I thought I’d share two Korean-inspired cocktails I’ve come across recently. They’re a little more exciting than the standard soju+soda/juice. The first was created by FatmanSeoul in honor of the new K-metablog, The Hub of Sparkle. The Hub of Tonic: Recipe: 1) Fill a glass with ice. 2) Fill halfway with tonic water. 3) Fill [...]

First story: Toilet styles We got a new toilet at school. We also got toilet paper! The school installed toilet paper holders outside the restrooms. The first week or so the toilet paper was never actually IN the holder, but now it’s there pretty reliably. We also have soap next to the sinks. It’s an [...]

HT to the Korean Beat for translating/sharing this excellent article. Which I’ll re-post here: This article reports that violence in Korean schools has sky-rocketed – by as much as 80%. Understandably, politicians are worried. It has been revealed that the number of students being disciplined for violence in schools has increased by as much as [...]

Lisa, one of my first grade students from the last after-school class I taught, just ran into the teacher room and said “Teacher Teacher!” She kind of surprised me, so I asked if something was wrong. She said “Yesterday was your birthday!” and thrust a bag of ABC dark chocolate into my hands. What a [...]

I was just on the phone with my Dad and told him this story, and he said I should put it up here on my blog. I think he was right – so here it is. My Monday classes are the worst. Especially the first one. It’s full of loud-mouthed smartass boys who derail the [...]

It was nice and cool this morning. I saw a bunch more leaves on the ground. Anyway – I was in a good mood this morning leaving my house. I packed my lunch, grabbed my breakfast and headed to work. My first class was canceled this morning, so I could enjoy eating my breakfast slowly. [...]

It’s a five day weekend for me, that started yesterday, because of Chuseok. Yesterday I didn’t do much of anything because I got really suddenly sick Thursday afternoon at school. Public school is annoying in a lot of ways but sometimes I’m really thankful that I work at a public school. We have a nurse [...]

Today was full of surprises and schedule changes and all kinds of stress which I won’t detail greatly at the moment. Although I will say that my new after school program (separate from my usual contract work) involves not only teaching 90 minute classes but staying at school until 5:10 on Monday and Wednesday. That’s [...]

I’m a little burnt out this week. I got a bunch of extra work dumped on me at school without a lot of warning (which is pretty typical in Korea). I’ve been trying organize some new classes that are basically starting uh, now. I don’t have any big chunks of time to really sit and [...]

Looks like classes won’t split for a while. Which means I will have to endure bad behavior x 40 for a little longer. Also – I’m never eating my lunch in the cafeteria again. I was hoping I could eat with my co-teachers because I enjoy eating and talking with them, but I don’t enjoy [...]