One Year in Korea

Last two weekends

2010-05-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

The last two weekends have been really eventful, which is great because they've both been amazing (and I've got another great one coming up) but at the same time it leaves me no time to talk to friends back home or post on this stupid thing. So... lame. Sorry.

Two weeks ago I went to an orphanage in Anyang with Amanda and some other assorted friends. It was an orphanage run by the same people as Amanda's adoption agency (if I haven't mentioned it before, Amanda is Korean but she was adopted as an infant and grew up in Oklahoma, hence she speaks no Korean). We met a bunch of little kids. When we first got there they said that they had too many volunteers that day already and we couldn't visit the kids, but then they changed their minds. We headed upstairs and some of the older kids were sort of roaming the halls and a few of them played with us. Pretty quickly we went into one of the rooms, which contained all the 3 and 4 year olds. They were absolutely adorable. When we came in they had been watching TV, but they immediately came over to show us their half-broken toys and play with us. One boy beelined straight for me, wordlessly plopped down in my lap, and went back to watching TV. Then he started stroking my face and calling me "Oma" which means mommy. Uh, seriously, break my heart kid. What, do you want to come home with me? Too bad I don't have money, other wise...

We went in and helped feed the one year olds during lunch time, though I mostly stood in the hallway and played with the older kids who were still roaming. By older I mean like 6 or 7. None of these children spoke a single word of English, by the way. Even the 3 year old who sat with me was talking about the Thomas show on TV, but he didn't know that Thomas was called Thomas and kept calling him "hamatchita" which is Thomas in Korean. The others fed the babies, but I've never been big on children when they're that small, so I just hung back in the hallway. But one of the little girls kept staring at me and reaching for me, so Holly called me in and I sat with the girl in my lap. She was adorable, and really only wanted to see my necklace, which she kept trying to pull straight off my throat. It was just an old chain with Sam's old nametag on it. Then she stopped trying to do that, and any time she thought I wasn't paying attention would try to jam one of her hands down my shirt. Fyfe was laughing at me the whole time, and so was Greco (they came with us to help translate since Fyfe is a Korean linguist, but then two of the TPs from the school came too so they were basically just along for the ride).

We left after lunch because it was nap time. On the way out we stopped a bulletin board with babys pictures on it and little descriptions, and Ellie (Amanda's TP) started reading them to us. They were pictures of babies that had just been abandoned, with descriptions of where they had been. Every single one of us (except the boys) started crying. When Ellie (who is the sweetest, most gentle woman EVER) got to one where the baby had been abandoned in a toilet, she got so angry and embarrassed that she punched the bulletin board and wouldn't read any more. None of us really wanted her to anyway. Then we stood outside awkwardly and silently for about ten minutes and cried. Then we went to lunch.

I tried to write that awkwardly to show just how awkward it was. Did it work?

Then it was Shannon's birthday, so we had a big barbeque and weekend out in Songtan with all the guys. Oh, and Holly had revealed that week to us girls that she is pregnant (!) and is going home to the states in a few months to have the baby and then wait for her husband to finish his time in Korea and come join her at home. Wow. So she doesn't work at Maple Bear anymore. We found that out just before the party, so after having a great time at Holly and Chris's house, we went out without them. It was a pretty good night. We all came back to Holly's and fell asleep on the floor, then got up the next day, walked a dog on base (Greco volunteers at the shelter on base) and got some Taco Bell. Seriously, they are going to have trouble tearing me away from that. Then we went to see Nightmare on Elm Street (stupid) and played some soccer and laid out in the sun. The weather here is beautiful here lately. I am seriously tangental today. And yeah, I'm aware that tangental either isn't a word or wasn't used properly. I also don't care.

Then last weekend was basically Nacho's going away weekend (he finished his time here a few days ago, and is now back in the states on a month's leave). Nacho is Cally's boyfriend, and one of the central guys from the air force that we usually hang out with. He's also hilarious and we're all going to miss him a lot, because he was pretty much the life of the party. And by pretty much I mean completely and totally. We went out to base on Friday after work and they got us passes to spend the weekend there. We had already bought tickets to go white water rafting with all the guys up in Northeast South Korea (that's a lot of cardinal directions really close together), so we left Saturday morning at 6:30. GROSS. One three-hour bus ride later, we got there, and got out on the water. It was really fun. Nacho got to pick his boatload (because there were enough people for two boats) which was basically the cool people boat. And yeah, I was in it. Ha, stupid. It was Fyfe, Greco, Nacho, Cally, Amanda, Winge, Doc, and me. Doc may sound like a dwarf, but there is not Snow White around, and he is from deep Alabama and has the accent to prove it. It was my first time meeting him and he's actually pretty hilarious. Winge is dating Amanda now (as of this weekend... odd) and he's the real dwarf. Haha, kidding only not. Kid's shorter than me. Yikes. (Sorry, I'm trying to give a cast of characters of sorts)

The river was fun, and we got soaked. Mostly because we jumped in. I'm an idiot and when I jumped in to swim I freaked out for a second because the water was sticking to my eyes, and droplets were clouding my vision, but then I realized that I had jumped in with my brand new sunglasses on, like a freakin' moron. Don't worry- they're unharmed. We swam for a bit, and rafted a lot. And really we were just acting ridiculous the whole time. We had chants that we did any time we came up to any other boats, and a war cry. We also loudly sang Aerosmith "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" for most of the ride, and for some reason none of us can remember we at one point softly murmur-sang "On Top of Spaghetti" to one another. The whole time was hilarious and amazing and I am really glad I went. We had free lunch after, and then headed home. So tired.

Of course, we went out that night. Shannon came out and we went to our first Handsome Boy's Night, which is where the guys all get together and watch movies and get drunk. But they call themselves the Handsome Boys, so there you go with the name. Then we went out to watch Chris, Holly's husband, play at the local bar we all love. Holly couldn't come because bars in Korea are super smoky and she has to incubate baby Baldwin (their last name) so she decided to opt out. We all had a great night, but I don't think any of us girls actually spent any of the time together, because we'd all made tons of new friends among the guys that day. Actually, read that I made a bunch of new friends and Amanda hung out with her new boyfriend (?) and Shannon hung out with Fyfe (who we call Mama and Papa because they're pretty much married even though they absolutely refuse to date). It was a great night.

Then the next day Holly, Shannon, Amanda and I went to Seoul in the afternoon with a few of the guys (Fyfe, Greco, Chris, and Doug) and met up with two of our TPs (the same two from the orphanage, Ellie and Faye). There was a huge festival for Buddah's birthday, which is this Friday. People were making little lotus lanterns and all sorts of crafts, and there was a bunch of traditional Korean dancing. We went to a Buddhist temple and took a bunch of pictures. It was all really cool, but we were all EXHAUSTED. We ended up getting Mexican food for lunch and then just going home. We took the fast train home, but it was so full that we basically all ended up falling asleep in a pile on the floor of the cafe car.

Then Monday was Nacho's official going away roast. Meaning let's all talk shit about Nacho roast. I only did a short bit, but I got a decent amount of laughs. I really didn't say much of anything and it wasn't an official roast, so he didn't roast me in return, which I appreciated. People were just goading me so I mocked him for a bit. Then Nacho said a bunch of quotes from people about him that he loved and remembered, and one of his top ten was one of mine from that weekend. Then Cally showed this 30 minute video she made for him made up of pictures and videos she'd taken while dating him. One of the great clips of video was a video of me speaking to Nacho entirely in Spanish while he refused to speak Spanish back to me. I don't remember it, mostly because it was a long time ago and I'd never seen the video before. But it was funny.

This weekend for my birthday (which was Tuesday, and I got some great gifts from my kids and three full size chocolate cakes which looked amazing but smelled and tasted disgusting) we are all going up to an island off the coast of Incheon. I have no idea what it is called, but I know the first three letters of its name are "Muu" so google if you wish. We have a three-day weekend because of Buddha's birthday, so Shannon and I are going up Friday morning and everyone else will come up Friday afternoon after the guys get off work. I'm really excited about it. I'll be sure to take lots of photos and such, which I will post on facebook as usual. For those of you without Facebook, I apologize for the lack of pictures on this blog, but the process takes forever, it takes up lots of space, and it only lets me post about 5 pictures per blog anyway. Not worth it.

Last note: looks like I'm resigning with my school for another year. Which means I will be coming home for two weeks in August (probably the first two weeks) and then I'll be back here until August 2011. WOW. But also, ca-ching. So... bye student loans I guess. I don't really have much more to say, and I don't know how I even could considering how long this entry is. I'll try to update more often so they won't all be sensory overload like this one. YIKES. I'll try. No promises. Love you all! Miss you all!

YIKES IT HAS BEEN LONG

2010-04-29T01:56:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize, first and foremost, for taking so long between entries. In March my schedule changed, and with the increase in teaching hours I am exhausted by the time I get home. It's not an excuse, but I'm using it as one.

One of the new things I have noticed about Korea (which I've noticed since the beginning of my time here but haven't yet written about) is that by American standards Koreans are extraordinarily rude. Things are different here. For example, lines don't actually exist. People will walk right in front of you, and you basically have to push your way to the front or get pushed out of the way all together. Even my Koreans friends will walk in front of me if I don't push forward quickly enough. At stop lights, cars can go around the line and cut in front, into the middle of the intersection. While waiting at a bus stop people will shove you aside to get on before you. Another example of the rudeness: walking down the street people will bang into you hard enough to knock you over, but they won't apologize or acknowledge it. On the subway, men will push you out of the way to get to an open seat before you do. I've literally been SHOVED when I'm trying to get off the train by men getting on. No one ever apologizes, no one ever excuses themselves. It's interesting. At first it was hard to get used to, but now it's become almost expected. Almost.

Since the last time I wrote I have discovered a magical new area of Korea. It's called the US Air Force Base in Songtan, and it's essentially a tiny slice of America set in the middle of South Korea. There is a Taco Bell there. A TACO BELL. I can get American products there, and everyone speaks English, and nobody stares at me because I look different from them. We (being Shannon and I) have started hanging out with a group of the Air Force guys that we met through Holly's husband. The main problem I have been having in Korea is the lack of variety in food, but on and around the base you can find any type of food you want. There's a decent Mexican restaurant and an amazing gyro place. I don't know, it's just magical there. It makes me miss home because it's so close without actually having the people I love, but at the same time it definitely makes it easier to handle a week of non-stop Korean culture when I have that outlet on the weekend. Even if only for a little while.

I'm sorry this entry is so short, but I have too many specifics to write about only some, and also I only remember bits and pieces. I'll try not to go so long without writing again but I can't make any promises. We went and saw the cherry blossoms, so those photos just went up on Facebook. Other than that...

Oh, well I have a whole new mess of kids. 12 kindergartners, 12 Grade 1 kids and four kids of scattered older ages. 5 of the Grade 1 kids are mine from last year, 2 are Tara's, and 4 are from Cally's kindergarten last year. There aren't many of them that set themselves apart.

I have another kid named Junebug, but this one is ADORABLE. Dumb as rocks, but cute as a button. Literally, I gave him the assignment to draw a picture of himself as a baby and then a picture of him today. He came back to me with a picture of a tiger and a picture of a car. Well, sure. Okay, Junebug. That's nice.

I've got another one named Percy who is beyond brilliant. Kid can read everything no problem, do any math problem you put in front of him, and speak with near perfect diction and grammar. He self corrects when he makes grammatical mistakes. He is polite and sweet. I'm trying to find the pod he came out of and see if there are any more children left in it that I can bring home.

Davey is the clingiest child I've ever come across in my life. He literally attaches himself to me in any way he possibly can. He grabs my leg, wraps his arms around my waist and his legs around my thigh, jumps up so I'm wearing him like a fanny pack with his legs around my waist, sits in my lap any time I stop moving. Once I was crouched in front of another student's desk helping them with their math work and he came over from his desk with his math book, sat on my while I was crouching down, and tried to sit there and do his math work on his lap. He almost tipped me over.

Sorry, I really do have to go. We're going to Malaysia and Bali at the end of July so Shannon and I have started doing pilates and yoga like, 4 or 5 days a week to get in bikini shape. Or, in my case, some shape other than "lump in a bikini." I'll try to update more frequently!

This one's for Sandy

2010-02-10T04:30:00.000-08:00

Today was activity day, which isn't really important. It's Lunar New Year coming up, so we made wooden tops, they dressed in Hanbok, we talked about resolutions, etc. etc.

Every Activity day though, there is a special lunch (which is actually smaller because the TPs are super busy during activity day and don't have enough time to serve the larger lunch). The lunch consists of a clementine, a roll with melted cheese on top, and shrimp fried rice. The shrimp is tiny and there isn't a lot of it, but I still can't eat it because the rice has been cooked with the shrimp (obviously). The first activity day I went to, however, I didn't even notice the shrimp, ate a huge serving of rice and felt sick for the rest of the day. Because I can't have the rice, Miss Theresa (the lunch lady) always puts in extra rolls and clementines for me. I sit at a table with Tom, Cherry, Andrew, and Julia, with my back to my other students (Miss Young sits at their table).

Today, I sat down with my tray full of rolls and oranges, and Tom asked me why I didn't have any rice. I told him I had an allergy, etc. etc. He said shrimp was one of his favorite foods, which Paul chimed in on. He heard that part from the other table, and said it was one of his favorites, and asked why I didn't like it because he hadn't heard the first part of the conversation. I repeated myself, saying I loved shrimp but that I can't eat it anymore. Sandy, who sits across from Ryan and about as far away from me as possible, having heard nothing but this, asks if I have an allergy. I say I do and explain to the other kids what an allergy is because they didn't understand. Everyone then turns back to their food and proceeds to eat.

A minute, maybe two, passes in complete silence. Then, out of nowhere, Sandy jumps out of her chair and yells "Miss Kelsey! Don't eat the rice! It has shrimp!" I turn around to look at her and she is reaching out toward me (from about ten feet away), and she looks so concerned and afraid for me. It was adorable. This little girl who is only seven years old, was THAT concerned about my health. It was like I was about to go into a room that had a bomb in it, or as if I were the heroine in a scary movie, running from the villain and trying to get away by running up the stairs. She literally JUMPED out of her chair (she actually almost knocked it over) and reached out for me, just to warn me about my rice.

Honestly, the first thing I thought was that this girl actually cares about me. I'm not just some white lady she's known for six months. She really loves me. Then, when we practiced our graduation songs after lunch she sat on my lap and leaned her head on my shoulder while she sang. And when I told her I'm teaching the new class she'll be starting in a few weeks, she got so excited she practically tackled me just to give me a hug. So, in other words, the cuteness of the week award goes to: everything Sandy did today. Thanks for making me feel amazing, my love.

Very quickly during my 15 minute break:

2010-02-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

Two things that I find interesting.

1) In Korea people are actually honest about appearance. If you are fat, they tell you that you are fat. If you look tired, they say it. No one gets offended. It's like a statement of fact, and everyone knows. They also tell you when you look good, and it actually makes you feel good because every time they say it you know it's honest. Anyway, in class the other day we were making a boat out of tangrams (those special shape things that you can put together to make all sorts of pictures). I drew the boat on the board, and then as a joke, drew all the kids in the class inside the boat. When I was finished, there was no room to draw myself, so I drew me hanging off the side. When Tom asked why, Junebug said "Because too heavy." And instead of getting offended, I laughed. It was funny. Yeah, I'm not nearly as thin as any of the women he knows, and I probably never will be. Asian women are tiny. And yeah, I'm packing on a few pounds. So what? I actually kind of like it when people are honest. It makes me feel better when they say I'm fat than when people back home tell me I look skinny, because at least I know they're telling the truth.

