Meat of All Varieties

Koreans have no understanding of meat.

None.

Not an inkling of a clue.

In fact, if you were to place them outside of Korea, i'm fairly certain they would mistake apples for ham.

Now, this may seem a bit harsh, but let me paint a picture for you: my english friend Liz is a pescetarian so she doesn't eat meat other than seafood (which is the only realistic way to be a veggie here in Korea) so she ordered a seafood pizza, some others ordered, I ordered a canadian bacon and cheese pie, and we sat down to wait. Well everyone's food came out in shifts, scallop and mussel spaghetti, seafood pizza, spaghetti bolognese, and so many other delicious delicacies. The smells of italian sauces and garlic were wafting up my nose from all directions when my food and Liz's arrived about the same time. My pizza was less pizza and more egg quiche thing with a twist, which was a surprise but a delicious surprise; but Liz's seafood pizza had ham. Yes ham. Now it's extremely possible i've complained about the ham problem here before but it's a real epidemic!! They don't think ham is meat!!! Who in their right mind doesn't think ham is meat?!!? It comes from a pig!!!

Another ham incident happened in July when I was planning my summer camp for the kids, I wanted to make sandwiches with them so that they could partake in some real American food. Eunyeong and I were in the super market getting ingredients: bread, peanut butter, mayo, lettuce, and then we got to the ham she asked me; "How do we cook this? Boil it? Bake it?" She was dead serious. I stared at her uncomprehending what she was asking me, I finally found my tongue jammed in the back of my throat, unjammed it and explained sandwich ham. I guess they just eat pig differently here, it's perplexing, but extremely comical!

Another thing that's perplexing beyond belief is the way that they eat fish here.
They don't de-bone it.
They just cook it.
The entire thing,
and then chop it into thirds.
I mean, they literally cook the entire fish, head and all. I frequently see fish eyes staring at me from beneath a simmering mound of potatoes and leafy vegetables. WHO DOES THAT?! The first time I saw those creepy little fish eyes peering up at me pitifully from my pan I choked on my kimchi (which is a less-than pleasant experience as kimchi can be extremely spicy). I have no explanation behind this reasoning, I have asked around and no one seems to understand why they do this. Eunyeong didn't understand why anyone would de-bone a fish in the first place so turning to Koreans as a last resort was a failure: 질배-Shil Pae, in Korean (I hope). They don't eat sushi the way I expected them to either, they have these trucks with giant fish tanks in the beds of them and they extract a fish from the tank, chop it's head off, take out the main spine (but none of the other bones), slice the fish into strips (flesh and all), wrap it in mint leaves, add some spicy bean curd, wrap it up like a gift, and pop it into their mouths. Now don't get me wrong, this is actually very delicious, but it takes my mouth for a spin. I have to navaigate mint stem, fish flesh, tiny fish bones, and the occasional bitten cheek. It's just such an adventure whenever I go out eating!! Sheesh!!

Anyeong!!

Island Hopping!

Bioluminescence- the production of light by living organisms.
I had to look that up for my own personal benefit and thought perhaps you might enjoy the definition as well!

The Korean sights here are so interesting, they aren't majestic and awe inspiring like the rockies, nor are they vivid and brilliant like the sunsets over the Great Salt Lake, everything is muted greens and greys, fine mists, and soft curves. I think the scenery greatly compliments the emotionless, quiet lifestyle the Koreans (asians) live. So it's nice for me to finally be able to appreciate the beauty around me. the soft mountainous islands that spotted the horizon and the mists that trail their fingers lovingly through the mountains tree covered hairlines are finally beginning to grow on me. 

This weekend I discovered a rare Korean gem: island hopping. It just so happens that roughly 45 minutes from where I live there is a port city called Tongyeong. In Tongyeong you can catch a ferry that will take you to any number of islands, all varying in size, shape, and population. The one we chose was called Bijindong and boasted a population of 5. I went with some other foreign english teacher friends of mine and we all decided to camp on the beach. We arrived in Tongyeong in a convoy of bus riders and car drivers and hopped onto the ferry. The ferry clearly stated: Maximum capacity 75, we had rougly a 100 people on the ferry. As you entered the boat there was another sign clearly displayed that said, "Head Careful" I took that to mean: be careful with your head as you may someday bang it against something hard; because let's be honest here, there was no way that sign meant watch your head. Anyway, all us waegooks (Korean for foreigners) promptly installed ourselves on the top deck in a small room, we plunked our gear down on the floor and we all migrated onto the deck. I quickly found myself experiencing the wind whipping through my hair, pulling at loose tendrils and setting loose quite a few more, the loud conversation of happy people drifting through my ears, The smell of brine and boat exhaust filling my lungs. As I stood for longer the uneven rise and fall of the boat began to creat an old sensation within the bowels of my stomach; which promptly had me sitting with my back in a corner of the room, breathing deeply and evenly through my nose and out my mouth, praying to the sea gods that I didn't vomit up the delicious seaweed and rice triangle I had for breakfast. Thank you motion sickness! After 30 minutes or so the boat happily spit us out onto a makeshift floating dock and we surveyed our location. We were going to be camping on a stretch of beach that connected two islands. White sand beach and a small store that sold merely Ramen, Beer, and Water (the three things that i'm convinced Koreans live on) where before me. I was elated! What an experience! There were a few more waegooks around but not that many, and there were a few older Ajummas and Ajushis (women and men) staring blankly at the white faces but nothing over-crowded or underappreciated. We set up camp and I decided (more for lack of actual equipment than choice) that I wanted to sleep under the stars. So I watched while everyone unpacked. We wiled the day away playing frisbee and soccer, swimming, and barbequeing, we wiled the evening away singing disney and journey songs, and then around 10 I decided I wanted to go for a night swim. I careened into the small surf and swam a few paces, until I could just barely touch, I began treading water, calling out to my friends to join me when I noticed it. I was glowing electric blue. Everytime I kicked my legs or swirled my arms an electric blue glow was emitted. Bioluminescence! Someone knew a little about this phenomena and informed me that it was algae in the water that was causing the blue, apparently when you move the algae it glows. Who knew?! I was just fascinated by this, I swam to and fro, swimming wildly and then slowly seeing the different effects my movements had on the algae, what I decided I liked best was when I swam slowly, very slowly, the algae would twinkle like stars and take on the shape of small blue pearls that crept up my arms and body, softly caressing my curves. It was beautiful. I can't imagine a better time either, great friends, beautiful starry night, and twinkling blue pearly waves. Well I finally went to bed exhausted after a day of sun and sand...only to be eaten alive by some horrid sand bug all night long. Never again will I sleep on the beach without at least a screened tent to keep the bugs in the sand and me off the sand. The next day dawned nice and drizzly. A brilliant 6am light misting rain awoke me and I scrambled to find shelter, which I found right as the rain ended. *sigh* Thankfully I had the rest of the day to nap in the sun and play in the surf!!
 
