I just came back from a walk that was as cold as it was beautiful. It temperature was apparently around five degrees and the sun was shinning brightly, but the wind was blowing hard and it was a cold wind. I walked down my street on my new favourite walking route, as I adjusted my headphones, playing Page Frances, I looked up and actually stopped and gasped (a sharp intake of air, because if they don’t understand gasp they will understand intake?). It was actually breathtaking, the view of the mountains. I don’t know why, but the air was totally clear and I could see the mountains in better focus, they were sharp and clear, no haze. They are always beautiful, when I can see them, but today they were amazing. I wasn’t really dressed for the wind and my long walk was cold. At one point it even started snowing a bit. At first I wasn’t sure what they were, the small white things floating in the air. It didn’t seem right that it could be snowing here, not yet. Even though the sun was still out, a dark cloud lingered near by and that dark cloud was snowing. It was almost nothing, but still lovely. I was near frozen by the time I arrived back at home. My arms were red and I could barely move my hands. I had difficulty working my key. It was worth it though, just looking at the mountains, every detail was perfect.
I also determined today that my washing machine is retarded. I thought it was all in my head, and then I thought it was the language barrier (all the buttons, and there are lots, are in Korean), and now I know that sometime is wrong. It gets stuck on the final cycle that it goes through and just rinse and spins over and over and over. There was about 8 minuets left on my load of whites, one hour later I finally paused it and had to just turn the thing off. However, because it is a front loader, it locks. It wouldn’t unlock even after I turned the machine off. So, I just ran them through another load, I had successfully washed a few things using the quick wash cycle (I had Julia translate the buttons for me) so I thought I would try that again. There were four minuets left when I went on my hour and half long walk, and there were four minuets left when I came home. Problematic. So I waited until it stopped spinning and had fully drained, and just before more water would be added I turned it off again. This time I had to jimmy open the door, I don’t think there was any damage, to get at my whites, all of which had to be wrung out by hand because they were still dripping wet. I find this aggravating and I am not sure with whom I should lodge a complaint.
Went out Friday night to mourn the loss of Mr. Park, he is being transferred to the Nowan branch. Now I have nobody on which to have a work crush. Sigh. We went out at night, came home in the morning. More distressing then the amount of soju I consumed is the amount of food I consumed, or devoured as if I were a starving animal. Drinking, which is already bad enough, must always be accompanied by copious amounts of food. Although there was a fruit plate, nothing goes better with weak beer than watermelon and persimmon, most of it was not good for me, but not necessarily bad either, but not in such amounts. I have no self-control when something is placed in front of me. There was an omelet like egg dish, some street bulgogi, Korean pancakes and this was at the second place.
A Korean night out usually has couple of stages. This one started at a hof with beer, fried chicken, the fruit platter, and some really disgusting looking hot dog type things that I did not touch (this required no self control, just looking at them was almost vomit inducing, never mind the smell). We moved to street level where we partook in soju and the Korean delicacies listed above in a plastic restaurant. In some places there are rows of plastic tent restaurants that serve surprisingly delicious food and are usually quite busy. After the street we went to a basement noraebang and sang a bit. I guess this night was the last Wednesday night madness it just happened to be on a Friday.
No more Park. It is distressing. Who knows what kind of person could replace him. I was just getting used to him and becoming more comfortable in asking for help. Now he is gone.
Friday night actually started with a movie: “Connected”. A Hong Kong version of the American made movie “Cellular”. It was really a terrible film, but because it was in Chinese with Korean subtitles the cheese factor was much less than it could have been or perhaps the cheese factor was increased, I’m not sure. Being a not-deep action movie, I was able to fully follow the plot. If they are going to remake American movies, they could at least remake good ones. Oh well, Kang Tae Woo paid for it, I’ll go see a free movie any day. He was there, Mr. Kang Tae Woo. Sally and I got into the elevator to go to the movie theater and Sally leans over and whispers at me, I think that guy is Mr. Kang Tae Woo, the one who looks like a Korean Conan O’Brian. He does look like a Korean Conan O’Brian. He didn’t talk to us. He seems important, got some schools named after him and whatnot. All of the teachers were invited to see the movie, only Julia, Sally, and I went. Julia bought popcorn. It was honey popcorn. It was delicious.
Today I also talked to my mom on Skype. It just short conversation, but it was nice to see her face and hear her voice.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
V is for Victory
Sally and I at Dragon Bar
Amber and I at Dragon Bar, V is for victory (over North Korea I think). I like Amber quite a bit.
At the hookah bar, that is me showing Sally her bag using a small flashlight.
Fire show at Dragon Bar, the whole tower was lit on fire. It was real neat.
During the best meal ever, boo.
Look I sing too sometimes, sometimes.
This is the group of people I hang out with sometimes. The guy in black shirt is one who gave the sermon, Feo. The red jackets are married, Ryan and Carolyn. The dudes in the back live together, Mike the birthday boy in the white jersey and Chris. Sarah is the girl in the plaid vest, Sally is behind her. I'm wearing a scarf becuase the bar was cold not because I was trying to be fashionable. Amber is taking the picture.
Sally and I at Dragon Bar.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Pizza Etang, Love for Women
To enter my apartment building one has to enter a code at the main entrance. This system was working fine until a couple of days ago, suddenly it went crazy and started beeping at me even though I had entered the correct code (it was a really easy number) and it wasn’t just me that it started to hate, it hated everybody, at all hours the night when ever somebody came home (and people in my building have weird hours) the stupid thing beeped and beeped. The sound can be heard through the whole building. Finally, on Friday morning, they put in a new system. I was headed down for my morning walk, and the landlord (maybe) and a guy were working on installing the new system. They tired to explain to me what they were doing, as if it wasn’t totally obvious, and then had to tell me the new code and how to enter it into the new keypad.
So, I finally learned the code, ran back up to my apartment to write it down, it is four digits, four different digits, you know how those go. I left for my walk and was quite far from home when I realized that I had left the paper with the code in my apartment. I was pretty sure that I at least remembered what the four numbers were and would eventually enter the right combination. I carried on. When I got back to my apartment, I had was about to enter the code into the newly installed system, and touched the freashly calked edge. Good job Dee. I did enter the correct numbers in the correct order on the first try, but was covered in a black slimly calk that took a really long time to wash off. I made the mistake of using water instead of just wiping it off with towel or something first. I ruined my nail brush. Mom, could you bring me new Lee Valley nail brush when you come?
On Friday night, Sally and I went to the Lotte Cinema in Nowan to see Antique, a film about a man who opens a cake shop and the three dudes who work for him. One a gay pastry chef who was rejected by the cake shop owner in high school, a former boxer who gets paid in pastries, and mysterious dude from the owners past. The film was in Korean, so although we got the gist of the story, many of the details were lost on us. I looked forward to the DVD release, when we can watch it with subtitles. I still really enjoyed it though, because I couldn’t rely on words, I really had to pay attention to body language. It was really interesting. I think it is adapted from a manga series. I assume that all of the characters eventually turn out to be gay. In my opinion, there was not nearly enough guy on guy action.
The movie was set in modern Seoul. It was beneficial to see some the scenes that happened in people’s houses. I finally figured out how to use the little pieces of seaweed paper, I have always wondered and the sushi restaurant that Sally and I eat at sometimes always gives us a free pack of it when we eat there. Usually I just eat it plain as a snack, but in the movie, they ate it with rice, so on Saturday, I had to pick up a few groceries, which included seaweed paper.
Now I have three different kinds of seaweed products in my cupboard. Seaweed with sesame oil, also supposed to eaten with rice or in soup, but it is tasty snack. Also, I have seaweed squares that are supposed to be eaten plain, but I don’t really like them so I cut them up in to my noodles or put them in my omelets. Seaweed is super healthy, and super cheap here. It will one of the things I miss at home, where I assume it is considerable more expensive, but maybe not, I know that it is easily available.
On Saturday, during the day, I went for another ambling walk and found a really cool park with some kind of intense hiking trails around burial mounds. It was really cool, I didn’t venture too far because I didn’t want to get lost in the trails. I have a very bad sense of direction. I think that the area is not too big, because it is still in the city, but there were times while I was walking that I couldn’t even hear traffic. Finding stuff like that make me so thankful that I don’ t live in the city centre where I would never really be away from people or city noise.
