But I am le tired...

I went to a baseball game today, it was fun.


This is Matt, we work together. I think it's the best picture from the game because I caught the field reflecting in his sunglasses.






and this:





In front of Bongeunsa temple by COEX. They do a traditional Buddhist tea ceremony in English on Thursday, which I'm hoping to attend on the 16th, as I have no work that day (huzzah! holiday!!)


It's a busy week; tomorrow it test day and it's very likely that all of the written tests, orals tests, grades and evals will be due on Wednesday. We're not supposed to grade the tests in class, but other than read my book (which I'm not allowed to do) all I can really do is stare out the window.....at the brick wall of the building next door



Wednesday is also the halfway point. I'll write something then, I guess. We'll see.
I have a lot of bullshit time on my hands during the days, especially Tuesday/Thursday, though I'm beginning to think October's schedule is going to kick me in the ass and be a bit humbling.




so now i'm going to take a nap and hope kim jung i doesn't fire any missiles

God almighty, I'm free at last!

I just said goodbye to my aunt and Peter. Cry, cry, cry!


I may have made out like a bandit, but the emotional assholery I put up with this week (and for the past 20 someodd years) is not worth it.



They started talking all businessy tonight because we were watching the debate and then discussion led towards the crap state of the economy. Advice was doled to me and criticism was applied, and so I asked her how much her new Mercedes cost the pottery ($150K) and then asked how many of their employees couldn't afford to feed their families without multiple jobs and she shrugs and says, "not any of my business"


Karma? Helllloooo? Where are you when I need you? You've done me well in the past, how about now?

I like the Pottery employees; A lot of them have watched me grow up and they've always been really nice and encouraging, which is more than I can say for certain family members (not to name anyone....), so when my aunt asks me why I wasn't a business major, I can simply say, "Because I am entirely too unselfish"

Yay capitalism!



Anyways, enough bitching. That's not the purpose of this! Which is also why I don't write that often. The truth sucks some days.


Every time I talk to people they ask me what I eat. And I've been meaning to write a pseudo-expose on Korean food (at least the street food), but I don't eat street food often. It doesn't really exist in this area. I'm planning on dragging Jeanieface to Dongdaemun when she gets here. It's a well-known shopping district and is near a river that Lee Myun Bak (the current prez) had revitalized when he was mayor of Seoul. I've never been at night because even though I feel safe here, it's still nice to have a traveling companion. Silly drunk Korean males....

Anyways, back to food:

Food here isn't hard. Granted, I get sick of Korean food after a while, but I mix it up. I've been eating this stuff since I was born; some if it is still gross (pigs feet? non, merci), and some of it is like home. But nothing's like Grandma's kimchi (6 months and counting...)
The hard part is finding food that doesn't have pork or beef in it.

I've had pork here once. It was bad. It might've been the fact that is was pork belly (read: same part of Porky the pig as bacon, but uncured), but after that fiasco and driving the big white bus for two days, I decided it just wasn't the time to reintroduce mediocre-tasting protein.


An example:



Soon dubu chigae. Or: spicy bubbling cauldron of kimchi, seafood bits, and soft tofu and fire retardant sticky rice.

This is a good, 'I have a head cold and need to breathe out of my face', kind of soup. It's not that spicy (for me, but I'm a freak of half-Korean, half-Irish nature), and it comes to the table still bubbling and spattering out little red splashes of broth. Don't wear light colors!

There's this chain of Kimbap restaurants here (Kimbap= that smelly, Korean-like sushi my mom sent me to school with in middle school and subsequently caused a great deal of "ewwww! gross!" and ridicule) that sell such dishes for pretty cheap.
Actually, eating Korean food here is cheap. You can get a full meal like that for $5 or less. And you get free refills on that little side dish on the top.

The bad part is, my sodium levels have to be through the roof. And I'm not anywhere close to controlling what I eat as I have been. Woops.

The good part is, when you're exhausted from a wonderful day of chasing small children, wiping runny noses, and correcting the grammar of 13 year olds who like to declare "I am genius!," there's usually one close by.

Another bad part is, when you have too many of those days and eat at these places so often that you've started to rank them on:
1. The quality of the food
2. The amount of food
3. The busyness and spaciousness of the restaurant
4. The menu
5. The workers


There are two near me that have really nice middle aged women who give me extra panchan(the little dishes) or sometimes they give me a little discount.
They're impressed with my Korean skillz (yes, a "z" because I feel like being an absolute tool because I'm being this analytical).

