ohhh korea: you so random

Koreans also use the word "sexy" a lot.  I think it is a lost in translation use of the word.  For example I was showing a power point on opposites: tall/short, big/small etc.  One of the slides was of Snow White (pretty) and the Hag (ugly).  When Snow White was displayed, one of my 2nd graders said, "Sexy".  It's used to express pretty, more often than not.  Unfortunately, "sexy" and "pretty" have different connotations.  The other day Son Meyoung-ai (Kimbap store owner that I frequent), told me that I was sexy.  I went ahead and made the leap that what she really meant was "pretty".  So I tried to show her the difference between sexy and pretty by drawing pictures of 2 different cartoon-style pictures depicting each.  Initially I named a few big names like Madonna & Marilyn Monroe, but she had not heard of them, which is why I resorted to drawing terrible pictures.  Anyway, she understood it.  Once again, I am amazed at how easy it is to transcend language barriers through drawings, tone of voice, & gestures. 

When Dan was packing to come visit me, I put in a few food requests (forever a foodie).  I asked for oatmeal, popcorn and vanilla protein powder.  A few days before he came to visit he asks me, "Um, do you think it is a really good idea for me to come to Korea with white powder"?  It never even occurred to me that it was a really, really, really bad idea to come through customs with  white powder in zip lock bags.  Anyway, I did agree and took that demand off the table!   :)

Well, many weeks later from when I started writing this post, Dan is now, officially here!  It was amazingly wonderful to see him.  So far we have not done a great deal of things, but in typical Christine fashion, I have managed to incorporate massive amounts of food excursions into pretty much every last corner of free time, whether we were hungry or not.  I am trying hard to be respectful of the fact that he has an outdoor survival camp coming up soon, and needs to stay in good shape for this, so I am managing to not try to talk him into eating waffle pies, donuts & ice cream and every other amazing Korean treat that had me cornered for quite some time.  Otherwise though, we are discovering new little restaurants along the way.  Dan introduced me to the beauty of Mon-du!  It is this dumpling textured treat that is steamed and filled with pork, onions and a few unidentifiables.  It melts in the mouth in pure bliss!   It is insanely cheap too.  We can easily have dinner for 2 on about $4=$5 dollars a night if we choose our restaurants right.  It's great.

The other day we went to a Mon-du shop and like most small ma/pop restaurants here the kitchen is pretty much in the dining area.  Well at this particular restaurant there was a hamster living in the kitchen!  Normally, I am certain this would have freaked me out.  I am now concerned that I am not nearly as worried about this is as I should be.  This is just part of Korea, where it is okay (i guess) for animals to be living in the kitchens of restaurants.  Sanitary food prep stations are for the weak of heart!  :)

Speaking of weird things related to animals:  There is a cafe here called "Cat Cafe".  Where cat's just live in this cafe/coffee shop (at least 10-15 as near as I could tell) and jump on the tables, while you're having your coffee drinks and snacks.  It's really most bizarre!  I also thought it was kind of funny that they sprayed our hands with sanitizer when we walked in. 

Here are a couple of photos of cat cafe.

This cat declared himself King of our table.  He was kind enough to allow a small photo shoot.  Barely.

This cat with the stubby ears, was one grumpy cat.  He was not a happy addition to Cat Cafe.

This cat right here cracked me up.  He was not an exclusive "member" of cat cafe, but was hanging outside of the store just looking in.  I imagined him saying something like, "hey guys, whatta 'bout me?".  I actually felt a little bad for him.  :)

We also went to a baseball game here.  Talk about a really, really good time!  I can't remember the last time I had such a fun evening.  Certainly I have never enjoyed a baseball game as much as this one.  It is so different from an American baseball game.    The crowd here, shouts, sings & chants throughout the entire game.  They also go nuts and yell when their person is up to bat, which seemed a little different because I would assume it would be distracting for the batter.  There is also a "ring leader" type of guy who gets the crowd going and soon thereafter the cheerleaders (YES, they have cheerleaders at baseball games here) start rocking it out and the crowd goes nuts for it.  They also have about 5 or so of these little weird mascot creatures.  I don't know what they were.  2 of them looked like ducks and the other ones looked like a cross between a tella-tubby and marvin the martian.  I love Korea.  You can also bring your own food & drinks to the game!  So people were coming in with full-on picnics of pizza, kimbap, mcdonalds and even beer & soju.  You also can't buy hotdogs at these games, but if you were looking for squid man, they're selling it all over the place.  The vendors walk through the stands selling squid & beer throughout the game.  What is nice about the beer here is that it is about $2 dollars for a beer vs. a US game where it would easily cost $5 or $6 bucks.   Also, at the end of the game the crowd slowly, but surely starts to turn orange.  Is what happens is people start handing out orange grocery sacks and people blow air in them and stick them on their heads and tuck the handles behind their ears.  :)  Dan and I had no idea why they were doing this, but we decided to go with it and tied our bags to our heads as well.  Sadly, this will likely be my only Korean baseball game as the season is about ready to wrap up.  Happily, I will always have this great memory. 

Squid & Beer vendor! 

It was pretty neat seeing the scoreboard in another language.

Me and the family that posed in my photo.  They were great!  Proudly displaying the orange bags on our heads.

Mascots! 

