Category Archives: Blah!

Sep26

Chuseok~*

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We are all insanely excited (and grateful!) for the mini-holiday we have next week!  My Facebook news feed is overflowing with countdowns to trips to other countries, camping in Korea or just people being excited to stay in and relax before we take on the last few weeks before Christmas.

Chuseok holiday changes every year, because it is celebrated according to the lunar calendar.  Some schools also give the sandwich day off!  I remember 2 years ago, BF and I actually went to South Africa for Chuseok (madness!) because we had two sandwich days – Monday and Friday! Chuseok was from Tuesday to Friday, so we had a good 10 days off!  We aren’t as lucky this year, but hey, who complains about vacation days?!

Chuseok is a three-day holiday to celebrate good harvests every year.   Just like with other important Korean holidays, the families will visit the homes of their ancestors or parents to share food.  About a week before Chuseok, the men in the family will go to the graves of their ancestors and clean it up a bit – or like my co-teacher likes to call it “it’s like giving my mom a haircut” (awkward moment #243).

Traditional rice cakes (Songpyeon)

On Chuseok day, the families offer food and crops to their ancestors.  These are one of the many rituals performed on Chuseok.   Some Korean foods are prepared especially for Chuseok, although it is still consumed during the year.  The most popular would be Songpyeon – traditional Korean rice cakes.   If you’d like to give your teachers rice cakes before Chuseok holiday, make sure that they are good quality! They also drink Dongdongju (a sweet, milky-white rice wine similar to similar to Makgeolli)

Rice wine (Dongdongju)

Since this is a traditional holiday, the Koreans usually dress up in their gorgeous Hanbok as well.  This is the worst time to shop, because cute babies in their Hanboks are insanely distracting! ;)

Traveling during Chuseok vacation is pretty rough!  Train and bus tickets are booked in advance and the roads are nothing less than a nightmare.   The best time to travel would be after the actual Chuseok Day.  Most families finish the celebrations in the morning and then head home.  The two or three days after are very quiet for traveling!

To all my blog readers, may you all experience a wonderful Chuseok break.  If you’re traveling – be safe, enjoy, discover and experience.  If you’re staying in – go pop the popcorn and enjoy relaxing!   13 weeks till winter break! :P

xx
Afrikoreaan

May30

Pay it Forward… (Please help Peet)

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I am sure many of us have recently read about Peter Venter, a fellow Saffa in Korea fighting cancer.  I can not for one moment imagine what it must feel like — not only to fight this fight, but to do so in another country.

I recently read a brief history of Peet’s life and it was truly humbling .  This man gave everything he had, to help others, without expecting anything in return.  Unfortunately, life isn’t always fair.  Peet has been diagnosed with cancer.  Currently, his cancer is in an advanced stage and doctors in Korea are going to do their best to give him more time with us.

I started this post with an idea of where I wanted to go with it, but honestly after reading up on this I am at a loss for words..  All I can say is that Peet deserves our help.  He has helped so many people and it’s time to pay it forward.

He will need roughly 10,000,000 won (or $9,500) to cover his operation and MRI.  He will be submitted to hospital tomorrow  (May 31st) to be prepped for surgery.  The surgery will take place on June 5th.

The hospital has set up a special account for Peet.   Every 10,000 won makes a difference… Like I said on the Facebook group yesterday:

One pizza at Mr.Pizza = 20,000won
3 beers = 10,000
date night with your girlfriend = 40,000 :P
If you live cheaply, a Bingo pizza is 6,000… add the coke and the taxi you take home cause it’s raining and that’s 10,000 right there…
That pair of shoes that you just HAVE TO HAVE (but actually you dont) = 60,000…
;) do it!! donate!!! you can have your pizza again next week!!!

To donate:

Hospital Bank Account
Bank: KEB [Korea Exchange Bank] 외환은행
Account #: 900 – 254192 – 001
Account holder: 서울아산병원
(English transaltion is: 외환은행 = Korea Exchange Bank ; 서울아산병원 = Seoul Asan Hospital/Medical Centre)

Paypal: 

peetventer@live.com   (click here for paypal)

Please put yourself in his shoes.

