Rawr

Dr Fish and Spiritual Love

2009-11-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

One of the things I've wanted to do before leaving Korea is check out Dr Fish. It's a cafe which has a section with small pools of fish. You put your feed in the water, and they go to town on your feet. Yeah yeah, pretty strange. Why does this sound fun? I don't know...just the freaky factor I suppose.

Jenessa and I headed over to the one in Gangnam last night. On my way out of the building to meet her, I was talking to my co-teacher Annie about it.

"The fish are Chinese, so Koreans don't go there," said Annie.

Okaaayyyy.....I know what she's saying (they consider it 'dirty', so wouldn't be caught dead with their feet in those pools swarming with Chinese fish, heaven forbid.).

Anyway, Jenessa and I had a blast. The uncomfortable thing was that the cafe was packed with about 50 Koreans, and the pools were up on a raised platform near the front of the cafe. I'm not a raging exhibitionist, so having 50 pairs of eyes on us was a bit uncomfortable. But hey, I'm outta here in less than two weeks. I'll never see them again, and am happy to provide them with free entertainment.

The attendant washed our feet for us in bins, then we moved over to the fish pools. Prior to getting there, I thought I could just pop my feet in the water with no problems. Wrong! Sticking your feet into water and having hundreds of fish attack your feet with their 'lil mouths is FREAKY. The little buggers are all vying for a piece of you feet, and their mouths tickle. Forget putting your foot all the way in. They're all over you, and while it doesn't hurt, it's so bizarre. Given the fact everyone was snickering at us, I couldn't scream like a little girl. But I kept on yelping and fidgeting for the entire 15 minutes we had our feet submerged, regardless.

Ahhhh it tickles!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning I was on my way to get some coffee. A Korean dude walking a bike started yelling hello to me like he knew me, and jogged up to me.

Oh great. Here we go....

"Hello, HELLO!"

He yelled hello as if I hadn't heard him the first time. He let go of his bike to start waving at me from the three feet separating us.

I know it already, this is going to be awkward. "Hi," I said.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get coffee."

"What?"

Oh that's right. The translation for 'coffee' isn't exactly the same word, and even if he speaks decent English he may not get it. "Kah-pee."

"Kah-pee! Where kah-pee? What do you do?"

Koreans have this system where they ask you a slew of questions in a row, trying to determine several factors about you such as age, birth order, job, religion, home location, etc. We do a similar thing back home, but here they're more direct about it and tend to fire questions in rapid succession. With a dude it's typically their way of seeing if you're date-able material for them, at which point they'll ask you out. The first couple times this happens, you're complimented and happy to be talking to a Korean, but you quickly learn it's better to wrap these conversations up quickly.

I ignored the 'where' question, and began to walk a little faster. "I'm an English teacher."

"Where?"

"Daerim."

"How old are you?"

"Thirty."

"Where do you live?"

"Guro Digital."

"I want to go out. You so beautiful!"

"No." I begin to cross the street, and he follows me. Freaking fabulous.

"I'm Christian."

"Nice to meet you Christian."

"Are you a Christian?"

Ahh, his name is not Christian. Here we go with the religion talk. If I already had a cup of coffee and my wits about me, I would have replied with, "Say-tuhn-uh" (aka Satan in Korean), but the coffee shop was about 50 feet away and I was hauling tail, just trying to get out of the conversation.

"Uh yeah, I'm a Christian."

"I love you! I want to give you my love!"

Okay, now I'm annoyed. You are weird and making my morning coffee walk strange. Speaking another language is difficult, especially with all the idioms and slang. Things get lost in translation. While I give him props for trying, I do not like this conversation one bit. At this point I have no idea if he's telling me he likes me, or if he wants to take me to the nearest love motel, and I'm feeling really uncomfortable.

"Uh, NO."

"I love you! I want to give you my spiritual love, mental love, all love! You and I beautiful!"

And you are freaking me out sir. "No!" I wave at him, then sprint off across the street. Thankfully he didn't follow me into the coffee shop.

Never a dull moment here...fish and spiritual love!

Whatcha get used to

2009-11-19T08:47:00.001-08:00

When I first got here, I was freaked out that people were rifling through my garbage. After almost six months, it's just another thing.

Tonight I cleared out about five bags of garbage, one of which was a huge bag of clothes and shoes. I went downstairs five minutes ago to drop off another bag of miscellaneous debris, and an ajumma was going through the garbage downstairs. Mind you, it's almost 2am here. Mind you times two, this woman was about 70 or 80 years old. My clothes/shoes bag was cleared out. She was animated and actively going through the 20 bags of trash outside. She'll probably sell my clothes on the street for $3 a pop, and sell the plastic bottles the recycling center across the street. Why sleep when you can make quick buck off of your neighbors?

Back home, this would be a disgrace, but here, it's entrepreneurial. Yet, another lesson to learn from good 'ole Korea. Not only is their general recycling system incredible, you've got people going through your trash with a comb, trying to make a quick buck off of what you no longer value.

Now a day to day update

2009-11-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

When I put in notice, one of the drivers was the fact my grandmother was dying. Yesterday she passed, and I'm thankful she's in a good place. I hate having the distance between her, my family and I, but it's the bed I made.

Blogging a bit much today, but trying to get so much done at once. The fact it's less than 30 degrees out helps a bit with that.

Last night I met up with Craig, David, Benny, and Skitsch for drinks at Belitas.

Now just have to do the following before I leave:
-Dr. Fish
-Doc check (per work)
-End cell phone contract
-Purchase last-minute gifts (that means you Chad....baby gifts!)
-Pension office
-Drink excessively with my peeps

Speaking of peeps, how is it you can form many more deeper and intense relationships in a foreign country in five months, instead of over a year in one of the biggest cities in the US? Must be the kimchi....

Osaka, last day.....was so sleepy

2009-11-18T06:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday night we got into Osaka and checked into our hostel. The place left something to be desired, but for $10 a night, I can't complain about the old man smell or Japanese-style bedding. David and I threw back a couple of beers, then called it a night so that we would be ready for the morning.

Because ramen should always be available......

Whaddya know....another beer machine....in our hostel!

I do not heart Korea.....

But I heart Japan!

Sunday we took the train over to Namba, and put our luggage into a locker, then got some coffee and hit the road.

So the best part of Osaka? WENDYS!!! When you're in the States, you take a lot for granted. Ease of reading signs. Ease of reading boxes of cooking items. Ease of navigating your way around. Ease of ordering food. Ease of obtaining anything you want, whenever you want, your way. Being in Korea can be frustrating, but being in another foreign country is even more so. After walking around for 20 minutes or so, we found Wendys. Wendys doesn't exist in Korea. When I'm home, it's not like I crave their square burgers and chili. But after being away for almost 6 months, your cravings change, and Wendys is near the top of the list along with Peet's coffee and Qdoba. All I have to say is, the burger and chili was fantastic, even at 10:30 am.

King Kong!

Note to travelers in Japan - your subway exit may seem larger than it appears. The Namba subway stop had over 30 exits, and probably spanned over half a mile in size with 30 exits jutting out in every direction. When David and I arrived, we were tired from walking 9 hours each day even after getting a good rest. We didn't pay much attention when we got in (Seoul stations only have around 10 or 15 exit tops at their biggest stations, which only span a block or so). About 45 minutes before we had to leave, we dragged ourselves back to the station out of tiredness and preference to be out of the cold snap, and quickly realized just how immense the station was, and what a pipe dream it was that we could easily find our bags. Half an hour later, we were able to navigate our way to our locker:

Funny smoking sign at KIX airport:

I got back to Seoul and slept for 11 hours Sunday night. Best sleep ever!

Kyoto, Day Two :)

2009-11-18T04:19:00.000-08:00

Yep yep, Kyoto blew my mind. I have gobs of pictures. Here are a ton, because, well, it RAWKED! David began to count the amount of times I sighed throughout the day. Everything here made me smile, and just so happy.

On Saturday David and I spent about an hour looking around Kyoto for a hostel. Everything was either booked or cost around $100/night, and were essentially high quality love motels. Yeah, that wasn't happening. We circled back to the hostel, and found a place in Osaka for $10/night instead.

We set on the path of walking the Philosopher's Walk. My friend Rob said it did it in an hour an a half, which is amazing. We did it in maybe 4 hours, but it probably wasn't the same route:

View of Kyoto:

Inside this temple were a bunch of Buddhist monks doing a ceremony. It was so chill:

I'm obsessed with these wish wires:

My inner goth loved the graveyard:

I always look better in glasses that aren't mine:

Traditional Japanese garden:

Ringing bells for good luck outside of Ryozen Kwan-On:

This concrete block was about 15' x 15', and was of two Buddha feet. People threw money onto the feet for wishes or whatnot. It was pretty dang neat....

Card catalogue of soldiers who died during WWII:

Of course, one of the main things you want to see while in Japan are the geisha's. There are a mixture of 'real' and 'tourist' geisha's around. A lot of girls seem to get dressed up as one, and wander the streets taking pictures of each other, and getting their picture taken. My friend Rob told me of places you could get done up like one, but I never saw 'em :(

I'm an architecture freak. I didn't take many good shots of the buildings here since I was temple-oriented. However, the homes and businesses here were super nice. One of the first things I noticed on my bus ride over to Kyoto was the abundance of 2 and 3 story houses. Unlike Korea, where I've seen houses once in five months, in Japan there are houses everywhere. It was a nice change....

Big fan of infill 15' wide homes with 5' sideyards:

Fushimi-Inari. Priceless.

So pretty!

I wish we got here earlier in the day. The pillars light up like fire when the sunlight hits them. I

Because I take a motorcyle to get to my temples too...

Rub the Buddah for good luck!

I'm so ready to go back!

Kyoto, Japan - Day One!

2009-11-16T02:41:00.000-08:00

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect out of Japan. My friends who have gone all spoke highly of it. However, after being in Korea for over five months, I have become somewhat disillusioned as to how it would actually be. At least in Seoul, there are a limited amount of traditional, cultural experiences to be had. I was afraid Japan would be the same way.

Was I ever wrong.

I flew into KIX in Osaka, and took a bus to my hostel in Kyoto. After checking in I had to walk over to the other hostel they redirected me to (long story short, the company owns two hostels, and I had to book into one and walk half a block to the one they redirected me, which worked out in my favor). Low and behold, my friend David was standing outside as I walked up (another long story short, but Jess S was supposed to be vacationing with us too. After wrapping up her contract a few months ago, she went to Thailand for a month, then came back to Korea. She had to renew her work visa in Japan. When she arrived, they told her she couldn't obtain her visa until returning back to Canada, then coming back. Buckets of tears later, she's now in Canada for a New York minute, then back to South Korea).

I dropped off my bag, and from there we were off! We walked over to one of the many temples in the area, to Toji-Temple:

Beautiful tree with some cranberry-esque berries. The weather was perfect, and all the trees were changing color....so pretty!

After leaving the temple, we walked around Kyoto for a bit just getting lost, then picked up some food before walking around again. Here's shot of the hostel bedroom, which was shared with eight other interesting foreigners from all over the world. I haven't slept in a bunk bed in about 20 years, but it ended up being the most sound sleep I've had since I came to Southeast Asia:

Beer for sale on the street:

Another of the many temples:

The smallest door in Kyoto:

Neat Buddhist walking trail which included so many beautiful sights:

Prayers and wishes written on paper, wrapped along w

Cave created out of rock and covered with Buddhist prayers written on tiny sheets of paper:

More posts on the trip to come soon. I slept for 11 hours last night after getting back, and have been working hard to catch up and clean out here. Although I've got 2 weeks left, there is so much left to get done. I've also been working on the job hunt. One recruiter is very interested in me, but now I have to update my resume to match the job description she sent me, which is going to take some time. I'm glad I started early on this all, but am still feeling overwhelmed!

Buffalo gals unite!

2009-11-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Lee and Doreen came to visit me. They work in Changwon, which is south of Seoul about 3 hours by the express train (KTX). Lee contacted me before she moved here via facebook. Turns out, she and I went to the same high school, and she lived with my best guy friend back home, Dick Dossett. Small world eh? Once they got into town we met up in Itaewon. Doreen had a hair appointment to get her dreads touched up, so Lee and I headed over to Wolfhound to get our night started.

