It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays blog readers! I finished my last class of 2013 on Friday, and now just have one and a half days of chilling at school before I am ON MY WAY HOME. Very exciting.  Last year everyone was feeling pretty gloomy around this time, but my imminent departure has filled me with Christmas joy. On my door I have a very pretty snowflake, in my gross kitchen I have a Christmas scented air freshener Adri left me actually smells a lot like a tree, and inside my little apartment I have managed to get some candles. It's very jolly!

On Friday I played review games with my kids. When I said we were playing games, one kid piped up " SIMON SAYS?" I was surprised as I thought grade 5 was too old for that game. Anyways, I had all my fancy shmancy computer based games to play which had specific phrases from the textbook. Well, when the computer decided to just shut off completely and refuse to turn on, I was sure glad to know exactly what the kids wanted. It was the most intense Simon Says ever. It was awesome. I was proud of myself for winging it successfully so here I am bragging online :)

Also exciting I met my coteacher's new baby son! He is, as expected, adorableeeeee. Sooo teeny tiny. It's always nice to be in a home with a new baby, especially a first child and first grandchild. He was getting so much snuggles and love, it was wonderful to see.

Anyways, here's some more little tidbits as usual!

I wonder what my neighbours all
think of their festive foreigner resident.
I imagine they feel cheered up by
my amazing craftiness.

Some girls sporting their new indoor slippers.

The fad of Canada Goose jackets has reached
Korea! That is.. sort of. I couldn't believe
this sketchy fake was worth 80$!

Correcting some grade six writing tests
I had a chuckle at this answer.

However, this was definitely the best of them all.

Two of my besties out here left this week forever.
Here's the gorgeous spread of our last meal!

Snow surprise! 

My kids were trying to make snowballs and throw
them at me. Growing up in Montreal,
I know my snow and I knew this was
not snowball snow. It was amusing
seeing their confusion when the powder
would blow back into their faces. 

TOO CUTE.

On a parting note: Part of my writing test was fill in the blanks. One blank was "Well ______!" with the correct answer being "Well done!" An extremely perplexing proportion of  low level kids wrote "Well barbecue!" This is a mystery that will never be solved.

Tidbits

This weekend I took a quick trip to Seoul with my friend Tina. It was really nice going with just one other person and no tourist agenda other than shopping. Being less touristy does mean I didn't really take any photos, but here are some for you to enjoy.

Amazingly delicious mandu, aka Korean dumplings.
One of my favourite foods out here.
Anyways we got a tasting platter in the
trendy university area, Hongdae.
This whole thing was only 8$!

On the subway I gave my seat
to a woman with a baby stroller
because I am a kind and decent human.
I grew concerned by how much
her baby was moving around,
when I realized it was a dachshund. 

I went to a little pub which served
french fries covered in mysterious powder.
Salt? Sugar? Parmesan?
Also served was a spring roll wrapped
around a "cheese stick." Imagine those
 processed cheese sticks
we got for lunch back in the day.
Obviously any kind of french fry and
fried cheese is always delicious,
but it was amusing enough without
the two fingered gloves given to us
to protect our dainty fingers. 

It was definitely a lovely trip. I feel like such a small town bumpkin in Seoul as I gaze up at every building and am ruthlessly jostled by hordes of people. It's always a lot of fun, but never entices me to move there! I am always fascinated by the freshly cut up "gangnam sisters" aka women who get their faces so plastic surgeried up they look like sisters. Oh swollen eyelids, how you terrify me. I also witness a plastic looking woman apply a full face of makeup on the subway. With her fingers. I am no germaphobe, but caking on foundation with your subway fingers seems like quite an invitation for a blemish or two. 

Back home I had a gloriously successful cooking experiment. I cooked some kimchi (cooked kimchi tastes totally different than raw. Much mellower) and added it to a classic western flavoured sandwich. It. was. amazing. I made a wrap of the same ingredients for dessert. 

Unrelated to anything,
but here I beat
my Words with Friends
MASTER friend with an
OUTSTANDING score.
I want to remember
this forever. 

And in a final note: to others living here wondering How to make a 1-800 (or 1-866, 1-877, you know, toll free) phone call from Korea. Turns out you can't from a phone... buttttttt you can use Skype to! I have no money on my Skype account, but I just pushed "call" and typed in the number and boom instant connection. Hurray success!