"She's Like his First Love, Girlfriend, and Mother"

Once, in my first year of university, a guy hit on me. He followed me out of class, playing 20 questions. He asked the usual stuff, do you have a boyfriend, what do you do for fun, do you like to party? No, read, and a resounding no! I do not party! Oh how things have changed...

This past weekend was the Lunar New Year or the Chinese New Year, which ever you prefer. I don’t know really know how the Korean’s celebrate besides having a huge family meal (that Tasha was not looking forward to making). All I know is that I got two (TWO!) full days off of work: Monday AND Tuesday. This meant a three and half day weekend. I still had to work on Saturday morning.

After work on Saturday, Sally and I made our way to Seoul Station to see if would be possible to catch a train, any train, out to Busan to meet up with some friends. We were lucky; we got standing room on the KTX. We had a few hours to kill before our train left and all the lockers at the station were full so we hauled our crap over to the nearest coffee shop outside the train station and chilled for a few hours. It was actually really relaxing and fun. It wasn’t a very busy coffee shop.

Standing on the KTX wasn’t so bad. We managed to get a hold of a little fold out seat that the two of us shared for the trip. There were many people standing with us. Even if there had not been the fold out seat it would have been ok. The KTX only takes three hours. The friends we were meeting had decided to take the considerable cheaper but much longer bus ride. All though left many hours before us (they did not have to work Saturday morning), Sally and I arrived shortly after them.

Mike managed to reserve a hotel right by the famous Jagalchi Fish Market, the biggest fish market in Korea. We were literally right beside the fish market and across the street from the high end shopping area where the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) is held. (Sometimes Busan is spelled Pusan, I don’t know why.) It wasn’t near the beach but we were near the harbour.

Once we were all there and settled in our family run hotel. The family occupied a two room sweet and all slept on the floor together, across the hall from our rooms. We tried to not be too noisy coming in late at night. The hotel was clean, but clearly a by the night if not by the hour sort of establishment. Can you imagine growing up like that? Those kids (and there were two teenage children) must have some incredible stories. There were also two noraebangs in the building and neither of them had an English selection. We had to walk all the way across the street for English songs.

The first night we ate samgupsal, which was actually hard to find because we were in the fish market area and most of the restaurants were seafood only, which would have been awesome. The freshest of the fresh fish and seafood possible, but a few people in the group were not interested, unfortunately. After supper we found a bar called Hollywood that brewed its own sub par beer. For about 7000 won, they offered a tasting of all four varieties, which we all wanted to order but they couldn’t do it because the bar didn’t enough of the glasses. So we ordered two and shared and picked the best (worst) one for a pitcher. The pitcher was pewter jug, kind of cool. There was also a fruit platter, which arrived at the table about three seconds after I made a joke about ordering a fruit platter. Seven.

We left Hollywood for stage three, Noraebang. We stumbled into a place that looked closed and as we turned to leave the proprietor run out after us and practically begged us to come in. She set us up with some beer and soju and eventually brought around another fruit platter. Eight. On that street and on the streets around in the are, there was a noraebang about every five feet, for less, some buildings had more than one, like the hotel. I suppose business wasn’t very good. I sang Mr. Big again and some Avril Lavignie.

On Sunday I was up way before anybody and else and decided, in typical Warkentin fashion, to find some coffee and then perhaps take a walk around the area. I found my way to the nearest coffee shop, a gigantic Starbucks. There were actually five floors and it was completely empty except for the employees and me. I drank my Earl Gray tea in peace. Eventually Sally joined me. We walked around bit in the area. We took the escalator to the top o Yongdosan Park, to the base of the Busan tower: not nearly as impressive as the Seoul tower but cool nonetheless. The view was amazing. I think I some pictures. We eventually roused Sarah and made our way back to the hotel to meet her. Waiting for Sarah’s hair to dry was how I discovered Boys Before Flowers. It was on TV and it was awesome even though it was in Korean.

Sally, Sarah, and I left the hotel to find some street dukkbogi. Eventually we found a place that had a little sit down area in a storefront: not exactly street dukkbogi but delicious all the same. And there were options for spiciness, which meant a milder dukkbogi for me. After lunch we found a salon for Sally to get her hair cut. We walked into the Salon and the girl working immediately called for wonjongnim (boss). Sally showed him a drawing she made of the bangs she wanted. He gave her an awesome haircut well Sarah and I continued to watch Boys Before Flowers on a big screen TV. It just happened to on.

In the salon, there were two people for every one person getting their hair cut. There was the actually stylist or hair dress and then there was an assistant. The assistants all had to wear similar uniforms of black tights under hot pants and which button up shirts. The stylist could wear what ever they wanted and they all had great big hair. The (very good looking) man who gave Sally the hair cut was obviously the boss or the owner. They also served Sarah and I tea in the usual Dixie cups, but the Dixie cup was in a reusable holder: very classy.

We finally meet up with the rest of the peeps and headed back to Yongdosan Park and up the tower, which was an even better view of Busan and the ocean around. I could see ships for miles out, dotting the water around the city. I have a prairie girl’s love for the ocean. It is so exotic, but the big open space is so similar, being by the ocean feels almost like home.

After the tower we went to the Jagalchi Fish Market. The market was almost better than the aquarium, maybe better because it was free. The building is very modern and new; it has a similar design to the airport and Seoul Station. The building is kind of shaped like a wave. The entire first floor is the fresh (as in still living) portion of the fish market. Rows of tanks containing all types of fish, claims, crabs, squids, and octopus. There were fish shaped like penises and fish shaped like vaginae. There were tiny fish and there were huge fish. There was everything and everything was still living. The second floor was all restaurants and we also saw a bunch of dried fish. We didn’t eat in any of the restaurants, which was stupid. I had to keep telling myself that I would be back and I would eat nothing by fish.

There were a number of other floors but that was as high as we went, I’m sure the rest would have been either offices or shops.

We went for supper in the University area, it was Dave’s birthday so he got to choose and he chose samgupsal again. Then we went to bar that apparently had Moosehead but they were sold out (FUCK!) so I just had a couple of rye & cokes. There were two really cool things about this bar. First, the tables were like giant beer chests, you just reached into the middle and picked the beverage of your choice. It was all out in front of you. Second, regulars have high plastic vases with their names on them and whenever they drink there, they can put their bottle caps in the vase and when the vase is full, they get free drinks. It was cool.

After the bar we wanted to go a club that we had heard about from one of Sarah’s co-workers: The Vinyl Underground. We asked the first white person we saw if he knew the way. He seemed rather put out at having to give us directions but he complied and we very quickly found the place. We all tumbled into a silent room full of people. Apparently we had interrupted what appeared to be a very serious trivia game. Sarah yelled out the answer and was quickly shushed. Then one the people in game asked how specific the answer needed to be; it was that serious. We stood there in silence for a moment dumbfounded and uncertain and then we laughed hard and herded ourselves out.

We picked up a chocolate birthday cake for Dave at Paris Baguette and headed back to our area for a hof with taaaaaaaaaaaaal beers. So tall they were very awkward to drink. After a couple of those, Sarah played a drinking game with the table next to us and caught the eye an adorable boy who followed her out. She shooed him away and we grabbed some street dukkbogi and some fried mandu. As the lady packed them up (in plastic bags I love Korea), I decided that Sarah should go for it and we took off with the food around the corner towards the subway and cute buy was still there smoking with his friend. He was delighted to see her again. Alas, he had to get his little sister home and goodbye was necessary. Although the boy did not go down without a fight, he definitely leaned in for the kiss, but dear Sarah just couldn’t do it. Oh well, it was fun and Dave caught much of it on video.

Then we played drinking games in the hotel (I hate games even drinking games and especially Ass Hole and especially Ass Hole as a drinking game). We had the cake and then headed out to the same noraebang and ate another fruit platter. Nine. A Korean style good time.

Basically we did the exact same thing on Monday except we ended with the drinking games. Although on Monday we did get to the beach, we took the half hour or more subway ride to that side of the city, looked at the water for a couple of minuets and then found a place that had tacos and then went back to area around our hotel for more tall beers. I got my shrimp on my taco.

We left at noon on Tuesday, standing back to Seoul on the KTX. This time I stood the whole way with Sarah, cuddled up in the luggage area. We listened to my iPod and talked about music. It was fun.

We arrived back in Seoul and a few people decided to meet in Itaewon at the Canadian pub for their wing night. A couple of friends who couldn’t come on the weekend wanted to go. I was down. It ended up just being Sarah and I. The wings were great and the establishment was not sold out of Moosehead (Woo!) although, I must admit, I’m not actually that big a fan of Moosehead and quickly switched to Cass, a much cheaper alternative, but for a moment I felt an alcoholic connection to Bryan. The wings were sub par and tiny, but it was an enjoyable experience, even if it was in Itaewon, my least favourite place in Seoul.

In all, the trip was a perfect blend of good times with good people and alone time in the mornings, just me, my Earl Grey, and my good friend George Orwell. It was a very relaxing and super fun weekend. I hope that a trip of similar quality can be repeated soon.

