Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!!

Original Jack and Sally (we look similar right?)
Tomb Stone: this was in the graveyard at the haunted house
Superman: James (one of the Kindergarten students) at the party
Jack Skellington (John) and Sally (ME) from, The Nightmare Before Christmas
























Happy belated Halloween all my fellow Americans. For those of you who were wondering, Halloween is not a Korea holiday. A lot of Koreans celebrate and many, many foreigners celebrate but it's not big like it is in America. You can't go to the store and find Halloween decorations/candy/costumes (you have to buy it off line).

My school has been preparing for the last few weeks for Halloween. We had insane amounts of decorations all over the school and a big Halloween party on Saturday. Even though our school made us buy our own costumes and made us work 5 hours on a Saturday without getting paid… it was a pretty fun/interesting day. The best part was seeing all the students in their costumes and of course scaring the crap out of them in the haunted house. Laura, Ryan, Alicia and I stayed late on Wednesday and Friday (i'm talking 12 am) to decorate the school and make the haunted house as awesome and scary as could be! After staying up late on Friday night decorating, we all got some rest for the party. The party went from 1 to 5 with NO breaks (thanks TN for shoving me back into the face painting room when I just wanted to snap a few pictures). We all had our jobs… they made Ryan and I (the artists) do face painting.. other activities were: mummy wrapping race, learn the thriller, guess what's in the box, cooking mummy fingers, haunted house, TNE market place-shop with earned stickers and Halloween photo booth with friends. I saw all my students there and a lot of them were dressed up but a lot weren't (some of them are a lot older so I guess they've grown out of that). The TNE school from Cheongju came to help us out (sooo nice of them to come 2 hours on a Saturday). This was the school I was supposed to go to in the very beginning. The staff was really nice… I love Gwangju but after having met them, I know I would have loved working at their TNE and living in Cheongju. From what they say, it seems like their school is better but our town and living accommodations are a lot nicer (I will have to visit Cheongju sometime and check it out for myself).

After the Halloween party my boss had his own party for all of us… he had great food and alcohol but most of all, this was a shit show (for the Korean staff that is). I have never seen some of the Korean staff/managers so drunk, it was hilarious!!! Work should be interesting on Monday haha!!!

Today (Sunday) some friends and I went to a big art festival called the Gwangju Biennale. Here's a little information about it: Founded in 1995 in memory of spirits of civil uprising of the 1980 repression of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, the Gwangju Biennale is Asia's oldest and most prestigious biennial of contemporary art. Centered on the Biennale Hall in Gwangju’s Jungoui Park, the presence has elevated the city of 1.4 million to become a cultural hub of East Asia. Like I have mentioned before… Gwangju is home to some of the best-preserved cultural relics in the nation, and is known locally as the “City of Art, Cuisine and Culture.” The biennale has 5 separate galleries that branch off to reflect themes recurring throughout the exhibition. Gallery 1- works that deal with photographic representation, posing, and the construction of the self through images. Gallery 2- explores mechanics of vision through illusions and para-scientific imaginaries. Gallery 3- brings together works that deal with the representation of heroes and martyrs, exploring the ways images are used to create myths, preserve the memory of victims, or bear witness to war and oppression. Although I liked all the galleries, I think I liked this one the best because I learned the most from it. Although, it was rather graphic, I really enjoyed reading about each piece (everything was in English as well as Korean). Gallery 4- looks at religious figures and idols, fetishes and dolls… this one was somewhat creepy but really neat at the same time. Gallery 5- strikes an irreverent tone, presenting idiosyncratic perspectives on the structures of cinema and television. This was not like a lot of art shows I have been to in the past. It gave me a whole different perspective on art… it was fascinating to see so many aspects of history from all over the world being portrayed through random works of art…photography/sculpture/film.. etc. This art allowed me to feel so many different emotions.. not like the art that I create (hmm… i'm inspired in a whole new way).

In the middle of this blog, I skipped with my mom. She informed me that i'm drinking too much over in Korea, chin chay (reallllly?) come on. So.. I'm sorry for those of you who think i'm an alcohol (like my mother……) but, i'm not. I drink once a week… twice at the most (on the weekends when I am out with friends). Mom- the most exciting days that I usually blog about are the weekends and there is usually alcohol on those days, especially in Korea. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of eventful things happening on days that i'm not drinking but those days consist of work, work, work!!! Mom, I love you but you've got to let it go!!! Sorry for that interruption.. carrying on...

Speaking oh alcohol… here is comes mom, Thursday night… so, I think we have found one of our new favorite thing do to every other Thursday downtown at Speak Easy (a foreign bar)- QUIZ. Quiz is a trivia came that Speak Easy hosts every other Thursday night at 10 o'clock. You have to have at least 2 people to a team, 5 max. Everyone puts 5,000 won in to play. There is 8 rounds, 10 questions in each. Every group grabs a table and has a sheet of paper to write answers as the questions are being asked. The team with the best/most creative team name won a pitcher of beer… that was us with the most ridiculous name that John thought of: My Couch Pulls Out But I Don't… pretty funny! Whichever team got all 10 questions right in a round got a free round of shots… we got that too, thanks to Ryan. For that round the topic was: comic book heroes… Ryan is an insane comic book buff so of course we got all the questions right. The game was really fun and really difficult at the same time. We got third place (with no prize). First place gets the pot of money, second gets their money back and sorry to third place but better luck next time. We will have to try again in a couple weeks. After QUIZ we went to German Bar where Mr. Song (the owner) promised us a free dinner… he's such a nice man! It was a really late dinner so you can imagine how starved we all were. Mr. Song lived in Germany for 13 years so he picked up a lot of the German recipes. He made us one of the most delicious meals (curry rice, sausages, chicken and a really tasty salad).

