"the jimjil-bong"

february 19th-23rd - my birthday weekend - "the jimjil-bong"

My friend Marissa came to visit me, incidentally also the weekend of my birthday. Yes, she literally "flew to Korea for the weekend." We tried to fit in as much as possible and ended up having an absolutely awesome time, of course. I went to my first jimil-bong. Think Korean spa/bathhouse. We went to one of the most well-known in Seoul, near Yongsan yok (yok=station). I had heard a bit about these jimjil-bongs before trying it out this particular weekend. They are famous for a few things, especially among foreigners, that I can't really mention in my blog. Hmmmm... Needless to say, it had perked my interest far before this February venture five-months into my time here. But as it turned out, I really had no idea what I was in for.

the jimjil-bong process:
Step 1: Pay $10,000 won (7 bucks).
Step 2: Receive your new swipeable locker-key-bracelet and Dragon Hill spa oversized cotton t-shirts and shorts.
Step 3: Take off your shoes, obviously. Put them in the shoes closet.
Step 4: Find your locker number. This might be the trickiest step of all.
Step 5: Change... into your bracelet.
Step 6: Buy shampoo and other shower products at the desk to get ready to lather. (Swipeable bracelets for purchasing are very handy, but dangerous.)
Step 7: Walk downstairs to high-pressure amazing shower, then sauna hop from pool to pool of different temperatures. Some are pumped from deep underground, I hear. Remember, you are only wearing your bracelet at this point, and feeling a bit self-conscious as a foreigner amongst skinny, naked Korean women. (Children, moms, grandmothers... It's a family affair.)
Step 8: Keep jumping from pool to pool! Walk under random lone shower heads with pull cords, pull, and be shocked. Try exceptionally hot sauna rooms and jump back in the pools. Rinse, lather, repeat. Too fun.
Step 9: When you've seen all there is to see on the women-only floor, don your comfy spa clothes back at the lockers. Now it's time to explore the coed areas. All rooms include heated floors, and everyone walks around in their spa clothes, towels on their heads, with a very relaxed air about them. You can watch a magic show, or TV. You can watch people ride mechanical horses in the gym. You can bake like bread in the oven room, or freeze your nips off in the cold room. There's also an outside spa, and various other rooms that I missed. You can eat snacks, get a body scrub, or go up to the sky garden for lunch and beers outside on the roof. You can grab a pillow and take a nap on the heated floor in a room pumped full of pure oxygen. Wow.

I'm not sure if you can really picture it, but I hope you're getting that it's more like an amusement park with naked sections. I loved it, and feel like I could go back a bunch and keep discovering more rooms and pools of varying hotitude and colditude. I'm also interested in the body scrub, but I hear it's very, very rough, designed to peel off your skin basically. Anyways, it's also open 24 hours a day, so I can go back anytime.


my "did-you-know?" for this blog:

One can send a postcard from South Korea to the other side of the world for almost half the cost it would be to send a postcard down the street in the U.S. Astounding.


february 27th - graduation day and new classes:

This is the day my kindergartners graduated from their hagwon. March is the beginning of the new school year here. My main morning class had been in kindergarten for three years already at this point, so it was now time for them to begin elementary school at a Korean public school. Most of these children will return in the afternoons now after they are done school to keep up with their English lessons as well. (Some are as young as five years old and attend school for a minimum of 7 hours a day. Many of my students also went to an art school, math school, swimming class, tae kwon do lesson, music lesson, and/or also had an English tutor in their homes in the evenings.) I watched them graduate with mixed feelings, as I'm sure is natural for any teacher at the end of the school year. I was ready for a fresh start with new kids but also felt like we had just started getting comfortable with each other.

Graduation Day also means that I have new kids now. There is a drastic difference in their English abilities. My previous core class had been in English classes five hours a day, all week long, for three years since they were Western age 4. These new kids are six years old and have never had a day of English classes in their lives. It's mentally exhausting in a whole new way. I can't have a conversation with these kids like I could before. We are using a lot of charades and pointing so far. It's cute in some ways, as most of my kids can only say "May I go to the bathroom, please?", and some can barely say that. Fortunately, I've had some practice with this type of communication style with some new Korean friends and acquaintances and am becoming accustomed to communicating with a drastic language barrier.