I’d like to thank Michael Atkins and Vanita Swart for all the time and efforts spent on this cause.  Peet, thank you for sharing your stories on Facebook and providing so much information.   And last but definitely not least, a big thanks to everyone – Saffa or not – who has donated already!  It makes me proud to see so many people come together and fight with Peet.

For more information or for any questions please visit the Facebook page or Event page.

Thanks so much.

Mari

A Brief Background to Peet in his own words:  (From the Facebook page)

“My youth was that of a ‘poor white’ with no hope and no help, but I had a fire burning deep inside of me. I still have School Records in the 800m standing to this day, ie 40 years. I worked two jobs and studied and took care of my family when my father died at 41 years of age. I got a massive inheritance; mom and five brothers and sisters.I managed the 2nd largest Training and Development Center in SA by the time I was 29. At 34 I was in the Head office of the THEN Gencor, now BHP BILLITON, as Manager responsible for the strategic positioning of training, education and development for 57 companies all over the world. I was the first ever person who implemented artisan traing for the deprived peopole of my country back in 1979. Obviously without union or government approval. In 1984 I was transferred to a  ’safer’ are, KURUMAN, to go and fully implement my ideas. Lots to share about the unbelievable succcess of the ELCOR PROJECT. The African people gave me a name/title because I gave my life to them. For the Xhosa I am UMTUTUZILE, for the SeTswana I am MOGOMOTSI. For my teachers and school friends I was just a K—- -boetie; my coach was black. I pride myself that in my life, I gave more than I got. I gave unconditionally and without personal consideration. That is why I was successful, people loved me. And I loved them. All of them. I was the golden boy the golden man and the one who could do anything. My l potential as was measured using the Elliott Jacques Scale was the 3rd highest in the whole of Gencor and on par with Brian Gilbertson and  Bobby Godsell. I shared stages with Bobby Godsell and many of our current ANC ministers. In 1996 I decided enough and started my own Labour Law practice. At one stage I was Chairman of the WESTERN TVL Training initiative, Chairman of the High School board, Student and Manager for both GENGOLD TRAINING COLLEGE and another company. My divorce in 1999 brought me back to earth and in 2001 I came to Korea. I fell in love with Korea and her people.In 2009 towards the end I was not okay and took a month vacation. In SA the one month became 18 months after we discovered the cancer. I was operated twice in 12 months and sent home with no hope. However, I made a decision to live until death come look for me. So I returned to Korea, the heaven on earth for me. Prior to me coming here I gave away everything I had and my little nest egg after all the medical bills, I left for my son who I still take care of. In Korea I lived and worked and got suckered into working for free for three months. I decided not to fight, I just did not have the capacity for it. Then I was offered my current position with the most wonderful people who, in recognition for my work, goes out of their way to accommodate me. Due to pressure from them, they want to work with me forever hahaha, I went to see the Korean medical specialists. Lo’ an’ behold; they think they can help me. The did not believe my condition; working and being healthy and positive. But here is where the whateva’ hits the fan.My room costs me W600/month, my son needs W800/month and I work for W2,4 million, about W2.1mill after deductions. W700 does not go far if you have to pay water and gas and electricity and eat. Bla-bla-bla. I managed and lived and could not care less. Then came the pressure to get/buy myself some life. The first scans cost me just under W1,2 million. So the little I saved was again gone in an instant. Now comes the operation, hospital and after care. How? Yes, I want to have another 2-5 years, I have so much to offer still. The truth be told, I might have had 4 decent meals this month because I had to pay my medical tests. If I decide to or are forced to admit defeat after fighting such a noble fight, I may have 4 months to live. The cancer is now in the liver too and is widespread and seeded, luckily in a localized area. The pain is excruciating every second of the day yet I still manage most of the time not to use medication. Medication is defeat for me. Yip, I have in the last few weeks, maybe because of my feeding, had a paradigm shift of what pain really is and yes, I had taken medication at most 6 times. Is this the way to go? Knowing there is something that can be done? ”

May22

I should be banned from buying expensive things.

