I've Been a Busy Lady...

Holy Cow.  Going from a two and a half day work week to a full work week is exhausting.  So much has happened over the last week and a half that writing a blog post seems daunting.  I'm resorting to a list instead.  Sorry if that's a cop-out.  So, without further mindless drivel, here are 10 highlights (in no particular order) from the last 10 days...

• Rain, rain, rain - It's monsoon season, which equals frequent rain.  And, when it rains, it doesn't mess around.  It rains almost every day (which is why I'm not in Seoul this afternoon), making being outside a bit of a chore...  My coffee date with YeeSeul on Sunday lasted an extra hour because neither of us wanted to go outside!  I'm giving serious thought to bringing my rain boots back with me... Yikes.
• Spraining my ankle - That's right.  I sprained my ankle.  It was raining (go figure :) ) and I was walking down the stairs from Scott and Dionne's apartment.  As I was thinking to myself that I should be careful because it would be real bad news to fall, my feet flew out from under me and I landed on my left ankle.  It started to swell immediately but didn't hurt too badly, so I continued on to the market with the Husteds.  I've been elevating it at night and iced it quite a bit in the beginning and while it's still a little tight, the swelling and bruising are mostly gone.  Now I'm extra cautious on the stairs!
  
• Shopping for watermelon and various home goods with Dionne and Scott - DIonne and Scott know all of the good places to snag cool stuff so shopping with them is always an adventure.  The day I sprained my ankle, we went to the traditional open air market in Gwangju.  As we were walking around, Dionne spotted nicely priced watermelons.  We approached the stand and a jolly man emerged from the associated grocery store.  He cut huge hunks from a dark green watermelon for us to sample, proclaiming that it was an Obama melon, given its dark color.  I lost it, laughing for a real long time.  He was pretty proud of himself.
  
• Korean Folk Village adventure -  Since last week was finals week, we had a lot of time off.  Dionne and Scott took me to the nearby Korean Folk Village to explore.  It was so cool!  It had traditional Korean homes from every region and social class, performances of samul nori drumming, and tight rope walking, all kinds of traditional Korean wares and we even accidentally watched a hanbok fashion show.  What a fun day with Dionne and Scott with beautiful weather too.  

This adorable kid was enamored with Dionne, Scott and me - so much so that he and his father brought us some rice cookies.  Too cute.

My crew for the day - what a fun time we had!

Mr. Tightrope Walker

The random Miss University Pageant / Hanbok Fashion Show we stumbled upon

• Pita Pit - Pita Pit (kind of like Subway, for for pitas) was one of my favorite fast food restaurants in Ames and a location just opened in Seoul a couple of months ago.  When Diane and I first saw it in March, I was so excited to see it that I cried a little.  It wasn't yet open then, so when we were back in the respective neighborhood last weekend, we stopped there for lunch.  What a delightful taste of home!
  

• Chatting with the fam - especially the Drewster - Every Sunday night, I skype with the folks and last week, Nick and Jess were home too, so I got to talk to them and see the Drewster as well.  What a little prince he is!  I'm so so excited to finally meet him in two short weeks!  I can't believe how much he's changed in the last three months!
  
• Line Dancing - For some reason, the school schedule in Korea has finals happen with three weeks of school remaining, giving us two weeks of classes after finals.  Dionne and I decided to use this time to introduce some American culture to the girls, so last week, we taught them how to line dance  (we taught them the Macarena, Cupid Shuffle and Electric Slide).  It was so fun (and funny)!  Predictably, the second and third graders were a little too cool to enjoy themselves much, but the first graders!  WOW.  They LOVED it!  It was so fun to be able to see them let completely loose and enjoy themselves.  Even the co-teachers joined us, which was really fun!  Mr. Shin was such a gem, not only doing the dances, but really getting into it.  He wants to incorporate line dancing into summer camp AND the English festival next year!  I cannot wait to see 250 students (and hopefully teachers, too!) doing the Macarena in the auditorium!  Awesome!  (I wanted to take pictures and video of it, but I felt too much like a voyeur doing it and the one video Dionne took is pretty poor quality because my camera is a complete piece...  Next year, I promise!)
  
• Tasting my tomato makgeolli with Dionne and Scott... twice - Remember the tomato flavored rice wine I made three weeks ago?  Tuesday night, I brought the bucket'o'jank over to Dionne and Scott's so Scott could help me strain it and we could finally taste it.  Once we added sugar to it, it was pretty tasty!  Who knew that something that looks like barf could taste so delicious sans the barf-like particles?!  We finished it last night as we watched a movie.  The movie, some tasty popcorn, cold, tangy tomato makgeolli, some bakery fresh baby cream puffs and the company made for a pretty awesome (and rainy) Friday night.

