Brendan 的个人资料Desperately Seeking...So...照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
|
12月22日 This time tomorrow, I'll be in Hanoi!Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;
Friday Feast 123Appetizer
What is one of your Christmas traditions? There are two that are very important to me, and I won't be doing either this year. The first is attending Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, at Clonard Monastery. The second is visiting the cemetary, on Christmas morning, to tidy the graves of family members and friends that have died. Soup Who is the easiest person on your list to buy presents for? My brother James - he only ever wants clothing vouchers! Salad What is your favorite Christmas scent? I love the smell of cinnamon all year-round, but especially at Christmas. Main Course If you could give a fellow blogger a Christmas gift, who would it be and what would you give them? I immediately thought: Jodi - a professional massage; but then I realised that, as she's on her way to Malaysia as I type, she'll be getting plenty of those there! Dessert What's something on your Christmas wish list this year that you need (not just want)? I don't think I've asked for a single thing this year! Actually, I asked for Lemsip, because I know I'll need it.
Operation Dinner-outOur boss took us for shabu-shabu on Thursday night, for our Christmas dinner. Shabu-shabu is quite an experience; it's another Korean meal that you cook yourself at your table. I'm not a fan of shabu-shabu - it's basically just soup that takes a long time to make. I'd rather do that at home; if I want to cook at the table, I would much rather go to a galbi place, where you barbecue your own meat. Also, you have to sit on the floor. I've been in Korea for 12 months, and I'm still not used to sitting on the floor for dinner. When I complain (which isn't often, really) I'm told that I need to take up yoga to be able to sit comfortably. Let me tell you something, if I have to take up yoga just to go somewhere for dinner, I think I'll pass.
Towards the end of the meal, when I was numb from the waist down, my boss appeared, soju-bottle in hand, and insisted I drink with him. Unbelieveably, the thought that was going through my mind was "but it's a school night", however, I couldn't refuse. He then proceeded to hold my hand, while he told me how much he loved me, how much the kindergarden needed me, and how he'd pretty much do anything if I would agree to teach for another year, including hiring both Rose and Paul as teachers. And just when I was about to make my excuses and leave, he said that I reminded him of someone, an actor. He was too drunk to concentrate, so I, thinking nothing of it, suggested it was Russell Crowe (I've been getting that a lot lately). My boss nearly fell off the floor, because it was Russell Crowe he was thinking about.
I now hate Russell Crowe almost as much as I hate shabu-shabu on the floor. TardyYesterday, my friend Anne had an 8-hour layover at Incheon Airport, on her way to spend Christmas in Guam with her mother. So, I headed out to the airport to spend the afternoon with her. We sat in Gloria Jean's, drinking lukewarm coffee, and listening to the soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas. It was marvellous. Christmas cardsI took photos of all the kids this week, printed them out, and they made Christmas cards for their parents with them. I had the best time trying to get them to stand still for their photos, Brian in particular loved the camera... Christmas partyToday was the last teaching day of the year, so in kindergarden we got to do all sorts of fun things, like take stuff off the wall, and eat a lot of candy. Some of my kids gave me presents (socks, a sweater, candy) but as usual, it was what they (or their parents) wrote that made me smile.
This, from Tae-hee's mom:
Brendan!
Happy Christmas! And I wish when you arrive to your home, Ireland you will be a good man.
Brendan, I'm soooo - thank you for you.
I guess
 Rosewill be stay with you, isn't she? You're happy when you stay with Rose on White Christmasday.Anyway, you gave love to Tae-hee, so, I'm thanks for that thing.
So, I'm thanks for that thing.
Be Healthy!!!
Bye!
This, from Ye-na's mom:
Dear Teacher Brendan,
May all of your Christmas wishes come true
Happy Holidays!!
This is from my student Sun-woo, a kid who, when she isn't giggling, is holding me by the face and telling me that I'm "too cute"!
TO Brendan
 Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!
You are so cute and kind
I love you. Brendan. From Sun
And from her mom:
I hope you have a very nice Christmas,
and a New Year of health.
(Yesterday, Sun wrote down a card that is full of he true heart.) Sun-woo's Mom. 12月20日 Something told the wild geeseOne of my favourite things about living in Dublin, and working for RTE, was the opportunity to attend all the Christmas concerts, especially those performed by Cor na nOg - RTE's children's choir. I miss that.