Let me share with you some excitement from the work front… if you remember, I was asked to create the art curriculum for the Kindergarten students (did you know that their kindergarten starts at age 3 and goes to age 5.. WHOA). Anyway, i've been racking my brain and actually using a lot of my knowledge from college to create this curriculum. It's been so much fun and I think that it is going to be a great and incredibly beneficial program for their school. In the middle of the week my managers asked to take a look at my work thus far. I was ecstatic when all they could give back to me was positive feedback! Yay me! :) … It was so nice to finally get some praise from my managers- things are looking up!

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-Like I have said before, there is A LOT of plastic surgery in this country. The most done plastic/ cosmetic surgery is: double eye lids (like we have). It's crazy to me that they want to get something that a lot of older people try to get rid of. It's funny because now that I know about it, I notice women with it all around.
-It is getting SOOOOO cold here. I have already been wearing my down jacket, hat, gloves and scarf. Most of the reason it is so cold is because of the wind… Korea gets the siberian winds from Russia… BRRRR!
-In America, when you take a picture… people say "Cheese" (god I miss good cheese) but over here when you take a picture, people say "kimchee"
-Not a lot of people dive cars over here (it's the city life) but if you do, you get the privilege of having a special sticker in your car that guarantees you a free ice-cream at Mc Donalds every time you go (stupid I know but still interesting)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Seasonal Sickness.. all around!

Top: Me at the hair place... this thing they had on my head is a steamer- never seen anything like it (didn't get my hair colored in America so I wouldn't know). This smile didn't last long.
Bottom: View from the top of Mudo Mountain


Sorry that I am just now blogging… i've been pretty sick and I haven't had the energy to type (pathetic I know).

When I got to Korea, everyone kept telling me… "Emilie, you just wait, everyone who moves here gets sick within the first month"! Ha.. I sure showed them, I waited almost 2 1/2 months. I try really hard to eat well, drink lots of water, exercise and take vitamins. I would say I take pretty good care of myself (you taught me well momma). The sickness floating all over the teachers' room and all over school in general just couldn't wait to infect me. Dammit.. let me tell you… this makes me so angry: everyone here, I mean EVERYONE doesn't cover their freaking mouth. They don't even try to hold back the germs, they just open their mouth as wide as possible and let it fly. As angry as this makes me, I've noticed it everywhere i've gone. Maybe i'll start wearing a sars mask like a lot of Koreans do. Not only this but people here don't take sick days when they are sick…. mostly because people aren't given sick days. For example, I have 2 sick days (these include personal days) for an entire year. Now, you might be thinking it's not that bad because you know, teachers have tonssssss of days off including a summer vacation… OH NO.. not us. We have a 5 day summer vacation, 3 days off for the Korean Thanksgiving, 5 days off for Christmas and 1 day off for a holiday called Children's Day (when I come back to America and start teaching again, it will be like heaven). I have students come to my class with raging fevers… when I tell them they need to go home, their moms always say to just wait it out… that's unheard of in America. I told my Kindergarten parents back in America… "DO NOT send your child to school if he or she is sick.. especially with a fever!!!!!!" It makes sense, the aren't very cautions when it comes to fighting germs and you and I both know when one kid is sick… eventually they all are! Luckily the worst thing I had all year during my internship was ring worm (which, of course I got from the kids… sounds gross but it's not really a big deal). They really don't teach kids about cleanliness and germs. It's so different because when I taught in America, we couldn't reiterate enough about the importance of covering your mouth, using hot water and soap to wash hands, use germ X constantly and of course wash your hands constantly. I mean, come on.. they don't even have soap in our bathrooms at school. Anyway… I'm still sick, as well as about 4 other teachers. It's lovely ya know, we all sit around in the teacher's room coughing and snotting on one another. The funny part is, no tissues so everyone walks around with a roll of toilet paper (unlike the guys who don't care about the softness of their toilet paper, I don't have an irritated, red nose haha)!