We hopped onto a ferry right as the torrential rains began and boy were we glad!! Although I was personally majorily displeased with the rains choice of start times as it meant that I was forced to experience the ferry at full tilt rain ocean mode which was nearly catastrophic in terms of me vomiting but I DID manage to hang onto my PB&J.  Barely. When we got back into Tongyeong we got in the car and began driving, only to get stuck in the worst traffic jam i've ever seen. It took us 4 hours to drive 45 minutes. I just kept thinking "I could walk faster." Which indeed I should have done in order to score some delicious ice cream cones...but being the optimists that we were we kept thinking: It'll clear up and then we can get some ice cream.

The lesson in all this? Always stop for ice cream.

Anyeong!

Lunch with Yoda

I like Korean food, I like it a lot in fact, but occasionally I find something I don't like. Take today for instance, I went to lunch and we were served soup "Yum" I thought to myself "Soup!" Boy was I wrong. This soup was very strong in flavor and that flavor was very strongly disagreeing with my tastebuds. With every bite I took I was vaguely reminded of that forest that Luke Skywalker finds Yoda living in in like the 2nd Star Wars. Dark green leaves of strict flavor floated about my bowl like floatsam after a wreck, dark brown sticks impeded the process of my spoon, and chunks of fish scales and bones floated up to the top of my bowl like drown victims. Periodically I would find pieces of chile in my bite and my mouth would erupt into flames straight from the fires of hell. This was like eating soup with bombs in it. Thankfully I was able to defer to rice (oh rice how I adore you for your bland nature and filling capacities) and tangerines (oh tangerines how I adore you for your comfortable tangy tartness). After this ordeal I was informed that Koreans eat this soup quite often because it's good for your health, i'm not sure how it's good for your health when you fear death by strangling from snake, but I did enjoy the opportunity of speaking with Yoda "Let the Soup be with you."

Hopefully I never see this soup again.

Anyeong!

The Life of a Child Prodigy

 I try really hard to read the news everyday, Korean news, American news, World news, and I came upon this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/17/AR2010041702781.html
So, i've realized for a while now that my korean co-workers work a lot harder than I do. More importantly, they are expected to work a lot harder than I am. They get yelled at by the vice-principal, they stay until 11pm sometimes, they show up at 7:30 am and they don't take hardly any vacation. They literally run at work and they don't spend all that much time at home with their families.I think what is most upsetting about this article is that I can actually see this happening. I see the strain and the stress written upon the faces of my co-workers, hell I see the strain and the stress on the faces of my students. The culture here is to attain perfection from an early age. You choose exactly what you are going to do for the rest of your life in middle school and then you diligently stay on that path toward complete perfection forever more.
An average middle school student comes to school at 8am, they work HARD all day long with little breaks, then they go to Hogwans where they learn English, Japanese, Chinese, Piano, any subject really, until about 10pm and then they go home and study more; frequently they will have private home lessons after the hogwan tutoring. The learning just never ends it goes on and on and on. So it's easy to see why they begin to break down in their early 30's and late 20's, i personally can't imagine working that hard nor would I ever wish it upon anyone. It makes me cringe when I see my students striving for perfection, i'm so proud of them, of their quips and their innate childishness, but a part of me is screaming "Save their souls!!" I want them to be able to go and ride their bicycles, fall off walls, break their arms on the monkey bars; but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe that's one reason why i'm here, to remind them to have a little fun and break out of the mold.
Aneyong.

I'm a Teacher! I'm a Teacher!

I'M A TEACHER!! Now, I realize that this may seem odd to you, "Molly, you've been a teacher for nearly two months now...right?" Well let me explain, i've had the TITLE teacher for nearly two months, but my confidence in my "teaching abilities" has been next to nothing; as a one-time contemplater of "student for life" I KNOW good teachers, and I know bad teachers. There are always those teachers that make the best out of things, that can inspire you to enjoy something as drab as 18th century catholic virgin poetry; and there are those teachers that make even cannibalism as boring as a stretch of unpainted canvas. I worried I was in the latter half of this equation; thankfully it turns out i'm not. As I sit here pondering what I should create for my lessons for next week I realized that I have not been given a book, i'm not required or asked to do anything, and the hope of a curriculum is...well...ludicrous. So I sat and pondered what this meant, and I came up with nothing. How depressing, so I went to class. When I returned from class my co-teacher Eunyeong said to me "Molly, the first grade teachers wanted you to teach the discussion from the book but they've changed their minds." My heart began beating quickly, I thought to myself "OH no, they hate me, they hate my teaching, i'm a failure, a disaster, why am I here? I should go home and stick my head in a hole." Eunyeong continued, "They like what you have been teaching, they find it so interesting, and they enjoy your teaching style so much that they want you to teach whatever you want. Just  keep doing what you're doing." Stunned disbelief registered on my face. I thought, "They actually like me!" I smiled and giggled, Eunyeong stared at me in confusion and I attempted to explain the giggle, but how do you explain a giggle of joy and disbelief?? Needless to say she missed the point entirely, oh well, that's common around here.

