So it shall be: It's snowing! (but not staying), and I'm finally coming down with a cold. I'm not really surprised, since I sit with kids for six hours straight, many of whom openly hack without covered their mouths two feet away from me while I lecture. No voice left. I'm trying to nurse myself with tea and leftover seed-cracker-cookies and juice - the things I invested in for the last-day party for those same germ spreaders.

I do like my kids more than that, of course. I'm just really excited to start a new term, knowing what I'm doing this time! I brought home the brand-new shiny textbooks the Company put out for us, and I'm hoping to brainstorm some good vocabulary-related games. Suggestions are welcome! When I ran out of material yesterday, I ended up showing my senior class the final scene of Great Expectations streamed off of YouTube, which didn't match up to the short version we'd read at all, and I realized suddenly that the British accent was way over their heads. These kids have been taught by Americans and Canadians here, and of course the Western pop culture they get is American… Thus, my mini-lecture on how Dickens relates to the Industrial Revolution (on a complete whim from memory, thankyouverymuch) was lost on them, too. Come on, new semester!

This weekend may prove to be interesting: the Couple have found free Korean lessons at the Community Centre and I'm tagging along to see if they're worthwhile. Any basic language I can learn would help a lot! Then there's the Goodbye Party out on the town, bidding farewell to people I've only barely met, but which sounds like it's going to be great. I'm not letting the cold win!

Monday morning I get my residency card, which means the admin. takes me around town to hook me up with a cell phone, internet connection and bank account. It's obvious to me now that the Company has quite the operation going: they get deals on the apartments and all this other stuff by guaranteeing to bring the foreign teachers in, but of course we never see the savings; they must skim it all off the top. I'm curious to see how pay works; apparently they take rent straight out, and I still don't know how much that will be. Basically, it's hard to complain when you're still being paid much more than the comfortable standard of living demands. I've almost started to think of this stint as a reliable backup plan for the future if ever I need to save up or dig myself out of debt again. I see why so many people are doing it nowadays!

Things I've learned to do:

-Let oncoming pedestrian traffic pass you on your right, even though, were you in a car, an oncoming car would pass you on your left. I realize how stubborn I am deep down when I get the urge to argue this paradox with the Koreans I nearly collide with on the sidewalk. See, there's good reason why I start up the "down" escalator in London, but here you drive on the right like in most of the world. It just doesn't make sense. There's a Seinfeldian rant for you. In the end, it's just not worth the debate. "When in Rome"; my brain insists, while my rule-engrained instincts argue.

-Pass money and other important documents with both hands. Even in the city rush (while juggling backpack, purse and grocery cart), you feel obliged to touch your wrist at least while you hand off some bills, and it comes naturally very quickly because it makes you treat the situation with due respect. I might try to implement this one outside of Asia. Wish me luck!

Happy investments:

-a tiny in-cup blender, a quarter of the price of a Magic Bullet. (And it works! Lucky, because there's no way I'd try to return something and get my money back with the current state of my Korean.) Anyone who knows me well knows how big of a geek I can be about making my own fruit smoothies. Now if only I could find the ingredients for hummus and guacamole. And something to eat them on.

-two pints at the Bier Garten, downstairs from the highrise we (EFL instructors) all seem to live in. Besides only costing $2.50, the vase-like glasses are placed into icy, refrigerated copper holders built into the heavy wood tables at each place. It's genius. Don't get me wrong; the beer's bad. But the company's great! I missed a train with a co-worker Thursday night and he decided it was a sign we needed a couple drinks once we got home. There's a guaranteed Foreign Teacher crowd there when we get back around 11:30pm, and it's nice to meet so many people and get brought into weekend plans. I had to laugh at the conversation: a bunch of white people in business attire sitting in a bar, discussing what job offers they got with a monthly salary of 3.7 million. You could have believed we were big execs. until you realize we're speaking in Won…

p.s. this site won't let me upload my latest video (it's too long), so it's up on YouTube instead! Come see a tour of my tiny studio apartment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQuPvT81Fo0&feature=channel_page