After two weeks of festering, this was the product... Yikes.

Luckily, Scott knew what was up.  He helped me...

We strained off the rice and other chunks, added some sugar, and it was AWESOME.

A vast improvement.

• Chatting with a car salesman on the way home from E-Mart - On Wednesday, Desiree and I were walking home from E-Mart when a middle aged man said hello to me as we passed each other on the street.  I said hello back to him and kept walking until he asked if we had time to talk to him.  He asked where I was from and told me he knew where Iowa was (I totally didn't believe him because no one in Korea has ever heard of Iowa, but whatever - he was nice enough...)  He invited us into the car dealership where he works for a cup of coffee (which turned out to mean fizzy orange drink) and talked to us for quite a while.  His English was pretty good and he got real deep, saying that Americans and Koreans are so different, but we are all under the same sky.  When he told us we looked like angels, we made a not so graceful exit, saying we needed to put our groceries away...  Oh Korea.
  
• Open Class - Much of the last two weeks were spent preparing for this demonstration class that other teachers could come watch to get ideas for their own classes and also to critique our teaching.  It went really well and the students were delightful about the whole process.  But, it's a good thing we practiced the day before because otherwise, the place would have been a total zoo.  Since we've been talking about fashion and shopping for the past two months, we decided to do an activity using their shopping dialogue.  We had the students bring in their own clothes and accessories to create a flee market atmosphere.  Some students were shop owners while others were shoppers.  When we first practiced the activity, the students were crazy and loud, but used the dialogue fairly well, though put too much of a focus on bartering.  Once they received a pep talk from Ruth (their co-teacher), they were total gems when we did the activity in the actual open class.  We're rewarding them with an ice cream party after school on Monday.  I'm going to miss these little tykes over break!
  

P.S. I signed my renewal contract this week too!  It's official... Korea is stuck with me for another year!  If the next year goes by as quickly as this one, I may have to stay a third year...  I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

P.P.S. Just two weeks until I reunite with Iowa.  I. Can. Not. Wait.  Where has the year gone?!

The Most Delightful Photo Shoot in English Zone History

Next Thursday, we have an open class.  That means that other teachers can come watch a lesson, as well as an official from GEPIK, which is the office that oversees English education in our province.  So, I guess it's a big deal.  We've been preparing for this class for the last week and will even practice parts of the class beforehand to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

Our lesson is over practicing shopping dialogue that we've already taught the students, so for the first part of the lesson, we're reviewing that dialogue.  We wanted to find pictures online of certain shopping situations, but when that proved more difficult than expected, Ruth Teacher suggested we stage a photo shoot with EB teachers instead.  I was immediately in love with the idea.  So, we enlisted the help of the always-willing-to-bend-over-backwards-to-help-us Mr. Shin and one of the co-teachers who also teaches Math, KyungNam.  We set up a make-shift store in Dionne's classroom of things that Dionne has been using to help her teach the shopping dialogue (in the world of ESL, it is referred to a realia, though that is not in fact a word...) and went to work.  Hilarity ensued and my day was made.

I suppose you'd have to know these people to understand just how delightful the following pictures are, but it is worth noting how stiff, rigid and proud many Koreans tend to be, especially in professional situations.  Though our school seems to be much more laid back and fun loving than many other schools, I was surprised about the gusto and full-on hilarity with which Mr. Shin and KyungNam approached this favor we asked of them.  The fact that these teachers were willing to make fools of themselves, not only to help us out, but for the students and teachers from other schools to see, speaks volumes about the character and big hearts of my co-workers.

Here are the highlights:

In other news, I just got back from a gut-stuffing session at our neighborhood all-you-can-eat meat grilling place with Dionne and Scott.  What a delightful evening.  Good conversation and amazing food was topped off with the discovery that the mother of the proprietor stalks the patrons and gnaws on their untouched rib bones after they leave.  Reason 1293810417 why I LOVE Korea - people do things that you never, ever, not in a million years would ever expect or even try to guess. 

Today was the day before final exams so Dionne and I just gave all of our classes study halls.  A girl in our first class called my name so I approached her desk to talk to her.  After a discussion about what she was studying, I noticed that she and her desk partner were air drying their socks on the top of their desk (it's monsoon season - soggy socks are miserable - just ask Forrest Gump.)  When I pointed out the socks, the student nonchalantly replied, "Teacher.  It's okay.  No smell." 

