Friday Things

Okay, so technically it's Saturday here, but it was Friday when I took these and it's still Friday in the states.


We took a field trip, yay! fotos:









I played with the color accent option on my camera. I wonder if they have it on the DSLR too...





















Where's Waldo??






We took a boat ride on a less-than-seaworthy boat. It was less than 5 minutes, but as soon as I stepped on, I planned out my escape and centered myself in the boat, lest it capsized....paranoia....



The woman on the left is Catharina, she's a year younger than Mama Murph, and is the oldest trainee here. Maybe it's because I haven't seen Mama Murph in almost 15 months, but compared to all the older women that we have this session, I think Mama Murph has aged very well..













What no Korean home is acceptable without: a row of kimchi pots!

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Non field-trip:



The local grocery store! They've run out of coke zero and Hershey Nuggets with Almonds. Crap!



We found some trainees by the side of the road and picked them up.





Hyundais are much like clown cars..You can fit 6 Koreans, 2 white people, and 1 half-Korean into one. Or 6.5 Koreans and 2.5 white people, depending on how you look at it.

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Wednesday was Jesse's birthday, so Nicholas and I escaped to Jecheon to pick up a cake to surprise her. We went to Baskin Robbins and found this cute little guy:




Not quite sure what flavor he was, but he was tasty. AND FILLED WITH POP ROCKS!

...interesting.

I wonder if you can find cute creations like that at the Baskin Robbinses in the States

FLASHBACK!

The year is 1990. (Okay, a year between 1990-1992. I'm going with 1990, because I don't remember being in school at the time.)

Setting: Grandma Mickey's house, typical weekend with Dad and Jeanie away from Carthage. Newport is a quiet town. The firehouse with that cursed alarm that only would ring right after Dad's arrival. Carson's down the street, which housed delicious orange soda. Across the street are Jason, Mike, Uncle John and Aunt Kathy, probably still sleeping it off. Next door, the Foster house is full of kids. In the backyard, there's a barn, with cows....maybe even chickens.

Time: Early morning, either breakfast has just been eaten or we haven't eaten it yet.

Characters: Jeanie, aged 7-9; Michelle, aged 4-6; Daddykins; Mickey; and Fred.
Exposition: A sleepy Michelle wanders downstairs and pokes her head hello to family. Gramma and Grampa are probably reading the newspapers, and eating cereal with banana slices or raisins. Perhaps even a slice of toast and OJ. No apples or rootbeer. Apples and rootbeer are meant for lunch. However, cookies are always a possibility.

Rising Action: Michelle has the itchies. Why?!

Climax: Daddykins pulls up 4-6 year old Michelle's pajama shirt and notices the tell-tale red bumps of, THE CHICKEN POX!!!!. Then, Daddykins promptly asks, "What did you do, sleep with the chickens last night??"

Falling Action: Michelle ponders this question, and wonders, 'Did the chickens fly in through the window and sleep under the bed last night?!?! IS THIS HOW I GOT THE CHICKEN POX?!?!

Denouement: For the next few years, a naive Michelle is pretty convinced that the chickens from next door sneaked into the back bedroom of Gramma Mickey's house and slept under her bed that fateful evening.

Epilogue 1: Michelle gives Jeanie the chickenpox, even though Jeanie had already had it before. To this day, Jeanie has not forgiven Michelle.

Epilogue 2: At age 22, Michelle is pretty convinced she will not get the swine flu, lest any pigs do like the chickens, and sneak into her room at night and sleep under her bed... O_o

How to amuse yourself out in the sticks

1. Tease your co-workers and be equally teased. The amount of shit Nicholas gives me would put him nicely in with the Murphy family.

2. Make magnetic poetry-like magnets for my classroom.

(insert photo after it's been completed)

3. Grade papers (HA!)

4. Make banana bread-
there would be photo evidence of it, had we not eaten it all :D

5. Take pictures of yourself and ponder life's questions.

Exhibit A:



Betty, are there really 300 chips in each bag? I may have to count them.
Better question: How the heck do you expect me to make 3 dozen cookies out of the bag?! What, are they the size of pennies?! Come on now!