People in Korea don't just wait out their sickness like us Americans.. they are hypochondriacs, they rush to the doctor/hospital at the sight of a snotty nose or a little cough. This is probably because they can't afford to ever take a sick day… they don't have any. After feeling like complete SHIT Saturday night, all day and night Sunday and Monday morning (off and on fever, aching body, sore throat, cough.. bla bla) I thought it would be a good idea to head to the doctor. My liaison took me there (ENT doctor) this morning before work. We walked in and waited in this strange waiting room. The waiting room was connected to the visible doctor's office so I could see everyone being checked by the doc. The doctor stuck a long metal camera down my throat, in my nose and in my ears. A visual showed up on a large screen right in front of me.. not only could I see it but so could everyone sitting in the waiting room (weird, right!). After being checked I went into a little room where I was going to receive a shot (basically, a vitamin shot). The nurse pulled down my pants, smacked my butt really hard and quickly stuck me with the needle then sent me on my way. It was interesting but the good thing was, it didn't hurt and as the day has progressed… I feel 100 times better. I was shocked at the cost of my visit… 3,000 won (about 3 bucks). Then I went downstairs to get a number of different perscriptions.. no ideas why I needed this much crap (antibiotics that consist of 4 pills 3 times a day for 4 days.. pain killers and caught syrup). All this was 3,000 won as well… gotta love these prices!

So, other than being sick and the awful hair color I have, (don't get me wrong, I love red heads but this color of mine isn't even red, it's turning into a lime green/ baby poop orange… AWFUL) the week has been okay. Let me tell you about the hair real quick…for a minute, I thought they might fire me because I don't have the blonde hair they hired me with.. you know, that was a big reason why they hired me. I went hiking with my boss and his family on Saturday and they gave me such a hard time about it. I'm sick of them, it's not like I wanted this… at least I have hair… it could be sooooo much worse. It's just freaking hair, get over it.. good god! I'm rocking this color and it's awesome.. I guess it's all about my attitude now! I will eventually change it… somehow fix it but i'm giving it a good month to breath- I don't want it to fall out! I'll tell ya one thing, i'm going to ROCK my halloween costume haha! I can't wait!!!!! I forgot to mention this in my previous blog.. I was probably too angry to go into detail.. but, the atmosphere at the most recent stylist that I went to was very interesting. First of all, it stays open till 4 am.. it really got crowded around 11 (yes, I was still there at this point). Out of the 30 some people who were in/came in to this place, about 28 of them were men. Well, thats an understatement... I certainly wouldn't say men. These guys came in and outr of this place the whole time I was there. Apparently they work for some kind of escort service/company... they all came in, made themselves comfortable and paid 10,000 won for a hair-do/style (wash, dry, cut/trim, straighten, curl, hair spray... you name it). These guys certainly were a sight to see. Some of them just stood in the mirror admiring themselves for 10 minutes at a time. A good majority of them even had on make up. It was quite an experience. When they saw the orange hair, they also cringed! ;)

Like I mentioned, I went on a hike with my bosses family on Saturday. It was so much fun!! It was perfect timing because all the leaves are starting to change. We went to a really pretty area (Mudo Mountain) where there are gorgeous,intense trails, and fantastic views! I surely got my workout.. my legs and butt are still pretty sore! It cracked me up because the Koreans all wear the exact same thing… honestly I was sooooo out of place. They all wear nice name brand hiking gear that all looks the same just different colors and they all carry hiking sticks- personally, a good stick from the woods is just a good! After the hike we went to a traditional mountain cafe and had lunch. One of the hiking traditions is to drink rice wine with your meal. This isn't just a little glass of rice wine that you sip on throughout the meal… this is a bowl of thick, white yogurt like milk that your elder serves you (I got reprimanded because I wasn't holding the bowl the correct way when receiving wine from my elder.. woops). Once you get your bowl of wine, you chug (it's rude not to finish your drink)…. the light weight that I am was pretty drunk at the end of the meal- I played it off pretty well in front of the boss and his entire family (aunts, uncles, kids, nieces, nephews, wives, siblings, and gradma).

So after the hike on Saturday, I came home and took a long nap. This is when I started feelin crappy. I still went out for a few hours (hung with the sexy German as well as lots of friends) then came home early. It's funny because I say early like it's 10 or something but when bars don't close till 6 or 7 am.. 2 am is early in my mind. I'll sure be a trooper for the weekend fun when I come back to America! Here, your lame if you go in before 4 am… in America that's a pretty late night!

Even though i'm not getting paid for the extra decoration hours i'm putting in Wednesday night, Friday night and the 5 hour Halloween party on Saturday… i'm still pretty excited. It's all about the experience. I think I would still willingly go even if it wasn't required! I can't wait to see all the kiddies in their outfits and of course see Iian teach thriller haha (Iian is one of the teachers… he's a trip). I'll be filling you in next week. Have a good one! :)

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-It's cold here and the mosquitos are still horrendous.. I have welts from these tiny little ass holes.
-I love this… we should definitely get this started in America: at every restaurant and bar, each table has a "call" button. You press it and the waitress comes right away. They never bother you unless you press the bottom.. it's great. The weird part is… no tipping. I always feel so awkward not tipping but like i've said before, it's rude to tip.
-At the grocery store, you can't just get a cart… you have to insert 100 won (10 cents) into an opening in the cart to get it loose. After your done shopping you put your cart back and get your 100 won back as well. (I'm sure they do this in some places in America, I just don't know about it).
- A friend of mine had a cat who recently died… I kept thinking, what the hell do you do with a dead cat (it's not like anyone has backyards to burry them in). He said that he took the kitty to a park and buried him there- thank god because… a lot of people I have talked to said that typically, you just throw them in the trash.
-I know I told you about the trash here but let me remind you how gross it is: there are no such thing as dumpsters or big trash cans. When you throw your trash away you just put it right on the street. In America, you can buy bags that help prevent smell or/and ones that close up with a draw string… no such thing here. Their trash bags aren't even dark colored, they are all clear so all the nasty trash is visible. So the trash on the street is just awful. Most of the time it's over flowing all over the place because other people passing by put their crap on top. I can't imagine walking past some trash and seeing a dead cat on top. Two days out of the week before the trash people come, the trash sinks up the streets. Like i've said before.. they don't have wild life so raccoons don't bother the trash. I guess they can get away with it??… EWW!

xox- EM

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

yellow...green....orange... DIE!