During the next class, my pal YeSeul (she pronounces her name like Yessir and shoots me guns whenever she sees me - we're real tight.) offered me a saltine cracker saying, "Teacher, you have snack?"  (She was coached by a couple of her friends as to what to say.)  When someone corrected her a few seconds later, she apologize, saying, "So sorry Teacher.  She.  (she pointed to her offending friend) Give bad information!"

Later, a girl asked us permission for her friend to use the restroom by saying, "Teacher.  She is bathroom"  Dionne responded, "WHAT?  She is a BATHROOM??"  Raucous laughing ensued.

I just can't get enough of this place.

Blogger Finally Works!

At last, almost a whole week later, Blogger has let me upload pictures and a video to my Tomato Festival post.  Click here to check out the newly updated post about last weekend's tomato festival, and more specifically, making makgeolli (which, by the way, currently looks disgusting - I'll spare you the details of its appearance - I just hope it tastes better than it looks by next week!)

Highlights from the last week include, but are not limited to:

• The last two days of after school conversation class - the students taught Dionne and me a Korean card game kind of like Uno! (I fully intend to introduce it to Iowa - way fun!) and the next day we played Spoons.  Some of the students wrote me adorable notes and one student looked up the airport express bus schedule for me because I had mentioned I was concerned about finding a bus early enough in the morning for when I go home (my flight leaves at 9 am, so I have to leave the Gwangj no later than 5 am!) - such sweet adorable students I teach!
• Sharing homemade salsa with the teachers at school - some of them were amazed to hear that they, too, could produce such a culinary delight!
• A delightful movie night with Desiree (She had never seen Pretty Woman.  We rectified that situation real quick :) )
• Meeting Diane's delightful college friend Hilary for lunch and coffee in Myeongdong yesterday
• Seeing The Lincoln Lawyer last night - we had no idea what it would be about, but Matthew McConaughey has never steered me wrong :) - it was so so good!
• Making Korean style macaroni and cheese and hot dogs: cheese flavored ramen with tiny smokies - so good!
• Being stupidly exhausted after teaching a full week of classes (read: giving over 200 speaking tests and supervising 3rd grade study halls) after having partial weeks for the last three weeks - luckily, this week I only go to school three days (thank you, Finals!) - one day of classes (read: study halls because the girls can't seem to think of anything else), one half day with a teacher lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Seoul (I can already taste the guacamole!) and one more day of planning summer camp, finishing up lesson plans for next semester (Yes, I'm planning ahead - weird, I know), and putting the finishing touches on a demonstration class scheduled for the beginning of July.  Helllllooooo four day weekend!
• AND, on an unrelated-to-Korea-but-totally-awesome-because-it's-such-a-big-deal-and-I'm-so-excited-about-it note - same sex marriage was legalized in New York yesterday!  HUZZAH!

Countdown to home: 27 days!  I. Can't. Wait.

Normalcy

HA.  I started writing the following post at the beginning of April but never published it because I wasn't finished with my thoughts. It's funny to travel back in time, in some kind of strange way, to what my thoughts were a few months ago... 

P.S. Can you believe three posts in ONE day?  Don't get used to this, dear readers! 

So anyway, here's where my head was on April 4, 2011:

I've been thinking about living in Korea a lot lately.  Like, more than the typical day to day living here encounters type stuff.  The time here goes by lightning fast.  Everyone has always told me that the older you get, the faster the time passes.  If time passes this fast at 23 years old, I'm baffled at the thought of how quickly time will pass as I grow even older!  Weird.  As a result of being here for seven months (!) already, life here has begun to feel normal.  The honeymoon period is over and Diane and I no longer feel a need to experience touristy weekend attractions.  We're more interested in walking around and enjoying the city for itself.  This provides for some good people watching and contextual funny stories, but little in the way of blog post topics...  Sorry.

