Archive for ‘November 2009’

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving at school! Since my kids are so young and barely speak English, they didn't really know what what going on, but they had food and crafts so I don't think they really cared. We had a potluck, and all the kids were sent to school with food. It's really funny because the traditional turkey/corn/yams/cranberry sauce was nowhere to be seen. Instead my classroom was flooded with fried chicken, donuts, cookies, tteok-kochi, cheesecake, tangerines, and one authentic Costco pumpkin pie. After all, none of my holidays are complete without something from Costco.

We also made a bowl of mashed potatoes, and all the kids got turns mashing the potatoes and stirring in the milk. They went absolutely CRAZY when I poured the milk into the potatoes. And we got a cut up some sort of seasonings, maybe parsley, and ham. Koreans add ham to everything, it's so funny. It actually tasted pretty good with the mashed potatoes. And even at the end, when I was asking if they had fun eating and coloring and making hats, Lily made the "mashing" motions and said it was fun. Besides the food, the kids got to make pilgrim hats and bonnets, which they actually really liked. It was a little hard for them, but thankfully Sue and Naiad where there to help me. The school always hires a professional photographer for parties at the school, but the photographer only came in at the beginning and the end, when all we were doing was coloring. She tried to get a group shot, but of course, lovely Joe wouldn't listen at all. And by then half of the bonnets had broken because they were made out of paper and the girls would pull too hard on the strings.

Slightly unfortunate for me, the night before a group of us went out for galbi and we all wound up drinking too much. Soju, the Korean drink of choice, always gives you this delayed hangover where you wake up and feel fine so you think you got off scott-free. But then about 2 hours into your day, it catches up to you. And for me, it caught up halfway through the potluck when I had already stuffed my face. So ya, I felt just dandy. Thank god I didn't have to actually teach anything. That was probably the best part of the day haha.

Hilarious, the kids had a really hard time saying "Thanksgiving" and I think half the time it came out as "Happy Thanks-you-bu-gibing" to which I would absolutely bust up laughing, and they would in turn start laughing hysterically. I also gave the kids a bunch of coloring sheets to keep them busy after we ate. I colored a few and put them up on the board, just so the kids could see what the pictures are supposed to look like, because most of the time when they color it looks like their crayon packs had a seizure all over the page. And you can see from Julie's turkey, my pre-colored pictures didn't really help much. But no matter, they had fun so that's all the counts.

All in all it was a fun day, a little tiring, but it was fun and the kids had a great time.

I think Dexter is, honest to god, the world's worst kitten. Oh ya, he's all cute and cuddly in the pictures, sure! But in real life, he is the spawn of Satan. I can't walk anywhere without him attacking my feet fr starters. Which means that if I'm wearing stockings or socks, there's most likely going to be a hole in them. He also tries to eat every cord in the room. I try to keep them taped to the floor, but the two leading up to my computer, that's just not possible. Same with my cell phone charger. There is also a mass of cords behind the TV. I've tried to section the area off with cardboard, but he always seems to find a way in and get all tangled in the cords.

Along with eating cords, he also tries to eat my hand. I know he's just being playful, but he bites hard! And since it's winter and I'm wearing long-sleeves and jackets, he attacks my hand/arm and usually get's my sleeve. I have to buy him new toys all the time because he either loses his or gets bored of them. I honestly can't figure out where all his toys have gone, I have done a thorough sweep of the house and have found none. And he has to have toys to keep him occupied, or else he just attacks me!

Every time he does something bad I get him with the squirt gun, but literally two seconds later he's back at it again. Now when I pick up the gun it's enough to get him to stop, but the second I put it down again he's trying to do something bad. He climbs up the screen door to the balcony. He menuvers himself behind the washing machine and the fridge. He attacks my yarn if I don't leave it properly covered. He kicks his litter EVERYWHERE. He attacks my face when I'm trying to sleep, so I either have to sleep completely covered under the blankets, or with the squirt gun in my hand. He tries to gnaw through his catfood bag. He jumps on the table. He destroys the paper towel rolls. He tried to jump in the toilet (I'm actually watching this enthusiastically hoping he falls in and learns his lesson). The only time I can pet him is when he is asleep, otherwise he thinks we're trying to play so he attacks my hand. He wakes up an hour before my alarm clock and runs around the room playing and meowing. He scratches the furniture. He tries to get in my closet and the fridge whenever I open them.He attacks my head when I have to reach under something to get one of his toys he got stuck there. He doesn't respond to yelling in English or Korean. And he always wakes up from his nap right when I want to go to sleep. Worst. Kitten. Ever.

