being a tool today

Midterms started today and wrap up next Tuesday. My school lets teachers go home 2 out of the 3 testing days early. They get to choose. I think my co-teacher chooses for me. Picture me looking longingly out the window right now. It's Friday, it's beautiful outside, and a very small handful of teachers are still here. So I'm hoping they'll peace out and then maybe I can sneak out a little early... I have no work to do. None. At least not without putting myself way ahead of schedule and then having nothing to do later on down the road. I don't plan for any real classes- just teacher training and the extra English hour on Fridays, so I'd rather put those off until later when I want to look busy. It's hard to guess how the Korean faculty feels when they see me not really doing a lot of work. I mean I'm happy to help any way I can, so pile it on! But my co-teacher has made his curriculum, I made the vocab already, so there isn't much to do for class unless he comes up with a new idea once in a while. I try to make supplementary materials when possible, but ultimately it's just to be productive, though the product is never used. At least Monday and Tuesday I get to leave early, and there's a holiday on Wednesday. Children's Day. I know nothing of it, but next week I'll have some more information. The only other time I've heard of this day is in the original Pokemon series when the day occurred in that universe. 


I've been tossing this idea around in my head for a little while. That if I get resigned for another year, I'll buy a guitar to have in Korea. A lot of things to consider with that though, and now that I sent the second payment of the camera I recently bought, I want to pump more money back into my American bank account. 


This weekend should be interesting. Actually, the following 3 weekends should be. Tomorrow night there's a soccer game. I haven't seen one yet because they're at night, and it gets pretty cold when the sun goes down. So I'm really hoping that it'll be warm because I'd like to go. Also, a friend wants to do crafty things! haha- I have a paper cake slice template which I think would be fun to try. Next week there's a race for breast cancer at Daejeon's Expo Park. I signed up for the 5k today, and this entire week I had it in my head that the race was this Sunday. That had me panicked because I haven't properly run in a month, and even then I only got to go out twice because winter had its third and fourth coming. And then it's the Lantern Festival!!!! WOO!

happy lunch time: South Korean school lunches

source  (a lot like my high school lunches!)

I've complained about some dishes served at lunch a few times here, but I don't think I ever really explained Korean lunch culture. It particularly interests me because I just came upon this blog where a teacher somewhere in America is eating what the students are eating for a year. Photos included, I really forgot how awful school lunches could be! A guest blogger who is teaching in South Korea also recently posted this; a small feature about lunch in Korea. I don't know. Nutrition and food and education interest me. Lately too, I'm sure you back in the states are hearing news about backlash at school lunch with their lack of nutrition, promotion of fast food style meals, and vending machines at your beck and call. 

source (I forgot about "salad"... shredded iceberg lettuce)

Mrs. Q, the author of the Fed Up With Lunch blog, provides a lot of photos of American school lunches. She also features a lot of guest bloggers from around the country, so go remind yourself of what you ate in school (or watched your friends ate if you bagged or boxed it). Neon nacho cheese, sad little pizzas. Chicken stix (honestly, I loved those...). A staple meal at my high school  was a chicken patty sandwich and fries. Fries cost an extra dollar or whatever, and I think you could also get milk. I don't remember if you had to pay for fruit or any other side, though dessert was definitely extra. Of course there was the salad bar line, but that was a styrofoam cereal bowl you paid for and you could get iceberg lettuce, a few kinds of vegetables, dressing. Not filling, not worth it. Potato bar day was awesome (liquid cheese, broccoli, sour cream), except my friend and I always got cut by the same group of self entitled broads... You had to risk having less than 2 minutes to eat if you went potato that day. 


Let's think about what we ate in school. Honestly, I was usually still hungry after lunch, and I think I won't blame it on my inner fat girl. Processed foods with little or no nutrition, honestly- small portions of junk food, so when that sugar rush or crap rush is gone you're hungry again. And seeing the pictures of what's served today really explains why I was still hungry or not satisfied. 

source Korean lunch tray- wells in the tray for each dish

When you think of Korean food, you probably think kimchi and rice. And you're absolutely right; these 2 foods are freaking everywhere! At every meal, every day, everywhere you go. You can't escape kimchi and rice unless you go to a foreign restaurant, but even then you can still get it. I went to an  Outback here once, and they served you kimchi with your steak and ribs. It's a terrible combination, don't do it. 


