I'm going to start with a grumble. It's a grumble I've had before in this blog, but I think it needs stating again.
Tea is made from tea leaves, from the tea plant. If it's not made from the tea plant, it's not tea. Simple. Yet when you go to a supermarket in Korea, you have an aisle of things that are not tea. Rows and rows of things calling themselves 'tea,' but made from daffodils, dandelions, and disappointment.
You can't make tea from nuts.
You can't make tea from buckwheat.
You can't make tea from potatoes.
It makes me furious. I'm thinking of starting a website called www.thingsthatarenottea.com
They don't do this with coffee. They add different flavours to coffee, sure, but they still use coffee beans to make the drink. You can't make a drink from kidney beans and call it 'kidney coffee.' And we don't call it 'chocolate tea.' It's 'hot chocolate.' So don't call this rubbish 'tea.' IT'S NOT TEA!!!!!
Anyway, we've had a four day weekend thanks to Buddha's birthday so I decided to visit Mother Russia, and travelled to the far eastern city of Vladivostok. Sadly, being in Korea has ruined me, as one of the main things I noticed was the amount of bins. I should explain, that Korea has virtually no bins. People leave their rubbish by the side of a lamppost or tree when out and about, or put their household waste in normal carrier bags on the street. So when walking around Vladivostok and enjoying some of its many pleasant green spaces, I kept thinking "Oooooh another bin!"
Still, it was a good experience, I can confirm that all Russian men look like henchmen, and Russian women never smile, preferring that permanent scowl beloved of catwalk models. Vladivostok was also home to lots and lots of statues of that guy from The Beatles;
Meanwhile, back at school, we recently had Children's Day. In Korea, they don't have a separate Mother's Day and Father's Day, lumping them together into Parent's Day (next week), and they even have a Children's Day! The teachers put on a show with singing and dancing for the kids, and the kids all dressed up in various princess or superhero outfits, it was very cute! One of my favourite kids wore a traditional Korean Hanbok outfit to school;
On the subject of traditional Korean activities, I walked into a shop last week, and a little 10 year old girl saw me, turned to her Mum, and yelled (no subtle whispering), "Oma! Waygookun!" Literally, "Mum! Foreigner!" I laughed, and said 'Hi' to the kid in Korean, she then grabbed her Mum's arm, shook it, and yelled, "Oma!!! Waygookin hangukiyagi!!!" - "Mum! The foreigner spoke Korean!!!" Her Mum was busy on her phone, and couldn't care less, but the kid was literally pointing at me in shock and trying to get her Mum to look at the weird foreign guy. This is actually one of the things I like about living in Korea. In the part of Korea where I live, there really aren't many foreigners at all, and our school is very proud of having four, real life foreigners!
At the school, preparations are on going towards another open day next month, when all the parents come in for the day to watch us teach. This year, the kids will play dodgeball while the parents watch, so we've been practicing that quite a lot. I can't see this turning out well, as although we are teaching the kids useful dodgeball related English phrases such as the five D's of dodgeball - Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge, the kids do have a tendency to cry whenever they get hit in the face. Especially when I point and laugh, and shout "In the face! IN THE FAAAAAAAACE!!!!" But we'll see what happens. I should add, our school does have quite extensive sporting equipment, including this mini golf course in the sports hall;
I also had quite a good giggle at one of my student's homeworks last week. They had to write three sentences of things they had seen. When questioned, the kid was able to confirm that his father was, and I quote, "very dirty."
Finally, the Adventures of Tyrion the Turtle
This week, Tyrion has found himself distraught, as his namesake rots in a prison cell, accused of murdering his own nephew. To cheer him up, I took my Tyrion to meet his own uncle, an entirely unusual character . . . .
