Bbbrrrrr!

It's the last month of Fall, and it's already FREEZING in my school! The walls of my classroom are floor to ceiling windows, so insulation is basically 없어요 (obsayo) which, in this case, means "non existent!" In addition, my school hasn't been turning the heater on, because they are afraid it will become a breeding ground for the swine flu!

I snapped this picture of one of my 4th grade students all bundled up in class today...


...and this is one of my 5th graders sitting next to the floor heater (that I bought and brought to school) in my office a couple minutes ago... Poor girl!

I've reluctantly come to terms with comfort over fashion the last couple weeks at work!! It was a long battle, but my down coat has been winning over the cute dress and boots every morning! :(

After reading this blog, my mom sent this to me: "The winter climate in Busan, from December to February, is considerably colder, when daytime temperatures average just 3°C / 37°F and often fall below freezing at night. March heralds the arrival of spring in Busan, with temperatures quickly rising and daylight hours increasing."

I'm gonna die here!!

"Ego Moyeya?"

"Ego Moyeya" means, "What's that?" in Korean. This was the question of the night last night...

Once every 2 months, my school has a "teacher meeting" (teacher dinner) where we all go out to eat and drink together. It's an awesome way to bond!

At the beginning of each semester, each teachers gives 50,000 won (about $35.00) to the teacher who is in charge of teacher meetings. This fee covers all of the expenses for dinners throughout that semester! Yesterday, we all drove to a sashimi (raw fish) restaurant on the beach in Da Daepo. I thought I'd share what types of things were available to eat! :) Oh, and by the way, yes, I ate at least a little bit of everything you're about to see!

This is seaweed and oil soup (not bad actually)

Chicken intestine (this is about as disgusting as it sounds and has the texture of a piece of rubber!)

Moon (an intern teacher) and I ate a weird sea creature that we pulled out of it's shell with a toothpick! (It tasted like salt water and I'm pretty sure I ate some sand with it)

The brown stuff is silkworm larva (it smells vile and tastes even worse), The green ones are some sort of sea creatures in shells.

Community spicy seafood soup. (Delicious - especially with rice!!) In Korea, everyone shares everything at meals, including soup, where they re-dip their spoons, over and over again! I tried to scoop all my soup out before everyone made it the community bowl!

Towards the end of our meal, the server brought out a plate full of these large square pieces of dried seaweed (aka: Kim, or Gim - I'm not really sure). There's not much taste to them, and they have the texture of waxy art paper. (Kinda strange, but I like to eat them anyway.) Sometimes they are covered in salt and oil, and are delicious that way!

This is a whole fried fish with the head and eyeballs still intact. It's not uncommon to order fish and have it come out looking like this. I was shocked the first couple times, but now it doesn't phase me anymore... I just stick my chopsticks in, and eat away!

Octopus is actually really delicious! I was terrified of the idea of eating octopus before I came to Korean, but now when I see it on the table, I have no hesitation about eating it!

This is a platefull of sashimi (raw fish). (not bad at all!)

So, there you go... This is my life and the things I eat around here! Anyone wanna come to dinner with me in Korea?!