Anyeong!!

127 Hours

This is possibly the COOLEST thing i've seen in a while: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-3AHv2E5jg
That is the trailer for the new movie that is coming out about Aaron Ralston who was a mountaineer who got trapped in the rocks in the Moab area and ended up cutting his arm off! Eep! The story is great, but the cooler part (there's a cooler part? YES!) In the first scene that you see in the trailer, there is a guy on a bike...well guess who that guy is? TYSON! If you remember (way back a long time ago) in high school I dated a biker named Tyson, well, turns out he's now famous!! GO TYSON!!!

Got Nothin' in Me

I have nothing to say today. I'm tired, bone tired. Waking up and running at 6am "for fun" plus a full day a of work, plus Korean lessons = an exhausted Molly.

More tomorrow.

xoxo

The art and sport of eating kiwis Korean style.

In Korea land, they eat Kiwis with a spoon, you cut the kiwi in half and then spoon it out and into your mouth; that is, if you are a graceful korean eater. Which i'm not. So while my pretty, flowery, dainty co-workers gracefully spooned small mouthfuls of kiwi up out of it's hairy skin and into their mouths I tried, with all due diligence, to not explode kiwi on myself. I of course failed. I was almost almost ALMOST done with my second kiwi when my spoon caught, twisted, my fingers slipped and BLAM! Kiwi juice side up on my skirt. I squeaked and the spoon twisted out of my fingers and clattered to the metal tray, the kiwi chunks on the spoon...well...let's just say that they ended up...somewhere else. I'm not exactly sure where they flew off to, but I was just thanking my lucky stas they didn't end up in my co-workers hair or something equally embarrassing.

Anyeong!

Little Mexico Korean Style

I HAD MEXICAN FOOD!! Woo! The delicious flavor of cilantro and lime melding perfectly with pulled pork and corn tortilla created an explosion of flavorful blasts in my mouth. I hadn't realized how much I missed mexican food until last night.

An english teacher friend of mine called me up at 8pm last night and informed me he was 20 minutes from my home and that I better be ready because we were going out for Mexican food.

I've never put pants on faster in my entire life.

He arrived and we began the extremely comical process of attempting to navigate the streets of Masan. Since I don't own a car I only know the bus routes to get about town, and those bus routes are not the most expedient ways of navigating the city. The busses wind in and out of neighborhoods at their own reckless leisure stopping oft and waiting less. So when Jason informed me that I needed to navigate him to a certain spot in Masan...I froze. I looked at him with panicked eyes and said "I only know how to get around via bus." He laughed at me and said "I'm sure you'll do fine." So of we went! After winding in and out of the streets we finally found the place he was looking for, parked, and got out. "Well done Jones" he proclaimed as we stood in front of old downtown, the blinking neon lights iluminating our faces. We waltzed down the street, me reading the street signs, him correcting and quizzing my Korean; we turned down a small side street and BAM! We were smack dab in the middle of little mexico, korean style. We entered the restaurant to Mexican waltzes and the smell of cilantro and lime. I was in food heaven. We ordered- 2 corn rolled, pulled  pork, cilantro and lime tacos, with a side of beans (my co-workers are regretting those beans today!) for me, 6 corn rolled, pulled pork, cilantro and lime tacos for him. One margarita for me and sweet rice milk for him. We were in Mexican food business! When the food arrived we both tucked in, quietly and seriously as all mexican food deserves. After the food was gone we both took a deep breath, I think we had forgotten to breathe while we inhaled food. I sipped on my margarita and discovered it was the single worst margarita i've ever had, it was essentially water, tequila, and salt. ew. So we let that one sit and ventured out into the street for more Korean lessons and ice cream. Simply fabulous.

This morning as I was walking to school I realized how much I missed my little poo-throwing monkeys! They look so grown up in their perfectly pressed dress pants and skirts, their ties and button ups perfectly askew, perfect little business people. It's fun to see them, to know some of them better after summer camp and to see how excited they still get at the sight of me (insert behemoth, blonde, american, foreigner). I can't wait to see how this day goes!!

Anyeong!

I speakuh da hangeul!! Well...sort of.

A couple of my summer camp students!
They hate having their photo taken...but not me!