Top: here it is... you should see it with out the hat, it's an orange/yellow/lime green color.. :(
Bottom: Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas"... AKA- ME



Ok... I could die right now! So... I told you about my hair situation, well... the brownish color I got started to fade and everyone was saying I had gray/green hair- sadly, they were right. What is happening to me... I had to get this fixed immediately. I cut out a picture from a magazine of a girl with brown hair (not dark, dark brown but brown). I thought that it would mask the green/gray pretty well. So... tonight, I went to a different stylist and showed her the picture. After shampooing my hair, she took the towl of my head and I literally got sick to my stomach!!!! 4 hours later... i'm still sick to my stomach! Why you might ask, my hair is freaking ORANGE... no exaggeration! It doesn't even look like a nice orange, it's goldish orange. OH MY GOD, its awful. Ask my mom, she agrees!

The only positive part about this awful mess is.... I have a red wig for my Halloween costume because I am going to be Sally from the "Nightmare Before Christmas." Now, I don't have to wear the wig. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Good Bye Yellow Haired Emilie

1: "Happy Day" machine in the love motel (I can't imagine what your thinking now.. just wait till you read the 2nd to last paragraph)
2: Calgook soup- cutting squid
3: What each "couple" got at the love motel (the couple's love pack)
4: The Kindergarten, some English staff, some Korean staff and myself at Family Land






What an eventful week its been… although its Monday now, i'm referring to last week (you know how I do).

On Tuesday, I volunteered to go on the Kindergarten field trip. I never get a chance to hang out with the little kids and I love them, especially these guys. They are sooo freaking cute and hilarious! At 9 a.m. we all met in the lobby of TN English. There is only 3 classes, each consisting of 4 to 6 students. We took one of the TNE busses to Family Land.. what a place this was. It looked like some sort of run down amusement park built in the late 80's, early 90's. I could just imagine a scary movie taking place here. It didn't help that there were scream masks being sold so tons of kids were running around with masks on and holding plastic machetes! Luckily it was a sunny day so the scary atmosphere wasn't too realistic. We started off in the amusement park and let the kids ride a few rides. We saw a creepy puppet show that was all in Korean and later ate lunch while watching Beauty and the Beast, the play in Korean (it's not the same when Bell is a Korea). The Korean staff finally let us teachers go off on our own to ride two rides (thank god, I really needed to get my fair fix). We rode a somewhat decent roller coaster and a really fun bob sled ride… I laughed the entire time while Alicia, who was sitting next to me, closed her eyes and prayed that we wouldn't die.. haha! I didn't tell her this but I'll admit, part of me thought our sled was going to fly half way across the park and land in the tigers cage.. we survived, and just in time to take the kiddies to see the animals. Did I always think that zoos were sooo incredibly depressing??? If I didn't before I came here, well I sure as hell do now. It was so sad to see all the pretty birds flying around in circles in their tiny netted cages. You know how I told you that there is really no wild life, other than the rat I saw a few weekends ago…well, it was pretty funny to see that they had a variety of different ducks and geese in their zoo when in America, all you have to do is take a walk to the nearest pond and there ya go! I explained to the kids that we see see animals all the time… they were just beside themselves. I love how we are constantly amazing each other with the details of our own cultures.

On Thursday my Liazon/boss/friend, Michael took me to the phone store so that I could put more minutes on my phone- prepaid phone. We went on such a nice little walk. On the way to the phone store, which was really close, (at most, a 20 minute walk) he showed me where the dry cleaners is located and where a decent gym is (I am hoping to join there once the weather is just unbearably cold to jog in)… who knows though, maybe i'll tough it out! As directionally challenged as I am, I am kinda proud of myself for knowing as much as I do (I miss my GPS and my car).

work…. where do I begin… i'm still apart of this so-called research team but, this week they decided to pull me away from the team for a little while and use me for something that i'm good at. Since my passion is art and I taught Kindergarten for a year, they thought I would be a good person to re-write the art curriculum for the Kindergarten aged students. YES…. oh man was I excited! Wait… I should have known better. What they wanted me to do was copy an already made curriculum but to just change it around and dumb it down for Kindergarteners… they always take the easy way out (not my style) and then call it their on. I did a few lessons of this and realized it was more work because it was so difficult that dumbing it down for younger students just meant more preparation work for the teacher. Plus, the lesson's content was not at a Kindergarten level… what are they thinking!!!!!!! Tonight (Monday), I sat down with management and talked them into letting me create my very own art curriculum. How exciting would it be to create an art curriculum based around themes and seasons… DUH (I know, all my teacher friends are saying, YESSS- we do this all year long and with everything we teach- INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE, INTEGRATE… see, finally I am using what I learned in school). The kids will be way more excited to discuss Halloween and participate in a Halloween craft rather than do some random higher level activity on lines, movement and space. I am excited to create lessons that integrate the holiday/seasonal culture of America… after all, we are an English school. The Koreans are always more into quickness, rather than quality. It's no wonder they are always changing things. I hope that I can create a wonderful Kindergarten Art curriculum that they will keep and have for years to come.