Probably another thing he will try to destroy.


Getting ready for a nap.


His new cat carrier.


I found him in my shopping bag.


Caught mid-meow.

I had quite a busy day on Saturday! I was set to meet up with Tim, but that wasn't going to be until 3pm. So I decided to go on a little adventure to Downtown Seoul. I left my apartment around 10:30, and it took about 45 minutes to take the bus and the subway to Myeondong Station. I walked through Myeongdong Market up to one of the main roads and headed towards City Hall. Downtown Seoul is actually really nice. There are a lot of buildings, but they are spaced apart so the skyline isn't so crowded. And all the buildings look so different, everywhere you look you see something new. There are some really nice looking hotels there as well, Lotte Hotel, The Westin, The President Hotel. One thing that was a bit of a bother though, not all intersection have crosswalks. There are usually underground shopping centers, and people go into them and go out another exit when they want to cross the street. But of course, being foreign and unable to read Korean, I didn't want to go into one shopping center and come out completely lost. But it turned out to be a good thing, because in my search for a cross walk it lead me to new areas.

I passed Seoul Plaza which has this amazing facade. At first I thought it was covered in little LCD screens that changed to make the front look as if it were blowing in the wind. But as I got closer, I realized that the "LCD screens" were actually small plastic circles attached tothe front of the building, and they actually did move with the wind. It was pretty awesome. From Seoul Plaza I took a look up the street and found the Bank of Korea. Well, I found two Banks of Korea. One was the older building, and one was the new technologically improved building. There was also a Bank of Korea Museum. I didn't have time to look at it, but I'm sure I'll go back eventually. There was also a good view of Seoul Tower which is in Namsan Park. It's like the Space Needle of South Korean, but with many more people. I hear that on weekends it's absolutely packed.

Then I went back to Seoul Plaza, because right next to it is Deoksugung, one of the five Palaces in Seoul. And it's literally right in downtown. It only cost 1,000 to get in and look around, so I stopped in. Deoksugung was built in the 1400s and served as the symbolic heart of Seoul for hundreds of years. The palace used to be much larger, but during the Japanese occupation in the 1930s much of the land was sold and the building destroyed. You enter first through Daehanmun Gate (right) and come first to Jungwajeon Hall (left) which was the main throne hall when it was built in 1902. As you meander through the Palace you also see Jeukjodang which was the main throne hall before 1902, Hamnyeongjeon which was the Emperor's sleeping quarters built in 1897, and Jeonggwanheon which was used to hold banquets for foreigners. There is also Seokjojeon which is a western-style building that was created as part of the Han Empire's attempts to westernize. There are many more buildings as well, these were just some of the main ones. On the way out of the Palace, you can see the Royal Guard in front of Daehanmun Gate. They have changing of the guard ceremonies, but I wasn't there long enough to see it.


These are some other pictures of Deoksugung and its buildings. You can see that it is surrounded by the city of Seoul












































After seeing Deoksugung, I wandered deeper into Seoul. I found a really beautiful fountain, with a sculpture of Admiral Lee Sun-Sin in the middle. And just past that was a gold statue of who I believe to be Confucius. Further back was Gwanghwamun Square, and past that were a few mountains, although I'm not sure which ones.

After that I made my way to Dongdaemun to meet up with Tim. I could have taken the subway, but it didn't seem like that long of a walk. Well, it was. I finally made it though, and with time to stop at Dongdaemun Shopping Center to pick up buttons for the slippers that I've been making (but that's a whole new blog). After meeting up with Tim, we decided to take the subway to Olympic Park which was created to commemorate the 1988 Olympics. The park is huge, and it's filled with tons of sculptures (most of which were strange and questionable).