Do I look Asian yet? It's my goal to become a chamaleon...if I make enough peace signs, I'm sure I'll blend it!!



Chipmunk cheeks! If only I had some helium so I could do the proper Alvin, Simon and Theodore voices!



Now in regards to this foto, I have the following extra to say:





A. I know what you're thinking, what would MICKEY say??

I think Mickey would forgive me. Since you people soooo meanly took her away from her kitchenaid and now she can't whip up some of her classic cookies and then send them, she'd forgive. P.S. I'm totally on her side; if she can get into my car, I'll take her home next time I see her!

B. Where the heck did I get those in the ROK?

Actually, not difficult to find. There are sites such as ezshopkorea.com, but they charge out out the butt! Luckily, I have a Daddykins and a Jeanieface who are kind enough to lovingly compile care packages once in a while. I blew threw that Easter one, mainly because of weekends, and somedays, the food sucks. Like today, they had entirely too much red pepper in everything. The only thing without obscene amounts of red pepper was the white rice. So now I'm eating a can of tuna. PURE PROTEIN!
Anyway, we know I have a high tolerance for spicy foods, but even this stuff. Ouchies!
So it's kind of like a regression to college...Except I never got care packages in college...but at least there was Wegman's...mmmmm







6. Read books. Since Saturday, I finished Middlesex, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and All Quiet on the Western Front
Huh. I better slow down, or I'll be out by the week's end.

7. Have video chats with the famille:



We're not touching yoooouuuu

Beguilement.

The Confusion that is Korean drinking culture.


Argument: It is okay to drink in a classroom/place of work, but not in an opposite-gendered co-workers room.


1. After Euri's going away, Amy got a note saying that I ought to be more careful about taking beer to Nicholas' room. For shame!

2. Upon cleaning out a certain former co-worker's desk in Classroom E, Amy found empty beer cans. Some of which may have been consumed while with students in the room.

3. A class was chastised last night by the building manager because they were drinking in their classroom.

In conclusion:

1. They are on vacation, hence why they are exempt from drinking rules and being hungover.

2. It is okay to drink in public, but not in private.

3. I'd still rather drink in private with members of the opposite gender than in my place of work.

4. They are not on vacation and should stop whining about having to do work; they're being paid to be here and frankly, a little part of me gets smug when I torture them with more work because they're whining. I hate to break it to you, but if you want to keep your job, and if you want to ameliorate your English, you have to practice and use it.




I think I'm going to Thailand. I'm irresponsibly going to start booking trips so I don't irresponsibly quit my job, pack up and go home. It makes sense in my world.



My aforementioned former co-worker was relieved of his job because, well, he relieved himself of it in the end. Early last week, I recieved a Facebook message from what looked like some girl offering employment. I would've blown it off had I not seen the same e-mail address on his computer. Other trainers found more stuff, and in the end, he was placed on suspension and ended up quitting.
Suffice to say, if you are "checking your friend's e-mail while they're in Cambodia because the internet is too slow" yet they keep it contact with you via MSN messenger, you might want to plug all the holes in your ship before you sink.
It also helps if you don't leave a lot of windows open on various public work computers.
The biggest issue that was made and presented to the head office was that he was mis-using technology.
My biggest issue with it that this was that this "employment" being offered had to do with videotapes and being tied up. Let's just leave it at that.

Ho hum.

Darnit, I guess I'm staying gainfully employed, haha

Monday things.

Last week was a bit on the ridiculous side.

A bit of work drama, a bit of finger drama, and a side of sleep deprivation.



We started a new session






Had a few classes








Nick had a mishap cutting the cheese, tee hee







Celebrated Teacher's Day







Got the list of important numbers from Jessy: CHICKEN!



Said farewell to Euri (until she returned yesterday..and left again today)





And then went to Seoul for meetings and pizza.



This is supposed to be an appetizer, main course and dessert all in one. I don't know what's what but the crust is stuffed with sweet potato, and there's a shrimp wrapped in mashed potatoes and fried on the crust of each slice. Strange.