I also switched subjects. I used to be a language arts teacher, and now I am a math/science/social studies teacher. I much prefer it to the other. It's so much more fun to teach farm animals and types of clothing than to teach phonics and grammar, and easier too, I think.

So that's my core class that I have most of the morning, from 9am til 2pm, but I also switch for one period with my partner teacher who teaches my kids language arts. I teach her class of babies for an 80-minute session as well. I say babies because they really are babies! Korean age five equals about 3 and a half to four years Western age. I spend half the class chasing them down the hallways because they're little runners. I mean, they're small, barely potty-trained. Think of how large your vocabulary is at age four as well, and now they're learning another language. It's like babysitting four toddlers but also trying to teach them a second language. They're sooooooooo damn cute, but definitely a handful. (Check out my pictures of GDA kids thus far in my new slideshow.)


march 1st

There are woods behind my house. I can walk two blocks, hike up some stairs on a hill and be on a hiking trail within minutes. This Sunday, I hiked to E-Mart. E-Mart is a sort of Target but with multiple floors and ramp-like escalators for your shopping carts. It's a great place to go get some foreign food items, but no matter what you go in for, you always end up inside for hours. I was broke at the time, (big surprise), but left E-mart with a full belly from eating so many samples. They have samples of EVERYTHING. I literally tried about forty food and beverage items, including heineken and bananas, as if I had forgotten what either of these tasted like... Then I took a cab home. Best hiking trip ever.


how to make friends with taxi drivers:

Always have a treat in your back pocket, so-to-speak. For me, I have chosen the tactic of saying "Adashi, mi-guk saram gum? Ma-shee -seh-yo!" This means, "Sir, American person gum? Delicious!" (Yes, my Korean is terrible.) This generally makes them smile though. To date, I've only had one taxi driver turn me down. Most pop it in their mouth instantly and start chomping away. It really is so much better than Korean gum, much more flavorful and long-lasting. I've been able to enjoy very pleasant cab rides because of these gum offerings and left many a cabbie with a salivating smile.. It's such a silly small thing but having a buttered-up taxi driver makes all the difference, sometimes the difference of being dropped off in the right place or not. (So if you want to send me a package... *wink, wink,* please send my favorite gum! Trident citrus twist. K, thanks. :)


P.S. The exchange rate is getting a little better... Shhhh, *knocks on wood.*

"doctor fish"

just for fun: did you know?

I knew you could stream radio stations online. I used to listen to my favorite, WERS, at work back home. But for some odd reason, it never dawned on me that streaming online really means "online." I can listen to the radio station I love from back home in real time HERE. I just realized that after almost five months.

BUT, I can't listen to Pandora. It's licensing doesn't allow it to work in Korea. Major bummer. If you don't know what Pandora is, Google it. You'll be glad you did.


january 24th - 27th / shanghai trip

This was Chinese New Year. In Korea, it is called "Lunar New Year," but in Korean, it is "Seollal." I had a break from work, a four-day weekend. I was actually quite broke. I bought a laptop in cash with my December pay check. This happened to be a 40-day pay-period instead of thirty. Consequently, by the end of January, I was undoubtedly in no position to be gallivanting off to other countries. However, a friend pointed out that this was the last break I would to have until May. MAY. No three-day weekends, nothing. So I decided I would go into debt a little further, thinking that I would rather have the memory of the four-day weekend I spent in Shanghai on Chinese New Year than the weekend I stayed home and saved money. (Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is generally how I always think, and thus, why I'm always broke; but I'm glad I went.)

