"ready for anything"

a.k.a "All-the-time Eva" continued

It's a good thing I am as I am, being All-the-time Eva and all, because working at my school you really do have to be ready for anything.


january 15th

Bright and early one morning this week, I had my first bodily-function mishap in my classroom: (not my mishap, a student's...)

Kids: "Teacher, Teacher, Ricky's tummy hurts."
Me: "He'll be fine." ( I don't even look at Ricky as I am busy doing something else. I learned my lesson there, but, in my defense, I am used to kids saying they feel sick every other second in hopes that I'll send them to the nurse. Some things are the same across cultures, huh?)

10 seconds later

Me: "Oh shit!" (on the inside). On the outside, "Ricky! .....Don't move."
Ricky: staring blank-faced, as always, with hands, sweater, pants, chair, and floor covered in some nasty seaweed breakfast throw-up.
Me: I try my best to start helping him clean up, over and over again saying, "Don't move," and holding back the urge to throw-up my own still-only-half-digested stomach of soju from the night before. Again, I say "Don't move, Ricky. I'll be right back." I go out in the hallway where one of the hall moms are supposed to be, but noone's there. I go back into class and yell, "Kids, go find help!" They were more successful than I. I smelled puke for the rest of the day. Awful.


january 19th


This morning,

Supervisor, Ricky : "Some of you might know that Wendy [director of my school] has left G.D.A. She left for personal reasons. She left on Friday, so I'm sorry she couldn't say goodbye to you."

We all know that, in fact, Wendy was asked to leave. Ricky, previously my brand-new immediate supervisor, is now instead going to be the new director of the school.

The point is that there is a substantially high turn-over rate in our school. Part of this may have been due to Wendy herself. Now that she is gone, changes will definitely occur. Noone can say for sure whether things will get better or worse from here, or worse before they get better. I'd really like to just finish my term so I can visit home, not resign with a new school. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have job security with the new management team in place, but in reality, I have to be ready for anything.

"All-the-time Eva"

december 13th

I went to Cirque de Soleil with my new mate, Belinda. Allegria had been playing for two months in Seoul, but I've been wanting to see a Cirque de Soleil performance for as long as I can remember. The last time I looked into it, I remember thinking it wasn't coming to Boston for a long time. I would have kicked myself if I hadn't made a point to catch the show before they left the city. I was more than satisfied with my decision. It was one of the most spectacular phenomena I've ever had a chance to witness, or maybe ever will. Just absolutely beautiful and remarkable. Definitely a highlight of my stay here so far.


december 19th

My children's Christmas play went off without a hitch, I guess. I really didn't have very high expectations, so they did great! It was held in a tacky wedding hall and decorated very strangely with flower petals and a lot of white, etc. Awkward venue for a children's Christmas play. The play was on a Friday. It was a very anti-climatic return to work Monday to finish the last two working days before break. Why they made us work that Monday and Tuesday AFTER the very stressful Christmas play that we'd been working on, editing, and having nightmares about for months, I have no idea. It's Korea. I tell myself that a lot.


december 23rd - january 5th

This was my much-needed holiday vacation. Many of my coworkers went to sunny Thailand to lie on the beach, or back home to the U.S. or Canada to see their families. Not me, just "chilled" in Seoul. One would think I might have been lonely or bored, but, in fact, I never got a chance to do any of the things I planned. I painted the city red with Belinda, Jessica, and Chuma (friends from outside of work) and partied with some new people too. I can't really describe this whole span of days as they were a somewhat of a whirl, but I seriously had a damn good time. These girls are totally chill, ready for anything all the time, and never give off a negative vibe, ever. I feel super lucky to have them as friends.

Funny side-note: My friend from home, Nate, introduced me to a coworker of his over the holidays. His friend, who looked like a quintessential nerd, seriously introduced himself as "Nighttime Matt." I laughed of course, but his friends piped in that they had nick-named him that as he is a totally different person at night. To which, of course, I had to reply, "Oh, is that so? Well, I'm all-the-time Eva. Nice to meet you." I have since then been known as "All-the-time Eva." I think it suits me.

Belinda knows everybody. Just during the eight days and nights I spent in Seoul over Christmas break, I met a Korean pop star from the nineties, a fashion designer, a shoe designer, and a Tire King. Oh, AND the female world champion boxer, Young Mi. She's petite, cute-as-a-button, and no older than 18. Yes, she really is the reigning female champion. It was awesome to meet her.


current thoughts:

I have been dealing with a constant conundrum of whether or not to look for a new job. This is my thought process: March is the start of a new school year here. According to my contract, I'd have to give two months notice. But March would mean I would have only been at my school for five months, and staying short of seven months means I'll have to pay back the flight of my plane ticket. Following those thoughts, I immediately think to myself, well if I can stick it out two more months to save $800-1000 then surely I could stay five more months, finish my contract, and collect the much more sizable bonus coming to me at the end of my term. So there you have it, I guess I have kinda/sorta made up my mind in that regard. I can always leave for a while afterwards and then come back and take a new job if I really want to. That's tempting. The living really is large here. At least if you're living eva-style, it sure is. I have enough contacts and fun friends to be comfortable here for a long time. With the economy in the U.S. and elsewhere not looking particularly inviting these days, to say the least, it definitely makes it easier to stay.


