A Fire was Brewing
Construction started about 5 days ago outside our building on a new apartment building. We have a glass sliding door off our kitchen/living room that opens to a laundry area and our hot water heater followed by a second sliding glass door. Well about 8 feet from the glass door the new apartment is going up. At 6:30am the banging starts (and they work on Saturday too). Anyway at 1:30am Friday morning I hear a rustling sound and open my bedroom door to see a huge orange glow. Yes a fire had been started. My roomate Andrea was in her room asleep and rather groggy from drugs she's been taking to fend off an infection. So after seeing that the glow was in fact a large fire, I banged on her door. Andrea figured I was asking for the hot water to be turned on for a shower (as the dial is in her room). Anyway, I am telling her that there is a fire and open her door. I see a big orange glow outside her window which faces another direction so that worried me. As I'm telling her there is a fire there was a very loud BOOM! which I though was some sort of pipe explosion.
Of course I run back to my room to put something other than a robe on and grab my wallet, computer, passport and keys. The last thing I want to be is stuck in Korea with no clothes money or ID.
Well we got out ok and 3 fire trucks came very quickly and put it out. The glass on our sliding door was cracked from the heat with a large blackened are where the flames were hitting. We are kinda lucky this apartment has all concrete walls and brick outside. The upstairs floor of our building has a lot of smoke damage but we had sliding doors closed. It's strange because it's been so muggy here that if the sliding door was open the fire easily would have got in and burnt the cardboard boxes which could hav made things ugly. We kept the doors closed because of the noise the workers make every morning.
In other news I have met a really nice Korean fellow who was recently hired and I have been hanging out with him. I will also be going to a Korean Baseball game here this weekend, if it doesn't rain. I'll have to figure out who I am supposed to route for.
I went to my first movie here, Davinci's Code. Well it costs 7000won and everything is assigned seating - so buy tickets early if you want good seats. Anyway, the film is in English with Korean subtitles -- but of course there is a problem with this. There are a lot of scenes in the movie where characters speak French and Latin. Normally, these would have English subtitles - umm nope. Luckily I was with someone who speaks fluent French so she could fill me on the conversations -- but she leaned over during the latin bits and said "sorry don't speak Latin" Still I enjoyed the flick. Very good theater and reasonable concession -- their large popcorn and drink is 5000 won total.
We had Teacher's Day on Monday the 15th. It is a day where kids (err parents) buy presents for teachers -- wow pretty sweet deal. I got a big pricey bottle of Burberry cologne, a Waterman pen, a Polo Ralph Lauren cap and 50,000won. Plus one mother took me to a ritzy Chinese restaurant for dinner. Shark fin, Prawn, crab, Sea Cucumber, Octopus soup, chicken in a green tea batter(yes it was green coloured batter), the best white whine I have ever had. She had a 2 for 1 coupon for the wine and insisted that I drink both glasses. Amazing food. I certainly could never afford to go there myself.
We have one week off the week of July 24th and I am thinking of going to the Phillipines for my holiday and maybe China for Christmas. We'll see how the money holds up but both seem to not be too expensive.
To my fellow teachers:
Lastly, well today I finally did a more ambitious art project. I decided that since my monthly theme is Land and Sea that we could do some sponge painting and make a whale scene. So because the school does not really allow for much prep time for such things (because the doors close and you can't come in on weekends) I grabbed a bunch of paints, construction paper, sponges and cups to put the paint in. Richard does not think ahead about newspapers to cover the desks or that these kids are 5-6 and will probably get it all all over themselves. So I give the kids the Whale to trace on their blue construction paper. I start to cut the sponges and pour the paint into the little cups. I have 9 students so I hand out a couple of cups to each group of three and make the mistake of turning my back on them to pour some more cups. Of course the paints are all almost empty so I am fighting to squeeze every drop out while one kidlet is asking me questions. Anyway, I turn around and ohh what a mess. One girl has spilt the white pain on her red skirt and legs and all over the floor. Kids are saying "teacher I want blue." Another boy has red paint on his yellow jacket. While I was looking at this I was shaking the purple paint and of course the lid was not quite fastened. I get purple all over my arms my shirt the floor.
Seriously Mr. Bean has nothing on me.
Anyway, then it's time to clean up -- things could not get worse right? Ohh of course they can these are 5-6 year olds. Clean up means water and paper towels. So they are all very helpful getting some water and puring a bit on the table and wiping the tables clean -- of course it would be a good start if they removed their art projects FIRST. Arrgghhh. One boy is cleaning the tables with water and to dry his hands wipes them on his nice new white pants which are now rainbow coloured pants. ALL I could do was laugh and also think of all the wonderful phone calls I may be getting from parents on Monday wondering what the heck I did to their kids. Watercolours paints are washable right? Let's hope because the writing on the paint containers are all in Korean.
Man I wish I just stuck to the draw a picture with some crayons lesson I originally planned. Next week we make 3D octopuses with googly eyes and I'll be manning the glue gun. Last time I used that infernal glue gun I stuck myself together more than their art projects. Combined with my laminator art project I did a couple of weeks ago for Buddha's Birthday and I swear the ART Gods have it in for me. That one is just too irritating to even go into. I mean everyone else puts something into the laminator no problem -- I do it and it goes in one side and never comes out -- getting jammed and of course meting the crayon onto the rollers.