Three nights, three mornings, three hangovers. None too bad, but neither are they fun. Sally and I went out for supper this evening and we tried to share a bottle of soju. We were defeated half way through the first. It was too soon. Maybe in a week or two.

And as for the boy, he followed me all the way to the third floor buffeteira in Centennial Hall and actually sat down with me as I chowed down on a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. (This is actually what I was eating, I remember because he commented on it.) I finally got him to leave by telling him that I needed to do some reading before my next class. He gave me his phone number and made me promise to call him, which I did not do. This was in early October. It was a six credit hour class that we had together, making the rest of the year rather uncomfortable.

Dee

Does this explosive proposal scare you silly?

On Wendesday, I had to take Jaemin’s workbook away from him because he was working ahead and we were supposed to be doing something else. He threw a fit and wouldn’t participate and then he started making noises just to be annoying. When I finally gave him his book back, he threw it off his desk. However, he can’t stand not being the smart one in class so he quickly fell in line. But my dear Jaemin is totally a young Goo Joon Pyo.

Boys Before Flowers, that’s all I’m saying, Boys Before Flowers. A Korean teen drama that totally feels like it is adapted from Manga (while trying to find a link, I discovered that it is indeed adpated from a Manga). I have heard that Korean TV can be mind numbingly addictive but until this weekend, I had no idea. A billionaire’s son and a Dry Cleaners daughter, can they really make it work? Will Geum Jan Di choose Goo Joon Pyo or Yoon Ji Hoo? Will this destroy the F4? And why do I care? I do care, seven episodes in two days show that I really do care.

I first saw the show in Busan this weekend. It was all in Korean, but we were mostly able to follow the story. Sarah and I watched at the hotel and then when Sally went to get her hair cut we watched even more at the salon. The show was all we would talk about and then we started noticing a lot of advertisements for the show, including posters in a beauty store, which Sally stole.

When we got home, Sarah found a website that streams the show and has English subtitles. I started watching from the beginning and couldn’t stop. The show streams in 10 minuet segments and I kept telling myself only ten more minutes and suddenly it was midnight. Oh well, Thursday, I exercised a bit more self control. I desperately want Geum Jan Di to choose Goo Joon Pyo, he was worked so hard for her and likes her so much. Yoon Ji Hoo is still hung up on Min Seo Hyun and he would ditch Jan Di for her in a second. Also, on their date he kept talking about Min Seo Hyun. That’s annoying.

Also, the subtitles are done by fans of the show and are frequently more interesting than the show itself. Hence the title of this post today. There have been a few gems, but that line is my favourite so far. Also, everybody is threaten to kill each other all the time. There are a couple of common expressions in Korea and it is not meant to be actually death, but it’s still funny. You just don’t hear that kind of thing on American TV. You’re so dead! I’m going to kill you!

More on my Busan adventures later.

Let's Call This the Comeback

I’ve been a Neglectful Nancy recently in the emailing and blogging department. Sorry folks, well mostly sorry about the emailing, blogging is fun mostly for me. Although I do appreciate knowing that I have readers out there. I was on a break between classes when I started this entry and now, hours later, I’m waiting for my rice to finish cooking.

I am pleased to report that in some respects, I am becoming a functioning human being here. For example, I finally bought fruit from a street vendor, a bag of oranges to be exact. Also, I asked for garbage bags all by myself without pointing and managed, with a bit of luck, to get both the regular and the food garbage bags. Also, I paid a bill all by myself, no Sally standing over my shoulder telling me what buttons press. Whenever we go to the bank to pay bills the security guard usually butts in and tries to help, but today even he kept his distance. Also, I hung out with the peeps sans Sally not once, but twice this weekend.

However, I’m still an Awkward Anna most of time and still hugely aware of how conspicuous I am, a non-Korean English-only white girl. The other day I finally decided that it was time to buy a coffee press and headed to the store-of-all-things where I buy my house hold items, like stationary supplies, toilet bowl cleaner, garlic presses, toasters, Tupperware, stickers, and Mocha Gold. I knew what I wanted and I walked directly over to the coffee presses. They have good selection, including Bodiums. I hummed and hawed and finally just decided to go with the cheapest one. I grabbed it as one of the ladies who works there came over and decided to help me. She found the box, made sure it was all-good. I paid and left with my item. I got home and realized that it was not in fact a coffee press; it was for tea. It doesn’t actually press at all, it just strains. I decided not to use it and considered bringing it back. However, that just seemed to awkward. So I still have it and just need to get some lose tea to use in it. The package is entierly in either Chinese or Japanese so at least it's super athentic for tea. But I still wanted a coffee press. Instead of going back to the store to buy one, a five minuet walk away. I decided to get one at the Lotte Department store in Nowan, a half hour walk. I just didn’t want the same lady to see my buying a different but similar item, she would know that I made a mistake. Shopping at Lotte is the most awkward thing ever. I always feel as though I have wondered behind a counter, everybody is helpful and pushy, and the items are always way over-priced. I did buy a coffee press, one that is not nearly as good as a Bodium but definitely cost more because I was too embarrassed. That is not nearly the most awkward I have been, that is the most expensively awkard I have been.

Last Wednesday, Jaemin was wearing a tracksuit that perfectly matched his puma shoes.

On Monday he was wearing brown leather high-tops that had Velcro over the high part, his super Mario jeans, slim fitting, a yellow and pink striped button up shirt with a collar under a blue sweater. It was longish button up sweater, made of delicate looking wool, vintage looking. The breast pockets looked like they were buttoned on. It was very hipster once again. I say his mom on Monday, her style was not quite as advanced as I had expected, but she was carrying around a Louis Vuitton, I expect it was fake though. Sunny, one of my co-teacher told me she bought a real Vuitton this weekend. At first I couldn’t understand what she was saying, something about a French brand and then she spelled it for me and I realized that she meant Vuitton. I mean, all her make up and make up accessories are Chanel, but still, those are small things. Real Vuitton kind of blows my mind. I would love to go shopping with her or Tasha when they are buying their expensive things. I would never even be tempted to spend that kind of money, but it would be interesting to shop with someone who does it on a regular basis. Tasha bought her husband a fake Prada jacket for Christmas and still paid like $300.00. FOR A FAKE! The original was like $3000.00 and the fake is apparently perfect. Still, that’s ridiculous.

On Friday I insisted that Sally eat mandu guk with me at the place close to my apartment. At first she didn’t want to because she, like me, is always so tired after work, but on Friday, I feel as though we need to acknowledge that we are young and wild and free even though we have to work on Saturday morning. It was delicious and because we couldn’t specify and because the last time I was there, we had the reddish mandu, they gave us a variety bowl of mandu, some regular some red. It was delicious. Although, we also wanted some soju to go with the mandu but after they served the mandu, we were basically ignored for the rest of the out visit. After the mandu I went for a really long walk. First I headed to Suyu with the intention of reading at a coffee shop, but it was really nice out and when I got to the bridge that separates Dobong-gu from Suyu, I didn’t feel like stopping, so I turned around and then walked to Nowan. That’s a lot of walking and I was pretty much exhausted by the time I got back home.

Shortly before my first class on Saturday morning, my phone rings, which is strange because basically only Sally calls me and Sally was supposed to be at school. It was Sally on the phone and she sounded a little weird. She told me to tell the director that she was going to be few minuets late, just a few she insisted. She wasn’t feeling well. I informed our director. He was a little put out, but didn’t shoot the messenger.

After my first class, while walking back to the teachers room, I heard some students trying to tell Tasha something about Sally and a hospital. I asked Tasha when she got back to the teachers room but she told me she thought they had been just been told that because it was a good excuse for her absence. I thought that was weird and said that she was sick, she has been for a while. Then Kim came in and said that he brought Sally to the hospital. Shit. I was really worried. But he didn’t seem to concerned. I figured that I had posiend her by insiting that she eat mandu with me.

Some of the teachers invited me out for lunch with them, which I readily accepted. We went to one of the restaurants under the school. I texted Sally and told her to tell me what was going on as soon as she could. Eventually she called me and told me that she was out of the hospital and walking home. Apparently she had had a gastric cramp or something. It was very painful and scary, but she is fine now. They gave her some fluids and some medication and made her lie down for awhile and she was fine. She was still in a little pain but walking felt good and so did the fresh air (Saturday was a beautiful day). After my lunch which the teachers (which was super tasty and not to spicy although they all thought I would find it too spicy, the only thing I didn’t like was the “ham” in the dish, it was very wiener like, I’m not a fan), Sally and I went for a short walk, on which I bought my oranges from the street vendor.

After our walk, I walked over to Suyu for coffee and quality reading time. I am aware that reading in coffee shops is lame, but my apartment is tiny and sometimes I just need to get out. You would too. And sometimes the coffee shops have comfy chairs, which I miss. When I get back home, the first thing I want to buy is a comfy reading chair that only I am allowed to use. Sorry Bryan, get your own chair. I miss couches too. I like going to Noraebongs just to sit on the couches. The coffee shop started to get really full and when I was finished my coffee, I felt bad and had to leave so I wasn’t even there for very long. Although, I must say, in Korea, people hang out at coffee shops for way longer than at home, they study more, read more, even watch TV on their phones, because, like me, they all live in tiny apartments, but probably still with their families and need some place to get away from it all. And for the price of coffee you sit for hours. I’m just saying is all.

