Today, the girls who asked me to pray for them came to my desk 10 minutes before class started, which is about the time I start to consider filling my tea tumbler, gathering my things, and going up to my classroom. I saw them approach my desk out of the corner of my eye and thought they wanted to stop by and say hello. Wrong. They came to my desk to personally escort me to class. One of the girls took my arm and said, "Time for class, Teacher!" She held my arm all the way to the classroom and giggled the whole time. Heartwarming. Loved it!
The Friday after payday, Toni and her husband Steven do a bulk shopping trip to E-Mart in their car. A couple of weeks ago, Toni invited me along on their shopping spree and tonight was the night! We had dinner before we started the shopping extravaganza, so of course I hit up my duk boki stand. It never gets old to have several Korean proprietors warmly greet you as you approach their food stand. They've started giving me little extras, like searching for the biggest pieces of whichever dippers I choose and smothering the dippers with extra duk boki. I bet I got one and a half servings tonight, plus the traditional fish cake (Korean name: odang) broth that is served to cut the spice (apparently, this broth is also a nice cure for a hangover, according to Hyunjoo). These three things have never happened before. We're forming a nice little relationship. I like it.
At E-Mart, two Korean high school aged boys with pretty intense ear piercings (for Koreans, anyway) said hi to me and struck up a short conversation. They were a little baffled by our group: me from America, Toni from Australia and Steven from Nigeria. They weren't sure what to make of it when Toni reached out and touched the plugs in their ears and they were even more baffled when Steven talked to them about the soccer match between Nigeria and South Korea last year. What a random encounter, all because we were obviously foreigners.
I was kicking myself for not having my camera stashed in my bag tonight. Korean stores are real big on tacking on extra little freebies to packages. For example, I bought some strawberry milk, but there was also a small container of banana milk taped to the package as a bonus. Another time, my laundry soap came with a bonus box of Kleenex. I'm sure you get the picture. Tonight, I saw the best bonus yet. Accompanying a six or twelve pack of beer was a can of mild light tuna. Perfect combo, I'd say.
10.29.2010
10.28.2010
Clip-On Bangs and Concert Tix
Today was a fairly standard day... five classes, cold weather, Morning English, kimchi and rice lunch...
Speaking of kimchi for lunch, yesterday, literally 3/5 of our lunch consisted of kimchi. There was standard cabbage kimchi, a cucumber salad that had been "kimchied" which means it was soaked in the same spicy sauce as kimchi and a kimchi soup along with the normal rice and a thick beef stew-like gravy (which I enjoyed...so weird). There were persimmons for dessert, though I didn't have time to eat mine because we had to hurry through lunch to go take yearbook photos (more those later)! It was Wednesday, which means best lunch of the week day, and Koreans LOVE their kimchi, so for them, it was a glorious meal! I eat kimchi every single day at lunch and without fail at most restaurants and I'm still enjoying it, which is good because apparently, it's SUPER healthy. Koreans swear up and down that they were not affected by the SARS outbreak because they eat so much kimchi.
For the yearbook photo, they took one with all of the teachers together in a big group with the school and some fall colored trees in the background. I stood in the second to last row on the end. I was in front of the tallest male teacher and at one point, I heard a couple of the men talking behind me and then I heard the teacher directly behind me say, "Wow." Then, the photographer brought over one of his equipment boxes and made the teacher stand on it. He must not be used to having his vision impeded, let alone by a girl! After the picture was taken, Hyunjoo and I went to my apartment so she could show me how to run the heater. I thought I had figured it out, but I didn't think it was working or I was hitting a wrong button because I didn't notice a change in the room's temperature. We got it all figured out and last night, I came home to a toasty floored apartment! All of the heating in Korea is done through heat coils in the floor. It is sooo cozy!
I got my phone and internet bill yesterday. Hyunjoo showed me that I could pay them (21,000 won altogether) at the convenience store below my apartment! It seems so weird to me that I can give a convenience store money and my bills are taken care of. It's soooo convenient though, so I'm certainly not complaining!
Today in Morning English, Chan Yang asked me to explain Halloween. Prior to the start of our broadcast, he asked me when Americans trick or treat. I told him that it usually happens on Halloween night, but sometimes trick or treating happens the day before or after depending on the circumstances. (I seemed to remember not trick or treating on Sundays, but I could be making that up...) Then, he asked if I was sure because he heard that we never trick or treat on Halloween anymore because of 9/11 and terrorists attacking cities and killing millions of children. Hmmm...
A few weeks ago, I heard a cute story. There is some sort of flower here that used to be used to stain finger nails in the same fashion that we use nail polish. The pigment is so strong that it literally stains the nail. The only way to remove it is the let the nail grow out. There is a sort of folklore legend that school age girls observe that says when they use that flower pigment to stain their fingernails, they will find their true love before the color disappears from nail growth. I had forgotten about that story until the last couple of days when I've noticed that about half of my students are sporting a curious dull orange color on their fingernails that are half grown out. I asked some of the students about it today and they were excited that I knew the legend and offered to stain my nails for me next year!
One of my classes was literally like babysitting today. I was talking to three girls who were sitting in the front row and all was well. They taught me some nonsensical Korean kid's game and talked about funny stuff (like how one of them wants to be a policeWOMAN (she made a real big deal about this) because they wear a cool uniform), but the second I would go over to help other students, the girls literally tackled each other to the floor or hit each other. It was nuts. I finally made one of them move to another seat, but not without giving her the big eyes. They must know that when my eyes get big, I mean business. They were just fine once they moved.
This morning, a teacher gave me a steamed sweet potato. Unsure of what to do, I began to peel it and eat it. I wasn't sure what the protocol was for eating a freshly steamed sweet potato, but it sure was yummy! I don't know what it is about Korean sweet potatoes. Maybe they are laced with crack because I eat them all the time! I've also grown to love mandarin oranges. The first mandarin orange I ate just tasted wrong to me (I think I was expecting more of a clementine flavor given their identical size and appearance), but now I LOVE them!
I walked into the other teachers' office today to talk to Dionne and there was a gaggle of girls and a teacher surrounding a mirror behind the door. I discovered they were giving a girl advice about whether or not she should get bangs. How did they know if it was a good idea? They had clip-on hair that was cut like Korean school girl bangs that attached to the existing hair with metal hair clips. Of course, they insisted that I try them on (imagine my pixie cut with full, past the eyebrow jet black bangs!) and then told me I looked really nice with black hair. I told them the infamous "Noelle dyes her hair black" story and we all agreed I should stick with my natural color. Rest assure...no crazy hair changes for this kid anytime soon (unless I screw up my haircut...but that won't be by choice :) )
Diane and I just bought tickets to a sweet K-Pop concert in December! Apparently, (I'm not well versed in K-Pop, but Diane is an avid fan, so she knows the good stuff...) this concert is going to be huge. All of the popular groups from the YG record label will be performing at this show. This label hasn't held such a concert in something like three years, so we're lucky we even got tickets because of popular this show will be! I know a couple of songs from a couple of artists,(and Diane just gave me a whole bunch of the music) but this is sure to be one of the most Korean things I will do during my time here! Koreans love their K-Pop and I'm sure I'll grow to love it too! It's real catchy, that's for sure!
Yesterday marked my two month anniversary in Korea! I cannot believe how quickly these last two months have passed! I feel like I've learned a lot and grown, too, in many ways. This is shaping up to be a great experience and it will only get better as I become more and more comfortable.
Speaking of kimchi for lunch, yesterday, literally 3/5 of our lunch consisted of kimchi. There was standard cabbage kimchi, a cucumber salad that had been "kimchied" which means it was soaked in the same spicy sauce as kimchi and a kimchi soup along with the normal rice and a thick beef stew-like gravy (which I enjoyed...so weird). There were persimmons for dessert, though I didn't have time to eat mine because we had to hurry through lunch to go take yearbook photos (more those later)! It was Wednesday, which means best lunch of the week day, and Koreans LOVE their kimchi, so for them, it was a glorious meal! I eat kimchi every single day at lunch and without fail at most restaurants and I'm still enjoying it, which is good because apparently, it's SUPER healthy. Koreans swear up and down that they were not affected by the SARS outbreak because they eat so much kimchi.
For the yearbook photo, they took one with all of the teachers together in a big group with the school and some fall colored trees in the background. I stood in the second to last row on the end. I was in front of the tallest male teacher and at one point, I heard a couple of the men talking behind me and then I heard the teacher directly behind me say, "Wow." Then, the photographer brought over one of his equipment boxes and made the teacher stand on it. He must not be used to having his vision impeded, let alone by a girl! After the picture was taken, Hyunjoo and I went to my apartment so she could show me how to run the heater. I thought I had figured it out, but I didn't think it was working or I was hitting a wrong button because I didn't notice a change in the room's temperature. We got it all figured out and last night, I came home to a toasty floored apartment! All of the heating in Korea is done through heat coils in the floor. It is sooo cozy!
I got my phone and internet bill yesterday. Hyunjoo showed me that I could pay them (21,000 won altogether) at the convenience store below my apartment! It seems so weird to me that I can give a convenience store money and my bills are taken care of. It's soooo convenient though, so I'm certainly not complaining!
Today in Morning English, Chan Yang asked me to explain Halloween. Prior to the start of our broadcast, he asked me when Americans trick or treat. I told him that it usually happens on Halloween night, but sometimes trick or treating happens the day before or after depending on the circumstances. (I seemed to remember not trick or treating on Sundays, but I could be making that up...) Then, he asked if I was sure because he heard that we never trick or treat on Halloween anymore because of 9/11 and terrorists attacking cities and killing millions of children. Hmmm...
A few weeks ago, I heard a cute story. There is some sort of flower here that used to be used to stain finger nails in the same fashion that we use nail polish. The pigment is so strong that it literally stains the nail. The only way to remove it is the let the nail grow out. There is a sort of folklore legend that school age girls observe that says when they use that flower pigment to stain their fingernails, they will find their true love before the color disappears from nail growth. I had forgotten about that story until the last couple of days when I've noticed that about half of my students are sporting a curious dull orange color on their fingernails that are half grown out. I asked some of the students about it today and they were excited that I knew the legend and offered to stain my nails for me next year!
