Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe

Small Korean children (all of whom know an awful lot about this race, interestingly) seem to prefer Obama to Clinton, and generally are Democratic-inclined. Random, I know, but rather interesting.

Irresistible

It's creeping up on me...

That seductive feeling...

There's no escaping it...

I know I'm going to give in...

...and eat chips and salsa for dinner yet again.

A Rather Tedious Update

I have a clogged ear. The kind of ear that you get when you land in an airplane and it hasn't popped yet. I've had it for 3 fucking days! It may well drive me completely around the bend.

Me!

OT thinks I take pretty pictures.

I Am Obsessed With Mormons

I watched all of Season 1 of Big Love yesterday, which sounds like I'm a lazy ass if you haven't read my last couple of posts before this one. What else is there to do when you are sick and self-pitying other than watch 12 episodes about polygamy and only consume calories in liquid form (soup and Neocitron, people, I'm not that much of an alchie!)

Anyway, between the show (which I rather enjoyed, though kinda like one enjoys watching a trainwreck - fascinated gawking), that Jon Krakauer book I read a couple of years ago, and the failed Mormon I once met in a bar here, I feel like quite the little Mormon fake-internet-expert.

Have I ever told you the failed Mormon in a bar story? It's quite a good one...

Fuuuuuck

I just went shopping and I still have no food. This is because I have that low grade of cold that saps my will to live. Basically, when I am not sick, I am sarky and cheerful, when I am much sicker, I end up over compensating and being cheerful, but with this level of cold, I become blah, irritable and unable to care about anything.

I have no food, no real desire to eat anything in particular. I can't pick a book to read next or get into the idea of watching any of the movies I've downloaded recently. In fact, I find it rather pleasant to just stare vacantly into space.

And then I was pondering why I've just been such a procrastinator this past 6 months and it suddenly struck me that I teach small children for 10.5 hours every day. That's a lot of teaching. I don't mind the hours, especially. The don't get me down the way they do many of my coworkers. However, I can't be bothered doing anything that has even the whiff of a chore or errand about it. Even blogging about certain events has been postponed, just cause I lack the motivation to actually think.

It hurts my brain. And with sore sinuses, that's not something I want to add to the mix.

Making Sweet Music

We had to make tambourines and talk about which was louder, the aluminium one or the paper one.

Little Alex said, "Teacher, your nose blowing is the loudest."

If only being good at snot production was the kind of thing you could put on a resume...

I Feel Like Batman's Nemesis

I have a cold. Well, not quite. Half my head has a head cold. Only the left side, oddly. My ear is going crazy, popping every time I take the elevator up and down the 12 floors to my house, my nose is stuffed and I have incredibly sore sinuses.

But the right half of my face is just peachy. It's very, very odd.

Taipei or Not to Taipei?

I have tickets reserved for Lunar New Year and have to decide by tomorrow if I want them. It's $500 to fly to a warmer place for 3 solid days of travelling... I've emailed a hostel to see if I can get reservations (this is soooooo last minute for a very high-season time in this part of the world), so I think I am leaning towards going.

I've just been so damn cold since I returned from Boracay. I want warm again. And I think I need some more time out of Korea. After all, my next vacation is the last week of my contract, in August. Which is a long bloody time from now, I must say.

Hmmm....

Don't Trash the Environment

There are certain words that are used consistently incorrectly by my students, over three contracts at three different schools, which seems to suggest that someone, somewhere is teaching this stuff.

Trash is used in place of throw out, litter, and trashcan (sometimes all in the same sentence.) Interestingly, while my students are against littering as a concept, littering in Korea is not a tut-tut occassion or a fineable offense.

It's an actual occupation. People are (presumably) paid to wander around the streets throwing adverts on the ground at random. This is particularly done by the sorts of places with names like "Sexy Bar & Rooms".

Oops!

Turns out I celebrated a few weeks too early. Apparently January 3rd was the magic day. Since I was on Boracay at the time, it was celebrated then too, cause every day on Boracay was celebratory.