There are some petroglyphs that are really close to where I live.  This past weekend we decided to go see them.  It took a couple of hours to get there because we had to change busses several times.  When we finally got off the final bus, like the guide book told us, at the entrance.  What the guide book failed to mention is that from here we would have to walk a couple of kilometers to the museum.  I was wearing inappropriate shoes with no socks and it was a million degrees with 100% humidity.  About part way through the walk I mumbled something like, "watch it be closed on Mondays".  Well, as fate would have it, the museum portion is closed on Mondays.  From this point, we looked on the map and it looked like we could walk another kilometer in either direction and make it to the petroglyph sites.  The kind security guard then tells us, "ohh they are under water right now".  So that was our BIG exciting petroglyph trip!  We then asked the security guard if he would call a taxi, because there was NO way I was hiking back down to the main road in that heat. 

Fortunately this trip was not a complete miss.  Even though it was hot and miserable, it was so gloriously beautiful.  There were sounds of frogs and cicadas.  I also saw the biggest black butterfly I have ever seen (actually I have never seen a black butterfly!).  It looked more like a bat.  There were trees that had leaves that were bigger than my head and vines all over the place and a beautiful stream running through it all.  So, I actually enjoyed the entire experience.  I now have the petroglyphs to look forward to. 

After the cabby picked us up we had him take us to a 500 year old ginko tree that was shown in our guide book.  It was set back amongst some rice fields and old houses.  I am forgetting the history behind the tree, but I think a king 500 years ago had it planted.  It certainly was one glorious tree. 

This was one of the views on the path to the petroglyphs.

The huge leaves and a dan's hand to show how big they are.

It was all incredibly lush and alive like this shot.

Truly not a bad photo in the bunch!

This is the 500 year old Ginko tree.

Rice fields surrounding the tree.

A nice path through the rice field.

An old farm house right by the tree.

At the end of this trip on our way back to Ulsan, I realized I did not have my camera with me.  I remember taking a picture in the taxi, so I knew it was in there.  Like a true shopper that I am, I was already picking out my even better, bigger and more expensive camera!  I made a phone call to one of my Korean friends and she called some taxis for me with no luck locating the camera.  Dan was convinced that he would get it back to us because the driver had Buddist beads and books in his cab, so based on the fundamentals of that religion he was pretty optimistic about the outcome.  We ended up taking a bus back to the town we were in to ask some taxi drivers and also check at the bus station, since that is where he dropped us off at.  While I was in this town, I texted my friend a few phone numbers from various taxis I saw around town and fortunately one of them was the one we took.  Long story short about 5 hours after the camera went missing, the taxi driver met me at a hotel in downtown Ulsan and brought my camera back to me.  It was so wonderful.  It's just nice when things like this work out and such a good reminder that there are truly decent and honest people out there!  It made my month! 

This is the picture that I thought I just had to take in the cab too!  It's a TERRIBLE photo.  So not worth the 5 hour freak out.  :)

tidbits

Today my Korean co-teacher had on a shirt that read, "Iiontellectually and Physically Superior".  (oh goodness)

Beomeosa Temple photographs

We went to a temple outside of a town called Busan.  It was set in the mountains next to a beautiful river with large, moss covered rocks, beautiful trees, & bamboo.  No matter where you aimed the camera you were sure to get a good photograph.

This is an ornate awning of one of the temples, which you find on all the temples.

This is a close up of the beeds that are hanging on the wall of the above temple.

I love bamboo!  It is so peaceful and beautiful.  I am still in awe that I live somewhere where bamboo grows.

Just an interesting temple door.

A glimpse of the gorgeous view.

These dolls & Buddahs were tucked underneath a rock outside of the large, main temple.  There were at least 20 or more of them , placed there as offerings.  Some of them looked quite weathered, so I imagine they have been there for years.

Writing carved into a rock outside of the main temple.  The dolls are under this rock.

This tree is huge.  The camera does not capture how big it is without a reference point.  So just trust me when I say, "huge".  :)

I love this.  It's a dragon fly resting on a pile of rocks that were placed there by the many visitors.

sneezes, sweets & sandwiches

My kids like to "fake" sneeze to get me to say, "bless you".  I didn't realize what they were doing until recently, when kids at my summer camp would do it too.  In Korea when you sneeze, they don't say anything.  I have been trained to say, "bless you", and for whatever reason, I almost can't stop myself from saying it to someone.  I guess in western culture it is just nice and polite to say to someone after they sneeze.  Well, Koreans are onto this western phenomenon so one kid in class might sneeze a legit sneeze and when they get my automatic, "bless you" there are always a few chuckles followed by a series of fake sneezes to initiate the same response from me.  Pavlov's dog!    They really think it is funny that we say anything after a sneeze.  At summer camp you'll see the same culprits fake sneeze in the vicinity of a different western teacher to see if they will do it too.  It's just endless entertainment for them!

 

There is a trash issue in this country.  There is not normal, garbage pick up that I have noticed, and sadly it can get pretty junky.  Down by the ocean, there is a lot of trash just getting carried away by the ocean.  Really bothers me.  You also see tons of trash in the streams & rivers and is just such a shame.  Prior to the '88 Olympics in Seoul, they had normal trash removal AND public trash cans throughout cities in the country.  But at the time of the Olympics, some city officials in Seoul decided that trash cans were unsightly so they removed all of them, and since Seoul is the trend setter of Korea, the rest of the country followed suit.  The problem is, they never put the trash cans back, so you truly are hard pressed to find a public trash can in this country.  Littering is pretty common place here.  People will walk down the street and just drop their plastic wrappers, cans, bottles and whatever else and well, there is goes to the rivers, streams and oceans.   It's too bad really, because it is so gorgeous here, but when the natural beauty is turning into a trash-heap, sure does detract, not to mention what it does to the natural habitat.  Some things they do right though, like separate out their organic waste and put into compost heaps.

