So this is what -21 degrees C feels like...

Last night, the temperatures here reached -21 degrees Celsius (-6 degrees Fahrenheit). I was having a late night Skype phone conversation with my friend Larry from Rowland Heights when I suddenly said, "Holy shit!" Why? Because of this:



This was my kitchen window last night. It was as if the iceman from X-Men came in and touched it.

I survived the great snowstorm of 2010 and all I got are these pics and videos

Article from the Korea Herald yesterday (emphasis added):

Heavy snow blanketed the Seoul metropolitan area yesterday, causing traffic chaos on the first work day of the new year and delaying or canceling scores of flights.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the snow that began falling early in the morning piled up around the nation's central regions, with more than 25.2 centimeters accumulating in Seoul, as of noon yesterday.

The snow in Seoul was the heaviest in 41 years and second heaviest since the nation started observing snowfall back in 1937, the weather agency added.

Albert told me it was snowing in Beijing. The storm was supposed to lose power over the Yellow Sea but that didn't happen. Luckily, the night before, I went out and had bulgogi (marinated beef stew mixed with rice) for dinner, and also did some grocery shopping on the way home. My apartment has always been well-stocked with food in case of weather emergencies (and also because I don't think going out in cold weather is a good idea). Also, this is a "work from home" week for me, so staying inside in my relatively warm apartment was an obvious choice.

Here are some photos...

Above: the view outside my apartment.

My apartment has a very small population -- there are about six units in total. Everyone else left for work earlier in the day, so it was very quiet. I went downstairs to see if the postal delivery person managed to make it through the snow. Because everyone left for work, the front door was left alone during the snow and it was partially blocked. I had to work hard to get it open.

Needless to say, nobody got their mail yesterday or today.

Above: My apartment building's front door -- trapped by snow.

The snow had briefly stopped when I went downstairs, so I got to open the front door and take some photos of my street during this brief pause. Shortly after these photos, it continued to snow even more. The final measurement I took later that night was 10.5 inches (27 centimeters) of snow.

Above: My side street, during a small pause halfway through the snowfall.

Above: This car was definitely not going anywhere. By the end of the day, it was 100% covered with snow.

And here's a little video I took shortly before the photos:

SOS

SOS

trapped by snow

SOS

ramen and dumpling supply dwindling

SOS

running out of dvd material and books

SOS

send kimchi

SOS

Happy New Year

New Year's Day is almost over here, but I decided to wait until the people back in Vancouver have reached midnight before posting a New Year's note. Anyways, Happy New Year and let's hope this decade doesn't become a waste of time like the 2000s turned out to be.

Anyways, I have made a small website for my best photos. The new gallery can be reached here and was created at the suggestion of several friends who liked some of the photos. So I will post my best photos on to that site.

Ah, F this...

Found in Seoul's Itaewon international tourist area:


Ah, F this S...

Merry Christmas

Memories of yesteryear, and that's the bottom line, cuz Stone Cold said so...

Why did it take me this long to find out that one hot topic of discussion among my senior-grade middle school students is... WWE pro wrestling?

I should've seen this coming, because back when I was their age, I was a fan of the (then) World Wrestling Federation as well. I've even met John Cena in person at an autograph session, before he became a household name in sports entertainment.

I was going down the hallway en route to the English classroom and a few students were playfighting, as is common at all-boys' schools here. One of them performed a pretend-wrestling move on another, and as I passed by, I gave the student a small tap on the shoulder and casually said, "No Rock Bottoms in the school, please." Both of them stopped in their tracks and went like, "OHHHHHHhhhhhh, Mr. Cheng knows WWE! Oh my God!"

After lunch, a bunch of students cornered me in the hallway and we had a nice little discussion about WWE -- and they actually used English and tried to use it to discuss pro wrestling! It was incredible how so many of those students who normally didn't participate in class are now eagerly displaying their English skills so we could both share our knowledge about the "Sport" That Vince McMahon Revolutionized.

I amazed them with my knowledge about the Radicalz (Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Chris Benoit), the Dudley Boyz (Bubba-Ray and D-Von), the Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy), Edge & Christian, Degeneration-X, the WCW/ECW Alliance, nWo, and others. I impressed them with first-hand memories of the Brock Lesnar superplex on Big Show that broke the ring in an old episode of Smackdown. I wow'd them with the tales of the Triple H vs. Mick Foley Hell-in-a-Cell match at No Way Out.

And all this time, I've been trying to find culturally relevant names to use in my lessons that students would know and be interested in. I can't believe all this time, it was right under my nose in the form of World Wrestling Entertainment.

If you smell what the Hermit is cookin'.