#deskwarming

[luadell]

Friend: So what did you do today?

Me *thinking*: saw youtube videos, went on tumblr, watched anime

Me: ...

Me: I payed the gas bills

[koreastic-blog]

Work today.

My 6th graders are on a field trip, and my co-teacher cancelled all our 5th grade classes today because she wants to go to Seoul tonight for a concert (BTW, she totally hasn’t shown up for work today at all. I like the fact that she totally doesn’t gaf, however, she also happens to have my usb with all my lesson planning on it). That means today I have been doing absolutely nothing productive at all. Plus, Waygook is down. Is it sad that this is the best work day for me ever? That I actually LOVE deskwarming? How can people complain about doing nothing all day and getting paid for it?  It’s so fun.

Also, can I just say that my 3rd graders are the absolute cutest? They just came in here to return something they borrowed from my classroom, and they asked for candy. Normally, candy is an incentive or reward for doing something good. They didn’t do anything but be extra adorable, so I gave them candy. This is why I’m a bad teacher. I don’t care if they learn English, I just want to pinch their cute little cheeks, haha. 

Anyway, what I should have been doing is updating this blog. Story to come. 

[mikindian]

Co-teacher in the office.

Me-Listens to a video about 19th century perspective of macro-historical diseases.

Co-teacher leaves the office. 

Me- Puts back on the YouTube video about a beauty vlogger’s drawers full of eyeliners.

[janeeivorie]

14. Five facts about your favorite movie.

1. It took over 3 years to film!

2. It was directed by Henry Selick

3. It was released 22 years ago

4. The movie was based on a poem written by Tim Burton

5. All songs from the soundtrack were written and composed by Danny Elfman

***The Nightmare Before Christmas**

[janeeivorie]

1st day of summer deskwarming. It has been about 4 hours and I’ve watched 2 episodes of Jane the Virgin and I also accidentally fell asleep. I have so many snacks that I brought for today and I haven’t even properly taken advantage of that. I might dance around a bit...or fall asleep again. I’ve seen one person in the school in the administrative office but I believe there are more people...somewhere. I saw 5 cars in the lot.

[themonalee]

Deskwarming in the summer

It is way too damn hot in my classroom right now! All I want is some cold noodles and ice cream. Instead, I get chicken soup for the most awkward staff lunch ever. I don’t care about the science of soup making you cooler on a hot summer day. I just want some ice cream! Or just ICE! ANYTHING COLD! 

[lallerouleretour]

Tag

I’ve been tagged by anyotherday and I am finally not super busy, so here we gooooo. 

Aside from tumblr, which social media platform do you find yourself on the most?

Facebook. Easily Facebook. Its how I keep track of the all the friends I lose jumping from city to city, country to country. 

What is your drink of choice at Starbucks and/or any other coffee shop?

Vanilla Latte. However, it needs to be not sweet. Too sweet and it kills it. 

Are you a planner, or would you consider yourself a more spontaneous person?

I am definitely a planner. I think there is nothing better or more sexy than a well executed plan. 

If you could live in one city in the world with guaranteed employment and housing, where would that be? 

Ok, being that I don’t have to live there forever according to the question, I would choose Amsterdam or The Big Island Hawaii. 

Do you think that money can buy happiness? Why or why not?

Buying happiness is a strange idea, but your life will have far less stress and far more experiences if you have money. So yes?

What phone do you have? Why did you choose that phone?

Galaxy Pop, because it was free lol 

What little thing brings you pleasure that other people might not give a second thought to?

The joy of talking to a new person that you find interesting. The excitement of waiting for the next message or letter. Its nice, too bad it disappears so quickly. 

The act of walking around in a huge city at night alone and there is no noise or chaos around you. Its almost like the whole city just disappears, just for you. Its so calming. 

What is your favourite kind of weather?

Fall Weather. Sweater weather. Layers. Warmth with a hint of chilliness. 