One of my classes was literally like babysitting today. I was talking to three girls who were sitting in the front row and all was well. They taught me some nonsensical Korean kid's game and talked about funny stuff (like how one of them wants to be a policeWOMAN (she made a real big deal about this) because they wear a cool uniform), but the second I would go over to help other students, the girls literally tackled each other to the floor or hit each other. It was nuts. I finally made one of them move to another seat, but not without giving her the big eyes. They must know that when my eyes get big, I mean business. They were just fine once they moved.
This morning, a teacher gave me a steamed sweet potato. Unsure of what to do, I began to peel it and eat it. I wasn't sure what the protocol was for eating a freshly steamed sweet potato, but it sure was yummy! I don't know what it is about Korean sweet potatoes. Maybe they are laced with crack because I eat them all the time! I've also grown to love mandarin oranges. The first mandarin orange I ate just tasted wrong to me (I think I was expecting more of a clementine flavor given their identical size and appearance), but now I LOVE them!
I walked into the other teachers' office today to talk to Dionne and there was a gaggle of girls and a teacher surrounding a mirror behind the door. I discovered they were giving a girl advice about whether or not she should get bangs. How did they know if it was a good idea? They had clip-on hair that was cut like Korean school girl bangs that attached to the existing hair with metal hair clips. Of course, they insisted that I try them on (imagine my pixie cut with full, past the eyebrow jet black bangs!) and then told me I looked really nice with black hair. I told them the infamous "Noelle dyes her hair black" story and we all agreed I should stick with my natural color. Rest assure...no crazy hair changes for this kid anytime soon (unless I screw up my haircut...but that won't be by choice :) )
Diane and I just bought tickets to a sweet K-Pop concert in December! Apparently, (I'm not well versed in K-Pop, but Diane is an avid fan, so she knows the good stuff...) this concert is going to be huge. All of the popular groups from the YG record label will be performing at this show. This label hasn't held such a concert in something like three years, so we're lucky we even got tickets because of popular this show will be! I know a couple of songs from a couple of artists,(and Diane just gave me a whole bunch of the music) but this is sure to be one of the most Korean things I will do during my time here! Koreans love their K-Pop and I'm sure I'll grow to love it too! It's real catchy, that's for sure!
Yesterday marked my two month anniversary in Korea! I cannot believe how quickly these last two months have passed! I feel like I've learned a lot and grown, too, in many ways. This is shaping up to be a great experience and it will only get better as I become more and more comfortable.
10.26.2010
I realize I haven't posted a new blog in over a week and I have nothing to say for myself other than I've been sort of busy, but mostly lazy. For that, I apologize. I have much to share. So much, in fact, that I made a list of things to cover in this post. Buckle your seat belt. Much of this post is written stream of consciousness style...
It was so fun to watch them perform! We caught a ride from Ji Hye, who is Hyunjoo's assistant, a co-teacher in a couple English classes and a Japanese teacher. She is such a sweetheart and always gives me rides to these performances. On the way back, she asked me if I like movies. Oh Ji Hye. You have no idea. We bonded over our love for Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks and vowed to meet up soon for a movie marathon. Then, Maria, Diane and I went to a shabu shabu restaurant (the same one as my birthday dinner) to eat a late dinner. When we arrived, there was a table of about eight 19 or 20 year old guys. They were not speaking to each other at all. Instead, each of them was glued to some sort of media whether it was their cell phone, mp3 player or some sort of video game outlet. We kept an eye on them to see if their dining experience would get less awkward, and sure enough, once the food and soju arrived, they were chatty cathies. We all enjoyed our dinner and when it came time to cook the noodles, the woman told us if we wanted more, we could just help ourselves to the noodle cart. WHAA? Once we ate our fair share of noodles, we journeyed to Baskin Robbins for a little dessert. We had such a ruckus-filled night that we closed down Baskin Robbins at 11 pm. It's a crazy life I lead.
The next day, Diane and I visited E-Mart so she could experience the duk boki I have come to love. As soon as we approached the counter, we were warmly greeted by the ladies who run the stand. They even spoke to us using the little English they know. We're pals. Then, we headed to a neighborhood in Seoul that hosts a Filipino market every Sunday. Since Diane is Filipino, she wanted to check it out and I'm so glad we did! After a bit of a roundabout journey in search of the market (we found belly dancers, fortune tellers and a building called the Beer Castle), we found the Filipino market and purchased some delicious food from a woman whose spot in the market seemed to be the prime spot for Filipino fare. We had an empanada, an egg roll and some barbequed chicken on a stick. We also had a special citrus juice that was delicious whose name escapes me. We WILL return to this market and neighborhood again. Then, we went to Dongdaemun, an area of Seoul that houses many wholesale retailers and a huge market. Diane and I were pretty overwhelmed by everything and all of the people, so we opted to head back to the previous neighborhood to a quiet cafe before we parted ways. In order to get to my bus for Gwangju, I had to transfer trains. As I was getting off the first train to transfer to the next one, a middle aged Korean man waved at me and asked if I was English, American or Canadian. I told him American and he lead me over to a group of more middle aged men. They chattered in Korean when told them I was American. I'm 99% sure they had placed bets on my nationality. Then, they started walking in the opposite direction of my train transfer and acted like they wanted me to follow. I didn't follow them and they asked me where I was headed. I told them Gwangju and they said that was pretty far away and wondered if I knew where I was going. I told them that I'm a teacher there so I know my way around. I proceeded to walk/run away. Soooo weird.
Yesterday at school, a girl and I had the following exchange:
Girl: You have small face.
Noelle: ... Thanks. Is that a good thing?
Girl: You have small head.
Noelle: ...Thanks.
Girl: You have small brain?
Noelle: hahaha NO.
Last night, three of us (Toni, June (another teacher's assistant) and me) went out for dinner for June's birthday. The meal was exquisite. We had duck and two kinds of pork. The meat got wrapped in one of four different types of greens along with mustard, garlic, the best kimchi I have had here to date, a pumpkin salad and a salad with the most amazing vinaigrette dressing. I could have eaten a bushel of that salad! We ended the meal with what the menu translated as hangover soup. Lots of sesame powder and bean sprouts. I also made a sweet discovery about Korean driving culture. I've mentioned before that parking here is bonkers. Basically, people park anywhere that is not blocking traffic whether it's a designated parking spot or not. If someone is in the way, their cell phone number is posted visibly in the car so that you can call them and ask them to move their car. This happened to Toni while we were in the restaurant. We ended our marathon dinner at Baskin Robbins...again. I love that place! It was a great night of amazing food and great company / conversation!
I'm teaching a Halloween lesson this week....mainly about culture. It's been really fun to see their enthusiasm for Halloween. I also show them this really scary video and watching them freak out when the scary part happens at the end is priceless every time. They literally jump out of their seats. I want to take a video of it, but I'm afraid that would spoil the scariness. I think word has spread that I'm giving out good candy this week since it's Halloween because several girls who are not in my class have come up to me and said, "Trick or Treat, Teacher!" in hopes of receiving candy.
Today at lunch we had Korean mac and cheese! It was sooo good! They put corn and grated carrots in it with rotini noodles and it was obviously baked so the cheese was nice and crusty. I forgot how much better baked macaroni and cheese is than the kind from a box! Leave it to Korea to one up an American classic.
Several things have appeared on my desk lately. Yesterday, a block of homemade rice cake wrapped in cellophane and last week, a cloth to wipe computer or cell phone screens that was made as a promotional tool for our school. It features the same picture of me (!) as the cover of the brochure that was printed a month ago. Today, Hyunjoo sneakily slipped me four or five extra cloths, so I'll send some home for you to see.
I finally got a clear answer on where the post office is located, so now I am (hopefully) equipped to send snail mail. I'm sooo sorry to those of you who have sent me things that haven't received anything in return! On that note, I received two more letters yesterday and laughed out loud reading them. I think the teachers here must think I'm a weirdo because of the excitement I show over mail, but I can't help myself.
Last week, two students came to my desk to talk. They told me that they stayed up until 2 am the night before, studying for their college entrance exams. I wished them good luck on their exams and they said I should pray for them. I thought, okay, no problem. I'll send up a general prayer for my students to do well with their studying. They had something different in mind. They put their name tags pretty close to my face (which are written in Korean script, which I cannot yet read) and told me to remember their names. I didn't want them to know that I couldn't read their names (much less remember them from the sea of names I see each day) so I just smiled and nodded and told them I would pray for them. Fast forward to today. Same exact scenario, same exact situation, only this time, when I told them I would pray for them, they told me they loved me.
I started tutoring a girl for an hour after school three days a week. I get paid extra to do it and it amounts to us talking for an hour because she wants to practice English conversation. For the exam she has to take to show her proficiency in English, she has to listen to something and then summarize what she heard. To practice that, we'll also watch videos and listen to podcasts and then she will summarize what they were about. These tutor sessions will be more fun than they're supposed to be. Also, she's really nervous about attending college in the US (she's going to school at a small Christian school in Missouri), so I feel myself slipping back into Ambassador mode when we talk about college life!
The weather has suddenly changed. Sunday, it was really nice and almost hot. Then, Monday and today, it was really cold. I finally wore a jacket to school! It was one degree Celsius this morning as I was walking to school! During Morning English, Chan Yang Teacher asked me if I was surprised by the weather. I told him that it gets much colder in Iowa and said (on air) that last year it got to negative five (or something like that). He asked what that was in Celsius and before I took the time to think through what I was about to say, I did a quick (and very erroneous!) conversion in my head, telling them that was -37 in Celsius. He was very surprised and asked, "Really??" I said, "Yes! It gets really cold in Iowa!" It wasn't until I got back to my desk after Morning English that I realized the conversion is much more complicated than adding or subtracting 32. It's been a long time since high school chemistry when I learned that conversion! I think it's a good thing I teach English and not science! On a similar note, the leaves have started to change, making for a beautiful fall landscape! Enjoy!
