Archive for ‘2009’

Well I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted something. December has been a very hectic month, especially with Christmas time. A lot has happened since you last heard from me! I finally got those custom made boots I was telling you about, and I like them a lot. They are pretty comfortable, I could use a pair of Dr. Scholls though. And they are dark blue so they go with most of what I wear. Unfortunately they are just leather, so they aren't very warm, but there's enough room to double up on the socks. The temperature as consistently been below zero, so basically my entire collection of shoes that I brought from The States are no longer usable in any situation where I need to go outside.

Let's see... I got my hair cut, thank god. I needed it bad too. I went to Itaewon to get it done, since a lot of places there speak some English. They guy did I really good job too. They didn't wash my hair though, which sucked because I hadn't showered that day so I was hoping I wouldn't have to wash my hair before going out again, but I guess not. But no matter, my hair still looked good.

I started dating someone :) his name is Daniel and we met in Itaewon at one of the bars there. Actually it was the same night that I got my hair cut, so it must have been my lucky day. He is extremely nice, and very very very good looking. He is 26 and he's from South Africa, he's been in Korea for 3 years, so he still has a bit of the cute accent. The day after we met we went to the Korean War Memorial Museum together, and that was fun. And I've been down to visit him twice this month (He lives in Daegu, which is about 150 miles south) and I took the KTX train down there so it only took about an hour and 40 minutes to get there. We spent Christmas together with his friends that were down there, we went to Outback for dinner and clubbing afterward. Must say, not the typical holiday with the family. So we stayed in Daegu for the weekend, and drove up to Seoul yesterday. He's got business to take care of up here, and he's going to stay for New Years Eve. We still haven't figured out what we want to do, but I'm sure it will involve Itaewon.

I got to have my first experience with the Korean health care system. I got an infection in my toe (I guess it would be called the ring-finger of toes). I tried to deal with it myself with bandaids and Neosporin, but my supervisor saw it one day and said I had to go to the doctor. Luckily she was able to go with me. We simply walked right in, saw the doctor, had him assess my wound, dress it, and give me a antibiotic perscription, all in the span of 15 minutes. And the best part was that it was only ₩27,000. They did have to give me a shot in the ass though, which HURT. Not the exact shot, but the area around it hurt all night. I had to go back to the doctors a few more times for him to look at my toe and redress the wound and give me more medicine. Eventually though I stopped going. Megan told me that they keep you going and going and going, and I was sick of spending the money. Although it was really cheap after the first time (₩10,000) it started to add up. Plus my toe looks a lot better. And if it gets worse, I can always go back.

Dexter is doing well, he has actually started to calm down a bit. I can pet him now and he wont try to attack my hand. He still tries to tear my laundry down from the drying rack, and he kicks his litter every where RIGHT AFTER I sweep it up. And unfortuantely he learned how to jump behind the washing machine (and into the washing machine for that matter). He has a new fondness for running water, and he likes to jump in the sink when I'm washing my hands, or put his head under my just in time for me to spit my toothpaste all over him. Daniel has never been around cats, so he doesn't like Dexter too much, which is unfortunate because Dexter likes being where ever I am and I like being where Daniel is. Hopefully Daniel gets used to him though. It's almost time to get him neutered, yay!

Did you know that they have Todai here in Korea? Well they do! Tim and Nathan and I went the other weekend, it was great. There was sooo much food. Nathan and I could only polish off about three of four plates, but Tim got up to round nine I think. They had great sushi, and crab legs, and Chinese food. I even has a piece of sushi with green caviar on it. For the most part I had no idea what I was eating, but it was still delicious. And then after we were completely bloated, we went out drinking! We went to The Hill again, trying to stay up for the drag show which was at 2:30am. I met the most flamboyant gay Korean that there ever was in existence. For the most part, Koreans don't really flaunt their homosexuality because it is highly looked down upon here, but this man, whoa, he was basically breathing fire. But he was super nice, and he gave us all free shots of tequila. The drinks at his bar were expensive, but he made the SUPER strong. We went to the dance club that the drag show was at, but I couldn't make it. I got to like, 2:30am but they were starting late, and I was literally falling asleep on the dance floor, so I had to peace out and go home.

Christmas came in full swing at school. In general, Christmas isn't celebrated too much by families; they usually just go out to dinner on Christmas night, but aside from that it's more like a typical Sunday for them. They are big fans of Christmas decorations though lol. But at school, we basically went balls out for Christmas. I had my kids trae their hands on green paper and we made a Christmas tree, and we decorated the room with snow flakes, and we made Christmas ornaments for them to take home. Oh, and did I tell you? I got three more students, which makes my current count 11. It is getting EXTREMELY difficult to get eleven 5-year-old kids to all pay attention and do their work. I refuse to let the boys sit by each other, so every morning I have to tell them when they get their books "remember! Boy, girl and each table!" But they had an absolute blast with Christmas. Ha whenever they were being bad, I threatened to call Santa and tell him they weren't being good.

