoughts and prayers. We spent the holiday working. Apparently, Koreans don't recognize the American Thanksgiving. Weirdos! Who wouldn't want to celebrate turkey, pumpkin pie and football? Okay, I'm drooling a little bit.

We did manage to enjoy some turkey. We went to Quizno's and ordered turkey sandwiches. We also stopped by the bakery for a little dessert. It was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember.

Legal? I Think Not.

We don't exactly have a great teachers' room. It's in the basement floor of our building. We each have our own desk which is about 2 feet by 3 feet. The room includes a copier which jams everyday and runs out of toner twice a week. We also have 2 computers to share among 30 teachers. Neither of the computers have Microsoft Word on them. The internet is the slowest internet I've come across in Seoul. We have a cheap $50 HP printer that doesn't always want to print. It broke 3 weeks ago and instead of buying a new one, the school called the HP repair guy who took 2 weeks to fit us into his schedule. We went 2 weeks without a printer. We also have a small book shelf with the books we are supposed to use for teaching.

Our director came to our teachers' room to make an announcement. Our teachers' room doesn't have the right permits to be a teachers' room so it's actually illegal that we are down there. So we spent this morning hiding all of our books and re-arranging the desks to make the room not look like a teachers' room. A few teachers were trying to protest because this isn't the first time our school has revealed that they're doing something shady. For the time being, we have no place to go at school but our classrooms. Our director told us that we just need to "hang around" but not at our desks for the next week while the school puts in the proper paperwork. Meanwhile, inspectors are coming to look at the building and when they come, we can't say anything about the teachers' room in the basement. When I first started working at the school, this would have amazed me . . . but it's starting to be just another ordinary day.