Banana Stuffed French Toast

Above: Samseo's Sports Day

Not much to say about sports day other then it was a lot of fun, I got to see a traditional Korean fighting event, know which students could take me down in 2 seconds flat, and didn't have to teach!

I am currently eating the most amazing banana stuffed french toast for dinner so that is the title of this post. I am an amazing cook and I feel no shame in admitting it. And for those of you thinking french toast is the easiest thing to make, well, you're not the one enjoying banana stuffed french toast like I am so you can't argue with me. I have made so many different things with bananas in it since I got here because they sell bananas in the biggest bunches ever and I'm only one person and can't go through them fast enough before they go bad. Once they're too ripe to eat, I freeze them for baking. Problem is, I now have a freezer full of bananas! So I've been creative and put bananas in everything! It's great.

Each Tuesday I have to fill out this sheet (in Hanguel so I really have no idea what I'm writing) for the two schools I go to on Wednesday and Thursday so that I can get paid travel money. I have to get my co-teacher to sign it first, then the Vice Principal and then the Principal. My co-teacher's desk is next to mine, but for the VP I have to go to another building. Since it's on my way to the English lab I usually stop by when I go to class. My VP used to be a forester and is usually found tending the million plants he's landscaped around the school. That means that most of the time he's on in his office when I need him to be. Today was one of those days. Finally, at the end of the day I ran into him and got his signature on the sheet. He read it and said something about October 31 and the school picnic that was that day. I said yes, not really sure what he meant and then he signs it. I'm still not sure why he mentioned it, but I think I may have said I was at another school that day...even though I was at the school picnic. Then I was off to the Principals office. Usually I pay close attention to the signs for which office is his because the doors look like the walls and there's a ton of signs marking doors. Well today just as I was reaching his office a bunch of my students walked by and talked to me. This distracted me. I knocked on what I thought was the principals office, but didn't hear the usual Korean something-or-other that he says for the person to come in. So I opened the door only to see eight faces staring back at me. It was the administration office. I almost shut the door instantly, but since they all clearly saw me and I'm the only foreigner at the school it's not like I could sneak out. So I pretended to look around for someone, played the dumb foreign teacher who doesn't know what she's doing and quickly backed out...red as anything! It wouldn't be so bad if it was one of the first days I was there, but they all know me by now so when I see them again I'll know they know that I know that they know I'm a ditz!

This past weekend was uneventful for the most part. Saturday I cleaned since my vacuum cleaner is now FIXED and prepared for some friends coming over at night to get ready for a halloween party. Or rather, just going out for halloween. It's not celebrated much in Korea though there were a few Korean dressed up that night. Kids here don't get sugar highs once a year that's for sure! We gave each other some candy though!

So a bit ago I made a list of things that would only happen in Korea and here it is. Keep in mind that some of these probably happen in other Asian countries as well, but since I haven't been to those, I mention them here. So I guess you can think of this list as things that are VERY different from Canada or just North America in general.

In Korea...

1. you can park on the corner of any street and not get a ticket
2. you can drive through a red light and not get pulled over (stop lights are more guidelines than actual rules)
3. you can walk across the road without looking and all the cars will stop for you and not honk at you for being stupid

4. can wear clashing socks with sandles and it's considered fashionable

5. it's normal for boys to hold hands

6. teachers can hit their students

7. students will bow to you every time they see you (seriously, it's awesome)

8. they'll show the same three movies every night on tv for two weeks stright, have a week break, then show them again.

9. it's common to be given four bottles of wine for Chuseok (Thanksgiving) from your principal.

10. It's also common to get a whole box of fish for Chuseok

11. the street vendors will give you deals just for being a western girl
12. The pharmasist will give you expensive medicine drink stuff with your medication for free just because you're a western girl

13. It's common to find a McDonald's and Lotteria right next to each other (a Lotteria is basically the same as McDonald's but with KFC type chicken)

14. Korean's will make you eat tons of their food, but only eat a tiny bit themselves and if you eat only a little they'll think you hate ALL Korean food.

15. a Korean you meet will walk ten minutes out of their way in the opposite direction to get you to where you're going even if they're running late themselves

16. if you have a cough they'll insist you go to the hospital (NEVER tell a Korean you're not feeling well!)

17. your fellow co-teachers will be dead serious when they try to set you up with another Korean teacher who happens to speak no English and be 20 years your senior.
18. baseball fans will be 20x more excited about their city's baseball team than fans of the Maple Leafs and Blue Jays combined.

19. Koreans will walk insanely slow while shopping and then when they get to the check out line move so fast you don' t have time to put your money away before being shoved out the store

20. there's a Paris Baguette on every other street corner and a Tous les Jours in between - both being bread and pastry shops

21. offering homemade baking to Koreans will cause a continuous conversation about how you're making them fat, but when it comes to store bought pound cake they'll eat it by the platefull.

22. Motercycles are allowed to drive on the road AND the sidewalk depending on which one is faster for them to get where they're going (by the way, since I've been here there's been two people I know of who have been hit by a motorcycle. One was killed, the other had surgery. The one killed was the gym teacher at one of Kristen's smaller schools and the one with surgery was the wife of the leader of our worship band)

23. helmets are optional for motorcyclists
24. you can get away with having a passenger on the back of motorcycle without a helmet and another on the handle bars also without a helmet and drive on the highway.
25. if you don't wear makeup you'll be asked if you're a "special case"

26. it's common for a school to have a scheduled time during the day for an exercise dance that the whole school participates in - an actual fully choreographed dance.

27. when you ask a student what they want to be when they grow up a common response is "I want to be a good father" (and they're not embarassed to say that either).

28. When you ask a student why they want to go to Japan a common response is "because they have beautiful girls" (same goes for pretty much any country they talk about)

Well that's what I've come up with thus far.