The Adventures of Taryn Teacher

To India we go!

2011-04-03T19:10:00.002-07:00

We're heading down to Bangkok in less than 5 hours to catch our flight to New Dehli, and I just now decided to do some Wikipedia/Lonely Planeting online in preparation.

Normally I would have done this weeks ago, but I am travelling with a group of 7 people, two of which are 'Type A' planners, so I was content to kick back and let them do all the dirty work. But I thought I should at least brush up on a few facts before I go, and also share them with you.

Straight from Wikipedia:

India is the 7th largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country in the world with a population of over 1.2 billion (The U.S. is at 308 million for a basis of comparison)

Four of the world's major religions originated in India; Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, & Sikhism

It is one of the fastest growing major economies, but still faces challenges of poverty, illiteracy, corruption and inadequate public health.

Straight from Lonely Planet.com:

"Love it or hate it, and most visitors see-saw between the two, India promises to jostle your entire being."

I was mentally prepared to have my being jostled, and was really looking forward to the trip, until I had a wee bike accident on Saturday morning, where I tipped my bike turning too fast, flew off of it superman style, scraped a fair amount of skin off my left hand and acquired a gash in my knee that required 4-5 stitches. Normally this would just be a minor setback, making things like showering and opening jars difficult (I sprained the heck out of my right thumb) but I'm going to India for 10 days. I'm supposed to keep my bandaged wounds clean and dry, and India is hot, dirty, and lacks adequate public health. I also need to redress the wounds every day with sterile equipment.

Not really a great start to the trip, but my friends have been great with helping me out. In fact, I owe them a shout out for all they've done so far. Jenny for taking me to the hospital and holding my hand while they doused my raw, exposed skin with betadine (one of the most intensely painful things ever; it feels like your hand is one fire) and distracting me while they stiched up my knee gash.

I also want to thank Nicole and Corinne for bringing my bike back to my house, and doing my dishes after I whined how difficult it was with my bandages/sprained thumb, and also for changing my bandages.

I don't know what I would do without these girls. Honestly, from the moment I arrived in Thailand they have been there for me. Cooking me dinner when I didn't have food, lending me money when I didn't make it to payday...twice; I could go on and on. Ladies, I really appreciate all you have done for me, and will do for me in India... because I need help changing the bandages ;)

Alright, I'm off to go finish packing and attempt another shower without getting the bandages wet. That's the other thing; April is the hottest month in India and I can't take real showers yet... sorry in advance, travel companions.

Update - for Uncle Moe ;)

2011-02-24T20:15:00.003-08:00

I haven't posted much on the blog in the past few months because for one, I don't have nearly as much downtime to ponder life as I did in Korea. Along with school, I've been pretty busy as of late with visitors and holidays. (life is rough) Secondly, practically my entire family has Facebook now, including my Grandma, so I haven't felt the need to update this as much.

However there are a few souls left in the world that don't have Facebook (and I commend them for not getting sucked in to what can become a life-consuming addiction) and for them I felt compelled to update. Especially my Uncle Moe in Michigan; the location-reader at the lower right hand of this page has shown a regular visitor from Sault Saint Marie, which is most likely him. This one's for you Uncle Moe ;)

The Facebook world will know that after weighing the pros and cons for months, I decided to take a position at Colegio Americano de Torreon, an American International school in Torreon, Mexico. When I went home for Christmas, I was gutted hearing about all the weddings and such I was missing this spring and summer, and I decided I wanted to be closer to home. Torreon is about a 5 hour flight from Minneapolis, verses a 25 hour flight from Bangkok, so that was what ulitimately tipped the scales.

I felt pretty good about my decsion for about a week, but after that, have been questioning it ever since. Since I decided to leave, Thailand continues to grow on me.

Just now I was sitting next to the river here in Pai, a beautiful little mountain town in Northern Thailand, enjoying the sunshine and the scenery and a Diet Coke, thinking, why am I leaving this?

I'm still not sure I made the right decision, but it's a little late now. I've already told family, friends, and my present and future employers that I am moving to Mexico in August, but I am very sad about what I'm leaving behind. As of now I have a little over 4 months left in Thailand, and I'm going to try and make the best of them.

Cocktails by the pool at our resort in Pai. Life is good :)

It's that time again...

2010-12-03T20:32:00.004-08:00

The time has come yet again to make the age-old decision; stay abroad another year, or go home? I'm actually split three ways right now between moving home to Minnesota, moving to South America to teach (I've been fantasizing about living in a Spanish or Portuguese-speaking country for a while now) and staying at my current school.

The factors to consider are pretty much the same as they always have been: I love traveling, trying new things, pushing myself to live outside of my comfort zone...and not paying rent :) At the same time, I miss my family and friends. I miss feeling like I belong, and the sense of security I feel living near my family. And I HATE missing out on important events, such as one of my best friend's weddings this April, and my little brother's theatrical debut in his high school play this fall, just to name a few. Ever since I made the decision to leave Minnesota 3 years ago, this has been a constant internal dilemma. (Ok, maybe not so internal considering I blog about and talk to everyone I know about it...)

3 months ago it would have been a no-brainer. There was definitely an adjustment period where I thought I must have been insane for voluntarily choosing my current position. But my school has grown on me, my kids have grown on me, Pak Chong, the podunk town I live in, has grown on me.

I have moments where I think, 'wow, this is so cool, I'm definitely staying.' 5 minutes later a wave of homesickness will wash over me and I'll change my tune.

Yesterday was a prime example; During 7th period, I had only one student in class, so we joined up with Year 9 students going on their weekly visit to the elephant conservation center just 15 minutes down the road. The year 9 kiddos worked on their community service projects, my year 13 student took photos, while my year 12 student interviewed the director of the center for the newsletter we are putting together to market the school. Spending my Friday afternoon at work hanging out with elephants in the gorgeous December sunshine (the weather is magnificent right now) while my students are actually learning something... how cool is that?

Because I work where I do and our school is so small there are endless opportunities to extend learning beyond the classroom, something that I think is really important. I've always thought that part of my role as a high school teacher is to help students see that there is a great big world out there beyond the confines of the school walls.

Then I went home to my hut and watched a few sappy, family-oriented episodes of Gossip Girl (shameful, I know) and I started thinking that maybe I'm over this 'living on the other side of the world from the people I love' thing.

My friend/neighbor/coworker Nicole gave me some solid advice that I think I will follow. This year I am fortunate enough to be able to spend 2 weeks at home for Christmas. (First time in two years!) She said when I'm coming back to Thailand, if it's hard to leave, then I'll know. I'm hoping that going home and getting my friend/family fix will put things into perspective. Until then, I'm just as torn as ever.

Today's Screenshot

2010-11-23T01:37:00.000-08:00

"Pak Chong is not a valid city"

Like I needed Gmail to tell me that...

Good riddance, rainy season!

2010-11-23T01:36:00.003-08:00

(Written October 30th)

Upon our return from Bali, the rain stopped and "cold season" was upon us. As a Minnesotan, I've experienced blistering cold, sub-zero winters and was a bit skeptical, but it actually is cold right now. Granted I live in a poorly insulated bamboo hut, but as I'm writing this, I'm sitting at my computer wearing long sleeves, long pants, and fuzzy socks with a fleece blanket wrapped around me.

Let it be known, I am not complaining in the least; merely observing. Pretty much any weather is better than the miserable, incessant rain that causes clothes to grow mold spots and my allergies to go berserk.

Life in Pak Chong from here on out will drastically improve. Plus, only 7 more weeks until my next vacation ;)

October Break Part I: Bangkok Music Marathon

2010-11-23T01:35:00.003-08:00

On our first day of vacation, we headed down to Bangkok for Bangkok Music Marathon. Like I said before, I hadn't really gotten into Thai rock yet. What I had heard, I found really repetitive and borderline cheesy at times. However, this is how I initially felt about K-pop, a genre which is now very near and dear to my heart :)

The concert was a blast, and although it's still cheesy and repetitive, I'm developing more of an appreciation for Thai rock. It's much better live, for one thing, and we also got to hang out with a few of the musicians milling about near the stage, which always helps. Also, did I mention that Thai rock bands have awesomely ridiculous names, like "Body Slam," "Sweet Mullet," Big Ass," and "Potato"?

Here are my favorite acts of the night:

"Da" of Da Endorphine

This chick rocks. While a lot of Da Endorphine's songs are of the cheesy, sappy persuasion, 'Da' has an amazing voice and great stage presence. She was very fun to watch.

Thaitanium

Thaitanium, a Thai-American hip hop group, was hands down the best act of the night. One of the members was born in New York City, so they have a lot more street cred. than some of the other "rappers" here in Asia (Big Bang, I love you, but you are SO not gangster!)

Da + Thaitanium - even better!

Hanging out with a Thai rock star:

(Me & the guitarist from 'Jetseter')

A good time was had by all :)

Vacation!

2010-10-30T21:05:00.002-07:00

(Written October 14, 2010)

So I've survived the first eight weeks of my teaching contract here in Thailand. It's been rough... I've had many "moments," but things should be a lot more smooth from here on out. This weekend the gang (a small group of teachers I work with) and I are heading to Bangkok to a Thai Rock Music Festival. They are huge fans, and while I haven't quite jumped on the bandwagon yet, I'm hoping after this weekend I'll be more keen* on Thai rock. (*I've picked up a lot of British slang working at a British school)

Sunday we are going to see Eat, Pray Love in preparation for Bali, and Sunday evening we fly to Kuala Lumpur. I could have skipped KL, honestly, and gone straight to Bali, but over the past few days I've been doing research and the shopping is supposed to be fantastic. I am going to allow myself to splurge a bit since I haven't bought ANY new clothes in the last 8 weeks, which is very very good for me. They also have Forever 21, which I developed a fondness for while living in Seoul because it's cheap and they actually had foreigner sizes.

After a few days exploring Kuala Lumpur, we're flying to Bali and spending the first 4 days in Kuta, which is on the coast. After that, we'll head up to Ubud for a few days, which is up in the mountains and supposed to be the cultural heart of Bali. I liken it to Thailand's Chiang Mai, and Kuta to Phuket.

The thought of this vacation is what's been getting me through the hours and hours of lesson planning and miserable rainy weekends in the hut. I cannot wait.

Vegetarian Taryn

2010-10-30T21:04:00.001-07:00

(Written October 3rd, 2010)

Since moving abroad I've met a lot of vegetarians , like Ashley, my vegetarian, animal activist BFF in Korea. Although it often put a damper on eating out for us carnivores, I always found her choice commendable, and I've said on multiple occasions that I'd like to be a vegetarian on principle, (mostly because it's better for the environment) but that meat is just too damn good.

I've also seen some horrifying ways that animals are treated before they are killed while living in Korea and Thailand, but it wasn't until I started reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman's "Eat to Live" on Ashley's recommendation that I got the nudge I needed to start.

I knew that being a vegetarian is healthier for you and that everyone should probably be eating more fruits and vegetables, but I didn't realize HOW bad animal products are for you over time. I'm not going to attempt to explain all the health benefits of an animal product-free diet here, but if you are interested in learning more, here's Dr. Fuhrman's website.

But Furhman's Eat to Live diet isn't just about cutting out animal products; processed foods that contain food additives and high levels of sodium and sugar are just as bad for you. As a physician, he says that a lot of the ailments he treats patients for are 100% avoidable. We (as in Americans) are killing ourselves with the food choices we make.

Preventing cancer, heart disease, type II diabetes, migraines (which I suffer from) was the motivation I needed. Weight loss is just a happy side effect :)

Basically, Fuhrman says that for optimal health, the bulk of your caloric intake should come from nutrient-dense foods, so green vegetables, fruits, and legumes should be at the bottom of the food pyramid. After that, whole grains in limited amounts, and then fat free dairy and poultry, and on the very top of the pyramid, fats, oils, sweets, cheese (he really hates cheese; it's very high in unsaturated fat, which is apparently the worst kind) and finally, processed foods & beef.

So, mainly for health reasons, I'm giving this vegetarianism and part-time veganism thing a try. I say 'part-time' veganism because I don't think I can entirely eliminate cheese from my diet. I spent 3 years of my childhood living in Wisconsin, after all :)

But I really think I could stand to cut refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods from my diet as much as possible. As someone who doesn't really cook, they are a big part of my diet, and they have almost no nutritional value.

I'll let you know how it goes.

October 31st update: I've been happily meat-free for 30 days now :)

Sweet Civilization

2010-09-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to Bangkok, for no particular reason other than I just needed to get out of the village. The previous weekend, it rained all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday and we were cooped up inside the damp huts the whole time with shoddy internet service. I went a bit stir crazy. This weekend I wasn't going to leave fate in the hands of this cursed rainy season.

The trip was exactly what I needed; I got to walk around the city, shop, chill by the pool, eat Korean and Western food, attend a yoga class, drink really good wine, admire cute boys (Pak Chong is lacking in that department... at least ones that are as tall as I am) browse an English bookstore, etc. Basically I indulged in all of the things I can't get in Pak Chong.

It's probably a good thing I live in the countryside after all, because I dropped some serious baht in a very short period of time. But it is nice to know that civilization is only a 2 hour, 180 baht van ride away.

A few highlights:

I was very happy to stumble upon "Koreantown," located along Sukhumvit Road between Nana and Asoke BTS Stops. There are several decent Korean restaurants and a Korean Food Mart.

Big surprise, the area was full of Korean tourists, who come all the way to Thailand just to eat Korean food. So typical.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at Siam Paragon, a classy shopping mall located at Siam BTS Stop

Kinokuniya Bookstore, where most of my baht went

Okay, so we actually do have DQ in Pak Chong, but I was on an indulgence kick
Coffee/Oreo Blizzard...mmmm. Do we have this in the States?

I devoured this magical pizza after a 90 minute yoga/pilates class. The calories even out, right? ;)

The restaurant is called Pomodoro, right by Nana station on Sukhumvit. Try the Cabarnet Sauvignon; it's worth all 260 baht.

Ahhh... can't wait to go back :)

Wai Kru

2010-09-23T06:27:00.002-07:00

This morning our school held a "Wai Kru" Ceremony, a ritual during which Thai students formally pay respects to their teachers. Initially I was excited because it meant I had one less lesson to prepare for today, my busiest teaching day of the week. But it was actually a really neat ceremony that left me feeling really good about my decision to teach here, something I've questioned more than once in the past few weeks. (See last few postings)

First, the entire student body knelt and said a chant in Thai, expressing gratitude for the hard work that we teachers do and asking us to bless their academic studies. This was followed by a song in Thai that had a similar message.

Then a representative from our respective homeroom classes presented us with flower arrangements they had prepared the night before. Other students gave us flower bracelets (not sure what they are called officially) and the student who gave me my bracelet knelt down, took my hand and very sincerely told me she wished that I would be very happy in my life.

How cool is that? A high school student wishing her teacher happiness? Not something I can imagine transpiring while teaching in "the West."

The ceremony itself was great, but the best part was when one of the Year 13 students who was an M.C. talked about how the students voted him the most "eloquent" speaker.

"Eloquence" was one of our weekly vocabulary words, and I wondered if he maybe incorporated it into his speech after learning it in my class. Then I thought, nahhh, he probably just translated it from Thai.

But afterwards, he said, "Ms. Taryn, did you hear me use "eloquent" in my speech?" and proceeded to tell me he deliberately put it in there!

We teachers live for these sparse, yet validating moments. I've spent more time lesson planning in the past five weeks than I maybe ever have in my life, and because I'm still getting used to the curriculum here and figuring out my students' ability levels and the UK teacher lingo, etc. etc., I often wonder if all the time I spend preparing lessons or drilling grammar is getting us anywhere; whether anything is sticking. It seemed like it wasn't, considering I spent the first week drilling subject-verb agreement with all classes, a mistake that still shows up all over the place in their written and spoken English.

But it's nice to know that something is sticking, and that the work I've put in is appreciated.

Happy Wai Kru, and a special shout out to the teachers who don't get ceremonies where flower arrangements are placed at their feet. Outside of Asia, teaching can be a thankless profession.

Year 8's Arrangement (My homeroom)

I should have sent these kids back to class, but instead participated in a class-delaying photo shoot

Glass half-full

2010-09-23T06:27:00.001-07:00

Sunday, September 19th

I was having a bit of a freak out moment today when it was raining and I was trapped in the hut, wishing I were in a big city like Seoul, or back home, but I'm okay now.

I just read through some old blog postings and it reassured me that everything will be fine. Civilization will be waiting for me when I want to go back, whether that's home or another country or another U.S. city (which I've been thinking about lately).

It's only been a month. It's going to take a little more time to get the hang of things and I need to not be so hard on myself for not being a perfect teacher from the get-go. There's no way I'm going to have a perfect lesson plan every day when I'm prepping for 4-5 different classes.

Hopefully the kids are learning something even if the lessons have been sort of scattered all over the place so far. I've been trying really hard to adapt materials and lessons to the needs of each group. It's going to take a little bit more trial and error to find what works for them and me, and I can't beat myself up about that.

I need to focus on the positives when I get down like that.

I'm learning and growing and getting good teaching experience. I'm developing lots of lessons I can use in the future. Heck, I'm going to Bali in 4 weeks and India in April! It's like my Eat, Pray, Love year.

Not to mention I'm challenging myself to live outside of my comfort zone. (read: the middle of nowhere) Not everyone could do that.

Plus I haven't bought any new clothes in over a month. That has to be like a new world record for me.

In other words, quit spazzing Taryn, everything will be fine.

I hate Thursdays

2010-09-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

September 15th, 9:51 pm

I just sat at school for two and a half hours to prep and I really didn't get that much done. I'm having an 'overwhelmed' day. 5 different classes to prep for is a lot. Finding materials that work, making worksheets; all that takes a lot of time. I hate Thursdays.

August 18th, 5:58 am

2010-09-23T03:02:00.000-07:00

Thoughts swirling around my head this morning @ 3:00 am: I am not cut out for this. I'm a city girl. I took this job for the wrong reasons; namely I was scared of a 2 year commitment. I also liked the way "living in a hut in the Thai jungle" sounded vs. the day to day reality.

I know it will get better. But this is a huge life adjustment. Plus I'm super overwhelmed by the idea of planning for 5 different age groups, based on a curriculum and testing system I don't know. Freaking out a little. And it doesn't help that my body still isn't on Thai time.

Have been waking up at 3 am like clockwork every night so far.

First Impressions

2010-08-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've been in Pak Chong for 2 days now, trying to get over jet lag and adjusting to the sweltering heat. It's pretty much unbearable during the afternoons, but I do have AC in the bedroom of my 'hut' and in my classroom at school, thank God.

It turns out that where I'm living isn't quite as remote as I imagined. In fact, as we were driving through Pak Chong on the way to my school, we passed "Premium Outlet Khao Yai," an outlet mall that looked similar to ones in the States, complete with a Starbucks. I always find it somewhat comforting when a Starbucks is within reach, it means you can't be that far out of civilization.

However, I don't have my own means of transport yet, so for now I am pretty isolated here in the village. Most of the staff at SIS live in a cluster of bungalows across the street from the school.

My bungalow is pretty sweet. It definitely needs some sprucing up inside, but it's about 3 times as big as my apartment in Seoul. I have a REAL kitchen with an oven this time, so I have no excuses for not cooking. The porch is pretty awesome too.

The only downside (besides the heat) is my recently developed fear of snakes. I've never really liked snakes (really, who does?) but now that I'm living somewhere where they are actually a threat, I'm truly paranoid. My coworker Nicole told me that someone once found a snake in the bottom of their wardrobe, and now I keep imagining that a snake is going to jump out at any moment and attack me. (Poisonwood Bible, anyone?)

There are lots of creatures in the village; mostly geckos and all sorts of insects, and a huge toad that scared the living daylights out of me last night. All of this is going to take some getting used to. I sort of feel like I'm at camp right now, it hasn't really set in that this is my life for the next year.

Had my first day of work yesterday, this week is teacher prep and next Monday school starts. I spent most of the morning in a jet-lagged daze while a lot of information was thrown at me. It was a little overwhelming but I think today will be better. I've just been looking through the previous teacher's files and trying to piece together what she did with students on a day-to-day basis.

I found out I will have "Year 8" through "Year 13," which means students aged 12-18. The school uses the British National curriculum, which I have zero experience with, so this year will be a lot of learning as I go. I can already tell that my position here will be far more demanding than my job in Seoul, but that's what I wanted. My class sizes are really small (they estimate I'll have 10 kids per class max) so I'll actually get to know my students and I'm looking forward to that.

That's about it for now. I find myself missing Minnesota and Seoul a lot, but it was like that in the beginning in Korea as well; I just need to give it some time.

I hope this post has satiated those of you who are living vicariously :)

XoXo,
Taryn

A few pictures:

My hut
My bedroom, complete with mosquito netting

View from my front porch

The Staff Village

My School

Trying to stay awake my first day, after 22 hours of flying

24 days...

