Deskwarming Season

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!