2) My kids invented the best kind of tag EVER and when I return to the states I fully expect a large scale version to be played. It's called Zombie attack, and it's a combination of tag and the zombie apocalypse. One person starts as a zombie, and everyone else is a "people" (we're working on plurals and singulars, but they still have trouble). The zombie has to move kind of slowly and hold their arms out in front of them, while making creepy moaning noises. Everyone else screams and runs. If the zombie catches someone, that person also becomes a zombie. The infection spreads. Every so often one of the zombies calls out "Who is still a people?" and one or two kids raise their hands, only to be viciously hunted by the others. The last people standing wins, and starts as the zombie in the next round. It's HILARIOUS to watch. That is, until I start playing and someone knocks Cynthia over, causing me to knee her in the forehead at the same time that someone accidentally body slams Junebug into a wall. It's times like those that I realize Zombie Attack should be an OUTDOOR game.

About ten million things that I should have written separately but am going to lump together because I'm cool like that. I like long titles.

2010-01-28T04:10:00.001-08:00

1) At our Hogwan (English school) they like to have an Open House twice a year. However, because many parents don't speak English, instead of a meeting at night with the teacher and the parents, parents just come in and, uh AWKWARD, watch you teach. I had two of them this week (for my two older classes) and they were horrible. They were seriously awkward because the parents just set up chairs about ten feet away from the table and stare. For forty minutes. Most of the parents don't speak English, so they just watch people jibber jabber, essentially. And, of course, I have one super nitpicky mother in one of my classes whose son was particularly nervous that day. So she was "disappointed" in my class and now (after already giving a list of all my faults, most of which are STUPID) to my boss, she wants to have a meeting with me and my boss next week. Understandably, I am frustrated and annoyed. Thank god the school year ends in a month.

2) The school year ends in a month. In Korea their school year is March to February. Public schools get spread out breaks, like year round schools in the states, but Hogwans do not take the same breaks. We were supposed to get a work day in between the last day of this year and the first day of next year, but because of the snow day that happened right after winter break, we have to teach that day. Our schedules are all getting switched around, and most of us won't be teaching the same classes next year. In other words, we have no time to learn entire new curriculums, prep for different language levels, or figure out what the hell we're doing. They won't even tell us what classes we'll be teaching until the last week of February. Just another way in which our administration is helpful and kind to us teachers.

3) I thought of two more things to add to my previous list of things that are better in Korea: hooded sweatshirts and take-out soup.

Rather than tiny hoods which don't quite cover your head and squeeze your brains in, while allowing any precipitation that might fall from the sky to soak the front inch of your head, Korean hoods are extra large. The first time I threw my hood on, it literally fell down and covered my entire face. There is actually room inside of the hood. Novel concept.

Take out soup is INCREDIBLE here. In the states they put it into flimsy cardboard cup-of-noodles sized container with an ill fitting lid. Here they give you a bowl, and put the soup inside the bowl... but inside of a plastic bag that is tied shut. Meaning they put the soup in a bag, tie it shut, and then put the bag into a bowl. So you can eat it from a normal bowl, but when you carry it around the soup magically doesn't spill. It can even fall out of the bowl and the soup just rolls around in the bag. Wow, how easy and smart. Good job Korea. America- fail.

4) I know I've said that in Korea drinking is accepted at a level far beyond that in America, but I have a few stories to demonstrate.

On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights you can find

Korean men in suits, obviously business men, laying on the street, asleep, drunk.

I went to a large Korean event recently (to be described in a second) and there were parent-child races. Normal. Abnormal: the race was for parent and child to run across the ice (it was an ice fishing festival) while holding a giant inflatable Soju bottle. Soju is a Korean liquor. Then they do a circle around a wooden bottle painted to look like a Soju bottle. Then the kid climbs in a saucer-style sled and the parent drags them back to the start line. In between rounds, men dressed as wide-eyed, smiling Soju bottles dance to KPop (Korean Pop). By the way, I took a video of the dancing Soju and will try to post it on Facebook soon.

One of the teachers at my school had her 28th birthday about a month ago. On the day of, she went to get a manicure in the neighborhood. While talking to the woman painting her nails, she mentioned that it was her birthday. The woman left (mid-manicure) and went to the grocery store down the street. She bought two bottles of Soju. One she gave to my friend as a gift. The other they drank together, taking shots while the woman continued to paint her nails. So, you know, totally normal interaction for manicurist and patron.

5) The ice-fishing festival, which was actually a festival for trout, believe it or not. It was the Hwachon Sancheoneo Festival, or the Hwachon Trout Festival. My Korean friend Erica invited me, Tonya, and a teacher who used to work at my school (and is back in Korea for a few months for another teaching job) named Adeel. I think I wrote about him in early entries. ANYWAY. We had to leave at 6 am so we could make it to the subway station where the bus left from. The bus was supposed to leave at 8 am, but we were the last ones to get there at 7:55. They literally made us run and took off as soon as we got on the bus. So now all those Koreans probably think that white people are always late. The bus then took three hours. We got there at 11, and were greeted by an interesting sight: a frozen river with hundreds of Koreans running around on top. We went across this bridge on foot, and on the opposite end Adeel and I found these fish constructed of wire and paper. We couldn't figure out why at first, but they had flags from all different countries underneath as well as dates. When I looked closer I noticed a tiny U.N. insignia on each sign, and I realized after inspecting a few of them that they were all the countries who belong to the U.N. and that the dates were their dates of entry. Why? NO IDEA.

We finally got down to the river (we had crossed the bridge because we saw this huge slide that was on the other side, but it turns out that it wasn't a way down from the top of the river bank, but an attraction you had to line up for on the river's surface and then climb a giant ladder to go down. Because that's logical) and walked across the frozen surface. It wasn't as difficult as I had originally thought. We walked along the river for a bit, dodging people who were on rented sleds. There were two kinds of sleds. One kind was a small wooden square, on metal runners, which you sat on and two pointy, metal tipped sticks you pulled yourself along the ice with. The other was a large bench with metal runners and a big handle at the back so someone could push you along. We paid 10,000W to rent one of those for an hour (but they had no system to tell when that hour was up). After a while on the sled we stopped to watch a Soju race (described above) during which I noticed something.

At the first festival I attended in Korea (the Hwasong Fortress Festival) I was chased by three Korean photographers who wanted to snap a photo of a white chick. It was as if I were a celebrity and they were the paparazzi, and the more embarrassed I got and blocked my face, the more photos they took. Again, like the paparazzi. As we sat watching tiny children being hauled across ice by their fathers, all the while carrying giant bottles of liquor, I noticed a photographer about twenty feet away. Taking photos of me. For ten minutes. When we went to leave and go play with the sled some more, he stopped us and spoke to Erica in Korean. He wanted to get photos of us on the sled. He put me on the front. He made them push Adeel and I toward him and he snapped a bunch of pictures. Then he made us do it again. Again, I was embarrassed and I felt exposed. It was worse than earlier that day when we were walking around and a 40-something year old woman kept yelling "hi" at me and waving until I waved back and said "hi." Then she pointed at me and spoke Korean to her friend for about five minutes. Then she started yelling "bye" at me until I said "bye" back. She laughed as she walked away. Fantastic.

Anyway, he finally let us go, and I can't even begin to explain how relieved I was. We turned the sled around... and came face to face with another photographer who wanted to take our picture. He rearranged everyone so that Tonya was on the sled with me (me still in front of course, as the whitest person must always be in the forefront). Then he made us run toward him. Then he made us turn around. Then he made us run toward him. Then he made us turn around. Again. And again. After about the sixth round, the first photographer reappeared and started taking photos with him. Again. And again. I swear, we probably did about fifteen rounds of running toward this guy while he snapped photos and then turned around and went away from him so we could do it all over. It was excruciating. I hated it. I was so embarrassed. We were all laughing, but I was only doing it out of nervousness. Ugh.

We kept riding around after the photographers left. At one point we were passing this kid who was sitting on the big sled with his parents shoving him back and forth between them. Just as we passed, his mom missed grabbing the sled and it looked like he was going to T-bone us. I have never seen such terror on a child's face (he was maybe 7 or 8 at most) and he was screaming like he was about to die. Really, it was my legs that were about to die. At the last second his mom caught the back of the sled and stopped him an inch from slamming into my left knee. Crisis averted.

We also noticed some AMAZING modes of transportation. There were these three foot tall automated robot bears. It's hard to describe. They looked like giant Pooh stuffed animals (and there was actually a Mickey Mouse too) but they could move. They were walking across the ice while strapped to RICKSHAWS which were carrying people. People were literally riding in rickshaws being carried by animated Disney characters. Are you kidding me? That's awesome, I don't care who you are.

We finally took the sled back and went to get some lunch. When we returned the sled we got a 10,000W voucher for food (so basically the sled was a throw in with lunch). We bought a bunch of chicken skewers and some fried rice cake drizzled with honey. Which was really good even though I'm not a fan of rice cake. We were still hungry so we got some Odang (a really yummy soup with thick rice noodles in it).

The opposite side of the river from the food had these elaborate carvings in the snow on the river banks, so we went across to see them. As we went across the ice Erica and Tonya grabbed my hands and tried to pull me, which inevitably ended with me on the ice with a sore butt. Spazzy girls on ice without autonomous use of their limbs? Bad idea. Oh well. I lived.

And it was worth it when we got to the opposite side and saw the carvings. There will be photos on facebook soon (if there aren't already). They had built these huge carvings of people, fish, tigers, the freakin' Cheshire Cat, and a bunch of swirls and designs. There was even a naked lady. And a huge castle too. Inside the castle was a cafe, some signs about the benefits of moving to the country (parts of which were really weird), and a big fence with fish tied all over it. People wrote their wishes on the side of fishes and tied them to this fence. I couldn't read a word because it was all in Korean, but I think there's a Dr. Seuss book in there somewhere. Who wants to write it?

We went back outside and I realized that the tiger's mouth was really the opening to a tunnel, Cave of Wonders style. We went through it. It was a long tunnel made entirely of ice, with neon lights inside that changed colors. It was really cool. I tried to take pictures, but with the flash you can't see the color and without the flash everything is really shaky.

Over the top of the carvings was a sort-of long ice slide that went at a really not-steep angle (not-steep? There goes my vocabulary. They say that happens once you've been here a while). We got in line for it, even though it was mostly for kids. They had plastic sheets that you could sit on (it was literally like plastic-coated cardboard) and slide down. There were stuffed potato sacks at the bottom to keep your from hitting the ice at the end. I thought it was going to be a really gentle, easy ride. OH MY GOD THAT THING WAS FAST. I didn't think about the fact that the ice slide was a slide made of ice and that ice is slippery. Stupid, I know, but it honestly never occurred to me. It was really fun. I actually sent the potato sacks flying over the ice barricade. Erica and Tonya screamed. So did Adeel, although Adeel's was manlier. I didn't make a sound. Who's the man? This guy!

Koh Samui, or perfection

2010-01-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

Koh Samui was the most relaxed place we ever went. We didn't do anything except lay on the beach all day. Our hotel was really nice. It was out in the middle of nowhere, but there were other hotels around. There was a resort a little down and across the street that we were allowed to walk through in order to get to the beach. The beach nearby seemed to be the resort's private beach, as it was only a small tract of sand that didn't span too great a distance along the shoreline and there were very few people there. The beach chairs all belonged to the resort. Right next door were three restaurants in a row. The first one came recommended and we ate every meal of Koh Samui there because it was so good. Basically all we did was camp out on the beach during the day and party at night.

The second night there we went to a nice dinner and then to two bars we had heard about that were in town. First we went to Arc bar, which was an open air bar on the beach. We walked down onto the sand, where the beach lounges had been put together in table formations, laid flat with their pads on top, and everyone was standing on them and dancing. We joined in. People around us were drinking from children's sand buckets, which seemed to be pretty typical in Thailand. They would put a small bottle of alcohol, and some mixers into the bucket, then stick a few straws in and sell it to you for... $10 after the exchange? Anyway, we didn't have buckets there, just normal drinks. We danced for a bit. A man came up to us with a monkey and put it on Shannon's shoulders. I took a few pictures, and we didn't notice that he did the same. Then he tried to sell her the picture he took, and got angry when she wouldn't pay him or take it. There were lots of drunk people, including a group of guys wearing only their girlfriends' underwear and some random Aussie running around, incoherently dancing in just his boxer briefs. Nice.

We left there pretty quickly and went up the street to a place Kristen had read about called the Green Mango. We danced for a few hours, and went home pretty early in the night. That we wasn't everyone though, just me, Shannon, and Melissa. Kristen, Tonya, and Angela stayed out and went to another after hours club.

The next day was New Years Eve, and we knew we were going to head to Koh Phangan, a tiny island to the north of Koh Samui, where there was a huge party happening for the full moon, which happened to be on New Years Eve. The taxi to take us to the speedboat was late, so we missed our boat, but since it was the boat company's fault they let us on the next one leaving. We got to the island and sat down to an AWESOME dinner. I got a cheeseburger because it looked like it might be a real burger, and it was. Hand formed patty, real cheese (not the crap you get in Korea), the works. It was delicious. Immediately after that we all bought our first buckets of the night. I stayed at only one bucket (because, hello, I'm in a foreign country where I know none of the language, no one but my friends who are likewise foreign, I have to go back to work in two days, and there are 14,000 people at this party-- obviously getting drunk was the most terrible idea possible) but Kristen and (I think) Tonya had two each. We went to a little station where they had phosphorescent paint, and we all got our bodies painted, like pretty much everyone else at the party. Then we danced. For about 5 hours. The crowd was impossible to negotiate, and we lost Kristen and Tonya, though they stayed together. We had set up a meeting point at the beginning of the night, and both Shannon and I got lost at one point or another and had to go there. I was found within about ten minutes of getting lost. Shannon found us again about 30 minutes after she lost us. Angela had met up with a few French guys she met earlier in the vacation, before we got there. And we literally just danced all night until we got tired. At one point we walked the whole length of the beach, and sat down where there were less crowds. People kept trying to do the lanterns, drunk, and I almost got set on fire a few times from people letting them go too soon right behind me, so that the flaming lantern landed on me, but I was fine. Then some people were setting off fireworks, and some exploded on the ground about 50 feet in front of us, which freaked Shannon and Melissa out a lot.

Shannon, Melissa, Angela, and I left pretty early (at around 3:30). We later found out that Tonya and Kristen stayed there until about 6 am or 7, though Kristen was asleep that entire time, having gotten way too drunk and passed out in a bungalow. Anyway, the party was amazing, until the ride home. At the pier, there were all the speedboat companies. Everyone had their ticket around their neck, and each company had a different color of yarn to hang the ticket on. But there was no way of knowing which pier your company was coming to, and people were pushing forward. There were no rails in between the edge of the pier and the ocean, so the people in front were in constant danger of being shoved onto the rocks at the edge of the water. I don't really want to describe what happened in too much detail, but suffice it to say that I almost got cut off from my group and left alone on the island, and then I almost fell off the plank walk down to the boat and onto the rocks below. I literally was caught by three guys, and one of them lifted me up and carried me to the boat. The speedboat took about a half hour, and then the taxi took us home and we went to bed. Well, everyone else went to bed. I had to wait at reception for the woman who worked there because Kristen had our room key. But then I went to bed.

The next morning Kristen woke up and started freaking out. She was hungover, remembered little to nothing of the party, and had in fact spent more than half of it asleep. She said her arm was sore like she'd gotten a shot, and there was a small bruise, and she started to freak out, saying she'd gotten injected with HIV. Where she got that idea I don't know. But there was no puncture, and no sign that she'd been injected at all, and Tonya said she'd probably gotten it when she fell in the ocean (where all the guys were peeing-yummy). Kristen still doesn't believe it. She still thinks she got injected. With HIV of all things. She won't listen to reason. Still, a week later. She's crazy. Everyone was fine though, and the others had to leave that afternoon. The other four had to work on saturday, so they flew home that afternoon/evening.

Kristen and I stayed another day. We went back to Arc bar that night, which was significantly more subdued than it had been before (most of the people there having been at the New Years party the night before and partied hard enough then to not need more partying. We sat, smoked hookah, and talked to some people around us. We didn't even drink or anything. However, we did notice something that was more than slightly disconcerting.