I got home and took a short nap, I was woken by a text from Sarah asking me if I wanted to meet her to go out with the gang that night for Feo’s birthday. Of course I did. I met her at her subway stop in Taerang, which required a transfer in Changdong, which was super confusing. There were trains on either side of the platform that appeared to be headed in the same direction and I had no idea which one to get on. There was one waiting when I get to the platform and people were on it, but there were also people waiting on the platform. I stood confused and anxious for while. When the train pulled up the platform I decided to get on and hoped that it was correct. It was correct and I met Sarah exactly on time, although she thought I would come from a different direction so there was a bit of confusion at the subway station.

Also at the subway station, there was a poster for men's suits, in which the model’s head was clearly photoshopped onto a body that was not even close to being his. It was all so out of proportion. It was kind of freaky and kind of funny all at the same time. I stared at it for a long time, I just couldn’t take my eyes of it. He was like an alien or something, close to human but just not quite right. The model also had a really bad haircut and I wondered why you would go though the effort and expense to put up a poster ad in the subway only to use a photoshopped picture of a model with an ugly haircut. Is this really the best way to sell your product? Really?

Sarah and I took the subway all the way to ITEAWON (!!) because I love Itaewon and I love spending scads of time there with the skecty douchebags and crime. However, it is on the same line as Tanrang so no transfers, which is nice. We were meeting everybody at a pub called the Wolf’s Tap or something to that effect. We walked into the place and it was like I had been transported back to the King’s Head or the Toad in the Hole. There was not single Korean person in sight. I’m not exaggerating either. There were only white faces. So weird. We grabbed a table upstairs and each got a beer. There we sat, Sarah and I, sipping Stella, flipping through the menu of burgers and fish & chips, nachos and fries. It was very surreal. Eventually everybody showed up and we got a bigger table, and not a moment to soon because soon a group of GI’s showed up to celebrate a birthday. They were very loud and they were getting very drunk. The music was really loud too, but at least it was pretty good music, there was some Justice and some Hot Chip and just as we were leaving I got to hear Paper Planes by MIA. Sally decided to come and join us even though she had been in the hospital earlier in the day. We meet her and headed to a different bar, Scrooges I think. It was a little better, a few Koreans, but being Itaewon, it was still mostly while folk.

We left in time to all take the subway’s home. However, Sally, Sarah, I headed up to Nowan to meet Amber who had not been able to make it to Itaewon because of a school function. We met at a kimbob place and chowed down on a bunch of kimbob and kimchi. After we headed to a Noraebong, just us four girls and rented a room for an hour or two and sang the night away. It was lots of fun. Once again, I sang less and mostly I watched the sappy Korean music videos, which I love.

As we were leaving the noraebang, we heard a girl screaming and then saw her lying in the middle of the street across from us. Of course we were naturally worried, assuming that a car or something had hit her. But upon further observation, we realized that was actually having a huge drunken fit. I have never seen a grown woman behaving in such a disgusting manner. I don’t care what her boyfriend did, have some fucking dignity. She was literally rolling around on the street screaming and crying. He was standing beside her, clearly pissed and super embarrassed but still trying to coax her off the very busy street. Every time he touched her she would scream louder and pull away, which actually made it more dangerous. He was also holding on to her purse and coat, which made it awkward for him to grab hold of her. He finally ditched the stuff and tried to literally carry her off the road, but she made her self a dead weight and when he lost his grip she went back onto the road. As soon as we realized she was not hurt and just being huge brat, I wanted to leave. Yes, I am interested in the spectacle, but I hate watching people make fools of themselves and of others. I wanted to get out of there, but the other girls couldn’t tear themselves away. I was little surprised at them, they all seem like the type of people who would take no pleasure in watching just a sorry display, but if I hadn’t insisted, they might have stayed their for a lot longer. I don’t know what happened to the stupid girl, but I assume that eventually her boyfriend got her home and I hope that he dumped her.

Early in the week I had agreed to play in a small volleyball tournament that was apparently for charity. I think we were raising money for immigrant workers in Korea. I had to meet Amber, Sarah, Dave, and Lisa on the subway sometime after 12:15. That was when they were getting on the subway in Nowan and then they would pass through Ssangmun shortly after that. As I was super paranoid about missing their train, I arrived at the Ssangmun station shortly after 12:00. I sat in the subway station for almost half an hour and my fingers got very cold while I read and watched the trains go by. I felt very foolish every time a train pulled up and I didn’t get on it. Finally the arrived and I joined them on the train.

We were headed to Suwon, a city outside of Seoul, you never leave city actually, but it is considered a separate city. It is south of Seoul and a very long ride, over two hours by subway. On the way we picked up Mike, Chris, and Amber’s friend Seung Hoon. We finally arrived at the Suwon station, from which getting to the place where the tournament was being held, was supposed to easy. We got into a cab and the cab driver had never heard of the place we were going. Amber had to call the organizer of the event who had to give the cab driver directions. There were only four of us in the cab and we arrived way before the rest of the group did, they eventually took a bus to get to the school. The tournament was held at an international school, which was apparently brand new. It was huge and new looking. There were at least three large buildings which appeared to be part of the school. Including the sports complex where there were two gyms on the second floor above a huge pool. The soccer field was artificial turf. I don’t much about these kinds of the things, but I assume that although turf must suck to play on, it has got to be costly. Anyway, the facilities were super nice.

The tournament was run by guy who looked like he had never played volleyball in his life and he clearly didn’t know many of the rules, which a little problematic at first. Just as I feared, there were some hard core people there. Mostly however, the teams were much like ours, people who maybe played in high school and even then just for intermurieals. One team however, looked like they actually played together on a regular basis and they didn’t look like they were having any fun. There was no smiling or laughing on the court, they just did their bump set spike and carried on. They were way to serious for the caliber of play. They were from Life Church! My team actually won two of the four games we played one of the games we lost by one point (which actually isn’t supposed to happen, but as the socially awkward rule guy pointed out, first to 20 points or fifteen minuets, thanks friend).

We took the bus back to the suwon station, which took a very long time and I had to stand the whole way, the bus driver wasn’t very delicate and there was a lot of jerking around. I had to hold on with two hands to keep my balance. I had a few awkward moments with some Korean guy who standing next to me, getting a little to close. From the station, we walked to a sushi place that Amber knew about. It was all you can eat for $12,000 won and it was really good sushi, lots of variety in the rolls and lots of sashimi. There were also lots of other things for the sushi hater, but I mostly stuck to the sushi.

Back the at the subway station, someone decided that it would be faster if we took a bus to Jamsil and then take the subway from there. Someone was under the impression that it was only a half hour bus ride to Jamsil (it wasn’t me, which I realize is implied by “someone”, but it wasn’t, really, I just follow the group, I really don’t know whose idea it was). This was not the case. The bus ride was a lot longer than half an hour and then Jamsil is still really far away from where most of us live. I didn’t get home until midnight and I had to teach the next morning and shower at some point between getting home and getting to work (which I definitely didn’t do).

Monday morning when I woke up, I realized that I couldn’t move. I felt like I was an old old woman, an old old woman who had been struck by a small to mid-sized car. Every movement in any direction took a huge effort and in fact I am still ridiculously sore. It is so stupid. I’m hoping that by tomorrow I will feel much better. I couldn’t even finish my yoga this morning and every time I have to climb stairs or walk up hill, I just want to sit down and give up. Actually sitting hurts too, I just want to fall over and die.

This marathon blog should make up for the any neglect you may have felt, look at me being vain, assuming you still care about this thing.

Dee

January 20, 2009

My Bananas are Breeding Fruit Flies

I truly dislike Itaewon. I feel dirty and when I am there I feel typical, like nobody wonders what I am doing there. When I walk down the street and see another foreigner, there is no feeling of camaraderie because everybody there is a foreigner; there are more foreigners than Korean people in the area.

On Sunday, Sally and I went down to Itaewon to check out a English only used book store. At Rubber Seoul, we bought discount cards as part of the fundraiser (and a cute guy was selling them). The card is called Around Seoul, but the only places you can actually gets discounts are in Itaewon. Anyway, at this bookstore we get a 10% discount with the card. At least we would have if we had remembered to use them. I honestly wanted to just see what kind of selection they have, for reals. And in typically used bookstore style, there was a lot of John Grisham and Dan Brown but I did manage to find four titles there were to my liking. There would have been more, but I actually managed to put one back on the shelf, lets be proud of the small things.

On the way to Itaewon, Sally and I were waiting in the subway station between transfers and as the subway slowly came to a stop, we saw friends of ours in the car. It is so random that in this huge city we not only got on the same subway as people we know, but we actually stepped onto the same car. It actually blows my mind and this is the second time it has happened and this time we were not even going to the same place. So random!

