A Day in the Life: Jeju Style

Monday, Dusty Monday

2009-03-16T22:32:00.004+09:00

And man was it ever. The 황사(hwangsa: Korean for "yellow dust storm") has arrived. The dust levels were the highest I've seen them yet in my time here, so I guess that means the nasty stuff is coming our way. All three of us teachers at my school now have a cold, but it's probably more likely dust-induced sickness of some kind. Apparently it can carry viruses and bacteria? Crap. Literally. And...ahhh! I just checked the Korean Air Quality Map and it's ranked as "unhealthy" for Seogwipo, "very unhealthy" for Jeju City, and "hazardous" for most of the rest of the country! I just found this article in "The Korea Times":

Dust blanket : Citizens wearing masks look down at central Seoul from Mt.
Namsan Monday amid thick yellow dust blanketing the whole city. The yellow dust storm arose from the Mongolian desert and arrived in the southern part of the country Saturday and began to affect the capital, Monday. The Korea Meteorological Administration issued a primary yellow dust alert nationwide and advised people to refrain from going outside, or to wear masks to prevent dust particles from negatively affecting their health.
/ Korea Times Photo by Wang Tae-seog

I and everyone else here is breathing this crap into their lungs! Ahh! No wonder I'm sick now! I've got to buy a mask tomorrow...1,000 won may save me thousands in American dollars in possible lung cancer treatment in the future. This sucks. So much for my plan to revamp my jogging routine as soon as the warm weather hits.

Another sigh Cold

2009-03-15T22:12:00.010+09:00

Are you KIDDING ME?!?!?! I just spent the last hour and a half typing my next post, and it all DISAPPEARED FOR NO APPARENT REASON! AHHHH DAMNIT!

Ok...what did I essentially write...uh...GOD I had a whole recipe for kimbap on here...ack...this is really annoying...ok basically I just said that I have another cold, a creepy dirty Korean man who lived in New York for 10 years approached me in a stationary shop Friday night, I saw a really drunk guy stumbling about not 15 minutes after than encounter, the teacher who's helping me with Korean once a week helped me cook Korean food a couple weeks ago, and...wow. It's as though the internet had a hiccup and accidentally swallowed the candy in its mouth. Gone, just like that. Well anyway, I'll just leave you ~ whoever "you" are who is reading this~ with the basics. I'm so tired from the nighttime cold meds I just took that I haven't got the energy to write it all again. This is apparently God's way of punishing me for always taking his and his son's name in vain. Sorry God. And Jesus.

Esther, the other teacher at my scool. This is the meal we cooked together. That's the stinky but delicious "dwen-jang-gook" or "fermented soybean soup", kimbap, and kimchi.

A traditional Jeju house (not many of them left, only in the touristy "folk villages") with old ladies making...well, whatever it is they make.

As fresh as seafood gets...courtesy of the 핸뇨 (haenyo, women divers, by Jungmun Beach). They cut it up while it's still wrigglin'...you eat it and wash it down with soju. Yes I've done it before ~ minus soju. Remember? I ate the green poop part by accident. Mmmmmmmm.....

The Africa Museum at Jungmun. A Korean photographer has many of his photos on display there, it's actually very cool. I was going to dedicate a post to it, but...then I got lazy. Maybe I'll do it later.

And last but not least, Korean take-out (yay! I can more or less order a meal in Korean!). *They don't serve invisible food, I just didn't think to take a photo until after I'd hungrily devoured my meal.* A delivery guy on a scooter bring your meal in a box, you eat, put the dirty dishes back into the box, and half an hour later or so the guy comes back an picks up the box. I eat from this place maybe twice a month, so it's kind-of a treat, and now that I've gotten comfortable enough to order in Korean it really helped me out Friday night when I was feeling so miserable from getting soaked in the cold rain and the nasty cold. And the Friday night before when I was just too lazy to cook for myself. Thank you, Cobaco.

Well, this time it only took 20 minutes to post. I'm off to bed, the meds are pulling me down into the depths of weirdness...

Up Before the Sun

2009-03-02T20:23:00.002+09:00

This morning marked the first day of a new semester in the public school system for most of my students. Because of this, our hagwon staff went to a small school west of the city to advertise our academy by handing out pamphlets from our school and English notebooks (cute little notebooks that are lined especially for English practice; they have the same kind of notebooks for learning Chinese [Hanja] too). I was up by 6am...before the sun...while on a normal day I wake up at 9am...ok...maybe more like 10 or 11...but I'm forever working on waking up earlier and being more productive in the mornings. It's an uphill battle. Anyway, I enjoyed handing the pamphlets to the kids, because though it was cool it was sunny, and especially because I got to see all of their reactions when they saw me..."waygook im-nee-da!" (It's a foreigner!). I said hello to all of them, some of them ignoring me (I see this in two ways...the first is out of shyness, the second is out of a determination to strongly oppose the English education that their school/mothers are insisting that they participate in, usually against their will) and some cheerily "hello"-ing me back or uttering a small "hi" as they stared up at me, mouths open and eyes wide. I saw one foreign teacher riding in the car with a Korean teacher into the school, so I know I'm not the only one they've seen, hehe. As I was standing at the entrance, I was looking beyond the nearby parked cars to peer down the road, looking for more students to come, the cutest little girl came up to me and asked in perfect English, "Do you see a yellow car?" And indeed I did...her mom was coming to drop off her shoes. I hope she comes to our academy! It was seeing these kiddos that reminded me how cute they can be for a moment. The kids in my academy are cute too, but I see them every day, so I'm more inclined to now think of them as "funny" or "obnoxious" or "brilliant but hyperactive"...I've categorized them all, and most lost their "cute" ranking long ago. Not that that's a bad or good thing, it's just how it is. I've gotten used to my kids, and they've all gotten used to me, because many of them say hello and grab my hands and play with my hair and are like little brothers and sisters running around.

Well...after forty-five minutes or so, we'd handed out about 2/3 of our material, and it was time to call it a morning. Together we went to the KAL hotel for their breakfast buffet (any local teachers reading this...don't waste your time or money in there, the buffet is nothing spectacular). I headed back to my apt to take a quick nap, then began the 20-min. walk to school. On my way to work, I picked up a rare bag of potato chips that were "Fresh Salad" flavored. Well, if that isn't completely incompatible!

Again, because it was the start of a new school semester...actually, year, now that I think of it...we had a lot of new students today, along with two new classes. I'm going to be teaching a bit more than I have been, and I'm excited to get to know these newcomers who may temporarily hold the title "cute" until I get to know them better hehe.

I'm off to bed early tonight...

감매봉 [Sammaebong] & 외돌개 [Oedolgae]

2009-03-01T19:06:00.008+09:00

Nature and I had a much needed date today on this clearest and sunniest of March firsts. I slept in until about 11:30, and was on my scooter an hour later, and ten minutes thereafter I arrived at my destination, what I will call the Oedolgae nature-enjoyment area. I parked my yellow beast and, dressed too warmly in my heavy coat, began the short trek up a very steep set of stairs that leads to another pathway on the Sammaebong (well, I guess it's an) oreum, the large hill overlooking the Oedolgae area. I found myself finally at the top of the hill, where I was to find a large, dated picnic platform, and an exercise area for those who made it to the top of the hill and aren't quite satisfied with that bit of a workout. I found a few ajumas (Korean married-age women, if that makes any sense to you) in typical workout gear giving themselves a real workout with the twist-your-arms-and-body machines. The view was nice...I headed back down, to the bottom of the hill, and then decided to take an off-the-path trek through a construction site down to another wooden trail that I could see below, across the sea cliff. Once I made it down there, I realized that the trail hadn't been maintained (the trail itself wasn't closed, it had more like an "enter at your own caution" look). So of course I set on my way along the course, finally coming to a sign that was something like "stop right there, don't come any closer!", along with a second barrier lacking a sign but making up for the warning in circulets of barbed wire. I would have gladly headed these barriers due to lack of interest in the beyond, if the beyond had not looked so interesting. Beyond the barriers, I saw over the crest of the hill the tops of bright yellow flowers, a LOT of them, so I violated the barriers and quickly found myself standing at the edge of a gorgeous field of (I think) canola flowers! It was hard to ignore the mass of bees busily buzzing about their business (say THAT five times fast), but put aside my bee phobia I did in the interests of getting some nice shots of the flowers (I found out, AFTER I got back home and was looking at my photos from today, that I HAD MY CAMERA ON THE LOWEST IMAGE QUALITY SETTING! ACK!!). Of course I didn't walk INTO the field, I just stayed along the edge where there weren't any flowers...or bees...to step on. On its own, a single canola flower isn't really anything special, but it is in their sheer quantities crowded together that makes them collectively beautiful. I was so happy to stumble upon this little treasure today.

I then made my way down to another popular spot with a small cafe and picnic area, where there was a sort of outdoor karaoke event taking place in a clearning among the pines. A small group of mainly middle-aged Korean women, all decked out in their windsuits and tennis shoes and visors and all with short, curly black hair, were singing into a mic and amp while reading the lyrics on a TV that had been brought out for the occation, while the others sat around watching or danced and clapped along with the music and laughed at the singers, most of whom were not good by either my nor Korean standards, but it was all in good fun and was hilarious just the same. One of the few men with the group, who had a huge camera around his neck, walked over to a sack of oranges the group had with them and gave me a handful...really sweet. This has happened many times, wherever I've gone, wherever I've been (once in the elevator of my apt building) in Jeju. The generosity of Koreans, whether residents or tourists, to me has been one really cool and positive part of my stay here, and I hope I'll always remember that. After watching the odd sing-a-long spectacle in this forest, I wandered down to an open cliff that juts out from the forest and gives you a nice view of the surrounding coastline and islets. Because it was so sunny and clear today, the ocean was a very bluish blue, and sparkled where the sun hit it. I then found a walkway that leads all the way along the cliffside for quite a ways, and I didn't feel like doing the whole thing so I just went a bit to check it out. There's also an open area at the beginning of the path where you can have a picnic or get some exercise on...you guessed it...more workout machines! They absolutely love those things here. You know, I saw some parents with their children playing on those things, and it made me think of something...I never see any kiddie slides or swings in the parks here like I would see in every park at home, but instead I see these workout machines, which serve as a kind-of playground not so much for kids, but for adults. I keep seeing more and more ways in which Korean adults are...well, more like children than adults! I suppose that post will come at a later time though. Anway, it was a lovely walk, I'm definitely doing it again soon! The only, only thing that put a little rain in my sunshine today was this: as I was walking along the path, a very obviously sober Korean tourist chose a bush that was out in the open, not five feet from the path, to take a pee. What...the...hell. No, this isn't the first time I've seen this happen...but I usually see it along the mountain road, where it makes more sense for someone to pee since along the road there aren't restrooms (hint: there were plenty along the path!).

I left the Oedolgae area and explored a bit with my scooter, and found my way to E-Mart to pick some things up for dinner, which turned out to be pretty yummy and definitely filling. But I feel great! I'm so glad that spring is on its way, because I've been suffering from a severe case of cabin fever and I need to get OUT! Mt. Halla, here I come...soon...

Oedolgae, the "Lonely Rock".

My "Korean" dinner.

Fun + English = Funglish? I don't know either...

장작숯불오릭리구이 (The local duck restaurant)

2009-02-26T21:12:00.005+09:00

Tonight my school's staff and I all went out together to a very tasty duck restaurant here in Seogwipo, which is owned by one of our bus drivers who recently quit because he no longer had enough to do it. To say goodbye, he treated us all to a meal in his restaurant. I've been several times, with my bosses and with friends and they consistently serve a delicious meal of roast duck that is cooked again at your table along with onions, cabbage and mushrooms, which all take on the flavor of the duck oil that naturally cooks out of it. I'm very picky about kimchi, and at the beginning I didn't even like it, but I really started to like it more when I started frying it in this duck oil...then it's so delicious! It's amazing how much its flavor changes in this process. What's even more amazing to me is how normal this way of eating and living has gotten to be for me. Now when I eat out, it seems so normal for me not to have bread or potatoes, to wrap my food in lettuce, to always have rice and some kind of soup (nothing like the western type), and to never have dessert. I'm also now so used to being surrounded by a language that I mostly don't understand, except for the few words or phrases that I can pick up, and in this way I can sometimes figure out what the conversation is about successfully.

This night, while sitting on warm floor heated from beneath, left to my own thoughts since I couldn't understand what was being said (the other teacher translated some things for me, but, I understand that gets tiring after a while, so she usually just did it when something interesting was said). I began to reflect on how my life has changed since I've been in Korea. The night that I arrived in the last week of June of last year, the co-director and his family took me to this very restaurant for my first meal ever in Korea, and I have to say I was totally exhausted and don't remember much except that the meal was strange to me and that the meat and mushrooms got stuck in my teeth. haha. But over time, and it didn't take too long, I learned to love this cozy little duck house, and to appreciate a certain unique quality that it has to offer at a very reasonable price, not to mention that it actually seems quite healthy. And I've grown very accustomed to being surrounded by people speaking only Korean, and am comfortable with it...even though it gets pretty boring after a bit. As conversation during dinner with Koreans doesn't require an active role for me, their voices become a sort of background noise to my own thoughts...when I hear a word or phrase I know, I am snapped back to the conversation momentarily, but quickly it fades again.