On all the beaches in Thailand, people would walk by trying to sell us stuff, whether it was necklaces, dresses, or souveniers (I still can't spell that word). Some of them were children. That night at Arc bar, the majority of the venders were little girls between the ages of 4 and 12. They were the most brazen flirts I've ever seen in my life. One girl, in particular, was about 5, maybe 6 years old, and would sneak up behind tourist men sitting of the lounge chairs and try to throw her necklaces around their necks. She wouldn't leave them alone, she would wrestle them as they tried to keep her from doing it, and put her arms around their necks and try to cuddle against them. She would give them kisses on the cheek and whisper in their ears. She would dance seductively for them. One guy bought a necklace and she tried to kiss him on the lips. He dodged her, but she threw her arms around his neck and plastered his face with kisses.

The awful thing is that her parents obviously didn't just condone this, but put her up to it. People are more likely to buy things from children, especially girls, so parents send their daughters out to do this with strange men late at night. What's worse is that there is pretty much no other way these girls' lives will turn out other than prostitution. That was a poorly constructed sentence. What it says is that these girls will all turn out to be prostitutes. Which is horrible. It was depressing me to watch these girls in action, so we went back to the hotel and to bed.

Our last day we camped out on the beach, and then went to the hotel and got our suitcases in the afternoon, just before our taxi was to arrive. I hadn't been feeling well all day, and hadn't really been eating much. I was sun sick, in essence. By the time we got to the airport I felt terrible. I haven't felt that sick in long time. I took some Dramamine type stuff hoping it would settle my stomach and knock me out, which it sort of did. The knocking me out part. Anyway, I got super sick on the airplane, which I'm not going to describe for obvious reasons. So that was the horrible end to an otherwise completely fantastic trip. Oh, and I didn't get sunburned the whole time because I kept sunscreen on always, and then the last day I ran out of sunscreen and burned the crap out of myself. Which was also nice.

Sorry these were so long and didn't really say much of anything.

Koh Phi Phi a.k.a. I'm on a boat

2010-01-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

We got up really early on our last morning in Phuket (which was to be also our first day in Koh Phi Phi) and took a taxi to catch the 8 am ferry. We got on the boat and sat on the edge, hoping to take some good pictures and catch as much of scenery as possible. And we did. We also caught a lot of splashing water from the front of the boat. At first it was just a little bit, but pretty soon we were getting soaked, so we moved inside. At least, we moved inside after listening to "I'm on a Boat" on my iPod a couple of times, and rapping along at the best parts (though, admittedly, that was mostly me).

Before we even reached the island I could tell, just from looking out the window, that Koh Phi Phi was going to surpass anything I could even imagine in beauty. The sapphire water, the large, hilly island, the perfection of the horizon line where the sky and ocean met, which almost disappeared because it blended so well, all these things combined to create this otherwordly splendor spread out before me. I couldn't do anything but stare.

And then we got to the island, and everything I had thought was confirmed. The water everywhere was shallow, the same aquamarine of the ocean at Karon, only infinitely more clear, bright, and blue-green. Below the surface there were dark rocks marking the white sand. The islands all around were edged by cliffs and filled with hills. Only one of them had structures on it. This was Koh Phi Phi. The pier, toward the middle of the island, had many buildings around it, all small and beachy, with the typical decor one might expect in such a locale. At first I thought this area might be where our hotel was, but as soon as we got off the boat we were told we would have to take a taxi to the end of the island, the end we'd passed on the way in that had a gorgeous little strip of beach, tons of hills, and only a few hotels. Expecting to be led deeper into town to catch a car, we were instead led toward the beach, where our suitcases where thrown into a long tail boat. We got about knee deep into the water and were helped up into the boat. They took us to the other end of the island, and dropped us right in front of our hotel. They put our suitcase on this combination dumb waiter- roller coaster that pulled it up the hill. It was at that point that I took a good look at the stairs we were expected to climb and noticed that they were completely ridiculous and I didn't want to climb them even a little bit. Too late.

After a five year long climb we (being me, Tonya, and Kristen) found ourselves at the front desk. Shannon was supposed to be with us, and had paid for her spot in one of the rooms (we were scheduled to be 2 and 2) but she had dropped out to do just a day trip with some other friends, so I got a bungalow to myself. Right away we asked about excursions to Maya beach, which is famous for being one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. They said there was a scuba trip we could take to Koh Phi Lay (another of the islands nearby, where Maya beach is located) with a private long boat. They would take us to Maya beach for an hour first, and then snorkeling. The boat would take the long way and give us a tour of the islands. For super cheap. So we signed up, and had a few hours to blow before our tour left, so we went down to the beach. That whole end of the island was made up of hills, with only a tiny bit of beach before this hills became ocean. The floor was rocky, but absolutely beautiful. There were small striped, tropical fish swimming all around our legs as we stood in the water. It was amazing.

Our tour left, and the long way to Maya beach was fantastic. The islands were even more beautiful close up, as the small boat got much closer than the ferry could. The sides of the cliffs looked like they were dripping, with rocks hanging down in formations reminiscent of water dripping off a body only recently risen from the water. At the base, the cliffs didn't quite reach the water, as though the ocean had lost depth over the past few years which, given the current global climate and the overwhelming evidence in support of global warming, it undoubtedly has. We finally rounded the corner and saw Maya beach. When we got to the actual shore and got onto the sand (which was so fine it felt like walking in flour) I turned around and realized I was standing in the exact spot where my school computer's desktop picture was taken. Maya beach is inside a tiny bay, surrounded on all sides by land. Straight back there was jungle, with hills not full behind, and one either side of the beach were huge cliffs. The sun was mostly kept out by the cliffs, but the beautiful color of the ocean was no different. I spent our entire hour in the water, floating on the glassy surface. Which means I forgot to take pictures there. But I'll steal Tonya's.

After an hour there, our boat took us around the edge of the island to the area where people snorkel. There was no beach nearby, but rather a rocky shore at the base of the cliffs, with a tiny, enormously tall island keeping the shallow water protected from the open ocean. We got our snorkeling gear on and jumped off the side of the boat into the water. As soon as I looked below the surface of the water I was blown away. It was only about ten feet to the bottom, which was covered with coral. The coral was all different colors, and covered with sea anenome and sea urchins. We saw some brain coral even, which was surprisingly cool. Everywhere I looked there were tons of different kinds of fish in all different colors. We saw Dory (the Ellen Degeneres fish) from Finding Nemo, bright blue with a yellow spot. We also saw Gill (the fish in the tank who also had a broken fin). That was my favorite fish. It's really called a Moorish Idol fish. They are black, yellow, and white striped fish who have a thin string-like thing coming off the top of their head. The way it moved in the water was interesting. It looked almost like salt water taffy that someone had stretched too far and extremely thin. Anyway. We also saw Neon fish in all different colors. There were all sorts of different fish. White fish. Black fish. Blue and yellow striped fish. Black head and white butt fish. Yellow and white striped fish. Orange fish. Blue green and purple fish. One fish that looked like a tiny, rounded nosed swordfish. Long ones. Short ones. Some as big as your head (kidding). Another favorite was these schools of tiny fish that would swim in small clumps and, when startled, all immediately turn in exactly the same direction, as if they were thinking as one. We also saw clouds in the water, which were really floating fish eggs. Gross-ish when you think about it. I got hit by the tide and one point and pushed into the rocks, scraping my knees and bruising my shins. Still, the entire experience was incredible.

Okay, so I'm sorry that this entry is so long. And that the last one was too. I just have so much to say. One more thing on Koh Phi Phi.

I'm really not doing it's beauty justice. From the moment I got there I noticed that it was created perfectly in order to preserve itself. With all the cliffs and hills the islands are impossible to industrialize of even really build on. Only Koh Phi Phi has enough flat areas, and even they are very few and very far between. As is evidenced by the huge staircase to our hotel, it was built on a huge hill. There is nothing anyone can possibly do with it except enjoy it for it's natural magnificence. The water was completely amazing too- a pal turquoise color like you'd think only existed in swimming pools and on photoshopped postcards. Not photoshopped. Real. Gorgeous. The deep water was a perfect sapphire. The plants all around were awesome as well; white flowers, orange flowers, pink flowers, multi-colored flowers, water lilies, palm trees, banana trees, and every other tropical plant you could image littered the hillsides. Everything around was aesthetically stupendous.

The only thing I could think was that I didn't deserve it. That no one, in the history of the human world, had ever done anything to deserve it. I still can't imagine anything someone could do to deserve a place like it. If there is any possible way you can ever go, do it. Don't ask questions. Just do it.

Start on Thailand: Phuket

2010-01-05T01:36:00.000-08:00

When we first got to Phuket, I was amazed at how warm it was. Compared to Korea, Thailand was paradise. Compared to pretty much everywhere else in the world, Thailand is paradise. We got in later at night, and went straight to our hotel. It was a guesthouse owned by a Korean family, which was great because it made them like us more. They were really nice, and we just went up right to our rooms. Shannon wasn't scheduled to stay there until the next day, but they let her stay in our room free of charge. The place was VERY nice, especially for what we were paying. The next morning we woke up and went straight to the beach.

We stayed at Patong Beach, which is the big party beach, but the night life sucked. And because of it's reputation it was extremely popular, and overcrowded. It wasn't even a very nice beach- a bit too reminicent of Florida for my taste. There were a LOT of foriegners there, particularly Germans, Russians, Brits, and (above all) Aussies. Women were walking around topless (even though it's not generally acceptable in Thailand). Most of the men were in tiny little swim trunks (yuk) and there were thongs EVERYWHERE. Still, it was nice to be in the ocean. The Indian Ocean is more salty than the Pacific or Atlantic (from what I can tell) and much less wavy. Still, the water was extremely warm and comfortable, and it was possible to just float on top of the water all the time. Funny story from the first day: we were all swimming in the water together, and Shannon sees this little fish swimming toward her. It couldn't have been longer than my index finger, but she kept dancing to get away from it, and it kept chasing her. It started to get really close, and she freaked out and started screaming. She swam over to me and climbed on my back. Tonya, Kristen and I were screaming too, mostly because we didn't know what the hell was going on. The fish kept swimming at Shannon, only since she was on my back it was now swimming toward me. Shannon is clinging on like a starfish, her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, everyone is screaming, and right as the fish comes within range I slapped it and it went flying. Let me tell you, I felt like a badass.

The first night we went out, and one of the first things we noticed (it was hard not to notice) was the Thai prostitutes. There were all dressed in red, hanging out in all the bars along our street. There were creepy, nerdy, old, or fat white men talking to them in all the bars, some of the men leading them down the street by the hand, presumably back to their hotels. It was really strange to see something like that so out in the open, when it's something you never or almost never see back home. We went out, and it was fine, though it wasn't that impressive. There were two Thai guys throwing around and spinning burning ropes, which was pretty cool. We left pretty early because the bar wasn't that fun. On the way home we walked along the beach. I was dancing along the beach happily, ankle deep in the water, when I accidentally flung my wallet (which I was using as a purse and thus holding in my hand) into the ocean. I caught it just as a wave threatened to carry it out to sea. The wallet itself was ruined, but everything inside was just fine.

We went shopping in all the little stalls along the street and in this market area. We all bought a few dresses, and a purse, and some souveneirs. In case you were wondering, I know that I didn't spell that word right, but I don't really care. Back to Thailand. They give you the most outrageous prices at first, and you have to learn to bargain. At first I was terrible. They would laugh at my first offer and agree right away. I got better as time passed, and pretty soon never paid more than half their first asking price. The trick is to offer something ridiculously low, and if they don't agree, you say no and walk away. They usually call you back to accept your stupidly low offer. It was fun. There was one shop in the market that we kept going back to, and the women would start laughing as soon as we started bargaining because we were so stubborn. Kristen would fight with one of the women for about 15 minute every time, and they were both laughing through the whole thing because neither of them would budge. It was entertaining to say the least.

The second day we went to Karon beach, which is just south of Patong. It's a lot less populated and a LOT more beautiful. The water was gorgeous, and it felt like a cool bath. Not cold, but cool, and it was the perfect relief from the sun which was SCORCHING that day. We couldn't even walk on the sand at all because it was burning the bottoms of our feet so badly. The color of the water was like liquid aquamarines- a clear, light, perfect blue-green that I have never seen before in nature. It was so clear that even when we went neck deep in the water, which was still pretty waveless, you could see the color of everyone's pedicures. It was gorgeous.

That night, December 17, 2009, was the five year anniversary of the tsunami that hit Thailand to devastating effects. Before we went out, we walked down to the beach. It was Shannon and her two friends, Melissa and Angela, who work in Seoul, Tonya, Kristen, Holly, and Chris (her husband. And me, obviously. There were mounds and designs carved into the beach, in the form of flowers, and other stuff. Inside the carved out areas, there were candles burning. All of these things were monuments dedicated to people lost in the tsunami. The thing that struck me, that I guess I hadn't heard much about at the time, was that it happened at the peak of tourist season. I never realized that many of the people who lost their lives were simply people on vacation, relaxing their cares away only days after christmas, only to be killed without warning. All along the beach people were lighting wish lanterns. They were these large cylindrical paper lanterns, mostly white, which only cost about $2 after the exchange. You light a circle of god-only-knows-what flamable stuff, and then hold the paper of the lantern up until it fills up with hot air, like a hot air balloon. Once it fills you release it, and it flies away over the ocean. Then you make a wish. Our whole group did them. It was really beautiful, and you could watch them fly way high up into the atmosphere, until they were so small they looked like tiny, moving, orange stars. It was beautiful.

The third day Shannon and I went on an elephant trek, which had a couple things included. We went for a ride around the area (which was at the southern end of Phuket island from what I could tell, and a bit inland) in an ox cart. It was okay. It was cool to see the inside of complex where all the stuff was taking place, but the ride was a bit boring. After that we got to go to an elephant show. The elephants were all babies, and some were more well trained than others. There were three. One of them played basketball and darts. One of them played soccer. The smallest one of all gave massages. I went down and got one. I laid on my stomach on a mat on the ground, and he patted me lightly on the back with his foot. Toward the end he started giving me kisses on the cheek and shoulder with his trunk. It tickled, and was kind of gross but it was definitely cool. Next was the monkey show. I don't know what kind of monkeys they were (there were two of the same) but they were pretty funny. They rode tricycles, dunked on a small basketball hoop, climbing up into trees and knocking down coconuts, etc. At the end, one of the monkeys went around shaking hands with people in the crowd and picking up baht that people would throw on the ground. He would pick it up and put it in his trainer's pocket. I went forward to shake the monkey's hand, and instead of shaking my hand he put his hands together and looked up to the sky, like he was praying. Shannon laughed at me, because it looked like he was praying to not have to touch me. So I started to walk away, and he immediately came forward and grabbed my hand. He held my hand and walked me all the way to the outside of the monkey area. It was hilarious. We joked that now we knew that he wasn't praying to not have to touch me, but that I'd kiss him at the end of the date when he walked me to the door.

Then we rode the elephant, and it was pretty cool. Our elephant was a mama (basically the only word our guide could say in English, except for "banana," which we bought to feed our elephant) and she was 40 years old. Younger than my parents in other words. Looking at elephants it's difficult to imagine that they could be young. They seem to be ancient from youth. Even the babies that we saw in the show, something about their skin and their eyes, seemed to be old and wise. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it's also something about how slowly they move. It was hard to believe that our elephant was so young. Somehow it seemed young, though for a person some people would consider it old. I don't know. The ride was pretty short, but it was still pretty cool. Our guide sat on the elephant's head, and we sat on a bench on it's back, holding an umbrella to protect us from the sun. It was a good day all in all.

When we got back we all went to our favorite restaurant down the street from our guesthouse, by the beach. They had the best pad thai we ate the whole time we were in Thailand. The interesting thing about their menu was the languages. Everything was in English first, then Thai, followed by German, and finally Italian. There was even a whole page of stuff like weinerschnitzel on the menu. A whole page exclusively dedicated to German food. Weird.

Anyway, that was our experience in Phuket, as we left for Koh Phi Phi super early the next morning. It was gorgeous there, even more so than Phuket. More on that in a future post.