Today I understood!!! Let me explain how the majority of my conversations with Koreans go: Them: "sjdflajweo skjalsjg asdjfosd?" Me: "ummm....uhhhh....aneyo (no)?" Them: "jjsldkfjasljjj. jjsldkfjasljjj.??" Me:"uhh...well....umm...?" It should be clearly demonstrated here that the majority of my conversations are not conversations, they aren't even mutually intelligible, which explains why i'm so excited to UNDERSTAND!!! The first instance happened when a co-worker was asking me if I wanted some coffee, I understood and was able to say, "Nay cansamnida! (yes please!)" HOW EXCITING! Especially because drinking coffee is a very communal thing for Koreans so my being able to understand and accept means that i'm not insulting anyone, Molly-1 day-0. The second instance happened while I was trying to figure out the damn copier, let me tell you, copiers in English are exasperating. Copiers in Korean are impossible. So I was scratching my head trying to figure it out, half way listening to the unintelligible conversation on my right when I heard the phrase "migook?" Which means American, I looked up like a startled deer, met eyes with my co-workers and shyly responded "Nay migook saram."(Yes, i'm an American) I smiled and my co-workers giggled behind their hands at me. WIN! Then one of them said a string of common phrases that I understood about 3 of, which is ALSO exciting because it means that i'm starting to recognize and pick out key phrases when my co-workers speak!!!!! Ah this is so exciting! It means that the 40 minutes of Korean study a day plus the classes are really working! I'm actually ingesting Korean!!! I'm just so so proud of myself not only am I capable of moving to a new country and being sustainable, but i'm also capable of inserting myself into the culture! YAYME!

Gwangryeo Summer camp 2010!
This is Emily's School

As an afterthought I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my kids from summer camp.

Anyeong!

The night my bus blew up.

I attend Korean classes at three different venues, three different nights, with three different people and teachers. I'm hoping that this will eventually lead to me being capable of speaking Korean...but mostly that's just wishful thinking at this point.

So Emily and I met up in Hopsongdong, which is a neighborhood about 15 minutes from where I live;it's a fabulous little neighborhood, full of life and true Korean flavor. We had dinner at this cute little restaurant that serves traditional Korean side dishes (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite Korean meals). These side dishes vary and I rarely see the same one twice, last night there was pumpkin oatmeal- this is sooo delicious, some sort of squach and mashed pumpkin salad, lilypad stems soaked in sweet teriyaki pepper sauce, two kinds of grilled and marinated fish, rice with beans and peas, rice cake with beans inside, and my favorite soybean and tofu stew. YUM! Emily and I ate and chatted, i'm seriously considering getting my TESOL (Teachers of English to Teachers of Other Languages) Certificate because I think it's important to have the certificate that says i'm a bona fide teacher, but also because I think that this certificate will open a whole new door of teaching resources to me! and Emily has hers so the conversation was extremely informative for me! After dinner Emily and I got on the bus to go to the Changwon Hotel, which is where Tuesday night Korean classes are held. As we were cruising down the street we suddenly heard this loud BANG! and the whole bus bucked and jumped, a cloud of noxious, visible blue smoke began steaming up from the floors of the bus. The bus driver quickly pulled over and Emily and I departed.

We were nowhere near our final destination.

After realizing that the only bus that could take us where we wanted to go was the bus we had just exited, and that the NEXT 102 bus wasn't coming for an undeterminable time we began seeking alternatives. In Korea there is this great system where you can rent bicycles, ride them about and then return them for a nominal fee of 1,000W (roughly 70 cents) per two hours. We looked across the street and what do you think we saw? Bike rentals. Well there went Korean class! We quickly jaywalked, and realized that the entire rental system was in Korean. hmm...so we flagged down some high school girls and they helped us get some bikes rented. MAN! I have missed riding a bicycle! We cruised down the city streets giggling like 8 year olds. Perhaps the best part of this ride happened when we were sitting at a streetlight I turned around to look at the scenery and instead saw a horde of policemen rapidly moving towards their police cars...we made the obvious presumption that our bus finally blew up and that it was a good thing we had abandoned the electrical transportation for physical.

After riding about for a bit we returned our bicycles and wandered about City Seven, I thought it was this massive mall atrocity but it turns out to be nothing more than another overpriced tiny mall! Fun! Not... So we were exiting the mall and trying to find the nearest bus stop when a man approached us, tall, white, blonde hair, cute smile. He began speaking and we quickly realized that we understood...40% of what he said. He was apparently from a country called Listonia. I don't actually think that country exists. Perhaps he was from Estonia? Im unsure, I also thought he was selling something, medical equipment maybe? Who knows, but when I asked him what he sold he looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently he was just staying in the hotel. Ah the confusion. So we quickly parted ways with this lost listonian and got back on the bus, where I saw my first Korean cross dresser! Now this was so exciting that Emily pulled out her mirror so that we could glance at him/her in the mirror. We decided that he was a very poorly dressed woman and that most likely it was a bad joke gone awry...we hoped it was at least! I finally made it home after exploding busses, lisping listonians, and bad cross dressers! Maybe i'll skip on the Korean lessons more often in favor of land and culture explorations...

Anyeong!

Rice and Seaweed Nation

킴밥나라 (Kim Bap Nara)

Also known as rice and seaweed nation, also known as dinner.  Kim bap is amazing, it's essentially sushi, only Korean style, which means it doesn't even resemble sushi american style. It it rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with an infinite number of yummy goodies. Tonight I ordered Chamchi Kim Bap (tuna sushi) and Yo Cha Kim Bap (vegetable sushi). Now my chamchi kim bap is delicious, full of canned tuna, cucumbers, carrots, ham, and fermented radish. My "vegetable" kim bap is full of onions, carrots, cucmbers, egg, something brown (could be anything really), mayonnaise, and ham. Yes, like most countries i've encountered outside of the US, vegetarian means, meat, but not beef.  I love it! How can any of this be bad for you? You have something fermented- radish, something raw-onion, some meat- protein, seaweed for your skin and nails, and rice as a filler! A point of interest, Koreans will throw anything into anything, for example: ham and tuna, plus I found soybeans in my crustacean stew the other day for god's sake! So there you have it, i'm currently basking in the after-korean-lesson glow and devouring dericious kim bap!


