Some of my students are really cute. And really weird.

They just started doing this in the middle of class,
so I ran and got my camera!

They are a cute bunch!

And speaking of cute...

To what lengths would you go... (Part 2)

If you've read my post on the lengths Koreans go to see that their children get a good education, then you know a bit about the obsessiveness of Korean parents. Anyway, Korean school kids have no school during the month of January - no public school, that is. They still have hogwans - private academies, such as the one where I teach. Even though January is the winter vacation between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, kids are still sent to the hogwans on a daily basis. Many hogwans take advantage of the fact that students have no public school to occupy their morning hours, and offer intensive morning classes. Our school is one of many hogwans offering intensives, which means that for the month of January my laid back schedule is no more. I'll be working an insane amount of overtime. On the one hand, this means more money, but on the other it means substantially less sleep. And you know how much I value my sleep. I'll do my best to keep blogging regularly, but if there's a post shortage in the near future, it's because I'm sleeping :-)

Because only *married* women have sex here in Korea.

I found this post at the Asia Pages this morning, and definitely felt that it was worth linking to and commenting on. I suggest that you all click on that link and read the post... but as I know that at least half of you won't, I'll go ahead and quote a little of it here.

...because I am not married, Korean hospitals throughout my time here have refused to give me annuals [annual gynecological exams] because as one former co-worker in Seoul told me, if I am not married, I should not be sexually active in the first place, and if I am not sexually active in the first place, I should not be at risk of any gynecological disorders.

Yes, I realize that Korea is a very conservative country when it comes to sex. However, this is a country in which fake hymen surgeries are very popular - allowing non-virgins to appear virginal on their wedding nights. If only married women were having sex, there would be no need for these fake hymen surgeries, now would there? It boggles my mind that medical professionals would think that only sexually active women could develop gynecological problems.

New Year, New Stuff

When wake up at 7:30am, the day is REALLY long. I even tired of CSI. I have absolutely no money right now, so my options for self-entertainment are somewhat limited... so I decided to make another photo-book. This one contains images of the cities of Russia's famed Golden Ring (a "ring" of historical cities surrounding Moscow) - click on the image if you're interested! And don't forget that since it's a New Year, you might still need to buy a calendar!

Happy New Year

I have done little more than nothing over the past two days. Last night I went to bed around 10:00pm or so and slept straight through to morning - no wild ringing in of the new year for me! I've spent today watching CSI, as OCN (one of the major Korean TV channels) is showing a 24 hour CSI marathon. Meanwhile, Mia has discovered the joys of playing in the laundry basket. (Speaking of, Melissa, recognize that?) Mia can somehow run inside the thing while transporting it about the apartment. She's been doing this for hours. Yes, I am a big dork. But you already knew that. Happy 2007!

"The temple of god who is hot!!" and other amusements

I went downtown this afternoon for the purpose of buying Revolution, a heartworm preventative for cats. When I met Mia's first vet up in Seoul, he told me that he had applied Revolution to prevent heartworm, and that this drug should be applied periodically. While I thought the man was fantastic in general (not only was he a fantastic vet, but he was fluent in English and a hotty to boot!), I thought that giving a cat a heartworm preventative was going a little overboard. I thought, don't only dogs get heartworm? Then, two weeks ago when I brought Mia to her vet here in Daegu for the first time, one of the questions she asked me was whether or not Mia was on a heartworm prevention regimine, and if so, what medication. She also stressed the importance of keeping her heartworm prevention meds current. According to Mia's records, she was due for her next dose of Revolution (applied to the back of the neck in the same manner as Advantage) on December 30th, so I said I would come back then (today!) to pick up the medicine. Before going in, I googled cats and heartworm infections, and found out that while heartworms pose a greater threat to dogs, they still can infect - and kill - cats. Here's a pretty good article on the topic for you cat owners out there.

