Here’s what’s happening in Korea this week
Kimchi Crisis!
A wet hot summer means there isn’t enough leafy green to satisfy the nations appetite for kimchi. The result? Cabbage prices have gone through the roof! One head of Cabbage will set you back 15000W over here! The government is going to be allowing imports of chinese cabbage.
Kim Jung-un
Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent has finally been revealed to the world. While the masses starve the soon to be ‘dear leader’ or ‘great leader’ or whatever name he’ll choose for himself remains well-fed as can be seen in the photo. The South Korean bloggers have been poking fun at his shapely figure.
EPIK Life
Life is the same at my schools. My main elementary partner teacher continues to be a ghost. He magically appears about 20 minutes into any given class, then vanishes. My middle school partner continues to be the mosquito in my ear at 3AM. A sample exchange from today:
KT: Are you busy?
Newfie: Yes I am, I’ve got lots of work to do these days.
KT:Oh I see. Can you help me with something, it’s for my open class next week.
Newfie: Look, I’m really busy these days, I’ve got a 4000 word paper coming up, and I really need to work on it.
KT: I see, it would only be five minutes, can you help me?
Newfie: (Blood pressure rising) Look, I’m really busy these days, I’ve been to two schools today and I just finished my teaching schedule. I’d really like to take advantage of this time to do a little work.
KT: It’ll only be five minutes, you don’t have five minutes?
And then I killed him. Actually I spent 20 painful minutes going through his lesson plan with him. I didn’t and check everything, but instead I pointed out the big errors and fixed about half of them, and left it to him to check his remaining work. If his lesson plan was a house, the building inspector would have it condemned. It’s not just a question of good grammar, but of having solid aims and activities that complement and achieve those aims. So after I finished checking over the lesson I went back to reading. But he wasn’t done with me yet. He interrupted for another 5 minutes with questions about my masters program. How much reading? When is your paper due? What are you reading now? And so on. Where’s a fly swatter when you need one?
Kday!
It’ll be nice to end on a good note. My girlfriend just celebrated her birthday in mini Hanukkah-style. Birthday meal out on Friday; birthday trip to Seoul on Saturday; birthday gifts and Coldstone ice cream on Sunday; Outback Steakhouse and a movie on Monday. I got her the new iPod nano which she loves because it’s cute and orange. She’s already filled it up with music.