My first night here, not only was the duck meal strange to me, but also the language, the mannerisms, and even the sights and smells of my week-long host family's (the co-director's parents) home just next to the restaurant. Every time I catch a whiff of plug-in mosquito repellent oil, I'm immediately drawn back to the guestroom where I stayed before moving into my first home (which of course had a mosquito repellent plug-in in operation due to the fact that it was the rainy season, and concurrently, the height of the mosquito season), I remember waking up at odd hours because of jet lag, I remember the daily cool heavy rains, and going to the five-day market for the first time, and my boss's parents treating me like a small child feeding me milk and bread with jam and Korean pancakes and buying tons of snacks for me while walking around the market, and just thinking to myself in general...and ~in a good way~ what the hell did I get myself into? Other than repelling mosquitoes, that's what that particular smell does to me. Amazing.

I also remember the couple of dinners that all the staff had together when I first came, and how strange and even uncomfortable it was that they talked and talked and talked and all I could do was eat and get lost in my own head. But now it's just normal life, and I find myself thinking...when was it ever different? I'm now used to this lifestyle, this rhythm, to the extremes of the couple of hours a day where I'm intensely surrounded by a wave of happily jabbering children, and to the complete silence by which I'm enveloped during the mornings and evenings when I'm home alone. And then I'm drawn back to the restaurant again, thinking about the gesture by the former bus driver to invite all of us...the directors, the teachers, the secretary, the bus (van) drivers...to have a meal on him, at a place that he clearly takes pride in and shares his time sitting and chatting with his customers, sharing in the soju too (which the men really put away at our table!). Though it really just seemed to be a natural thing for him to do, as he was leaving our school, it was his way of saying "goodbye and thank you for letting me work for you, I hope that we can continue to have a pleasant connection in the future". In Korea, connections are very important, and most of all in a small city like this one. Everyone knows everyone (our secretary is somehow related to the owner, and one of the teacher's husband's brothers was eating in the restaurant too), and it's really important to keep a good image and to maintain amiable connections and relations at all times...even if someone were to piss you off, for example...there is a very tangible and hierarchical structure for interacting socially. It's just funny to me, thinking right now, how normal this all seems to me. And now that the end of my time here is now closer than the beginning, I'm beginning to think about what my life will be like after Korea. When I have a meal with my family back home now, will it seem odd to me? Will I crave the fried duck and vegetables, the rice that's then mixed with the remaining meat and veggies and oil with seaweed and such, and the soo-jae-bee wheat-cake soup that tops it all off? My thought is...definitely so. On both accounts.

2009-02-18T21:48:00.000+09:00

I ate rice (with fried eggs and ham) for breakfast this morning. And I loved it. I'm becoming ever more Korean by the day.

Cyber Bullying

2009-02-06T22:47:00.002+09:00

The Korean teacher at my school and I were reading one of the English newspapers they produce here (The Teen Times) and there was an article about "cyber bullying" in Korea and China, and how an internet program was created to connect a school in Beijing with a school in Seoul to create more friendly relations between the two country's youth in a positive environment. Apparently, the frequency with which Koreans and Chinese bash others over the World Wide Web has been increasing with the growing number of those who use the internet. She and I were talking about why this is something of a problem in Asia. She reminded me of the suicide of a very famous actress who apparently had some nasty rumors spread about her and an actor who had killed himself not long before she did, and in the end committed suicide. The Korean Government seems to have recognized that cyber bullying is a problem, but as of yet, nothing seems to have come to fruition. Also, I posted at some point a story that my boss told me about a gay male model who came out publicly, and was so badly bullied with hate messages that he also killed himself.

So, she and I were mulling over why this is a growing problem in Asian countries. We had the thought that maybe there is a connection with cyber bashing and the social constraints that many Asians often feel to withhold their inner feelings, and always appear happy - but not too happy - or just neutral, and NEVER to show anger, especially in public. Could it be that the internet has opened up a new medium through which people who have been holding in all their negative feelings can finally vent them in an anonymous fashion? And in this way, because it's quite damaging to a human psyche to hold in anger and negative feelings for very long, that once that person has a chance to finally vent his or her feelings, it's going to be in an uncontrolled explosion of slander against the easiest target? She told me that from her own perspective, she thinks that this could be possible, because that's the way that she often feels...if she doesn't like something or if she's angry about something, she doesn't really feel free to say so, and she told me that if she had a lot of time to spend on the internet then she would probably use it to vent her feelings too. So maybe it's social oppression that is creating so much pressure in the bottle that it's exploding into the cyber world. It would be interesting if there are any studies on this sort of thing. If anyone has any info related to this, I'd sure like to know about it.

Enjoy the Silence

2009-01-18T18:02:00.003+09:00

Not only is it a song by Depeche Mode, but it's also a momentary state-of-being. This lazy afternoon, for the first time that I can remember in a long time, I actually welcomed the silence of the day, with only the wind and an occasional car passing by to accompany the orchestra of quiet. As a grand finale, the sun began to sink, its lazy rays muted by the Sunday haze encircling this slow little city. Normally, when it's too quiet, I feel uneasy, so I always turn on some music or, when I had it, the TV, to kill the silence. It's just really nice to feel for once that it's okay for it to be quiet. I feel calm inside, almost...peaceful. It just surprised me a little that I was able to feel calm and enjoy not listening to anything in particular other than my internal thoughts. This moment made me smile a little. I hope that more moments like this come, and more often. It's nice. Maybe a key to feeling calm and at peace is to balance the times when you keep yourself busy to pass the time more quickly with the times when there are opportunities to feel comfortable with the silence.

Now it's dark, and the subtle warmth that made my room the perfect temperature has faded with the disappearance of the sun. I can't see any of the fishing boats that normally light up the night horizon with their blazing strings of lights. Maybe it's too early? Maybe the weather isn't good enough?

Thinking of the weather made me think of how windy it is here...which is one of three things that Jeju is sort-of "known" for...wind, stone, and women. There is a website for a museum here called Jeju Samda Museum, and it's got some information on these three things in English, so if you're interested in learning something unique about Jeju, take a look:
There's some useful information about the weather under "Wind" (I wish I had known all of this before coming! I would have been more prepared), the formation of Jeju under "Stone", and under "Woman" you can learn about the many goddesses that the island is known for. Hmm...makes for some nice Sunday reading anyway.

A Taste of K-Pop

2009-01-17T18:31:00.004+09:00

You can easily guess that K-Pop is Korean pop music, and it's by far the most popular music among Korean youth. I can hear it wherever I go...they play it in all the supermarkets, they play it at all the little shops along the street, sometimes even in the taxis and on the bus. Not to mention on the cell phones of all pre-teen, teens and twenty-somethings...boys included...EVERYONE knows "Big Bang", "Wonder Girls", "FT Island", "SS501", "DongBangShinGi", just to name a few of the groups that my kids...girls especially...talk about on a daily basis. Every day, in every class of almost-teenage students that I have, I see the girls writing in or on their English books "I (heart) BigBang". This has got to be the most popular group, and it's a typical boy band not unlike the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync of my own pre-teen years growing up in the 90's (although, honestly, I hated this music at the time...I liked the Goo Goo Dolls, Wallflowers, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers...anything NOT pop!). I was explaining to one class of 6th graders yesterday that the kind of pop music that is popular in Korea today was popular in "America" (no one knows what "United States" is) in the 1990s. They looked a little disappointed and were like, "oh". Also, one of the boys asked me about the Korean pop singer "Rain" and he insisted that he was very popular in America. I told him I'd never heard about him, and that most Americans didn't know who he was. He got upset! He said that Rain has gone to Hollywood, and that one in five of Rain's fans are American! I told him that I was sorry, but that Rain is not as popular in America as he thought. I compared the population of South Korea with the states, and tried explaining that someone who is popular in Korea may not be popular in America because there are so many more people and so many more musical groups in America then Korea. Anyway, I think I burst some bubbles yesterday. But I really like that class, because it's just a few students and three of them always want to talk about something, either by asking me things or explaining Korean things to me. It's really cool, they're actually interested in speaking English, so for the past couple of weeks we haven't even been doing the banal busywork from the really boring, old JungChul book series we've been using. Our school is now updating to the new series, which so far seems to be much better than the old, so I can't wait until all of my classes are using the new books. The old ones just make the kids not want to learn, and make me not want to teach, because...well, it just plain sucks.

Here are some K-Pop videos for you to enjoy! These are the songs that I can recognize whenever I go to the supermarket. Enjoy!

"Nobody" by Wonder Girls [원더걸스 노바디]

"UR Man" by SS501

"Like Being Shot" by Baek Ji-Yung [총 맞은 것처럼]

"Lies" by Big Bang (notice the spattering of English)

R.P.G. Shine (Rocket Punch Generation) by W&Whale [윤도현의 러브레터]
*I actually really like this one...it's tuned down in its K-Poppiness.

"Mirotic" by DongBangShinGi/DBSG/TVXQ
*This is the song where one of my middle school girls asked me, "What is mean 'under my skin'"? They're curious about the English parts of their Korean pop songs :D

"I'm Coming" by Rain

Snow

2009-01-16T20:31:00.009+09:00

Snowy Hallasan in all her glory.

Proof that it does snow in Seogwipo.

And this is what it looked like about five minutes after I took that previous photo. Jeju weather is fickle, to say the least.

2009-01-15T19:15:00.002+09:00

Yesterday the Korean teacher (the one not getting fired) and I had our first Korean/English language exchange lesson. We started these lessons when I first arrived in Jeju, but after a couple of weeks, I decided I wanted to spend my sunny mornings going to the beach, and her husband had a terrible construction accident shortly thereafter so she had to take care of him constantly. Then, I moved to Jeju City, so our lessons were very few and suddenly stopped completely...she taught me the alphabet and basic introductions and some numbers, but that's as far as we got. We started again yesterday, and I'm working out of a book called "Arirang Korean Basics 1". It's pretty nice, it comes with a CD as well and has a lot of useful information. I recommend it, whether you're learning under the wing of a Korean or flying solo. Anyway, she and I get along really well, so I see this as being a very nice way to spend my Wednesday mornings, and then after our lesson we have lunch together, so I'll be experiencing more Korean food too. This is a very nice improvement on my previous living situation! I have so much more time to do things now.

One thing that I should do is to post some more practical information along with my daily observations and thoughts. I'm not sure if I have much to say, since most of the technical details of my coming and living here have been/are being taken care of by the recruiters that linked me with my school, and my bosses do any and all paperwork for me. I'm a well-cared-for puppy over here, and any possible need is met in a flash. All I have to do is ask. So, really, I haven't had to suffer much in terms of frustration, which often happens when people movie abroad and experience the potent mixture that is bureaucracy and a language barrier combined. I just have to show up to work, figure out how to entertain and at the same time teach the children something new every day, and stay out of trouble. Simple enough. Most of the details are taken care of behind the scenes, out of my sight. But, I'll try to see what I can come up with anyway!

Spending my evening with a thought of graduate school...hmmm...wonder where this will lead me...

2009-01-13T21:05:00.002+09:00

BRRRRR it's cold in Jeju! And all of Korea! January 20 is 대한 "dae han" which translates into something like "big cold"...I guess, literally the coldest day. However, yesterday, the 12th, was apparently the coldest day Korea has seen in a long time. Record lows were hit...I only know this from the Korean teacher at my school, so I don't know the numbers. But it was cold. Today too. Even with the heating on, floor heaters running, I still wore my coat and scarf all day teaching. Future teachers in Jeju, do not be fooled! Jeju is NOT a subtropical island, and temps reach freezing and below during winter...and it SNOWS! So bring your winter gear!! The cold's wearing me out a lot, I'm so tired after these days I just want to climb into bed at 8:30. However there is a mad man upstairs that stomps around all evening and into the late hours, so I've scrapped any hope of sleeping early. I asked when it's going to start getting warm again...March! *sigh* March, please come soon. I need you.

I was reading a blog today and came across an ad for Cover Girl and Olay, and who's the Cover Girl but Ellen Degeneres? If there is one thing that I can be proud of in my country, it's the openness with which it accepts homosexuality, at least in certain parts of the country. Ellen is famous, she's funny, people like her, and they don't care about her sexuality. In Korea, homophobia is alive and well. Not long ago, a young male model came out about being gay, and he was so bombarded with hate mail and blacklisted as a model, so he just said to hell with it all and committed suicide. Many of us outsiders would see so many guys and girls here as being gay, but in reality friends often hold hands, guys with guys and girls with girls, and guy friends are quite close and...remember what I said about the purses? So it can all get a little confusing.

I'm too tired to think of anything else at the moment...

New Home #3

2009-01-13T11:46:00.008+09:00

These days I find myself wondering, what the heck is going on with my mind? One day I'm so far down in the dumps I don't know which way is up, and the next, I've got such a grounded sense of normalcy that I can't believe that I was ever down in the first place. This happened to me this weekend. I was feeling pretty down, but then on Sunday my bosses and I loaded up my stuff and moved me into my third, and hopefully final, home in Jeju. The first didn't work out for MANY reasons (refer to previous summer posts) and the second was only a temporary solution. This time, I'm home. Well, home for half a year. I could feel the pendulum swing from bad to good in my mood even on the ride from Jeju City to Seogwipo. I suddenly began to feel like, "This feels much more like home." Before, when I was living here, I had quite a lot of freedom to just get on my scooter and go wherever I pleased, or to do whatever I wanted to do with my time. Living in Jeju City, I was bound by a mundane schedule...ride to work with my boss for one hour, can't read in the car because I get car sick, teach, ride back at night, fall asleep in the car which completely screwed up my sleep schedule, eat dinner with my boss without having much news to talk about, get home late...then I would try to sleep but never could fall asleep until 2am or later, then woke up late morning to do it all over again. I felt like I was trapped.

