Corn beard

Happy new year, all you who are several hours behind Korea! It's been 2009 here longer!

So wow. It's been a really weird week - first I, then Andy got sick (some sort of freaky chest infection), so both Christmas and New Years were a bit quieter than usual. No raucus parties for us. Lots of medicine, juice, and lounging instead. But I'm up to 90% healthy, and Andy's just about broken 50% I think, so hooray. Sorry about the slow postings, but as you can see I have my excuses, and I think more frequent posts should be a New Year's resolution of mine.

Obviously, we couldn't take part, but one of my coworkers told me about the New Year's party in Seoul that is akin to what goes down in Times Square. He said that instead of a ball dropping, they ring a big bell at midnight, followed by all the merry people letting off many haphazard fireworks in the middle of the crowd. His coat actually got singed by a stray. But this party seems like the exception rather than the rule - in general, my students tell me that they did basically the same stuff they did on Christmas: watch TV, chill out with their spouse, maybe go out to eat. Nothing special.

Ever since coming here, I have been puzzled by the ambiguous tea bags in the waiting room, and today all my questions were answered. One of my students was drinking the tea, so I asked what kind of tea it was. Answer: corn beard tea.

What is corn beard, you ask? It's those annoying long, fine stringy things that get in the way when you're husking corn. Apparently they can be made into a (kinda weird tasting) tea. Who knew.

Christmas cheer

I have gotten so used to this city regularly making me dislike humanity - people shoving on the streets, always trying to be the fastest walker, selfishly scrambling for open seats on the subway, and generally not caring to make life easier for anyone else. So it makes my heart feel extra warm when a stranger does something that's nice.

It was nothing special, but the situation was this: I was wearing a backpack on the subway, because I was carrying my laptop. At one of the stops, a woman stood up and left the train, leaving her seat empty. I opted not to take it, since I only had one more stop to go, but an old man tapped me on the shoulder and gestured to the open seat, offering it to me (probably because I was carrying heavy stuff). I thanked him but explained that I was getting off in one stop (holding up one finger just in case he didn't speak English), and he chuckled and said, "Same."

I don't know why this interaction made me so happy. It shouldn't have, because offering a seat to someone is such a simple act. But so is holding a door open for someone else, and probably 5% of the population of Seoul actually does that.

Anyway, there's a little Christmas cheer for you - people, even in a busy (and often selfish) city, can be nice.

Team building?

Yes, I just published a post two and a half minutes ago. But right after clicking the "publish post" button, I remembered something from yesterday. It's more fitting, anyway, since this is an interesting Korea story and not something ordinary that makes me happy.

I asked a student yesterday what he did over the weekend, and he said he went hiking. I pressed for more details, and it was revealed to me that this was a business hiking trip. He and 40 colleagues (I asked him like 5 times if he meant "14" and not "40" because I couldn't really believe it) got on a bus to go to a mountain 5 hours away. They spent the night in a hotel, then got up at 5 in the morning so that they'd get to the top of the mountain by 7, which is sunrise. He showed me a picture on his cell phone. It was very grey, snowy, desolate. Probably much more stunning in real life. And then they all went back down for the 5 hour bus ride home.

When I asked him why they went on this trip, all I could get out of the student was "team building," but I'm not sure if he was only echoing my prompt: "So why do you go on trips with your colleagues? Is it for bonding? Team building?"

How wacky.

Mundaneity - not a real word, but let's use it anyway

And now a list of mundane things that I am excited about (aka self-indulegent entry):

This past weekend was a weekend of good food. And when I say "good," I mean food spectacular enough to spontaneously give me cosmic insights. Good Food #1: Indian restaurant. I will never tire of Indian food. Enough said. Good Food #2: Egyptian restaurant. After the first bite of seasoned lamb, I nearly blacked out. It's been too long since I've eaten Middle Eastern-y cuisine. I also like how eating raw onions makes me feel like a dragon (though I suppose I should have sympathy for the people who sat next to me on the subway journey after).

And in other news, I now have in my possession the awesomest pair of headphones that I've ever been exposed to. A little bit a Christmas indulgence, yes, but infinitely worth it. These headphones are so awesome, they make even bad music sound good.

Oh, and the highlight of it all is that I learned yesterday that of Montreal is coming to Osaka, Japan in March! Holy crap! Andy and I may put our vacation days to use after all!!!

Be grateful, all ye country dwellers

You know all those funny-looking surgical-like masks that you see pictures of Asians wearing? Well, Andy and I finally bought a pair.

I think I've mentioned before that the pollution here is the worst I've ever experienced (though I've heard it's even worse in some parts of the world), but I don't think I've shared the gross details of what the contaminated air is doing to our noses. "Pain" and "scabs" will suffice. The pollution was particularly bad a few days ago, when I went the whole day tasting the city in the back of my throat. So we bought some health masks (maunfactured by the Kleenex company, in fact) to wear to and from work. I can't tell yet if it's working, because after just 2 months of breathing car fumes and cigarette smoke, my nose is probably going to need a while to recover.

I am never going to take fresh air for granted again.

Some long-overdue pictures

Hit the piano

And so the list grows - the list of amazing/hilarious butcherings of English that I hear from my students. "Butcherings" isn't fair, really, because sometimes they come out with words or phrases that I want to urge into common usage.

For example, I asked a student to summarize a short video that he watched. The video was about two people reminiscing about their childhood. My student put it aptly: "They are talking about their younger seasons."

Another less-poetic but fun example occurred yesterday. My student was explaining that she is trying to avoid meat temporarily, all except "chicken boobs."

And finally, today I taught a group conversation class. We discussed music and education, so I asked if any of them play an instrument. One of them said he used to "hit the piano" and another used to "touch piano."