Deck the halls with...um...bowls of squid chips?

Twas Christmas Eve at my little school...and our one Yuletide related activity (sum total of all Christmas related activities) was a small party. My classroom was awash with the very festive smell of squid chips! Everyones favourite christmas treat! (Gag me with like, a genetically enlarged buffalo or something...)Gotta love that. Really got me in the mood for Christmas.

Maybe I've never written about that before...it's just become so normal that I don't notice I guess....but I suppose for those sitting in Canada or some other non-Korean country, it would be weird that there are many squid/octopus flavored snacks. Oh and the movie theatres? Yes, they sell dried squid for your snacking pleasure....or to make me nauseous...not sure which....

Oh, and the cornerstores? Yup, if you have a hankering for dried squid/octopus you can get your very own dried/vacuum packed squid to suck on. Yum Yum. Just grab a tentacle and suck away. Seriously. My kids do that. Like it's a sucker or something....gag gag gag.

Moving on, Christmas has come and gone and it was really quite enjoyable...I opened presents with Jenny on Christmas...and I had fun teaching her about Christmas. Christmas in Korea consists of cake. Yes, everywhere sells this Christmas cakes. And no, not traditional Christmas cake (yuck) but yucky sickly sweet bleached flour Korean style bakery cake (also yuck). With cute Christmas decorations. And also maybe a stupid hat. And if you are Christian then church.

Or, if you're a student on winter break then extra private school classes instead of holidays! Awesome!

Almost none of my students were getting presents from their families. And Boyfriend/Girlfriend usually give like a wallet or a tie or something. Lame-o. Did I say that out loud? What I meant was um, every country has the right to celebrate whatever holiday however they want. Yes, that's what I meant, and gross cakes, stupid hats, and extra classes for kids instead of a break are all excellent choices. Riiiight. That's what I meant.

Anyways, like I was saying Christmas was great for me actually. Me and Jenny bought each other lots of cool presents (a first for her) , we decorated the tree (also a first), I showed her the advent tradition (also a first), we went skating on Christmas Eve (a first), did stockings (you guessed it), had a big dinner with friends (yup, this too) with turkey (first time, not a big hit), and white elephant gift exchange (first) and then sat around playing games and drinking hot drinks.

All in all, I was very grateful to have good friends here...Jenny and Kristy and Rene mostly I guess....but there were 10 or so people at our dinner which was nice. It will be hard to find good friends like Kristy and Rene next year in Canada. I'm kinda sad about leaving actually. I will miss it. Excited too. But I will miss it for sure.

It would be hard to find a job that pays as well for as little work. Hard (nee, impossible) to find a free apartment...and hard to find friends as good. I'm not sure if being here made me more open to meeting people and stuff...or if it makes everyone more

open and needing to reach out....but either way it seems like it's easier to make friends here, or something like that. Not sure.

Oh and I carved the turkey myself....me and my friend Jack from England who replaced Phil when he left. At Kyles old school. He has become my soccer buddy we played a game yesterday with my Korean friends in blinding snow...and he's been a lot of fun too.

Anyway, that's that. I now have a week off. And not sure what I'm going to be doing. I'm packing a big box of books and stuff to snail mail to Canada, so much cheaper than extra bags on the plane. And I plan on d

oing a lot of homework -photography homework...I am like half way done...so I need to get on that and finish it this month.....and maybe go to North Korea....I'm going to see if that can be arranged....Jenny has no vacation....and she can't go anyway....so now is the perfect time........

Magic Panty Returns in dream form

So you remember my early nickname at ELC? Yes, Magic Panty...for some reason kids decided Matt sounds like "Magic panty".

I may or may not have had dreams yesterday about teaching in airplane boxers that I made in grade 8, with all the kids whispering and laughing (in Korean). Not like "why doesn't he have pants" mind you, but "why is he wearing underwear in winter...." Or maybe my translation was a little off. It happens.

I also had dreams about starcraft, which we may or may not be playing a lot of these days.