Now I'm living in an "officetel" which is a building of temporary one-room rentals. I spent all day Sunday scrubbing and washing everything, and now, it's great! It's cozy, it's easy to maintain, and it's got a great view of the ocean and the sun shines in the huge window and naturally warms my room (good thing, since the heating unit only functions from 9pm-6am to save utilities costs). The best part? It's all mine! I feel free here, and that makes a much happier Alison. The only bad thing to happen so far was that on Sunday when I used the bathroom for the first time, I shut the door only to find that the doorknob had almost fallen off, so when I tried to open the door again, it DID fall off and I was left in a moment of panic thinking I'd be trapped in the bathroom until Monday afternoon when my bosses would come searching for me since I wouldn't have shown up for school. But I pulled my wits together and proceeded to hammer the handle back onto the stub with my fist, and voila, problem solved and I said goodbye to being stuck with my toilet as my friend for the next 24 hours.

Then yesterday, Monday, I left for school (a little late, oops) only to meet a middle-aged Korean woman in the elevator who doesn't speak a word of English but since I know at least two words in Korean and body language is often universal, we learned which floors we live on, phone numbers, names, and she now knows what I do and where I work. I'm not entirely sure why she wanted my number, but if I'm going to take a guess, I'm going to say that she wants to learn English/knows someone who wants to know English and I just may have a private lesson in the making. Why else would she want to have a foreigner's phone number? I was pretty sure she wasn't trying to pick me up for a date.

So then I was on my merry way to work, and even the residual puddles of vomit on the wooden plank sidewalk that is somewhat unique to Seogwipo...I guess they were left over from the weekend?...even this gross sight didn't deter my happier mood. While I was waiting to cross the street, I also met a friendly foreign teacher who probably knows other friendly foreign teachers, so I might also be on my way to finding social things to do! And I began searching hardcore on a few of the sights available for expats here, and I'm going to see what I can find. So just in moving to a place that is more downtown, a place where I actually see people and can interact just because I'm walking with them, is such an improvement on the isolation of my last two homes. So far, this is definitely an improvement. On Sunday, I began to rethink my thoughts of leaving Korea early, and decided to give myself until the end of the month until I make any final decisions. This is really my last shot in Korea, and I'm going to make the most of it. I've got to try, anyway!

Here are some photos of my new place and the great view.

It's really bizarre to watch the snow coming in from the sea, and to watch said snow flurry about while the sun is still shining brightly. Someone told me that when this happens, when it snows/rains and the sun's still shining, it means that the tiger and...some other creature...ok I can't remember much of what I was told but it means the tiger and another animal are getting married. Those marriages happen it seems most times that it precipitates at all in Seogwipo. Anyway, it's pretty neat. It's also funny to walk up to school and see kids eating ice cream outside...in the snow...

The bathroom is T-I-N-Y. My toilet is a very intimate shower companion. Shauna, since the shower hose is RIGHT THERE, I'm tempted to use my bathroom in Maldivian-style heh heh. Save the trees!

I Love Lucy

2009-01-06T23:03:00.009+09:00

Folks, it's time to admit that I've hit a major slump in my life abroad. I was looking back at an old slide show by Ms. Panos, a "cross cultural consultant" from my TEFL program about living abroad, and there's one part called "The Ups and Downs of Adjustment" where she uses a roller coaster to give a visual for what it's like to adjust to life abroad. Stage 1: in the first two months, everything's new and exciting and you're pumped. Stage 2: in months 2-5 you're getting more acquainted and settled and learning a lot and it's still a high-intake period. Stage 3: in months 5-8 she so nicely labeled this stage "Conquering the Big Hill" because this is the time when the big challenge of living abroad sets in. Hint: I'm in full Stage 3 swing. Ugh. I really want input from my international friends who have done this before and if they can say what their experiences were for them and how they got through these rough patches. Because for the past couple of weeks, I've been majorly down (as in depressed...I have a history of it unfortunately) and a LOT of that has to do with loneliness. Some days, I'm just like, "I don't want to do this anymore", I feel tired and really anxious and hopeless and even super angry, my mood just swings all over the place. I feel miserable, but I feel kind-of bad because I've got it good here in terms of work, so part of me thinks, shouldn't I be happier, more grateful? I am grateful, just, not happy. But for various reasons I just haven't really met any close friends that I can meet up with here and spend quality time with, so I'm not yet feeling the full, happy feeling that I'd hoped to find in my first time living abroad. I need a social life and it's time I did something about that. I'm moving back to Seogwipo-si this weekend, so I'm really looking forward to finding cool people to hang out with once I'm in a settled place...not going anywhere again for a while! If any of you cool people happen to be reading this now, we should be cool people together sometime.

Another reason I've been so "ugh" is that some days, I just half-ass teach because I've been wondering, what on earth am I doing here? What is the point? Do I really want to be doing this? And then I feel bad about being a lazy teacher. I've been pretty unmotivated for a while now, and it's badly affecting my teaching skills. But these past few days I'm beginning to find some of that energy that I had in the beginning where I was all excited and loved teaching...I've been feeling a bit better, and so I can give more to the kids and have more fun. This is where this video comes in.

You can see at first a couple of students playing the "Miss Mary Mack" hand clapping game that I taught them months ago and that they still enjoy (hooray!! a gift from my childhood to theirs). Then comes the best part, a mini-interview with Lucy, a student in our second-youngest class. At first she's posing for a photo, then she realizes I'm making a video and, well, she's a little shy on here, but she's AWESOME, I really like her personality and she's got a great sense of humor and lots of energy. She couldn't wait to see the end result and laughed hysterically when I showed her. It's moments like this, and students like this, that remind me that one giant reason I am here is to teach these little boogers to speak like me, and to be open enough to learn what they have to teach me. For all the complaining I've been doing lately, and for all of my feeling down and lonely, after 6 months I can say it was worth it. I feel love for these children. Whenever I'm with them, I feel better and I feel happier, and they have been a great source of good energy for me since I've been here. I was reading a blog from another teacher who handled with grace a situation where one of her students was being raised by a negligent and abusive grandmother. If anything happened to my students (ok, there are one or two to which I would love to give a nice hard kick in the pants) I would be really upset and do what I could to defend them. My resolution for 2009? Make these next 6 months "worth it"...and beyond.

Oh, and tonight I got another reminder of how great I've really got it here in Jeju...my boss took me to a buffet restaurant at The Hotel & Las Vegas Casino (I think it's an authentic chain, not a name they stole like the "Gucci" bar across the street from it HAHA). Anyway, the buffet is pretty sweet, and I can say of all the hotel buffets (KAL Jeju, KAL Seogwipo, Lotte, Shilla, Hyatt, Oriental...yes I am S-P-O-I-L-E-D, I haven't gained almost 10 pounds eating ramyan) it's one of the best in quality and price for sure! I ate a ton tonight, because I haven't been eating much lately and I was hungry for once, and because it's likely the last time I'll go there since I'm leaving Jeju City soon. I had L.A. style beef ribs, sashimi, soba, salmon, aged cheeses, and other things I can't name but were yummy. Anyway, my boss is great and I definitely have more great things to say about him than not. I'm one lucky duck. Now I've just got to find me some down-to-earth happiness in Jeju, and I'm set. I know that I can't find that happiness in a place, but that I can only find it within myself. That's where I've got to keep my attention and care, and help it to grow naturally in me. Something that I wrote a few weeks ago in a moment of clarity before I fell down into the darkness: Dream sweet dreams and look forward to a future that is bright and full of happiness, and let that hope come into the present, into your daily life, so that it can become the reality of the present that is to come. I want to remember this every day. It's so darn hard to remember good things sometimes, to remember what my goals and dreams are, and to keep a positive outlook on life. But I haven't given up yet, and I'm certainly not ready to throw in the towel anytime soon, so I just have to remember to be positive and know that these times when I'm down don't last forever, they just last a little while and then with determination they subside and the sun can shine in again. Anyway, I hope this helps anyone else who may go through similar experiences. Goodnight!

2009-01-05T21:35:00.006+09:00

Check out this photo mosaic distraction-thingie that I welcome all to play with!

1. Nouvel & Alison, 2. Indian Spices #3, 3. Kingdom City 4.6.2007, 4. Turquoise's Mosaic - April 8th, 2006, 5. gerard-butler-300-3, 6. Honeydew Melon Juice, 7. golden days!!!, 8. Carrot Cake, 9. National Geographic behind the scene, 10. blessing of nature, 11. 150/365 - Decisive , 12. Maddox Drive In - Perry, Utah

To play:

a.) Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b.) Using only the first page, pick an image.
c.) Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the fd's Mosaic Maker.

The Questions:

1.) What is your first name?
2.) What is your favorite food?
3.) Where did you go to high school?
4.) What is your favorite color?
5.) Who is your celebrity crush?
6.) Favorite drink?
7.) Dream vacation?
8.) Favorite dessert?
9.) What do you want to be when you grow up?
10.) What do you love most in life?
11.) One word to describe you.
12.) Your Flickr name.

Have fun!

Last Monday of 2008!

2008-12-29T23:22:00.004+09:00

I'm fairly ignorant of the details of the Palestine vs. Israel conflict, but I just want to say...WTF Israel? Hamas is pricking you with a needle, and you're throwing down the anvil. Cut it the f out, please! You're just making MORE people hate you. And WTF U.S. Department of State? Condi, if you say that Israel is "merely defending itself" one more time, I'm going to drive a railroad stake through your $500 pumps straight through your foot and into the Palestinian soil so that you can't move and you'll be forced to see the truth. Come on, guys, seriously...Hamas, stop giving Israel excuses to bomb the hell out of your country's people, and Israel, quit being a jerk and giving Hamas reasons to throw incendiary devices into "your" territory. I guess a lot of it is the US's fault for supplying the necessary weapons...shame on America too. And shame on me for not being more informed about the whole bloody situation.

Back to Korea...

Today I had quite a nice day compared to the rest...not that I've had "bad" days, but, the others have been more or less mundane (I think it's the high I'm getting from knowing that I've got a FOUR-DAY WEEKEND coming up!!). I reviewed my first class's storybook, and promised to let them play "Go Fish" with simple word cards...apple, ruler, tomato, scissors...anyway, it's really cute to hear them say the words in their cute Korea accent. They are four little girls in 3rd grade, and they're all so pleasant and enjoyable to teach that I wish all of my students were just like them. But it was fun to see them realize the strategy behind the game...if one person asks "Do you have a tomato?" then said person MUST have the tomato card! And if you have the other tomato card, then next turn, that card is SO yours! I could see the realization dawn in their eyes, and it was an excellent moment. It's also way cool to listen to them mix their Korean and English during the game. I'm so selfish...I want to badly to learn Korean from them that I don't stop it and say "now now, speak in English only!" but I just let it roll, occasionally putting in the English equivalent whenever I recognize the word/phrase (most of which I've learned from observing them, so a big thanks to my student who don't even know they're teaching me) and whenever it hits me that I'm supposed to be teaching them English. In my second class, the second-to-lowest level we have, it was so amazing to teach them part of a story, to hear them repeat it, to ask them to read it and realize that they recognized the words and sounds on their own and could repeat it back to me without me saying a word! It was definitely a special teaching moment, in which I finally feel like I got through to them...a few that I didn't expect to get it, REALLY got it! I guess it's hard for a non-teacher to imagine this moment, but for me...it was bliss :) I'm beginning to realize that these moments are what my job is all about.

Also today, one of the Korean teachers asked me about an excerpt in her grammar book about the various names for elephants (cow, bull, calf) and she asked me if it was a joke. She didn't realize that the different life stages/sexes of animals have different names, and it was cool to explain that too her. I also explained that for cows we use the same words, and another one is "steer" which is the name for a young male cow who's been castrated (is that the right word? what I mean is, "balls removed"). This lead to her telling me something about early royal Korean culture that kind-of appalled me: The kings of old Korea used to have male servants whose genitalia...all of it...were removed. This was typical of poor men in society who wanted to improve their status in society, and so in serving the king, well, they could no longer service their ladies. I don't really understand the reasoning behind this practice, but I'm going to look into it. If anyone knows the answer, I'll give you candy (not really).

There are tons of other things that I thought to write here today, but now I can't remember. And I never think to write stuff down when I think of it. Argh to twenty-something senility.

2008-12-29T01:22:00.000+09:00

This blog thing has really sucked me in this weekend, sheesh! Ok, so I decided to delve into the only activity in my Sunday of any significance. I went to 이마트 (e-mah-tuh) E-Mart in Gu-Jeju (Old Jeju...the part of the city that is closest to the harbor, and is not to be confused with Shin (New) Jeju which is to the south-west of the Gu) this evening to buy a few goodies for dinner and this week's breakfast. Who do I run into, but my boss and his mom! Funny and awkward all in the same moment. But his mom seems nice, and she said we should get together sometime (translated through my boss of course, she doesn't speak a word of English). She was so cute and old-Korean-lady-esque. I guess my boss is a good guy, he takes really good care of his mom...takes her grocery shopping, etc etc. So, while at the store, I made some observations...

1) If it's your first in an E-Mart, or any other supermarket here, you're 99% sure of getting confused with the confounded flat magnetic escalators (brilliant for taking your cart up level after level). Some are inside the actual store, some are still inside the building but outside of the shopping area, and sometimes they take you to different places...but after a while you memorize them so it's no biggie.

2) Korean supermarkets are becoming more and more like their American prototypes in that they're offering a more and more varied selection of world products. It's not at all to the extent as it is at home, but it's still fun to note the growing number of products available...namely, tonight, I bought sliced cheese from Australia and whole grain mustard (!!!!!) from France. I've also bought in the past: Brazilian chocolate, French jams, American salsa...um, so I can't think of anything else at the moment, anyway...