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I tend to do stupid things.  Really stupid things.  Often.  I’ve sent too much money home in the past and lived on ramen and instant curry for a bit… I’ve seen my train leave on a little TV screen because I had the wrong time…  I just really do stupid things sometimes.  This weekend, I took it to a new level.

I’ve been looking forward to the first Hunters Braai Camp for ages!  We’re saving up for our insane Thailand trip, so we’ve limited ourselves to one nice weekend (away) a month.  Hunters Braai Camp was our “May outing”.

I arrived at Boyfriend’s apartment on Friday night.  We packed our backpacks, made braaibroodjies (I refuse to translate this.  It’s a “braaibroodjie”. Period.) and lined up whatever we still had to pack the next morning.  Boyfriend woke me up at 5:30am asking something about jam and sandwiches.  No idea…  We left for Daejeon at 7:20am.  I took my Galaxy Tab out of my backpack to watch some series on the bus, but I was exhausted, so Boyfriend and I decided to powernap instead.  The Galaxy Tab on my lap was making it difficult for me to hold Boyfriend’s hand, so I placed the tab in the little pouch in front of me.

I decided not to use my tab for music at the Braai camp, because they were playing awesome music already.  We had an insanely good time there (will post about that too!)  We left the Braai camp on Sunday morning.  I listened to music on my iPod, because it’s smaller than my Tab and we were carrying a bunch of stuff, including my prized possession: A 6-pack Hunters Dry.

After spending some time back in Gumi, it was time for me to catch the train back home.  I stuck my hand into the hidden laptop pouch in my backpack… no Galaxy Tab.  At first I thought I left it in Boyfriend’s bag, because we moved stuff around at the Braai camp, so we could leave one bag in the motel and keep the other one with us.  I was somewhere between Gumi and Gimcheon when it hit me like a ton of bloody bricks… My Galaxy Tab was in a bus.. somewhere in Korea.  Crap.  The salt in my wounds was the fact that I recently canceled the contract for it, in order to get my smartphone and I had to pay a looooot of money to cancel.

Boyfriend went to the Gumi bus terminal and played charades with them for about 30 minutes.  They eventually called the bus company. Lost and Found was closed already.  ”Call back on Monday.”  Crap.

I have an AMAZING co-teacher.   He spent so much time on the phone yesterday trying to find out if anyone had my Tab.  He called the Gumi bus terminal, then the Daejeon bus terminal. They referred him to the bus company in Andong. (If you have a map of Korea, you’ll see that these places are all over!!)  Eventually he contacted the actual bus driver.  Apparently the bus driver saw a guy exiting the bus (when he reached his stop).  When he passed the front seat he reached and grabbed something.  The bus driver knew that whatever he took didn’t belong to him and said: “That isn’t yours, is it?”  The guy said that it wasn’t his and gave MY TAB to the bus driver.  (OH. MY. WORD.)  The bus driver asked another driver to bring my tab *back to my city*!!!   At around 7pm last night, I had my tab.

I am honestly still in shock.  I just think this country is bloody amazing.   No ways would this happen back home.  I am so thankful!

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!  My tab now has a bright pink cover. :)

Apr24

The day I got a root canal… in Korea.

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Let me start this by apologizing to my boyfriend.  I’m sorry I laughed at you when you had to get a root canal last week.  True, I was mostly laughing because I was surprised.  I’ve never met anyone who brushed their teeth for as long as you do. I have to admit though, that deep down I was secretly very glad it wasn’t me.  Unfortunately, Karma knows all secrets!

