The weekend countdown is one of the teachers' favourite activities at school. Luckily, focusing on your upcoming Sat/Sun festivities isn't difficult in Korea - by midweek you're surrounded by many physical reminders of the better days ahead.
In pure Thursday celebration, I've compiled a short list of my top 3 favourite Korean reminders that the weekend is near. Enjoy!
3) Crazy Cab Rides
After our weekly meetings each Wednesday night, the 4 foreign teachers at school treat ourselves to a shared cab ride home. It's faster, warmer, and cheaper than taking the bus. Each week we take turns directing the cab driver to "Spongey" mall (kiddie corner to our apartment building). We rotate only because it would be totally unfair to force the same person to provide English direction to a Korean cab driver week after week...directing cabbies here requires patience, to say the least. You must repeat the name of your desired destination over and over and over again, until the driver finally nods with enthousiastic understanding and says something like "Ahhhhh! SPONGEY!" ...exactly the way you said it to them, nine times prior. Niki does the most hilarious impression of this experience; I am currently in negotiations with her to allow me to videotape it and post to my blog.
2) Thirsty Thursdays
'Oh Thursday, how I love you. You are so sunny, and loving, and... Hey! what the heck is that on the ground???!!! EW!' That pretty much sums up my weekly Thursday morning walk to the bus stop. I begin each Thursday happy and relieved, excited for the weekend ahead. And then I see it: a big old-fashioned pile of some drunk Korean businessman's Wednesday night dinner, caked to the sidewalk. It's called the one-too-many mekju (beer) syndrom, and it happens every single Thursday. Apparently Korean businessmen consider Wednesday a party night, and they leave their soju-soaked dinner on the sidewalks to prove it. I don't particularly enjoy this sight, but I take absolute comfort in the fact that it means the weekend is near.
1) The Sound of Silence
Near the end of the week at school, the kids' energy levels lower drastically. They literally tire themselves out to the point of exhaustion. It's glorious. An air of quiet calm fills each classroom, and I can hear myself think again. To top it off, Sally changes our daily school bell to a kindie-version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence". It's odd, hilarious, and strangely appropriate. The only unfortunate part is the fact that I had to remove the song from my Ipod about 2 months into my Centum School employment... an unfortunate Pavlovian syndrom has developed.
Happy Almost Friday, Canada :)
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