halfway point come and gone

So last week was my third Thanksgiving away from home, my third Thanksgiving without turkey, my third Thanksgiving without my mom's cranberry chutney, my third Thanksgiving evening not spent laying on the couch watching Christmas movies while in a food coma but nevertheless thinking about another piece of pie. Being away on Thanksgiving isn't getting easier exactly, but rather (and I'm sad to say it because I love Thanksgiving) Thanksgiving is becoming just another day. So maybe by some definition of the word, that is easier. There were times on Thursday when I forgot it was Thanksgiving, as opposed to two years ago when I spent Thanksgiving at a stage, hating every second of the day and cried while walking home. Every year, I've cooked a dinner with friends. The first year it was a far cry from traditional fare. If I remember correctly, tartiflette and chips/salsa were among the items served. The food each year has gotten more traditional, although still no turkey to be had. And of course, the real reason it never really feels like Thanksgiving is not because of the lack of time off workor the lack of turkey. It never feels like Thanksgiving because of the lack of these people:

And because there are just TOO many good ones of Eliza to choose from, here is one more, and possibly my all time favorite picture

I wish I had more interesting things to say. I'd probably write more if I did. It's cold here. It snowed last night. I miss Bordeaux and its "winter" where I was able to ride my bike all the time. The worst here is yet to come, and I'm already turning into a hermit. It's time I buy I winter coat.

The heat in my apartment, as with many Korean digs, comes from the floor. I need to either start being more tidy, or risk ruining a lot. I've already had to throw out 4 different cosmetic products I've left on the floor and melted. It is nice for drying clothes and warming my coat before I go out in the morning. As far as its actual heating abilities, I'm not overly impressed, although my feet are usually warm.

And now for the elephant in the room-it looks like I'll have to put my plan to go to North Korea on hold for a while. Mom and Dad, I am sure you are happy about that. I will also be waiting a few months before booking the DMZ tour I've wanted to do since I arrived here. The trip to N. Korea, I honestly wouldn't be too bummed about if it didn't happen. It is super expensive because a guide is required the entire time, everything is staged, and of course controversial due to the money going straight to the government. However, if I leave here not having been to the DMZ, I'm going to be so sad. As far as how things are in Seoul, it honestly doesn't feel too different. Although, when I can only say about 5 words in Korean, it is easy to live in blind ignorance. For all I know, the conversation could be things like "Holy cats, I'm packing my bags and hopping the next bus out of here!" But honestly, it feels like business as usual.

And here is one more picture, courtesy of the school's website. It is from our field trip to Seoul Forest a few weeks ago. I wish it was a bit closer so you could see their precious little faces. I love my kiddies so much, and I'm already dreading the day 3 short months from now when I have to say goodbye to my kinderhearts.

I have been a lousy keeper of the blog lately. My bad, sorry. I don't really know why. I write a lot of my blog entries during my looooong breaks on Tuesdays and Thursdays at school. But recently my motivation to do anything is seriously lacking. This is probably because the teacher's room at school is like Florida in late July hot. And it makes me want to do nothing aside from strip down to my skivvies and take a long nap. But since Koreans are both modest and hard working, neither of those would go over exceptionally well. So instead I sit. One week out of the month I have lots of work to do, grading the monthly exams and writing (by writing, I mean trying to remember what I said about the student the month before, and using the thesaurus to change the words up so it sounds different but I'm really saying the same thing) comments on the students. SO, here is what I started writing about Halloween, but never finished. Basically, it was two very long days, the second day ending with a feeling of extreme frustration/anger/why am I here?? by most of the employees. It's a long story that I don't feel like typing and it's of little interest to most people. So instead here is the little bit of blog I did write about it, and then I'll post some pictures of my super cute babies on Halloween, and a video of them playing a cake walk game. And I am not just saying this because they are mine, but I seriously have the cutest kids in the school.

