This past week I've been sick. It's nothing major, just a simple cold that made my nose run and caused me to feel really exhausted. Well, yesterday when I arrived at school my two co-teachers mentioned that I looked exhausted. I said, yes, I was sick. They suggested that I go home early - after lunch (I only teach classes until 12:10 on Wednesdays, then I sit in my office for 4 hours so I wouldn't be missing much). My new co-teacher said that I should take "what is it.. a woman problem..?" that's right, menstruation leave. She was planning on taking it so she could leave early (she wasn't really sick, I think she just needed an excuse...) I was honestly sick, there was no reason why I should claim that it's related to "women's issues" since it's not. I have 15 sick days, and I have yet to take one. I ended up going home, on real sick leave, but I was shocked that I could use my monthly visits as a reason to go home.
My understanding is that South Korean women are entitled to one day of menstruation leave a month. Before 2004 the women were paid for this day. A change in laws now means that not everyone necessarily receives pay for this leave. Catherine Price believes that the right to menstruation leave puts women at a disadvantage. It sends us a step backwards with regards to the rights that women have worked so hard for over the past hundred years. It gives employers reason to hire only men if women are going to be taking a day off each month. There are lots of points of views found in the comment section of Price's article - read them, they're interesting!
On a related note, we went to see the Vagina Monologues last weekend with some of our friends. It was a great show. The show was a bilingual show featuring both Koreans and foreigners.
Let me tell you a bit about the show those who haven't seen the Vagina Monologues. The show was originally a book written by Eve Ensler, a woman who interviewed over 200 women - young and old- on the topic of their vaginas (my dictionary is saying that this is not the correct spelling, and is suggesting vaginae!) Now in its tenth year, the Vagina Monologues focuses on stopping violence against women and children. The money raised from each show goes to support local and not so local organizations. The money from our show went to an organization in Korea that works to help women who have been brought to Korea and trafficked for sex.
The show was about 2 hours long and featured about 12 monologues related to the vagina. Some of the monologues were extremely funny (even Richard, our easily embarrassed friend was laughing out loud!) Other monologues are extremely sad. They deal with women being raped by soldiers in war torn countries, and sexual abuse against children. It's a very interesting show, one I would highly recommend (Jeff came too and he enjoyed it!)
I get such a kick out of overhearing two little Korean girls giggling and whispering in the bathroom stalls. It reminds me of my childhood, sharing very important secrets with my precious girlfriends. I can't understand what the girls are talking about, but I'm sure that it's serious business, considering they're in the stall together. My biggest question is "How do they both fit in there at the same time?"
Side note: One of the teachers in my office noted today that I was looking very fashionable these days. She thought that I had become more concerned about my outfits. Sadly enough, I've been wearing the same clothes throughout the winter, it's just that now I'm only wearing 3 layers instead of the previous 4 or 5, thus you can now see what I am wearing. (There was a point during the winter when I seriously asked myself why I bother to get dressed each morning since I wore my coat all day long. I could have come to school in my pjs and no one would have noticed!!!)
~Jen
P.S. After having neglected our photos page for over three months, I finally posted links to the pictures we have posted on Facebook. There are quite a few new albums for your viewing pleasure if you haven't yet seen them online! We'll try to be a bit quicker in posting them next time!!
I just spent the past 45 minutes writing about our adventures with our landlords (complete with Korean characters and everything!), and for some reason it has disappeared! Oh the joys of technology!!!
I'll make this one short... Last night our landlords showed up to fix our dripping pipe under the kitchen sink. This is just one of the numerous times that we have had our landlords in our apartment, helping us with something... usually it's the hot water. They arrived, he with a paper bag of tools to fix the leak, and she with her usual enthusiasm. He got right down to work, she came and joined us on the floor. We were watching a movie (Beowulf) and had set ourselves upon the floor (sadly it's more comfortable than our couch!) in front of my computer. I had my knitting out and she was so intrigued. I brought out my socks, mittens, scarves, and hats that I have finished since arriving here... she was amazed. It's funny, I get so much attention from the ajumas (grandmothers) of Korea when I bring out my knitting. If I'm on the subway, the ajumas will invite me to sit in the seats designated for the elderly, disabled or pregnant. They watch, enthralled, as I knit socks, mittens, or hats, it's pretty cool! Well, our landlady LOVED my knitted items.
