Blossoming Cherries

Dear Cherry Blossoms,
You are the one good thing that the Japanese left in Korea 60 some years ago.

Hello again, expect this to be short. I was hoping to write this during my "free" period, but it turned out the class that usually has one student who comes 3 times a week had a visitor...a hung over chain smoking visitor who knew very little English (but was surprisingly passionate about learning)..therefore, I did not have a free period. Actually, today was QUITE eventful..however, that is for next week's blog..look forward to it because today was "ink"credible.

Last week a parade kicked off this cherry blossom festival that will be going on until the end of the month. I didn't get to think we would be able to watch the parade (I even had one of my students ask the director if we could go down to the street to watch..as if he was the only one who wanted to) but lo and behold, the parade went right by our 4th story classroom. I couldn't help myself, I let the kids look at the open window/hang out the open window. I told them they could only watch if they would shout in English to the people walking, so there was alot of "HELLO! WHAT'S YOUR NAME? MY NAME IS SHARON! WHERE ARE YOU FROM? DO YOU HAVE BOYFRIEND" (Ok, maybe not "do you have a boyfriend?" but seriously Koreans who can barely say "hello" in English knows how to ask if I "have boyfriend")

It wasn't like any Macy's Day parade or Petunia Festival parade, but we did have the typical girl scouts, schools, army, rotc, tractors, people walking with colorful umbrellas (i'm not sure the reason for the umbrellas). The traditional dances and instruments in the beginning were my favorite. To end the opening of this festival, during my second to last class they let off fireworks at a nearby park and we could see it from our classroom. I taught them the "ooooo" and "ahhhh" expression at every explosion....very important to their English vocabulary.

For the most part the week was the same as any other week, except for Tuesday. On Tuesday, Mrs. Ko, myself, and one of my newer students went to the Gunsan library. Having not been in a library since the closing days of my college career, I felt it was time to restore ties with the place. In this library they had 1 unit for English books, the selection wasn't great but I did pick up a book I thought looked interesting and read it in one day. It's called "The Giver," I was a fan up until the ending. Anyways, it was very fun to do something with the morning class again. After the library Mrs. Ko bought us lunch at a cafe called "Sand and Food." Why would you want to buy Sand with your food? I don't know. Why do I walk by a lotion store and it says in big letters, "For your pace and bady" I don't know. (if you don't get it, it should read "face and body")

Thanks to one of my faithful readers, I read an article about money that was found in a garlic field in a South Korean city called Gimje. A man who had illegally set up an online gambling site buried (exchanging from won to the dollar) 10 MILLION DOLLARS and was caught! So, I was curious on where this city was, and it turns out, it's about a 20 minute drive from my city! That made for good conversation with my adult class and even one student suggested we go digging in other fields to "find the rest of it." If they would have offered to drive us I would have totally gone, but they didn't so instead we just talked about it for 30 more minutes.

The weekend was beautiful! The Cherry Blossoms were just beginning to bloom and the festival was underway with a singing competition on Saturday afternoon. After the first couple, everything just blended..until this little boy sang and danced to Michael Jackson's "Beat It." Apparently, the winner of the competition got 2,500,000 won which is about 2200 dollars and a certificate that told the person he or she was now an official singer. Everyone was very good..and they should be since one of the favorite things to do on the weekend for almost everybody is to go to a singing room (it's like karaoke) called a Norybong.

I know this blog wasn't as humorous or interesting as the others, but let me tell you next week will make up for it. Let me wish a good rest of the week with some pictures that I took last week. Enjoy your Easter Weekend!

I've seen at least 5 dogs with a pink tail.

Why so sad?
A little taste of Korean entertainment
I should have worn my silk dragon outfit too.

Radioactive Rain Day

Dear young JTT,
You don't have the Korean teens heart like you used to have mine.

Once again while beginning this blog, I feel I have nothing to say that will hold your interest. Plus, right now I have an 8 year old boy reading over my shoulder and crunching these shrimp flavored chips like there's no tomorrow, so this blog entry may not be the best, but here it goes regardless.

