the real beans

so, school has been letting out at 12:30 this week (monday, tuesday, and wednesday) because the grade 1 & 2's are in exams - more on that later. so yesterday i was home by one. i had lunch and then went out to buy a coffee maker - i just can't do it Korean style anymore! i need REAL coffee. i had been to the (bigger, better) homeplus across town on sunday, but they were out of the cheap (read $10) coffee makers. so, yesterday, having all this time in the afternoon, i headed to my local homeplus.

as you can (probably) tell by the pic on the left, i got one! it's a Livest MEC-503 - if that means anything... i can't tell you anymore, since everything is, you got it! in korean!

however, i have yet to try it out, since the homeplus had that coffee maker, but NO COFFEE!!! no filters, nothing to go with it, except the water. i'm still trying to find some and was gonig to go get some today, but was side-tracked by an awesome lunch with a co-worker.

i know they have the coffee at the other store accross the mountain, but it's such a pain to get there... hopefully i will be able to get there tomorrow - since i'm going out in the evening (as i do every wednesday for "mini-weekend"). i'll need the coffee to make it through thursday!

as i was saying, the grade 1 and 2's are taking their end of year exams right now. just another problem with the korean education system... they give the exams BEFORE the end of school. the grade three's had theirs over a month ago and since then it has been impossible to keep their attention in class.

i mean, why should they care about anything, their grades are in, they're off to high school in a few weeks, and anything we teach now is useless, right? i say "wrong" but try getting 500 sixteen-year olds to agree with that. needless to say, it has been a trying month, and isn't getting any better. which is just another reason to be so happy that we have a couple of half-days this week... the only problem is that the only classes i can teach in the mornings are the grade threes.

oh, if only they were all still sweet and innocent like the grade ones who still cheer when i walk in the room... instead they are constantly trying to take over the class. i suppose it is to be expected, especially when anything they do now doesn't ACTUALLY matter.

just another reason i need REAL coffee in the morning.

oh, and in case you're wondering about korean coffee (see right), it's all pre-packaged instant - with powdered milk and sugar already in the mix... you can buy different kinds, but i can't read the box, and now have about 100 'sticks' of the stuff left. anyway, you take a 'stick' and empty it in your cup and add about an inch of hot water - that's right one cup of coffee in korea is really like 3 sips of sugared milk. not nearly enough to get me going in the morning! i'd drink like 8 of them, but they're so sweet and creamy that they'll make me sick if i drink too much...

here's hoping for some caffeine in the next few days!