Lee confiscated my scarf, and proceeded to play gypsy for half of the night at Wolfhound:

Partners in crime:

On Saturday we headed over to Hongdae to grab burritos at Dos Tacos, then went to Insadong to do some shopping. There are several temples in the area, so we checked out Gyeongbokgung palace. Ann used to tell me about how beautiful Seoul is in the fall, and I couldn't agree more. While the palace was incredible, experiencing the fall leaves and colors really made my day. After spending the past few years in AZ and CA, I've missed out on my favorite season. It is amazingly beautiful here right now with all of the leaves changing color!

Doing my best to annoy Lee by taking a ton of pictures of her:

I have no idea what this is, but it's pretty. Maybe an elegant kimchi pot? Tee hee...

Throne room:

I always wanted to be a warrior....

This picture doesn't do justice to this part of the palace. It's a gigantic building surrounded by a pond used for entertaining and parties:

In the Korean Folk Museum they had an amazing display of hanboks. I'm generally not a fan of museums, but this was seriously one of the most beautiful museums I've ever been in!

Watch out for bee? This sign was posted along a wall by the sidewalk we were walking on. Mind you, there are no flowers planted along this wall. Why bees would be anywhere in the vicinity is beyond me, but watch out!! :)

Lee shared this video with me. If you've ever been to Korea, it will be hilarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&feature=fvw&v=0NOwxmg3bCs

I'm meeting up with David and Jess in a little bit to discuss our trip to Japan next weekend. Jess is leaving for Japan tomorrow since she has to do a visa run before she starts back up at work next month. David is going out on Wednesday since he's off of work. Right now the plan is that they're going to stay in Osaka, then once I get there we'll head over to Kyoto. My buddy Rob just got back from a trip there, so he gave me a ton of good info and a tour book. I finally got around to booking my hostel. I've been so busy I hadn't even thought about the trip until a day or two ago. None of us can find an open hostel on Saturday night, so we may sleep in the subway. Okay maybe not, but that would make for an interesting night. Either way, I'm looking forward to getting out of Seoul for the weekend, and visiting Japan. The pictures I've seen of Kyoto are awesome, so I'm stoked!

What is going on here?!

2009-10-27T01:04:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning I woke up around noon, body aching and dripping with sweat. I drank some water, then fell back into my slumbers for another four hours or so. It took everything I had to drag my tail the five feet to my laptop to check email and do my daily duty of surfing the entire internet. I passed out a few hours later. Although I slept most of the night, I woke up repeatedly drenched in sweat. So hot.

I called in sick Monday, and spent my day sweating, watching movies (Squid and the Whale gets the thumbs up, Watchmen gets the thumbs down, repeatedly), aching, reading, peppered with a visit to the GS 25 Mart since I haven't gone food shopping in about a week, and the ramen and oatmeal in my cupboards were not fulfilling my citrus cravings. My school asked me if I'd gone to the hospital. In Korea, having the slightest cough or scrape means you're entitled to go to the hospital, which everyone seems to do. Not to mention, from what I've experienced and heard so far, their medical system is efficient and inexpensive. Regardless, I was more willing to wait it out another day to see what happens than drag myself to a hospital. Not that I'm stubborn or loathe going to the doctor of course....

I had every intention to come into work today. When I woke up at 4am to rip off my soaked wife beater and yoga pants, I knew I couldn't go into work today. I slept a few more fitful hours until I was able to talk to my school. By this point I felt more like a bull locked in a tiny Korean apartment than a dehydrated sick woman should, so broke down and decided to go to the hospital. Ann gave me the information for Sinchon Severance Hospital (PS - thank you again Ann!!!). I made an appointment, got myself cleaned up, and found a cab.

On the way there, I was convinced they were going to diagnose me with swine flu. I imagined my number being included in the swine flu statistic. That combined with the fact I would rather visit a landfill than a hospital didn't add to my good mood. But hey, at least I was out of the house and sweating in some cab instead of my apartment, right? Seriously though, for all of these feverish symptoms, I expected to have a raging fever.

I get to Sinchon Severance, and for the first time didn't actually mind being at a hospital. Every branch was neatly labeled in Korean and English, and finding the International clinic was a breeze. I got there early and figured I'd be there a while, but was in and out in no time. There were three doctors in the room (one of which was a Korean who had grown up in Australia. I almost giggled when he first started talking because I expected to hear a Korean accent and not Aussie slang...just totally random) who asked me a range of questions.

Surprisingly, I didn't have a fever. They chalked everything up to a viral infection, and gave me a prescription for Carol F pills (how these are going to do much is beyond me since they are ibuprofen and Arginine. Guess that's the deal with viral infections istead of bacterial.) and Hamni Care Gargle, which I picked up from the pharmacy around the corner. My first thought upon picking up the Care Gargle was that it was mouth wash. Okay I confess, I haven't seen a dentist in five and a half months. Maybe they were trying to nicely tell me something. Then I googled it and realized it's an anti H1N1 product. Regardless, now I'll probably going to the dentist sometime soon.

Total cost of office visit = $22
Total cost of meds = $5

You know the medical care in your country is inexpensive when it costs you less for an office visit and medicine than round trip cab fare!

Suwon!

2009-10-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

Today my friends and I took a trip down to Suwon, which is about an hour south of Seoul. It was a blast! Here are a plethora of pics, and no words because I'm pretty exhausted....zzzz....

26 working days to go!

2009-10-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Time flies while you're in Seoul, that much is for sure. Up until when I counted, which was five seconds ago, it has always felt like there were 230948 more days of teaching. Now I realize I have 26 teaching days left. Assah! It's finally kicked in that I'll be back in the States soon, given I get everything wrapped up in time to go. Saying goodbye to a place that has become my home is one of the things I detest most in life, although it always leads to a new, exciting chapter. Bittersweet is the most fitting word I've found over the years.

On the way to work today, I got into the most girly cab in the universe. This picture doesn't due it justice. I didn't want to offend the cab driver so was attempting to take an incognito picture while balancing my coffee and purse in my lap, which turned out to be one big FAIL. Anyhow, you can't see all the hearts and flowers glued to the interior of his console, but it does give you an idea of all the technology housed inside a cab. Typically they have 2 GPS systems, cell phones, 2 metro card pay systems (cell phone and card), tape players, CD players, and at least 20 pieces of flair. These cab drivers are serious about their flair.

Jenessa and I went Halloween shopping, and I took a picture of this statue dude on the way to the store. I picked up some odds and ends, so am going to be fallen angel/demoness thing. More to come once next weekend rolls around.

Kristina and Craig at their best at Wolfhound:

Secret message for Ann (I told you it was incomprehensible):

The Edibles rocking out at TA bar:

Shot of candy for sale at Starbucks for Tree; basically the same treats as back home:

Jenessa and I went to Everest tonight and had an amazing meal. This is the first time I've had chai in forever. Maybe it's because I haven't had it in forever, or perhaps it's always tasted to sweet for me back home. The chai here was to die for, as was the Indian food:

Lastly, here is the lesson plan for my open class with Plum next month. Open class is when the parents come to observe you playing games with...err I mean teaching their child English. We are teaching Theme Lesson to the children. Theme lesson revolves around teaching various themes in life, such as occupations, nationalities, safety, and so on. Frankly I detest the formatting and plan subsets of this document and will likely change what I'm going to do before the actual class. I had to put one together for tomorrow so threw it together today once my co-teacher and I decided who was teaching which part of the lesson. It may be a bit too much material to cover in one class, but I'll work out the kinks later.

* Lesson Plan for open class *

Name

Jess N Teacher

Partner

Annie Teacher

Date/Time

11/26/09 : 2:00 – 2:30pm

Class

/Level/Lesson

Plum 7- 1^st Year, 9^th Month, 7^th Class

Warm up & review	Hello everyone! Review vocabulary related to occupations of people the neighborhood	Flashcards
New Content	Introduce vocabulary for tools of each occupation (e.g. stethoscope, shovel, hose). Cover purpose of each tool (e.g. hear heartbeat, dig hole). -This is a/an____. The ____ is used to ______. Encourage dialog regarding occupations, tools, purpose of each tool, and other occupations which may use the same tools.	Flashcards
Combine Old & New Content	Ask students what occupation they are interested in and why. -I would like to be a/an______, because _______.	Flashcards
Activity	Worksheet A: Map of community including buildings with a word bank at the top. Students complete sentences using the new vocabulary (buildings, occupations and tools). Upon completion students then read aloud. Worksheet B: Students select what occupation they prefer. Next, they write why they would like that occupation. Last, they write what tool they would use.	Worksheet A & B
Key Vocabulary	Doctor, scientist, police man, chef, teacher, singer, dancer, fire man, farmer, veterinarian, stethoscope, microscope, handcuffs, ladle, marker, microphone, ballet shoes, fire hose, shovel, hospital, laboratory, police station, restaurant, school, theater, fire station, farm, animal hospital
Key Sentences	This is a/an_____. The ____ is used to ______. I would like to be a/an____ because _____.

More random scribblings

2009-10-16T05:21:00.000-07:00

Finally took some pics off of the roof of the ECC office (work) building:

A lot of Koreans dry red peppers on their roof and/or their patio. Not sure if it's for red pepper paste (likely) or kimchi:

Rooftop gardens are all the rage here. I find it hawt, of course:

Not that interesting, but here's my desk at work. Kinda messy because it was Friday:

Another week in paradise, AKA Korea. On Thursday I went out with our boss Emily and coworkers for Chinese food in Sindorim, then to the GS 25 by David's with everyone for a few drinks. After about 10 minutes a group of Koreans slowly (one by one over the course of twenty minutes) slowly joined us. We must all look the same to them, because they thought Craig looked like Tom Cruise:

David, AKA Johnny Depp:

They also thought Jenessa was a dead ringer for Katie Holmes, and I looked like Brittney Spears. I'm glad someone finally realized how famous we all look.

Here's a link to Gwyneth Paltrow making one of my favorite Korean dishes, bimibap. Bimibap is pretty much rice topped with a bunch of veggies and red pepper paste. Depending on where you get it and the season, the veggies vary. What they make looks pretty good, although I prefer my weekly serving from the local restaurant around the corner from work:

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/09/15/2009091500253.html

Jenessa and I went and got Halloween costumes. They were incredibly cheap. Gotta love living close to China. The cost was probably 1/3rd the price of what I'd pay back home. Anyway, going to get a nap in. For some reason I woke up at 7am so I'm dragging....

America, sweet America...

2009-10-15T11:11:00.003-07:00

I booked my flight home. I'll be back in the States December 1st!!! *bounces*

Lazy evening

2009-10-14T04:29:00.000-07:00

Due to a kindergarten field trip tomorrow which starts too early for me to attend due to my midday schedule, I don't have to start work until 3pm tomorrow. Talk about a dream schedule! I should be out with my friends having dinner or something, but am content to lay around in my pj's the entire evening :)

This weekend I hit up Itaewon and Myeongdong with the goal of finding boots, a coat, and some winter clothes. All I came home with from Itaewon was a dress, which was a disappointment. The boots in Itaewon were too expensive for something I wasn't in love with. As I exited the subway back home at Guro Digital, bummed about wasting my Saturday afternoon, the street vendors selling clothes caught my eye. Low and behold, I found a beautiful skirt and a nice jacket. Back home, the two of these would probably cost over $100 if I purchased them at a store. In Korea, they cost me 13,000 won, which is equivalent to $13. Assah!

$10 coat:

While on the subway with Kristina and Jenessa en route to Forever 21, I saw this advertisement. The picture didn't come across as clearly as I'd like. I can't understand what the Korean says. In the picture below, the old dude in the picture is dreaming of poop, and all of his friends are smiling at the thought of his bright idea. Gotta love Korean advertisements....

One of the most entertaining parts about Korea is watching your friends get hammered while you are borderline sober. I met up with some peeps at Afterglow on Saturday night. It's common to purchase a bottle of alcohol at bars here and share it with your friends rather than order everything drink by drink. The three of them had a bottle of vodka which they polished off in the two hours I was at Jane's Groove. Is it really necessary to drink yourself to oblivion like this?