If you could magically learn to speak any language fluently, which one would it be?

Swedish or German. 

If you could magically become an expert in something, what would it be? 

I would love to become and expert seamstress. Making my own clothes and what not. I’d love to become a pilot. Fly around the world. 

If someone were to buy you dinner tonight, what would you want to eat?

Tonight, I would want to eat Indian curry. Or american food. Or that awesome Italian place we went to once with the swings. I feel like it was in Apgujeong Rodeo...dont remember. 

My Questions: 

1. Do you prefer people that challenge you or flatter you? 2. What is your favorite style of food to cook and to eat? 3. Do you want to live in the city or the country? 4. In a perfect life, where would you live out your retirement? 5. What qualities are most important to you in a partner? 6. Would you say your current friends are for a reason, a season, or life? 7. What is the most annoying thing you face on a daily basis? 8. In the apocalypse, what would your greatest strength be? 9. What food items can you cook from memory, with no recipe? 10. Do you believe in everlasting love? 11. What is the best thing about your job?  I tag bi-biotic and enseoulment. Id be interested in reading your answers! Just answer my questions, and write 11 new ones for the people you want to tag. Go team!

[thesasstronaut-blog]

Desk Warming or; How Not to Spend the Whole Thing on Tumblr.

[I’m going to preface this with an explanation for folks whodon’t know the joys of Desk Warming – NETs feel free to skip this bracketed bit.I’m going to speak for the EPIK program in Daegu broadly, and my schoolspecifically, because I do not know how contracts are written at Academies and private schools, or even in other cities. The way EPIK contracts are written, foreign English teachers living in Korea are granted ten days paid vacation days during the winter semester. However, in the case of my school, school was “closed” (for normal classes) for one month from the end of December until the End of January and again from February 14th until March 3rd, when the new semester begins. Unless a foreign English teacher takes sick days (limited, strongly discouraged) or personal time (unpaid, strongly discouraged), they have to come to work even though they don’t have any classes. The school is mostly empty. There are some after school programs and camps that usually run during breaks and the main office staff and anyone else who has additional work to do will be in the building, but that’s about it.

I choose not to see desk warming as a bad thing. Many teachers complain that they have to be at work when no one else does. I choose to think of it as a time to do things that you usually can’t do at work and things that you wouldn’t do if you took the time off at home (because let’s face it; if I was at home, I would be playing Guild Wars 2). With no further ado – because that was already a lot of ado;]

Step 1: Make a list and post it on Tumblr.

Fellow NETs (that’s Native English Teachers, for those of you not in on the lingo *Gaston wink*), are you stuck desk warming? Are you finished with any lesson planning, room decorating and office cleaning you could do? Of course you are, you’re a pretty boss teacher, after all.

So what now? Here’s a comprehensive list of (some of) the things I will be doing for the next week – and some things I probably won’t be doing, but hey, that all depends on how desperately bored I get.

1.      Donate to my friend Stephanie who was diagnosed with cancer while teaching in Korea and could use your help getting home and dealing with medical bills. https://www.medgift.com/HelpStephanieBEATcancer

2.      Write excessively long blog posts.

Or heck, start a blog. We often joke about how many of us foreigners in Korea have blogs, but this is the real reason behind it – we have a lot of time to blog while Desk Warming. That, and we all have an unhealthy obsession with taking pictures of our food. Remind me to blog some pictures of all of my friends taking pictures of our food at the same time. There’s a lot of them.

3.       Reinvent the reward system.

I have to have at least one work related item on this list, and this is it. One of the things I am doing this break is reevaluating how my students are punished and rewarded.

My 3rd and 4th graders are already well set. They’re totally angels anyway (usually). But I have found that my 5th and 6th graders need BOTH a class reward system and an individual reward system.

This plan may sound familiar to you, because I know you all paid super close attention to those video training videos we had to watch *coughcoughyoutotallydidright?*.