I was in a group of eight, headed by the ever-competent, mother-like Maria. Maria arranged everything with our travel agent, researched her Shanghai Lonely Planet guide, and created a trip itinerary, (which was thrown out the window, of course). The first night, I uncharacteristically slept.

favorite memory:
Sunday morning we went to a "water town" that was touristy but not too much so. We absorbed some local culture and bought trinkets, took lots of pictures of statues and temples, architecture, and cuisine. Eventually, Jessica and I got hungry from all the walking around and curiously approached a man cooking some meat that smelled delicious. We motioned to our hungry bellies and were smiled at by the men standing near-by smoking their cigarettes contentedly. They sat us down at a plastic table with plastic stools inside a little room behind cook-man. Soon they brought us water and a delicious dish of mystery meat and green things. They brought us rice too, of course. We thought the whole-thing was just perfect at this point as we had an audience chuckling and motioning for their friends to watch us eat. "Look at the white girls eating!" I don't know what they were saying, but I'm pretty sure it was something like that. They asked us if we wanted a bottle of something on the shelf. As usual, I'm thinking, "We want whatever you got." They were trying to tell us what it was, but everyone was confused. I took a guess, "Soju?", which is a Korean alcoholic drink made from rice. There's always a moment of epiphany in foreign communication, or at least you hope for one. And this was ours. "Ahhhh! SOJU!" they declared with satisfaction. We drank a half-bottle of the stuff. It was rough, let me tell you, but you have to try everything, I always think. I motioned for the man that had offered it to us to sit down and share some. He did, and proceeded to try to strike up some Chinese small-talk. We only knew how to say "hello" and "thank you," and our "thank you" still needed work. I tried to explain to him that we were both from America but living in Korea. This was very tricky, and unsuccessful. Then I remembered my cigarettes. I pulled them out and pointed to the Korean writing on the package. "Ahhh, Hangul," he stated, and told his buddies. ("Hangul" is Korean for "Korean," and apparently also Chinese for "Korean.") I couldn't think of anything else to tell him. He brought us a plate of peanuts and candy. We ate some of that too and then got ready to leave our new friends. I guess China has more thieves than Korea, because He motioned to me to zip my purse and for Jessica to keep her wallet from falling out of her pocket. We bowed graciously, and we left.

new years eve:
Sunday night was New Years Eve. We went to a bar called Mural, hung out with some Koreans visiting there as well, some Irish girls, and a few Frenchmen. It was an eclectic night with DJs from LA spinning hip-hop, I believe. My girl Jessica and I got the bar dancing as we often do and rocked the place that night. Incidentally, Jessica and I and some of our other friends are featured in pictures on that bar's website now.

chinese new year vs. the other new year:
I have been to Times Square in New York City on New Years Eve before, so I was picturing Shanghai on Chinese New Year to be like that, only times a billion and more Asian. In actuality, it is the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar, and a family occasion. Teenagers don't go out and rage in the streets 'til the wee hours of the morning. We were disappointed, but there were plenty of foreigners to rage with, and more fireworks than you could shake a stick at. (Do people still say that? "Shake a stick at"? Now, I'm picturing myself shaking sticks at fireworks in Shanghai...) Anyways, you couldn't drive through town that night without being startled every few seconds by an overwhelming "BOOM!" that sounded an awful lot like gunfire.

Fact: I hear that the largest single movement of people in the world occurs from Shanghai outwards on Chinese New Year. Literally, millions of people that had left to work in the city return home to their families. We went to a breakfast place that's menu read, "We apologize for our limited menu and hours during the New Year. Many of our staff have not seen their families in a year or more and have gone home to celebrate the holiday."

new years day:
We went to the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai. Since New Years Day in the US just means a day off work, it never occurred to me that New Years is a religious holiday, but it is in this culture. The temple was absolutely swarmed with people burning incense and asking for good luck, prosperity, and health for their families in the New Year. It was definitely an intensely beautiful sight. I didn't take pictures. It was clear the people there were having a religious moment and were there to pray. I tried to remain respectfully quiet and just peeked in some of the rooms packed with people bowing to various Buddhas. It was impossible to stay with your group. It was like a subway in NYC at rush-hour, you know, except more bowing and incense, and far more beautiful.