Wish me luck on the Octopi. With any luck they will resemble a sea creature and not a horrif deformed mess. On the positive side Octopuses are so ugly who could tell anyway?
Cheers for now everybody.
Of course I run back to my room to put something other than a robe on and grab my wallet, computer, passport and keys. The last thing I want to be is stuck in Korea with no clothes money or ID.
Well we got out ok and 3 fire trucks came very quickly and put it out. The glass on our sliding door was cracked from the heat with a large blackened are where the flames were hitting. We are kinda lucky this apartment has all concrete walls and brick outside. The upstairs floor of our building has a lot of smoke damage but we had sliding doors closed. It's strange because it's been so muggy here that if the sliding door was open the fire easily would have got in and burnt the cardboard boxes which could hav made things ugly. We kept the doors closed because of the noise the workers make every morning.
In other news I have met a really nice Korean fellow who was recently hired and I have been hanging out with him. I will also be going to a Korean Baseball game here this weekend, if it doesn't rain. I'll have to figure out who I am supposed to route for.
I went to my first movie here, Davinci's Code. Well it costs 7000won and everything is assigned seating - so buy tickets early if you want good seats. Anyway, the film is in English with Korean subtitles -- but of course there is a problem with this. There are a lot of scenes in the movie where characters speak French and Latin. Normally, these would have English subtitles - umm nope. Luckily I was with someone who speaks fluent French so she could fill me on the conversations -- but she leaned over during the latin bits and said "sorry don't speak Latin" Still I enjoyed the flick. Very good theater and reasonable concession -- their large popcorn and drink is 5000 won total.
We had Teacher's Day on Monday the 15th. It is a day where kids (err parents) buy presents for teachers -- wow pretty sweet deal. I got a big pricey bottle of Burberry cologne, a Waterman pen, a Polo Ralph Lauren cap and 50,000won. Plus one mother took me to a ritzy Chinese restaurant for dinner. Shark fin, Prawn, crab, Sea Cucumber, Octopus soup, chicken in a green tea batter(yes it was green coloured batter), the best white whine I have ever had. She had a 2 for 1 coupon for the wine and insisted that I drink both glasses. Amazing food. I certainly could never afford to go there myself.
We have one week off the week of July 24th and I am thinking of going to the Phillipines for my holiday and maybe China for Christmas. We'll see how the money holds up but both seem to not be too expensive.
To my fellow teachers:
Lastly, well today I finally did a more ambitious art project. I decided that since my monthly theme is Land and Sea that we could do some sponge painting and make a whale scene. So because the school does not really allow for much prep time for such things (because the doors close and you can't come in on weekends) I grabbed a bunch of paints, construction paper, sponges and cups to put the paint in. Richard does not think ahead about newspapers to cover the desks or that these kids are 5-6 and will probably get it all all over themselves. So I give the kids the Whale to trace on their blue construction paper. I start to cut the sponges and pour the paint into the little cups. I have 9 students so I hand out a couple of cups to each group of three and make the mistake of turning my back on them to pour some more cups. Of course the paints are all almost empty so I am fighting to squeeze every drop out while one kidlet is asking me questions. Anyway, I turn around and ohh what a mess. One girl has spilt the white pain on her red skirt and legs and all over the floor. Kids are saying "teacher I want blue." Another boy has red paint on his yellow jacket. While I was looking at this I was shaking the purple paint and of course the lid was not quite fastened. I get purple all over my arms my shirt the floor.
Seriously Mr. Bean has nothing on me.
Anyway, then it's time to clean up -- things could not get worse right? Ohh of course they can these are 5-6 year olds. Clean up means water and paper towels. So they are all very helpful getting some water and puring a bit on the table and wiping the tables clean -- of course it would be a good start if they removed their art projects FIRST. Arrgghhh. One boy is cleaning the tables with water and to dry his hands wipes them on his nice new white pants which are now rainbow coloured pants. ALL I could do was laugh and also think of all the wonderful phone calls I may be getting from parents on Monday wondering what the heck I did to their kids. Watercolours paints are washable right? Let's hope because the writing on the paint containers are all in Korean.
Man I wish I just stuck to the draw a picture with some crayons lesson I originally planned. Next week we make 3D octopuses with googly eyes and I'll be manning the glue gun. Last time I used that infernal glue gun I stuck myself together more than their art projects. Combined with my laminator art project I did a couple of weeks ago for Buddha's Birthday and I swear the ART Gods have it in for me. That one is just too irritating to even go into. I mean everyone else puts something into the laminator no problem -- I do it and it goes in one side and never comes out -- getting jammed and of course meting the crayon onto the rollers.
Wish me luck on the Octopi. With any luck they will resemble a sea creature and not a horrif deformed mess. On the positive side Octopuses are so ugly who could tell anyway?
Cheers for now everybody.
posted by Richard Austen | 1:14 a.m.
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