For individual rewards I am making “English Bucks”. Students will get stamps for winning games and particularly good behavior/participation. When they have 10 stamps, they will get an English Buck coupon. Once a week once the semester gets going, I will open up “English Shop” in my 5th grade classroom during after lunch break and students can spend their well earned English bucks on stuff that I have collected over the past few months. $1 will get you a piece of candy, $2 will get you a pencil or sticker sheet, and so on. I bought some Frozen and Monster’s Inc. folders while I was in Japan and my mom has been sending me Marvel and Frozen temporary tattoos and other things that students should be interesting in saving up for. I will probably make some higher level rewards that my sixth graders will want like “free pass; I will not call you out for sleeping through one class” coupons… for like $10, because it will give something for my less enthusiastic students to strive for.

4.       Experiment with past-life regression.

Do I believe in past-life regression? No, not really. But it is a rainy day and there is no one in my office and I have the lights down low because I am totally on the “Korea: Saving Energy at the Cost of Your Own Comfort” bandwagon. Besides, I’ve always been interested in dream psychology. Just try not to think about how creepy it is in the empty hallway… or in Korean bathrooms when the lights are out. Your “regression” might get scary. But don’t worry, there’s probably no one standing behind you, just relax.

Here’s a video on how to regress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCGcCC065CY

Now, if only I didn’t drink a tremendous amount of coffee because there’s no one here to judge me or tell me to stop.

5.       Color your troubles away.

Speaking of regressing… do you ever miss coloring books? You already know that Desk Warming is a great time to catch up on reading, but while you’re picking up “something in English” to read, why not grab a coloring therapy book too?

I recently grabbed나의 요정 이야기, an adult coloring book from the Daegu branch of Kyobo. The book is 31 detailed, full-page fairy-tale illustrations which are only partially colored, leaving the rest up to you. In addition, there are 19 half page postcards in the back of the book which are entirely blank for your coloring satisfaction. I will probably end up doodling on the end pages too.

A wide selection of coloring therapy books are available at Kyobo (on a table in to the left side coming up the escalator, if you’re visiting the Daegu branch). If you can’t get to a Kyobo, I have found that if you order from their GMarket store, books often come the within the next business day.

6.       Manditory “study some Korean” add-on to this list.

Do it. If nothing else, and if you haven’t already, learn Hangul. While pronunciation takes some practice, you can get down the basics of Hangul in about an hour. If nothing else, this will open up a whole new world of restaurants that don’t have picture menus to you – I mean, I will still usually just point and say “ju-say-yo”, but sometimes I am like “양남치킨 ju-say-yo” too.

Already have reading Hangul down? Learn to type Hangul – on your keyboard and on your phone. This means that you can not only verbalize what you see on a menu, but you can also type it into Google translate and find out what it is the server is going to bring you. Hazzah!

I came to Korea already knowing some basics, so I will be trying to cram some more vocabulary into my brain and learning some new phrases to tell my kids I’m disappointed in them.

7.       Bring your DS to work day.

Yeah… this is less of a suggestion and more me being honest about how much of my Desk Warming is going to be spent. I got Pokemans. I got Professor Layton. I got Fire Emblem on loan to me. I will probably also be drawing fanart. Maybe some comics? I will try to be more inspired than just playing games all day, but I know that when I run out of productive things to do, this is my fall back.

 Don’t have a console with you? That brings us to…

8.       Online Shopping!

Oh beautiful beautiful online shopping; godsend to those of us who want things but don’t speak the language in the country we live in. So how do you buy the stuff you want in Korea?

Food: the yogiyo ap for your phone OR, my preference http://cook365.co.kr – if you use chrome, the translator to the right of the address bar will do a good enough job for basic navigation, especially if you know what you want. So does #6 on this list. And if you do have a little Korean under your belt, you can add a note in the special instructions and they will probably deliver directly to your office.