People here, like most people across the world, have standards of beauty that by mere genes alone is almost impossible to achieve.  For example, they are obsessed with big eyes and small faces.  My kids always tell me I have big eyes and that is good, and then they point out their own eyes and say, "small eyes, bad".  Kind of makes me sad.  They also think they have huge faces and they don't like it.  Many want to have a smaller, western style face.  Was out to dinner last night and one of the women at the table was saying how her kids tell her every day that her face is small and it is good.   Kids starting in junior high (sometimes elementary school) start getting surgery on their eyes to give them a western-style eye-lids.  You will see a kid one week with a patch over one eye, and the following week a patch over the other eye.  It is not uncommon for me to see different kids on a daily basis with this eye patch.    My personal opinion on Koreans, is that they are quite physically attractive.  They have such a natural, delicate and graceful beauty---and gorgeous skin.     But, ideal beauty is what it is, and has always existed and always will from culture to culture.  I am sure they are surprised by American's and other westerner's ideal beauty aspirations as well.  Off hand, tanned skin is seen as sexy, youthful and healthy in America and many other western cultures, and here it is the exact opposite.  They will see a picture of a tanned, white person and they will say, "oohhhh not good".  Skin whitening products, on the other hand are sold at every make up counter and the commercials are full of these products.  They sell skin-whitening products like we sell tanning products (fake tan lotion, sun tanning lotion and tanning bed packages).

Korea on sandwiches:  To Koreans if there are 2 pieces of bread, anything under the sun is fair game to stick in between the slices.  I will have you know, there are rules people! ;)   They will stick apple slices, ham chunks, jam and mayo in between 2 slices of bread and voila: a sandwich.    I have decided that this is their interpretation of western food.  So on the flip side, when I am making "Asian" food at home, I am sure to any Asian person, they would wonder how I could possibly have the audacity to think that this conglomeration is anything close to "Asian".   

Koreans on sweets:  Red Beans=Dessert food.  You will find this on ice cream.  Fruit Salad=Fruit, tomatoes (yes i know technically it is fruit) and red beans.  Cake=Cake +cucumbers & tomatoes.   Coffee=2 tbls sugar 1tsp coffee & serve in dixie cup.

Tid Bits:

Went to a birthday party last night and ate birthday cake with chopsticks, for the first time in my life.  Was kind of fun.

Awakening: At dinner the other night w/ a large group of friends.  The girl next to me asks how old I am.  I don't really like this question.  I tell her, and she says, "Ohhhhhh, wow dude, is it weird for you to be hanging around all of us young people?". (sh** am I that person???? mental note: get new friends immediately)

moving right along......

I remember the first couple of weeks that I was in Ulsan, I had major anxiety about being on public transportation.  Mostly because I was concerned that I was on the wrong bus, or I wouldn't recognize my destination when I got there, or that I would do something completely wrong.  Apparently when you want the bus to stop at the next stop you're supposed to press the red "stop" button.  Um, I didn't know this for an inconvienently long time, so, well, I did a bit of extra walking, when it would finally stop, because someone else finally needed to get off and would push the button.  I also didn't know that you were supposed to be waiting at the door to get off when your stop arrived.  Me??... oh no, I would be sitting, just assuming that the bus would stay stopped until I casually made my way to the exit, but, well, not the case for obvious reasons.  Another bus learning experience is that there is a lot of body language involved w/ busses and people waiting at the bus stop.  If you're at a stop, without a lot of people the bus won't always stop if you don't give off some sort of signal (standing up, gestering w/ your hand, or walking towards the bus--or running as the case often is).  I didn't figure this out for a couple of weeks and would just sit my rear on the bench, assuming the busses always stopped at every stop all the time. During this learning curve, I would sit in the bus and see all the other people completely relaxed.  I silently prayed that I would eventually be one of these calm,, cool & collected people who seemed to have the utmost confidence in Korean public transportation (now I can say that the public transit is AWESOME).   I was riding a bus the other day and remembering that awful feeling of anxiety and I'm now thankful that I am now one of those relaxed people on the bus. 

Even in the super market here, I about had an anxiety attack the first several times I went in there.  The main super market I go to, is multi-level and laid out like a maze.  There are multiple escalators and I never knew which one to go up and would end up getting very turned around.  Now, it is easy and almost an enjoyable experience.  It's just nice to reflect back on the way you felt/were and then to realize all the learning & transitioning that has been taking place the entire time without even being aware of it.   I had to keep giving myself daily pep-talks of, "you will get through this, you will figure things out eventually"...

Much of the "honeymoon" phase of korea has worn off in recent weeks.  I find myself going loopy over the ways that things are done here.  Of course, I never want to complain too much to people about Korea because I don't want to look like I am passing judgement on an entire country by making grandiose blanket statements.  More often these large statements can come off as arrogant, egocentric or down-right prejudice.  I think it is safe to say none of this applies to any of the korea complaining I will do, but please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.  :)     I have talked to several foriegners and once we get started on the "ohhhh my gosh this is soooo insane" band wagon we can't seem to stop ourselves.  From person to person we all have the same exact complaints that just drive our western brains absolutely bonkers.  