So here's what you can expect in a Korean school for lunch
1. soup as the main dish 
2. kimchi of some sort be it the common cabbage type that you probably always think of, raddish, or other vegetable combinations that I personally tend to not enjoy
3. something called panchan, panchan meaning "sides." Kimchi would be considered part of this, but I think it deserves to stand alone. Usually I see 2 other sides, a meat or protein side and a plant side. 
4. Rice. The biggest part of the tray is dedicated to rice. 

source this is more what the trays in my school are like

My school got a new nutritionist this year, and I don't like her style or her taste in food. More often than not there's some kind of seafood lurking in the soup (I really hate food that comes from the ocean...), or the soup looks like some weeds were just dumped into muddy water. Also, I feel like she puts less thought into lunches, or less care maybe. I see more easy to make foods (think mini hotdogs, fried chicken, ddeok street food style), and ultimately the lunches aren't as healthy as they were with the last nutritionist. I will say in her defense that there is more variety, though it's not always pleasing. In the beginning she was pulling all sorts of different types of kimchi I hadn't seen yet, but recently she's gone back to the more traditional or common kinds. Maybe the school body complained? I guess my point is that usually, Korean lunches are more like dinner considering the foods you see. My school currently isn't a great example, and I have friends who can't stand the food their school serves. So obviously, although I think Korean schools provide higher quality food, there still may be complaints. However, I think a lot of that has to do with not having been raised on these foods. Otherwise, I doubt it'd be a problem. 


You don't usually get choices in what you eat here. Again, there are exceptions. A friend in a private school says his cafeteria offers 2 types of main dishes... main sides I guess is the better way to put it since soup is front and center. Often, you eat what everyone else eats. There menu is set, and no alternatives are provided. Now of course, here's another exception. I met someone during orientation who eats a vegan diet. His school, the last time someone asked about how he was eating, was doing its best to feed him despite the fact that many Korean foods have animal products in them. But his school likes him, and he's a nice guy. Potential lesson here: be nice to your faculty. 


Some schools, the students line up and wait for food. A friend said you could hear the stampede of students rushing for the cafeteria, only to be bottlenecked at the door. Some schools don't have cafeterias, so lunches are delivered to classrooms. My school, most likely from its circumstances sets up trays ahead of time for all students and teachers who are blind. Food is in the trays when they arrive, and they raise their hand if they want more. A lunch staff will bring a bowl to serve seconds. Teachers who have sight dish up their own food, and though you could go back for seconds on your own, not many people do it. When you finish eating, you scoop up whatever you didn't eat and dump it into the soup bowl. Then you bring it to the kitchen where someone will take it. That's at my school though. I would assume there are places where you dump the food yourself instead of a staff member doing that for you. 


Oh, and your utensils? Metal chopsticks (I'm in love, I'm going to make my future kids eat with them) and a spoon. People here are really good at cutting food with their chopsticks with one hand, no effort, and move along to eating. Me? A chopstick in each hand, grip like a 2 year old, stabbing, pulling, and occasionally making food fly. Once I battled a piece of meat off its bone alternating between the spoon and a chopstick. A teacher I was friends with just watched with a goofy grin and eventually asked if I was okay. 


I think really, I'm spoiled by Korean school lunches. They're hot (well... usually...), pretty healthy, even if they're not my favorite, pretty satiating. Only once since my time here was I hungry before the end of the work day. That would be the day we were rationed to 3 pieces of vegetables. 


And for todays lunch report: possibly the weirdest combination of food I've witnessed. 
Spaghetti, garlic bread (bread here is often sweet, and this was no exception- more like a sweet, garlicky oversized crouton), kimchi, tofu, rice, and soup (tasted like dirt... again). Seriously bizarre. 

at last, some results!

Studying Korean independently 3 nights a week, 3 days in a row was overkill. Some seriously serious overkill. We originally planned to meet for 2 hours each night, but immediately found out that we really couldn't handle more than 1.5 hours. Even then, we were fading at the 1 hour mark. So this week we cut it down to 2 hours and took away the pressure to complete an entire chapter in a night. Thank you, friend for being as lazy as I am! Despite slimming down our studying time, I'm finding I'm understanding more words I hear. Even more rewarding is the occasional brief exchange between people in the school that I half-consciously process and then in my head a bomb goes off, the confetti flies, trumpets play and a little voice screams "you understood that!" 
Here's the example!
Yesterday afternoon the vice principal was frantically (sounded frantic at least) looking for someone, and she asked the teachers' office if that person had left. To which, 2 teachers simultaneously replied that no, the person had not left yet. My friend and I had just studied how to negate verbs, and I witnessed a perfect example of verb negation! 
The Korean exchange:
VP: (person's name) 갔아요? (Did this person leave?)
2 Teachers: 안  갔아요! (This person didn't leave!)


Winter doesn't seem to want to let go of Korea. We have some nice days sprinkled between cold, windy, rainy days. Mostly since the usual prime time spring weather days came around it's been somewhere in the 50s, raining or not. Today feels more like 40s, and as per usual, it's raining. Gross. I'm still holding out hope that the weather will warm up and we'll see some spring before the sun explodes in Korea and the monster mosquitoes come out. 
Behind the cut: some Korean writing I tried. Google translate skews some of what I wrote, but I think everything except for one sentence is mostly accurate... I really just blurted out whatever I knew I had the vocab for, so if you dump it into translator, don't be surprised if it doesn't make a lot of sense anyway. ^^

trying a DIY craft: cherry blossom lanterns

Most of Sunday, I worked on some craft ideas to decorate my bland apartment. A couple of weeks ago I bought white paper lanterns and was planning to sticker them to death until I thought that gluing patterned tissue paper would be more classy. I was SO right. I love lanterns. I also love cherry blossoms. So I married the two and made my own custom cherry blossom lanterns with a silly little twist: the blossoms are purple! I made a quick template of a blossom and cut a million out. The most annoying part I think was gluing all the darn flowers, but it was definitely worth it, and ultimately, I enjoy these tedious crafts. I did a design for each lantern; 1 branch with blossoms blowing off, a sprawling mini tree, and my last one was to break up the branchy-ness of it all and also a result of my patience waning. It was just the flowers stuck at random across the entire lantern. But I think it goes pretty well with the other two. Here are the results!