I also eat sandwiches. Or toe-suh-tuh. Toast?





Tuna salad with sweet pickles (ew) and egg. How's that for protein?

It was a random meal. I haven't gone back since because the whole pickle and tuna thing was a bit of a turn off. And the egg. Koreans like to put egg in sandwiches for some reason. Overkill much?



I really do miss vegetables. The occasional salad is a godsend and I did buy some salad goods, but it's not as adequate as I'd like it to be. shakes fist at ineffectual Korean grocery stores





Uno mas:




Cat's preferred position of laptime.
It's like he's airing out his nads, but he doesn't have those anymore. Sorry buddy, overpopulation. =(

We're in the middle of a battle.
He still bites. He still scratches. He goes crazy around 5 am and does a marathon around the room.
But he is very nice to come home to after a long day, he doesn't complain when I put my cold feet on him and he sits very nicely when I clip his claws.









We also have a new teacher, Ryan, this month, as Josh's contract is leaving. I'm sad to see Josh go, but it's kind of cool because when I arrived, he was halfway through his contract, and time has flown since then. Not too shabby.

Who am I going to ask what color chickens are?!?!!! sad face.



Ryan's cool, has some teaching experience. The only thing is: he's from South Carolina and has the full-on drawl and I'm hoping it doesn't rub off on me because I've all but eradicated it from my vocabulary, except for my usage of "Y'all". Oh and don't ask me to say 'Norfolk.'
oi oi oi





That's the end of my dorkery.

Tomorrow: going to see the Doosan Bears play baseball. My second game ever! And both have been in Asia! I'm slowly testing the waters of the sports world...

Jeanieface and Papa Smurph next week, w00t! And a trip to Seoraksan (east coast)!

A Korean "Western"-style wedding

My aunt came on Friday, but sadly I didn't see her until 8:30 AM Saturday morning



the aunt



her boyfriend

Point 1: I didn't need to be reminded of why I went to school 4 states away and subsequently moved across the world, but I was. Gee golly whillikers, the maternal side of my family is AWESOME. Whatever, she basically just paid for my flight to the Philippines. Or to Shanghai. We'll see.

Her: Michellleee!
Me: Hi Emo
Her: Well you look healthy!
Me: Healthy?
Her: Well, fat.

eyeroll


Throughout the day there were dual conversations of how much I suck and how much we all suck but how proud they are of Grant and Ron and Jeanie, a little bit for Jeanie at least.

I shut up though when I told them that I was the youngest and the only one that is financially independent. (minus care packages hahaha)
My one moment of not being shat on for the day. Yay!



Point 2: I woke up at 6 a.m. two Saturdays in a row. Who knew it was possible?

Anyways, breakfast and a wedding ensued.


Step One: Get your hair done

Whenever I'm around my aunt in cities, there's this surreality that exists. Mainly because I'm used to being a minion and she's a high-rolling kind of lady. So do we take public transportation in NYC or Seoul? Heck no, she gets a driver







So we went somewhere in Kangnam to get our hair done with the sisters and mother of the bride. Somehow I ended up getting pulled into that fiasco, and let me just say that they poofed my hair up so much for a white girl, I would've made Diana Ross proud.




Overpriced hair salon. I was reading the menu and haircuts started at $80. Gag



Step 2: After that we went to the wedding hall in Yeouido, which is like a 30 minute drive, without traffic.

In Korea, they have these mass-producing wedding halls that are very formulaic and very efficient in the whole process. You go in, there's a room with the bride where you can sit and take a picture with her, like this:



Then you go to the table, and you fork over your monetary gift, and they give you a ticket for the buffet. Now logically, you'd go sit down and watch the ceremony, but some people just fork over the money and go straight to the buffet, which we learned after the ceremony

Step 3: Wedding ceremony

Differences in a Korean Western-style wedding and an actual Western wedding:

-They don't stand when the bride is escorted down the aisle
-The family, other than the mothers, aren't recognized or seated in a particular spot prior to the wedding
-There isn't a wedding party. No groomsmen, flower girls, bridesmaids, etc

and the kicker:
-Talking throughout the ceremony is okay. Getting up and leaving and is okay. Small children running around and screaming is fine.

