RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

   We had record highs in the Daegu area -- highest recorded since records began in 1907 (so possibly they were the highest temperatures ever in Korea, for all we know!). 
   Temps were up at 40.7 Celcius at one o' clock in the afternoon.

I recently learned from a Korean co-worker that Daegu is apparently the hottest part of Korea during the summer, and as such, Koreans have nicknamed Daegu "Dafrica." Haha.

I think this is supposed to be the main reason why the Daegu area is used for growing those expensive gift apples. It has the perfect "tropical" climate for growing them.

It is pronounced Deprica, I think. They used to, but I have heard that Daegu pretty much doesn't produce apples any longer, although, still known for apples (and prettier girls?). Also up in Seoul last week it was hotter than Daegu was, somewhere around 2 degrees hotter. Most of that could be due to city heat, considering everything is paved. It is really bad in Seoul because the temperatures don't drop due to the ground and buildings holding so much heat during the night.

Why not make a healthy lunch and take it with you? It's what I do.

1. I'm clueless when it comes to preparing affordable, tasty "healthy" food. (What's cheap and healthy at the grocery store?)

2. I'm paying $4 a meal, I'd like to get my money's worth 

If you don't like the school lunches, just drop by the admin office and cancel your subscription. It's usually a month by month thing in most schools, so it shouldn't be a huge issue.

   I never used to eat lunch, so I opted out of all my schools' lunch services. But I recently moved my running time to early mornings (because it's so *&$^&% hot in the evenings), so now, by the time lunch comes around, I'm pretty ravenous.

   I usually pack a small tupperware with a salad in it (lettuce, a few cherry tomatoes, and some grated cucumber and carrots) along with a small container of dressing. Also, one or two of those yoghurt cups. And enough coffee mix sticks to induce diabetic shock in a gummy bear. Total cost is about 3 or 4 thousand won. 

Before anyways says it, yes, I'm aware that I chose to live in Korea and I should expect this.

So why the heck are vegetables always spicy??? Unless they're serving salad, the veggie side dishes are always red, and just looking at it is threatening to me.

Not trying to complain but my low-tolerance for spicy food makes it hard to enjoy school lunch sometimes. My second school especially, which is situated in the the countryside. Today was bulgogi, spicy fish cake soup, kimchi (of course), and some other veggie covered in red. The bulgogi was bearable, but everything else wasn't. I just wanna eat healthy, but they make it way more difficult 

Why not make a healthy lunch and take it with you? It's what I do.

1. I'm clueless when it comes to preparing affordable, tasty "healthy" food. (What's cheap and healthy at the grocery store?)

2. I'm paying $4 a meal, I'd like to get my money's worth 

Fruit, veges, meat, seeds, and nuts.
I usually just make chicken and pasta, and take a couple pieces of fruit with me. - Simple, doesn't take that long to make, and it's pretty tasty. I have students that will ask me for some of my lunch every day, because they like my cooking :p

Otherwise, I make a protein smoothie. I use apple mangoes, bananas, blueberries, this liquid strawberry yoghurt the supermarket sells, sometimes sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, chia seeds (any combination of the 4), and 2 scoops of this protein powder that I buy (2 scoops sounds like a lot, but it's this special kind, and the scoops are a lot smaller).

And if I'm too lazy for either of the 2. Can't go wrong with a couple of peanut butter sandwiches and a few pieces of fruit.

And yeah, the cost of the lunches are usually paid monthly, you can opt out of them too.

Thanks you guys! I like the sound of some of these meals! (And thanks for reminding me, I was an avid chicken/pasta cooker back home )

I just wanna eat healthy, but they make it way more difficult 

I don't eat meat so all my packed lunches are generally vegetables. I use lentils, rice, salad vegetables. I have been going healthy recently so I am meal planning and it is actually turning out pretty good. I also use frozen fruits or even fresh fruits for smoothies. Whatever I can find to make smoothies.

I ate a lot of pasta when I came to Korea so I cannot stand it now but pasta will help too. I think if you can find the general spices you used at home, it can make it a lot easier to eat the food and not end up eating spicy food.

I love spicy food but the sweetness kills me. So gotta cook. 

do other countries always put granulated sugar into their food? my wife and MIL even put a ton of sugar into bibimbap. why? makes it taste horrible

do other countries always put granulated sugar into their food? my wife and MIL even put a ton of sugar into bibimbap. why? makes it taste horrible

That seriously sounds like a family quirk, or something that your wife picked up from you MIL when she was growing up. I have eaten many a bibimbab with different places, all over the country, and have never once seen that. I have mostly seen granulated sugar added to bread or "donuts" or corn dogs.

That seriously sounds like a family quirk, or something that your wife picked up from you MIL when she was growing up. I have eaten many a bibimbab with different places, all over the country, and have never once seen that. I have mostly seen granulated sugar added to bread or "donuts" or corn dogs.

Second this. I've never even heard of this, let alone seen it EVER in my 6 years here.

My school is in the process of installing more elevators to improve accessibility. That's awesome, because there are a couple of mobility-impaired students at the school, and I can see how much they struggle going between floors in the building that doesn't have elevators. They each have assigned caretakers to go with them and make sure they don't fall, but having elevator access to every floor of every building will definitely be a much better solution. I'm stoked for them.

HOWEVER.