After the drip was fixed our landlords told us how old they were (I think they were really just fishing to find out how old we are!) He is "seven zero" (minus a year because he's Korean - you are a year old when you are born here) and she is "six two". Both of them work out - he can do 70 push ups and 50 sit ups. She works out at the gym... at the end of the conversation we even got to feel our landlord's arm muscles... madness I tell you!! All of this conversation happened in broken English and Korean, but we were able to understand the gist of it.
I must say that living here certainly doesn't leave us bored... it's not very often you get to check out your landlord's pipes!
I will leave you with a bit more Korean culture.... this gem was introduced to me by some grade 5 students. I kind of like it, but I have no idea what it's about! Enjoy....
~Jen
Only in Korea can you go to a cafe to pay money to have little fish nibble at your toes. Last weekend we decided to take the proverbial plunge and try out this Korean phenomenon. For about eight dollars you get a snack (nachos, a muffin, dried squid or some oranges), a drink (beer, wine, juice, or a smoothie), and unlimited access to the fish pond. It's a great deal!
Sara was a little aprehensive. The look on her face embodies my sentiments when we first sat down at the pool preparing to put our feet in the water. We started by putting just our heels in the water, and then gently (for me it took about 10 minutes, Kelly was in within 2 minutes) lowered our feet (one at a time) into the water.
When Jeff arrived he dove in with both feet immediately. He also monopolized the fish that were in the pool. They seemed to like him much better than the rest of us. It was only when he finally took his feet out that the fish looked to us for some more food. When we were finished with the fish, we had an aromatherapy foot bath - hot water and lavender - followed by a nice lathering of cream for our now uber soft feet!
We thought that a video would best embody the phenomenon that is Doctor Fish.
We got "shh"ed in the bookstore today. Well, I guess not "shhh"ed, but told that we were being too loud, and could we please keep it down. We weren't that loud, but I guess by Korean standards we were a little above the normal noise level.
We were laughing with Sue (one of our Korean friends, my ex-coteacher) and Vanessa over this book.
The book was apparently very controversial when it first came out in Korea. It has many "inappropriate" words, and helps foreigners learn how to speak Korean for important situations such as when to tell some one off, or how to pick up and take someone home from the bar. Let me just say that it was hilarious and quite entertaining. They also have the book available for Japanese and Chinese if you are learning those languages.
I can't believe they told us to be quiet!!!
~Jen
Okay, I'll be the first to admit that we have been TOTALLY SLACKING on this website since the new year began. We have good excuses though... but they're still just excuses....
Since the new year began:
*We have been without internet for a week
*We have been without hot water for more than 3 days (December 31st - January 4th)
*Jeff has gotten sick and thus his normal food consumption has been drastically reduced... he is eating so little now, our food bill has been cut by at least 3/4!
*We have no hot water again - it just started this morning and we can't seem to get it back
*We have been working SUPER hard at camps and have been trying to figure out what the heck we are going to do with ourselves come September, which is quickly approaching!
My newly acquired knowledge is as follows:
*When it gets cold in Korea you are supposed to turn on your hot water and let it run all night so that the pipes don't freeze. We've been letting ours drip (it's so painful to let this happen... so bad for the environment!), but last night we were so tired that we forgot to turn on our tap, hence the frozen pipes today. We've been hoping that the heat fan that we've been blasting towards the pipes (which are hidden in our walls) is going to help, we feel really bad about telling our landlords that we have no hot water again!)
We have been busy, and the busyness is not slowing down. For the next week I have "camp", then I have classes for a week - Jeff has two more weeks of "camp". Our current camp is really just extra classes that we are teaching. I have 2 classes of kids and one class with moms - bonus - we get our afternoons off!