Tuesday was most definitely the most exciting day of the week last week. On Sunday and Monday the Korean newspapers were reporting that come Tuesday, the shift in winds could bring radioactive rain from Japan. I'm not really sure of the science, but for some reason, to me, it seemed silly. And from what I heard, even if the rain was radioactive, it wouldn't bring enough radiation to do any harm. And since I have always been one to stare very closely at my food being microwaved, this situation didn't instill fear in me like it did to some of the Korean mothers. Apparently, a school district in Seoul had so many mother's complaining that they decided to cancel school due to this "radioactive" rain.

Can't you just hear it? little boy runs into his older sister's room and says, "Noona (which means older sister in Korean (well, it only means older sister if the younger brother says it..oh the Korean language), the school called, we have a radioactive rain day!" Noona: "YES! Let's go to the neighbors and start a radioactive rain fight!"

But turns out, all the worry was for nothing. There were no levels of radiation in the rain. For being a country that has been threatened for the past however many years with nuclear warfare, you'd think they wouldn't be so jumpy.

I didn't take this picture, but they did show this picture of some people in Seoul on the news...I took the bus to work this day.


As for the classes this past week, nothing too interesting happened...except when two of my kid students threw unopened cans of cola out the 4th floor window of our classroom (I wasn't in there at the time)...and I'm pretty sure the director gave it to them since they spent half the class in her office.

On Wednesday we finished up watching "Wild America" in my middle school classes. I was so excited to show them this movie, I used to rent this movie every chance I got...the main reason? Jonathan Taylor Thomas. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I asked in an excited tone, "So, what did you think of the movie!?" Their response: "We hated. So boring." My thoughts, "Well, maybe if we would have slapped some swoopy hair and skinny jeans on the boys in the movie, you would think differently?"

Instead, this is what I hear from the same group of students the next day when we were talking about the word, "bid." I was asking them to bid on something they wanted. One girl says, "I bid 20 dollars on that pencil." Next girl says, "I bid 10,000 dollars on Justin Bieber's hair." Boy sitting next to her, "NO NO, I bid 1,000,0000 dollars on Justin Bieber's hair!" Come on, JTT all the way.

(Although you can't tell, I just wrote like 6 more paragraphs and when I went to publish this post, it was all erased! You can imagine my frustration at this moment, so these next few paragraphs might be a little shorter and written with a tinge of bitterness...I'll show you blogspot.com!)

On Friday, the staff at the my academy went out to lunch. We went to this pork place that was pretty good. Nothing was too abnormal until they brought out more meat and as I was eating it, one of the teachers says, "Oh, you like pig's feet?" I don't think I've ever had pig's feet, so I guess that's another one to add the list of firsts. And although no one else could see it, after I ate it, I thought I did see the shape of a little piggy hoof.

Saturday I needed to make a trip to Seoul. I needed to go to a travel agency where the people spoke English and the company was Chinese Embassy approved. That's right, yours truly will be going to China this coming October, that is if they let me in. So, Elizabeth and I decided to make this a relaxing day in Seoul, well as relaxing as Seoul can be. We ate at a Mexican restaurant, went to an English bookstore, shopped, went to Seoul tower and simply enjoyed not being so "foreign."

For the most part it was a very nice day. I'll tell you what wasn't nice though, the bus ride up there. I don't think I've ever felt so uncomfortably warm in my life. It must be the in between stage of Winter and Spring, but the temperature in the bus was absurdly warm and moist. Somehow, the Koreans around us slept through it all while Elizabeth and I had a minor breakdown and was contemplating how to communicate to the bus driver to turn off the heat. We probably wouldn't need to communicate..he could either smell us or see the sweat stains. It felt like I was breathing while I had my face in someone else's mouth. If I don't get sick this week, it will be a true miracle.