On the other hand, I marvel at how I sometimes feel like I'm still very much a newbie to this living in Korea thing.  For instance, I have yet to experience most of the culinary delights on my street.  I'm sure you're asking yourself how this is possible given the propensity with which I write about the food I eat here...  But, I assure you, it's true.  Just today I was talking to some of my most adorable students about where they were going.  They informed me with great excitement that they were on their way to buy toast.  (There is a franchise here that makes a butt-ton of different variations of grilled cheese / melt sandwiches).  My eyes lit up.  You see, I have wanted to try this toast for quite some time, but there lies a barrier.  I am terrified to order it.  Yes, I can finally read Korean, ergo, I can read the menu.  Yes, between the little Korean I know and the abundance of Konglish (English terms interpreted into Korean writing), I should be able to figure out what most of the sandwiches entail.  Here's the clincher:  there is a 78% (did you know that 88% of percentages are made up?  Just like both of these... :) ) chance that at any given moment that I try to order said toast, a student will either be in the shop, ordering her own toast or within earshot of the toast shop to hear me sound like a fool.  And, no, I do not welcome the opportunity to look like a tool in front of my students...  So, (and I'm sure this didn't alleviate my fears of making a fool of myself) I practiced ordering a toast with my students on the walk home.  They were so excited that I tried to speak Korean and helped perfect my toast order.  Their excitement over my practicing how to order toast was so delightful that I didn't care if I looked like a tool to them. 

(That was all I wrote on the topic, but I had bigger plans for this post...)

I still have yet to order one of those sandwiches, but I have explored more areas of my neighborhood and Gwangju in general, thanks to my gal pal Desiree's arrival.  It's funny how some days, living here seems like the most natural thing in the world for me and other days, I have those light-bulb-above-the-head epiphany moments where all of a sudden, I think to myself, "Holy BALLS.  I live in KOREA!"  Who would have thunk that living in Korea would ever seem normal?  And, despite that sense of normalcy and comfort, each day, I learn, discover or experience something new.  I am convinced that one year here is not enough (in my case) to fully gain everything from this experience.  I'm thanking my lucky stars that A) I somehow fell into one of the best situations for which one could ask and 2) that my school likes me just as much as I adore them.  Just this weekend, Diane and I were talking about how during our first month here, we were both warned about our honeymoon phase, where everything about Korea is exciting and new and interesting, would soon wear off and we would find ourselves having trouble adjusting, being homesick or even hating it here to some extent.  Well folks, the honeymoon doesn't seem to have ended.  And I'm okay with that.

Living here certainly keeps me on my toes on the daily.  For example, our water has been off for about three hours (that I have noticed...) and no one on my floor has any idea when it will return.  I sure hope they turn it back on before morning because the humidity has arrived and this kid needs a shower :)

Palm Reading

A quick snippet from class 104:

After their speaking test today, two girls approached my desk.  They asked for my hand.  I reluctantly extended it because, really, how weird is that - "TeachAH!  Give us your hand!?".  They examined it for a little while, tracing the lines on my hand.  Right then and there, I knew this would be a delightful interaction.

Tracing the line where my middle finger connects to my hand, one girl said, "You marry handsome husband."  (I liked her fortune telling skills immediately.)

Tracing the line on my knuckle another girl said, "He will be very richEE man." (More brownie points here.)

Pressing the fatty part of my hand below my thumb and getting no color change, the first girl said, "Oh.  Gooood!"  "Why?" I asked.  After much conversing in Korean and looking back and forth and giggling at each other, they said, "We no know.  BlogUH say goooood."

Tracing my lifeline, they said, "You.  No short life.  No long life.  Sorry Teacher!" (Slight loss of brownie points here, but I dig their honesty...)

Last, they traced the line across the top of my palm.  They were very impressed by this one, saying, "Teacher.  Feelings.  Strong.  Many."  (Say whaaa?)  Then ,they said, "You.  Movie.  Watch.  Many cry."  Right on the money.  They know me too well.

Tomato Festival...

I hate festivals.  It's just true.  There is something about festivals - maybe the hoards of people because we all know I love a good gimmick, so that just can't be the problem - that just doesn't appeal to me.  A few weeks ago I heard about an upcoming festival in a tiny hamlet that is technically part of my city that's about a 15 or 20 minutes taxi ride away from my neighborhood.  Diane was in town to hopefully sign her new contract (she's coming to work at Kyunghwa Middle School next year!!) and Desiree's friend Faith came to town as well.  Despite my adverse feelings toward festivals and Desiree and Faith's dislike of tomatoes, we decided we had better experience a little Gwangju (and tomato) culture since the opportunity presented itself.  The short time we spent there was certainly worth our while.

