Heated Floors Are the Best Invention

While the year is coming to a close, winter is here to stay for a while. In Korea, most homes have an ondol, a special heating system in the floor. As it’s been consistently around -6 degrees Celsius in the mornings, and the river on my way to work is beginning to ice over, I think an ondol is one of the greatest inventions ever.

                                 

Each morning I’m reluctant to leave my apartment and each morning, I tear up without fail as the wind whips at my face. At school, I practically turn into an ice cube because so many windows are left open, a practice that I still don’t understand. 

                                              

In fact, on Christmas Eve( yes, we were still in school), I was sitting in the cafeteria next to the principal, desperately trying to operate my chopsticks. The flat metal sticks kept twisting on me as soon as I’d try to grasp at something. After curious eyes watched me for a few moments, the principal and the teacher across from me each took one of my hands and squealed. Then, they proceeded rub feeling back into my fingers. A few minutes later, I was able to eat my lunch. Needless to say, the first thing I do when I get home from school these days is to turn on the ondol.

               What an ondol looks like underneath the floor

The ondol can be tricky( well, only if your Korean is limited). I’m still trying to translate some of the Korean settings so sometimes I have to roll around on the floor to find a warm spot, but it’s the best for movie watching and reading when it’s dark and cold outside. I know I said in the summer, I was dying for winter weather, and now that it’s winter, I’m ready for spring. But as it’s almost 2014 and spring will be here soon enough, for now I’m just going to relish my heated floors.

Well, January, I’m ready for you and ready for the light and warmth to come back. Happy New Year! 

Top Ten Moments of Awkwardness in Korea

Awkwardness gets brought to a whole different level when you’re in a foreign country. The language, the customs, everything is different.  Just when you think you’re trying to do the right thing and fit in with the crowd, something blows your mind and reminds you that you are not blending in as well as you thought.  Whether the following situations blow your mind or just make you laugh, here are my top ten awkward situations as a visitor in Korea thus far:

1. Getting on the bus going the wrong way, only to figure it out when the driver gets to the end of the line and gives me the, so, what are you doing? look. Thankfully, he didn't leave me in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. After a ten minute smoke break, he took me back into town on the opposite route without making me pay extra.

2. Standing in “line” at an ATM machine and repeatedly having older people cut in front of me like it’s no big deal.

3. Having random Koreans motion to me with their camera, then realizing they don’t want me to take their picture, they want me to actually be in their picture. I must be a strange sight to see, indeed.

4. Having to do a Breathalyzer test in a rental car on Jeju Island at a mandatory stop. Have you ever had to play charades with a police officer?  It took at least three tries to figure out what exactly he wanted me to do. I was not the least bit intoxicated.

5. Finding out that there is no toilet paper in the bathroom at school, or almost anywhere else for that matter. This means you must bring your own or steal tissue from the teacher’s room if you’re desperate. And believe me, even some of the teachers get desperate. Also, how awkward is it to have to decide how much toilet paper you need before you go into the bathroom?

6. Dancing with both the Vice-Principal( older gentleman) and then the Principal ( older female) while surrounded by borderline intoxicated co-workers at my first teacher outing( Noraebang/ Karaoke). Apparently my acting skills were phenomenal that night because my co-teacher thought I was having a blast. I was, in fact, mortified.

7. Being patted on the butt by the new female Vice Principal. She did the same thing to the other foreign teacher when she met her, too, so now I think she must just be a touchy person.

8. Watching kindergartners do a modified English version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where one of the dwarfs introduces himself saying, “I’m sexy.” That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Have you ever watched Mean Girls? The “sexy dance” stuff is a real thing here, though the kids might not wear those kinds of outfits. Also, none of the parents or teachers watching seemed to think it was strange at all.

9. Getting caught, at an all teacher dinner, dumping soju( Korean rice alcohol) out of my shot glass into a bowl so that the principal can pour me some more for a toast. Everyone laughed at me, but I guarantee my liver was better off for doing it.

10. And last, but certainly not least, listening to one of my fourth graders swear in complete earnest, in the middle of her skit, and in front of her me and her entire class. To reminisce with me on that one, check out my previous blog post here: http://jenasadventuresinkorea.blogspot.kr/2013/07/classroom-incidents.html