Anyeong!

An Almost Runners Running Perspective

I've decided i'm giving myself a birthday gift: a half marathon. As I haven't ever run a half marathon, not even 10 miles really, this may seem like a funny gift for me, especially to myself as I don't perceive myself as a runner, nor do I think I really like it. Running is Dakota's gig, his passion, life focus, and he's really, really, really (and I mean REALLY) good at it. I'm better at people things, do you want to practice small talk? I like small talk. What about people reading? I like to think i'm good at reading people, when they are comfortable, uncomfortable, who they like and dislike, that sort of thing. I think i'm fiery and fun to be around, dedicated but only when I have to be. So solo half-marathoning is a little bit...erm...extreme. I mean there's dedication involved in running a half marathon! I have to go out and, like, actually...run. Several times...a week. Ew? Despite all these perfectly good justifications for NOT running, i'm finding that I actually enjoy it. Now, i'm not claiming to be the Prima Donna of running, oh no, I don't think i'd ever want to be that, i'll leave all that glamour and motivation to the familial professional; but i'll be damned if there isn't something romantic about running up a single lane road, whispering stalks of rice telling me sweet nothings in the heady summer breezes. The misty tentacles of the clouds trailing their fingers lovingly through the trees that crowd the mountain hillsides. No cars in sight, only the rhythmic pounding of shoes and the harsh gasp and release of my breath. It's moments like these that I realize why I love to travel, I can't help it (god knows I certainly don't have the extra lung capacity) but I burst into chuckling laughter, face seizing in a grin of joy, the feeling of absolute correctness ripping through my body, engaging endorphines, filling every inch of me with a tingling sensation of love and appreciation for the beauty around me. As well as a congratulatory "Atta Girl" to myself for following my dreams and passions so veraciously. It's moments like these that I remember precisely, perfectly who I am, what I stand for, and why i'm here. Yay Me!

Anyeong!

Meet Iron Man

Here is Iron Man, I wrote a post about him a few days ago, and my co-worker Emily saw my post and hurriedly re-posted with his photo. It's only fitting that you be able to fully put a face to this wonderfully inspiring Iron Man.

Lazy Saturday Mornings

I intend to spend all day at home, eating PB&J's and reading! I ordered some books online after speaking to a variety of Middle School teachers, from the States and here in Korea. I'm hoping that these books will help me as I struggle to figure out how I can be the best teacher around. I bought a book called: Teaching like a champion suggested to me by the fabulous Emily Shumway; she informed me that she is in the middle of reading it herself right now and that it dispenses immeasurable teaching wisdom! I also purchased a book called the ESL/ELL Teacher's Book of Lists, this book should be pretty interestingly helpful for me as I begin to plan my semesters classes! I met up with some teachers last night for dinner and drinks and we discussed some of the things that these teachers employ in their classrooms, boy did I learn a lot! I certainly felt like a child at Santa's knees, begging him to keep speaking, keep up the dialogue! It is so fascinating to listen to "war" stories from other teachers, to see their temperaments, and to visualize the ridiculous ways in which our students try to drive us nuts. For example, I have a student, I can't remember his name (oops...) but Emily and I call him "Iron Man" because the first day of summer camp Emily walked up to me and told me that I should go and ask this kid about Iron Man. So I waltzed up to him and said "Iron Man?" his little eyes lit up and he responded "You know?" His hands immediately formed a circle and he placed them on his breastbone. I responded, "Of course." He smiled and went "Chunh Chunh Chunh" tilting his circled hands into positions, almost as if he were opening a vault, he then pretended to rip his shirt off and ran out of the room with his arms in a mockery of flying. I stood there dumbfounded, mouth open for 10 seconds, unable to possibly believe what had happened before I burst into laughter. Such silliness! Now whenever I see him I make the circle sign on my breastbone and he responds. There is no need for English nor Korean, we understand one another perfectly.

Wisdom Words and Unexpected Mentors

My Mother once wrote to me and said:

 *love yourself

 *Always tell the truth

      To you

      To others

 *Pick your mentors carefully

 *and Remember, I Love My Molly

These are true words of wisdom. 

They may not be the words from the mouth of the Dhali Llama, Ghandi, nor Jesus himself, but they are true power words. The kind of words that make you stop in the middle of your day and reflect; reflect on your life, your purpose, your friends, your spouse, your dream, anything. You see, they contain the three most important ingredients:

Simplicity

Honesty

& Love

Moving to Korea has been a big step for me, on the one hand i'm finally fulfilling my dream of living abroad, living truly independently, and honestly? I can't imagine living any other way. I'm content here, happy to trip down the sidewalk, chin up, sounding out the korean words on every billboard and sign I see. I'm happy, and that's the bottom line. This happiness doesn't mean that i've stopped growing, in fact, it means that i'm seeking more and more opportunities to excel. I recently met this woman named Emily, she is in her second year as a teacher here in Korea and she is fabulous. She has her english teaching credentials and her TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), along with her B.A. in English. To put it short, she is my new mentor whether she realizes it or not. Everyday this week we have taught together and I find that i'm improving by leaps and bounds. She is patient, understanding, and forthcoming in her knowledge about teaching. All of the things that I so desperately crave. Everyday she helps me work through small problems that come up, finding new and better ways to solve discipline problems etc. It's been wonderful, an unexpected (but extremely welcome) surprise. I just wanted to take a second to thank all those people that have guided me, taught me, held my hand, held out a shoulder, or just plain been an accomplice. Without the love and guidance of those around us, those fabulous people we surround ourselves by, we may never fully achieve our true dreams. 