Sunday night, Jen and Heather and I went out by ourselves in a famous area of Shanghai, that I forget the name of. By this time, we had lost most of our group at some garden we were supposed to find but never did. (Jessica was MIA at this point and had been "kidnapped" by a DJ called "Elnomo" since Sunday night.) Jen had gone out to a bar on Friday and suggested we go there again. We were the only foreigners in the bar, well, the only white foreigners. Some Bangladeshis asked us to take pictures with them, which became a typical interaction throughout the rest of the night. No one was dancing when we got there, but again, leave it to us, we livened the place up and within a half-hour had a nice little dance party going. The DJ was Chinese but from Toronto and hung out with us for a while. He was really drunk and singing into his microphone mid-conversation. There were Chinese playboy bunnies dancing on the bar. There were magicians! There were girls with syringes full of shots that walked around and pumped them into people's mouths, just for fun. There were liquid fireworks falling down behind the glass windows. AND, it was "all-you-can-drink." It was pretty insane.

If you couldn't tell, it was a fantastic trip. The slide-show you've been watching is of pictures from my Shanghai trip, not pictures of Korea as many people assumed. (Korean characters look much different!)


feb 7th / "doctor fish"

It's hard for me to describe what this experience is like so that you can picture it yourself, but I'll do my best. Okay, stay with me. Picture a large cafe. Inside, you will find a serve-yourself coffee-pot, a nail salon, a spot to order waffles and ice cream, and "doctor fish." (There are also bottles of wine on display, but we found out you couldn't purchase wine there. It was really just for show. Odd.) You walk in and order a coffee or something. Anything. You have to order something if you want to purchase "doctor fish" as well. Doctor fish costs about a $1.50. You sit and drink your coffee and eat your waffles with your friends and then bring your receipt up to the doctor fish helper-man. There are two rectangular-shaped pools, about eight feet long, two feet, wide, and two feet deep. One has bigger fish than the other. Fish-helper-man motions for you to take your socks and shoes off and put your feet in another small wooden box in the floor and proceeds to wash your feet and shins off with a detachable shower head. He implies that you are ready for the fishie pool. You look down and see hundreds of fish about the size of your finger swarming around hungrily. If you hold your toes over the water, they all swarm to that area. It's freaky. Fishman sets a 15-minute timer and you oh-so-hesitantly lower your feet towards the water, cringing and shrieking a little in suspense. OH MY GOSH, this is the craziest feeling in the world! If you can stand it, you keep your feet still in the water, and let the fish do their thing. The thing they do is eat the dead skin off your legs and feets, they even get between your toes. They really nibble, or suck, or something. You can definitely feel hundreds of little fish mouths working your skin. It's one of the weirdest experiences I've ever had, hands down. It tickles like you wouldn't believe, but I wanna go back. I feel like I need to make this part of my monthly, or maybe weekly, beauty regimen. I left with a disappointing amount of dead skin still on my feet.


basically everything I can say in Korean:

please
thank you
hello
goodbye (two kinds of good-bye)
chicken
beef
water
milk
juice
cigarette
beer
"Cheers!"
Is it ok/cool?/Is it a problem?
It's ok/cool./It's no problem.
How much does it cost?
refill (re-pill)
coffee (cah-pee)
father
mother
brother
sister
together
Ma'am
Sir
teacher
tree ( I found out it's not "taree", it's "namu.")
apartment (apart)
where
Yay! (Ah-sah!)
cold
hot
one
two
three
cute
boobs
penis
sorry (two kinds of sorry)
remember (This was a really hard word to remember. It took me a month. Ah, the irony.)
sweetheart
"I'm cold."
"I don't know."
more
butterfly


current exchange rate:

Sucks. It's close to 70%. $100 USD = 153,000 KRW (Korean Won)
This means to send home 500 bucks, I need to send home almost half my Korean paycheck. This is not what I signed up for! Reminder: when I came here, the won and dollar were almost on par. In case you're still confused, the point is I'm making much less than I thought I would be!