Saturday evening, Sally and I walked to Chang-dong, one subway station over. There are lots of stores and vendors right by the subway, we wanted to check it out and get some street food. In one shop I finally found an incense holder that satisfies my incense needs. I am very pleased. After Chang-dong we walked over to Nowan. We browsed a bit in the Lotte department store. Lotte is the big everything brand here in Korea. They do food, amusement parks, clothing, household items, grocery stores, movie theaters, and huge departments stores. This one is 12 floors and has labels and name brands enough to make you puke Gucci. Sally bought an Anne Kline purse about 80,000 won, about 80 bucks give or take, I’m not sure about the exchange rate anymore.
After we had our fill of the Lotte store, we headed outside and met up with Sally’s friends that I met at Halloween. Mike (Salt) was celebrating his birthday and we were called upon to help.
The festivities began with a meal that I didn’t care for on so many levels. The least digestible part was the sermon on why gay people are going to hell (HELL!). Good times with the fundamentalists. I tired to ignore the heinousness that was going on around me, these are not the type of people with whom I want to “debate”, so I tried to distract myself by watching Big Bang music videos that were playing on the TV. I get so angry, sometimes I just want to scream. I find the whole Christian anti-homosexual thing particularly distasteful because people can discuss until they are red in the face and spit is flying and it gets NO WHERE! I feel as though Christianity is supposed to be about love and there was no love in that conversation. As far as I’m concerned (which is actually very little when considering spiritual things) live and let live and let god sort it out in the end. Furthermore, the LGBT community is not going to disappear because a bunch of stupid assholes take issue with a life style that does not affect them. Being gay hurts no one, really, examine that for a moment. The only people that are hurt those that are narrow minded enough to think it hurts. It doesn’t, people should be happy for those who have the courage to come out and live a life that is not actually lie, as it would be to pretend to be straight. I’m sure I’m not making any sense; I was just so outraged after being forced to listen to that bullshit for so long.
Anyway, the evening wasn’t a total bust, after supper we went to the Dragon Bar in Nowan and they do a rad fire and alcohol show for birthdays. There all sorts of cute bar tenders (one totally looked like G Dragon from Big Bang) spinning bottles and blowing fire. It was real neat. And I had a good conversation about female genital mutilation with a girl who is very passionate about the subject, and she is educated in the matter not just someone who kind of knows about it and thinks it’s stupid (It is beyond stupid, but she can actually tell you why).
After the Dragon Bar we went to a Hookah Bar and smoked peppermint Hookah. I don’t really like Hookah, it makes feel gross in the head and in the stomach. It just doesn’t do it for me, but I like blowing the smoke out of my nose. It feels cool. I bet Big Bang likes to smoke Hookah, it’s bad ass without actually being dangerous. I broke the shoehorn as we were leaving, I was mortified, wishing a hole would open up in the ground and suck me in. Alas, everybody assured me it was only a cheap plastic shoehorn and I needn’t be distraught. Still was though.
After hookah, we made our way over to a noraebang for some songs and such. Alas, no cheesy music videos this time. Finally we called it a night or morning or whatever. Sally and I caught a cab, wading through the drunk college students, mostly groups of boys leaning on one another. They hold each other’s hair while they puke and give gentle back rubs. Korean boys are so cute, even the drunk ones. And don’t let Big Bang fool you; Korean boys are really quite docile creatures, lovers not haters.
On Sunday, I woke up and after I got over the initial “ohhhh it’s Monday” I realized that I had the whole day to do NOTHING! No plans, no arrangements, no where to be and no one to meet. It was quite liberating and meant a lot of pressure to live it up. So, I hauled out my trusty Rough Guide to Korea and pulled out my subway map to plan my afternoon. I had read that Hongdae is kind of a cool place to hang during the day too, so I finally I decided to just go there. Exit five form the Hongik university station took me to the most magical place on earth. Well not really, but it was pretty rad, I found these awesome Cherry Tree Lane (before it got lame) type shops and bought sticky notes that look like toast and fried eggs. There was other more awesome stuff that I just really didn’t need.
There were also a lot of cool clothing stores, that I could not bring myself to even peak in, I am ashamed of my very non-Korean body and fear the judgment of sales girls and worse, fear finding the most awesome thing and not fitting or not affording. I have steered clear of any clothing store, save American Apparel, since I arrived here. Soon, I will venture into one and probably regret it. I don’t even like dealing with sales girls in boutiques in Winnipeg. Also, there were a number of interesting looking restaurants, many street food vendors, some tearooms, and coffee shops. It was totally hopping with young hip university students and some sort of Harley Davidson convention or something Random.
I walked around in circles for a bit, missing Bryan; there were many couples in the area. I might just find myself a boyfriend well I’m here, just to pass the time. The boys here always pay and they carry their girlfriends purses as well as their own. And today, I saw a couple the defied the rule, a Korean guy with a white girl; that never happens, it gave me hope for the white girls in Seoul looking for love, I have love so can only play a supporting role in the romance of others, I guess.
After Hongdae I still had lots of time because I had no where to go. I stopped in Hyehwa on my way home, wandered around American Apparel. Don’t worry, I didn’t buy anything, it is more expensive than at home, I think. Again, I don’t actually know what the exchange rate is now. Ok, I just checked and actually, the prices are about the same right now because the exchange rate is not very good. Speaking of crappy exchange rates, I’m going to be able to put as much towards my student loans as I would ideally like. Oh well, it’s the experience that matters.
I got home made rice and ate it with seaweed paper and tuna, like my own little kimbob. And joy upon joys, discovered that I am again receiving a working Internet signal. Woot Woot. I assume that soon it will stop working, but this evening it has consistently worked I have enjoyed watching Firefly again and youtubing Big Bang music videos.
I was talking with my students on Friday and one girl told me that she was going to see Big Bang this weekend. She was real excited. I have heard my students speak of this "band” before, I decided that I should check them out. During my break I youtubed them and fell in love, but not after one of the older interns came in and caught me and Sally watching the music video for Haru Haru. I haven’t decided if my favourite is Top or G Dragon. Big Bang, Korea’s answer to Boy Bands. And, as usual, they do it better.
Again, I apologize for the long winded blog and hope that at least one person reads to the end. I almost felt homesick the other day when I saw a group of boys skateboarding in the subway station, there are not many skateboards around only real cool rollerbladers. Almost, but not quite. I still love it here, but am looking foward to the fam's christmas visit.
Dee
November 23, 2008
So, I finally learned the code, ran back up to my apartment to write it down, it is four digits, four different digits, you know how those go. I left for my walk and was quite far from home when I realized that I had left the paper with the code in my apartment. I was pretty sure that I at least remembered what the four numbers were and would eventually enter the right combination. I carried on. When I got back to my apartment, I had was about to enter the code into the newly installed system, and touched the freashly calked edge. Good job Dee. I did enter the correct numbers in the correct order on the first try, but was covered in a black slimly calk that took a really long time to wash off. I made the mistake of using water instead of just wiping it off with towel or something first. I ruined my nail brush. Mom, could you bring me new Lee Valley nail brush when you come?
On Friday night, Sally and I went to the Lotte Cinema in Nowan to see Antique, a film about a man who opens a cake shop and the three dudes who work for him. One a gay pastry chef who was rejected by the cake shop owner in high school, a former boxer who gets paid in pastries, and mysterious dude from the owners past. The film was in Korean, so although we got the gist of the story, many of the details were lost on us. I looked forward to the DVD release, when we can watch it with subtitles. I still really enjoyed it though, because I couldn’t rely on words, I really had to pay attention to body language. It was really interesting. I think it is adapted from a manga series. I assume that all of the characters eventually turn out to be gay. In my opinion, there was not nearly enough guy on guy action.
The movie was set in modern Seoul. It was beneficial to see some the scenes that happened in people’s houses. I finally figured out how to use the little pieces of seaweed paper, I have always wondered and the sushi restaurant that Sally and I eat at sometimes always gives us a free pack of it when we eat there. Usually I just eat it plain as a snack, but in the movie, they ate it with rice, so on Saturday, I had to pick up a few groceries, which included seaweed paper.