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| Toward my apartment... |
10.18.2010
Adventures in... Toothpaste
Saturday, I met Diane in Seoul. We've starting referring to our excursions as Saturdays in Seoul. It's not so much a question of whether or not we will meet up, but rather where we will go each time. Saturday, we found ourselves at the 63 Building, which is the tallest building in Korea. During a fairly roundabout attempt to find the building's attractions, we happened upon two Korean weddings. The pictures on display outside the venue looked like high gloss magazine photos. They were beautiful. We finally found where we needed to be and ended up eating traditional Korean fare (bibimbap (lots of vegetables mixed with rice and pepper paste) and mandu (dumplings, usually filled with pork)) in the food court in the basement of the building. Then we saw a 3-D movie about dinosaurs. Between being in a bit of a food coma and the soothing notes of Michael Douglas's narration, Diane and I both fell asleep during the film. Oops. We opted not to go to the top of the building because it cost 12,000 won, and instead spent some time in a cute cafe drinking lattes and chatting. The 63 Building is in the same neighborhood as the site of last weekend's Fireworks Festival (which, according to our friend Heather's photos, got a lot more impressive after we left, but the nearest subway exit was also closed for fear of a riot breaking out, so I don't regret our premature exit!). We went back to the park and wandered around near the river. We saw several adorable kids, couples in matching clothes riding tandem bikes and random groups of older businessmen enjoying an afternoon soju-fest with their pals. There is always something to look at here! Also, while we were investigating a possible ferry ride on the Han River, an adorable eight or nine year old girl came up to us and said hello. She was closely followed by her little sister, who was dressed in an almost matching outfit. She was also a chatty cathy! They were so cute!
Next, we headed to Myeongdong for some shopping and dinner. Earlier in the week, Diane had mentioned that she wanted Indian food. Lucky for her, I am an observant creature. As we were walking the packed streets, I noticed a small sign that said something about Indian and Nepalese food. It was next to a seemingly random elevator. We tried our luck and happened upon a really great restaurant on the fourth floor of a building that seemed to only be accessible via this Harry Potter platform 9 3/4-esque elevator (it was that random to find)! My first taste of Indian food was a total success! I also almost found a nice pair of brown leather boots being sold by a street vendor. I had picked them up to show Diane that those were the boots I was looking for when the proprietor came over and asked what size I needed. I told him I was just looking and that I have huge feet (by Korean standards...). He asked me what size I needed again, so to humor him, I told him size 260 (they measure shoe sizes in millimeters here) thinking he might laugh and say there was no chance. He ran to check and produced a pair of the boots in size 260. I was baffled. Alas, my feet were too wide for those particular boots (and I didn't have 49,000 won on me at the time) but now I know where to look for big people shoes!
Sunday was a lazy day. I slept until almost noon, toodled around on the internet, worked on my TEFL class a little (read: very little) bit, made some real good fried rice and planned this week's lessons. I also skyped with the folks...always a pleasure! :)
Today's teaching wasn't anything to write home about...just three classes. Pretty average day. My students are continually getting more used to me, as I am them. They've picked up on my quirks and seem to enjoy them, so I guess that's a good sign. Even though they are not always impressed with my lessons (I can't blame them...the first time I teach each lesson, it inevitably bombs a little...or a lot.), they are always really grateful to me when they leave class. They always warmly greet me in the hallways, the office and outside of school and they've even stopped to have conversations with me rather than their previous habits of just saying hello and running away. I also may start tutoring a girl after school a couple of days a week to help her strengthen her speaking skills for when she moves to Missouri next fall to attend a small Christian college that is affiliated with our school. It should be a good time...more on that when it actually starts... :)
Now for the title portion of this post: Korean toothpaste. Last week at lunch, a couple of the Native teachers who have been in Korea for awhile started talking about Korean toothpaste. The only toothpaste I had bought here seemed normal, so I was intrigued to hear them talking about the wacky flavors that can be found here. I went out that day and bought apple flavored toothpaste after a long debate between that and strawberry. Today, on my weekly (whether I need to or not...) journey to E-Mart for duk boki and groceries, I found coffee flavored (no joke!) and purchased some tubes (yes, tubes... Koreans are so obsessed with brushing their teeth that toothpaste is more often than not sold in bulk!) that have pine needles on the box, are described as being naturally salty and seem to smell like biofreeze and/or Vick's Vaporub. This flavor was recommended by both Native teachers, so I had to try it. If you come visit, don't bring toothpaste. I've assembled an arsenal. I think I'll send some home for folks to try too. This stuff is bonkers!
Next, we headed to Myeongdong for some shopping and dinner. Earlier in the week, Diane had mentioned that she wanted Indian food. Lucky for her, I am an observant creature. As we were walking the packed streets, I noticed a small sign that said something about Indian and Nepalese food. It was next to a seemingly random elevator. We tried our luck and happened upon a really great restaurant on the fourth floor of a building that seemed to only be accessible via this Harry Potter platform 9 3/4-esque elevator (it was that random to find)! My first taste of Indian food was a total success! I also almost found a nice pair of brown leather boots being sold by a street vendor. I had picked them up to show Diane that those were the boots I was looking for when the proprietor came over and asked what size I needed. I told him I was just looking and that I have huge feet (by Korean standards...). He asked me what size I needed again, so to humor him, I told him size 260 (they measure shoe sizes in millimeters here) thinking he might laugh and say there was no chance. He ran to check and produced a pair of the boots in size 260. I was baffled. Alas, my feet were too wide for those particular boots (and I didn't have 49,000 won on me at the time) but now I know where to look for big people shoes!
Sunday was a lazy day. I slept until almost noon, toodled around on the internet, worked on my TEFL class a little (read: very little) bit, made some real good fried rice and planned this week's lessons. I also skyped with the folks...always a pleasure! :)
Today's teaching wasn't anything to write home about...just three classes. Pretty average day. My students are continually getting more used to me, as I am them. They've picked up on my quirks and seem to enjoy them, so I guess that's a good sign. Even though they are not always impressed with my lessons (I can't blame them...the first time I teach each lesson, it inevitably bombs a little...or a lot.), they are always really grateful to me when they leave class. They always warmly greet me in the hallways, the office and outside of school and they've even stopped to have conversations with me rather than their previous habits of just saying hello and running away. I also may start tutoring a girl after school a couple of days a week to help her strengthen her speaking skills for when she moves to Missouri next fall to attend a small Christian college that is affiliated with our school. It should be a good time...more on that when it actually starts... :)
Now for the title portion of this post: Korean toothpaste. Last week at lunch, a couple of the Native teachers who have been in Korea for awhile started talking about Korean toothpaste. The only toothpaste I had bought here seemed normal, so I was intrigued to hear them talking about the wacky flavors that can be found here. I went out that day and bought apple flavored toothpaste after a long debate between that and strawberry. Today, on my weekly (whether I need to or not...) journey to E-Mart for duk boki and groceries, I found coffee flavored (no joke!) and purchased some tubes (yes, tubes... Koreans are so obsessed with brushing their teeth that toothpaste is more often than not sold in bulk!) that have pine needles on the box, are described as being naturally salty and seem to smell like biofreeze and/or Vick's Vaporub. This flavor was recommended by both Native teachers, so I had to try it. If you come visit, don't bring toothpaste. I've assembled an arsenal. I think I'll send some home for folks to try too. This stuff is bonkers!
10.16.2010
Bleacher Butt: Lily Festival 2010
Holy Cow. Today was Lily Festival at school. Basically, it amounted to an all day talent showcase by all three of the schools. After two rounds of sitting on a styrofoam pad for three hours straight, I developed quite the case of bleacher butt, but it was well worth it! Today was my favorite day at school thus far!
Here's a video I compiled of the day's festivities... Read on for more details and a few pictures...
The festivities were held at the Kyung-hwa Bowl, which is this amazing outdoor amphitheater that sits beside the cafeteria. There were literally 3,000 people there with all of the students from the three schools, most of the faculty and staff and some city officials and other special guests who were present throughout the day. Toward the end of the day, some of the girls' boyfriends showed up, which made for a pretty raucous cheering section.
First, there were opening ceremonies and a church service, lasting about an hour and a half total. During the worship service, all of the foreign teachers (along with pretty much anyone at the school who has singing talent that can speak English well) got on stage and sang an offering hymn as our contribution to Lily Festival. We sang four part harmony! It was so fun to sing again and when our students saw us on stage, they went c-r-a-z-y! They make us feel so loved!
Next, many different groups of girls danced...mostly to hip hop. I was really surprised at how provocative some of the dancing was, but I guess that's the product of even more provocative music videos! It is also a good thing that most of the administration doesn't understand quickly spoken English because some of the songs contained some foul language... There were also a couple of traditional Korean drum performances, which were really cool!
There was about an hour and half break for lunch, which also doubled as a time to showcase students' artwork and research projects and do some fund raising for various charities our school supports. Also, as we exited the Bowl, there were several groups of girls painted from head to toe, acting as statues depicting various scenes.
After the lunch break, each of the schools put on a sort of variety show featuring teachers from their school. This part was all in Korean, so I couldn't really follow what was going on, but there were some funny things that happened. Next, there was a singing competition and two of the four groups that were chosen as winners were from my school! Hooray! Last, a rock band whose lead singer is an English teacher at the academic high school sang three songs to which the girls squealed the whole time!
I was so impressed with the amount of work put into this festival by everyone! It was one of the most awesome displays of school pride, personal talent and peer support I have ever seen! Not only do the students feel an immense sense of pride in their own school and the students who represented them today, but they also support the other schools too. There was an extreme sense of unity and respect among the three schools. I don't know if I've written this yet, but I have been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to be a part of this school system! For various reasons, I have come to realize that my situation here is quite ideal. I am at a school that genuinely cares about the opportunities its students have; a school that allows for involvement, achievement and personal expression with a top-notch staff whose devotion to the students is apparent each and every day. I feel so at home here, with the students and the teachers and today, it really hit me that this place is exactly where I need to be at this point in my life.
Here are a few pictures of the students that I was able to take during the festival. Watching them watch each act was just as fun as watching the acts themselves!
This group of girls is in what was originally my hardest to control (and, thus, most frustrating) class, but somehow I've bonded with some of them and now I look forward to their class. The one with the short hair in the front is the girl who approached me at E-Mart and asked why I was eating alone. She's a pistol and she keeps me on my toes...
I love these three pictures because you can see the excitement the girls have for watching their friends perform. You can also get a sense for how large the Bowl is, and how many people were there today! All in all, this was such an awesome day that made me realize how much I love this school and everything (and everyone!) it encompasses!
Here's a video I compiled of the day's festivities... Read on for more details and a few pictures...
The festivities were held at the Kyung-hwa Bowl, which is this amazing outdoor amphitheater that sits beside the cafeteria. There were literally 3,000 people there with all of the students from the three schools, most of the faculty and staff and some city officials and other special guests who were present throughout the day. Toward the end of the day, some of the girls' boyfriends showed up, which made for a pretty raucous cheering section.
