The Adult in the Room

안영! (Anyeong = Hi!)

It was time for a makeover. You likey?

The past few weeks have been super busy for me. Work has been wearing me out now that I’m teaching a conversation class in the morning (8:05-8:50) Mon-Thursday, and also teaching an advanced speaking class on Monday and advanced essay class on Thursdays after school. The students’ behavior has gotten a little worse now that their finally settled into the school year routine, plus midterms are coming up (already) in two weeks. The good news for me is, though, that while the students are preparing for midterms next week, I won’t be teaching them at all. Not even my extra classes. Then of course the following week will be exam week so I won’t be teaching then either. So, I have a 2 week break from teaching. I still have to come into work every day, but this will give me plenty of time to relax and to plan for the rest of the year. I’m also excited to have time to catch up on all my T.V. shows since the internet’s been down in my apartment. Gotta find out if Kasia makes it through next panel on Top Model. Will House and Cuddy (spelling?) get back together? What mystery did Castle and Beckett solve last week? What ridiculousness did the Walkers get themselves into this time? What kind of sick criminal did Stabler, Benson & co catch this time? Such questions have been burning in my brain for the past few weeks.

Moving on to more important matters...

I think my teaching has improved. This week I have my open class, which means that the VP and other English teachers from the school come to my class and evaluate my teaching. I am nervous, but I did a test-run earlier this week and it went well. When I mentioned to my co-teachers that I was nervous, they all assured me that I shouldn’t be because my teaching and lessons are always great. It feels good to know that people who have actually studied to be teachers and have a lot of experience think that I can hold my own. I’m relieved about the timing of my open class also—it will be over with by my 2-week “break” so I won’t be fretting over it for all of that time.

The more situations I encounter here the more I learn about the Korean teaching, student, and school culture. I don’t know why I’m still surprised by my students’ extremely low self-esteem level, but 2 weeks ago I had an interesting experience. After none (out of 40) of my 8th grade students raised their hand to answer a simple question (that I know they all knew the answer to already), Cho Teacher asked me over lunch not to ask students to raise their hands for answers. It is better, she said, to ask the class as a whole and have them shout out answers to me. When I inquired why, she said that the smarter students are very shy to raise their hand and answer correctly because if they do, they will get beat up in the hallway by the other students who are jealous. I mean, that happened when I was in middle school and high school but the teachers didn’t give in to that! Wouldn’t you think that the teachers would want to find a way to prevent the beatings instead of not wanting students to work to their highest potential in class? I was so frustrated and confused when she said that to me.

In comparing the middle and high schools I attended and Korean schools, another big difference here is that there is no hallway monitoring. Teachers do not stand in the hallways to be sure that things like that don’t happen. So, as you can imagine, walking through the hallway is an adventure. Koreans in general do not watch where they are going. This fact is very clear anytime you walk on the street, in the subway station, etc. Getting bumped into or zig-zagging/dodging your way towards to subway or to the crosswalk are daily occurrences. So, as Koreans, Sannam Middle School students do not seem aware of anyone else besides the people they are talking to when they are in the hallway. It is very frustrating. This is terrifying when you’re carrying your laptop, full coffee mug, and papers in the hallway en route to your classroom and are dodging students who are sprinting, chasing each other down the hallway, playfully (or not so playfully) shoving each other, flying out of their classrooms into the hallway, shouting, running up and down the stairs, etc. I never felt so much like an “old” adult until I realized how much energy these “kids” have.

I also never realized how much being the adult in the room (literally) has revealed my ability to be stern, aggressive, and sooo not doubtful of myself. If you doubt yourself often or have self-esteem issues, put yourself in front of 40 foreign teenagers in a classroom and be in charge. Your inner adult will really come through. Today in my class, while playing a game that involves a little bit of running, two 6th grade boys got into a fist fight. While running to their tables to dictate a sentence to teammates, Boy A shoved Boy B, who threw a punch in response. Soon Boy B was punching Boy A in the head and shoulders and Boy A was shoving him back in defense. Before I knew it I was grabbing Boy B by the waist (he was taller than me) and pulling him away from Boy A. He got away so I grabbed him again and shoved him hard towards his chair, yelling angrily and sternly (never heard myself so angry before) SIT DOWN IN YOUR SEAT RIGHT NOW. He paused as if he was going to, then lunged towards Boy A again. This time I grabbed his vest but it slipped out of my hands. I then wrapped both hands firmly around his wrist while (FINALLY) my co-teacher came over and the two of us managed to ‘herd’ the fight to the hallway where they calmed down and my co-t gave them a talking-to. That’s all she did, I would have liked a harsher punishment, especially since they completely ignored me (even when I was physically stopping them) and completely disrupted the class. Huff. Raging hormones. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be the one to break up a fight of 2 teenage boys. Like I said—the role of “adult in the room” really gets to ya.

