The end of week 2.5

Yesterday was snowflakes, another round of ghostbusters, and Soju.

We woke up to snow falling in 20 degree weather, big thick snowflakes accumulating on telephone wires and quickly melting on the ground. I danced around the apartment like it was Christmas and tried to take some very unsuccessful pictures out the windows. I decided to get back to something familiar by typing up notes from my observations in China. It was good to remember the things I saw, and something about the medicine, but it mostly made me sad that I'm not doing anything with it right now. I got to school in a pretty depressed mood, but playing with the little preschool kids helped pretty quickly. Rounds of "Teacher, finished!!!" as they proudly displayed their spelling blocks arranged into words like "box", "cloud' and "rainbow" helped me get my smile on, and the glue that kept it there was an excited round of the "Ghostbuster's" theme song. I swear, I'm taking halloween all the way into new years. Screw "We wish you a Merry Christmas", I think I'm going to teach them "Thriller" next (I seriously might, it's on the school's Halloween mix CD). The rest of the day zipped by in grammar patterns and the stickyball game (sort of like darts for 8 year olds). After work we went out with two coworkers for pork bone soup (see below) at a nearby restaurant. It was a bitterly cold night and somehow eating meat off swine's spine seemed appropriate. We talked, again, about being vegetarian and how difficult that might be here since there is meat in just about everything you order. I've been trying to keep it to a minimum, but a complete ban would be difficult. Over dinner I tried Soju for the first time. I have been both encouraged to try it and warned against it, but the final verdict is that it's fun! We shared a small bottle between three of us, so about three shots each. I felt silly, but never drunk and just fine this morning. In excess, since it's basically rubbing alcohol, it would probably do a number on anyone, but three shots seems to be just fine. It's worlds better than Hight beer, anyway. We stopped at the bakery where we got the thanksgiving walnut pie on the way home and the lady gave us free cookies with our loaf of bread and little French pastries. It reminded me of when I would go grocery shopping with my Dad when I was little and the bakery department would give out free cookies to little kids, but better because I'm 27 and she's just doing it to be nice and not because it's store policy.

Today we had planned on leaving town. We were going to go to a Buddhist temple just outside the city, in the foothills of the mountains that make Daegu a valley, but it's currently 26 degrees and feels like 17, according to the weatherchannel.com. We might find something closer and warmer to do for the rest of today, and try for the mountains and the temple next weekend when it's supposed to be about 50.

Oh, and my favorite quote from one of my kids this week:
"Teacher, what's this?" (pointing above his own eye while looking at my mole)
"It's called a mole, Marcus." (and I write m-o-l-e on the board)
"Is it a period?"
"Like, period '.'?" (I draw a period on the board)
"Yeah!"
"Okay, yes Marcus, it's a period!"

I laughed for a good few minutes and if I'm ever asked again about my mole, I'll definitely say it's a period. I'd been thinking about getting it removed, especially since I'm somewhere I could get it done cheaply if not for free with my health insurance, but now I'm keeping it for sure.