Something told the wild geese it was time to go Though the fields lay golden something whispered snow (whispered snow) Leaves were green and stirring Berrys luster glossed But beneath warm feathers something cautioned something cautioned frost All the sagging orchards Steamed with amber spice But each wild breast stiffened at remembered ice Something told the wild geese it was time to fly Summer sun was on their wings Winter, winter, winter in their cry 12月19日 The Greedy BookWhen I was a lad, my uncles Jim and Paul gave me the Argos Catalogue, and asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I don't remember what happened next, but since then (i.e. for as long as I can remember) in our house the Argos Catalogue has been referred to as "The Greedy Book". Apparently, I went through each page (nowadays there are over 1000, back then there must have been hundreds) and chose the most random collection of shite that any 6 year-old could possibly want. Afterwards, when I presented my comprehensive wishlist, my uncles were so amused (and bored, clearly) that they went through the book counting up the cost. It ran into the billions.
Today, I had my kids write a letter to Santa, asking what they wanted for Christmas. The results couldn't have been more different from mine if I had tried. The most extravagant present was a "princess set", which is basically a doll and a change of clothing for it. Two kids wanted yo-yos, another two wanted new notebooks (they're 6 years-old, how many notes do you think they're taking?), and a few wanted new pencil sets.
As I read each letter, a few thoughts came to mind. Either these kids are so spoiled (and therefore have all the flash toys that kids everywhere else will be asking for) that they only want the simple things, like yo-yos and spinning tops, toy that in my day came free when you collected enough Coke bottle caps. Or, Christmas isn't the massive spend-fest in Korea that it is in every other country, a chance for kids to demand the earth and for parents to try to provide it. Or could it be that because Korean kids spend more than half their lives studying something or other (I found out today that one of my 5 year-olds has taken up Chinese, alongside English, ballet and piano, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of some of the older ones) that they don't have the time / energy for computer games and bikes, and so instead opt for useful things like pencil sets? That would certainly explain why the PC bang is always full of adults (and I use the term loosely) playing games against each other!
I don't think I can fully explain the reasons, and I'm sure my fellow English-teaching readers will have myriad opinions about this, but I'd love to crack the issue, and somehow pass it on to my own kids (someday!) so that, in my own house, we'll have an Argos Catalogue and not a Greedy Book. Rejoice!This weekend none of us could get Belle & Sebastien's version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel out of our heads. It's marvellous.
O come, O come Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel! Oh, come, oh, come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai's height In Ancient times didst gave the law In cloud, and majesty and awe. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel! O Come Thou Dayspring, from on high
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh; Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death's dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel! Oh, come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home: Make safe the way that leads on high And close the path to misery. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel! O come, O come Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of God appear. The many faces of Foo-man BrendyIn the space of one very short conversation with a Korean colleague the other night, I was told that:
I look like something out of the 80s (a compliment as far as I'm concerned)
I look like something out of Back To The Future (I don't think compliments get much better than that)
I was going soft around the edges (this from a man who knows I'm going soft because he's never done feeling me up, a type of behaviour that, where I'm from anyway, is considered a little too soft, if you know what I mean...)
I look like Russell Crowe (I've been hearing this since I lived in Spain in 2003, and I've yet to see the resemblance!) MarinesThe jokes I get from priests are always the best:
The Pentagon recently found it had too many generals and offered an early retirement bonus. They promised any general who retired straight away his full annual benefits plus $10,000 for every inch measured in a straight line between any two points on the general's body, with the general getting to select any pair of points he wished.
The first, an Air Force general accepted. He asked the pension man to measure from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. Six feet. He walked away with a check of $720,000. The second man, an Army general, asked them to measure from the tip of his outstreatched hand to his toes. Eight feet. He walked away with a check of $960,000. When the third general, a grizzled old Marine, was asked where to measure, he told the pension man,..."From the top of my penis to the bottom of my testicles." The pension man suggest that perhaps the Marine general might like to reconsider, pointing out the nice checks the previous two generals had received. The Marine insisted and the pension expert said that would be fine, but that he'd better get the medical officer to do the measuring. The medical officer attended and asked the general do drop 'em. He did. The medical officer placed the tape on the tip of the general's penis and began to work back. "My heaven!" he said, "Where are your testicles?"
The general replied, "In Vietnam." 12月18日 S.A.K.EI had written a long and rather entertaining post about this past weekend, but the computer has stalled, so it's lost.
I watched The Departed on Friday (not as good as Goodfellas.)
I spoke to Paul on the phone on Saturday morning (never before have I wished I were in Sheffield so much.)