Outside of work, life is good. I’m meeting more and more new people with every outing and seeing new things. Last weekend we had beautiful spring weather (close to 70 degrees). Friday night I had dinner and drinks with Nam Teacher and Hyung Kyung (a new teacher at the school who co-teaches with me). Saturday, after Mexican food and Coldstone in Itaewon, I went to Myeongdong in Seoul with Michelle, Blythe, and new friends Gina and Jamie. Myeongdong is a popular shopping area near center Seoul where you can find stores like Forever 21 and H&M. The Forever 21 there was 4 stories. 4 stories of cheap, cute, stylish heaven. 3 hours shopping and less than $150 later, I walked out of there with 8 new work-appropriate spring wardrobe items. We then headed to H&M where I was able to find 2 pairs of jeans. Woooowoo! I hadn’t been shopping since I got here. It was such a fun girls’ afternoon.

I'll stop there. More to come in the next 2 weeks when I'll be bored at work!

Hope you are all doing well. I miss my homies. Don't forget to update me on your lives!

Love,
Melissa

New School Year

Wow, it's been exactly a month since I blogged last. As you might have guessed, my lack of blogging recently is due to school starting up again and my work schedule making me very busy! So I’ll cover all the basics to catch up my loyal blog readers (and random stumblers-upon).

This year is incredibly busy. On average I teach 4 classes a day. This week I started the after-school classes (advanced speaking on Monday and advanced essay writing on Thursday) and starting next week, I will be teaching a conversation class every morning before classes start. Unlike last year, my 6^th grade classes are divided by level. Hallelujah! This makes planning my lessons much more efficient and teaching them even more so. My higher-level students are wonderful and so attentive in class. They willingly participate and they laugh at my jokes. Finally! Just what I imagined teaching would be like. So, those classes are a treat. As for the lower-level classes, they are more like my classes last year- very talkative, un-attentive and frankly, rude. I am often frustrated after those classes, however since I know they are lower level I can adjust my lesson plans to their level. I think I am partially to blame for their un-attentiveness. Perhaps I need some more work on making more interactive, interesting lesson plans. I do what I can. After every class I evaluate how it went and try to modify my lesson plan. Already this week I’ve changed my lesson plan a lot! My 8^th graders in class are somewhere in-between the two. They are more eager to interact with me as they come into class but as soon as class begins they are very shy to participate. Also, the 8^th graders are not divided by level, so teaching those classes are difficult for me. With the regular teaching hours and the extra classes, my days fly by and I’m very tired by the end of it. Overall, I am enjoying this year more than last year. I like that I could establish my own classroom setting instead of stepping into someone else’s and trying to do my own thing. I think this has helped the students feel more comfortable with me. Most days, two 6^th grade girls, Annie and Leah, come see me during lunch. Sometimes they want help with their homework, sometimes they want me to teach them French, other times they just want to chat. Sometimes they bring their friends to come hang in the English room with me. It feels nice to have fans hahaha. They are very sweet girls and I enjoy their visits! Now that I can read Korean, I’m also starting to actually remember students’ names when they tell me hahaha.

Next week I am teaching an April Fool’s Day lesson. I’m giving my students a fake test and telling them it’s super important for their grades. The test is totally bogus—multiple questions with no right answers, ridiculously hard questions, etc. At the bottom of the page it says “this test is a joke!” I’m telling them they must read the whole test before they start taking it, that way they’ll see that it’s a joke before they get too freaked out! The week I’m teaching them text message slang, then the next week I have to teach my open class. An open class is when other native teachers come watch me teach and evaluate me. I’m really nervous and need to start planning for it soon. I think it will be really nerve-wracking, but I chose my best class to be the one I teach for the open class. I’ll be glad when it’s over.

A few weeks ago, I started taking salsa lessons at this salsa studio in Suwon called Turn. After meeting the owner of the studio, Rex, at The Big Chill (foreigner bar in Suwon I frequent) and spontaneously salsa dancing with him, I found out that they offer lessons on Wednesdays for only 7,000 won (7 bucks) a week. Glad to finally find a dance class opportunity in Suwon, I started going to the next week. Tonight will be my 4^th week. The first two weeks I was in the beginner class, but by the 3^rd week Rex told me that I should join his intermediate class, that happens simultaneously. Everyone at Turn is very friendly and most of the people who go there speak English (including Rex and the other teacher Anu Pmark who is from Thailand). I already feel like part of the Turn family even after just a couple of weeks! They also have free dance/practice nights every day. I usually try to go on Sundays.

Weekends have been fun. My birthday was very special- it made me realize how many friends I have here. I had dinner with Val, Blythe, and Michelle, then met some friends at The Big Chill. The next day was the Saint Patrick’s Day Festival (organized by the Irish Association of Korea? Yup, that exists) in Seoul. I went with friends there and just hung out and listened to a U2 cover band and watched my friends day drink. The festival was OK, but I did get to meet some new people and then have a DELICIOUS Mediterranean dinner at Petra, the middle-eastern restaurant in Noksapyeong. Noksapyeong is one subway stop from Itaewon, the foreigner district in Seoul. I ordered the lamb couscous. YUMMY IN MA TUMMY. We went back to Noksaypeong the next weekend for Vietnamese food, which was delicious also. I ordered pho, a noodle, meat, and veggie soup in a deliciously spiced broth.