january 11th

I have a friend who's a mapmaker for the U.S. government. He has access to the base. This doesn't sound that cool, but you can't even imagine how clutch it is to have a friend with base access in Korea. I'd have to say, the security is pretty tight. You can't walk on base without someone with base access having their fingerprint scanned and signing you on. It's like little America, but almost in a creepy way. There's mad white people, first of all, but the white kids really trip you out. You see other foreigners here all the time, but always adults. On base there are small white people! It's so strange after being inundated with Korean kids all week long. Not only do they have mad white kids, but they have every kind of American comfort you could want. Goya drinks, spaghetti sauce, spices, American cigarettes, Swiffer wet wipes... you get the idea. There is a massive grocery store, dry cleaner, home goods, post office, university and elementary school, two hotels, and many restaurants and fast-food places. It's like la-la land when you enter. The base is huge and spans several miles. If you were in the army, you really would never have to leave base. That's America for you. "Yeah, we're gonna set up a base in your country. But don't worry, we don't need anything, we'll bring our own shit!" Even if you are signed onto base by a friend, you are not allowed in the grocery store. I made a list for my friend. Guess what was on it: cheddar cheese, cream cheese, Cheeze-Its, and Grapenuts cereal. (One of these things is not like the other...) : )


january 13th

I have a new supervisor, although the previous one was pretty new herself and had been there less time than me. (The Korean staff are hard to keep, mainly because they can leave. Three of them announced they were leaving a few days ago, three of the coolest too!) Supervisor Ricky announced today that many children had not come back after Christmas break, and that this was "very serious." He said we needed to love our children more, pay more attention to them, and that ultimately this was our fault. Although the world economy has taken a drastic downturn, the Korean Won has fallen dramatically, and many Hagwons (private kindergartens) are experiencing decline in their enrollment, loss of students is the teachers' fault. Clearly, this did not sit well with us. To top it off, he threatened, or rather, promised that we would not have paycheck security after March. I am rethinking my above-stated position of "sticking it out" at G.D.A.

"modern indulgences: coffee and cellphones"

december 7th

First day of real snow. I found myself this morning wandering down the main drag in Itaewon. Around 9:30am I asked the cab to stop, "Yogio," (meaning, "over here). I sighted a Dunkin' Donuts and delightedly pranced in. The Dunkin' Donuts here are more like Starbucks, in the sense that they have a cafe atmosphere and are more chill hang-out spots then drive-through necessities. In the U.S. you rarely see people having social occasions in D&Ds, and those that do are, I dare say, a bit down-and-out or somehow not part of the 9-5 working world. Here, very nicely dressed people have evening chit-chat at dunkin-d's, absorb the English and foreigners also in company, and seem particularly happy with themselves for choosing to be there at that moment. This particular Dunkin' Donuts had a bakery, I mean full-on exquisitely decorated cakes and pastries... nothing like our bottom-of-the-barrel, bagels-and-donuts-only bakery we'd see back in the states. A coffee at D&D's here costs about $2.75 USD, so comparatively priced to back home. They had bagels with real cream cheese. Needless to say, I was just as happy with my choice as the other Koreans seemed to be conversing near by.

This is also the first day I really started calling people back home. I just found out that it only costs me about .12 won / minute to call back home, about $.09 USD. I talked to my old roommates back home who were just getting started on their Saturday evening antics and was greeted by a speakerphone rush of screams as they happen to be with a few of my other friends as well. It was a great surprise for all parties, I believe.

There's something to be said for this invention called the telephone. It's marvelous in some ways, makes you feel like you're just next door, when in fact, in this case, on the other side of the world with a difference of fifteen or so time zones. I was overjoyed to hear my friends familiar voices and also to hear how much they miss me and wish for me to come home. However, although endearing and precious, it actually makes it worse in some ways. Talking to people makes me more homesick. The first month here I was totally fine and missed people vaguely but not like now. The second month is much tougher. Going on my third month soon, and with Christmas approaching, it's getting more difficult to not think of everyone back home, what they're doing, and what great times I'm missing with them.

"Both... at the same time." This is one of my new catch phrases, or not so new. On the one hand, I feel like I'm starting to feel very settled and comfortable here. I have a bit more routine and know how to get around a lot better, have some cool friends here, can say a few things in Korean, etc. But I'm also just beginning to want to go home. Both, at the same time...


new words/phrases i've learned in korean:

It's ok/it's cool/no problem = con chan eh oh
cute = ky-ah-woh
I'm sorry = Mienahamnida or Mi-en-eh-oh or jay-sung-hom-ni-da
cigarette = tam-bay
cheers = com-bay

In an effort to expand my Korean, I asked my students to name words that were the same in English and Korean. I'm not positive these are all right, but here's the list we made:


words that are the same or similar in english and korean (according to my eight-year-old students):

DVD
pizza
elevator
taxi
escalator
CD
television
banana
tomato
cider
cola
cracker
cheese (cheegeh)
Canada
France
air con (air conditioner)
board
alphabet
kangaroo
ice cream
cocoa (cacoa)
chicken
camera
block
tube
Rudolph
tree (taree)
pickle
jump (jumpah)
cherry
lemon
cereal
guitar
chocolate
steak
Halloween
Christmas
yogurt (yogurt-eh)
oven
kiwi
schedule
cheetah
pen
hot-pak
Santa
marker
hairstyle
cup
cube
building
apartment
drum
hamburger
ham
manicure
McDonald's