This is another of the reasons I love Korea. Last week, I was walking home from the gym and texting Mi Sun when it started to absolutely pour. I had no umbrella, because it was all hot and sunny when I left the house. Naturally.
So, I'm walking home in flip flops and my workout clothes, trudging through the torrential rain, and realize that as I'm texting, the phone is probably getting a lot wetter than is good for it. Next I realize that the shorts I'm wearing are completely soaked through, so the pocket probably isn't a much better place for it. I resign myself to the fact that it's just gonna be wet, and kinda hold it against my belly under my t-shirt, trying to keep the water from literally running all over it.
When I got home, everything seemed to work just fine... that is until (maybe the next day, or the day after) I tried to make a phone call. And the person I called couldn't hear me at all. Thinking it was just a bad connection, I hung up and tried again. Same story. At this point I'm starting to freak out a little, making the connection between prior downpour and current malfunction. This phone was expensive! And while I didn't have to buy the original one, I'm pretty sure I'm on the hook for the replacement if it comes to that, ya know?
Well, I explained what happened to Mi Sun, and she suggests that we take it to the Samsung Service Center to have it looked at. Fortunately we were doing our grocery shopping at E-Mart in Icheon on Friday before the trip, and her friend Yu Sun knew of a Samsung place just down the street. So we go in there and give them the phone. Didn't even have to explain that this was completely my fault. Just told them, the mic's not working, no one can hear me. Please fix it. 45 minutes, they said. Took Mi Sun's number and said they'd call when it was done.
So, they call. We finish shopping (and ate some McDonald's... mmm, Big Mac) and drive back over there. Not only did they replace the mic, they put in a whole new keyboard unit because apparently the first one looked as if it might stop working soon. And, icing on the cake, this repair was absolutely, 100%, god-as-my-witness FREE. Yep, not a dollar, not a dime, not a single red penny did I pay for this 40%-new phone. Awesome!
So, on Friday I got 3 new cotton t-shirts, swimming trunks, McDonald's, a giant bottle of beer (for later of course!) and a newly-functional phone, all for less than 30 bucks. Great start to a great weekend! More updates coming soon, with pictures!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Since last we met
This past weekend I went on a little trip to Sokcho, which is on the east coast of Korea. It was a pretty tiring yet relaxing weekend, the way those little trips can sometimes be. We stayed in a "condo," which is Konglish for basically, a hotel-like resort where the rooms have little kitchenettes. Cooked several delicious meals. Went to the beach on Saturday and got pretty sunburned. Checked out an awesome Buddhist temple Saturday afternoon/evening. Sunday after breakfast we went and hiked Seorak Mountain. Then went down to this fishing area and ate... well, I'm going to tell you all of this in another post anyway, as well as put up some pictures, so we'll leave that part for later. =) My camera is currently in Mi Sun's car, so the pictures will have to wait. Also, she and her friends Yu Sun and Ji Sun (easy enough to remember, right?) got way more pictures than I did, so I need to do some consolidation. But rest assured, pictures will be up soon.
First things first, though: the English Camp I did at Buwon High School! This was, as you may or may not remember, an English Conversation class with 18 9th-graders from all over the Icheon city area. These kids were obviously smart, and for the most part really well-behaved. I had a lot of fun with this camp. It's so much easier to deal with kids who can understand most of what I'm saying -- I think I'd do much better in a high school setting than in my current job, but it's all about expanding my horizons, right? Anyway, back to the lecture at hand. The camp, first off, was crazy. Two weeks of English and Math. Apart from my class, they were mostly preparing for high school entrance exams, which will hopefully allow them to get into some of the more prestigious private schools around. So, from what I could gather, they would wake up around 5:30 every morning, have mandatory exercise and self-study time, then basically do English, Math, English, Math, lunch, English, Math, English, Math, dinner, English, Math, English, Math, self study, and in bed by 1 or 2 in the morning. Oh, and I think there was occasionally some golf thrown in as well(?). Sounds like an awesome way to spend your summer vacay, no? Well, the upshot of this was that my class at 8:30 in the morning frequently turned into nap time. I mean, I did wake them up and all, but I tried to be understanding about it. Two solid weeks of only a few hours sleep each night will take its toll on anybody I guess, but especially 15 year olds.
So, mostly we just played games. Amanda, I took your suggestion and busted out some theatre improv-type warmup games... which they inevitably complained about as being too hard. I also made them write and perform scripts for TV news-style interviews... that was pretty much a disaster. We talked about different types of events that are often covered on the news, either local (which I'm not entirely sure they even have here, to be honest) or national. Then the reporter was supposed to give us the facts (answering the "w" question words, of course) and then he/she would interview an eyewitness or two. I guess, it wasn't totally bad. One group covered the Harry Potter premier in London... another a Big Bang concert in Tokyo. One group reported on why the air conditioning wasn't working in our classroom, which was actually pretty funny. I think, perhaps, my expectations were a little high going in, and they actually did a pretty good job. And yes, I did just talk myself into that conviction, thanks for asking.
I also used a lot of conversation starter questions I found on this kickass ESL website to get them talking with each other. Made things much easier for me, as I could just kick back and observe. I mean, it was actually pretty easy.
I had meant to make this longer, but Mi Sun's coming over for lunch in a few minutes and I need to get ready. More updates coming soon, and this time I do promise. Come back soon!
First things first, though: the English Camp I did at Buwon High School! This was, as you may or may not remember, an English Conversation class with 18 9th-graders from all over the Icheon city area. These kids were obviously smart, and for the most part really well-behaved. I had a lot of fun with this camp. It's so much easier to deal with kids who can understand most of what I'm saying -- I think I'd do much better in a high school setting than in my current job, but it's all about expanding my horizons, right? Anyway, back to the lecture at hand. The camp, first off, was crazy. Two weeks of English and Math. Apart from my class, they were mostly preparing for high school entrance exams, which will hopefully allow them to get into some of the more prestigious private schools around. So, from what I could gather, they would wake up around 5:30 every morning, have mandatory exercise and self-study time, then basically do English, Math, English, Math, lunch, English, Math, English, Math, dinner, English, Math, English, Math, self study, and in bed by 1 or 2 in the morning. Oh, and I think there was occasionally some golf thrown in as well(?). Sounds like an awesome way to spend your summer vacay, no? Well, the upshot of this was that my class at 8:30 in the morning frequently turned into nap time. I mean, I did wake them up and all, but I tried to be understanding about it. Two solid weeks of only a few hours sleep each night will take its toll on anybody I guess, but especially 15 year olds.
So, mostly we just played games. Amanda, I took your suggestion and busted out some theatre improv-type warmup games... which they inevitably complained about as being too hard. I also made them write and perform scripts for TV news-style interviews... that was pretty much a disaster. We talked about different types of events that are often covered on the news, either local (which I'm not entirely sure they even have here, to be honest) or national. Then the reporter was supposed to give us the facts (answering the "w" question words, of course) and then he/she would interview an eyewitness or two. I guess, it wasn't totally bad. One group covered the Harry Potter premier in London... another a Big Bang concert in Tokyo. One group reported on why the air conditioning wasn't working in our classroom, which was actually pretty funny. I think, perhaps, my expectations were a little high going in, and they actually did a pretty good job. And yes, I did just talk myself into that conviction, thanks for asking.
I also used a lot of conversation starter questions I found on this kickass ESL website to get them talking with each other. Made things much easier for me, as I could just kick back and observe. I mean, it was actually pretty easy.
I had meant to make this longer, but Mi Sun's coming over for lunch in a few minutes and I need to get ready. More updates coming soon, and this time I do promise. Come back soon!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Pink is my favorite color!