3) A very large number of Korean women tend to wear high heels wherever they go...to the supermarket, to the bank, to buy gas...um, actually, always. I always feel too "dressed down" whenever I go to buy groceries in my sneakers. I caught myself today putting in hair smoother after my shower just to go to the grocery store...and had to mentally slap myself. What's happening to me? I wear makeup every day to work too, which wasn't typical of me in school...in work, yes, but in school, no...but I feel like, if I don't wear it, someone will say something and ask me if I'm sick. Also, every time I wear anything that resembles a skirt or dress to work my coworkers fawn over how nice I look...do I really look that bad in jeans and a normal shirt? Anyway, I can't fit into my jeans these days so I'm having to come up with creative new ideas using nice stretchy leggings. I don't think I'm getting "fat", but rather I'm actually eating here whereas at home, I've realized, I didn't really eat much...so I'm probably nearer a normal weight now than I was before...thus, my favorite jeans are no longer a possibility. But I'm working on it...started using the treadmill in the apt almost daily, so maybe I won't have to store them forever just yet.

4) Oh yeah, as I was browsing through the isles, I saw a girl of about 10 years playing with a plastic vegetable bag over her head while her mom was watching a video add in the isle. I was reminded of all of the fear over child death by choking with these things, and I wonder if it's such a concern here after all. It's not the first time I've seen this behavior...I remember one of my students doing it once and I had to make him stop. At home, the mother would scream at the kid to stop it, that he could die. On this note, one interesting fear that I think is completely unfounded is the fear of "fan death". Fan death = if you leave your fan blowing on you at night, you will suffocate in your sleep and die. All the fans I've seen here have timers, I guess to prevent you from mistakenly offing yourself in the wee hours. So while I think that a plastic bag over a child's head is a hazard, your average Korean might think that a fan blowing in a child's face is just as dangerous. To each his or her own.

5) THE McDonald's in Jeju City shares the same building as a "wellbeing fitness center". Anyone else find this ironic? Nope, haven't gone there and chances are I won't. I didn't go at home, why would I go here? I've had Lotteria (Korean McDonalds) food here once, and that's because my boss brought it over as leftovers from his mom's birthday party. It wasn't horrible, but...fast food is fast food and only to be eaten...almost never.

6) I watched this wicked movie on the CGV movie channel (that I will get to enjoy for only two weeks more until I move) called "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer". It's a 2006 film based on a 1985 German novel "Das Parfum" (thank-you, Wikipedia) and it's basically about a young French man, born with the most amazing sense of smell, runs about in his country looking for - and finding - a way to bottle the human scent, or more specifically, the scent of the most beautiful women who to him are the most nosegasmic beings on the planet. It was a bit macabre but interesting, plus is was set in 18th-century France...I'm a complete sucker for period films.

Guess what? This week I only work three days! Whoopie! Thursday is New Year's Day, and the day after...well anyway, I think I went into detail about this before, basically I have a 4-day holiday this week. I think I would be a lot more excited if I had somebody to share it with though...I guess it's more time to catch up on the three books I'm simultaneously reading, plus working on my Portuguese self-lessons...oh yeah, I'm sort-of seriously thinking of going to Brazil after Korea...with this much time on my hands, I'm not going to know what to do with myself. I'll think of something. OK it's 2am...I've gotten into a pattern where it's difficult to fall asleep anytime before this on most nights...it's slightly annoying because I miss out on a lot of daylight. Hey, even if I can't be hanging out in the cold, I'd still rather see daylight than not. Off to try to force myself to sleep...:P

Sunday Morning

2008-12-28T11:03:00.000+09:00

As I listen to someone attempting (unsuccessfully) to start their car in the chilly parking lot, I wonder why the old man upstairs decided to wake me up at 10am AGAIN this morning with his saxophone playing. He's become my weekend alarm clock. I don't go to bed at 10pm old man, I need my beauty-sleep-in time! Haven't you figured this out yet? Eh...then again, maybe I should go to bed earlier? I guess it's better I don't sleep in like I did yesterday anyway, I have to make a trip to E-mart today to get some breakfast food. E-mart is a typical Korean supermarket...one huge building with several floors of everything you could possibly need...like Wal-Mart but in vertical. I would rank them in quality from greatest to least like this...Lotte Mart, E-mart, Home Plus...though, they're all pretty much the same overall. I gave Lotte Mart the highest ranking because they have more of a variety of "stuff". Also I've got to do student evaluations today...which consists of copy/pasting my comments. When I tried to actually give individual remarks to each student, my bosses asked me if I was crazy, and that I shouldn't waste my time, just copy/paste. Well...ok, then. I haven't had any complaints so far. Ugh...methinks it's time to play a groggy round of GeoChallenge to get the mind juices flowing. Wish me luck.

Jeju City Harbor in October

2008-12-28T01:05:00.000+09:00

Now that I started writing again, all kinds of memories are popping into my head...

One night in October I was taking a walk down by the harbor near my apt (Jeju City) and I stopped to watch this old guy fishing (I actually thought it was an old woman until I heard him speak hahaha). All of a sudden he jerks his pole and a small purple octopus flies out of the ocean and onto the boardwalk! It was so COOL! This is one of the many times that I regret not carrying my camera with me. It started to crawl away but he quickly snatched it up into a soft-sided cooler and when he turned around and saw the look of awe in my face, he started laughing and lit a cigarette...either lunch tomorrow or a nice little profit to be made selling it to the hundreds of seafood restaurants here...that often, often, often serve the seafood still wriggling on your plate. Nope, haven't had the guts to try this yet so don't even ask. There's also a huge complex of outdoor recreation area near the harbor where you can rent bikes and roller blades, play basketball, and even soccer-volleyball. I was watching a game of this when one of the guys accidentally kicked the ball into the ocean. They all ran to the barrier wall and grabbed the life-saving rings and tossed them into the water in an attempt to retrieve the ball. After many attempts, they were not successful, but I thought it was a pretty creative attempt at saving the ball anyway. Those life rings are useful after all.

Eeewww...gross.

2008-12-28T00:37:00.000+09:00

So I just arrived back at the apt, and I had a reminder of another observation about Korea...they drink so freaking much here. There is a problematic drinking culture in Korea, and a collective denial of the existence of alcoholism. People...namely, college students...drink heavily in the states, and it's not uncommon to find puddles of puke outside...inside...your dormitory when you wake up on Sunday morning. But here, it's insane how people get so stupidly drunk that they puke in public, or just behave insanely when they're drunk...well into old age. I'm sorry, but it's so fucking disgusting. As I walked out of the café to the taxi stand, I saw a huge puddle of vomit on the ground, and several very drunk young Korean guys nearby. Actually everyone I saw had been drinking to some degree, walking zig-zagedly, leaning on each other to fight the ever stronger pull of gravity that comes with heavy drinking. Every restaurant you go to, you will see people...more often than not men...sitting around their meals emptying bottle after bottle of soju. They don't really seem to do it for the pure enjoyment of doing it, but more for the purpose of getting absolutely sloshed. One day when I was still living in the Seogwipo house, I looked out my window at night to see a woman sitting under a lamp post..sleeping/passed out..with a huge pile of vomit beside her. I've walked down to the Paris Baguette in the afternoon to buy lunch to find two or three puddles of it. When I visited Carlos in Seoul the other weekend, we saw three people throw up in public!! It's gross to see, and yet, when I got back here just now, I still had enough appetite to have a piece of leftover carrot cake that I made for Christmas (which was delicious, by the way)...that's how used to seeing it that I'm getting. Before it would gross me out so much if I saw someone throw up that it would gross me out for hours...now I see it, I'm like "ugh, gross" and I move on. In my mind it's pretty embarrassing to get so drunk that you throw up in public. And yet, it's soooo common here...if you show too much skin on the beach or kiss in public, you're a disgrace to society, but if you get so drunk every weekend that you throw up in public...eh, welcome to the club. WHAT THE HELL?!?!

Refreshing my Poor, Neglected Blog

2008-12-27T22:31:00.001+09:00

I'm sitting in a "Tom n Toms" (café in Jeju City's City Hall area) watching young Koreans withdrawing money for their nightly antics in droves from the nearby ATM and reading a few other blogs by travelers, and it hit me that I haven't viewed my own in a long while. Almost 5 months, actually. What the hell have I been doing all this time? I mentally celebrated my 6-month anniversary in Korea on Dec. 22, and I can't believe how quickly the time has passed here...everything's blurred together in my mind. I think writing now will help me recall a bit...let's see what I can come up with...

It's winter in Korea like it's winter in Missouri = Alison cannot enjoy the beach, and doesn't have the proper equipment nor is willing to join those brave enough to hike snow-capped Halla Mountain. So I've been spending 99.5% of my time indoors. This makes me blue. More so, because I still haven't really met anyone to hang out with here. The foreigners that I've seen and met so far are loyal pub crawlers, which to me feels way too college-y. Actually one of the biggest dampers to my social life has been the fact that I moved to Jeju City in second weekend in October. The "house" where I was living, the one next door to the co-director's, was on a major road in Seogwipo from which I could hear the constant rush of speeding vehicles (not exaggerating on this one) through the building's incredibly thin walls. There was also that mold problem...the gas-smell problem...the dog barking every time I walk up the stairs so I couldn't go out at night for fear of waking up the co-director's family NOR feel comfortable bringing over potential friends for a get together (they complained many times to me about the last teacher who did this a lot! I never felt comfortable with the thought of having people over to have dinner and hang out after these comments)...the lack of privacy that I felt...but mostly, it was the noise issue that was the determiner for me to ask for a solution to be found. I wasn't sleeping well at all. Any sleep that I did get, it was really poor-quality and I would wake up more tired than I'd been the night before. I was getting sick, and depressed, and I desperately needed a change. So when I told my bosses together about this problem, they acted immediately...the director moved me into his empty apartment in Jeju City, on the other side of the island, where he lives (but with his mother in her house). I was incredibly grateful for the gesture and after over 3 months of not really sleeping...my condition improved so much. It's a huge apartment, with a clear view of the harbor and ocean beyond, everything that I could need is there. It's been nice, but, it's really big for one person, which has added to my growing sense of lonliness. On top of that, the commute to Seogwipo from here is an hour each way, so that's two hours of time I could be doing something interesting. Then in the evening he always wants to eat out because he can't cook and his mom eats way earlier than he arrives at home...so I've become his dining buddy. Which, I really can't complain about too much...it's always at the nicest restaurants, it's always good quality food, and I go home full...but it's another hour or more that I could be doing something more interesting...and there's only so much that we find to talk about. But this is just a temporary solution! According to my boss, by Jan. 10, I should be living in my own place again...this time in an "officetel" in Seogwipo, in the south of the city nearer the harbor. Anyway, next weekend is a 4-day weekend because of New Year's...New Year's is on a Thursday this year, and so the hagwon association on the island decided to make Friday, a "sandwich" day (day between a holiday and the weekend) a day off too. I should be doing something fun and exciting with this rare break, but the only thing I've got planned is that my bosses are taking me that Friday to check out rooms at the officetel so I can pick one out. It's the same place where the first two teachers lived before me, and they had complaints of the bills being really high because everyone in the building shares utilities costs equally, but I've got high hopes because it will be much quieter (ok, I hope to god this is true anyway) and much closer to the school, and it's in downtown Seogwipo so I'll be able to just walk to the nearest café to hang out or meet people. This future apt will be my new home for the next 6 months, so I really really hope it works out well. Alright, enough about housing issues! All I can do is be patient and try to be positive.

So yeah...the new year is fast approaching, and so I've been reflecting lately on this past year. What did I do this year...I finally graduated from college and got the heck outta my hometown that was suffocating me, I miss my friends who also graduated and moved far far away to their home countries and my friends who are still in college at home but I can't see because I moved away, I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone to discover that I really like living abroad but that I've definitely got a lot to learn still about doing so, and I've realized that I have no desire to return to my home country anytime soon, and that if/when I do, it will be somewhere other than Missouri, because I really think that other than my family, there are much nicer places to live in other parts of my country. I've definitely got to be within driving distance of a beach though!

Now for some Korea reflections! This should be fun...

1) Korean men are the most effeminate that I've ever seen. Some of this thought comes from their mannerisms...their lack of muscles and facial hair...hairstyles in general...but one big reason I make this observation is that sooo many guys here carry purses. It's more often than not a genuine girl's purse, not a "man purse" as you'd see with guys in the states carrying messenger bags or something...no, it's a PURSE, as in leather with bling and all, as in it looks like he stole it from his girlfriend's closet. I can't explain it, what the heck do they carry in there? I understand the logic of a woman carrying one...duh, I am one...but a man? WHY??? Why, men in Korea, do you do this?

2) In a country that wants so badly to be fluent in English, I expected to see mistakes in places like signs, shirts, blah blah because I'd read about this. But I wasn't prepared for the degree of Conglish that exists here! I've been really negligent in photo documenting this observation, but trust me, if you live in or have ever lived in Korea, you will know what I mean and have been entertained time and time again with the attempts to translate Korean to English...or to be creative and create their own English phrases. It's also really common to translate English to Korean using Korean letters...for example, "spaghetti" in Korean sounds like "su-pa-geh-tee-uh", "pizza" sounds like "pee-jah", "waffle" sounds like "wah-pull". Anyway, it's really interesting to me because I'm learning from my students what words they have trouble saying in English because they don't have equivalent sounds in Korean...the ones I can think of off the top of my head are our [f], [z], [v], so any words with these sounds can be really difficult for a Korean. Also the distinction between [r] and [l] is difficult because the [ㄹ]can sound more like and [r] or more like an [l] depending upon where if falls in the syllable stack. Anyway...really interesting to me, probably not so much for most others, but I had to note it.