Ah, Halloween. The day that conjures up thoughts of all things ghost like and ghoulish, fun sized Snicker bars, The Great Pumpkin, and of course, marketing. One of my first weekends in Seoul I met a guy who had been here several years, working at a variety of schools. Despite his very unlikable personality, he gave me some very insightful words about hogwons (private schools). He told me that the school is a business, and like every other business, their objective is to make money. The higher the enrollment, the more money the school makes, plain and simple. For Halloween, the boss peeps decided to have a Halloween party that the students could bring their students to in the hopes that these nonenrolled friends would say "wow, what a great place. Mom, can I go there?" A good idea in theory, whether or not it worked remains to be seen. So the teachers were grouped up, each group consisting of 3 people, some Korean, some foreign. Then each group was to come up with a theme for their room, as well as a game.

Chae Yun and Chae Hyun, both fairy princess something or others

RED POWER RANGER! With a get that camera away from me look on his face.

Tea party in the Alice in Wonderland room

Min Sol! Could she be any cuter???

We made jack-o-lanterns with the kids, then my friend Niki and I spray painted ours and used it for room decor.

We also tried to create a spooky effect by putting dry ice in it. It was less spooky, and more smelly. Here is the aftermath. Gross.

And lastly, here is me on Halloween. Yes, I am Fred from Scooby Doo. Paula is Velma. We actually had tons of random people stop us on the street and say the loved our costumes. Halloween success.

Otherwise, it's been the same old same old here.

Thursday was a very special holiday, unknown to world outside of Korea-Pepero Day. Ah, Pepero. Korea does a lot of things right-a public transportation system that is cheap (about 80 cents a ride) and extremely effiecient, rice cookers, skin products, etc. However, they are still far behind the Western world in many areas, namely that of desserts. Koreans-I've said it before and I'll say it again-bean paste and tomatoes have NO business being in anything sweet. Period. That having been said, I've found it fairly easy to lose the France weight, once I stopped eating rice. I have a hard time turning down a strawberry tart or a croissant, which is why I gained 13 lbs, TWICE in France. But saying no to a mediocre cake with tomato on top, or a pastry filled with red bean paste is hardly a difficult feat. So, the fact that this country has a day, developed purely for commercial reasons, that revolves around a very unsatisfying Korean cookie is almost laughable. Peperos are stick cookies (and I use the term cookie loosely. Flavorless dry cracker is more fitting) dipped in cheap less than delicious chocolate. They celebrate Pepero day on 11/11 (stick cookies, look like the number, get it? get it? get it? did you see what they did there?). The stores are filled with displays of all kids of Peperos. And of course then on Thursday all the kids brought in boxes and boxes of Pepero. I don't actually hate Pepero, despite what I just said. But while trying to pick and choose where I get my junk food calories from, Pepero doesn't make the cut. So I put mine on the communal food desk in the teacher's room. Then I ate some for lunch because lunch that day was octopus stew. No thank you. Then I ate more the next day for lunch because the school lunch on Friday was dried carmelized tiny fish. No thank you. But overall, I did good avoiding the Pepero calories.

I went swimming on Friday morning. I am not a good swimmer. But I enjoy it, and I'd like to get better at it so that I can hopefully sometime in the next couple of years do a triathalon. It was awkward. My friend and I went right in the middle of a water fitness class. And these middle aged Koreans were serious swimmers, and totally schooled us. But I'm going to do it again.

The school went on a field trip to Seoul Forest on Wednesday. My kids were cute. I would have taken pictures, but it was too cold to take my hands out of my pockets long enough to use the camera.

I'm going ziplining in December. I have never been ziplining, and I'm super stoked.

make up what

In case there was still any question, this week squashed any lingering doubts I had in my head about whether or not spending any time putting make up on for school when working with 6 year olds is a waste of time.

Said with a completely perplexed look on his face, one of my boys asked "Teacher, eyes. Why is purple?"

They also told me my hair looks like ramen noodles.

Expect a Halloween update, sometime, maybe soon.