The title of this post was going to be "Now is the winter of discontent" but I decided it was too pretentious

I. Am. Bored.

I'm at school, which is usually a place that keeps me pretty busy, but for the 5th day in the past two weeks, students have exams, which means there is no one I can punish for not giving me their undivided attention.  What, then, is a narcissist to do? I know! Write about myself in a blog, and hope other people in other countries will give me their undivided attention.

I jest, I jest. I don't really think I'm a narcissist, but I do see this current state of boredom as an ideal time to catch up the interested on recent action.

Emily and I must teach 'English Camps' and 'Vacation Classes' during the Winter break. This is code for additional classes to allow already studied out students to study more. Our English Camp classes were due yesterday and today, so we have been working hard getting several more lessons ready than is usually required of us. Em completed her work with a flair of efficiency, diligence, and creativity, while I plodded, pilfered and procrastinated my way to the finish.  Although, to be honest, the procrastinating wasn't done nearly as well as my previous high standards demanded. I think I'm out of practice.  I mean, sure, I could kill the odd 10 minutes here and there, but over the long distance, when I have a whole day at my desk bereft of those inconvenient lessons, I can barely think of what to do to fill my time besides work.

We had snow again the other day. I was teaching my single most troublesome class of boys, and I saw the tell-tale flurries out the window.  Let me confide in you, a battle waged itself within me at that moment. On the one hand, here were 40 boys that could riot at the slightest encouragement, snowballing into an eighth grade boys' rebellion, and no doubt, a middle school revolution before the period finished. On the other hand, SNOW! I so badly wanted to tell everyone that it was snowing, that I had seen it first, that this doesn't normally happen and that it is very exciting and look at the size of those snowflakes. But prudence one out. Adulthood one out. And let me tell you, the child within me wept.

Unfortunately, and perhaps, I confess it now, inevitably, five minutes later a student shot up his hand - "Teacher! Snowing!" Those fateful words echo anew in my mind, as if in slow motion.  Students were drawn to the window before the rebellion's instigator had drawn a new breath, no doubt with the intention of uttering more treachery. However, with a whip crack command and a single unyielding finger drawn to my lips, I quelled their coup before they even knew what could have been - "Shh! Don't tell anyone. Close the windows."

In other less dramatic news, we are going to Busan on Friday night to have Christmas with some old friends of Emily's, and newer friends of mine, Scott and Ashleigh.  We are quite pumped. Christmas present purchasing has been a trial, as it costs around $45 to send a box to the US. We are still trying to work out teleportation, but no luck on that front yet. Maybe I should get to working on that instead, or another creative idea to get family members Christmas presents...

Until next time, faithful readers and obligated friends.

Oh, and this was Chris, by the way.

There isn't really a cohesive theme for this post, hence the title.

As Chris mentioned in his last post. We DID have a bit of snow last week. It was beautiful. It made the freezing cold walk to school bearable. Unfortunately, today its raining. It was not beautiful, and the freezing (and now wet) walk to school was almost unbearable. But, we did in fact make it to school. A triumph of the human spirit.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I'm taking a 20 minute walk every morning in below freezing temperatures and part of that walk is next to a field (or a rice-paddy for some of us) where the wind has no barrier other than yours truly (and my very strong and broad-shouldered husband), I bundle up! Hat, big scarf, and mittens. This seems smart, doesn't it? Well, my students think it is a bit silly. They always laugh and say, "Ohh... cold?" or they indicate with sign language how bundled up I am. I usually look at them and ask (in an incredulous tone of voice) "Where is YOUR coat?" Some of the students have on a coat, a few wear mittens and no coat, no one wears a hat. Its not that they aren't cold. They admit that its not just cold, its freezing, and yet they don't do anything about it. Well, the good news is that I am no longer in middle school, so I need to be warm WAY more than I need to be cool. :)

As I read through the above paragraph, I recognize that I DO in fact, sound like an old woman. This is because I am turning into an old woman. Chris wanted to take me out for dinner and bowling on Saturday night. (Isn't he lovely!) Well, it was already dark out, and it was very cold, and wouldn't it be sooo nice to just be warm and cozy inside? We could just rent a movie right? So, that's what we did. We got take-away and watched a movie. Actually, we watched a documentary. I'm contemplating deleting this paragraph, because I definitely sound like I've come to Korea and aged about 45 years. Oh well, I need to be warm WAY more than I need to be cool.

We had a good time at our church yesterday. Singing Christmas carols and we are almost finished with a new-comers class. The past few weeks have been doctrinally focused. We've studied salvation, sanctification and the church. This Sunday was on the different ministries at the Korean church (a 4,000 member church) and our English service (about 100 member service). We are really excited about opportunities to serve and grow in ministry here. We're going to start leading a small group in January and we are talking about some other areas to get involved as well. The church is so interesting because it has such high turn-over. Most people are here for 1 year contracts, and they stay a max of 2 years. So, it takes people about 6 months to get into the groove of a new church and then they think, "I only have 6 months left, I can't really commit to anything..." We really don't want that to be our attitude. God brought us to Korea for a purpose and we want to seize it!

We'll let you know what we end up doing! Feel free to comment on how interesting this post was. It seems that Chris is getting more comments than I am. (And yes, EVERYTHING is a competition!! :)  )

SNOW! and other adventures

Want to know why white people are invariably of greater girth than Koreans?  Koreans give white people food.  Every time we go to the fresh produce market in front of our apartment (it wraps around the junkyard) and buy fruit - or donuts - they throw in a few extra. I want to believe it's because we complete the transaction in Korean, but to be honest, our Korean doesn't warrant an a free mandarin, let alone 3 mandarins and an apple.  I stammer my way through, sometimes panicking and saying something stupid.  Yesterday in the supermarket I waved goodbye to the assistant and said in more fluent than average Korean, "How much is this?"  One time in a taxi I spoke to the taxi driver in Hebrew.  He looked bemused, but I made up for it by overpaying him - again accidentally.

Anyway, SNOW!  We began our jog today, and it just seemed a little too cold.  Em wanted us to turn back because I wasn't wearing enough clothing, but I assured her that I was far too tough for the weather to get the better of me. I lasted maybe another 20 seconds before drops of rain showed me my hubris and we headed home.  After getting changed we went grocery shopping, and when we came out, it was SNOWING!  The closest thing to SNOW I have seen in December was hail on Christmas Eve during an Australian summer storm.  Needless to say I was pretty excited and decided if anything was blog worthy, SNOW was.

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