Now I have three different kinds of seaweed products in my cupboard. Seaweed with sesame oil, also supposed to eaten with rice or in soup, but it is tasty snack. Also, I have seaweed squares that are supposed to be eaten plain, but I don’t really like them so I cut them up in to my noodles or put them in my omelets. Seaweed is super healthy, and super cheap here. It will one of the things I miss at home, where I assume it is considerable more expensive, but maybe not, I know that it is easily available.
On Saturday, during the day, I went for another ambling walk and found a really cool park with some kind of intense hiking trails around burial mounds. It was really cool, I didn’t venture too far because I didn’t want to get lost in the trails. I have a very bad sense of direction. I think that the area is not too big, because it is still in the city, but there were times while I was walking that I couldn’t even hear traffic. Finding stuff like that make me so thankful that I don’ t live in the city centre where I would never really be away from people or city noise.
Saturday evening, Sally and I walked to Chang-dong, one subway station over. There are lots of stores and vendors right by the subway, we wanted to check it out and get some street food. In one shop I finally found an incense holder that satisfies my incense needs. I am very pleased. After Chang-dong we walked over to Nowan. We browsed a bit in the Lotte department store. Lotte is the big everything brand here in Korea. They do food, amusement parks, clothing, household items, grocery stores, movie theaters, and huge departments stores. This one is 12 floors and has labels and name brands enough to make you puke Gucci. Sally bought an Anne Kline purse about 80,000 won, about 80 bucks give or take, I’m not sure about the exchange rate anymore.
After we had our fill of the Lotte store, we headed outside and met up with Sally’s friends that I met at Halloween. Mike (Salt) was celebrating his birthday and we were called upon to help.
The festivities began with a meal that I didn’t care for on so many levels. The least digestible part was the sermon on why gay people are going to hell (HELL!). Good times with the fundamentalists. I tired to ignore the heinousness that was going on around me, these are not the type of people with whom I want to “debate”, so I tried to distract myself by watching Big Bang music videos that were playing on the TV. I get so angry, sometimes I just want to scream. I find the whole Christian anti-homosexual thing particularly distasteful because people can discuss until they are red in the face and spit is flying and it gets NO WHERE! I feel as though Christianity is supposed to be about love and there was no love in that conversation. As far as I’m concerned (which is actually very little when considering spiritual things) live and let live and let god sort it out in the end. Furthermore, the LGBT community is not going to disappear because a bunch of stupid assholes take issue with a life style that does not affect them. Being gay hurts no one, really, examine that for a moment. The only people that are hurt those that are narrow minded enough to think it hurts. It doesn’t, people should be happy for those who have the courage to come out and live a life that is not actually lie, as it would be to pretend to be straight. I’m sure I’m not making any sense; I was just so outraged after being forced to listen to that bullshit for so long.
Anyway, the evening wasn’t a total bust, after supper we went to the Dragon Bar in Nowan and they do a rad fire and alcohol show for birthdays. There all sorts of cute bar tenders (one totally looked like G Dragon from Big Bang) spinning bottles and blowing fire. It was real neat. And I had a good conversation about female genital mutilation with a girl who is very passionate about the subject, and she is educated in the matter not just someone who kind of knows about it and thinks it’s stupid (It is beyond stupid, but she can actually tell you why).
After the Dragon Bar we went to a Hookah Bar and smoked peppermint Hookah. I don’t really like Hookah, it makes feel gross in the head and in the stomach. It just doesn’t do it for me, but I like blowing the smoke out of my nose. It feels cool. I bet Big Bang likes to smoke Hookah, it’s bad ass without actually being dangerous. I broke the shoehorn as we were leaving, I was mortified, wishing a hole would open up in the ground and suck me in. Alas, everybody assured me it was only a cheap plastic shoehorn and I needn’t be distraught. Still was though.
After hookah, we made our way over to a noraebang for some songs and such. Alas, no cheesy music videos this time. Finally we called it a night or morning or whatever. Sally and I caught a cab, wading through the drunk college students, mostly groups of boys leaning on one another. They hold each other’s hair while they puke and give gentle back rubs. Korean boys are so cute, even the drunk ones. And don’t let Big Bang fool you; Korean boys are really quite docile creatures, lovers not haters.
On Sunday, I woke up and after I got over the initial “ohhhh it’s Monday” I realized that I had the whole day to do NOTHING! No plans, no arrangements, no where to be and no one to meet. It was quite liberating and meant a lot of pressure to live it up. So, I hauled out my trusty Rough Guide to Korea and pulled out my subway map to plan my afternoon. I had read that Hongdae is kind of a cool place to hang during the day too, so I finally I decided to just go there. Exit five form the Hongik university station took me to the most magical place on earth. Well not really, but it was pretty rad, I found these awesome Cherry Tree Lane (before it got lame) type shops and bought sticky notes that look like toast and fried eggs. There was other more awesome stuff that I just really didn’t need.
There were also a lot of cool clothing stores, that I could not bring myself to even peak in, I am ashamed of my very non-Korean body and fear the judgment of sales girls and worse, fear finding the most awesome thing and not fitting or not affording. I have steered clear of any clothing store, save American Apparel, since I arrived here. Soon, I will venture into one and probably regret it. I don’t even like dealing with sales girls in boutiques in Winnipeg. Also, there were a number of interesting looking restaurants, many street food vendors, some tearooms, and coffee shops. It was totally hopping with young hip university students and some sort of Harley Davidson convention or something Random.
I walked around in circles for a bit, missing Bryan; there were many couples in the area. I might just find myself a boyfriend well I’m here, just to pass the time. The boys here always pay and they carry their girlfriends purses as well as their own. And today, I saw a couple the defied the rule, a Korean guy with a white girl; that never happens, it gave me hope for the white girls in Seoul looking for love, I have love so can only play a supporting role in the romance of others, I guess.
After Hongdae I still had lots of time because I had no where to go. I stopped in Hyehwa on my way home, wandered around American Apparel. Don’t worry, I didn’t buy anything, it is more expensive than at home, I think. Again, I don’t actually know what the exchange rate is now. Ok, I just checked and actually, the prices are about the same right now because the exchange rate is not very good. Speaking of crappy exchange rates, I’m going to be able to put as much towards my student loans as I would ideally like. Oh well, it’s the experience that matters.
I got home made rice and ate it with seaweed paper and tuna, like my own little kimbob. And joy upon joys, discovered that I am again receiving a working Internet signal. Woot Woot. I assume that soon it will stop working, but this evening it has consistently worked I have enjoyed watching Firefly again and youtubing Big Bang music videos.
I was talking with my students on Friday and one girl told me that she was going to see Big Bang this weekend. She was real excited. I have heard my students speak of this "band” before, I decided that I should check them out. During my break I youtubed them and fell in love, but not after one of the older interns came in and caught me and Sally watching the music video for Haru Haru. I haven’t decided if my favourite is Top or G Dragon. Big Bang, Korea’s answer to Boy Bands. And, as usual, they do it better.
Again, I apologize for the long winded blog and hope that at least one person reads to the end. I almost felt homesick the other day when I saw a group of boys skateboarding in the subway station, there are not many skateboards around only real cool rollerbladers. Almost, but not quite. I still love it here, but am looking foward to the fam's christmas visit.
Dee
November 23, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Spell-check, A Love Hate Relationship
I’m basically Simone de Beauvoir, we both like to read, we both like to take ambling walks without special equipment or shoes, and we are both feminists. I guess there are a few difference, nothing big, she just likes to sleep with both men and women, is very intelligent, and has wrote a few books. Like I said, practically the same person, although, I would never fuck an asshole like Sartre. To be fair, de Beauvoir was no innocent, but she still got the short end. She made big sacrifices for his loves and required none from him, she was so intent on trying to not show her jealousy that she actually put up money to take care of more than one girl that Sartre had a thing for, and then he had the audacity to make her feel guilty about some her liaisons. He told her that he could never marry her or anyone else, but then he asked Dolores Vanetti to marry him. I’m only about half-way through the book and I am pissed at Sartre. Mean while, de Beauvoir ruins a chance to be with someone who seems to really love her because Sartre suddenly wants to spend more time with her. How could she be so blind? I suppose she was just as bad as Sartre, stringing along various men and women, running to them when Sartre sought the arms of other women, and dropping them when Sartre called. One other annoyance that I would like to point out, in my spell check, Sartre exists, but de Beauvoir does not. I had to add Beauvoir to the dictionary. Apparently, he is important enough to pass through spell check, while she is not.