Thing I learned about Korea last week and something universal just for kicks

2009-11-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

Thing I learned about Korea last week:

In Korea, women are not allowed to work past the age of 40. Basically, this means that if you do not get married before you turn 40, your life will be extremely difficult and/or impossible. It's against the law to actually fire them just for being 40, but companies can do whatever they can think of to make women quit, including, according to my TP, things like moving their desks into the hallway so they cannot get work done, taking supplies away, giving impossible deadlines and then reprimanding women for not getting things completed on time, etc. etc.

What the hell? I knew that things would be different for women here, but in addition to all that, women make LESS THAN HALF what men make at the same jobs, and it is far more difficult for them to get fired. This makes me fear for my older female friends who are unmarried. Ten years to find a husband seems like plenty of time, but who knows? And what happens if they never meet anyone, or want to choose not to get married? Or what if, and I know this is really rare in Korea because of the culture, but what if someone is a lesbian in a committed relationship? Who takes care of these women when they turn 40? What options can they have?

As many issues as I sometimes have with the United States, sometimes I am really thankful to be from there. Good god.

Universal thing:

Christmas concerts are nothing more than devices with which to torture teachers. Hello lots of extra work? Yes, she can take you right over there. That's right, the white one. Oh, tiny, high-voiced tone deaf children? Yes, again, over there with the white one. Oh and by the way white one, can you choreograph a dance routine while your ears are bleeding? Because otherwise you're rather useless aren't you? Again I feel inclined to say, good god.

The novelty eventually wears off and then...

2009-11-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

I have nothing to write about. My kids are all the same as they always were, and we generally go to the same places and do the same things. It's super cold here. It was snowing a few weekends ago. I have to wear my legit winter jacket and a scarf. It's going to get colder, which is not exacly happy fun times. Thailand in 4-5 weeks. That will be happy fun times.

There is a staff room again, but no heat, which means I wear my winter coat all day except when I am physically teaching in my classroom, and that my hands are numb more often than not while at work. We told them it was too cold so they gave us a heat lamp that has a 2 meter radius for heating. We told them it was still too cold so they gave us another identical heat lamp, and then took the first one away the next day. The power on my side of the room goes out frequently so that I still don't have a computer half the time. The computer in my classroom is still sans internet and has been for almost a month and a half. So, in other words, I still love my school a whole lot. But I'm just complaining, so that's enough of that.

I'm sorry to be so breif, but there is honestly nothing new going on. It's all same old same old around here. Steven may move in January, but my TP and I are both praying that he doesn't. That's all really. I posted some new photos on Facebook from Halloween and the hookah bar we sometimes go to. *Shrug* Oh! I might get a dwarf bunny! If my friend Tonya and I decide to be stupid, we might buy a bunny. I kind of hope we make the wrong choice and do it. They are so tiny and cute.

The novelty has worn off and I find myself no longer surprised. I honestly wish I had more to say, or some insights, but I don't.

Yikes!

2009-10-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it has been far too long since I wrote on my blog, and I'm very sorry for that. This entry probably won't be very long either.

I have noticed that there are several things that function significantly better in Korea, from the mundane to the random. Here are a few things I've picked up on.

1) Department store escalators are AMAZING in Korea. Rather than have regular escalators with those weird grocery-cart escalators that make your cart get stuck, they have moving sidewalks that go at an incline. So you push your cart directly onto the same escalator that you are using. The escalator floor is also special, and it has a special way that it grips the wheels of the cart so that you don't even have to hold it in place. It doesn't slide around or anything. So simple. So useful.

2) Spicy food. Most of you probably know that I absolutely hate and essentially refuse to eat most spicy foods back home in the states. But spicy food here is different, and I eat it by choice all the time. In fact, my favorite food in Korea is a really spicy soup. The difference is that in the U.S. spicy just makes your mouth, lips, tongue and throat on fire without any real benefit. Sure, there is a little extra flavor, but NOTHING compared to the amount of flavor that comes with spicy Korean food. Everything is so incredibly delicious when it's spicy. I prefer spicy foods to more bland ones here, which is the complete opposite of back home.

3) The postal system. I ordered a camera online here, and I received it in the mail two days later. The company didn't ship it four business days after the order and I didn't have to wait two weeks after that for it to get to me. It literally came to my work two days after I placed the online order. The post office never has heinously long lines like back home, and transactions take all of two minutes maximum. It's one of the easiest bureaucratic things I've ever done in my life.

4) Restaurant style dining. Everything here is communal, so when you go to a restaurant they bring a bunch of sides and you order for the table. Restaurants are most specialty foods, so there is no long menu. You have about five options, and you just order for the number of people you have, and everyone eats together from the same large dish/frying pan type thing in the middle of the table. They just have a lot of different kinds of restaurants, and you have to find the one that serves the food you want. The best thing about it, however, is the price. Korean people eat out pretty often, and it is entirely possible to eat out every night of the week (I pretty much do). Most nights my dinner (after the exchange rate) costs between $4 and $7. And on top of that, everything is filling and delicious. It is essentially the same cost as buying groceries and cooking for yourself. And tipping is actually rude here. So when they say something costs 5,000 won (about $4), it already has service fees and taxes built in. AMAZING.

5) Levels of trust. Parents here actually get offended if you aren't affectionate with their children because it means you don't care about them. You don't get yelled at for hugging kids, or letting them snuggle up with you during storytime. You don't get in trouble. Nobody things anything evil of you, nobody sues. Parents trust teachers wholeheartedly. It's kind of nice not to have to inwardly chastise myself for holding a kid's hand while I walk them to the bathroom, or wrestling with them during play time, or picking them up and carrying them around as a joke. It's really nice to not have to think "oh god, is that too much touching?" or feel dirty and uncomfortable when there is absolutely nothing dirty about being affection with my kids. Plus my kids are freaking awesome.

Things that are not better.

1) No one speaks my language. This is obviously my fault more than anyone else's.

2) They wear some UGLY clothes here. Some of the kids in my class have these weird pants that are jeans in front and sweats in the back. I have no idea what their purpose is. It's literally just pants that are made of denim on the front side and sewed to sweat pant fabric on the backside. Why? Because they like to.

3) Korea makes me hate Americans because I see so many of them act in awful ways toward Koreans and/or each other. Last night in Iteawan (the foreigner section of Seoul) we went to a few Halloween parties. On the way to one of them, there was a young Korean boy riding his bike in front of us. He was twelve, maybe thirteen. He was minding his own business, riding his bike down the sidewalk, and out of nowhere some white guy going the opposite direction reaches out and shoves him over sideways into the wall, knocking him off his bike. The guy didn't even say anything. He just did it, and then laughed and walked away. Foreigners here seem to retain the American superiority complex that we have when we're sitting pretty at home. Somehow they bring it with them, even when they're outnumbered and there are actually faces to put to the people we conceive of as somehow below us. I don't understand it. I have absolutely no idea how people can be so ignorant as to come here and honestly expect everyone to speak English, and to call them idiots when they don't. You're in their country, why don't you learn to speak their language? I feel like a jerk for not speaking it better, and I'm trying to learn as much as possible and already know more than a lot of other foreigners. And yet, every time I meet foreigners there is, without fail, one person in the group who calls Koreans idiots, or says something rude, or treats them with disdain. I am completely at a loss to explain it. I guess this isn't worse in Korea, but just something about being here that annoys me. I can't ignore the ignorance of my own countrymen anymore. My own ignorance was bliss.

Hookah, sweaty kids, fanny packs, and interesting information on the Korean style dating

2009-10-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

This entry is going to be three short things, and then an explanation that COMPLETELY bamboozles me.

1) Paul is the sweatiest kid I've ever seen in my LIFE. It's actually really funny, but every day during gym he gets so into the games that by the end of the lesson (which is only 30 minutes) he is absolutely pouring sweat. From about two minutes after stretches end you can see the beads of sweat start to slowly make their bid for freedom from his temples. But he's so joyful that somehow it isn't even a little bit gross. I don't know how to explain it. Today in gym they played robot dance and musical chairs (yeah, that counts as gym-- sad) which is always great to watch. Dancing to kids the world over seems to be nothing more than jumping up and down and flailing. Not that it's much more than that with most adults, but whatever. Anyway, Steven is the funniest kid at this, because he just does the robot the whole time, and then some stuff that looks like low-rent karate. All the while having the hugest grin I've ever seen EVER plastered on his face. Cutest kid in history. Anyway, Ryan. He gets so concentrated and into gym. He's so intense about it that I actually start to worry about him, until he wins a game and breaks out into cheers and falls onto his knees and leans back, closing his eyes and holding up his two fists screaming "Ole!" which, oddly, is a phrase commonly used by both Korean children and adults due to a funny commercial that featured it. Weird. Okay, this wasn't short. Or relevant to anything. Whatever.

2) We found a hookah bar last weekend, which I forgot to write about. They basically had beer or red wine and a bunch of food. We got a fruit plate, which was FULL of fresh pineapple, Asian pears, honeydew, cherry tomatoes, Korean grapes, and several other fruits which was all perfectly ripe. It was really good. And they had only one flavor of hookah (blueberry, which isn't a particularly great flavor). But still, it was great to be there. The decor was really awesome too. I'll be posting pictures on facebook. I'm thinking about getting an account on a photo website for those of you who are facebookless. Thoughts?

3) Cal (in my Grade 2 class) wore a fanny pack today. It had multiple pockets and cartoon characters on it. For some reason it reminded me of my dad. Maybe because he wears fanny packs even when we tell him not to, and whenever we steal or hide them he magically manages to find more as if it's 1992 and they spontaneously sprout from the walls? Who knows.

Now, the cultural lesson of the day. Dating in Korean is extremely strange to me. First, the only way to start a relationship with someone is to be set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. If you like them, you keep seeing them for a few more dates. Then, if you still like them, you become boyfriend and girlfriend. Then, and only then, do you kiss for the first time. There is no kiss frogs to find your prince, no stupid drunken mistakes, NO sex with someone who isn't your partner, no friends with benefits. There is also no intimate contact of any kind with people who are not your significant other, even if you are single. Meaning there is no cuddling at the movies with a friend of the opposite sex, no walking with your arms around each other, nothing like that. You are either together and allowed to touch or you just don't touch. Many of the women in my Korean group are in their late 20s and early 30s and have never really had a boyfriend because none of their blind dates went particularly well. Can you imagine that? One of the women is 29 and hasn't gone on a date in 6 YEARS! She only even went on six or seven blind dates in her life, and they never really went beyond seeing each other once or twice. I'm being polite and haven't asked (I asked her about dating in Korea and she told me all this) but that probably means she is 29 years old and has never been kissed. WHAT?!?!? Even if you randomly meet someone and get along well and there's a spark, you don't really exchange numbers and meet up again. You just have to pray that a mutual friend comes out of the woodwork and sets the two of you up. I guess. She said sometimes it happens, but not really. I don't understand this. How does anyone ever end up meeting anyone they really love? How does anyone ever end up meeting anyone at all? Friends and family, I love you but I don't trust you enough to find the love of my life for me. Sorry.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Beer, Funyuns, Soccer, Parades, Chicken Skewers, and then some more Beer

2009-10-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

This entry might have to be a bit quick because I have more progress reports to get done tonight. Yawn.

Yesterday there was a festival at Paldalmun, which is the south gate of the Suwon fortress, in honor of the fortress. Who knows why it was being honored. Probably an anniversary of some kind. Anyway, Young invited me, and so I met her there with Tween, Kristen, Cally, and Erica. Young's friend Sora (Sola? The L/R thing is impossible to discern here. They are, scout's honor, the same letter in the Korean alphabet) also met us. We walked around a bit and went to a huge food festival area, where there were tents with all sorts of foods. Young got a really yummy beef skewer, which she shared with everyone, and then I got a delectable chicken skewer. Here's the weird part. After I got my skewer, we went off to stand somewhere and eat. While I was eating, this Korean man with a HUGE professional camera came running over to me and started taking photos of me eating the skewer. I started blushing (I hate having my photo taken) and I was pretty uncomfortable, but he wouldn't leave me alone. Then another man saw what he was doing and came over and started taking pictures too. So I'm bright red, my face is covered in sauce, all my friends are laughing at me and talking about how much I'm blushing, and these men have probably snapped about ten photos each already. I finally just posed for a photo and then, when they didn't stop, literally ran away. They chased me. Sometimes it's a bit awkward being white in Korea. The other part about it is that I am extraordinarily white here. My body is shaped very differently from theirs, my hair is much lighter than even most foreigners' hair, and my eyes are big and bright blue. I seem to be targeted more than Kristen, whose hair is brown, or Cally, whose eyes are not as big and bright as mine. Later, during the parade, another man came up to the table where we were sitting, leaned across the whole thing and waved directly in my face (I was sitting away from the sidewalk). Even after I said hello he didn't leave, so I turned away toward the street and about thirty seconds later he left. It's really weird to stand out so much. Tween and I hang out a lot, and she hates it because she isn't used to people staring at her since she's Asian. Anyway.

After the food we found a spot to sit for the parade portion of events, and just hung out. While we were sitting there, a parade organizer came over and plopped down a juice-jug sized plastic bottle of Hite (one of the main Korean beers) and some paper cups. For free. I know that drinking is not necessarily frowned upon in the United States, but here it's almost insulting if you don't drink. Everyone drinks, at all hours of the day, in the open, behind closed doors, liquor, beer, wine, whatever. But EVERYONE drinks. It's kind of odd. The parade was really cool, and I took tons of photos. Because last weekend when we were at Chang Gyung Gung Kristen broke her camera, she took my digital camera and took pictures with it while I used my SLR and took about three rolls of black and white. Now I just need to find somewhere to develop them all. After the parade we went up the street and ate some delicious mandoo (kind of like potstickers, but steamed. Essentially just amazingly good dumplings) and then we came back home.

Then today, Shannon wanted to go to a soccer game, so she, Tonya, Tween and I met downstairs at 1:30 and went to Suwon's World Cup Stadium to watch them play against Ulsan (and no, I don't know where Ulsan is. Korea somewhere). We found out later it was a semifinal match. The Suwon team is the best team in South Korea, so it was pretty entertaining. We bought a few six packs and just chilled while we watched them WIN. It was really fun and relaxing. Soccer is a pretty big deal here. They have sections for the die hard fans, where it seems you pretty much can't sit unless you're wearing the team's colors. They sing songs there, and do special dances that go with the songs (which is cool to watch since a whole section of people are all moving together) and get really into it. I enjoyed myself a lot. We're thinking we might try a baseball game up in Seoul in a few weekends. Next weekend Kristen and I are going hiking up a mountain with Young, and on Sunday we're going to Seoul for the all you can eat western brunch. So the weekend after that, which is Tween's birthday weekend.

Good weekend, all in all. And now, to work. Sigh.

I am ten years behind on my life

2009-10-01T02:50:00.000-07:00

OKAY. So this week has been completely bananas, and last weekend was also busy, but I don't have tons of time so we'll see how this entry goes.

First, last weekend.

All the teachers at the school except Tara went to Hongdae, which is a party section of Seoul. We stayed in a hostel, all in one room. Kristen, Cally, Tween, and I went a bit earlier on Saturday than everyone else (because Tonya and Shannon had to work) and hung out for a bit. We got some gkalbi and just relaxed and played drinking games. Then everyone else got there and we got ready to go out (even though we weren't leaving for hours) and played more drinking games. While we were chilling, other people who were staying in the hostel showed up and were hanging out in the living room. We were in the dining room, and a few guys were loitering nearby, and being Kelsey, I yelled at them to come drink with us. They were a couple of Americans who are here in the army and live like, twenty minutes away from Suwon (where we live, obv.). They also ended up being pretty cool, so we invited them out with us, and met up with their friend at a bar down the street. We started at one bar and then went to a couple of clubs.