I continue to be impressed with my vet. While I had said that I would come in today, I had not scheduled a time. I entered the clinic, and the secretary immediately knew who I was, "Mia's owner"! The vet came down and talked to me, reminded me that Mia's due for her last injection next Saturday, and sold me my Revolution. She told me that unfortunately she has been unable to locate the brand of glucosamine which I have been giving to Mia; however, she said she will continue to look. (In the meanwhile, I have located the product online.)

After leaving the vet's office, I decided to walk to the center of downtown (about a 20 minute walk from the vet), where I did a little shopping and saw some things which amused me enough to photograph:

I know that 2007 is supposedly the Year of the Golden Pig and all...
...but I just don't understand how the Eiffel Tower fits in.


Close-up of the Golden Pig


The cute guy working at the Starbucks asked me if I wanted
"A lot, a lot, a lot of whipped cream" - I said yes. Yum!


There were several people in various places throughout downtown
holding bilingual "free hugs" signs. Weird.


"The temple of god who is hot!!"
This was on the window of a restaurant selling spicey Korean foods.


The cat's not out of the bag yet! :-)


I took this at work yesterday.
Gwen melted the school's new computer with a space heater.

The Koreas in 2007 (via Forbes)

The Korean peninsula faces a worse year in 2007 than in 2006. Growth will slow in South Korea, the political climate will become increasingly fraught in the run-up to elections and the North Korean nuclear issue will remain unresolved.

South Korea’s GDP growth of around 5% in 2006 will slow to around 4.4% in 2007. The Bank of Korea (BoK) sees export growth falling to 10.8% from 12.9% in 2006, while facilities investment will grow by 6%, down from 7.4% in 2006. Private spending will also ease, from 4.2% growth in 2006 to 4.0% in 2007.

Positive trends are likely to be outweighed by a slew of negatives, and current robust indicators in areas such as exports and consumer confidence risk are being overtaken by the continuing appreciation of the won, high oil prices, a potential property price collapse in Seoul and uncertainty over North Korea. [read full article]

Ahhh.... cold!

Today it was finally cold enough for me to break Big Orange out of storage. You remember Big Orange, right? Yes indeed... my fantabulous Russian winter coat. It was below freezing the entire day today here in Daegu, and I figured that meant that it was finally time for the orange down filled wonder to make its winter 2006-2007 appearance. Having spent so much time in Russia, I definitely developed an appreciation for cold. Even though I'm very grateful not to be experiencing a winter as harsh as last winter, I was looking forward to some genuine winter weather. Donning the coat (and matching woolen hat and scarf) is definitely a ritual, one which I performed innumerable times last year, and I really did miss it. I found the cold invigorating today. Just check out the temperature as I was walking home:

(from weather.com)

It was nice, but it won't stay this chilly for long. Check out the 10 day forecast for Daegu - it'll be warm again in no time. I do enjoy a real winter... but I'm from Florida. My first "real winter" was in Tennessee, my Freshman year of college, and my skinny Floridian ass thought it might very well die. I've certainly come a long way since then... but I'm must admit that while I'm enjoying this cold snap (and it is definitely a snap; on Christmas I spent hours outside without a coat), I'll be equally as willing to enjoy the warmer days that are on their way.

(PS - Don't forget to check out the BlogSupergroup. This week's topic? Stamps.)

Various purchases.

These are seriously the biggest hoop earrings I have ever seen.

New boots! (Because my Russian winter boots were a little too warm...)

The distant and actually attractive cousin
of the hideous Ugg Boot that is so popular here.
(Seriously, "so ugly they're cute" only works with manatees.)

Super-cute (and according to Mia, super-delicious) canned catfood
imported from Japan. Because Korea apparently doesn't manufacture
catfood. Come on, Korea! You're letting the Japanese out-do you here!

How does an agnostic pseudopagan celebrate the winter holidays in Korea?

Indian Food!! Gwen, Samson and I met up downtown this afternoon, where we dined on Indian food and did a little shopping. (I bought a lime green passport-and-ticket holder and some hoop earrings bigger than my hand. I kid not.) Anyway, happy holidays from your favorite hermiting oddball!

Me


Samson and Gwen


Some of the decor was a bit scandalous for Korea!