3) The suicide rate here is one of the highest in the world...but I just now researched this to find a slew of former soviet satellites whose rates are much higher...anyway, it's still high, for many reasons...social and family pressure on education and morality, money problems, depression...that's what I've seen so far anyway. I don't think that "happiness" tops the goal of "money" in this culture, anyway...I feel like I've talked about this already in a previous post...so I won't go into detail, but yeah that seems to be a big cause as well, esp. since the US's economy situation directly affects the Korean economy. Because the US economy is down now...so is Korea's.

4) Hagwon life is strange and complicated. My boss is the head of the hagwon association for the Seogwipo area, so he gives me the inside scoop of what goes on. The past few months, the government has been conducting investigations into the hagwons, because they all charge more than they report in order to make a larger profit. For example, they report my salary as being 400,000 won lower than it actually is so that they (and I) don't have to pay as much income tax. The one I work for is one of the better ones, and is mostly honest about its business practices, but even still my bosses were all worried and tense for the past couple of months. Also, they fired one of the Korean teachers...for many different reasons, but what they told HER was that they were cutting her because she'd been there the longest, i.e. highest paid of the two Korean teachers, and they were experiencing an economic crisis in the school. The school has lost about 10% of its students (most entering middle school in February) to SAT hagwons, which is apparently normal and happens every year. In reality, they didn't like her behavior and attitude, and so they found this very convenient reason..."many students left, the economy is bad, so we can't afford to pay you" to fire her. I think it's interesting how they created such a well-defined excuse to cover their displeasure with her personally. The director told everyone that he was putting the co-director in charge of hiring/firing from now on, so that he wouldn't have to deal with firing her himself. I was shocked at this. He told me that the co-director needs experience with dealing with employees. Interesting.

5) Corruption is sometimes "business as usual". My boss has told me a few stories. One involved a common practice in which a company will ask a government official for a loan for some project, and the official will do so if the company will agree to report that the project costs more than it really does...for example, a company wants to borrow money for a 4 billion won project, but they report that the project costs 5 billion won. The government official loans the company 5 billion won, so it all looks good on paper...but then the company carries that surplus 1 billion won back to the official...often literally in the form of cash in a suitcase. It's insane to me that this is common practice.

Ummm....ok, it's almost a quarter after midnight, and most of the customers just cleared out in a hurry so I think maybe closing time's approached. I'm so not tired yet...slept twelve freaking hours last night! I guess I needed the sleep, but I hope I'm not getting sick again...already had a full-blown cold a few weeks ago and I'm not willing to let that happen again anytime soon. Anyway, I wanted to write more, because I didn't even get to the part about how I'm really feeling here, but it was time for me to make an update. Hopefully I won't go 5 months without a post again!

Korean Sauna

2008-08-08T20:51:00.000+09:00

The Sunday before last, July 27, I went hiking on one of the "oreums" (parasitic volcanoes) with my director-neighbor's - dang I'm getting tired of writing that...Mr. Oh's...family. It was hot that morning so I figured it would be smart to wear short pants that day...a decision that I would later very much regret. I got some normal cuts and such from the hike, and I fully expected this to happen and hadn't thought anything of it. Unfortunately, hiking through the tall tall grasses at the base of the little mountain, I managed to cover my lower legs in the poisons of one of the local plants, and I ended up with some wicked lesions that to this day haven't disappeared. I first assumed it to be poison ivy, but as it got worse instead of getting better with the usual hydracortizone cream, it was time for a visit to the dermatologist.

I should put in an interesting side note about the dermatologist...it cost me a whopping US$6.00 and 15 minutes of my time to walk into the doctor's office, get a diagnosis...although the doctor spoke a fair amount of English, getting across what exactly caused my leopard spots wasn't a success so it's still a mystery to me...and visit the pharmacy and collect all the medication that I would need. I was laughing on my way out of the office, still shocked by the incredibly cheap health care fees here. And HE was a specialist...if I need to get a check-up at a hospital, it's maybe $4.00 or less. Not even joking. Got my eyes checked the next weekend for US$6.00 and got a new pair of glasses for $56.00. WoW. So maybe the U.S. needs to check into the S. Korean health care system...???...anyone else with me on this one???...

Needless to say, this put a major damper on my entire week as I went the full week without seeing a doctor and hoping (desperately wishing) that it would just go away. Also, I avoided the ocean as I feared the open sores would catch fire upon submersion into the salty brine, and the sun couldn't be that good for it either, so no beach-going on some of the most glorious days we've seen yet here in Jeju. I was feeling pretty down, and my legs were ugly as sin (still are, esp. since I can't shave yet..ugh..sorry for the visual...). Then, on Friday eve., a friend of mine from the Boston TEFL program SMSed me telling me that she'd arrived in Jeju. So I hung out a bit with her, her parents, and her adorable pooch Louie last weekend sightseeing and having some delicious meals. Now, this is where my relaxation story begins. Within the resort where she was staying, there was a traditional (Japanese-style) bath house. I had yet to experience this part of Korean culture, but had been wanting to give it a try and find out what it was all about. My expectations were more than exceeded! First off, as a side note, you can not be modest about your body and enter a "muk-yok-tang" (I think this is how it is said) as you are naked. However, men and women have separate bath houses, which is different from some other countries, and which is also much more comfortable than the other option (at least I can imagine, as I've never been in the other type either.) My biggest worry was not about being naked, but about other people seeing my legs as they were GROSS (as a rule you can not really be embarrassed about showering with other women when you spent three years in high school showering with your team after morning practices!). It was the most wonderful place to relax, I tell you, and this was when I had my mini-epiphany: I am always so dang tense and I don't really know why, but it's about time that I trade in some of that tension for inner calm and just slow down and enjoy life! Within the bath, you first have to shower, then you can enter either a steam-sauna or a dry-sauna. The steam-sauna is intense and not for the faint of heart, as it can be incredibly difficult to breathe in there! I could take it for only 2 or 3 minutes, if even that. The dry sauna is much more pleasant. The best part, though, was the outdoor mineral bath. I soaked in a cloudy mineral-rich pool and rubbed the minerals into my ragged limbs, hopped into a cold clear bath, and then back into the mineral bath. After this experience, I felt so much more relaxed and calmer, and I hadn't even really realized until that moment that I had needed this experience so badly. I owe it all to Patricia! Thanks so much girl for introducing me to quite possibly one of my favorite Korean traditions so far. I will definitely be visiting the saunas more often once I figure out where they are in Seogwipo! Since then, I've actually been averaging 2 showers a day just because it's so relaxing and it feels to good to be clean esp. since every time time I walk outside or sit in my house I am drenched in my own perspiration. I am not at all complaining, I actually love hot weather. I normally don't even feel hot, I just know that it is hot out because I am sweating. Kind-of a strange feeling, sweating and not feeling "hot", so if any of you medical buffs out there have any idea what this means, please do indulge me.

I felt quite a lot better this week, an in addition to having had a relaxing weekend, the unwelcome guests on my shins are showing some signs of moving out and the itching has long ceased. Yesterday, after having the usual Thursday evening meal with everyone, Mr. Oh's family and I went down to the stream for an evening walk. It was so incredibly simple and enjoyable, just walking around the dark park where a screen was set up across the stream for families and friends to watch the Korean Red Devils playing Cameroon in the Olympics soccer preliminaries. It was such an awesome idea for someone to set that screen there, and I badly wished that I had my own group of friends to sit around with, snacking together at a nighttime picnic by the stream watching soccer on the big screen. But my host family, as I will call them, is also hard to beat hanging out with. I have a great time with their kids, and we all had a little fun playing in the ice cold stream. I've really got to come down to this stream more often! It's always so cold and refreshing. This evening after work, I grabbed an ice cream and headed down through Geolmae Park and on down to a secluded part of the stream. There I perched on a large rock in the middle for maybe forty-five minutes, just thinking of everything and nothing in particular at the same time. It was a great way to unwind, and a beautiful evening on which to do it. Walking back, I was thinking that this moment in time is so precious in that it is unlike any other that has ever happened before, and so singular in its existence that it will never happen exactly the same way again. It is these moments that we life for and by, even though most of time, if not all of the time, we don't even acknowledge it. It is in taking a moment to just breathe and letting ourselves be satisfied in doing nothing that we do so much good for ourselves. We are being kind to our restless souls and giving them a chance to breathe and see above the fog for a quick glimpse of a clearer horizon. Through this one moment, I by no means have reached total relaxation and peace within myself. I have a long long way to go before I can feel relaxed more often than anxious. But I am one tiny step closer than I was before that moment to achieving that state of being which I deeply desire: true, sincere, brave peace and happiness. Maybe it is impossible to reach a state of true happiness , as there is always a little sadness in all happiness and a little happiness in all sadness, and I think this is especially true because we are human and are thus by nature, as with all things living, imperfect. Happiness in its most complete, pure, untouched form is perfection itself, and is thus that which is unattainable by us. But I believe that in striving for that which we know is impossible to obtain but that which through getting as near as we can an be satisfied with our achievement in that task, we improve our own wellbeing and as a consequence the wellbeing of those around us. When we become good people, that goodness pours out into others and spreads like what they call here a "happy virus", which is exactly what is intended to mean: infectious glee. If there is one virus in this world that I DO wish to fall prey to, it's the happy one.

Korean Shaved Ice is So "Mashinnun"!

2008-07-20T20:51:00.000+09:00

Yes, "mashinnun" translates to "tasty" and it is indeed.

Yesterday, Saturday, I jumped on my scooter and headed to the Seogwipo Traditional 5-Day Market. I had been twice during my first week because my director's parents had taken me, but this was my first time flying solo. I realized that I need to get my Korean numbers down pat before heading back, as no one seems to carry calculators to demonstrate the cost as I have experienced so far in the permanent stores. Though I managed to communicate with one seller using hand signs, and that worked alright, but I really would rather be able to talk with them so I need to get on with it and start learning the basics. I haven't been studying Korean like a good student, and my excuse is that the weather has been too darn nice for me to stay indoors with my nose in a book, other than this weekend of course which was rainy and windy due to the typhoon that came through. It was not nearly as severe as I had imagined it to be; it rained a little here and there all weekend, and this morning we had some gusty winds, but other than that, no big deal. I suppose this was a light one, and good thing because I was actually worrying about it.

After the market I came back home to have a Pizza Hut lunch with my neighbor director's family and the other director who came in from Jeju-si to deliver the pizza and to spend the afternoon with us. I have to be honest, it is nothing like Pizza Hut in the states, and I really didn't expect it to be. Korean cheese is not tasty, and the pizza sauce is much more sweet than salty, giving the whole thing an odd flavor. The side dishes were mashed potatoes (sweetened), sweet potato salad (even sweeter), and pasta (sweet) that had lime-flavored Jello on top of it. I didn't like these much at all, but the buffalo wings were the best and I ate the heck out of those; they got the flavor almost spot-on. But, I was appreciative of the experience, esp. since the director brought it all the way from Jeju-si. We then headed out to Jungmun to the ICC Jeju Convention Center, where I got to try Korean shaved ice at a nice cafe there. When they had first told me we were going out for shaved ice, I had a picture of a sno-cone in my head, that icy ball drowned in sugar-water. But I was in for a very pleasant surprise. Korean shaved ice does indeed start with a huge ball of shaved ice, but that's where the comparison with American shaved ice begins and ends. Atop that icy mound is an array of ingredients: chunks of kiwi and other fruits, chewy, sugary cubes of rice cake, corn flakes, corn, mini red beans, and a scoop of ice cream atop it all with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. Mix it all together, and you have one very pleasant taste experience that is perfect for a hot summer day. It's refreshing, not overly sweet, and with the corn and red beans never would have imagined it would be as awesome as it was. I was completely satisfied with this new taste adventure and will undoubtedly repeat it many times!

We then headed out along a path that runs behind the convention center to what is called the "Daepo Haean Jusang Jeollidae", or, more simply, a cliff of rectangular and hexagonal rick pillars that has been carved out by the sea. The sea was really alive that day due to the winds from the approaching typhoon (which in Korean sounds like "teh-poon"; I feel like we stole the word from them), and our visit was cut very short due to a heavy downpour, so I will have to wait for a nicer day for a more thorough visit.

Today, I have been home-bound since the weather is kinda crummy, so I did more house cleaning today - dang, I don't think anyone has cleaned these windows since this became the English teachers' home. Oh, late the week before last, I forgot to mention that my mold problem was solved as the damaged walls were re-papered. In my bedroom now there is green wallpaper along the east wall, and it sorta feels like I'm sleeping in the jungle, esp. on these summer nights since I hate aircon and rarely use it. Though I haven't been sleeping very well because of it...I may have to break down and turn it on one of these days, but I'll try to hold out as long as I can.

By the way, I watched the movie "Talk To Me" today with Don Cheadle, and I definitely recommend it, it's a good one. I also have seen both seasons of The Tudors during my time here, and I also recommend it. One of my directors is a movie/TV series fanatic, so he gave me a bunch of copies to bide my time on rainy days such as this...when I should be studying Korean ^_^ Really came in handy during the rainy season though!

Anyway, that's all I've got for now...enjoy the pics!

This is my director-neighbor's wife. She's really pretty and she has an awesome sense of humor! She told me to call her "ahn-nee" which means "older sister", and she's really sweet to me. Here she is posing in the ICC café with a cutout of a famous Korean actor; they filmed a movie here, and now that character's desk from the movie remains as a decoration in the café.

This is my director-neighbor and his daughter. I am really beginning to feel like they are my family, and I am so appreciative of their daily displays of kindness.

Who, me?

Where did the week go?

2008-07-18T20:50:00.000+09:00

Water lily in Hallim Park.