Ohhh thank you.. it's Friday. Laura and I finally got a chance to test out our new soccer ball. AHHHhh, I sure did miss soccer. We had a blast playing around, dribbling, shooting, passing… great work out! We had the field all to ourselves and the best part was… it was somewhat dark which meant we were't getting the usual stares. It was a good thing too because I lack ball skills… that's why I was always a defender haha!

Ryan's birthday was on Saturday so Laura and I went on a search for cookie mix Friday night. I get such a kick out of these random adventures. Can you imagine two American girls in the grocery store, racking their brains trying to figure out what is what. I mean really, we stood in one isle for at least 15 minutes trying to decide what was baking soda. It's pretty much trial and error. We could have been buying some type of white fish powder… who the hell knows! The powder we got ended up being just what we thought, well, hoped… baking powder, good thing!

So… speaking of trial and error… I had my own little adventure this past Saturday morning. So let me just explain real quick the background/reasoning of this scenario: In April, my roommate in college got me this so-called natural highlighter. It was something you sprayed in your hair before you laid in the sun… it was a blonde booster (it was supposed to take out the brassy blonde and leave the pretty blonde)- Ohhh my god what a mistake. I didn't notice that it had been dying my hair until my natural blonde started to fade out and my roots were my winter color (very dirty blonde). I don't like roots, I really missed the all-one natural color. I couldn't take it anymore , I had to do something about it.. I felt like a lie haha! On Saturday morning my Liazon took me to a very nice hair place at the mall. I got the stylist to dye all my hair the color of my roots. Now, it's not the prettiest color but it's more realistic than the brightttt ass blonde that I had before. It's kind of a dirty, ashy blonde/brown but I like it better! I have never gotten my hair dyed before so I don't really know what it entails in America but the way they did it here was really strange. The funniest part about my whole hair experience was the other people in the place. People over here all have stick straight hair… I didn't realize this until just recently. All the people that you see whose hair is wavy or curly…. which is actually a lot, it's not real… it's a perm (they say, perma). I'm not just talking about girls but tonsssss of guys (they are all very metro-sexual here) and kids. In the couple of hours that I was there I watched 3 kids, 1 woman and 2 men get perms.

The best part of my weekend was Saturday night/Sunday… I went to a town called Daejon with a couple of friends (Laura, Ryan and John) for a Rock Festival. This town is about 2 hours north of Gwangju which meant we had to take a bus. We left around 5 p.m. on Saturday and got into Daejeon around 7. We went right to the festival which was located right along a really pretty river. They had hot air balloon rides and hang gliding all day until about 9 p.m.. The festival was so much fun… it was mostly foreigners so I enjoyed meeting lots of new people. The food was delicious and the music was great! I ended up finding some friends I know that are from Cheongju and others from Gwangju. Also, I finally met up with a guy that I know from Raleigh. I have been emailing/facebooking him since I found out I was going to S.Korea. He is friends with some guys I worked with this summer at the pool. Originally, I was supposed to be living in Cheongju which is where he lives. When my plans got changed I thought I wouldn't ever meet up with him but luckily I found him and some of his Raleigh buddies at the festival.. good times! Did I mention, the beer was rather yummy as well… once again, another Saturday night of drinking… drunk, gone! The festival was supposed to go until 5 a.m. but, and this is why the foreigners get such a bad rap… they were throwing bottles, knocking over tables , chairs, etc… just stupid and reckless! I wasn't one of these people, actually I was so enthralled in the music, friends and alcohol… I did't notice this recklessness! The shut the festival down around 1 a.m... UGH! We could have gone out to bars but the alcohol has gotten the best of us if you know what I mean.

So, where do you stay in a town that you don't know anyone… of course, you go to a love motel. Did I tell you about these love motels? Well if so, i'm sorry… if not then here ya go… typically these are motels that men take their mistresses or their whores/hookers/booty calls, whatever… you get the idea. You can tell that a building is a love motel because in it's parking lot/garage it has a special little awnings that hangs down to disguise the cars. When I hear the words "love motel", I think run down and trashy. Ohhhh wow was I wrong.. these places are like a mix between an elegant hotel room and a nice little bed and breakfast. Don't get me wrong.. it's got a hint of sleaziness here and there, for example: the "happy day" machine in the lobby that was full of a variety of different sex toys and dildos, and the couple packages for each room that had the following items: 2 toothbrushes, a razor, 2 condoms, shampoo/conditioner, massage cream/ KY jelly, and some type of "love brochure"- it was all in Korean so I couldn't read it. The four of us just wanted to pass out for the cheapest price but that was not going to happen. Since this was a love motel, I think the man at the front desk wanted to make sure we were all going to be making love.. ahha! We had planned on getting one room but that just wasn't an option. He made us get 2 separate rooms… that, for some reason were very far away from each other…oh well! The walls of this entire place were brick… no sound was getting through those- i'm assuming that was the point. When we got in the room we tried to watch a little TV before going to sleep…but, can you guess what was on every channel… yes, PORN! What an experience that was!