2010-07-20T18:16:00.001-07:00

So I'm leaving for Thailand in less than a month.

FAQ: Are you excited?

Yeah, but I haven't thought too much about it. I've done this before, so I kind of know what to expect. I know that I'll get homesick from time to time, but overall, I'll be fine. I've also been really busy teaching summer school, taking a graduate course online, and attending various family/friend functions.

But as August 13th approaches, there some things I am a little concerned about regarding life in rural Thailand. Actually I'm not sure if where I'm living is considered rural, but it seems like the middle of nowhere from the extensive research I've done. (i.e., stalking future coworkers on Facebook)

My concerns:

1. Weather in the 80's-90's year round.

Yes, I despise January and February in Minnesota. But can I really handle the opposite extreme?

2. Cobras.

According to one of my future coworkers, they are present in the staff village. Cobras!

3. Scorpions

This photo was taken in Khao Yai National Park, just a few miles down the road from where I'll be living. Awesome!
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/eternalsun/253846691/]

4. AC in the bungalows?

I should probably ask about this. (And yes, I'll be living in a bungalow)

Photo courtesy of Corinne, future coworker I've been stalking on Facebook

5. Being an hour away from civilization

The closest legit city is Korat. Bangkok is a 2 1/2 hour bus ride away. And from what I've been told, there isn't much going on in Pak Chong, which is 10K away from the school.

7. Having to cook for myself.

I don't cook...ever. In Seoul I ate out almost all the time. I could walk down the street and order some bibimbap or kimchi jiggae at any number of little Korean restaurants in my neighborhood. I think the principal at my new school told me there is ONE Thai restaurant near the staff village. Looks like it'll be scrambled eggs or grilled cheese for dinner every night, or actually learn how to cook.

8. Availability of Western food?

I LOVE Thai food, but I know from traveling there for 2.5 weeks this spring that even Chicken Curry gets old when you have it every night for dinner.

I was spoiled in Seoul. I had immediate access to pretty much every "Western" convenience and necessity. For the items I was unable to attain, my Mom and Grandma sent care packages. I feel like they are over the whole daughter/granddaughter abroad thing now and the care packages will be few and far between.

This is going to be an interesting year. Stay tuned to see if this self-proclaimed "city girl" can hack it for a year in the Thai jungle.

Quarter life crisis averted

2010-06-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

When I am an old lady looking back at my life, I will probably laugh at how ridiculous I was at this moment, plauged with indecision and fear and spazzing about what to do with the next year or so of my life.

The problem is, there are too many options, and I'm always worried that I will make the "wrong" choice. So far in life, all the major decisions I've had to make turned out for the best, yet I continually freak out when faced with another one.

When I moved back home 2 months ago, I was hell bent on spending at least another year teaching abroad. However, after being home for a while I realized that moving back home, perhaps getting a job at my old school, getting an apartment downtown, finishing my Masters degree, bascially resuming my old life, would probably not be the end of the world. In fact, it seemed kind of appealing. I have a life here in Minnesota; I have friends, family, North High, and a new taekwondo school that I love. I'm turning 27 in a few days, and I feel like I'm almost ready to be a "real" grown up and and settle down. Almost.

But I've decided to give teaching abroad another go after all. I found the best of both worlds: an international school that agreed to a one year commitment. I wanted to teach at an international school (which operates like a Western school) this time around because I wanted to get back into "real" teaching, meaning have students I see every day, so I can actually learn their names, have some continuity in the curriculum, and see real progress. That didn't happen in my previous job, where it seemed my primary duty was to be a walking dictionary and grammar book for the Korean English teachers.

The problem with international schools is that most require a two year commitment. Why is this a problem? For some reason, the idea of committing to something for two years scares me to death. I keep thinking; I'll be 29 and SINGLE when I move back home, (dear God, the horror!) even though I know that's completely ridiculous.

I turned down what would have been a great job in Korea for that very reason. Also, I figured if I'm sacrificing another year away from friends and family, I needed to try something new. That was the whole point of going abroad in the first place.

Anyway, after all the freaking out, and talking to ANYONE who would listen about my dilemma, I accepted a position at an international school near Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. It will be completely different from Seoul, which scared me at first, but I think it will be a nice change. Basically; I'll be living in a hut in the jungle in the middle of nowheresville Thailand.

Maybe I'll love it, and stay a second year anyway, but I like that I have the option of moving back home after a year if I decide I'm ready to be a real grown up then, or if I decide I need to come back to civilization.

But I think being out of "civilization" for a while will be good for me. I've always lived in the city, and I think I need to get away from the wealth, status and fashion-obsessed environment that was Seoul. I really need to get some bills paid off, and living in a city where designer handbags and heels are practically a uniform wasn't helping with that situation.

I've written in this blog before that I freak out about decisions like this, but in the end, it all mysteriously works out. And it has once again. (Future self; take note)

Adventures in Subbing

2010-05-09T12:36:00.001-07:00

First graders are unreal adorable.
I've only subbed for 1st grade a few times, but each time I come home with a pile of artwork resembling the above piece.

New K-drama with 이민호!

2010-05-06T19:55:00.002-07:00

Since my departure from Korea just over two months ago, I seem to have forgotten all the uber-frustrating times and I'm romanticizing my time there. My poor family and friends are undoubtedly sick of hearing about how much I miss Korea, about how certain things are better there (namely food portions that don't render one obese) and many have been subjected to lengthy K-pop video viewing sessions on Youtube.

I think I'm more obsessed with Korean pop culture now than I was when I lived there.

Case in point: today I didn't have any subbing jobs lined up, so I spent a good chunk of the day in my PJ's catching up on the K-drama that I'm addicted to, "Personal Taste," which stars Lee Minho of "Boys over Flowers" fame.

He's back!

I'm not in Korea anymore, but I'm guessing it's big there considering its popularity on Mysoju.com, where I watch it with English subtitles.

As was the case with 'Boys over Flowers," any success this show has cannot be attributed to captivating storyline or superb acting, because it's awful. Yet I keep watching, because of Lee Minho and his eye-candy appeal. There are lots of long, drawn out moments where the camera is zoomed in on his pretty face.

I also read on my favorite K-pop website that the snazzy, albeit feminine, clothes he wears on the show are highly sought after in Korea right now. I can just imagine the men of Seoul decked out in the frilly suit coats he sports on the show.

"Now where did I leave my murse?"

I love it though. Bring on the ruffles :)

Here's a sneak peek of "Personal Taste"

2010-04-08T16:42:00.006-07:00

After traveling in Asia for a month, I wasn't exactly looking forward to coming back to Minnesota. Don't get me wrong, I love Minnesota, and someday I plan to move back here for good, but life is just a lot more exciting when you live abroad. I'll put it this way; a few weeks ago I was climbing the Great Wall of China. Now I spend my days job hunting and hanging out with a bunch of screaming toddlers fighting over which Scooby Doo movie to watch. (My mom is a daycare provider)

But things are looking up: summer in Minnesota means outdoor concert season, and I have three on the agenda already.

Rock the Garden
Rock the Garden is sponsored by the best radio station in the entire world, 89.3 The Current. (Not even exaggerating) The lineup has yet to be announced, but there are rumors that MGMT will be on the bill, which would make my summer.

Jack Johnson
I found out today that Jack Johnson, my all-time favorite musician, is touring to promote his new album 'To the Sea.' I've seen him twice already at Floatrite Park in Somerset, and I'll be buying tickets for his July 25th concert as soon as they go on sale this Saturday.

Lollapalooza
And finally, there's Lollapalooza in the beginning of August in Chicago's Grant Park. I'm not going to lie, Lady Gaga on the lineup cinched it for me, but I'm also a big fan of the The Strokes and The Black Keys.

She's crazy, but I love her!

I also begin my foray into the world of substitute teaching tomorrow. Thankfully, because I'm really, really tired of Scooby Doo.

Look Mom, I cooked!

2010-04-02T14:51:00.001-07:00

(Written March 18th, 2010)

I just had the most amazing four-course Lao meal; cooked by yours truly!

Okay, "cooked" is maybe a strong word. I took an evening cooking course here in Luang Prabang, and the instructor had already prepared all the ingredients, I mostly just chopped vegetables and meat and pushed it around in a wok until he said it was done.

If cooking was always like this, as in the ingredients magically appeared before me in pre-portioned little bowls and I was under careful supervision, I might do it more often. (I am complete dunce in the kitchen, see previous posts for evidence)

My favorite dish we made was the "Panaeng Gai," which is chicken and minced pork in coconut sauce and chili paste. Mmmmm.

I even ate the "Tom Chaeow Pha," which is white Mekong fish with eggplant and galangai, or oyster mushrooms. As someone who utterly despises fish/seafood, even after 18 months in Korea, this was a big deal for me.

I wish I would have taken a similar course in Korea, because even though I tried all sorts of Korean dishes, I haven't a clue how they were prepared.

Lao cuisine is actually very similar to Thai cuisine, only they eat "khao nioouw" or sticky rice, with every meal rather than steamed rice. I tried sticky rice with eggplant dip for lunch today, and it was surprisingly delicious. When the waiter brought it to my table, I wasn't sure how to eat it, but you just use your hands. This would never fly in the States where we are perhaps overly concerned about food sanitation, but it was really good.

Tiger Kingdom

2010-03-15T07:16:00.002-07:00

Last year when I visited Thailand, I really wanted to go to 'Tiger Temple' near Bangkok, which is advertised as a "sanctuary" for orphaned tigers run by Buddhist monks. I ended up running out of time and skipping it, but that turned out to be okay. Friends who visited later said that they dope the tigers so they're calm and sedated and tourists can come and take pictures with them, which I don't really agree with.

Also, at a lot of these animal tourist attractions in Thailand, the animals aren't treated very well**. Last year on Ko Chang we rode elephants that were kept chained up in little stalls when they weren't carting tourists around, and after that experience, I wasn't keen on supporting such tourist attractions.

However on my outing yesterday I met a friendly trio of Australians who had been to 'Tiger Kingdom' here in Chiang Mai, and they said that to their knowledge, the tigers weren't sedated, and they seemed to be treated well. So this morning I took a tuk-tuk out there before visiting the Pandas at Chiang Mai Zoo. (They wake them up at 3pm everyday for visitors)

Tiger Kingdom had different packages you could buy, and I splurged and paid about 50 USD for the 4 in 1 ticket, meaning I got to go in all four tiger cages; newborn, small, medium and "big cat." It sounded like a good deal, but when I was already scared of the 6 week old tiger that kept trying to bite me in the "newborn" cage, it wasn't a good sign.

Each cage/tiger size got increasingly terrifying. The scariest were the "medium" sized tigers, because they sat me down among three year-old tigers to take pictures. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done, and I was perfectly content snapping a few quick pictures and getting the heck out of that cage.

A very terrifying moment in life:

I was trembling when I went into the last cage with the "big cats," who were all around 21 months old. Luckily these ones were mostly napping and not as feisty as the smaller tigers. The staff told me to lay my head down on one tiger's belly for a photo, which I reluctantly did, and I heard its stomach gurgling!

It was well worth the 50 USD and a few heart-pounding minutes in each cage. If you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai (which you should, I absolutely love this city) it's worth checking out. And according to the signs, the tigers here are not drugged. It said that because the tigers have been raised in captivity, they are used to being around humans, and that tigers are generally more active at night. They are also fed twice a day (chicken, I asked) and therefore don't have the desire to hunt.

However, it was still an 'enter at your own risk' type of situation, and the ticket price includes healthcare costs if a tiger indeed bites your hand off.

**More info. about reports of animal abuse: http://thaiwildorchids.com/tiger-temple-abuse.htm

Greetings from Thailand!

2010-03-13T21:25:00.004-08:00

Ko Samet, a little island about 3.5 hours from Bangkok by bus

My sister has been bugging me about updating this, so I'm just going to share a few snippets from my journal before I go visit a Hmong Hill tribe here in Chiang Mai (super excited about that!)

March 2nd, 2010 (Bus from Bangkok to Ko Samet)

I'm finding myself missing Korea already; pangs in the chest actually, and I get all excited about any Korea-related sightings here in Bangkok. Today the Girls Generation "Oh" music video was playing at Siam Center. I wonder how long this will last, or if I really will have to move back there, like my friends are encouraging.

It's nice seeing a classier side of Bangkok this time around. Staying in Josie and Mark's apartment is a lot different than staying in the madness that is Khao San Road like last year. And Siam Center (shopping mall) was really fancy, it had one of the nicest movie theaters I've ever been to.

March 5th (Plane to Phuket)

And I'm off! I've only had one minor setback on this trip so far, which was an excess baggage fee of 175,000 won at Incheon Airport, but otherwise it's going well so far. I did an overnight to Ko Samet with Mark and Josie, saw a Muay Thai boxing match last night, and now I'm headed south to Phuket.

I'm traveling (mostly) alone for a month, and my biggest fear going into this trip was getting my wallet, expensive camera, and/or passport stolen. In reality, it's more likely that I lose one of these myself considering I'm a total space cadet. The other day I took cash out of an ATM near Josie and Mark's apartment, and as I was walking away, a Thai lady chased me down and tapped me on the back. She had my receipt and ATM card in her hand! It makes me happy that there are honest people everywhere, even here in Bangkok, which people usually think of as shady.

Josie and Mark have been gracious hosts, letting me store my crap (and there's a lot of it) at their place in Bangkok while I'm off gallivanting. Still missing Korea...I got really excited last night at McDonald's (nothing else was open at 11 pm after the boxing match) when they played Super Junior and Big Bang. I miss speaking Korean too.

March 5th (Phi Phi Island)

Yikes. Phi Phi is a lot more expensive than anticipated. Also, I'm pretty sure it's one of the most beautiful places in the world, which means I have to share it with everyone in the world. This place (Ton Sai Village) is a zoo.. like mini Cancun or something. Maybe I'll find a more chill beach for tomorrow night.

They have all these awesome excursions though - sailing, snorkeling, camping trips to 'The Beach.' Definitely want to do one of those.

Seriously though, this is not at all how I pictured it. I thought it would be at least a little more remote. I'm kind of missing our calm, tranquil beach on Ko Samet.

March 6th (Phi Phi Island)

Found cheaper digs today (300 baht/night, which is about 9 USD) and some good swimming beaches. The beach here in the village (Ao Lo Dalum) at low tide was highly disappointing, but is great at midday. Then I booked the half day snorkel tour and got to swim with fish, see Ko Phi Phi Leh, and Maya Bay, a.k.a. "The Beach," which actually isn't that great. It's beautiful, but not the best swimming beach. The best part was the snorkeling for sure. It was amazing; so many fish, giant coral clusters...amazing. I want to go again if possible.

I ran into some Koreans getting on a cruise ship today, I was suspicous when I saw their matching towels and ajumma visors, (albeit more tropical-looking than the ones worn in Seoul) and I asked in Korean if they were indeed Korean. We chatted for a bit before boarding our respective boats, and it was nice to speak Korean again, even if only for a few minutes.

*More to come... have to head out now!

DMZ Tour

2010-02-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

With my days in Korea winding down, there were two last things I wanted to check off my list. One was see a Big Bang concert, and the other was tour the DMZ. Unfortunately Big Bang didn't work out, but last Saturday my friend Bonnie and I went on the USO tour of the DMZ, and it was, in one word, fascinating. I can't believe I waited so long to do it.

For those of you who don't know, the DMZ (or Demilitarized Zone) is the strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel. It is the most heavily guarded border in the world. (thank you, Wikipedia) It's also only about an hour by bus from Seoul.

The beginning of our tour took us to the Joint Security Area (or in Korean, Panmunjom), where North and South Korean soldiers stand face to face every day. The area is used by the two countries for diplomatic meetings. At one point our tour group was standing across from the main North Korean building, Panmungak, where a North Korean soldier was watching our every move through binoculars. We were told not to point or make any gestures in the direction of North Korean soldiers that could be used as propaganda, so during question time when a few members of our tour group forgot and starting pointing and gesturing, I freaked out a little bit. I had visions flashing in my head of the North Korean watching us whipping out a machine gun and blasting it in our direction. Luckily that never happened, and that was the only scary part of the tour.

The JSA - The conference buildings where the North and South hold meetings

Bonnie and I (and an ROK soldier) standing on either side of the Demarcation Line. Bonnie's on the North Korean side.

North Korean soldiers who came out to watch our tour group

The tour brought us to a few other historically significant spots, such as the site of the "Axe murder Incident" in 1976, where two U.S. Army officials were axed to death by DPRK soldiers while supervising a tree pruning. The tree was blocking sight lines between two security checkpoints on the JSA.

That was just one of many incidents that show the North Koreans haven't been holding up their end of the deal. The coolest part of the tour was crawling through "The 3rd Tunnel," one of four tunnels apparently designed for a surprise attack on Seoul from North Korea. North Korea first claimed they didn't dig it, but the direction of the dynamite blasts point towards South Korea. So then they claimed it was part of a coal mine, and there is actually black "coal" painted on the walls. However, experts have said coal is geologically unlikely in the area.

The last part of the tour took us to Imgingak, a park that was built around "Freedom Bridge," where at the end of the Korean war, 13,000 prisoners of war walked to freedom in the South. The story says that as they crossed the bridge, they cried out in thanks for their freedom, giving the bridge its name.

Because many families were separated after the war, the park was built to console those who are unable to return to their hometowns during important holidays, like this weekend's Lunar New Year. People come to the park instead and pray for their loved ones.

I've been living in Korea for almost a year and a half now, about an hour away from the North Korean border, yet in my day to day life here, North Korea doesn't affect me at all. When you live here, you forget that technically, the two countries are still at war. However, going on the tour reminded me of the reality of the situation. Families were separated, lives were lost, and the North Korean people continue to live in under a totalitarian dictatorship.

Man saying a prayer at Imjingak

Prayers for peace, reunification, loved ones at Freedom Bridge

More pictures of my DMZ tour here

How to Dance K-Pop Style 2009

2010-02-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Simon and Martina of Eatyourkimchi.com have done it again. They've put together another video of the year's top K-pop dance moves!

I have to say it's not as funny as its predecessor, but it's still a spot-on overview of the songs that have been drilled into my head for the past year.

Be sure to check out Simon's dramatic reading of Shinee lyrics at 5:17, as well as the Choco Boy impersonation at the end.

This video actually makes me sad, when I think about all the K-pop I'm going to be missing out on in 2010.

Jo Jo

2010-01-20T20:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, I was mistaken when I said there weren't any good K-pop songs out right now. Shinee saved the day with their new single "Jo Jo." They haven't made a video yet, but my Winter Camp students showed me this live version of them sporting back-to-the-early-90's hip hop gear. I don't know how I feel about that, but the song, like any good K-pop song, is addicting.

Tae Min is the one in the purple hat and star tattoo next to his eye. I'm not sure what their stylist was on that day...

Letdown

2010-01-18T00:50:00.000-08:00

Alas, I finally heard back from Westgate Corporation in Japan today, and I didn't get the job.

They said that the hiring pool was very competitive; and since I don't have experience working with adults or a CELTA certificate, they couldn't offer me a position at this time. They said to reapply when I had obtained one of the above. But the thing is; I like kids. I don't really want to teach adults, which is why I didn't get a CELTA certificate in the first place. The University students I would have taught are only a few years older than my current students.

I had a bad feeling when they said they would let me know their decision in about two weeks, and then I didn't hear from them until now, a month later. I shouldn't have banked on getting that job and looked into other options, but as a self-proclaimed commitment-phobe, I really liked the idea of a 3 month contract. Even though I'd be unemployed again in July, it gave me more time to figure out what to do in the fall. I was also over-confident that I would get it given my three years of experience and actual teaching degree and license; something a lot of my fellow ESL teachers don't have.

I'm kind of bummed because I was really excited about living in Japan, but I guess this is a good thing; I'll have more time at home with my friends and family and can spend some time thinking about what it is I really want to do next.

I know that I'm not ready to go home for good just yet. There is still a lot more world out there that I want to see. Stay tuned...

January 15, 2010

2010-01-14T15:42:00.001-08:00

Had a short chat in Korean with the 7-11 lady this morning. This always happens: just when I've reached a communicable level in a foreign language, I leave the country. (Happened when I lived in France too)

Pretty, fluffy snowflakes falling again this morning. As I was waiting for a cab in front of my neighborhood Paris Baguette watching them fall, I had a moment. A "damn; I'm going to miss this place" moment. I can't believe how fast these last 2 months are going.

K-Pop 2010

2010-01-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't been impressed with the K-pop charts these days. The number 3 song this week, "Bo Beep," by T'ara, is maddening actually. (The girls sing "Bo Beep Bo Beep Bo Beep over and over again) Some girl was listening to it on the bus the other day and I nearly lost it. Thank God for I-pods.