Yesterday I went to Madeline, a hair salon chain with locations all over the place, to get a major haircut. Even though my Korean is pretty much non-existent, I figured I would be able to communicate to them that I just wanted it cut—no style change or anything. I was wrong. When I got there the woman gave me a book with pictures of women’s hairstyles (all modeled on Korean women, of course) and wanted me to choose one. I tried to tell her charades-style that none of these would work on my hair since it’s naturally curly, but to no avail. So I eventually put my faith in her and let her choose one for me. She cut it uber short and I sort of look like Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. Ha. Oh well.

Well, that’s all there is to report, really. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Melissa Teach-a

Marching into March

Hello all,

Welcome to March! Never has time flown this fast in my entire life. The title of this entry is meant to be a) clever and b) to express the attitude I am trying to hold as I enter yet another month here. The way I think about it, marching usually requires an element of pride, endurance, and perhaps some resistence too. In other words, I am trying to ease my way into March with a steady consistency and strength. The month March means a lot of things this year. First of all, in just over 2 weeks I will reach my 6-month point of being here. Also, March is when the new school year begins here in Korea, so as I get a rush of new students (and almost twice as many students this year, might I add), I am trying not to panic. Up until a week and a half ago I thought I was just going to be teaching the new 6th graders, but I was informed only through casual mention that I am also teaching half of the 8th grade classes. Um, what? Did anyone bother to tell me that during the 2.5 weeks I sat on my butt at work watching episode after episode of How I Met Your Mother, not feeling guilty because I had already planned 3 weeks of my 6th grade lessons?! So by the time I found out I had a grand total of one day to adjust my already made lesson plans to fit a 8th-grade level, which I'm obviously clueless of. Luckily, today, being the first day of the new school year, my teaching schedule still wasn't set so I have the next 3 days to plan before I start teaching on Monday. I've already planned 5 lessons but I think it would be pointless to continue, considering I need to gage the level of my students before I get too ahead of myself.

Strangly, the last-minute nature of my co-workers and professional environment apparantly doesn't apply to planning for next year. I am already being asked whether or not I will be re-signing my contract to stay another year. Even though I know I have plenty of time to decide (my contract requires that I notify them within 60 days of my contract ending), I'm already starting to feel the pressure. So, in attempt to maintain my marching pace, I am utilising all of my will power to stay calm and recognize how much time I have to decide, and how much things can change within that time frame. It's really hard to look into the future and anticipate big decisions and stay calm at the same time.

After a month of desk-warming and vacation days, the commencement of the school year also means all systems go until mid-July when the next vacation is. Add the 2 weeks of Summer Camp I'll be teaching, the thought of going full speed until August is scary. I really enjoyed my low-key February when I was sent home early 80% of the time, watched lots of TV episodes online, and could join my hagwon friends (my friend who work at private academies and usually work mid afternoon-late evening) at the bars on weeknights. But alas, that is not why I came here. Gotta suck it up for real life!

Lastly, and on a lighter note, March is my birthday month! I can't really say that I'm 'marching' towards the 18th (dubbed "hangover day" by my twin sister & I because we always wanted our birthday to be on a holiday and our birthday conveniently falls the day after the Irish celebration never without green beer, shot-glass necklaces and anonymous kisses from/to people claiming the day as their own). As much as I've tried, I've never been one of those people who can play it cool on their birthday. I manage to slip the information to my friends or whoever I talk to whenever possible that my birthday is coming up. What can I say, I like my birthday. Call it childish or selfish, but I like people to know that its my birthday. As my Mom would say, "so sue me." Happy almost birthday to me!

Speaking of my lovely February, Val and I embraced our overlapping vacations and took an impromptu trip to Busan, a city in the south of the country, right on the ocean. It's a famous vacation spot in the summertime because of its beaches and relaxed atmosphere. Due to teaching obligations we were only in Busan for 36 hours, but it was totally worth it. We took the KTX train there, the fastest, nicest, and newest train in Korea. I wish I could travel on trains more often. It was so comfortable and quiet. The train ride took about 2.5 hours. We arrived in Busan at 8pm Thursday and got a taxi to our hotel on Gwangalli beach. From our hotel room we could see the famous Gwangan bride, the longest bridge in Korea. It is lit up beautifully at night, as is the city of Busan. The minute I stepped off the train I felt more relaxed. The air in Busan just smells and feels cleaner. The buildings are shorter so you can see more of the sky and the mountains (during the day). Everyone seemed to be less in a hurry. In the 36 hours I was there, I saw signs for two art galleries, a music school, AND a dance school. I haven't seen ANY of that in Suwon. People stared less at me/us in Busan. I admit, my paradise perception of Busan may have been a little skewed by the fact that it was easily 10 degrees warmer down there (60-65 degrees, I would guess), we were on the beach and on vacation. But I remember the feeling I had when I stepped out of the train station when we first arrived- I could just feel that I could be happy here. Only hours into our short trip that composed of nothing more than gallavanting on the beach, having ice cream for lunch (a true Waldman vacation tradition), eating the best (and cheapest) Western style food I have ever had in Korea, and visiting the aquarium, I declared that I would seriously consider moving to Busan. We even asked a few foreigners we ran into if they lived there and how they liked it. I heard nothing but rave reviews. One girl's response to my inquiries about Busan life was, "what is there to complain about? You've got the beach and lots to do in the city." So you never know, maybe next year I'll find a job teaching in Busan instead of Suwon. For now, though, I've still got nearly 7 months in Suwon, and I do believe that is enough time to love this city too. Breathe. There's time.