First, there were opening ceremonies and a church service, lasting about an hour and a half total. During the worship service, all of the foreign teachers (along with pretty much anyone at the school who has singing talent that can speak English well) got on stage and sang an offering hymn as our contribution to Lily Festival. We sang four part harmony! It was so fun to sing again and when our students saw us on stage, they went c-r-a-z-y! They make us feel so loved!
Next, many different groups of girls danced...mostly to hip hop. I was really surprised at how provocative some of the dancing was, but I guess that's the product of even more provocative music videos! It is also a good thing that most of the administration doesn't understand quickly spoken English because some of the songs contained some foul language... There were also a couple of traditional Korean drum performances, which were really cool!
There was about an hour and half break for lunch, which also doubled as a time to showcase students' artwork and research projects and do some fund raising for various charities our school supports. Also, as we exited the Bowl, there were several groups of girls painted from head to toe, acting as statues depicting various scenes.
After the lunch break, each of the schools put on a sort of variety show featuring teachers from their school. This part was all in Korean, so I couldn't really follow what was going on, but there were some funny things that happened. Next, there was a singing competition and two of the four groups that were chosen as winners were from my school! Hooray! Last, a rock band whose lead singer is an English teacher at the academic high school sang three songs to which the girls squealed the whole time!
I was so impressed with the amount of work put into this festival by everyone! It was one of the most awesome displays of school pride, personal talent and peer support I have ever seen! Not only do the students feel an immense sense of pride in their own school and the students who represented them today, but they also support the other schools too. There was an extreme sense of unity and respect among the three schools. I don't know if I've written this yet, but I have been thinking a lot lately about how lucky I am to be a part of this school system! For various reasons, I have come to realize that my situation here is quite ideal. I am at a school that genuinely cares about the opportunities its students have; a school that allows for involvement, achievement and personal expression with a top-notch staff whose devotion to the students is apparent each and every day. I feel so at home here, with the students and the teachers and today, it really hit me that this place is exactly where I need to be at this point in my life.
Here are a few pictures of the students that I was able to take during the festival. Watching them watch each act was just as fun as watching the acts themselves!
 |
I love these three pictures because you can see the excitement the girls have for watching their friends perform. You can also get a sense for how large the Bowl is, and how many people were there today! All in all, this was such an awesome day that made me realize how much I love this school and everything (and everyone!) it encompasses!
10.13.2010
Noelle. You like drink beer?
Today was a pretty no big deal type of day... I taught. The students learned. (Hopefully!) And, (Bonus!) I learned some new things too.
I have not seen the classes I taught today and and the ones I teach tomorrow since before Chuseok (at the end of September) because of all of my random time off. Before Morning English started today, I was warmly greeted as I entered the broadcast room. One girl (the one who wrote me the note to ask if we could be friends) ran up to me and told me how excited she was to have my class today and how much she had missed it the last couple of weeks! What a gem! I'm lucky to have such delightful students!
Apparently, there is some custom or tradition in Korea (that I can't find a link to on the internet...sorry!) that says that on Wednesdays, you have to eat everything on your plate. So, Wednesday = Clean Plate Club Day. When we eat lunch in the cafeteria at school, we empty what we don't eat into a rubbish vat that gets thrown away and probably recycled somehow. Some schools follow the cleaning your plate custom so closely that they don't allow any food to be thrown away on Wednesday. Other schools make you explain why you are throwing away food. Apparently, Kyung-Hwa wised up to this custom because they serve their best meals of the week on Wednesdays to ensure that food will be less likely to be thrown away. So, I guess Wednesdays are the cream of the crop meals at school. I had no idea before today. As promised, lunch today was awesome! There was good kimchi, some sort of crunchy soy saucey root vegetable, glass noodles wrapped in seaweed and fried, yellow chicken curry, rice and some sort of potato and fish soup. Dessert was a banana. The girls in my class before lunch are always hungry, as am I, so the first thing we talk about in every class is what is served for lunch that day. Now I understand why they get so excited about their lunches. I always teach them on Wednesdays, ergo, best lunches of the week!
The newspaper for which I proofread several articles came out today! It is beautifully done and I was included on the staff list! I was reading it and Mr. Shin came up beside me, touched my arm and quite sincerely thanked me for helping him with the English. It was one of the most fulfilling moments I have had here so far. He's a great man and I am happy my helping him meant so much!
Wednesdays are also when the weekly teachers' meeting is held. Dionne (the new English teacher that replaced Emily) and I skipped out on the meeting because Mr. Shin told her it wasn't necessary for her to go. The meetings are held in the same room as my desk, so I usually find an alternate location to hang out during the meeting. Today, when the meeting was over, I came back to the room to find a couple of teachers eating chicken wings and fried rice cake that someone had bought for everyone to celebrate something (I didn't really understand the occasion...) They insisted that I join them, and who was I to refuse?! We had a great little snack time and talked a lot. They told me about what a strong relationship they had formed with the first Native English Teacher at the school (they still keep in contact through e-mail and send cards and pictures to each other ten years later!) and they hoped that I will have the same strong bond with them. I was so touched! Another teacher came over and had the following conversation
Teacher: Noelle Teacher. You like drink beer?
Me: (maybe a little too excitedly...) Yes!
Teacher: Ah. Me too.
Pause.
Another Teacher: He thinks you should join us to drink beer sometime.
Original Teacher: (puts his finger to his mouth in the "Be Quiet" gesture) But, is top secret!
Other Teacher: Yes. No one knows we all drink beer together.
Everyone laughs.
Apparently, these teachers like to have a good time and they think I have the potential to join them. I think this sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
I have not seen the classes I taught today and and the ones I teach tomorrow since before Chuseok (at the end of September) because of all of my random time off. Before Morning English started today, I was warmly greeted as I entered the broadcast room. One girl (the one who wrote me the note to ask if we could be friends) ran up to me and told me how excited she was to have my class today and how much she had missed it the last couple of weeks! What a gem! I'm lucky to have such delightful students!
Apparently, there is some custom or tradition in Korea (that I can't find a link to on the internet...sorry!) that says that on Wednesdays, you have to eat everything on your plate. So, Wednesday = Clean Plate Club Day. When we eat lunch in the cafeteria at school, we empty what we don't eat into a rubbish vat that gets thrown away and probably recycled somehow. Some schools follow the cleaning your plate custom so closely that they don't allow any food to be thrown away on Wednesday. Other schools make you explain why you are throwing away food. Apparently, Kyung-Hwa wised up to this custom because they serve their best meals of the week on Wednesdays to ensure that food will be less likely to be thrown away. So, I guess Wednesdays are the cream of the crop meals at school. I had no idea before today. As promised, lunch today was awesome! There was good kimchi, some sort of crunchy soy saucey root vegetable, glass noodles wrapped in seaweed and fried, yellow chicken curry, rice and some sort of potato and fish soup. Dessert was a banana. The girls in my class before lunch are always hungry, as am I, so the first thing we talk about in every class is what is served for lunch that day. Now I understand why they get so excited about their lunches. I always teach them on Wednesdays, ergo, best lunches of the week!
The newspaper for which I proofread several articles came out today! It is beautifully done and I was included on the staff list! I was reading it and Mr. Shin came up beside me, touched my arm and quite sincerely thanked me for helping him with the English. It was one of the most fulfilling moments I have had here so far. He's a great man and I am happy my helping him meant so much!
Wednesdays are also when the weekly teachers' meeting is held. Dionne (the new English teacher that replaced Emily) and I skipped out on the meeting because Mr. Shin told her it wasn't necessary for her to go. The meetings are held in the same room as my desk, so I usually find an alternate location to hang out during the meeting. Today, when the meeting was over, I came back to the room to find a couple of teachers eating chicken wings and fried rice cake that someone had bought for everyone to celebrate something (I didn't really understand the occasion...) They insisted that I join them, and who was I to refuse?! We had a great little snack time and talked a lot. They told me about what a strong relationship they had formed with the first Native English Teacher at the school (they still keep in contact through e-mail and send cards and pictures to each other ten years later!) and they hoped that I will have the same strong bond with them. I was so touched! Another teacher came over and had the following conversation
Teacher: Noelle Teacher. You like drink beer?
Me: (maybe a little too excitedly...) Yes!
Teacher: Ah. Me too.
Pause.
Another Teacher: He thinks you should join us to drink beer sometime.
Original Teacher: (puts his finger to his mouth in the "Be Quiet" gesture) But, is top secret!
Other Teacher: Yes. No one knows we all drink beer together.
Everyone laughs.
Apparently, these teachers like to have a good time and they think I have the potential to join them. I think this sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
10.12.2010
To bring you up to speed:
All weekend, I had a house guest. At the academic high school, there are two teacher's assistants who have just graduated from high school in England and are spending their gap year in Korea for eight months before they start their university studies. Their names are Maria and June. They live in the dorms with some of the girls. Once a month, the dorms close and everyone either goes home or finds alternate plans for the weekend. June is Korean and her family lives in the south part of South Korea in Busan. Maria is from Switzerland. She needed a place to crash for the weekend, and I welcomed her into my apartment. It was fun to have someone around for a couple of days!
Friday night, we went out for dinner at a place in Gwangju that reminded me a little of Applebees or restaurants like that...something for everybody. We shared a couple of dishes and hit up Baskin Robbins for some ice cream to eat while we walked around downtown. It was a super chill night. We both saw several of our students out and about, so it was fun to see them outside of school, even if they are terribly shy and won't talk to us aside from passionately saying hello.