Sunday morning, John (he used to live in Daejeon a few years ago) took us to one of his favorite restaurants. We ate such a delicious soup, it was called calgook. We got a giant bowl of this soup for the table and we all shared it (that's how most things work in Korea… if you don't like to share then it's not a good country for you). The soup was a clear, chicken-like flavored broth with herb noodles, whole squids, millions of clams and shrimp. Like a lot of Korean dishes (especially kimchee) you use scissors to cut things up. While cutting these big squid, John explained to us that women generally do the cutting when they are with their families. If it is just a group of friends, it doesn't matter who does the cutting but if a girl is on a date or with her spouse then she cuts. This is an interesting way to see if someone is one a date… check out who is cutting the kimchee.

It's been a long one… i'll save my "Korean Facts/Randomness" for next time ;)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

October Drama... October Gossip...

Top:A woman at the Food Festival making traditional kimchee
Bottom: Gwangju International Food Festival (outside vendors/tents)



I've gotten into the habit of blogging every Sunday. I really love my Sundays. Typically, I sleep in, jog in the park (sometimes, if i'm not too hung over of course), get a pizza, watch movies, and mess around on the internet. This Sunday, I did not get the chance to blog… my apologies! I was far too busy hanging out with a gorgeous man instead… not just any man, a German man! I guess i'm like my big sister… we are both attracted to cute Germans. Who is a "Twilight" fan? Well if you are, let me just tell you what this boy looks like. He's a cuter, older, version of Jacob (the werewolf)… with better hair, not that bullshit spiked up hair. I met Nick at the bar on Friday night, we danced, talked, exchanged numbers and then had a great date on Sunday afternoon. I really enjoyed his company, what a nice guy he was. If nothing else, I met a great new friend.

Sunday night I went to the Lotte Mart (Walmart) with friends. I finally got some jogging pants… it's getting cold here.. BRRRR! I was shocked when I tried these pants on and they were actually long enough. So, not only did I buy some great pants but I got a months supply of groceries and a soccer ball (YES.. I can't wait to get out there with Laura and kick around the ball). I love the Lotte, all their fish is half off in the evening, and you can try multiple samples of everything. It kicks Walmart's ass. It's a nice mix of Walmart, Target, Costco, Harris Teeter , The Dollar Store and Trader Joes. As you can see, the Lotte Mart is a joy in my eyes, especially that night. Ohhhh, but wait…I got ahead of myself… as we were walking out of the store Ryan's bag broke open and his 6, 2 litter bottles of Mountain Dew rolled away. Once again, the Koreans are looking at us like, "oh, you silly Americans." Not only that but, I always, always forgot that my refrigerator is a third of the size of a normal one.. WHY.. I don't know? I get home to unpack all of my things and I realize that there's hardly enough room for it all.. UGH! I guess my problems could be worse… I made do!

I'm backtracking here… I was just so exited to talk about my most recent stories. Let me start with the work week. Last week, all I did was bitch, bitch, bitch about work so, i'll try not to do that so much. This week I had a wonderful connection with my students. I don't know what it was but I feel so much closer to them now. As a teacher, I feel that it is extremely important to find that connection with each of your students. I love getting to know them on a personal level.. it really benefits their education in so many ways. Back home, I did most of my teaching with Kindergarten. I absolutely love the little ones, they are such a hot, happy mess. When I got here I was really nervous because they told me I was going to be teaching older students. I had no experience with 4th, 5th and 6th graders… whoaaaa!! I should have more confidence in myself because I went in there on day 1 and i've been doing great ever since. I teach 3 different classes… students ages range from 8 to 13. Ya know, I thought I would never like teaching the older students as much but I love it just the same, it's just different. These kids actually look at me as a person, not as just their teacher. They respect me and admire me and I adore it because I feel the same way about them. Now of course there is always problems… whining, complaining, confusion, frustration, exhaustion.. you know, it's life! Over all, I really love these kids. I love the down time we have… oh yea, now that i'm teaching older students who I can joke with, i've turned into that teacher who constantly digresses away from the content. Yes, it sounds bad but we always make sure to get our work done and I find that the digression is very beneficial to their education… and mine ;) . We always talk and compare our cultures, it's a great learning experience for them to hear about America and American culture and for me to hear about Korea and Korean culture. Not only that but they are practicing their speaking skills which is key! We have a huge flat screen computer on the walls of every classroom so we always have a reference to use- yay Google!