This rant may seem like it is coming from nowhere. However, it is relevant to my life right now. I’m reading Tête-À-Tête: The Tumultuous Lives & Loves of Simone de Beauvoir & Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley. They lived in an incredible world, their friends included a cast of writers, artists, and film makers that I almost blows my mind. Many of the names dropped in the book are known to me but many more are not. Clearly, I have some reading to do.
I didn’t expect to be so absorbed in this book, I thought it might be kind of interesting, but seeing how two important philosophers and writers were connected and how they affected the work of the other is fascinating, Sartre gave de Beauvoir the inspiration for The Second Sex, the book I plan to read immediately after I finish Tête-À-Tête.
However, I just bought a copy of War and Peace, my way of keeping up with the Underground Book Club, I might have to read that next. I have been reading faster than I intended, but I only have a month until my family comes to visit, bearing more books, I don’t think I can possibly finish everything I have along so far before then.
Today, for my solo subway adventure, I visited Bandi and Luni’s, a large bookstore or chain of bookstores in Seoul. They have a large English selection that is actually pretty decent and quite well organized: Literature is separate from pocket fiction, and there is a separate section for classics, including cheap copies of classics: War and Peace was only 6000 won. That’s like six bucks. Although, thinking about it now, if I would have gone for the 12,000 won edition, it would have been a better translation. I’m actually really annoyed at myself, I didn’t even think about that at the store. Shit. There is a couple that translates Russian literature together, they live in France, I think they must be the sexist couple in the world. And they do really good work.
Anyway, I went to Bandi and Luni’s, I didn’t realize that I would be heading to Insadong again. Sometimes I am very confused by this city, and the subway map is not to scale and therefore very misleading. So, although the purpose of riding the subway was to go places that I am not comfortable with and to not ride to the same place twice, I found myself in Insadong for the third time in two weeks. It’s ok though; I didn’t to go Insadong-gil because I was unable to find it. There was a sign, I though I was heading in the right direction, but somehow I missed it or didn’t turn at the right time. It is a popular area, so it was no problem finding a coffee shop; in fact, I had many options. So far, I have only gone with American coffee shops, because I want the guarantee of good latte’s that are easy to order, but I think that soon, I will have to venture into one that is purely Korean, they look much more cozy and interesting.
On Tuesday, the temperature suddenly decided to take a nosedive suddenly it is winter in Seoul. Monday was cool, but lovely day, Tuesday was kick your ass cold. I went for an ambling walk in the morning, cold but sunny, so the air felt crisp. But school is cooooold. I guess the it is impossible to control the temperature in individual rooms, and the classrooms get really hot because they are small and in the middle of the building, but the staff room is mostly (covered) windows. It is like working in a freezer. The cold has put all the teachers in bad moods, I almost burst into tears in class on Tuesday I was so frustrated at the hell class. At the end of the class, one of the boys who sits near the front asked me if I was ok. How can you not feel better after that?
I went home after school to use my new pencil crayons, plan my Wednesday subway adventure, and eat boiled sweet potatoes. It made me feel better. I have discovered a new love and it is boiled potatoes eaten cold. It is a common thing here; restaurants will sometimes serve boiled potatoes as one of the many side dishes. Occasionally they are in soy sauce and sugar, surprisingly delicious and very easy to make.
In case you are curious, so far I have read: The Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons), Mercy Among the Children (David Richard Adams), Serendipities (Umberto Eco), Blindness (Jose Saramago), The Vagina Monologues (Eve Ensler), The Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje), Dune (Frank Herbert), and The Stone Angel (Margaret Lawrence). I bought Serendipities and Blindness at Bandi and Luni’s during my first weekend here. Today, at the coffee shop, I saw a girl reading Blindness in Korea, I could tell it was Blindness because it had the same cover art, it looked extra cool in Korean Script.
Dee
November 19, 2008
This rant may seem like it is coming from nowhere. However, it is relevant to my life right now. I’m reading Tête-À-Tête: The Tumultuous Lives & Loves of Simone de Beauvoir & Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley. They lived in an incredible world, their friends included a cast of writers, artists, and film makers that I almost blows my mind. Many of the names dropped in the book are known to me but many more are not. Clearly, I have some reading to do.
I didn’t expect to be so absorbed in this book, I thought it might be kind of interesting, but seeing how two important philosophers and writers were connected and how they affected the work of the other is fascinating, Sartre gave de Beauvoir the inspiration for The Second Sex, the book I plan to read immediately after I finish Tête-À-Tête.
However, I just bought a copy of War and Peace, my way of keeping up with the Underground Book Club, I might have to read that next. I have been reading faster than I intended, but I only have a month until my family comes to visit, bearing more books, I don’t think I can possibly finish everything I have along so far before then.
Today, for my solo subway adventure, I visited Bandi and Luni’s, a large bookstore or chain of bookstores in Seoul. They have a large English selection that is actually pretty decent and quite well organized: Literature is separate from pocket fiction, and there is a separate section for classics, including cheap copies of classics: War and Peace was only 6000 won. That’s like six bucks. Although, thinking about it now, if I would have gone for the 12,000 won edition, it would have been a better translation. I’m actually really annoyed at myself, I didn’t even think about that at the store. Shit. There is a couple that translates Russian literature together, they live in France, I think they must be the sexist couple in the world. And they do really good work.
Anyway, I went to Bandi and Luni’s, I didn’t realize that I would be heading to Insadong again. Sometimes I am very confused by this city, and the subway map is not to scale and therefore very misleading. So, although the purpose of riding the subway was to go places that I am not comfortable with and to not ride to the same place twice, I found myself in Insadong for the third time in two weeks. It’s ok though; I didn’t to go Insadong-gil because I was unable to find it. There was a sign, I though I was heading in the right direction, but somehow I missed it or didn’t turn at the right time. It is a popular area, so it was no problem finding a coffee shop; in fact, I had many options. So far, I have only gone with American coffee shops, because I want the guarantee of good latte’s that are easy to order, but I think that soon, I will have to venture into one that is purely Korean, they look much more cozy and interesting.
On Tuesday, the temperature suddenly decided to take a nosedive suddenly it is winter in Seoul. Monday was cool, but lovely day, Tuesday was kick your ass cold. I went for an ambling walk in the morning, cold but sunny, so the air felt crisp. But school is cooooold. I guess the it is impossible to control the temperature in individual rooms, and the classrooms get really hot because they are small and in the middle of the building, but the staff room is mostly (covered) windows. It is like working in a freezer. The cold has put all the teachers in bad moods, I almost burst into tears in class on Tuesday I was so frustrated at the hell class. At the end of the class, one of the boys who sits near the front asked me if I was ok. How can you not feel better after that?
I went home after school to use my new pencil crayons, plan my Wednesday subway adventure, and eat boiled sweet potatoes. It made me feel better. I have discovered a new love and it is boiled potatoes eaten cold. It is a common thing here; restaurants will sometimes serve boiled potatoes as one of the many side dishes. Occasionally they are in soy sauce and sugar, surprisingly delicious and very easy to make.
In case you are curious, so far I have read: The Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons), Mercy Among the Children (David Richard Adams), Serendipities (Umberto Eco), Blindness (Jose Saramago), The Vagina Monologues (Eve Ensler), The Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje), Dune (Frank Herbert), and The Stone Angel (Margaret Lawrence). I bought Serendipities and Blindness at Bandi and Luni’s during my first weekend here. Today, at the coffee shop, I saw a girl reading Blindness in Korea, I could tell it was Blindness because it had the same cover art, it looked extra cool in Korean Script.
Dee
November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Cairo
Saturdy, Sally and I met Tasha and Hou-Jin in Insadong for lunch, we had dumplings in a beef broth, it was delicous. We walked around for a while, but it was raining so we soon retreated to a tea house, I had plum tea, it was very sweet but was very good. Shortly after tea Sally and I headed home to get ready for another Hongdae adventure.
My friend Adi, who is also teaching in Korea, but in a different city, invited me to a club in Hongdae on Saturday night because her friend was DJing. We haven’t had a chance to see each other because she lives a couple hours outside of Seoul and doesn’t come here super often, so this seemed like a really good opportunity to finally see her.