This is the one song out right now that I actually do like. "You and I" by 2ne1's Park Bom. Like most Korean music videos, it's super cheesy and melodramatic. And I don't want to be a hater, but I just want to point out a few unrealistic aspects of the video, lest people think that Korea is a Utopian land full of cupcakes and idyllic natural scenery. Just doing my part to shatter the Confucian ideal of keeping up appearances, one blog post at a time.

For one, Korean weddings don't take place in churches. Instead they have these huge wedding halls that people rent out for the afternoon. Secondly, where are all these big open fields and picket fences? I've never seen any in Korea. North and South Korea combined are about the size of the state of Minnesota, only with a bajillion more people. These idyllic nature scenes do not exist. Even the National Parks in Korea are overcrowded. They're like Disneyland with mountains.

Also, it seems like in Korean music videos, someone always has to die. The first Korean music video I ever saw was Big Bang's "Haru Haru," where two guys fight over this chic who ends up dying of some terminal illness. In this one, her new husband gets sick and dies. But if you've read past entries, you'll know that Koreans are sort of obsessed with health, and it carries over into pop culture.

Alright, I'll shut up now and post the video.

Guest blogger: My little sister :)

2010-01-12T21:57:00.000-08:00

Thoughts on Korea

I just got home from spending almost two weeks in South Korea visiting my big sister Taryn. And as a self-acclaimed #1 reader of this blog (there are actual statistics to back up this claim) I offered to be a guest writer. Unfortunately for you, I am not as creative a writer as my big sis and words do not flow as eloquently from me. So, I have decided to make lists. It’s what I’m good at and, call me crazy, what I love doing. I must have taken all the organizational genes while Taryn got all the creative ones. As I list my likes and dislikes and general observations of my time in Korea… keep in mind that I was only there for 12 days and during a very cold streak. Therefore I did not get to see a whole lot or meet a ton of people to make my observations more generalized. I ask your forgiveness in advance.

Also, I add the question of whether I would come back to Korea if given the chance. I put this because when most people think about traveling to Asia—they think of the big cities of Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. No one really thinks of South Korea as a tourist “hot spot” or a “must see” when going to Asia. And really, I would have never gone there if it had not been for my sister living and working there. What I experienced in Korea made me fall in love with this place. It is difficult to describe exactly what it is about Seoul (or Korea in general) so I’m not even going to try. I would do it a great injustice. All I can do is this:

What I liked:

• #1 being the food: I even fell in love with kimchi
• The people: they were so polite and ready to offer a lost foreigner help and assistance
• Public transportation: how easy it was to get anywhere in the massive city of Seoul at a very cheap price (you will notice
it’s also one of my dislikes)
• That there was a coffee shop pretty much every other store on any block in Korea
• How much exercise I got from all the walking; I wish the US would encourage walking more
• All the shopping that you can find anywhere
• The language is so interesting and fun to listen to, yet extremely difficult to decipher the different sounds and words (it all
sounded the same to me because everything in the polite language ends the same way)

What I disliked:
• Most public restrooms were not heated
• Most public sinks did not have heated water
• Most public restrooms lacked either soap and/or toilet paper (or all of the above)
• The germs, due to lack of all of the above. Men hocking loogies all over the streets or subway stations—close quarters with people on the subways and buses—and the sudden changes from extreme cold weather outside to extreme heat on the subways….. makes any microbe want to have a party and multiply.
• Thus, public transportation (because of germs, and the snowstorm) is also one of my dislikes!

What I found pretty hilarious:
• Most of the Koreans were scared of us foreigners because we seem to be the root of the spread of swine flu (aka H1N1)
• That you have to take your shoes off to go into a dressing room at any clothing store (they’re pretty good at saying “shoes off!”)
• The language of “Konglish,” aka direct translations from Korean to English

Would I go back to Korea?
Answer: YES!!! I loved it there, despite the germs. The “likes” definitely outweighed the “dislikes.” Next time I go I will be more prepared with better walking shoes, more hand sanitizer, and I won’t go during the flu season.

In conclusion, (not to sound like an advertisement or anything…) if any of you are planning a trip to Asia ever in your life… do not overlook Korea. I hear in the summertime it is quite beautiful. Even in the wintertime there were moments that I was caught up in the beauty of the place (granted, I am a Minnesotan and do love snowy weather). If you never make it there, that’s ok. Chicago I hear has some great Korean restaurants. At least try the food!

An open letter to Seoul Metro Users

2010-01-04T22:40:00.001-08:00

Dearest Fellow Commuters,

We all know that getting to and fro in Seoul is, more often than not, a pain in the arse. It's been even worse the past few days with the unusual amount of snow we've been getting. People who normally drive are flocking to the already over-crowded subways.

On my commute home today, I found myself wanted to strangle the nearest living thing at least three times. Thus, I have compiled a list of suggestions to users of the Seoul Metro, although many could be applied to people just walking on sidewalks.

1. How about we learn how to walk? Let me be more specific. What if we adhered to a ground-breaking system in which walkers stayed to the right, allowing a two-way flow of traffic? Oh wait! There are stickers and signs all over the metro telling you do this; you just don't!

2. On a related note, how about stepping to the side when you are texting/using your cell phone instead of stopping right in front of me? This too, allows for a continuous flow of traffic.

3. When someone in front of you is walking a little too slowly for your liking, what about walking around them rather than plowing into them? Seems to me like it would require less physical exertion.

4. When the train is full, what about simply waiting for the next one rather than shoving yourself and the people in front of you inside, nearly crushing people to death in the process? Where on earth are you going that is so important?

5. When people are lining up to get on the train, how about allowing the first person in line to also be the first person on the train, rather than plowing them out of your way? Ajummas, I'm talking to you. People don't stand in line because it looks cool.

Look, I know we're all in a hurry to get where we need to go, but I just don't think that trampling and shoving are a necessary part of the daily commute. Maybe that's just the Minnesota nice in me.

I can't wait for all this snow to melt, so that the drivers among us can go back to nearly running me over with their cars instead.

Cordially yours,

Annoyed Commuter

Assah!!!

2009-12-18T04:11:00.000-08:00

(Translation: Awesome!!!)

I spend so much time worrying about things that in the end, just seem to work themselves out.

I had my phone interview with Westgate yesterday, and I finally found out the details I desperately wanted to know. The past few months I'd been worried that they would want me to start in March, giving me no time to travel between contracts and maybe a week or so to go home and visit my family.

But as luck would have it, I wouldn't start until April 29th, giving me TWO whole months off to travel and also spend some time at home! It's perfect. I say "wouldn't" because I haven't actually been given the job yet, but I was feeling good vibes...through the phone :)

Anyway I think I'm going to spend the month of March traveling in Asia. I finally have this big chunk of time to visit some of the places on my ever-growing list. My contract ends February 28th, and I think on March 1st I'll fly into Bangkok, and spend a week or so in Thailand, my happy place.

After that, I'd like to hit up Vietnam and Laos, followed by Beijing. Beijing isn't really close to the other places, but I can't leave Asia without visiting The Great Wall of China, it would just be wrong. Then from Beijing, I'd fly home to Minnesota in the end of March, and spend April at home with the fam.

There are, of course, many more places I'd like to visit, but seeing as I'm horrible at saving money/budgeting, I'm sticking to places where I know I'll get more bang for my won. India will have to wait.

But I'm super excited. A major reason I decided to stay abroad another year was so that I could travel more, and for awhile it didn't seem that I would get to do much of it this year (what with familial obligations eating up all my vacation days) but lo and behold, it's happening :)

On a related note, my students finally caught wind that I'm leaving them, and for Japan of all places! Their faces register utter shock and horror when I tell them this. Most Koreans still harbor ill-feelings towards Japan for that whole 35- year occupation thing, and you can't really blame them. Like many Koreans complain, the Japanese government never issued a formal apology, and they sort of pretend like it never happened. A few of my students also told me that Japanese people have very "low quality" pronunciation when speaking English, and proceeded to mock their pronunciation of words like "McDonalds." As if their pronunciation was perfect... but anyway, I got a little choked up saying goodbye to a few kids. I'm around for 2 more months though, so it doesn't feel like goodbye yet. Plus I'm too busy daydreaming about my trip ;)

She's singin' in Korean

2009-12-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night at Korean class I met some fellow Minnesotans from the class right before mine. When Minnesotans meet outisde of MN, usually bonds of a shared homeland are immediately formed. We're clique-y like that. They said, "Hey, wanna sing Rudolph with us in the Christmas program?" They were probably just being nice, but I was like "Sure!"

So I had two days to learn Rudolph in Korean in order to perform it tonight at the Yeoksam Global Village Center's Christmas Party.

In order to get the pronunciation down, I spent a good chunk of time at work this morning browsing youtube and trying to sing along with Korean superstar BoA. (If the Korean taxpayers only knew...) She's really famous in Japan, so in this clip, she sings it first in Japanese, then Korean, then English.

Here are the Korean lyrics if you want to sing along ;)

루돌프 사슴코는
매우 반짝이는 코
만일 네가 봤다면
불 붙는다 했겠지

다른 모든 사슴들
놀려대며 웃었네
가엾은 저 루돌프
외톨이가 되었네

안개 낀 성탄절날
산타 말하길
루돌프 코가 밝으니
썰매를 끌어주렴

그후론 사슴들이 그를 매우 사랑했네
루돌프 사슴코는 길이길이 기억되리

Romanized:

Roo dohl peu sa seum ko neun
meh oo bahn jjahk ee neun ko
mahn il nae ga bwah da myun
bul bit neun da haet gat ji

Da reun moh deen sa seum deel
nol ryuh dae myuh oot suht nae
ga yuh eun juh roo dohl peu
wae tul ee ga dwi uht nae

Ahn gae kkin song tan juhl nal San ta mal ha kil
roo dohl peu ko ga bahl geu ni
ssul meh reul keul uh joo reum

Geu hoo rohn sa seum deel ee
geu reul meh oo sarang haet nae
roo dohl peu sa seum ko neun
kil ee kil ee ki uhk dwi ri

Chicken soup FAIL

2009-12-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

One thing that's awesome about Korea is that many things are much cheaper than they would be back in the States, such as:

Taxis
Public Transportation
Korean Food
Haircuts
Cell phone plans
Soju

However, others (namely anything imported) are heinously expensive:

Starbucks (3,000 won for a tall roast of the day)
Cheese
Mediocre beer imports (like $6 for a bottle of Miller Lite, probably warm)
Any wines
Cosmetics ($17 for lipstick I could get for $5 in the States? No thanks)

Today I splurged on lunch, unintentionally. My sinuses started acting whack yesterday, so I was craving some Chicken Noodle Soup with a soda on the side.

I went to Butterfinger Pancakes, a Western restaurant near my school that does an amazing brunch and normally serves actual 'Western' portions. My order, a teeny bowl of Chicken noodle soup with 3, yes 3, soda crackers and a diet soda, came to 13,200 won. (about 12 US dollars)

I don't know how much cans of Campbell's Chicken Noodle are running these days, but I'm pretty sure I could have consumed the same meal for under $3 back home. I HATE that. I am not a thrifty person by any means, but nothing irks me more than paying 2 to 3 times more for something in Korea than I would in the States.

I really shouldn't complain though, considering I don't pay taxes or rent in Korea. I'm also moving to Japan very soon, where everything, not just imports, is wicked expensive.

Update on the Japan job: I have a phone interview next week, which is the 3rd phase of the application process. I think that I will get the job, but I don't know any concrete details, like when I start, what city I will be teaching in, exactly how long my contract will be, (the website says 3-5 months) etc.

A few months ago I wrote that I wasn't going to stress about it, and just go with the flow, but my zen-like attitude is quickly fading now that my contract is almost over. I need to know those details, so I can figure out if and when I can do some traveling around Asia between contracts and whether or not I can attend any of the 3 family weddings taking place this spring/summer. (Seriously, family and friends: if you could just pause the whole marriage/babies thing it would really help me out!)

I'm hoping they will fill me in next week. I'll keep you posted.

Ulysses

2009-12-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

"How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life!"

~Tennyson, "Ulysses"

I am one those nerdy English teacher types who writes down quotes that appeal to me, and this is one I remember jotting down during my British Lit. course in college.

I thought of it today as I was "rusting unburnished" at my desk at work. My teaching hours are very few these days, (16/week) and even then, classes are cancelled all the time for every reason under the sun. It's as if instruction is the least important of all things at this school.

Friday my classroom is being used to vaccinate students for the H1N1 virus. "Will I be teaching them in their homerooms then?" I asked.

No, they will just use that time as self-study. Because cramming for the tests is far more important than anything I could teach them. Starting next week, the students are taking finals, which means I have a whole week of sitting at my desk doing...nothing.

I'm hoping for a University teaching job in Japan, because at least then, students are over the mad testing phase of their lives and can focus on applicable skills like, I don't know, speaking?

Like Ulysses, I'm getting restless. I have too much time sitting at my desk instead of teaching. There's only so much Facebook stalking one can do before one's brain starts to turn to mush.

I hate this. I like feeling useful. Instead I feel like a waste of space.

Yellow belt 입니다!

2009-12-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

Translation: I'm a yellow belt!

(At least, I think I passed the promotion test. They haven't actually given us the belts yet...)

If you aren't a taekwondoer yourself, you're probably like, "who cares?", but for me, it's really exciting to not be a clueless rookie a.k.a. white belt anymore. I never had aspirations of becoming the next Jet Li; I started learning taekwondo for the experience and because Vicky said it's a "proper workout." (The Brits like to use "proper" a lot) Also because I believe that I'm becoming more of a wuss as I age, and this is an attempt to de-wuss myself.

I started taking classes about 2 months ago, subjecting myself to loads of bruises, sore/pulled muscles, being shot at with BB guns and a sprained ankle.

I am in pain after nearly every practice, even after two months of classes. I swear the instructors sit around plotting new ways to torture us each practice. See picture of stunt double-esque flying somersaults below for an example.

In spite of all this, I am loving it! I'm not a violent person by any means, but there's something about fake kicking and punching people and shouting "Ki-yeop!' that is such a rush. Also, my 3 years of high-kicking with Dance Team have paid off, as taekwondo emphasizes the use of kicks over other types of martial arts.

I also have a newfound appreciation for people who are actually good at this. It's much harder than it looks.

Here are a few pictures I took during Sunday's promotion test, an incredibly nerve-wracking experience that involved demonstrating what I was supposed to know for stone-faced judges while the rest of the club sat on the sides watching me screw up...which I did several times. I can't even remember the last time I've been that nervous.

But I passed, because like TM (what we call our taekwondo master) said, our club's focus is on enjoying ourselves rather than perfection. Which is why it's perfect for me :)

Yellow to Green Belt pumsae 품새, or pattern:

Kicks

Vicky breakin' some boards

In the beginning of November, our club took a trip up to Gangcheon (north of Seoul somewhere) where we did the flying somersaults, learned how to break people's wrists, and shot at each other with BB guns.

Our club with Grandmaster Lee. Fighting!

Flying somersaults...ouch!

Playing with guns

Limbo contest. Finally, something I'm good at!

Good times :)

Perfectly Lonely

2009-11-16T14:21:00.003-08:00

My favorite track off the new John Mayer album:

K-Pop vs. Old Pop, Halloween

2009-11-04T03:47:00.000-08:00

I saw this sign last year when I visited Busan, and I took a picture because it cracked me up. Old Pop? Sounds like a very appealing genre.

I've heard the term come up several times this past year. Like in Summer Camp, when I was playing Jack Johnson during work time, and one of my students asked, "Teacher, this is Old Pop?" Uh...no.

I'm still not really sure what this Konglish term refers to, but I'm going to just guess and then go ahead and make another generalization. It seems there are three types of Korean music: "Old Pop," Sappy Love Ballads, and K-pop. There is a very distinct difference between Old Pop and the K-pop videos I've shared with you on this blog.

To demonstrate what Old Pop sounds like, I bring you (dubbed) Beyonce.

You will hear this type of music blasting from little radios in street markets or at the rest stops on bus trips. It always makes me giggle.

Fast forward to 2009, where K-pop groups are made up of good-looking, fashion forward kids with killer dance moves. I bring you the most requested video in my classes as of late, Shinee's "Ring ding dong." (Or "Ling ding dong," as one of my students scribbled on the assignment he was supposed to be working on last week)

Korean pop music has come a long way. Be sure to watch until the end when the boys sprout angel wings :)

Speaking of K-pop...

Last weekend was Halloween, and my two favorite costumes were K-pop stars. Much to Vicky and my delight, we spotted a pretty authentic-looking G-Dragon in Itaewon Saturday night.

Real G-Dragon:

Fake G-Dragon:

Also, a fellow S.M.O.E. Teacher made a very convincing Sandara Park from 2ne1.
Real Sandara: (She's the chick with the ponytail)

Fake Sandara:

I dressed as a Pop star as well, but an American one. I couldn't believe my luck in finding the perfect blonde wig with ridiculous hairbow attachment, but I did. Now I'm pretty sure you can find anything in Dongdaemun Market.
Real Gaga:

Fake Gaga:

I had a blast being a fake celebrity, with people calling out "Lady Gaga!" all night and asking for pictures with me. However, when my friend Chris showed up in his Waldo costume, I was totally upstaged. Everyone loves Waldo, apparently. I'm not bitter though...

Chris as Waldo/Wally

P.S. Did you know they call Waldo "Wally" in England? Crazy Brits.

I heart Seoul

2009-10-25T03:10:00.002-07:00

(Yet another emo posting)

There is a spot on the orange line from Oksu to Apgujeong Station where you go over the Han and it offers a 60-second, picturesque view of the city. I remember the first time I saw it during my first weekend in Seoul. It was a clear night and all the lights of the city were shining and reflecting on the river all magically. I had only been here 5 days and I remember thinking how cool it was that this was where I lived now.

I still feel a little bit of that when I ride the orange line over the Han. I love Seoul. It’s overwhelming sometimes, but most of the time, I feel really lucky to live here.

I don’t leave Korea for another four months, but I’m already getting sad about it. I know I will love Japan, (granted I get the job) but Seoul and I have had a good run. This summer I didn’t think I could possibly do another whole year, but now that my departure is nearing, I'm thinking another 6 months wouldn’t have been that bad.

I do feel like I’ve done the best I could to “suck the marrow from life” during my time here though, and as good as I have it here, it’s time to try something new. Time to go to another country and experience those first few weeks where everything is new and exciting and a little scary too. That’s why I left North High, and Minnesota and my family and friends. And that's why I am leaving this city that has become my home.

P.S. A quick google search revealed that the "spot" is the Dongho Bridge. Here's a picture of it that I did not take...so I'm posting it illegally. When I figure out how to use my camera, I'll take one of my own.

Seoul Fashion Week

2009-10-25T03:10:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday I attended my first fashion show. Seoul Fashion Week is going on right now, where 30-some, mostly Korean designers present their Spring and Summer collections. We ended up seeing designer Lee Young Hee's show. Her collection wasn't anything I could wear (probably couldn't afford or fit any of the clothes) but it was still cool to see a real-live fashion show, and I hope to attend more in the future. Japan Fashion Week this spring maybe?

I still haven't figured out my camera, but I managed to get a few decent pictures:

Incheon Global Fair & Festival

2009-10-18T01:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got roped into attending a festival in Incheon with Vicky and one of her coworkers. I say “roped into” because it was in Incheon, and there’s really no reason to go there unless you are headed to the airport. (Sorry Incheonites, but it’s the truth) I went though, because A. I'm a good friend, and B. I wanted to play with my new camera.

It took us several hours to get there because of transportation mishaps. This is my second visit to Incheon and both times, it has taken a ridiculously long time by bus due to horrendous traffic. If you’re ever Incheon-bound (again, not to the airport) then it’s actually faster to take the subway.

The entrance to the festival was a good example of how freaked out Koreans are about the whole swine-flu thing. We waited in line first to be spritzed with hand sanitizer, and then to pass through the so-called “Flugun” gates where a machine doused us in some kind of germ-fighting mist.
A tad extreme, but I didn’t mind at all. As far as I’m concerned, the whole H1N1 scare has been a blessing in disguise. In the last month or so, hand-sanitizing stations have popped up everywhere; at my school, in office buildings, etc. I think it’s great, because most public restroom faucets are either lacking hot water, or instead of a soap dispenser, there is a bar of soap attached to the sink that everyone is supposed to share!!! Ish. Cold water does not kill germs, and that bar of soap has everyone's bathroom hand-germs on it! I try to have hand sanitizer on me at all times in Korea, but these days, thanks to H1N1, I don't need to pack my own because it's everywhere.

Hand sanitizer stations at Chungdam H.S.

Along with hand sanitizer stations, Koreans are now practicing such germ-fighting techniques as covering their mouths when they cough or sneeze! Amazing! Hopefully this trend will last beyond the H1N1 hoopla. Oh, also those medical masks that are ubiquitous in this country anyway, have doubled in wearage.