Seriously, where has this week gone? Time really flew by this week. I have the same students every third day, but each day I though, "didn't I just have them yesterday??" So as a summary of my third teaching week, I can't say much because it went by so dang fast. Today though I didn't feel well, and come to find out the other teachers were feeling exactly the same way; tired, achy...one teacher suggested it was the change in air pressure due to a storm system...a.k.a. a typhoon...that's due to come through tomorrow or early Sunday. It'll be my first oceanic storm, and I'm not really looking forward to it. I started out this morning going downtown to explore some of the clothes shops. Korean style is very different from what I'm used to, and when I figure it out better I will try to describe it. I bought my first top today, it says "HANA MAIL" and a bit "82" underneath. I haven't got a clue what it means, but when you say HANAMAIL all together it kinda sounds like "animal". There are a lot of things like that, which are written in English letters and you can figure out what they say when you read it aloud, but the words aren't spelled correctly or the grammer's wrong...anyway, they're a lot of fun! I'm thinking of starting a S. Korean shirt collection. Also women's tops, esp. t-shirts, tend to be very very long and oversized, almost U.S. eighties' style, with lots of gaudy, brightly-colored plastic jewelry and funky clothing designs. I love it. One pair of denim capris had "burger" stitched into the left back pocket and a hamburger stitched into the other. I am tempted to purchase them...hmm...so this morning was fun, but work wasn't great because I felt sick and I couldn't wait for it to get over with and come home to vege out.

At Hallim Park...the stone "boys" behind me remind me of the tree spirits in Hayao Miyazaki's animated "Princess Mononoke".

Last night was an interesting experience. I went to dinner with my directors and one of the director's friends to a tuna restaurant. Upon sitting down, we were brought so ju and bek se ju with appetizers of boiled octopus tentacles, some kind of mussel, and another shellfish that lives in a small, green, knobby shell. I actually really enjoyed these, esp. the shellfish and octopus, when dipped into red pepper sauce or sesame oil and salt. Next was the raw tuna platter. The platter was huge and had various cuts of fish either atop mounds of cellophane noodles or hunks of white raddish, along with plenty of ground raddish and wasabi paste. What I didn't realize, until my boss told me, was that all nine various cuts were not from different fish but were actually all various cuts from one tuna! I was shocked. I wouldn't have guessed that you could divide up a tuna like a cow or a pig. Some cuts were very tender and wonderful, and others had unpleasant chewy parts, but overall, noting beats a thick slice of raw tuna rolled in kim (seaweed) and dipped into soy + wasabi sauce. It was awesome. However, I always make the mistake of thinking that when there's a big platter on the table, that that's it, the main course, so I always eat my fill of this first round. Next was brought out the same size platter with various from the sea. The shrimp and crab were boiled, along with some tuna-egg cakes which were very fishy tasting. The sea urchin, sea squirt, and a few other mussels were uncooked. And a few...the abalone, the one the looks like a sea lipstick, and another...were still moving. Yes. Raw, and alive. I had heard about this already from a previous teacher, but had been wondering all this time when I would get to see it and whether or not I would be brave enough to try it. Alas, I was a coward when it came down to prying a wriggling abalone from his shell. I stuck to trying the shrimp, crab, sea urchin, some kind of mussel, and tuna-egg cakes, none of which I was too fond of...the mussel unfortunately was very much in contrast to my tastes, and it was an effort to keep down everything else that I'd eaten so far that evening; and fortunately, I hid that feeling very well and washed down the bad flavor with a swig of bek se ju. Phew...safe that time. Again...I figured this had to be it, I was pretty stuffed from the first course. But then we were brought the head of a barbecued tuna swimming in a spicy pepper bath...eyeball included. I wasn't yet brave enough to eat the eyeball, no did anyone else partake. While its appearance was anything but appetizing, I was pleasantly surprised by the good taste of this special tuna dish, and enjoyed it with a bowl of rice and bean paste soup (in Japanese: miso). I left very slightly tipsy and stuffed, in good spirits. When I got home, I felt such a strong urge to go out for a walk in the nearby park to enjoy the full moon and beautiful night weather, but that wasn't enough, so I hopped on my scooter (I was not at all tipsy by this time, no worries!) and headed down to the harbor for a long, reflective moment by the sea. It was a nice evening, even though my body wasn't quite sure how to process so many strange foods and in such great quantities. I succeeded in not having any difficulties this time, for which I am very glad and lucky! It was yet another generous gesture on the part of my directors.

Now, back to last Sunday...

We did end up going to Hallim Park, which I found was a mixture of subtropical botanical gardens, caves, traditional village, small lake, and stone + bonsai garden. It was pretty neat. The day turned out to be gorgeous, and I went with my director's family and another family whose son is also one of my students. This part is located 50 minutes from home, on the west end of the island. And now that I have my alien registration card, I can get in for free or at least half price to all the touristy things. It was an interesting little trip. (As legend has it, if you touch the nose of the dohlraebang, your first child will be a son...which is still pretty important here. My director told me that every time his son sees one, he rubs its nose.) After the park, we had a picnic in a pine forest along Hyeopjae Beach. We had some mighty tasty kimbop, chicken drumettes, and yellow watermelon (not as sweet as the red). It is a good camping spot...something to keep in mind for future reference...but the beach isn't as nice as Jungmun, as it doesn't have the aesthetic appeal of Jungmun Beach. (Yay! A peace pole in Hallim Park!)

(Dang, these noodles are spicy. It's taken me almost an hour to finish them off; my mouth is burning and I'm sweating like I ran a mile...welcome to Korea! Back to the blog...)

So that was my weekend. My week...well, Monday and Tuesday mornings I went to Jungmun Beach before work and soaked up a good deal of glorious sun and swam in the fresh, clear ocean. I am very very lucky to live here! I'm only 25 minutes from the beach by scooter, so it's a great morning destination, esp. as this is the perfect time to beat the daytime crowd. Whenever I get a lot of sun, the hairs on my arms turn totally blond, almost white. I think it was Wednesday when some students said "oh, teacher! your arm! like my grandfather's hair!" It made me laugh; I hadn't even noticed it myself, but they were amazed as none of them have a blond hair on their heads. Today, while I was standing in the back of the room monitoring group work, one student walked behind me and started giggling, then told something to one of the other students, who then walked behind me too and went to say something to another student. I knew they were talking about me, but I thought maybe it was something on my back I couldn't see, so I asked them what was up. Then I realized; they were staring at my arms! Haha they had been sneaking peeks at my arms, and when I found them out they all crowded around my arm..."oh, teacher! white!" pointing to mine, and "black!" pointing to theirs. I am quite an oddity for them. Every time I take off my glasses to rub my eyes, they all are like "whoah!" and say something that sounds to me like "singer", which means "no glasses", and yesterday when I did this one student said "oh, teacher!" and pointed at my eyelashes. I have pretty long eyelashes, esp. for them, so it was yet again another oddity for them. They're all really funny, and every day is an adventure with my students. Some classes I have fun and I make them laugh with my silliness, and some classes, like one today, I was really serious and disappointed in some misbehaviors so I was not a fun teacher for that class. Some are so sweet, and a couple are kind-of jerks. I hope those ones grow out of it though; it makes class much less enjoyable for me and everyone else.

Looks like I'm going to finish my noodles now and go to bed. TGIF! Tomorrow my boss who lives in Jeju-si is bringing Pizza Hut to Jung Chul for a Saturday lunch, so I'm going to get to try seafood pizza for the first time. Yum...I hope.

This is my boss-neighbor's daughter (and the other couple's daughter in the back). I have absolutely fallen in love with her! She is the coolest little girl. If I ever have children, I hope that I have a daughter just like her.

My other boss gave me a gift of "mangosteen" which, if you want to know more about, go to Wikipedia...that's where I got this pic...I just tried it, and it's not too bad. My fridge is full of fruit that I hope I can manage to finish. I have tons of oranges still from my director's wife's parents, and the other director has brought me fruit and sweets as a gift from his mother for the second Thursday in a row...I feel bad but I think some things are going to eventually go bad. I secretly gave the other two Korean teachers tangerines the other day, they were happy about that!

Tourism, Buddha, and Squid

2008-07-12T20:49:00.000+09:00

Today was a humid, rainy Saturday. After a lazy morning, I went with my director's family to the JCC, Jeju Convention Center in Jungmun, where my director worked before he began working at my school. It's a huge convention center where they host a lot of different kinds of events and promote tourism throughout the world for Jeju Island.

After that, we went to a Buddhist temple called Yakcheonsa Temple ("temple where medicinal water flows"). It is the biggest temple on the island, and has huge golden Buddha statues inside. According to my guide book, these are the largest Buddha statues in Asia. Pretty neat. There is very colorful decoration covering every wall and ceiling, and all around the second floor there is a display of miniature golden statuettes lining the upper half of the walls. It was so peaceful! You could hear chanting on the temple grounds, and inside it was so quiet and serene, with giant wooden dragons spiraling up the pillars with their paws outstretched to the Buddhas. I was in awe the entire time; it was a struggle not to walk around with my mouth hanging open. All of the windows are covered in ornate wood carvings, each panel detailing a part of a story. It was also possible to purchase a package of rice to offer to the Buddhas at the front, where there were also stacks of fruit offerings. Outside the temple there is a dragon fountain, which is where we sampled the "medicinal waters". It was a really cool experience!

On our way back home, my director's wife invited me to go with them to her parent's home for dinner. I have to admit, I felt like I would be imposing so I expressed as much to my director, telling him that I thought this was their special family time and that I didn't want to impose on them. But they assured me that it was okay, that they wanted me to come with them, so I left behind my hesitation and joined them. Before heading over there, though, we stopped by to buy something for dinner. This is where I got my first squid experience. Waiting at a fish shop, I watched as a few men scooped fresh squid out of a huge tank, plopped them down on a cutting board and cleaned them in about 15 seconds each. It was really cool to watch; slice, chop, chop , rinse out the ink, scrape scrape, cut into thin strips...voila! Fresh raw squid. (Photo courtesy of Google)
We headed to her family's home, which is in the countryside just out of Seogwipo-si. They own a tangerine farm, which surrounds their house. It's a big, nice house, and her parents are really warm and friendly. We sat on the floor on a bamboo mat eating tangerines at first, then came the main meal; squid with rice and all the side dishes. I had some difficulty picking up the strips with the heavy metal chopsticks so her father brought out wooden ones...much easier...so I picked up a white slimy strip, dipped it into soy + wasabi sauce, and popped it in my mouth. I had expected the squid to have a strong fishy taste, but on the contrary, it doesn't really have any flavor at all! It's only defining attribute is that it's slimy and chewy, like soft cartilage. I tried it many different ways, but my favorite way was to take a lettuce leaf, drop in a spoonful of rice, add a slice of squid dipped in hot sauce and a dab of hot pepper paste, roll it all up, and pop it into the mouth. It's not bad, but I do think that squid is an acquired...texture...so I will wait until I have had it a couple more times to make a final judgment. I was really appreciative of the experience though, especially in being invited to my director's wife's house. They sent us home with a huge basket of tangerines and Hallabong, which they name as such because it resembles Halla Mountain. The bottom drawer of my fridge is full of them; I have a lot of orange-eating to do! (Another photo courtesy of Google)

I am really glad to have gotten to spend another good day with this family! If the weather is good tomorrow, we are all going to Hallim Park for the day. If it's rainy, then, as my director's wife said, "party in my house!" I love her sense of humor and his as well; we laugh a lot! It's great. Until next time!

Naughty Students, Part I

2008-07-10T20:49:00.000+09:00

I've had my first round of bad behaviors, and it has nothing to do with cursing (since, of course, I can recognize only one bad word in Korean at this point). Tuesday, one of my students poked his neighbor in the nose with a pencil. I think he was aiming for his eye, which is ironic because the kid doing the poking has some kind of eye problem now and always wears a patch over his right eye. I was pretty upset about it, especially because he made him cry, and I just stood there for a moment in silent shock, my mind frozen as to what to do. Was this happening because I am the foreign teacher, and am more lax? Is it my fault that this kid stepped out of line? Then I snapped back to reality; I grabbed the poker's arm and took him to the principals office. As I was leaving the classroom, one of the Korean teachers came out of her classroom with one of her students in tow as well. I came to find out later that he was in trouble for fighting with HIS classmate and arguing with her. So I wasn't alone in dealing with naughty students that day; she's the strictest of the two female teachers, which made me feel a little more relieved that maybe it wasn't just me.

But that's not all...yesterday, in one of my youngest classes, a hyperactive little boy brought me his workbook to show me something. In a picture of two people talking to another person, he had drawn a huge penis on one of the people. Again: a moment of shocked silence. At first I wanted to laugh at the stupidity of it. But that quickly changed as I realized that this was maybe a 7 year old and he was proud of what he had done; he just looked up at my frozen face with a grin on his. I quickly overcame my shock. I told them all to sit down with disappointment in my voice, and told them that they were going to write sentences for the last five minutes of class. They all looked at me like, "huh?" so I tried to explain to them that because of this student, they were ALL going to write sentences, and I tried to also explain to them that "we don't draw bad pictures in class". I know some of them didn't get it, because they're so young their English is really limited. But they could tell that I was not happy. The kid who did it is really a good kid I think, but he's super hyperactive so he is more likely than others to make problems. I had a headache on top of it all, so I didn't care if they liked me or not after I punished them, I just did it. But they weren't really upset when they left, they all said goodbye, even the perpetrator. So, in the end, who knows if it was an effective punishment!

I was pretty flustered at these two incidents, but I think misbehavior is just a normal part of teaching that I'm going to have to adjust to and be prepared for. I labeled this one as "Part I" because I know that this is just the beginning of a series of misbehaviors on the behalf of my students. I can only hope that there aren't too many chapters!