"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

month 2 - "mandoo, por favor"

october 19th

I saw my first rugby game!


october 22nd

This was the first day it rained since I had been here, nearly three and a half weeks. I've been told I lucked out, as many of the newer teachers had been forced to survive monsoon season (solid rain every day for over a month) upon arrival.


october 26th

I haven't seen very many cops. In fact, this was the day I saw my first police vehicle. It was in Seoul. I was walking to brunch, (YES, I found a place, the Rocky Mountain Tavern, Canadian themed bar,) and had to step off the street to let a car pass. I noticed the cop lights, and then, as it was driving by just inches from me, I couldn't help but notice the driver's partner, also in uniform, was ASLEEP! Haha! So I guess you can be a sleepy cop here and go ahead and have yourself a nap if you need one. Plus two points for law enforcement style. october 29th
My first pay day. WOOT! As long as i don't think about the exchange rate, I feel rich with multiple millions of won. Side-note, several weeks after this, they discussed that they had decided to change our pay date, effectively moving it ten days later and breaking each and every one of our contracts. I was quite happy, I can't lie, as I hoped this would mean I could be set free and get a new job. They heard all the muttering in the staff room and changed their mind. This will now be effective in March for the new school year. Wise move on their part, but I was crushed.


october 31st

On Halloween day, Jamie Teacher and I hosted the "Monster Dance" room starting at 10am. Picture two white chicks, both dressed as cats (in heels), leading the freeze dance competition amongst swarm after swarm of tiny Korean children. We had to ham it up for every single song and every single group of kids that came in, and still they would often just stare at us blankly with a "you teachers are crazy" look on their faces as you got down to our hip-hop selection. It was pretty ridiculous. And I had a sprained ankle. It was really sprained after that. Later that day, I took a nap and went out in Hongdae (club scene in Seoul) with Soo Min and Nate (friends from back home in Boston.) I had an awesome night but was told I was a wimp when I couldn't hack it anymore after 4am... The clubs were packed tighter than submarine's right up until we finally went home at 5:30 in the morning. You literally could not move.


november 1st

This was the first weekend I didn't spend entirely in Seoul, although my subway trip back from Hongdae Saturday morning took over two and a half hours. My new friends were all in Hong Kong for the world championship rugby match, New Zealand vs. Australia. Today I mastered getting home in a cab by myself and said the right thing and everything: "Jung An Town." (That's not how you spell it, I'm sure, that's just how I remember how to say it.) The cabbie brought me right home! I was so thrilled with myself. It may sound minor but these types of things are major accomplishments toward becoming self-sufficient in this country.


november 8th

I went to a wine and cheese party! Made me smile like no other. Say it with me: "Cheese please!"


november 10th

Today I finished my NEWer and hopefully more improved Christmas "play." Yes, they told me to write another one. (They then waited several weeks after this and asked me to change it for a THIRD TIME! Grrrr...)


november 11th

Parents Participation Day: This is the day I had been dreading ever since I was forewarned about a month ago. As with perhaps any private school, their main goal is to keep the parents happy as it is their money that essential funds the programs, salaries, etc. My mothers came in and observed my class (a vastly shortened and rehearsed class, mind you), along with the occasional father, uncle, or aunt. My immediate supervisor and Korean partner teacher were also in the classroom. They told me that the parents would base their decision on whether or not to enroll their child for the following school year on the class alone. There was an immense amount of pressure. I have no idea what I did, but I guess I did fine. I had a meeting with all the mothers afterwords and sat in front of them with their chairs arranged like an audience. It was incredibly intimidating. They asked questions and my supervisor translated. The director came in for part of it. After I busted out at the end of our meeting, she called up the stairs after me: "Thank you for smiling!" I guess I don't smile that much at school. HA! I was amused, but they were happy so it was a relief.