On Saturday afternoon, mid rummikub match with boyfriend, my jaw started throbbing. It was just plain annoying.  On Sunday morning, I was sure that aliens infested my skull and were now trying to change my appearance from the inside. My jaw was insanely sore.  Boyfriend braved the rain outside and got me some ibuprofen, which I lived on.  I was 99% certain that this alien invasion was due to me clenching and grinding my teeth at night.  This past week has been particularly stressful, since boyfriend had his EPIK interview and the outcome would change a whole bunch of things for us.

It wasn’t until this morning, that I realized the Alien invasion theory was just that.  A theory.  I had the worst toothache!  I have pretty strong teeth and only got my first cavity when I was in university.  Unfortunately this means that at the age of 24, I still have the 5-year-old’s-fear-of-dentists.  I put on my big girl panties and decided to go to the dentist, since I screamed like a little girl at lunch.  I planned on getting a mouth guard to sleep with, but karma decided to give me a damn good reason to go to the dentist instead.

When I arrived at the dentist’s office, I tried explaining the problem.  Thank goodness they can speak English pretty well!  I started crying.  How embarrassing!  I just started crying!!!!  Noooo!  Pretty sure it was fear + pain + stress + really-happy-boyfriend-passed-his-interview + please don’t take my tooth, all nicely wrapped up in waygook tears.  The poor assistants (all late 20s) were all sparking to get me to calm down!  They were so cute!
“Please Miss Mari, sit down!”
“Warrer?” (water)
“Watchee teebee!”  (tv)

A few minutes later the dentist (also a young chap) came back and asked me in his best English: “Miss Mari, are you calm now?”  Mortified.

I explained how I was sure it’s tooth grinding blah blah blah (trying to convince the doc you’re fiiine! .. come on, you know you do it too).  He checked me out and said: “You have inflammation.. under previously fixed cavity. You need root canal.”

The poor staff members did NOT know what to do next, as I was now laughing AND tearing up.  I mumbled a “ha.. my boyfriend had root canal last week.. eishhh.”   “Miss Mari, tell me if you are ready okay? Do you want to relax first?”  LOL I felt so awkward!  So I remembered the big girl panties and said: “I will never be ready.. so you can just do it.”  We had this quick conversation… Oh Korea..
“It will hurt, right?”
“Yes, it will be quite painful.”
“Eh.. you’re supposed to make me feel better!!!”
“I am sorry.  I am just being realistic! Hehe!”
Gah!!!

While he finished some work on another patient, the sweet assistants returned – all four of them – with a cup of water and a painkiller.  ”Miss Mari!  Drink! No pain!”   Now, my dear friends, this is one of the things I suck at.  Swallowing pills.  My mouth says yes and my brain refuses.  Korea has taught me to swallow the damn stuff, because being sick by yourself is horrible.  But sheesh, being told you’re getting a root canal and having a mini cup of water to swallow a huge pill with four assistants standing around you…oh the pressure!  After the third try and a few embarrassing “Hehe, sorry, I’m NERVOUS!” I got it down.  And they all cheered and applauded.   So yes, I was laughing before my root canal!  Whuuut. Madness.

The procedure was explained to me in perfect English and the dentist answered all of my strange questions.  The injection was… bloody freaking sore and I was sure I wouldn’t come out of this alive.  Honestly though, after that I felt *nothing*.  In Korea they cover your face with a cloth that has a hole for your mouth.  It was weird at first, but except for the obvious reason (no water splashing on your face) I actually LOVED not being able to see anything.  Plus, since the cloth is dark, you can really close your eyes and relax.

Root canals are done in stages, so I have to go back, but the procedure today cost me 15,000 won.  That’s $13 or R100!  I got some pain meds and antibiotics from the pharmacy for 2,000 won. (less than $2/R13) The total procedure shouldn’t cost me more than 50,000 won ($43/R340)  In South Africa you’d probably pay that just for the appointment!

The staff were amazing and the dentist really made me overcome my fear! (Well.. at least in Korea!)   :)

Happy flossing!

  • When visiting the dentist, remember to take your Medical Health Card (that huge white form thing) and your ARC.  Once you’re on their records you probably just need your ARC.

har har har

Apr17

TweetTweet…

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Afrikoreaan is on Twitter now! :)  Well I think so.. I have NO idea what I’m doing on twitter… I created an account to stay updated on the new EPIK intake so I’m following them?