After camp/classes comes Lunar New Year (also known as Chinese New Year or Tet if you're Vietnamese!) We are heading on our week long "honeymoon" to China (I'm hoping we can get another honeymoon to a warmer place booked for our next trip...). It will be cold - I don't know what the heck we were thinking!!! Our other friends are taking their holidays in Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, Hawaii... us, we're going to Beijing - it's freaking freezing there! When we get back from China we spend a week teaching and then have 2 more weeks off. We are heading to Canada for my sister's wedding! Ye Haw! (Yet another cold destination.... again, what were we thinking!!! I'm freezing in Korea, why would we choose to go somewhere cold during the Lunar New Year!!!
So we will be busy.
But, we will try to check in with you every so often. If you don't hear from us for awhile it's not because we don't like you or we're trying to avoid you (at least that's the case for most of you!!!), it's because life has suddenly made us busy.
Okay, I'm off! We'll be sure to keep you informed of our trips (I'm super excited about both of them.... looking forward to seeing the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiennamen Square, and the Terracotta Warriors in China, as well as our friends and family in Canada when we fly in for our brief and crazy visit!
~Jen
The first picture is of some Christmas cookies I baked - yes those are axes, only in Korea will you find axe cookie cutters, I couldn't not buy it! The next picture is of Christmas lunch at Richards, and the third picture is Christmas Eve at Trevor and Rachel's place.
We've definitely had a busy holiday season this year. We had three holiday parties to attend over the past four days - and we were both back to work today. Jeff had to work on the 24th too (I "worked from home") so we haven't had much time off. We were reminiscing of when we were students and had more than a month off at Christmas - it's hard to go from a month off to a day off, but we managed to still squeeze in lots of fun!
We spent Christmas Eve at Trevor and Rachel's place. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and had lots of fun playing party games!
Christmas morning we woke up and opened out presents - we were lucky enough to have packages from home to open too!
My traditional Christmas morning morning face picture - Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't get a not so great morning face picture (notice my awesome new sheep mug and my beautiful new necklace!!!)
After opening out presents, we packed our bags (and carried a 5 kilogram box of oranges...) and headed over to Richards for a low-key Christmas lunch. We opened presents and Kelly even surprised us with mini stockings!
One of the best parts about this year's Christmas was Kelly's reaction to a present we gave her. At Tammy and Brent's Christmas party (this one happened on Saturday) we had a gift exchange that allowed us to steal presents from one another. In the end Jeff and I ended up with the most coveted gift, a picture that was painted by our friend Laina. Kelly really wanted it, so we ended up surprising her on Christmas morning with the gift. (I was really excited about my wrapping job - I used all the wrapping paper that came from home to wrap the huge box used to deceive Kelly!)
I would be amiss if I didn't mention the "T'was 3 Nights Before Christmas" Christmas pj party at Brent and Tammy's place. We brought appetizers and gifts to participate in a Chinese gift exchange (I have no idea why it's called that). Basically we were given permission to steal presents (in an organized way) from each other. As mentioned previously, Jeff and I came home with a beautiful painting, a new photo album, and a danso (a Korean flute/recorder type instrument - Jeff is actually pretty good at playing it!!)
I'll leave you with a picture of Cohen (Brent and Tammy's son) in his hat that I knit for him for Christmas and his adorable Christmas pjs.
We hope that you had an amazing Christmas full of families, friends, joy, and love.
All the best for the New Year.
Love to all - Jen & Jeff
*This was supposed to be posted on Tuesday, I didn't realise that it didn't post when I thought it did!
For the past three or four weeks the twelve (now down to eleven) presidential hopefuls have been gearing up and campaigning with the hope of becoming the next president of South Korea.
The elections will take place tomorrow. Luckily for us the Koreans believe elections are important enough to give students and teachers (and who knows who else) the day off.
I'm looking forward to elections for the day off. Kelly and Sara, however, are looking forward to the elections so that the campaigning will stop. Let me give you a run down of how election campaigns work here.