Hanging in my middle room

I also glued some patterned paper on small canvases. I want to hang them in my bedroom to fill some space on the gaping whiteness that I sleep across. First, I need hooks, so when they go up, photos will follow. 

shopping in Myeongdong!

in Yongsan, where John likes to look for video games

Man oh man, do I love Myeongdong in Seoul. The streets in the shopping district were jammed with people, and we got pushed around a lot by shoppers, but there's sooo much to see! Mixed in with the big corporate stores here are the Korean boutiques, and the nice thing about shopping in this city is when you open your mouth and English comes out- more often than not, the Korean associates know enough to help you or understand what you're talking about. I cruised through Forever 21 and it reminded me again why I really kind of hate the store. I would've loved to have one nearby when I was in high school I think, or if I partied more in college. Ultimately, Saturday I was looking for clothes I could wear both to work and on weekends so I could buy less. I'm trying to stock up for the summer season when I won't want to go into stores and be a nasty sweaty shopper. The AC is turned a lot lower in Korea than at home, so if you're already hot from being outside you'll probably stay hot once you go in and there's little air circulation. 

one of the Seoul subway stops, underground

And I did find the H&M at last! We had to ask for directions; John went into a Dunkin Donuts. It's tucked away deep into Myeongdong, conveniently next to a Krispy Kreme so John got his glazed doughnut fix for the day. That place was super crowded, 3 floors of tables, all filled, so we sat on a windowsill by the staircase. H&M was crazier than the streets- a sales associate queued up a line outside because the store was too crowded. Absolutely insane. 


We ended the day in an Indian restaurant in the heart of the shopping area. It was a really nice place; dark and quiet- completely opposite of the madness outside. 
Some pictures from the day:

In Myeongdong, this crowd was constant throughout the day

Looking the other way

Seoul Station, the KTX to Daejeon is on the right. We're heading back. 

Agar, the Indian restaurant in Myeongdong. Amazing food and atmosphere. 

Oil lamps in front of Agar's front doors

yes, when I say foot baseball, I mean kickball

Friday afternoons are packed, but I really enjoy them because the last class periods are just fun for me. It's the extra stuff added to my schedule. With my 2 students in the extra English review class, a 3rd student was added. I made a model of today's project: basic info. My name is... I am -- years old... I like... But they seemed to enjoy it. The girls had fun with the stickers, and I was impressed to see the vocabulary they pulled out to list things they like. The boy has less English, but he said he likes computers and drew a picture of one. He also drew a picture of a tree, drew an arrow from it and wrote "sky." He either could think that tree is sky in English, or he was pointing to the blue background... either way, I let it go. During teacher training, we talked about culture differences in the restaurant and they were surprised about the tipping amount you should do in American restaurants. They were also surprised that it's considered rude to yell across the restaurant for your server. Haha, it's nice that we can do that here, and man, do I love those table buzzers! 

Okay, most of these pictures are coming from the kick ball tournament day my school and 3 surrounding schools held a couple of weeks ago. The faculties came out and played a mini tournament- my school lost the first round. We ended with a jump rope contest. That was a really crazy interesting afternoon. Tables were set up for food and alcohol. The fact that alcohol is allowed on school grounds and also stored in the cafeteria kitchens still shocks me. In my head an alarm goes off: "Protect the students! Shield them from this debauchery!" 


Aside from the alcohol there was an entire meal laid out- dried squid, kimchi (which I dropped on my running shoes :( ), soup, nuts, fruit, pork. One of the teachers from John's old school recognized me, so he pulled me aside to tell me how John "teaches with all his heart and that he's a very kind and big hearted person." Really sweet stuff. I said that John missed the school, which he appreciated, and then he poured me makeolly or however you spell it- Korean rice wine. buuuuh. 


My co-teacher and another teacher from my school announced for the kickball and jump rope. I wish I understood Korean, because I know they were funny, and from my language barrier side, they went well together as a comedic pair. 


Midterms are coming up in a week. I mean, crazy! School years are wrapping up now at home, but we're just coming on halfway through the first semester. Next month is the time for contracts to be resigned. I've been stressing about that lately. I'm really thankful for the teacher who sits next to me in the office- she's friendly, comes to teacher training, and we talk a little during the day. Some of the new younger teachers say hi, and it means a lot to me when last semester sometimes I'd go all day without talking to anyone beyond the morning and evening greetings. Plus, knowing a little more Korean has tremendously helped. Especially with students. 