Anyways… my name is Afrikoreaan, (but it says @MariGerber.. so I might just be Mari Gerber then..)  Follow me :)  Feel free to ask any questions about teaching in Korea on there too!

So while I figure out how this tweetin’ business works…… happy tweeting!

Mar21

Happy Appy Android! :)

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Aah! I’m not dead, I promise! Just hibernating! So over this cold weather!! Where’s the summerrr??!!   :(


So many of my friends got the aaawesome Galaxy S2 LTE today!  So I’m posting a list of my favorite Android apps. These are my personal favorites.  I don’t have many, so if you find something really cool PLEASE leave a comment and tell me about it!!

* Whatsapp, kakao talk and Skype – for obvious reasons.  Side note about Skype:  If you plan on phoning home often, but some skype credit, or get a subscription (Subscription to landlines in South Africa:  13,000 / month for 400 minutes).  Then you can walk around in Seoul, punch in your home number and when you press dial, tap on “complete action using skype”.  It will automatically sign you in and dial with your skype subscription.  Awesome!! :)

* Seoul subway – there are many, search for the one created by “Shining” (gray logo, white subway pic and colored lines at the top) BEST app for seoul – You punch in the departure and arrival stations and it shows you the best route (depending on what you choose – shortest time / distance / minimum transfers)

* For other subways (Busan, Daegu etc), Jihachul is in English.

* Viber – you can call family members (who also have smartphones & Viber) for free. (it’s a data call, like skype, but to their cellphones)

* TuneIn Radio – stream your favourite radio stations – Anything from Algoa fm, 5fm and even BOKRadio.

* 3G Watchdog (green logo with white dog). It shows you how much data you’ve used (great if you just have 3 gigs data and not unlimited)

* Battery Circle – shows remaining battery life in % so you don’t have to guess.

* Brightest Flash light – It uses your camera flash as a flashlight, but I’ve used it many times!!! :P

* Dropbox – Most people will know about Dropbox web-storage on the internet anyways.  Now you can sync your dropbox account on your phone. :)

* Google Translate.  You’re in Korea.  Get it.

* xe.com – For checking the currency conversion rate before sending your millions home.

* News24 if you want to read some SA newspapers.

* Barcode scanner – Seen something nice in a shop?  Like some Galaxy accessories??  Scan the bar code to search for it online.

* Stumble Upon – Same as online version.  For those long boring Mugunghwa trains.

* PicSay – silly little app, but nice for playing around with photos.

* TripAdvisor – haven’t used mine a lot, but since we’re here to travel too……

Serious time wasters:

1)  Where’s my Water.  -  Haha funnyyyy!  Little crocodile game, where you have to direct water through obstacles to get him to take a bath. Addictive.

2) 1 to 50 – who has the fastest fingers?   tap the numbers (1-50) in order as fast as you can.  Addictive. Funny when other players are slightly intoxicated.

3) DrawFree – the new CRAZE.  Play pictionary with your friends.  It’s not timed, so you play whenever you can or want to.  Sounds really silly, but it’s quite nice!  Drawing things like “Korea”  ”McHammer” and “Dandruff” has never been more interesting!  <- this SERIOUSLY chows battery life though… so play before you go to bed or something!

I found my battery life to be saaadly short in the beginning.  It’s MUCH better after a few charges etc.  Keep power saving mode enabled (under settings).  Mine automatically switches to Power Saving Mode at 70%.   Also, the Galaxy has an awesome display, but remember that darker colored wallpapers also save some battery life.  Not a must, but good to know!

Dec30

Time for a Quickie! ;)

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Hey guys!

I’m so sorry for being so quiet lately!  I’m rushing around like crazy trying to get everything sorted for my SA trip next week!  Can’t*Freaking*Wait!! Only 4 more days in SoKo then I’ll get to say hi to my lovely mountain!