Just after we left the Subway station in Hongdae, Sally and I were walking down the street and some white people asked us for directions to a club that happened to be beside the club we were going too. We told them we would take them there. Sally knew where she was going; I did not. However, once we started walking around things did start to look familiar. We chatted with the white folk as we walked, a couple of English teachers and three Welsh guys who were on a stop over on their way home from New Zealand. After chatting for a moment, we realized that they were all actually looking for the same club as us and the English teachers new Adi, they had trained with her.
Seoul is one of the biggest cities in the world. Hongdae, the club district, is huge and full of people, you have stick close to not get separated from your friends. It is literally a sea of people. In this huge city, in this area with so many people, we accidentally run into people who are going to the same place and know the same people. Crazy! I thought things like that only happen in Winnipeg.
We got to the club, things hadn’t really started up and Adi wasn’t there yet. We decided to wait it out and see if she would turn up. We talked to some of the English teachers, compared our schools, school vs. Hagwon, school wins every time.
After we had been there for about 25 minuets, a performance artist started his performance. He started by placing a bowl of water and a face cloth on the floor. Then he mixed black paint in a different bowl in the middle of the floor. He put the paint aside and knelt in front of the water bowl and began to wash his face. After washing for a minute, he took of his shirt and continued to wash. Eventually he dried his face on the facecloth and dressed himself in a traditional Korean robe. He jumped around a bit, swishing and swooping with the robe. When he was satisfied that he swished enough, he started painting on the floor with the black paint. He drew some sort of symbol perhaps, I really don’t know, and then started tracing the outlines of people’s feet, those who stood in the front. He finished the painting and using the bowl of face water, he started splashing people gently and splashing water on the floor. Finally, he used the face cloth to artistically clean the floor and then rubbed the face cloth on his face again, the floor and paint cloth. And that was it. I felt enlightened.
The dancing started again. After awhile I started to one of the Welsh guys, his name is Ben, he is a surveyor, he was in New Zealand for three weeks just to surf, this was the his first night out in three weeks, he was thirty, and finally Adi arrived. She seemed genuinely happy to see me. She gave me a big hug and we talked for a long time. She has been here a few months and just hit the homesick stage about which Xena had warned me. I guess it was nice to see somebody from home. It was nice to see a familiar face and to talk to a fellow Canadian.
Sally and stayed at the club, which started hoping after a while, and finally left. We had some waffle fish and found a restaurant that was still open, ate a lot of fried food, and hung out until the subway opened again. Back in Ssangmun, the place where I like to get my kimbob was open and I bought one and ate it before crawling into my bed at 7:30. I love Seoul.
Desirae
My friend Adi, who is also teaching in Korea, but in a different city, invited me to a club in Hongdae on Saturday night because her friend was DJing. We haven’t had a chance to see each other because she lives a couple hours outside of Seoul and doesn’t come here super often, so this seemed like a really good opportunity to finally see her.
Just after we left the Subway station in Hongdae, Sally and I were walking down the street and some white people asked us for directions to a club that happened to be beside the club we were going too. We told them we would take them there. Sally knew where she was going; I did not. However, once we started walking around things did start to look familiar. We chatted with the white folk as we walked, a couple of English teachers and three Welsh guys who were on a stop over on their way home from New Zealand. After chatting for a moment, we realized that they were all actually looking for the same club as us and the English teachers new Adi, they had trained with her.
Seoul is one of the biggest cities in the world. Hongdae, the club district, is huge and full of people, you have stick close to not get separated from your friends. It is literally a sea of people. In this huge city, in this area with so many people, we accidentally run into people who are going to the same place and know the same people. Crazy! I thought things like that only happen in Winnipeg.
We got to the club, things hadn’t really started up and Adi wasn’t there yet. We decided to wait it out and see if she would turn up. We talked to some of the English teachers, compared our schools, school vs. Hagwon, school wins every time.
After we had been there for about 25 minuets, a performance artist started his performance. He started by placing a bowl of water and a face cloth on the floor. Then he mixed black paint in a different bowl in the middle of the floor. He put the paint aside and knelt in front of the water bowl and began to wash his face. After washing for a minute, he took of his shirt and continued to wash. Eventually he dried his face on the facecloth and dressed himself in a traditional Korean robe. He jumped around a bit, swishing and swooping with the robe. When he was satisfied that he swished enough, he started painting on the floor with the black paint. He drew some sort of symbol perhaps, I really don’t know, and then started tracing the outlines of people’s feet, those who stood in the front. He finished the painting and using the bowl of face water, he started splashing people gently and splashing water on the floor. Finally, he used the face cloth to artistically clean the floor and then rubbed the face cloth on his face again, the floor and paint cloth. And that was it. I felt enlightened.
The dancing started again. After awhile I started to one of the Welsh guys, his name is Ben, he is a surveyor, he was in New Zealand for three weeks just to surf, this was the his first night out in three weeks, he was thirty, and finally Adi arrived. She seemed genuinely happy to see me. She gave me a big hug and we talked for a long time. She has been here a few months and just hit the homesick stage about which Xena had warned me. I guess it was nice to see somebody from home. It was nice to see a familiar face and to talk to a fellow Canadian.
Sally and stayed at the club, which started hoping after a while, and finally left. We had some waffle fish and found a restaurant that was still open, ate a lot of fried food, and hung out until the subway opened again. Back in Ssangmun, the place where I like to get my kimbob was open and I bought one and ate it before crawling into my bed at 7:30. I love Seoul.
Desirae
Friday, November 14, 2008
School Daze
Mother asked me to write about my school and about teaching, seeing as that is the reason I am in Korea, I guess I should deliver.
I teach at the Kang Tae Woo English Institute in Ssangmun, a neighbourhood in Dobong-gu. Kang Tae Woo is a man, I have never met him, but he has a few academies in Seoul; the head branch is in Nowan. This type of school is known as a hagwon, an after school academy. There are lots of different kinds of hagwons, like science, math, music, and art and a lot of English hagwons. Everywhere you look, there are hagwons.
My teaching hours are about 2:30 to 10:00, there is no given time to actually be at school, my earliest class is at 3:30, no one has actually told me when I should be at school, but I figure I’m ok as long as I arrive at school before Sally. She has been here longer, so I take my cue from her. I teach 23 classes a week, four or five a day. I only have one class that is a repeat, I teach a little girl named Sally three times a week, she just happens to be the only student at her level. The rest of my classes I teach only once a week, the class sizes are between four and thirteen students.
The school is divided up in to age levels, there are the youngest Elementary students, they have two thirty-five minute class, then the older elementary students who have two fifty minute classes and a ten minuet vocabulary test. Last are the middle school students, they have three fifty minute classes and a fifteen minuet vocabulary test. There are a number levels within the grades, because obviously not all the students are at the same place with their English.
The high school students come on Saturday, I don’t have to teach them. They are taught by Paul, the one I went drinking with the other day. I didn’t know who he was until that night, so I used to just take his cue and ignored him like he ignored me, now I smile in a friendly manner and nod my head when I pass him in the hallway.
Sally and I are the only foreign teachers. She is from New York. There are four full time Korean English teachers: Julia, Sunny, Tasha, and Youn. And five part time teachers, I sit beside one, I think her name is Sammy, or something Korean that sounds like Sammy. She is really nice and shares her kimbob with me. The teachers are awesome. As you may remember, Sunny took me to the palace and to Insadong on my first weekend. Tasha and her husband took Sally and I too a movie, and Julia is giving me Korean lessons and she helped me get a bank account. Besides the stuff that they do for me, they are really great to work with. We all share an office and they always share their food, or bring stuff for everybody. We sit around and complain about how horrible our students are or we come up with ways to trick the students into working and share tips on the best way to bribe the kids or the best way to punish certain children.
Which brings me to the kids, the horrible horrible hell children. They are all demons from the deepest pits of hell, for reals. The middle elementary students are the worst, the class sizes are usually too big and I find my self having to shout just to be heard above the constant, and I really mean constant babble, babble that frequently turns to shouts and screams. I lost my temper on a class the other day and screamed at them, actually screamed. I told them to stop talking for the like millionth time and they don’t listen, they don’t even pretend to listen and I lost it. I went Merrilee Plett on their asses. I asked them why there were still talking, I don’t understand why you are still talking. Just stop, stop talking. Right now, what don’t you understand about stop talking? I told them to stop talking, I said they were only allowed to talk if they were talking to me and talking in English. I was actually yelling almost as loud as I could. I was soooooo pissed. I get so sick of fighting with the classes, so sick of boys who fight and yell in class, girls who have their more subtle but equally frustrating ways of ignoring or not paying attention. I can almost understand why some teachers in real schools resort to corporal punishment, almost. I do not condone corporal punishment.