Lastly, one great marketing item they have here with booze is the IV bag. They serve drinks in bags which either have an IV drip line out of it, or straws if you have one for the road.

One of these days I'll post more pictures of things other than weekend festivities. I forget that what I see every day was interesting at one point in time.

Speaking of time, I put in notice and will be back in the US in early December. Tonight I finally got off my lazy seaweed eating butt and put together my cover letter; I've been meaning to write a cover letter for over five years now. In a few weeks I'll begin applying for jobs. I adore market research but am on the fence about getting my feet back into the corporate world pool. When I was younger my goal was to become financially independent and work my way into whatever my 'dream position' was at the time. I reached my goal, and experienced a mixture of positive and negative feelings. On one hand, I could afford anything I wanted within reason (no BMW's or homes in the Hollywood Hills), but woke up every day dreading the cubicle farms and playing the game with the other corporate farm animals there. There is a time and place for everything, and I don't regret the hard work I put in to achieve these gray hairs and corporate lingo. However, I would have no regrets about not returning to an office. It may be time for me to burst into a new industry (using my market research skills) or a new career. Since I'm getting back in December I don't foresee the job market to be the best, given both the economy and the time of year; employers don't hire much during the holidays, except for retail. Anyway, the good thing is I'm armed with a cover letter now, and have been obscuring my internet presence. Hence, I deleted my myspace and twitter profiles. I recently read that over 60% of recruiters who have received an application do a web search on their applicant. It's probably better to be semi-anonymous than splatter goofy pictures all over the internet.

It's time for me to get back to surfing the entire internet....ciao!

Garbage in, garbage out

2009-10-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

I put in notice at work, so will be back in the States in December. Wowzers Batman. I can't believe I'm already into my fifth month of this journey! I remember when Ann was leaving, and she was freaking out about all the things she wanted/had to do before she left, and everything she had to take care of. Now I totally understand what she was all about.

Skitsch and I went out and grabbed drinks tonight. I had a totally crappy day today and she's had a wretched week, so it was awesome to spend some time with her and vent as always. One thing I realized is that I enjoy spending time with my Korean friends more than the foreigners. I'll miss all my buds when I leave! :(

Ullengdo for Choseok, hence an absurd number of photos

2009-10-05T03:20:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was Choseok, the Korean Thanksgiving. I signed up with another 130 individuals to go to Ullengdo. We left Seoul via nori bang buses, complete with rainbow interior lights and an amazing sound system (makes me rethink going to the rooms and maybe doing a singing bus tour in the future!). After traveling for about 4 or 5 hours, we arrived at Chaum Beach to watch the sunrise. From there, we went to the port and caught the ferry over to Ullengdo, which was another 3 hour journey.

Because I keep on forgetting Blogger posts pictures in backwards order, you get to see everything in reverse, whoops!

Ullengdo Island on day of departure:

Nori bang in a room that housed about 40 screaming foreigners:

Drinks on the beach:

This dude was one of the most hilarious people I've met since coming here. He was our designated bottle-opener for the weekend. It's amazing he still has teeth after all the bottles he opened. Classy eh?

Getting started on pre-dinner drinks:

Bridge jumping into the Sea of Japan! Note - most Koreans call this the Korean Sea, and refuse to acknowledge that the rest of the world refers to it as the Sea of Japan. Anyway, the water was incredible. Being the sissy I am, I initially didn't think I'd have the cahones to jump, but my inner lemming got me to do it. The sea was warm, if abet salty. Go figure ;)

A group of us attempted to make the trek over to the lighthouse past the bridge. After 1.6 kilometers, we learned it was another 2 kilometers to the lighthouse so turned around. We saw this big guy on the way back. I swear, this jellyfish was the same size as me if I was curled up in the fetal position. He was huuuugggeee! I decided not to get back in the sea after seeing him there:

Jill and I drying off in the sun after our jumps. I'm covered in dried salt from the sea, but you can't tell since I'm naturally ghostly white:

Attempted lighthouse journey:

Swimming in the sea:

Flash back to the night before. Some members of the group had the bright idea to steal squid spears and chairs on the way back from the Family Mart:

This is the most hilarious guy ever. We had to clue him in on the details of the night prior, since he forgot about most of it. And the girls he kissed. I think Jill was one of them:

On Friday we took a bus tour around the island. It took about 5 hours to get around between stops. It was incredibly beautiful. In the middle of the island was a basin where they grow copious amounts of pumpkins. We made a pit stop at the store to have some traditional pumpkin makgeolli, hence Roberto and Jill look a bit happy:

Three Angels rock. Supposedly three angels came down to the Ullengdo beaches (because other beaches aren't beautiful enough) back in the day. One of the angels lost her wings or something, so the rest decided to stay with her:

Buddhist temple...this place was gorgeous:

Coastline:

Sitting on comfortable lava rocks:

Thousands of squid are dried on this island. I'm all for calamari, don't get me wrong. But walking by thousands of drying, stinky sea life isn't all that appealing. I'd be a beanpole if I had to walk by this stuff and smell it on a daily basis:

Arrival at the port:

Chaum Beach at sunrise...good times:

On the ferry ride back about half the boat got seasick. I only remember getting sick once which was when I was around 4 years old, so didn't think about buying medicine to prevent it. Three hours into vomiting next to migooks and Koreans, I don't know if I could ever handle another ferry ride like that. I was in the bathroom with a bunch of Koreans and foreigners barfing (so hot, I know). The Korean gal next to me was vomiting up piles of goodness, then stopping to yell incessantly in Korean. I don't know what she was saying, but I'm sure it had nothing to do with the boat ride from hell.

Aside from the ferry ride back, I'm glad I went! As always, I had a lot of conversations that made me realize that coming here was such a good idea for so many reasons. It's helped me begin to overcome my fear of traveling overseas. Language barriers, inabilities to read signs, wrong directions, and a plethora of other things used to slightly terrorize me.

Living abroad has also changed me as a person. It's probably not apparent on the outside, but I've learned new coping mechanisms, opened my mind to new people and experiences, and found a stronger sense of self. In all honesty the thought of returning to the corporate world is a bit unsettling after coming into my fifth month of teaching and living here. The life that I've created for myself here is part of a path I never considered. Before coming here, I had resigned myself to the cubicle farms and office politics. While I know I could go back to it, for my own well being I'm slowly opening myself up to the other career paths and possibilities that are there for me. Yeah, teaching English isn't my thing and I'll be happy when that chapter in my life is complete. What I see now is that a less traditional work environment is what I've been craving but resisting for years. Not sure where that puts me work-wise upon my return, but I'm going to explore other avenues outside of the market research world.

Han River Update

2009-10-01T05:26:00.001-07:00

One more post before I leave. Craig, David and I went to the Han River today for a few hours. They recently finished some renovations which were ongoing. After almost 5 months here, the Han is still my favorite spot for so many reasons:

Seoul in September

2009-09-25T05:20:00.000-07:00

It seemed like a slow week, then next thing you know it was finally Friday! Last Thursday night Skitsch and I went to a nori bang. I haven't been since my first month, so it was a delight to attempt to croon out some US and Korean songs. Needless to say, I need to work on the amount of Korean songs that I know (which basically means, I know the chorus of only about 2).

The beginning October brings Chuseok. That means we get 3 days off (read, a 5 day vacation!), gifts, and best of all, hanboks!

Gifts I got:

Hannah, Elliott, and James in Wake-up class:

Plum after winning the Chuseok games. I'm so proud of the:

Hannah, the smartest kindie kid ever:

Emily and Persimmon in the tug-of-war competition:

I'm going to take them all home with me:

Now, here is Sunday Fun-day at its best. When David was here the first time, he established drinking names for all of the days of the week (except for Monday, the day of foreigner teacher rest). Here is Craig at David's place, being a G if I ever saw it:

Out in Hongdae after G-Craigs show last Friday:

Amazing street food:

Laughing at something probably not that funny at 3am:

"Don't take my picture and post it on Facebook!", said Benny. Okay, I'll just post it on my blog then.

Anyway, running out in a few. Going to Ulleungdo for a weekend trip over Chuseok, which is similar to Thanksgiving. I'll be without internet *gasp* for a few days, but looking forward to going out to see a new part of South Korea with Adventure Korea!

Global Gathering 2009!

2009-09-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Global Gathering in Seoul! Skitsch and I had a complete blast. Prodigy, Underworld, The Crystal Method, Potbelleez, Starsheeps, Royskopp, G-Dragon, FPM, and a bunch of other artists performed. A bunch of pictures from Friday and Saturday:

Main Stage:

Skitsch moving in for the kill:

Starting early on Saturday. We were both draggin....

How I made it home is still a mystery:

I couldn't help but videotape this guy. Not like I'm a great dancer, but this bean pole in the black shirt dances like a chicken:

The Three Kimchi's

2009-09-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

I purposely didn't make plans for this weekend but true Korean style it turned out to be another busy weekend. After skipping home after work (okay, a 35 minute walk doesn't exactly entail me skipping. But the fact it was Friday made me a little light on my feet.), I got a call from Jinho and came out to meet he and Benny and some other Koreans in Sinchon. We had all you can eat meat buffet which was amazing. Everyone had been there for an hour or two already, so they were about 8 bottles into the soju at that point. Mental note - soju = worst hangover possible...anyway, went clubbing in Hongdae, and had a blast. It was really nice to hang out with Koreans for a change.

On Saturday Jenessa and I met up. En route to Itaewon, we saw the most cutesy Korean boys. I can't succinctly describe the differences between guys here. To sum it up, the general perception is that Korean's act like teenagers until they get married (generally in their late 20's/30's), so you see a lot of immature cutesy people doing things that we wouldn't dream of back in the states. It's adorable but so not attractive! Anyway, these boys were literally sleeping in the subway at 4:30 in the afternoon. This is a bad analogy, but they looked like baby mice. They were asleep on each other in the section reserved for the elderly (which is a big faux pas). They kept on readjusting their sleeping stance on each other at every stop. Who knows why they were so tired in the middle of the afternoon, but Jenessa and I shamelessly took pictures of the free entertainment. The Korean girl next to me was laughing with us, and so we didn't feel quite so bad about being obviously amused.

We went to What the Book in Itaewon, then grabbed some Mexican food. Later on went to Craig's show, then we all went over to Hongdae.

Halfway through the night Jenessa and I were on our way to the middle of the dance floor when a wild fight broke out between two Korean girls. One girl threw the other to the ground, and was on top of her pulling her hair out. The girl was wailing so loudly, and it was quite an uncomfortable scene. Who knows what it was over, but it was quite uncomfortable watching these two girls duke it out on the middle of a dirty dance floor. Eventually someone came over and broke it up, but I was aghast at how evil and crazy they were getting.

Next weekend Skitsch and I are going to the Global Gathering. Underworld, Prodigy, Royskopp, Pendulum, G-Dragon, and a bunch of other bands are playing. She and I both have weddings to go to on Saturday so I doubt we're camping out, which is just fine with me. I'm really looking forward to going to a big music festival here. I never thought I would see half of these bands, so it should be a truly wonderful experience!

Random scribblings....

2009-09-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

First, random shot of Starbucks in Shindorim. Every time I walk into Starbucks they order me a latte. I ask for a coffee. Unless I say "drip", I can say "coffee" and they'll order me up a latte. Must be an American thing. The menu is in Korean and English (and the place looks the same as being in the US, sans the Korean writing), but they don't understand what you say unless you speak slowly.

Anyway, I went to Starbucks to chill while I was waiting for my friend John to show up to the Korean wedding we went to this Saturday. I don't have any pictures from the wedding, but lets just say if I ever wanted to breed and get married, Koreans know how to have a wedding. You rent the place by the hour (its in a mall!!), people come and go as they please, and people talk throughout the wedding, and get a buffet ticket. Ahead of time every agrees upon a set price of what to give as gift (generally $30 -$50 per attendee), so all the bride and groom get is money. Like that sucks! After the non-formal wedding, you go to another floor and enjoy the buffet of a lifetime. You don't have to talk to strangers about if you know the bride or the groom, don't dance with the 5 year old flower girl, you don't have to mingle with strangers, and you leave when you want. It's a 2 hour affair if that. The US could learn a lot from these peeps.