Oh and one more thing. Last week, or maybe it was the week before, it was made official! Amy Wegmeyer is coming to Korea on October 5! She will be going to China too...well, that is if she can stand the interrogation as well. So, I'm so so so so so excited for Amy to come..and see, if Amy can do it, so can you! :)

Hul!

Dear creator of April Fools Day,
You must have been a teacher.

Well, turns out my evening class from 6 to 7 has only one student and every Tuesday and Thursday she has another academy at this time, SO that means, FINALLY, I have a free period! So I think I might make Tuesdays my new blogging day. So, grandma, now Tuesdays can be your favorite day of the week :)

This blog is going to touch on two topics. It was going to be three, but then I decided I didn't want to waste my time expressing my disgust of recent and totally undeserving star, Rebekah Black. So, first I will tell you of the daily happenings of my Thursday kid classes, and second, I will tell you about my April Fools Day, which also involved the kid classes.

Nothing out of the ordinary went on during the week, but then I got to thinking, everyday has been so normal, I need to go into my classes and try to see them like I haven't been teaching them everyday for the past 6 months. So, Thursday I decided I would remember a few of the things my students do that usually I find annoying and disruptive but Thursday I would laugh (in my head of course, they don't need that encouragement) and write about them in my blog.

Lately, I've noticed my students using a word that sounds like, "hul". So, I asked them what it means and they showed me in their little electronic dictionaries that it means, "absurdity." This word is definitely overused every single time I hand out homework.

So, I think one of my favorite and most creative students is a boy named Sky. Although all his doodles and quirky invented "gadgets" are extremely distracting to everyone else in the class, I appreciate his artistic side. I've noticed Koreans never ever want to stand out. Everybody looks the same. Everybody acts the same. From what I've observed, being different (as a Korean) is frowned upon. Sky is the exception. Although I have to get on his case about not doing origami or drawing elaborate pictures of dragons during class, I hope he never changes.

Here he is on Halloween, however, I'm sure if his mom would let him, he'd wear this everyday.

On Thursday, Sky was just being Sky. I asked the students to each write a word on the board. When it was Sky's turn, I noticed he had decided to make every movement of his body a robotic movement, complete with sound effects. It took awhile for him to get to the board and write the word, but he finally finished and made his way back to his seat by the door. Maybe 10 seconds later, he droppped his pencil. In his robotic movement, he bent down to get the pencil, and on his way back up, he slammed his head on the door knob. It may have been a "you had to be there moment," but it was quite hilarious. It was definitely a "HUL" situation.

The next class is a class of all girls. They get quite giggly at times, but usually I can reel them in. On Thursday, Cindy, must have had a large amount of sugar. Not only was she laughing at every word that came out of my mouth, but when it was her turn to answer she answered in a rap. Hul. I'm not sure where she learned this, but I definitely see a future for this girl, Cindizzle.

Then comes the 5 o'clock class. This class is around the age of 10 or 11. They are newer to my schedule, but I've had a few students in other classes before. One boy in particular, Subin, I've had since I've started, and have seen lots and lots of improvement in him. Apparently he knows he's getting better. On Thursday, every time I asked him a question and he answered correctly, he kissed his fist and then pointed in the air towards the "outfield." Please Subin..."Hul"

At 5:30 I have the same age group. Mostly boys, this class can get very rowdy, but I must say, I'm surprised by their consistency of getting their homework done. One of the most talented students is named Hyunsoo. Every Wednesday we watch a movie and they answer questions about the movie, then for homework, they have to write 3 sentences about the movie. Most of the sentences from this 5:30 class go something like this, "baby is so cute." "Movie is fun." "Man is bad." But Hyunsoo always goes the extra mile. On Thursday he turned in his homework and a few of his sentences were, " Megamind's head is so big. Why?" and "Announcer was kidnapped. Hot girl." Me: "Hyunsoo, 'hot girl'? Hul."