This is the ranting thread, so rant I must. The installation of the elevators was supposed to be completed over the course of summer break. It seems the school and the contractors were delayed in coming to an agreement on a contract, though, so work began ten days later than it was supposed to. That means rather than being done before this semester started, it will be done ten days or so afterwards. That means any classrooms anywhere near the construction get to deal with construction sounds all day (because of course they aren't waiting until after school hours to work on it). The noise ranges from mildly irritating to unbearable. It's distracting to the students, makes listening exercises more difficult, and causes me to have to raise my voice far more often than I'd care to.

I thought that was the worst of it, but this afternoon someone was doing some construction work in one of the main halls of the building I'm in. He was using an pneumatic nailgun to install wooden paneling of some sort, complete with pneumatic hose running down and across the hallway, all while the hall was packed with students going to and from class. It was creating a choke point leading up to a tripping hazard right by someone using a freaking nail gun around students. He had set up a small barricade of two desks and some hazard tape, but the students didn't seem too bothered about just walking on either side of it, and the construction worker didn't appear to feel the need to correct the students who walked on his side of the barrier or to stop working until everyone had passed.

I had to play the nosy troublesome foreigner by scolding the students I saw walk on the wrong side of the barrier, then grumbling about how dangerous the situation was to the head English teacher in my office. Thankfully, the head teacher realized I had a point, so she went out and asked the workers to kindly refrain from using dangerous tools whenever there are large numbers of students trying to get to class.

Nearly seven years here, and Korean schools still find ways to surprise me. 

 

do other countries always put granulated sugar into their food? my wife and MIL even put a ton of sugar into bibimbap. why? makes it taste horrible

Not really. Korea is actually one of the first places where I have eaten food which is mostly sweet (at least for me). Spicy chicken is never spicy as it is sweet. And I absolutely adore spicy food so when I ate spicy food it was actually sweet. *disappointed*

Perhaps it might just be a family recipe in your wife's family to add sugar into it. But your revelation just gave me diabetes.

That seriously sounds like a family quirk, or something that your wife picked up from you MIL when she was growing up. I have eaten many a bibimbab with different places, all over the country, and have never once seen that. I have mostly seen granulated sugar added to bread or "donuts" or corn dogs.

Second this. I've never even heard of this, let alone seen it EVER in my 6 years here.

perhaps. actually, it isn't bibimbap, it's 열무비빔밥. not sure if that makes a difference. anyway, those facebook recipe pages always have recipes that feature sugar. it's always a paste of gochujang, soy sauce, garlic, sugar.

Today I learned, after waiting 30 minutes at the bank, that you need your passport to claim a Western Union transfer.

After getting to school, I was told that I didn't need to go to work since all schools on Jeju are CLOSED.  WTF, really?!  Funny how the PoE sent the message at about 9:50 AM knowing g-damn well that all of us would already be at work.  Now I'm stuck here until 5.  Yea.. after 'lunch', I'm out! 

After getting to school, I was told that I didn't need to go to work since all schools on Jeju are CLOSED.  WTF, really?!  Funny how the PoE sent the message at about 9:50 AM knowing g-damn well that all of us would already be at work.  Now I'm stuck here until 5.  Yea.. after 'lunch', I'm out!

The exact same thing happened to me 5yrs ago, when there was a pretty bad typhoon. Glad to see not much has changed with Korean bureaucracy.

Just got a note from my son's school...

"On the advice of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the school will be closed tomorrow (Friday 24 August) as a precaution against Typhoon Soulik. School will finish at regular hours today (Thursday) with all after school meetings and activities postponed. All weekend activities are also postponed. Further communication will follow over the weekend."

Just got a note from my son's school...

"On the advice of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the school will be closed tomorrow (Friday 24 August) as a precaution against Typhoon Soulik. School will finish at regular hours today (Thursday) with all after school meetings and activities postponed. All weekend activities are also postponed. Further communication will follow over the weekend."

Sounds like SMoE is on it...

The installation of the elevators was supposed to be completed over the course of summer break. It seems the school and the contractors were delayed in coming to an agreement on a contract, though, so work began ten days later than it was supposed to. That means rather than being done before this semester started, it will be done ten days or so afterwards. That means any classrooms anywhere near the construction get to deal with construction sounds all day (because of course they aren't waiting until after school hours to work on it). The noise ranges from mildly irritating to unbearable. It's distracting to the students, makes listening exercises more difficult, and causes me to have to raise my voice far more often than I'd care to.

Yup, government regulation and union-backed labor means that you get contractual delays for construction work. That's what you get with a liberal government. And because it's union work and you have a deadline, it means they have to work from 9-5. They don't want to work past 5pm anymore than you do. At least your kids get valuable experience in learning how to maintain their focus and do their work around construction sites. Maybe you could make a lesson about tools and construction and the rewarding career path of manual labor.

Now if you voted conservative, you could have them waive their hand at the idea of installing elevators, and allow the school to not have any refurbishment as they instead vote to give a tax cut on capital gains. Yay politics!

None of that makes it any less frustrating for me, my coworkers, or my students, but thanks, I guess.

Yup, government regulation and union-backed labor means that you get contractual delays for construction work. That's what you get with a liberal government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6twbMwERv-I

The water valve to my toilet blew up this morning. Water got everywhere. One of the few times I appreciate having a wet-style bathroom, but the toilet is close enough to the door that all hell broke loose when I opened the door to investigate the explosion.

Dealing with that put me behind schedule, and I left some of my supplies at home in my rush to get to work, so now I can't work on next week's materials between classes today.

A puddle also managed to trick me into thinking it wasn't a puddle, and now my shoes and socks are soggy wet.

I feel like this day is telling me that my new arch-nemesis is nigh.