My aunt was disgusted, as she repeated to me multiple times. As they are a very wealthy family and should be able to have something of a much classier manner. But you really can't change the behavior of your guests, in my opinion. At least not in Korea...

But it prompted her to say, "When you get married, Peter and I will take care of it"


Even more reason for me to elope! I think Dad might actually thank me...right Dad?



There was a big screen above the minister's head so they can show it live.

Step 4: Food
Then after the ceremony, you move downstairs to the banquet room where there's a huge buffet and people are taking advantage of the copious amounts of food and free booze.



The centerpieces were also quite classy, and kind of rivaled Eric and Jonni's




hahah


This is the aunt and the boyfriend, whom she likes to call "uncle peter"




Was I not invited to the wedding? I know she has a thing for Vegas shotgun weddings, but jeez, you think we'd have been invited to #3....



Anyways, then you eat. I took advantage of the fresh fruit. Mmmmm



The mother of the bride

After the wedding, the bride and groom change into the traditional Korean Hanbok costume and go do the bowing to the relatives thing. The moms wear the Hanbok throughout.


The dude on the left apparently owns a lot of Lexus dealerships here. Ridiculous.





It was all over by about 2, then we went back to their hotel, which is conveniently right down the road from me! Grahhhhhhhhhhhh





It does have a nice view though.




I escaped their fun times yesterday, made up excuses about Sunday plans.



And this is what all the cool kids do in Itaewon on Sundays:




I love the Wolfhound. Dad, I'm taking you there, just for the fish'n'chips. Tuesday two-fers!

We're adding Scrabble to our oh-so-exciting crossword puzzle activity. Dorkface!
If anyone wants to join in on the dorkery, the more the merrier


Tonight, more family fun, this time with my great uncle's daughters, who are pretty awesome. So hopefully it'll be less painful that Saturday.

I'm a lobster! a lobster? first lobster! there was more than one lobster present at the birth of jesus?

Saturday: My alarm failed to go off at 5:30, but luckily I have a handy little natural clock in one Cat, so I dragged my sleepy butt out of bed and to the subway station




It was quite packed.
Took the subway all the way to the end of the Incheon line, and in total it was only like..2 hours..Fun! :D

Then we took a high speed ferry to Deokjeokdo. It was fun and refreshing. There were a lot of French people on the ferry, whom we would end up running into a lot later on in the trip. It was great to see non-Korean kids. They were quite adorable as well.

But it was a smooth, scenic route, and this time no one got sea sickness! woo!








Tiniest lighthouse ever!



We spent most of Saturday on the beach. That night there was a bonfire and we met some cool people. One guy was from Monroe, but had graduated when most of my friends would've been freshmen so he didn't know any of them








It's a pretty tiny island. I'm not quite sure what the population is, but that picture is pretty much indicative of most of rural Korea, from what I've seen.




Sunday, we climbed a mountain that had this neat little pagoda thing on top. It was a bit of hike..plus I was in flipflops. But the view was great. Those pictures are on the bottom, plus more will be uploaded onto my Flickr later.

Monday we took a ferry back. There wasn't any school for most of us today, but I took my GRE this morning and needed some study/sleep time.



somewhere on the subway




And that was my weekend.

My GRE was okay. It was only the analytical writing section and I wrote a lot, and used plenty of examples, but I guess we'll see how I do. It takes them longer than usual to process our scores, so I really won't find out until November some time.

This weekend: My aunt arrives and it's off to my first Korean wedding!

This ought to be interesting. bangsheadondesk






sorry, a bit of narcissim

Deokjeokdo

hooray for 4 day weekends!








I wish I'd gone to Deokjeokdo earlier. It was a good trip, and awesome to get out of Seoul.
It's located off the east coast of Korea, an hour's ferry ride from Incheon, where the airport is.
I'll have a more coherent and detailed update later. I'm a bit pooped and am taking part one of the GRE tomorrow. Oh boy. Wish me luck?

Yummies in my belly!

I didn't know there was a French section of Seoul, but apparently there is. I went there for dinner with Genevieve tonight and had some very yummy Chicken Pot Pie. Not exactly french fare, but it was a reasonably priced American restaurant. At least the pie was. I'll have to go back when it's day time and I can see better. And take more photos

but for now:




Korean, English, and French?
Usually it's only Korean, English and Japanese.



