Strangers in a Strange Land: 2009

So did I kill this blog by not posting in four months?

~segway~

A few days ago Chris and I watched with disgust as a hoard of elderly ladies tried to get on the subway before anyone had gotten out. An elderly man struggled with them for a few seconds, until he pushed with his arms and yelled something in Korean, clearing them like bowling pins just enough to get through. He was then followed by a woman with a stroller and some other people. Why don't people wait? Why are they so selfish? Usually when it's this crowded there's not even room for people to get on until the others are off anyway, but it still happens. I don't like having to push people out of the way, and it just burns me when I get pushed by an inconsiderate person who runs to cut in front of me, or jostles me off balance. I am so close to slugging them sometimes it's not funny. The social norm is to slightly bump people so you can get through rather than saying "excuse me" or something, but the social norm for many is also to not move when you are bumped, because otherwise you may lose your spot. I never get over the people who walk into the subway and then stop right in the doorway, as if there is no one behind them trying to get in too.

My point is that it's not good; the selfish behaviour and also my attitude. It's on par with road rage. It can wreck an otherwise happy morning for me, being angry at someone who doesn't know I'm there. I need to let it go, and not with the consolation that they are such a stupid selfish person and next time I will be ready with an umbrella or a spraybottle or my fist... because one day I will be that person, hopefully never on purpose, but oblivious to someone else and how I cut them off or knocked them out of their happy day into a seething pit of doom.

~end of segway~

Chris and I have decided to work another year in Korea. Our last day is June 12, and a week later we will be flying back to Canada to once again become wondering nomads visiting people for two months. Were basically doing the Ontatio circuit, with main stops being Barwick, Toronto and Windsor, and we will fly back in the fourth week of August sometime.

A lot has happened to come to this point -we were even really close to quitting a couple times, but I'm glad we persevered.

I've been realising that mostly it's just so easy to complain about what is wrong than to cherish the blessings I do have. There are always co-workers who do stupid things or annoy me, children who decide to not listen, or sneeze in my food. See here I am complaining. Kindergarten is a hectic place. It's not that the work is hard, it just takes so much effort to keep it good, keep it happy. To discipline children all day while still teaching and then playing with the kids too, like kids can play, it's draining. But my blessings - Chris, a job, a place, people I could call if I needed help, family I can talk to on Skype =D, and God is always there, always waiting.

Kay =)

These guys we named Aslan and Donkey Kong - parking space holders in front of a bar near our house.

Well, as the title of this entry would show, we've been experts in the art of putting off these posts (not so much intentionally, but I'm always of the mind the True Ultimate Masters of Procrastination (TM) are so good at putting things off they no longer need to consciously be aware of things they're putting off). As there are a number of other things I could be doing now, it's thus the best time to shove those aside in favour of this blog posting. Actually it's kind of the contrary as I still have an hour left at work and I find myself more prepared than I regularly am for the next day/week/etc in classes.

So I guess last we left off, we were just beginning December which means there's a whole lot of updating to do. For December field trips we went to the post office first. The students made cards for their parents and as a surprise were going to put them in the mail as opposed to just giving them so they ended up reaching the parents near Christmas. We were also going to learn all about the post office but it happened to be very slamtastically busy that day and we just ended up getting the kids there, stamping and mailing it all, then turning around and coming back. Our *real* field trip however was a very cool production of the Nutcracker for kids (it was very modernized and used an entirely different score of music than the traditional). It had a lot of dance, colours, lightshow effects and the kids loved it; it was a *tiny* bit too long at an hour and a half but still good enough to keep
the kids engaged until the end (they were starting to squirm a bit near the finish from sitting so long and paying attention). Images below:

Most of the rest of December was spent rehearsing ad nauseum for our Christmas performance, which the parents ended up loving so it must have been worth it. It was a bit stressful, and I think the kids got really tired of doing the same things over and over, but in the end people seemed happy. I was even given flowers from the father of one of my students as a gift. I think it was the first time ever a man has ever given me flowers (Ladies, you never told me how nice that is :P).
The parents also gifted Kay and I with a number of really impressive looking confections (they were filled with some kind of sugary sweet potato filling that was really hard to eat more than one of... but they looked really cool!) and a bottle of red wine (which we regifted to our pastor as we don't drink... but shhhh, don't tell). All in all it was *very* nice to start our vacation on the 19th.

We started our vacation with a trip to Costco compliments of our pastor, Steve Chang. It was soo nice to be able to stock up on certain things that are relatively unfindable in regular stores and available in bulk if you can get a car to Costco. Interestingly enough, they only take cash or a Samsung card there (no debit or other credit cards...) so we ended up letting Steve pay and then wiring the money to him online afterwards. We did fairly well there, though the price of everything imported has risen a lot in past months. We splurged on cheese, muffins, large quantities of pasta sauce and other condiments though and are managed to have a pretty enjoyable Christmas foodwise because of it.

The next day we went to pick up our new child. We're up to four now though we miss the ones we left in North America. Here are a few snaps of her... she has twoish names in a sense as Kay calls her Miss Fitz and I just call her Misfit (or whatever comes to mind when I look at her). She's a purebred Russian Blue... people in Korea only seem to be interested in purebred animals (there's a bit of trophyism here) and her story is that she was adopted by a Korean family who kept her until she first went into heat. They were horrified at how a female cat acts in heat and sent her back to the vet to be put down. The vet, at least, was compassionate and kept her to find someone else to adopt her. She was taken in by another foreign teacher from Ireland, who cared for her until she realized that Ireland has really strict quarantine laws for animals and that the cat would have to be in quarantine for a month on coming into the country. She put up a posting for someone else to adopt the kitty, preferably from the US or Canada where the rules are a little less strict. She had already invested in getting her spayed though, which was a big difference for us as it's still pretty pricey here. We spent 2 hours each direction on the subway just to pick her up (the way home was a bit stressful for her, but she's doing very well and is a very happy, loving cat that has huge Random Awkward Playful Attack Fits of Doom (also TM).