Thursday, March 19, 2009

Heaven, I'm in Heaven

*cue that cheesy song, I'm in heaven*

Yesterday afternoon I was chatting online with a friend from around these parts when I remembered that he is a practicing vegan.
Me: Oh hey, do you know if soy ice cream is available in Korea?
My savior: Ummm, yes, in fact I do.
Me: OH MY DEAR GOD WHERE?
Him: You know Soy Delicious?
Me: ...Yes (*starts bouncing*)
Him: Well they have ice cream shops all over Korea, 15 flavors in fact.
Me: WHAT?! OMG WHERE??????????????? OMG OMG OMG.
Him: Well, there is one in Anyang...
Me: *dies*

Keep in mind that I'm chatting on the computer at work when I start smiling like a loon and bouncing in my seat.

Not only is this place in Anyang, it is only 10 minutes from my house my bus. I had 2 pints of soy ice cream last night for dinner. The upscale food market type place has one in their cafe area in the basement of Lotte, the department store. FIFTEEN FLAVORS. They don't even have that available in the U.S. Just vanilla, chocolate, some yucky almond bark thing, and mint chocolate chip (also disgusting, since I don't like mint chocolate chip. If I wanted a mint, I'd buy some gum.) I went with three other people. They laughed at my reaction to this place. I was bouncing up and down, giggling maniacally and falling over myself trying to pick out what flavors I wanted. I gave up trying to choose and got a 2 pint container filled with 1 giant scoop of mocha almond fudge, 1 giant scoop of cookies and cream and 1 giant scoop of cookie dough. Since I went first, and ordered an absolutely massive container, the woman asked me if I wanted it packed with dry ice (good for up to two hours) for the ride home. Of course not, I just wanted a spoon. Fine fine, but she assumed since I'm a tiny person with a giant container of ice cream that it was for all of us and handed me 4 spoons. Oh no, all for me! I was giggling and smiling like a mad woman. It was Fantastic. Everyone else got reasonable cones and small containers. N. didn't even finish hers but me, I finished it, in one go. It was quite impressive, if I do say so myself. It is times like those that I really do believe I have a second stomach in my thigh that gets put into use. That or when I turn 30 I'm going to gain 100 pounds. The thing is, I'm not even that obsessed with ice cream in the states but I do treat myself to tofutti here and there. It was just not having it for 6 months and knowing that the torture was going to continue on indefinitely that drove me to react with such a fiendish gluttony. Next time I shall get a more reasonable cone--and 3 more pints for my freezer.

In other news:
Work is going well but I realized that I really hate teaching 5 year old kids (who are really 4 because Koreans start counting age at 1). 6 year olds have logic, they understand cause and effect. If you do your homework, you get a sticker. If you behave and do your work, we will play a game at the end of class. 4 year olds just don't. They are more interested in sticking their finger up their nose, not writing their name or listening to a story they don't understand in English. I tried to get one kid to sit down today and got stabbed with the damned pencil. AND HE GIGGLED. Not to mention they drool and pee themselves and are just a pain. I only have them for 30 minutes a day but really, it's 30 too many. It just puts me in a bad mood.
I have a one on one at the end of the day, 3 times a week. It is the poor girl's third hour of English class and most of the time she just doesn't want to sit still and be awake and attentive any longer. I have finally discovered the key to keeping her alert and interested throughout the entire review session: candy. We finish a subject, she gets a little candy for a job well done. Longer it takes, longer she goes without candy. I reward myself too, obviously. (And what a sugar high I gave myself...). She was happy and awake to the end of the lesson and got more questions right than usual! Obviously, sugar is the answer!

This would never work in a class situation but it is fantastic for 1 on 1s.

6 comments:

Nancy K said...

That's the same brand I buy! I'm glad you found it. Do they charge for packing it in dry ice? Such a cool thing. I wish they did that here. I can just see you bouncing around. Where did you put all that icecream!? It's nice that you found yourself a treat. You ought to ask him where you can get dairy free cookies.

Josh said...

you are silly kiddo! glad you found yourself some yummy ice cream..... getting stabbed with a pencil=not good...

Chris J said...

So glad you found some vegan ice cream for yourself! I broke down yesterday and made the flatties pancakes and proper American bacon because i was tired of the not so pancakes and not really bacon "bacon" they have here.

yum

Alex said...

Yeah stabbing is really not my thing I'm a thinkin.

Vegan ice cream is my god. I almost cried when I realized it was too late to get some after dinner last night. WHY DO THEY CLOSE AT 8?!

Chris-awesome job on the pancakes. I'm kind of impressed that you managed to do it. :-p

Chris J said...

I CAN cook better than ya'll think...

...

Alex said...

You can cook eh? What about that opening the jar of pasta sauce from the can ?! That does not count as cooking... :-p