I do like Aerosmith, in fact, but that's not the reason for the title, in case you wondering.
I had promised some more Korean cultural oddities in a previous post, but this isn't it. This is just a hold-you-over, snack type thing till we get to the meat of the situation.
But seriously, Koreans really like pink. And not the girls, either. I mean, they like pink too, but that's sort of to be expected, right? I'm talking about the boys. In the past few days of summer camp (and judging by past experience, this seems to be the norm) I've seen pink polos, pink t-shirts, pink-striped shorts, pink socks, pink Converses, pink pencils and pens, pink notebooks, even pink calculators.
It's sorta weird, but Koreans are very flashy in some areas and extremely conservative when it comes to others. For instance -- the socks. Korean socks are awesome. They're largely pink or yellow, and lots of them have pictures of cartoon characters on them. The guys wear a lot of shiny suits, skinny ties, bright shirts and crazy-colored socks... while the girls seem to settle for more muted colors. Of course, they do tend to wear little skirts and tiny shorts over patterned tights, and ridiculously high-heeled shoes... but generally it's earthy tones, with maybe a purple or green here and there.
This whole randomly-conservative thing persists with cars as well. Basically, you get 3 "colors." Most of the cars you see in Korea are white, black, or silver. You see the occasional red, and lots of the work-specific trucks are navy blue, but for the most part the road is pretty boring when it comes to the colors. However, they make up for the lack of visual excitement in other ways.
Traffic lights in Korea, or at least in the rural areas, are completely voluntary. I can't count the number of times I've been in a car where the driver (a normally respectable Korean citizen, by the way) just decides to go for it. Red lights are more or less suggestions here. If there's no one (that you can see) approaching an intersection, it's perfectly acceptable to just hit the gas and burn through that red light. Actually, it's broader than that. It seems like anything that's physically possible in a car is also borderline legal. If you can pull off a U-turn on a crowded street, due to pedestrians blocking oncoming traffic or a school bus picking up passengers, that's definitely fair game. If you can scream through a crowded intersection without killing anyone, feel free! If you can slam the parking brake, spin the wheel, and pull off a 360 while flipping the car end over end blindly through a crowded market without landing on any small children -- well, not sure that actually happens very often, but if you can -- be my guest! And this is why I decided not to buy a motorcycle here. Well... I don't have license, either, but that's mostly why.
PINK! It's the color of passion!
I had promised some more Korean cultural oddities in a previous post, but this isn't it. This is just a hold-you-over, snack type thing till we get to the meat of the situation.
But seriously, Koreans really like pink. And not the girls, either. I mean, they like pink too, but that's sort of to be expected, right? I'm talking about the boys. In the past few days of summer camp (and judging by past experience, this seems to be the norm) I've seen pink polos, pink t-shirts, pink-striped shorts, pink socks, pink Converses, pink pencils and pens, pink notebooks, even pink calculators.
It's sorta weird, but Koreans are very flashy in some areas and extremely conservative when it comes to others. For instance -- the socks. Korean socks are awesome. They're largely pink or yellow, and lots of them have pictures of cartoon characters on them. The guys wear a lot of shiny suits, skinny ties, bright shirts and crazy-colored socks... while the girls seem to settle for more muted colors. Of course, they do tend to wear little skirts and tiny shorts over patterned tights, and ridiculously high-heeled shoes... but generally it's earthy tones, with maybe a purple or green here and there.
This whole randomly-conservative thing persists with cars as well. Basically, you get 3 "colors." Most of the cars you see in Korea are white, black, or silver. You see the occasional red, and lots of the work-specific trucks are navy blue, but for the most part the road is pretty boring when it comes to the colors. However, they make up for the lack of visual excitement in other ways.
Traffic lights in Korea, or at least in the rural areas, are completely voluntary. I can't count the number of times I've been in a car where the driver (a normally respectable Korean citizen, by the way) just decides to go for it. Red lights are more or less suggestions here. If there's no one (that you can see) approaching an intersection, it's perfectly acceptable to just hit the gas and burn through that red light. Actually, it's broader than that. It seems like anything that's physically possible in a car is also borderline legal. If you can pull off a U-turn on a crowded street, due to pedestrians blocking oncoming traffic or a school bus picking up passengers, that's definitely fair game. If you can scream through a crowded intersection without killing anyone, feel free! If you can slam the parking brake, spin the wheel, and pull off a 360 while flipping the car end over end blindly through a crowded market without landing on any small children -- well, not sure that actually happens very often, but if you can -- be my guest! And this is why I decided not to buy a motorcycle here. Well... I don't have license, either, but that's mostly why.
PINK! It's the color of passion!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
In case you're planning a Korean party...
I've eaten some interesting foods recently. Let me tell you about them.
First, and this ranks pretty low on the list of strange or icky or what-have-you: 쭈꾸미; in English -- jjook-goomi. Even more in English, spicy baby octopus. With carrots and some other junk. Freakin delicious. I've been to this restaurant 3 times already, and I'll probably be back soon.
Next -- and this was also way better than it sounds, I have to say: 닭발; talk-bal, which literally translates to "chicken feet." I would never have thought to eat this part of the bird, myself, but I know people all over the world do it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Again, it's spicy, served with vegetables. This one is bar-food in Korea... 안주, they call it. Anju literally means side dishes served with beer or liquor, and you can pretty much find something weird to eat at any Korean bar. I've only tried it once, when Mi Jin ordered it... but I'd eat it again. It's just really really effin' spicy... so you've kinda gotta be in one of those pump-yourself-up-for-the-pain moods.
Let's see, moving on up the ickiness scale, we come to... probably the raw beef liver. It wasn't terrible... just velvety soft and with very little flavor. Again, raw, so it's a little chewy, but only a little. It's actually got a very mushy, unresisting texture. I think, if it were very lightly sauteed, it would be quite nice.
Next stop -- 순대 (soondae) and also the soup made from it, 순대국 (soondae-guk). Bet you can't guess what 국 means... :) Anyway, I ate this dish several times during the winter camp, and had it again last week. I guess I had never really asked what was in it, or maybe I did and then promptly blocked it out. But here's the fun list of ingredients for this traditional Korean specialty -- which I would eat again. Actually, the soup isn't great. But a dish of just soondae and side-dishes is pretty heavenly, believe it or not. But it's a "blood sausage-y" mix... blood (pig's, I think, although I'm not entirely sure on that), clear noodles, and barley or other filler... wrapped in a pig intestine and steamed, and then served in a soup with other various entrails, plus onions and potatoes and such. Also, you pick the soondae out of the soup with your chopsticks and dip into a sauce made of tiny (1cm, maybe?) pickled shrimps. Whole and uncooked shrimps. It gives it a really nice salty kick. Really tasty, but definitely getting up there on my newly-formed ick scale.
And finally -- the ick winner. Mostly because it tasted like complete ass, and also looked, smelled, and felt really just vomit-inducing. I don't know what the Korean word for it is, and apparently there is no English word for it, presumably because no one who speaks English has ever wanted to eat one. They were served in a big bowl of 해물 갈국수 that I had last week. That's hae-mul kal-guk-su, or seafood noodle soup. Now, this also comes with dried fish, shrimp with the heads on, and various and sundry other fun seafoods. The fish and clams were delicious, actually, and the soup itself was pretty rockin too. But then there were these... otherworldly alien things, in the soup. Kinda spiny, kinda squishy, yet still crunchy. Like, if you tap them with a chopstick, they make a noise. Anyway, Bo Il was eating them, or at least, I think he was and not just pretending to get me to put one of the damn things in my mouth. So, after letting it cool an appropriate amount of time, I chose the smallest, least-spiny looking of the bunch and chowed down. On the outside, naturally, it tasted pretty much like the soup. Not bad... then I punctured the shell, and all kinds of unholy hell-spawn gushed forth. I mean, this thing was like 11 different kinds of awful, all rolled up into one completely repulsive crunchy-shell-covered goo. And yes, this is the only thing on this list that I definitely, certainly, without a doubt will NOT eat ever again. Even if it does get an English name.