And at the bookstore, Sally ran into someone she knew. Of course we were in Itaewon were all foreign people go at an English bookstore, so it was considerably less random, but still a little freaky.

Sally gave me bookshelf for Christmas. It is already full. I had to rearrange things so that I could fit more books onto it. I was little disappointed at the bookstore when I found out they do trade in’s only. They don’t give cash for books. It might be ok for when I am here, but it won’t help when I want to get my books home or get cash for them.

I hate Itaewon. It’s even uglier than the rest of Seoul. It’s stupid. Also stupid is that Word underlines uglier in green because it is a non-standard usage. Non-standard doesn’t mean wrong, it means non-standard as in not the normal use. Leave me along grammar check and stick to telling me when I have repeated a word or when I have used two spaces between words. Don’t fucking bother me about non-standard usages, damn it.

Will we refer to the year 2010 as two thousand ten or twenty-ten? This is a problem that I faced with my students the other day. We do say nineteen ten (1910) or eleven thirty-two (1132), but we say two thousand nine (2009), we don’t we say twenty oh nine? I am confused would appreciate any insight that my faithful readers have to offer.

I’m sorry this blog post sucks so much. This new work schedule is really messing me up.

Oh yeah, I'm so over Jaemin, he's brat now that there are kids for whom he can show off. I miss things how they were. I will be relived when February rolls around and we are done this intensive schedule.

Dee

The Last of Christmas Blogs, I Hope

Because it was all so long ago, I’m just going for it right now. Who cares that is not in the right order that this blog might be real long. We’ll see.

Monday, December 22, 2008.

I had Trav and Laura come in to Ssangmun so that I could take to the orange restaurant under the school. This is actually the perfect description of the place. It is directly under the school, making it super convenient to run down on my breaks and grab a chamchi or kimchi kimbob. They also serve a bunch of different things, and as adventurous as I might be, I can’t read the menu to do much experimenting.

Anyway, I wanted Trav and Larua to experience Korean dinning at it’s best: tiny restaurant that serves Korean style fast food. We had kimbob and dukkbogi. I think they liked it; they lied to me if they didn’t. It isn’t the best dukkbogi out there, but it’s pretty good. And it’s the only kimbob I’ve have eaten. I think it’s delicious. We went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee after lunch and I left them there and went to school.

At school, I meet Jaemin in the hallway as I was walking in and he was with a man whom I can only assume was his father and dad was a babe. Jaemin would have a hot dad. However, Jaemin himself looked less like hipster and more like the seven year-old boy that he is in black sweat pants and a sweatshirt, not stylish by very cute.

The rest of the family arrived that evening. The next morning, I got up bright and early to take the subway to meet them at their hotel. Having gone twice to try and find the hotel and having met Trav and Laura there a couple times already, I was beginning to feel like a commuter. I managed to finish two book entirely on the subway during their stay here, Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Anyway, I got to the hotel and everybody was really excited to see me, my mom even cried a little bit. It was a beautiful reunion although until that moment I was still secretly harbouring thoughts of a human Christmas present. I had to settle for parents and chocolate.

We went to Starbucks for coffee. After Starbucks we headed out to the Electronics market in Youngsan. I have never seen anything like that in my life. Cell phones, cameras, mp3 players as far as the eye can see. It was strange and there were also high end house hold things like dishes and bedding, as well as appliances and clothes. Dad, Laura, and Toban all wanted to buy new cameras and figured they get a good deal if they all bought from the same place. Later at school Tasha told me that she didn’t think they would get a good deal because they went by themselves, but Tahsa didn’t get to see Laura at work. I’m sure they all got a steal of a deal.

We had bulgogi for lunch, it was a food court of restaurants and we didn’t actually all have to eat the same meal but I am used to having to share everything and just ordered bulgogi for everybody. Anyway, it was delicious. After lunch, I didn’t have a lot of time. Mom and Jamie walked me to the subway station while the rest continued on their camera quest (which was apparently successful as the next time I saw them, they all had new cameras). We stopped at a make-up store and I bought some new eye shadow and pressed powder. I had been waiting for Jamie to get here before I bought anything because she always knows what I should buy. She is my favourite person with which to shop. My mom is pretty good too, they both like to buy things and are encouraging but honest.

My mom had brought me a box of little candy canes to give to the kids. Of course, the kids always think they are entitled to the candy I give them, which is actually rare because I don’t like spending my money on the brats. As I handed out the candy canes some kids actually complained about them being broken and asked for new ones. I had tell them that my mom brought all the way from Canada and that all of them were broken. I was super annoyed. I had to explain to a few of my kids that candy canes were for eating.

The next day was Christmas Eve, about which I have already written.

On Boxing Day I skipped the awkward toast at the hostel, anticipating the delicious pastry from Starbucks that I knew would be forth coming. After breakfast, I left the family and headed back to Ssangmun for a shower and another day of teaching. It was a Friday, which meant my favourite class of middle school boys and Jaemin, of course.

After school, I got back on the subway to meet Trav, Laura, and Toban to go to a hof. We ended up back at the Western Hof (by western they mean western world) and had the same server and ordered the same food, but this time we ordered an even bigger beer and it came in a little mini keg, it was pretty rad. I was pretty comfortable in my hostel at this point. I claimed my bed but putting my bag on it and leaving my pj’s on the bed. So I slept better but morning was still a little awkward.

Trav and Laura left sometime in the early morning for more adventures in Japan. I met the rest of the family and we headed over to Seoul Station to catch the train for Busan. We took the KTX, which is a super fast train, like 300 km an hour at it’s fastest. On the train, I had the lone seat and ended up sitting next to a boy. At first, he was just talking on his cell phone (literally hand phone in Korean) and texting. I was kind of reading my book (No Country for Old Men) and it looked like he was kind of reading over my shoulder. I looked over at him and suddenly pointed to the page at the word “he” and said “he” and pointed at himself. then pointed at “men” and did it again. And then pointed at woman and at me. He seemed proud of himself. So anyway, good icebreaker, and we got to “talking”. His English was almost non-existent. He told me he slept through in English class in middle school. Being an English teacher, I am not surprised. This is the information I was able to get: He lives in Busan and was visiting his girlfriend in Seoul, he is 20, he is in the army (mandatory two years server before the age of 25 for all men), and that’s pretty much it. We talked about Canada a bit, as usual he only knows about Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. I think he may have listed Ottawa as well. And as usual he was very surprised when he realized that I have been to none of those cities except Vancouver. Also as usual, he was shocked when I told him how many hours it takes to drive to city like Toronto from Winnipeg. Considering that we were on a train ride to the other side of Korea and it only took three hours. We traded phone numbers and email addresses, kind of. He gave me his homepage, which I have since visited and it is only in Korean and my computer is not advanced enough to display the whole page properly, but I think it is like fancy version of facebook that Korean kids have. Later he fell asleep on my shoulder. When he woke up he was very embarrassed. He was super cute. His name was Tae Hoon. I think he actually called me later that evening, but I was in the shower and missed the call. And because I never get phone calls, I didn’t realize I had been called until I was setting the alarm on my phone. I could have called him back, but seeing as we could barely communicate face to face, I only imagine how difficult it would be to try and communicate over the phone. When we were talking on the train he kept calling a friend to consult on English words. Wait, wait he would say and then he would call up his friend, who appeared to know about as much English as he did.

At the train station in Busan, we had lunch in the food court. Jamie and I went Korean while the Toban, Dad, and Mom went to Burger King. I had bibimbop for the first time, but it was a cold bibimbop and I wasn’t a huge fan. But I can see how delicious a hot bibimbop would be. The side dishes were alright, but it wasn’t the best kimchi that I have had.

We got rooms at a super sketch hotel beside the train station. The Aririang Hotel. Apparently the whole area around the train station is where the soldiers and the sailors hang out, a lot of Russian sailors. There were Russian channels on TV and all the signs in the hotel were in English, Korean, and Russian. Very strange.

We went to the Busan Aquarium. It was pretty cool. Although there were too many couples and too many kids. The sharks were really cool. A frog escaped and we had to guard it until an official come and stuck it back it its cage. That was pretty exciting.

We went back to the train station area for supper, we ate more samgupsal and the lady who served us was pretty funny, she fed me Korean pizza, like she actually picked it up with chop sticks and stuck it in my mouth and then did the same to Toban and my mom. Back at the hotel, I went to Jamie and Toban’s room. We drank soju and watched CSI and Big Bang.

I went to shower and was displeased to discover that my bathroom was cold and that I had to hold on to the shower head the whole time. It was an uncomfortable shower, I missed the phone call, and then I had to go bed with my hair wet because I couldn’t find the blow dryer. And it took me a long time to get to sleep and I didn’t set my alarm on my phone properly so it didn’t go off and I was late meeting the family for coffee in the morning. And then I didn’t see tea on the menu (actually under the menu) and until after I ordered my latte, of which I am trying to drink less.