The first club SUCKED. First of all, they had a "no G.I.s" rule, so the guys couldn't come in. Then we get downstairs and the entire place is so smoky you can't really see anyone's face, and the dance floor is so packed that you aren't so much dancing as just rubbing your butt all over random people. It was tiny and cramped, and HOT, and I in general hated it. But I figured, make the best of it and dance for a little while, you know, why not? Why not? Because Korean men do not understand "no I do not want you to grind yourself on me to your hearts content get away from me right now please thank you." I actually would move away from them to a different part of the floor and they would follow me. I shoved one guy because he was getting too handsy, and it didn't deter him even a little. Tween and I eventually went and sat in a corner of the club and drank water and tried to avoid people altogether. Finally, everyone was ready to leave and we met back up with the guys from before. Shannon, Holly, and Chris all went home because they were tired and it was about 2 a.m. at this point. We decided to go to another club and had a really good time. And then, at about 5 a.m. went home. Most of us weren't that drunk, though a few were. When we got back, e hung out with the guys at the hostel for a while before going to bed. It was fun in general. I think Kristen went to bed at about 7 a.m. I wouldn't know. I was a good girl, and was in bed by 5:45.

So now onto the rest of this stuff. On Monday afternoon, the director of the school came down to meet with us, and informs us that they're converting the basement teacher's offices into a parking lot. I'm sorry, what? Right, and then the first floor that is currently a parking lot will become a bank. Okay.... so where do we go? We're getting new offices upstairs, and will have to be out of the basement by the end of the day on Tuesday. Okay, and we move upstairs? Oh, no, the upstairs was recently a restaurant, but they have to gut the whole thing and do construction to turn it into offices and a library. It won't be done for at least two weeks, more likely a month. Okay... so where do we go? Our classrooms. No more offices. The gym room is being taken away to hold the lunches, which used to go downstairs, so we have to have gym in our classrooms. How, I don't know. And what about breaks? What about the 15 minute unpaid break we get in the middle of the day when the kids are still there so that they can work us 29.6 hours and not have to go over 30 hours and pay us overtime? We take that break in the room. While the kids are there. So, really it's not a break. How do you tell a child whose first language isn't English that you can't play cars with him because you're on your break? On Monday she told us to plan through next Wednesday. Then Tuesday, at 11:30 while we are all teaching, she sends us an email. It's actually going to be at least the next two full weeks that we will need to be planned for, because we won't have internet access or access to printers or copiers for at least that long. Also, pack up everything in our desks by the end of the day. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THAT ISN'T POSSIBLE!

Then, they made the TPs (our Korean teaching partners) move the entire supply room up two floors, and got mad at them when they couldn't finish it in one day. Mind you, they were supposed to use their break time, not paid time, to do this. Honestly, the administration at this school is completely horrible. If it weren't for the fact that I love the kids and the other teachers I wouldn't even consider staying. Ugh.

MY KIDS!

2009-09-25T03:36:00.000-07:00

Photo 1: My boys! This photo shows each of their personalities so perfectly. Steven is acting like a superhero/ comic book character (he's the one in the middle doing Spiderman hands). Paul has me in his gun sight, despite the fact that I've told him a million times there are no guns in Miss Kelsey's class. Junebug (the one standing up) is about to do something stupid that will cause others bodily harm, in a misguided attempt to be cool (he kicked into the air right after this and barely missed Steve's head). Tom is observing everyone, and doing something that looks somewhat like a video camera (which I could totally see him doing in the future). And Andrew is quietly watching the action from the background, making a peace sign with his fingers.

Photo 2: Three of my girls. Cynthia is in the background without a smile on her face, which is somewhat odd. She's very quiet and VERY smart, but she's also usually a pretty happy kid. Cherry is in the middle with the huge grin, which is typical of her. She is always so enthusiastic (except when she has to do independent phonics work, which is every morning) and energetic.

Side note: Good story about Cherry-- Young and I were taking a video of them once while I taught them about bears, and when Young was watching the video later she noticed that Junebug, who sits next to Cherry on the carpet, had been flailing and inadvertently punched Cherry in the face. He goes over to see if she's okay, and she is holding her eye, in obvious pain, but not telling either Young or I (and neither of us even noticed anything had happened). She sits there for about a minute quietly, holding her eye. Junebug, of course, has completely forgotten he just punched someone. Little bastard. Anyway, after a minute, I ask a question, and Cherry's hand immediately shoots from her eye into the air and when I call on her she gets really excited to answer and grins really widely. Never even touched her eye again. She's a trooper.

Back to the photo, on the left is Sandy, the spinner. I called all three of their names twice to get their attention so I could take the photo. Sandy had to be called six times. Finally, I decided to just take the photo while she wasn't looking, and at the last second she looked up to ask me a question. She's such a space cadet.

Photo 3: Jully. During play time (when I took the photos) Jully had work she wanted to finish, so she was at the table. Most beautiful child ever. The photo is, unfortunately, a bit grainy. Take my word for it though.

Photo 4: Steven! This kid took two pictures with me, the first of which included him with karate chop hands in front of his face. I literally had to pull his arm down to get his face in this shot. Cracks me up.

Who has two thumbs, brown hair, and a probably sinus infection? This guy!

2009-09-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm sick for the first since I got here, and in all honesty it's not that bad. But it's looking like it's probably a sinus infection, and my voice is completely trashed. As Sandy put it today, "Miss Kelsey sounds like a monster!" Thanks, Sandy. It's sweet of you to say. Except that I kind of love that about kids, the way they don't know what they supposedly are and aren't supposed to say, so they actually tell the truth. At least I don't feel that bad. The worst part of it is that tomorrow all the teachers are going up to Seoul for the night, and we rented a house so that we'll have some place to crash after partying all night. And I probably will barely be able to talk and, as drinking would be a horrible idea, I'm going to monitor myself pretty heavily. Lame.

Today I took a bunch of pictures of my kindergarten boys (because they stay later Tuesday through Friday for another lesson, so it was just me and them) and one or two of my kindergarten girls, so I'll post those soon. In Korea, people do not care as much about you taking pictures of their children. On the subway last weekend there was this really cute boy, and I subtly tried to take a picture of him in his dad's arms, without letting his dad know what I was doing. I was thinking that since in the US you do NOT take pictures of people's children, I probably shouldn't here either. But the dad saw me pointing the camera, and rather than get angry, he changed his body angle so I could get a better shot of his son. It was kind of weird. Anyway, so I'll post those soon, but I'm at work so I can't right now. I'll post some pictures from the Han river, which we did this weekend.

Basically, the Han river tour is like the Circle Line in New York, one in Seoul. I took some pictures of stuff off the side of the boat, but then I met this small Korean boy who fell in love with me and, in spite of the fact that he spoke no English and neither did his mom, he ended up playing with me for about half the trip. He even stole my camera for a bit and ran around taking photos of the boat, and of me. I'll post those photos on facebook, and maybe a few on here. I may need to start a photo website account. Anyway.

Today was activity day at school, and it was multi-cultural day. I ran the Mexico room, as I speak the language and know a fair amount about the culture. It was really fun, and the kids had a good time, which is the point. We played a Mexican card game, listened to Mexican music, learned a few phrases in Spanish, and ate chips and salsa. It was good.

There was more I wanted to write, but I can't remember what it was. Oh! I eat spicy (ish) food now, and actually enjoy it, which is entirely new. I have always hated anything with even a little bit of spice, but now I really like some stuff, especially Tak Gkalbi, which is nothing like pork or beef Gkalbi. With Tak (which means chicken, as opposed to Tuk which means rice cake) they throw a tons of greens like cabbage and these weird leaves, in with some chicken, potatoes, rice cakes, onions, and spicy sauce, and they sautee the whole thing together. It's seriously delicious, even if it leaves me mouth feeling like I've been making out with a jalapeno. By the end my lips, throat, and mouth are on fire and my nose is running. Sometimes my eyes tear up a bit. It's really not that spicy for most people, but it's taking some getting used to for me. I have a feeling it will be one of my favorite meals by the end of my time here. It's already up near the top of the list.

Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll try to post the photos from Han river and class either tonight or Sunday.

2009-09-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

These are the pictures of my apartment, or some of them. First is the main room (and last too), and then there are two of my laundry room and one of the bathroom. It would only let me upload five pictures for some reason. There are a few more (like the view from my window and another one of my living room that's got a better look at my table and dresser) but this is fine for now. I also posted a full entry below, today, so check that out too if you so desire. Enjoy!

Friday Night Writes

2009-09-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday was Friday. Work was fine. Except that in the morning class I was playing with my kids after lunch and I got them a bit too riled up, and long story short, the kid in my class who tends to get overly emotional (Junebug) got way too excited, stole my slippers and threw them across the room where they promptly landed in Tom's lunch. Awesome Junebug, thanks. When he got in trouble, he cried. Again, so cool of you little dude.

Then in my second class I was super tired, and they can kind of get annoying, so by my third class (which I usually love) I was in a TERRIBLE mood. But it was all good because those kids are so chill that it didn't even matter. I even made their journal topic "If everyone around you was happy but you felt angry, what would you do?" I opted for Allie and Sarah's path, and was nice to the kids, rather than taking on Cal, Ervin, and Susannah's advice and finding someone mean to punch and kick.

After work I calmed down considerably, sitting on my bed for about an hour and just relaxing. At 7:30 we were all meeting at the local subway station (a short, convenient subway ride away unless you want to walk for 30 minutes) to go to Songtan, where the military base is, for Mexican food again. Erica and Kim were coming this time because neither of them have ever had Mexican food before. Well, Kim has but it wasn't very good. Chris, Holly's husband, invited a bunch of his friends from base, and all the teachers from my school except Tara came, and one of the TPs, Tween's TP Amy. The food was good, the servers were nicer than last time (by a small margin) and a good time was had by everyone. I was sitting by Kristen and Erica, and other than that the Air Force guys were all around me. I had never really met any of them before, so it was kind of awkward.

Afterwards, a bunch of people were going to go to Anyang, which is a few subway stops away from our home station in the opposite direction of Songtan (meaning from home it's about 6 stops but from where we were it was 12). There is a really cool bar there called Club Psycho, which has an open mic night that Holly and Chris were going to play at. I was the only teacher who went, so it was essentially me, Holly, Chris, and a bunch of people I had never met before. I had started talking to a lot of them at dinner though, and the cab ride from the restaurant to the subway station was spent arguing about (of all things) Oregon Duck football with some of the guys. They all turned out to be really nice, sweet, guys. Interestingly, where at school and in my neighborhood there are no men, on base there are very few women. Hence, I got a LOT of attention last night. Which isn't a bad thing at all. Like I said, they were all pretty nice guys, so it wasn't like any of them got annoying or rude or anything. Holly and Chris are amazingly talented (which I already knew, having watched them sing at Anna's going away party) and I'm posting those pictures on Facebook (as soon as I figure out how). Oh yeah! Because I got a camera on Thursday. Ordered it online on Tuesday, and I got it on Thursday. Take that American Postal System!

I'm posting another blog today (if I can figure out how to do this) with photos of my apartment. I didn't take pictures of the kitchen because I didn't feel like doing the dishes and/or putting up the wall decorations I have in mind for that room. I need to go to E-Mart to get more supplies for decorating anyway. However, today should be a two post day. I'm pretty sure the next post will also say this.

Weekend in Seoul/ the Fortress

2009-09-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Saturday), Tonya and I went into Seoul, to Myeong-dong, to do some shopping. They have a few western stores there, and we wanted to go because we felt like we were more guaranteed that things would fit. The Korean stores we go to have extremely small clothes since Korean women are extremely small. Three times now I have walked into stores and had sales girls come directly up to me and, pointing directly at me, say "not your size." Gee, thanks.

So we went to Myeong-dong, and they had Zara and Forever 21 there. It was my first time in a Zara and I was a tad disappointed. It was extremely expensive, and really nothing special. Forever 21 was great though. I go two tops, one of which is really nice and will be good for work, and the other of which is quite possibly the funniest tee-shirt I have ever seen. It is a picture of two dinosaurs who look extremely happy. One of them has one very dull tooth and the other has no teeth. They are eating cupcakes. Meanwhile, children in party hats are running away screaming. Ha. And then hee.

After that, we went to Itewan (which I am absolutely not spelling correctly), which is where most of the foreigners in Seoul live, to meet Kim for dinner. One of the first things I said when we got off the subway was "Holy white people, Tonya!" They were everywhere. It was weird. And people on the street were speaking to me in English, and we ate Mexican food. It was only Kim's second time eating Mexican food, and it wasn't very good. So we're taking him, and some of the other English group people, to Songtan for Mexican food next weekend. The restaurant there was much better. Most of them have never had Mexican food at all. The one thing that this short trip to Itewan taught me, though, is that I am extremely glad that I did not go to Seoul. If I had gone there and ended up living in Itewan, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the experience that I am getting now. It would have been much more like the states and much less like Korea, and I feel like that would have been more than a little bit stupid. So now I'm very glad that I came to Suwon instead, even if Seoul's night life is amazing. It's not like we can't take a trip up there for a night.

Then today Kristen, Cally and I went to Paldalmun, which is the south gate of the Suwon Fortress. Suwon used to be a heavily fortified city in contention for the capital of South Korea. The walls of the ancient fortress still go around the center of the city, though Suwon has since expanded beyond its borders. After we went to the gate we walked up a really steep hill and found (randomly) a giant gold Buddah that was towering over the surrounding houses. So we went up to it and it was some sort of temple. There were large gates, and small buildings with beautiful lanterns inside and amazing painted murals all over the undersides of the roof on the outside. We went inside and took lots of pictures (only not me because I still don't have a camera, but I'm going to get my Teaching Partner, Young, to order one for me online this week). After that we wandered until we found a huge staircase, which we guessed went up to the top of the hill where the fortress was. This is one of the only spots where the fortress is up high above the city rather than right in the middle of it. We got some great views of the whole of Suwon laid out before us, and we were right. It was the fortress. So we hiked for about an hour or so before heading home.

A few hours after I got home I left again to go to the movies with Tonya, Erica, and Rachel, the latter of whom are from English group. The movie we had meant to see, which was an Indian film, turned out to be in not-English, so Tonya and I wouldn't have been able to understand any of it, as the subtitles would be in Korean. So we went to a Canadian movie instead, which I had never heard of but which had Joshua Jackson in it. The guy from the Mighty Ducks. You know, the one that isn't Emilio Estevez. So you know it's going to be good. And it actually wasn't bad. It was about a guy who finds out he's dying of cancer, and rather than get treatment he goes on a trip West across Canada. So basically, the exact same premise as lots of other movies. I just got home from that a bit ago and figured that, after such a busy weekend, I should write some of it down before I forget it.

And now to bed.

Steven

2009-09-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have officially decided that one of the kids in my class, Steven, was once a cartoon character, but he was accidentally brought to life. Here's how I think it went down.

His parents (or the two adults who now call themselves his parents) had only one child. This child constantly begged for a sibling, but his parents (for whatever reason) couldn't have any more children. One day, while watching its favorite cartoon, the existing child made a wish that his or her favorite character were his or her brother. And then in some sort of Freaky-Friday style miraculous conversion, Steven jumped out of the television set and into the living room. He has been masquerading as a human child ever since.

It's his laugh, and his facial expressions. It's the undying energy he possesses in excess of a normal child. It's the way all the other children in the class gravitate toward and emulate him. It's his mannerisms. Everything about him screams not-real-child. He is so steroetypically an Asian child, and yet at the same time he is completely crazy. It might be the best thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

On to things that are ATUALLY happening in my life, however.

