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
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Friday, January 2, 2009
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.
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.
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