Folks,
The pic of the week shows the district of Yongun-dong as viewed from the apartment last week. But there's now a bit of a thaw on.
Weather
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The snow started in Seoul on St. Stephen's Day, but we had very little snow here until just after I sent the last email. Then we had a really heavy fall of snow that went on for a few days. It's amazing that it coincided with a similar drop in temperatures in Ireland, and Europe generally. Usually our weather systems are so separate, but we got exactly the same cold spell.
Here they're more used to it, though, and everyone got into the mode of clearing up as soon as the fall finished.
Classes
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When I wrote last I was delighted with my schedule. However, it didn't remain like that. Last week I was scheduled for just 3 hours work. But that left me in the firing line, and when a newly recruited teacher had problems with her visa I got a kid's camp for last week and next week.
I was given 3 days to prepare a play which was to be put on on Thursday night. And I spent the first night working on Tacky, the Penguin before realising that one of the other teachers had done it too. So we had to switch, which left me with 2 nights to cast, rehearse and prepare. So Goldilock & the Three Bears had it's premier on Thursday night.
The previous week I had a lovely class of university students. We were working on past and future tense of 'be' in the context of occupations. As in - Before I was a waiter. Now, I am a dentist. I told them that now I'm a teacher, but before I was a computer programmer. For comic effect, adding that it was in 1953. I saw a couple of them working it out in their heads, before deciding that it was probably true.
Champagne
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My friends got married in South Africa on Christmas day. I decided that it'd be nice to leave a gift at their apartment as a congratulatory present on their return. I went to the supermarket, and checked the wine section. Wine is not really drunk over here, so there is rarely much of a selection. They didn't have champagne, just a few sparkling wines. I didn't recognise any brands, and thought they looked quite cheap (which they were). Then I spied a champagne cork in a fridge in the corner. I opened it and saw that it was a bottle of Moët & Chandon. I went to the cash register to check the unmarked price.
The assistant didn't know, and nothing came up when she scanned it. She checked with the other girls. They all tapped away, and read out numbers off the label, but still nothing came up. They then phoned the manager. He came and took the bottle away with him. About 5 minutes passed, and everyone was very embarrassed that I was still waiting. He arrived back and apologised because he couldn't find what the price was. So he said he'd give it to me for 'a cheap price'. I said fine, and he rang it up under some other champagne brand (It came up in Korean as Bu-ra-bo Shyam-pe-an). It wasn't until I checked the receipt that I saw the actual price, ₩2,850. Which means that I got a bottle of Moët & Chandon for €1.75!
As an addendum, I was able to leave the bottle of champagne outside their door on Friday night, a little over 24 hours before they arrived home. Secure in the knowledge that this is Korea, and it would still be there when they arrived. It proved a nice contrast for them when they arrived, as their luggage had been tampered with in Johannesburg and they'd had a mobile phone and some wedding presents stolen.
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Well, that's it for this week. I've just got one more week (with Goldilocks getting another 3 day spin) of work before heading to Malaysia on Monday week.
Until next time,
Annyeong-hi kaseyo.
Éamon
Today's headline in The Korea Herald: Confidants of late liberal president form new party
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