On Monday I started Korean lessons. Erica, one of the women from English group, agreed to teach Tonya and I Korean, and Tonya agreed to teach Erica and I French. So on Monday nights, from 7-8 Erica teaches Korean, and then from 8-9 Tonya teaches French. It should be interesting. We had our first lesson Monday (like I said) and it was really fun. I'm learning the consonants and vowels of Korean, meaning I'm learning how to read and write Korean. It seems like it's going to be pretty easy once I memorize the characters. We went to Starbucks, but it was kind of loud and very full, so we moved to a different coffee shop. The set up at this place is that you buy one coffee or juice or whatever, and then they have free popcorn, bread, and refills. So, essentially, you spend like $4 american to have all you want of that stuff. Not bad. It had good atmosphere too, and computers around that you could use if you needed the internet. It was pretty quiet and chilled out. It was on the second floor of a Baskin Robbins, for whatever reason. But I liked it there. I now know how to say "cookie" "tofu" "bus" "see-saw" and "meat" in Korean. All but "meat" are pretty much the same word in Korean as in English. (Buh-se is bus, coo-key is cookie, too goo is tofu, she-seo is see saw, and gogi is meat). Then Tonya taught us French, but it was only a few key phrases, all of which I knew. So that's fine. It seems like most of the French is going to be Tonya helping Erica pronounce things since French is a bit difficult anyway, and it's so different from Korean.

Then on Tuesday we had English group, which is always fun. We just hung out and talked about our weekends, introduced ourselves, since Kristen and Tuyen came, and then played a game. They ordered pizza too. Korean pizza is VERY different from American pizza in most cases. They ordered from pizza hut and one looked like a normal veggies and sausage pizza, but it was just big pieces of pork. And then the other pizza had cheese, pineapple, mayonaise, and barbeque sauce. They were both kind of good, to be honest. Weird, but good.

Last night Shannon, Kristen, Tonya, and I all got together to plan Christmas vacation because we're going to Thailand! We're going to Phuket, Kohphiphi, and Koh Samui. Kohphiphi has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, we're planning a zip-line and river rafting day in Phuket, as well as a jungle trek on elephant back (!) and then we're going to Koh Samui for a combination New Years/ Full Moon party (since they fall on the same night) and some Thai boxing. I am SUPER excited about it. I don't even really know how to describe it. And for all that traveling, the airfare is essentially the only expense. Everything else (hotels included in that generalization) is really really cheap. So that will be nice. I can't wait for Christmas now.

Right now, though, I'm at work, and I should probably, oh, I don't know, WORK. I just hadn't posted in a while.

Hello friends

2009-09-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, the cutest thing I think I've ever seen happened.

Andrew is a pretty big kid, and pretty quiet and slow moving. Cherry is small and quick moving, slow thinking. She's off in the clouds half the time. When the kids go to the bathroom, they take off their indoor shoes and put on bathroom slides, to keep the floors clean. Cherry was in the front of the line so she went in early, and Andrew had to wait for more shoes. When Cherry came out, Andrew had gone in, so she grabbed her shoes and ran for class. Something about her run sounded weird, but I didn't think anything about it. Then Andrew came out of the bathroom, and told me he only had one shoe. I look at Cherry, who has made it almost all the way to class, and she is wearing one of her shoes that fits, and one of Andrew's that is legitimately a completely different color (hers are pink, his are blue) and also about four sizes too big. The reason it sounded so strange is because she was shuffling one foot, like the villain in some bad horror movie. She hadn't even noticed until I called out to her, and then she looked utterly shocked that something was wrong with her shoes. She came run/shuffling back to me, the silliest look I've ever seen on her face, and traded Andrew his shoe back. I was laughing the entire time.

Basically, the last couple of days have been sorta chill. I took most of the new teachers to E-Mart, and I've been writing a lot lately, which is always good. A few of the other kids in my class have shown their true colors also, by which I mean that Junebug is completely annoying. He cries. ALL THE TIME. I think he's cried every single day of the past few weeks, and always blames Paul and Steven, even though it's almost never their fault, or it's something totally minor. A few days ago I caught him licking the wall by the bathroom, and when I pulled him away from the wall because he wouldn't stop, he started crying. Like, do you really want to lick the bathroom wall that much kid? Seriously? Is it that big of a deal that someone made you stop licking the bathroom wall? Ugh.

My upper grades are cool though, and I teach one of those classes every day, so that's kind of nice. I have a group of eight year olds and a group of nine year olds, and the nine year olds are AWESOME. They're really good with English, and eager to learn more, and I get totally silly with them and they're silly back. They have journals every day, and I'm supposed to come up with questions. At first it was like, if you could have a pet, what would you have? Now they're things like, what would you do if you could climb the walls and ceiling? And if you found gold in your backyard, what would you buy? Plus there are only four of them, so I like that class a lot. It's very low-stress, very low-planning, and pretty high take away.

Saturday night we went out again, for Jeremy and Allison's going away. We went to dinner (chicken kgalbi, which is how you spell the food I love, although the chicken is a bit tooo spicy for me) and then to a bar. It was Lao bar actually, where we went for Tonya's birthday, where they do a fireshow and then hand out free shots. It was really fun again. Afterward we went to Norebong, which is karaoke, and I didn't sing. Clearly. Then Shannon and I, drunk and bored, decided to head to Crazy Duck again, and Raj, her friend from college who also teaches here, and Jackie, one of the guys from English group who I've become pretty good friends with, came with us. It was awesome. We had a good time. Another late night, but less Soju this time. I've developed a slight fear of Soju, since it proved itself to be so incredibly potent last time I drank some. I practice moderation now.

One of the kids from when I taught Tara's class, Thomas, is coming to my class. Apparently, his mom's friend was thinking of sending her kids to the school, so she observed the three KG7 classes from the hallway, and I guess she told Thomas's mom that I was a more hands-on teacher than Tara was. Because Tara gets on her computer a lot. And I don't really need to be on the computer, so I walk around their tables and help and stuff. At least, that's what my TP Young told me had happened. It's all a bit rumorish. But he is for sure getting switched to my class. I don't know how that's going to be.

Okay, so here's the situation of the last week

2009-08-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

First, Anna's going-away bar-be-que was really fun. There were a bunch of English group people (Erica, Rachel, Heather, Kim, and Ashley, and then Bobby and Tony, who I'd never met before) and a bunch of the teachers. Everyone except Shannon and Tara, I think. Shannon because she had plans to be in Seoul with her friends and Tara because she wasn't invited. Bobby brought out a legit barbeque, with a tiny grill, and he made Kalpe (I have no idea how to spell that, but the K is soft so it sounds almost like a G). The pork was really good. We ate directly off the grill, and everything was delicious. Everyone was talking and laughing and drinking and having a great time in general. Then the food went away but the drinks kept flowing, so everyone got really drunk. I stopped drinking pretty early on in the night, but everyone else kept going. Heather was extremely drunk (i.e. puking out the back window of the car along the drive home) and so was Tonya (passed out in the back seat). Still, everyone had a great time, and I get along really well with everyone.

Then Anna was gone, and this week I was in charge of her old classes, like I will be for the rest of the time I'm here. I really like her classes. She's got some great kids. The highlights of her kindergarten:

Steven is by far the best kid in that class because he's smart, creative, and completely goofy. Every time he makes a mistake he puts his hands on the side of his head and shakes his head back and forth really fast and yells "Aaaarrhhhh!" He has really floppy hair in a bowl cut and so it looks hilarious when he does this. He also looks a little bit like an Asian monkey, with the bowl cut and his sticky-outy ears. He's really difficult to control sometimes, but he never does anything out of control, mostly just moves around a lot and talks a bit too much.

Julia is beautiful and sweet and innocent, with this high pitched voice that's somehow not at all annoying. And she LOVES me. She might be the most beautiful kid I've seen since I came here. I've thought so ever since the first time I saw her in the hallway. She's also pretty smart (at some things, sometimes) but mostly what I love about her is that she always tries, and that she isn't afraid to make mistakes sometimes.

Sandy bugs the crap out of me. She's the smartest kid in the class hands down, but she can't sit still to save her life. The best thing about her is that every time she finishes her work, while she waits for me to finish checking it she gets bored and spins around until she tips over. Which is pretty funny to watch. I think she's fallen over while spinning in circles at least twice every class I've taught her in. While I love it when she falls (because she doesn't care, or realize that it happens every time she spins, so she just gets up and starts spinning again) I can't stand it when I'm trying to tell her something and she keeps running away. Every time she finishes her work she puts her pencil away, but when I have her fix mistakes she goes back to get it and then puts it away after every mistake and runs off. So when she has lots of mistakes it takes forever to get through because I have to call her from halfway across the room and then she has to run to the other end to get her pencil and come back. And then do it all over again. For every mistake.

She only has eight kids in her kindergarten, and most of them are really quiet. Cherry (no joke, that's her name) is really quiet from the girls, as is Cindy, though she's been absent all week. Junebug is pretty quiet too (that's just what I call him in my head) and so is Andrew. The only other kid who is loud is Paul, but I haven't decided about him yet. So far he doesn't seem to have much individuality. He mostly just makes general noise. It's not enough to be annoying, or enough to set him apart at all.

Then tonight Holly took everyone to Songtan, where the American Air Force Base is. Her husband is in the Air Force, so she spends a lot of time there. She took everyone to this really good Mexican restaurant, where a guy named Chuey sang latino music all night with his guitar. The food was delicious. I have never been so appreciative of an enchilada. They were going out afterward too (they being Holly, Chris, and his military friends) but everyone else was going home because tomorrow is Jeremy and Allison's going-away party and the night is looking like it's going to be more than a little bit crazy. We all pretty much wanted to rest up. Besides, three new teachers showed up just this week so they're pretty exhausted.

Speaking of the new teachers, there are three (duh, I just said that). Cally, Tween (which is how she spelled it for the kids, but it's really spelled like, Touyen or something like that. It sounds how it's spelled. Like, not a kid but not a teenager. Tween), and Kristin. Kristin and Tween are from Canada, and Cally is from New Jersey. Seriously, what do I have to do to escape New Jersey? Ever since I left Fordham... Kidding. Cally is really cool, and it seems like she and I will get along pretty well. Kristin is pretty cool too. Tween seems cool, but she didn't come out tonight because she has taught in Korea before, so she has friends in Seoul that she went to visit for the weekend. Still, I think that more than anyone else I'm going to get along with Shannon and Tonya. Not that the other girls aren't cool, but it's just that over the past three weeks the three of us have bonded a lot.

Anyway, it's late and I want to read before bed for a while. People should get on skype more often, and if I've sent you a friend request, you should accept it. There are only like two people who haven't (cough Preziosi and Court cough) so DO IT. You'll like it, I promise. I'm a good skype friend. I buy you skype presents, and come to all your skype games. I wear skype foam fingers and cheer for you and everything. Seriously, it's good times. That's all for now.

Sorry about this week

2009-08-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

I'm really sorry that I haven't been posting much this week, it's just been extremely crazy. I've now taught 1/4-1/2 of the kids that attend this school. I'm constantly getting shuffled around and thrown into new classes without being trained or told what to do, and I've essentially been working between 8 and 10 hours every day this week, constantly on my feet, and by the time I'm done I'm too tired to do anything else. ANYWAY.

I finally started getting to know the kids that I will be teaching for the rest of the year. They're pretty great kids. Anna kept better control of them than any other teacher in the school, so they're really well-behaved also, which is good. I teach ACI Grade 2, which is math, language arts, and science with 8 year olds, and also ACI grade 1 which is math and language arts (I think) with 7 year olds. Then I teach 7 year old kindergarten every morning, which is actually with six year olds because Korean age is measured differently. Some of my kids are pretty funny. This week, though, I've mostly been with the Polar Bear class, which is Thor's old morning kindergarten. Some of the kids in there are seriously annoying, but a few of them are some of my favorite kids in the school.

One kid, Ardy, is by far the most obnoxious child I've ever met. He insists on being on top of me all the time. If I sit down, I barely have ten seconds before he'll climb in my lap and twine his arms around my neck so that I can't get free. If I'm walking around, he'll throw his arms around my waist and wrap his legs around my legs so I'm wearing him as a sort of fannypack/ skirt combo. If I try to get away, he wraps his arms and legs around my ankles so that I have to peel him off. He climbs on my back, straddles my knees, and just treats me in general as if I am a jungle gym.

Ardy is actually a pretty interesting demonstration of one of the major differences between American schools and Korean ones. In America, you are taught to never, never, NEVER touch children. At Peace Games we were told that we should try to avoid it, and although we gave them hugs sometimes, it was only if they initiated contact, it was always brief, and there wasn't much body contact. You just don't touch kids to stave off any sort of accusations. In Korea, everyone touches children. If you are walking down the street and you see a cute kid and they're staring at you, the parents usually encourage them to start talking to you, and try to get them to wave and say hello or goodbye. If you want to touch a kid, or take a picture of a random kid on the street, it's totally fine and normal to do so. At restaurants, kids are allowed to run around and everyone just sort of keeps an eye on them as they play. Parents keep a slightly sharper eye than others, but at dinner the other night Kelly (one of the TPs- Korean teaching partners for future reference) brought her son, and he was almost never in the back room with us. She knew what part of the restaurant he was in, but he just ran around alone, playing with his toys. He's about 3. He wasn't the only kid running around either. In the U.S. they would kick you out of a restaurant for that. And the kids become so instantly comfortable with people that they all climb in my lap all the time, and give me big bear hugs, or tickle me, or hold my hand, even though they don't know me. It's interesting. It almost makes me uncomfortable at times because living and teaching in the U.S. has taught me to be so careful, but it isn't seen as a bad thing here at all to be affectionate with children. It's a really nice change of pace from the American climate of fear and cynicism surrounding adult/child relationships.

Other kids I love: Rony (who is really smart and funny, but has horrible behavior. I really do always like the bad boys), Benny (read the description of Rony), and Ivy (who is HILARIOUS. She's this tiny little girl with unbelievable amounts of personality, energy, and moxy. She loves me back. It's nice). Ivy, on the first day I taught their class, was the only one who could remember my name (which is normal for five year olds) but she kept calling me Miss Bibimbap, which is a kind of Korean food. And then she started calling me Miss Yummy for short. She is also hilarious because at silent reading time (which is a joke as none of them can read) she always holds up the book facing out, as if she were a teacher reading a story to her class, and makes up a story based on the pictures. Every so often she looks out at her invisible students to make sure they are listening and understanding the story. Adorable. Rony is really quick to understand things and he makes the funniest faces. He was one that when they were all really bored at their field trip started playing with me until all the kids were engaged and having a great time. He seriously saved the mood of that day. He's got big, wide eyes (for a Korean kid) and for some reason this makes him look perpetually quizzical. His grin is pretty sweet also. His grasp of English is on the higher level for his class. Benny is just hilarious. He has this thick mop of wavy hair that he's always tossing out of his eyes, and he always has lots of energy. He never listens to anything I say, but he's so fun that I don't really care. His work always gets done, so it doesn't really matter all that much.

Anyway, I have to get going to get ready for Anna's going-away bar-be-que with the English group tonight. This week has been work work work followed by party party party because so much is happening. Last night was Tonya's birthday, which was pretty fun. We went to a foreigner/korean bar and played darts all night, and then the bartenders put on a bottle juggling show, after which they lit the bottles on fire and did the same show again. It was pretty sweet. I'm hoping tonight will be really fun. I think it will be. I'll let you know.

So today supposedly couldn't get much worse...

2009-08-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

and then it totally did. Thor has left, which means that there is no one to cover his classes for the next two weeks. As a result, rather than getting to spend this week learning about the class I will be taking over for the next year, I am spending more than half of it taking on his schedule. Almost the entire thing fell to my lot. I was not asked if this was okay even though it is outside my job description and only my third week at work. I was not thanked for taking on the burden. I was not given any choice. When one of the other teachers (Tara, who I had filled in for previously) offered to take on one of the classes that I've never taught before and giving me one of hers that I had taught the last two weeks, the school director almost didn't let us. For no reason. They held a meeting after work that all the administrators were late for and then the meeting ran long. So I was at work today from 9am to 8pm. An 11 hour shift for which I will not be paid overtime. Just like I won't be paid overtime for taking on all sorts of extra classes this week.