So, to recap: octopus < chicken feet < raw beef liver < blood sausage < unnamed demon-child of the outer deeps.
Bon appetit!
First, and this ranks pretty low on the list of strange or icky or what-have-you: 쭈꾸미; in English -- jjook-goomi. Even more in English, spicy baby octopus. With carrots and some other junk. Freakin delicious. I've been to this restaurant 3 times already, and I'll probably be back soon.
Next -- and this was also way better than it sounds, I have to say: 닭발; talk-bal, which literally translates to "chicken feet." I would never have thought to eat this part of the bird, myself, but I know people all over the world do it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Again, it's spicy, served with vegetables. This one is bar-food in Korea... 안주, they call it. Anju literally means side dishes served with beer or liquor, and you can pretty much find something weird to eat at any Korean bar. I've only tried it once, when Mi Jin ordered it... but I'd eat it again. It's just really really effin' spicy... so you've kinda gotta be in one of those pump-yourself-up-for-the-pain moods.
Let's see, moving on up the ickiness scale, we come to... probably the raw beef liver. It wasn't terrible... just velvety soft and with very little flavor. Again, raw, so it's a little chewy, but only a little. It's actually got a very mushy, unresisting texture. I think, if it were very lightly sauteed, it would be quite nice.
Next stop -- 순대 (soondae) and also the soup made from it, 순대국 (soondae-guk). Bet you can't guess what 국 means... :) Anyway, I ate this dish several times during the winter camp, and had it again last week. I guess I had never really asked what was in it, or maybe I did and then promptly blocked it out. But here's the fun list of ingredients for this traditional Korean specialty -- which I would eat again. Actually, the soup isn't great. But a dish of just soondae and side-dishes is pretty heavenly, believe it or not. But it's a "blood sausage-y" mix... blood (pig's, I think, although I'm not entirely sure on that), clear noodles, and barley or other filler... wrapped in a pig intestine and steamed, and then served in a soup with other various entrails, plus onions and potatoes and such. Also, you pick the soondae out of the soup with your chopsticks and dip into a sauce made of tiny (1cm, maybe?) pickled shrimps. Whole and uncooked shrimps. It gives it a really nice salty kick. Really tasty, but definitely getting up there on my newly-formed ick scale.
And finally -- the ick winner. Mostly because it tasted like complete ass, and also looked, smelled, and felt really just vomit-inducing. I don't know what the Korean word for it is, and apparently there is no English word for it, presumably because no one who speaks English has ever wanted to eat one. They were served in a big bowl of 해물 갈국수 that I had last week. That's hae-mul kal-guk-su, or seafood noodle soup. Now, this also comes with dried fish, shrimp with the heads on, and various and sundry other fun seafoods. The fish and clams were delicious, actually, and the soup itself was pretty rockin too. But then there were these... otherworldly alien things, in the soup. Kinda spiny, kinda squishy, yet still crunchy. Like, if you tap them with a chopstick, they make a noise. Anyway, Bo Il was eating them, or at least, I think he was and not just pretending to get me to put one of the damn things in my mouth. So, after letting it cool an appropriate amount of time, I chose the smallest, least-spiny looking of the bunch and chowed down. On the outside, naturally, it tasted pretty much like the soup. Not bad... then I punctured the shell, and all kinds of unholy hell-spawn gushed forth. I mean, this thing was like 11 different kinds of awful, all rolled up into one completely repulsive crunchy-shell-covered goo. And yes, this is the only thing on this list that I definitely, certainly, without a doubt will NOT eat ever again. Even if it does get an English name.
So, to recap: octopus < chicken feet < raw beef liver < blood sausage < unnamed demon-child of the outer deeps.
Bon appetit!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Some kinda big news!
First off, I want to offer a correction, retraction, whatever the heck you call it. I no longer promise that I will blog more often, more regularly, or anything of the sort. I'm tired of being a liar. I mean, I will try, but no more promises. I just feel like there's too many letdowns, too many broken hearts, too many shattered dreams.
On the smaller news front, I don't think I'm going out of the country on vacation this summer. Sad but true. I'm doing this English camp at the private school down the street, and I'm having to use my official vacation days to do so. You know, with work visa restrictions being all... uh, strict (yeah, who's an English teacher now?) and stuff, I can't officially work at this job without going on vacation from my full-time job. Anyway, the upshot is that I can't technically leave the country this summer. So after I finish up with this camp, I'm gonna do a little tour of Korea instead... check out some beaches, see the sights, all that good stuff. It kinda sucks, but I think it'll all work out.
The reason I say "it'll all work out," and also for the long-awaited "Big News!!!" portion of our broadcast this evening, it's official. I am... staying another year in Korea!
Craziness, right? Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and there are just... a lot of reasons to stay. I mean, there's a lot of reasons to come home as well, but most of those are people. And people just aren't that important.... um, haha? Anyway, I miss all you guys, I really do. But I really like my job here, the kids, the teachers... And of course, as I'm sure you're all aware, the money and the food are big factors too. Plus, I'm in better shape than I've been... well, since Spain in 2001, probably. Today at the gym, I dropped under a certain weight threshhold that I've been eyeing for a while now (and this was with a good layer of sweaty gym clothes too, although no shoes), and also benchpressed like 20 more pounds than I've ever done before. Ever. I don't know, I just feel pretty good here.
For the record, I'm not staying in Korea permanently. I do have other things that I want to do in my life... so you know, don't worry about that. Also for the record, I will be home (for sure So-Il, maybe Chi-town, probably not Houston) for a couple weeks, I'm just not sure exactly when. I'm shooting for the Holidays/New Year, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. But there will definitely be more updates forthcoming long before the day arrives.
Some posts to look forward to: I'm working on compiling some funny and interesting Konglish, should have that up soon. Also, per (repeated) request, I'll try to put up some pictures of my students, and also the results of the pottery adventures #1 and #2. Oh, and the 2nd part of my post on uh... Korean cultural oddments and strange-alities. So, yeah, don't stop reading and I won't stop writing. At least, not for more than a week or two. Promise. =Þ
On the smaller news front, I don't think I'm going out of the country on vacation this summer. Sad but true. I'm doing this English camp at the private school down the street, and I'm having to use my official vacation days to do so. You know, with work visa restrictions being all... uh, strict (yeah, who's an English teacher now?) and stuff, I can't officially work at this job without going on vacation from my full-time job. Anyway, the upshot is that I can't technically leave the country this summer. So after I finish up with this camp, I'm gonna do a little tour of Korea instead... check out some beaches, see the sights, all that good stuff. It kinda sucks, but I think it'll all work out.
The reason I say "it'll all work out," and also for the long-awaited "Big News!!!" portion of our broadcast this evening, it's official. I am... staying another year in Korea!