When you visit a country, you see a lot of its quirks but just think they are quaint. Or something. But when you live in a country, you first either love or hate their quirks, then tend to take the opposite viewpoint. Take, for instance, this:

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/08/south_korea_encourages_high_he.html

Ahh, the heel-wearing women of Korea. Korean women wear skirts that I wouldn't dare wear to the lowest-denominator club in LA (read SHORT), coupled with the highest heels. They go hiking in these heels. They go on inflatable boats with these heels (Ann can prove it). They go EVERYWHERE wearing heels. So the whole 'parking-spot-for-pretty-gals-wearing-heels' thing makes sense. Not logically, of course. But logically here. I think the picture I took at the Daerim station is for pregnant women. However, it's totally a sign of things to come for the high-heeled chicks here. Speaking of which, I've worn heels once since I've lived here. I think I'm going to go home and throw out all my high heeled shoes. I like not having to teeter around in uncomfortable shoes.

I live in an apartment surrounded by, well, mostly apartments. Across the street is a business building. True to Korean form, they've decided that since the second floor won't rent, they'll rip it down and put up another office-tel. Because that's exactly what we need here. Or so all the "for rent" signs in Korean indicate. Over the past four days, I've taken pictures of the entertainment going on across the street. Rather than implode buildings or rip out the insides for a remodel, they demolish the building step by step. as you can see below, they use a big 'ole crane to slowly rip the building apart. How they get the crane up there in the first place is beyond me, unless they're harboring some Transformer machine not yet known to the western world...

Day 1, same old office building:

Day 2: Let's rip off the top of the roof!

Day 3: The roof is gone. Let's install some fabric barriers on the side of the building and electric lines:

Day 4: We don't need no stinking office building! I get paid to demolish buildings using a crane!

Today I intended to surf the entire internet and watch a movie or two. One of my friends texted me to come out, so I went to Itaewon and met people for drinks at 3 in the afternoon. Normally that would be much too early (much less on a Sunday) to drink, but I hardly did anything social this weekend so went out. Needless to say it was a bad idea since my friend had already been up over 30 hours straight and got into an argument with others at Wolfhound about their mom's dying. After 3 years of hospice work I know better than to pretend to know how to intervene a conversation (actually an argument) between 3 grown men about their experience with their mom's death. A death in the immediate family is an incredibly intimate experience, and the experiences these men had was no exception. One mom went when the man was 4 years old. The other went out screaming. The last went out coked and drugged out of her mind. Yeah, I'm not touching any of those experiences. I sometimes wonder if people come to Korea (or anywhere in the world) to escape and heal from their experiences. Heck, I know people do. Living in a new town/city/state/country is the best way to rip your mind away from the negativity and get on with your own life. We all need to get over things, and sometimes going away is the most therapeutic way to approach the situation. I didn't come here for that situation (well, other than escaping a great job with a crazy boss who was under qualified to do research for one of the biggest technology providers in the world, but there's more to that story...). However, if I was ever in a situation like some of my friends, I would totally travel overseas again. It's truly a catalyst for healing.

Anyway, back o the whole gig with those guys, it was a shot away from it becoming a fist fight over who had the 'real' emotional experience with their death in the family. I was sitting there feeling shocked as all get out that one person could turn the conversation into an argument over the last words spoken at death and their value. This is versus the other people's arguments about the pain that people went through at death, and the relief that could come afterwards. I wasn't entirely comfortable talking about death at 4:30 in the afternoon. But I think we're all lifelong friends now....strange situation or not.

Later on went to the Beer Garden. Great view at sunset. Now that it's cooling off here, maybe I'll begin hiking in the mountains...

At least the drunks were all wearing their smiley face socks....

So yeah, I digressed a bit....here's some more ramblings..

They are wild about hiking here. So much that at 10pm at night, you can be on the subway and you'll see someone coming back from hiking (who knows where). It's not like in the US. Back home, you throw on some appropriate clothes, grab a bottle of water and go. OH NO. Not here. You have to wear an internal frame backpack (normal backpack shown below...wanna-be!) stocked with a yoga mat, 2 walking sticks, and gawd knows what else shoved into the center portion of the bag. Don't forget that you have to be color-coordinated. AND your entire outfit has the be provided by the same supplier. If you're wearing Addidas, Nike, and Northface all at the same time you fail. I've seen people my grandparents age schlocking around bags weighting 30+ pounds. I have no idea what they have stuffed in these god-forsaken bags. You're hiking a mountain. What do you REALLY need to bring up and down with you??! Obviously, 30 pounds of flair on your back in order to feel like you've gotten the job done:

I got new glasses this weekend. They don't require an appointment. I walked in, picked an $80 frame (included lenses). Half an hour later, I walked out with some purple, green, and gold framed lenses. The colors don't come across in the photo, but my headache does:

So long...farewell...

2009-08-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well, everything in life has its season I guess. Ann hit the skies this morning and is returning to the states. She's stopping over in Buffalo for a few days to meet up with one of her gf's. Can't say I'm not a wee bit jealous that she's going home AND to my hometown! I think she's ready for the next chapter in her life....and some real Mexican food :)

Last Friday the Korean and foreign teachers went out for a goodbye/welcome/birthday dinner:

Saturday we continued on with the goodbye party for Ann....

And we had another going away dinner last night. Just goes to show how awesome Ann is :)

It already sucks knowing she's not living next door, and I already miss hearing her cabinet doors slamming and hearing her laugh through the walls when she's on Skype. She has taunted us all with the possibility she may return, but my guess is her travels will take her into South America next year, a place she's always wanted to live.

In other news, I joined the gym down the street this morning. It was more expensive than the other gyms in the neighborhood. However, it's closer, bigger, cleaner, and plays good music. Many of the gyms here require you to wear 'uniforms', which generally consist of shorts and a t-shirt which are provided by the gym. I was too busy checkout out the machines to even notice what people were wearing. While I'd be bummed if I can't wear my wife beaters, not having to wash my gym clothes won't suck.

Let's see...what else is going on...yesterday was one of those really good days at work. It's been about a month and a half since I've had one (mainly due to working intensives last month). I taught 4 kindie classes then 4 older student classes. Not surprisingly, math is my favorite subject to teach. It's more logical and I don't have to feel guilty about correcting their speech or grammar, and can just focus on ensuring they understand the math problems that are presented to them.

I was on my way to one of my last classes of the day, and as I was walking down the hallway saw two boys fighting. This wasn't the typical "lighthearted jab" kind of fight. These boys were punching and kicking, and there was a crowd of kids surrounding them. One of the boys happened to be one of my students, who is soft spoken but the class clown.

Something in me clicked when I saw the fight, and I stormed up to them. In a voice my brother Chris would be proud of, I bellowed, "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!", as a shoved my way through the throng of kids surrounding the two boys. The boys froze, and the other kids began to slink away. "Take this," I instructed one of my other students as I thrusted my books over to her to hold. "We're going to the teachers room NOW," I said to the boys, slinging my arms around both of their shoulders. The other student hesitated but he knew he was in for it, and allowed himself to be dragged down to the office.

On the way down the hall I asked Chris what was going on, but I got the typical Korean "look the other way and don't answer" kind of response, which is generally borne of humility and/or insecurity. I steered them to the entrance of the teachers room, and bellowed to our director, "JIN!". All eyes in the office popped up, and Jin looked around the corner to see who and what was going on. I gave her the lowdown, leaving the students to receive the worst tongue lashing they've probably had in months.

Anyway, got to run off to work. I'm hoping I have enough juice in me at the end of the day so I can hit the gym!

Signs, signs, everywhere the signs

2009-08-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

This week I made an effort to take pictures of some of the miscellaneous signs and other oddities. I made several attempts to get a picture of McDonald's new advertising for the "Angry Chicken", but throngs of umbrella waving Koreans were walking by. Pretty hilarious advertisement. It's always amazing to me how marketeers can make the most mundane sandwich into something that almost has its own personality.

Back to the pics. First let me introduce the side street behind my workplace, which is lined with apartments. Someone had set out an armoire for the trash guys to pick up. Notice the picture of Keanu Reeves taped to the side of it, circa 1992. If you thought Keanu was that good of an actor *giggles* to throw up a picture of him onto your armoire and look at him daily on your way to the shower, go for it. But please take down his picture and put it on your new armoire at the very least! What are the trash guys going to do with it?

For all the Starbucks lovers out there, check out the new and improved version of the coffee shop. Gotta love how so many things are directly ripped off from the US here:

One of my friends and I shared a pint at Baby Guiness this week. With a name like that, I had to go inside:

Not much new to report. The school made me a homeroom teacher, so now I'll be teaching kindergardeners for half of my schedule instead of just a class or two. Yes, you can stop laughing now. I'm not too thrilled about it, but I do get out of work earlier so can have a better social life, or at least do things after work more often rather than having to not attend things due to my late shift (and yes, that was a run-on sentence. I don't put up much of an effort to edit these blogs!).

One more thing.

2009-08-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

Oh. I have sixteen mosquito bites on my legs. Back home they wouldn't touch me. Maybe migooks taste sweeter than Koreans. All I know is, my legs won't stop ITCHING gah!

Long time no blog!

2009-08-22T01:44:00.000-07:00

Phew, the intensive teaching session is over! One of the reasons I haven't posted in forever (other than habitual laziness) is because we've been teaching additional classes for the past three weeks, which finally ended yesterday. My schedule was pretty cruddy, but thankfully it went by quickly.

After being at work from 9:30am - 7:30 pm yesterday, I was excited to go out with the Korean and foreign (what they call us) teachers. Lucy found a steak place in Sinchon, which turned out to be a Brazilian restaurant. We stuffed ourselves completely with the delicious food that kept coming, then headed over to Hongdae for drinks. Everyone had a blast, and most of us woke up feeling like death :)

Due to disinterest in typing a novel (read, laziness again), here are some random pictures from the past few weeks:

Skitsch and I at an art gig in Coex Mall:

Memo I got at work this week: Attention teachers at YBM! If you contract swine flu from anywhere but school, we're not paying you while you're off of work. If you go on vacation, you can't come into work for seven days and we won't pay you. Why? Because we're terrified of swine flu. Oh, and we're not going to update your contract. It's a memo, so even though you don't sign anything agreeing to this new policy, it's now law.

My reaction? Rolled my eyes and counted my lucky stars that I can now go on vacation and instead of taking one week off get two weeks. Tee hee.

Skitsch hiding from the camera at Sultana in Sillim:

Welcome back to Korea David:

David and Ann....totally BFF's:

Uhm, at first I wasn't sure if this truck is advertising lager and something got lost in translation, but that's one of the joys of Korea. A five second search on wiki informed me that lager is a kind of seaweed. I'll make sure to remember that for my future stint on Jeopardy:

Skitsch made me drink pineapple soju. It was delicious:

Ann and I at the philharmonic concert in City Hall:

Lots 'o pics from the past few days

2009-07-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to fun in Seoul!

Note to self - learn Korean NOW! We went out to dinner, attempting to get galbi (where you cook your own meat at the table). Last time we went it was fabulous. This time, I accidentally ordered CHICKEN FEET. Ahhhhh gross! It actually tasted really good. However, I had to deal with 30 years of mental conditioning in order to eat them. Needless to say, I will not be eating these again:

The N Seoul Tower, from which one can get a 360 view of Seoul:

Next stop, Lotte World! Lotte World is like a smaller version of Disney. And when I say Disney, I mean they totally ripped off Cinderella's Castle, Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs, Jimmeny Cricket (who we fondly refer to as Kimchi Cricket gi

We closed out yesterday with a walk down the Han River, followed by a water taxi ride at sunset:

Korea take 2

2009-07-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots from the past week...

Hongdae....

Fish market....

Dinner....galbi...

Just a long rant....

2009-07-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

...just another weekend in paradise over here in rainy 'ole Seoul. Here are some pics from our Itaewon adventures on Friday night:

Thomas and I went to Sinchon to get new glasses and dinner, and we talked endlessly about our significant others. Eugene flies in on Wednesday and will be here for two weeks. Thomas is leaving to go back to SFO next week where his gf is, so we're both thrilled about all the things that means for us in terms of emotions and hormones. Tee hee.