We went back to the train station to buy tickets for later in the day were all disappointed to learn to that we had to go almost right away because it was the only train that still had room. This time I sat beside my mom, so it was more comfortable, but less interesting. She gets motion sickness and so she could only sit really still. I felt bad going to the bathroom because I had to crawl over her. And I ate too many of the Ginger Type Snacks I bought at the station.

From the train station we went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and then headed to Pizza Hut for supper. It tasted exactly like Pizza Hut from back home. Pizza Hut makes me think of Steinbach, where I consumed most of my Pizza Hut pizza as a child. I don’t like to think about Steinbach when I am in Korea. I don’t to like to think about Steinbach ever.

After supper, which was pretty early, we decided to see Seoul Tower. I guess Seoul tower is bit like the CN tower, but not as tall. However, the tower is on the top of a mountain in the middle of Seoul so the view is amazing. But again, full of couples because obviously it is a very romantic place to go on a date.

Getting to the tower was a bit of an adventure. The guide book didn’t have very good directions on getting there. We left the subway station and more or less just started walking in the direction of the tower hoping to eventually take the gondola to the top of the hill. However, after much up hill walking we still didn’t seem to be any closer and there was not tourist information around. We continued to walk and finally just had to stop, the rents are getting on in years and just can’t handle the non-prairie landscapes anymore. Being good children, Toban, Jamie, and I abandoned them on a street corner and carried on for reconnaissance. We walked up a bunch of outdoor stairs in a park and realized that we were not close at all. Jamie went back to the folks with the idea of taking a cab up to where Toban and I were. However, as Toban and I continued in the reconnaissance, we realized that we were no where close to the gondola. We waited for while and eventually had to admit that nobody was coming back for us. All we could do was sit tight and hop that in time somebody would call my phone and tell us what to do. Soon Jamie did call and told us to grab a taxi and head to the top of the hill.

At first it seemed like the taxi driver was taking us for a financial ride as he drove down the hill and then around a bunch, but I guess to get to top you have to approach the hill from a different direction. Soon we were all reunited and happy with only a short waltz to the top of Seoul. We neglected to visit the Teddy Bear museum within Seoul tower, something I will have to do when Bryan arrives.

We took the gondola down the hill and then decadently took a taxi back to the hotel. Mother and father retired to their room while Jamie, Toban, and I headed back to the Western hof for some eats. Once again we had the same server, a stoic man who almost showed amusement at our return, but not quite. This time we ordered what the people at the table next to us were having; there were French fries on their plates. We also were giving a complimentary fruit platter as thank-you for being such loyal customers. I think that brings the total up to six. Fruit and beer, I’m telling you, it’s the future.

I went home that night and rose early to meet them in Insadong at their hotel before we headed over to Starbucks again.

I think this concludes the blog on the family’s visit to Korea. Family, if I have missed anything about the visit, remember that I have not posted everything in order, please let me know and I will make sure to write a lengthy post about it.

Did I mention the part where we took mom and dad to the hof and they both got a little drunk? We went back to the Western hof, unfortunately our server was off that evening, and ordered some fried chicken, another mini keg, and a few bottles of soju. My mother claimed later that she was not drunk and I know that she must have pretty high tolerance level by now, but was a little tipsy, whether she cares to admit it or not. I was there; I don’t care what she says. I know the truth.

Crazy Cows

I am very upset with Bryan right now. He gave me a book for Christmas, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and it made me cry, I cried for like 10 minuets after I was finished. This was not how I expected to start my day, weeping over a novel. Thanks Bryan, thanks a lot. I also finished reading War and Peace yesterday. It only took me a month. I actually really enjoyed reading it. Although, I’ll admit, I skimmed some the this philosophical and theoretically parts so get on with the story parts. The main characters in The Elegance of the Hedgehog talk a great deal about Tolstoy, mostly Anna Karenina but a bit about War and Peace. I love when I am reading one book and it references another that I have recently read or am currently reading, as in this case. I also enjoy rereading books and finding references that I didn’t catch the first time because I hadn’t yet read the book referenced.

I am fully intending on going for a walk before my Skype date with Bryan, at which time I will scold him for choosing such sad book for me to read. (The sadness was so totally unexpected too, I had no idea that it would take such a melancholy turn. Damn it.) It is cold outside though, and I am procrastinating by updating my blog. I am aware that I still have many Christmas adventures, cute boys, and fruit platters to relate to my faithful readers but it is all so long ago.

I’ll start with something recent. On Friday evening, Sally and I decided to go out for supper. Because we had to work on Saturday morning, I expected that we would go some place near, as in walking distance, and not stay out too late. However, she invited Park and he took us to a BBq joint near the Konkik Universtiry subway stop, not even a little bit close...

We met Park at the subway station at about 8:20. Neither Sally nor I had been to this part of the city before. It was awesome. Being a university area, there were tones of young people, streets were crowed, and the signs for all the restaurants, bars, hofs, pool halls, DVD bangs, PC bangs, noraebangs, and stores lit up the streets for as far as the eye could see. In Seoul, you don’t need to have a lot of imagination to come up with things to do. Really it is easy to keep oneself entertained if you have friends.

We went to a little BBQ that apparently Park goes to quite a bit with his friends. At the restaurant, they gave us a huge plastic bag in which to put our coats so that they wouldn’t smell like BBQ. Cleaver people, these Koreans. Park had invited a friend but failed to mention to his friend that Sally and I would be there. When he arrived at the restaurant a little while later, he was rather shocked and he was little bit drunk because he had just been at a business supper. He is a buyer of some sort for Samsung (he works for Samsung surprise surprise, everybody works for Samsung or LG). He didn’t speak English very well, but he was funny and cute in a geeky way. He said his dream was to own his own restaurant someday.

After BBQ and some soju, we walked around for bit in search of a bar. We finally found one that was quiet and nice. We were there for long time, sipping gin and snacking on those delicious little corn things they always have at bars. They also gave us corn chips and salsa. The salsa was little strange, but not too bad. I mentioned that server was kind of cute (he was) and Park scolded me because I’m taken (don’t worry Bryan, Park’s got your back). At the bar we just sat and talked for long time. Well, Sally and Park talked, I laughed at them, and Park’s friend had already given up.

Because there is always a “next” we left the bar and walked around a bit more until Park and his friend decided on all-you-can-eat tuna sushi place. Because we needed to eat more, apparently. It was one of those cool joints where the chefs are working in the middle of the room and the tables are all attached to the middle area and the chefs just throw more tuna on your table as you eat it. It was all raw fish, just pieces of raw tuna. It was so delicious. We were giving seaweed paper and some garnishes. We dipped the tuna in soy sauce, put it on the seaweed paper then added wasabi, and some sprouts and then try to wrap the seaweed paper around the tuna and shove it into your mouth, all of this using chopsticks. Nearly impossible to do it politely and with Park and his friend judging me and watching, always watching, just waiting for me to do something silly or “wrong”. This meal was good, really good, it seems that on a tuna fish there are many different kinds of cuts. So on the plate there were all these different pieces and at first I though they were different fish, but then it was explained. I definitely want to eat that again sometime. I am so going to miss the food here.

After the tuna, we did grab a taxi to go home. Fortunately, Park lives in the same direction so he was able to direct he taxi driver, although his friend is in Gangnam; that is south of the river. We didn’t get home until about 2:30. So much for a low key, early evening. I only have to teach three classes on Saturday, but one class is very demanding and takes a lot of energy. I think it did ok though.

Speaking of this class, it wasn’t yesterday, but a couple of days ago, this group of kids tried to tell me that the president of Korea was crazy because he bought crazy cows. I was super confused at first and was trying to get them to explain. Then one of the kids said that he bought the cows from the US. They were all shouting at me trying to explain. When the kid mentioned the US, I held up my hands and got them to all be quiet. Do you mean mad cow disease? I asked. YES! They all screamed unison. Then I laughed, I laughed so hard I almost cried. The kids thought I was crazy. I don’t know the political situation or what actually happened, but apparently the president of Korea is crazy and it is because of all those crazy cows he likes to eat.

Dee

January 11, 2009

Awkward Toast

Christmas Day

Christmas in Korea Family Adventures Pt. 3.14 (?)

On Christmas morning I woke up at the Banana Back Packers and was relived to see that most of the other girls had left already. Having probably stolen somebody’s bed, I was a little worried about a potential morning confrontation.

In the kitchen, I made some awkward toast, trying to stand my ground and stay out of the way. At the kitchen table, a nice Christmassy conversation about Chinese-Australian political relations was way over my head and the seats were all taken. I brought my (white) toast and tea to the common room, where some back packers were just finishing up and moving out. A another guy was sitting there as well and instead of talking to him I decided to read. Eventually, the cool I’m-a-beatuful-friendly-world-traveller-girl started talking to him. I decided to check my email at the awkward computers with free Internet. Then I went to meet my family.