 Korea is a very interesting place all the way around.  You meet so many great, nice, gracious people---but the society at large almost seems inconsiderate and unaware (through western eyes), if that makes sense?     I am trying to compare my thoughts about Korea, to the global perception of America in the sense of realizing how Americans come off globally, but when you really get to know the individuals, you realize how great many people are. But if you just look at America and make a lot of blanket statements about the society & people, you might be right, 'in general' but when it gets down to the individuals, none of those blanket statements really apply.   I am trying to keep this in mind when I make those comments about Korea.  Because I LOVE the basic niceness of the individuals.  To name a few examples:  My favorite restaurant owner & son buy me dinner on occasion and they say such nice things about me and they really take an interest in my family/dan/life etc.   Same with my neighbors who go out of their way to bring me treats on occasion.  Random children running up to me and giving me candy.  Strangers giving up their bus seats for me. Or several people, like my coffee shop friends or other Koreans who have gone out of their way to make me feel incredibly welcomed into their world particularly at a time when I was feeling very lonely and had no friends.  To them, I am forever grateful.   So when I start thinking that Korea is "rude" or "inconsiderate" with all the pushing & shoving, it's good to remember that there are soooooooooooo many positive and downright sweet encounters with individuals that more than make up for the appearance of the society at large.  

So here are a few of my grandiose blanket statements about the country and people.  Again, please take it all lightly, as I am not complaining, just making my own observations about what I perceive to be happening.  With Koreans, I have noticed, that they ALL want to be first.  This insistence on being first is noticeable in my students all the way up to the older generations.  Starting off in my classes, I will be working with a student and I will hear, "TEACHERRRRRRRRR MEEEEEEE", over and over and over and over again until I go over to them.  It's truly like they don't see me working with another kid.  I know part of that is being a kid, but I have never seen it quite like this with American kids.  Another example is that I will tell the entire class that each one of them will get a sticker.  So I start walking around the room and handing out stickers.  Clearly, I am one person, and can only hand out 1 sticker at a time.  But, they will crowd me, all wanting to be first and tripping and shoving each other to get one before the next kid.  It's pretty intense.  Another example of wanting to be first is on the road.  There will be a line of cars wanting to take a left in the ONLY left hand turn lane and cars from the back will pull out of line and rush to the front of the line and recklessly do an "illegal" double turn or cut the person off in the front of the line.  Another  example is you will clearly be in line at a register and people will blatantly cut in front of you (which, just so you know i have gotten very aggressive on holding my place in line--old lady or not--).  This sort of thing really happens ALL THE TIME.  Another is when you are in an elevator and it stops on your floor, you will attempt to get off, but the people getting on crash right into you because THEY WILL be getting on, before ever letting you off.   It's almost like this unawareness of other people around them.  If you are a pedestrian and someone gets into their car AND they even make eye contact with you, once they start their engine, it's like they forget they saw you 2 seconds prior and almost run you over (no exageration).  So in closing, I must say again, I really love this country and I love the people here.  But it is a bit chaotic and confusing to me and I am sure that a lot of what I am saying is probably not really the case, but through my eyes it just seems like it is, because with the language and cultural barrier I am not sure I will ever have a firmer understanding.

In my summer camp right now, it is made up of 3 Americans, 1 Canadian & 2 British.  We banter quite a bit and love to harass each other on the stereotypes of the other's country.  It's funny because you, at times, can't help yourself by being the complete and total stereotype that you are!  Because, well, you are, in fact, American or British etc.   So when someone calls you out on being that stereotype, we just laugh it off and then starts another round of good natured banter.  I am teaching over 30 classes a week at this summer camp.  Normally we only teach 22 hours a week, so this is a lot more.  It is very intensive work and I get home totally drained, but having other native English speakers there has been so great for all of us.  On a normal school day, I never have conversations, so the only time I talk is when I am teaching.  My conversations for weeks on end normally consist of "hi, how are you?"  "I am  fine, thank you, how are you?"  "fine"  "nice weather" "yes".  Anyway, being able to express complex thoughts or even make jokes has been wonderful.  Not to mention some great new friends.  Sadly though, several of them are leaving in a few weeks to go home.  Dan will be here in "7 sleeps", so hopefully having had my English "exercised" these past couple of weeks, I won't Bombard him with every last thought, feeling, experience I have had every moment of every waking day for the past 6 months!  :)  Ahhh, but then again, it's me....who am I kidding?

At this summer camp there was a day last week that was called "sports day", in which we spent 2 hours with the kids doing various activities in a round-robin style.  The night before we had a meeting and the main teacher just told one of the teachers that he will have to be in front of the gym, on the stage to help her out with something (he was not happy about be "volunteered").   So she started picking an afternoon "volunteer" to be with her on stage.  None of the teachers volunteerd and everyone is squirming, so I took one for the team and said I would do it.  Again, I must clarify that she said SHE would just need an extra body up there with her, kind of for moral support so she was not the only one on stage.     So afternoon time comes around, and she calls me up and I get on stage.  Right then, her phone rings  and OF COURSE she takes the call and leaves the stage and goes and stands off in the corner chatting on her phone, leaving me standing there like a doof with 100+ eyes on me.   It's pretty common here to get zero information on anything and so I"ve learned to stop asking questions, which is why I didn't know what I was doing on stage.  Anyway, I stand there while she is having a really hilarious conversation, meanwhile I am looking at the other co-teachers, asking, "WHAT am I supposed to do???"   Apparently I was supposed to start doing warm up exercises.  So I just started doing some ridiculous stretches for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Going to the cell phone answering here:   It is NOT at all uncommon for teachers to answer their cell phones at the most innappropriate times.  They will be in mid-sentence, teaching their class--their cell phone rings, and they just walk over to the side and start having a conversation, leaving the students just looking at them.  You see this not just w/ teachers but with many workers.  It's very interesting.  Of course, given the fact that on occasion teachers drink Soju at lunch and come back to school typsy--not sure why the cell phone thing surprises me!  :)  IT is just a very different culture here, and I'm not sure if I lived here for the rest of my life, I would ever fully understand it.  And that's okay! 