So Tim and I took a trip around the park, stopping to look at the artwork and wonder what the hell we were looking at. We found a random giant thumb sticking out of the ground. I wished there had been some of those plaques with the "artists interpretation" so we can at least attempt to figure out what the scultures were for. There was also one that looked like kind of like a half-pipe coming out of the ground and covered with grass, and some weird structure made of metallic spheres cut in half. The scenery was very nice, because all the trees are changing color and the leaves are falling, so it made for a great scene. It was still pretty cold though, probably in the 30s, but lower with the windchill.

After our little wander through the park, we decided to hop back on the subway and go to the COEX in Samseong building to get dinner. COEX is the Convention Center/giant underground mall that is filled with restaurants, coffee shops, and clothing stores. So we got a quick bit to eat and stepped back out into the cold. Just outside one of the doors in a Buddhist Temple called Bongeunsa which houses Korea's largest standing Buddha statue. It was dark and pretty much deserted when we went, so we only stopped in for a bit. There was the main building where people were doing their worship, and then there was the huge Buddha statue, surrounded by flowers, candles and offerings. It looked pretty cool in the dark, so I'll have to go back during the daylight sometime.

From there we hoped on the subway again to meet up with Tim's friend Dok in Sadang. There we stopped at a Hofbrau house for a few drinks and the cheapest thing on the menu. Some places in Korea require you to order food with your drink purchase, which was the case here. I told Tim earlier that I would hang out with him and his friends in Sinchon, but by the time we were done with our drinks, it was almost 9:30pm and I was completely wiped out. I think I probably walked upwards of 5 miles throughout the day. So the three of us got back on the subway, Tim stayed on line 2 to go back to Sinchon, and Dok and I went to line 4 which aparently we both live on, but in completely opposite directions. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to get home, simply because that was the farthest I've been away from Ssangmun Station before. Dok though it would take at least an hour and a half, but with the subway to the station and then the bus to my apartment, it was only an hour. And thankfully I had gotten on a new train, so there were plenty of open seats.

Can I tell you how much I hate mosquitos? I usually feel that everything on Earth serves some sort of purpose, even if I don't like it. Mosquitos on the other hand, seem to serve no purpose other than causing me pain and insanity. I don't know how they get in here, I'm on the 13th freaking floor! That height would be like a human traveling into space. The only way I can even imagine they get in here is through the tiny spaces in my rather poorly shutting windows. And I swear, they always wait until I am falling asleep, and they buzz right past my ear! It completely freaks me out and I jolt up. I have to turn on the light (much to Dexter's disapproval) and try to find the little bastard. And of course, I can't find my slipper to hit him with, and of course when I go in for the blow he escapes. When they fly away it's like they have some sort of stealth mode, one second I see it, the next it's gone! When I go to sleep I try to cover myself as much as possible, but it makes no difference, they still get me. And in the strangest/most uncomfortable places; the top of my foot is also a favorite choice of theirs, the back of my thighs, it's all fair game. So as soon as I see one I have to go after it. It's disgusting, but you can tell which ones have been around the longest, because when I hit them there's just a huge blood spot left behind :|

In my latest adventures in food (an adventure that actually started some weeks ago) Gimbap (김밥) is quickly becoming my favorite food. It looks similar to Japanese sushi rolls, but they are quiet different. While sushi has rice and raw fish, Gimbap usually has vegetables, crab, some form of meat like ham, radish, etc. There are different types of Gimbap as well; vegetable gimbap, tuna gimbap, cheese gimbap, kimchi gimbap. You can get gimbap with virtually anything in it. And the best part is the cost. An entire roll of gimbap (this one is tuna) is only about ₩2,000! Cheap and delicious is basically how I run my life. There is a good gimbap place right by school, and in one of the grocery stores on the way home, so I can pick up a meal where ever. Often on days when I have to work until 7:30 I'll stop and get one during lunch and have it for dinner during class so I'm not starving by the time I leave.