Craziness, right? Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and there are just... a lot of reasons to stay. I mean, there's a lot of reasons to come home as well, but most of those are people. And people just aren't that important.... um, haha? Anyway, I miss all you guys, I really do. But I really like my job here, the kids, the teachers... And of course, as I'm sure you're all aware, the money and the food are big factors too. Plus, I'm in better shape than I've been... well, since Spain in 2001, probably. Today at the gym, I dropped under a certain weight threshhold that I've been eyeing for a while now (and this was with a good layer of sweaty gym clothes too, although no shoes), and also benchpressed like 20 more pounds than I've ever done before. Ever. I don't know, I just feel pretty good here.
For the record, I'm not staying in Korea permanently. I do have other things that I want to do in my life... so you know, don't worry about that. Also for the record, I will be home (for sure So-Il, maybe Chi-town, probably not Houston) for a couple weeks, I'm just not sure exactly when. I'm shooting for the Holidays/New Year, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. But there will definitely be more updates forthcoming long before the day arrives.
Some posts to look forward to: I'm working on compiling some funny and interesting Konglish, should have that up soon. Also, per (repeated) request, I'll try to put up some pictures of my students, and also the results of the pottery adventures #1 and #2. Oh, and the 2nd part of my post on uh... Korean cultural oddments and strange-alities. So, yeah, don't stop reading and I won't stop writing. At least, not for more than a week or two. Promise. =Þ
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Summer camp update
3 days of English camp down, 7 more to go. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice weather, warm and sunny... a true rarity in the past few weeks of monsoon season. So I've decided tomorrow is going to be American games day. I think we'll start inside, play "Heads up, seven up" and "Honey, do you love me?" and then head outside for some "Red rover," "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?" and "Colored Hair." I don't actually remember playing those last two, but they were pretty prominent on lists of games kids play, so I'll take their word for it. Plus, they just sound fun and they actually incorporate a bit of English as well, so that's a plus.
Just as a reminder:
However, I've agreed to run a summer camp up the road at one of the local high schools. Pros: Well, 1 major pro, anyway. I get paid kind of a lot of money for it. And it's only 2 hours a day for nine days. And it should be a good experience. All the kids in 8th and 9th grade who wanted to attend the camp had to take a test, and I'm getting the top 20. So at least I'm hopeful that I'll have some kids who not only want to be there but have a decent level of proficiency in English. Cons: 2 major ones... it cuts down my vacation time by 2 weeks (but I've been saying this whole time I'm here to save money and not go crazy with travel, so I shouldn't complain), and I have no idea what I'm going to do with these kids.
The focus of my class is supposed to be conversation. I've got a few ideas, I guess... I just need about 15 more. For instance: roleplaying. I'm going to set up some scenes that involve Korean celebrities in different situations. Seeing an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend, talking to crazy fans, deciding whether or not to do an embarrassing movie role, etc... and have them act out the scenes. I've got some time to refine this, but at least they'll be interested (I think!) and able to express themselves in English (I hope!). Also, the statues game I mentioned above might be much more fun with this age group, so I might save it for that. 20 Questions might be fun also... and I think that there's a similar game played here in Korea so it wouldn't be a big deal to adapt it for an English setting. Oh, and Taboo! Get them to describe something without using any of the "taboo" words and the other students get to guess what it is.
Mi Sun said the English class she took in Australia was done this way -- mostly games -- so she's going to look through some of her old materials for ideas. Still, anything ya'll could suggest would be greatly appreciated. Remember, 14-15 year olds, high level of English... although in Korea that generally means high level of reading/writing, much lower on speaking, hence the conversation focus of the camp.
On a completely different note, the maintenance guy came by to look at my window frame this afternoon. It was leaking like crazy last night... water dripping (nay, streaming) down from this space -- invisible, but obviously present -- between my bedroom wall and the window frame. I had 3 different bowls and a pot catching streams of water when I went to bed last night... thankfully, the rain let up and they weren't yet full when I woke up. The dripping/streaming had stopped too. Anyway, I met the guy at my place after school today, and he went to work on his (hopefully) temporary fix. Which was to put up a sheet of plastic over my windows. Now, the main problem I see with this is that the sheet isn't really long enough to cover the whole window opening. So, he taped it to the wall above the leaky area, and then (partially) taped the bottom of the sheet to the windows themselves. Like, in 3 places, over a 5-foot wide window opening. I mean, I guess it'll keep my bed and wall outlet from getting wet, but he's just directed all the incoming water into the tracks at the bottom of the window frame...
I just hope this isn't the permanent solution, because with this sheet taped to the windows, I can no longer open them. I'm told that, this being monsoon season, nobody does outside construction-type work, and I just have to wait for the weather to improve. Wonder when that'll be? I hear that the monsoon only lasts a few weeks this far north, so I'm hoping to have this all resolved within the next week or so. But still, this can't be good: I mean, there's some serious structural integrity being breached, I'm sure, and this building is less than 9 months old. I even went out in the stairway last night just to peek at those windows, and sure enough! 2 out of the 3 were leaking in the same way mine was. Shoddy construction... tsk tsk tsk!
OK -- time to watch the new episode of Weeds and then get some rest! Peace and love, ya'll.
Just as a reminder:
- Honey, do you love me? One person is it and everyone else sits in a circle. It has to go up to a target and ask "Honey, do you love me?" Target replies "Honey, I love you but I just can't smile." It then has to try to make target smile. If successful, target is now it. If not, it tries again -- I remember this from summer/church camps in the past and it was always a good time.
- What's the time, Mr. Wolf? One person is wolf, standing with their back to the group, and everyone else lines up 30 feet or so away. They call out "What's the time, Mr. (Miss) Wolf?" Wolf says a time (It's nine o'clock!) and then turns around... while everyone takes that many steps towards the wolf. Wolf turns back around, and we do it again. If anyone gets close enough to touch the wolf, the wolf loses and we do it again. Eventually the wolf says "Dinner time!" turns around, and chases the group back to the starting line. If they catch someone, that person's the new wolf.
- Colored Hair. Again, one person is the wolf. There's a starting line, a finish point, and side boundaries. Each person (not the wolf) picks a color, out of maybe 5 different choices. Wolf: "Knock, knock." Group: "Who's there?" Wolf? "A big bad wolf with (choose a color) hair!" Everyone who has that color has to run, touch the finish point, and run back to the start without getting tagged. The wolf chases... first person tagged becomes the new wolf.
However, I've agreed to run a summer camp up the road at one of the local high schools. Pros: Well, 1 major pro, anyway. I get paid kind of a lot of money for it. And it's only 2 hours a day for nine days. And it should be a good experience. All the kids in 8th and 9th grade who wanted to attend the camp had to take a test, and I'm getting the top 20. So at least I'm hopeful that I'll have some kids who not only want to be there but have a decent level of proficiency in English. Cons: 2 major ones... it cuts down my vacation time by 2 weeks (but I've been saying this whole time I'm here to save money and not go crazy with travel, so I shouldn't complain), and I have no idea what I'm going to do with these kids.
The focus of my class is supposed to be conversation. I've got a few ideas, I guess... I just need about 15 more. For instance: roleplaying. I'm going to set up some scenes that involve Korean celebrities in different situations. Seeing an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend, talking to crazy fans, deciding whether or not to do an embarrassing movie role, etc... and have them act out the scenes. I've got some time to refine this, but at least they'll be interested (I think!) and able to express themselves in English (I hope!). Also, the statues game I mentioned above might be much more fun with this age group, so I might save it for that. 20 Questions might be fun also... and I think that there's a similar game played here in Korea so it wouldn't be a big deal to adapt it for an English setting. Oh, and Taboo! Get them to describe something without using any of the "taboo" words and the other students get to guess what it is.