If you're curious, my pictures from Busan and other happenings here are up on my Facebook page. I've started bringing my camera pretty much everywhere I go in order to properly document my life here, for both your sake and mine!

That's all for now.

Bisous,
Melissa

My Lunch from the Sea

If you know me at all, you are probably shocked and curious about what this blog title means. You see, I've never been much of a seafod person. I'd like to think that it is not because I don't have an open mind about food, but I just never grew up eating seafood. I didn't start eating/liking fish (minus those frozen fishsticks my Mom used to make for dinner when I was a kid) until maybe 6 years ago. I've never been inside a Red Lobster. I've never seen anyone in my family devour clams or oysters. So when I got to Korea and discovered everything from octopus to jellyfish in my food, I was at first nauseated. I remember my first experience with Korean food (not including the few trips to a Korean restaurant in Rochester) was on the plane. Flying on a Korean airline, I was served for dinner bibimbap- a vegetable and rice mix that I could definitely handle. However, it was the pile of sardines- whole sardines, eyes and all-- next to my food that caused my appetite to quickly disappear. As I tried not to look at the tiny fishy eyes that bore into my soul, I watched (attempting not to gawk) at the Korean women sitting next to me, contently devouring spoonfuls of bibimbap with the little fishies. I hardly ate a bite of my food as I realized how different things really were going to be here.

So, with that preface, you'll see how far I've come. I proved to myself that I have officially become desensetized to seafood when I went out for lunch with the ladies from work yesterday. We went to a Japanese restaurant where we must have ordered the lunch special or something because as soon as we sat down, the food just started coming. It was a mild start with some kind of soup. I've learned to stop asking what I'm eating if I'm not sure because usually the answer causes me to put my chopsticks down and gag. So I had some kind of soup (it was white and chunky but didn't taste fishy), then an enormous plate raw fish slices that sat on top of enormous clam shells (around the size of my palm) arrived. Sashimi. A first for me. Considering I was starving and surrounded by Koreans who tend to judge you by how well you can handle spicy food and eat what I usually consider to be gross seafood, I was left with no choice. I put a piece of what I learned later to be tuna on the piece of dried seaweed, wrapped it, and took a bite. So, it wasn't terrible. Actually, I sort of liked it. As I mentally patted myself on the back and wrapped myself a few more, the waitress brought over a plate of fish. A whole fish. Eyes and tail and skin and all. It had been baked with spices and placed on the plate whole. The ladies started just pulling pieces off the fish with their chopsticks, eventually leaving the skeleton and innards exposed. I took a bite of the fish but thought the spices made it too salty and chose not to have anymore. I tried not to look at it too much as the bowl of clams came next. I actually have come to like clams after tasting them in a lunch Nam Teacher ordered for us last week. They aren't as rubbery as I thought they'd be and they actually have a distinctive taste. In other words, they don't taste like the beach smells. So as I happily pulled the clams out of the shells and ate them, I realized how far I had come. 6 months ago that would have totally grossed me out. The meal ended with fried shrimp with dipping sauce and rice, topped with seaweed, sesame seeds, kimchi, and fish eggs. AH. What do I do? The rice looked good. And the fish eggs were too small and fine to pick out with my chopsticks or even with my spoon. So before I thought about too hard I just mixed everything together and took a bite. Again, it wasn't so bad. I finished it. I'M SORRY NEMO!!!!!!!

It wasn't until I was describing this meal to my sister afterwards that I realized that the meal had hardly any vegetables at all. For a girl who likes her veggies, I'm suprised I didn't notice it before. The only vegetables in the meal were the sprouts for the sashimi wraps, a beansprout soup at the end of the meal, and a few slices of cucumber topped with mashed sweet potato (YUM) that garnished the sashimi plate. Unless you count the seaweed, thats all. I can't believe I had a meal entirely of seafood. If I may say so myself, go me!

Now don't worry my friends, you haven't lost me completely. Your beloved squeamish sister, friend, daughter, cousin, blogger (for all you strangers out there who are reading my blog. Are you there?) still marvels in wonder and a suppressed desire to hurl at the whole ocotpus on the styrophom plate covered in plastic wrap that she passes in the meat/fish section of the grocery store. I definitely need more time here before I can conquer THAT edible obstacle. By the way, I had to look up how to spell squeamish. Did anyone else know it's an 'ea' instead of an 'ui?" Who knew?

EDIT 2/18- We went to the same restaurant for lunch today and I luckily had my camera with me! Pics are up on Facebook.


Thats all for now. Thanks for reading (and hopefully not throwing up). To my extra squeamish big sis Andrea, if you made it to the end of this blog entry with all of the contents in your stomach still there, then congratulations :-P.

