Ladies and Gentlemen, 'Desk Warming' season is upon us.  It is that very special time of year for teachers in Korea, where we sit.. often bored to tears.. at our desks during the summer vacation hitting the refresh button on our Facebook news feeds (all just in case something interesting has happened since our last refresh 30 seconds ago). It is the time of the year where a bathroom break seems like a nice outing and distraction. Where your eyes glance, every 20 seconds or so at the right hand corner of your screen to see if time has passed...even just a little bit. Normally it hasn't.

Deskwarming
If you've ever worked in Korea as a public school teacher the term "deskwarming" will be something  all too familiar to you. No classes for the next two weeks? No curriculum or lessons to plan? No problem...you'll need to sit at your desk and look extremely busy from 8-4 all vacation long. As public school teachers our job stipulates that we must work an 8 hour day regardless of summer holidays or winter vacation.. even if there is nothing to do and no students for miles and miles. This leaves rather a lot of time on our hands. So what to do when your bored silly? Ultimately, you have access to some of the fastest internet in the world and nothing but time... so what could go wrong? From my long and versatile desk warming experience, here are a couple of things to keep your waning interest.

1. GeoGuesser. 

Bored? Need to get outside without actually moving an inch? Geo-guesser will dump you on google maps street view pretty much anywhere around the world. You simply need to 'walk around' in it and figure out where you have been place. I have spent many an hour trying to figure out if a street sign is written in Portuguese or Spanish and if this will help me to figure out where the hell I am. Normally I am good continent off.

Geo Guesser. Where in the world are you?

2. The wonderful world of Youtube vloggers.

I have spent endless afternoons watching an laughing at some of my favorite daily vloggers, often doing something as simple as grocery shopping. I feel like I get to go on an outing... while still being stuck at my desk drinking coffee. One of my favorites being 'Thatcher Joe', who spends half his days pranking his roommate (filling their apartment with hundreds of boxes and hiding his room mates keys in one of them) or traveling to fantastic places like the Philippines and Croatia. His sister Zoella is a pretty awesome vlogger too. Here are a couple of vloggers to check out over your many hours at the computer.

                            -ThatcherJoe    Zoella    Pointlessblog   The Saccone Jolys-

Vloggers Jim Chapman (left) and Thatcher Joe (right).

3. Code Academy. 

Got spare hours on your hands? Why not nerd up and try to learn scripting languages for free. The site talks you through the basics of API's, Javascript and even Python or PHP in an easy to understand and unique way. Who knows.. you could invent something cooler than the internet while you sit at your desk.

Learning to code in Code Academy. 

4. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. 

Are you someone whole likes Jane Austen classics? If so, the Lizzie Bennett Diaries are for you. Set as a modern day vlog adaptation of Pride and Prejudice told from 24 year old literature graduate Lizzie. Follow her as she works for 'Pemberly' digital. The vlog series won multiple youtube awards and continues to rack up views. Check it out here.


Lizzie (middle) and her two sisters Jane (right) and Lydia (above). not to forget her best buddy Charlotte (far right).


5. Sporcle. 

 The site contains hundreds of quizzes to keep your interest on anything from naming countries to Harry Potter trivia. If your bored, why not take a quiz like "Don't say the F word" or "Movie Subtitle Madness". Visit Sporcle here.

Take a quiz on Sporcle.

6. Food Gwaker. 

The sites logo sums up this culinary viewing (or 'food porn') experience perfectly as "Feed your eyes". I have spent countless afternoons looking through photos of  Sirloin sliders or red velvet cream cheese frosted fairy cakes. Realistically, a site like this will only make you more hungry than you already are. However, if your spending your 8 hours thinking of what to cook for dinner -'Food Gwaker' is the place to start. You will simultaneously fall in love with the idea of Grilled Berry and Nutella Crostini's while also realizing that your culinary skills are really not what they could be. For delicious food click here.

All the delicious food on Foodgwaker.com

My your deskwarming season be swift and may your 8 or 10 days off come quickly!
A couple of weeks ago the Yeongju girls headed down to Busan to celebrare Mel and I's birthday.
It was a pretty great girls birthday full of 1000 won vodka shots, Mexican food and wasting money at H & M.

Here are a couple of pics from our girls weekend away:


Busan is incomplete without a trip to the beach - or in Korea, beers on the beach (its legal here, ok!). Even though the weather wasn't brilliant it was still nice to splash my toes in the water and wonder around Gwangwali.

Sharon chillin' in her bunk. We stayed at Calli Hosetl in Seomeyon, Busan. It is definitely one of the nicest hostel I have ever stayed in. Each bunk has clean white sheets, a plug point and a reading light. The bathrooms were also very clean. I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Busan. This image makes Sharon sorta look like her legs are disconnected from her body. She still pulls it off though :)

Diamond Bridge on Gwangwali beach. This connecting bridge lights up at night between Namcheon-dong and Centum City and is over 7 kms long. Between the bright lights are my equally bright and pale legs.