There's been a bit of workplace drama that is putting my current employment in peril. Self-decidedly in peril. Suffice to say that if things do not go as I would like, I'll be on a plane headed home.
I like the job, however, a boundary of professionalism was crossed, and I refuse to work in such an environment. The issue is up in the air, we'll see in 2 weeks time where it goes.
Suffice to say, I would not be much disappointed if I were to go home.

Hum de dum

Nice people bring you flowers when you're having a poopy week:



The grounds are surrounded by these, and they're quite pretty. However, they're all on their way out, so we won't be able to enjoy their cheery color much longer. Booums.







I know I've mentioned this before, but it's a bit more prominent now than before.

My friends in Seoul were about my age; I was younger than most, but they were mostly close to my age. There were a few, like Chris, who were in their late 20's/early 30's. It was weird to be so young, but it was okay, because most of my friends in their mid-20's are pretty mentally immature (in a nice way, haha).
Out here, the age difference is a stark difference. Nicholas is the closest in age, and he's 28. Amy is next, Allison is in there somewhere, Sean is 33 and Steve's 36.
It doesn't bother me per se, as much as the imbalance of certain gender ratios, but it's a bit, um, weird.
Weird.

What NOT to Say

Screw Clinton and Stacey.

I'll wear what I want!



I teach this afternoon seminar called "Ice Breakers" that deals with, tada!, Ice Breakers, and Small Talk.

For Small Talk, there's a list of 'do's' and 'don'ts'.
I need to add the following:

1. I hired you because you're young and cute (In the context it was kinda like, uhm, okay. Then upon further explanation at a later date, it was okay.)
2. If you get bad evaluations next month, it's probably because they're jealous of how beautiful you are. And I'm not kidding, really. Very, very pretty. O_o
3. Are you on a diet? (Are you on a stupid kick or are you always this annoying and whiny?)


>.<

Woopskies

So I just made a small flub and deleted my last 25 entries. Hum. Oh well. Do forgive?


The first session concluded on Wednesday, so we were off the past few days. It was nice, because we got to go into Seoul and we'd just gotten paid.

Seoul + paycheck = ridiculous.


Ate lots of good food, yum! Did some shopping, yay!



Ze fotos:





Group shot of the session







A lamp at Yeti, a very tasty Indian restaurant in Hongdae that we discovered.








See that green stuff? ASPARAGUS!!!!!!!!!!
Oh. my. gosh. It was tasty. I didn't know it could be found here, and haven't had any in well over a year. Suffice to say, it was heavenly.

(At Buddha's Belly in Itaewon)



Steve, a bit pensive



Alison
She's quiet. Very, very quiet.






Nicholas at this cute wine place that I've wanted to try in Itaewon, just never really had anyone with the interest or willingness to spend loads of King Sejong's on.

The bar is made out of a car..I think it was an original Mini





Patbingsu! It. is. deliciousness.
Shaved ice + fruit + sweet red beans + sweetened condensed milk + dab of fro yo = pretty friggin good summer treat.
The cupcake on the other hand. Barf. Hockey puck is an understatement.

It's one of those things that you think about, and think it's kind of weird, until you try it.



Shwarma. Yum.



Trying to pick up Nicholas' backpack. Epic fail.



Books!

A French grammar book, a Korean language book, Middlesex (per Jasmine's review), A Spot of Bother, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

I started the latter, and I like it so far. I'm about 2/3 of the way through already. I have a few other books here to read, but they're all kind of depressing and I needed something a little lighter.

I'm losing my French, so I could use a little review; the Korean one I should've bought a year ago.


The food was awesome. Hence why there are about a million pictures of food.


I bought a few things for the family, so be on the lookout for a package, dear family.



Oh, and I got my Korean Driver's License



A few forms to fill out.
I had to trade in my Virginia driver's license and take a vision test. It was pretty painless. The drivers licensing office in Kangnam lacks much English, however, and I just followed the sign for "Foreigners" that was written in Korea.
When I go home, I just give them notice, and they'll give me back my VA license.

toot toot

I need a nap