The perfect day

Karen and Patty

Rant I must get out of the way: HARRY POTTER DOESN'T OPEN IN SOUTH KOREA UNTIL DECEMBER 16! NOT FAIR! So to the rest of the world, enjoy the opening! And don't tell me anything!! Bah!

Ok. *phew*

Reason number 62 why I'm the worst (best?) teacher ever: the other day I called Liang a "cheeky little bugger" and immediately Julian repeated it. So then I said it for the whole class, "Mercury, listen and say...cheeky little bugger". Scarlet and John pronounce it particularly well (some sound like "chicken booger"), and they seriously won't stop saying it, the whole lot of them. They remember it every day. It's really quite hilarious though, and never fails to make me smile. At such a young age, they repeat everything I say, whereas some of my elementary 6- and 7-year olds are much more shy to speak. Also since I've been here, all my Mercury kids go around the room exclaiming "oh my goodness!" every time something gets knocked over or a mistake is made or whatever. Totally another thing they picked up from me. I'm creating little Korean Leahs. Muahaha. (I totally should NOT have introduced "pick your nose" when I taught them Simon Says. They all pick their noses anyways, but now they constantly announce it to me when they do. Eww.)

I sacrificed my Wednesday evening at the gym to go shopping for warmer pajamas. Though the days are still mild-ish (12 to 15 degrees) the mornings and evenings are fresh, around zero. Priorities, right? If I turn my heat on I'll be heating the outdoors, as the tube for my air-con unit thing goes out the window. Geniuses, the old Korean buildings. So part of my window is always slightly open. I think I'll invest in a space heater. In the mean time I've constructed a really cool fort to sleep in. Not really. But now I think I'm onto something...

View from Karen and Romo's...our destination (Gwanak-san...that's the name of the mountain)

Saturday was a wonderfully beautiful postcard day. After a refreshing five hours of sleep, I awoke to a lovely sunshiney day. And perfect because it was planned to be a hiking day - Gwanak-san. This mountain can be conveniently accessed from about a five minute walk from my front door. Woo! I love this city for that. City and nature within minutes from me. Anyways, Karen, Patty, and I did the hike. With the warm sun, we were sure to stop in some rock spots to enjoy the mountain, the view, and some girl talk. We saw an old man walking with his dog, whoo, when he reached a certain lookout point, started yelling, like some sort of victory yell. It went on for some time. All the power to him. Our walk included checking out a Buddhist temple, Manghaeam. On our descent, we ran into Charlie (my student) and his sister Chloe with their dad. Gosh they're just the cutest kids. And oh the fall colours are radiant, though I will say, Canada still wins for prettiest autumn leaves. No questions.

Oh! And the food on this most perfect day! We went for lunch at our close-to-home loal family-owned Korean spot. I got tapoki, these thick rice noodles, in a sweet and spicy red sauce. Mmmm. And for dinner, Karen and Romo took me for Shabu Shabu (a Japanese meal). DELICIOUS. You are given a big pot of broth to boil on your table, and lots and lots of veggies, noodles, and thinly sliced meat, some mandu (which are like dumplings), and all kinds of yummy refillable sides, like pickles and salad and kimchi and radish. You cook it all yourself, and dig in. YUM. And you really can't complain when it's only $8 each! The perfect end to my day...I definitely went to bed early that night.

Yes, I did say I got five hours of sleep. I'm becoming a bit of a regular at Happidus on Fridays. I like the crowd, the beer is cheap, and it's a nice end to the week. Plus there's a dart game on Fridays, and if you hit one of the targets, you win something! Of the four times I've played, I've hit it three times, so I win lots of my drinks! It's great! So yes, that's likely where you'll find me...

Oh! Good news! Sunday I submitted my University of Toronto application, so now I am officially done applying!! YEY!!! (I have yet to drink my celebratory North Korean beer.) As I said before, now I wait until April to find out!