On to Thomas leaving...long story short, YBM is not replacing him. That means, his classes will be given to the foreign teachers. This shitty situation is coupled with the fact we start intensives this week, which will last for a month. Intensives are when you take on an additional 2 - 4 classes per day. This does not necessarily mean that you get back to back classes. Long story short, I'm going to be there for 10 - 11 hours per day. However, once intensives are over we still have Thomas' classes to content with. At that point, I'm probably going to be there from 11 - 7:30 or 11 - 9pm every night. I'm not teaching the entire time, but basically have around 1 - hours off a day (our class schedule is different every day...complicated to explain) during that time.

I haven't confirmed that I'm taking over Thomas' kindie classes in September, however, it will not fly with me. I'm not hanging out in that boring neighborhood waiting for my classes to start and watching paint dry, when the rest of the teachers have tighter schedules. I'm getting myself worked up into a tizzy over here, but am honestly getting ticked off. The Koreans hate confrontation and I was nicely confrontational about the intensive schedule (I have a 3 hour break between classes twice a week. Wtf am I supposed to do for 3 hours? I may join a bouldering gym nearby, but even I don't want to climb rocks for 3 hours...booring). Long story (errr rant) short, I'm going to put up a nasty fight if they try to stick me with Thomas' kindie kids and that gawd awful schedule come September. They'll get royally annoyed that I'm fighting it, but I refuse to hang out around screaming children and the workplace for ten hours a day for what I get paid. Change the schedule or Jess makes a midnight run and is back in the US 14 hours later.

Grrr.....I hate getting annoyed at stuff like this...

Snow bar and lists

2009-07-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

My friend John sent me two pics from the palace this weekend, so here they are:

Tonight Ann, Skitch and I went out to a place for dinner and drinks called Texas in our neighborhood. It looks just like an American sports bar, except it had a snow machine in the middle of it pouring out snow over beer. It's little things like that that make me enjoy being here.

Speaking of things, here's a list of things I wish I would have brought more of, or just plain ole' brought:

-Deodorant. Can be hard to find if your local market doesn't have it, especially for guys. If they have it, you're paying out the ying yang for it.
-More Old Navy flip flops with a wedge. WHY didn't I bring more of them?!!?!
-Better walking shoes. You walk constantly here
-Short skirts. They have them here, but they are much higher on a meegook than on a Korean gal
-Taco seasoning. Thank you Goddess Ann for taco salad night.
-Skype credit. I don't actually need it due to the time change but it would come in handy if I didn't plan out Skype dates with friends and family. You can call cell phones from your Skype account. It helps for those strange time differences.
-Hair dye. Most packages are in Korean, so you wing the whole dying process
-Tank tops/sports bras to wear under v-necks. Cleavage is considered "sexy" here unlike the US where you can wear a v-neck at work without worrying about it, whereas the short skirts (and I mean ghetto short!) they wear here are totally ok....so strange!
-Workout videos. I haven't found a place here yet that sells cheap workout dvds. You can find any movie here in Yongsan for $2 a pop (even releases that are coming out the week they open), but fitness videos are tough to find.

What is easy to find in Korea:
-Clothes. Provided you're not overly tall or overweight, you can buy clothes for 1/4th the price here. You may not be able to try it on before you buy it, but they are cheeeeeeap! I bought a skirt last week that would easily go for $50 for $5 here last week!
-Cigarettes. Hate to say it, but the $6 pack of ciggies go for $2.50 here. I hope you hate smoking.
-Transportation. A cab to work costs about $2.50. In the US, it would be about $12.00 to get to work via taxi.
-Dinner. Depending on what you like, if you're willing to eat Korean food, you can eat something spicy and healthy for $4 - $6. One of my friends and I got kebabs, tofu salad and beer for about $10, and it would have been $25 back home. Then again, you eat less here but it tastes better...
-Seafood. There's some prepackaged deal at E-Mart (aka Wal-Mart) complete with octopus, squid, salmon, mussels, and some other fish for about $12 versus $30. One of these days I'll get the gumption to buy it and actually cook it.

Chang Doek Gung

2009-07-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday John (a Korean I went to high school with) and I went to Insadong. We went to the Chang Deok Gung palace:

Couple t-shirts (my goal is to take a picture of these peeps each week!):

Note - I can't figure out how to orient these the correct way in blogger, sorry....

After visiting the palace we went to Insadong. Here's a photo of the silk worm larve that people eat here. It looks SOOOOOO disgusting, and smells just as bad:

For dinner I had pork blood soup. I didn't know that it was pork blood at the time, and just though that the soup base tasted a bit different than anything I'd had before. There was a ton of green leafy things, pork, and noodles in it. Once I found out it was partially pork blood in the soup, I literally had a hard time not thinking about it and keeping my food down:

Videos of the palace:

Kewlest mom EVER!

2009-07-07T07:47:00.001-07:00

So this weekend the teacher gang headed off to Hongdae to celebrate the 4th of July. Various pics here :

Thomas and Ann: Mortal enemies because he's confrontational.....

Thomas and Jess: Good friends because he makes the gross GI's leave...

Jess and Jenny: We hate Freebird...

Ann and Jess: Best Korean gf's ever!!!
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Ann and Adam: Adam got the smackdown from Ann...

Random pic of Seoul on Sunday. You could see all of the mountains if it wasn't always hazy here:

Yesterday I knew that the thought of coming home to make food was not on my top ten list of things to do when I got home, so Craig (another teacher at my school) and I got some food. I had just been telling Ann that I wanted to wanted to wander our neighborhood more. Thankfully, Craig didn't want to eat at one of the usual jaunts. So we headed south and found this great (cheap!) place that served dang good food. Here is Craig Teacher along with the spicy chicken, radish, and Cass:

Ann and I stayed up late talking about some bs that has been going down in her life as of late. So eventually I crash out, and am out for the count. Because of my schedule, I can go to bed at 2 or 3 am and it's no problem. However, at 7:30 in the morning, I'm only halfway through the night. But, my house phone (which is linked to the front door) starts ringing. I rub the sand out of my eyes, groggy and annoyed that some stranger is ringing my bell. Being me, I figure if I ignore the phone the person will go away. NO! They keep on calling. I drag myself off of my horrible flat bed, and answer the phone.

"What the heck?"

"Jessica."

"Neh? Why are you calling me? Who is this?". This is the point at which I start to freak out. It's 7:30 in the morning, no Koreans know where I live, much less my name. And I have a Korean male asking for me. WTF?!?!?

"No, sleep," I said, then hung up the phone. Oh, I forgot to mention I was drinking with Craig before Kristina joined us, then I drank with Ann before bed. I'm still drunk and sleeping dang it! Plus there is some creepy Korean guy who knows my name at the front door at 7:30am. I am not amused. Therefore, I go back to bed.

I crash back on the bed, groaning. Am on my way back to sleepy land. Two minutes later..."Knock knock" at my door.

All my senses say to stay in bed, and NOT answer the door. Korean guy + morning + hung over = do not answer the door. But I did. And what did I find?

The mailman.

"Jessica?" He thrusts over the signature pad for me to sign, and hands over a package. I suddenly feel like the biggest bitch in the universe. But who the HELL works at 7:30am delivering mail? In what country!!??! Obviously Korea. I wanted to tip the guy just because I put him through hell trying to get this package up to my door. But I was freaked out that some dude is calling me from downstairs and just got woken up in the middle of the night to get a package. So Mr. Mailman, I deeply apologize for treating you badly. You just caught me at the worst time of day.

I did open the box right away...my mom sent me shoes, a dress (btw, GREAT job on the dress mom, everyone loves it), earrings, and all these sports bras to hide my cleavage, as it's a big no-no here. You can wear mini skirts and that's socially acceptable. Heaven forbid you show an inch of boobage here though. Go figure. At least I feel like I have big boobs in some country ;p

Anyway, MOM YOU RAWK! Thank you so much :)

Laid back weekend

2009-06-28T07:38:00.000-07:00

This week I felt a cold coming on, which ended up hitting mid-week. Work on Friday was horrible. My nose ran nonstop, and I was coughing up gunk like there was no tomorrow. Friday night I was supposed to go out, but ended up coming home and cooking for Ann, then passing out at 9:30. Slept 12 hours!

Saturday Kristina, Craig and I headed over to the Dongdaemun market. It's famous for its flea market, which turned out to be a giant construction zone as they're making it into a park. Anyway, as we exited the subway station, there was a big-ass temple right there! It was closed, but was the first temple I've seen close up. So beautiful!!

After walking by the temple and into the market area, I was amazed at the number of shoe stalls they have. There were literally 50+ different stalls of people selling shoes. Everything you could ever want. I didn't try anything on, but will very likely go back and purchase something. They have some rad shoes that I would kill to have back in LA, and my guess is they're probably only 40,000 or 50,000 won, which is about $35 - $45 US :)

After Dongdaemun, we headed over to Yongsan. If you're a technology geek, you've NEVER seen a geek mecca like this one! Freaking amazing. There are hundreds of phones, computers, cameras, hard drives, DVDs, and every techy thing known to man here. Half the stuff that's in this sprawling area I don't even know what it's purpose is. Anyway Kristina helped me get a new cell phone, then the three of us grabbed some food with Thomas who met up with us.

Next we were off to see Transformers! The movie sold out 2 weeks before opening. In Korea it's similar to LA, where you have to reserve your seats. Anyway, saw the flick then came back home. It was a busy but fun Saturday.

Today I mostly stayed in. Got up and went over to the dance studio down the road from my house to get a brochure, then got some coffee. Made brunch for Ann, then we headed over to E-Mart to buy some things. I made my meals for tomorrow, cleaned up, then met one of my friends for coffee. Afterwards was messing around on the computer for a bit, then decided to pick up something from the corner mart.

On my way back, I saw an ajumma up on the roof patio across the street from my apartment. An ajumma is a woman who is old enough to get married, but here we generally refer to them as older women (maybe age 70+). These women are vicious! On the subway, they will hip chuck you five feet out of your place, just to get by you. I see them hauling 75+ pound carts down the road on a daily basis. They have a reputation here (somewhat negative), but these are basically tough old broads stuck in a 4'5" frame that weight all of 85 pounds :)

Anyway, this ajumma is up on her roof patio doing stretching exercises. She probably does this every night. Heck, she probably does this every morning too! I stood outside for a little bit just scoping out what the heck she was doing, since Korea still surprises me daily on all the neat cultural quirks. One of my gfs was telling me about all the ajummas in her dance class that can do splits and kick her ass in stretching, yoga, and dance any day. This lady probably fell into that category. Seeing this old lady at 11:30 at night just stretching makes me realize why they're all so limber and active. They work on it.

Next time I'm feeling bad about myself, I'm going to stretch like one of those ajumma's and get on with my life. I'm going to be 80 and more limber than a 20 year old damn it!

Kids, kids, and more kids!

2009-06-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Took some more pics of the kids today!!!

Here is Leo, my favorite student. He had lost a tooth earlier in the day so had a tissue shoved in his mouth. He made me wait before taking his photo so he could run to the bathroom, take out the tissue and make sure he looked okay:

Amy is a complete doll. She's smart as heck....now if I can just get her speaking above a whisper in class I'll be proud!:

Some of the gals from Carnival:

Here's A Joe (he changed his name today from "Joe" to "A Joe". Can't fault the kid for trying to stand out):

Harrison and Andy dancing in Playground:

And everyone's favorite teacher....Teacher Ann!:

Teacher, he spoke Korea!

2009-06-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things in class is when the kids should out, "Teacher, he spoke Korea!". I don't think they actually know they're supposed to say "Korean" and not "Korea". Either way, it cracks me up. They constantly accuse each other of speaking Korean, especially bad words.

When I first started teaching, they swapped out some of my classes with existing teachers who were having problems with their classes in order to see how I'd fare. Turns out, not so bad. The picture below is from one of my older classes (Bricks Listening, as if that means anything to you). In the middle is Lars (all these kids have their Korean name then their American name. How this kid ended up with a Norwegian-sounding name is beyond me), and on the right is Sean. Sean is one of my favorite students, while Lars is one of my smartest yet loudest. The gal behind them is Sara, who only speaks about once every four classes or so. I forget she's there sometimes because she's so dang quiet. The boy on the left is Rick. Smart dorky kid. I'll get pics of the kindy kids soon!