This week one of my students told me she was having a birthday party this weekend. I was so excited for her… after class, she came down to my office and I gave her some candy, a silly band and a Godiva candle (thanks Aunt Susan). We started discussing the details of her birthday and she told me that her real birthday was a few weeks ago. I was so confused as to why she was just now having her party. She casually told me that her mom had forgotten her birthday… AHHH- WHAT! How can a mother forget her 8 year old daughter's birthday- sad, sad, sad!!!
I determined the reason of this forgetfulness.. I think: Clara has 1 older brother. In Korea, the favorite child is the first born son. Now, when I saw favorite I mean FAVORED, in every way….. NO exaggeration! I am assuming that her family forgot her birthday because she is not the first born son… just a girl! In Korean culture it is known that if you marry a first born son, you have many responsibilities for the rest of your life. For example: for any type of family gathering, holiday, etc, the festivities are held at the first born son's home… which means, the wife has to cook and prepare for everyone. As a woman, you know that it is a lot of responsibility to marry a first born son. Some woman loathe it but others love it. Back to Clara, if it makes you feel any better… she was not sad about her mother's forgetfulness at all…. only me! I think she, as well as all Koreans are just used to it. That's the way it is!

Work was nice this week, other than some of the people I work with… actually, it's just one dronish sluggard! This person, and I won't bother to say his name, is making the entire staff look bad. He comes in late to work, he can't take constructive criticism which is just too bad because it's beneficial when it's coming from someone who does know how to do their job, he fell asleep in class (we have cameras on us… not only is management watching but parents as well), because of his lateness and his work not being completed in a timely manner, management got rid of our 40 minute breaks. Thanks a lot jerk!!!! Now, we work from 1 to 8:35- no break for dinner, nothing! the list goes on..! He's like a burning building… eventually, it will fall! It's really unfair that he is making all the English teachers look bad…we all reflect on each other. American's are already stereotyped as being lazy and it doesn't help when one of your colleagues is making that stereotype true! The fire is burning….FAST!

On Saturday Laura, Ryan and I went to a International Food Festival at the convention center across the street. It was outside and it's a good thing because the weather was just incredible. Outside, they had a bunch of little tents/vendors set up for about 10 to 15 different countries (Greece, Indonesia, China, Thialand, North America, Nepal, Japan, etc.). For each one, you could buy a small portion of food. It was really fun and delicious. The best one was Greece. While we stood in line they gave us a sample of fruit with greek yogurt. After about 20 minutes of standing in line, (this was the most popular tent) we enjoyed a colorful, delicious Greek salad and a hearty Greek kabob. The only downfall to the food was North America's random, lazy selection. They decided to give samples of macaroni and cheese, snickerdoodle cookies and perogies (I am pretty sure perogees are not even an American dish.. maybe Italian). All the other places had such yummy, exciting food… why couldn't they impress people with some barbecued ribs or some cheese burgers!? Inside the convention center was a huge assortment of foods and other miscellaneous things that were being sold or sampled.

This week should be fun… I volunteered to go to an adventure park with the Kindergarten students, Ryan's birthday is on Saturday as well as a big art festival that we all plan to go to!

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-At the schools (not ours), the students have to serve the food before they can eat
- People here are very generous in some ways but when it comes to letting you cross the street or holding open a door, forget it… just wait to be run over or slammed in the face with a door- it doesn't matter if your hands are overflowing with groceries!!
- Probably, a third of the people living here, especially the women who work out, wear sars masks over their face. They are just afraid of germs…
- If you go to a store, it's impossible to find actual napkins, as well as tissues. I don't know what that's all about but I sure am tired of using toilet paper as a napkin. I buy paper towels but most places (school, restaurants, homes) don't have them.
- Koreans don't really drink with their meal.. it's strange but it's just not necessary for them. If there is a drink then its beer.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Korean Business....

Top:lycoris, also known as: spider lillies. I picked these in the park on Saturday.. sooo pretty!
Bottom: Halloween at TN English :)


