Anyone who goes overseas for long periods of time runs the risk of waking up in their exotic surroundings and finding themselves (gasp!) bored. It's a guilty feeling, to be bored abroad. You assume you're being idle, and not taking full advantage of your circumstances. But to live and work and set up house overseas will often lead you into a routine of sorts; its only natural to form them.

                  I wrote some notes on a typical day in my life as a teacher in South Korea, just to remind myself of the small cultural quirks I witness each day. I'd imagine that one person's routine is another's subject of fascination. I hope you like it.

Odour on my street: cherry blossoms

Odour on the intersecting street: rotting meat from the pork restaurant's garbage

Time at which I'm woken up by the fruit vendor yelling down the street: 7:30am

Vegetables consumed: 3

Vegetables consumed that weren't pickled or fermented: 0

 Grains of rice consumed: oh, thousands

Number of times I sing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes": 28

Number of kindergarten students who cry at the sight of me because to them, white people look terrifying: 2

Awesomeness of my high-speed Internet, on a scale of 1 to 10: 10

Number of times a zealous Korean starts an English conversation and calls me "beautiful": 2

Number of times a zealous Korean starts an English conversation and calls me "fat": 1 (it still stung, though)

Funniest student question of the day: "teacher, what is a "moneymaker"?"

Most awkward student question of the day: "teacher, what is a "homo"?"

English words that, when spoken in thick Korean accents, sound like "fuck you": vaccum, backyard

Oddest flavour of gum at the 7-Eleven: lavender

Oddest flavour of dried squid at the 7-Eleven: peanut-butter-coated

Number of schoolgirls wearing Converse sneakers with their prim uniforms: every last one

Most popular place to drink in my neighbourhood: at plastic tables outside convenience stores