But they still hock loogies all over the streets (and stairs at my school). I don’t know if that will ever go away, despite my giving death-looks to every ajushi who does so in my presence.

-End Rant-

Back to the festival. I think the point of it was to highlight Incheon's plans to become "the city of the future," but I was more interested in the "International" stuff. My favorite was the “World Cultures Street” where they had food, shops, and exhibits from around the world. We browsed a Moroccan bazaar, ate Turkish ice cream, drank French wine and saw Brazilian Carnival dancers all without leaving Korea. It really made me want to travel; everywhere. Unfortunately, like the rest of the general population, I have limited vacation time and funds. Most of my vacation days for this contract are already shot because of the trip home for my sister’s wedding, but I do hope to squeeze some trips in this Spring before I go to Japan. (Topping the wish list are India and Nepal and/or Vietnam)

It was also really humorous to see the Teddy Bear Museum, where they had teddy bears depicting highly stereotypical scenes from different countries. A few examples:

Germany = teddy bears in lederhosen drinking beer

New Zealand = teddy bears acting out a battle from "Lord of the Rings"

The United States = teddy bears dressed as cowboys fighting Indians

Sweden = teddy bears dressed as Vikings. (No mention of Norway; my ancestors are now rolling in their graves)

Central and South America were lumped together as one unit, represented by teddy bears acting out a soccer game between Brazil and Argentina, with Mayan and Aztec ruins as a backdrop. Hmm...wonder how they would feel about that.

I guess it's no different from people in the Western Hemisphere thinking Korea, Japan and China are basically the same. And...they were teddy bears.

Here are a few pictures. I really need to figure out how to use my fancy new camera, because there are so many cool functions and I only know how to use Auto and Landscape mode. Where is Dan Thai when you need him?

The Incheon of the Future (really I just wanted a pic of the little girl in the swine-flu mask)

Brazilian Carnival dancers scandalizing a Korean man (although he didn't seem to mind)

Teddy Bear Pope

Lazer/Fireworks show. Incheon..."Lightening Tomorrow!"

Warp speed

2009-10-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

(Written 10-4-09)

Maybe I'm just getting old, but life seems to be moving at warp speed these days. Whenever I sit down to write a blog, there are far too many things that have happened and I end up doing a lot of omitting and summarizing.

I am back home in Minnesota for my sister's wedding, and it seems like I was just here yesterday. In the six weeks that I've been back in Korea since the last home visit, I've given two teacher-training presentations for S.M.O.E., made two T.V. appearances, resumed Korean lessons, started taekwondo classes, and participated in a "Mass Freeze" at COEX with Vicky. I thought that when the majority of my friends left in August, things would sort of settle down, but that hasn't been the case at all. I like being busy, but I think I'm putting too much on my plate these days.

As for the wedding, it was kind of a blur; I flew in Wednesday night, ran errands all day Thursday, Thursday night was the rehearsal dinner, then I woke up Friday morning to the hair and make up lady arriving at our house to beautify the bride and bridesmaids.

The ceremony itself was beautiful; I told my sister that she did a great job of choosing the music, flowers, etc., and I wasn't even there to boss her around! (I am kind of a know-it-all big sister) I think the highlight of the wedding for me might have been at the reception, when my mother, aunt, and their childhood friend wanted me to teach them some new dance moves during "Ice, Ice, Baby."

It was a crazy weekend and it went by way too fast, but it was really good to see everyone. I spent a lot of time at the reception answering questions about Korea. I realized people really don't know very much about it. One of my cousins asked how life was in "Tokyo." I said, "I live in Seoul...Korea." He's like, "Oh, they're all the same to me." He was half-joking, but it is true that aside from Japan and maybe China, people don't really pay attention to this part of the world, and I was more than happy to fill them in.

Some of the common questions I was asked:

"Do they eat kimchi for every meal?" Yes, but kimchi is a side dish, not the main part of the meal.
"Is the education system better?" Yes and no...the students are more motivated and take their education seriously, but the focus is on test scores rather than learning for learning sake.
"Are you like a minority over there?" Yes, totally.
"Do you like it?" Love it.

It made me grateful that I took the plunge and moved to Korea over a year ago; otherwise my knowledge of Korea would have been confined to KIA and Kim-Jong Il.

Also, on Thursday I purchased (or financed, I should say) my first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera! I've been wanting one forever, and my sister's wedding seemed like a good excuse to get it. I'll be paying it off for the next year or so, but it takes fantastic pictures and I think it was definitely worth it.

Testing out the new camera before the Rehearsal Dinner

St. Ambrose of Woodbury (where the ceremony was held the next day)

My sisters, after hair & make up

The bride just before the ceremony

My mom, aunt, and Kathy rocking out at the reception

My little bros looked so handsome :)

One of my favorite pictures; me & Nat with our new brother-in-law :)

Grammar FAIL

2009-10-12T15:20:00.001-07:00

(Written 9-24-09)

It's almost time for midterms, and that means I have been bombarded with nit-picky grammar questions all week. It's lots of fun...not.

I feel like a fraud as the resident English "expert" at these times, because for most of the questions I can't explain my reasoning, I just know what is right or wrong or what sounds awkward in English.

One teacher sent me the following message. I think I have a pretty good handle on English grammar until I read something like this:

The pair of sentences illustrates two different patterns which a group of English verbs allows. This pattern is often referred to as "dative shift" because it involves an alternation in the marking of the recipient or indirect object argument.

(1) a. John gave a beautiful ring to his daughter.

b. John gave his daughter a beautiful ring.

It is generally assumed that (1b), called the 'double object construction', This is why we call the alternation between (1a) and (1b) 'dative shift', However, it is not the case that all VPs with the form of [Verb + NP + to +NP ] can undergo the dative shit and give rise to the corresponding double object construction, [Verb + NP + NP]

Uhhh...what???

At the bottom of the message, there were 10 sentences and I was supposed to choose which ones had undergone the "dative shift." Now, it looks pretty obvious in the above example, but the sentences all seemed to be the same in construction. I wrote the teacher back saying so, and that I had never even heard of a "dative shift," and I was sorry I couldn't be of more help.

This happens all too often. Mostly, the Korean English teachers know more about English grammar than I do.

Details in the Fabric

2009-10-01T20:40:00.001-07:00

Because sometimes Jason Mraz can say it better than I can.

9-22-09

2009-09-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

I wish I could channel my energies into something more productive or lucrative or good for humanity or something, but I like spending a lot of time on useless things.

Lately it's learning and translating songs from Korean and Portuguese to English so I can sing a long with them (and know what the words mean). I guess it's not completely useless, and it's actually been a really good way to study the two languages, but there are a lot of other things I could be doing with my life (i.e. Taking care of things before I go home again for my sister's wedding next weekend, finshing my TEFL paper...yes, I'm still procrastinating on that, and preparing for my upcoming S.M.O.E. presentation). But being able to sing along to the chorus of 2NE1's "I don't care" is a lot more fun.

Here's the Korean song I'm working on:

Chorus in Korean:

I don’t care 그만할래 니가 어디에서 뭘 하던
이제 정말 상관 안할게 비켜줄래
이제와 울고불고 매달리지마
cause don’t care e e e e e e
cause don’t care e e e e e e
Boy, I don't care

Chorus in English:

I don’t care, I’ll stop caring about what you’re doing wherever you are
From now on I really don’t care, I’ll get out of the way
From now on don’t come to me and cry, and cling on
cause I don’t care e e e e e e
cause I don’t care e e e e e e
Boy, I don't care

As for Portuguese, I've been listening to Ana Carolina a lot lately, and I'm trying to learn two of her songs; "Mais que isso" ("More than that") and "É isso aí" (Not sure how to translate that one) I thought it was a man singing at first, but she just has a very deep, husky voice. Even if I don't end up moving to Brazil, speaking/singing in Portuguese is super fun; lots of crazy vowel sounds.

"Mais que Isso"

Lyrics:
Eu não vou gostar de você porque sua cara é bonita
O amor é mais que isso
O amor talvez seja uma música que eu gostei e botei numa fita
Eu não vou gostar de você porque você acredita
O amor é mais que isso
O amor talvez seja uma coisa que até nem sei se precisa ser dita

Deixa de tolice, veja que eu estou aqui agora
inteiro, intenso, eterno, pronto pro momento e você cobra
Deixa de bobagem, é claro, certo e belo como eu quero
O corpo, a alma, a calma, o sonho, o gozo, a dor e agora pára

Será que é tão difícil aceitar o amor como é
E deixar que ele vá e nos leve pra todo lugar
Como aqui

Será melhor deixar essa nuvem passar
E você vai saber de onde vim, aonde vou
E que eu estou aqui

I've only just started studying Portuguese, but basically the singer is reassuring her 'amor' that her love is true.

É isso aí is a really pretty song too. She sings this one with Seu Jorge, another big name in Brazilian music.

G-Dragon goes solo, Jae Bum's exodus, & Asia Song Fest '09

2009-09-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

My K-pop obsession seems to have reached new heights. When I came back from 3 weeks off of teaching, (2 weeks home visit + 1 week for 'Quarantine' purposes) I promptly asked my students what I had missed in the world of K-pop. Because, a lot can happen in 3 weeks; the entertainment companies are cranking out new groups and new singles everyday.

The girls immediately directed me to 'Heartbreaker,' the new single from the now blonde and increasingly feminine-looking G-Dragon (of Big Bang fame, of course). I wasn't too impressed at first, but the song is really growing on me. It has a great baseline...probably because it's an exact copy of Flo Rida's 'Right Round.' I've always thought that a lot of K-pop songs sound like re-packaged versions of American pop songs, but this is the most obvious to date and he's actually in the midst of a lawsuit because it. Plagiarism and piracy is a huge problem in this country (and most of Asia) so it wouldn't be a bad thing, in my opinion, if they started to enforce copyright laws here.

Lawsuit aside, it's a great track for the T-mill at the gym. Check it out:

The other big news in K-pop right now is Jae Bum's departure from 2PM. 2 PM is one of several 9-13 member, same-gender pop groups that are big right now. You would think having that many members is excessive, but watch the dancing in Super Junior's 'Sorry' video, and become a believer, as I have.

Anyway, last week one of my students rushed into my classroom in a panic and begged to use my computer. Since it was clearly an emergency, I let her, and the tragic, shocking news was confirmed: Park Jae Bum, the leading member of 2PM, was leaving the group and moving back to the U.S. I don't know the full story on this one, but apparently he wrote some not-so-nice things about Korea on his Myspace page two years back, and the record company thought it would be best if he left. Middle and high school girls across the country were devastated. I mean, what are they are going to do with only 8 members! You think I'm exaggerating, as I have a tendency to do, but there were clips on the news of hundreds of girls dressed in black with signs that said "Let Jae Bum come back!" If I can find any pictures, I'll post them. It's madness.

Last but not least, I attended my first ever K-pop concert this past Saturday. A friend of mine, knowing of my obsession, told me about a FREE concert where 2NE1, Girls Generation, Super Junior AND Big Bang would be playing. It sounded to good to be true. So Vicky (another K-pop aficionado) and I downloaded our free tickets and headed over to World Cup Stadium for the 6th Annual Asia Song Festival. The crowd was mostly families and middle school girls, and Vicky and I screamed just as loud as they did, if not more. [I'm feeling more and more losery as I write this...]

Along with the best of K-pop, they had artists from Vietnam, Japan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan and a chic from Ukraine who made Britney Spears look classy. I don't know how representative of Asian pop this concert was, but K-pop is definitely at the top of the scene. J-pop is stuck in the 80's and Chinese pop is just...bad. The girl from Indonesia was quite talented but she kept shouting commands at the audience ("stomp! no...like this!") who didn't understand her because she was speaking in English. Doesn't she now they just read and write English in Korea, not speak it? Vicky pointed out that it reminded her of her classes: a sea of blank faces staring back at you when you give directions.

Although Big Bang was my main motivation to go, it was Super Junior who stole the show. Big Bang played a really short set because they were missing a member (I found out Monday from my students that Dae Sun was in a car accident and injured his nose) and G-Dragon had another gig to play, so they dashed off after two songs. I still want to see a full-on Big Bang concert before I leave the country because I definitely didn't get my fix.

But like I said, Super Junior 'brought it,' with three hit songs, including the showstopper 'Sorry, Sorry.' I screamed so loud that my throat was sore the next day. Sadly I really am a middle school girl at heart. The weird thing was, Vicky and I jumped up and started dancing along, only to realize everyone around us was still seated. Apparently in Korea you don't stand up and dance along at concerts, you just wave your glow stick around.

A few pics:

We were NOT close to the stage at all

We <3 K-pop!

Girls Generation

Alright, I feel like I need to go and do something intellectual or at least semi-productive now.

Revelations

2009-09-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

My first few days back home were disorienting. I was wondering if I would experience a kind of reverse culture shock, like I did when I came back from studying abroad in France 6 years ago, and I definitely did.

I’m actually amazed by how acclimated to Korea I’ve become in just one year. Things that were normal to me for 25 years seemed strange and foreign, at least for the first few days.

I felt giddy when I got off the plane at Chicago O’Hare, being on U.S. soil for the first time in a year, and when I got to the counter at immigration, my first inclination was to give a slight bow and say “Annyang Haseyo,” the polite, friendly greeting that is custom here in Korea. When it dawned on me that I didn’t have to do that, I smiled and uttered a cheerful “Hi!” instead. The guy checking my passport didn’t even respond; he gave me my stamp and shooed me on my way. At that moment I was like, oh yeah… people here aren’t all polite and formal all the time. No one is going to bow to me!

Bowing is something I’ve come to appreciate about Korean culture. When I get to school in the morning, many of my coworkers and students give a slight bow when saying hello, and to the adults, I give a slight bow back. It’s a nice form of acknowledgement, and it’s definitely something I will miss when I leave this country.

Another thing I noticed right away was a case of beverages for sale at the airport. Not only was the selection dizzying compared to Korea, but the bottles of Pepsi, Mountain Dew, etc. were at least twice as big as they are in Korea. Everything seemed big; the people, the airport, the open SPACE between buildings. My friend Matt and I were on the same flight from Seoul, and while waiting for our flight to Minneapolis, we were laughing and joking about how Korean we’ve become. Like when I got up to buy a Diet Coke, and I automatically placed my right hand on my left arm when handing over the money, another customary sign of respect in Korea. Actually, I couldn’t shake that habit the whole time I was home. We were so absorbed in such observations that we missed the boarding call for our connecting flight, but luckily we were able to jump on a flight that left an hour later.

But perhaps the most disorientating moment was visiting the shampoo aisle in Target a few days later. Two giant aisles chocked full of every sort of hair product you could imagine. I just stood there like an idiot for few minutes trying to compose myself; I didn’t know where to begin. In Korea, the shampoo aisle is a fraction of the size, with only a few brands of products to choose from. It makes the decision process a lot simpler. The same thing happened in Express; I hadn’t been surrounded by that many pairs of jeans that would fit me, in that many styles and colors, in a year, and I was overwhelmed. The array of choice we have in the United States is mind-boggling after a year in the Far East.

Another revelation occurred when my mom asked me what kind of food I wanted while I was home, since she was going grocery shopping. I thought about it for a moment, and the two things I really wanted were nangmyeon and Indian food, two things I eat regularly in Seoul. Two things I had never really eaten before I moved here. I realized that America, or Minnesota anyway, hadn’t changed at all. Everything was exactly the same as when I left, but that I had changed. My tastes have changed, my lifestyle, my way of thinking, etc. I guess I should have expected that, but it really hit me those first few days at home; how much I've experienced and grown and changed in the past year.

Lately I’ve been fantasizing about volunteering in India or Africa or Rio de Janeiro after my current contract. I subscribe to a few teach/study abroad e-mail newsletters, and I spend a little too much time at work entertaining the possibilities of my next step. It’s strange, because I used to panic about not knowing what lie ahead, but now it’s kind of exciting not knowing where on the planet I will be next spring.

I think going home gave me a renewed sense that Minnesota will always be there. I can always go back home and figure life out from there. But I won’t always be able to be nomadic like this, and I feel like I need to milk it while I can.

Loyal readers of my blog (Love you, Nat!) may notice that this is a running theme in my posts, and maybe I'm being a little bit redundant. But when all my friends back home are getting engaged, buying houses and dogs and doing other grown up things, it's hard to not feel like maybe I'm being crazy, and maybe it's time to follow suit. Deep down I know I'm not ready for that, but it helps to be reminded occasionally that there is no rush to "settle down."

Home Visit

2009-08-27T20:46:00.001-07:00

With my family at the airport

Some of the Korean snacks I brought home didn't go over well...like dried squid and squid-flavored chips

Alyssa's Bridal Shower

Baby Kevin!

My Dad tries Bulgogi

Catching up with my college roomies in Uptown

My parents' new cabin

I saw Jason Mraz at Excel with my sisters. Great Concert!

Overheard at LeAnne's Daycare, 8-10-09

2009-08-27T20:44:00.000-07:00

Charlotte, one of my mom's daycare kids, has always been a favorite of mine. She's 6 years old, completely blunt and brutally honest, which makes conversations with her highly entertaining.

Last summer she and Sofia, another outspoken daycare kid, were giving me a lot of grief because my YOUNGER sister had gotten engaged. Why wasn't I getting married? I told them that boys were overrated and I wanted to travel the world.

This week I was showing them where I live now and the places I visited this year in a World Atlas. I also showed them some pictures and videos from my year abroad, expecting them to be impressed. Not so much. Our conversation afterwards went something like this:

Charlotte: But, are you married yet?
Me: Ha ha, no.
Sofia: How old are you?
Me: 26.
Sofia: What?! Why aren't you married?
Me: I don't want to get married right now. Maybe when I'm like 30 I'll start looking for a husband.
Sofia: (Aghast) You should have been looking for a husband when you turned 21!!!
Me: If I was married, I couldn't travel.
Charlotte: You could travel with your husband.
Me: That's true.
Charlotte: Or you could just tell him you're going to school or work and go on a trip.

Guess they have it all figured out for me :)

미국에 와요! I'm coming home!!

2009-08-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

In T-minus 19 hours, I will be back in the Land of 10,000 Lakes! Like I said in an earlier post, I have mixed emotions about this. I finally get to see the people I've been missing like crazy all year, but last night I had to say goodbye to the people who won't be coming back for another year. I hate saying goodbye to people and knowing that I may never see them again, mais 'C'est la Vie'

I want to wish everyone the best of luck and safe travels. It's been a great year.

Reason #678,945 I pushed for a 6 month contract

2009-08-07T21:28:00.000-07:00

(Written August 6th)

Right now I'm sitting in a nearly empty school building, wondering if any of my 6 summer camp students will show up for class today. The last day of summer classes for the rest of the teachers was yesterday, but I still have to come and teach for 2 more days because "it's in my contract" that I have to teach a 3 week summer camp.

Nevermind that some of the other SMOE teachers got to condense or shorten camps to spend an extra week at home with their families during vacation. No, it is more important that I sit and Facebook in an empty building instead of being with my family and friends that I haven't seen in a year.

Nevermind that when it works in my school's favor, it's perfectly okay to break the rules. Example: SMOE recently issued a new rule that any teacher returning from a foreign country should stay home for a week so that they don't spread any potential swine flu or "new flu" germs. (it's called "new flu" here, because if they called it pig flu, Koreans would be too terrified to eat pig meat and the industry would crumble)

My VP wants me to come to school that week because there's a group of Japenese exchange students visiting and they want to show me off. My coteacher and I have already had to do several demo lessons this year showing off our "groundbreaking" ESL teaching methods. In Korea, whenever someone comes to observe your class, you are supposed to blow them away with a meticulously prepared, previously rehearsed lesson to make yourself look like a super teacher, and therefore make the school look good. It doesn't matter what you do on a regular basis, for this one demo lesson where people are watching, you are supposed to be a model of teaching perfection. Hence, most Korean teachers dread these "demo lessons" and avoid them like the plague.

I think this is ridiculous, and one of many, many complaints I have about the education system here, and the reason I was almost dreading the thought of another whole year. Back home, teacher observations were used as an opportunity to give constructive criticism and help you improve as a teacher, not hurl insults at you if your lesson is short of perfect.

Don't get me wrong, I like Korea. I like my life here, my friends, the country itself. But I think the school system is completely backwards. They think that by sticking a bunch of Native Speakers in the classrooms that they are being progressive and improving English education. But it's not working because there is very little we can do within the system itself. I feel like more of a figurehead and walking grammar book most of the time.

I'm staying with SMOE for 6 more months, because the pay and hours and vacation are very good compared to other jobs. Also because I like my students and my coworkers. I live and teach in an enviable area. However I cannot handle the chaos and illogic that is the school system here much longer. Fellow (foreign) teachers tell me to relax and stop taking it so seriously, but I can't. Teaching for me is a vocation and I have to believe in what I'm doing. I keep hoping that the situation will get better, but I keep having to put up with the same BS over and over. I'm ready to try something different.