Also in this class is a sweet little girl Esther. Not only do I love her name because I can pronounce it, but she is very strong to be in a class of all boys. On Thursday, I wrote something on the board and turned around and saw she had stuffed all her hair into her glasses. "Hul"

My last "Hul" moment was towards the end of the day. At my 7 oclock class, once again appearing in blog, Lina and 5 other middle schoolers appear. These students I give the most grace to. They are here in the academy from 6 to 8, and at about 6:30, I can tell they are about to lose it. Thursday was one of the most chaotic classes ever. It was towards the end, and I decided to stop talking, sit back, and observe.

In the corner sat one of the newest members of the class. He was the only one not spinning out of control. To my right sat one girl, who said repeatedly in a very loud tone, "teacher! teacher! teacher! teacher! I ate ramyun!" In the middle sat two girls chatting away. And then there was Lina. She sat directly in front and was the closest person to me. Sweet, quiet Lina was waving an American flag that she found in her book bag and yelling, "AMERICA! AMERICA! TEACHER! AMERICA YAYYYYY!" This was probably the most "hul" moment of the day.

And so ended my chaotic Thursday. Friday morning came as it usually does, and when I was explaining April Fools Day to my morning class, they informed me that Korea "celebrates" it too. I was very happy to hear that, but very sad that I didn't have enough time to pull a prank on my little boogers. So, I just decided that I would tell them they did the wrong homework. In America, your average elementary student would probably be like, "eh, did we even have homework?" But these Korean kids are the total opposite, they feel sooo guilty and stressed if they don't do their homework. So at the start of every class, I walked around the room observing their homework and I said in a very serious voice," Now, this is very good, but I am very surprised you did not do page 41. Your homework was page 40 AND 41." It took most of them a minute to process what I said, but soon enough there began an uproar of, "WHAT!? TEACHER, NO! YOU SAID. TEACHER! YOU SAID!" Their worried faces were priceless and I realized how truly rewarding it is to be a teacher.

Well, that's all I have. I really love my students, and I am really blessed to have such a great job. Talk to you next week :)

Come On In

Dear neighbors,
What if it was a more serious problem?

I know I say this a lot, but I really don't have much to say. Last week was very low key and nothing except my 6 month anniversary with Korea happened. I can't even remember the funny things my students said. Anyways, here we go:

Last week, I was home for my lunch break and I was cooking clam chowder soup in the microwave. I was so excited Emart (like Walmart) got this big order of "Healthy Choice" soup and I was all over that. So, I was pretty excited for this particular lunch. As soon as it beeped, I took it out of the microwave. Then, like an idiot, I stuck my face right up near the soup and tried to take a big whiff. Unfortunately, at that same moment the soup "popped" (like some sort of hot air bubble or something). It "popped" all over my face and it was soooooo hot. My initial reaction was a scream (it wasn't like a murder scream but my tone got up there). My second thought was, "what if my neighbors heard and they come over to see if everything is ok..how am I going to explain this to them?" Initially, I was hoping that wouldn't happen, but then time passed and no one came. I thought, "Well, what if someone was trying to 'nap' me, as Jemal would say." (It's short for kidnap) Needless to say, my neighbors disappointed me this past week. But don't worry mom, the neighborhood is perfectly safe and if I ever got in trouble I would yell "119!" This is Korea's version of 911.

Exactly 6 months from last Saturday, I left 877 White Oaks Drive to start this adventure. So, in celebration, I decided to rearrange my apartment. Then as I was rearranging, I was thinking how I don't think I've ever posted pictures of my apartment. So, I had some "before" pictures and a few "after" pictures. I'm sorry it's probably not as clean as it should be, and I don't think these pictures really capture the "tinyness" of this apartment.

A few things have been done to the APT. Pictures, lamps, decorations, have been added, thanks to my most lovely sister. Although it's small, it really does feel like home. So, come on in, stay awhile, and do as the Asians do and take those shoes off at the door.

*The kitchen is to the right. I promise you, that stack of dishes is clean. The bathroom is to the left. Notice the shower shoes, you will realize the deep need for those in a second. Technically this picture is an "after" picture, but nothing has really changed.

