I don't know about you, but I keep coming to this site, hoping that there is a new blog post that has magically appeared... unfortuantely the blog post isn't writing itself... welcome Jen!
I've been thinking about writing this post for the past 2 weeks, but I've been strangely busy at school marking millions of tests (okay, maybe not millions, but a lot of tests...) and planning/teaching my classes.
During the past few weeks here, the temperatures have dropped. We've turned on our heating system for at least an hour each night (don't want to break the bank with expensive heating bills!!!) to take the chill out of the air. I've been putting on my extra layers to stay warm both at school and at home. At home, it's do-able. It's not too cold. Our apartment is surrounded by other apartments which help to keep the heat in. At school, well, that's a whole 'nother story.
My co-teacher has not turned on the heat in our classroom since the temperature began to drop. It's been minus one, two, five... and no heat. Now, this would be okay - the kids' body heat helps to warm the room, we get a bit of sun every now and then, but, in addition to the not turning on the heat in the classroom, my co-teacher insists, yes INSISTS, on opening the windows every so often. Now, I'd like to call myself a Canadian (but I really am a wimp when it comes to the cold weather, Uganda killed any sense of a winter skin that I spent 23 years developing...) but I cannot teach in a classroom that is only 15 degrees (Celsius). My fingers get cold. My toes often freeze. I even found myself searching out sunbeams in my classroom when the kids were writing their tests last week. I discovered that at 10:07am the sunbeam first makes its way into the classroom (if I'm lucky and there are no clouds), so I too would make my way to the back of the classroom to soak up the sunbeam. I've been wearing three to four layers in my classroom, including, one day, my uber-warm wool scarf. But I'm still cold.
I'm sure some of you may be saying, "Stop complaining, you're Canadian, you can handle winter.." But I can't. I really can't. And the reason why my co-teacher refuses to turn on the heat? Well, because of the dust in the heater. She's so scared that the dust will end up everywhere. The one time she did turn on the heater was just before we went to lunch. She opened all the windows, every single window she could, turned on the heat full blast and left the room. Needless to say when we returned the room was warmer....
This dust phobia reminds me a lot of fan death. Koreans are afraid of death by fan. Like, they think that it's possible to die if you sleep with a fan on in your bedroom in the summer and all your doors closed. Something about the fan taking oxygen away from your mouth and causing you to suffocate. Either suffocation, or death from hypothermia. Apparently there are cases of it documented each summer in the newspapers. Doctors agree that Korean citizens should be afraid of fan death.... I even asked my educated, smart, co-teachers what they thought of this fan death, and they believe it.
Anyways, the end of the matter is that I'm cold. Send me sweaters, scarves, wool socks... whatever works. My co-teacher just asks the kids why they don't wear their coats to class when they complain of the cold... I silently ask, "Why can't we just turn on the heat?"
~Jen
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