Animal Onsies (and, I guess, other stuff): http://global.gmarket.co.kr/Home/Main English GMarket. Awwww yeah. We all know this right? It’s like the Amazon/Ebay of Korea. Here’s a tutorial on how to use it, but there’s lots more on the Googlesphere if you don’t like this one: http://byulbomi.blogspot.kr/2011/09/tutorial-how-to-use-gmarket.html

Food and Vitamins from America: http://www.iherb.com/ Foreigners in Korea are obsessed with iherb. Koreans in Korea are obsessed with iherb. Shipping is cheap and fast and… excuse me, it’s about time that I make another order of maple peanut butter and raw honey.

A DS console… and anything else you want to buy from Amazon/ebay: http://post.malltail.com/ This site is a little… different. And honestly, you’re probably better off having your packages shipped to a very patient friend or relative who can repackage and re-address them in Korean. However, I tried this out recently and was not all too disappointed with the results.

The idea is that instead of shipping directly to Korea, you can have your items shipped to an address within your country (or at least on your continent) and they will then send it to you. This deals with several problems with ordering directly to Korea, like excessive international shipping costs and the fact that Amazon isn’t very Korean address friendly. The best way to take advantage of this is to order things that have free shipping within the continental US but high international shipping costs.

In my case, I ordered a 3DS and 4 DS games from various sources on Ebay and had them sent to their office in California. All had free shipping to CA. Malltail packaged them all together and charged for shipping by weight. In this case, it was $15 paid to malltail. Now, my package did not slip under the Korean import taxes, so there was also a $52 dollar charge when it got to Korea. Due to the cost and newness of the items that I was importing, this fee would have been there anyway, and I actually found it pretty convenient that I was able to pay it through the malltail website and in real time  - the package arrived at customs, a half an hour later, with the fee paid online, customs was able to pass the package on to a land courier.

Again, your best bet is having a friend package everything into boxes worth less than $150 and marking your packages used/gifts and writing your address in Korean… but malltail’s not so bad either. Oops… how did this become a website review.

9.       Manage your finances.

By this, I mainly mean jump through all of the hoops required to log into your account. Take this time to get yourself organized. Example: reissue your banking certificate to a USB drive instead of your PC so that you can log on from home and work. You can also issue a secondary certificate to your cellphone, though these are sometimes temporary depending on your bank.

If you’ve got all your banking worked out already, make up a budget for yourself. If you’re like me, the fact that you make enough money in Korea to not have to worry about money means you really just don’t think about money. It’s like MAGIC! There’s just money there!

I, however, will be taking an opportunity to review my spending and seeing where I can cut back a little (hint; I probably don’t need to buy anymore sweaters or ridiculous t-shirts from H&M). Why cut back when you’re saving money anyway? That leads us to….

10.       Plan your next vacation.

For most EPIKers, you will have 8 days paid vacation in the summer. Whacha gonna do? What about taking a weekend trip? If you budget enough in step 8, you can plan your fantasy vacation(s) during Desk Warming. I mean, I suppose you can plan a fantasy vacation anyways, but it will just have to remain fantasy.

For me, I must admit that this process mainly consists of drooling over New Zealand Lord of the Rings tour packages, considering side trips to Reykjavik (Iceland promotes “free stopovers” as part of their tourism initiative http://www.icelandair.us/flights/stopover/), looking at this blog post http://www.boredpanda.com/zao-fox-village-japan/ and then sharing that blog post with my friends over and over again while telling them that “I will actually die if I don’t go here”.

11.   Reenact that scene from Risky Business.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATTjGKJwhFI

I mean… in some form, this is what I do every time I’m left to myself for too long. But for godssakes keep your pants on! You’re in a school.

I won’t lie and say that I’m done with this topic. I will probably return to this at some point during my Desk Warming, but I think this has evolved out of my control enough for now. If you will excuse me, I have to go back to naming all of my Pokemon after Shakespeare characters. Good Luck!