And here's the loo. Notice the location of the shower head and lack of location of the bathtub. That's right, it gets pretty soggy in there, thus the need for the shower shoes.
Here's the "Before" of the frig and the "living room/office"The "after" which is now the "living room/Lily's bedroom."
And this is the "after" of the fridge. If you made the frig, you should feel honored, if you didn't, it's probably because we once took a picture together and I looked horrendous and I couldn't stand looking at the picture for a whole year, no hard feelings.

This is the "before" of the bedroom. When I first moved in, they said my bed was a three person bed.
The "after" of the "bedroom"
And lastly, the "after" of the bedroom/office/changing room.

So, I'm now officially on the other side of this year-long journey. On Sunday, I was talking to Mr. Oh and he says, "well, now you understand the yellow people's culture?" I'm not sure if that was a diss to himself, but I said, "yeah, I think I'm really understand the 'yellow people'." And he says, "Six more months, you will understand us more."

I thought I would feel happier about being over half way done, but this place definitely doesn't seem as "foreign" anymore and I can tell it's going to be much harder to leave than I anticipated.

I hoped you enjoyed your virtual tour of my home! Happy Tuesday! Until next week...

My St. Patty's Day Blunder

Dear Mom,
I've loved everything you sent me. Except for that one thing that made me look like such a goober.

Hello all! I've decided to sit down on this Tuesday early evening and write yet another blog. "But Natalee, you work every evening from 4 to 9 with no breaks!" Me: "My 6 oclock class was canceled!" YES! This feeling brings me back to the FCS snow days! Now if I could only sit around my house, drink hot chocolate, make a snowman, and dare my mom to drive us into town.

Anyhow, last week was an o.k. week. I felt like I watched hours and hours of the devastation in Japan. It's been very interesting being so close to Japan and it's put me on edge a little bit. On Tuesday last week, the sirens went off right as I was watching a story on CNN about how to survive a tsunami. It turns out that it was a monthly drill of "what to do during an air strike from North Korea." (Don't ask me what you're supposed to do. My plan is to hunker down in my market.) But I heard the sirens and I was ready to run up the small "mountain" behind my market.

Last week, on Monday, they celebrated White Day here in Korea. This is very similar to Valentine's Day, but this time the man is supposed to give the women some sort of candy (preferably fruit candy)...come on Korea...your women don't want fruit candy, they want chocolate in as many forms as possible.

Then came Thursday, which was also St. Patrick's Day. I was so excited. A couple years ago I bought this over sized green sweatshirt specifically for this day. Across the front it says, "IRISH" in huge white letters. I had also been anticipating it because my mom sent me these gold and green "chocolate" coins, and I was so excited to give them to all my students. I told them on Wednesday that I had a surprise for them the next day.

The day came. I wore the sweatshirt. I passed out 2 coins to each of the students in my adult class AND the other adult class across the way and told them about St. Patrick's Day and about these delicious gold and green coins. They said, "this chocolate is very thin" and I said, "yeah, that's how they are, you have to pull back the foil." I was a little surprised that no one tried the "chocolate" at first, so we kept talking. About 15 minutes later, I noticed Mrs. Ko really struggling with her "chocolate." So while Mr. Che was talking about something I tried opening one of the "chocolates" myself. Well, it turned out it was really just a plastic gold and green coin with a four leaf clover on it. I'm pretty sure Mr. Che asked me a question and my answer was, "oh no! It's not chocolate!" Initially Mr. Che was confused, but a few seconds later we were all cracking up and I was slightly embarrassed but glad that I didn't hand them out to the kids first. They would have had my head. And surely enough, when I told the class across the hallway that the coins were not edible, one of the students told me she knew because she tried to bite it. If only it were April Fools Day instead.

I don't know if it's because of all news about the separated families in Japan or that it's almost been 6 months since I left home, but I've been feeling a little homesick. So, the busy weekend in Seoul was welcomed with open arms.