To celebrate after PPC day, Jen and I went to a new restaurant in our neighborhood, "Taste Noodles." We took our shoes off as we entered and sat down to a hopefully delicious meal of hot noodles. We then realized there was no menu, or rather it was on the wall, but without pictures. This was the first time we went to a restaurant without a picture menu. We attempted to start translating things on our phones but the Agjama seemed impatient. I asked for two of whatever it was they were going to give us and hoped for the best. A minute later we were sitting in front of a big 'ol bowl of kim-chi. (If you don't know what kim-chi is, it's spicy cooked cabbage, served cold or hot, in this case cold. And honestly, it's pretty hard to get down, in my opinion.) You should have seen the look on Jen's face. Sooo disappointed! We both kind of smiled and then laughed and started translating the rest of the menu on our phone to see what we had ordered or if we should try something else. I started eating the kim-chi and suggested we have a contest to see who could eat the most. Then a few minutes later she brought over a giant bowl of green noodles with shrimp, clams, and spices. AH! Our delight was evident. We pushed the kim-chi aside and chowed down.


november 16th

My computer had crashed, (thus the lack of blogging until now).I went to Electronics Market in Yongsan in hopes of finding someone to help me fix it. I bought a brand new 80 GB hard drive for about $80 bucks, installed, ready to go in an hour. I'm thrilled. So I'm back up and running and emailing and such.


november 17th

I had dinner with Soo Min (friend from college) and his aunt and uncle's family who live pretty close to me. (I brought his aunt yellow roses because I didn't know what else to bring.) She made the most quintessential Korean meal she could when she learned I had only been in the country a few months and hadn't eaten with a Korean family yet. At times it was really awkward as Soo Min and I were speaking English and then he would translate after. They really wanted their children to speak English with me, probably to see that all their hard-earned money on TOEFL programs has paid off. The sixth grader was too shy and refused but their ninth grader spoke great English. Many families pay people just to come to their home and speak English with them, so this was a great trade I'm sure. They are Christians and asked me if I went to church and if I had found one here yet. They "mentioned" their church had services in English. It was all quite precious. I bowed profusely on the way out, but maybe not as deeply as I should have. I really adore meeting people's families. I was "tickled" as they say.


clothing:

The women here are dressed to impress almost 100% of the time. If they are out in public, they are fully done up: hair, make-up, accessories, trendy jacket, boots, designer purse, bejeweled cellphone, and on and on. The young women here are big fans of the mini-skirt or shorts with tights look. They would never show their shoulders or lower neck area in public, however. You won't ever see anyone but a foreigner wearing a tank-top here without a t-shirt underneath. I break that rule when I go out. Scandalous foreigner, I be.

I can fit in most of the clothes, fortunately, but clearly not the pants, due to height restrictions. My wardrobe will eventually largely consist of mu-mus and leggings. the other day I walked into a store, and before I had hardly had a chance to look at anything, the Ahjama said "big size-EH" and pointed to me and my friend. I looked at Jen in disbelief, "Did she just tell us she had plus sizes for us?" Jen: "Yeah, let's get out of here." I wanted to buy a pair of these trendy stirrup leggings the other day and asked the lady if they had medium or large. She knew what I was saying because I pointed to a sticker that said M/L on a pair of pantyhose. She then looked at me quizzically and said, "Plus size-eh?" I smiled and nodded, yes, plus size. Then I asked her if she thought it would fit me, the plus size. She looked me over twice and then shook her head. I had a good laugh. You have to. I was pretty sure it would have fit me but I was too embarrassed to stay at the counter any longer. I went and got myself a hot waffle on the street filled with something close to whipped cream and maple syrup. Then I bought leggings somewhere else.


safety:

I have never felt so safe in my life, really. Maybe it's a false sense of safety but it's a nice feeling. I feel safer here than in the quiet asian neighborhood I lived in in Malden (which has it's own S.W.A.T team), more than in Gloucester, and even more than back when I lived in Northern Maine. That's not to say that I don't always lock my door, but I can walk around at night and not be on alert, looking behind me every few feet. I'm not exactly sure what gives me such a feeling, especially since I've never seen such poorly lit streets in such a populated area. I trip over stuff on the sidewalk if I walk to the bus in the evening. It's very dark.


my korean etiquette:

I try to be super polite almost to a fault. Koreans are friendly-ish, but it's true that they judge you. Perhaps that is the same of all cultures and foreigners living among them. I always give my seat on the bus or subway to someone that looks over 55 or 60 or has young children. I guess I did that back home too, but even more so here. They always seem kind of surprised that a foreigner would think to do that. I like to make people smile. The younger people here don't seem to bow anymore as a greeting or goodbye. However, one of my students was asked to use "bow" in a sentence and wrote: "I bow to grandmother every morning." I think it's a quaint custom, so I use it in stores as I exit and thank the store owner, on the street when people stare, if someone holds a door open for me, etc. My friend Soo Min says that it's excessive, but they often bow first, or bow right back and smile. I think it is appreciated that I am trying to be polite. I know such little Korean that I try to do stuff like this that doesn't need translation and hope it's well-received. things i know how to say in korean: hello goodbye thankyou over here right left straight how much? one two three big brother married woman station Yeah, I need to work on this, ALOT. It's really hard. Someone will teach me how to say something and I instantly forget no matter how many times I repeat it to myself.


this brings me to my title choice:

It's natural for me to revert to my very limited Spanish vocabulary when searching for a word in Korean. I catch myself wanting to say "por favor" every time I ask for something. Part of this is that I feel so rude pointing but have little other choice. I feel it would be at least a little more polite if I point at something and then say "please." Unfortunatley there really isn't a word for please in Korean. You have to say something and then follow it with "Chuseo." There is this cart outside Samsung Plaza in Bundang that sells the best damn Mandoo. (Mandoo is dumplings filled with meat and other salty things.) I call the lady, "Mandoo Mama," and give her the biggest smile ever when I go there. You can catch me wondering back to the cart for seconds after I've shopped a little, and then for a third time for my dessert of whipped-cream-filled waffle sandwiches. Mandoo mama and Mandoo make my heart so happy.


overall:

Well, I know I've said a lot already but none of it specifically about how I'm really doing here. It's hard for me to sum it up nicely in a paragraph or even get it down to a general feeling. I have many feelings. Allow me to ramble between thoughts, please.

This month more so than before, I've become more homesick for my friends back home in Mald-y, NYC, and elsewhere. I miss my old roommates a ton, and that great apartment, but have been enjoying the evening solitude that I had lacked for so many years. I don't miss living in Boston itself all that much. I miss New York a LOT. I greatly enjoy just walking and watching here. (The people watching itself is fantastic, some of the best.) I have decided I do like being surrounded by just chatter, none of it registering. It gives you a lot more time to think and be in solitude even in one of the biggest cities in the world. I've been writing more lately.

I bought a journal whose cover reads: "I will stick to my dream and try my best to make it come true." I remind myself that leaving would defeat the point and that even though my job is much the same as I mentioned in the beginning, if not even more tiring and discouraging, I am still accomplishing my goal just by being here. There's been a lot to make up for all the job bullshit too, like having made good friends here already. I can't imagine how it would be if I hadn't found a few awesome people right away. It makes all the difference in the world.

week 3 - "Eva Teacher"

Details that may interest you, by category:


about WORK:

Kids call their teachers " First Name Teacher" at my school. No Ms., Mrs., or Mr. titles. So I am (I hope) affectionately known as "Eva Teacher."

The foreign teachers at my school are mostly Canadian, Aaa? Jen, my new Bundang friend, is Canadian. Her mother is French though, as in, from France, and her father is British. I like these new diversified people that are around me. Many have traveled a lot.

I got my first "love note" or kind words of encouragement from a student my second week. Her name is Alison. She is one of my older afternoon students. She wrapped up a letter on construction paper inside more construction paper with a construction paper heart on top and wrote: "Dear Eva, Hello! I like you. I like you better then Ben teacher. You are kind and beautiful. Shhhh. Don't tell others. It secret. xoxo. Alison." Ben teacher is the teacher I replaced, AWESOME! (Later on, my core class, the ones I spend the majority of every day with, decided as a group that they missed Ben and didn't like Eva Teacher, and told me this. Even now, every journal entry they write ends in "I miss Ben Teacher." Tough act to follow.)