We had a huge Christmas party for them on Christmas eve. First we had a monthly performance (to which my kids did surprisingly well!) then after that they got to have lunch and sing Christmas songs. Then we took the classes down two at a time and the kids got to see Santa (two of the teachers dressed up) and they got a present. Joe walked up to Santa, really apprehensive, and when Santa went to hand him his present, he grabbed it and tried to run away hahah. Earlier in the week their moms had come in with presents, so that's what Santa gave them. Most of the kids got presents that were almost as big as them! And the hard part was making sure they didn't open their presents before they went home. So that afternoon was rough, making sure they didn't touch their presents, and then I had to make sure they had all their Christmas decorations in the right backpacks, then get them ready to go, then give them their presents again. It was hectic to say the least.



Becky and Joe

John and Sally


Alyssa and Alice


Elliot and Julie


Thomas and Lily


Daniel

So I flew into Fukuoka, which is in southern Japan. I had to get up at 4am in order to catch the bus that would take me to the airport because my flight was super early. And of course, since it's me, the taxi drive took me to the wrong stop, so I waited in the cold for 30 minutes before I was able to ask someone in broken Korean if I was at the right spot.

Fukuoka is kind of an old city, there are a lot of temples and shrines, so after making my way to the Korean Consulate, I did my touristy business. Let me tell you, Japan is EXPENSIVE. And unfortuantely for me, when I was spending money, I was thinking in Won. Basically US$1 = JP Yen 100 = KR Won 1,200. The cheapest meal I could find was 850 Yen. And souvenirs, I probably spent 4,000 Yen on. The subway alone was 290 Yen for a 20 minutes ride from the airport. I unfortuantely didn't get to eat sushi in Japan (bummer, i know) but I did by authentic Japanese sake for one lucky family member! Hope that stuff keeps, because I have no idea when I can send it back.

Aside from being expensive, there were a lot of places to see. I didn't really know the etiquette for temples and shrines though, so I felt awkward walking in them, not sure if I should be there, or what I should be doing. I walked A LOT while I was there. And I also found out that my shoes that I brought, leak through the bottom. Great. But ya, I walked almost everywhere. There was a bus, basically a tourist bus, that took me in a huge circle around Fukuoka, so I didn't have to walk between the far points.

I would write more, but it's been a long day, so I'm tried. You can check out all my pictures here though: Japan Pictures it's better then just posting a few pics.

So this past week I went to Japan to do a visa run. You may be asking yourself "Colleen, I thought you already had a Visa, isn't that why you drove 3 hours to Seatle??" Why yes, I would say, I did have a visa. However, that visa was a different school. Basically at the last minute (the day before I was supposed to leave) the school that I was employed with (EG) told me they didn't need me. So my director set me up with LCI (my current school) who flew me over two days after my interview.

"But Colleen" you ask, "you've been there over two months, why are you just now getting a visa? Is it some sort of governmental process that takes a while?" No, it is not. It takes two days. The reason why it's taken so long to get my new visa is because the director of EG is a (WARNING, EXPLETIVE COMING) cunt. All she had to do was sign a release letter saying I no longer worked for her, and fax it to Immigration. Instead, she spent 2 months avoid my calls and the calls from my recruiter. Then she would switch back a forth deciding if she wanted me (all the while I couldn't mention that I in fact have a job because it is illegal to have a job with a place if you don't have a visa for it).

So after two months, I finally had to go down there myself, it was a 2 hour subway trip down there, and bitch was legit crazy. I spent all day running between Immigration, the school, and my recruiters place. She finally got me alone, and straight up lied to my face, saying that she couldn't release my visa, and that I had to work for her for three months. I repeatedly told her I couldn't, and that I made an obligation to another school, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. Needless to say, I was pissed off. And worried because there was the chance that I could get deported. And of course Immigration couldn't do anything about it, they had to have the fax. So after one wasted day of getting no where, I had to go back again a few days later, because I was going to file a claim with the Labor Board. But alas, since i never actually worked for EG, I couldn't do it. So my recruiters (Joanne and her husband Troy) and I went down there and Troy (thank god for him) stood his ground and demanded that she send the fax. I mean, by now, Troy had been sealing with them for two months, and he hated the director because she was a crazy bitch, so he was angry when we arrived. After finally talking to a guy who turned out to be the directors husband, they sent the fax. But not before he claimed that i had threatened his wife and demanded an apology. Serious, bitch was crazy. She was like "why didn't you work here, why did you not come at the last minute?" YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DIDN'T WANT ME, CRAZY BITCH!