Note: My students did show up for class today, 15 minutes late. They apologized and worked diligently on their projects for the rest of the period. They don't really get any credit for my class, they signed up voluntarily to improve their English. Kids like that are the reason I'm in this 'biz.

My busy little worker bees in Summer Camp:

"So Emo" right now

2009-07-31T19:39:00.001-07:00

(I wrote this post July 13th, the Minnesota countdown is actually at 1 week today!!!)

To quote Will Ferrell in Anchorman, I’m in a glass case of emotion right now.

In 26 days I will be on a plane headed to Minnesota, and I am so excited to see my family and friends back home I can hardly stand it. However, in 26 days, I also have to say goodbye to some of the people I've spent the last year exploring and enduring Korea with. Some folks are sticking around another year, but most are leaving the Land of the Morning Calm for good. My fellow S.M.O.E.'ers are heading off to graduate school, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China and Ireland, or back home to the U.S., Canada or the U.K.

When I come back from my home visit, only a handful of the people that have become a part of my life here will still be around, and it’s hard to imagine what Korea will be like without them.

However I'm trying not to be too much of a sap and just enjoy the time we have left together. All of us came here because we love to travel, so I'm sure we will visit each other in the coming years.

In spite of a few bumps in the road, it’s been a really good year. For some of us this year was a break between undergrad and graduate school, for others it was a break from the corportate life, for others, a chance to get teaching experience due to a lack of jobs back home.

For me, this year was about taking risks and being able to look back on my life without regrets. I knew back in college that I wanted to teach or volunteer abroad someday, it was just a matter of when. In January of 2008, in the midst of a particularly frustrating trimester (probably in the middle of teaching "The Great Gatsby" to an un-enthused group of juniors and seniors) I wondered if now was as good a time as any.

After talking to the staff at North, including my principal, I pretty much received a unanimous "get out of here!" I’m really glad that I took their advice, because coming here set things into motion that I never could have anticipated. There are so many ESL teaching jobs out there, and at this point, I could teach anywhere. I’ve thought about Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, and South America for the next leg of my ‘travel the world’ journey.

Here is the tentative plan for now: I signed a contract with S.M.O.E. for another 6 months. (Not really something they like to allow but I fought for it) After that, I want to do a stint teaching at a University in Japan, in or near Tokyo. I know of a recruiting agency that hooks you up with 3-5 month university jobs and I’m really hoping that works out.

After that, my friend Ashley and I want to move to South America, Brazil specifically. When I was dating the Brazilian guy, I started studying Portuguese for fun and I think it’s THE most beautiful language. It’s also pretty easy to pick up having studied French for 7 years and knowing a little Spanish. Also, pretty much everyone who has lived or traveled there has nothing but good things to say about it. It sounds like a magical place, aside from the poverty, crime and corruption, of course.

Lately I’ve been reading Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, and he believes that things aren’t coincidental; that everything that happens in life is part of “the mysterious chain that links one thing to another.” I wasn’t a believer in signs before or the idea that my destiny is prewritten, but I never imagined that Korea would lead me to Brazil. Maybe things do happen for a reason.

…or maybe I’m just overly emo right now. In any case, I have time to figure it out. I’m really obsessed with Paulo Coelho though, so if you’re looking for a good read, I’d recommend picking up a copy of “The Alchemist,” or any of his books really. He’s a beautiful writer.

Nuclear War?

2009-07-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

(Written July 2nd)

Lately I've been getting questions from people back home (well, mostly my mom) about N. Korea and the possibility of nuclear war. I don't blame people for being worried because the American news media seem to be blowing things out of proportion.

The truth is, the South Koreans haven't really lifted an eyebrow over any of the threats the North has made since my arrival 10 months ago. In fact, there is more buzz surrounding the swine flu and Michael Jackson's recent passing than there is about North Korea.

Here is my take on things: In the 10 months that I've been here, I've learned that Koreans tend to say things that they don't mean. They communicate in an indirect, beat-around-the-bush manner that you sort of have to be Korean to fully understand. They also have a flair for the dramatic. If you've ever seen the movie 'Lost in Translation,' there is a scene where Bill Murray is filming a Suntory whisky commercial, and the Japanese director is practically screaming at him in Japanese for like 5 minutes. Murray asks what he is saying, only to find out that it was "please turn your head and look into the camera." This happens all the time to me in Korea. My coworkers will be in seemingly heated, lengthy debates about something, and when I ask what the problem is, it's like, "oh, we were discussing the weather."

Also, in Korea, it's all about the presentation of something and how it looks from the outside. The image you project of yourself is far more important than what you actually are. (I learned this the hard way during a recent teaching evaluation)

So I think that Kim Jong Il and Co. just want people to pay attention to them and are full of empty threats. They have been doing this for years now, and the South Koreans are used to it. It's business as usual here in Seoul.

I could be wrong; no one can really know what is going on up there, but I do feel somewhat comforted that the beefy American soldiers who hang around Gecko's (a 'Western' bar in Itaewon) are here if anything were to go down.

K-Pop Update

2009-07-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

(Written June 30th)

Tme for another update from the world of K-pop. I’m excited to report that Korea’s very own Wonder Girls are currently touring in the U.S. They are opening for the Jonas Brothers, which is sure to give them a lot of exposure, at least to 12-13 year old girls.

They recorded an English version of their hit “Nobody,” but I doubt that it will be anywhere near as big of a hit in the States as it is here in Asia. It’s still a catchy song, but only one of the girls can sing in English without a thick Korean accent. I also read the Pioneer Press review of the Twin Cities’ concert, and the Wonder Girls weren’t even mentioned. My coteacher was disappointed to hear that, but that’s the reality of the entertainment ‘biz. American pop groups/movie starts frequently make it big abroad, but the reverse isn’t true.

Lately in my classes, since the year is winding down, if we have a few minutes left at the end of the period, I’ll play the K-pop music video of the students' choice. These are the 3 most requested videos right now in the girls' classes, and I happen to be a fan as well. (In the boys' classes they always request Eminem's 'Stan,' which is declined) I especially love Son Dam Bi. Like most K-pop songs, I only know what one or two words mean, but that’s probably for the best.

2 PM "Again and Again"

2NE1 "Fire"

Son Dam Bi's "Saturday Night"

Enjoy!

It takes time

2009-07-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

I wrote in an earlier post that April was a tumultuous month, but I had no idea what the end of June had in store; my first real heart break.

Very uncharacteristically, I fell fast and hard for the Brazilian I was dating. (Yes, the fact that he was from Brazil and had an adorable accent was a huge part of the appeal)

It turns out that all those cliché sayings about love are true; like the one that says “love is blind.” I knew that we were doomed from the start, but I didn’t care about the future because he made me so ecstatically happy.

Long story short, he broke my heart, and it’s been a rough two weeks. Luckily, I have made some really solid female friends here, and they have helped talk sense into me and distract me when necessary. Most of my friends have already been through something like this (I am 26 after all) and have told me the things I need to hear.

One e-mail from a friend back home has been particularly helpful, and I’ve gone back and read it several times when I’ve felt sad. She said that it may take time before I feel good again, but it will work out in the end. She reminded me of how lucky I am to have the freedom at this point in my life to travel and meet new people and experience new things. I felt better after the reminder that she (and others back home in relationships) are living vicariously through me.

As much as it hurt, I’m happy I am where I am right now. So far in my life, in spite of all my anxiety about the future, things have worked out for the best and they will continue to… I just need to have faith that when the time is right, “it” will happen. In the meantime, I will experience a lot, even if it means heartbreak.

My Birthday in Korea

2009-06-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

My desk when I arrived at school Friday morning
Poster that Minjung's homeroom made me

My mini-party during 1st period

Dinner & Wine with my foreign teacher friends

My friends Ashley & Vicky got me a present pack that included a Boys before Flowers Poster

...and chocolate-covered kimchi!

They also bought me a cake

Needless to say, it was a very happy birthday. I felt very thankful for all the people in my life, back home and here in Korea.

Taryn's Korean Adventure gets an extension

2009-06-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

I purposely haven’t posted much on here lately, because it finally came down to the moment where I had to decide whether or not to renew my contract, and rather than feeling confident in my decision to stay, my feelings about Korea and my current job changed drastically from one moment to the next. Even after telling my school I was going to re-sign, I was looking at jobs on Dave’s ESL Café during my prep periods.

The end of April was especially rough. I came down with a wicked case of tonsillitis plus a sinus infection, so bad that the doctor literally went “whoa!” when he looked in my throat. He wanted to admit me to the hospital for 3 days, but I thought that was kind of unnecessary. During those five miserable days I was cooped up in my apartment in pain, I hated Korea with every fiber of my being.

You may be wondering, why is it Korea’s fault that you were sick? If you remember my post from when I went to the hospital back in December, it’s the same reason: I feel like the germ situation is out of control in this city.

I read up on tonsillitis and the Mayo Clinic website lists the following under “prevention:”

“The germs that cause viral and bacterial tonsillitis are contagious. Frequent hand washing is the best way to prevent all kinds of infections, including tonsillitis. Wash your hands often, and encourage your children to do the same.

Other common-sense precautions apply, too. Cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue. Don't share drinking glasses or eating utensils. Avoid close contact with anyone who's sick.”

I’m basically exposed to all of the above on a daily basis.
In Korea:

• People don’t wash their hands (not with soap or warm water anyway)
• People cough and sneeze all over each other
• People come to work sick
• People share food. (Typically there is a serving dish that everyone eats out of with chopsticks.)

Hmmm…I love how the volunteer translator at the hospital (she recognized me when I came in, since I am a frequent patron) recommended that I “get plenty of exercise.” I told her I do, and that I don’t usually get sick this often, it’s just in Korea.

She said…”the weather is different here.” Koreans always attribute my health problems to completely unrelated things like exercise and the weather, when the real problem is the rampant germs in this city and the poor hygiene habits of people I’m in constant contact with.

However, my friend Sarah is going on her second year as a teacher in Korea, and she said that her first year, she got sick all the time as well. This year, she hasn’t really gotten sick at all. So I’m hoping that my body has built up a tolerance to the germs and this will be my last hospital visit for a while.

As for the next year, I ended up renewing my contract after all, so my Korean adventure is getting an extension. I wasn’t excited about it at first, because the school system and some cultural things were really getting to me, but I’m feeling much better about the decision lately. I’ve talked to people who have been in Korea for a few years now, and most of them said that they definitely went through an anti-Korea phase at about 8-9 months, which is where I am right now. They also asked if I’d gone home to visit yet, which I haven’t, and they said I’d feel a lot better once I’d had a chance to visit home.

I think they are right. It has been far too long since I’ve seen my family, but I’ll see them in about 10 weeks. My two weeks of home leave were approved for August, and they also gave me another 2 weeks off for my sister’s wedding in the beginning of October. I lucked out and it fell on the same week as midterms, so I don’t have to miss much teaching time.

The October dates aren’t set in stone yet, but the August ones are: I’ll be home August 9th – 21st, and I can’t wait!

Things at work are also getting better. I’m administering a speaking test right now to all 400 sophomores, and I think it’s really good for them to get the one-on-one speaking time with me, which is usually impossible with the way the schedule is set up. We also have about 5 weeks of school left in the first semester and then 5 weeks of summer break.

Additionally, I think my coteacher Minjung realized how homesick I’ve been lately, and so she made sure my birthday on Friday was special and celebrated at school and I felt very loved. I’ll put some pictures up in another post.

So to conclude, it’s been a tumultuous month or so in terms of my feelings about Korea, but I’m here for another year and feeling pretty good about it.

June 1st, 2009

2009-06-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

Normally Mondays are one of my more chaotic teaching days, but lately the teachers haven't been showing up for my afternoon conversation classes, (many complained that they were intimidated or that the material I used was too hard, but not to my face of course...) so today I have the afternoon free to work on my TEFL. Yes, the same TEFL I've been "working on" for 7 months now. I only have two units left and a final paper, but like I said earlier, it continually gets pushed to the bottom of my priority list.

Here is one reason why. Unit 18 is about "Using Technology in the Language Classroom." Sounds like a relevant, useful chapter, right? Wrong. The Unit describes various tools used in the classroom over the years. Anyone who has ever set foot in a classroom in their lives could have written this chapter, and yet it is supposed to be a "graduate" level course. I beg to differ.

Let's hear what scintillating things they have to say about chalkboards:

"As a general rule, the chalkboard has served as the main tool used by the instructor to write down important facts and figure [spelling error] which can be utilized by the learner."

I always wondered why they put those things in the classroom! Seriously, shoot me.

Next up, "DVD and Video Player/Recorders!" Woo-hoo!

Fed Up

2009-05-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

I was a little hasty in announcing that I'm staying on another year.

I'm currently in negotiations with my school and SMOE. If I don't get what I'm asking for, (2 weeks home leave in August and a week in October for my sister's wedding) I'm not signing any contract and will be back in the U.S. in September, probably subbing.

At one time that seemed the least attractive option, but right now I would be okay with that. There have been a few points this year where I thought I would have to be certifiably insane to stay another year in my current position, and today is one of them.

I'm sick of all the BS. Sometimes I just want to be a teacher, not a walking grammar book and cultural ambassador. I'm sick of having no power, no authority, and having to work within the super-confining Korean school system. I'm sick of having no freedom.

Ideally I wanted to work at either an International School here in Seoul or go to Japan this fall, but because my sister is getting married the first weekend in October, something I absolutely cannot miss, that doesn’t really work out. Even if they gave me that time off in October, they probably wouldn’t also grant me two weeks to visit my family in August. I haven’t seen them in 9 months and I can’t wait until October. 2 months from now seems long enough; I wish I was home right now. My cousin April just had her second baby, my brothers are growing faster than Chia Pets, and I just miss everyone in general.

I told my co-teacher (the poor woman is the liaison between me and the non-English speaking powers that be) that I want to stay but I’m not signing anything unless I get the 2 weeks in August (it’s in the contract) and the time off for my sister’s wedding (not in the contract). She thinks it’s hopeful, but they like to tell me one thing and then change it 12 times, so who knows. (One of many annoying things about the schools here)

I'll keep you posted.

My sister Natalie and our new cousin Kevin Timothy, born May 12, 2009

I don't get it

2009-05-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

File this under “things I don’t understand about Koreans.”

I’m at Starbucks right now working on my TEFL course (one of several reasons why I haven’t updated my blog in a while) and just witnessed a near physical fight between two Korean businessmen. They were screaming and hollering at each other and getting in each other’s faces. About 25 minutes later, they walked out of the building shaking hands and smiling like they were best buds.

I really don't understand Koreans sometimes.

I will post a real update once I finish Unit 17. (There are 19 Units total) I signed up for this course in October and am just now finishing it; it's kind of pathetic. It just keeps getting pushed aside though ("I'll finish it over winter vacation...after Cambodia...after Thailand...during mid-term week" etc.) I have to finish it by the end of May though in order to get a the pay raise next year. (I've sort of officially decided to stay another year...more on that later)

Muuido

2009-04-23T05:15:00.001-07:00

It's not all teaching and K-pop for this waeguk. Last weekend a group of us headed west to Muuido, a little island off the coast of Incheon, to celebrate fellow S.M.O.E. Maureen's birthday.

We're on a boat!

There are some really beautiful places in Korea if you get far enough out of Seoul. My first few months here, when I was in my bubble of euphoria, I loved the vastness and the excitement of the city. It's starting to wear on me though. There is a serious lack of nature in Seoul.

Close Encounters of the K-Pop Kind

2009-04-23T03:10:00.001-07:00

(Did I mention I'm a sucker for cheesy titles?)

I brag about my school a lot to my fellow teachers here in Korea because, well, it's kind of a big deal. To be more specific, Chungdam High School is located on the border of Apgujeong-dong and Chungdam-dong, the two ritziest dongs in Seoul. Every morning when I get off the bus and walk up the hill to school, I pass the Galleria Department Store, which houses stores like Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, etc. (i.e. brands I will never, ever be able to afford)

Galleria Department Store

Across the street from the Galleria is 'Rodeo Street,' which is lined with more stores and fancy restaurants that I can't afford. It is very common to spot celebrities in this area, eating or shopping or coming out of SM Entertainment, a talent agency that produces some of the biggest groups on the K-Pop scene these days. This building is located a stones throw away from Chungdam High School. Whenever a celebrity is reportedly in the building, teeny boppers wait outside the building to get autographs or just catch a glimpse of their favorite K-pop star.

However, if you are lucky enough to be a student or teacher at Chungdam High School, you might see a K-pop star in one of your classes. We currently have two entertainers enrolled at Chungdam: Sun Mi of the Wondergirls and Tae Min of the boys' group 'Shinee.' Sun Mi was supposedly one of my students last school year, but after the Wondergirls started touring last May, she only showed up during mid-terms and finals, when I don't teach, so I never saw her. This year she's taking 6 months off to tour internationally, so chances are slim that I will meet her.

The Wonder Girls (Sun Mi is the one in the pink)

Our other K-pop star, Tae Min, is a sophomore who is supposed to be in my 5th period on Tuesdays, but I guess he only comes to first period every day and then leaves. But today his homeroom teacher brought him into our office to meet the teachers. I did my best to be non-chalant and gave him a quick "Annyang haseyo" before he headed out the door. Really though, I was a little bit giddy and spent my free periods this afternoon doing 'Shinee' research, since I don't know much about the group.

I found that not only is he babyface of the group (they always have one of them in boy bands) but he's the best dancer. He's usually front and center during the dance sequences. In this video, he's the one in the hat:

He declined a request by my co-teacher to pose for a picture because he wasn't wearing any make-up. But even without make up, he is a cute little bugger.

Tae Min of 'Shinee'

Group Shot (He's the one in the "Wicked" shirt)

I should have asked him if he could introduce me to T.O.P. from Big Bang... oops.

K-Pop 101

2009-04-23T01:40:00.000-07:00

Before I tell you about my K-pop celebrity encounter today, I need to give you a quick K-pop primer. What is K-pop? Technically it just means Korean Popular music, but a big part of popular music in this country consists of sappy love ballads, and that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the packaged for mass-marketing boy and girl groups like the Wonder Girls, Big Bang, Dongbangshinki (a.k.a. TVXQ) and the likes.

This video, “How To Dance K-Pop Style,” is a really good overview of last year’s top K-pop songs. It also sums up why I love K-pop so much: it's all about the dance moves. Watch and learn:

I love this video because what the couple talks about actually happens in class. Like If you use the word "nobody" in a sentence, someone will inevitably break out into the chorus of the popular Wonder Girls' song.

When I first got here, it was my students that did this. Now that I've been here nearly 8 months, I'm down with the K-pop, and I usually beat them to the punch.

Actually these days I'm probably too down with the K-pop. Upon my arrival I thought most of the songs were poor imitations of American pop songs, but like many things in Korea, I have grown to love K-pop; Big Bang especially. And because of the Hallyu* phenomenon, all of the groups have English names and most of their songs have English refrains, so I can at least sing along to that part.

Big Bang's latest project is a terrible song that was written to market Cyon's new 'Lollipop' phone:

T.O.P., my favorite member, looking very manly as always:

More about Hallyu
*Hallyu means "Korean wave" or "Korean fever," and it's a term used to describe the surge of popularity of Korean culture in the past decade. Korean pop music, television dramas, and movies have a wide fan base across Southeast Asia, and the "hallyu" is spreading to other parts of the world as well. In fact, K-pop megastar 'Rain' has been spending more time touring overseas (recently in Los Angeles and Hawaii) than he does in his home country. Rain has been trying hard to crack the very lucrative US market, and was even seen last May on the Colbert Report having a dance-off with Stephen Colbert himself. I will post this video because even though it pokes fun at the very hard-working Rain, it's hilarious.

He's Singin' in Korean

The Dance-Off

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Rain Dance-Off

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Gay Marriage Commercial

I could go on and on about my new obsession, but I will stop now. There will undoubtedly be more K-pop posts in the future.

For all the latest K-pop news in translation, check out my favorite blog of the moment: K-Popped

Black Day

2009-04-16T04:41:00.000-07:00

(Written 4-15-09)

This blog is probably full of over-generalizations about Korean people, but here’s another one:

Koreans love to make up holidays. (Take Pepero Day, for example) Yesterday was “Black Day,” part of the three-part trilogy that is Valentine’s Day. On February 14th, females give chocolate to their significant other. Then March 14th is designated as “White Day,” where males are supposed to give their lady candy (type not specified). But hey, what about single people? What do they get?

Never fear, Korea has a holiday for us too. April 14th is “Black Day” (of course, the color of mourning). On this day, single people come together and eat Jajangmyeon; noodles with black bean paste. It’s a Koreanized “Chinese” dish.

