So I let my wife go shopping with her sister and this is what she comes back with. Now, I have had many dogs and they all came with a natural way to keep warm. We call it fur, but hey, maybe she does need a little something to keep in fashion…yeah I don’t think so either.
Went to a little place called “Buda's Belly” in Itaewon tonight and had some wonderful Thai food. Other than that, there is little else to say so I will say goodnight and talk at you later…
More to come…
Thought some might get a kick out of this short movie of 미아 playing one of her new favorite games; Flick the Food!
As for the splattered paint. One of the wonderful teachers here at SCS had an epiphany for an activity to kick off Easter Break. PAINTBALL!!!
It was somewhat interesting to note that almost all the students disliked the idea of playing paintball. The opportunity to shoot your teacher with an exploding sphere of dyed glycerin propelled by a heavy *puff* of compressed air.
It was amazing to see the ferocity that arose in sweet student and teacher alike. The battle cry of one of the teachers as he stormed an “enemy” trench. The drawing of battle lines. The shots lucky to hit at a distance and the pain of the paint shot at close range.
While we all are probably still bearing the scars of the event, I believe that everyone had a wonderful time. I even think we maybe planning on doing this next year perhaps.
Now for the moment you may not have known everyone was waiting for…
While everyone has an April 1st, it seems that Koreans don’t place as much significance on the “Fools” part of that day. So one of the teachers here helped them learn the full meaning of April Fools. If you think that teacher was me, well, think again. I did some nice and easy April Fools jokes and basically had a good-natured laugh. Little did I know that my day would get…interesting.
I started the 9th grade class just like any other but halfway through—when I was writing something on the board—three of the boys stood up—turning over a desk in the process and creating a huge crash—and started posturing. This is an important juncture to point out that I probably outweighed all three of these boys and probably also outweighed any two of them combined.
When I took stock of the situation I immediately treated it as I would two dogs fighting—I went for the scare off. I slammed the ruler that I had in my hand down on a desk and proceeded to explain—in volumes none to quiet—that if one punch was thrown that I would be the one throwing the rest. Looking back, I am not sure that was the best action but live and learn… Two sentences in both boys had their tails between their legs. I then told them they both had detention for the next two class days.
As I went back to teaching, one of the girls raised her hand and told me “Mr. Moorehead, I am sorry, but you have just been punked!” Of course, there at the door was the other teacher laughing hysterically.
So consider this my bow to the fact that the other teacher spent her whole class period planning. :o)
I am sure there will be,
More to come.
Ok, for all of you dog/animal lovers out there…I know there are a few, I am devoting this short post to the diminutive defecator of all thing dear to Daniel. Yes you guessed it, I will be talking about that little, loveable, annoying animal Mia.
Don’t get me wrong, I will absolutely love this dog when it learns to use the facilities or learns to squelch her nocturnal whines.
She is cute though. It is sometimes hard to punish her for using the bathroom in the wrong place when she looks up with the large black eyes. *sigh* I suppose I shouldn’t expect too much when she is still only about 2.5 months old. She has been doing better now that we have a semi-solid routine of going to bed, waking up and getting fed, going outside (emphasis on the going) and finally coming home and waiting patiently till we return from school.
Speaking of school, I found out how to make Mia’s name phonetically in Korean. It is “미아,” which unfortunately means “Lost Child” in Korean…
Ok, I know you have been wanting to see some pics (or more pics) so here they are:
Ok, now you have seen her. Expect to hear little snippets about Mia peppered throughout this blog as she has become one of the family, but don’t expect her to take as much space as she has today.
I am thinking of doing a small ongoing series on foods, customs, mannerisms or places. Please vote in the poll towards the top of this page and I will see what we can do about getting more information out.
Lastly, I am going to attempt to post three times a week. Hopefully I will have a longer post over the weekend and then two small posts during the week. Please don’t hold me to it as I have been somewhat unlucky in having frequent or for that matter, consistent posts.
Thank you to all that are reading and:
More to come…
First, let me say that while I thought about giving to you the reader and mega-post over the events of the last week (yes it has been that long since the last new one), I held back and decided that I will try to update you in several smaller posts. Call it the blog equivalent to a mini-series.
Last time I checked in Charity and I were on our way to pick up our puppy. I am happy to say that not only were we able to get that sweet-natured little ball of fur but that she has also become quite comfortable turning our entire apartment into her own patch of terra firma and all that entails.
But we need to get back to Saturday…
If you take a look at the map I provided, you will notice how far away Pyeongtaek is from Bongcheon. Needless to say, when you have to use the least independent method of travel it also tends to be the most cumbersome. While I was in Toronto I got a taste of how hard it can be to understand train schedules. Now imagine having the complexity of understanding both the express and the regular lines but in Korean.
Well, I wish I could say we traveled from our apartment to Sadang and then to Geumjeong, the train junction and finally to Pyeongtaek. While we were extremely good at making the switch at Sadang and we did make it to Geumjeong, we hit a bit of snag at Geumjeong. I included a map of the basic distances involved:
Between the confusing schedules and our misunderstanding we got on the wrong train and headed away from Pyeongtaek. After our distress became evident to those around us, an extremely nice, English-speaking lady on the train who told us to get off at the next stop and pointed to the right platform. Friend #1.
After waiting for about 10 minutes and being informed…I think…in Korean that the next train was the one we wanted, I stepped onto the train and was rescued by voice saying, “No, no!” It turns out the train I was getting on was the express that wasn’t going to be stopping at Pyeongtaek. Friend #2 or Carol as she told us in very good English. By the way, her Korean name is 서 지영 (pronounced “Seo Ji Young”).
Carol explained the trip schedule to us and stepped onto the correct train with us. She was heading in the same direction to meet her boyfriend and In fact, she wrote out in both English and Korean what train we needed to get back on to head home. To say that we were grateful for her help would be to understate the fact. She basically saved us from wandering aimlessly on the train system for hours.
Also, she gave us some great information about various Korean meals and activities there in and around Seoul.
Therefore, I would like to dedicate this post to 서 지영 and all her help.