I know it doesn't seem like that intense, because I am leaving quiet a bit of the frustrating parts out, but seriously, it was frustrating beyond belief. I actually cried was. Woman was messing with my life, threatening me with deportation! Anyway, they finally sent the fax and my visa was released. In Korea, if you want to obtain a new visa, you have to actually leave the country to do it. I'm sure it's a precaution to make sure that people who fucked up in while in Korea would be required to leave and not allowed to enter again. So that is why I had to go to Japan.

All I can say is that I have the most amazing recruiter. She helped me through all of this bullshit, all while being 7 months pregnant. So if you ever want to come to Korea, I have the greatest person in the world to help you!

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).

It's Halloween at school! This was a great slash exhausting day! All the kids dressed up and they got to go around the school and trick or treat at the different classes. That was pretty hectic, getting them all around the floor. The other teachers and I made a haunted house last night, out of trash bags and cardboard haha. But it was pretty good, there was creepy music, spiderwebs, we made a coffin that Miguel would jump out of to scare the kids.

All the teachers dressed up. It was ridiculously hard to find a costume though, since Halloween is basically only celebrated at English hagwons. The major department store near us had a few capes and a few witch hats but that was it. I sewed myself some mouse ears and glued it on a headband (it was supposed to be like in Mean Girls, where Karen says "I'm a mouse...duh!" but apparently there are far fewer people who have seen Mean Girls than I thought). Miguel was a vampire, Ruth a devil/witch, Walker was a zombie of some sort, Gabby a shaman, Kyla an 80s girl, and Alex was a zombie. Basically they were costumes that you could make with clothes you already have and some face makeup.

I guess all the kids have their outfits ordered ahead of time. A lot of the girls came as princesses though, which basically only required a dress they already had, a tiara and a frilly wand. But it was cute none the less. Some of the girls came as witches, devils or angels, but I think that was the extent of the variety. There were a lot of boys dressed as power rangers or super heroes. Tommy came as a dragon which was adorable, and this chubby kids called Ian was a musketeer of some sort, and that was definitely in my top three favorites. There was even a kid dressed up as Santa.

They got to play some Halloween games, for which I was the MC. Getting about 60 little kids to pay attention when all they want to do it play with their costumes and eat candy is pretty hard, but they had fun. We played spoon race and a skeleton scramble where the kids had to put the skeletons body parts int he right places.



This is my class, from left to right is Becky, Julie, Alyssa, Lily and John. It was pretty funny because a few days ago I was drawing an ocean scene on the board, and they kept yelling a word at me (hapadi) and I found out it meant jellyfish. So for days they were trying to get my to pronounce hapadi right (apparently it's haepari, but they're little kids so I can't understand anything they say) and every time I would say it they would just bust up laughing. So today, the only way I could get them to smile for pictures was to say "hapadi" and instantly they would start laughing. Poor John though, he hated today. It was only is third day in school, and I think he was just overwhelmed. After lunch he started crying, and he didn't want to help carve the pumpkin so he sat out. Then he started crying when it came time to leave, so I had to pick him up and take him downstairs for the bus, and he fell asleep on me while we were waiting. It was kinda cute, but I felt bad for the little guy.

During lunch I stepped out to go to the store, so I took my ears off, but I looked even more strange because I still had my whiskers painted on my face. Luckily though I had my ears, so when the people looked at me funny I took them out and they knew it was for Halloween. I can't imagine the looks Walker got since he was dressed in torn up clothes with a pale face and blood.

We got to carve a pumpkin as well. They aren't like American pumpkins, they are more like a squash so we were all a little apprehensive about carving them, especially because we were given non-serrated knives. But it turned out good, the kids helped spoon out the insides, and I was able to carve a face, then we got to light it up. Becky and Lily thought it was hysterical though when they kept blowing out the candles.

By the time it was time to go, I was totally wiped out. And I still had three more classes to teach! Luckily the last two days of the month are test days, so the kids just have to take a big test and basically get to play the rest of the day. So I had my three classes and i survived. Our director bought us dinner too, pizza and chicken. I had some sort of weird pizza with corn, tortilla chips, a potato wedge and sour cream. It was surprisingly good though. I guess Korean's put a lot of weird shit on their pizza.


Below are some of the other pictures. If you have me on Facebook, I have a whole album.


Group shot of my class, minus John because he didn't want to be in it.


Sharon as Snow White

Becky and Lily with their wands and tiaras

Ian as a musketeer

(left to right) Melody, Dora, and Rea



Our finished jack-o-lantern

carving the jack-o-lantern

a pirate attacking Gabby

Tommy as a dragon