 If you are caucasian, there is a 95% guess that they will guess you to be American.  I didn't know this until recently.  I was at the gym the other day running on the treadmill and a Korean comes up to me and asked me if I was American.  I was so shocked and kind of freaked out that even my run screamed American.  I get it all the time, otherwise, and have just assumed that chances are I have a very American walk/stance that is screaming my nationality before a word is ever spoken.  Speaking of words though, most Koreans can't tell the difference between various American accents and even other English speaking country accents (not that this is a big deal, because I can't tell the different between different Korean accents and I guess they are so drastically different that Koreans have a hard time understanding another Korean with a strong accent.  I gues they are so drastically different that North-SK, like Seoul and South SK like Ulsan/Busan feel like they are speaking another language at times).  But it's really fun to show them the difference in accents by picking out a single phrase that they are comfortable with such as, "How are you?" and then say it with as many differnt American accents as you can think of.  Then for fun it is entertaining to throw in other accents (brittish, aussie, etc).  They get a huge kick out of it and love to try to guess which accent you are doing.  Of course, I am terrible at accents, so I should probably stop. 

Tid Bits:

I went to make an appointment for a hair cut and color.  I have been to this guy one other time, so he knows about my "secret" stash of grey hair, and made no secret about laughing at it.  I am in there yesterday and I tell him I need another color & cut, so he starts looking at my roots, and he is laughing and says something to the customer in his chair who announces, "ohhhh ha ha ha white color"!   So I looked at him and put my finger up to my mouth and say, "Shhhhhhhhhhh--secret"...and they got a pretty big kick out of it.  Discression with anything medical/personal doesn't really exist here. 

A favorite English saying that all my kids at every school loves to say is, "Do you want to Die?" but they say "die" like "Dyyyeeeeeeeee".  For some reason the kids really love it when you say it to them, and then put your finger up to your neck like you are slicing it. Just for the record I am not threatening the kids, the regular teachers do this to them as well. It's just some sort of funny ha ha thing that is endlessly entertaining for them.  :)   Sometimes you can add in a, "Do you want to dieeeee, byyy me??!"  And they will just roll with laughter.   

moon pie magic

The other night I was walking home around 10 p.m.  I came to this really busy intersection that I had to cross, but I have quickly learnt not to trust cross walks or any moving vehicle in Korea.  At this particular intersection cars push out into the intersection, w/ no one really giving a care who has the right of way.  It is kind of like a 4 way stop, but they don't have stop signs here.  :)   Just 4 busy intersections coming together into pure madness and everyone wanting to go first.  So, trying to cross this street with 4 intersections to worry about, 10 p.m. Friday night and seeing many, many drunk Korean men along my walk--I was a little nervous.

I stood at this intersection for about 3+ minutes waiting for it to be clear on all four corners before I would brave this Korean street.  Finally, a drunk man pulls himself up off the ground comes over to me and "demonstrates" how to cross a street in Korea!  He walks out into traffic, holding his hands up, gesturing for the cars to stop (and they do) and marches across the street and then marches back for good measure!  It's pretty bad when you can exasperate a drunk man.  During his "demonstration" I teeth-grittingly walked across the street with him and happily made it to the other side.  Probably not my smartest move.

This next story I already emailed out to most of you, because it tickled me so much when it happened.  So please forgive the redundancy and the fact that I copied and pasted straight from the email!

I was at this restaurant that I buy my Kimbap from and the son who works there had a phone that can translate languages via speech or writing.  There is one particular item that goes in Kimbap that I think is downright ugly and I don't know what it is, so I always ask them to leave it out.  It looks like fat marinated in soy sauce.

Anyway, he puts the phone up to my mouth and wants me to say something in English to show me his phone can translate and since we were talking about the ingredients and it was decided that the "weird" stuff was actually smooshed up and re-shaped fish (yeah, still uck).  So I say, "I thought it was pig back-fat" into the phone.   He is looking at it with a confused-smirk on his face. So I look at it and the English version captured, "Hi, I think this is Pig Farts"        LOL!!   Ohhh Lost in translations are Soooooo much fun!  Finally, we got it sorted out and they were relieved to know I thought it was animal fat and not pig farts.  :)

I actually went to this place this evening, for my nightly kimbap fix.  The people who own it are absolutely delightful and they have inspired me to resume my korean language practice.  Even though our communication is very difficult, I can tell what sincerily nice people they are.  They always say such kind things to me and truly make every visit there magic.  I took a picture of their menu, because I know they sell more than Kimbap, but I can't read what it is.  I will take this photo to one of my Korean friends who is fluent in English for translation, so I can branch out.  I think when I visit next, I will just ask for something they think I'll like and see what I get.  Here are a couple of pictures of their menu that hang on the wall.

Today I finished off the first of three summer camps.  They are long days filled with non-stop activities, games, and being a drill sergeant when the need arises, which you can imagine is a lot given the age (10-12) and the fact that they can pretty much say whatever they want around me and chances are quite high that I won't understand any of it!  :)    I have started tricking them into thinking that I might be on to them.  When kids are plotting or saying things they shouldn't say, they have no control over that guilty, questioning look they'll throw in your direction, 'just to make sure' you didn't hear or see what they are doing.  One nice thing about most body language is that it is universal!  So I give them my best, "Ohhhh you better not even think about it mister" look and like clock-work they give me a sheepish smile and say sorry.    Goodness knows what sort of schemes I am putting a stop to, but given their age it can be anything from a wedgy to stealing candy out of your treat stash.