The week began with stress and agony.. ugh! To be honest, had I known how ridiculous work was going to be... I would have thought a little bit harder about coming to this in-particular school. Don't get me wrong, I love it here but work is just hellish sometimes... well, a lot of times! Like I have said many, many times before... the management is so unorganized here!!!! I am on this research team and frankly, it's hard to say what exactly i'm doing research for. We have these unorganized meetings a few times a week and I always leave with numerous questions in my head. I finally started speaking up because I just can't stand the way things are done. Management wants us to do all these tasks and then when we ask specific questions pertaining to them, they are not even sure how to answer us. It's beyond me why they ask us to do something that is supposedly imperative and yet they don't even know exactly what they want- COME ON!!! So, obviously there is a big difference in the way Westerners do business and in the way Koreans/Asian cultures do business. In Western societies, most people start off working in lower positions, as they gain knowledge and superiority, they work up...it makes sense and its very beneficial for a company. In the education world... most principals worked as teachers and for many years. What kind of principal would you be in you had no idea what it was like to teach!!! Over here, the management has never taught and they hardly speak English.. those are the two very important things that go on at our school. Typically, when a boss asks his employees to do something, the boss probably has a general idea of how long it might take his employees to complete what was asked. Usually he knows the answer because he has been there once before and knows what each job entails. Our management is constantly asking us to complete these outrageous tasks and after the task is given the time question always comes up. How are we supposed to know how long it will take when we have never done something like this before? Not only have we never done something like this before but... neither has management. And.... on top of it all.. why the hell are they getting brand new teachers, like myself to do these projects. These projects would take much less time to complete if they were being done by the older, more experienced teachers. I think they thought it was a wonderful thing to have an actual Elementary teacher come to teach at their school. Now, I adore my students and I feel that they are learning/ progressing a great deal but... a majority of things that I am doing and things that they want me to do don't match what I learned in school AT ALL!!!! This job is not easier or harder with my degree. The jokes on them that I am getting paid more.. oh well! Here's what I think they should do... i've suggested it but they don't listen. Since us teachers have to prepare, teach, make lesson plans, create scopes, make tests, grade, write evaluations, bla bla bla-do our job... we don't exactly have all the time in the world to worry about all this extra work- it's a litttttttttle more important that we worry about the children and their education. So, they should hire some other people to come in and strictly work on extra work... or, they should let the older teachers do the extra work and let us new teachers take over their classes. Hmm... they won't do it! Last thing and then I promise i'll stop bitching! So, since the company is so unorganized... they have not created the calendar for the rest of the year. This means, none of us teachers know the exact dates in which we will be off work for winter/Christmas break. This is driving my insane because several of the teachers and I are planning to go to Thailand for that 5 to 7 day break and we can't buy our plane tickets until we know which days we have off. Since we can't get our tickets yet, the price continues to increase every day. Before we know it, no one will be able to go because they won't give us the schedule till the beginning of December. It's ALL BULLSHIT! Ok, i'm done :)

Other than the work drama, I had a very riveting shopping experience. On Wednesday evening Laura and I went out to dinner then went to run a few errands. We came across a really cute, little store that was having a sale. We couldn't help but go in. While looking around, a very elegant Korean woman came in. She spoke a little bit of English. She told me she liked my style, as well as my small head/face. She picked out a variety of things that she thought I would like and I tried them on for her... it was kinda weird but quite the experience. During all the trying on, she randomly took off her belt and asked if I liked it. I told her it was very nice and so she gave it to me. She picked out a really neat suede vest... something I would never find in America. I really loved it and had to have it. For 45,000 won I couldn't pass it up. I payed for the vest and when I got my receipt it said 70,000 won. WHOA... I did not think the vest was that expensive and I really didn't wanna pay that much so I appologized in my best Korean. Right after I got a refund, the elegant Korean woman said, "not to worry, I will pay the difference of the vest"... I couldn't believe it! I refused several times but she really wanted me to have the vest. I paid 45,000 won and she payed the other $25,000. I was so grateful and tried giving her a hug but she refused the hug in a very weird way. Oh well, we continued on our errands.. what a night! :)

The nice thing about the work week is that it flies by... its Friday before we know it.. thank God! The weekend was pretty uneventful. I ate one of my favorite Korean dishes (Shabu Shabu) on Friday night and had a few drinks at a bar in Sangmu (our side of town) with friends. This weekend was dedicated to saving money. On Saturday I volunteered my time to go down to school and help decorate for Halloween. Halloween is not a Korean holiday but because we are an English school, we celebrate it and educate the students about it. The school is giving us an extra 20,000 won (around 20 american dollars) in our October pay check to buy a Halloween costume for the school Halloween party which is on Saturday the 31st (Yes... we have to come in on a Saturday to work and No, we are not getting paid extra for it... I still think it will be fun!). This upcoming week we are all ordering our costumes from a website. I think my costume is a good one... finally, I think i've got a pretty scary one. I'm not telling yet, you will find out soon!

Saturday night was great, I stayed in and made a delicious dinner, read some of my book, watched some old school movies like "Breakfast at Tiffany's" , as well as some french films... (oh Dave, you were right, there is a LOT of symbolism in french films) and oh course, skyped! Actually, I helped Laura kill off a couple of crabs that she and Ryan ate for dinner. That was an interesting ordeal... kinda sad though because the crabs really tried their hardest to hop the pot. I took some videos that are on Facebook if your interested.

Korean Facts/Randomness:

-The little kids (ahh I miss, so much teaching little kids) call my "Animal Teacher" because it's hard for them to say "Emilie" haha..it's really cute. The little ones are so precious and hilarious.
-Asian people do not have very long eyelashes at all. A lot of women either wear fake eyelashes or they have eyelash implants.
-Prescriptions do not come in bottles. They come in individual little packets (a packet for each day). Depending on what you have, they will put a few types of meds in each day's packet. For example, Laura got sick and in her day's packets she had her antibiotic, a sleeping pill, a vitamin and a tylenol.
-Korean architecture: you know that America is one of the only countries that builds with lumber (mostly we have that resource readily available).. Korea, as well as a lot of other countries builds with concrete slabs and metal. Maybe this is why they don't feel he need to have a smoke detectors or fire extinguishers anywhere around here... buildings are less likely to go up into flames if they are made of concrete and metal.
- I told you before that our windows don't have screens... insane amounts of mosquitos were coming it, it was awful! So... i discovered that our windows do in fact have screens..silly me, YAY! The screen extends out from inside the wall/window and clicks into place- it's very nice! No need for a mosquito net now ;)