It’s starting to get really cold now and we’ve had a little bit of snow – even on Christmas eve!  I spent Christmas at the lovely Braai Republic and as expected, it was bloody amazing!  Will post about it soon!  It’s -5 degrees at the moment and it’s almost noon!

Most EPIK Spring 2012 teachers have received their placements so I hope they’re all coping with the normal stresses of “the big change”!  Hang in there guys, it’s going to be awesome! Take lots of pics of the process. Spend as much time with friends and family as you can!

If you have any questions PLEASE feel free to comment or send me a message and I’ll try to answer them on here!  ’

EPIK Spring 2012 teachers in Cape Town, I’ll see you on the 10th at Blue Peter!  I won’t be gone for too long so I’ll try to get some blogging done soon!

I'll be back...!

Have a good New Years and be safe!

xx

Nov30

Is it Christmas yet??

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I haven’t written anything in weeks and I’m sorry!!  The students have exams next week so things have been going a bit crazy.  On top of that we have to do EPIK online training.  At this moment I shouldn’t comment on that.   So I’ll just post a pic.  This is how I feel about the last few weeks:

Frustrated kitteh!

I have a been diagnosed with End-of-Year syndrome.  I. am. over. 2011.   It this stage I am a master at procrastinating.  I used to plan ahead… like two weeks ahead.  I still plan.  I plan my 11:50am lesson at 9:50am.  Shit.   The problem with procrastination is this vicious cycle.   I don’t feel like working, so I don’t.  Then I have to get my crap together before class starts *on that day*.  This takes too much energy, given my new ‘disease’.  I get home, plonk on my bed and watch series till midnight.    My brain will not shut down.  So I get to bed at 2am.  I sleep until I honestly *have to* get up.   Rush to school, teach a class, plan the next one… and so on.

I know exactly how many days I have left before my trip to Sunny SA.  Yesterday I had to use an online calculator, because I got different answers every time.  This is what I got:  ”There are -40,873 days intil Wednesday, 3 January 1990.”    Frustrated kitteeeeeh!

I *hate* feeling negative and I know it drives Boyfriend insaaaane :)  Having a really bad week happens.  For me it’s just worse when it happens in Korea.  I want to have cocktails in Camps Bay and eat buffet sushi with my friends and have tea and bake cookies with my grandmother! Sooo This is a list of the positive things in my life at the moment:  (AKA  How to stay sane when you’re having a UGH KOREAAA week)

  • My class just got moved from 4th period to 5th, which is after lunch.
  • It’s Wednesday.  Wednesday = good lunch day. Always.
  • 34 Days till SA.
  • 34 Days till I swim in a fountain of good wine.  And eat chili poppers.
  • I’m going to an SA restaurant for Christmas!
  • I filled out a bank survey and won an ipaaad! yayyy!  Which means I’m getting myself an iphoooone!  yaaaaay!
  • It’s hump day.
  • I’m super excited to be cooking an insanely awesome meal for my friend this weekend.
  • I baked the most amazing chocolate brownies… in the microwave… in 3 minutes… and it cost me R12.  Asaah!
  • Boyfriend-parents-visit in Feb has been changed from 2 weeks to 3! yay!
  • No classes next week thanks to the looovely exam week!
I don’t really know what this post is.  It’s just a rant.  But I’m feeling better and just letting you know that I’ll pay more attention to writing something important next week!! :)  If you have any questions that you want covered, please leave a comment!  This is your chance to feeeed my procrastination by giving me post topics. :) Have an awesome week!

x

Stole this awesome pic from my favorite Feel-Good website, Hyperbole and a half.

Nov17

Why Englisheee teachers hate Photo Days…

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To fully understand what I’m going through today, let me start with what my week has been like… starting with last Saturday night.

