Coffee Helps

I have been sitting in the doctor’s waiting room for 17 and a half hours. It’s probably more like three quarters of an hour, but I’m going with feelings rather than facts here. I am dying. I am wearing a mask (it is Halloween after all) and dying. Let me tell you, being a sick [...]

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Child (in a lesson about the difference between “a” and “the”): Teacha is the pineapple! Me: No, Teacher is *a* pineapple. Class dissolves into giggles. Me: Hang on, what?! I am not a pineapple! (confused) Why are you calling me a pineapple? Delighted laughter. Me (roaring): Teacher is not a pineapple! Obviously this is the [...]

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Korea is, as I have mentioned previously, unhealthily obsessed with Swine Flu. Apparently a Canadian teacher in Seoul was recently fired when he caught Swine Flu. He didn’t go into school when he started feeling ill. He went to the hospital to be tested. When he tested positive, he stayed home until he was completely [...]

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Alex and I went out for dinner tonight to a Korean Grill restaurant down the road. This was my first real Korean restaurant experience, and experience is certainly the right word. I’ve been too intimidated by what I’ve seen from peering through open doors to go to one all by myself – and certainly, I [...]

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Korean pop music is great. Not in a “this is quality music” sort of way, but in a cheesy, feel-good pop sort of way, in the manner of Steps, S Club 7, Hanson, and that kind of thing. Clare absolutely hates it, and I think she may think less of me as a person since [...]

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I eat Korean food much more often than anything else, partly because it’s what I am served every day for lunch in school, and partly because it’s much more widely available than real food Western food. Lunches at school can be hit and miss. I’ve only had one so far that I absolutely could not [...]

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It’s extremely frustrating not being able to speak, read, or understand the language of the place where you live. I can’t quickly nip into the grocery store for something, because it will take me a long time to painstakingly search the store for the item I want – I can’t read the aisle signs, I [...]

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You know how kids have their little jokes? The things they think are hilarious and will repeat at any given opportunity? Some kids I have known in the past, for example, have made a thing of shouting “HELLO HAYLEY!” at the top of their lungs every time they saw me. Others have deliberately misheard my [...]

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McBouncy is my hero. Before I left for Korea, I was panicking about whether or not I was capable of keeping a classroom of small children under control. It was McBouncy who taught me the best discipline trick I’ve learned so far. I used it for the first time yesterday, and it made me so, [...]

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I lay down for a nap when I got back from the open day on Saturday, and when I woke up an hour later everything had changed. It was like the Head Cold Fairy had been in while I was asleep and sprinkled me with all sorts of fun germs. My head ached. My throat [...]

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