From my fluent student, I learned that the face toucher is obsessed with some other teacher's face, too- so I don't feel so singled out (in a good way!) She's cute and bizarre, and she makes life more interesting. She apparently is making up words to describe people's faces, mine being bungy kungy, another's bangy pangy. Today she sent me a text, but Google translate claims it said "now touch your face," which would be really weird if it didn't actually means something like "I will touch your face"... I ended the conversation with a "no, but have a nice weekend!" 

An interesting thing that happened today was a man was introduced to me in the office. He explained that he's in a society re-entrance program, in the high school level but not really a student, just a participant. He said there's something wrong with his retinas which was been going on for 10 years, but he hopes to see me again to practice English. It took me a minute to kind of figure out what was going on, but it'd be cool to see him again, though I don't see the high school class he's been assigned to. Maybe something will change, who knows. 


And for the moment of the day where I just didn't get it was a high school 1st grader (the 27 year old who is beautiful) waved me over and said "my right face hair, what do you think?" (in english more broken but I can't remember). It looked like a hurricane swept through half of his hair, and it was like that in person, but he showed me a picture he took of himself on his phone. 


Back to Seoul tomorrow. I'm armed with proper directions of how to get to where I want to go. :D

an english speaking plastic surgeon in Daejeon

I'm fed up with my freckles, and there is a plastic surgeon in this city who speaks English and offers something like to IPL (intense pulsed light) therapy for freckle removal. It's not nearly as expensive as I imagined it would be. I sent in an inquiry email yesterday and for whatever reason, I was really surprised to see a response in my inbox this morning. The interpreter asked that I make an appointment- scary!- but this is something I've had in my mind about doing for a couple years, though it was always a "someday when I have money" kind of thought. Now that this is a very real option for me it's also very frightening. I don't know if it's considered a cosmetic procedure, but it's in a cosmetic surgery office, and that's disturbing enough. I'm tired of hearing "Weird! You have freckles!... But you're Asian!" So let's see where this goes... Even if they're just fainter- that'd be amazing. :)

the Korean word for "soap" is cemented in my head (비누/ binu)

I have photos from a girls' night out last week at a "luxury" noraebang (karaoke room) and a sushi conveyer belt style restaurant that I've been meaning to upload but my stupid apartment was just made livable again yesterday after nearly a week. Monday, my co-teacher contacted the complex office and the guys there met me after work. They went to look at the pipe and just reaffirmed that yes, it's broken, and that yes, it needs to be fixed. All right, so then my co-teacher called the gas company or someone for me, and two days later someone came out and did the repair. That's the first time a repairman hasn't been timely in my experience here. So yesterday, I finally got to go back to my apartment, but really, it just further justifies my desire to move somewhere newer if I stay another year. 

Yesterday was science day! Of course I knew nothing about it until a student asked what I was doing that day. I ended up helping the teacher I sit next to in the office with her project. All over the school were stations for classes to go to- a sandwich making room, make juice, explore different flavors, etc. I got to help make soap for 4 hours. I had a lot of fun! I really missed intensive hands on activities like this. It was also fun to see the students do something other than sit at a desk. My school schedule is shaping up to be more like that of a real teacher's. The teacher training has kicked in, so I meet 2 classes with a small handful. I have those 2 extra classes Friday afternoons, and today, my co-teacher said I'm going to meet with a student for 2 periods on Thursdays. She's entering a reading comprehension contest, and she has to be familiar with 16 children's stories by June. It's kind of ridiculous. My co-teacher wants her comfortable with the pronunciation, and I guess he'll work on her with translations? My afternoons are absolutely packed now, but that helps the rest of the day go by. 


The suddenness that places close in Korea is astounding. I don't think stores announce or warn customers of an impending shut down. I see Koreans show up at the doors just as shocked as I am. For instance, the meeting place my friends and I use when we go to Eunhang Dong is a Starbucks right next to a LCD screen. It was there last Saturday when I met a couple of friends for lunch. It was cleaned out and being ripped apart inside Monday. Last night, while waiting to meet my Korean study partner, a girl tried to go inside before she looked up and saw that nothing was in there. Across the way, a makeup store disappeared, and restaurants up and down the main walkway are also gone. Granted, as quickly as stores and restaurants close new places spawn out of nowhere. 


Now I need to cram in some last minute work before I meet the contest student. The teachers asked for restaurant language for training tomorrow. I've got some expressions, but really, you don't need a lot of the foreign language to get what you need. Oh, MENUS! I should print menus from places and have them practice ordering off of those. GENIUS. hahaha. That, and I was planning to highlight some restaurant culture differences. 