I find this hilarious. Couples get candy, and single people get noodles! But hey, at least there is a day honoring us. I met Sarah and Josie in Hyewha (which is becoming a new favorite area of mine) last night to eat noodles in celebration of our singledom.

Jajangmyeon

Cherry Blossoms

2009-04-16T04:11:00.001-07:00

Yeoudio Spring Flower Festival

I heart my students part 3

2009-04-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

(Written 4-6-09)

I looked completely awful at school today (I'm sick, I didn't feel like washing my hair, and I've recently put on weight) but I got two of the nicest compliments from my students.

When I was walking into school with one of my students from last semester, she noted that I walk really fast, which is probably why I'm "so thin." This girl probably weighs about 85 pounds, so she was definitely flattering me, but I still appreciated it.

Then in one of my all boys' classes, I was working with a student who didn't have a partner. In broken English, he told me my eyes were beautiful. He pointed at his own eyes and said, "Me, black eyes. You, Green." It was really cute. They definitely cheer me up when I'm feeling sick and gross.

Boys before Flowers Mania

2009-04-04T02:42:00.000-07:00

(or in Korean, 꽃보다 남자 "Ggotboda Namja")

Me & Lee Min Ho of "Boys Before Flowers"

Turns out I'm not the only one obsessed with this ridiculous show. Boys Before Flowers mania has swept over Korea. Love it or hate it, everyone, foreigners included, is talking about this show, which is based on a Japanese manga series. The much-anticipated Korean adaptation aired in January, with relatively unknown actors, and became an instant success, almost entirely due to the four male leads, known as F4 (or Flower Four). We discussed the show as part of my lesson plan this past week, which was about expressing opinions, and it definitely got my students talking. (With the exception of some of the upper-level boys' classes, who told me they didn't care who Geum Jan Di chose in the end. The audacity!) I've also overheard ajummas talking about it on the bus, foreign girls discussing their favorite F4 member while waiting for the subway, and supposedly guys are requesting Gu Jun Pyo's signature curly hairdo at the barber shop.

While the show was a huge success, and the actors have become household names overnight, the show was criticized, among other things, for its implausible and silly storyline. In an interview, the director said this in response:

"Our main focus was to cast the most handsome, cutest and freshest F4, [as opposed to the Japanese and Taiwanese versions] and keep them that way throughout the show,” said director Bae. “Everything else came after that."

In that they succeeded. I've watched the Japanese version, Hana Yori Dango, and it is much better in terms of acting, storyline and character development, but the F4 boys aren't nearly as pretty as the Korean ones. The last episode was Tuesday, much to the dismay of all the females in this country, myself included. However, the show's actors are endorsing everything from cosmetics to cell phones to Dunkin Donuts, so their pictures are plastered everywhere. There's also talk of a sequel. I'm crossing my fingers...

The last episode, tear.

My new favorite socks, featuring "Gu Jun Pyo" and "Yoon Ji Hoo"

You can watch episodes with English subtitles at mysoju.com Be careful, it is highly addictive.

March Snapshots

2009-04-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

So it turns out I'm really lazy at blogging. I am, however, really good at uploading pictures to my Facebook account and adding lengthy descriptions, so I thought I'd try that out here.

I've been really busy with teaching the past few weeks (my schedule this school year is a lot more hectic, which I like) but I've still managed to get out and about a bit this month. Here are a few highlights:

EV Boys Video Shoot

The EV Boys are a group of American English teachers here in Korea that sing funny songs about living in Korea as a foreigner. I saw them perform at Jane's Groove back in December and became a fan. Their song "Kickin' it in Geumcheon" hilariously and accurately describes life as a "waeguk" (foreigner)
Check it out:
They shot a new video in early March called "We Want Taco Bell." In Korea, the only Taco Bell is on the U.S. military base, so most of us are deprived of Chalupas and Mexican Pizzas. They needed extras for the video, and my friends and I gladly obliged. The shoot was a lot of fun; I've always had a flair for the dramatic and it came out in full force that day. The video will be cut sometime this spring, so I'll post it then.

St. Patrick's Day in Korea

On St. Patrick's Day, it was as if all of the foreigners in the country came out of the woodwork to celebrate. I think I saw every foreigner I've met in my 7 months here. It was pretty funny because we showed up thinking we were going to see a parade, and when the parade was going to start, we followed the mob of waeguks dressed in green towards what I thought was the start. After walking around the block for about 15 minutes, I realized that we were the parade. Following the "parade" we ended up back in Marrionier Park (near Hyewha Station) where they had free Guinness and Irish music and dancing. Unfortunately I couldn't stay because I have swing dance lessons every Saturday at 3:30, which brings me to my next picture...

The Swing Bar

Ashley dancing with one of the regulars

Ashley and I signed up for another session of swing dance lessons. This time I'm in the lindy hop class, which is a heck of a lot harder than the jitterbug class, but still a lot of fun. This time around Giryoung isn't there to translate for me, so I have to rely on big, exaggerated gestures and the limited English of my instructor, whose Swing nickname by the way is "Dora." I don't have to heart to tell him that's a girl's name. The lindy hop is not only harder to master, but it's more of a work out, which is good, because after all that Thai food on winter vacation, I porked up a little bit. I've also joined a gym in my neighborhood with Kim, and am hoping to be "beach ready" as they say, by summer.

Well, besides watching Boys Before Flowers, teaching, and studying Korean, there's not much else going on right now. After my two trips over winter vacation, I'm kind of broke for a while. In May I'm going on a trip to Jeju Island with my school, so I'm excited for that, but it will involve chaperoning about 400 sophomores. Not exactly a dream vacation, but Jeju is supposed to be beautiful, especially in the spring, so I'm looking forward to it.

Annyong hi kaseyo for now ;)

P.S. Like I mentioned above, I've gotten lazy with blog postings, but I have my students laboring on one instead. I have an after school class of about 15 students, all girls, who spend 3 hours a week learning English with me, voluntarily! They are a great group and I've had a lot of fun with them so far. Here's the blog I'm forcing them to update: http://www.chungdamhs.blogspot.com/

Amazing Thailand!!!

2009-03-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

(I went to Thailand over a month ago, but I just uploaded my pictures to flickr and relived the memories.)

I had been plotting a trip to Thailand pretty much since my feet touched down on Korean soil. It was a dream vacation come true, but not for the reasons I imagined. When people think of Thailand (myself included) they usually think of Phuket and the pristine beaches on the southwest peninsula.

We didn’t go there. My traveling companions (this time Jamie, Sarah and Kim) and I ended up flying into Bangkok and then taking a bus to Ko Chang, a slightly less touristy island in the southeast.

I talked them into going there after hearing about other people’s trips and realizing that it had everything I wanted –the beach, snorkeling, elephant treks through the jungle, kayaking, massages- without the 13+ hour bus ride down to Phuket. After Cambodia, I decided that I didn’t want to spend my vacation on a bus, I just wanted to relax on the beach. It turns out we didn’t spend that much time at the beach (we all got third degree sunburns our first day on the island) but I wouldn’t take back a minute of it.

In addition to debilitating sunburn, we experienced bed bugs, cockroaches, and traveler’s diarrhea. In spite of all that, it was the trip of a lifetime. Rather than ramble on like I usually do, I’m going to make a list of my favorite parts of the trip.

#1. Thai food – Thai food has always been a favorite of mine, and not surprisingly, the real deal is even better. Every day we had fresh, delicious Thai food and usually it didn’t cost more than $3.00 a plate. I would go back in a heartbeat for the food alone.

First amazing meal in Thailand, Fried noodles w/chicken, chili & basil (or something like that)

Mouth-watering fresh pineapple shake, I had one nearly everyday

Yellow curry w/chicken & potato, delish

Pineapple fried rice, a new favorite!

#2. Cheap as Chips – Everything in Thailand is really cheap if you think of the cost in US dollars*, and you can indulge in such luxuries as massages everyday without really spending that much. A 1 ½ hour massage cost us 280 baht, which is about 8 US dollars. (*I get paid in Korean won, so it really wasn't as cheap as I thought it was at the time.)

#3. Riding Motorbikes on Ko Chang – It wasn’t on my list, (Yes, I actually generated a “to-do” list using my Lonely Planet book) but Jamie and I rented motorbikes for a day and had our own little “Motorcycle Diaries” adventure on the island. I was a little scared because we don’t have insurance coverage outside of Korea, (when did I become such a mom?) but we had a blast and I found myself fantasizing about moving to a city where I could ride a moped around everywhere.

#4. Meeting people from all over the world – One of my favorite things about traveling is the interesting people I meet and hearing their stories. We met people from England, Holland, New Zealand, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and boatloads of people from Sweden. Many of them were traveling through several countries in Southeast Asia, and hearing about their adventures in Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc., made me want to stay another year in Asia just for the sake of traveling.

#5. The food – Oh wait, I already talked about that. It was amazing though and deserves another place on the list ☺

Coming back to Korea after this trip was really hard. I spent my first week back whining about going back to Thailand, which I will someday. I already have it planned out: I’m flying into Phuket this time and visiting the islands down that way, especially Ko Phi Phi, which is where “The Beach” was filmed and is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous.

Have to wait until I’ve paid off a few bills first though. Which is why I am going to sign off for now and get going on my online TEFL course. (I get a 200,000 won/month raise once I finish the darn thing)

Many more pictures of my Thai adventure can be found here, on my Flickr page.

I'm back!

2009-03-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

I’ve been meaning to update this for weeks, and my excuse this time is the most pathetic yet: I am totally addicted to a cheesy Korean drama. (Thank you, Anna.)

The show’s English name is “Boys Before Flowers,” and it’s incredibly ridiculous and geared toward high school kids, but I can’t stop watching it. Between my obsession with the show and my love of K-pop (Korean pop music, more on that later) it has recently dawned on me why I get along so well with high school students; I’m basically one of them. I listen to the same music and watch the same shows. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that sophomores seem to be my lot in life.

"Boys Before Flowers"

I've been watching it with English subtitles at mysoju.com

In other news, winter vacation is officially over and the new school year has begun. I have a new crop of 10th graders, and so far they are fantastic. It really helps being their teacher from day one, rather than coming in halfway through the school year like I did in August. I think the teaching situation overall is going to be a lot better this time around. Before, my students weren’t held accountable for what I taught, so as hard as I tried to get them to participate in class activities, there wasn’t much motivation for them do so. But this year, a percentage of their grade is based on a speaking exam conducted by yours truly. The word “exam” alone strikes fear in the hearts of all Korean students, and they are already anxious about this oral exam that will be held sometime in May. I’m optimistic that this will give me the authority I was lacking last school year.

I also have my own classroom this year, and not just any classroom, but a brand new “English Zone” paid for by a grant from the government and equipped with more technology than I know what to do with. Before I had nothing but a chalkboard, and now I have a touch screen LCD monitor. (I think that’s what it’s called anyway)

It’s a good thing that the school year is starting off on a positive note, because I came back from Thailand in sort of an anti-Korea funk. When I stepped off the plane in Seoul, I was greeted by frigid cold weather and fought a throng of pushing and shoving Koreans to get onto the light rail. It’s always like that coming back to Seoul. I forget what it’s like and then I’m rudely awakened. Also, that week the won took a nosedive in value. I have to transfer money home every month to pay bills regardless of the exchange rate, and that week it was at an 11 year low, so I cringed as hundreds of thousands of won disappeared into thin air. Right now I’m making almost $500 less a month than I was back in September because of the crappy exchange rate. If the won/dollar exchange rate were to continue to plummet, it wouldn’t be feasible to stay another year in Korea. But the exchange rate got a little bit better this week (after I transferred my money, of course) so I’ll just have to wait and see. I’ve decided to put the stay-or-go decision on the back burner for a while rather than stress out about it constantly.

Well, I will leave you with some pictures of my awesome new classroom. It’s definitely the nicest in the entire school and I feel a little guilty about that. I sometimes wonder what the Korean teachers think of me because I do less work than they do, I have the nicest room, and I’m really popular with the students only because I’m one of only two foreigners at the school. (We have a Chinese teacher now too) They seem to like me though, and more teachers have been making an effort lately to try to talk to me. Today at lunch one teacher told me that she wanted to talk to me before, but she was too scared. It seems more of them have gotten over their “shyness.” It only took six months. Anyway…

Here’s my new room!

A week in Cambodia

2009-02-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

Ashley and I at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Angkor Wat

Devatas (Hindu deities) at Angkor Wat

Charming (begging) kids at Bantay Srei

I've been avoiding this post, because I couldn't think of a way to sum up my experience in Cambodia in a short & sweet posting, but I have to do the Cambodia blog before going to Thailand on Saturday, so here goes. (I know, it's a rough life I lead)

I didn’t love Cambodia at first. In fact, the first few days there, I wondered why I had spent the money to come to a poor, dirty country full of mosquitoes, cockroaches, and half-naked children begging everywhere.

The guesthouse where we stayed in Phnom Penh was reminiscent of some of the nasty hostels I stayed at in Europe five years ago, when I was younger and slightly more adventurous. Actually, in terms of giving up creature comforts while traveling, I’ve never been that adventurous. I need a bed, a shower, and a toilet that has a seat cover; the last of which our room was lacking. After only a day our room wreaked of sweat, body odor, and general nastiness due to poor ventilation. I am adventurous; just not to the point of sacrificing personal hygiene.

I did a complete 360, however, when we went to Siem Riep. The 6-hour bus ride there was quite unpleasant; the roads in Cambodia are awful, we were packed in like sardines with no air conditioning, and we had to break often for cows crossing the road, but I loved Siem Riep itself. It was cleaner, seemed a lot safer, and the guesthouse we stayed in was infinitely nicer than the one in Phnom Penh. In this city, I began to love Cambodia.

People come to Siem Riep to see the Temples at Angkor. I’ll try not to go into a lengthy history lesson here, but at one time in history, Cambodia (or the Khmer Empire) was one of the great powers of Southeast Asia, and the hundreds of temples at Angkor built between 800 AD and 1432 are a testament to that. We spent three days touring only the major temples; you could spend a week there and not see it all. It was nothing short of amazing, and I went on a picture-taking spree; filling up a 2 GB memory card (which holds about 700 pictures) and then borrowing one of Eugen’s to take another 200 pictures. I went just a tad overboard, but I think that the Temples at Angkor are a must-see for anyone traveling in the area, and I’ve heard they are closing them down for restoration, so you need to see them soon.

By the time I took another miserable bus ride back to Phnom Penh to catch my flight back to Seoul (this time wedged between the chattiest Buddhist monk ever and an Australian lady breast-feeding her 6 month old) I was in love with Cambodia; even Phnom Penh. Here’s an excerpt from my notebook that shows how euphoric I was at the end:

“It’s official: I love Cambodia! People here are so friendly, the shopping is great (and cheap!) and the kids are charming. I’m sitting here watching the mottos go by while sipping red wine ($1.80 a glass) in a classy little joint along the river. This morning I watched the sunrise over an ancient temple. I’m wearing a tank top and shorts in February! It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Quite a change from Day 1. So much so that I want to go back to Cambodia someday and volunteer, maybe at the end of my stay in Korea (whenever that is). Temples and palaces aside, it was a very sobering experience that put things into perspective. My friend back home saw my pictures on Facebook and wrote me a message saying it seemed like Cambodia was "slightly less developed than Korea." I told her that was a huge understatement. Seeing the poverty and begging children and landmine victims really tugged at the heartstrings, and I feel compelled to go back and help out in some way, either at an orphanage or teaching English.

Check out the pictures at my Flickr site.

Beware the Ajumma

2009-02-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

(Written January 19)

This morning bus 147 pulled up to my stop completely empty, with another nearly empty bus right behind it. In spite of the obvious availability of seats, as a younger, maybe 30-something man was getting on, an ajumma shoved him aside to get on first.

Really ajumma? Was it that important to be the first one on the empty bus? You were guaranteed a seat. This is something I don't like about Korea. The idea of personal space doesn't exist here, and it's not considered rude to shove someone out of your way. During the after work rush on the subway (which lasts from about 6 pm until well past 10pm) it's not uncommon to be pushed aside multiple times before making your way into the train. When it's really bad, you might not actually have to push to get in at all, as the mob of people behind you will shove as one and sort of carry you into the train. (Whenever this happens to me, for some reason I always think about how much my mom would hate Korea.)

Ajummas are the worst perpetrators of the pushing and shoving. Those of you don't live in Korea are probably wondering what an ajumma is. The word literally means, "married woman," but it's used to categorize a certain type of married woman, usually older. The ajumma is jokingly called "the third sex," by some Koreans because of her(?) fierce demeanor. This is definitely a stereotype, but along with the pushing and shoving, they usually have short, permed hair, wear ridiculously large plastic visors (Koreans fear the sun tanning or wrinkling their skin more than anything) and often sport hiking gear. And according to this blog entry I've been using as a reference, they talk very loud on their cell phones, which for everyone else in this country is a huge faux pas. The rest of us get yelled at, but again, the ajumma is a different breed.

They are also very bossy. When Angie was here, she was using chopsticks with her left hand to eat some street food. (She's left handed) The ajumma working the stand came over to her and placed the chopsticks in her right hand; the proper one. Angie was too scared to disobey so she tried unsuccessfully to finish the mandu. This is just one example of ajummas telling people how to do things.

Even though they can be kind of rude, ajummas are another thing that makes living in Korea a unique and often humorous experience. They were also a very popular Halloween costume among us wagukins (foreigners).

Me dressed as an ajumma for Halloween:

Real live ajumma on my street:

Just Dance!

2009-01-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

(Love that song by Lady Gaga even though it’s cheesy pop)

Dancing is one of my favorite things in life, and I’m just now fully realizing this. In Korea, since I don’t have mountains of essays to grade and my lesson planning takes a fraction of the time, I’m finding myself with lots of time on my hands to do whatever I want. As it turns out, what I want is to take dance classes.

I started out taking drop-in jazz/hip hop classes at POZ studio near my school, but it’s kind of expensive and I haven’t been going very consistently. Then my friend Vicky wanted to try out salsa, so I went to a studio with her in Apgujeong. It was fun learning the short routine they taught us, but during the open dance time I felt like the guys I danced with managed to suck all the fun out of salsa. Koreans take their hobbies very seriously and study them to perfection, so when I was slightly off on the steps, they stopped me and made me practice the steps over and over. One guy also told me I was moving my hips too much and needed to make smaller, more controlled movements. That’s when I realized salsa dancing in Korea wasn’t for me. I’ve never taken formal salsa lessons, but I do know that “it’s all in the hips.”

Then in December one of my favorite coworkers, Giryoung, told me that she was taking swing dancing lessons and had a performance coming up. She didn’t exactly invite me, but I told her I would love to come watch. I brought my friend Ashley along, who was really excited about getting her swing on. We were very impressed by the couples cutting a rug like it was 1939, and Ashley begged me to start taking lessons with her. I wasn’t super excited about the idea, but Ashley was quite insistent and I gave in.

I’m glad I did, because we’ve been taking classes for 3 weeks now, and I absolutely love it. The lessons are all in Korean, but luckily Giryoung is there and helps translate when necessary. After our hour and a half lesson, they have open dancing for a few hours and that’s when the real fun begins. Many of the guys have been studying swing for years and can dance really well, and since most partner dancing is all about following the guy, all I have to do is stay on beat. Afterwards the whole gang usually heads to a restaurant for some food and maekju (beer). They are a really fun, laid-back group and have welcomed Ashley and I with open arms. Only a handful of them can speak English well enough to carry on a conversation, but that’s only motivated me to take studying Korean more seriously so I can talk to them.

Vicky getting a salsa lesson

Giryoung’s swing performance. How adorable are the outfits?

Torn

2009-01-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

(Written January 17, 2009)

While Angie was here, she and I had a lot of really intense "life" discussions. I've made some really close friends here in Seoul, but it's not the same as having someone around who has know you since you were the weird hippy chic that moved to town in 7th grade. So I really appreciated having her here, not only because we always have a blast together, but for her insight.

I told her that lately I've been thinking I will stay another year in Korea. I don't have to sign the contract until May, but I've been going back and forth about it in my head pretty much since the day I arrived. She wasn't a fan of the idea, but after a few days here, she said she realized why I liked it so much and wanted to stay. She could also tell that I was really homesick.

I said I wasn't homesick, I just miss my family a lot. She said; that's what homesickness is Taryn! For some reason I don't like to admit that. Honestly I would be happy as a clam living in Korea another year, but I do miss my family a lot. Actually "a lot" isn't a strong enough word to describe it; more like "tremendously."

I miss picking stupid fights with my sister Alyssa, going to cheesy romantic comedies with Natalie & dishing out sisterly advice, teasing my 13 year old brother Luke about anything and everything, (it's so easy!) my 10 year old brother Matthew's sharp wit and piercing honesty, my Dad and his nerdy jokes, my Mom's practical advice (and nagging), even if it's not what I want to hear. I miss Tink, our little shih tzu poo who I tried hard not to get attached to when we got her last January, but who quickly wormed her way into my heart. Being away from them is really hard. I also have cousins who I am very close to who are getting married and having children, and I hate missing out on important events in their lives.

