Market Day

Tom and Katie, Katie and Tom, blah blah blah, who cares? Well I guess a lot of people do, but I don't really. I just watched Oprah with the 2 of them on, and Tom Cruise acted batty. Oprah kept describing him as "gone," which was, I guess, her polite way of calling him bloody cuckoo. Last night on Oprah, it was a follow up from the Oscars. Oprah's guests were Hillary Swank, Jaime Foxx, and Chris Rock. I didn't see, I don't think, any of the movies that won awards. I did, however, get up early to watch the live broadcast here on a Monday morning.

I was excited about seeing it, as I used to like watching the awards. Good Sunday night activity, and when I was living in Canada I had usually seen most of the nominated movies, and was usually rooting for my favourites. This years Oscars seemed to me to be boring, perhaps because I had no favourites as I didn't see any of 'em, but also because I thought it was, well, just BORING!

I e-mailed that to my brother and he responded by saying that he wouldn't watch the Oscars if it was the only thing on a TV that had been bolted to his face. Ok, then. I gather he doesn't give a shit about Tom and Katie either.

Today was Market Day at my school, which happens four times a year and gives the kids an opportunity to spend their stickers that they've accumulated by completing their homework or being well behaved or what-not. I can't give the kids stickers. Only the Korean teachers can. The first teacher my school ever had favoured the little girls and all the boys complained, so sticker-giving by the foreign teacher was abolished. He ruined it for me. Thanks, buddy. (Actually, really, thanks! Otherwise I'd have the kids following me around yanking on my shirt begging for candy AND stickers.)

I asked to be moved from the Stationary Store at school to the more popular restaurant. I'd done the Stationary thing 4 times already and thought it might be neat for a change. Our restaurant menu included steamed mandu (dumplings) and 'duk bokki' - which is cylindrical logs of rice cake, triangular shards of fish cake, onions, and carrots in a spicy sweet red sauce. Elizabeth took care of those. I was serving "sushi" - seasoned rice stuffed into triangular envelopes made of tofu (I think it's tofu) as well as sandwiches made of potatoes mashed up with small cubes of ham and vegetables, hard boiled eggs, little containers of jja-jjam instant ramen, and a variety of sugary sodas. Can you imagine if kids in North America were treated to these choices? Ha-ha! But our kids ate it up.

I don't think I made a wise choice in asking to be moved, the room quickly heated up with the two portable burners cooking Elizabeth's fare, and by the end of the day I was a sweaty mess. I was told my station has never been so popular. Usually we have a lot of leftovers we just give away at the end of the day to the stragglers, but I ran out of just about everything. Early.

The whole day I had on average at least 5 kids right in front of me, either calling my name, or "Teacher, Teacher, Teacher, Teacher,..." or repeating their well rehearsed orders " a cup of orange soda, a cup of orange soda, a cup of,...") It's as if they thought they might turn invisible and therefore I wouldn't see them to serve them unless they kept shouting at me. Jay-sus!

Ah well. It was a long day, but I like it because the kids like it and it gives me a chance to spend time with the kids in a casual setting. Not that my classes aren't casual,...but...

In other news, my air conditioner is a blessing, but it's not working as effectively as I'd like. I have it cranked and it's never able to bring the temperature down in my apartment lower than 27 degrees. I brought the remote control in today to see if I was (probably) using it wrong, and explained what was happening. My co-worker called the company and explained the problem, and they called back and spoke first with my co-worker, and then with my boss. Karen told Elizabeth she'd talk to her husband and then discuss it with me. I don't know what the problem is, but if I were to guess, I'd say they bought me an air-conditioner designed to cool an apartment with the dimensions of a shoe-box. When I walked in tonight, it was 33 degrees in here and I've had the air-con on max ever since, and am still sitting in front of the fan.

My boss tonight told me she doesn't have an air-conditioner, and doesn't even use the fan at her place. How does she manage it?? I really wonder if it's conditioning. I know I am a mess in hot humid weather, and I remember how really uncomfortable and miserable my Peruvian friend Manny is back home with even -10 degree weather. Maybe a little research is in order.

It's all just ass-injections, I say.