So Saturday morning I woke up and headed to Seoul to meet some friends for one of the girl's birthday. I love Seoul. It's like going to America for a little bit. So much to do. So much diversity. So much English.

Saturday afternoon we went to a comedy martial arts show called "Jump." These people were sooooo strong and disgustingly flexible. It was very entertaining and since there were really no words, I understood the whole storyline.

Here's the group:


Saturday night we stayed at the birthday girl's friends house in Seoul. The friend and her husband just moved to Seoul from the States about 2 months ago because he got a job at the horse racing track as a judge.

So, Sunday early afternoon we were off to the races and I accomplished yet another first! The weekend before I watched the movie "Secretariat," so I was pretty pumped to go to my first horse race. We were told before that the horse races were a very dirty place. Supposedly, it was a place where old men smoke, drink and bet. And that was true. It was very crowded and people were just so engrossed in their papers and researching the horses of the day.

These ajummas aren't going to be left out of the fun.

I still can't get over the Asian squat. This must be a designated squatting area.

One time a drunk man touched my arm and said, "beautiful," and then as I was walking away, he cackled. Kind of creepy, but we were quickly ushered out of there and into the VIP room. Yes that's right. I am no longer just an ordinary citizen. I have been to the Pegasus Lounge where free cappuccinos are in abundance and the races are viewed through a clear wall at the top of the building.

You probably want to ask me, "Did you place a bet?" And yes I did. I dropped 500..no biggie.....Five hundred WON that is. (which is about 40 cents) And Lo and behold, my horse won! Thank you Stormtroop for running so fast! However, the odds that he was going to win were very high. SO, I only got about 700 won back, but it was still a victory! And I can totally see how this type of gambling is addicting and therefore destructive. It is fun to put money on a horse and then cheer like crazy when it comes around the track. The guy who was able to get us into the VIP room told me later that on a single race at this track the average amount of money brought in is 4 MILLION dollars!!!!!! Dollars..not won! My contribution to that 4 million dollars was obviously very microscopic.

Here's my winning ticket!


And they're off!


And that's all I have for ya. I hope you are doing well and that the weather is getting warmer wherever you are! God Bless!

Lily's in a Tight Spot

Dear puffy vest designers,
Thank you for creating the zip up hood and making it popular, it brings me much laughter now and then.

This is Jeung woong..one of my middle school students..English name: Dan. Preferred name: Mr. woong.
This past week was such a good week. I don't know if I was just feeling very appreciative that I didn't have to take the other foreign teacher's classes anymore or if it was my superb teaching ability...probably the first suggestion :)

Actually, I do know why it was such a great week. It's because of a boy named George. He is my new favorite thing about Korea and the cutest little Panamanien/African American/Indian boy in the whole entire world. Yogita and Jemal came back from India and brought back with them their 8 year old son who had been living in Alaska with his grandparents. He is so sweet, so well behaved, and so extremely cultured. He lived and went to school in India for a year. He is going to grow up a very rounded young man AND from the looks of things, quite the little heart breaker :) Here he is gaming it up..just like his daddy:


I foresee many lunches and dinners eaten with this little man sitting next to me.

Another possible reason for my week of many smiles was finding out another little fact about Korean cosmetics that's just so completely opposite of American cosmetics. One of the Korean teachers bought this lotion from the cosmetic store across the street and I asked to look at it and on the back it said the ingredients in English, "This contains natural tea complex, and white flower complex," WHITE FLOWER COMPLEX you ask? Yes, white flower complex. They want to make their skin white like we want to make our skin tan. In our lotion it probably says something like, "this contains a moisturizing substance and brown sugar complex." While I was explaining our obsession of being tan, she says, "Is that healthy?" At least they don't kill their cells like we do by going to tanning beds..they just lather themselves up with white flower.

Yet another reason to love last week was that this Korean man told me at church that I looked like Brooke Shields..hahaha..it made me laugh out loud and probably offended him, it was my curly hair and blue eyes...I guess we all look alike too.