I was really keen on making some tacos for me and Boyfriend, since they expired the day before, so this was the perfect excuse to abandon the “I’m-not-gonna-eat-crap-this-week” -plan and have tacos! Something I *love*!   For some odd reason making tacos is more fun than eating them.  Small dishes with lettuce and tomato and cheese (unless you’re in Korea) a pot of mince with my own concoctions in… I can’t explain it.  It just makes me happy to prepare taco fillings.  :P

Since ovens in Korea are so HUGE (if you didn’t catch the sarcasm there… no hope for you) I could only make 6 taco shells at a time.  Boyfriend likes tacos.  I needed more than 6.  So I did them in two batches.  The box has ENGLISH instructions and it’s the exact same damn taco brand I use back in SA… Bitches, I know what I’m doing.  But somewhere, somehow,  6-7 minutes of oven pleasures, got completely effed up in round two.  After four minutes – yes FOUR – Boyfriend said: “I think you can take out the tacos.”  I mocked him and said “Ha! You’re just hungry, but okay fine.”  I took the 6 steps to my kitchen, opened the sliding door and was hit with smoke coming out of my little oven-tjie!  Oh. My. Word.  6-7 minutes my ass!  This is what I got:

They were so burnt they actually went soft. I don't know how that happens... but it was flexible like plastic...

Since this was batch two, we were screwed.  I didn’t have any other food in my apartment.  We ended up walking around town trying to find a loaf of bread… We had taco bread for dinner.

On Sunday we were going to go for dinner at a Shabu-Shabu restaurant (which I will explain as soon as I actually go there – I looove shabu shabu!), but they were closed.  So we ended up getting pizza.  (I don’t know what happened to the  ”I’m-not-gonna-eat-crap-this-week” -plan…)  I started feeling really sick and had a fever on Sunday night. Great. I had tonsillitis the week before and was pretty sure this cold-weather-bread-finding-adventure just welcomed the tonsillitis right back.  Slept less than my semi-insomniac boyfriend.

I woke up Monday feeling like crap.  I went to work… feeling like crap and I taught all my classes feeling like crap.  On Tuesday I woke up and decided “This is crap.”  I called my super awesome co-teacher and got a sick day.  Made my way to the hospital to see the doctor, only to arrive 3 minutes after their lunch hour had started.  Crap.  So I went BACK to my apartment and returned two hours later.  The doctor, an ENT Specialist, did some weird stuff to my face, which was also crap.  Thank goodness for the reaaally awesome pharmacist who speaks perfect English, because this time I actually know what meds I’m taking.

One of the meds in my little pill packet is an antihistamine.  I can deal with Allergex sleepiness.  Seriously.  This stuff?? What. The. Heck.  I was a ZOMBIE at school yesterday!  I don’t remember much of yesterday though, just that when saying goodnight to my boyfriend I suddenly got an urge to visit Spain someday and looked at flight prices on Expedia.com.   I was really confused this morning when I had flight itineraries to Spain on my computer screen.

This morning all 5 of my alarms woke me (Don’t judge) , but this Zombie Pills still made me fall back to sleep.  I woke up at 7:15.   My co-teacher picks me up at 7:30.  I can be ready in 15 minutes. No problem.  The problem is that I have to have breakfast before swallowing the local pharmacy and I can’t have any dairy with my meds.  Or caffeine.  No quick coffee.  No gulping down yoghurt. Nothing.  I don’t have bread in my house. Hardly ever.  I had to bake a freaking egg and I only had 15 minutes to get ready for school to begin with!  I didn’t care what I looked like.  I was halfway with the pharmacy swallowing when Awesome CoTeacher (not sarcastic, he really IS awesome) called me:

Awesome Co-Teacher: “Mari, I’m so so so sorry, I forgot to tell you…”

Mari: Hoping that he forgot to tell me that our morning class got canceled and we’re only leaving in 20 minutes… Because they really seem sorry when that happens…

ACT:  We have our school photo day today for graduation.  I forgot to tell you, I’m so sorry but I will see you in a few minutes okay?”

