bits

I am going to a house warming party at my Son Miyung-ai's home this week.  I am truly honored to get an invite to her house.  It will be a small group of people, 6 in total.  I am the only English speaker, so I suspect it will be a night of putting my miming & facial expressions to superb use.  Fortunately her son will be there, and his English is good enough to get a few more points across.  Not to mention he comes complete with his handy-dandy i-phone which translates all sorts of phrases and words.  I asked one of my Korean teachers what I should bring as a gift and said I was thinking flowers or a plant.  She said that is good, but something that Korean's commonly bring to house-warming parties is Toilet Paper.  It surprises me and yet it doesn't all at the same time.  :)  I think I'll stick to flowers.  I just don't think I could keep a straight face and hand my host a roll of toilet paper, even though it would be perfectly culturally acceptable.  Of course, my teacher could have been playing a cruel trick on me, in which case, kudos to her.

It is not common for people to neuter/spay their dogs here.  They say that, if you neuter or spay your dog (or cat) it is not good for their health because it changes their hormones.  Thus, you have tons and tons of stray dogs (and gazillions of alley cats) running loose all over town procreating their little hearts out.  Fortunately I have not seen one get hit by a car yet, but it's been a close call a few times.  It just kills me to see these dogs running in the street.  Especially in Korea, where the roads are filled with an abundance of not-so-sane drivers.  :)

On Fridays I work at both my schools.  I start the morning off at my close school and then take a bus up to my far school around lunch time.  This Friday morning I am in the middle of class and I heard my cell phone ringing in the other room.  Obviously I didn't run to answer it, because I was teaching class.  A few minutes later my co-teacher's cell phone rings and, well, she answers it and stands off to the side and has a conversation.  She comes back and says to me (while I was in mid-teaching), Jeojin (other school) wants you to go to the English center at 130, instead of going to their school.  She then says, "Da young said she called you, but you didn't answer your phone.  Where is your phone?"  I said it was in my bag.  She said, "But you don't answer it".  I said, "Well I am teaching class".  She said, "but you don't answer your phone".    From past experience, I know where this conversation is going.  It will be a back and forth of Korean Logic vs. Western Logic (I was teaching class. You didn't answer your phone.  Because I was teaching class.  Why don't you answer your phone?  I was teaching.  But you didn't hear it ring?).  I will lose.  I always lose.  :)  So I said, "thanks for telling me".        I don't know that I will ever get used to the cell phone usage in this country.  People will be in meetings with the principal and their phone rings and they proceed to have a loud conversation right there.  It's really interesting.  This would be considered so rude in the states, but here it is a no-brainer:  If your cell phone rings. Answer it.  End of story.

One of my students has been saying bad things to me under his breath for months now.  I have known all along what he is doing because he drops his voice kind of low and says something inappropriate, but naturally I have NO idea what he is saying and from my bag of tricks (faking them out), I say, "You better not say that too me". Sometimes I get a sorry, but with this particularly boy it really hasn't deterred him much.  This week was a really tough teaching week for me and I have gotten pretty fed up on numerous occasions at the insensitivity of some of these kids (again a really tough week).  He said something to me again and it just rubbed me wrong after I asked him not to do it and he did it again.  Fortunately I am able to better understand the sound system of Korean, so I went to my co-teacher and asked her what a few words were.  She about lost it, and went and gave that kid a stern talking to.  Oddly enough I felt bad for telling on him, but this week I have just really gotten sick of some of the disrespect and rudeness of these kids.  It goes in waves though.  Fortunately these really crappy weeks are much fewer and further in between and thankfully Friday is never that far away.  :)

I had my first burger in Korea the other day (a turkey burger, but a burger all the same)!!  There is a burger joint that opened up just around the corner from my house.  It is called the "toolbox" and the guy who runs it wears an automotive repair-man's jumpsuit.  Embroidered on his chest, where is name tag would go reads, "My English Sucks!".  It also had one of those yellow "wet floor" caution signs on the ground, with a picture of a person falling down.  However this one read, "Absolutely No Break Dancing".   He also brought our table some complimentary chicken wings.  We were raving about how amazing these chicken wings were and said that he should put these on the menu.  He said to us, very matter-of-fact, "they are from my chicken in my backyard.  i only have so many chickens you know".     He also does all day breakfast sandwiches with eggs from these chickens in his back yard.   The place is less than 2 minutes from my house.  So happy.  I just miss western food sometimes.