Apparently I am expected to wear a costume to school for Halloween and to run a "Halloween Station" (or two) with almost 120 kids cycling through that day. (Feel free to submit costume ideas for me). In addition, I have to choose a play by Monday to have my kids perform for the holiday program this December. Oh my goodness...... Stuff like this, crafty/creative stuff, whatever you wanna call it, it really doesn't come very naturally to me. Please send strength, I can't imagine how I'm gonna pull off getting eight 6 year olds to memorize lines for a play. Believe it or not, I have the oldest children, so more is expected of my class. Greaaat.

I am not the only tall white girl at my school, but I pretty sure I'm the most gigantic, especially when I wear heels to school.

I signed up for school lunch. It's hit or miss. The bony fish, I really, really can't do that. It's awful. but there will be other random things like a hard-boiled egg without the hard-boiled egg white. It looks funny but tastes normal. Always soup. Always with rice. Always. There is a sign in our faculty room that says "Teachers, please make sure your students eat their rice. Rice is a big part of Korean culture. Mothers feel we do not take care of their children when they do not eat their rice."


about HOME:

Showering: They have hot water "on demand" here. So when I want hot water, I press the red button on the wall. Then I wait... so I can wash my face, hands, take a shower, do dishes, etc. I imagine it's probably an energy saver because it makes it pretty hard to waste hot water, seeing as you have no choice but to be intentional in its use. That's the up-side. The down side, besides having to plan ahead, is that the hot water also runs under your floor and acts as the heating system, so every time you want hot water, inadvertently this also is like turning on the heat, I'm pretty sure that will be annoying to have the heat on every time I shower in the summer. BUT, it's nice not to have cold floors in the winter... My head will be cold instead, being that it's such a lofty distance from the heating source.

For those who were asking, I live alone. And I found out I have one of the "bigger" apartments.

I live on a hill, about a five minute walk from my school, on the second floor of an apartment building. I think there's one or two more floors above me. Most families in this area live in very large apartment buildings, some as many as 20 plus floors, pretty near to my house.


about korea in GENERAL:

Picture a 24 hour convenience store, just like back home. Now picture it selling booze 24 hours a day/everyday. And guess what? There are plastic tables and chairs outside that you can sit at. You can drink 'round the clock right outside on the street by the convenience store and keep running back in for bevs and snacks. SO weird, but I like it!

There is no such thing as tipping here. In fact, it would be considered rude to do so most places. But the other night I had a delicious galbi (spelling?) meal. This is a traditional Korean style meal where they cook things in a skillet over a gas flame only a foot off the floor. You take your shoes off upon entering the restaurant and sit down next to these low tables that anyone of moderate size could just barely squeeze their thighs under. (Ok, moderate exaggeration.) The nice Ahjama (spelling? means married woman) kept coming over and flipping over our meat, etc. Point being, she was both cook and waitress, and a damn good one. Still, no tip. I felt bad! Best damn meat I ever had though, incredibly tasty.

Street food rocks; they got us totally beat. I can get a bowl full of fried dumplings full of meat and other mystery stuff for 2,000 won which is essentially $1.80 or something and they're really delicious and filling. Kiwi is always ripe and scrumptious, about 6 for $2 bucks; but a single apple can run you as much as $4.00.

You bag your own groceries, and you bag your own things at Wal-Mart-ish places and stuff too. Trust me, you look like an idiot at first waiting for them to do it. Wal-Mart is called "E-Mart" here, but waaaay awesomer with elevators and multiple floors of fun crap.

As far as my favorite foods from back home go, there is no cheese, at least not as we know it. Even in the foreign market, I cannot find real cheese, like a block of cheddar or mozzarella, This is one of my biggest issues with Korea, thus far... Yogurt is pretty cheap and super delicious. They don't have as many low-fat things so the Yoplait here (apple, kiwi, orange, and fun flavors like that) is really thick and creamy so I'm happy. No, I haven't found Cheez-its. Also an issue, no brunch. :(


I should have some pictures soon.