After our taxi arrived (on Friday, Mr. Shin told me we had to take a cab all the way out there because it was too complicated for a foreigner to take the buses there!  Yikes.)  we began walking around, sizing up the situation.  We stumbled upon a tent that was selling a bunch of typical Korean household items - I picked up quite a few gifts to take home with me... and a straw hat akin to those many of my students wore on Sports Day.  I'm so Korean now :)

Next was the highlight of the festival.  We saw a tent that was giving out samples of tomato flavored makgeolli (Korean rice wine).  Of course Diane and I partook in the free sample, while a cameraman filmed (right up in our faces!) our reactions to the drink.  It tasted so so good - sweet instead of V8-like with a little alcohol zip.  We inquired about buying some and were told 5,000 won (a little less than $5.00) was the cost for a huge jug of the stuff.  We thought that was pretty cheap, so we told them we wanted to buy some.  The woman took my bag of household item purchases and told me I could have it back when I was done.  I thought that was weird since we were just planning to buy a jug of the wine, but they obviously had other plans for us:  instead of buying tomato makgeolli, we were going to make our own.  No big deal.

We began by donning plastic food service gloves and squeezing and crushing several tomatoes into a plastic jug.  Then, we added a butt-ton of rice, some yeast and some weird particles called gomja that looked like petrified rabbit poo.  (I later found out that those weird particles are the wet moldy bits of feed at the bottom of the feed sack - perfect for making makgeolli, though it sounds disgusting.)  That all got washed through a strainer with some water.  Then, we took turns reaching into the jug and mixing it all together.  Next, the woman helping us gave me directions for finishing the process.  (When we got home, I had to turn the lid one quarter turn to let the gasses form and do their work.  Then, in one week, I need to add one liter of water and eight grams of sugar.  Then, a week after that, it's good to go - just add sugar to taste and strain off the mold and jank before we drink it - sounds tasty, eh?)  The whole time, there were cameramen filming our every move, reaction and squeeze of a tomato.  Diane and I are curious to see if we end up on Korean t.v. again - just like when we were in Jeju!

The festival also boasted such eccentricities as an inflatable water slide that led to a pool filled with tomatoes and water.  Fully clothed children plunged into the tomato filled pool one after another, screaming with delight.  It looked like a good time, but I can only imagine how disgusting that smelled at the end of the day with the sun beating down on it all day long.  EWWWW.

Then, after a wild goose chase to get a taxi back to Gwangju (we got help from a shady looking dude (only because he had facial hair, which is a rarity in Korea) that spoke English and led us to a man wearing a vest that said "Best Driver" who waited with us until the taxi he called showed up - he was a peach.) and took a short rest in the air conditioning, we made our way to Bundang, which is a more upscale satellite city about an half an hour or 45 minute bus ride away.  We got a Jamba Juice smoothie, walked around the tree-lined neighborhoods and ate dinner at Butterfingers - a really good upscale diner that serves bomb American-style breakfast food (I had the most delicious cream cheese and mozzarella pancakes - YUM.)  We were all pretty tired by this point, so Diane, Desiree and I parted from Faith (who lives in Bundang with her Korean husband Mark) for the bus ride home.

On the way to Bundang, a middle school girl had struck up a conversation with Faith.  She and her friend were on their way to watch a horror movie.  They were really cute and spoke English really well.  On our way home, about 10 minutes into the bus ride, who boarded the bus and sat right next to us but the very same girls!  Crazy.  Diane talked to the girl that sat next to her all the way home, talking K-Pop mostly.  At one point, the girl and I bonded over our mutual affinities for ear piercings (she beat my seven piercings with eight) and jewelry making.  She was absolutely adorable.  Feeling pretty energized from this interaction, none of us felt tired once we got off the bus so we decided to take Desiree for her first noraebong (Korean karaoke) experience.  Two hours, several classic songs (think Baby Got Back, Fallin', Baby (just for you, Jill!), Wannabe, Footloose, What's Love Got to Do With It, Circle of Life and Mambo No. 5, just to name a few) and laughably awesome dance moves later, we danced our way home by the river.  What a fantastic day.

The whole gang - Desiree, Faith, Diane and me

Sleepovers

Oh. My. God.  Last night was one of my favorite nights.  Ever.  As I was leaving school yesterday afternoon, Hyunjoo invited me to come to a sleepover she was having for her select choir.  I already had dinner plans and then Diane was coming to stay for the weekend, so I wasn't sure if it would work, but I told her I'd text her after dinner and Diane's arrival to see if the festivities were still happening.  Boy were they!