Saturday, Maria went to Everland, which is a big amusement park here and I ventured to Seoul to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao at Insadong, which is a shopping district famous for traditional Korean gifts. I ended up waiting about half an hour for Diane and Qiaoqiao to arrive because of difficulties boarding a train, and I got in some top notch people watching! There were several foreign tourists around this neighborhood, so it was fun to sit back and watch them negotiate the streets of Seoul (not that I'm much more than a tourist at this point, but they're still fun to watch!) There was also a man sitting on the sidewalk, peeling and selling small bags of garlic for 1,000 won. There is always something to look at here! Once we met up, we had an amazing lunch at a cozy little bistro off of a side street in Insadong and walked around all afternoon. When we were through with Insadong, we ventured to Hongdae (an eclectic university neighborhood) in search of the Hello Kitty Cafe. After a long, long walk, and a stop for frozen yogurt, we found the place, though we were too full from our yogurt binge to partake. We'll go back another time. That night, we went to the International Fireworks Festival on the Han River. We were supposed to meet more friends from orientation outside one of the subway exits at 6:30 in order to be able to grab a decent seat for the 7:30 start time. We were done at Hongdae really early, so we decided to head over to the festival early and walk around. We arrived at 4:30 and were greeted by more people than I have ever laid eyes on in my entire life. Literally. By the time the fireworks started, there were literally one million people (as far as the eye could see in ALL directions!) at this festival. As the fireworks started, the Koreans around us were ooo-ing and ahh-ing with marvel at the fireworks exploding in the sky. The 4th of July must have jaded me on fireworks because these fireworks were equal to the caliber of the Mechanicsville fireworks display each year -which are impressive for Mechanicsville's size...I can't say the same for Seoul, especially with an event name like International Fireworks Festival! While the fireworks left much to be desired, the people watching was, again, top notch! In Korea, it is popular for couples to dress alike. I'm not talking merely coordinating their outfits. I'm talking wearing the same exact outfit, or at the very least, the same shirt. It was tough not to stare at the plethora of couples in attendance. Our group was not excited by the idea of fighting a million people to get through one of two subway exits to hop a train home, so we left after the first 10 or 15 minutes. What should have taken us maybe 10 minutes to board a train ended up taking close to half an hour because of the hoards of people both arriving to and departing from the festival. It was mass chaos and if I never go to another event with that number of people again, I will be just fine.
Sunday, Maria and I met a fellow teacher in Gwangju, Kasandra, for lunch at an Italian restaurant. The food was pretty good for what it was... I'm really starting to realize the spin other countries put on imported food. I ordered a pizza at this place, knowing full well that the pizza would be different than what I am used to. And, don't worry, it was. The flavor was quite good (mushroom and pesto!) and eating cheese for the first time in weeks was fun, but the crust of the pizza was a tortilla shell! So, essentially, I ate an open face quesadilla. It was good, but I think I'll stick to places that don't specialize in foreign food unless they are owned and operated by foreigners and proven to be legit...
Monday was back to grind stone. It was so hard to get up on Monday morning, knowing I had a full week of teaching ahead of me after three weeks of no teaching or partial weeks! The girls brought me back though. Here are a couple of pictures of some of my students from Friday:
Here are a couple of cute stories from the past couple of days:
Last Friday, I played games all day rather than start a new lesson. I played a game called Run and Write where I would give two teams a word and one person from each teach had to run across the room to the whiteboard and write a long (and correct!) sentence using the word. One of the words I gave them was Noelle. One of the students wrote "Noelle is our English teacher. We love her because she is very kindful and pretty. If I was a boy, I would want to marry her." (I don't know why she wrote more than one sentence...sucking up, I guess...)
On Mondays, I go grocery shopping and usually eat duk boki at E-Mart. I was eating yesterday and reading a book when a bold student ran (literally) to my table, sat down (SUPER rare) and said, "Teacher, why you eat alone? (Mischievous pause, followed by an even more mischievous glow in her eye) You not have friend?!" She started laughing hysterically at her clever question.
There is a girl in one of my favorite classes that has really short hair (same style as me, but longer). Her English isn't great but she always asks me questions to get me to talk to her. She also shamelessly waves at me from afar each time she sees me. We're pals. Today, I think she asked me if I would cut her hair.
During my last class, I awarded a piece of candy to the team that one the exercise. I like to switch up the prizes I give so they don't know what is coming to them. Sometimes, I'll give everyone in the class candy, but give the winners two pieces. Sometimes I'll do high fives and sometimes I only give the winners candy. Today, for my first year classes, it was a winning-team-only-candy-day. After class was over, one of the teams that didn't win candy stuck around for a little while. As they were leaving, they approached me, and in unison, chanted, "Trick or Treat!" I laughed, told them they did a good job and said I'd see them tomorrow. They left. Not a minute later, there was a knock at my door. I opened it and there they were with their hands out and big smiles on their faces, saying, "Trick or Treat, Teacher!" I told them they were clever and laughed. As they were about to walk away, I gave in and let them have a piece of candy. What can I say? I'm a softy and I like to reward the clever twerps.
Here's a picture I pilfered from Diane that was taken at Namsan Tower last Tuesday. Around the observatory, the windows say which cities around the world are in that direction and how many kilometers away they are... I think we were about 10,525 km away from Chicago...or something like that.
For the next several weeks, it is business as usual. Teaching full weeks (so weird!) and probably exploring Seoul on the weekends. This Friday is Lily Festival at school, which means that the entire day is spent in the Kyung-Hwa Bowl (an outdoor grass terraced stadium) watching each of the students perform various talents. We don't teach at all and there will be 3,000 people (students and teachers) gathered! Should be pretty cool! All of the foreigners (read: anyone fluent in English or good at singing) are singing a song during the offering portion of the accompanying church service. Details to come!
All weekend, I had a house guest. At the academic high school, there are two teacher's assistants who have just graduated from high school in England and are spending their gap year in Korea for eight months before they start their university studies. Their names are Maria and June. They live in the dorms with some of the girls. Once a month, the dorms close and everyone either goes home or finds alternate plans for the weekend. June is Korean and her family lives in the south part of South Korea in Busan. Maria is from Switzerland. She needed a place to crash for the weekend, and I welcomed her into my apartment. It was fun to have someone around for a couple of days!
Friday night, we went out for dinner at a place in Gwangju that reminded me a little of Applebees or restaurants like that...something for everybody. We shared a couple of dishes and hit up Baskin Robbins for some ice cream to eat while we walked around downtown. It was a super chill night. We both saw several of our students out and about, so it was fun to see them outside of school, even if they are terribly shy and won't talk to us aside from passionately saying hello.
Saturday, Maria went to Everland, which is a big amusement park here and I ventured to Seoul to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao at Insadong, which is a shopping district famous for traditional Korean gifts. I ended up waiting about half an hour for Diane and Qiaoqiao to arrive because of difficulties boarding a train, and I got in some top notch people watching! There were several foreign tourists around this neighborhood, so it was fun to sit back and watch them negotiate the streets of Seoul (not that I'm much more than a tourist at this point, but they're still fun to watch!) There was also a man sitting on the sidewalk, peeling and selling small bags of garlic for 1,000 won. There is always something to look at here! Once we met up, we had an amazing lunch at a cozy little bistro off of a side street in Insadong and walked around all afternoon. When we were through with Insadong, we ventured to Hongdae (an eclectic university neighborhood) in search of the Hello Kitty Cafe. After a long, long walk, and a stop for frozen yogurt, we found the place, though we were too full from our yogurt binge to partake. We'll go back another time. That night, we went to the International Fireworks Festival on the Han River. We were supposed to meet more friends from orientation outside one of the subway exits at 6:30 in order to be able to grab a decent seat for the 7:30 start time. We were done at Hongdae really early, so we decided to head over to the festival early and walk around. We arrived at 4:30 and were greeted by more people than I have ever laid eyes on in my entire life. Literally. By the time the fireworks started, there were literally one million people (as far as the eye could see in ALL directions!) at this festival. As the fireworks started, the Koreans around us were ooo-ing and ahh-ing with marvel at the fireworks exploding in the sky. The 4th of July must have jaded me on fireworks because these fireworks were equal to the caliber of the Mechanicsville fireworks display each year -which are impressive for Mechanicsville's size...I can't say the same for Seoul, especially with an event name like International Fireworks Festival! While the fireworks left much to be desired, the people watching was, again, top notch! In Korea, it is popular for couples to dress alike. I'm not talking merely coordinating their outfits. I'm talking wearing the same exact outfit, or at the very least, the same shirt. It was tough not to stare at the plethora of couples in attendance. Our group was not excited by the idea of fighting a million people to get through one of two subway exits to hop a train home, so we left after the first 10 or 15 minutes. What should have taken us maybe 10 minutes to board a train ended up taking close to half an hour because of the hoards of people both arriving to and departing from the festival. It was mass chaos and if I never go to another event with that number of people again, I will be just fine.
Sunday, Maria and I met a fellow teacher in Gwangju, Kasandra, for lunch at an Italian restaurant. The food was pretty good for what it was... I'm really starting to realize the spin other countries put on imported food. I ordered a pizza at this place, knowing full well that the pizza would be different than what I am used to. And, don't worry, it was. The flavor was quite good (mushroom and pesto!) and eating cheese for the first time in weeks was fun, but the crust of the pizza was a tortilla shell! So, essentially, I ate an open face quesadilla. It was good, but I think I'll stick to places that don't specialize in foreign food unless they are owned and operated by foreigners and proven to be legit...
Monday was back to grind stone. It was so hard to get up on Monday morning, knowing I had a full week of teaching ahead of me after three weeks of no teaching or partial weeks! The girls brought me back though. Here are a couple of pictures of some of my students from Friday:
 |
| One of my third year classes |
 |
| Some first years gals who stayed for a little while after class |
Here are a couple of cute stories from the past couple of days:
Last Friday, I played games all day rather than start a new lesson. I played a game called Run and Write where I would give two teams a word and one person from each teach had to run across the room to the whiteboard and write a long (and correct!) sentence using the word. One of the words I gave them was Noelle. One of the students wrote "Noelle is our English teacher. We love her because she is very kindful and pretty. If I was a boy, I would want to marry her." (I don't know why she wrote more than one sentence...sucking up, I guess...)
On Mondays, I go grocery shopping and usually eat duk boki at E-Mart. I was eating yesterday and reading a book when a bold student ran (literally) to my table, sat down (SUPER rare) and said, "Teacher, why you eat alone? (Mischievous pause, followed by an even more mischievous glow in her eye) You not have friend?!" She started laughing hysterically at her clever question.
There is a girl in one of my favorite classes that has really short hair (same style as me, but longer). Her English isn't great but she always asks me questions to get me to talk to her. She also shamelessly waves at me from afar each time she sees me. We're pals. Today, I think she asked me if I would cut her hair.
During my last class, I awarded a piece of candy to the team that one the exercise. I like to switch up the prizes I give so they don't know what is coming to them. Sometimes, I'll give everyone in the class candy, but give the winners two pieces. Sometimes I'll do high fives and sometimes I only give the winners candy. Today, for my first year classes, it was a winning-team-only-candy-day. After class was over, one of the teams that didn't win candy stuck around for a little while. As they were leaving, they approached me, and in unison, chanted, "Trick or Treat!" I laughed, told them they did a good job and said I'd see them tomorrow. They left. Not a minute later, there was a knock at my door. I opened it and there they were with their hands out and big smiles on their faces, saying, "Trick or Treat, Teacher!" I told them they were clever and laughed. As they were about to walk away, I gave in and let them have a piece of candy. What can I say? I'm a softy and I like to reward the clever twerps.