I picked up my passipass with my Vietnamese visa (not as good as the Chinese one, hard to compete with The Great Wall.)
I had brunch at the RMT (no surprise there.)
I tried to explain to the Canadians why cars in the Republic of Ireland have their speedometers in miles, when the road signs are in kilometers; and why there are 7 different bank notes in circulation in the north of Ireland (Ulster Bank, Northern Bank, First Trust, Bank of Ireland, Bank of England, Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland.)
I watched a play called And They Used To Star In Movies, which had enough Nazi jokes to keep me laughing. (Who doesn't laugh at the Nazis?)
I practically begged Stef to stay, if only for Jodi's sake. (She didn't, she's wise.)
I drank a little too much Guinness. (Mostly because it was handed to me.)
I ate snow. (Mostly because Britt forced it into my mouth. The sooner she realises that I'm not from Maine, the less snow I'll have to endure.)
I lost all feeling in my feet waiting for a cab. (The only reason I still have feet is because Jodi managed to flag a taxi down. On the highway.)
I stopped a taxi driver and American GI from killing each other. (The driver was trying to rip him off; the GI was a douchebag.)
I drank Jaegermeister. (I reckon my brain had frozen in places.)
I ate a cheese I couldn't pronounce for breakfast, and drank coffee with Baileys all afternoon. (Jodi rocks.)
I laughed myself silly watching Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy. (There's no way Sean Connery and Alex Trebek would be so funny in real life.)
And even though we'll all see each other in three weeks, I still found it hard saying goodbye to Six last night. It was a long bus ride home. 12月15日 Have you found Ha-neul?I've been using Christmas (and the sudden departure of my old monstrous supervisor) to slack off with the kids. I've been trying to have fun with them, and teach them a little English, rather than focus on the English, and try to squeeze in a bit of fun, which was how it worked up until now!
Anyway, today I had them drawing pictures in their diaries about what they'd do this weekend if it snowed. One of my kids, Ha-neul, is completely off the wall, to the degree that rather than walk in a straight line anywhere, he'll bounce back and forth off the walls, like a human pinball. Today, he handed me the strangest drawing, that I had him explain. This is how he described the creature in the picture:
Ha-neul: Teacher, it's boy-girl mix (mashing his hands together)
Me (already starting to smile: What?!
Ha-neul: Teacher, it's a boy, but not a boy, and it's a girl, but not a girl. Teacher, uh, boy-girl mixed.
Now, Ha-neul's parents have recently found Jesus, and encourage me to talk about Jesus (and how sad He will be) whenever Ha-neul misbehaves (which is often). I'd love to see their reaction when he goes home and presents his drawing of transvestites having snowball fights to his parents! Friday Feast 122Appetizer
What was your very first job with a paycheck? If you mean an actual paycheck, as in a piece of paper with my wages and all that written down...I guess it would've been Gloria Jean's coffee house, at the corner of Royal Avenue and North Street, in Belfast, when I was 15. I worked there every Thursday night, weekend, and holiday, until I moved to Dublin. When I came home for Christmas and the summer I still worked there. It was one place I was able to just walk in off the street and work for a day, a week, a month, if I needed to. I loved working there. It was the newest and most popular coffee house in the city, with a massive range of coffees to choose from, and sofas in the windows that led to many Friends references. It was a great place to flirt. Before that I worked (for 4 hours) in a fruit shop after Paul quit; then in a car auction as a driver (until it became too dangerous to work there!); and I was also employed by Burger King for a while, but I didn't actually work any shifts, because I was only 14 and they found out before I started!
Soup Did you ever lose something really important to you? My instant response to this question was "no", because I don't think that I lose stuff that often. About the only thing I can remember losing that was really important was my inter-rail ticket when Paul and I were travelling around Europe. It happened in the first week, in Barcelona. Luckily, he was able to buy me a new one in the train station that day, and the insurance paid for it. Still, it was scary when the realisation dawned on me that it was gone. Salad What is the best Christmas present you ever received? This is a tough one, because I receive great gifts all the time. I know Jodi didn't intend it as a Christmas present, but seeing as she gave me the kick-ass Golden Girls t-shirt in December, I'll probably always think of it like that. My folks gave me my MP3 player last Christmas, and it has helped keep me sane over the past 12 months! Rose gave me a digital camera last Christmas, which was great timing - just before I left Ireland for Korea! I vividly remember getting two presents for Christmas as a child: a Skelectrix racing car set, and a Wrinkles dog hand-puppet (which I still have.) Main Course Tell about a favorite "hang out" place for you and your friends when you were in high school. In Ireland we don't hang-out; we drink. When I was 17, The Globe opened and it became the place for people our age. I believe we went there just about every Saturday. It was awful. When we were in University, I think it became the place to go for lunch and cocktails, which shows how quickly everyone matured! They used to run a quiz night - the prize was 50 free pints. Paul and his brother got to know the manager because their team won all the time, and they had so many cards with the 50 free pints on them that they couldn't use them all. Paul gave Jack the prize for his birthday, and we gamely tried to use them all up, before it expired. There were 4 of us, and we couldn't do it. We ended up trying to give pints away to people we knew in the bar, and it was still a struggle - 50 pints is a lot of beer!
