Weird Wednesday (01/09)

There are some things that never cease to amaze me, or make any sense. Thus the reason for creating my weekly post ‘Weird Wednesday.’ You can check out the first post from last week here.

As winter approached Geoje Island, I began to notice the lack of proper heating structure in Korea. Either you’re getting heated out of your home due to the apartment above you having their floor heat on full blast, and the apartment below you doing the same thing (I call it the grilled cheese effect, and Derik and I happen to be the grilled cheese), or you’re working in a school that, for some reason, still uses space heaters as it’s only source of heat.

I can live with the space heaters. I can live with wearing my jacket and gloves all day at school. What I cannot live with is this.

For some strange reason, some Koreans seem to have a ‘thing’ for fresh air…even if the air is -6C. I frequently come into a classroom that not only has the heater on full blast, but the window wide open. Tell me how this makes sense?

My school just went through a remodel, and I walked into work the other day and enjoyed the ‘new’ smell of everything (computers, paint, wallpaper, desks, etc). Unfortunate for me, the students and faculty thought that the ‘new’ smell is a bad smell. It was also unlucky that the same day I had speaking tests. I take each student out into the hall and have  a brief Q&A time with them.

This day, the door at the end of the hall, connecting the school to the outside bathroom, was propped wide open, to eliminate that ‘new’ smell. After 7 hours of speaking tests in winter ‘outdoor weather’ INSIDE my school, my fingers were so numb I could barely write.

Zip up your jackets and don your hats and scarves folks, it’s going to be a cold winter.