The worst part is that during the meeting, a lot of the veteran teachers (including those who are leaving soon) starting bringing up lots of other issues, which the admin (namely David) just brushed aside, regardless of the fact that the issues were all extremely important. For example, one of the teachers who recently left had gone to the Korean pension office to pick up his pension, only to be informed that the school hadn't paid four months worth of it, which is not only a breach of contract, but ILLEGAL IN BOTH KOREA AND CANADA (where the company I work for has its headquarters, and the country the teacher was from). On top of this, I found out that we do not receive the full number of vacation days that the contract led me to believe, and that there are extra complications for sick days as well. The owner David is completely unapproachable, and spoke Korean the entire meeting, with the director Julia as translator, in spite of the fact that he is fluent in English and could have done the whole damn thing himself. Thor left because the admin. was trying to screw him over and picking fights with him, and he wanted to screw them over. But they are laying everything on the teachers, which just means Thor only screwed us over. I also found out that the administration is supposed to take us to Costco (which is all Western products at the prices of Costcos back home) once a month, but that they haven't done so in more than six months. They don't pay our Korean teaching partners overtime even though they constantly work over their hours, and they have neglected to pay their pensions for longer than they've neglected to pay the teachers'. I was not welcomed to the school in any way, and only met the other teachers and knew their names because they came and knocked on my door to introduce myself. Without them I wouldn't have known how to get to work, what I was supposed to be doing, or what I was supposed to be teaching. I was not trained, but thrown into a classroom with a vague lesson guide that hadn't been explained, and told to teach.

This, apparently, is not the way other English teachers are treated. Ever. So if you were considering trying this as a job for a while, don't take this too much to heart. I'm mostly venting. I guess all I'm saying is don't come to this school in Suwon. Just don't. It's not recommended if you don't want to hate your job for the first month or so. The truth of the whole thing is that the other teachers have said that all this just started coming to light recently, as in since I came here. The director of the school told a few of the other teachers a few days ago that the school is in the red, and struggled pretty badly. I am a little afraid that this is going to be a HUGE problem. I'm really confused, and I honestly don't know what to think. Or do. Suggestions would be appreciated.

So, apparently I just don't post anymore

2009-08-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

I guess it's been a while since I posted on my blog, though I didn't realize it until I logged in and saw that it had been since the twelfth. So, sorry.

I was going to post last night but then I got lazy, but getting lazy today is not an option as my entire next two weeks just got flipped upside down and out of control. First, the stuff I would have said last night.

Yesterday afternoon Tonya texted me and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with her and Anna and Kim, who is a Korean guy that Anna and Adeal were friends with, and who Tonya has now befriended. It was his (and Anna's) friend Heather's birthday dinner and they were going to make a huge spread. I went and it was really fun. It was at Heather's parent's apartment, but we all met at the grocery store and they bought lots of food to make dinner. We had friend and roasted chicken, salad, Korean salad (which was a bit too spicy for me), kiwi, roasted potatoes, and lots of wine. It was Anna, Tonya, Heather, Kim, Leah, and Erica, all of whom are Korean. The only person I had met before was Kim, but it was okay because Heather and Leah were really friendly, and Erica agreed to teach Tonya and I how to speak Korean, which is exciting. Tonya also agreed to teach me French, which could be cool. In exchange, I will go on Tuesdays to meet with them (they meet on both Tuesdays and Thursdays) for dinner and language exchange. Their English is already excellent, but they want to perfect it and become completely fluent, and the only way to do that is to sit and talk with a native speaker. So Tonya and I agreed to do that with them. They all seemed really nice, and Tonya and I agreed to make dinner for them next time. Something Western.

The big drama this morning is that Thor (one of the Kindgarten 6 teachers here), who has two weeks left on his contract, didn't come in today or call in sick. He had to combine classes with Holly, which left her about 25 kids, so I jumped downstairs to help out. I was supposed to shadow Anna, who I'm replacing, this week because it's her last week, and essentially get trained before picking her class up on Monday. It wouldn't be a big deal at all, EXCEPT. Thor usually calls in sick. And he didn't. So everyone was a bit worried, and David, the school's owner, went over to Thor's apartment to make sure everything is okay. And Thor was gone. Not like, not there, he'll be back later, but like, all his stuff packed up, nothing left but the furniture and the trash moved out of the country GONE. So for the next two weeks we are a teacher short. This means that today and tomorrow I have to pick up his classes rather than getting trained, which is annoying. And we all have to stay late today for a meeting to schedule out who is picking up the rest of his classes for the next two weeks until the new teachers get here. Like seriously, how the hell do you just pick up and leave? And technically, because he didn't complete his six months, they don't have to pay for his flight in, contractually, which means that he owes the school money that he isn't going to pay them. It's just really inconventient for everyone who's left. I was supposed to get off early today and now I have to stay late. Grrr.

Anyway, I'm still at work, so I should probably take off and actually, you know, work. I was just frustrated, so I figured I needed to vent a bit.

Sorry guys

2009-08-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm sorry I've been MIA from my blog lately. It's been, I don't know, like a few days since I last posted I guess? But I'm posting now.

I may or may not have written about this in here before, but it sort of came up last night and I find it very interesting and new. I have never known what it felt like to be in the minority. Most white people haven't. In the U.S. most places you go everyone looks like you, or is at least used to seeing people who look like you. For obvious reasons, this is not very true here. Last night I went to the grocery store to get some Dippin' Dots (yumm) and Tonya came with me because she was over at my place. As we were walking down the street she commented on what I have already gotten used to: when I walk by every single person stops and looks at me, and many of them stare. Tonya doesn't have this problem quite as much, because she is half-Korean and half-black. Her hair is the same color as theirs, and the shape of her eyes is also very Korean. The main difference between her and them is skin color; her's is darker than theirs. For me, everything is different. I have a VERY different boyd type than most of the women here, very few of whom have curves at all. My hair is curly and (right now because of the summer sun) somewhere in between light auburn and strawberry blonde. My eyes are blue. My skin is light. I am the epitome of all physical characteristics that are NOT Korean. I get a lot of attention because of it. Once when Anna took me to E-Mart (which is Target on crack, an apt description that I must admit I stole from Holly) two Korean kids in a cart stopped talking, stared at me slack jawed, then began to point at me and jabber in Korean, words that Anna told me later basically meant "Look a foreigner! A foreigner! It's a white girl! Look mom, a white girl!" Beautiful. I've sort of gotten used to it. To be honest, I never really noticed it until those kids pointed at me, and I still don't unless other people, like Tonya, point it out. When I do notice it, it makes me feel really vulnerable and uncomfortable. But I suppose there's really nothing to do about it. Maybe I'll dye my hair dark brown and straighten it more often. It probably wouldn't help that much.

Some more cute stuff has happened with my kids recently though. Yesterday two girls, Jasmine and Sophie, were fighting over the bathroom shoes (in a previous post I explained all this, how Koreans wear different shoes outside, inside, and to the bathroom) so, in my best Peace Games voice, I said to them "Girls, how do we fix this?" I was, obviously, thinking they should take turns. Without a word they both took one shoe and hopped on one foot into the bathroom to wash their hands. Not exactly what I meant, but kind of funny. At least they shared.

This anecdote happened today and was, admittedly, a bit embarrassing. I'll tell it anyway. You know when you're in a public setting and you realize you have to fart, but you're pretty sure it's a silent one? I'm sure some of you are laughing right now, and maybe some of you are blushing and thinking "how did she know?" but you know it's true so stop denying it. And I knew because I'm magical. Anyway, while the kids were playing today I had one of those moments. And I decided that since they were being loud and playing I would just chance it and let it go. It went off without a hitch- silent and not even smelly. Then like, thirty seconds later, one of my favorite kids, Se Wook, comes over to me and he's holding his nose. And I ask him what's going on, and he says "You smell bad." Immediately, I get all offended because I don't smell anything and I am embarrassed by the fart that I thought had passed without notice. So I start arguing with him. "I don't smell bad. You smell bad." (Yeah, I took it there). And he keeps insisting that I smell bad, and I'm starting to blush I can feel it. Finally he says "You smell like..." and takes a huge pause, in which I imagine he's going to say something horrible, or in which I'm guessing he is probably struggling to remember the word in English, and says "coffee." My coffee was sitting on the floor right next to me. Thanks for scaring me so badly Se Wook. It was sweet of you.

Last note, and definately a less gross one, there's a really interesting and slight cultural difference. The other day I was doing level testing and I was calling the kids over one by one and beckoning to them. They kept looking at me, confused, and a few of them were angry. Here, when you are calling someone toward you, you DO NOT put your hand out palm up and beckon. This is how you call livestock. YIKES. You have to put your hand out palm down and kind of wave to the floor, folding your fingers in toward your palm. I'm glad I learned this though, because they're responding to me much better now that I'm not treating them like sheep and cows anymore.

At School

2009-08-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm at school and it's the middle of the day, but a few kind of hilarious things happened this morning that I want to jot down really quickly before I forget about them.

There is one kid in my am kindergarten who is really quiet. He used to be in pm kindergarten, which means that he's gone to school less days a week than the other students all year. He started am kindergarten the same day I started here. Because of this, he doesn't really know the other students and he's not comfortable with his spoken English yet. He is really soft-spoken and sweet. He's also basically the cutest kid ever. He has floppy black hair and a slight unibrow (just a little bit, so that it's a cute kid unibrow, not like a Peter-Gallagher-needs-to-get-waxed sort of situation). He wears polo shirts a lot, and some days he just doesn't pay attention and he ends up running around with a popped collar all day. Usually the popped called bugs me, but the tiny-child-accidental-popped-collar is endearing. He can be smart, but he's extremely spacey. He'll lose concentration and drift off into la la land. This is my favorite thing about him, because he does it so accidentally and so thoroughly that he forgets where he is. When you call him back to reality he gets shocked and embarrassed at having gotten caught, so his whole body jolts and his eyes get super wide. Then he rushes back to his work, going really fast to make up for lost time. It's pretty hilarious to watch.

His name is Se Wook (pronounced say-ook). This morning he was quiet as usual, but then after lunch he LOST HIS MIND. In the cutest possible way. He was laughing at everything, and was completely hysterical about it. He was dancing around and trying to make me sit on stuff, constantly tickling me and stealing my slippers. It would have been annoying if he weren't so cute. He was make me and all the kids laugh. I kept wanting to tell him to stop, but I couldn't stop laughing and it was play time anyway, so it didn't really matter. I can't even begin to describe how cute his laughter was.

The other thing is shorter. There's a girl named Sonya who's only been in class for the last few days because she took a vacation. She's extremely smart, and reads better than almost any other student in the class. Today she had on this really sweet little pink tank top, with her hair tied in pigtails by pink bows. She is also really pretty and usually quiet, kind of delicate seeming. Today at play time she was digging through the cabinets, looking for a toy. I went over to help her, and asked what she was looking for. She doesn't say anything, but without hesitation grabs something in the cabinet, pulls it out and calls out "Found it!" Everyone else was playing with puzzles and books. She had grabbed an ax. Somehow, it made me flash back to my own childhood. I wonder why that it.

First Night Drinking in South Korea

2009-08-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

And, I must apologize to my family members who are reading this and still, for God only knows what reason, might have some faith in my maturity, I got extremely drunk. It was my first experience with Soju, which is a Korean alcohol, and which has replaced vodka as my drink of choice. It comes in beer bottle sized bottles for about $1.50. If you mix it with anything there is no trace of it in smell or taste at all. I drank the whole bottle. And then a few mugs of beer at Now Bar, which is an international bar close to the school where I teach.

At first everyone went together; it was Allison, Jeremy, Holly, Chris (Holly's husband), Tanya, Shannon, and I. At around 1 am everyone decided to go home except for Shannon and I. That's when things got sort of crazy. We met these american guys who were teachers also, one from California, one from Colorado, and one from New Jersey (no matter where I go I can't escape Jersey boys. Like, come on. I went to Asia. Can you not just give me that one?). They were all pretty cool, but then this Korean guy, whose name was Simon but who we just called Dragonball Z all night because he had intensely long spiky hair, started hitting on me a LOT. He introduced me to his friend Diego, who's from Mexico (and I almost laughed when he said this, because he is essentially Mona's dream man based on those two facts). Shannon and I then left with her friend Raj, who she already knows and who is from Canada. The other guys tried to follow us, but I walked away from them midsentence and got into a cab and we took off. We went to another bar called Crazy Duck, which was a dance place, and I danced with several Korean men. One of them started speaking to me and I expected him to have accented English like most Koreans do, but his English was completely unaccented. Turns out he is from Seattle. Weird.

After we left Crazy Duck we went down the street to this open air restaurant where I got a hamburger, which was really pork in some sort of sweet sauce formed into something resembling a hamburger patty and put on a sesame seed bun with lettuce. It was actually really good. Raj ordered some Korean finger food, which was meat and vegetables inside a fried dough package, like a spring roll kind of, but in a different shape and not as crunchy. We poured some dark sauce all over it. It was really good. It also prompted Shannon's brilliant and unbelievably emphatic, "Look at that sauce. Look at it! GET SOME OF THAT!" She was cracking me up all night, and I am honestly glad I stayed because, for one thing, it was fun, but mostly I'm glad because I got to know Shannon much better and we get along really well.

After that we got in a cab and went to the McDonalds in our neighborhood. At this point, mind you, it was "a little before 4. NO! FOUR TWENTY!" (Shannon, who couldn't read her watch at first). All I can say is, you've gotta love when you stay out so late that by the time you get to McDonalds at the end of the night they're only serving breakfast. Also, when you get home at 5 am, skype your friend in New York for half an hour, and go to bed after the sun has come up. It was a good night.

Again, sorry family.

Turkish dinner and Korean Children

2009-08-07T06:04:00.000-07:00

My kids were really awesome today. I greatly prefer my Monday-Wednesday-Friday to my Tuesday-Thursday. I have kindergarten in the am and the pm on MWF, whereas on TT I have kindergarten am and then two math classes: one for kids at normal speed and one for three boys who are a little slow and VERY poorly behaved. It's my hardest class to teach, and there are half as many students as my next smallest class. I had my two kindergartens today though, and a few cute things happened.

Thomas, who is really good at English, and very funny and talkative, was putting away his activity book because he finished early, and on his way back to his desk he passed a chair that wasn't pushed in, so he pushed it in. Mind you, he's only six or seven years old. Sonya, who is all the way across the room, calls out because it was her seat, and she was just getting something out of her backpack. He goes back to the chair, pulls it out and waits for her to be done at her cubby (which was about a minute or so) and walk back over to her desk, then holds the chair for her and helps her scoot in. Seriously, I know fully grown men that don't do that. He's seven. Chivalry, apparently, is not dead in Korea.

It's a good thing Linda is adorable, because she is an idiot. This is not mean, it is a fact. She has been in this school learning English for two years now, and she can't say or understand ANYTHING. I ask her today what she was drawing and she stared at me blankly for about three minutes and then just looked away and started staring at the wall. Half the time she can't keep her focus for more than ten seconds and she just stares off into space, or watches someone else do their work completely slack-jawed. It's incredibly annoying. Even when my teaching partner, Grace, talks to her in Korean, she doesn't respond or show any signs of understanding. But then she smiles and I forget my frustration, because she is the cutest child I think I've ever seen. Ever. She has curly hair and cute clothes, but it's totally her smile. She doesn't have her two middle teeth on top, and one of her middle teeth on the bottom, and when she smiles she does so with her mouth partly open and all her teeth (and the spaces where her teeth will soon be) show. It makes me melt. And it's seriously a good thing, because she's stupid.