We spent Christmas morning at Starbucks (interesting side note: the Starbucks on Insadong-gil is the only or at least the first Starbucks in the world to have a sign that is not in English. Starbucks is written in Korean script, phonetically translated, but still in Korean. Apparently there was some controversy over Starbucks opening a location in such a historic place. Anyway, this is were we had our coffee every morning.).

After Starbucks, we went to the National Museum of Korea. It was a huge building full of different exhibitions and many paintings and things. I am not a huge fan of museums unless they are interactive or the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum. The building and the grounds were by far the most interesting part. The museum is pretty new, I think it has only opened in the past year or two, everything is brand new and it is kind of an open space concept. The entrance is a huge open room; I have not seen many spaces that rival that space in size. It was incredible. Also, the lay out was perfect for someone who would like to see every single thing. I appreciate that kind of planning. The grounds will be a definitely must see come spring and summer. There were all kinds of trees and ponds. It looked amazing even now in winter. I assume that in summer it will be breathtaking. I’ll go there with Bryan; it’s free!

We had lunch at the restaurant beside the reflecting pond, which caused me to reflect on the meaning of reflect. Reflect as in to see a mirror image or reflect as in ponder. I concluded that is play on words and most likely means both. It was a deep reflective thought. Walking into the restaurant, we though it might be a little too posh for our kind. But after reflecting on the menu for a moment, the prices were in fact reasonable (a word I had to explain recently [a another word that I often fail at trying to explain]). And we had one server who never let our water classes empty and I reflected on how he was really cute in a shy super geeky way. I kept trying to make him uncomfortable by shooting smiling glances in his direction.

After lunch we meet Sally at City Hall with the notion of going skating on the rink in front of City Hall. However, we failed to take into account that it was Christmas, one of the only days off and that anybody gets and that we were in Seoul, the second biggest city in the world. There was no fucking way that on the coldest day I’ve experienced in Korea we were getting into a line which literally stretched around the entire rink, no fucking way. We decided to go for coffee, but all the coffee shops around City Hall were full, like packed full. We went back to Insadong to try our luck there. The coffee shops, and we tired a number of them, were also totally completely, standing room only full. We walked around for so long trying to find a place to go for coffee before supper that it was finally supper time.

One of the (many) good things about Korean dinning is that the restaurants are designed to accommodate big groups and most people don’t go on dates for Korean food; they want exotic things like spaghetti or pizza. We had no trouble finding a restaurant. We had previously decided on mandu for our Christmas Dinner and quickly found a restaurant serving some. One of the servers came to our table to tell us that it would take a long time to make enough mandu for the whole group. We said that we didn’t mind waiting, which pleased her (I make some of the conversations sound like they were happen naturally when in fact the server spoke no English and it took a lot of gesturing to finally figure out her meaning). A long wait for food by Korean standards is like normal in North America, at restaurant we expect to wait at least 10 minuets for food and that would be pretty fast. Here, almost all the food comes out immediately. Some foods, like BBQ, takes a long time to cook at your table, but it comes immediately and side dishes are sometimes brought to your table before you even order. So our long wait for the mandu was like 15 minutes. We went through a lot of Kimchi in that time (I think that kimchi might actually be spelled gimchi, but I have gone with kimchi up to now and will continue to do so, it’s already been added to my dictionary).

After supper, the family wanted to rest. Everybody went back to the hotel to nap or whatever (sex) while Sally and I grabbed a hot chocolate at Starbucks. It was less busy than before and it is also much easier to find a table for two than for eight. We fell into a very long conversation and totally lost track of time and were actually late getting back to the hotel for the gift portion of the evening. The gift portion mostly involved me giving my family a gift of things I found in my cupboard the day before, like teas I don't drink and instant coffee. Jamie gave me beautiful hand died flannel Tony Chestnut scarf and mom gave Sally a book, some tea, and some banana bread. I gave Sally some coffee and Jae Hoon Calendar. We hung out for while, Sally left shortly after the gifts. I made people hang out with me until the it was worth staying in the hostel or another night. Eventually, I ended their suffering and left. Back at the hostel, I tried to update my blog, but was way to hopped on chocolate to concentrate and I felt awkward being so exposed on the public computers that eventually I gave up. I sent a few Christmas emails and then just lay in my bed, not sleeping for a long time. I had left my backpack on my bed, hoping to firmly stake my claim. It seemed to work, but I still felt anxious. I relfected on the day, easily the strangest Christmas ever.

Warning: School Rant

I was a little worried that with the classes switching up, I would be losing my beloved Jaemin (He was wearing jeans with a Super Mario design today, and the rad Velcro puma shoes.). I did lose him, just not in the way I expected. Two other students have joined us in GS1A and apparently, Jaemin is kind of an attention stealing brat when surrounded by other children. He is likely going to turn out to be one of those dreadful problem children (when he’s older) that cause me turn into MP (you know who I mean). Oh my sweet Jaemin, where have you gone? On a brighter, more optimistic note, today in class, he pointed at the question mark and correctly identified it as a question mark. We had previously been struggling with the difference between a question and a sentence (a question is most likely a type of sentence and the correct difference would be a question and a statement, but seriously, he barely knows his colours).

Who am I? Caring about shit like this, school children and stuff. Never mind that I am excited about this small indication of progress, I have, since the change, actually started looking forward to my elementary school classes more than middle school classes. The elementary kids are baaaaaad, to be sure, but at least I am aware they are alive, with all their screaming and whatnot. The middle school kids are sullen brats who refuse to speak to me. Not to mention that all (ALL!) the cute middle school boys seem to have disappeared. I was so hoping the hot tall one in in MLGL would be in one of my classes, but he’s gone. The flirty one in one of MLPA classes is gonzo, and all I’m left with the is bratty one who has the most adorable dimples, but whom isn’t cute enough to get away with being a brat. Anyway, I who claims to despise children find myself singing awkward esl versions of Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes and I have the Hello and Good-bye songs stuck in my head. Also, today, I totally played Simon Says (with GS1A, the whole Simon thing is totally lost on them, we are learning body parts. The book I am teaching from is terrible by the way. I hit play today, expecting the normal, perfectly good tune of Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes and was thoroughly disturbed by the same lyrics set to different, worse music. Never mind that they fucked with ABC, everybody knows it is sung to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, except the writers and editors of We Can! Even the kids were thrown off by the difference. I have to teach three different levels from the same crappy series and the GT2A’s are way too advanced for the book, two weeks ago we were reading Mouse Soup and now I am supposed to teach them “Hi, How are you?” What is this bullshit? But I digress.) and replayed the Hello and Goodbye songs because I wanted to hear them again. They were last class’s songs.

I guess after that rant, I should provide a quick explanation of the change up. (Talking about Jaemin was supposed segue into post for Monday, December 22. Later, I’ll get to that later). January 2 was the start of new school schedule, I mentioned before that I now have classes six days a week and I am teaching during the day instead of in the evening. The kids have a break in regular school so for the month of January, they attend hagwons full time. All the classes have been changed around, the kids have been reorganized according to their new skill levels. This means that some kids moved up and some kids stayed at the same level. The classes have also been reorganized according to size. Before Christmas I had some really small classes and some big classes that were the same level. Now all of the classes are pretty much the same and all of my classes are too big. At least in the elementary classes.

We also started with brand new curriculum, this means I am getting used to a new schedule, teaching new material, and have a many new students with which to deal. Also, I have more classes per week and per day. Before I never had more than five classes a day, now I have at least five and some days I have seven classes, that means no breaks, at all, expect for lunch. There are only five minutes between classes; that is barely enough time to go to the bathroom. And, as I mentioned earlier, the books are pretty bad, all of them. I have a bunch of writing books, teaching kids how to write, not the mechanics, but actually be good writers, like how Joan Diddion is a good writer. I have four different levels that I am teaching this series to, and I’m pretty sure these books aren’t made for ESL students. I’m pretty sure the books are for native speakers. We read a “narrative nonfiction” about Wangari Maathai the other day. I spend the whole class trying to explain the story and then the simple questions asked. These questions are supposed to be warm up to inspire you to eventually write your own story about Mother Teresa. So over there heads. I had to explain the difference between a sentence that gives information and a sentence that gives an opinion. How do you teach this to students who don’t understand the sentence at all! Never mind explaining concepts of opinion and information. Seriously, try it sometime and remember it has to be in the simplest English terms because you audience’s knowledge of the language is limited. These kids aren’t stupid, they know these things already, they just know them in Korean, which is such a totally different language the words themselves don’t really translate, no matter how long they stare at their cell phone Korean English dictionaries (standard on phones here, can you belieive that? English is such an important part of their lives, cell phones come standard with Korean English dictionaries).

I am also teaching a few classes that have TOEFL prep books as the course material. All of which are way too advanced for the students, especially because the books are geared towards people of university age, not middle school. This same problem also occurs in the listening classes, Impact Listening 2 is not meant for middle school students, especially the younger middle school students. The situations that the book uses as real life examples are totally lost on the kids that would be about the grade sevenish. The allusion to the possible love triangle between Paul, Alicia, and Paul’s girlfrind in Spain was a little stupid and Spanish guitar music in he background was super lame. And I had to explain “interested” in the romantic way and “broke up”. Really? Really? If good marks on the TOEFL is the ultimate goal, I don’t think this is the way to go.