The Good, The Bad, and The Korean

Now that I've been here for nearly 5 months, the pros and cons of living in Korea are everyday matters. Many of these things are cultural, while others are just the realities of living in a foreign country. This blog entry is to help my readers understand what some of these are by categorizing these things into What I Miss and What I Don't Miss about home. So here goes, I imagine I'll continue to add things to this list, but for now, here's what I got:

What I Miss
- Speaking the language
- Non-smoking regulations at bars and restaurants and therefore not needing to shower and air out my clothes after any outing.
- Hearing a verbal "excuse me" after an accidental bumping on the street or subway
- Not needing to rely on public transportation
- An oven in my kitchen
- Being able to read labels on the food I buy
- My friends and family
- Available dance classes in my city
- Not getting stared at all the time
- Hearing something besides K-pop music. Anywhere.
- Bread. (whole wheat specifically)
- I didn't know this before, but not knowing how awesome How I Met Your Mother is.
- Milk, yogurt, or juice with an expiration date more than 5 days after you buy it at the store
- Heated bathrooms



What I Don't Miss
- Taxes
- The job hunt
- Living sans salary
- Living in a fairly isolated city- now I'm an hour subway journey away from one of the most bustling cities in Asia
- Enduring an international long-distance relationship
- Struggles with chopstick usage
- Expensive groceries and utility bills
- Paying rent
- Unhelpful staff
- Paying at least $20 anytime I go out for dinner
- Being approached by ass-holey guys at bars who think they're God's gift to women. Korean men are generally very shy so they leave us alone and I can have my girls' nights in peace.
- Having to pay for every little thing at restaurants. Here, you always get free appetizers (if you're eating Korean food) and get unlimited refills of sidedishes.


Well, that's all for now. You might see this list pop up once in a while in later posts so keep your eyes out!

Ta-ta for now!

-Melissa

Lunar New Year, etc.

I wrote this entry yesterday, February 6th, but due to the recent loss of internet at my apartment (argh), I wasnt able to post until I got to work today, Feb 7.

The Korean school system is officially makes zero sense. It’s Sunday night and after two weeks of “seat warming” at work (aka still having to go into work even though the students aren’t there), the students are finally returning to school tomorrow. They’ve been on vacation since December 30th and they are now coming back after the Lunar New Year, but only for 4 days. Starting on Friday, the students are on “spring vacation” until the beginning of March. When I asked why the students come back only for 4 days, I was told that it was for the 8th graders’ graduation ceremony. Why all the students have to come back for 4 whole days I don’t know, but the strangest part is why they have a separate vacation not even a week after they’ve gotten back from their long winter vacation. When I asked about that, it’s because the school year begins in March. This long winter vacation is like our summer break, I just feel bad for the kids that their long break is in the cold, dark, Korean winter and not in summer. These poor kids. Anyway, the kids are on break again in a few days and I hope I can take some more vacation days off and travel outside of Korea.

So nothing to report about work. I spent most of my “seat warming” time watching ridiculous amounts of How I Met Your Mother and thoroughly enjoying it.

The beginning of February brings a lot to celebrate and commemorate. Everyone was on vacation Wed-Fri for the Lunar New Year (on Feb 3rd), which is a big deal here in Korea. This year is the year of the rabbit, so there are rabbit decorations on storefronts, the TV, etc. In Korea, everyone gains another year at the Lunar New Year, so happy birthday to me! My Korean age is now 23. If you ask Korean their age, you should subtract 1 or 2 years from it to get their real age because they will give you their age that includes Lunar New Year birthdays. For example, all of my 6th graders say they are 14 years old, but they are actually 12 or 13. Val’s Korean age is 27 (since he turned 26 in January).

Also, today, February 6th, is my & Val’s 2 year anniversary. To celebrate, we booked two nights (Wed and Thurs) at a nice hotel in Seoul. We stayed at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Gagnam and enjoyed ourselves swimming in the indoor swimming pool, ordering room service, listening to live music in the lounge in the evening, and eating our hearts out at the enormous complimentary breakfast buffet. I was particularly giddy about the bathtub in the hotel room since I don’t have one in my apartment. I made sure to take full advantage of it and took two baths within the course of 45 hours. The hotel burned a bit of a hole in our pockets, but it was worth it. Considering what we had to go through to achieve this milestone in our relationship, it seemed an appropriate way to celebrate. Also, getting away from our apartment and taking time to focus on each other, not to mention living out our fantasy of being a wealthy couple taking a luxurious weekend off at a blingin’ hotel was oddly liberating. We found ourselves acting more like our inner kids rather than our inner bourgeoisie couple for much of the weekend, though, especially at the pool. While all the other adults were doing laps and the kids practicing their breaststrokes at their swimming lesson, we were doing flips and handstands and playing underwater tag. We bought one meal at one of the hotel restaurants and poked (nervous) fun at the outrageous prices for the tiny portions; though I was able devour an absolutely delectable piece of salmon for that outrageous price. After that meal, the rest of our afternoon and evening meals were in Itaewon, the foreigner district nearby, where we ate tacos, subs at Quizzno’s, and bought Pringles and cheap wine to have along with our room service meal we ordered on our last night. What can ya do? We’re just young professionals/students tryin to make a living, ya know? We slept, relaxed, and bathed in style but we ate on a student’s budget. It was perfect.