The sleepover was held at a house that the school owns that is two buildings away from my apartment.  The house is used for special camps that the school has sometimes.  So, we (Diane, Desiree and I) walked into the house and heard loud music, singing, cheering and clapping coming from a room at the side of the house.  As we entered the room, about 25 teenage girls erupted into cheering, clapping and screams.  They were so excited to see us.  We sat down and watched as several different groups of girls came to the front of the room to perform.  In true Kyunghwa fashion, some sang, many danced and there was even a violin duet.  There were a couple of other teachers there too, all watching as the girls put on the most raucous of talent showcases.  Some of the girls had total sleepover hair and had also painted freckles on their faces for their performances.  During a lull in their performances, Desiree, Diane and I had the bright idea to teach them the Macerena, so, amid more raucous cheering, we came to the front of the room to demonstrate the actions.  In the meantime, the girls requested that we do the Chicken Dance, which Dionne and I had taught them a couple of weeks ago for no good reason.  I was so excited and almost touched that they not only remembered but wanted to do it again with us.  Adorable.

As we were teaching them the actions (right hand out, left hand out, right hand up, left hand up, right hand elbow, left hand elbow, etc.) they were all repeating the words we were telling them.  I should have taken a video of it.  It was so cute.  They loved the dance and asked us to teach them more.  (Dionne and I planned to do just this for a lesson after Finals, so it was good confirmation that they'll enjoy it, but I also didn't want to do too much to spoil the lesson...)  In the meantime, they also asked to do the Hokey Pokey (Dionne and I taught them the Hokey Pokey so they would sing it when they were late to class, but no one seemed to catch on and connect to it, so I was also surprised at their excitement to do the Hokey Pokey...)  Then, we all migrated to the dining room where Hyunjoo and Ji Hye had prepared watermelon for us to eat.  We stood around the dining room talking to my most adorable students.  Then, most of the students retired to a huge room on the second floor of the house to play typical sleepover games before winding down for bed.  We figured that was a good time to leave, so thus ended our Korean sleepover experience.

I don't feel like I'm doing this experience justice in my explanation...  It was such a simple couple of hours, but, to quote Tom Hanks from Sleepless in Seattle, it was a million little things that made the evening special.  Their excitement over our arrival and meeting my friends, their giddiness and their interest in things Dionne and I had randomly taught them weeks ago was heartwarming - maybe more than heartwarming.  Things I thought they'd never remember or react to come up more and more.  I'm starting to realize just how much our interactions impact them and it's a pretty special feeling.  The more time I spend here with my students, especially outside of the classroom, the more I feel like I'm building a really special connection to this place, and more so, the people that I interact with on a daily basis.  I've always known I would fondly look back on this time of my life, but it's starting to sink in that my time in Korea is going to affect me for the rest of my life - in the best way possible.

R.I.P. Toshiba Satellite

It's the end of an era, folks.  Today, my beloved computer of almost five years died.  Right in the middle of a skype date.  What a load.

Naturally, I was not pleased, though I have seen this day coming for a while now.  My computer has been giving me various fits for quite a while and I almost bought a new one before I left for Korea, but I thought I had better ride it out and I'm glad I did...  Since my life in Korea is unimaginable without a fully functioning computer, Desiree and I set out on an adventure to secure a new one...

Before I left, I texted Chan Yang to ask if he had any useful advice to offer since I don't speak Korean and buying an expensive machine without being able to speak the same language as the person selling it sounded pretty daunting to me.  (It seems to me that the folks in Best Buy speak another language when they're speaking techno-English, so how the heck was I going to get along buying a computer over the counter in Korea?!)  When Chan Yang told me the same thing I had already planned on doing unless he gave me better advice, I felt fairly confident in my plan.  Desiree (she came with me for moral support - what a peach!) and I walked for what seemed like forever toward an area of town to which I had never before ventured.

The first stop was the LG Best Shop.  Its purple exterior looked nice and happy to me so walking into the store, I had high hopes.  Looking at the computers killed those hopes.  They all looked crappy to me, which was surprising because I've seen some pretty swanky LG computers on teachers' desks at school...  And, the man who approached us had a certain sleazy used car salesmen vibe to him, plus a definite lack of English, which made me nervous.  We quickly found our way out of that store and made our way to the Samsung store across the street.  I quickly settled on a beautiful white computer with a pink cover (sounds like a match made in heaven, right?).  The man who was helping me seemed pleased with the easy sale, that is, until he couldn't find the computer in stock.  He asked if I was willing to buy the display computer, whose price he reduced by quite a bit.  That sounded fine to me, until he came back, saying there was no English operation system available.  That sounded weird to us, since we were pretty sure you could just change the language setting on the computer, but if he didn't know that, I wasn't about to try to do sign language-like moves to figure it out.  We left and walked back to our neck of the woods where there is another Samsung store.