On the bright side, I’m pleased with the redistribution of students and disappearance of few elementary students. I have not got super mad at any one class yet, although I perhaps should, but this week I have felt like they don’t deserve to be yelled at because the material is by no means engaging and I have done nothing to make it better for them. If it is way too hard or way too easy, why should I expect that they will be willing or able to pay attention? It’s going to be a long month, I think.

This blog was supposed to be much different. I’m still going to post it.

Dance Bear, Dance!

Part 3 (?) - Christmas in Korea

Sunday, December 21, 2008.

Someone, I’m not sure if it was Trav or Laura, suggested going to the zoo, if there was a zoo to go to. Laura looked it up and with her mad Internet skills, found out there was in fact a big zoo south of the city. Sunday morning, I brought them breakfast again and we headed over to Seoul Grand Park to the Seoul Zoo. The zoo is pretty far south, which meant we had to travel over the river, which is always fun for me. I have only been south of the river a couple of times.

A few stops south of the river, the subway suddenly emptied completely of people, we were uncertain about what to do, but a nice lady told us that this was the last stop for the subway. At first I thought it she meant this was the last stop, as in the subway didn’t run past here and I was super confused, but then I realized that they just change cars, a few minuets later another train arrived and we carried on our way.

In theory, I’m kind of against zoos and how they raise animals in small Spartan cages and live their lives solely as entertainment for foul human’s who throw food at them, hoping they’ll dance. And there are monkeys at the zoo. I hate monkeys. But I usually enjoy zoo visits. This zoo was huge. We saw giraffes up close, hippopotami, and a rhinoceros. The lions were actually moving around and there was a really good view of the elephants. There were crocodiles and alligators. We saw a sloth or two and those red pandas. Also, there was a zoo nursery where we saw some teenage animals hanging out. We visited the botanical garden where a man dressed as Santa was leading around a group of kids and there was a dude with a guitar singing Christmas carols in Korean for the children. It was kind of strange.

At the top of the zoo, there is an option to take a chairlift to the bottom of the zoo, we decided to take the chairlift down, just for the view. The zoo is in a beautiful location, surrounded by small mountains and hills. There is no city in site. I recommend going to the zoo just for the views.

None of the restaurants were open at the zoo and after the long walk, mostly uphill, we were famished. We decided to be adventurous and just get off at a subway stop and find a restaurant near by. We got off at Seoul Station and headed out an exit. We walked for while, discarding the few choices along the way. We ended up on an out of the way street, peering into restaurants to see if they had tables at which we could sit; floor seating is a novelty that wears thin quite quickly.

Suddenly a man jumped out at us and tired to herd us into his restaurant and then his neighbour started yelling at us to eat at his restaurant. These two old men were yelling at us in Korean, both wanted our business. It was an awkward moment of confusion, but we finally walked into the first man’s restaurant; he had first dibs.

As usual, there was only a wall menu and it was only in Korean. Fortunately, the daughter of the owner spoke English really well. She had studied in New Zealand for a year. She showed us something they were making and it looked good so we ordered the same thing. She brought it to our table and cooked it for us. She told us that loved cooking and wanted to go Australia to go to culinary school. The meal was quite delicious, as if any food here isn’t, and very filling.

We left the restaurant and headed back to Insadong. We wondered around the market for while, Laura wanted to look for a few things at the spiral market. I bought a Dalki phone charm that also doubles as a screen cleaner, very cool. We walked around a bit more and then stopped for coffee. We decided to check out a few more places and go to a hof for drinks.

We walked around Jonggak area for while, searching for a hof. There were a few that looked good, but many were on the second floor or higher and we couldn’t figure out how to get to them. Some were on the first floor and we couldn’t figure out how to the get to them either. The way the buildings are set up can make if very confusing to find the right place. We finally managed to get into one place called Blue Moon, it was very blue and romantically lit. The server ushered to a comfortable seat at the bar, walking passed a number of empty tables.

We had a moment of discussion, trying to decide if we wanted to stay here, at the bar, just grab a table, or leave. When the server sat a couple at a table near by, we decided to leave. As much as I hate hate hate leaving a restaurant after I have already been seated, I didn’t really want to stay. As we walked out, I had my head down, fastening my coat and walked right into a server and then tried to walk around and he moved in the same direction and then I bumped into him and fell into the booth beside us. So at least our leaving was graceful and probably went unnoticed.

We finally found a place that had the name of the hof on the stairs. We ascended into the Western Hof. It was awesome, super low ceilings, everything was wood (kind of like Carlos and Murphy’s), and it was busy, but not too busy. The server took us to a table on the second floor, Trav had to duck to get to the table. The menu had no English and no pictures.

We sat and puzzled over the beer for a moment, deciding on a more expensive pitcher because we wanted a slightly better quality beer and then the usual piss. I took out my cell phone used the Korean English dictionary (oh yeah, it can do everything) and tried to find the word for chicken so that we would at least order something edible. We found chicken on the menu and called over the server using the bell. At least I think I ran the bell, but the server came back and showed us how to use the bell, so I don’t think I pressed hard enough. Anyway, I hate the bell system; it feels so rude. However, I think it might actually be a better system because then your sever never has to bother you; you just call them when they are needed.

A few minutes later the server comes back with huge pitcher of beer, like really fucking big. We didn’t realize that we had ordered the big one. I burst out laughing at the size of the pitcher as soon as he put it on the table, thinking about how three of us ordered a pitcher that I have ordered with groups of six or seven. It is a really big beer.

And then came the side dishes. First there were the snacks that look like cross between fruit loops and corn pops and tasted like it too. Then there were ice shavings with beans and jujubes and flavoured syrup. Also, there were corn chip type snacks. Then came the Korean pancake, the dukkbogi, the sweet and sour chicken, the egg dish, and a plate of cherry tomatoes. We ate a bunch of this stuff, thinking that the sweet and sour chicken was what we had ordered. Then the server came back with a huge hot plate of a chicken dish that was delicious, but we hardly touched it because we were so full already.

Now the evening gets interesting. A very drunk couple sitting near us appeared to be talking about us; they looking over and a few gestures are made. The man gets ups, walks over to us and asks us where we are from. We tell him, He thanks us and sits down. Then a few minutes later the woman comes over and asks if they can sit with us because she would like to practice her English. Of course we accommodate. Edward and Ella were there names and they had lot to drink already. Edward continually made rude jokes about Ella and called it Korean Style Comedy. And Ella kissed Laura on a check a bunch of times (I tried to not be jealous). Edward also thought that Trav looked like Jesus. Unfortunately, I had to get on the subway by eleven so that I could make it home. I had to leave just as the party was getting interesting; Edward really wanted to hit up a noraebang. I gave Ella my phone number, but she hasn’t called.

Rotiboy, the Son of Papa Roti

Saturday, December 20, I met Trav and Laura at their hotel at about 1:30. Trav really wanted to go get some waffles he had seen advertised, so we headed over to a tiny little café just off of Insadong-gil. He wasn’t quite sure where he had seen the sign, but I was pretty sure that I had seen it too and it was pretty easy to find. Trav and I shared a waffle and Laura had a club sandwich. We all drank coffee. This was first cup of coffee we had this day.

After lunch, we decided to try to find Dongdaemun market. Sally and I had failed when we tried couple of weeks ago but this time I though I had it down. We got off the subway at Dongdaemun and got to the same place where Sally and I had been. We walked around a bit and didn’t find the market. We did, however, find the restaurant outfitters market, blocks of stores dedicated to restaurant wares, like tables, chares, water coolers, dishes, industrial sized pots and pans, stoves, sinks, and everything you would need to open a restaurant in Korea. Some of the wares were new and some were used.

We also found a large food market, it was like the size of a Costco, but outdoor, kind of, and full of only food. Fish, spices, fruit, meat, tea, you name it; it was there. This also included a large number of street food vendors. We didn’t get any street food though. We continued to walk around, getting colder and colder. Finally we decided to go for coffee, again. We went into a small café that ripped off Starbucks’ colour scheme. It was a nice little place and the drink I had was pretty good if I recall correctly.

Tasha laughed very hard when I told her that I had again failed at finding Dongdamun market. She says it is easy. I don’t the market exists or it is not what I am picturing and all the guides have different explanations of the market. I think this is a mythical market and nobody wants to admit that they actually have no idea where it is because that would make them lose face.

After coffee we headed over to Myong-dong to find a place to eat supper. I was craving pasta and in my heart I was sort of hoping to find the place I had been to with Sally, Park, and Park’s girlfriend my first weekend in Seoul. However, in my head, I knew there was no chance of that, but I though maybe we could find an Italian restaurant somewhere in there.