I was on my way to the subway station Sunday afternoon, and saw the t-shirt below. Those of you from SoCal know Knott's Berry Farm, which is a kind of amusement park. The dude in front of me was wearing the shirt, so I just couldn't help myself and snapped a shot. His mom gave me a dirty look afterwards, but I don't really care. If you can't understand what they say to you because your Korean language skills are wretched, you can't be offended right?

My friend Miyoung invited my friends and I hiking on Sunday. We went to Gyeongbokgung, and to the Gana Art Center. Although the plan was to hike half an hour and go to the art center, I thought that meant hike half an hour in the mountains, then walk about to the art center. No, that really meant walk an hour and a half on the road (in 80 degree weather with 80% humidity). The art center was beautiful though, as was the view. The houses in that area are incredible. There is no way I would have ever found that place on my own.

Lastly, on the left are some strange roll-sized things that you can hang off of your cell phone. Everyone has cell phone charms here (many are functional...RFD tags that let you into your building, or subway cards). These look like rolls with stupid faces on them, that actually smell like bread. I don't know why you would want this hanging from your phone considering it would be bopping you in the head during phone calls, but someone obviously buys these since they're all over the place.

Half in the shadows, half in the husky moonlight...

2009-06-20T11:20:00.001-07:00

It's funny how your mind can cut you off from what you're really doing or reading. In the bathrooms at school, it says "don't throw anything in the toilet!". Sure, I'm not going to throw any girly things in the toilet, because I don't back home. I didn't think twice about it.

Cut to last week. I'm walking home with Tim, who's bitching about all the toilet paper in the bathrooms. All the nasty, dirty paper in the bathroom. I'm not quite following what he's saying, until I finally realize what he's saying. They don't throw the tp into the toilet here. You're a woman and going to the bathroom. When you're done, you throw your tp into the container on the side of the toilet. Regardless of it you do #1 or #2, it all goes in the trash on the side. Needless to say, I'm not storing the tp for my bunghole at the side of the toilet here. It all goes down. Until my toilet overflows and all heck breaks loose, it's in the toilet!

I hung out with Goddess Ann tonight, and did a kewl memory mapping thing. The goal was to draw what makes you happy, by first drawing the thing (e.g. picture) that makes you think of happiness in the middle. Then you write the first 10 words that spark in your mind that make you think of happiness, with no hesitation or self editing. Pics below:

The overall product and book that inspired (notice her dark, artistic pics!):

Ann being a tigress over our works of art (sorry for not rotating the pic....blogger illiterate here):

My corporate america-inspired art.

I can thankfully say that after almost a month, I'm in a more positive place. Sorry if my blog has seemed negative and full of complaints. I would be a complete wreck without Ann. Having a friend to talk with and spend weekends with means the world, especially when we do things like clean (geek, I know!) and do art projects. We've been removing more layers of the onions of our souls each week I think!

Noribong and other miscellaneous debris

2009-06-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

I power-walked home from work last night, and Ann greeted me with taco salad again. She's the best wifey ever ;) I got to Skype with Eugene for a bit, then Ann and I decided it would be fun to start organizing her place. Total domestication on a Friday night...we are such nerds :) Since she's leaving at the end of August (boo!) to return to the US before jetting off to South America, she's got some things she wants to get rid of but not quite yet in case she needs them in the next month or so. Anyway, we cleaned up her place, then headed over to the mini mart to grab a beer.

We're sitting outside at the tables talking about how I'd like to hook her up with one of my friends back in LA. While I'm telling her about him, a 40-something Korean guy is stumbling in our direction, snorting, coughing, and spitting phlegm. Real hot! Ann is keeping her eye on him, and we're both making "oh my god, how disgusting" faces at each other as the phlegm bombs are spat on the street. It's freaking disgusting, but socially accepted to do.

Anyway, he stumbles back and forth in front of the mini mart several times, and eventually comes over and starts speaking in a Korean slur and gesturing at our drinks. We're saying "no" in Korean, and trying to tell him we don't speak his language. He's getting more pissed off because we won't share our beer with him, and he's getting closer and putting off the vibe like he wants to buy something other than beer from us. Ann gets the guy from the mini mart to come out (who speaks enough English to understand we want to get rid of this drunken phlegm spitter and can't communicate for him to take a hike). So the guy is telling the drunk to get lost. Doesn't work. We thanked Mr. Mini Mart, then got up and started walking back home. Halfway there I turn around, and see the drunk guy following us. FUCK! We're pretty close to the house, so Ann and I decide to break into a run. The problem with our building is that while you need a pass code to get into the building, if you move while you're waiting for the elevator the door sensor picks up your movement and opens, hence, the drunk could come inside. We run into the building, and take the stairs up to the next floor. I don't know what this guy was thinking, but he was disgusting and obnoxious!!!

That big adventure over, I texted Craig to see what he was up to. He's got some Guro group he's part of, and was out with 20+ Koreans eating and drinking soju bombs. I met up with them at the hof (pub), then the group split up and few of us decided to go to a noribong. Nori means singing in Korean, and bong means room. Hence, singing room (aka kareokee). Guro doesn't have quality noribongs (the Koreans were explaining the room was too big and not pretty), but this can give you a general idea of what they're all about. Notice my Korean little sisters (once you become friends with someone they become your older/younger sister or brother...another cultural thing that's endearing) embarrassed to get filmed. I should've filmed them singing, because they are awesome singers:

Pics of the kids next week, I promise! My camera literally died so I had to get new batteries!

Go with the flow

2009-06-17T04:52:00.000-07:00

Science with Pear class = hell. Not only is Pear my worst-behaved bunch, but teaching science is a joke. It's all about the kids blazing through their packages of science projects, while Jess Teacher asks questions about what we're working on, and what things influence the project item. For instance, in my first class we made the pan flute. Thankfully, the flute was made out of straws so there weren't 12 kids competing to see who could blow the loudest note. But every week, annoying nonetheless.

I walked into class yesterday, and my favorite (yet disruptive because he's smart as all get out) student ran up to the chair next to mine at the front of the room, slammed down his fist (gotta love alpha males) and yelled, "Edward is TEACHER todaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!".

I threw Edward a sideways glance. Edward wants to teach science to this gaggle of monkeys? Game on.

"Okay class, Edward is co-teacher today! Everyone listen up and pay attention. Watch him to see how to put our project together." I had a feeling this could be the worst idea ever, but was willing to try it out.

The kids began to talk excitedly. I began to wonder if I could never have to teach again and let Edward do all the work. And how did it turn out? Freaking fantastic. The kids listened to him. When kids were having issues with the project and screaming for my help, I turned to Edward and shooed him off to assist them.

Today Edward ran up to the front, ready to be co-teacher again. Honestly, I'd prefer he be co-teacher for every class because he's the smartest, and when he's up front that cuts down on student disruption. But I made the kids play rock-scissor-paper (the most fun and easy way to end any dispute in Korea) for the co-teacher position. James-O won R/S/P, but was weak and ineffective as a co-teacher. Edward was obviously annoyed, and since teacher has pets, I announced he's teaching science every week. At least I get him up front once a week, and he does a great job.

My last two classes on Tuesday went badly. In the first class I ever had with them, the two boys outshone the girls and I was thankful for a good bunch of students. In the second class another boy came, who is a complete rebel. He'll get the women later on in life, but right now all he's getting is stink eye from the teacher. So now the boys are silent instead of competing for answers since Mr. Rebel has joined the class.

In class yesterday, the boys weren't paying attention, and I had to replay a cd 5 times and they still weren't doing the exercise. I was fuming mad. Since I have them for 2 classes in a row, I went to the Korean co-teacher between classes and nicely let her know the boys were acting like a bunch of morons and I was annoyed. I seriously felt like that girl in elementary school who tells on other students. Oh well, at least I finally got to be that girl. So the bell rings, and the boys are gone. I'm nearing the livid limit, assuming they're out being twits and not coming to class. I walked out into the hall looking for them, and they were nowhere in site. I walked by the gym after another teacher motioned towards it. Upon looking in, I saw my co-teacher Esther was giving them the tongue lashing from hell.

A few minutes later they walked into class, heads down, eyes dropped. They did what they were supposed to throughout class. Guess it pays to bring in the big guns every once in a while.....

I may bring my camera to work this week and get pics of the kids since they're freaking adorable. Well, at least when they're paying attention :)

My place

2009-06-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a short video of my place. Or should I say, shoebox!

Well when you scared me, well I guess you scared me too

2009-06-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

After a dismal morning, I threw in the towel and decided to try taking the subway to work in order to save time and distract my mind. Figured it would shave 15 minutes off of my commute. Things always seem better before you try them....it actually took longer to walk to the Guro station, ride up to Daerim station, and walk out of that station. So much for that idea!

Got into work, and the kids in my first two classes were all about calling me Obama. Uh, wtf over?! Thomas Teacher looks kind of like Obama if you squint your eyes, but I'm female and rosy-faced. They were all into giving Jess Obama teacher stars for right answers or good teaching (these kids are competitive, and only survive off of kimchi and the stars I give them in class). Two classes later, I was on to my favorite kids who would rather point at the star student and say, "Teacher Teacher! Jenny drinks soju! Jenny is on steroids!". Where in the world they learned "steroids" when I'm still teaching them words like "sunburn", "about", and "insect" is beyond me. But they picked it up somewhere along the way.

Was on my way out of work intent on getting home and waiting for my man to get online. Ann asked me to bring her bag home that she left behind, so I grabbed that and ran out the door. They she texted me to say she made me dinner. Uh, can you say Dorm Neighbor Goddess?!?! I was expecting veggies, and I got Mexican! Normally Mexican food would not make me jump up and down like a school girl. But try eating nothing but veggies, rice, meat, and seaweed for three weeks, and see where that gets you. Then, she gave me the sleepy eye patchs in the pic to the left. Even though I have a curtain, it's still freaking bright as heck in my room every morning, which usually wakes me up before I'm ready considering I don't have to get up until 10 or 11am. I haven't taken up Tae Kwon Do, but I'm practicing my Mortal Kombat karate chop with my face mask on. Being goofy keeps me sane. Or Hite does the trick. Or something :)

Then we were on our way downstairs, and I noticed I had mail. MAIL! I bounced over babbling nonsense, excited to actually see something in my mailbox instead of my neighbors mailbox which has been brimming all week (honestly, the littlest things over here become immense when you're homesick). She was giggling the whole time as I was reading the front, which obviously didn't have any sort of address or stamp on the front. I was too excited to actually notice. Turns out, she had made up a notecard for me and stuck in in my mailbox earlier in the day because she knew my day was no bueno. Ann, you rawk my sawks girlfriend!

After talking to Euge I needed to make an E-Mart (aka Korean Wal-mart) run, so headed over and spent 95,000 won on shit. I finally got a pair of shoes (they have tinnnny feet here), batteries for my camera, some meat on a stick (see pic, it's sold on the streets here too), clothes, food for Ann & I, a cutting board, saran wrap, etc. So now I'm set on food for the week, and can't think of anything else I need other than more clothes (what else is new), and functional shoes. All the women here wear high heels. My mom asked me if people here are shorter, and I said not really. Now that I've been here a little longer and actually look at people half as much as they stare at me, I realize most women are probably around 5'-5'4", and the guys are 5'4" - 5"7". The women wobble around in heels. Everywhere. Flashy, high-heeled sandals are all the rage here. They all look pretty goofy trying to walk on cobbbled streets and construction zones on heels, but it's their thing.

Also hot are they couple t-shirts. I haven't seen any THIS vulgar in public, but you get the drift. Couples (seems like they're all age 30 and below) wear either matching t-shirts or ones that compliment each other around here. It cracks me up! The other thing they do here is carry their gf's purses, like it's no big deal. All the dudes here have their own murses (Ann gets kudos for that one). I was sitting on the subway this weekend, staring full on at this adult guys murse as he was standing in front of me. It was a Le SportSac (like I usually wear), but had freaking pink and yellow bunny rabbits on it. In America, that guy would get beat on the subway for wearing that. Here, both genders have more estrogen-infused clothes than I do. Most days I can keep a straight face when I see this, but I was smirking the entire way on the subway that day. Honestly, I like the murses and like their whole feminine culture. I'm still not over it though. And truly, I hope I'm never over it, because it makes me smile every time I see it.

