Time Machines and (Re)Potty Training

Me:     “If you could go anywhere in a time machine, where would you go?”

Student:   “Mom.” and she points to her belly.

Me:      “What?”

Student:    “Mom.”  Then makes a pregnant belly shape with her hands.

Me:      “In your mom’s stomach? When she was pregnant?”

Student    “Yes.”

Me:      “Why?”

Student:    “Daddy,” she says with a smile.

Me:       “Not how. Whhhhhyyyyyy?”  As I am barely able to hold myself up from laughing so hard.

Student:    “Oh. It’s warm there.”

While I think the concept of the time machine might have been lost on her, I can’t fault the logic.  It’s cold here.  I am adjusting better to the cold than I had expected. I think it’s the snow, I’ve fallen in love with snow.  As long as I’m inside anyway. It’s been snowing for days but hasn’t really started to collect.  There is black ice everywhere so all hours of the night I hear people laughing and screaming due to their own drunken acrobatics on ice.  Noise travels surprisingly well up 15 flights to my window. 

Everything has been quiet recently.  I keep busy on the weekends but during the week I barely make it out of my apartment to get to work on time.  It’s seriously cold here. I wear so many layers and I’m still cold!  Plus my classroom is freezing even with the heater on because I have so many windows. I’ve been staying warm (ish) by drinking a lot of hot tea. Insulating from the inside out. It works ok.

Charlie is about 90% pee pad trained at this point.  (Because I know you all care.)  He gets it, I think he just doesn’t like it.  Unfortunately for him, I don’t like getting cussed out by Koreans in the snow so I’m pretty sure I will win this battle. I still walk him so he gets exercise and entertainment each day, just not as many times each day.  To help ease the trauma of breaking the Golden Rule of being a good dog, I made him his own little park in the apartment. 

It looks so real doesn’t it.  The walls are all concrete block so hanging pictures is out of the question.  Sticker decorations are pretty popular here and I think it’s cute.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me packages in the last few weeks.  I got an awesome package of taco food stuff from my dad today.  I just sat on my bed eating tortillas when I first got it. *so happy* Now I want to go to the grocery store to get some meat and chips so I can put it to good use. And my friends, Elizabeth and Joseph, sent me great stuff for my classes.  3.5 pounds of chocolate is the best!  I’m not above bribing these children.  It worked wonders for me when I was a kid.  Then the Christmas presents from my Mom and Tina were awesome as well.  It was great to be able to unwrap presents on Christmas day even though I was so far from family. 

Charlie helped unwrapped one when I was at work one night too…

Shocker.

I think that’s about all that’s going on. Christmas here was lovely.  It isn’t a big holiday in Korea so it had a very quiet but noticeable presence.  All the stores and coffee shops had simple decorations and Christmas music softly playing.  Not the cheesy Mariah Carey and Jessica Simpson songs, more like the songs that will bring even the most uninspired scrooge to tears.  It was perfect really.

I did get my first Korean haircut last week. That was awkward.  All ten stylists stood around to watch the foreigner haircut. After having a stylist who performed more like a doctor during surgery, a relaxing, yet very quick, shampoo, and two Korean Santas blow drying my hair simultaneously, I think it turned out quite well. 

Oh, and it was 12,000 W. Or in American money, about $10.  And that’s pricey by Korean standards.