The first week of February also brings the anniversary of a much more somber event. February 7th marks the 5 year anniversary of the death of a high school classmate and friend, Benny, who took his own life. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already. Looking at my life the past 5 years, what I’ve done and what I’m doing right now, it just makes me sad to think about everything Benny missed out on. He was such a bright and unique spirit whose enthusiasm and smile were contagious. I hate to think about what he was never able to accomplish, and how much pain his death still brings to his family, friends, and classmates. That’s all I really have to say right now. I just thought it’d be wrong to not mention him during this time.

Bringing the mood of this entry back up is the year and a half birthday of my beautiful niece, Natalie, on February 5th. I got to Skype with her (well, more like watch her play and run around in all her adorableness) before Val and I left for our anniversary celebration in Seoul and it made my day. Happy half birthday Natalie! While we’re on the subject of birthdays, I can’t leave out the birthdays of 2 of my college gals Lauren and Catherine, on Feb 5th and 6th, respectively. Happy Birfday!

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. Saturday afternoon I had a pancake party with Blythe and Michelle to celebrate us all turning one year older at Lunar New Year/I had a huge unopened bag of pancake mix/who needs an occasion for pancakes? We made chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes and drank mamosas and caught up with each other. Today, Sunday, I decided to attempt to make Ja Jang Myun, a dish that we love to go out and get at the Chinese restaurant down the road. A huge bowl of Ja Jang Myun (noodles with black bean sauce, veggies, and pork) usually costs 5,000 won (about 6 bucks) and it’s always a treat. Wanting to try something new and to have something special to eat on our actual anniversary, I looked up the recipe online and bought ingredients. The only thing I had trouble finding at the store was cornstarch, an ingredient listed on the recipe that came from an American recipe website. It didn’t occur to me that cornstarch might not be available here since unlike most food consumed in the U.S., Korean food does not consist of a lot of corn. The only starch available was potato starch, so I got that instead and it worked fine. There’s an example of a difference you don’t think about until you get to a foreign country. The Ja Jang Myun final product was OK. It definitely didn’t taste like the restaurant one, but it wasn’t bad for the first attempt. I was glad to have tried to made a new dish and now I have tons of leftovers which I froze for later. Yay!

During my low-key weeks at work, I decided to start following through with my New Years Resolution of learning Korean. I can now read and write Hanguel (Korean), but right now it’s just like how I am with Hebrew. Thanks to years of Hebrew school, I can read Hebrew but I have no idea what I’m reading. So once I get the reading and writing down spat I’m going to start learning vocabulary. I’m getting better and better every day since I have lots of opportunities to practice. I proudly announced to my family that and I’m learning a new vocabulary word a day (to which my sister replied, “just like Natalie!”). Hey now. Korean is hard. I’m taking baby steps (no pun intended). So far, I know how to say,
• Hello, goodbye, yes, no
• thank you (kamshaminda/komapsomida/kumawo) –depends on who you’re talking to/the situation
• it does not exist, it’s not here (a very helpful phrase, actually) (opseyo)
• It’s OK (kincheneyo)- also very useful
• foreigner (waygook)
• old man (adjoshi) and old woman (ajouma) –respectful phrases that you use to address an old man or woman
• friend (chingu)
• boy, girl (namja, ohja)- so namja chingu is boyfriend, ohja chingu is girlfriend
• I would like (_________ juseyo)
• Station (yuk)
• Police station (kyon chal so) – this one I know because my apartment is near a police station and to get home in a taxi I tell the driver the name of the station)
• Teacher (sunsaenim)
• Middle school (cho hakyo)
• Bus (buseh)
• Taxi (taxshi)
* It's cold (choowohyo)- very useful also!
• I’m full (pebulo/pebuloyo)
• Eat well (chow moh kashamida), I ate well (chow moh kaysamida)- like “bon appetite”
• Earring (ki-gori)
• Relax (Iwah) – I learned this from yoga
• Forehead (Imahn)-also from yoga

I’d say it’s a pretty impressive list. And it’s quite helpful to have some vocabulary now and I feel a little better being around by myself now that I can at least read the bus signs or write out names of places I need to go if I’m lost. And now that I understand the Korean language better, I can find I can also learn more words faster. So maybe soon I can beat Natalie’s rate of one word a day!

Speaking of yoga (the last couple words on my list reminded me), my yoga teacher is SO sweet and bought me a bracelet. When I arrived at class last week she brought me a small, wrapped box and inside was a bracelet with wooden beads and a slight aroma. My yoga teacher, remember, who doesn’t speak English, managed to tell me that they are Indian beads and the perfume is “good for health”, a phrase I hear Koreans say a lot, especially women. Spicy food: “good for health”, eating live octopus (my friend Melodie did it once): “good for health”, fresh air “good for health”. Hah. Anyway, I was so humbled that my teacher bought me a gift. She is so sweet. I only have a few more sessions left with her but I think I’m going to sign up for another one. It was a bargain and I always feel great after.

I finally have my camera back so soon I will upload pics from the past week onto Facebook so y’all can see them. Thinking of many of my family and friends in the Midwest and East Coast who are buried under feet of snow! That’s all, folks!

Cheers,
Mel

Winter Vacation adventures! Palaces, Subway Station Offices, Costco, Indoor Rollercoasters, and Hummus!

Greetings!