Today in celebration of the last day I got the most awesome surprise from a few of my kids.  This morning when they came in they were plotting something in the corner, but from their body language I ascertained it was positive "scheming" that was taking place because they had sincerely happy smiles on their faces and a few of them looked at me with really excited expressions.    Anyway, a little while later, during break I went to fill up my water bottle in the hallway and there were kids trying to get into the boys bathroom, but it was barricaded shut.  It turns out the 3-little plotters from earlier locked themselves in there.  About 5 minutes later they bring my surprise into the classroom, which was the most AWESOME moon-pie cake EVER, complete w/ edible chocolate "candle" type sticks on top.  It just about made me cry.  They sang me happy birthday too!  (My Birthday is in February)

From there they, of course, wanted to eat it immediately, because,,,,well,,, it is always a good idea to eat heaps of chocolate at 10 a.m.!  The kids wouldn't eat any of it, until I ate some first, because that is part of the culture of Korea (the oldest person always takes the first bite, before anyone else can/should eat).   Given the fact that this was put together in the boys bathroom, I really had no intention of eating any of it!  I mean, these bathrooms are GROSS!  There is no soap, toilet paper, hand towels or even warm water.  Nor does anyone clean these bathrooms EVER.  They smell horrible, and should be out-lawed!    But, I digress, I braved a "candle stick", and they were satisfied and dived into the rest with a fury that only kids mixed with chocolate can create and they never noticed that I ate nothing more.       Can I just say it again??? I LOVE MY KIDS!!     They rock.  That's all there is to it. 

Normally I wouldn't post a picture of my kids on a blog, but I think with the masks, it should be okay.  Today's theme was, "Holidays", so we went through the 3 funner holidays for kids (Halloween, Easter & Xmas).  We created Halloween costumes and we were going to go "trick or treating" but since the sugar-fest of moon pie cake just happened minutes prior to this activity, I decided to eliminate the trick or treating portion from today's agenda.  But, here is a fabulous group shot!



Something I am quickly learning in Korea is that the eco-system works fast.  I am such a Wyoming/Colorado person, that I have zero concept of what it is like to live in a humid/hot place that has lots and lots of bugs.  In both Wyo & CO it is so dry and there really aren't a lot of bugs, so you don't have to worry about an entire army of small insects appear in your kitchen at the first spill.  Here we have to seperate out our garbage, so all composte goes in one container, trash & glass/plastic go in their own etc (which I really do think is brilliant by the way).  The composte is a nightmare for me though.  If I leave it in the kitchen over night, out of nowhere bugs just multiply by the hundreds.  It hasn't taken me very long to up my standards of cleanliness in the kitchen by leaps and bounds.  I am now living in a climate that fruit flies appear out of thin air while I am making my morning fruit smoothy.  I have started refridgerating composte like cherry seeds and banana peels if I am not going to be able to take them outside immediately.  Ohhhhh the joys of living in a funky-humid place.  :)

Exactly 3 weeks from today Dan is coming for a visit.  21 days!  I am beyond excited to see him and although time seems to move fast here, for some reason since his arrival turned into 1 month away, time started moving impossibly slow.  I can't wait.  Can't wait. Can't wait. Can't wait. Can't wait.  It will be exactly 6 months since I left, almost to the day, so this will be the perfect reward for the half-way marker.

Tid Bits:

Saw a kid wearing a shirt that said, "Take me to the Strippers".  I just couldn't get myself to say anything.

When Koreans flash the Peace Sign they call it "V".  Most of them have not heard of the English word, "Peace".  They just do it all the time, for the cool factor.  I think a lot of their Pop Stars do it in photos, but they hold the "V" sign up by their eyes and make a bit of a demure looking face.

I have now received 2 Moon Pie cakes in Korea!  My first was on my actual birthday, which happened that first week I got here.  Now, that I have scored my second moon-pie cake on the other side of the country, I am guessing this must be common place here?  I will have to do a little digging on the subject of Moon Pie birthday cakes. Who knew moon pies even still existed?  Not me.

Koreans call any kind of food that is convienent, "Instant Food".  My kids tell me, when the topic is food, that their favorite food is, "instant food".  "Instant Food" is fast food, chips, hot dogs, ice cream bars, crackers, basically anything that you unwrap and eat.  Makes sense.

average korean night....

This is a ferris wheel that is about 3 times the size of a normal one, and it is on top of a building to boot, so you can imagine how high up you are.  This stands out throughout a lot of the city, so often time it is my navigation  marker.  Anyway, I rode it for the first time tonight, and it was a little scary, but a great deal of fun.  Not sure I would do it again though.  :)

The view.....

A merry-go-round on top of the building too.

This is at a graffiti ice-cream parlor.  There is literally graffiti all over the walls & windows.  The seats are benches that are hanging by the ropes that you see in this picture.

And this is the nasty desserts this place sells!  It is 2 kinds of chocoloate cereals, cocoa sprinkles, ice cream, kiwi, strawberries, bananas, cocoa & shaved ice in a bowel.  *Not for those faint of heart*

icecream & kimbap

I found the most amazing restaurant for all my 'take-out' needs.  It is a very small, mom and pop restaurant that is just around the corner from my apartment.  In fact, I have been walking past it on almost a daily basis and have never really noticed it before.  A lot of restaurants and stores around here are ran out of the front or lower-level of a family apartment.  They are very make-shift and often non-descript.  A lot of times you can't tell whether they are even open or not.   Anyway, I can get dinner here for just over $1 USD.   And it is super fresh, delicious and put together right in front of you.  Literally, right in front of you, because the kitchen and the dining area, are one and the same.   I love kimbap and this place makes the most amazing kimbap (it is basically a california roll, but has seaweed in it, ham , carmelized plant root, spinach, egg and a few other things that I can't identify.  In fact I am not even sure if it is spinach and egg:)). 

