Just to prove you wrong….

On occasion, some of my friends accuse me of having an exciting life. In order to dispel such vicious rumours, and prove once and for all that my life is really pretty dull, I’ll relate how I’m spending my Saturday.

I have spent 3 hours doing laundry and cleaning my closet. As a reward for finally packing away my winter wear, I made myself a glass of Ice Cappuccino, and sorted my coins. The thrills never cease.

While sitting on my floor surrounded by coins, I got to thinking… mostly about how much I like my new colour of toenail polish, but also about 3 other things.

1) There’s not a great deal of creativity going into coin-size in this world. Except for the pictures, there’s no difference between a Canadian quarter and a Korean Baek Won. A Canadian Dime and a Singapore dime are also about the same size. The Japanese do get some credit for showing some spunk in their coins with big holes in them.

2) Coins say a great deal about what’s important to a culture. Korean coins have ancient temples, Great Historical figures and rice. (As an interesting aside, the first modern South Korean coins were minted in 1959…in Philidelphia) Canadian coins on the other hand have leaves and weird animals. I’m starting to think of some other ideas we can submit to the Canadian mint… suggestions, anyone?

3) I’ll come across an old coin, or one that looks like it’s got some wear and tear, and I think about everything it’s been through. Riots, Revolutions, floods… all kinds of things. Then I start to think about where it’s been…pockets, sidewalks, gutters, and I start to get grossed out, and go wash my hands.

What a day…

I’d forgotten how much I (sometimes) like to travel. I finished teaching at 10:00am yesterday, and today was a holiday. With a mid-week weekend available, I headed to Daejeon. Mike is heading back to Canada on Saturday, so I thought I’d wish him a fond farewell (until he comes back in June…)

Coming back this evening, I got on the train ~ with the Pusan soccer team. (drool) But they were in a different car, so the excitement ends there. I also discovered that my friend John and his girlfriend were on the same train. At our stop, his girlfriend continued on and we headed for the exit. Usually, I take the train – then the subway for 20 minutes – then a bus for 40 minutes before I’m home. However, John filled me in on a secret that there is another train that takes only 20 minutes, and cuts out all the subway / bus time. Hooray! We boarded the ‘secret train’ and were engrossed in conversation as the train slowed to a crawl. Thinking we were missing our stop, we lept up, and ran to the end of the car. The door was closed, but John hit a button and it opened. He got off, and I followed. As I was stepping off the train, I realized IT WAS STILL MOVING!! Slowly, but moving. Then a man with a flashlight started hollering and waving at us. ooops. It wasn’t a stop at all. We were just slowing down for some reason. So, we lept back on the train through the next door, and eventually made a rather bashful-faced exit about 5 minutes later – at our proper stop. What a day.

Thunderbolts and Lightening…

Last night I had an evening class to teach. The day had been hot and sunny, but by the time 6 o’clock rolled around I had changed into a longsleeved shirt to wear to class. About 15 minutes into the class, the sky turned green, a bolt of lightening flashed and was followed almost immediately by a tremendous clap of thunder. The wind started howling, and withing moments large chunks of hail started pelting the windows. My students rushed to the windows, threw them open and started catching the hail and tossing the chunks of ice back and forth across the room. It was complete chaos, and lasted for about 60 seconds – then the hail stopped, and my students returned to their seats. Then, about 5 minutes later, I saw a flash of round lightening. Yes – round. It was like a big ring of lightening that flashed, and was gone. After that the thunderstorm moved away, but I still had to walk home in the drenching rain. I couldn’t have been wetter if I had of climbed into a bathtub fully dressed.