First of all, photo credit goes to Blythe Wilson, who took pictures of our outings last week. They are of: us at a Korean palace, us crammed her co-teacher's car en route to Gagnam, and a traditional tea house in Insadong. Curious? Read on =)

So, I am back at work after a wonderful yet busy week of vacation. For this vacation, I decided to stay in Korea instead of traveling somewhere else. I ended up only visiting Seoul, but there are so many parts of that city that are so different, it feels like going to different cities. I spent the majority of my break with Blythe and Michelle, who were both on vacation this week too. So here's what I did.

Monday: went out for Indian food with Blythe, Michelle, and our friend Colin from GEPIK orientation. The food was a little too spicy for me (no surprise there), but I enjoyed the company and making fun of the Bollywood movie that was playing in the restaurant. It was on mute so we decided to make up the script and guess what they were saying, "Whose Line Is It Anyway" style. Seeing all of the beautiful saris and scenery really made me want to go to India. After the Indian food, we decided to check out what movies were playing at the CGV (movie theatre franchise, like a Regal Cinemas or Loews in Rochester). The only English move that was playing was Love & Other Drugs, that movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. The movie itself was OK, but I did enjoy the frequent shots of Jake Gyllenhaal's naked butt. Teehehehe. After the movie we went to a nearby bar for drinks. We were there for an hour or so, then headed out to get our beauty rest for our big plans on Tuesday!


Tuesday: Blythe's co-teacher Mrs. Jeon and her friend Jen took Michelle, Blythe, Valery (he played hookie for day to come along) and me to Gagnam to eat Mexican food at a restaurant called Dos Tacos. I ordered dos quesadillas, and it was SO good. I had missed real sour cream, because the "sour cream" they serve in Korea is sweet. So when they had real sour cream that was actually sour, I was a happy camper. After Dos Tacos we drove to Insadong, which is considered the more "traditional" part of Seoul. There, we went to see the palace of a famous Korean dynasty (I'm blogging from work and the pamphlet with all of the details are at home...I'll find out and edit soon!). At the palace, we saw the King and Queen's living areas, the place where the king would meet with diplomats, and the prince's quarters. It was very interesting and fun to go with Koreans who could tell us even more than the information that was provided. After seeing the palace, we walked to a street to shop and look around. There were lots of souvenir-y things there and I ended up buying a beautiful bag and cute coin purse. By this time we were all quite cold, and Michelle was craving some traditional Korean tea, so we found a tucked-away traditional tea house. It was beautiful but very small inside-- we joked that it looked like what the inside of a hobbit's house would look like! I ordered cinnamon tea with a dried persimmon inside. After tea we drove a little bit in search of a Japanese restaurant but all the ones we found were quite pricy, so we settled for galbi instead. Galbi is food that famous in Suwon...its marinated meat that you cook at the table,similar to samgyupsal. As we were walking to the restaurant, we noticed a lot of policeman and guards around. When I asked why, turns out we were right near the Korean president's residence! I couldn't see it but apparantely it was right up the road from where we were. Cool stuff! It was a busy busy day, but so much fun!

When we returned to Suwon, Blythe and Michelle came over and hung out at my apartment, then we headed to Yongtong (neighborhood nearby) for a book club meeting. Blythe had found on Facebook a book club for foreigners "High-minded literary types" that meets once a week at a bar in Yongtong, so we decided to go check it out. It was the first meeting of the new year and there were only 3 others there, but we decided on a book to read. The book is called "The Dice Man". It sounds really interesting so I'm excited to read it and have intelligent conversations with new friends!

Wednesday: Michelle, Blythe and I headed back to Gagnam to go to Costco. Yes, that's right. There is a Costco in Korea. For those of you who don't know what Costco is (like I didn't) it's a Sam's Club establishment. So basically its a huge warehouse that sells everything in bulk. We had quite an adventure getting there, since we didn't know exactly where it was. We had seen it from the car the day before en route to Dos Tacos but this time we were traveling by subway. When we arrived at the Suwon subway station, we went to the information desk and asked them how to get to the Costco in Gagnam. The guy behind the counter didn't really understand and recruited the help of another station worker who looked like a guard or something. After trying his very best to help us and not getting anywhere, he picked up our worn subway map we were all pouring over and said "follow me." We followed him through the station, through the doors marked "staff only", and into the station office! You should have seen the face of all people in the office (all men) when 3 white girls walked in! The officer who escorted us there said something to another at the computer, and suddenly all like 10 of the workers were hunched over the computer, searching online for subway stations nearest to Costco. I gotta say, one great thing about Korea is that if you need help, you will get it. People really go out of their way to help you. He could have just as easily brushed us off and said "sorry, can't help you" and walk away. But he didn't!

Once we found out what stop we had to get off at, the help didn't end there. The guard who brought us there proceeded to escort us all the way the the platform and waited with us until the subway came. It was so sweet! He chatted with us in his broken English and reminded us constantly "third stop! one, two, three, get off train!" When the subway arrived we said goodbye and were on our way. The rest was a breeze because we already knew what exit to leave the station from and what bus to take from there to get to Costco. Finally, we arrived at Costco. Ahhhhhh! (soprano opera voice.) Blythe has a Costco membership from California that worked there too, so we were all set and ready to shop!