Kpop mashups

I blame it on a couple of friends who sometimes live and breathe Kpop, but these days I find I like it more than I used to, and I'm even looking for a way to get some onto my hard drive... oh dear. Anyway, here are some Kpop youtube mashups. They're fun! As is now usual, click the "read more" link to get behind the cut. 
List
1. Beast/B2ST and HyunA: Shock/ Change
2. SNSD and Ke$ha: Run Devil Run
- being the same song, it's not so thrilling, but the combination of english and korean lyrics is fun.
3. BoA and Britney Spears: Touched/ Circus
4. One Republic and G-Dragon: Apologize/ Heart Breaker

Youtube mashups! (western music)

Until coming to Korea and holding a job with a lot of free time in the office, I've come to understand why Youtube is so amazing. Behind the cut are song mashups chosen either because I thought it was an unusual pairing, or a song I love was used. 
Video list
1. Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga: Love Story/ Paparazzi 
- I loved this combination
2. Coldplay and MGMT: Life in Technicolor/ Kids
3. Fall Out Boy and Pink: I Don't Care/ So What
- It's Patrick Stump's vocals to Pink's music track, but it makes for a more upbeat and fun version of I Don't Care.
4. Beck and The Beatles: Loser/ Come Together
5. Green Day and Oasis: Boulevard of Broken Dreams/ Wonderwall
- years ago I was introduced to this, my first exposure to "mashup" music

Gil Hak Mi: Super Soul

When I stay at John apartment, I get to watch some TV since I decided not to subscribe to cable at my own place. There's a channel called Arirang that features programs in English, and today I caught one that talked about some new Kpop music. This song, I found I really enjoyed! It's got a little bit of a different tone from the general Kpop songs. I think moving away from common pop sounds and bleeding into other music genres is an upcoming trend. Gil Hak-mi made a comment in her interview that she thinks she's chubby, and to expect her to look skinnier in the future. I mean seriously... she's teeny tiny! 
Click the link to see the video. 

water woes

I have no emotional attachment to my apartment in Korea. I live there, I deal with it. But it's freaking old, and things are falling apart in it. I've touched tiles on the bathroom walls and they just fell off. The windows are an older style, so you can't lock them- not that it matters since I'm on the 5th floor, but it also means that wind and little critters creep through. Korea's heating system isn't vent-based, but floor based. Pipes wind around the floor and are surrounded by cement which absorbs and spreads heat when hot water flows through. The pipes in my floor broke twice this year. The second time, I had to move out for a week while my plastic roll out wood pattern floor covering was ripped up, belongings thrown in bags and boxes, all the food in my fridge spoiled (though they left me 10 whole dollars to replace it!) 


Last night at 3 am, when I was brushing my teeth, I heard what sounded like a torrential downpour. Or a waterfall. Or someone spraying a hose on the other side of the bathroom wall. It wasn't raining, but the water didn't sound like it was coming from the apartment below me. Oh no. It was a pipe in this scary little back room I've never looked in that had burst and ,was spewing water and making a shallow wading pool. Fortunately, John was with me and he was smart enough to figure out how to turn the water off in my apartment. But that meant we couldn't stay there- do you realize just how much we depend on running water? Wow. So at 3 in the morning we had to pack up some stuff and catch a cab to his apartment. 


The water had leaked into the apartment below- the woman who lives there came out as we were leaving, and in my broken and crappy Korean I explained that there wasn't any more water; we turned it off, and that today I'd contact someone to see about getting it fixed. Yeah, still waiting on getting in touch... I'm hoping I won't be waiting until Monday, but then I can just get some more clothes and stay at John's- not really a big deal there. 


You have no idea how much I dream of living someplace newer, fresher, where I don't have to worry about what's going to fall off next. 

a questionable spring in Daejeon, South Korea

We've gotten teaser days of amazing weather over the past few weeks. The sun has been making more appearances lately, but given the air temperature, it's been more of a false hope for warm, balmy, breezy days than actually delivering. The temperature has been hovering in the upper 40's to low 50's- my estimation, and my weather widget on my homepage is completely off and useless. Yesterday was the revenge of winter- 4pm, I saw snow flurries. Granted, they only lasted for about a minute, but I mean- come on! It's APRIL! I'm going to brawl if spring gets skipped and we go straight into Korea's nasty summer. Korea saw its coldest winter in years this year, its worst Yellow Dust season (since records started being kept a whopping 5 years ago), and yeah, Korea will probably also have it's hottest, rainiest, most mosquito-est summer ever come June/July. 

people of walmart

oh.my.god.

blurb about school today

Two things, but I usually stray from my original intentions and wander into completely new and unrelated ramblings. 
1. I saw one of my 6th grade students cry today. I'm assuming it was because of my co-teacher. The student lost his papers for today's activity- something about it disappearing in his back. This kid is always goofy/whiny/laughing. My co-teacher sent him to the gym to walk laps. Then my co-teacher left the room for a minute. He returned with the student and left again. And the student was in tears. So either just having to do laps is connected to severe punishment, or my co-teacher reamed him for not having the papers. And me being useless and unable to really communicate in Korean could only pat his back a bit and hand him tissues. I think whatever went on was unnecessary if it brought him to tears- it's just paper. Make him go get new copies or something and call it even. 
2. I wanted to shake my 5th grader. He's probably bored with learning the alphabet, so I need some new activities. He's mostly mastered the upper case letters, and now he has to learn the lower case. Buh. I don't want to do it, I know he doesn't. Today was the first time I had issues with him following directions, so I had to take away all potential distractions from him. He seemed bored when I gave him a break, but rushed to finish anything I gave him. Maybe he was playing around- it's hard to tell, but this was a moment when I really wished we spoke the same language because it would've been much easier to manage. As in, I could've snuffed it out immediately. 