If you've seen the pictures of my shower, you realize that the bathroom and the shower are the same thing, so there's no ledge or anything to put my foot on if I want to shave my legs. Quiet annoying. I could use the toilet seat, but since all my bathroom stuff is over in the direction, I could probably just get everything soaking wet. Today I learned the hard way that using the sink as a foot rest is not the best idea. Although it's the perfect height, the porcelain-esque sink is extremely slippery when wet. As I was shaving my foot slipped, I bashed my toe against the mirror, and or course gave myself a nasty gash. Way to go, Colleen.

I found a great website to buy cat supplies for Dexter, it's called Gmarket. A lot of the website is translated into English thankfully, but it's still a little hard to understand. You're given a type of item (let's say animal carriers) that all start at one defined price. So you click on one, and there are multiple different styles and colors within that item. And under the drop menu are the specific styles/color with additional prices on them. So if you see a list of items that are ₩13,000, you have to look in the drop down menu, find the name of the item (which of course is in Korean) then find that item in the pictures, and make sure it's the one you want. Of course if I could read Hangul, it would be much easier. But they have everything you can imagine, cat toys, litter, food, snacks, shampoos. And the website isn't just for pet stuff, they have everything you can imagine. I think it's like Amazon for Korea. I desperately need to get him a carrier, because I still need to go to the vet and get his vaccinations, but I have no way of getting him there. All I have is a cardboard box, and I would feel extremely awkward walking down the streets of South Korea with a cardboard box that meows. I think I found a decent one though, they are mostly dog carriers, so I had to make sure I got one that seals all the way since I don't think Dexter would have the self discipline to stick only his head out. And Grace is going to help me order everything which is great.

Speaking of Dexter, I got him some new toys today, so here are a few videos of him playing.

So far November has had some good times and some bad times. On the good side, my favorite band Say Anything has come out with their newest album, and I am in love with it. I have been listening to it basically non-stop (except taking a few breaks to listen to my new collection of k-pop). The new album is definitely different from their old ones, but in a good way. I love it.

Also, I went to Itaewon (이태원) today. I think I mentioned it before, but Itaewon is a good place for foreigners to go to, lots of western style/sized clothing and shoes. I went in hopes of getting 1. Books, 2. Socks, and 3. Boots. Since I left all my boots back in The States, and it's getting cold here, I need a pair. I was going to go get some cheap kind, and I went into a few stores but didn't really see anything I liked in my size. So I kind of splurged, and ordered a pair of custom-made boots! They were pretty expensive, I'm not going to tell you how much, but I still think I got a good deal. I got to pick out the style and the color: a dark greyish-blue, slouchy, mid-calf, genuine leather pair with snaps near the top and the ability to roll the top section down. I've never had custom-made anything before. Hopefully they turn out how I like them. The guy was very nice, he even knocked off ₩100,000 off the price. It better be the best damned pair of boots I've ever had.

I also found a few souvenirs, some socks, I couldn't find the book store though. The guy at the sock place tried to explain it to me and he told me I had to take a bus, but I didn't know which direction to go. Plus with the amount that I had just spent on those shoes, books can be saved for later. I asked Grace when I got home, and she told me that I got a good price on them. Oh! I also found postcards finally, so if you would like a postcard, give me your address!!

On a not-so-good note, I got two new kid sin my class, that makes the total seven. Joe and Sally are their names. Sally seems pretty smart, she gets a little distracted sometimes, but I think she'll do good. But then there's Joe. Worst kid ever. He doesn't do a single thing I tell him to, oh and yes, he does understand what I say to him, he just refuses to do it. He disrupts the whole class, so I find myself yelling all the time. And since I have to take extra time to make sure he finished his work, we usually don't get done early, which means no time for fun. Plus, his mom already called to complain that I was yelling too much. So Friday I tried the whole "remain calm, talk to him on his level, reward good behavior" shtick, nope that didn't work either. So it's like, what am I supposed to do, he's screwing up the whole class. My supervisor says I have to just keep working at it. But he just makes me so exasperated, by the time afternoon comes, I'm completely drained. That kid better shape up fast or I might throw him out the window!