I have been going to this little restaurant every day for a week straight.  I love the people who work there too.  The other day i walked in and the son and mom were at one of the tables and the son was eating something out of a small plastic bag.  They exchanged a few words and then she takes the bag of food from him and literally takes the chopsticks right out of his hands and gives it to me to eat.  :)   The son I found out is 27 years old---I thought he was more like 17 though.  He tells me this is food for little kids, but he likes it because he is kind of a kid at heart (that is what I took from what he was trying to express).  So while they made my kimbap, I sat and ate her sons little kid snacks.  I love Korea.  It is such a sharing society.  One thing I have quickly learned is that if someone is offering to share their food, no matter how much you don't want it...or how it might seem strange to eat off of a strangers chopsticks--just do it and smile and say thank you.    It is just good manners here. 

They get so excited every time I come in there and it makes you feel pretty special in a land that is so foriegn.  It actually makes you feel like you have a place here and that you belong. I have only been going there for a week and it already seems like I have been going there for months.  I love how quickly people here welcome you and how quickly you are no longer a stranger.   Each time they ask me more and more personal questions.  Tonight when I went in it was "how old are you?" which is really important in Korean society so they know what their place is with you.  It also matters on who bows first and who bows the lowest and what the possible nature of the friendship might have the potential to be.  

The other day I went to home plus and ran into a few of my 6th grade girls.  They were besides themselves with excitement and instantly wanted to know where I was going.  I told them Homeplus (the wal-mart of korea) and then happily informed me that they would come with me.  They said, "christine teacher, we help you shop" and they proceeded to hook one of their arms in each one of mine and 3-people wide we proceeded to shop.  Afterwards they were hinting that "they were thirsty" (probably grateful we just did the "I'm hungry/thirsy lesson in class).   I told them I would treat them to a soda.  We get to the counter of a McDonalds type place inside of Home plus and naturally they see the icecream on the list and now they are no longer "thirsty" but very, undyingly hungry.  The kind of hunger that only icecream can heal. :)   So I bought them icecream and told them it was a secret.

Today, about 6 days after the fact, one of the girls comes up to me and says, "christine teacher, you remember?  min-ju and me?  we were at home plus".  I guess they were worried that I somehow forgot it.  It was kind of cute.  I was getting "knowing" looks from them in class earlier this week and I didn't react to it or acknowledge their knowing look, I guess they thought I didn't know who they were.  :)  

At lunch today, I was eating this meal in which you put a large leaf on your palm, put rice, a hot sauce, meat and whatever else is available to go into it.  It's delicious.  Actually, amazing might more adequately describe it.  I LOVE IT.  I think it is called Sam.    Anyway I was loading up the hot sauce on mine and a woman at the table seem really freaked out, and it caused her to get up from her spot about 5 seats over and come over to scold me, mostly in Korean.  I felt very foolish, as I knew I did something wrong, but I didn't know what it was, and everyone else, being fluent in Korean knew what I did wrong.  Anyway, through "Konglish" and gestures I figured out that the salt content of this sauce was out-of-control high.  She is the school nurse, so I will take her word for it.  I have noticed that I am drinking tons of water, but seem to have an unquenchable thirst and my lips are cracking lately and feel raw.   I love the sauces here, and apparently I have been eating enough salt, unknowingly, that could kill small animals.  Oddly, I am relieved to know why my thirst is out of control and my lips are about ready to fall off of my face.  Sneaky Korean, delicious, hot sauces!

This next week is the last week of the semester.  I honestly have no idea where the time has gone.  So happy to have survived!  Not only survived, but also loving it more and more all the time.  Even at my "bad school" I am starting to fall in love with a few of my classes and several of my students.  We have taken a long time to warm up to each other, but we have finally found our rhythm.  After our regular classes let out we will move into "summer camp" classes.  I will be teaching 3 differen summer camps at 3 different schools.  Fortunately these classes are pretty unstructured and they are supposed to be fun for the students.  So I will be teaching all about Halloween and doing facepainting, teaching Xmas songs, creating Super Hero movies and all sorts of other fun things.  Kind of looking forward to it.

At my main schools I have realized what I have been doing wrong as a teacher---which was "forcing" learning to happen.  I found myself really frustrated because the louder I talked and the more serious I became the less the students were interested in me and the less they respected me.  Over time, I have learned to take a step back and not "force" anything they aren't willing to learn.  The other big learning experience was, and don't be shocked here, they don't speak English.  So I was walking in, assuming that they knew a lot more than they did, talking to them like they understood what I was saying, which probably freaked them out and frustrated them.  I had to do a lot of, "putting myself in their shoes" and started using my daily interactions with everyone as a learning experience.  By that, I mean that each person I encounter, I can't understand what they heck they are saying if they are just talking to me, like I speak the same language.  But, when they break it down for me and use only 2 or 3 key words with lots of facial expressions and gestures, I can figure out 90% of what they are trying to communicate.  I know it seems like common sense, and it probably is, but I'm still learning a little something new every day.  I think after this year is over, I will be a lot more prepared to teach children if I decide to go down this path.  I will say that I am amazed at how many "conversations" I can have with people speaking 2 completely different languages.  Makes me realize how much more langague and learning is really about body language, facial expressions and intonations. 