Here's a picture I pilfered from Diane that was taken at Namsan Tower last Tuesday. Around the observatory, the windows say which cities around the world are in that direction and how many kilometers away they are... I think we were about 10,525 km away from Chicago...or something like that.
For the next several weeks, it is business as usual. Teaching full weeks (so weird!) and probably exploring Seoul on the weekends. This Friday is Lily Festival at school, which means that the entire day is spent in the Kyung-Hwa Bowl (an outdoor grass terraced stadium) watching each of the students perform various talents. We don't teach at all and there will be 3,000 people (students and teachers) gathered! Should be pretty cool! All of the foreigners (read: anyone fluent in English or good at singing) are singing a song during the offering portion of the accompanying church service. Details to come!
10.07.2010
I still can't believe this happened.
Today I woke up to a phone call from Hyunjoo Kim telling me that she would take me to figure out internet banking this afternoon after the exams were done. I had a leisurely morning. I ate breakfast, skyped with my friend Taryn and watched some How I Met Your Mother. I had to walk to the school to pick up some stuff for the internet banking excursion and was supposed to receive a call from Hyunjoo when she was going to pick me up. At about 12:10. I was getting dressed when I heard someone knocking loudly on the door to access our apartments. (There is a door with an electronic lock that you have to go through to get onto our apartment floor and then each apartment also has a separate door to enter each apartment.) I finished getting dressed quickly and went to open the door. One of the other teachers had forgotten his key and couldn't get in. So, I pushed the button to open the door. It made the same sound as usual and appeared to be unlocked, but when I tried to open the door, it wouldn't open. After trying several times to lock and unlock the door, I realized it was no use. I was trapped in my apartment building.
I called Hyunjoo and explained the situation. She called the school's administrative office and they sent the man who looks after our apartments over to help, thinking that the batteries on the lock needed to be replaced. Easy fix. He tried all of the same tricks I had tried to no avail. Hyunjoo called to ask where I was because by now, I was quite late for our appointment. I explained that the man was trying to open the door, but nothing was working and the batteries didn't seem to be the problem. She came to the apartment too and they continued to try to open the door. She called me a couple of times to tell me to turn the lock or try to open the door, but nothing worked. They even tried breaking down the door, but nothing would make whatever was obstructing the lock budge. Hyunjoo told me I should go back into my apartment and she would call me if they needed my help. By this time, I had been working on the door for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Maybe ten minutes later, Hyunjoo called me and said they had called 911 to come get the door open. She said I needed to open all of the windows in the breezeway and I should wait for them to get there in case they needed my help with anything. A couple minutes later, a red truck with Korean writing and 911 written on it pulled up to our building. I thought they would climb a ladder to enter the building. There was no ladder and I had yet to see anybody who looked like they had come in the truck. All of a sudden, I hear someone shouting in Korean. Then, I saw legs right outside the window and a man coming from the roof into the building. He repelled from the roof into the window. Then, he tried all of the same things I had tried to open the door. No dice. He went to the window and yelled to his partner who was still on the roof. His partner dropped in a couple of screwdrivers and the man removed part of the electronic lock in order to open the door. On the other side of the door, there stood Hyunjoo, another English teacher from my school, the building maintenance man, another old man and the teacher was had been locked out in the first place. Hyunjoo gave me a huge hug and looked so relieved that they had rescued (to some extent...) me. She said that was the first time she or the other English teacher had called 911!
Next, the 911 men got my information (just my name and age) to write a report about the incident (I'm assuming). Hyunjoo was so sweet and motherly about the whole situation. She took me to Ministop and bought me a bottle of tea, and then she and the other English teacher that was outside my apartment with her took me to the bank to take care of the internet banking. On the way to the bank, I was telling them about what I had done all week and especially that the dok buki man at the food court in E-Mart recognized me. Hyunjoo was so surprised that I like duk boki that once we were done at the bank, she took me out for lunch at a place that serves REALLY great duk boki, which she also loves. She told me that she will cook it sometime and have me over to eat! What an exciting afternoon! Now, I'm off to Seoul to meet Emily and Richard for dinner. Hopefully nothing else exciting happens. I think I can only take one 911 call per day. Thank you Korea.
I called Hyunjoo and explained the situation. She called the school's administrative office and they sent the man who looks after our apartments over to help, thinking that the batteries on the lock needed to be replaced. Easy fix. He tried all of the same tricks I had tried to no avail. Hyunjoo called to ask where I was because by now, I was quite late for our appointment. I explained that the man was trying to open the door, but nothing was working and the batteries didn't seem to be the problem. She came to the apartment too and they continued to try to open the door. She called me a couple of times to tell me to turn the lock or try to open the door, but nothing worked. They even tried breaking down the door, but nothing would make whatever was obstructing the lock budge. Hyunjoo told me I should go back into my apartment and she would call me if they needed my help. By this time, I had been working on the door for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Maybe ten minutes later, Hyunjoo called me and said they had called 911 to come get the door open. She said I needed to open all of the windows in the breezeway and I should wait for them to get there in case they needed my help with anything. A couple minutes later, a red truck with Korean writing and 911 written on it pulled up to our building. I thought they would climb a ladder to enter the building. There was no ladder and I had yet to see anybody who looked like they had come in the truck. All of a sudden, I hear someone shouting in Korean. Then, I saw legs right outside the window and a man coming from the roof into the building. He repelled from the roof into the window. Then, he tried all of the same things I had tried to open the door. No dice. He went to the window and yelled to his partner who was still on the roof. His partner dropped in a couple of screwdrivers and the man removed part of the electronic lock in order to open the door. On the other side of the door, there stood Hyunjoo, another English teacher from my school, the building maintenance man, another old man and the teacher was had been locked out in the first place. Hyunjoo gave me a huge hug and looked so relieved that they had rescued (to some extent...) me. She said that was the first time she or the other English teacher had called 911!
Next, the 911 men got my information (just my name and age) to write a report about the incident (I'm assuming). Hyunjoo was so sweet and motherly about the whole situation. She took me to Ministop and bought me a bottle of tea, and then she and the other English teacher that was outside my apartment with her took me to the bank to take care of the internet banking. On the way to the bank, I was telling them about what I had done all week and especially that the dok buki man at the food court in E-Mart recognized me. Hyunjoo was so surprised that I like duk boki that once we were done at the bank, she took me out for lunch at a place that serves REALLY great duk boki, which she also loves. She told me that she will cook it sometime and have me over to eat! What an exciting afternoon! Now, I'm off to Seoul to meet Emily and Richard for dinner. Hopefully nothing else exciting happens. I think I can only take one 911 call per day. Thank you Korea.
Pictures Galore!
I don't know why, but I went nuts taking pictures on Tuesday... Enjoy!
First, I took some pictures around town on my way to E-Mart to catch the bus to Seoul.
Some by my school... I had to run an errand there real quick before I left for the day. I ran into Mr. Shin (my head teacher) on my way down the hill and had a nice chat with him. He told me that that afternoon all of the woman teachers (his words, not mine!) would go home half way through the day while all of man teachers (again...his words) would climb the mountain behind our school. Nice! He also told me I had several pieces of mail on my desk since I hadn't been there for almost a week. (Thanks again to all the senders!) I walked into the office and one of the older male teachers looked up and said, "Oh! Long time, no see!" Nice English, sir!
This picture was taken facing my neighborhood, but the view is obstructed by the trees that line the road to and from the school. Hopefully you can get a sense of how high up the hill I walk each day!
I took a couple of photos of my neighborhood, but they turned out to be pretty lame, so I'll take some better ones when the students are out and about so you can what a normal day looks like....
Here are photos closer to downtown and E-Mart.
So, my plan for Tuesday was to eat lunch at E-Mart before heading to Seoul to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao (a Chinese foreign teacher at Diane's school) at N Seoul Tower which is on Namsan Mountain in Seoul. The building that houses E-Mart has a bus depot and a sizable food court with E-Mart downstairs and two floors of pseudo department store shopping above. I've only eaten at one of the food vendors in the food court and gotten coffee at a couple of the shops. I played it safe and ate at the vendor that sells duk boki (if you'll think back to my first experience eating out with Emily, this is what we ate). I've only eaten at this place three times now, but they remember me every time! The man even said hi and started to dish up the duk buki (even though they sell other items) before I uttered a word! Last time, I ordered wrong and didn't receive any of the fried food that gets dipped into the duk buki, which is the best part in my opinion. This time, I remembered to point to the correct sign and ended up with two pieces of squid, one piece of sweet potato and a common street food concoction of glass noodles (clear thin spaghetti) wrapped in seaweed and fried. The woman who gathered my fried food was a pal and cut everything into bite sized (chop-stick friendly!) pieces for me. As I was getting ready to carry my food to a table, I heard someone call my name. I turned around and there was my neighbor Toni who teaches at the academic high school. She brought her Popeye's chicken over to where I was sitting and we had a lovely chat. She invited me to go shopping with her husband and her once a month on the Friday after payday. They have a car because her husband Steven works for an imports company here and drives to work so they take their car to E-Mart once a month to buy the big items that are cumbersome to carry home. I'm grateful for the offer because when I bought water last week, I had a heck of a time carrying everything home! Anyway, here's my duk buki!
So, in the background is the fried food that you dip into the plate in the foreground. The red biz in the foreground is comprised of fish cake (the square bits in the middle that look like meat but are basically seasoned fish spam which tastes much better than I just made it sound), rice cake, which is the other chunks you see and a sauce made from pepper paste and water. This is really spicy, but the fried food that gets dipped into the duk buki seems to cut the spice a little. The water cup at the top of the picture is the typical beverage serving size at restaurants. They aren't big on drinking with their meals here unless it's soju or beer. During lunch at school, I don't drink anything, which is odd because if you've even dined with me in America, you know I drink truckloads of water (preferably with lime!) at most every meal. It's taken some getting used to, but now I don't feel like I need to drink nearly as much water with every meal. It's honestly more of a hassle to drink beverages during meals because of the customs that go with pouring and consuming beverages with meals (i.e. you NEVER pour your own drink and always fill everyone's cups before yours so there is often no more water left by the time you make it to your own cup, etc.).