Sintanjin Cherry Blossom Festival (totally absent)

I was dreaming of rows of trees in full bloom- white cherry blossoms spread over a wide field- or  a forest if I was lucky. I mean, seriously, I was kind of fantasizing about this coming day; a trip to the outskirts of Daejeon with... someone... (at that point, I didn't know who I'd actually go with), on a great sunny day, in a nice spring-y dress, my "fashion" sunglasses, taking awesome photos...  I had built this image in my head all last week: an overload of sunshine, greenGREEN grass, blooming trees, and a giant mad happy crowd. 


I was completely delusional. 

Friday was promising; it was warm, sunny, a little breezy. The trees by the river had bloomed, and they turned out to be a more impressive show than what was at the actual festival. Come Saturday, it was a little on the cool side, dangerously cloudy, and the trees were looking mighty bare. I was most definitely in jeans and a hoodie, forgot my sunglasses (which was okay in the end because the sky was threatening rain most of the day), and rocked out my chucks to make a good example of the college emo/wannabe hipster look, or Korean middle school fashion statement. The festival was far from crowded- a good thing ultimately, but also it made the festival feel a bit underwhelming. There were some tents with traditional Korean games, some crafts, samples of tea, free bottles of water (heck yes!)... but the bare trees! (insert sad megan here) 


It was a good day- no, I mean it was a great day! Even without the sun, it was warm for most of the day, about 20 people I knew showed up, and I got to sit on grass for the first time in 7 months+... albeit brown, dead, and leaveawetstainonyourjeans grass, but GRASS! We played some carnival-esque games: BB gun target- the prize was a bottle of plum wine which I found someone to give it away to later, air guns- a friend knocked down and won 2 yo-yos. We were robbed 6,000w at a pig roast. 2 little plates of meat, 11 people, 6,000w a person. That broad made 66,000w and only lost 2 tiny plates of pig. Unfrigginbelievable. Next year, if I'm still here, I'm definitely just going to walk by the river to see the cherry blossom trees. They're far more impressive right now and closer to get to. Sintanjin, if I left from my apartment, would take 2 hours to get to. No thanks. It was cool to see though, the area looked older than the middle of Daejeon- older style buildings I mean. There weren't as many new buildings like the mixture you see in my neighborhood. Sintanjin didn't look or feel like Daejeon, so it was like a day out of town!


see the rest of the cherry blossom festival pictures

Friday rundown

It's beautiful outside and Friday, so today's been rough with actually doing productive work with my students. This semester, my co-teacher has changed the structure of a lot of the classes I have with him. He's done a great thing by grouping students by what level their at, so in 1 class there are 3 different things going on. This puts me in charge of some students, and he'll often come in and instruct when needed- there's a pretty good unspoken balance happening now. I have to prepare 2 students for a speech contest sometime next month. One is terrified, and the other definitely just isn't interested- at least until I got him to a topic where he could talk about food. 

My co-teacher added 2 periods onto my schedule- a 5th class with the student who lived in America for a number of years. I got him hooked on Anthony Bourdain during vacation, so I've turned the extra class into a Bourdain hour with him. He needs a break from 4 days of doing whatever it is I make him do in class. And really, I need a break, too.  Besides, he talks through most of the show, so he's still getting good conversation practice. The other extra class is with 2 students for some review of whatever I want to do. Today was the first time I met with them, and I wanted to review body parts. And it was semi- genius, if I may inflate my ego for a minute. I started with having them draw a person with whatever number of heads or arms or whatever I asked. When they got the hang of what I was doing with them, I had them choose how many of the other limbs. Listening and application rolled into one. Then I pulled out the candy, and modeled, and explained, and modeled again until they finally understood what we were going to do with it- make candy people! Now if I can only keep this class entertaining for the rest of the year... I'm glad to have it though, because I get to do things I did a lot at home and haven't really had chances to do here yet. 


I ended up sharing the rest of the candy in the teacher's office after sending as much as I could with the students. Who knew adults would really be interested in marshmallows? The Korean ones smell like a bathroom- no offense. 

run devil run

not the river...