And lastly, I finally captured Lily in what I find to be her most amusing past time. I think I have described this multiple times, but have never got a clear picture. Lily really enjoys wedging herself between her "bedroom" on the second floor and the top of her cage and gnawing viciously on the bars on the tiny bars that separate her from the rest of the world. Maybe this is a cry for freedom? I don't know, but I think it's really cute and quirky.

Here she is laying on her back and enjoying an afternoon "snack."


Although my week was really great and positive, Friday, Japan suffered a catastrophic earthquake that triggered a tsunami and has left thousands dead. If you are just finding out about this tragedy now, shame on you. The devastation is unreal, and this morning as I was walking to work, I could not help but picture my little coastal city of Gunsan going through what those coastal cities in Japan have just experienced. As I watch the footage, it really is strikingly similar to where I live. And it makes my heart drop a little when I compare all of the old ladies and men who stare at me every single day to the old men and women on the t.v. who have just lost their homes, spouses, children, or even their own life. However, Korea, I've been told, is a very safe place and hardly experiences earthquakes or tsunamis. Japan is our buffer. All we have to worry about is our cooky Northern nuclear neighbors.

I wondered when this tsunami happened what the older generation of Koreans thought of all this. The late 60ers and 70ers all remember when the Japanese were occupying Korea before WWII. I've heard stories of the Japanese raping the Korean women, cutting out tongues if the Koreans wouldn't speak Japanese, cutting off fingers if there was disobedience in school, and ruling, even my city of Gunsan, like it was military..people weren't allowed to leave their homes unless given permission, they were never able to visit family who lived in a town over, etc. So, today and yesterday I've been asking people about their thoughts. I talked to someone who said he really didn't feel all that bad about the tsunami because he remembers the hell the Japanese put his family through. At first I was taken back, but I don't think I can fully understand that kind of torture and I shouldn't be so quick to judge. But many other Koreans are very sympathetic to Japan right now and, I think, Korea was the first country to send rescue teams. And as for the kids, one of them said nervously, "I think nuclear gas get picked up in wind and fly west to Korea." Unlikely. But do pray for the Japanese people.

Well, I hope you remembered to turn your clock back..yay, I'm back to a 14 hour time difference! Nighty night.

The Perfect Taxi Driver

Dear Taxi drivers,
You are a creepy a bunch.

I have so much to say, and so little time to say it. Since last week, I've been working an hour later than usual because I got a class added to my schedule...dun dun dun..it's not too bad, but I feel soooo tired when I roll into Myeung San Shi Jeong around 9:30p.m.

Anyhow, my week was chalked full of activities. The two other foreign teachers went on vacation to India for a week, so I took their classes on top of some of my classes. I realized that I never want to be the ONLY foreigner in a workplace. I missed them so much! BUT the good news was that we had a holiday on Tuesday. It was a day celebrating an independence movement of Korea against the Japanese..not independence day...just a movement that ended in alot of death and failure..but these people were heroic, hence a day off of work, and a day full of SNOWBOARDING..yet another first!

I'd never snowboarded, and I'd only witnessed newbie snowboarding and the constant crashing into the ground about every 2 minutes. I was pretty nervous I was going to brake my wrists, or my arm, or my face, or leg, or both legs. But surprisingly after about an hour and 15 minutes and finally getting down the "bunny hill," things fell into place..(hehe..no pun intended). I was so thankful to have Elizabeth by my side learning along with me..I'm pretty sure we invented a new way of snowboarding that made one experienced snowboarder in our group say, "wow, I've never seen someone go down a mountain like you two just did." It was such a blast!

We went to a resort called Muju Resort. It was FREEZING and icy and probably unsafe, but we couldn't pass up the discounted tickets.