Mari thinking:  &%^$^&@%#(@^*%(&#@^%

I threw on a nice shirt,  then realized that my coat was still in the washing machine -wet.  Threw on a different sweater – one I never wear!  I ran out at 7:35.  Wow.  I had not taken a shower.  I’m wearing skinny jeans.  My hair looks.. flat.

The only thing cheering me up at the moment is that they just took a pic of the VP (hy lyk soos Blommie op Liewe Heksie – love it!) and he sat by his desk, pen in hand, while my co teacher scrambled to bring more plants and cut off dead leaves… for the pic.    My other co-teacher has a super red nose today.  I can’t be too bad then… :P

Although I only had about 5 seconds to come up with a plan, I consider myself lucky.  Most foreign teachers get the “It’s photo dayyy!” news on the day – at school.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the Foreign Teachers hate Photo Day.  :/

Nov16

You can pee under my umbrella-ella-ella…

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From my old blog, posted January 19th, 2011.  This was a total rant, but I LOLed in my office when I just read this again…. :P

Korea is cold. Not like Cape Town 16′C cold. I think if we had a 16′C day tomorrow, everyone would die. Koreans would magically start sweating (something they apparently don’t – I beg to differ) all the snow and ice would melt and we’ll all drown.

Probably not.

Since we’re living in Siberia.. well close enough – I just googled it… we’ve had disgustingly cold temperatures. Proof: When I leave my apartment in the mornings I literally gag when the cold air stabs my lungs. = Disgusting. It’s just too much to handle. I’m from Cape Town, dammit! 2mm of snow on Table Mountain *once* a year if we’re lucky will be front page news! I have created a way to survive the 3 minute walk to school. Rooibos Tea. I walk to school in 3 minutes (because it’s a kind of a running-sh*t-I’m-cold-why-doesn’t-this-damn-hoodie-stay-on-my-head type of walk) armed with my starbucks flask and rooibos tea. Nature’s goodness.

Anyways, the only thing keeping me calm this week is exactly that. Tea. These lovely and mild Korean (or is it Siberian) temperatures has been dropping to around -15 degrees at night. Wake up, Google Weather with your pathetic -9 forecast. LIARS! In Korea we have this wonderful invention called 온돌 (Ondol). Traditional floor heating… pipes of steamy hot water running underneath the floors. Magical.

These temperatures have caused the Ondol pipes of the floor above me to burst. Yes.

I woke up Monday with a strange dripping noise on my bathroom ceiling. Wasn’t really bothered since I can usually tell what the weather’s like from my windowless bathroom anyways… When it rains, I hear dripping on the gas pipes. Wind? Just listen to that extractor fan go! Hot and humid summer?? I….can’t….breathe. So I wasn’t bothered by the stupid drops.

It wasn’t until my Facebook news feed got flooded with fellow Aliens-in-Korea statuses about frozen pipes / no water / the water in the toilet bowl is frozen etc.  that I started thinking about the new weather forecast in my bathroom.  I had a shower.  So I had water.  But. It wasn’t raining when I went to school.  And my toilet wasn’t frozen either, unless I missed that detail when I went for my early morning I’m-still-half-asleep wee-wee.  After some discussion with neighbours who went Rambo and drilled holes in their ceiling to relieve the water pressure, I made the “you should have figured it out by now, Mari” discovery.  Burst pipes.  I got home and did some inspecting and sure enough… One little drop, hanging from my bathroom ceiling, just WAITING for that perfect moment to free fall.

It’s two days later and I’m facing a wet wallpaper contest (not sexy at all) and about 7 drops every few seconds.  Yep… 7 little escape routes for runaway drops – all from my ceiling.

They’ve been fixing apartment 401 since 8:30 this morning…. so hopefully by Tuesday they’ll reach mine.    As for the dripping – I do *not* want to be awakened from my I’m-still-half-asleep wee-wee by a suicidal drop.  So this is my plan (I’m hoping that I don’t stab myself with the open cabinet door tomorrow morning, cause that would definitely wake me up):

 

I outlined my the little glass door so you could see the DANGEROUS life I live! Rawr!