Okay, so I don't post very often. I would rather talk to people than type to no one specific. But my sister has been bugging me to post, so I'm posting. If anyone has ever wondered what the true chain of command in my family of origin is, that should tell you something right there.

I'll try to summarize that past few months for those who are still diligently checking my blog.

December: While my family had hoped to send my sister for a visit over the Christmas holidays, that idea never became more than that--a hope. So, Mom and I hastily boxed up gifts and paid way more than we normally would to send them to each other. I went ahead with the other plans like cooking a turkey and making the dressing from the family recipe. We even had a bit of Christmas with family in a modern way. On Christmas morning Matthew logged in to Yahoo and turned on the webcam. The view was me preparing Christmas dinner. My parents plugged their webcam into Dad's laptop, and we saw them prepping the vegetables in anticipation of making the same recipe that I was working on. Of course, by the time we actually sat down to dinner, they had been in bed for some time.

January: School started back up, but unfortunately some of teachers were still in North America. The sixth grade teacher had sprained her ankle and was unable to maneuver sufficiently to pass through security and manage her layovers. The high schoool English teacher came down with the flu only a day or two before she was supposed to fly back to Seoul. Both teachers were delayed by 2 or 3 days, requiring some interesting schedule adjustments all around. Furthermore, during this time, Matthew started teaching Jr. High Bible 2 days a week. Pastor Johnson, our Bible teacher, returned to the U.S. during the Christmas holidays to be with his wife who was having cancer treatments. (She has since finished her treatments and is doing well.) This added a whole dimension to preparing lesson plans for the week. Jr. High Bible has about 35 students in it. 35 more of anything to grade is always daunting.

Well, it's getting late here. I will try to post again tomorrow night, giving February and March news. After that, no promises, but I will make an effort to post more frequently.

An Interesting Saturday

Saturday Morning

Dec 2 was the "annual" meeting of foreign teachers to "ensure quality of education". It was a big waste of time. All they did was read the immigration law to us and then subject us to pointless speeches (that if you have an education degree, you've heard the contents of at least 3 times). Then, to kill time, they had a horrible excuse for a music group "perform". The whole event was insulting. I spent 6 years in college and earned a teaching certificate and 2 education degrees. The event was organized by a person who obviously has no clue about education--during the sessions she learned "Success breeds success." I could've emailed her that and saved 500 people a lot of time.


Saturday Afternoon

After the morning meeting, several of us went to Express Bus Terminal and went shopping. (Yes, it is a bus statation, but it has several floors, and the top ones are devoted to shopping.) I was inspired while we were there and bought several items to put together table centerpieces. We used them as gifts at our staff Christmas party.


Saturday Evening

Our staff Christmas party was Saturday evening. We had loads of fun. We had finger foods, sang Christmas carols, and had a gift exchange. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and helped make up for the wasted morning.

Time

I believe it will become evident that my spare time during the week is slim to none. I am only logged in to the site because my husband found a typo in a previous post. (Isn't it great to be able to go back and edit old posts?) So I thought I 'd send a line or two out into the void that is the internet.

Life here is progressing as it usually does. We came back from Thanksgiving Break to find the students just as thrilled as we were to face another day of school. Is it Christmas yet?

Oh, here's a wonderful thought for those of you who may be considering working in a foreign country--you are completely at your host government's mercy (or lack thereof). We were notified today that all "international teachers", meaning anybody on a work visa for the purpose of teaching, has to go Saturday, Dec 2 (yes, that is this weekend!) to a "seminar" from 9 am to 1 pm. If it is anything like last year, it will be a complete waste of time. I'll let you know about it later.

Facials

If you read Laura's blog, you know that she had a facial on Saturday. Well, I was the fellow teacher that accompanied her. It was great! The experience was incredibly relaxing, and my skin feels a little softer, too (but I'm willing to acknowledge that that effect could be entirely psychological). Laura and I have agreed that we are going to purchase their package deal that gives you a discount. We paid about $6 for our hour long facials. The package deal gives you 10 for $4 each. I'm looking forward to my round of facials.

Taxi Rides

Today is a prolific day for me--3 posts! This is what happens when there's no school for a few days.

Today I had my first taxi ride--ever. There's one for the baby book, Mom. Here in Seoul, if you have a group of 3 or 4 people, it is frequently cheaper to take a taxi to your destination than to ride the subway. Our taxi ride actually came out slightly more expensive, but only by about 100 won per person. (That's about $0.10.) I'm not going to give up the subway, because it is still the best way to get around when you're by yourself; but it was nice to be dropped off at my destination. That was worth the extra 100 won.

Math Words

As a math teacher, I feel responsible to teach everyone around me mathematics.

Okay, so not really. But it is fun to dispense information when possible. Since I can't hear your groans or see you rolling your eyes , I will probably do that regularly here.

So, lesson #2: Learn your prefixes.

In math and many of the sciences, we borrow words from Latin and Greek. So knowing some of the number prefixes from those languages are helpful. Here are the prefixes for 1-9. We will wait for a later lesson to go farther.

1 hen- or un-
2 di- or bi-
3 tri-
4 tetra- or quad-
5 penta-
6 hexa-
7 hepta-
8 octa-
9 ennea- or nona-

In situations where I have given 2, the first is the one most commonly used in mathematics.

Now, why do you need to know these? The most common mathematical situation is in the naming of polygons (2-D figures) and polyhedra (3-D figures). A pentagon is a 2-D figure with 5 sides. A tetrahedron is a 3-D figure with 4 faces.

Pampering Yourself

A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to do some things to pamper myself. My list included the following:

1. manicure
2. pedicure
3. facial
4. massage
5. having my hair done
6. getting flowers
7. being taken out to dinner

Those last 2 may seem a bit presumptuous, but as a married woman I can ask for things that single gals can't. Also, this list may make it sound like I want to spend a fortune; but here in Korea many of these services are much cheaper than they are in the U.S.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who seems willing to oblige me with #6 and 7. I also have wonderful friends who are willing to help me with #1-5.

I managed to get a manicure on Thanksgiving Day. Remember, here in Korea it's not a holiday. So I went out with some friends and we got really good manicures for about $15. I found out that the same place will do pedicures. They did such a good job with my hands; I think I'm going to go back next week to let them give me a pedicure. Again, cheaper than in the U.S.--$25.

Our administrator's son is in the process of becoming an elite hair stylist, and I was in need of a trim. So on Friday morning I went over to the apartment that had been designated "Salon for the Day", and he gave me a trim and blow-dry/style. Out of curiosity, I asked him what his services would run if I were to go to him at a salon in the U.S. His answer totally amazed me--$180. There's no way I would pay that much to get my hair done. But I suppose enough people do, becuase these salons stay in business.