You know you're homesick...

2009-06-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

....when you dream of negotiating with your current employer to do your old job instead of you current one.

I didn't sleep well last night, so ended up rescheduling with the gal I was supposed to meet today. Someone in another building was incessantly turning their music up and down last night. Doors were opening and slamming around the neighborhood. Even though my windows are closed, it all comes in some nights. I really need to buy a Hello Kitty night mask :)

Da da da

2009-06-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

After work I met a Korean gal in Sinchon for dinner who used to live in LA. She's 26, and got married to an American recently while she was at college in LA.

But here's where it gets strange. She's back in Seoul and living with her parents, which is typical for Koreans. They live at home until they get married, which is usually by the time they hit their early 30's. However, her 'rents don't know she got married. Why? Because they don't want migook children. So, she's secretly married to the man of her dreams, who happens to be from Iowa. They know that she's dating him but hope for something better (read Korean man) from her. Her plan is to wait until she's considered old and ugly (which is around 31/32 here!), and at that point tell her parents she's going to marry him.

I freaking love America. Even if I'd be considered old and ugly a year from now :)

Seoul fun

2009-06-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

So this is the best link ever. Well, if you've ever been a gamer:
http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/2008/01/05/dragon-strike-board-game-review/

Last night was wino night at my place. Jenny & Ann came over, and drank our livers away. Anyway, last week Ann and I went to Bauhaus in Hongdae. Here are the videos!

Here is a video of Ann and I walking down one of the alleys by our house on the way to Subway.

Short blog, mucho videos! What can I say...I teach kids all day that only want fun, games, music cds and videos....don't we all?

Liar!

2009-06-08T06:09:00.000-07:00

Okay I lied! I got my internet to play nice and got some pictures uploaded. Hence begins the journey up the stairs of the subway........

Street meat! Well, I don't remember wtf this dish is called, but it's a rice noodle (think one big ole' noodle the size of your middle finger) along with tofu/fish stuff, drizzled with hot spicy red pepper stuff that will clear out your nose in .5 seconds. All eaten with a toothpick of course:

A nice sign about ESL teachers I found online, in case you didn't know we were evil monkeys:

And now....the best part *drum roll inserted here*! While I was busy searching the entire internet a month ago, I found a place called Bau Haus. This is a cafe devoted to people like me who like animals but can't have them in their apartment. Apparently there is a cat cafe too for those feline-inclined folk. Anyway, the place is the BOMB. Ann and I decided that we'd rather go there on the weekend to hang instead of a bar. I'v got some great video of the place but can't find my Flip at the moment.

More to come ya'll...

Finally, a working camera!

2009-06-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

But not a fast-working internet connection. I was going to post a bunch of pics from the little trips Ann and I have been taking (Yongsan, Hongdae, etc), but my internet connection is working slowly so no pics tonight. I bought a camera charger today though, so it's a step in the right direction. So instead of pics, here is a list of my likes and dislikes:

I miss Eugene.
I miss understanding everything that's going on around me.
I miss being able to read everything.
I miss blending into the crowd.
I miss getting treated like everyone else.
I miss E's laugh.
I miss playing footsie at night.
I miss going into the grocery store, picking up a bag/box/package of something, and being able to read and understand how to make what's in the package instead of wondering if I can just wing making this food item or if I'll end up going without dinner.
I miss laying in the grass (not that I got to do that much in LA, but still).
I miss the lack of humidity.
I miss tap water.
I miss feeling good in the mornings instead of having headaches.
I miss having no one care if I can eat kimchi or not.
I miss not being asked 23049324 times if I like spicy food.
I miss not getting asked if I can use chopsticks.
I miss not hearing people say "migook" when I'm around.
I miss Americans who think that wearing a face mask makes you freaking creepy and strange.
I miss clear skies.
I miss the controlled order in which people walk on the street in the US. I miss open spaces.
I miss driving.
I miss hugs.

I began a list of what I like, which is shorter due to time contraints from when I wrote this earlier this morning:

I like being able to disappear for hours/days, knowing that no one here really cares about me (except for Ann).
I like walking everywhere.
I like the students when they're acting like little fucking angels.
I like the new food.
I like my nose running after eating yet another spicy Korean dish.
I like the mountains and nature.
I like how people hock (I don't know if that's the right spelling, oh well) up loogies and spit them in the street.
I like spending time with Ann, whom I'm discovering I have a ton in common with (moreso than before).
I like seeing the hazy moon at night.
I like taking the subway across the Han river.
Heck, I like taking the subway anywhere.
I like the strange packages in shops.
I like getting service, even if it is dried squid leg jerky (which I will never eat again).
I like the crazy signs (generally they have sayings like "Virgin Bikini Bar", or "Spam".

My node is rudding

2009-06-07T08:13:00.000-07:00

Ann and I hung out most of the evening, and I came home absolutely starving so decided to break into the kimchi in my fridge. Five minutes later, my face turned hot and my nose is running. I had bought radish kimchi at E-mart last week which I wasn't wild about. This stringy cabbage stuff that I'm eating right now is kind of like crunchy pasta with the red pepper paste (or, whatever the hell is in kimchi besides garlic and red pepper paste). At 33 calories per cup, I'll drop about 20 pounds in three weeks if I eat this for dinner each night instead of as a side dish. Maybe my digestive track won't scream bloody murder in the morning too if it gets used to this hot-assed pepper shit.

Speaking of Ann, living right next to her is freaking fabulous. I never lived in a dorm during college, so feel like I'm finally having the dorm life experience about ten years too late. I just knock on her door then punch in the key code (we don't have keys here....everything is electronic) and walk in. It's just so nice to have a great girlfriend next door that I can totally hang out with all day. We wear out pjs and just shoot the shit for hours (with breaks for me to go get coffee, clean my place, or check email) until we get the motivation to leave the house. I think that everyone else in this building is Korean. There are some odd smells that go on around here. Tonight the elevator smelled absolutely wretched. Most of the time my apartment smells like smoke (either someone in the building smokes or it's the building manager who spends most of his day in a lounge chair with a cigarette perpetually attached to his lips) or food. It still smells like dude in here from Keith living here, but I suppose there are worse things in life.

Today I went to Anyang which was interesting. It takes about 45 minutes to get there via bus, or +/-20 minutes via subway. I took the bus down which was neat since it went over one of the mountain ranges. The landscape changes from city with minimal vegetation to city with a ton of trees, bushes and grass. They even have clover and chamomile growing on the side of the road here. I like that there are so many things to do in Seoul, but honestly like the countryside moreso since it's more laid back and there's a lot of nature going on. The apartments there (and up here in Seoul) still look like the freaking projects, but Koreans don't see anything wrong with it. To them ghetto-style buildings are home. To me it makes me long for a real yard.

Tomorrow Ann and I are going to do some shopping. My camera charger isn't working so I'll hopefully find a new one since a blog without pictures is rather dull...

Things kids like + rant

2009-06-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've survived 3 days of teaching kids. Don't ask me how that happened, because honestly it has been the most interesting experience of faking something in my life.

So, what do kids like? They like:

-New teacher introductions (Hi, my name is Jess. I'm from the United States. I am from California" *draws on board*)
-Getting high fives from teacher
-Yelling out the right answers (sorry stupid students who zone off!)
-Anything having to do with points, stars, wining etc.
-Saying "Teacher!", followed by "cheating, book open, two times two stars?"
-Climbing out windows after the raindrops
-Yelling at teacher to play games
-Playing games. That means excessively asking to play games, because these poor students are in school 12 hours a day, then are up studying and doing homework all night. That leaves about 5 hours of sleep. No wonder people in this region of the world scare Americans. They are WAY smarter than us at the end of the day.
-Making the nerd read the most out of the book in class (which undoubtedly leads to that kid making the most money ten years in the future. I always knew it paid to be a nerd.).

So yeah, after the first three days, Teacher Jess is doing okay. I walked into all of my classes (except for one, which Jin taught) not knowing what the heck to do. Uhm, I had the pages to cover in the syllabus, but other than that, no direction in teaching. Great job YBM. Welcome to Korea! My employer is solid, but they don't know shit about getting people organized and acclimated. My 6 month plan is to exchange my Pear class for writing up an introduction plan for new English teachers. Why? Because I'm the freaking bomb at getting people acclimated to their new environment.

Here begins the bitch session. If you don't want the negativity, stop now. So what's wrong with Koreans? Well, the #1 reason is the swine flu, and their utter fear of it. They're all scared. EVERYONE over the age of, well 20 and older thinks it's utterly terrifying. Managers in my school as well as others have goofy rules right now. I checked the grammar of a memo that's coming out tomorrow to the English teachers for my school. What does it boil down to you ask? Well, don't go to clubs this weekend (we have Monday off). But you can ride the subway anywhere (because apparently white people don't ride the subway, and since Koreans each kimchi you can't catch the swine flu from them. True story if you ask a Korean.). If you leave the country, give the school as much advance notice as possible. Now, what is not in the note is that if you leave the country, you must spend 7 (now currently, subject to change) paid days off of teaching at the school. Korean teachers that leave the country can come back come right back to work. Students that leave and come back to Korea, come right back to school.

Read the previous paragraph. What am I really trying to say? What word am I expressing? Racism! That's right class! If you are a migook (white person), we are racist against you in Korea! Especially if you are a teacher! Yeah! Even though your employer has no legal rights in your contract ask teachers to do the above, they ask you weekly to stay away from other white people and to stay home! Wow, isn't that fun class?

Okay I'll lay off the sarcasm. But seriously, these peeps here are goofy. I've never been a mom but can understand they are scared of the swine flu. I can really understand my employers POV in terms of keeping the flu out of the school so that the company can continue to make money off of the parents during a recession. But guess what? You have no legal rights over my weekend, so don't be surprised to see your memo in the recycling bin as I'm leaving the school at night.

So the sarcastic and bitter post aside after a long week. Seriously, I'm enjoying myself here. But some of the little things get to me. For instance, EVERYONE stares at me here. It's not that they're being rude, but they're just curious since most people here are Korean. When they see a westerner, they tend to check you out. After working 11 hours and having to walk 30 minutes to get home, after the 20th person has been staring at you, a westerner wants to say, "I really enjoy teaching your kids all day, but you staring at me like I'm a new piece of candy in the candy shop is really intrusive and annoying" is not the way to make friends and influence people. So instead I stare back until they look away or give in to my smile.

Okay, long but good day. I'm going to bed!

Rant over :)

Oh yeah....

2009-05-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Note to self - just because you're on an entirely different sleep schedule doesn't mean you don't have to drink coffee.

I've had mild headaches, which is strange for me since I rarely get them. After carting my luggage over to Ann's this morning, I was just sitting here feeling like crud. Then it dawned on me....I haven't been drinking as much coffee here (some days I would forgo it. Another day I bought a canned coffee which tasted like 2/3's sugar and 1/3 weak coffee. Gross.). So no caffeine, hence the headaches.

Gotta find a Starbucks on the way to work...

Amajon

2009-05-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Last night was Keith's going away party, so we went to his favorite bar which is called Amajon. How he ever found this place is beyond me. There were 15+ in our group, so we all made our way down into this underground bar to be assaulted by loud, obnoxious music that sounds like Greek techno-pop meets happy hardcore. The manager immediately pounced on us. He kicked some Koreans out of their seats and put his henchmen to work setting up that table with those around it so it would accommodate us all. Bottles upon bottles of beer were thrust onto the table along with an assortment of a stylin' fruit and veggie platter, as well as mixture of some Korean snacks I don't know the names of yet. The manager is talking excitedly and literally pushing us all into the seats.

Being that this is my first night at an actual club, and one which isn't frequented by Westerners very often, I was flabbergasted at how we were being treated. Honestly, I was embarrassed that they kicked people out of their seats then were getting treated like royalty while getting jostled around by the manager a he got us situated. He literally smacked Ann's ass when she was resisting sitting down because there was only a sliver of space left at the end seat :)

Anyway, we all finally get seated and get the drinks poured. The manager is still jumping excitedly around the table. Now that we're seated his next mission is to get us out dancing to this god awful oopa techno music. Ann is at the end of the table and Mr. Manager dude is pulling her arm, trying to get her to dance. Five minutes later she finally gives in rather than let him pop her arm out of the socket.