Cat surveys the goodies:



Chuseok = gift giving! The school gave one of these to each of us.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with 6 tubes of toothpaste. I still have 2 left from what I bought with me; I'm quite finicky about my toothpaste, and the stuff I've bought here is crap. Plus they don't have fluoride in the water, so I'm really hoping my teeth aren't riddled with cavities when I get home.



And this is how I feel now:







g'night! :)

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids!

Part of this whole impress the parents routine also includes ridiculous class schedules.
Today, the four year olds and I were supposed to read a Time for Kids article on Child Labor in India.


.....


So who wants to color fish? What does they fishy say? *fish mouth motion*


What my co-worker Matt wrote on my facebook wall:

wow, you have to teach them that? maybe the koreans wanna put things in perspective: "sure, you'll have to go to school for 6-10 hours any given day six days a week, plus homework and only the tiniest of time slots alloted for playtime, and continual pressure that if you do not get into one of three certain colleges, you can never succeed with the material wealth our culture promotes on advertisements and our tv shows and you will work 10-12 hours any day as an adult. but, hey. you're not in india"




Also this past weekend, I was at Seoul Station and I saw this mariachi band:














Il m'a amusé





I'm off to Deokjeok-do Island this weekend, which I'm stoked about. It's a long weekend because it's the Korean Thanksgiving-esque holiday of Chuseok. And though I should study for my GRE which is um, Tuesday (eek!), I likely wouldn't be studying even if I were stay in Seoul. I'd probably be shopping (eesh! It's only the writing part and if I can't write an argument essay, well I really shouldn't have been able to graduate with an Arts degree.


Random Amusment:



Nombre 1: Original Chinatown Cuisine? What's that? MSG? General Tso's Chicken? Fortune cookies? haha
Nombre 2: Say it outloud..."Ho Lee Chow!" "Ho Lee Chow!"
These Koreans..they're so punny


C'est tout, au revior!

It's like living in a fishbowl...

Staring, considered by most societies to be rude.

But in Korea, especially if you're white, it's okay!

I'll explore other social qualms later but for now:

I'm sick of being stared at. Sweet lord. Yes, I'm half-white. Yes, I can see you staring at me. I don't care if you're "curious," that's a crappy excuse. Thus, I've decided to start making this face to people who stare:




For if I will be stared at like a circus freak, I WILL MAKE MYSELF DESERVE GETTING STARED AT.

Really, it's not as if they haven't seen white people before.


When we went through training after I first arrived, the Foreign Teacher Trainer, Sam, explained the "Korea stages."

Stage One, Months 1-4: Typically, the Honeymoon stage. You love Korea! You're gung-ho about learning the language and embracing the culture!
Stage Two, Months 5 and beyond: GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE stage!
Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.
There are some people who completely skip the first stage and go to stage two and do what we call a "midnight run." With those, you get your paycheck, then leave the country without telling your boss. They figure it out the following school day.

My honeymoon stage was over long ago. It's not that I don't like it here, I just feel like I'm in the doldrums. The frustrated doldrums.

Our school goes on a monthly cycle. Every month it changes; there is a little regularity.
Since I started, I've taught a lot of classes regularly, but this past month it was a bit drastic and frankly just made my brain go SPLAT.

It has a bit to do with the fact that we've had a lot of the American teachers come and go in the past few months-- June, July and August, consecutively we've had teachers leave. And while the new teacher filled in most of the previous teacher's classes, for some reason this month the schedule went to hell.
So most of the kinder kids I'd been teaching since I started in April, I don't teach anymore. I've been thrust into most of Ian's kinder classes and it's basically like starting all over again. Learning new personalities, new class schedules, habits, tendencies, etc and it really is a massive pain in the butt.
I understand that they'd have to get used to a new teacher anyway, but wouldn't it make more sense to put the new teacher in that position? That way it's only one class that gets thrown off for a while not two that have to adjust to a new teacher (two as in, the new class I take and the class I used to teach who gets picked up by someone else). Do you know how long it takes to "train" these kids? But mostly just learn how about how they learn best, how to make things easy for them to understand? Grahhhhh!

