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Summer Favorites
The humidity has been so out of control this year that most of the time all anyone wants to do is take shelter in the airconditioning.Me Talk Pretty One DayAs a result, I've been reading tons. I keep a...
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Mocha Chocolate Icebox Cake
This cake looks so incredibly delicious it makes me want to cry. Is that crazy? Because I really do feel weepy at the impossibility of ever eating it in Asia.Chewy chocolate chip cookies? Marscapone?...
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Where Cats Live
"My favorite animal is cat. Cat is cute. Cat lives under cars." - Brian, 4th gradeCats aren't popular house pets in Korea. (But chicks and hedgehogs are. I know, right?) They hold more of a raccoon...
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What a typhoon day looks like
What a typhoon day looks like when work is cancelled and you shuffle around the house in your sweatpants, wearing slippers for the first time since last winter.You drink coffee and read in bed for a...
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Why I'm not a successful trick-or-treater
Halloween isn't a thing in Korea. But, I'm reading a book set during Halloween with one of my middle school classes and we were discussing the necessity of wearing a costume while trick-or-treating. To...
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Mysteries of Vernacular
Via Myriad Productions JournalI love this project by documentarist Jessica Oreck. Each episode of Mysteries of Vernaculartakes approximately 80 hours to create and it's somewhat slow-going. Four...
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Hwaeomsa Temple Stay
A couple of weekends ago two friends and I spent the night at Hwaeomsa Temple in Jirisan National Park. A lot of temple stays are really involved, full of ceremonies, meditative "walking" (read:...
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Battles
The 4th & 5th grade class:Does everyone remember our new game, 'Three Strikes, Go Out'? (The "go out" part meaning 5 minutes in the hallway). Jason's hand goes up. Yes, Jason? Teacher, this is not...
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Yellow Dal Curry
via NPRI cook vegetarian probably 80% of the time. I love meat. I crave meat. It's just that I can't make myself eat overcooked meat and I haven't found a foolproof way to avoid overcooking it yet....
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The time(s) I washed my boyfriend's dishes with the [toilet] sponge
There was this sponge that sat in a bowl on the ledge behind the kitchen sink. It seemed like the right thing to wash dishes with. I must have used it at least three times. Then one day I was filling...
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Election Day
The academy is closed today so that everyone can vote in the presidential election. What do you do all day if you can't vote? Lay in bed and eat Christmas sweets, obviously.I decided to forego...
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The Most Rewarding Job
The kids' Christmas cards have been decorating my kitchen ledge. The sweetest one fell out of my bag when I was in a rush to get out of the academy on Friday night. Fingers crossed that it got got lost...
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January Light
January has a special way of making you want to bury your head in the sand. Even when light seeps in it's still not very bright, but a welcome relief from the the dark.
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Solutions
I'm not sure whether a better title for this post would be 'Confessions.'There are some chores that are unavoidable. Like when you've worn your last, ugliest, most uncomfortable pair of underwear and...
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Granny and the Cat
I don't even know. I mean, I hate cats, but I'm kind of going nuts over this woman and her cat. We Love Watermelon KittyTaking a Bath with Oranges [Why???] Kitty (aside: superstitious Asians cut cats'...
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Year of the Snake
Asia rung in the Lunar New Year on February 10th. This is the year of the snake and Huffington Post has done great article full of pictures and videos.You're a snake if you were born in any of the...
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What Kids Eat
I eat lice. My mom eats lice too.You eat LICE?Yes, teacher.Are you SURE you don't eat RRRRICE?Yes, we eat lice!I always laugh. It never gets old.
View ArticleMy Life as a Teacher: What We Talk About
What's a ball made of?A ball is made of rubber.What's a window made of?A window is made of glass.What's a cat made of?Cat is made of mom cat.Oh. Right.And I thought I was asking a trick question. The...
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DMZ
Freedom Bridge crossed by South Korean POWs on their return in 1953. A now-defunct railway line to North Korea. The altar where 10 million South Koreans practice their ancestor worship rites - usually...
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Around the Neighborhood: Cherry Blossoms
(See those blue stools with plants on them? They belong to the bonsai man who dreads to see me coming. Every time he sets up by the bus stop I linger for an embarrassingly long time - who isn't...
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What We Debate About
I was going to post some photos by a great photographer I discovered recently, but then debate class happened and that was infinitely greater. I dare anyone to tell me they've ever seen the like.
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A Perspective on Asia
I've looked at these photographs over and over again. They drew my attention because they're among the things I'll remember about Asia forever and Michael Wolf has captured them so truly. Dense,...
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Pets
I've talked about Korean pets before, but this one deserves its own post. Koreans love to shave dogs. All dogs. As a result, there are some absolutely ridiculous looking Beagles out there. It's only...
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Tea, Temples, and Things I Wish I Grew
So much to do and think about in the last weeks of my current teaching contract and in preparation for my trip to Turkey and the US, but this is what things have been looking like on the better...
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