Asian Work Ethic

Alright, so I found a MAJOR draw back of working in an Asian country: The work ethic.  I thought we were work-a-holics in America?  Nah-uh.

We had our first snowfall in Seoul last Sunday.  It was beautiful.  Not only did it bring beauty to the otherwise seedy looking Itaewon- it also brought me the flu.  I was feeling run down on Monday, but  took it for the usual monday-blues and powered through.  By tuesday night I had a 101.5 fever, chills and body aches-yet ZERO sick days.  I showed up to work everyday- but of course, not without comments from students- "teacher, you look very bad!" and "teacher, no makeup?!" It isn't that my school is particularly cruel  to its employees- they actually treat us really well- It's just a cultural thing.  In Korea, even when you're sick, you get out of bed, shower if you can manage it (I couldn't), bundle up and come to work, dammit!  It didn't help that this was a particularly stressful week for everyone at school to begin with, because we merged with another school.  We all moved classrooms, got new classes (it was a new term) and got a new boss.  Everyone was having computer problems, printer problems projector problems, you name it.. so it was really no time for me to complain because the staff already had so much on their hands.  To add to my awesome situation, I lost my wallet last weekend.  And lost internet in my apartment.  It really seemed like everything was going wrong.. and then friday I got a surprise package from my mom... she sent our favorite christmas cd! John Denver & the Muppets.  Corny? Yes.  Did it make me almost cry tears of joy to hear "twelve days of christmas" in miss piggy's voice coming out of my computer speakers? Definitely.  

Needless to say, I spent the weekend unconscious, recovering from the week-o'-hell.  My apartment still looks like a bio-hazard zone and I'm still exhausted but I no longer feel like I'm going to collapse any second, so that's good! 

I really can't believe it's the beginning of December.  I have a LOT to look forward to- MJ's birthday (skiing!), Christmas, New Years.... all the fun stuff.  I'm excited and so lucky that I have amazing friends to share it with.  Thanksgiving was tough in terms of homesickness...  I wish I was home with my family, even though they weren't even doing anything too big and barely anyone was around.  I guess I was homesick for something that doesn't even exist anymore- big family dinners at my grandparents' house, with everyone there...grandpa drinking coffee, the guys watching football in the den, the girls in the kitchen  emptying cranberry sauce from a can and stealing the skin off the turkey before the guys can carve it up.. with the Andrew Sisters and Johnny Cash on the stereo.  But I guess considering I'm in Korea, it wasn't so bad- I went with 2 of my co-workers to On the Border.. there's one in Seoul! We ate more than is humanly possible, and then ate some more.  It was a good night.

Like I said.. there's a lot to look forward to!  End of december activities... and then Alex & Beth, 2 of my friends from college, are heading to Korea to start their contracts! I'm excited to have them here.. they're still waiting to hear about their placements, but hopefully we'll be close.

I'm going to curl up in bed with a book.. it's too cold to type any longer!

Toodles!