here, try on this hot pink number with sequins

Random acts of simple kindness define this country on a frequent basis.  It's nothing extraordinary, it's just a bunch of small gestures that have the ability to make your day a smidge brighter.  I was at a bus stop on one side of the road the other day, and an old farmer at the bus stop on the other side of the road comes running over to me with a handful of candy and gestures for me to take one.  Another example is that I was walking across the soccer field at one of my schools and a student (maybe 2 or 3rd grade) that was not my student comes running up to me with a tupper ware full of candy and gives me one.  Today I was in the office and my vice principal comes over to me w/ a half eaten banana, and is trying to get me to eat the rest.  Other kindnesses are when I am on a bus with my arms full of groceries people will get out of their seats for me or times I will be standing with my over sized book bag, and someone who is sitting will take it off my shoulder and hold it in their lap for the duration of the bus ride.  I know I complain some about all the pushing, crowding and bumping, but that is truly a small price to pay for the general courtesies and random acts of kindnesses.

Shopping here can be an odd experience.  The clerks here are incredibly helpful. Actually beyond helpful.  They often stand about 1 to 2 feet from you and follow you around the entire store.  It can be a little unsettling.  I hate to make a blanket statement about Korean sales clerks, but so far I have not been proven otherwise, so here goes:  They have the WORST taste in clothing, or else, they think I have the worst taste in clothing, as the case may be.  The entire interaction is bizarrely backwards.  Here is an example:  Me, minding my own business, trying to ignore the person following me around, picking up a few shirts I like and examining them.  I have pretty basic taste in clothing, generally conservative neutrals, however, the clerk will disappear and come back with something completely hideous and flashy.  What's worse is that it is never anywhere NEAR the ballpark of what I was originally looking at.  So I can never figure out how they made the leap from what I was looking at to what they show me.  I have a fresh example from earlier this evening.  I was looking at a pair of conservative navy blue shorts and a pair of khaki cargos.  The clerk disappears and comes back with a HOT Pink dress with glitter detailing on the neck line (huh?).  This particular clerk I really like, and have had multiple encounters with her, so I did laugh out loud and told her, Noooooo.  She then disappears and comes back with an animal print tank top instead. :)    A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at a basic white & tan dress, and the clerk starts helping me by showing me some black and purple spandex pants.  Anyway, if nothing else, there is never a dull moment when shopping in Korea.  This weekend I am going up to Seoul, so I get to experience Seoul Shopping.  Can't wait.  

At one of my schools the other day there was a bird that was flying around in the hallway.  It was spooked by me and flew into a closed window and knocked himself to the ground.  So I took my cardigan off and put it over it to catch it and take it outside (I thought it was going to die).  So I go back into my class room and tell the coteacher I have a bird and was going to take it downstairs.  She is not so concerned about the bird, but more concerned about the fact that I am no longer wearing my cardigan and my arms are showing.  You must know I had a SUPER conservative tanktop on underneath.  It had a high collar (almost up to my collar bone) and thick straps and it also came away from my body, so it was not at all revealing.  So, she puts me in our little room just off the classroom so that I can put the bird in a bag and then put my cardigan back on, before scandal strikes AND then go outside with the damn bird.  By this time, the bird had awoken from it's coma and managed to fly out of the bag during the exchange.  Now it is loose in our small room about ready to fly into another window.  Long story short, I managed to close a few blinds and open one window and the bird flew out and Korea was spared the humiliation of having a foreign teacher run about in a tank top rescuing birds.

The other day I had, what they call an "Open Class" where the parents, other teachers, the principal and vice principal all sit in on your class.   This is a very nerve-racking experience.  Fortunately my class was pretty successful and I got a lot of positive feed-back and a bit of constructive criticism as well (both very beneficial).  I was given the video tape of my class the other day and I was very pleased with it.  I did not look or sound nearly as nervous and freaked out as I felt.  It's pretty intimidating having a panel of people in the back of your class taking notes on you.  Anyway, it is now over and fortunately I won't have to deal with that again until next semester.  I tried to upload this to You-Tube so you could get a pretty accurate picture into my day to day life here, but unfortunately it was too long for You-Tube.  I am not sure how to edit it into a 15 minute bit, but once I do, I'll post it.

Tid Bits:

One of my 5th graders had on a shirt that said, "Make Love, not Abies" 

amethyst cave hodge podge

We went to a former amethyst cave today just outside of Ulsan.  It was a really enjoyable trip.  As with most places like this, it had a bit of a carnival feel, but it added to the over-all pleasure of it.  Built into the side of the mountain there were ice-sculptures, a mini-tobaggan ride, and  temple.  Outside there was a mini-carnival, a mini zoo, a chicken show and stands selling all sorts of goodies, but only the woodspoons really caught my eye.  Anyway the attractions and randomness were in typical Korean fashion (which I officially feel that I have been here long enough to start calling things "typical" :) as if you couldn't figure that out from the chicken display.  There was also an ET head sticking out behind this stage for performances inside of the cave and Egyptian statues to name a few.  Once again, I love Korea.  I really do.  I don't know that any other country could ever get away with such a mish mash of cuteness, weirdness, and hodge-podge.

Lanterns hanging from the ceiling in the temple

The view from the hillside.  It is incredibly lush here with gorgeous mountains and rolling hills...  I just can't get over how spectacular some of the views are.  It almost overwhelms me.

Because what amethyst cave isn't complete without a chicken exhibition? 

What?!?

I love wooden spoon displays here.  They are incredibly cheap here as well.