I try to understand it from the students’ point of view; they are in school all damn day, every damn day. They wake up to go to regular school, where the teachers are sometimes beyond mean, cruel even. Then they have to come English hagwon, the come here twice a week. On other days they have to go to math or science hagwon, they also have music lessons and who knows what else. Then they have to do their piles of homework. The often don’t get to bed until 11:00 or 12:00 or even later. They don’t get enough sleep, they work too much, and they have few releases for the their energy. And to top if all off, a lot of them are very spoiled because they are only children. Korea has one the lowest birth rates, so they cherish their children. The Korean teachers have to make regular phone calls to the parents regarding the child’s progress. They almost always get blamed for the kid’s poor grades and lack of performance. It couldn’t possibly be their bratty child who refuses to listen in class nor could it be that their children are tired and over worked.
All of this in preparation for the university entrance exam and for the Tofel test that they will take in high school or even later. English is everything. All they want is for the children to learn English, as if it the English language alone with save them or provide them with amazing jobs. It is a very bad system and these kids get the worst of it. Further more, it apparently, to educate a kid in this fashion costs about $5000.00 a month! That is why they only have one kid, that is why people wait so long to have kids. It is fucking expensive.
However, there are some bright spots. Like the adorable middle school boys who try to flatter me to get of doing work. They pepper me with questions about Canada and my boyfriend. They tell me I’m beautiful. The 14-year old in me, loves every bit of it, the 22 year old me, smiles with amusement and is just thankful they are speaking in English. I don’t care how they do it; I’m perfectly willing to forgo the boring course work as long as they are speaking English.
Some of the middle school classes are less awesome and all we do is follow the book to a tee and they have a boring boring boring book. But if they refuse to talk to me, what else can I do?
So the kids are hell, but some are worth it, like when I realized that student Sally understood top, under, and in. And When I realized that she could read some of the words. Or when I can talk with my class for over half an hour about activities they like or when they actually tell me things about Korea. I get warm and a fuzzy, Teaching is tough, especially because I only see the kids once a week, it is hard to really see progress. And I have only been here for less than a month, but getting close to a month.
And sometimes they give me candy, like on pepero day, Nov. 11 (11/11). It is not actually a holiday, but they have they sweet bread sticks dipped in chocolate that they all give each other on 11/11. I asked how long this had been a tradition, apparently only about two years. So not really a tradition, but some company sure is trying.
And I have mentioned hat Mr. Lim, the director is a dude outside of school. In school is still a dude. The other day he brought a bag (a plastic bag) of dukbogi for the teacher to eat, which we devoured in a moment. It is so delicious. Apparently, he also takes out the whole staff for meals about once a month. He is also really good with the kids. I don’t think they fear him, but they do listen to him. There is lots of joking around in the halls between the kids and the staff, which is nice, from what I hear this is not the case in many schools.
Mr. Park is also really good with the kids. He doesn’t teach but he is the main punisher. However, the harshest thing I have seen him do is make a kid stand in the corner holding his arms over his head. Usually he just pulls them aside and talks to them. Sometimes they get a gentle cuff on the head or he pulls their ears, but it is not usually in anger.
I all I have to do is teach my classes. Many of my classes, epically for the middle school kids requires very little preparation. Unless they are willing to talk to me, all I have to do more or less is push play on a CD player. Some of the elementary classes require a little more prep and once a week I have to teach a speaking class that is supposed to be just for fun, we play English games. That is the class that requires the most work, but it is also the most fun. I have no marking to do and no tests to give. None of my classes require any marking, but for the classes that do require it, interns do all the marking. I’m sure how old they are, either high school or university students. They do all the grunt work: the marking, the cleaning, the copying, everything.
School days seem to go by very quickly; some classes are better than others. There are few classes that I totally hate and then others that I almost look forward to, like the little girls in one of my elementary classes who try really hard to understand the story. Or the one middle school class, where there is one boy who actually remembers what happened in the novel from the week before.
I don’t hate teaching as much as I though I would and I find myself actually caring about the students and weather or not they understand and are learning anything. In classes where we are reading books, I really want them to understand so that they can sort of enjoy the book, I’m passionate about that. But we have to read these really crappy adaptations of classics, like Black Beauty, Oliver Twist (you know how I feel about Dickens) The Lost World (Conan Doyle not Jurassic Park), and Little Women. It breaks my heart when I think about how badly they butchered Little Women (“Jo, how could you? Your one beauty!” “The Play is the thing Amy.”) How do you make kids enjoy that crap? Although it is better than Morris the Moose, the bane of my existence right now. Have ever had to explain what a thing is? The words are easy but the concept is impossible for English learners. That is problem with most of the curriculum; it is very difficult to teach from because, all though the words or exercises are quite simple, it is impossible to explain how to do the work.
I guess I just expected that I would show up and just be there, but it turns out, I care.
Dee
I teach at the Kang Tae Woo English Institute in Ssangmun, a neighbourhood in Dobong-gu. Kang Tae Woo is a man, I have never met him, but he has a few academies in Seoul; the head branch is in Nowan. This type of school is known as a hagwon, an after school academy. There are lots of different kinds of hagwons, like science, math, music, and art and a lot of English hagwons. Everywhere you look, there are hagwons.
My teaching hours are about 2:30 to 10:00, there is no given time to actually be at school, my earliest class is at 3:30, no one has actually told me when I should be at school, but I figure I’m ok as long as I arrive at school before Sally. She has been here longer, so I take my cue from her. I teach 23 classes a week, four or five a day. I only have one class that is a repeat, I teach a little girl named Sally three times a week, she just happens to be the only student at her level. The rest of my classes I teach only once a week, the class sizes are between four and thirteen students.
The school is divided up in to age levels, there are the youngest Elementary students, they have two thirty-five minute class, then the older elementary students who have two fifty minute classes and a ten minuet vocabulary test. Last are the middle school students, they have three fifty minute classes and a fifteen minuet vocabulary test. There are a number levels within the grades, because obviously not all the students are at the same place with their English.
The high school students come on Saturday, I don’t have to teach them. They are taught by Paul, the one I went drinking with the other day. I didn’t know who he was until that night, so I used to just take his cue and ignored him like he ignored me, now I smile in a friendly manner and nod my head when I pass him in the hallway.
Sally and I are the only foreign teachers. She is from New York. There are four full time Korean English teachers: Julia, Sunny, Tasha, and Youn. And five part time teachers, I sit beside one, I think her name is Sammy, or something Korean that sounds like Sammy. She is really nice and shares her kimbob with me. The teachers are awesome. As you may remember, Sunny took me to the palace and to Insadong on my first weekend. Tasha and her husband took Sally and I too a movie, and Julia is giving me Korean lessons and she helped me get a bank account. Besides the stuff that they do for me, they are really great to work with. We all share an office and they always share their food, or bring stuff for everybody. We sit around and complain about how horrible our students are or we come up with ways to trick the students into working and share tips on the best way to bribe the kids or the best way to punish certain children.
Which brings me to the kids, the horrible horrible hell children. They are all demons from the deepest pits of hell, for reals. The middle elementary students are the worst, the class sizes are usually too big and I find my self having to shout just to be heard above the constant, and I really mean constant babble, babble that frequently turns to shouts and screams. I lost my temper on a class the other day and screamed at them, actually screamed. I told them to stop talking for the like millionth time and they don’t listen, they don’t even pretend to listen and I lost it. I went Merrilee Plett on their asses. I asked them why there were still talking, I don’t understand why you are still talking. Just stop, stop talking. Right now, what don’t you understand about stop talking? I told them to stop talking, I said they were only allowed to talk if they were talking to me and talking in English. I was actually yelling almost as loud as I could. I was soooooo pissed. I get so sick of fighting with the classes, so sick of boys who fight and yell in class, girls who have their more subtle but equally frustrating ways of ignoring or not paying attention. I can almost understand why some teachers in real schools resort to corporal punishment, almost. I do not condone corporal punishment.
