A Day in the Life

Today I eschew the blogs I had planned in favour of a more off the cuff description of the day for your reading pleasure...it was a fairly typical one that should give you an idea of how my life goes along..

Starting from Last Night after work...

20:00 Get home from work...excited that house is warm. Check facebook, email and current events. Not much happening. Eat something.

20:05 Realize it's really warm...I left my heat on max...(old habit from the days when I had no hot water)....the floor temperature now reads 88c and my feet make sizzling sounds when I walk...I throw open the windows even though its below zero.

20:10 Starting watching an episode of The Office online. It takes forever to load. I try 100 other links. They all stink. I curse my computer, give up and leave a slow one to load while I go read about Holy War. Its a really interesting book....Holy War - the crusades and their impact on todays world....

22:00 Episode is finally ready. Watch the office. Episode amuses me because it takes place in Winnipeg. Oh Winnipeg.

22:30 Want to read more...eyes hurt, retire instead. Realize (again) bed has heating pipe right under it....Bed feels like sauna...sleep not possible....play guitar in the dark instead....

??:?? Finally a good temperature, fall asleep.

8:00 Wake-up....magically I am able to fall back asleep again...this doesn't usually happen

10:00am wake up again...pleased with self for sleeping in...make tea

10:01 read CS Lewis talking about heaven, and a chapter from Matthew....I've been doing well at making that a habit in the morning

10:30 Read current events, facebook, email...

10:40 Realize I should eat something....curse my empty fridge and make scrambled eggs....

11:20 Study Korean and write an email to a cute Korean girl 에나 (Yaena) from a cafe I've been frequenting and practicing my Korean on. I don't have a Korean keyboard...so I have to type on a screen based keyboard...it takes 20mins to write hi/how are you/what did you do today?/I'm going to go work out and then go to school/my school gave me a korean name/it's 한솜 (Hansom).

Did I mention I have a Korean name? It's 장한솜 Chang Hansom (chang is a normal last name...but also slang for 'most'...so I am most hansom....hahaha.

12:20 Think about watching the Canucks game.(I know how to watch streams that helpful Canadians post on the internet). Realize I won't be able to see the end....curse the time change y'all in Canada just made.

12:30 Gather Korean skills and go to the gym to inquire about a pass instead...successfully ask why there's no one at the desk, get a locker combination, and find out the price for three months. (about $100...good price. Current exchange rate 80 CDN :( ) Realize I don't know where I live. Am somewhat embarrassed. Vow to learn my address.

13:45 Have spicy chicken with rice. Usually I cook my own rice, but today I'm in a hurry, so pre-cooked rice and sauce...all ready to go. I love that about this place. So many rice and noodle options. I will miss CJ Sauces.

14:00 Shower and go to work.

14:15 practice the Korean I learned on one of the Korean teachers. Sound like a tool I'm sure, and head starts to hurt. Conversational skills are coming along as long as they speak slowly and don't want an answer before 5 seconds of thinking has elapsed.

14:20 Try to decide if there was any chance that my Korean will surpass my Dutch skills....first thought absolutely not because Korean is much harder...new alphabet etc.....second thought....I was never immersed in Dutch for an entire year....so maybe....we'll see I guess. I've been studying hard the last month....

14:20-15:30 prep classes/talk to Amy and the other teachers. Haha. Scare one of them half to death when she arrives...by standing in the doorway when she comes in not looking. It was amazing...she stumbled back and covered her face and almost died. Gives me death glare. She didn't think it was funny. Wonder if something was lost in translation. Feel bad.

15:30-20:00 Teach my seven 40min classes....first class is sad because they took my cutest girl away...into one of Amy's lower classes....Amy isn't happy either cause her class is uber full.

4th class irritates me, I took the time to change a section on American Geography and make a Korean one instead. Why should they learn states and their capitals? They still act like turds and complain. I swear tommorow they will have to do all 52 states and capitals.

20:00 Do some grocery shopping....buy some sausages from the guys who were hawking them because they were cute....their english attempts that is.....picture costco....where there's all those people with samples right? Here, on almost every aisle there's someone standing there, usually in uniform...usually just bowing. You secretly wonder if this fantastic display of inefficiency isn't the cause of the global financial crisis.

Anyways, the ones who do have samples usually do a double take when they see a foreigner, and then for some reason increase the volume and give you the Korean sales pitch. It's kind of annoying. Anyway...these guys were like a comidic duo... 'hi' says boy 1....waves sausages in the air....awkward smile....points at the sausages...asks his friend what sausages is in English (in Korean). 'Soh ssa gee' says boy 2. Points at the price (30% off)...hmmms but can't think of any English.....'sale' I offer.....'hmmm....sale' he nods vigorously... expression seems to suggest he has his identity wrapped up in the outcome of the sale of sausages to the foreigner, so I humour him. They are delighted.

20:30 Go home and check the internet for interesting happenings....realize nothing has happened in the 7 hours since I last checked except the Canucks game.....write a blog.....

22:00 Realize that blog is really long and sign off