Adventures in Food
As you may know, I'm attempting to try as much Korean (edible looking) food as possible. This weeks items were Yeot Gangjeong, Ridiculous Shinchan (못말리는 신짱) honey snacks, and dolsot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥). The bibimbap is my favorit so far. It's a mixture of white rice, vegetables, red pepper sauce, some noodles, and a big fried egg on top. It's served in a horrendously hot bowl, and you mix everything up together and eat it. Very tasty. Yeot gangjeong (엿강정) is a type of Korean dessert, containing sesame seeds, peanuts, puffed rice and other nuts, all mixed with sticky rice sugar, to make hard, bite-sized bits. And then the honey snacks. I don't know if that's what they are really called, but it's the closest translation I could get. It's basically like a chip snack here. kind of like the consistency of a bugle or funion, but bigger, in a barrel shape, and it tastes like a honey nut cheerio. Delicious and addicting.

Oooo guess what world I just found. The great world of Korean pop music! The stuff is surprisingly catchy. The songs that I've listened to so far kind of sound like something I would hear in a dance club.

I think the most popular band would be Big Bang, which is a five-member, all-boy pop band; like Nsync but with more of a Lady Gaga/Flo Rida sound. You can check out their song Go! here. And from Big Bang, the leader G-Dragon went and did his own solo, and now has become the Justin Timberlake of Korea (minus the hilarious SNL appearances). Apparently Korean girls go stone-cold-fuck-nuts for this guy. His latest single is Heartbreaker. There has been some speculation though as to whether or not he ripped off the music for this song from Flo Rida's Right Round song. I'll admit that they do sound similar, but in all fairness, Flo Rida kind of ripped of the song too. It makes no difference to me, I still like the G-D version (ooo, look at me, already using his nickname as if I've been following his musical career for more than en entire evening!). There's also the group Super Junior who also have a poppy sound, but they also do slower songs like It's You. On the rock side, there's M.C. the Max with their song Returns which is pretty good as well; it sounds like the typical American, upcoming, alternative, rock band you would find on PureVolume.

Then there is the female group sensation 2ne1, which is the female version of Big Bang. I think they do collaborations (which are in general very popular amongst Korean artists) with Big Bang too. They have their popular song Fire for which there are even two music videos for. In terms of female artists, there is also BoA who has her single I Did It For Love. You've got the Pussycat Dolls of Korea, SNSD with their new song Tell Me What You Wish .

As far as rap goes, there are some notable artists, Drunken Tiger has a pretty good song called Monster, Epik High with their pop/rap song One, and what can only be described as the Outkast of Korea, Dynamic Duo. You can check out one of their songs here.

For the most part the music seems pretty good. It's a little strange because a few interspersed verses will be in English, or the chorus, so you think you're listening to an english version where the words are just hard to understand. But in fact, it's mostly Korean. So there you go, the quick and dirty of the massive world of Korean Pop!

It was a revelation day for me at work today. I always kind of wondered why anyone would decide that they wanted to become a teacher. It seemed to me that it was way too much work for not enough reward. Well, today I found out why.

One of the kids in my class, Alyssa, has a mom who is one of the Korean supervisors, Colleen (just as the kids have English names, so do the supervisors). So I see Colleen all the time outside of class, she's very friendly. But of course, working with the mom of one of your kids can be a little intimidating, I don't want to mess up because Colleen is right there to here about it. But we were talking today, and she actually told me that Alyssa has a lot of fun in class, and that she goes home everyday and talks about what we did in class, what she learned, and that she repeats all the funny things I say during the day. Apparently when she went to Korean kindergarten she hated it, and she never wanted to go. But the other day when Colleen and Alyssa were driving to school and they had car troubles, Alyssa said "it's ok, I'll walk to school" that's how much she wanted to go. Oh, and here's the kicker, before school started when Colleen asked Alyssa what she wanted to be when she grew up, she would always say she didn't know. But now when she asks her, Alyssa says she wants to be someone who speaks English well. I think I could literally feel my heart melting. The impact of teaching can be stunning sometimes.

Now on to something else: the weather! Old Man Winter basically just shat all over Seoul. Apparently, in Korea, the weather decides to pretty much skip autumn as a whole, and move right to winter...and fast. Two days ago I could go out with a light jacket and be fine. Now, I feel like I'm back in Pittsburgh in January. It's dropped below freezing during the day, which makes walking to and from work all the more enjoyable! Luckily my apartment is pretty well heated. All the Korean apartments are heated through the floor, so walking around without socks on is actually kind of nice. I can't control the heat though, which sucks, I wish I could turn it off during the day when I'm not here. But coming home to a pre-heated abode is pleasant.