*Every candidate is given a number. They do not campaign based on their name (ie. "Vote for Peter Petrelli") instead they campaign based on their assigned number (ie. "Vote for Number 6")
*Candidates use huge vans with video screens and music to encourage people to vote for them. Not only that, but they also have their supporters standing on the sidewalks bowing politely or dancing in support of their chosen candidate.
*These trucks BLAST music from early morning (8am in Sara and Kelly's neighbourhood) until late evening (9pm or later).
Here is a taste of the local campaigns. I danced with the Number Six supporters but unfortunately don't have any pictures of this.... I know others took pictures, I'll find them :)
~ Jen
Today is Teachers' Day. I don't know what that means. There were no flowers or gifts given - but I did receive 3 letters from some of my students.
Ji Soo Yoo (5th grade) wrote:
I can't write english very well. but can you understand?
however everyday is very cold. So because wear fat.
I have very little cold.
So, I don't fully understand, but I think I get the gist of what she is saying - it's cold here! How appropriate, it coincides quite well with yesterday's post!
Here's one more little gem from Eun-Ji (grade 5):
Welcome to comming our elementary school!!! (editor's note: I've been teaching this kid for almost 4 months now!!) I wish for you to happy and fun at our elementary school. I want to English test (speaking) is 100!! I want to speak English very well. Help me!
and I love you.
These letters definitely brightened my day. I hope they gave you a smile too!
~Jen
I don't know about you, but I keep coming to this site, hoping that there is a new blog post that has magically appeared... unfortuantely the blog post isn't writing itself... welcome Jen!
I've been thinking about writing this post for the past 2 weeks, but I've been strangely busy at school marking millions of tests (okay, maybe not millions, but a lot of tests...) and planning/teaching my classes.
During the past few weeks here, the temperatures have dropped. We've turned on our heating system for at least an hour each night (don't want to break the bank with expensive heating bills!!!) to take the chill out of the air. I've been putting on my extra layers to stay warm both at school and at home. At home, it's do-able. It's not too cold. Our apartment is surrounded by other apartments which help to keep the heat in. At school, well, that's a whole 'nother story.
My co-teacher has not turned on the heat in our classroom since the temperature began to drop. It's been minus one, two, five... and no heat. Now, this would be okay - the kids' body heat helps to warm the room, we get a bit of sun every now and then, but, in addition to the not turning on the heat in the classroom, my co-teacher insists, yes INSISTS, on opening the windows every so often. Now, I'd like to call myself a Canadian (but I really am a wimp when it comes to the cold weather, Uganda killed any sense of a winter skin that I spent 23 years developing...) but I cannot teach in a classroom that is only 15 degrees (Celsius). My fingers get cold. My toes often freeze. I even found myself searching out sunbeams in my classroom when the kids were writing their tests last week. I discovered that at 10:07am the sunbeam first makes its way into the classroom (if I'm lucky and there are no clouds), so I too would make my way to the back of the classroom to soak up the sunbeam. I've been wearing three to four layers in my classroom, including, one day, my uber-warm wool scarf. But I'm still cold.
I'm sure some of you may be saying, "Stop complaining, you're Canadian, you can handle winter.." But I can't. I really can't. And the reason why my co-teacher refuses to turn on the heat? Well, because of the dust in the heater. She's so scared that the dust will end up everywhere. The one time she did turn on the heater was just before we went to lunch. She opened all the windows, every single window she could, turned on the heat full blast and left the room. Needless to say when we returned the room was warmer....
This dust phobia reminds me a lot of fan death. Koreans are afraid of death by fan. Like, they think that it's possible to die if you sleep with a fan on in your bedroom in the summer and all your doors closed. Something about the fan taking oxygen away from your mouth and causing you to suffocate. Either suffocation, or death from hypothermia. Apparently there are cases of it documented each summer in the newspapers. Doctors agree that Korean citizens should be afraid of fan death.... I even asked my educated, smart, co-teachers what they thought of this fan death, and they believe it.
Anyways, the end of the matter is that I'm cold. Send me sweaters, scarves, wool socks... whatever works. My co-teacher just asks the kids why they don't wear their coats to class when they complain of the cold... I silently ask, "Why can't we just turn on the heat?"
~Jen
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