This is one of the class I teach. The kids are so cute and try so hard. From left to right starting in the back, Angel, Kevin, Steve, New Kid, Adam, Amy, Lucy. Amy is tiny and was really soft spoken but I kept talking to her in class and now she yells my name from across the school. I didn't take any pictures of the older kids because they are useless. Well not useless they just don't want to be there and don't listen. Oh well.





Sunday November 12 2006.

Well yesterday was remembrance Day in Canada and in Korea that means Peppero day. Peppero is a pretzels company who thought it would be a great idea to market chocolate pretzels sticks on the 11 day of the 11 month because the sticks look like ones. The Korean people have embraced this holiday and it is actually a civic holiday and if it had been on a weekday we would have had the day off to eat chocolate pretzels.
Honestly what kind of holiday is that. I know many of you reading this will say "we have valentines day" yes we do and it is a corporate holiday but it is not a civic holiday and it is not based on pretzels sticks that resemble the number of the day and month. Oh well, at least the kids gave me chocolate pretzels but the last thing they need is more candy 11 days after Halloween.

I also got my first Korean hair cut. The guy doing it was a huge homo so at least I knew it would be a good cut. It was the longest haircut of my life. It actually last almost 35 minutes. He used a straight razor to cut my bangs, which mystified me and he never actually used sharp Scissors . All he used was the clippers and those thinning Scissors and the straight razor. He took so long to do the side of my head and he kept looking at his work from different angles and in different lights just to make sure. It was pretty incredible looking down and the floor covered in black hair and to see some yellow hair mixed in.
He did a great job of it and at the end he gave me a head massage. The best part was that it only cost me 7 bucks and they don't accept tips.

So today I went to costco and bought a bunch of stuff I needed, like a humidifier and some groceries. There are five costco's in Seoul and if you have a costco card at home then it works here. They have most of the same stuff as back home with the notable exception of octopus and squid in the meat section here. It is exactly the same layout and minimalist approach as back home, which is quite surprising here. Everything is based on appearance in Korea. It is all about looking good even if you aren't good. A supermarket like Loblaws would have between 200-300 employees working on a Saturday to ensure that every customer had help. They would all be dressed up very nicely or really sluty, depending on the department they worked in and will stand beside you and make sure everything is alright. There is no unemployment in this country because they don't have any immigrants, kids can't/won't get part time jobs so the hire people to stand on the street and welcome you are you park your car. Then there are people in the parking lots welcoming you and showing you were to park, then there are people in the store welcoming and showing were to shop. They all bow and pretend they love their work, blows my mind.