Dexter is growing by the day, both physically and in his ability to drive me insane. He is still trying to attack my hands and legs, and his teeth are getting very sharp. I'm still working on the water gun training method. It's actually funny, I couldn't for the life of me find a squirt gun anywhere around here, so I was using a spray bottle instead and it was working fine. I went to the grocery store the other day and attached to a bunch of the cereal boxes were squirt guns! So I basically bought the cereal to get the prize. I don't know how he has done it, but Dexter has managed to lose a majority of his cat toys. I seriously can't find them anywhere. I've found that the best way to entertain him and keep him busy it to tie one of his toys to a piece of yarn, and keep the other piece attached to my finger or toe, and just through it around the room, reel it back, and repeat. He keeps destroying the yarn though, so I need to find some tougher string.

I have made my first official Korean friend! Her name is Grace and I work with her at school. She is the receptionist and she usually stays until I leave on MWF. She's really nice, but super shy about using English. She really shouldn't be though, she is pretty good. We decided to go out for dinner after work on Monday, we went to a cheap place on the corner and I tried bibimbap for the first time and it was pretty good. Grace wants to practice her English, and I want to learn Korean, so I think we'll be good friends. I asked her today if she wanted to make dinner a weekly thing and she said that sounded good. So yay! My first Korean friend!

Gabby had a Halloween party at her place last night which was pretty fun. We got dressed up in our costumes, and she took all the decorations from the school's haunted house and used them to decorate her apartment. There was food and music and everyone was getting drunk. This girl named Robin came, and she has a cute little dog who was running around with a sweatshirt on and a little reading light attached to it. Not sure exactly what his costume was, but he was cute. Gabby's neighbor came out after a while and brought her two dogs, and they were ADORABLE one of them was a cocker spaniel and it was sooooo soft.

So all the dogs were running around having fun, and they neighbor showed us her apartment and the animals were basically running in and out of both apartments. She brought over mushroom wine which we all tried. I don't know if i can adequately describe mushroom wine... if whiskey could go bad, I think that's what it would taste like. It was strong to say the least. So we're all gagging after we drink it, and the Korean woman is completely unphased by it haha. Alex and I were talking to her for a while, she didn't speak much English though. I told her I had a got, and she got really excited, ran inside, and brought out a bag of cat litter and just gave it to me! Apparently she got it online very cheap, and she didn't need it, so she gave it to me, which is great because I needed more cat litter.

After we were at the party for a while, four of us left to go to Itaewon. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but Itaewon is a popular place for foreigners to go. It basically a huge party spot, and during the day there are lots of places to go shopping and find western-sized clothes. So last night I went out to a place called Homo Hill. Three guesses why it's called that. It it quiet literally a hill for homos. There are about five or six bars/clubs I would guess. So I took a taxi with my co-workers who were going their anyway, and I met up with my friend Tim who I went to school with and have known for over 4 years. He was with some friends form Korea, and his friend from Thailand was visiting. We were going to go to a drag show, which apparently in Korea are quiet a thing to see.

We didn't wind up staying until the show, which started at 2:30am, but we went to some of the bars, danced at the clubs, had multiple shots of tequila, and over all had a great time. After Tim and his friends left I went to find my co-workers, and in one of the places I was walking around and I didn't see this little ledge in front of me, and of course, I fell, and everyone saw. It's a good thing I was too drunk to be embarrassed. In fact, I completely forgot about it this morning, that was until I was moving around and realized that my foot hurt. I got a HUGE bruise, I can actually see where the big vein was, and where it broke. It looks like a river flowing into a lake, it's pretty gross. But it doesn't hurt too bad, unless Dexter is attacking my feet and touches it.

But aside from the bruises and getting rained on, last night was a great time. I feel like Itaewon on a Saturday is going to be my new Spice on a Thursday (minus my partner in crime, Becky).