Scooters, Rambutan, and Aerobics

2008-07-08T20:48:00.000+09:00

This is the view looking south from my home. You can see the green nets of the soccer field and the "Sports for All" complex, which as far as I can see is a center for old people to play croquet.

Thursday evening was an awesome food night. I enjoyed the company of my co-workers a lot. The youngest staff is at least 10 years my senior, so they all look out for me like I am their younger sister. I love it! I get lots of advice, everyone is very helpful, and as 3 of the 4 have been abroad for at least a year, sometimes longer, they have faced their own tribulations in a foreign country so have got a lot of it figured out for me already. Plus, I'm the fourth native English speaking teacher that they've had on board, so they've god a good idea of what I may experience and what I need help with especially in the beginning. I can't say enough about how lucky I am to be associated with and cared for by them, especially my directors. Though I still don't go out at night alone, I feel very safe here and very comfortable. They have most definitely been the main factors in my feeling this way!

Anyway, back to Thursday. I'm really really good at going off on a tangent, but I eventually make it back full-circle, so worry not in future posts. I always get back to my main point! Both directors really like "soju", which is Korean rice liquor, and Thursday night was the night to drink a little. I think I disappoint them a little since I'm so much younger and a female to boot, so I can't go out drinking with them like they could would they had a male teacher their own age; regardless, I'm trying not to give them any other reasons to be disappointed! (Not my pic btw!) I have not yet tried "soju" and don't really plan to; maybe a sip just to say I had, but I think it's pretty rough stuff so I'm steering clear. But I did taste another Korean drink called "bek se ju" which is another Korean rice wine but with ginseng and other herbal flavors. According to tradition, it has healing properties. It's moderately sweet and very smooth. "Bek se" means "100 years" and "ju" means "alcoholic drink". My boss told me that if I drink it I'll live to be 100 years old. Not sure if I want that to happen, but it was good nonetheless. Anyway, while the other staff speak English, when they all get together it's Korean Korean Korean and some sporadic translation for my sake. Thus, I have discovered the cause of my tendency to overeat at such public occasions; I don't talk. I chime in whenever an English translation come up, giving me the opportunity to say a short something, but then it's back to Korean talk and back to me stuffing my face. Which I really can't complain about, because at this particular restaurant, the Jeju beef is melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It's truly the best beef ever. My favorite combo was to pick up a hot piece of beef with my chopsticks, dip it in a tiny bit of coarse salt, place it on a slice of pickled onion, dip it all into some red pepper paste, roll it all up in a lettuce leaf, and pop the whole thing in your mouth...mmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. And the Japanese-style buckwheat cold noodle soup that follows is amazing! I really want to learn how to make it. I feel kind-of bad sometimes though, because often when I comment on something being really good, they say "that's a Japanese something-or-other". That's just my taste buds doing the judging, not me. However, I cannot yet complain about the Korean food that I have had, especially that cooked by my director's wife. She's a darn good cook. I eat everything she puts in front of me, and she often sends over some fruit or juice or something a couple times a week. It's very very sweet of her to do so; a couple of days ago, I came home from somewhere and their daughter saw me and said "Alison!!", so I stopped to say hi to her and her mom, and she walks over and picks up a box of individual aloe juices (she's about 5 mind you, so it's a bit difficult for her to carry) and starts to open it and hands me 1...2...3 bottles of aloe juice, of which I'd never tried but to which I absolutely could not refuse. So I thanked her and went in my home, opened a bottle, and to my delight discovered that it was delicious! It's sweet juice with soft, chewy chunks of aloe. Now, I am afraid that I am addicted and will have to pursue larger quantities in the future.

Friday, as I mentioned before, was the 3rd birthday of my school, so hooray! no school. I took a bus to Jeju-si (Jeju City) on the north side of the island to meet my other boss, who lives there, so that I could have processed my alien registration. Yes, for all those who know what it's like, I too am now labeled an alien in a foreign land. Hooray for aliens! So now I await the return of my passport and my new registration card, which will get me into the tourist attractions on the island for free or at least half price (bonus!). He then took me to a motorbike shop there to see about purchasing a scooter for me, but there wasn't much of a choice and the cheapest bike ran at around $600. It turned out, though, that the owner of this shop was the son of the man who owns a bike shop in Seogwipo-si, my city, so he gave him a call and lo and behold, he had a bike there for $450! Then it was time for lunch so he took me to V.I.P.'s, a New York-themed Korean chain, which serves steaks and a full salad/everything bar, which was pretty good. They also had green tea ice cream = happiness! And, for the first time ever, I got to try a "rambutan". (Another pic courtesy of Google.)
It's a Thai fruit, with red outer flesh and soft spikes covering it. You score it all the way around, then twist off the outer shell to reveal what looks like an egg-sized grape without a peeling...same texture too. It is really sweet though, and has an almond-sized pit awaiting you in the middle. The one I had was imported and thus had to be kept frozen to be fresh for customers in Jeju-si. I bet they're even better fresh in Thailand; I supposed I will have to go one day and find out! That could be a whole other adventure...

Friday night I went out with one of the Korean teachers to have a sort of Korean/English lesson exchange. We decided that since the other teacher is teaching me the Korean basics (alphabet, numbers, etc.) that she is going to teach me conversational things through real experience. So at dinner, she told me how to say things like "please bring _____ to me" and "thank you" and "water", etc. etc. She's my culture coach.

Saturday was an exciting day for me. In the morning, my boss neighbor took me to the bike shop here in Seogwipo-si to look at the $450 scooter, and the guy rolls out a bright yellow scooter. It was love at first sight. My director drove it around the block and did all the talking, and then it was time to go to the ATM to get cash to pay...dun dun dun...and surprise surprise my ATM card doesn't work over here. My very kind directors fronted the cash for me (I was able to use my other card later in the ATM to pay him back) and I rode home that day the proud new owner of a bright yellow 50cc scooter fully equipped with cherry red helmet! I love driving that thing now, and feel much much better now that I've got my own means of transport so I don't have to bug my directors or other teachers as much, at least when I need to get to the store or whatever.

Sunday? Be lazy time. I slept in, then had breakfast, then about 15 minutes after that my director invited me to have lunch with his family. I was already full, but hey, I'm not going to turn down their offer, so I head out to meet my director, his family, his parents, and his dad's friend for heaping mounds of ginseng-steamed chicken that we pulled apart and dipped into onion-drenched soy sauce and boiled liver and garlic (I tried a piece of liver out of politeness, but when I shook my head to say "nope, don't like this one", they all laughed...at least I tried! everything else was delicious though). Then, after I was already full, they brought out chicken porridge, which was good (the remains of which are still sitting in my refrigerator). I couldn't move after this. I was so dang full that it negatively affected the synapse activity in my temporal lobe and I have no idea what came after that. All I remember is eating eating eating, and then it was Monday.

Monday: I resolved to jog this morning after the gluttony of the previous afternoon, so I did so for 45 minutes, up and down the hills of Seogwipo-si. I really like jogging through the many parks down to the harbor in the mornings. It's a lovely journey. Then I taught for 6.5 hours. Then, around 9pm, my director's wife knocks on my door and invites me out for a walk. As we were going down to the park, she says something about aerobics, and suddenly we turn onto the basketball court where half of the area is taken up by...guess what...an aerobics class. Well, I'm almost always up for trying something new, so I hop in the back of the group with here and start moving like the energizer bunny on steroids. And, to my surprise, I had a ton of fun doing it! It was 30 minutes of Korean techno-pop that I will never forget. They hold the class every night that it doesn't rain, so it looks like I'll be going back. What was really funny about the whole thing was that her whole family went; son, daughter, and husband (director), so it was a little strange to be exercising in front of my boss but I got over it quickly and just enjoyed myself. One of my students was also there because her mom was in the class too, so she came up to me and asked "teacher, why??", giggled, and took a pic of me with her camera. I really didn't feel insecure or self-conscious at all, which was great, and it was a blast, so I'm definitely going to do it again. Seems to be the best way to keep in shape in between my feeding frenzies. But boy was I sore today, so I took up yoga as of this morning to give myself a break.

Today, it was a normal teaching day. Finally a super-clear, sunny, and hot day, so I could see Hallasan for most of the day. But the best part of my day came after work. I drove the 25 minutes or so to Jungmun Beach, the closest beach to my home, thinking that because it was sunny where I was that it would be sunny there. EEEHHHH!!! Wrong. But I was pleasantly surprised by what awaited me. I arrived to find the entire area shrouded in a heavy fog. This was my first time there, so I didn't know what to expect. The beach is made up of "Jin" sand, which is a special type of sand made up of four different colors (black, white, red, gray) and super dense and super soft, and is a thin strip of land squeezed between the ocean and foliage-blanketed cliffs. As the fog was so thick I couldn't see very far out to sea, nor very far down the beach, but it was a very serene setting. The cliffs being so close to the water causes the sound to be muffled, so when the waves come you hear a very soft "woosh" and then silence. It's so peaceful! The water is cool and refreshing, and incredibly clear with a tinge of blue-green, like looking through a glass bottle. Just before I left, the fog began to roll out, unveiling a crescent moon and a light hazy sunset that I couldn't pass up the chance to snap a photo. Then, when I got back home, my director's wife invited me over for dinner, which was delicious broiled fish with all the side dishes...rice, kimchi, seaweed + fish soup, and various other things that I can't yet name but are tasty. It was the perfect ending to a good day. Now it's past my bedtime, so I'm off to recharge in hopes of making the next day even better than the last.

Seogwipo-si Photos

2008-07-04T20:46:00.000+09:00

"Seogwipo-si" tower at Jungung Rotary

Proof that I am where I am.

Jung Chul English Acadamy comprises the second floor of this building...my workplace for the next year.

Inside the school.

Downtown?

The little river near my apartment.

The clouds parted for just long enough for me to snap a photo from my balcony of Hallasan, who is still too shy to show herself fully.

Another river that connects to the one above...again, just outside my apartment.

One of the parks just outside my apartment.

Self-portrait time.

Contemplation...I actually had a lot of fun taking these photos.

Beautiful stepping stones across the river...also in the same park near home.

Tangerine grove! Jeju-do is famous for its oranges. You can buy cases of them as souvenirs, you can buy orange chocolate...I'm eating some right now... orange perfume, orange jams, they even have keychains with stone grandfathers holding tangerines...famous, I tell you, famous.

Baby tangerines! I have been eating greenhouse tangerines these days as the natural harvest season isn't until November. They are famous for a reason; they're delicious! Their skins are really thin and easy to peel and they're the sweetest oranges I've ever had.

City seal maybe?

Most bridges have a "dolharubang" or stone grandfather on each corner of a bridge as a ward against evil spirits, but I guess these things work just as well?

That yellow building in the middle is my home. I live on the second floor, and you can see my three north-facing windows on the farthest end of the building. One of my directors and his family shares the other half of the top floor. There is a small convenience store below my apartment; two of my students live there, and it's their parents who run the shop.

This is my director's family's dog, "Ludo" the guard dog...grrrr...

A Short Overview of My First Teaching Days...

2008-07-03T20:44:00.000+09:00

I just completed my third day of teaching, and I'm actually pretty worn out. I started teaching Tuesday, and as our school is celebrating its 3rd birthday tomorrow (Friday), we don't have classes. So my first week wasn't too bad, I only had three days of work, which also means that I have now seen most of the students in the school once. Over a hundred students in three days....whew....all ranging from about seven to fourteen years old. I'm already noticing the different personalities of each student, as well as their desire (or lack thereof) to be learning English. I have realized though that they speak mostly in Korean in class, so while that will help me to learn the language, it isn't helping them learn English. I realize that I need to encourage them to use only English in class. On the same token, I am beginning to understand the school system here and I feel sorry for the students because they are put under a lot of pressure to study constantly and to do well on exams. That's all that matters here: test scores. If you get good test scores in high school, you will go to a good university, thus securing for you a good job, family, success, etc. etc. There's so much pressure on these older kids especially that I feel that I shouldn't be too harsh with them, and instead be a little more lax so that they don't feel so pressured ever moment of every day. Anyway, we will see how my style unfolds with time.

Tonight all the school staff are going to a nice restaurant in Jungmun, a resort town about 15 minutes east of Seogwipo, to celebrate the school's birthday. I cannot wait...the beef there is delicious. It's Jeju, or at least Korean, beef, which is much more expensive than imported beef. I think it may be the same restaurant where my adult class took the previous teacher and I to celebrate the end of his term and the beginning of mine. I will only have this adult class once a week at night, and they actually are taking a 2-month vacation from the class, so I won't see them again for a while. There are only four of them, but they're actually a lot of fun and I look forward to having English conversations with them!

Speaking of beef, one of the Korean teachers told me that the other day, U.S. beef was allowed to be sold again in some Korean markets, and within 5 hours it was sold out! Even amongst all the protests against U.S. beef imports due to fears about mad cow disease, there is still great demand for this cheaper variety.

The sun finally came out today, though there is still a haze over the city. I can barely see the outline of Hallasan out the north windows of the teachers'office, like a peaceful ghost waiting to be revealed. Yesterday I experienced my first thunderstorm here. It poured and poured, and now the walls in both of my bedrooms are weeping. It's not super pleasant to sleep in there as the room smells strongly of mildew. Oh well, it's supposed to be fixed upon completion of the rainy season. It just worries me to see the water spots spreading across the walls.

That's all for now...dinner time!!

