chupda

Today has been rainy and extremely cold...it looks like the teachers weren't lying when they said fall lasts only a week here. Since the school doesn't have any heating as of yet (it doesn't have any central heating at all, and I don't know what, if any, heating we will be getting eventually. If I am to survive, there better be SOMETHING), today was semi-miserable. Stupidly, I took my coat off to go to my first class of the day, assuming that there would be some sort of heat in the classrooms. Frigid wind blew through the wide open windows in the hallways, making me want to cry as I walked to class 3-2. Instead of the warm haven I was expecting, I was greeted by red-nosed students wearing coats and mittens. One little girl even had a pink fleece blanket wrapped around her shoulders. I could actually see my breath as I was teaching. My second class was considerably better since I had my coat on. Also, the teacher had brought in a feeble little space heater that kept my calves sort of warm (and made me reluctant to circulate about the classroom). My hands and toes went numb on the walk to school in the morning and still haven't warmed up yet, even though I'm now home--we don't have any heat in the apartment yet either--overall I feel like I've been on a slow chairlift at Sugarloaf all day. The weirdest part of the whole thing was that teachers kept coming up to me, asking me if I was cold, and then acting all surprised when I said yes, even though they were sniffling and shivering and clearly as freezing as I was (am).

The principal cancelled afternoon classes today so we could have a volleyball invite. Lately we've been skipping the mid-volleyball meal in favor of 3+ hours of uninterrupted play. However, in honor of the guest teams from other elementary schools, we feasted on snails, sweet-and-sour pork, mustard-covered octopus and veggies, and 2 liter bottles of soju. Since the windows of the gym were all open, the hot food was cold as soon as we put it out, let alone after the first 3 games.