Anyeong!

Typhoooooooons, soccer, karaoke, smiles, and kanglish

Well i've officially weathered my first typhoon! Typhoon Dianmu...you got nothin' on me!! haha! I awoke this morning to crashing thunder and lightning, sleeting rain, sirens, and public announcements that I didn't understand. I was so confused and disoriented I had to sit and listen for a minute, it was magical the way the rain was pouring out of the sky, alighting upon the engorged earth and sliding off the hills and "mountains" that surround my piece of Korean heaven. I got dressed, and was STOKED to wear my galoshes, I purchased them in the states years ago on a whim and have NEVER worn them! So today was the day! I had them on, and went outside to leave for work. I opened up my umbrella and WOOSH, a gust of wind crept up behind me, turned my umbrella inside out, ripped it from my hands, and carried it away over the roofs of my neighbors. GUH. Apparently i'm 0 for 2 in the umbrella department, I suppose that's what I get for growing up in the desert? Anyway, luckily I was saved from slogging to work without an umbrella because I received a phone call saying school was cancelled!! I've never had work or school cancelled for rain! I could totally get used to this!!

Some fun observations from summer camp that remind me daily why i'm a teacher:

Shoe soccer. My boys have taken to playing shoe soccer in the halls during breaks in lessons. It's so much fun to watch them interact with one another, to be truly free of the inhibitions that hinder them inside the classroom. Their smiling faces, the competitive side of them, that fire of youth. It's really inspiring and always leaves me with a smile.

Karaoke. Koreans/Asians LOVE karaoke, when in doubt they tell me to sing karaoke with them. Ha. It just so happens that in this classroom i'm using in this different school where I am teaching summer camp there is a microphone...that works! So some of the girls and I have taken to singing karaoke during breaks in lessons, before, and after lessons. It's fun to see the girls lose their inhibitions as well! They don't play soccer like the boys, but they all have beautiful voices and the way they hang on one another, that sort of camaraderie is really inspiring to see.

So a trend that i've noticed here is that Koreans try REALLY hard to be trendy with their English, but they usually mess it up. The expats around here call it "Kanglish" here are some of my favorite examples:

On the back of a car:
"Meeting New People:
We were looking for ourselves
but found each other groped for excuses
not to be alone anymore, we were waiting for our
lives to start their endings in the car."

Something a Korean friend of mine said to my fellow english teacher:
"I fear we can't be friends. I have love for you."

In a Jjimjilbang in Seoul:
"Prease push your shoes in your rocker"

In a shop in Jeju-do:

As you can see, these people are trying REALLY hard to get things straight....but they are failing. Miserably. haha. Brittoni and I find it extremely hilarious and try to take photos whenever possible. We have also decided that when we are together two things happen:

 1. lunatics or drunks walk up to me and begin to talk to me about anything and everything, usually it's a combination of Korean, bad English, and Gibberish.

 2. Brittoni gets stuck in elevators. The elevators here don't have sensors so unless you rush into the elevator you can get your hand, bag, body SHUT IN THE ELEVATOR and unless someone pushes the open elevator button...you remain shut in the elevator door. This is always shocking at first, then hilarious once we free her from the elevator. Good grief!

My korean classes went so well this week! The woman, Helen, who I pay for private lessons purchased a book for me, we reviewed the alphabet, and started working on my pronunciation! I'm so excited! I also accompanied Brittoni to a free class in downtown Changwon and I really like this class, it's one-on-one speaking with a Korean, almost like a language exchange but a little more structured. There are guided lesson plans, group discussions, and personal presentations in the last 20 minutes of class. I'm meeting so many people who really want to learn Korean/English! It's such a wonderful learning environment! 

Anyeong!

To Hangeul or Not to Hangeul?

...I had (of course) located the least effective way of getting myself home, thus allowing myself to be drenched in the sudden torrential downpour. As is my luck the umbrella I carted all the way from the states, the gigantic pink striped one that I adored was stolen, most likely by one of those poo throwing monkeys I call students...But that's the middle of the story.

I decided to *finally* buck up and pay for private Korean lessons. My self study is decidedly effective, i'm learning a lot and i'm able to effectively communicate basic desires now, but I realized I need to call in the big guns, aka a native speaker, to help me with my pronunciation and my grammar structures. The local expats rave about this woman named Helen so I facebooked her (i love facebook, it connects so many people for so many reasons) and was able to arrange a lesson for tonight! I met up with her at the Lotte Mart which is the local rendezvous point for anything and everything. She took me back to her apartment and we got down to business! I learned so many things, but the most important thing I learned is this: Koreans don't call people who are older than them by their names. I have been rather baffled why koreans don't introduce themselves by their names(EVER!) and this is why: if a person is older than you, you call them opa or ohni, which means older brother or older sister. If they are younger than you it's degrading to you to call them by their name because they are younger than you so you don't call them anything unless they are your good friends, then you can call them by their name regardless of their age. How difficult is THAT? At least now I know how i'm supposed to address people, what a relief! I ordered a Korean textbook with Helen and I shall see how my one night a week progresses, tomorrow i'm going into Changwon city with Brittoni to attend some free Korean classes she goes to. I think that the more exposure I get to the grammar part of Korean the quicker i'll get better at it...here's hoping!! *This is where you can insert the sad story of me trekking through the flash flooding umbrella-less*

On a less wet note, today started my second week of summer camp...It went really really well. I'm at a school that is different from my own so I, sadly, don't get to continue bonding (or torturing, it really depends on who is telling the story) with my students but that's ok I suppose. They probably want a break from me anyway. I feel like this second week of camp is going much smoother, I think i'm finally getting a hang of this whole "teaching" thing (weird). I'm going out with some fellow expat English teachers on Friday night for a "working dinner." I'm pretty excited to be able to swap war stories and game ideas with some people who have been here longer than I am and who are more experienced than myself. It's always humbling and emboldening (is that a word?!) to hear/speak/learn from others.