We walked in and marched right up to the computers.  A very nice man started showing me around, asking me (in pretty good English!) what I wanted in a computer.  To Koreans, my list must have sounded like a joke.  "Uh, word processing, internet surfing, listening to music.  No games."  Astonished, he asked, "No game?" - like, are you for real?  No games - you're a weirdo.  He started asking me to lift the computers to find the most light-weight machine.  I have no problem carrying around a heavy-ish computer (take a look at my purse sometime - it's like a no-frills weight workout when I go anywhere...), but I humored him because I thought it was funny.  There was a beautiful MacBookAir-esque model that was awesome...until I looked at the price - he agreed that it was too expensive.  That's when I knew we were going to get along.  We finally landed on a sleek looking computer to which he said " this best one for you!"  Dude didn't have to tell me twice - I was ready to make this purchase.  He quickly changed the language to English and made me pick out one free thing (he tried to push a mouse on me, but my apartment is a rodent-free zone :) - he was so surprised to hear that I prefer to use the touch-pad on the laptop - unheard of in Korea! ).  I inquired about speakers instead.  He rummaged around in a cupboard that contained several sets of desktop speakers.  He pulled out blue, green and pink versions of metallic bagpipe speakers, asking me which color I preferred.  Without thinking, I pointed to the pink (duh.) and he said, "Yes. You a girl."  HA.  Love it.

After I paid for my merch, he installed Microsoft Office, the Korean language writing program and Adobe Photoshop on my computer.  He kept offering different applications that sounded good to me so I took him up on his offers.  To this, he said, "You not make my job easy!"  Oops.  He made us go sit down and "watch t.v." while he installed all of my biz.  Ten minutes later, he walked us down the stairs to the main floor of the shop, handed me a 4 GB flash drive - one that I had been eyeing in E-Mart but had been too cheap to buy myself and said, "My gift for you."  Wow.  I was a happy camper.

I have spent the last several hours getting things set up on my new computer and I am still marveling at how fast it moves!  I can't believe how patient I had been on my old, weathered companion!  Windows 7 will take some getting used to, but I am loving this machine (and the speakers and flash drive!) already!  Huzzah!

Beauty

Buckle your seat belt - here's a not-as-light-hearted-as-usual post...

I teach teenage girls.  I remember being a teenage girl (it wasn't all that long ago after all) and the inevitable stresses that go with it.  That was in small town Iowa where appearances are important, but not as important as your character and work ethic.  In Korea, where image and physical appearance mean everything, those stresses are magnified.  In a big, big way.  It breaks my heart to see this stress play out on an everyday basis, but it is a reality of Korea.  Plain and simple.  In Korea, beauty means being slim and having big eyes, a small face, and pale skin.  If someone doesn't fit that bill, what do they do?  They make themselves fit that bill.  Diets (one of my girls told me that "diets are every girl's forever homework" - which simultaneously made me laugh and broke my heart), skin whitening serum, face wash, etc., and in many cases, plastic surgery, both seemingly minor and major procedures.

There is an obsession with eyes especially.  Yesterday, one of my students, who has told me on multiple occasions that she has a complex over her sparse eyebrows, got them tattooed.  For some reason, when she told me she was going ahead with the procedure this weekend, I was shocked and oddly terrified for her.  Since I have tattoos, I wasn't concerned for the pain she would endure (it's not as bad as you might think...); I think I was more weirded out by the fact that she was A) tattooing her FACE and 2) she's only 15 years old and if the vanity-related insecurities are being bowed to now, how much else will she seek to fix before she is satisfied?  I just hope that this minor procedure doesn't open the door to more serious surgeries down the road...  I'm such a worrier.

A more popular topic: I had never noticed this before coming to Korea, but "Western" eyes have a crease between the eye lid and the brow bone, often referred to in English as a double eye lid or eye line.  Many Asians don't have such a crease, which creates a constant source of envy among Korean girls.  There are even products that are sold in beauty stores to create the crease - plastic, shiny band-aid type stickers to create the illusion, and even crazier - glue.  When those products don't create the desired effect, girls turn to (guess what?) a surgical procedure in which a slit is cut above the eye lid to produce a scar that creates the illusion of the double eye lid or eye line.  Several of my students have had this procedure done and for me, the jury is still out.  The girls (and many teachers) who have had it done don't look much different to me, but if it gets rid of that complex of theirs, then, whatever.  But, seeing fresh surgeries was enough to turn me off any kind of cosmetic surgery.  Girls came back to school from winter vacation - and summer vacation will likely produce the same results - with these painful looking, nasty, red puffy injuries on their eyes that looked like they were on the receiving end of a broken beer bottle.  Sometimes they don't heal properly and, like one of my third grade students, infection spreads to their eye.  To take a beautiful Korean eye and try to morph it into a more Western ideal not only freaks me out a little, but it tugs at my heartstrings in a big way. 

