Adventures in the demise of a Vacation…

Yup, tomorrow the intrepid and courageous teachers of DaeguDae start another semester. Last night we had our staff orientation dinner (fabulous buffet) and everyone got caught up on everyone else’s vacations. Today Mike came to visit and we hung out downtown. After he left, I treated myself to a great manicure (with little white flowers painted on the ring-finger nails.) Then, to top off the evening, a group of us gathered around for Jen’s Bacardi Rum Cake and Bahama Mama’s ~ directly from Nassau iteself. We also looked at her pictures from the Bahamas and Karin and Lakka’s pictures of Cambodia and Vietnam. Everything looked so warm and tropical and sunny. Now, I’m wondering why on earth I’m in Korea. It snowed here this morning. Anyway, we all bid adieu to our vacations and are gearing up to start classes tomorrow morning. I can’t believe I’ve been at this job for 2 years already.

So, farewell Winter Vacation, and hello Spring Semester.

Adventures in Stupid Dreams…

Last night, I had a lovely sleep. When I woke up (yes, again at 7:30 even though it’s Saturday) I remember thinking to myself “Hey, that was a great dream. I should write that down.” Instead of opening my eyes and grabbing for a pencil, I instead chose to wrestle my blankets back from the cats and go back to sleep for an hour.

When I woke up again, I could only remember parts of my dream, and boy oh boy are they really NOT worth writing down. You know me though, I’m going to write ’em anyway!

Part 1: I accidentally flushed someone else’s clothes down the toilet. The clothes were sitting on the toilet (not in it) and I had to pee, so I flushed the toilet first and WHOOOSH!! the toilet just sucked the pile of clothes right down. Next thing I know, I’m trying to explain via limited Korean and complicated Charades just exactly what happened. Go ahead – you try it! I dare you. Try to explain to someone that you flushed their clothes down the toilet BY ACCIDENT, but the only words you can say are ‘water’ and ‘bathroom’ and every time you try and say ‘clothes’, the word ‘flower’ comes out. HA! It’s not so easy now, is it???

Part 2: Someone played a practical joke on our office, and turned all our office furniture into chocolate. The computers, phones and everything still worked but were made of yummy cocoa. I was getting frustrated because the person I shared an office with kept eating the phone cord and the computer keys. Why s/he couldn’t eat something like the potted plants or the pencils I don’t know. They had to go straight for the stuff I was trying to use.

See – it wasn’t nearly as exciting as it had seemed to me earlier this morning.

Notice: I’ve added a link on the sidebar to The Mealey Blog. Please use it if you want to keep up-to-date on those Marvelous Mealeys!

After 3 years in Korea, I’ve finally done it.

Justin and I went out for dinner with one of our classes – for octopus. Some of the dishes were tasty and harmless. We had a tofu & kimchi dish, a seafood and noodle soup, and a rice,vegetable,spicy sauce and octopus stir-fry.

Then, there was the ‘Fear Factor’ dish I thought I would be too squeamish to try: live octopus.

The server put the plate down on the table and all the severed little tentacles were still squirming. I watched as the students tried to pry the pieces off the plate, while the little tentacle suckers were clinging tenaciously to the surface. By the time I worked up the nerve to try a piece, I was able to get a tiny little piece that had stopped wriggling. It was dead, but raw. I dipped it in some sesame oil and munched away. All I could taste was the sesame oil, so it was actually pretty good!

Next time I’m invited to an Octopus restaurant, I won’t be so hesitant to accept. It was actually a really tasty meal. However, even though my palate enjoyed it, my tender little heart still has doubts about eating food that moves.