Anyeong!

The Small Things

Oh the small things, I broke my toilet, yes broke it. It wouldn't flush, and since I don't speak Korean I was unable to ask my landlord to help me fix it, so I jimmy-rigged it with a safety pin and some string that fell off one of my dresses. And who says I need a man in my life???

Also, i've been blessed with frigidly cold water for showering...until today. I FINALLY figured out how to make the water heater work and enjoyed a post-run luke-warm shower. SUCCESS!!

Anyeong!

Jeju-do!

So the next day we went out and about a little more and found ourselves in the middle of nowhere island! Woot for being explorers! We went to the Dolharbang park which was a total blast! Dolharbangs traditionally protected the Jeju island from intruders, however, as time wore on the superstitions changed and women began to believe that if you touched the nose of the Dolharbang or drank some stone from the nose of a Dolharbang you would have only sons, and then of course in the early 20th century the Dolharbangs have been transformed to represent love and protection of those you love. AWESOME!!! So Brit and I (of course) wandered about and took photos with these loveable guys!

After that we went to see some Lava tubes that were nearby. Now lava tubes are formed when lava flows underneath the earths surface an it melts the rock in interesting ways and i'm not sure what else. The translated Engrish was umm...not very well translated. But it was SUPER cool to be in the tube nonetheless! You descend into the earth and there is an instantaneous temperature change and then it's pitch black. The ground is uneven and looks as though lava just hardened beneath your feet, the walls have lava stalagmites, and water drips from the ceiling! super cool batcave.

The next day Brittoni and I FINALLY made it to the BEACH!! Oh how lovely the beach is. Sadly I woke up irrationally cranky this day so I had to remain quiet the majority of the morning for fear of lashing out >:( . But once we got to the beach all my crankiness evaporated, I mean honestly, who can be cranky at the beach?! No on. The beaches in Korea are very interesting, gorgeous turquois blue water, with black/white sand beaches, jungle cliffs directly behind you, and black lava rocks protruding from the coast. Absolutely breathtaking. The only bizarre thing about the Korean beaches are the Koreans themselves. They don't like the sun. They hid their faces behind GIGANTIC sun visors that frequently come down over their faces and look similar to plastic welding masks, they wear arm sleeves so that their arms don't see any sun and they WEAR THEIR CLOTHES INTO THE OCEAN. Also, none of them really know how to swim. Seriously. They are majorily afraid of water. What???? So they invest in things like adult water wingies (yes, that image in your mind is exactly what they look like) and they rent out gigantic tubes on the beach and the lifeguards don't let you go very far into the water before they whistle you to return. They also wear life jackets. Always. haha. I love traveling for the sole reason that I get to see the way that different culture work. Americans are sun worshippers. Not liking the sun is close to blasphemy and here is a people that despise the sun! haha.

Well the next day we left Jeju, got back on the ferry to Mokpo...ew. Thankfully we didn't have to wait around in the City of flavor long and were quickly on our way home!! 

Summer camp starts tomorrow so i'll be sure to keep you updated on whatever ridiculous nonsense my students come up with! 

Anyeong!

Traversing Korea land with Brit part Deux

Well i'm finally finally finally home again in Masan! As much as I love to travel being home again is sweeeeeeeeet! I love the embrace of my bed (as we have been sleeping on jjimjilbang floors primarily), along with the sweet serenity of the silence of my own home, and the ability to NOT leave my house except for grocery shopping and exercising. All of these things allow me to recover and to buckle down for another WEEEEK of summer camp. Aiiy Caramba.

When I left off Brit and I were still in Seoul, we had (thankfully) recovered our packs and were headed to Jeju-do, an island off Korea's southern end which is claimed to be the "Hawaii of Korea". Lies. It's not even remotely CLOSE to being Korea's Hawaii. I think that claiming that title was detrimental for the Koreans for one simple reason: every place is different. Brit and I went to Mokpo, a town that claims "A City of Taste, Flavor, and Light". How much more wrong could they possibly be? Of all the cities i've been to in Korea this one was by far the most unhospitable, most unwelcoming city of all; if i'd lost my pack here it would be stolen and sold on the black market before I had even walked away from it! I have to give it credit though, it DID have some pretty dried fish markets.

Well we beat a quick retreat away from Mokpo and got onto a ferry that took us to Jeju. This was the BEST decision we could have made, not only was it SOO romantic in an old-movie titanic sort of way but it was also a BLAST to cruise through the islands! We weren't able to see much as it was incredibly foggy, but I believe that only increased the romanticism of the boat ride. We were approached by a lovely Chinese woman and her husband and they asked if they could take photos with us. Now, this isn't extremely uncommon as I am a white girl i'm like a freak show. People on the busses stand closer than necessary to me, they stroke my hair, and they take numerous photos with me. I think it's pretty funny and play along with it most of the time.