Mi Sun said the English class she took in Australia was done this way -- mostly games -- so she's going to look through some of her old materials for ideas. Still, anything ya'll could suggest would be greatly appreciated. Remember, 14-15 year olds, high level of English... although in Korea that generally means high level of reading/writing, much lower on speaking, hence the conversation focus of the camp.
On a completely different note, the maintenance guy came by to look at my window frame this afternoon. It was leaking like crazy last night... water dripping (nay, streaming) down from this space -- invisible, but obviously present -- between my bedroom wall and the window frame. I had 3 different bowls and a pot catching streams of water when I went to bed last night... thankfully, the rain let up and they weren't yet full when I woke up. The dripping/streaming had stopped too. Anyway, I met the guy at my place after school today, and he went to work on his (hopefully) temporary fix. Which was to put up a sheet of plastic over my windows. Now, the main problem I see with this is that the sheet isn't really long enough to cover the whole window opening. So, he taped it to the wall above the leaky area, and then (partially) taped the bottom of the sheet to the windows themselves. Like, in 3 places, over a 5-foot wide window opening. I mean, I guess it'll keep my bed and wall outlet from getting wet, but he's just directed all the incoming water into the tracks at the bottom of the window frame...
I just hope this isn't the permanent solution, because with this sheet taped to the windows, I can no longer open them. I'm told that, this being monsoon season, nobody does outside construction-type work, and I just have to wait for the weather to improve. Wonder when that'll be? I hear that the monsoon only lasts a few weeks this far north, so I'm hoping to have this all resolved within the next week or so. But still, this can't be good: I mean, there's some serious structural integrity being breached, I'm sure, and this building is less than 9 months old. I even went out in the stairway last night just to peek at those windows, and sure enough! 2 out of the 3 were leaking in the same way mine was. Shoddy construction... tsk tsk tsk!
OK -- time to watch the new episode of Weeds and then get some rest! Peace and love, ya'll.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
When it rains, it pours
You know those conversations that start with "We need to talk" and then have a lot of things happen in the middle and then end with "And that's why I don't think we should see each other anymore"?
Well, my right leg had that conversation with me today. At least, that's what it felt like. And for all of you who were expecting relationship issues... ha. Not today. =) But yeah, after school Mi Sun and I had dinner and then went to the library to look for some books for her upcoming TEPS exam (which looks like it sucks, by the way), and then she dropped me off at the gym. I got there around 6:30, so, much later than usual. And I went to the squash court to hit the ball around for a while before going upstairs to lift. You know, get the blood flowing, muscles loose, get a good sweat going, all that. By the time I finished, however, 3 of the girls I work with (Yun Kyoung, Un Ju, and another whose name I've forgotten at the moment! oopsie!) were getting ready for their squash practice. Yun Kyoung and I played for a bit and then she suggested a quick game. I was feelin pretty good, up maybe 12-5 when I hit a short drop shot. As she was running for the ball she kinda stumble/tripped and (I think) rolled her ankle. It turned pretty red, but their squash coach was right there and sprayed some kind of icy-hot medicine-smelling stuff on there, and she would be ok less than an hour later. So, girl-whose-name-I-don't-know jumped in the box with me, thinking she might be able to avenge the loss of her friend. Alas, I regulated that shit. I beat the snot out of her, like 21-8. Maybe 21-10, but it wasn't really that close. So, at this point, I'm thinkin, yeah... I can play this game. Alright.
I sat down to grab some water and rest for a bit, and watched these two older guys play. Right away, I could tell that this was a whole nother level of squash. I sorta know one of the guys from the gym -- we've talked a few times... he's a Methodist minister, name of Rev. Shin. Yes, it's a common name here... Mi Sun's last name, also. Anyway, he won the first game, but lost the second, and of course, I'd talked myself into thinking I might be able to play with these guys. You know, when you watch pro tennis or golf and you think to yourself "I coulda hit that shot!" Same principle. So when they were done he sat down and we chatted for a bit, watching another game. When that game ended, he asked if I wanted to play him. I said sure! Not feeling like I'd win, necessarily, but at least that I wouldn't embarrass myself. Oh, how wrong I was.
Long story short, he beat me 21-5. I don't really think he was trying. I did hit a few really nice winners, but the general feeling was one of hopelessness. Well, I've only just started playing this game. Maybe a few years down the road, right? Haha... That's when reality set in. Mr. Shin's partner, who'd played him pretty even before, got his ass beat by this even older guy, musta been in his 50's I'd guess, but just looked so smooth moving around the court. So, I'd just watched the guy who beat the guy who beat me, get beat. Badly. And still, there was the coach guy (who's much younger than most of them, probably around my age), sitting down with this serene grin on his face, watching and cheering them on. Finally I got to watch him play, and I'm not sure he lost more than a few points. He didn't play the older guys who took it all serious, but some of the women who were there (and yes, I'm certain these chicks were better than me). But he was routinely hitting different shots backwards, between his legs, slamming the ball off the back wall to hit all 4 walls before it hit the ground, left-handed, you name it... and it looked like he never took more than 2 steps to get anywhere on the court. I'm not sure how you'd even go about scoring points on this guy, to be honest. Guess I've got some practicing to do, eh...
So I'm home now, and just realized that my bedroom window frame leaks. It sucks, really. I've got some bowls and pots there to catch the dripping, but this is a brand-new building! It wasn't finished yet when I moved to Korea last November. Just blows. I've had to move my bed out away from the wall, unplug everything that was plugged into the outlet on that wall, just in case... you know. But I've got no idea who to get ahold of for fixing something like this! My co-teacher, who might actually be able to help, isn't answering his phone... so, I'm kind of at a loss. Bowls and towels for the night, I guess. I just wish it would stop raining!
Oh, and the opening of this post -- my right leg really hurts. I think I might have slightly pulled my groin, but it really hurts to lift my right leg above parallel. Like, hurts to the point that I more or less can't do it at all. I noticed a little twinge earlier when I was playing, but nothing big. The longer it goes (and the more I tried stretching it out), the worse it feels. Hence the whole relationship metaphor. Nothing I say or do makes it any better! This will never work! We should just end things now, before one of us gets hurt! And I say, "It's too late! I'm already hurt!"
OK, I think that's the end of the road for tonight. Wish me luck with the leaky bedroom thing. Peace ya'll.
Well, my right leg had that conversation with me today. At least, that's what it felt like. And for all of you who were expecting relationship issues... ha. Not today. =) But yeah, after school Mi Sun and I had dinner and then went to the library to look for some books for her upcoming TEPS exam (which looks like it sucks, by the way), and then she dropped me off at the gym. I got there around 6:30, so, much later than usual. And I went to the squash court to hit the ball around for a while before going upstairs to lift. You know, get the blood flowing, muscles loose, get a good sweat going, all that. By the time I finished, however, 3 of the girls I work with (Yun Kyoung, Un Ju, and another whose name I've forgotten at the moment! oopsie!) were getting ready for their squash practice. Yun Kyoung and I played for a bit and then she suggested a quick game. I was feelin pretty good, up maybe 12-5 when I hit a short drop shot. As she was running for the ball she kinda stumble/tripped and (I think) rolled her ankle. It turned pretty red, but their squash coach was right there and sprayed some kind of icy-hot medicine-smelling stuff on there, and she would be ok less than an hour later. So, girl-whose-name-I-don't-know jumped in the box with me, thinking she might be able to avenge the loss of her friend. Alas, I regulated that shit. I beat the snot out of her, like 21-8. Maybe 21-10, but it wasn't really that close. So, at this point, I'm thinkin, yeah... I can play this game. Alright.