For Feathered Friends

This could be my postsecret...

...except that I shop at Indigo and Chapters.

Status Update

Amanda is wondering how long jessica might talk at tomorrow's meeting.

Sean too dreads the impending unmerciful wraith of the garlitz soliloquy.

Rap Graphs

My favs are below and the rest are here.

Goodbye 7-11 Family!

The people who have been running the 7-11 are leaving. It's so sad, because they are just so nice. The man always worked out next to the store around 4 a.m., lifting weights and doing Korean sword fighting. The woman would tell me to wear a hat on cold days. I've gone in virtually every morning to pick up my breakfast of chocolate milk since I got here. Between the 7-11 woman and the galbi woman, it was like having a Korean mama.

To The Makers Of Chapstick

Thank you kindly for sealing your product for my protection. I'm a fan of protection, which I feel is evidenced by the fact that I bought your product in the first place, rather than a prettier, more sparkly, and indeed cheaper, alternative.

However, I'm afraid your people have been spending too much time with the people responsible for childproof lids. I'm going to have a problem protecting my lips from the negative effects of chapping if I can't ever manage to get at your product.

I am also not convinced that avoiding chapped lips is worth the price of severing a finger, which seems likely to happen as I will have to take a knife of some sort to your seal, and I am not particularly handy with knives.

The annoyance of all of this may be alleviated by the free thingy that will attach my lip balm to my jacket/purse/phone/etc. After all, the only thing I am more prone to doing than cutting myself with knives is losing things that I had just a minute ago.

My Ass Is Still Thawing

It was the preschool/kindie sledding field trip this morning and I had a blast. However, I have never had such a cold ass in my life and I'm about to spend the weekend ice fishing. I just went out and bought some additional cold weather gear, but I can't say I think this is looking good...

I was soooo tired after. Hauling a couple of sleds and a handful of children up a slope is exhausting! It was super cute though and all my Tigers fought over who got to go down with me. Adorable. I forgot my camera, but hopefully someone else got some pics.

The father of one of the preschool students works in a Chinese-herbal-medicine-style hospital and has kindly gifted the entire staff with some sort of herbal remedy for indigestion. If you have a sore stomach, you just pop 20 pills. Yep. 20 of 'em. And don't bite down, take my word on that one. That's not a taste you are going to be able to get out of your mouth any time soon.

I still don't own a watch. My students are about ready to kill me, as my classes keep running slightly over. Oops.

The Weekend So Far

-I have a toilet I can't sit on.

-Friday night resulted in numerous mystery bruises.

-Lamb is yummy.

-Girl Guide cookies eaten in a bar taste even better.

-Buzzzzzzzzzz.

Bwahahahahahaha!

Bwahahahahahaha!

Repulicans as Buffy Villains

Thanks to Sofiya for the link!

Fuck, It's Freezing!

I'm back in Korea. Boracay was amazing. More later, as I'm about to try and have a 2 hour nap before work!

Firsts of 2008

1. Who was the first person you talked to in 08?
Ortencia.

2. The first person you hugged?
Some of my students.

3. The first person you called?
It turns out I have no credit now that I'm back in the same country as my cell phone.

4. The first person you texted?
See above...

5. The first thing you drank?
Rum and Cokes, I think

6. The first person that called you?
I wasn't reachable and since then, no one.

7. The first person that texted you?
Patrick

10. Who was the 1st person to hang up on you?
I suspect that will take months to happen, if it ever does in 2008.

11. What was the first song you heard?
No idea. Some bad house was playing right after midnight, but it quickly changed to hip hop, thank maude!

12. Who was the first person you thought of?
Everyone!

13. What was the first thing you ate?
Breakfast on the porch of our bungalow

14. What where you wearing at midnight?



15. First kiss?
Not so far.

16. First fight?
Nah, it's 2008.

17. First laugh?
No doubt at something hilarious Ortencia said.

18. First person you said 'i love you' to?
Not yet!

19. First stupid thing you did?
Give me time.