It's a birthday right? Time to party. We all headed over to KSU for a night out on the town.

One of the goals of the evening was to use the two chat up line cards that we had handed out. A thank you to Lauren who wrote all the lines out on individual cards. Some of the worst were:
"Are you a garbage collector? Because I want you to come grab my junk" and
"Are you a marine biologist? Because you free my willy"

The significance of an assembly line is hugely important to ensure that everyone gets their drinks in a swift and orderly manner from the 7/11. Organisation is key. We are all drinking Andrea's cocktail concoction: Blue bag drink, soju and Sprite/Chilsung. It might make your tongue neon blue but it works.

Have a hangover? A trip to Subway is in order to deal with the after effects of tequila and being awake till 5 am. The subway cookies also help you to deal with the  reality of teaching grade 3's the following morning (I had 2 cookies).

What would going out partying be, without a 2 hour hair straightening and make up dabbing session. Here is a hair-straightening train. I was extremely proud that I straightened Lauren./ freakin' Rapunzel's hair.

And lastley.. Just a lovely weekend at the beach with all the girls.


That crazy lady Sharon outside the Fuzzy Navel on Gwangwali beach.

On the Subway to KSU.
Have you ever wondered what Korean snacks taste like?  Ever tried 'Sweet Cheese and Melon' filled crackers? I have.  Recently Heather, Frances and I tried a bunch of weird and wonderful snacks found in our local supermarket (HomePlus). Many we will never touch again, while others pleasantly surprised us.


The only rule of our snack eating was that it had to be bitten into at least once and swallowed. There wasn't necessarily any need to finish every single shrimp chip in the packet - but rather to simply try it. Although, in truth I needed some convincing before I took on the fire noodles.  Here's a look at some of the unique things we ate.

1. Kinoko Mushroom Cookies

Although the name makes it sound like a delightfully home baked drug, these are in fact some pretty delicious kid friendly snacks. These little cookies are made in the shape of mushrooms with a milk chocolate cap and biscuit stem. They are incredibly 'more-ish'.
Overall score: 8.5/10 Price: 800 won (80c)

2. Shrimp Chips 

Second to taste was the shrimp chips. I very much dislike any form of seafood, shrimp snacks being no exception. To me it sort of tastes like somebody took a perfectly decent chip and rubbed a freshly gutted prawn over it, covering it in 'seafood-ie' juices. I gave it a 1/10 (the one being for the packaging), Heather on the other hand said it was alright but lacked a little flavor at 5/10.
Frances said it was the type of snack she would eat, if it came for free at a bar - a stretch for someone who doesn't drink any alcohol.
Overall score: 3.5/10 Price: 950 won (90 c)










  3. Ddeokbokki Chips

The Ddeokbokki chips were much improved at 1200 won. Ddeokbokki basically translates to a solid gelatinous rice cake that is cooked up in sauce and is a national Korean favourite. Although the chips resembled something closer to spiced dry penne pasta - the result was still pretty good. Frances admitted that she would happily buy them again. Overall, they were a pretty decent surprise. I never thought I'd like spicy dry pasta.
Overall Score: 7.5/10 Price: 1200 w ($1.20)






4. My Chew Fruit Candy

Any native teacher in the KOR will know that My Chew is the route to Korean children's hearts. I have had even the most difficult little rat become a willing and docile participant once 'My Chew' was introduced. The three of us polished off a full packet in about 20 mins. I had to go and buy more for my students the next morning.
Overall Score: 9/10 Price: 2,500 w ($2.50)









 5. Fire Noodles

 Burnt tongues, wincing, coughing and fully grown men crying, can been seen all over the internet thanks to these infamous ready noodles (or 'Booldalkbokkeummyun') .We had no choice but to give them a try. Take a look at my reaction- I feel that I held it together fairly gracefully.
Overall Score: 4/10 Price: 2,300 won ($2.30)


6. Melon-Cheese Crackers

As awful as sprayed cheese and melon stuffed between two savory crackers may sound, it really wasn't half bad. Heather described it as "a nice free gift kind of food" - meaning something that you would eat if you had gotten it for free but probably not a snack you would waste any bus change on. My assessment? If you get it for free... try a couple and pawn the rest off on your students.
Overall Score: 7/10 Price: 3000 won ($3)



Verdict?

Would I tell family and friends at home to eat all Korean snacks? Maybe not - but I'd certainly send them My Chew candy and Mushroom Cookies in the post. Who am I kidding? I'd probably send them Fire Noodles as an experiment as well.

 A big thank you to Frances and Heather for trying all the snacks! 

Here's a laugh at Frances slating 'Crunky Chocoloate' for its lack of substance. She calls it 'the sort of chocolate you'd eat last on Christmas day...worse even than chocolate gold  coins'.