I sat down to grab some water and rest for a bit, and watched these two older guys play. Right away, I could tell that this was a whole nother level of squash. I sorta know one of the guys from the gym -- we've talked a few times... he's a Methodist minister, name of Rev. Shin. Yes, it's a common name here... Mi Sun's last name, also. Anyway, he won the first game, but lost the second, and of course, I'd talked myself into thinking I might be able to play with these guys. You know, when you watch pro tennis or golf and you think to yourself "I coulda hit that shot!" Same principle. So when they were done he sat down and we chatted for a bit, watching another game. When that game ended, he asked if I wanted to play him. I said sure! Not feeling like I'd win, necessarily, but at least that I wouldn't embarrass myself. Oh, how wrong I was.
Long story short, he beat me 21-5. I don't really think he was trying. I did hit a few really nice winners, but the general feeling was one of hopelessness. Well, I've only just started playing this game. Maybe a few years down the road, right? Haha... That's when reality set in. Mr. Shin's partner, who'd played him pretty even before, got his ass beat by this even older guy, musta been in his 50's I'd guess, but just looked so smooth moving around the court. So, I'd just watched the guy who beat the guy who beat me, get beat. Badly. And still, there was the coach guy (who's much younger than most of them, probably around my age), sitting down with this serene grin on his face, watching and cheering them on. Finally I got to watch him play, and I'm not sure he lost more than a few points. He didn't play the older guys who took it all serious, but some of the women who were there (and yes, I'm certain these chicks were better than me). But he was routinely hitting different shots backwards, between his legs, slamming the ball off the back wall to hit all 4 walls before it hit the ground, left-handed, you name it... and it looked like he never took more than 2 steps to get anywhere on the court. I'm not sure how you'd even go about scoring points on this guy, to be honest. Guess I've got some practicing to do, eh...
So I'm home now, and just realized that my bedroom window frame leaks. It sucks, really. I've got some bowls and pots there to catch the dripping, but this is a brand-new building! It wasn't finished yet when I moved to Korea last November. Just blows. I've had to move my bed out away from the wall, unplug everything that was plugged into the outlet on that wall, just in case... you know. But I've got no idea who to get ahold of for fixing something like this! My co-teacher, who might actually be able to help, isn't answering his phone... so, I'm kind of at a loss. Bowls and towels for the night, I guess. I just wish it would stop raining!
Oh, and the opening of this post -- my right leg really hurts. I think I might have slightly pulled my groin, but it really hurts to lift my right leg above parallel. Like, hurts to the point that I more or less can't do it at all. I noticed a little twinge earlier when I was playing, but nothing big. The longer it goes (and the more I tried stretching it out), the worse it feels. Hence the whole relationship metaphor. Nothing I say or do makes it any better! This will never work! We should just end things now, before one of us gets hurt! And I say, "It's too late! I'm already hurt!"
OK, I think that's the end of the road for tonight. Wish me luck with the leaky bedroom thing. Peace ya'll.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Teachers' Retreat
What a weekend! Friday was uneventful -- students were on a field trip to Icheon to go swimming, so it was awful quiet around the school. Mrs. Kim brought in a bunch of kimbap for lunch, and Mi Sun and I finished watching the first Lord of the Rings movie and started on the second. With no students coming to the Global Center, we've had quite a bit of free time... and the Icheon Experience classroom has a laptop connected to a projector with a giant screen, so we've pulled a bunch of cushions in there and set up our own private movie theatre. Good times!
At 4:30, we boarded a bus with the rest of the teachers, bound for ... well, I knew not what. But as I boarded the bus, in the school parking lot mind you, I was handed a warm can of beer and a bag of dried squid. It was gonna be that kind of party, it turned out. All the teachers were already crackin open the beers, so I happily joined in. Not two minutes out of the parking lot, Mr. Kim (no relation to Mrs. Kim from earlier -- Kim is a really common last name here) handed me another beer, so I threw down the first one and popped open number 2. Number 3 would follow soon after, as there seemed to be no shortage of booze on the school bus. Yep -- school bus. And yes, drinking in a moving vehicle is perfectly legal here, and actually somewhat of a tradition, I'm told. Beer number 3 carried us to the tomb of King Sejong, but most of us (including me, actually) had been there before, so we walked around for a bit (it was on a free day to celebrate the designation as a UNESCO Heritage Site) and then got back on the bus.
We drove for a bit longer before stopping for dinner. The "restaurant" was on side of the street, but they didn't actually sell food, I don't think. Well, side dishes and stuff, but the main dish, the beef, was sold at little butcher shops across the street. So we purchased an ass-load of beef to cook at the restaurant to accompany the massive amounts of soju we ordered. Now, this beef was supposed to be something special -- all Korean-grown, very exclusive. I mean, it tasted great, don't get me wrong, but I saw the price tags on this stuff and Jesus H Tapdancing Christ! Probably... um, not worth it, is all I'm gonna say. Delicious, yes... but $30/pound delicious? I don't think so... Also -- I tried raw beef liver for the first time. Some of the other teachers were wolfing it down, but Mi Sun and I were both looking at kinda warily. So we decided to "kawi-bawi-bo!" for it... that's Korean for rock-paper-scissors. I lost. It wasn't bad -- honestly, it had a silky smooth texture and not much flavor... I made her try some too, and we both agreed it was pretty inoffensive. Of course, dessert mostly consisted of liquor, and then...
After dinner we headed to the hotel and got settled in. The men-folk hunkered down for a night of gambling and drinking, but the card game was way too complex for me to learn quickly, especially in my already-nearly-inebriated state. Luckily, Bo Il and several of the girls were headed to the noraebang, so that was my new destination. At the noraebang I was forced to choose from the usual lame selection of English songs so I fell back on my standard Aerosmith, Oasis, and the Beatles... but Mi Sun was on fire! This girl was jumping around, headbanging, dancing her little Korean ass off! Never seen that before -- it was a nice change of pace, I gotta say. I think the fact that she wasn't driving anywhere was a big factor. I need to hang out with her when there's no driving involved more often. After a couple hours of singing, we headed back to the hotel.
The boys were still playing cards, so I grabbed a beer, some soju and some watermelon and started trying to figure out the game. Well, I got the basics of it but the simple fact that the cards have only pictures (no words, no numbers, nothing else) was too much for me. However, I realized I could pretty much play the game blind... just like poker. Get a feel for each guys behavior's and you could start to see patterns, who had a hand, who was bluffing. I even got to the point where I was ready to join in, but they wouldn't let me! I got kinda pissed off, but there were two reasons for it: 1) one of the teachers was down like 200 bucks and didn't want the dynamic of the game to change (although I woulda thought he'd be all for it! haha) and 2) they didn't want me to lose all my money and 3) racism? ha... whatever... I was pretty lit up and it probably would have been a bad idea anyway.
Woke up at 7am Saturday morning, still wearing all my clothes but in a different room than I remember being in. Well, I slowly inched the door open and there were like 8 people passed out in the main room, so maybe it was just as well. I stumbled to the bathroom and got cleaned up. Brushed teeth, washed, clean clothes. Then, thanks to my oversized and angry head, I realized the extent of my hangover, so I headed to the kitchen for something to make me feel better. We had, of course, no food on hand... but there was a whole lotta booze left, so I did the only thing I could think of to make myself feel better -- breakfast beer! Hair of the dog, breakfast of champions, whatever you wanna call it, I'm just sayin... it works. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so: 3 other guys made the fridge and the beer their first stop in the morning upon waking up. So, an hour and a half or so later we were ready to bounce, and I was 4 beers into a promising day!
