Fear the Grape

Dear ajummas at the gym,
I see you everyday. Could you stop staring? I know I'm wearing a "vote for Tim Bivins" tshirt while sweating like a horse, and you are working it with your gold hoop earrings and glistening in the sunlight, but seriously stop.

I just spent an hour and a half avoiding this blog post because my mind is so blank..and I was finishing up the latest American Idol episode. I realized something the other day while I was watching the Grammy's here in Korea..I really like Ryan Seacrest. He always gets mocked on like every single late night show or even his own network, BUT he just seems like a stand up guy, and let's face it, he asks the questions you've been wondering in your head. I won't go on about my new found love for Mr. Seacrest, but I will say my very favorite American Idol contestant is that guy who looks like Seth Rogen and plays the bass.

Speaking of Seth Rogen, a couple of weeks ago, in my kid classes, they kept telling me they wanted to watch the movie, "Superbad" and I was like "whattttt? That is highly inappropriate for you." and they were like, "teacher, what is 'inappropriate'?" And then of course that led to an awkward/"they have no idea what I'm saying" explanation, BUT movie day rolled around and I decided a good movie to watch and answer questions about was "Despicable Me." 1) I still crack up even though I watch the same 15 min. movie clip for 4 classes, 2) I love hearing my youngest students just burst into giggle fits and 3) it's appropriate. Well, it turns out, "Superbad" and "Despicable Me" are one in the same. I guess if you think about it, "spic" in "Despicable" doesn't really roll right off the tongue, does it? So, I've learned Korea, sometimes, will take Western movies and change the titles...I know, I just saved your life by informing you of this fun fact ;)

Once again, Mrs. Nam was the comedian or "gag man" (what Koreans call comedians) of the week. Earlier in the week we were discussing what our fears were, and I got some pretty great answers from my adults. While I said one of my fears was North Korea, Mrs. Ko told us about her fear of mice and a whole 10 minute story of her fruitless hunt for a mouse in her bedroom only to find it the next day hiding in her clothes. She ended her story by saying, "mouse is my enemy." I tell you what, I would not want to be a mouse in Mrs. Ko's house right now. Some other fears were mosquitos, pigeons, worms, and they all came with good stories, but Mrs. Nam's fear was by far my very favorite.

Me: Mrs. Nam, how about you?
Mrs. Nam: grapes
Me: what? did you say grenades?
Mrs. Nam: no, grapes.
Me: WHAT? Please explain to us
Mrs. Nam: I read if you eat grapes, a tree will grow out of your head.
Me: (long pause) Mrs. Nam, that's not true.

Clearly, it was a classic Mrs. Nam moment.

Another interesting classroom conversation this week was the topic of "blood type." I've known about Korean's obsession with blood type for awhile, but I don't think I've shared it with you guys yet. So, we were all giving opinions in the evening adult class, and this student asked another student this, "do you mind me asking, what's your blood type?" And she was like, "It's O" and he says, "Oh, that explains your opinion." That sparked a big conversation on blood types and they were shocked/apallad to discover I don't even know my own blood type. Apparently, they believe blood type tells you alot about personality. One of the students said, "If I found out you were A B I would run out of here screaming." Unfortunately, this conversation came at the end of class and I wasn't able to really ask more questions about it, but I plan to do my own little research in the coming days. What I know so far is that every person in Korea knows his/her bloodtype. In school, they put students in groups depending on their blood type. And on top of killer good looks and double eyelids, another requirement for a future mate includes a certain blood type.

Anyhow, we've had some pretty interesting conversations this week, and I hope you weren't too bored reading through the post :) This coming week I'm going snowboarding on Tuesday (it's a random Korean holiday) AND two of the foreign teachers went on a vacation for a week so the schedule is all sorts of crazy. But I'll fill you in all of this in a week!

Oh and P.S. since Friday, I've officially been in Korea for 5 months!