After my impromptu lunch with Toni, I boarded the bus to Seoul. I had to get off at a different stop than usual to get on a different line on the subway, so I was a little unclear on where to get off the bus. I got off the bus at what I thought was Gangdong station, and walked around a little to try to find the train. There was no train in sight. I asked a woman and she told me to turn left and walk for a long time. Knowing I was in the wrong place, I decided just to get back on the bus and go to my usual bus stop and make the extra transfers on the train. This also proved to be a problem because my bus only stops at this place if someone on the bus needs to get off there. Three buses whizzed by without stopping. I was getting frustrated because I was going to be really late to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao. Just as I was about to investigate a different bus line, a 1113 bus pulled right up to where I was standing and a woman got off. I went over and knocked on the door, which the driver opened with a confused look on his face and I was finally able, after a good 20 minutes of being stranded, to board the bus. Not ten minutes later, the bus stopped at my originally planned destination and I got off and had a quite pleasant half hour train ride to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao.
Once I finally arrived, ee ventured through some random allies and streets (as per our internet directions!) to purchase a ride to N Seoul Tower via cable car. The cable car ride was super sweet: smooth and quick! From the cable car, it was a pretty steep hike up to the tower sight. Here's a picture I took on the way:
At the tower, there are several restaurants, an observatory to take in several views of Seoul, an outdoor platform which will be explained shortly, and a Teddy Bear Museum that shows Seoul's history with Teddy Bears... that move. The tower also boasts the bathroom with the best view of Seoul. There are floor to ceiling windows!
Here's a kind of lame video of the Teddy Bear Museum. It gives you an idea of the intensity of these bears:
Picture time...
In the tower, there are two Twosome Place cafes (the place that didn't have sandwiches despite their vigorous mention of said sandwiches). Guess what? We found their sandwiches. LAME. They also serve a delightful white chocolate mocha using the same Ghirardelli chocolate that we used at the Business Cafe, in case you were wondering.
The aforementioned outdoor platform was quite interesting. For some reason, this tower is geared toward couples. There are walls covered (almost floor to ceiling) with magnets made by couples to document the love they have for each other (barf.). Here's an example with a cute kid that I found more fun to look at them those cutesy couples.
So, outside on the platform, the love theme continues. Diane told me that couples come to the tower, bring or buy a lock, sign the lock with whatever cheesy junk they want, attach the locks to the fence, lock them and throw the key over the edge to signify their never ending love / bond. Some people take this pretty seriously...
As I was taking pictures of the locks, I noticed a couple struggling with a self portrait. I offered to take their picture for them. Their standard point and shoot camera had a mind of its own and kept taking pictures when I wasn't meaning to. I would like to apologize to you for the image I may have conveyed to this couple about Americans. He was real nice, though, and offered to take our picture. He even took artsy angles. He didn't mess around.
After the tower, we ventured to a shopping district near the tower for dinner and, of course, some shopping. EXCITEMENT: I found TWO pairs of pants that fit me. They were real cheap too. Thank you Forever 21 (a tried and true American brand that is everywhere). Now I had cords to wear to school in the winter, and a little classier winter coat (camel with black toggles!) than my fleece and down vest ensemble. Delightful. We also happened upon a seemingly random K-Pop (Korean pop music) dance contest near the train station. The kids had moves. That's all I have to say about that.
Today I made an appearance at school. Since the girls are still taking midterms, I sat at my desk and cultivated ideas for next week's lesson plans. I also found out that I am teaching on Friday. News to me. It's a good thing I have some fresh ideas from my teacher's training for some games. I don't want to get in the routine of starting new lessons on Fridays because that seems awkward to me, so Friday's classes will be geared toward a good time. Plus, the girls have been taking exams ALL week, so I don't want to overwhelm them. I also met the new foreign teacher at the EB high school! Her name is Dionne. She's also new to teaching ESL although she and her husband have been in Korea for the last five years teaching at a private institute that is run as an American school. She's really nice and has lots of teaching experience, though none in ESL or high school, so we'll learn together!
First, I took some pictures around town on my way to E-Mart to catch the bus to Seoul.
Some by my school... I had to run an errand there real quick before I left for the day. I ran into Mr. Shin (my head teacher) on my way down the hill and had a nice chat with him. He told me that that afternoon all of the woman teachers (his words, not mine!) would go home half way through the day while all of man teachers (again...his words) would climb the mountain behind our school. Nice! He also told me I had several pieces of mail on my desk since I hadn't been there for almost a week. (Thanks again to all the senders!) I walked into the office and one of the older male teachers looked up and said, "Oh! Long time, no see!" Nice English, sir!
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| Jesus. Outside the auditorium |
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| The view from the top of the steps to the Academic High School |
This picture was taken facing my neighborhood, but the view is obstructed by the trees that line the road to and from the school. Hopefully you can get a sense of how high up the hill I walk each day!
I took a couple of photos of my neighborhood, but they turned out to be pretty lame, so I'll take some better ones when the students are out and about so you can what a normal day looks like....
Here are photos closer to downtown and E-Mart.
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| A mass exodus of students to catch a bus home |
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| The river that sort of divides the town... |
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| An example of wonky parking. This is a sidewalk. |
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| Gwangju. Taken from the same spot as the river, but opposite direction |
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| Yum! |
After my impromptu lunch with Toni, I boarded the bus to Seoul. I had to get off at a different stop than usual to get on a different line on the subway, so I was a little unclear on where to get off the bus. I got off the bus at what I thought was Gangdong station, and walked around a little to try to find the train. There was no train in sight. I asked a woman and she told me to turn left and walk for a long time. Knowing I was in the wrong place, I decided just to get back on the bus and go to my usual bus stop and make the extra transfers on the train. This also proved to be a problem because my bus only stops at this place if someone on the bus needs to get off there. Three buses whizzed by without stopping. I was getting frustrated because I was going to be really late to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao. Just as I was about to investigate a different bus line, a 1113 bus pulled right up to where I was standing and a woman got off. I went over and knocked on the door, which the driver opened with a confused look on his face and I was finally able, after a good 20 minutes of being stranded, to board the bus. Not ten minutes later, the bus stopped at my originally planned destination and I got off and had a quite pleasant half hour train ride to meet Diane and Qiaoqiao.
Once I finally arrived, ee ventured through some random allies and streets (as per our internet directions!) to purchase a ride to N Seoul Tower via cable car. The cable car ride was super sweet: smooth and quick! From the cable car, it was a pretty steep hike up to the tower sight. Here's a picture I took on the way:
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| Seoul! |
Here's a kind of lame video of the Teddy Bear Museum. It gives you an idea of the intensity of these bears:
Picture time...
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| As much of the tower as my camera could capture |
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| Seoul... |
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| The bathroom! |
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| More Seoul... |
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| And...some more. |
The aforementioned outdoor platform was quite interesting. For some reason, this tower is geared toward couples. There are walls covered (almost floor to ceiling) with magnets made by couples to document the love they have for each other (barf.). Here's an example with a cute kid that I found more fun to look at them those cutesy couples.
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| that's a lot of love. |
So, outside on the platform, the love theme continues. Diane told me that couples come to the tower, bring or buy a lock, sign the lock with whatever cheesy junk they want, attach the locks to the fence, lock them and throw the key over the edge to signify their never ending love / bond. Some people take this pretty seriously...
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| walls, upon walls of locks |
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| a cutting board attached to a lock. What the H. |
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| Group love on the bike lock. |
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| Loner love. |
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| In Asia, do as the Asians do. Throwin' the peace signs. |
Today I made an appearance at school. Since the girls are still taking midterms, I sat at my desk and cultivated ideas for next week's lesson plans. I also found out that I am teaching on Friday. News to me. It's a good thing I have some fresh ideas from my teacher's training for some games. I don't want to get in the routine of starting new lessons on Fridays because that seems awkward to me, so Friday's classes will be geared toward a good time. Plus, the girls have been taking exams ALL week, so I don't want to overwhelm them. I also met the new foreign teacher at the EB high school! Her name is Dionne. She's also new to teaching ESL although she and her husband have been in Korea for the last five years teaching at a private institute that is run as an American school. She's really nice and has lots of teaching experience, though none in ESL or high school, so we'll learn together!
10.04.2010
Cooking!
So, I've written a lot about what I've eaten in restaurants, but very little on what I cook for myself at home. Here's a breakdown. For breakfast, I usually eat yogurt (sometimes Yoplait!) and sometimes fruit, lately kiwi, but also peaches or apples. For lunch I eat at school every day and for the most part, lunches are good. I think they're still new and exciting to me so I'm still more than willing to try most everything, though sometimes the smell of the cafeteria takes a little courage! (I'm still getting used to how some things smell here...) For dinner, and lunch on the weekend days that I hang in my apartment, I cook for myself. Cooking here has to be a little creative because of the availability of ingredients. Non-Korean ingredients are really expensive! I paid something like $8 for a honey bear the other day! So, lots of fried rice with vegetables and random crab or fish cake concoctions, stir fried vegetables (currently, I'm obsessed with sweet potatoes and carrots, though not together!), tofu, and my favorite: gimbap!
I've put some crazy stuff in my gimbap, but today I played it more traditional. These ingredients are similar to what the woman in the shop downstairs makes. That shop has almost become my personal Cheers! because whenever I go in there, there are inevitably four tables of my students calling my name and saying hello and the woman knows my order without me saying a word...it's pretty sweet! But, now that I eat meat, I would like to add ham to my "usual" but I don't really know how to say it...one day I'll learn... or gesture in such a way that she understands what I mean... So, she makes hers with ham, imitation crab, cucumber, pickled radish and fried egg. Tonight, I was too lazy to fry an egg, so I used a carrot instead. So, pictured above is imitation crab, carrot, cucumber and pickled radish. Then I wrap all of those ingredients in a sheet of seaweed that is lined with white rice from my handy dandy rice cooker! Here's a pretty rough video of me making it: (I don't know why, but my camera cuts out some of the things I say to narrate what I'm doing, so the words are kind of jumbled...sorry!)