Anyway, after work today, Tanya asked me if I was hungry, which I was because I hadn't eaten a real meal yet. But then Shannon said she and Adeal (still don't know how to spell that) were going out for Turkish after they get off work at 7:30 (we got off at 6) so Tanya came back to my apartment and hung out until then and we met up. The food was SO good. Garlic Naan is my new favorite thing. The chicken kebab wrap/burrito type thing was really good too. And then we went out to Baskin Robbin, which is always good. Tanya and I get along REALLY well, we discovered. We watched Superbad (or part of it) and just chilled out, and then went to this cute clothes shop on my street. She's really fun, and really cool. We're talking about going to China together over Christmas break. Shannon and I are getting along well still (and Adeal and I started getting to know each other for the first time tonight and he's really cool, but he's leaving the country on Monday) and we're going out to Now Bar (Nao bar? Who knows) which is an international bar in Yeongtong, the neighborhood where our school is, tomorrow night. We might grab a few drinks first and possibly karaoke after (which means I will watch them karaoke as I am still terrified of singing in front of people and no amount of alcohol makes me forget this fear). It should be fun. I'm glad I'm getting to know the area better. The restaurant was actually near Suwon Station, which is the main subway stop in Suwon, which has a mall on top of the subway station, and a movie theater on top of the mall. There were lots of shops, and small food tables on the street, and TONS of people. I'll post pictures of this (along with my fellow teachers, my apartment, my neighborhood, and maybe my kids) as soon as I get a new digital camera. I should take my camera out soon to photo some of this. It would look interesting in black and white.

ANYWAY. I should be going, as my skype has FINALLY started to work. My username is kelseypete (because I'm undyingly creative) for those of you who are interested. Hope to hear from you!

Mosquitos SUCK

2009-08-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

Quite literally, as I'm sure many of you know. But Korean mosquitos are particularly heinous. For one thing, they're about half the size of American mosquitos (in my experience) so you can't feel them on you at all. And then the bites are about twice the size, and far more itchy. A few of the bites on the back of my calf are no longer pink or slightly red, but completely crimson. And there is no relief. Frustrating. Also, they only seem to like my legs below the knee. I have five bites on one leg, all below the knee, and nine bites on the other, all below the knee. I only have one other bite, on my finger. I don't understand why this might be, but that's how it is.

One of the other new teachers came today. Her name is Tanya and she is from Oklahoma. She seems pretty cool so far, which is good. And Shannon and I are getting along really well too, although she was sick today (she got sick right after we got home from Mr. Smile she said). Allison was sick too, and so were half the kids in her class, so they think that the illness started there, since Shannon teaches Allison's class part of the day. I really hope I don't get it. Apparently, Korean people overuse medicine, to the point where virus and bacteria have mutated into superbugs. In order to get over it you HAVE to take medicine. There is no riding it out. So I'm hoping I don't get too sick here.

The funny thing at school that is really different from schools in the states is shoes. Koreans have one pair of outside shoes that they wear outside and on the stairs, but once you get to the hallways and the classrooms, you switch your outside shoes for indoor slippers. If you want to go to the bathroom, there are several pairs of bathroom shoes, and you have to take off your indoor slippers, use bathroom shoes, then take off the bathroom shoes and put your indoor slippers back on. It's an interesting idea actually, and the floors in the school are extremely clean, so it's obviously effective. I had to go buy myself some indoor slippers the other day, so that I wouldn't have to keep using the school's slippers.

I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday, because it will be nice to have another weekend. I like teaching at the school a lot, but I am looking forward to some time off. Maybe I'll go back to Oasis this weekend and get some more of the pork. It was so good I've been craving it since the moment I stopped eating it. As opposed to tonight (also known as every other meal of my life since I got here) where dinner was some grapes, some raisins, some fruit loops, and a box of cookies. I am such a healthy eater.

I really should go to bed now though. The early mornings are kind of killing me. I go to bed so early these days.

Day whatever

2009-08-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

So, obviously I didn't write a post yesterday, because I was lazy and tired and watching America's Next Top Model, plus I didn't have internet until this morning. So I will write today. Even though I'm only doing this because the most recent episode of True Blood is refusing to load.

School is good. It's actually kind of boring, because the activities are the same every day. They just do the next few pages in their books and besides that we play all the same games. The kids are still funny though. Nothing too entertaining on that front.

I have started teaching on my own, and it's working out pretty well. I'm not confused or anything, though I have to refer to my daily plan more often than I'd like, mostly because I didn't plan it and I still haven't completely memorized the routine. I'm going to start adapting the lesson plan tomorrow because the activities Tara (the girl I'm filling in for) chose are LAME, and the kids will hate them. Jeremy gave me some other ideas that I think I'll follow, and if Tara doesn't like it, too bad.

Tonight after work I went grocery shopping and bought a bunch of american food because I still don't know how to cook Korean food, or how to tell what the hell is in any of the packages. So fruit loops and spaghetti it is. Not together obviously, gross. But then when I got home Holly and Shannon were outside my door having just knocked, so I changed really quickly and we ran out to their favorite wine bar, Mr. Smile. I know, great name. I had dinner there, this really delicious tuna sandwich (canned tuna is big here, oddly) and we all had a beer, and just talked. I really like both of them. Holly's going to be here another year and a half, and I don't know how long Shannon's staying, but it's at least six months because she's only been here six months so far. We realized today that once all the teachers who are done this month leave, I will be the person who's been here fourth longest. Tara has been here longest, then Shannon and Holly who've been here the exact same amount of time. Then me. Another girl got here today though, and her first day at work is tomorrow, so I'll get to meet her while she observes Shannon's classes. Or maybe she's observing Adell (sp? I'm not even sure that's his name. I just make a noise that sounds like that every time I refer to him and no one's corrected me yet) since that's who she's replacing. He seems really nice so it's sad that he's leaving. Although I get his cell phone when he leaves so yay for having a cell phone!

First day teaching... or I guess observing.

2009-08-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

I am seriously starting to love it here.

First of all, the stuff as school seems like it’s really straightforward and easy. I had my first day today, where Jeremy and I combined our classes and I essentially observed what he was doing. Tomorrow I’m on my own, but I feel totally prepared for it. The kids are also super-fun. There are more kids in the first class, and some of them are really cute. All of them are much better at English than the afternoon kids, because they come five days a week whereas the afternoon kids only come three days a week. A few of the kids, in a nutshell:

Bright Kim: This is going to be the kid I have stories about for the next two weeks. All of the teachers know and love him. He’s hilarious, and totally strange, though intelligent. Today they had to write six “O” words that they knew, and most of them just copied the “O” words on the word board, which is essentially what they were supposed to do. Not Bright Kim. Bright Kim came up with “Organ,” “Ostrich,” and “Orchestra” on his own. He also drew me a train that said “Happy” on it, then said he was not happy and did not like trains. He shared his MoonPie with me at snack time. Tackled me during play time when I was helping him with a puzzle, and wrapped his arms and legs around me so that when I stood up I had a Bright Kim fanny pack. His head is shaped like a giant football.

Thomas: CRAZY. Also totally funny and really good at English. Bright Kim’s best friend.

Sueong Ho: Sneezed on me. Thanks Sueong Ho.

Linda: Would NOT stop holding my hand. Cute as a button, with curly hair and insanely cute clothes. No idea what’s going on, ever, and just does whatever she feels like. Almost no grasp of the English language.

And then, my personal favorite from the day, Kevin. Totally uninterested in me for the first two hours, and then I played with him for about thirty seconds (literally) at the end of free play time and after that he was IN LOVE with me. Kept sitting on my lap, or trying to sneak up on me and tickle me. My favorite was that game, because if I caught him he would try to lean against the wall and whistle, looking away as if to say that I hadn’t caught him, and then he’d back away slowly. Only he couldn't whistle, so he just sort of blew air out and sputtered. After a while he started army crawling up behind me. That worked the first few times. He’s super silly and super cute.

Anyway, after work Allison, Jeremy, and Holly took me out to dinner at this place a few doors down from my apartment. OH MY GOD DELICIOUS. There was this really good, semi-spicy soup that I poured over white rice which was delicious, and another soup with roasted garlic and sautéed sweet onions. The main course was sweet marinated pork ribs that get cooked right in the middle of the table on like, a frying pan type surface, and then you put the pork on a leaf of lettuce, drop on some sauces and rice, wrap it up and shove it in your mouth. There was also beef and another kind of pork that Holly said is like Korean bacon and it was all SO GOOD. I loved every bite. Some of the sidedishes, like the kimchi, were too spicy for me, but Allison said there’s plenty of delicious Korean food that isn’t spicy at all. Like the stuff we ate tonight. Oh man, I can’t stop obsessing over how good it all was. And Holly is really cool, and she’s staying here for another year and a half. Allison and Jeremy are married (I think, considering that they live in the same apartment which the school pays for, and they only allow for shared living if you’re a married couple) and they’ve been here a year already so they’re leaving in a few weeks. Anna is leaving too, and I’m taking over her class once I’m done with Tara’s. There are five new people coming, but I’m the first one here of the newbies, since I have the most experience with kids, so I’m getting to know a lot of the older teachers before they leave. I’m starting to get really excited about the prospect of this position and this time spent living abroad. Also, there is bread easily available, and a foreign section at the local supermarket, and apparently there’s good pizza down the street from work. So it’s all good.

Another day...

2009-08-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out I won’t be getting internet access until next week, or a cell phone either, which means it’s impossible for me to contact anyone or be contacted. Rough.

Took my first shower this morning. Also rough.

Last night after I finished unpacking I was in my pajamas in bed, reading, when the phone thing announcing someone at my door went off. It was Allison and Jeremy, a few of my fellow teachers, who don’t live in this building. Apparently they’re the only ones that don’t live in this building. When I got to my room there was a note from Holly, who used to live here, letting me know she’d moved across the hall, and that also across the hall (next door to her) was Anna. Holly also left me cookies and some toiletries, which was really nice of her. Anyway, I talked to Allison and Jeremy for a little bit, and they invited me to come out with all the teachers for karaoke and a few drinks, but I’d been up for 24 straight hours and was about to crash, so I declined. Then the other teachers came back from wherever they were and I met all of them too. I like everyone so far. They told me that there are five other brand new teachers starting this week, and they talked about how all the teachers lived in that building (except Jeremy, Allison and a few others who they don’t hang out with). I think I’m going to get along with everyone really well. I asked them if anyone would help me go over the lesson plan/ curriculum because I have no idea what I’m doing and they were pretty shocked that I was getting thrown in head first with no support. So Jeremy, who had the same thing happen when he first started there, offered to ask Julia if he and I could combine our classes just for Monday, so that I could observe and get eased into the process a bit more. He only has six kids in his class, and I don’t think that there are many more than that in mine. So all of that seems like it’s going fairly well. They said they would still come over today to help me anyway, and just hang out and get to know each other.

I’m supposed to go grocery shopping today, and apparently the market is just around the corner, but if they come by when I’m not home they have no way of contacting me so they said they’d just see me Monday. However, I’m not entirely sure I want to chance missing them, so I think I’ll stay home until they come by. They said it would be in the afternoon though, so I might leave in a minute and just grab some essentials. Some fruit, veggies, and whatever else I can find that I might be able to eat/ cook. They also said they all meet at this French bakery down the street to cab to work together, and since I have no idea where the hell my work is, I think this is a good idea. Also, French bakery denotes bread, which I like.

Alright, I’m going to go down the street and try to buy some food. Wish me luck.

Yeah, nothing was open at 9 am on a Sunday. Also, I couldn’t figure out the security lock and thus locked myself out of my apartment and had to wake up Holly to help me get in. Oops.

Day one

2009-08-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

OVERSTIMULATION! I HATE ASIA ALREADY!

Kidding, of course, though I am a tad overstimulated.

The flights over SUCKED. Like, seriously worst flights ever. On the way to LA I was in the middle seat and the guy at the window kept falling asleep on me while the woman at the aisle kept elbowing me while she did what looked like some sort of aura cleansing ritual. For the entire five-hour flight. No sleep there. So I thought, well Kelsey you have a twelve-hour flight coming your way, plenty of time to sleep then. Yeah, no. Middle seat again, with an eight year-old boy who incessantly kicked my seat the whole flight and a teenaged boy in front of me who kept his seat leaned back. They had the movie-screens-in-the-back-of-the-seat-in-front-of-you a la Pimp My Ride (though I’m sure international airlines did it at least a short while before Xhibit) so I basically just watched movies the whole time because they had the lights turned off and I couldn’t sleep with the Asian David Beckham in-training behind me. I have a serious headache (probably from lack of sleep) but I need to unpack at least some stuff and get a little organized before I crash. Besides, my apartment doesn’t have curtains and it’s still broad daylight.

ANYWAY. I finally got off the plane and got my bags which was surprisingly easy (thanks Mom and Dad for the swivel wheeled suitcase, without which I would not have been able to maneuver AT ALL) because the Seoul airport really is the best airport (in my opinion, having been to a decent number of airports). Getting through customs was a hop, skip, three pieces of paper work, two lines, one passport stamp, and some sort of object that lit up and made a beeping noise which they put next to my ear for a hot second away from baggage and being outside. David, the owner of the school I’m working for, was waiting for me right outside the doors, with the cutest sign that said KELSEY in huge bold letters, and then in tiny letters at the bottom of the page the school's logo (a bear sitting on a Maple Leaf. Everybody together now, awww). One awkward, silent car ride later (David’s not a big talker and, in spite of owning an English school, does not have the firmest grasp on the language) I got to my apartment.

The drive was actually interesting. There were a lot of signs that had the English phonetics of the Korean characters, which will make it easier to get around, and it was surprisingly green. There were lots of trees, bushes, grass and hills. It was kind of pretty. Reminded me a bit of Portland, to be honest. Though some of the trees (not all, but some) were a bit more exotic than I’m used to. There were also pine trees though. Anyway, I noticed several things on the drive.

1) Korean drivers do not slow down, stop, or look before they do anything. I saw about ten near accidents, one of which involved us almost getting hit. David never seemed fazed at all.

2) Rather than building one huge, fat building with big apartments on each block of land, they have four identical skinny buildings with big numbers on the sides on one block of land, that I’m sure are filled with tiny apartments. I suppose this is much more responsible, as they have a lot of people to accommodate.

3) For some unknown reason, there are a LOT of crosses. Everywhere. I must have passed, no exaggeration, at least twenty-five buildings with crosses/ churches. Some of the crosses were nice and simple, and the buildings below them looked much like Western churches, no big surprise there. There were others, however, that were stuck on top of plain brick buildings. Several of these lit up. Lots of those were pink

Now I am sitting in my apartment (mental note, first thing to do is send home for sheets, double size) which is actually pretty nice. It’s small, which I expected, but nicer than I imagined. You walk in through the small kitchen, which has no oven (as I don’t think that Korean food is ever really baked) but has two stove burners, a large sink, and lots of cabinet space. You step through that into the bedroom/ all-purpose room since it’s a studio. Past that there is a sliding door out onto a sort of patio where my washer is, with racks for hanging my clothes on the ceiling. To one side of the door is the bed, at the foot of which is a good-sized dresser. To the other side is a mini fridge, with a T.V. on top. To the other side of the mini fridge is the bathroom. This is my favorite part. It has a sink, a toilet, a drain in the middle of the floor and a hand-held showerhead attached to the wall. That’ll be an experience.

Anyway, I don’t have internet access here, so this probably won’t get posted until tomorrow, when I figure out how that all works. But it was, aside from checking out the sheets (yuck) and emptying my backpack (because it was the only way to get to my computer) the first thing I did when I got here. Now, to unpack.

Update: There was an exploding body wash incident, accompanied by a faulty Ziploc. So far, only three shirts are effected. We will keep reporting on this tragedy as new information comes in from the site.

Large new suitcase sustained minor injury while acting as a savior. Its heroism protected two winter coats.

Last Day in the States

2009-07-30T11:03:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

This is my first post, mostly as a test. I leave tomorrow morning at 5:10 for the airport, so I'm a bit nervous, especially considering that I am not packed yet. I have everything I need, just not in bags. I seriously hope it all fits.

We have to go to the bank today and get some Won for me, because I won't have a Korean paycheck until the end of August, and without a Korean paycheck all I have is dollars. So we have to figure out where they'll do that. I bought a phrase book yesterday and realized that I already know how to say hello in Korean, but only because of Arrested Development (Anyung!). I also need to print out the lesson plans and curriculum to study on the plane, along with my Frommers South Korea and my phrase book. I'm really excited though. Terrified, clearly, as it's a huge step in life and a rather sizable change, but more excited than anything.

Anyway, I have too much to do today and really nothing to write about (obviously) so I'm going to end this entry here. Hopefully this works.