Monday night, I made John go down to the river with me to scope out the safety of the jogger's path. 9 pm, a path full of old people and a sprinkle of younger people walking in their walking gear. Everyone was just exercising. How awesome is that? So tonight I went out alone to test out my jogging endurance (absolutely shot), and I felt completely safe. That's just not something you get very often at home. I've really never not felt safe wandering around Korea at night, or ever. It's just not really an issue. You see elementary kids running around the city without their parents; sometimes it still surprises me, but man, it must be nice growing up in a place that is generally safe enough to not worry about whether or not you'll make it home. Not that I was always in fear back at home, but really now. Mom, would you have let me out downtown alone when I was in 5th grade?

i'd rather vomit: raging against lunch

I am irrationally, but completely pissed at today's lunch. It was just utterly foul. Sundae with rice cakes stupidly shaped as hearts and clubs or clovers or something, trying to cheer up the fact that the mess it was associating with consists of animal parts... and oh shit, did I seriously consume pig blood? motherfucker. The sauce is nasty in a subtle way that just tells me something is off. Maybe that's the offending ingredient. 


The other things on my tray: fish. Curried fish to be more fair, so the first bite tasted pretty okay. Unfortunately, the last bite tasted like an aquarium.
Soup. Orange soup, that I think was made with the fermented bean paste that makes its way into the soup most days. It was okay... and then I unearthed something with a tentacle. And that's when I peaced out on the soup.

well just blow my mind then

You know how I was griping about people not getting that I can be of Korean ethnicity, but not know the language? How they just about fall over, or have their heads explode? Well, thanks to last night, now I know how I make a lot of people feel. My friend and I walked into a coffee bar to study Korean, and while fumbling to get a table, the server just kind of blinked and asked, "Do you want smoking or non smoking?" in perfect, fluent English, accent and all. We totally flipped out gracelessly, embarrassing her in front of her co-workers. So sorry to the server about that, but I mean seriously? I bet she secretly loves doing that to foreigners. 

Kpop sampling 2, Ke$ha interrupting

Just trying to eat up the last 10 minutes of work. 

I saw this on someone's Facebook page: Run Devil Run, performed by Ke$ha. I honestly don't know anything about this artist, is she popular right now? According to wikipedia, she recorded a "guide version" back in 2008, with SNSD(Girls Generation) recently releasing is officially. 

The rest of the post is cut because these videos take up too much space, and it's ugly. So, click the link below if you want to explore some Kpop!

"I'm... happy!" (on a coffee shop and bars)

When I go home, and we're hanging out- if you tell me that you're tired and I say, "take a rest!"- you can pinch me. Actually, I'd rather you hit me; I hate pinches. So hit me when I say it. Because I will. And a "I'm happy!" might slip out, or a "finish-e", or "cute-i/ cute-tu"... All these Kanglish, as Koreans call odd smashups of Korean-ized English words and phrases, that we said at first to poke fun at the strangeness have seemingly become part of our normal everyday language. "Take a rest" is disturbingly familiar to me these days, and I barely remember the fact that I didn't really know what that meant the first time my co-teacher said it to me. Also, if I ever tell you that I'm "so-so", it means I'm okay. And then punch me. :) We still think we're teasing when we say these things... but really, we're just trying to be cute like the Koreans, but that's a complete failure because we're most definitely not Korean. Though if I can get away without saying much, I certainly pass for it! ha.

The past week was a good one for discovering some new places to go. As I've mentioned, a friend and I are meeting during the week to study Korean. Wednesday, we went to a coffee shop I'd been looking at for a long time, but was never that interested in visiting. Man oh man, do I wish I've been sooner! I don't have pictures now, but I will definitely take some the next time I go. It's so cozy, and there are couches EVERYWHERE. We ended up in a little nook of the coffee shop, each with our own couch big enough to seat 3 people. It was mellow, comfy, and as a lot of cafes offer, it had free snacks (toast, potato soup, some common bar snacks, and coffee). Coffee, a coffee shop had a coffee pot where you could have coffee for free. 

Yellow Taxi sits on the 4th floor
of Garten Bier in Dunsan Dong

Friday and Saturday, I ended up at 2 bars I haven't been to before. Yellow Taxi only opened a week ago. I was with a small group, and only 2 of us seemed interested in returning, which is a shame because the owner plans to have live music every Saturday. He's a nice guy, and he speaks some English. I had the camera I recently bought from a friend, and he asked me to try to take some photos. Yellow Taxi has a large amount of space, a long bar, free pool, and an outdoor swing indoors- the kind I haven't seen since leaving the states. It was awesome. The downside is the menu pricing. Cocktails tend to run around 7,000 won ($7), with a few bars in Daejeon offering them for 5,000 and up. Yellow Taxi unfortunately does is not one of those kind few. I really wanted to give the owner some business, so I went to buy a drink, but it turned out they were offering the first drink for free- and I wasn't up to drinking another, so I left only having the one. The decor is modern-hip with its mismatched chairs, and there's a giant booth that'll sit a large party. I would definitely like to go back, especially to check out the "western rock band" that'll be playing this weekend. I'm hoping this guy can get his bar off the ground, I like him.