This was my first time using imitation crab and in the process of preparing the ingredients, I made a delightful discovery! The package of imitation crab I bought last week was HUGE, so I was unsure of how it was going to work to freeze the rest in the same package. Upon opening the enormous package of imitation crab, I discovered that each spear of crab is... individually wrapped! So, since I only used two spears, I literally have 38 string cheese size spears of imitation crab sitting in my freezer door. This is what my freezer looks like at present:
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| The ingredients...minus the rice of course! |
This was my first time using imitation crab and in the process of preparing the ingredients, I made a delightful discovery! The package of imitation crab I bought last week was HUGE, so I was unsure of how it was going to work to freeze the rest in the same package. Upon opening the enormous package of imitation crab, I discovered that each spear of crab is... individually wrapped! So, since I only used two spears, I literally have 38 string cheese size spears of imitation crab sitting in my freezer door. This is what my freezer looks like at present:
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| It's like I hit the crab lotto! |
Long Overdue...
Since I last wrote a legit blog entry, much as transpired.
First, from last Wednesday to Friday, I attended a teacher training / orientation for all of the public middle and high school foreign teachers in the Gyeonggi-do Province (all of the cities surrounding Seoul comprise their own province...sort of like a state, but a little different in ways that I'm not sure how to explain...). At the orientation, we attended several sessions. Some were presented by current teachers in GEPIK (this is the name of the program through which I teach) to give us ideas as to what to teach and games to play with our students. Other programs clued us in to Korean culture tidbits while others gave advice on classroom management. There were also sessions on speaking Korean, which I found quite helpful since the only words I have definitively learned so far are yes, hello. thank you, 1,000 won and without ham. For a good portion of the orientation, we were split into small groups. We taught demonstration lessons in partners. This exercise gave me so many ideas as to how to teach! Overall, I really learned a lot in those couple of days, both about how to teach and about myself. I also met a couple of people that I will definitely meet up with in the future, so all in all, it was a great getaway!
On Friday, after I got back from orientation, I ventured to E-Mart to restock my fridge. On the way back, I snapped this photo:
I realized I had been neglecting to show the landscape of my surroundings. From this picture, it looks like I live in the countryside to some extent. What this picture neglects to show you is that just across the sidewalk from where I stood to take this picture is one of the busiest streets in town, bustling with road traffic, foot traffic and all sorts of businesses. Gwangju is quite urbanized but because of mountains like the one in the picture, the city is very spread out rather than a concrete jungle like many of the newly developed cities. I will try to take more pictures of the city to give you more of an idea of what it looks like here...
On Sunday, I met Diane, a friend from orientation, in Seoul. We met at Coex Mall, which seemed to be Korea's answer to the Mall of America. The mall houses an aquarium, movie theater (with IMAX!), the Kimchi Field Museum, and hundreds of stores and food vendors. On the floor above all of this, there is a large conference center and Seoul's World Trade Center is also attached to the complex. There are also a couple of swanky hotels and a casino. It's a huge complex! This was the first time I had been shopping for anything other than food in Korea, so it was really fun. I bought a couple of books and a really good guidebook to Seoul and a couple of tops to wear to school. Diane and I got hungry during lunch time and we ended up eating at T.G.I. Fridays! Their menu was considerably smaller (only three pages!) but it was nice to have some legit American food for once. We had boneless buffalo wings (my first in almost four years! Chicken wings were the one thing I missed during my non-meat days!) which were served with greek tzatziki sauce instead of ranch or bleu cheese and a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon, Monterrey jack cheese, tomato and lettuce and french fries. It was a treat! We tried to see a movie in the huge movie theater, but we couldn't find any ticket machines in English and since we weren't too serious about seeing a movie, we didn't bother to ask anyone for help. We also found the Kimchi Field Museum, but we weren't too jazzed on what it looked to entail after reading the description outside the entrance, so we decided not to spend the money to go in.
After a lengthy walk outside around the whole Coex complex, we ventured to Gangnam because Diane wanted to experience the infamous fish pedicure. We stopped off at Lush (my favorite cosmetic / toiletry shop that sells all handmade goods) so I could stock up on my favorite items. Right outside Lush was some sort of demonstration. There was a man who looked to be dressed in a North Korean military uniform pointing a gun at a man's head who was kneeling on the ground wearing a black hood. It looked to me to be some sort of attempt to bring awareness to the plight of North Korean refugees because there was a poster about the modern day underground railroad and other similar posters. It was really harrowing to walk down the street and see a man pointing a gun at someone's head, especially in Gangnam, which is sometimes touted as Seoul's Rodeo Drive. After this small dose of reality, we ventured on to the fish pedicure cafe. After enjoying banana and strawberry smoothies and the complementary toast, we stuck our feet in the fish. This time, we figured out that if you bring your feet closer to the surface, the fish follow, so I was able to get a couple of decent pictures of the fish.
This time, post pedicure, as I was wiping my feet off, I could see the skin they had eaten from my foot. It sounds gross, but I would tell they had done work! Such a cool experience! I really want to try the big guys (which are goldfish size) now!
After the pedicures, we walked around Gangnam for awhile. We walked up a street with a lot of coffee shops and restaurants. At one point, we stopped and looked down a small street that was emitting good smells. A woman noticed us looking in her restaurant's general direction and started yelling at us, trying to get us to come into her restaurant. She was pretty aggressive and a little scary. We walked quickly in the opposite direction. Once we made it back to the main drag, we made a sweet discovery. On the street, every block or so, there are these interactive kiosks called media poles. You can read the news, play games or get directions to things in the neighborhood. You can also, as Diane and I discovered, take pictures and decorate them photo booth style and then e-mail them to yourself! The technology here astounds me. Here is the piece of art we created:
After our photo fun in Gangnam, we hopped the subway to Apgujeong which is a neighborhood with tree lined streets, fun boutiques, art galleries and restaurants. Just as we made it to the area, it started to rain. We walked and walked trying to find somewhere suitable to eat a small bite and seek shelter from the rain. We finally settled on a place we kept seeing all day long in various areas: a little cafe called A Twosome Place. Under the name of the establishment, it always says "A Cake and Sandwich Place," so naturally, we figured we would get a sandwich and maybe a piece of cake. We walked into the restaurant, put our stuff down and looked at the menu. No sandwich in sight. We were not pleased. The weird thing about this restaurant is that there are pictures of sandwiches everywhere and they are fairly heavily advertised, but there is not one sandwich on the menu. So. Weird. Instead, we settled for bread bowls of baked potato and bacon soup and a slice of cookie and Gruyere cheesecake. Both were very good. After our excursion at a Twosome Place, we walked back to the subway, parted ways to reach our respective destinations and an hour and a half later, I was home. Such a great day!
First, from last Wednesday to Friday, I attended a teacher training / orientation for all of the public middle and high school foreign teachers in the Gyeonggi-do Province (all of the cities surrounding Seoul comprise their own province...sort of like a state, but a little different in ways that I'm not sure how to explain...). At the orientation, we attended several sessions. Some were presented by current teachers in GEPIK (this is the name of the program through which I teach) to give us ideas as to what to teach and games to play with our students. Other programs clued us in to Korean culture tidbits while others gave advice on classroom management. There were also sessions on speaking Korean, which I found quite helpful since the only words I have definitively learned so far are yes, hello. thank you, 1,000 won and without ham. For a good portion of the orientation, we were split into small groups. We taught demonstration lessons in partners. This exercise gave me so many ideas as to how to teach! Overall, I really learned a lot in those couple of days, both about how to teach and about myself. I also met a couple of people that I will definitely meet up with in the future, so all in all, it was a great getaway!
On Friday, after I got back from orientation, I ventured to E-Mart to restock my fridge. On the way back, I snapped this photo:
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| In the distance, you can see my school... sort of... on the hill. |
On Sunday, I met Diane, a friend from orientation, in Seoul. We met at Coex Mall, which seemed to be Korea's answer to the Mall of America. The mall houses an aquarium, movie theater (with IMAX!), the Kimchi Field Museum, and hundreds of stores and food vendors. On the floor above all of this, there is a large conference center and Seoul's World Trade Center is also attached to the complex. There are also a couple of swanky hotels and a casino. It's a huge complex! This was the first time I had been shopping for anything other than food in Korea, so it was really fun. I bought a couple of books and a really good guidebook to Seoul and a couple of tops to wear to school. Diane and I got hungry during lunch time and we ended up eating at T.G.I. Fridays! Their menu was considerably smaller (only three pages!) but it was nice to have some legit American food for once. We had boneless buffalo wings (my first in almost four years! Chicken wings were the one thing I missed during my non-meat days!) which were served with greek tzatziki sauce instead of ranch or bleu cheese and a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon, Monterrey jack cheese, tomato and lettuce and french fries. It was a treat! We tried to see a movie in the huge movie theater, but we couldn't find any ticket machines in English and since we weren't too serious about seeing a movie, we didn't bother to ask anyone for help. We also found the Kimchi Field Museum, but we weren't too jazzed on what it looked to entail after reading the description outside the entrance, so we decided not to spend the money to go in.
After a lengthy walk outside around the whole Coex complex, we ventured to Gangnam because Diane wanted to experience the infamous fish pedicure. We stopped off at Lush (my favorite cosmetic / toiletry shop that sells all handmade goods) so I could stock up on my favorite items. Right outside Lush was some sort of demonstration. There was a man who looked to be dressed in a North Korean military uniform pointing a gun at a man's head who was kneeling on the ground wearing a black hood. It looked to me to be some sort of attempt to bring awareness to the plight of North Korean refugees because there was a poster about the modern day underground railroad and other similar posters. It was really harrowing to walk down the street and see a man pointing a gun at someone's head, especially in Gangnam, which is sometimes touted as Seoul's Rodeo Drive. After this small dose of reality, we ventured on to the fish pedicure cafe. After enjoying banana and strawberry smoothies and the complementary toast, we stuck our feet in the fish. This time, we figured out that if you bring your feet closer to the surface, the fish follow, so I was able to get a couple of decent pictures of the fish.
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| They're just little guys... |
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| You can sort of see how they swarm your feet... |
After the pedicures, we walked around Gangnam for awhile. We walked up a street with a lot of coffee shops and restaurants. At one point, we stopped and looked down a small street that was emitting good smells. A woman noticed us looking in her restaurant's general direction and started yelling at us, trying to get us to come into her restaurant. She was pretty aggressive and a little scary. We walked quickly in the opposite direction. Once we made it back to the main drag, we made a sweet discovery. On the street, every block or so, there are these interactive kiosks called media poles. You can read the news, play games or get directions to things in the neighborhood. You can also, as Diane and I discovered, take pictures and decorate them photo booth style and then e-mail them to yourself! The technology here astounds me. Here is the piece of art we created:
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| I like the man in the background... |
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