Myong-dong in the evening is crazy. It is literally packed with people. I thought that because it was a colder night, it would be less busy then the first time I was there. I was wrong. It was stupid. Also, I’m not sure if it crowd control or if they are just on training exercises, but in the area, there were troops of policemen, young handsome policemen. They are impossible to take seriously because they look like they’re 12 and are adorable. Even those in riot gear are super cute, not scary at all.

We waded through crowds searching for a restaurant that looked good and that wasn’t totally full, and that was wasn’t floor seating only. We finally decided on a third floor Chinese restaurant. We walked up the first stairs that looked like they would get us there. We came in the back entrance. We were sat at a nice table in a kind of private corner; we could kind of see out the window. Windows are always covered with stuff, so even when there might be a good view, you can’t see out the windows, which is kind of a bummer.

Apparently, Chinese restaurants are fancy restaurants. At least all the Chinese restaurants that I have been in while in Korea, have always felt fancy, more up scale. However, most of the dishes are fairly inexpensive, like around 6000 won and if you look at the other diners, they are not necessarily dressed up extra fancy. It is just the décor and the servers that look fancy. Strange. In Canada Chinese restaurants are always kitschy and kind of ugly. The uglier, the more delicious the food. Right? Anyone been to Ken’s on Ellice?

Trav and I tried to order a meal that came with a couple of courses, but the server came back and told us it was for lunch only. We had to pick again. I think I had some sort of stir-fry. I don’t really remember, but it was delicious. Laura had something that was really good too, pork dumplings maybe? It was like two weeks ago.

After supper, we walked around a bit more. We decided to go for dessert. We wondered around looking a for a place. Finally I spotted a Rotiboy chain. Warm buns filled with butter, or bean paste, or other delicious things. They are truly disgusting, but truly delicious. I previously mentioned Papa Roti in a previous post; Rotiboy is the same thing, just a different chain. The place was packed and they were out of one of their popular buns. We ordered three different buns so that we could share and taste all of them. We also all ordered coffees. It was the day of the coffee shops.

After Rotiboy, we were pretty tired and ready to go home. We went back to our respective beds.

All the Pretty Party While the Petty People Pout

After hopping around so much, I figure I should start at the beginning, or somewhere near there, I suppose.

The first post that I wrote after Trav and Laura arrived. The next night, Friday, December 19, they met me again and we went out on the town, kind of. That day Jaemin was wearing the white pumas again, he had on dark blue jeans, not quite as slim as his other pair of dark jeans, but these also had some factory fading and creasing. He was wearing a yellow sweatshirt and had a blue puff jacket that is so popular here. He has many jackets, many warm jackets, I guess he wears what ever jacket goes best with the outfit. He is so adorable.

During my last class on Friday, a class of middle school boys who are all adorable and always get out of doing actually class work because of it, I was trying to teach them a unit on personality traits. But of course not only do they not understand personality or traits, they don’t understand any of the words in the unit: forgetful, adventurous, short-tempered etc. There is one boy who always kind of tries because he knows he is cute, I think I have mentioned him before. He isn’t seriously trying, just kind of flirting. Obviously, he is one of my favourite students. I am trying to explain the words and he always says teacher draw it and laughs. Suddenly he grabs his book and runs out of the room, saying something about Korean teacher. He is gone for quite a while, when he comes back into the room he has this huge grin on his face. He starts listing his personality traits. I am not forgetful or short-tempered. I am sociable and adventurous. He had gone and found a Korean teacher to translate all the words for him because he didn’t understand what I was saying to him. Nobody in that class actually listens to me and when they are supposed to listening to the cd they just talk or play on their phones, and basically I am powerless to stop them, they just ignore me. And when it comes time to go over the answers they just guess until they get the right answer. But they are all so fucking cute, I can’t even get mad at them. I just laugh. It is actually on of my favourite classes and I am always in a super good mood when I leave school on Fridays.

After school, Trav and Laura were waiting for me at my apartment. We had some soju and rice chips while we waited for Sally. We chatted for a while, sipping the soju and orange juice concoction that I created for them. Sally was running a little late. Once she arrived we hopped in a cab and headed to Nowan for some good times. Justin, the guy in charge of the foreign teachers for all the Kang Tae Woo schools, organized a meet and greet for all the teachers. We were supposed to meet at the subway station in Nowan, he arrived a little late, but were still the first people there. I had never met Justin before, although Sally had mentioned him a few times. I had to email him to let him know that I was bringing Trav and Laura along. We met him, another teacher named Daniel, a Korean American from Miami and a Korean friend of Justin’s that whose name I don’t remember, and there was Brian, a really annoying guy from some where in Ontario. We headed over to a galbi restaurant to wait for the rest of the group. Sarah, Sally’s friend, also joined us although she is not a teacher at a Kang Tae Woo school. At first being at the restaurant was really awkward, we got a floor seating and it turns out that Brian is vegetarian, one of those really vocal vegetarians that feels the need to express it every five seconds and refuses to even touch meat, such as pass the plate down the table. Good god, he was annoying.

Things got a little better when Justin came back with the rest of the group. There more people around and things started to pick up. And once the galbi gets cooking all of us foreigners all like to talk about how deficient we are at BBQ and then attempt to cook the meat ourselves. We drank a bit of soju, which was complicated because some of the people didn’t want soju and weren’t passing the cups down because they assumed that if they were drinking nobody else would want to either. It was all kind of confusing, but things got better.

This was like two weeks ago and I don’t really remember much of what was talked about or the exact details anymore.

After the restaurant, we decided to hit up the Dragon Bar for some drinks. At the bar I deliberately sat in a place where I could meet new people and avoid the annoying guy from Ontario. I was successful in meeting new people; unfortunately the annoying guy got the chair next to me. Fuck. I meet Nicky and Sara, two teachers from a different Kang Tae Woo school. Both have been here for a while and were really nice and cooler than the average uncool English teacher. (Have I mentioned that English teachers are generally not very cool? Of course there are some exceptions, but not many). I would definitely like to try to be real friends with them. Then I talked with Trav while Laura made friends with Daniel and a Korean guy named Josh. She talked with them for hours.

At about 4:30, a bunch of us left the bar for a noraebang. Sally had left already; she wanted to escape a guy. She took a cab home. Sarah left as well because she had to work the next day. That meant that all the people that I actually knew were gone, a thought that didn’t occur to me until we were sitting in the noraebang with a bunch of people who were basically strangers to me. Laura doesn’t sing, although she politely looked through the song list to appease pushy regulars. Trav and I sang a couple of duets, including his usual “The Bitch is Back” and we may have sung some Avril Lavinge. I like singing Avril; she’s easy.

6:30 rolled around and we decided that it was time to go home. The subways were running again. I guess the subways had been running for over an hour already. I rode with Trav and Laura until my stop, but I’m close to Nowan, so it was only two stops. I was pleased that I was able to really take them out, Korean style. There were a few stages, important in a night out, there was some soju and some beer, we definitely heard Big Bang a few times, we went to a noraebang, essential in the stages, and we stayed out until we could get back on the subway. It was perfect, also, I think this was first time I have actually pulled an all nighter here. All the other times I have fallen asleep somewhere, even if it was on Sally’s shoulder on the subway. I got into bed at about 7:30 AM. Perfect.

Say Goodbye-bye

Goodbyes always feel so inadequate. I always feel like something profound and life changing needs to be uttered, eyes need to meet and floods of emotion need flow back and forth between parting individuals. It’s just never enough. I can never make myself believe that I will actually not see this person for year, 10 months, 6 months. But I want to try and make it seem as though I do.
I had to say good-bye to a lot in the past three months: first when I left for Korea and then when my family visited me and left again. I feel like I didn’t make it meaningful enough, like I’m a sullen little brat and then at the last moment, when it finally counts, I realize that it has counted all along and I should have been less of sullen brat stress case and more relaxed and grateful. But now they are gone and I love them and still cried a little after they left. Last time I said good-bye to my family, it was only for a couple months. I knew that I would be seeing them again soon. What was hard at the airport was the fear of the unknown. I had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Korea; I didn’t what the job would be like, I didn’t know what kind of school I would get, what the director would be like, what the other teacher would be like. I was flying into the unknown. I was afriad to leave and afraid to arrive. I wept.
This time saying goodbye, I have only them to miss. Ten months before I see my family again. I barely had time to miss them after two.
This time saying good-bye was much different. Standing in my apartment, they gave me hugs and still have to walk to the subway station (I hope they don’t get lost again). They don’t actually leave until tomorrow morning, but their trip is basically over. They will go back to the hotel and then they will finish packing and go to bed. Tomorrow they wake up early and be on the way to the airport by 7:00 AM. I will wake up at 7:30 because I have to be at school shortly after 8:00 tomorrow (yes it is Saturday, but the kids on their winter break from school so for all of January, I teach 9-5 Monday through Saturday (Saturdays are only in the morning), because they come to hagwon more if they are not in regular school.) My life goes on as normal, well, as normal as it gets here. This time they are the ones on the long flight.
Well family, I will miss you. I love that you came to visit me. I love that you could see my home, my school, my life. I am sorry that I couldn’t spend more time with you, my parents. Thank you for all the food and coffee.