Gupoom is above Franco in Dunsan Dong

The other bar is called Gupoom, and from what my friends believe, it's sponsored by Heineken. It certainly looks like it is with the green decor, and Heineken bottles everywhere. It probably makes more sense when the bar is more full, but the tables on the floor seemed too spread out. Granted, there were only about 3 different groups in the entire bar, but the half we were on felt awkwardly empty to me. Gupoom is separated by a rain of lights. Tables sit on the main floor, and the window side is lined with booth-type seating for something a little more private. The bar as a whole is arranged in a design much more open than a lot of Korean bars I've been to. There aren't the nooks and little corners in this bar that you'll find elsewhere. Alcohol prices are pretty typical for Korea- 9 of us went though about 4-5 pitchers of beer and maybe 6 bottles of soju for roughly 6,000 a person. Granted, these numbers could be way off. 

a Friday's work

Omg, when I watched these, I thought all these people were so much older than me!



This was one of my favorite shows, and I never knew it was so short lived- 2 seasons. 
I watched it for YEARS.

The effing clown STILL terrifies me, I didn't watch because I knew it was coming- 
but I loved this show!

Who loves orange soda!

fatherly advice

From my middle school 3rd grade student. He tells me that maybe I should sleep all weekend because I'm tired, so I can be well rested. I say that I hope to enjoy the nice weekend weather and he goes on to insist that I really ought to just stay in bed. And then later, we're in another classroom for an extra class my co-teacher wants me to have with him and I'm about to go get my computer. I mentioned that it's a big school, and as I get ready to go he says, "Wait, will you know how to get back here?" Ha. It turns out that he was the one who needed help finding his way back because he'd never been to the third floor. That punk. :) 


I think people who have no affiliation can come into the school to use the bathrooms... I've run into numerous old women in hiking gear, and I've never seen them before. Plus they have that cranky expression stuck on their faces that makes them look scary, and the last one I saw didn't lock the stall door... awkward.

understanding where the frustration comes from

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but not a lot of teachers speak English in my school beyond the 2 English teachers. And those who do don't know a lot, so communicating with my faculty is mostly absent or 없어요 as you could say it in Korean. Taking the student body as a whole (of the classes I see), the foreign language level is low. Really low. Like, many don't know what to say when I ask "how are you?", and that's something I always ask them. Beyond the one students who lived in the states for a number of years, there's one student who knows enough English to hold a pretty decent conversation, a high school 3rd grader who can speak about limited topics (do you like...?, American metal and rock music, and smack down wrestling, whatever that is). A very small number- like 2 or 3- of students can piece together a very sketchy exchange of question and answer, with me filling in what Korean I know to help. So it's common for there to be days when I don't really talk to anyone. That's frustrating in the professional setting. 

What makes me really want to pull out my hair and start a brawl sometimes is hearing my name being said among students and the co-teacher or between teachers in the office- a combination of my name and the words "foreigner" and "American" (said in Korean of course). I know those words well- we hear them called and exclaimed in the streets sometimes by kids so surprised to see someone not Korean in their territory. Maybe it's acceptable to discuss a person when they're present, but not actually include that person in the conversation here. But it makes me uncomfortable, and lately I'm hearing it more often. The students are asking questions, my co-teacher is answering, but isn't offering to translate anything for me. I know, I should probably inquire about it myself, but I'm passive and I don't want to come off as demanding or rude. Depending on the day, I either just shrug it off and say "TIK" (this is Korea, as started by a friend), or go home at 5 feeling uneasy and uncertain about how the faculty feels about me. 

It's easy to go with the thought, "dumb broads," but today what I always knew in a foggy way occurred to me explicitly. It's not the people I'm frustrated with, it's not the country. It's me. I'm frustrated with myself for not knowing how to effectively, or even remotely communicate with Koreans in their language. That because of this, I'm always in the dark about something- who am I kidding, about most everything- and it's going to be a long, slow, and difficult time getting to a point where I will be less oblivious to this world and leaning towards some degree of comprehension. 


I wonder sometimes as the Koreans are laughing about the foreigner in the room, if they understand the magnitude of what it means for me to be here. I left everything familiar, easy, and beloved to me half a world away. Thank GOD for foreigner friends.


And honestly, I doubt that most of what they say is menacing- they laugh and show shock at the smallest of anything. Reservations in the showing of amusement, surprise, and disgruntlement seem to be lower here. I freaked some teachers out last week because I had a 3/4 length sleeve sweater on and it was cold that morning. They laughed and discussed it for 10 minutes with me at my desk. If they want to be sly, they seriously need a new code word.

I get a sense of comfort from knowing that I'm frustrated at myself instead of Korea in those awkward moments of knowing that I'm being discussed. I don't want to hold negative feelings for this country, especially for the people I work with and teach. It would be due time for me to go back home when or more hopefully if that ever happens. 


In the meantime, I started studying Korean with a friend this week. We're aiming to replace the class that was canceled. He found a good textbook, and the grammar book I bought on my own is proving to be an excellent supplement or booster. I'm noticing that I'm understanding more of what I hear- ever so slightly- and that I'm also able to deduct what kind of context people are talking in if I don't understand the general idea. This will also be a good opportunity to discover all of the coffee shops in Eunhang Dong. 


Photos were taken using the Canon 30D I am purchasing from someone. See, mom? Totally worth it.