So anyway, this topic is never far from my mind as I watch these young women come into their own and negotiate who they are and what is important to them.  Dionne and I have talked about it on several occasions but it wasn't until YouJong told me about her eyebrow procedure and I watched the video posted below that I really thought about how high-stakes beauty is in this culture.  Korea is a beautiful, majestic place, but it certainly isn't without its flaws.  I guess this is the one that continually sneaks into my thoughts...

I came across this documentary project that was initially about Korean education but, once filming began, morphed into something much more - a study of Korean "hahn" and all this complicated concept entails.  (Follow the link above to get a full explanation of hahn.)  I cannot wait for this documentary to be released.  I think this project is not only eye opening (no pun intended :) ), intriguing and interesting but also a really important dialogue for the way we see ourselves - Korean or not.  Enjoy.

It's Official!

Tickets have been purchased.  That's right folks.  This kid is coming home for three and a half glorious weeks in July and August (July 23 to August 18 to be exact).  Words cannot express my excitement.

Despite my continued love affair with Korea, it will be nice to be in an unconditionally familiar place surrounded by those who know me best.  As I gear up for this trip, I have been having the weirdest cravings.  Cravings for food I never eat at home - like rhubarb crisp, braunschweiger and chicken wings.  I figure I'd better take advantage of my (probably short-lived and exclusive to my Korean adventure) carnivorous ways.  I've also been having cravings to do weird things that I haven't done in years - like playing catch in our front yard - something I haven't done since middle school at least.  It's weird to realize the things I've been subconsciously missing, but funny too.

Nothing too juicy to report from school this week - pretty standard stuff for a four day week.  My students are adorable on a regular basis, as are many of the teachers, but one delightful conversation blends into another.  Here are the ones I distinctly remember:

(Desiree and I ate dinner at a new cupbap (fried rice served in a paper cup) restaurant that recently opened in our neighborhood.  We both had tuna dressing cupbap (tuna, mayonnaise, corn, rice, sesame seeds and seaweed) and found it to be quite satisfying and delicious.  Yesterday on my way home from school, I was talking to some of my favorite third grade students.
Student: Teacher.  Yesterday, you eat cupbap?
Noelle: Yes!  It was delicious.
Student: No Teacher. (shaking head and waving hands) That food (sounded more like pood) is .....
Another Student: JUNK-AH!
Student:  Yes.  Teacher.  That cupbap - junk!

I guess that shows how much I know about the properties of satisfactory cupbap!

If students walk into our class late, we make them sing a song in English in front of the whole class.  Yesterday, two girls walked in late.
Noelle:  Girls.  Why are you late?
Student: Oh Teacher.  Dress.  Good!
Noelle:  Thanks.  Why are you late?
Another Student: Teacher.  Very Beautiful.
Noelle:  Thanks.  Why are you late?
Student - realizing the sucking up was not working, she let out a sigh: Toilet.
Noelle: Ah ha!  Which song will you sing?
They chose Baby by Justin Bieber so Dionne and I accompanied them, singing the verses while they (along with the whole class) passionately sang the chorus.  Don't worry - I rapped too.  (I think of you every single time Jill - She woke me up daaaaily.  Don't need no Staaaaaarbucks!)

Today, Founder Kim visited our office.  He and Vice Principal Choi invited me to share a cup of coffee with them.  This, among several other small conversations, was a highlight.
Founder Kim: How long you stay in Korea?
Noelle: Less than one year!  I came in September.
Founder Kim:  You stay 10 years.  You marry Korean.  We make nice place for you live.
Noelle: (nervous laugh) hahaha. We'll see.

After a delightful (albeit somewhat intimidating...) chat, I had to leave to teach.  Founder Kim pointed at my huge cup of bright purple Tazo Passion tea and said, "You drinking whiskey?"  To which, I thought HA.  Yeah right.  This kid drink whiskey?  Puh-lease...  :)

Speaking of which, you can't imagine how much I am looking forward to Happy Hour at 405 4th Ave.  Bring on the G&T, Bob!  I am ready!