Breakfast: sadly, Koreans have no concept of breakfast as we know it. Breakfast, to them, is just a meal eaten in the morning. But, it pretty much contains the same foods as lunch and dinner. So, "breakfast" was some kind of seafood soup: little shellfish critters (maybe a centimeter long) were boiled with seaweed and served to us in their broth. For breakfast. Actually tasted pretty good, except sometimes you'd get one that was a little more attached to his shell or something (at least, I hope that's what it was) and they were pretty crunchy. Some of the men sat at a separate table from all of us, and I noticed some soju bottles at their table. For breakfast. I was feeling pretty loose though and abstained. Anyway... then we were off to the river.
We arrived about an hour early for our little river cruise, so we ended up snacking on ice cream and corn on the cob (which absolutely, positively blows here, might I add -- they have no idea what they're missing), along with iced coffee. We played another Korean card game (no gambling this time), and after watching one game, I jumped in and I dominated. The strategy was really simple -- not sure what they were missing, but anyway...
The cruise -- meh. It was nice, I suppose. Just a little sight-seeing jaunt up the river and back. It was pretty hot up on the top deck but the lack of wind below made the heat worse there. I got sunburned, but not terribly bad. I'm just a little pink around the edges, is all. After the cruise one of the school maintenance workers ordered a jug of makeolli (different kind of Korean liquor) from the snack shop... no one wanted to sit down with him, and I felt bad for the poor guy. He's always really nice to me, and very chatty, so I went over and joined him to drink a bowl of makeolli. He had also ordered a Korean pancake (which is like a really light batter mixed with lots of veggies and hot peppers, then lightly fried), which turned out to be freakin awesome, especially when dipped in the sesame soy sauce they provided. Soon though, we were back on the bus, and off for lunch. Lunch was two things: Some of us ordered spicy chicken stew, which I've had before actually, remember? Mi Jin's was way better, it turns out, but this was still yummy. The rest had catfish boiled in a spicy soup. Whole catfish. Yeah, I tried it... and no, it wasn't great. I mean, catfish doesn't have a whole lot of flavor anyway, and this was really overpowered by the soup it was used in. But, on the plus side, I did get to pluck meat out of a catfish head -- can't say I've ever done that before. Whoo-ee!
Finally, back on the bus and headed home. I got in late yesterday afternoon, and I've done approximately nothing since. Relaxed, went to bed early, and today has been the epitome of monsoon season -- nothing but rain, wind, thunder, rain, wind, more rain... I did make it out to the store for some cereal, milk, and tomato sauce earlier, so my needs are met. English camp starts tomorrow, so I think it's time to hit the sack and rest up for my exciting first week of camp. Peace ya'll.
At 4:30, we boarded a bus with the rest of the teachers, bound for ... well, I knew not what. But as I boarded the bus, in the school parking lot mind you, I was handed a warm can of beer and a bag of dried squid. It was gonna be that kind of party, it turned out. All the teachers were already crackin open the beers, so I happily joined in. Not two minutes out of the parking lot, Mr. Kim (no relation to Mrs. Kim from earlier -- Kim is a really common last name here) handed me another beer, so I threw down the first one and popped open number 2. Number 3 would follow soon after, as there seemed to be no shortage of booze on the school bus. Yep -- school bus. And yes, drinking in a moving vehicle is perfectly legal here, and actually somewhat of a tradition, I'm told. Beer number 3 carried us to the tomb of King Sejong, but most of us (including me, actually) had been there before, so we walked around for a bit (it was on a free day to celebrate the designation as a UNESCO Heritage Site) and then got back on the bus.
We drove for a bit longer before stopping for dinner. The "restaurant" was on side of the street, but they didn't actually sell food, I don't think. Well, side dishes and stuff, but the main dish, the beef, was sold at little butcher shops across the street. So we purchased an ass-load of beef to cook at the restaurant to accompany the massive amounts of soju we ordered. Now, this beef was supposed to be something special -- all Korean-grown, very exclusive. I mean, it tasted great, don't get me wrong, but I saw the price tags on this stuff and Jesus H Tapdancing Christ! Probably... um, not worth it, is all I'm gonna say. Delicious, yes... but $30/pound delicious? I don't think so... Also -- I tried raw beef liver for the first time. Some of the other teachers were wolfing it down, but Mi Sun and I were both looking at kinda warily. So we decided to "kawi-bawi-bo!" for it... that's Korean for rock-paper-scissors. I lost. It wasn't bad -- honestly, it had a silky smooth texture and not much flavor... I made her try some too, and we both agreed it was pretty inoffensive. Of course, dessert mostly consisted of liquor, and then...
After dinner we headed to the hotel and got settled in. The men-folk hunkered down for a night of gambling and drinking, but the card game was way too complex for me to learn quickly, especially in my already-nearly-inebriated state. Luckily, Bo Il and several of the girls were headed to the noraebang, so that was my new destination. At the noraebang I was forced to choose from the usual lame selection of English songs so I fell back on my standard Aerosmith, Oasis, and the Beatles... but Mi Sun was on fire! This girl was jumping around, headbanging, dancing her little Korean ass off! Never seen that before -- it was a nice change of pace, I gotta say. I think the fact that she wasn't driving anywhere was a big factor. I need to hang out with her when there's no driving involved more often. After a couple hours of singing, we headed back to the hotel.
The boys were still playing cards, so I grabbed a beer, some soju and some watermelon and started trying to figure out the game. Well, I got the basics of it but the simple fact that the cards have only pictures (no words, no numbers, nothing else) was too much for me. However, I realized I could pretty much play the game blind... just like poker. Get a feel for each guys behavior's and you could start to see patterns, who had a hand, who was bluffing. I even got to the point where I was ready to join in, but they wouldn't let me! I got kinda pissed off, but there were two reasons for it: 1) one of the teachers was down like 200 bucks and didn't want the dynamic of the game to change (although I woulda thought he'd be all for it! haha) and 2) they didn't want me to lose all my money and 3) racism? ha... whatever... I was pretty lit up and it probably would have been a bad idea anyway.
Woke up at 7am Saturday morning, still wearing all my clothes but in a different room than I remember being in. Well, I slowly inched the door open and there were like 8 people passed out in the main room, so maybe it was just as well. I stumbled to the bathroom and got cleaned up. Brushed teeth, washed, clean clothes. Then, thanks to my oversized and angry head, I realized the extent of my hangover, so I headed to the kitchen for something to make me feel better. We had, of course, no food on hand... but there was a whole lotta booze left, so I did the only thing I could think of to make myself feel better -- breakfast beer! Hair of the dog, breakfast of champions, whatever you wanna call it, I'm just sayin... it works. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so: 3 other guys made the fridge and the beer their first stop in the morning upon waking up. So, an hour and a half or so later we were ready to bounce, and I was 4 beers into a promising day!
Breakfast: sadly, Koreans have no concept of breakfast as we know it. Breakfast, to them, is just a meal eaten in the morning. But, it pretty much contains the same foods as lunch and dinner. So, "breakfast" was some kind of seafood soup: little shellfish critters (maybe a centimeter long) were boiled with seaweed and served to us in their broth. For breakfast. Actually tasted pretty good, except sometimes you'd get one that was a little more attached to his shell or something (at least, I hope that's what it was) and they were pretty crunchy. Some of the men sat at a separate table from all of us, and I noticed some soju bottles at their table. For breakfast. I was feeling pretty loose though and abstained. Anyway... then we were off to the river.