The great thing about Korean Costco is that it sells lots of Western products. I felt like a kid in a candy shop, grabbing great products from home that I had been missing- cheese, Kashi cereal, bagels, whole wheat bread, buttermilk pancake mix, etc. After exploring Costco for about and hour, we checked out and grabbed a meal. In my excitement of buying everything, I had kind of disregarded the voices in my head reminding me that I had to carry everything home through the subway, so I was left with an extremely heavy bag that was pretty cumbersome to carry home. Blythe and Michelle helped by grabbing one handle and helping me carry it, and we eventually got home around 8:30pm. Blythe and I met later that night around 11 to go salsa dancing at this club/dance studio that's supposed to have salsa every night, but it was closed :(. Instead we went to a bar for a drink and then hit the sack. We had had an exhausting day, so it was nice to go home and crash!

Thursday: I went to Seoul to teach my private in the afternoon since I had cancelled the previous Saturday, then had a low-key night. It was nice to have a day off!

Friday: AWESOME. For Ajou University Language School's "cultural experience day", Val and his classmates got to spend the day at Lotte World, the largest indoor recreation park (aka amusement park) in the world, located in Seoul. BALLIN! Unfortunately, Michelle had to go back to work on Friday and Blythe wasn't feeling well, so they couldn't come along. Luckily, I had invited my friend Melodie (the same friend I met up with for New Year's) to come along. She met me there at noon and we met up with Val and his classmates. After greetings and introductions, we took on the bumper cars. I couldn't remember the last time I did bumper cars, but it was lots of fun! While we waited for our "magic passes" for the French Revolution, the big rollercoaster, to be valid (if we returned to the rollercoaster line, which had a 40 minute wait, with our "magic passes" between 3:30 and 4, we would get to go past the whole line and ride the coaster), we rode some more rides and got food. We (Melodie, Val, and 4 of his classmates-from Uzbekistan, China, Japan, and Jordan) waited in a ridiculously long line for the "hot air balloons" that went on a track on the ceiling around the entire building. By the time we got off it was 3:55 so we BOOKED IT to the rollercoaster so we didn't miss our magic pass slot. It was so cool to walk right past the huge line and get on the next car. The coaster was INSANE! The cool thing is that because the rollercoaster winds through the entire, 6- floor complex, you never see the whole thing all at once so you don't really know what it looks like. We were definitely in for a surprise with the twists and turns and tunnels of complete darkness. I think my favorite part was the sudden downward fall in a pitch-black tunnel that as soon as we got out the tunnel turned into a spiral thing where you're sideways. It was quite a ride and I screamed my head off. It was awesome. After the rollercoaster, we stumbled our way to ice rink on the bottom floor, where I was able to live out my fantasy of having an ice-skating date where you hold hands and fall down together. Except, I was the only one who fell. Val actually really enjoys ice skating so he was really excited. A lot of his classmates were there too so we all skated together for a while. A great ending to a fun day!

Saturday: Yes, this entry is not over yet. If you've gotten this far, mazel tov! Saturday afternoon I met (suprise!) Blythe and Michelle for Chinese food at a restaurant near Blythe's apartment, which is in North Suwon. As we sat waiting for our food, a hoard of children came into the restaurant with their teachers and took over the restaurant. It wasn't long until I realized that they were Sannam Middle School students! They must have been students from one of the other camps that were going on during the vacation because some of the teachers were there too. I have no idea why they came all the way to North Suwon (about a 25 minutes away by bus), but I was shocked to see them all! None of them saw me, suprisingly, but I recognized one of my students from Winter Camp, caught his eye, and waved. He looked surprised and confused, hahaa.

Sunday: The four of us braved the snow and went to Itaewon, the foreigner district of Seoul. There, we ate West African food (Val was happy!) and visited the foreign food market where I bought hummus (I was happy!). Then we helped Blythe find shoes. Most places don't sell anything over size 8 here since Koreans' feet are so small, but Itaewon is famous for having bigger sizes of things. Once she found some cute boots, we went to What The Book?, an English book store, to get our book for Book Club. Unfortunately they didn't have it in stock but I decided to order it. After browing around What the Book?, we found another Mexican food place and had REALLY good Mexican food. Again. Haha. What can I say, Blythe's from Cali. She eats a lot of Mexican food. But I don't mind at all. This place even had margaritas! We returned very tired and wet since the snow had really come down hard and they didn't clear the sidewalks or roads at ALL. I dug into the hummus as a late-night snack then we went to bed, very satisfied from a great week!


The students still are on vacation, so I'm just seat warming at work these days. As much as I'd rather be at home in my PJ's, at least I'm getting paid to blog, FB/Gchat with my friends, and watch episodes of How I Met Your Mother online. Life is good, ha. I also had to get a new phone this week since my other one accidently went through the wash. Oops. I got my new phone yesterday (Monday), so yeah. I did that ENTRE week sans cell phone. and it was HARD. I seriously don't know how we lived without cell phones before.

That's enough to digest for now, I think. Believe it or not, I have more to blog about we'll wait for another time for that!

Thanks for reading:)

Love,
Mel