I try to understand it from the students’ point of view; they are in school all damn day, every damn day. They wake up to go to regular school, where the teachers are sometimes beyond mean, cruel even. Then they have to come English hagwon, the come here twice a week. On other days they have to go to math or science hagwon, they also have music lessons and who knows what else. Then they have to do their piles of homework. The often don’t get to bed until 11:00 or 12:00 or even later. They don’t get enough sleep, they work too much, and they have few releases for the their energy. And to top if all off, a lot of them are very spoiled because they are only children. Korea has one the lowest birth rates, so they cherish their children. The Korean teachers have to make regular phone calls to the parents regarding the child’s progress. They almost always get blamed for the kid’s poor grades and lack of performance. It couldn’t possibly be their bratty child who refuses to listen in class nor could it be that their children are tired and over worked.
All of this in preparation for the university entrance exam and for the Tofel test that they will take in high school or even later. English is everything. All they want is for the children to learn English, as if it the English language alone with save them or provide them with amazing jobs. It is a very bad system and these kids get the worst of it. Further more, it apparently, to educate a kid in this fashion costs about $5000.00 a month! That is why they only have one kid, that is why people wait so long to have kids. It is fucking expensive.
However, there are some bright spots. Like the adorable middle school boys who try to flatter me to get of doing work. They pepper me with questions about Canada and my boyfriend. They tell me I’m beautiful. The 14-year old in me, loves every bit of it, the 22 year old me, smiles with amusement and is just thankful they are speaking in English. I don’t care how they do it; I’m perfectly willing to forgo the boring course work as long as they are speaking English.
Some of the middle school classes are less awesome and all we do is follow the book to a tee and they have a boring boring boring book. But if they refuse to talk to me, what else can I do?
So the kids are hell, but some are worth it, like when I realized that student Sally understood top, under, and in. And When I realized that she could read some of the words. Or when I can talk with my class for over half an hour about activities they like or when they actually tell me things about Korea. I get warm and a fuzzy, Teaching is tough, especially because I only see the kids once a week, it is hard to really see progress. And I have only been here for less than a month, but getting close to a month.
And sometimes they give me candy, like on pepero day, Nov. 11 (11/11). It is not actually a holiday, but they have they sweet bread sticks dipped in chocolate that they all give each other on 11/11. I asked how long this had been a tradition, apparently only about two years. So not really a tradition, but some company sure is trying.
And I have mentioned hat Mr. Lim, the director is a dude outside of school. In school is still a dude. The other day he brought a bag (a plastic bag) of dukbogi for the teacher to eat, which we devoured in a moment. It is so delicious. Apparently, he also takes out the whole staff for meals about once a month. He is also really good with the kids. I don’t think they fear him, but they do listen to him. There is lots of joking around in the halls between the kids and the staff, which is nice, from what I hear this is not the case in many schools.
Mr. Park is also really good with the kids. He doesn’t teach but he is the main punisher. However, the harshest thing I have seen him do is make a kid stand in the corner holding his arms over his head. Usually he just pulls them aside and talks to them. Sometimes they get a gentle cuff on the head or he pulls their ears, but it is not usually in anger.
I all I have to do is teach my classes. Many of my classes, epically for the middle school kids requires very little preparation. Unless they are willing to talk to me, all I have to do more or less is push play on a CD player. Some of the elementary classes require a little more prep and once a week I have to teach a speaking class that is supposed to be just for fun, we play English games. That is the class that requires the most work, but it is also the most fun. I have no marking to do and no tests to give. None of my classes require any marking, but for the classes that do require it, interns do all the marking. I’m sure how old they are, either high school or university students. They do all the grunt work: the marking, the cleaning, the copying, everything.
School days seem to go by very quickly; some classes are better than others. There are few classes that I totally hate and then others that I almost look forward to, like the little girls in one of my elementary classes who try really hard to understand the story. Or the one middle school class, where there is one boy who actually remembers what happened in the novel from the week before.
I don’t hate teaching as much as I though I would and I find myself actually caring about the students and weather or not they understand and are learning anything. In classes where we are reading books, I really want them to understand so that they can sort of enjoy the book, I’m passionate about that. But we have to read these really crappy adaptations of classics, like Black Beauty, Oliver Twist (you know how I feel about Dickens) The Lost World (Conan Doyle not Jurassic Park), and Little Women. It breaks my heart when I think about how badly they butchered Little Women (“Jo, how could you? Your one beauty!” “The Play is the thing Amy.”) How do you make kids enjoy that crap? Although it is better than Morris the Moose, the bane of my existence right now. Have ever had to explain what a thing is? The words are easy but the concept is impossible for English learners. That is problem with most of the curriculum; it is very difficult to teach from because, all though the words or exercises are quite simple, it is impossible to explain how to do the work.
I guess I just expected that I would show up and just be there, but it turns out, I care.
Dee
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Insadong Will Have My Heart, Waffle Fish Will Have My Stomach
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
This morning I had my coffee at a coffee shop in Insadong. Insadong is where Sunny took me my first weekend here. It is lovely there. Today, not being the weekend, there were less people around. Of course I had to be there early, so not all the shops were open yet either. Many of the shops do sell tourist crap, but it is nicer tourist crap than in Itaewon. However, there are also lots of art supply stores, I wish that I were a painter or a sketch artist, Insadong would be like heaven. Almost every other building is an art gallery of some kind, something I hope to take advantage off while I am here. There are also a number of traditional tearooms and restaurants. I decided that I love Insadong.
On my way home for Insadong, I finally did what I have wanted to do since I arrived in this country: I bought food from a street vendor. Some of the vendors sell these waffle type things that are filled with a bean paste (sounds gross, but is actually quite good, it’s sweet) and are shaped like fish. There is no fish in them, they are just poured into a mold. They smell really good and when I walk home from the subway station, I pass three vendors.
I passed the first vendor, losing my courage. I passed the second vendor, kicking myself. At the third, I finally took the plunge. It seems that they also sell waffles, a woman was ordering in front of me, and she got a waffle. It looked good too. Anyway, it was soon my turn, I pointed at the fish waffles and held up one figure, just one I said. He took my cheon won (1000 won bill, basically like a dollar) and gave me a bag with three fish. Fine, I’ll take it. Most places don’t like to give change; they want to have the exact change. I have had more than one cashier dive into my wallet looking for the exact change.
I took the waffle fish home. Excited to eat them. All three fish were different. The first fish had the expected bean paste; it was delicious. The second fish had the a different sweet filling, it may have been a marmalade, but I’m not sure. The third fish was not sweet, the third fish was like the main course fish, it was more like a pizza pop. It was ok, but I would have rather eaten it first. I would in the future only get the bean paste or the other one, but unfortunately, I have no idea how to express this desire. I shall have to learn how to say bean paste only. I’ll ask Julia at our next Korean lesson.
I made a delicious soup for lunch using a soybean paste in my broth, I was a bit apprehensive that it would be disgusting, but it worked out. I am quite delighted and actually look forward to eating it for lunch again tomorrow.
I went out for supper with a couple of teachers. Tasha and Amy (a part time teacher whose name I only learned at supper) took me to a restaurant that served a dish I have not yet eaten. Again, the food was awesome; I have yet to be disappointed in a restaurant. Everything is soooooo gooooood. We got a big plate of uncooked meat, pork and beef. We grilled the pork but the beef was cooked in a broth, kind of like a broth or oil fondue. We also threw bok choi and other lettuce type leaves into the broth. Then we had a rice paper that we soaked in hot lemon water to soften. We piled meat, lettuce, sprouts, onions, cabbage etc. onto the rice paper, added a bit of sauce, rolled up or balled up the rice paper and ate it. The rice paper had a sticky slippery texture, but it was delicious. Then after the meat was all gone, the server brought some rice out and mixed into the broth to make a rice soup, which we then ate with kimchi. The kimchi is starting to grow on me, just like I was warned but never believed.
Even when eating something like fried chicken, you will get a small cabbage salad and picked radish, which I love love love by the way. This country is awesome.