I don't really like the word train, but that's the word they use here...eyeroll
arf arf I want my treat!

I also picked up a new afternoon class of 1st graders. They come in for 2 40-minute lessons after they go to public school.
And this is where Michelle finally realized why there are morning 4-6 year old classes.

In Korea, there is no government regulated or required Kindergarten. Thus, unless their parents send them to private pre-k/kindergarten, children get thrust into first grade without any prior schooling.
The morning kids are there to get ahead in their English studies and basically ravage the other kids academically for the first few years.

So I'm teaching a group of kids...with no knowledge of English whatsoever and dear god if I have to do it beyond this month, I will be wrinkled and grayer than necessary at my age.

It does not help that the parents sit outside the class, wave through the windows and watch on CCTV. One girl didn't go either my class or the Korean teacher's class; she sat outside with mommy instead. And so when mommy asked me what to do, the first thing that pops into my head is"
"Drop her off, go shopping for an hour and a half, and ignore the tears. She'll get over it"
But no, bite your tongue, don't offend the parents or feel the wrath of the boss lady. dun dun dun!

Or if mommy wanted, mommy could save herself a good chuck of change and teach the kid herself since she knows English pretty well, but where does logic prevail in this society? Nowhere!

But at least I can understand what they're saying. It's difficult when they don't even know the English word for "bathroom."

Each classroom is on CCTV. Big brother much?
There's a monitor in the office on the 3rd floor, and it's huge, and occasionally, your class gets full screen instead of a tiny square of a shared screen. Those are the days I dread. There's also a TV in the office where the Academic Director is, and probably also one in the office where the manager is. If this were say, inner city, violent-prone, I'd understand more, but it's just ridiculous.

It's all about control. It's about the company controlling us and us controlling the kids. EVEN DURING P.E.!
But if you don't follow the controlled rules stipulated in the teacher's guide for P.E., you'll feel the wrath.

Heaven forbid you let the kids run around and get some of that "we only get PE twice a week and are forced to sit through 6 40-minute classes with 2 breaks consisting of a 10 minute milk break and a 40 minute lunch break even though we're only 4-6 years old and really could use a nap time as well, energy out of our systems"


Other Korean oddities:

Social faux pas:

-Eating in public. Thinking about nibbling on that muffin while walking down the street? Better think again. For shame!

-Don't show those shoulders off! How dare you! What are you thinking? A SPAGHETTI STRAP TANK? You're just trying to sell your body. BUT wearing booty shorts and 3" heels? Perfectly acceptable. And not provocative in any way possible. And if you're a middle aged soccer mom, you bet those legs are thin enough for these shorts! Your teenage daughter, however, looks healthy/normal and outweighs you by a good 10-15 pounds, and is wearing a t-shirt the size of an American XXL, kneesocks and Chuck Taylors. 80's much?


Socially acceptable:

-Spitting/hocking loogies in public- regardless of gender. No comment.

-Picking your nose. Again, no comment, except no wonder my attempts at rearing the kids are futile.

-Not washing your hands post-bathroom. Really, you'd be amazed at how few women wash their hands after using the bathroom. And most public bathroom don't even have soap. Did I mention how much hand sanitizer I go through?

-Public drunkenness. Unless you're a foreigner, then don't even think about it. Shame on you! But if you're a Korean male, it's perfectly acceptable to be smashed at 9 p.m. stumbling about the street, puking in the subway, peeing in alleys, sleeping on the steps of Armani....






I'm not this bitter, really. I'm just homesick I guess.

But Papa Smurph will be here shortly! As will my Korean aunts..and Jeanie! It'll be dandy! And perhaps there'll be more interesting updates.


Random thought, things I will go a year without:

A dryer
An oven and all homebaked goods
Driving my car
An American Thanksgiving and Christmas
Cable TV (No ER? No Grey's Anatomy? No Law & Order? Good thing I can download....)
A bathtub
A Murphy family function :(
A yard
My grandparents, minus Grampa Kim
The rest of the fam :(



I'm crossing my fingers and knocking on wood for a friend from home, but at the soonest I may get to see a friend come Christmas, and definitely in April, after I finish my contract and make a trip to the Philippines.


Okay, enough.

I'll likely post more pictures next time.

And it's almost time for another round of postcards, so be on the look out!