2008-07-01T20:43:00.000+09:00

I've skipped on over to South Korea to the island of Jeju, or Jeju-do (old Romanization: Cheju-do). Beginning today, July 1, 2008 I will for the next year be teaching English at a private school (hogwan) in the city of Seogwipo, or Seogwipo-si, which lies on the south side of the island. It is the island's second largest city, Jeju City (Jeju-si) being the largest. In total, however, the population of the entire island is about half a million, which is small by S. Korean standards. While it may be more advantageous in terms of availability of services for an English-speaker to live in the larger cities like Seoul or Busan, I chose Jeju-do in the end because of its access to nature and to beautiful sights. I had also researched a bit about Korean culture before coming here, and from all that I read, Jeju's island life is more laid-back and friendlier than on the mainland. As I have yet to spend any time on the mainland, I cannot make any comparisons. However, in my experience so far, I simply cannot speak enough of the awesome hospitality that I have received from the moment that I arrived. Just this evening, the wife of one of my directors brought over a huge slice of green tea cake, which was totally unexpected and gladly received, and which I am eating right now! I arrived the evening of June 22, and already, I have experienced a multitude of acts of generosity from my directors, the family of one of the directors, the other teachers, and even the students.

But I shouldn't get too ahead of myself...let me explain from the beginning. This year was the year of my college graduation, and was facing the crisis of what to do next. I had given little thought to teaching English abroad until I talked to Jennifer, a friend who worked at my old college, who was at that time preparing herself to teach English in South Korea. She told me all about it, and I realized that this was a very real possibility for me upon graduating. So in April I headed to Boston for a month to complete a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training course. I wasn't really sure upon receiving my certificate whether I would actually go abroad or just teach EFL in the states, but one day in late May I happened upon a website that recruits teachers specifically for Jeju Island. So, after checking it out, I sent in my app, and the next day I got a reply from the recruiter saying he had a position open for me beginning in July! Long story short, a month later I landed in what they call the "Hawaii of Korea" (I never would have believed this expression had my director, who spent 5 years studying in Hawaii, not been the one to tell me). First act of generosity: my directors allowed me to arrive one week earlier than my start date so that I could observe the current native English speaker's teaching. I am very appreciative of this opportunity, because I needed this buffer zone as an introduction to what is expected of me as a teacher and what the students are like. I know that it made today much smoother than if I had started without any observation time!

Another act of generosity was shown my first night here. The parents of one of the directors (vice-director) allowed me to stay in their home (which is just across the street from my director's home) for the week of my observation because the native English teacher at the time was living in my future apartment. His father knew just a handful of English words, and if his mother knew any she didn't show it. They didn't need to speak English and I didn't need to know Korean for me to understand how much they cared for my well-being while in their care. They let me eat with them whenever I was home during their meal times, and they took me out to the "Korean Traditional 5-day Market" twice! I felt like their child and I felt very comfortable under their care. It was in their home that I experienced real Korean home life. Their home is quite large by Korean standards, and very nice. Here are a few things that I noticed: traditionally, Koreans sleep on the floor with only a couple of thin blankets as padding; though they had a tub, there is no shower curtain and you just shower standing on the floor beside the toilet and sink (as I'm so used to keeping the water in the tub, it was very strange for me to be getting water all over the floor; I felt like my mom would walk in any minute and shout at me for doing it! lol); breakfast is not sweet, and there are in fact not a lot of sweets in the traditional Korean diet; you take your shoes off in the entrance (shoes inside =very rude). Oh! Sunday, I returned from jogging to find my director's dad singing karaoke in the living room! It made me smile; how awesome is it to be able to say to yourself on a Sunday afternoon, "Hmm, I'm bored; I think I'll sing some karaoke!" He had a good voice to boot.

Also, on my first night, this same director took me with his wife and two children to dinner. It was my first authentic Korean dining experience, and it was pretty good. I got to sit on the floor, use chopsticks, and share the entire meal with everyone at the table. Korean meals are normally communal, so you maybe have your own rice and soup bowls, but the rest is free game. Little side dishes are set around a main dish, and often you have lettuce or seaweed to wrap rice, kimchi, the main dish (all I've had so far is meat), spicy bean paste, and whatever else is there, and then you pop the whole thing into your mouth. Eating this way is actually kind of fun, as you get to make a different creation with every mouthful. I'm getting better with chopsticks, though the ones here are flat and made of metal, which is really new to me - I've only ever used round wooden ones - but I'm not doing to badly with them so far.

I moved into my apartment just yesterday morning. My director lives right next to me, which is really nice! I feel safe with them so close by. From the moment I met my director's family, I liked them a lot. He is very kind and knows English very well, and has a good sense of humor, so he's helped me a lot so far. His wife is really friendly and while she is not fluent in English, she tries at every opportunity to speak it with me. She also has brought me goodies from her work at a really nice hotel here, and she invited me over to their home for dinner Friday evening...delicious!! She is the one who also brought me the cake tonight. The two children are great! As Korean ages differ in how they're calculated from western ages, I can't say exactly how old they are, but I know that the little boy is 7ish and the little girl is 4ish. The boy is one of my students and is in the most rambunctious class (haven't taught them yet, but I am sure I will have plenty to say about them soon enough), but he's actually a pretty good student and has really good pronunciation. The little girl is absolutely precious! She knows some basic English (hello, goodnight, animals, etc). The night I went to their place for dinner, we were sitting at the dinner table and she all of a sudden said "magic panties" and kept saying it all night! I don't know why she said this, but it was hilarious! Since it was cool and rainy Saturday, they took me to the O'sulloc Green Tea museum and then to Pacific Land (a small aquarium) in Jungmun, a nearby town. The aquarium is situated on a cliff overlooking the sea, and near a very popular beach called Jungmun Beach, so I finally got to see the ocean! Although it was a gray and humid day, it was so nice to see the ocean and the big waves rolling in. I even got to see for the first time one of the famed Jeju women divers. I am really impressed as many-if not most-of them are older ladies who go out into the ocean I guess all year round. I would tell more, but all that I know about them so far is that they exist.

Yeah, it's rainy season now, so it's not usually above 75 degrees F every day and it rains at least a little bit most days. Nights get pretty chilly, and some days it's been around 65F. Not tropical! But, it's supposed to be over with around late July, by which time it will be hot, so I will maybe go the beach and hopefully they can get rid of the mold growing on some of my walls!

As for today...
This morning, one of my fellow teachers came over to my place and we had a Korean/English language exchange...although, she was teaching me much more Korean than I was teaching her English. I learned the basics of the Hangul (Korean) alphabet, which with practice I know I will be able to master writing and recognizing it in a short while. Pronunciation of Korean sounds is pretty difficult though, so I have to practice speaking a lot if I want to get even a basic comprehension of it. It was really cool though to begin to understand the letters and how they're structured. I am excited to learn more! Then I taught 4 classes this afternoon. The school where I am teaching is a private English school. All private language schools are called "hogwans"; there are English hogwans, music hogwans, math hogwans, etc, and they are attended by students in the afternoon after their compulsory public school classes. My school is relatively small...around 100 students, 2 directors, 2 Korean teachers (the 2 directors teach as well, making 4 Korean teachers total), and 1 native English teacher - me. Over the course of three days, I will have taught 15 classes, which is all of the students. I have to memorize a lot of names! My first day, today, went relatively smoothly, but I found myself a bit disorganized and running out of material earlier than I would have liked. Plus, the previous teacher played games for every class, so now all the students are asking me "Alison teacher, game?" and I am like "no, not today..." darnit, they all think that class time with the native English speaker is play time. This is something I'm going to have to work on. They also tend to curse a lot in class, but as I don't know any bad words yet, they're going to get away with murder in my classes. Also, as a new teacher, I'm incredibly green so they're probably going to try to mess with me and get away with a lot of crap. But, with time, I hope I can learn to manage them well and teach them something. We shall see!

Ice Cream and Flied Lice

2008-04-12T11:58:00.000+09:00

So I have finished my second week of TEFL training. It hasn't been hard as in "I'm training to participate in a triathlon". It's more like "I'm re-working the connections in my head concerning what I know about my own language to figure out how to pretend that I don't know it so that I can see what it is like to be someone who doesn't know it so that I can figure out how I can teach others who don't speak it and understand why I say/hear/think the way I do in English and be able to explain that to someone else". The first week was exhausting...I was in bed at this time last Friday night. Week #2 has proven to be just as exhausting, but I think I'm getting used to it. Next week? Ha, well, don't expect to seen an entry from me then because I am going to be so busy and stressed (I'm getting myself pumped, can't you tell?). I have two lesson plans, plus I have to complete a portfolio of my work plus an additional 90-minute integrated (two skills) lesson....all that I've been doing is 45-minute, one-skill lesson plans. I think I'm psyching myself out about it so that I'm not as overwhelmed as I would be if I went into this next week thinking it'd be cake. So...I'm sorry to you all if you don't hear from me for a while. But, once next week is over, week 4 should be easy street. And then...you'll be looking at a certified, ready-to-teach...uhh...English....teacher....oh god, what have I gotten myself into. Hey, I wanted a challenge, right?

By the way, I just want to make a few more observations before you never see me again (a.k.a. for a week):

Observation #4: Ice Cream
As I noted previously, people in Boston love ice cream. Everyone's carrying around a half-eaten cone, or just polishing off a double-scoop cup. The other day, I walked by a line of people waiting for ice cream. Would be a normal scene, except that it was 35 degrees (F) outside. Eh? What gives? This puzzled me even further. Then, I thought of a theory. Ok, so in some countries they drink piping-hot tea when it is boiling outside, because somehow it is refreshing. What if people in Boston eat ice cream when it's cold, because eating something colder makes you feel warmer?? Eh? Brilliant, no? I decided to test my hypothesis. I bought a single-scoop of moose tracks, and took a walk in the bitter cold, eating away, waiting for the magic. To my disappointment, I only felt colder. Theory: failed. So maybe there is no logic behind this insanity. I'm still working on it.

Observation #5: Flied Lice
I may sound slightly culturally insensitive for a moment, so I apologize in advance for what I am about to say. But I was able to find the answer to something I'd been wanting to clear up for a long time. I have had a fascination with the switching of the spoken "r" and "l" sounds when Asian nationals speak in English. For example: "fried rice" sounds like "flied lice", and "please" sounds like "prease". Undoubtedly, Asian nationals laugh at us English-speaking natives when we're speaking in their language, so it goes without saying that many of us English speakers find this mispronunciation quite entertaining. Fine, we're all on the same page on that one, we all make fun of other people trying to speak in our native tongues. Glad no one is offended.
One of my trainers taught in S. Korea for 8 years, and it occured to me that he may know the answer to this one. So I posed the question: why do Asian nationals often switch the "l" and the "r"? Lo and behold, he knew! The moment of clarity had finally come! Apparently, in Korean, they use a sound that is completely new to us, so that when we hear it, it sounds like an "l" or an "r" because that's the closest sound that we know that we can relate it to. Now I feel satisfied, because the burning question has now finally been extinguished. Thank you trainer Rich.

It's time to put this brain on standby. Over and out.

Babies and Big Dogs

2008-04-07T11:27:00.000+09:00

Greetings. I have been in Boston, MA for one week now. This is my first time living on my own in any space of metropolitan character. I'll start with a major problem I had in the beginning...sleep. Hearing cars and people shouting at night is much different than crickets and...well, no noise...so getting to sleep at first was a challenge. I tried earplugs at first, but for some reason they cause excruciating pain in my ears after a few hours of wear so I nixed that idea. But I'm already adapting so maybe I will be sleeping like a baby by the time I leave. I am taking a month-long course here to receive my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate so that ONE DAY I may travel abroad and feed myself along the way by teaching my native tongue and help out whoever wants to learn. I have made some interesting...at least to me...observations so far, so I thought I'd share them with the world. In addition, this is a great way to distract myself from the lesson plans that I'm supposed to be creating :)

Observation #1
Pet owners here have an obsession with big dogs. I am taken aback by the enormity of these animals that I see leading their owners down Newbury Street. In Christopher Columbus Park the other day, I actually stopped, mouth dropped, at the sight of the biggest Great Dane I'd ever seen. It was a beautiful creature, blond coat, pointed ears...and absolutely MASSIVE! I've seen an English Mastiff as well, just on the corner with his owner, and more breeds I wasn't able to name. I'd thought, being in a city, that people would favor smaller breeds due to the lack of wide-open pastures for dogs to run. But no, it is in Boston where I've seen the largest dogs in my life.

Observation #2
Those who do not have big dogs have babies. Lots of them. Everyone has a cute little bundle straddling their chest, completely sheltered from the cold and rain that we see here nearly every day. And they all seem content. I haven't heard a crying baby yet. I guess that's because they're so tightly bundled in their winter gear that you can't hear them. I even saw a baby carrying a baby(doll) the other day. The ones that are old enough to walk are dressed up just like mom and dad. Posh, pretty, North Facie, hippie, you name it.

Observation #3
The language. The most obvious distinction in Bostonian is the replacement of the "r" sound with that of "ah" in almost every possible case. Examples: "bar" becomes "bah"; "singer" becomes "singah"; "beer" becomes "beeah"....you get the point. There was one other that I noticed the other day but I can't think of it at the moment. One of my trainers is from the Boston area, so listening to him is a real treat. He mentioned a substitution of the word "bubbler" for "water fountain". Ok fine, in one ear and out the other. To my surprise, though, while I was browsing H&M yesterday, a young man commented, "we need a bubblah en heah". Who would've thought.
I love to go out and just walk forever and ever, finding my own way around the city. Yesterday I went to the bay and Fauniel Market area...by accident. It's great wandering. But, to be honest, it would be a lot more fun to do it with a friend. I've only had two days to wander on the weekends since my course runs all day every day, and apparently I'm going to be on the verge of a breakdown during the third week. Well, we'll see. I hope to at least find time to get up to the North End to try the Italian and to Cambridge to try the...Hahvahd? And maybe this dreary weather will clear up as spring approaches.

I'm feeling the tug of the unfinished lesson plan, so it's back to work now.