Once we got to Jeju Brit and I found a hotel and dropped off our packs and beat a quick retreat to "Love Land". From what I can tell, the Koreans are extremely conservative people, they believe that women should cover their shoulders and not show any chest, they wear longer skirts, and in general look professional 100% of the time. So it surprised me to discover that "Love Land" was a park dedicated to lude statues about sex! Haha! I will spare you the details but Brittoni and I giggled our way through the entire park, posing with the statues and just enjoying ourselves in general. After "love Land" we decided that we wanted to go to the beach to see the sunset so we hailed a taxi, well this taxi driver dubbed himself our personal tour guide and when I mentioned that I wanted to go horseback riding, he turned around and BAM we were suddenly horseback riding! This was fun! After this we finally made it to the beach where we enjoyed octopus tentacle pancakes (not nearly as gnarly as they sound) and watched the Koreans...float. More on this later but Koreans don't swim. They float.

A bit of travelling...

Sorry for the lack of posting!! I have been travelling all over the country! My friend Brittoni and I departed Masan on Friday evening after work and went to Seoul. We met up with a friend of mine that I met through connections I have in the US and we have become pretty close friends in the month i've been in Korea! We went to "club night" which means you pay 20,000won (roughly 17$) to get a wristband that lets you into any of the bars in the Hongdae Area of Seoul. Hongdae is the Hongik University section so it's full of life (aka drunken college students and GI's). In Korea you always start the night off by eating traditional Korean style foods: anju (finger foods that you eat after you take shots and drink beer, they believe this helps relieve the enormous hangover caused by Soju(vodka-like rice liquor)), spicy bean paste soups, meat on a grill, various green salads, and various kimchi (I think i'm actually starting to like kimchi!!!). After about 2 hours of dinner we went out onto the street and started going to the bars, it was just like being in college again, dark sweaty rooms with lots of drunk people... It was fun to dance again and there were some really good DJ's but I don't think i'll be attending club night again.

The next morning Brittoni and I met up with some other friends of mine that I met throught the friend I met with the connection...how confusing is that?! We had DELICIOUS traditional Korean soup that tastes kind of like chicken soup but has dumpling paper in it. YUM!!! As Brittoni and I had stayed at a jjimjilbang the night before we had our HUGE packs, so we went to the subway and left them in lockers there. The lockers are a great, efficient, easy resource for travellers...if you speak Korean, which we don't. So after trial and error we managed to get our packs safely locked up. We then went SHOPPING! Woo! The shopping here is soo much fun, all the vendors are usually out on the streets so you peruse stalls packed full of merchandise while dodging moving vehicles and tons of people! What a delicious dinner for the senses! We nibbled on delicious street vendor food and drinks and practiced our (terrible) Korean.

After a while we decided it was time to go get a couple of drinks, have some dinner, and catch up with some other connection friends. We had a blast! Just sitting on the street eating good food with great company! Afterward we went with some of our new local expat friends to a little-known bar and danced the night away! Well, when we went to grab our packs at 3am so we could go to sleep we discovered that the lockers shut down at 1am and so I was left without a change of clothes or a toothbrush...yum. We found a love motel, which is a room that you can rent by the hour or for the night and comes fully equipped with shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, razor, lotion, towels, and AC..aka HEAVEN. So Brit and I crashed there, when we awoke in the morning we went to get into our packs for a change of undies (aaaaaahhhhhhh). Well because we don't speak Korean we just opened the lockers, got our stuff, changed, and then shut the lockers again. But we didn't re-pay, which means ANYONE who wanted could open our lockers...idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot... We discovered this when we returned several hours later, thankfully we were able to open up Brittoni's locker and her stuff was in there, but my locker had apparently been opened, and someone else's subway card was keyed to it so I couldn't open it up. I definitely started to panic, so we called our friend who speaks Korean to come and help us and Brittoni treated me to a piece of dark chocoloate mousse cake (duly deserved). After about an hour, 6 favors, and the piece of cake we were finally able to communicate to someone that we needed to have the locker opened and sure enough...my stuff was there! Thank god my experience with Koreans has repeatedly been that they are the nicest people in the world. We grabbed our packs and treated ourselves to delicious Italian food!

Last night we slept at another jjimjilbang that had the crankiest adjimas (the name for women over 30 in Korea) in the entire country of Korea. They yelled at us for brushing our teeth in the wrong area, for not charging our phones appropriately, for turning on lights and air conditioners and god knows what else. Another thing that made this particular jjimjilbang exasperating was the sleeping room, there is usually one room reserved for sleeping, which is why, as travellers, we LOVE jjimjilbangs. You pay for a shower, a place to put your stuff, space to sleep, and it's dirt cheap. Something noteworthy is that traditionally Koreans sleep on small pads on the floor with maybe a small blanket and usually no pillow (aka not the comfortable pillow top bed i'm used to in the states). Well Brittoni and I were exhausted so we crashed by 11 (that's WAY early by Korean standards) and we were the only ones in the sleeping room. We were able to read a little by light from the hallway and passed out, when I awoke at 1am the entire room was full of snoring women. When I was awoken at 2am some girl was taking my pillow! When I awoke at 3am the same pillow-stealer was having a nightmare (karma anyone??), when I was awoken at 4am the pillow-stealing nightmare was kicking me in the head... By the morning I felt as though i'd rather stick my head in a bucket of water and breathe than suffer through another night at this jjimjilbang AND Brittoni had been yelled at by the adjima for brushing her teeth in the wrong spot (that was the right spot last night)...*sigh* we were thrilled to depart and even more thrilled to find a donut shop around the corner.

We have arrived in Mokpo today and have booked tickets onto a ferry that will take us to Jeju-do island which is essentially Korea's Hawaii. We intend to spend the next several days there, returning in time for a weekend stay at a buddhist temple about 2 hours from our home that has the original Tripitaka Koreana Sutras that were hand carved into wooden blocks years ago to preserve the history of the Buddha. Looking forward to getting a good night's sleep and looking forward to the ferry ride!!!

Anyong!