a Fart on the Wall

It is becoming more and more difficult for me to function at work. I think of activities that I want to do with the kids, but oh, it would involve me walking down to the fourth floor to the dinky dark room where the laminator is and there is no heat and there is currently 3 inches of snow on the ground. Okay – scrap that idea. I need something I can do while wrapped up in the blanket I have to keep at my chair.

I don’t know what the deal it. I absolutely cannot stand it. I come home with tight muscles and headaches. I come to school dressed like a homeless woman wearing every article of clothing that she owns. For some reason, all the Korean teachers LOVE to open up the windows and doors on freezing winter days. It is already pretty cold in the schools. Classrooms use space heaters to warm them and places like the bathrooms have no heat. Try sitting on a cold porcelain toilet – oh no no no. I have also stopped going to the bathroom at school. There is no heat in the hallways and at least half of all of the windows along the hallways and stairwells are open all day. When you walk in the halls, everyone wears their winter jackets just to get from one class to another. Students wear HUGE insulated jackets and carry chair cushions and blankets with them to help keep warm.

With all of this cold, it is nice to duck into my office where there is central heating – AWESOME. Arrrrhg – wrong, here comes the Korean teacher wearing her sweater and jacket and scarf and for some reason she is opening the windows! What is this about?! I want to say. “Hey, If you are hot, try taking off your scarf and jacket first.” Instead I curl into a tight ball causing my upper back and neck muscles to cramp. I have started wearing my jeans to work everyday – they are warmer than tights or dress pants. Under my jeans I wear a pair of leggings. I wear a pair of camping socks and then a pair of those slipper socks inside my big hiking boots. I wear three layers of shirts and my HUGE, AMAZING winter jacket. I put the hood of my sweatshirt up and my cap over that and my jacket hood over that. Then I wrap my scarf around and try and get it over my nose to keep it warm. If I am working, I have to take my fleece gloves off – boo.

One of the things that drives me the craziest is that they come in, open the window, turn off the heat and then leave just me in the room to freeze to death.

I tried to google why Koreans do this, since they have many odd superstitions – just google “fan death”. Turns out most of the information says that Koreans believe that you need to freshen the air. One teacher said he was told he needed to open the windows and freshen the air every three hours in this classroom.

Honestly, I would rather die of “unfresh” air (what ever that might be in a school) than have to spend one more week in this freezing building – literally in pain. I’m not even teaching classes. I have just been desk-warming for 3 weeks sitting in the freezing cold! I am afraid I am going to break down and say, “If you don’t turn the heat on and leave it alone, I would like to just go home for the day. I cannot do this!” I would escape to my classroom and turn on the heat, but the heater is broken and no one cares to fix it. Hmmm – just like during monsoon season when the ceiling was leaking and they just put 8 buckets in my room for two months to catch the water. YAY! They just painted over the mold from all the water yesterday.

Oh my nose!