Dessert Name something that always brings a smile to your face. Something? Beer. Someone? Stewie Griffin. The Festival of LightsPut on your yarmulke
Here comes Chanukah So much funukah To celebrate Chanukah Chanukah is the Festival of Lights Instead of one day of presents, we have eight crazy nights When you feel like the only kid in town without a Christmas tree Here's a list of people who are Jewish just like you and me David Lee Roth lights the menorah So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas, and the late Dinah Shore-ah Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli Bowser from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzerelli Paul Newman's half-Jewish, Goldie Hawn's half-too Put them together, what a fine lookin' Jew You don't need deck the halls or jingle bell rock cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock- both Jewish Put on your yarmulke It's time for Chanukah The owner of the Seattle Supersonicahs Celebrates Shanukah O.J. Simpson, not a Jew But guess who is? Hall of Famer Rod Carew- he converted We got Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby Harrison Ford's a quarter Jewish- not too shabby Some people think that Ebenezer Scrooge is Well he's not, but guess who is All Three Stooges So many Jews are in showbiz Tom Cruise isn't, but I heard his agent is Tell your friend Veronica It's time to celebrate Chanukah I hope I get a harmonicah Oh this lovely, lovely Chanukah So drink your gin and tonicah And smoke your marijuanikah If you really, really wannakah Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Chanukah Happy Chanukah! 12月14日 Goodwill to all MEN!If you think that the message of charity and goodwill has been lost in all the commercialisation of Christmas, think again. The girls at this Dallas call-girl site (warning: adult content!) have introduced a novel way to raise money for, what they assure us is, a good cause. I'll let "Kayla" explain:
I love doing things for charity, I just hate not knowing that the money is actually going to where I want it to. Well it just so happens that I have a very dear family that is dire need of about $1000, about right now. If she does not make these bills by Jan. 3, her and her kids will be homeless. She is not in a position to just go make $150 an hour like most of the ladies round these parts. So here is what we are proposing…. 2 Full hours spent with ALL of the participating providers at once. Providers participating so far: Me We are all giving our time to do this. None of the money donated will go to any one of us. It is all meant for the family in need. Think on it. A chance to make a difference in an entire family’s life, and a chance to spend 2 hours (sometime in January) with all of us at once. And don't worry Mother, I read about this on the Freakonomics page! 12月13日 A Charlie Brown Christmas, again.I should've looked for a good clip to accompany my post about watching A Charlie Brown Christmas for the first time, but I didn't. Today, I happened upon it on You Tube.
The Singer and The SongI had a Christmas CD on today while the kids coloured the 10th time-waster page I've given them this week. Elvis' version of Silent Night came on. The kids asked me who was singing. In an effort to relieve the boredom and find something to laugh at, I asked them who they thought was singing. Here are the answers they argued over: 1) My dad (because they know he's a singer). 2) Paul (because they've only met about 5 white people in their lives, thus he is so exotic that it's not much of a stretch to imagine it's him on a CD). 3) Superman (I guess because with Superman anything is possible). 12月11日 A Charlie Brown ChristmasI was slightly horrified to discover that none of my North American friends here had seen or heard of The Snowman (with the exception of Britt, who uses the wordless book in her class). The Snowman is one of those things I've associated with Christmas since my childhood. I'm fairly sure everyone back home would recognize it, and certainly the song Walking In The Air (as sung by Aled Jones, although he didn't sing it in the film!) from the animated tale. So, I took my copy down to Suji on Saturday night to watch it. They returned the favour by playing A Charlie Brown Christmas - which is just delightful - I can't wait to see it again. Christmas blogThanks to Jodi for showing me how to change the colour on this to make it look a bit more in the season. I was being totally delayed about the whole thing. |
|
|