At the same time, I'm happy here. I have far less job-related stress, I'm learning Korean, meeting new, interesting people all the time, and doing all sorts of random things I never would have imagined, like going bungee jumping, taking swing dancing lessons, singing impromptu duets with ajusshi's (old men) on the subways, the list goes on and on. I never know what is going to happen next in Korea, and I love that.

So right now I am really torn. Actually last night, my friend Jamie and I were chatting with a guy who is really into philosophy and studies Tao te Ching, an ancient Chinese philosophy. He said he could consult the I Ching for us, which is "a symbol system used to identify order in random events" (Wikipedia). I asked the I Ching if staying another year is a good idea, and the symbols I got represent both "gathering together" and "splitting apart," basically two opposing answers. Looks like I'm on my own for this one. (The fact that we were consulting the I Ching in an Irish Pub in Korea is just another example of how random my life is here)

I wish I could just set it aside and worry about it when the time comes, but sadly my brain doesn't work like that. It's always contemplating the next step. However, writing lengthy blog postings about my worries is quite therapeutic. Thanks for putting up with it :)

Angie's visit

2009-01-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

Seoul Tower

Gyeongbok Palace

Like I mentioned earlier, Angie, one of my best friends from home, came to Seoul to visit for a week. It was really fun to show her around and have her experience all the things that I love (and loathe) about Korea. In only 8 days, she got to experience quite a bit of the Korean life.

There are a lot of funny stories I could tell, but probably my favorite was when I brought Angie to school one day and had my winter camp students interview her as a speaking activity. They asked what her favorite Korean food was, and she said she really loved mandu. My students all gasped in shock and horror, because mandu is actually Chinese food. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was nice to not be the one committing cultural faux pas for once.

Other highlights from her visit:

* I introduced her to all my favorite Korean foods: mandu (which of course is actually Chinese), bibimbap, kimbap, galbi, kimchi jiggae and ramyeon, just to name a few.
* We found her the perfect purse at the Dongdaemun underground market and bartered to get it 25,000 won cheaper. I was pretty proud of that.
*We went to a hot springs spa in Icheon where we met a dinosaur who gave us free, giant chocolate bars (see pic below)
*We went to noraebang, twice :)
*We were invited to watch one of my student's bands play, which happened to be heavy metal. My student gave each of us a gifts and a letter when we showed up! I also somehow ended up singing in impromptu song with the band.
*We also visited Seoul Tower, Gyeongbok Palace, The National Folk Museum of Korea, saw the Cheonggyechoen all lit up at night, went swing dancing, saw a martial arts demonstration, went to Nanta (a live performance like "Stomp," but with kitchen utensils) sipped traditional Korean tea at a tiny tea shop in Insadong, and browsed sale racks in Myeongdong.

Hooked on Mandu!

A Friendly Dinosaur at the Spa

See the rest of the pictures here

Snow!

2009-01-15T21:02:00.000-08:00

As much as I despise cold, I LOVE snow. (Which is why I’m starting to think Colorado might be the ideal place for me to live.)

This morning as I was walking to the bus (I'm lying, I actually took a taxi so I could press the snooze button 4 more times) light, fluffy snowflakes were falling. This has happened a few times this winter in Seoul, but it usually melts before hitting the ground.

Well it finally stuck. I just peeked out the window at school and our soccer field (which is really just a dirt clearing between high rise apartments) is covered in white! I love it. Every year at the first snow I get really excited. In my youth, before I turned into a big wimp, I would spend hours outside in the winter sledding, building snowmen and forts, skating on the rink my dad would make in the front yard, and then go inside to warm up and drink hot chocolate. I didn’t realize how much I missed snow and I hope it sticks around for a while.

I realize that my MN readers are probably not sharing in my giddiness right now as temperatures reached -20 today. I definitely don't miss January in Minnesota ;)

I was way too excited about a few centimeters of snow:

Some kiddos playing soccer at the school

Korean Acts of Kindness

2009-01-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

December and January have been pretty eventful, and I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but before I get into that, I wanted to share yet another example of the extreme kindness and trust of the Koreans that I've met.

Tonight I had to bring my friend Angie to the airport in Incheon, which is an hour bus ride from Seoul. I used the last of the won I had on me to buy the ticket there, and figured I could take cash out for the trip home at the airport. Well, in true Taryn fashion, my Korean bankcard was nowhere to be found, so I tried to take money out of my American bank account, which I have done here in similar emergency situations. For some reason, none of the ATM’s were taking my card, so I stopped at the KB (my Korean bank) kiosk to see if they could help me out.

They couldn’t issue me a new card or let me withdraw cash because banking hours were over, but the manager said he would give me 20,000 won (of his own) to get home, and I could just transfer money into his account tomorrow.

I think my eyes were popping out of my head in shock because he asked, is that okay? I said, Yes! Is that okay with you? This man gave cash and his bank account number to a complete stranger, without thinking twice.

In any other country I might have been out of luck. But I live in Korea, where people trust their bank account numbers with complete strangers.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

(Written 12-25-08)

The gloom of the (sick) days leading up to Christmas has passed and I finally feel like it’s Christmas. I met some S.M.O.E.’s for mass at Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral this morning, and it finally felt like Christmas after seeing the altar all decorated and singing “Go Tell it on the Mountain” to a droning organ as the closing song.

Myeongdong Catholic Church

After church I called the fam. who was having our typical Christmas Eve: junk food fest (everyone requests their own dish; mine is always taco dip) presents, and then midnight mass. So not much was new, except that we welcomed a new member to our (extended) family; my Aunt Jessica had baby boy Cooper Sterling Scutt. Pictures were up on Facebook immediately and he is beyond adorable.

Also lifting my spirits is the fact that I have much to look forward to in the coming weeks. I’m penning this post on a bus to Suanbo (small mountain town two hours south of Seoul) to meet Jamie and a few of her friends for a weekend of skiing and hot springs. Should be a good time. Then in about two weeks, one of my best friends from home is coming to visit for 10 days, then I have my winter vacation part 1 the last week of January. Not sure where I’m headed yet, but it has to be cheap. Then I come back to school for two weeks; and afterwards it’s winter vacation part 2, and I’m going to Thailand and Malaysia! I can’t wait to leave cold, gloomy Seoul and lay on the beach, ride elephants and hang out with tigers; all of which you can do in Thailand. I’m so excited! We haven’t exactly booked tickets yet (still waiting for the best deal) but it’s a for sure. I just hope the political situation stays under control and there aren’t any airport demonstrations in the near future.

2008-12-22T04:24:00.000-08:00

I will admit it; I’ve been kind of lonely and homesick lately. It probably doesn’t help that I was sick all last week and cooped up in my tiny apartment, or that it’s only days away from Christmas and I’m a million miles away from my family. Tonight, especially, has been one of those “what the heck am I doing here?” nights. Then I finally left my place to run to the convenience store, and the most beautiful, fluffy snowflakes were falling. It was like a little piece of home.

This has been happening a lot lately; just when I think I’ve had enough of this country and that I couldn’t possibly stay another year, I’m lured back in.

Frustration

2008-12-15T04:53:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, I woke up with a searing migraine and spent the entire day in agony. When I get these, some of the pain usually carries over into the next day, which it did. So on Monday I sent my coteacher a text message saying I would be late to school. I didn't see any point rushing into work on a day I wasn't even teaching when I was in pain. She texted back: "Don't worry, take your time." I took an Advil, waited for it to kick in, and came to work at 9:10. (I'm supposed to be there at 8:00am)

When I walked in, the Vice Principal called my coteacher over to her desk for a chat. They were speaking Korean, but I could tell something was up. Minjung told me afterwards that the vice principal was "really worried about me" and my health problems. I have been sick/late "several times," so she recommend I go to the doctor and get my migraines checked out so that they don't prevent me from missing work again.

I've learned enough about Korean passive-aggressive communication to know that saying they are "really worried about me" is a thinly disguised warning that I shouldn't miss work unless I am literally on my death bed. In Korea, when you are sick, you're supposed to go to the doctor, get medication, and come straight back to work. This mentality completely baffles me, because how can you be productive when you are in pain? Apparently, that's not the point. What's important is being physically present, regardless of whether or not you are doing any work.

I looked at Minjung in disbelief and said, "I've been sick one day in 4 and a half months." I told her that I didn't think coming late would be a big deal since this was the second week in a row I wasn't setting foot in a classroom. The kids were in the middle of finals and on test days, I usually sit at my desk for 8 hours a day with very little work to do. I really don't understand why it's so important for me to be sitting at my desk doing nothing when I could be at home getting better.

Another thing that frustrates me is that when I do get sick, my coworkers act like it's something I brought upon myself. They tell me I need to get more exercise, I need "proper nourishment," I need to rest, etc. I'm sorry, but I think that getting a few colds is normal in my situation. Four and a half months ago, I moved to an overcrowded city where I use public transportation on a daily basis; I'm exposed to a lot more germs here than I was back home. Also, I know my body; I rest when I'm fatigued, I eat when I'm hungry, and I use Purrell like crazy, since hot water in restrooms is scarce and when they do have soap, it's usually a bar that everyone shares.

In spite of my efforts, I still get sick sometimes, and I don't think I deserve to be scolded for it. Unfortunately, today, the following Monday, was one of those times. This morning I woke up at 3 am with the chills and my body ached all over. I thought I had the flu, so I waited in misery until 8:30 when the hospital opened to get tested. I did have a bit of a a fever, but the doctor wasn't quite sure what I had so he ran some tests and gave me a shot of pain medication. The tests didn't show anything serious, so he wrote me up for "fever, generalized muscle pain, headache, and acute pharyngitis (a.k.a sore throat/cold)" I had asked him, while trying to choke back tears, to write a note for my school because they get upset when I'm sick.

Sure enough, I got an e-mail from my coteacher tonight saying the vice principal is "really, really worried about me" and said "it's a bit too often that you come to school late or you cannot come to school because of your health problem. She said you need to make sure you stay healthy and rest enough on the weekends."

"A bit too often." Hmmm.... I did a little calculation to prove how absurd this statement is. I've been here 4.5 months, but I'm not counting the first two weeks because I didn't really start work yet. Let's say my total working days so far have been 115 (I knocked 5 days off of the total for Chuseok and other random days I didn't have to come in). Of 115 days, I've taken 2 sick days, been 1 hour late on the headache day, and 10 minutes late one day when I forgot to set my alarm. That amounts to less than 2% of my total working days. However, today was the only time that I was sick on a day that I was actually supposed to teach. So really, the total time my "medical problems" have actually interfered with teaching is .86%. One day. Absolutely ridiculous. I am not happy right now.

Also, since finals are over, the kids basically have playtime until the end of the semester, and I was going to teach them some Christmas songs. So you can see, my presence at work right now is less than crucial.

Tomorrow I have a high school teachers' seminar from 8 am to 9 pm, and I will go in spite of the fact that I will probably be miserable the entire time. Heaven forbid I take another sick day.

Oh Canada...

2008-12-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

I always feel really bad when I meet Canadians, because up until now I had very little knowledge of Canadian geography, history, politics, etc., but they seem to know everything about the U.S. My friend Chris says that's because there's nothing to know about Canada, but I still feel bad. About half of my teacher friends here in Korea are Canadian, so my knowledge of this land and its people has increased exponentially since my arrival. I thought I would impart some of this knowledge.

Canadians are tricky people, because they look just like Americans, and for the most part, they talk just like Americans. I've recently found out that many actors and musicians are actually Canadians disguised as Americans (Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey and The Barenaked Ladies, just to name a few). Canadians get kind of offended when Koreans assume they are American, but even for us miguks (Americans), it's hard to tell. It's only when they insert an "eh?" at the end of a sentence or talk about how they can't find good poutine here that you know they're a canuck.

What is poutine you ask? Good question. I had never heard of it before I came here, but apparently it's a Canadian delicacy. Poutine consists of french fries covered in strange, fattening things like gravy and cheese curds. I had my first poutine on Tuesday night at a Canadian restaurant/pub in Itaewon. It mostly tasted like soggy french fries, but Kim (Canadian teacher friend) said that it wasn't good poutine and that she's going to take me to New York Fries, a Canadian fast food chain (with an American name) here in Korea to get some real poutine.

My first poutine

In the U.S., we like to make fun of Canada a lot, and it turns out, they like to make fun of us as well. Rick Mercer is kind of like Canada's Stephen Colbert, and he has a segment of his show called "Talking with Americans" that is both hysterical and humiliating. Check it out:

Wine (but mostly Cheese) Night

2008-12-03T05:14:00.000-08:00

Josie and I saw the movie "Bottle Shock" 2 weekends ago and it was right up my alley. I like movies that some consider boring, with lots of talking and things like wine competitions.

After the movie got out, Josie, who hates the taste of alcohol in all forms, said it made her want to have a glass of Chardonnay. (The climax of the movie is when the Chardonnay from a California winery beats out the French wine in a blind taste test. Edge of your seat action, I know)

I told her that as a beginner, she should start out with a White Zinfandel since it's more fruity. That's what I started out drinking, and have since graduated to more sophisticated varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Actually I don't really know if liking red wine means you have a more refined palate or anything, I just think blush wines taste like alcoholic koolaid. Anyway, I decided that we should have a wine tasting at my apartment, since it's so spacious.

I invited some of the SMOE girls over and everyone brought either a bottle of wine or snacks. The wine tasting part was fun, but I think most of us were more excited about the cheese. I splurged and picked up some Brie and cheddar from E-mart and Josie brought some spreadable, cream-cheese like stuff and we gorged. Cheese is quite the novelty here in Korea because it's hard to find and is grossly overpriced. Allyssa's bruschetta was also amazing. (I am always impressed by anyone my age whose cooking skills extend beyond instant pasta and scrambled eggs)

It was really fun to have a low-key night without the boys (no offense guys) and Josie said that her first glass of wine "wasn't as bad as she thought," so I considered it a successful evening. An added bonus was the fact that Vicky found the rooftop of my apartment building, which I didn't know existed.

Some pics from the evening:

Turns out I can fit 10 people in my apartment

Chaeheun, me & Jamie

View from my rooftop

Thanksgiving in Korea

2008-12-03T04:49:00.000-08:00

I had very low expectations for Thanksgiving dinner in Korea. For one, they don't really eat turkeys in this country. I guess it doesn't go well with kimchi. (j/k) Also, I talked a little bit about Thanksgiving in my classes last week, and many of my students and coteachers had never heard of stuffing, which in my opinion is the highlight of the meal.

My friend Sarah reserved tickets to a Thanksgiving buffet at Gecko's pub in Itaewon. She told us there would be turkey and mashed potatoes at least, and that was enough for me.

It turned out that the buffet was totally worth the 35,000 won. We had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pasta, french fries, bread, fish, sausage...pretty much anything you could think of. They even had pseudo pumpkin and apple pie. (see pics) I ate until I thought I was going to burst, just like back home. The best part was, no clean up, and no eating turkey leftovers for the next 2 weeks. Not bad, Korea.

Buffet Round 1

Some hungry waeguks: Josie, me, Alan & Betsy

Gecko's version of pumpkin pie

Soooo full!

I heart my students part 2

2008-12-03T04:39:00.001-08:00

A day or two after I wrote the last post, one of my students handed me a letter that was rolled up and tied with a pink bow, and said she was sorry for not giving it to me sooner.

The letter is two pages long, and the first page apologizes for the behavior of some of her peers who talk in class or use their cell phones, and for the girls who put on make up during class. She said I should not be discouraged by the behavior of "stoopid students" like that. She said most students study very hard and enjoy my class. She said she and other students are pleased I am here, and they "beloath when the bell wich tell us that the class is over ring."

I was touched. It's going to be very hard to go back home and teach after being treated like a rockstar here.

I heart my students

2008-11-19T06:32:00.000-08:00

High School kids crack me up. The more I get to know my students here, the more I think that kids are the same everywhere. Sometimes they remind me so much of my students back home with their funny/sassy comments in class.

Today in one of the boys’ classes, I explained the activity for the day then asked the students, “Does everyone understand what I want you to do?” (A lot of times the students will nod their heads like they understand, then they ask me what’s going on 5 minutes later) One kid goes, “Roger that!” I couldn’t help but laugh. Some of these kids can barely form sentences in English, yet I get comments like that. I asked the rest of the class if they knew what "Roger that" meant, and explained the whole pilot/radio thing. After I finished, another kid goes, “Fire in the hole!” They surprise me everyday with the random English phrases/colloquial expressions they know. (One of their favorites is “Oh Shit!)

I’m starting to really like my Korean students. After almost three months here, I have a much better idea of what activities are going to work in each class and how to adapt assignments for the different ability levels.

I’m also showered with compliments and affection on a daily basis. My celebrity status hasn’t exactly worn off. I don’t get a unanimous “wow!” when I walk into the classroom anymore, but nearly every student yells “Hi Taryn Teacher!” when they see me in the hallways. Although some of the boys are more traditional and bow when they see me, which I think is awesome. In Korea it is custom to bow as a greeting to someone who is older than you or in a superior position. I think I’m going to try to implement that when I go back to the U.S. to teach. (Just kidding, it would never work)

And then there are the compliments. Last Friday I straightened my hair, and when I walked into the beginner boys’ class, there were claps and cheers like I was meeting my fan club. Several students shouted, “Hair! Good!” and another yelled, “Teacher!...Face...Angelina Jolie...Same!” Gotta love being compared to Angelina Jolie. Then on the way out of school Monday of this week; I was all bundled up in my new coat, boots, scarf and hat because it’s freezing in Seoul right now, and I got called a “Fashionista” by three different students. These are just a few examples of the compliments I am showered with on a regular basis. Some of them have also given me snacks and candy, and I got one Halloween card from a student that said, “Thank you for remembering my name.” With 400+ students that I see once a week, it’s hard to remember names, but there are a handful of students whose names I’ve learned. Most of the Korean teachers don't bother learning students' names.

Unfortunately, the school year ends on December 23rd, and I’ll get a whole new crop of “1st graders” (sophomores) when the new school years starts in March, just when I’m getting to know them better. Hopefully the new kiddos will be just as adorable.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certain classes that misbehave and drive me a little nuts, but overall, teaching here is a very pleasant experience. I don’t assign homework or grades, I don’t give tests; they get to have fun with me. It’s a pretty awesome set up.

The Big Test

2008-11-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not at school today because it's the day that 3rd graders (seniors) all across Seoul take the test that will make or break them: the university entrance exam. This is the test they've spent the entire school year preparing for and that their parents have been worrying about for their child's entire life. I kind of wanted to see the madness at the front entrance, but I'm happy to have the day off to get some sleep and try to beat this nasty cold I've had all week.

Here is a youtube video that shows all the hype. There will be a similar scene at Chungdam this morning. Members of the student government are required to be there to cheer and show their support, and other students voluntarily show up to cheer. It would have been something to see, but again, I'll take my day off.

P.S. It turns out I was overreacting to the exercise comment in the posting below. Koreans are just obsessed with health and exercise and he meant no harm by the comment. I just took it the wrong way. The honeymoon period is over and little things like that are starting to get to me. It's hard being a wagukin (foreigner) sometimes.

Hey fattie

2008-11-04T02:06:00.000-08:00

Today at lunch I sat with three male teachers, and as usual, one of my co-teachers, David, brought up the subject of my eating habits.

David: "Tahleen, what are you eating these days? What did you eat for breakfast?"
Me: I told you, I eat cereal for breakfast. (I was a little annoyed because he asks this everyday)
David: Just cereal?!?
Me: Sometimes yogurt also, sometimes toast, it depends.

David seems to think that because I eat cereal for breakfast and pizza for dinner sometimes that I'm malnourished. After I assured him I was eating a balanced diet, he moved onto exercise. I told him I've been going to dance classes once a week, and it was very good exercise. The geography teacher chimed in that working out once a week wasn't enough, I needed to do it three times a week.

I said that I do a lot of walking here and climbing subway stairs. I told them that I had spent Sunday afternoon and evening walking around Seoul; a friend who lives in Daejon was in town and we were seeing the sights. Last weekend I was in Seoraksan hiking up mountains. I told them I thought that was enough exercise. The geography teacher said, not if I want to lose weight.

They talk about weight loss/calories all the time here, but I was still taken aback. I said, "Do you think I need to lose weight?" David must have realized I was somewhat offended, because he immediately started talking about how thin I was, and asked what my "secret" was.

I don't mind if my coworkers talk about health and weight loss in general, but telling me I need to work out more to lose weight is not really necessary. Especially since it's on most women's minds anyway.