I think those are the two leading symptoms of E.K.O. Extreme Korea overdose....

Korean language underwear teaching dream + starcraft dream= time to go home.

On a more serious note...I have a week off at Christmas time...which for those of you who are following is bizarre given the one day video shoot day debacle. I am quite sure they forgot I had holidays in my contract when they refused. The next day, they were saying we weren't going to have a winter break (public schools have a month...every other academy has a week) and I was like "um...actually we have holidays....so...yea". It was more eloquent than that - don't worry. And they were like "oh yea...." (and no it wasn't more eloquent than that). I was feeling very angry about being too nice and for some reason it felt really good to put a foot down and get some results.

So now they are faced with the embarrassing situation of me having the Christmas week plus one extra day after Christmas and not knowing when they want me to take the extra day having just refused my request. (Gee....I have an idea! How about the one day I asked for? Idiots) Like I said, I'm pretty sure they forgot I had holidays (Korean teachers don't) Idiots. One more time, just for good measure. Idiots.

The other unfinished story for those begging for conclusion is the camera, which I went to see in Seoul but was all out of stock and I couldn't see it, let alone buy it....alas and alack. I did buy a flash though, and Christmas presents and import food galore. Expensive weekend last.....

The Somewhat akin to a French Shower Boss

So, turns out, to make this epic video we need one day off from work. My boss said it was ok. And we (me and Jenny) were super happy. I mean...this might be the coolest, luckiest thing that randomly happened to me.... the whole coaching the Canucks for a day thing was a really awesome lucky break too...but I mean...this is pretty cool.....

Anyway, day off...Korea. This is not good. However, I was under the impression that at my school we have more than just a strictly business relationship....now things have changed. My second boss convinced my first boss to change her mind and say no. And when I went to work, she lied to my face about having talked to the first boss about it.

1. They didn't pay for my flight at the end of my last contract. I didn't care because it was cheap and I wanted to come back....they wanted me back, I liked it blah blah. Today I will be giving them a reciept for the flight.

2. That whole insurance thing was my bosses fault and I felt bad that she had to pay $700 for a mistake...so when they said they thought we should share the cost...I thought that was ok...now? Not so much. Her mistake, she pays.

3. I found them a foreign teacher to replace Amy...usually costs the school $1500-$2000 to an agent for an American teacher. Did it even cross my mind to ask for that money? No...because our relationship was more than just money. And I was happy to help them. Now? Not so much.

I'm going to be talking to my second boss in a couple hours....we'll see how that goes....wish me luck....

The Day of Awesomeness (soon to be followed the Boss Akin to a French Shower)

So the awesome day I was alluding to on facebook....

Me and Jenny went to a wedding last weekend...the girl whose wedding photo's I shot last month...and that was great. After the wedding at a sort of after party... one of the other friends was chatting to us and saying we were such a good looking couple blah blah....and she worked for a tourism advertising company and that she was going to recommend to her boss that we be in their next feature (advertising the fun couplish activities available in some Korean city that none of you know about).

Didn't really think anything of it...but a couple days later she called and said we should come to Seoul and have an interview with the boss. So we had our (Korean) interview...which was somewhat stressful cause I had to speak Korea!

Anyhoo turns out that the company is sick of actors and actresses and wants some non-thesbians to film. So basically they want to pay for us to travel around this city and have fun...following us with video cameras and photographers. Super cool eh? Whenever anyone looks up the city on Korean youtube, or video will be the first hit. Plus it might be on TV too.

Yea!

What's more...it came up that they need a photographer for their magazine....and they were super excited that I was a photographer...so they are going to pay me to travel expenses on weekends and take pictures of festivals and tourist hotspots around Korea...cool? I think so.....I get two pages in the magazine to start with. Great practice and a chance to see some of my work in print...definitely cool.

Not to ruin the mood....but the next post..."The Boss who is somewhat Akin to a French Shower" is just dying to be written....stay tuned