Here's a shot of Ann, Skitch, and Thomas. Check out the dude rocking out on the dance floor. Makes you want to dance huh?

Ann, Jenny and I took off early, then got one more beer close to her apartment. She lives off of an alley where there are some small 7-11 type shops. A lot of these places have tables set up outside so you can enjoy your purchases outside. After about half an hour the rest of the crew came walking by and joined us since everyone lives in the same neighborhood. Soon after, my roommate (remember Mr. Cockroach?) and some of his buddies are swarming on the patio under our feet. What IS IT with these cockroaches here?!? They're everywhere!

Today I may move into Ann's place since she's in Japan for the weekend. My current place is more convenient for getting food and the Guro station, and the people at the 7-11 and restaurants know me know since I'm always going in to buy water or kimbap. I'll try and take a picture of the street I'm on tonight, since it is awesome at night. I couldn't find it one night because it looks so different in the daytime without the lights and swarms of people. So yeah, hopefully I can set up shop over at Ann's then put together some lesson plans. The other teachers are going to Hongdae tonight so I may join them so I can see the place at night.

Also, here are two articles about missiles and a response to Koreans freaking out about teachers bringing the swine flu to Korea. The swine flu is a super hot issue over here. I have seen women with babies literally walk the other way when they see me. For the most it usually goes like this:
Korean stares at me --> I smile at the person --> They continue to stare at me --> I go about my merry way. But once in a blue moon (usually when there are kids involved), they don't get near me. Coming back from a shopping excursion a couple with a young boy got on the subway. The wife saw me and pulled her husband in child in the opposite direction, away from me. I understand they're freaked out and frankly find it amusing. If I was in their shoes, I'd be doing the same thing. Swine flu aside, North Korea launching missiles isn't a big deal here. Where I come from they don't test missiles on a weekly basis or set off underground nukes (at least not 35 miles away from my home, which Eugene said was the distance from Seoul to North Korea). That being said, the missiles and uber crazy leader up north don't really make sleeping at night as easy. But then I just think back to the music from last night and I fall asleep to escape that god awful stuff :)

Still no swine flu here!

2009-05-29T03:55:00.000-07:00

Hey it's been 5 days, and I don't have the swine flu! Otherwise, I'd be horizontal in bed all day instead of vertical like below:

However, I just got a call from the school. I was supposed to move into my apartment and end my affair with Mr. Cockroach on Saturday, and begin teaching Monday. They told me I'm moving Monday and teaching Tuesday. Fucking-A. I'm fine with teaching Tuesday. But I AM NOT FINE with moving Monday. Grrr, I'm so flippin' annoyed about this. Guess it's my first lesson in Korean work culture.

Anyway, I digress. Finally going to post some pics. Below is a shot from out my window. It's hard to read, but Outback Steakhouse is in one of the buildings to the far left. I still love finding the US restaurants here (Just found Baskin Robbins. My thighs are really excited about that one.).

Cute little mascot things outside of a shop in Hongdae:

Grill set-up for veggies and meat:

These are freaking awesome, and I've seen them all over the place. They are machines that have the little anime bobble heads that I'm in love with:

The past few days have been good. Mostly hanging with Ann at restaurants or coffee shops, and exploring E Mart. I bought a blanket, pillow, and pillow cover there, and hit up Forever 21 and bought some dresses. Off to a going away part in a few, so will write more tomorrow!

Street Food = Happy Happy Joy Joy Breakfast

2009-05-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Ann. She's an old coworker of mine from CP Morgan in Indianapolis that has lived in Seoul for just over a year, and I've nominated her as my official tour guide. I finally located my camera cord so can upload pics. This is from La Fiesta the first night I got in:

Yesterday I did a lot of walking and not much eating. I picked a direction and just walked, since getting lost is not on my top 10 list of things to do quite yet. I'm living near the Daerim station, and walked over to the Nambu station which is about a half hour walk each way. Passed a nice park, and more street vendors selling stuff for super cheap. A decent sweater is only 5,000 won which translates to less than $5 US. I want to take pictures as I see things but feel horribly rude :)

Right before crashing out last night I walked into the bathroom and saw something scuttle in the entry way - a cockroach. I suppressed a scream and promptly lost my shit. Being tired, hungry, and feeling dumb after a day of not being able to read or communicate coupled with the arrival of my new roommate, I bawled my eyes out for a good ten minutes then immediately passed out. I'm not sad and I'm glad I came here, but a day of feeling culturally isolated can do that to a gal. Over nine hours later I woke up feeling like my old self.

One thing I don't get is why Koreans don't wear sunglasses. Or at least, none that I've seen the past two mornings are wearing them. Maybe they do but I have yet to see it. Anyway, this morning my first mission was getting some food, while not wearing any sunglasses so I can fit in with the peeps here. I'm having a hard time knowing what anything is, since I haven't run across too many spots yet that have the English definition. Hence, the not eating part. This morning I walked over to the Guru station and picked up two tempura potatoes and a roll that contained every meat product known to man, which only cost about $3. Happiness is a full belly:

Also amusing are the US restaurants here. Outback is right out my window. McDonalds is here and there. Dunkin Donuts is around the corner. For now I'll stick to street food since it's just as unhealthy but probably tastes better. I think the Body Shop is located in a high rise across the street from me, but it's not written in English so I'm going off of the logo. I saw a business with the same design as Century 21, so maybe they're over here too.

Anyway, going with one of the teachers to explore Seoul today, and do drinks later and meet the rest of the teaching crew. Whoo hoo :)

I'm here, whoo hoo

2009-05-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

I'm finally here!! Eugene and I got to the airport and dumped the luggage, then hung out for a bit. I have never liked goodbye's, and yesterday was no exception. After dabbing the eyes I exchanged my cash for won, which technically means I'm a millionaire. Thank you South Korea for making me feel rich (well, no more rich than the rest of the folk here).

Got on the plane. Sleep, then a fun dish bi bimp bop:

Along with that tastiness was some funky (meaning gross in my book) fish soup, kimchi, fruit, and something unrecognizable, which Ann said was probably pumpkin slices.

Upon arrival the first stop at the airport was the heath inspection. Lining up with the others like cattle, I noticed that the airport agents were armed like Bones from Star Trek with some futuristic thing they were putting up to people's necks as they passed through. My complete aversion to anything medical related (coupled with being in a foreign country where I can't read shit yet) made me a bit freaked out. I give the dude my paperwork and he zaps my neck. I wait for some strange sensation but nothing happens and he's waving me through.

Get baggage, doing my best not to become disoriented by Hangul and my inability to speak Korean, and am trying to locate a phone. My phone, which is supposed to be enabled to make calls, is not. I'm fumbling like a country bumpkin trying to figure out the international codes. I finally located a pay phone, and am trying to figure out where to get calling cards for it since mine aren't working. Switch out bills for coins, and finally am dialing Ann when my cell phone rings. I practically drop the thing in surprise. It's Eugene calling, and I freak out on him (I'm TRULY sorry E!!) since I'm quickly losing my sense of calm. At the same time my call to Ann goes through, who is thankfully at the airport and right there.

Now for the goofy part - Ann lets me know that the school (aka hogwon) is not going to put me into orientation this week....meaning, next Monday, I'm teaching after NO orientation. Get this....they are terrified that I (and all foreigners) have swine flu and will infect them them all. Oink oink little piggy, over? Uh, yeah, I have swine flu and my sole purpose is to get all the kids sick as well as the other teachers. I find this utterly hilarious. I'm honestly looking forward to reading books and learning Korean all week, and maybe travelling around a bit, but am a bit disappointed that I don't get to go through orientation. Who knew the swine flu would allow me a paid week off?

We hop on a bus, and an hour later meet up with Kobe from the school. The school has graciously checked me into a love motel near the school. Apparently, young adults have no where to go to express the physical aspects of their relationship since they live at home, so they go to a love motel. In the US, this would aka a pay-by-the-hour type of place. Yeah, I feel like royalty already here folks.

Really, it's not that bad of a place. It's relatively clean and has funky pink and purple flowered wallpaper, which is hot in my book. Anyway, Ann and I spent a few moments at the motel and looking at the view, then took off for some food and drinks at La Fiesta (or something like that). We ran into a Korean women and another teacher who joined us after we were done eating. I'm slowly figuring out what the heck Koreans are all about, but do know that drunk Korean women are pretty dang funny and much more aggressive when they want to get their drink on. This woman was haggling Ann (literally, asked, begged, and pleaded with Ann 50+ times to go to Itaewon or Hong-Dae-something-or-other to go clubbing). Mind you, this is a Monday night at 11pm and the bars, restaurants, and streets are filled with people. Mostly people eating and getting wasted, but people EVERYWHERE. The area I'm staying in looks similar to K-town in LA but everything is taller, and businesses go all the way up to the top of the buildings.

I could babble on my step-by-step adventures this morning but it basically boils down to walking around getting stared at, and finding Holly's coffee shop then walking around a bit more before coming back to the hotel. They have a Dunkin' Doughnuts around the corner and an Outback Steakhouse nearby, so maybe some night when I'm missing US terribly I can drown my sorrows in a blooming onion.

I'll post more once I find the cord to my camera and a better internet connection. I kept on trying to upload a video of the view from my room but I have a weak signal so will have to try another time.

Miss you all :)

That's what friends are for

2009-05-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's a bit of a cheesy title. But thank goodness for friends. Ann is going to meet me at the airport on Monday. Phew! It takes such a load of stress off of my back knowing that she'll be there when I get off of the plane. I didn't expect her to do such a sweet thing (not to mention it's a long ride in), and it means so much.

She and I were talking on Skype today about when I arrive. Typically the school sends Kobe to pick up the new recruits and take them out. She said that Jin is coming too this time, so they must really like me. Yes, my ego needs to be inflated, as my insecurities about going to a foreign country makes it deflate quicker than normal :)

I spent some time today looking for my flip video camera. It wasn't in my desk where I normally keep it. I ripped through everything in my kitchen. No luck. While I was getting ready to sew E's shirt, I thought about looking through my purses in my armoire. Typically I empty them when I switch them out. But no, my black travel purse had a few trinkets in it, including the camera. I am officially ready to go, now that I have my trusty lil' cam with me. Okay, almost ready to go....still nervous but in a good way.

It's official!

2009-05-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

I received my e-ticket to South Korea! My employer and I were corresponding back and forth last week about flights. For several days I didn't hear anything, so wondered if the swine flu made them have second thoughts about employing an American :) I leave May 24th, which is right around the corner. It didn't feel real until I got my ticket, so now it's time to get into gear and wrap up loose ends here in Los Angeles. My friends are asking when my going away party is, but I'm having a hard time getting around to setting that up. Denial is a wonderful thing.

My brother Chris is flying into town as I type. It will be wonderful to spend some time with him since living halfway across the country makes it tough to stay in contact. Not to mention, it's near impossible to pick on your brother when he doesn't live nearby!

Perhaps we had better start from the beginning....

2009-05-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

So, I really could start from the beginning but that would be quite a lot to write. I'm going to slowly give up my old blog (which I don't write much in these days anyway), to write here about the next chapter which is slowly unwrapping itself. I leave the end of this month for Seoul, South Korea. I'll be teaching English. English! The subject I used to loathe in school, mostly because it was a boring class. Reading books that had no appeal, teachers that required religious vacations if you were in their class (and this was in the 90's!), and the mona lisa smile.

Today I returned to the Korean consulate to pick up my E2 work visa. I have to do some additional paperwork when I arrive, but I can now officially work there for a year. Heck to the yeah! I'm working on learning Hangul so that I can read the names of businesses, books, subways, etc. Several weeks ago I signed up for groups on meetup.com and language exchanges. Hopefully by the time I get there I will be in a place to meet new friends so I don't spend my evenings home at the gym or reading copious amounts of books. I'll probably join Ann's gym, but am thinking about taking up martial arts. Anything to get me moving in my free time is a plus, since it will keep me away from my computer game vice :)