Wednesday night madness this week was not quite so mad, a little more intimate actually, much less drinking. Park, Lim, Sally, and I went to a pool hall this time, pool hall Korean style. I think that they often go to play billiards, but decided to take us out for pool this time. Mr. Lim drove us all to Nowan. Remember the really long walk I took the other day, the walk that took me like 45 minuets to get to Nowan? It is like a five minuet drive.
In Korea, the pool halls apparently don’t serve alcohol; they only serve coffee, tea, and pop. So I sipped my green tea while I shot some pool. It was Park and I against Sally and Lim. Sally and Lim took us three to two, but the first game was lost only because I sunk the white ball with the eight ball. It was distressing. Park is a decent pool player and I felt bad that he was stuck with me, the hopeless one. But he gave a me a few pointers and constantly rearranged my fingers and I was almost doing stuff by the last game.
The really funny part was the people playing at the other tables. When we arrived there were two sets of girls playing. There were all smoking, something that Korean girls do not often do. That means they were bad ass. They all had special pool gloves and most were wearing five inch heals. And in typical Korean fashion, tights and short skirts or dresses but covered on top, I guess the Korean ladies focus on their hot legs and try to not draw attention to their flat chests. I don’t blame them; I wish I had their legs. (Although, some of the girls don’t fit their boots, I would rather bulge a bit over the boot then have the boot loose around my too skinny leg.) At the other tables there were bad ass boys playing billiards, Park said they were good, I said they were cute, he didn’t hear me. Two particularly badass boys were checking themselves out in the mirrors and when they left they each carried a very feminine bag. Boys and their purses, it gets me every time.
The man running the pool hall fetched us our complementary drinks, he was very quick. Green tea on the house. I guess you pay per hour not game and beverages are free. Once again the Korean system prevails. Of course wan jan nim Lim paid, being the boss and all.
After pool we went out for fried chicken and pints. Not Hyte, but Cass beer. Weakish, no Fort Gary Dark, but not too bad. We ate at a place that was a slight step up from a street vendor. Here, there are lots of little places right on the sidewalks that sell all kinds of food. Some of these places even have chairs within a plastic covering that you can sit on while you eat. This place had a permanent building, but half the building was a plastic tent.
We ate our fried chicken and drank our pints, chatting about stuff. I learned that I probably won’t actually get any vacation time expect for maybe three days in Summer. I hope I misunderstood, but that is how it sounded. I don’t get, I can handle this because I am only here for year, but Park and Lim, this there full time job and they work six days a week, with almost no time off, that is horrible.
It was very nice evening. Mr. Lim drove Sally and I home. I got home at about 2:30. GD, GT’s.
Dee
This morning I had my coffee at a coffee shop in Insadong. Insadong is where Sunny took me my first weekend here. It is lovely there. Today, not being the weekend, there were less people around. Of course I had to be there early, so not all the shops were open yet either. Many of the shops do sell tourist crap, but it is nicer tourist crap than in Itaewon. However, there are also lots of art supply stores, I wish that I were a painter or a sketch artist, Insadong would be like heaven. Almost every other building is an art gallery of some kind, something I hope to take advantage off while I am here. There are also a number of traditional tearooms and restaurants. I decided that I love Insadong.
On my way home for Insadong, I finally did what I have wanted to do since I arrived in this country: I bought food from a street vendor. Some of the vendors sell these waffle type things that are filled with a bean paste (sounds gross, but is actually quite good, it’s sweet) and are shaped like fish. There is no fish in them, they are just poured into a mold. They smell really good and when I walk home from the subway station, I pass three vendors.
I passed the first vendor, losing my courage. I passed the second vendor, kicking myself. At the third, I finally took the plunge. It seems that they also sell waffles, a woman was ordering in front of me, and she got a waffle. It looked good too. Anyway, it was soon my turn, I pointed at the fish waffles and held up one figure, just one I said. He took my cheon won (1000 won bill, basically like a dollar) and gave me a bag with three fish. Fine, I’ll take it. Most places don’t like to give change; they want to have the exact change. I have had more than one cashier dive into my wallet looking for the exact change.
I took the waffle fish home. Excited to eat them. All three fish were different. The first fish had the expected bean paste; it was delicious. The second fish had the a different sweet filling, it may have been a marmalade, but I’m not sure. The third fish was not sweet, the third fish was like the main course fish, it was more like a pizza pop. It was ok, but I would have rather eaten it first. I would in the future only get the bean paste or the other one, but unfortunately, I have no idea how to express this desire. I shall have to learn how to say bean paste only. I’ll ask Julia at our next Korean lesson.
I made a delicious soup for lunch using a soybean paste in my broth, I was a bit apprehensive that it would be disgusting, but it worked out. I am quite delighted and actually look forward to eating it for lunch again tomorrow.
I went out for supper with a couple of teachers. Tasha and Amy (a part time teacher whose name I only learned at supper) took me to a restaurant that served a dish I have not yet eaten. Again, the food was awesome; I have yet to be disappointed in a restaurant. Everything is soooooo gooooood. We got a big plate of uncooked meat, pork and beef. We grilled the pork but the beef was cooked in a broth, kind of like a broth or oil fondue. We also threw bok choi and other lettuce type leaves into the broth. Then we had a rice paper that we soaked in hot lemon water to soften. We piled meat, lettuce, sprouts, onions, cabbage etc. onto the rice paper, added a bit of sauce, rolled up or balled up the rice paper and ate it. The rice paper had a sticky slippery texture, but it was delicious. Then after the meat was all gone, the server brought some rice out and mixed into the broth to make a rice soup, which we then ate with kimchi. The kimchi is starting to grow on me, just like I was warned but never believed.
Even when eating something like fried chicken, you will get a small cabbage salad and picked radish, which I love love love by the way. This country is awesome.
Wednesday night madness this week was not quite so mad, a little more intimate actually, much less drinking. Park, Lim, Sally, and I went to a pool hall this time, pool hall Korean style. I think that they often go to play billiards, but decided to take us out for pool this time. Mr. Lim drove us all to Nowan. Remember the really long walk I took the other day, the walk that took me like 45 minuets to get to Nowan? It is like a five minuet drive.
In Korea, the pool halls apparently don’t serve alcohol; they only serve coffee, tea, and pop. So I sipped my green tea while I shot some pool. It was Park and I against Sally and Lim. Sally and Lim took us three to two, but the first game was lost only because I sunk the white ball with the eight ball. It was distressing. Park is a decent pool player and I felt bad that he was stuck with me, the hopeless one. But he gave a me a few pointers and constantly rearranged my fingers and I was almost doing stuff by the last game.
The really funny part was the people playing at the other tables. When we arrived there were two sets of girls playing. There were all smoking, something that Korean girls do not often do. That means they were bad ass. They all had special pool gloves and most were wearing five inch heals. And in typical Korean fashion, tights and short skirts or dresses but covered on top, I guess the Korean ladies focus on their hot legs and try to not draw attention to their flat chests. I don’t blame them; I wish I had their legs. (Although, some of the girls don’t fit their boots, I would rather bulge a bit over the boot then have the boot loose around my too skinny leg.) At the other tables there were bad ass boys playing billiards, Park said they were good, I said they were cute, he didn’t hear me. Two particularly badass boys were checking themselves out in the mirrors and when they left they each carried a very feminine bag. Boys and their purses, it gets me every time.
The man running the pool hall fetched us our complementary drinks, he was very quick. Green tea on the house. I guess you pay per hour not game and beverages are free. Once again the Korean system prevails. Of course wan jan nim Lim paid, being the boss and all.
After pool we went out for fried chicken and pints. Not Hyte, but Cass beer. Weakish, no Fort Gary Dark, but not too bad. We ate at a place that was a slight step up from a street vendor. Here, there are lots of little places right on the sidewalks that sell all kinds of food. Some of these places even have chairs within a plastic covering that you can sit on while you eat. This place had a permanent building, but half the building was a plastic tent.
We ate our fried chicken and drank our pints, chatting about stuff. I learned that I probably won’t actually get any vacation time expect for maybe three days in Summer. I hope I misunderstood, but that is how it sounded. I don’t get, I can handle this because I am only here for year, but Park and Lim, this there full time job and they work six days a week, with almost no time off, that is horrible.
It was very nice evening. Mr. Lim drove Sally and I home. I got home at about 2:30. GD, GT’s.
Dee
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
