Bread from the Bake Box

I tried my hand at baking bread for the first time in Korea the other day. I used a recipe that I had used back home but being Korea a few of the ingredients were different and I am still getting used to how my oven bakes. All things considered it turned out alright, while I would change a few things for next time, it tasted fantastic with (I Can't Believe It's Not) butter and honey.

Children's Day in Korea: It's Hot

No this post is not about the weather, which is slowly getting warmer and warmer as the days pass, but rather about fire. Specifically a fire that threatened to destroy our school and all who were inside.

As anyone who knows anything about Korea, knows Children's Day(May 5) is a big deal here. So big in fact that I not only get the day off but we also have an all day party the day before and a field trip the day after. So in effect, the kids get three days off with out school work in a row.

Today started out just as planned(and any other day for that matter). The kids came to school. After that I had no idea. I knew that I didn't have to prepare anything for the kids to do but I didn't know what they would be doing. We had a meeting about the what was happening but as our meetings are all in Korean I understood less than when I go to a meeting that is in English. Having understood the order to not teach any classes, I left the kids to busy themselves with playtime until the next scheduled event. It commenced about 20 minutes after classes usually start. (It was interesting to notice the kids react to the change, some of my kids came to class at the usual time and wanted to do flashcards, so we did.)

This event was to go up to the gym and watch the movie Ratatouille, this meant that I was free to do anything else I could think of while still being in the same room. I did some filling out of stationary. Lunch rolled around, a proper (fastfood) feast, but first they had a gift exchange. It was unbelievable. A number of the kids'(parents) brought gifts for all the kids, and it wasn't just a candy bar, it was serious stuff.(It makes me curious to see what will show up on my desk for Teacher's Day(May 15))

Moving right along, the gifts were handed out and the kids were chowing down on some pizza, chicken, kimbap and fruit.

We were right in the middle, (I know it was the middle because only 2 people had spilled their drink, we average 4 a meal) when there was a large electrical(mini explosion) pop and our lights went out. Being that there is a new building going up next door I assumed that they had shorted something out and knocked out our power in the process. Not a big deal.

About 2 minutes later the fire alarm started going off. Because we were supposed to do our earthquake drill today we thought that was what was going on. But we decided to go check what was up anyway and found smoke rising from the stair well.

Long story short we evacuated the kids, quickly and safely, then waited for the fire department to arrive. Being in the city, it didn't take long, about 5 or so minutes later the fire department showed up and saved the day. There was a clinic in the next building and so, while we waited for the parents to come and pick up their children, we went and got checked out for smoke inhalation.

Turns out it was an electrical fire caused by a short in our building's breaker box. Here are some pictures of the fire.

Stationary

Just found out today that they have some great stationary here in Korea so if you want a pretty paper with some words on it just send me your address and I will see what I can do.

Yellow(Asian) Dust

This past week I have been able to witness the "meteorological phenomenon" known as Yellow or Asian Dust. If you are interested in knowing more about it you can read all about it here. But if not I will tell you what I have observed.

This is what I know. It started on the afternoon of May 1 with a brownish-yellow haze rolling in. I am not sure how long it will last or how bad it will get but my boss said that it has been getting worse and worse every year. He said it is a part of the process of desertification. It travels from Northern China in clouds. Visually I would compare it to smog. It is said to be harmful and is forecasted similar what I can only assume to be windchill in Canada(maybe).
This is the symbol they use 

I was told by my boss I needed a mask, which I promptly and excitedly bought as it has always been my dream to wear a medical mask in an asian country. However on my walk to school today I noticed that I was the only adult wearing a mask which made me feel a little silly. But it is for my best right?

On another note, we got three frogs today, that is two more than yesterday, or an increase of 300% over yesterday. I did some rough math taking holidays in to effect and if it keeps up at this rate, on June 1 he will bring approximately 1,162,261,467 frogs. I, for one, look forward to this.

Frogs, Crickets and Eel Tails

Today one of our kids brought a frog to class for no other reason than because he found it this weekend and wanted to show his friends, seems logical enough to me. It also helps that he isn't in my class which means that I don't have to deal with it.

A week or two ago a different student brought some crickets in a cup, same reason. Interesting is about how I would describe it.

On another interesting note, I had been wondering why my boss found it so amusing when I got an eel tail in my soup. Mystery solved,  I found out this past weekend, thanks to Jason, that eel tail is an aphrodisiac. Interesting.

Meal of the Week

Last Sunday was Easter Sunday and my church had a potluck. As I mentioned here, I was planning to bring greek salad. As a result of my illness I was unable to attend and was left with an abundance of ingredients for greek salad. 

Those ingredients were as follows: cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers(red, yellow and green), black olives and feta. Unfortunately no red onions, as I have been told that they do not exist in Korea. This was topped with a home made olive oil dressing.

I am sure that you already guessed but my meal of the week this past week was greek salad. I ate it for all but one of the meals that I had at home over the past 8 days. Thankfully I really like greek salad. Even today as I used the last of the ingredients to make one more salad for supper I was thankful, looking forward to tasting it's deliciousness one more time, disappointed it was coming to an end.

Here is a picture of the last greek salad of the week.

Sorting

I received a few packets of mixed seeds in a package from back home. Since it is very much spring here I decided now would be the time to do something with them so earlier in the week I sorted them.

I sorted them in to two groups, big seeds and small seeds. I used what I imagine to be a melon seed as the dividing line, they are the smallest of the big seeds. 

I was planning to plant them this afternoon but I did not plan ahead appropriately so I have time to tell you this. As it turns out, I have no containers or soil. Perhaps I will get around to planting them in the next couple of days.