Like I said, I fell an absurd amount of times. And while my mind was completely focused on not breaking every bone in my body, situations still came up that made me say, "oh yeah, I'm in Korea." There were several times when I would be going pretty fast and then I would catch the edge of the board and would be hurled into the side of the mountain. It was always during one of the worst falls...(where my hat and sunglasses would fly off of me, and my face would be full of snow..as well as the undergarments) that someone would stop right next to me. What I expected to hear was, "Are you ok?" But what I heard more than once was, "Hello. Where are you from? What's your name? What do you do? Why did you choose Korea?" ..ok, maybe not the "why did you choose Korea," but I'm sure they would have asked that if they had more time. So, there I sat slightly discouraged from the recent fall, hair all sorts of crazy, and sunglasses and hat half way down the mountain, answering these questions to a Korean eager to practice their English.

Gotta respect their drive to learn the language, but seriously, is this the time? One of the worst falls I had was when Elizabeth and I were going down a steep part..Of course, I totally lost control and threw myself into the ground to make a dramatic stop..when I gained consciousness (totally kidding mom), I yelled to Elizabeth, "I'm not going to survive this." As soon as I said that, I hear "HELLO! WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" I didn't see anyone but then I noticed the two Koreans waving from the ski lift. My response: "really?"

It was such a great day, and it was even greater to learn something new! Here are some pics:

You were just conquered, snowboard
The group
Snowboard partner for life!

On the bus ride home, this Korean college student was talking to us and he says to me, "oh, I saw you. Your body will be sick tomorrow, you cannot work." That was a little embarrassing, but he was spot on. The next day, I felt like someone had just taken a bat to my knees, neck, wrists, and hiney.

Even though we only had a 4 day work week, it felt like the longest week I've ever had. I think taking on the Jemal's classes made things go much slower. I had to take Jemal and Yogita's company classes, so every day I would take a taxi to and from the school to the company. And while I was riding in the taxi's I've realized that I have not given the attention to taxi drivers in this blog like I should.

I've never really had too much experience with taxi drivers in the U.S. because I can read and understand the bus maps, but since I don't have that luxury here, I tend to take many cabs. In the past, I've had some weirdee taxi drivers. For example, a couple of weeks ago, Elizabeth and I were going to pick up someone from the bus station and we get in the taxi and he says, "You're from Canada?" and sounded as offended as possible we said, "no, we are Americans." And he says along with a hand gesture that signals a very busty yet skinny waisted yet oversized tushy, "mmm..I like American woman." It was one of those moments when you think, "Where's the ejection seat when you need it?" Another example was of a taxi driver that drove my sister and I from the store to home. He, too, was wanting to practice his English, however, he enjoyed the "swears" more than actual vocabulary.

But this week, I think I got a couple of cooky taxi drivers. The first one, as usual, said, "where are you from?" So, I told him I was from America, and then I asked him where he was from. He laughs, in a creepy way, and says, "North Korea." We both laughed..my laugh was a nervous laugh, and his was more of a cackle, but he was kidding...I think. The second guy was even worse. I got into taxi and quickly realized his English was much better than most taxi drivers. So, we were talking and he asks all the usual questions, "How old are you? what are you doing? what's your blood type?" BUT then he says, "Are you married?" (I should have said yes) "Are you single?" (I should have said no) "Yes, do you want a boyfriend?" ( I should have just stopped talking) "Well, I'm single...you single (laughter)." Me: "haha (nervous)..you're funny. ( what about an ejection seat?)"

But then I found hope. On the last day of the company class, I climbed into a taxi and the taxi driver simply said, "Anyeong haseyo," I told him where to go, he didn't try to talk to me, put on English music..all in the genre of the song, "My Endless Love," and took me exactly where I needed to go. Thus, I found my perfect taxi driver.

The week was full and on Friday I was pretty beat and was feeling homesick for my country's manners, culture, customs, food, and overall behavior of people. I got a little fed up with some Korean's lack of personal space, bluntness, staring, etc, BUT on Saturday I walked about a half hour to the grocery store through parts of town where kids were riding bikes, boys were playing soccer in the school yard, and old men were taking naps on their chairs outside their shops, and my love for Koreans was renewed.

I hope you are doing very well, and if you want to see a good movie, go see the "Adjustment Bureau." :)