I've heard from other (foreign) teachers that their coworkers make similar comments, and I've also experienced this when I lived abroad before. When my friends and I visited Tunisia in 2003, our tour guide told my two friends they looked like they were pregnant, and didn't understand why we found that so offensive.

I think our eagerness to be polite and not hurt people's feelings is something unique to the U.S. In Korea, it's perfectly okay to tell someone that they are chubby, or that they have a pig face. (One of my students got the nickname "Piglet" from her friends)

My Korean coworkers are always quick to comment on appearance in general. It's nice to be acknowledged on days when you put a little extra effort into your appearance, but on the flip side, they also tell you when you look awful. "You look so tired. You look sick," etc. I understand that this is a cultural thing, and I can handle being told I look tired, but I wasn't a fan of being told I need to exercise more. Maybe I'm overreacting, and it was just his segway into inviting me to play badminton with the teachers after school (as several teachers have done) but it rubbed me the wrong way, and I will be avoiding him in the lunchroom in the future. It's a shame too; he's one of the few teachers that can carry on a conversation with me at lunch. But I'd rather enjoy my squid surprise and chunks of tofu soup than feel like I have to jog it off later.

Total Immersion

2008-11-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks, through song, dance, and attending my first professional soccer game, I think I've been officially been initiated into Korean culture.

Song- If you want to make friends with Koreans, go to noraebang with them. I think I mentioned noraebang in a previous post but never explained what it is. Noraebang literally means "singing room," and it's Korea's version of karaoke. It is HUGE here; Koreans love to sing, so you can find a noraebang on nearly every corner. You pay about 15,000 won (which today is sadly $10.38; the exchange rate is awful right now) an hour for a private room with a karaoke screen, usually a few tambourines, two microphones, and mini strobe lights and/or disco balls. I had gone several times with fellow foreigners, but a few weeks ago, I went for the first time with Koreans. A group of teachers from my school went out to dinner & noraebang after the midterms and invited me along. Noraebang with Koreans is something else. After a few glasses of Cass (the water-flavored beer they drink here) they really cut loose. They all sang Korean songs (very enthusiastically, see the pictures), and I did a few Abba tunes because they know Abba here. I was a smash hit; not that they didn't like me before, but teachers who had never spoken to me before made a point of saying hello the next morning. It seems to be the ultimate ice breaker; you're not friends until you noraebang.

Noraebang with my coworkers, 10/8/08

Me with the Chief of Academic Affairs, the principal, and In Young (biology teacher)

Dance- Before coming to Korea, I had been taking jazz/hip hop classes at my sister's dance studio in White Bear Lake, and it was the highlight of my week. I decided that I wanted to continue to take classes here in Korea, so I've been going to drop-in classes at POZ dance studio near my school. Not only do I pick up a few new words in Korean every time I go, but one week I learned the dance to the latest "Wonder Girls" hit. The Wonder Girls are one of the hottest pop groups in Korea, and I make references to them all the time when I'm modeling sentences or teaching new vocabulary to my students.

Knowing the "Nobody" dance has proven to be another cross-cultural bonding method. I've busted it out a few times in class and my students go nuts. I also hung out with another foreign teacher recently and her coteacher, who made me teach her the dance. Now my coteacher, Minjung, wants me to teach her the dance because she and her husband tried with little success to learn from the music video. I'll post a link at the bottom to the "Nobody" video on youtube, because it's pretty awesome.

Soccer- I have never cared about or paid any attention to soccer, and had never actually sat through an entire match before coming here. But when my friend Jamie had an extra ticket to the Asian World Cup Qualifiers, I thought it would be a good "cultural experience." I dressed up in red and bought devil horns for the occasion since Korea's mascot is the red devils, and I had a blast. I never knew soccer was so much fun! Everyone was decked out in the team's colors and waving flags and chanting; it was much more entertaining than sitting through a baseball or football game. Whenever Korea scored a goal, there was confetti and toilet paper sailing through the air; even a red hand-held flare at one point. By the end of the match, I was waving the South Korean flag and singing along to all the chants. One of our friend's Korean co-teachers was there, and he commented on how "Korean" I was.

South Korea vs. U.A.E., 10/15/08

In the two months I've been here, I think I've adjusted pretty well to life in Korea. There are a few things that I will never get used to, like how people, mostly men, will hock loogies all over the streets and sidewalks. I cringe every time I hear someone gargling the mucous in their throat; it's so gross.

I also HATE fish and seafood, which they serve nearly every day at my school. I get really excited when it's a "no fish day," and there's something I can eat besides rice and kimchi.

These are very minor complaints though. Overall I still love living here; I was lucky to be placed in a nice area and in a good school, I get a along with my students and coworkers, and there are always people in the S.M.O.E. family to hang out with in the evenings and on the weekends.

I do miss home a lot and sometimes wish I could fly home for just a week to visit and maybe eat some Chipotle and buy shoes that fit, but I have to remind myself that when I do go back home, I will miss the friends I've made here, noraebang, bibimbap, galbi and other Korean foods I love. I'll miss living in this massive city where I'm constantly discovering new little neighborhoods and restaurants and shopping areas, etc. So I'm trying to live in the moment and just enjoy myself, and not worry about whether or not I'm going to stay another year or what I'm going to do when I go back home, etc.

That being said, I'm going to go meet up with some friends now instead of worry about how to wrap up this post :)

*As promised, the link to "Nobody" by the Wonder Girls

The small face/peace sign phenomenon

2008-11-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

(Written 10-24-08)

Recently I heard from a friend of mine back home who said he'd been looking at my picutres from Korea and didn't understand the peace sign phenomenon in Asia (while taking pictures). Perhaps I can shed some light:

Loyal readers may remember that when I first arrived here, everyone kept telling me I had a small face. I thought it was strange that they kept commenting on that; like I was some freak of nature. I would respond by showing them pictures of my dad and saying, "see, I get it from him, it's his fault."

I have since learned that Korean women all want a small face (or narrow face) because it is considered more beautiful. Usually when I take my camera out, the females will make a peace sign covering their cheeks or strike some other strategic pose to make their face appear smaller.

I didn't realize this until Wednesday, when we took a field trip to Olympic Park and a group of my students decided that they can't pose for pictures with me anymore because my face is "too small," making theirs look bigger. It's not just the students who make these comments either; the teachers all say the same thing when they pose for pictures with me.

I could be wrong. Maybe they're just all about peace and love here, but I think that the small face phenomenon and peace sign phenomeneon are closely related.

World Peace Gate, Olympic Park

Me with my "1st graders" (10th graders) who told me my face is too small

*You can see the rest of my pictures on my flickr page

One-sentence stories

2008-10-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

(Written 10-10-08)

This week I had my intermediate and advanced classes do a writing exercise where one student started a story by writing a sentence, and the next person in the row wrote the next sentence, and so on. From the stories in each row, they were to pick the best story and I would decide a winner for the class. I told them that the winning story would be the most creative, one that made sense, and was school appropriate.

The term "school appropriate" doesn't seem to exist here. Back home, I would tell my students they had to be "PG" or "school appropriate" in class activities and they knew what I was talking about. Here, I had to explain that means leave out the sex and violence. In spite of this warning, my students wrote all sorts of disturbing things, which completely surprised me. Most of them seem so sweet and innocent, yet here are snippets from some of the stories I received this week:

"I have a sexy girlfriend. She gave me AIDS. We suicided together."
"I was in love with my teacher, but he married my sister. So I got plastic surgery to flirt with him."
"I took a shit in the backyard."
"I hit his penis with a bat."
"My mother is more delicious than cow. She is very fat and salty and spicy." (from the "steak boy" class, this one did NOT surprise me)
"I like American girls because they are fat."
"My parents hit me, so I go to the hospital. Now I am so happy because I can pass the exam. Yeah!"
"He is too angry, so he shooted his mother brain bones."

Nearly every story had something about death or suicide. They are obsessed with it. I told one class I wanted nice stories and to leave out all the death; and one boy (who speaks English very well) said, "but this is art!"

Probably the strangest part of all this was the fact that my co-teachers were entirely unfazed, as if AIDS, suicide and murder are perfectly normal topics for students to write about in class.

My last class of the week, which is my best class behavior and participation wise, wrote this little gem:

"A foreign teacher came to our school. And she is taller than me. She is so popular in the boys' classes that I am jealous of her. So I kill her."

Hmm...I think we'll stick to vocabulary games and speaking exercises in the future.

Back in Seoul

2008-10-06T06:57:00.001-07:00

Okay, this is going to sound like the lamest thing ever, but it’s good to be back in Seoul and back to work. Let me explain…

All of last week at school the students took midterms, so I didn’t teach at all, but I still had to be there and sit at my desk. What did I do all week? Good question. When I have a whole week of unstructured time and no looming deadline, I am physically incapable of productivity. I stalked a lot of my friends from home on Facebook, followed the Twins’ almost playoff run, and did a little research on Thailand. I also threw together a last minute trip to Busan, a port city on the southeast tip of Korea. This is all I got accomplished in a week’s worth of work. I felt like a huge slacker, so I welcomed the actual work I had to do at school this morning. Although when I go back to the States to teach, I’m sure I will fantasize about the days in Korea when I could e-mail and Facebook at work.

Like I said, I decided last Tuesday that we should use our day off on Friday (it was a National Holiday, but my co-teacher wasn’t even sure what it was for) and visit Busan. Other than the beach, there wasn’t anything in particular I wanted to see, it was just a chance to see another city in Korea. I didn’t have any luck finding an available hostel or budget hotel online, so my friend Vicky’s co-teacher looked into finding us a yeogwan. “Yeogwan” means guesthouse, and like hostels, I think they are hit or miss. I’m sure there are nice ones out there, but ours was pretty decrepit, which was fine since we are all on a budget. My only complaint was the fact that the three of us women were supposed to share a double mattress on the floor with pillows that felt like they were stuffed with bricks. Needless to say, we didn’t sleep very well. It also was located about 45 minutes away from the Haeundae Beach area by subway, so it took us an hour to meet up with the other groups of S.M.O.E. people that somehow found accommodations near the beach.

Other than the sleeping situation and the lack of planning, I loved Busan. People were extremely friendly in passing, unlike Seoul where everyone is in hurry and will knock you over if you get in their way on the subway. It’s probably pretty common in a beach town verses a huge city, but the vibe was really laid back. We also were in awe of the beach view from our friend Brian’s friend’s apartment; it was gorgeous. (See pic. below) A few of my teacher friends were like, why do we live in Seoul? I found myself defending my new home. In spite of the fact that it’s overcrowded and the rush hour traffic is horrendous, I love Seoul. I’m glad I picked Seoul over Busan or some other smaller town. The commute to and from work is kind of a pain, but city life suits me. I also love that while I’ve seen a lot of the sights, I still have a lengthy list of things I want to do in Seoul. There is so much here and I love that.

It’s funny how you come to appreciate a place once you leave it. Going to Busan made me realize how much I love Seoul, and coming to Korea made me realize how much I love Minnesota. My parents dragged me there kicking and screaming when I was 13, so I spent most of my teenage years hating it, but I’ve really come to appreciate it since I’ve been here. I’ve been educating Koreans about the wonder that is MN since the day I arrived. For example, when a neighbor lady took me to E-mart, I pointed out the 3M symbol on the tape and proudly told her it was a Minnesota based company. I guess this is one of the unforeseen benefits of coming here. Travel is not only about experiencing new places, it’s also about recognizing the good in where you came from, which I’m definitely doing.

Busan at night

Haeundae Beach

Jagalchi Fish Market

Titus pretending to eat live octopus

Chuseok part 3

2008-09-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

On Monday we met up in Dongdaemun, Holly's dong (neighborhood). Dongdaemun is famous for its shopping markets, which include everything from department stores to cheap knock offs on the street. Since I'm trying to save money, I've been trying to stay away from this area, but luckily most of the shops were closed for Chuseok.

At Cerestar Department store, we stumbled upon an impressive drumming/dancing show and watched it for awhile.

Then we headed over to the actual Dongdaemun, which means "Great East Gate." During the Joseon dynasty, it was the major eastern gate in the wall that surrounded Seoul. It is one of only two that are still standing; apparently in February of this year a cab driver went ape wall and burned down Namdaemun, the South Gate.
After that we hit up the tents for some street food and a peek at the merchandise. Another thing that cracks me up about Korea is all the clothing and accessories that sport random phrases in English that more often than not, don't make any sense.

What??

We also walked by a group of policemen who must have been bored because they were playing tag and frisbee in a parking lot. I've been told that Seoul is a very safe city, so they must not have enough to do.

I love Korea :)

Chuseok part 2

2008-09-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I met Josie, Hugh, and Josie's friend Makeeya at City Hall station to check out the Cheonggyecheon stream, a stream that was once covered with concrete to build an elevated highway, but was turned back into a stream in 2003 as part of an urban renewal project. Apparently there was controversy about the billions of dollars spent on this project and debate about whether it's actually doing anything for the city's eco-environment, but the Koreans seem to enjoy it now and so did we. I read that it's also supposed to be symbolic of Korea's progress in recent decades.

Cheonggyecheon stream

One thing that cracks me up about Korea is that people will nap anywhere: at their desks at work, in their trucks, and apparently in the middle of downtown. This guy was sleeping next to a giant cone sculpture near the stream:

After strolling along the Cheongyyecheon and admiring the artwork and some guy's pet monkey, we took the subway up to Gyeongbok Palace (or Gyeongbokgung), one of the largest of the Five Grand Palaces built in the Joseon Dynasty.

Makeeya strikes a pose at the entrance

Another building inside the gates

Lots of kids were dressed in traditional hanbok

Palace guards (just for show)

Chuseok Weekend, part 1

2008-09-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

This post is almost three weeks late, but I did say earlier that I would post about Chuseok. It also occurred to me that this is supposed to be about my "adventures" in Korea, and so far I've mostly talked about teaching. Not that teaching isn't an adventure, but anyway...

After the prison-like experience that was orientation, we (SMOE members) had our first full week of teaching. The week after that we got 4 days off (some of us 5) for Chuseok holiday, which can best be described as Korean Thanksgiving. This is probably the biggest holiday in Korea, and traditionally Koreans return to the towns of their ancestors to offer thanks to their ancestors' spirits for a good harvest. However, I asked a lot of teachers and students about their Chuseok plans and most of them were staying in Seoul. Actually a lot of my students said they would be spending the time off studying for mid-terms, which are going on this week at school.

They did say that people still make songp'yon, a traditional Korean pastry made of (big surprise here) rice. I've never seen so many things made from rice before moving here; or squid for that matter. Also, a lot of children wear a hanbok, or traditional dress for the occasion. (See pictures above) Otherwise, it sounds very much like an American Thanksgiving, where you eat a lot and sit around and watch TV with relatives.

When I found out about our time off for Chuseok, I immediately thought of a trip to Japan. I want to see as much as possible while I'm here, so any vacation time we have, I make big plans in my head. However, Holly (roommate at orientation) pointed out that we wouldn't be getting our first paycheck until after Chuseok, so we should probably stay in Seoul. Holly's a smart gal because I barely made it to pay day without what would have been an expensive trip to Japan.

So we stayed in Seoul and hit up some of the tourist destinations in our own backyard. I'm glad we did, because there is so much do right here in Seoul, and now I have a better idea of places to take people who come to visit me. I still don't know when Japan will happen, but Koreans celebrate a lot of holidays and there will hopefully be another long weekend soon. (Thailand and Cambodia are on the agenda for Winter Break)

On our first day off, (Saturday) we hiked up Dobongsan Mountain which is at the northern border of Seoul in Bukhansan National Park. Josie (my other orientation roommate) has lived here for a year now and decided that she is going to hike up all the mountains in Korea, so she recruited some of us to go with her. It was a moderately difficult hike, pretty rocky and steep, but nothing like the Volcano hike I did in Nicaragua during spring break '07. However, when we got to the peak, I had a mini panic attack trying to get to the top. There was nothing to prevent us from falling to our death other than this wobbly iron railing that I clung to for dear life while scaling the rock. Being a total American, I kept commenting how it was a law suit waiting to happen. In the U.S., you would have had to sign a waiver saying the park isn't responsible for your death or gotten a climbing license or something. But this is Korea, and they don't have people suing McDonald's because the coffee is too hot...yet. Panic attack aside, it was a good time and a great photo opp.

My hiking buddies:

Like I mentioned above, Koreans can't seem to get enough squid. They were selling it in jerky form at the base of the mountain. Actually this might be octopus...but you get the idea.

I got a big kick out the signs in the park. My coteacher told me that this one means "Don't take my acorns!" and warns that park goers will be fined for doing so.

"Don't even try to bring your bugle up this mountain!" At least that's what I think it says :)

Minjung said this one says to stay off the mountain when there's lightning. I love how dramatic it is.

"David" decided to join our hike so he could practice his English with us. He didn't understand why I wanted a picture of people's backs (I was trying to be artsy) He also got irritated that we took so many breaks.

Again, this rickety iron fence was all that separated us from falling to our death. It was scary.

I must say that for all my complaining, the view was worth it. This is my new city!

"Hello, I am a foreigner"

2008-09-26T02:08:00.001-07:00

Minjung and I were just about in hysterics about this at lunch today. She and Eunjin (another one of my co-teachers) were teaching me simple Korean phrases since for once, because of midterms, they weren’t insanely busy and we had time to sit down and chat.

I said that I would start going around saying, “I am a foreigner” to everyone, as if it wasn’t glaringly obvious. (I stick out like sore thumb most of the time here.) Eunjin said it would be unnecessary; it would be like her telling people she was Asian. I said, that’s why it’s funny.

We were also talking about how I’m sort of like a 4 year old here. I’m starting to read Hangul, but very slowly, like a kid who is just learning to read. I told them that my friend back home bought me little kid chopsticks that have a rubber gripper to bring here, and Minjung said I should bring them to lunch next week because the teachers would get a big kick out of it. I had thought the kid chopsticks were just a novelty gift at Patina, but kids here actually use them to learn, like her 4 year-old nephew. So Abby, you will be happy to hear that your chopsticks will be put to use next week ☺

I love that Minjung (my main co-teacher) and I have the same sense of humor. I told her that I think she is the Korean version of me, because every time she says something about herself (i.e. she’s really scatterbrained, she loves to sing, she loves to shop, she’s technology inept, etc) I’m like, me too! We have so much in common, we just never have time to hang out because she’s been so busy.

She and I both agreed that in October we would spend more time together outside of school, since midterms, which she coordinates, will be over, and she will be done with the English textbook she’s helping publish. We’ve made a lot of plans since discovering all of our shared interests. When she took me to immigration to get my alien registration, we sang along to the Mamma Mia soundtrack in her car and she discovered I could harmonize, since then she’s wanted to go to noraebang with me. We also made plans to go out for Thai food (my favorite) and for her to teach me how to cook a few simple dishes, since one thing we do not share in common is the fact that she can cook.

Overall it’s been a great week. Tuesday I got my alien registration card, allowing me to get a phone, and Wednesday I got paid, finally! People from home have been asking how things are going, and my response was always, “Great, but I have no phone, “or “Great, but I have no money.” Now it’s just “great,” no buts. I am having a blast here so far.
I also have a week off from teaching since the students are testing all day, so I have lots of free time at work to update this blog, practice Hangul, plan my trip to Thailand over winter break, and of course, Facebook. It also was a gorgeous fall day today; the first we’ve had here. I have no complaints ☺

Minjung and me at an Italian restaurant near the school

Small Victories

2008-09-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

When you’re living in a city of 10.4 million people, in a country where you don’t speak the language, small victories like getting to school on your own, navigating the subway system, and reading a word (or part of a word) in Hangul feel like huge triumphs. Also when you’re me, and you’re domestically challenged and lacking practical skills, simple tasks like doing laundry and making scrambled eggs are cause for celebration.

Tonight I successfully used my stove for the first time to make dinner. Yes, I’ve been here for 2 days short of a month and I still haven’t had the courage to use the stove. I’ve been eating out for the most part or eating college-kid meals like cereal and ramen. But I quickly realized that I’m not going to save any money if I’m eating out all the time. (Such wisdom I’ve acquired here!)

I had reason to fear the gas stove. When I lived in Uptown after college, I once didn’t turn the gas off all the way on our stove and left the building for the day. That afternoon I got a call from my roommate telling me that our neighbors called the landlord about the gas smell, and she came home to a note from the fire department saying they broke in to shut the gas off. I could have burned down the entire building, or if I had stayed home to take a nap like I had considered, died of asphyxiation. I personally think gas stoves should be outlawed, but apparently not everyone is as clueless as I am.

The stove in my apartment here has a gas pipe on the wall that you have to turn on, and I was scared that if I played around with it, I would blow up my apartment or something. I know it’s ridiculous, but I don’t have a good track record in the kitchen.

So I made eggs and beef patties for dinner tonight, and I’m feeling pretty proud of myself. Sad I know.