We arrived about an hour early for our little river cruise, so we ended up snacking on ice cream and corn on the cob (which absolutely, positively blows here, might I add -- they have no idea what they're missing), along with iced coffee. We played another Korean card game (no gambling this time), and after watching one game, I jumped in and I dominated. The strategy was really simple -- not sure what they were missing, but anyway...
The cruise -- meh. It was nice, I suppose. Just a little sight-seeing jaunt up the river and back. It was pretty hot up on the top deck but the lack of wind below made the heat worse there. I got sunburned, but not terribly bad. I'm just a little pink around the edges, is all. After the cruise one of the school maintenance workers ordered a jug of makeolli (different kind of Korean liquor) from the snack shop... no one wanted to sit down with him, and I felt bad for the poor guy. He's always really nice to me, and very chatty, so I went over and joined him to drink a bowl of makeolli. He had also ordered a Korean pancake (which is like a really light batter mixed with lots of veggies and hot peppers, then lightly fried), which turned out to be freakin awesome, especially when dipped in the sesame soy sauce they provided. Soon though, we were back on the bus, and off for lunch. Lunch was two things: Some of us ordered spicy chicken stew, which I've had before actually, remember? Mi Jin's was way better, it turns out, but this was still yummy. The rest had catfish boiled in a spicy soup. Whole catfish. Yeah, I tried it... and no, it wasn't great. I mean, catfish doesn't have a whole lot of flavor anyway, and this was really overpowered by the soup it was used in. But, on the plus side, I did get to pluck meat out of a catfish head -- can't say I've ever done that before. Whoo-ee!
Finally, back on the bus and headed home. I got in late yesterday afternoon, and I've done approximately nothing since. Relaxed, went to bed early, and today has been the epitome of monsoon season -- nothing but rain, wind, thunder, rain, wind, more rain... I did make it out to the store for some cereal, milk, and tomato sauce earlier, so my needs are met. English camp starts tomorrow, so I think it's time to hit the sack and rest up for my exciting first week of camp. Peace ya'll.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Weekend Retreat
That's right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dogs and cats, Catholics and Protestants, superheroes and supervillains... this weekend I'm going away with the teachers from my school. I've been given (as is their wont) very little information about said retreat, but I was told to bring a swimsuit, pajamas, a toothbrush... and that's it, actually. I mean, I added some things to the list on my own, but I think it's just going to be a relaxing couple of days in the sun. Well, no. It's monsoon season here in Korea, which means there's very little sun to be had these days. Just a lot of rain, a lot of wind, and clouds as far as the eye can see.
I had my first bout with monsoons last week, and I won! It was pretty nice out in the morning, a fresh breeze blowing in through my open windows, a little cloudy, but with patches of beautiful blue sky here and there. Anyway, I thought I'd leave the windows open while I was gone for the day, get some fresh air in the apartment, you know. Well, come about 10:00 in the morning, just after class started, I happened to glance out the window outside my classroom. And saw... well, actually, I saw very very little. This was due, I realized, to the torrential downpour of rain and that weird grey-green darkness you get during a summer storm sometimes. My heart sinking, I started plotting ways to get back to my house and rectify this situation, preferably with no one noticing I was gone. Could I steal one of the other teachers' cars? The women usually leave their keys in the office downstairs. Hmm... if I left at precisely the right time, and ran to my house and back, I could maybe make it on the bus. Finally, my co-teacher Bo Il noticed that I was distraught, and I filled him in on the depressing details. After a couple minutes of thinking, he offered to go to my house and shut them for me. Yep -- he'd deal with this hurricane. And he did. He's like the Wolf, from Pulp Fiction. He fixes things. By the time he made it back to class, it was barely raining at all, which was nice... and when I nervously asked how bad it was, he told me that my apartment was completely dry! I couldn't believe it, because it looked like destruction was flowing in all directions from where I sat, but I guess the wind was mostly blowing the other way, and not into my windows. Anyway, crisis averted, and for the next few weeks at least, the windows stay closed when I'm not home. Stupid monsoon season.
English camp starts on Monday -- 2 weeks, but only in the afternoons, which is nice. That gives me the mornings to get prepared and whatnot. Last winter I had, I think, 18 kids in camp. For this summer, that's gone up to 28. Which is roughly half the school. But I've got a pretty good schedule lined up, I think... should have some fun activities for the kids. I dunno -- my first camp was kind of a blur, I was nervous... I'm not even sure what all we did during that time. I at least had enough activities in my head this time to fill up all 40 hours of class time, so that makes me feel pretty confident. Is it just the overconfidence that often follows from ignorance? That is a distinct possibility. I'll keep you posted.
I had my first bout with monsoons last week, and I won! It was pretty nice out in the morning, a fresh breeze blowing in through my open windows, a little cloudy, but with patches of beautiful blue sky here and there. Anyway, I thought I'd leave the windows open while I was gone for the day, get some fresh air in the apartment, you know. Well, come about 10:00 in the morning, just after class started, I happened to glance out the window outside my classroom. And saw... well, actually, I saw very very little. This was due, I realized, to the torrential downpour of rain and that weird grey-green darkness you get during a summer storm sometimes. My heart sinking, I started plotting ways to get back to my house and rectify this situation, preferably with no one noticing I was gone. Could I steal one of the other teachers' cars? The women usually leave their keys in the office downstairs. Hmm... if I left at precisely the right time, and ran to my house and back, I could maybe make it on the bus. Finally, my co-teacher Bo Il noticed that I was distraught, and I filled him in on the depressing details. After a couple minutes of thinking, he offered to go to my house and shut them for me. Yep -- he'd deal with this hurricane. And he did. He's like the Wolf, from Pulp Fiction. He fixes things. By the time he made it back to class, it was barely raining at all, which was nice... and when I nervously asked how bad it was, he told me that my apartment was completely dry! I couldn't believe it, because it looked like destruction was flowing in all directions from where I sat, but I guess the wind was mostly blowing the other way, and not into my windows. Anyway, crisis averted, and for the next few weeks at least, the windows stay closed when I'm not home. Stupid monsoon season.
English camp starts on Monday -- 2 weeks, but only in the afternoons, which is nice. That gives me the mornings to get prepared and whatnot. Last winter I had, I think, 18 kids in camp. For this summer, that's gone up to 28. Which is roughly half the school. But I've got a pretty good schedule lined up, I think... should have some fun activities for the kids. I dunno -- my first camp was kind of a blur, I was nervous... I'm not even sure what all we did during that time. I at least had enough activities in my head this time to fill up all 40 hours of class time, so that makes me feel pretty confident. Is it just the overconfidence that often follows from ignorance? That is a distinct possibility. I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Korean Culture as I see it, Volume I
Wow -- long time between posts. Dropping the ball, here... sorry bout that, ya'll.
Good news first. Classes are over for the semester. I've got 2 weeks of English camp starting next week, and then off till September. Unless (at the last minute, as always here) some school wants to participate in a summer program at the Global Center, in which case I'll have to rush back from wherever I am to work, or something. Doesn't sound like a very restful vacation, but I'm sure it'll work out. Also, I'm going with the other teachers to a resort this weekend. I think it'll be pretty low-key, but we're leaving Friday after school, relaxing in the sun, maybe some swimming, then a barbecue (with soju, of course) and then something on Saturday. Not sure why, but I keep getting flashes of the Beach Games episode of the Office in my head. Where, by the end, Michael was trying to get people to walk across a bed of coals for his job? Yeah, I'm getting that kind of vibe. Hopefully I'm wrong though. If I burned my feet and went to the hospital, I'm 99% certain that part of the treatment would be an injection in the ass. And a whole boatload of happy pills. Worth it? Hmm... maybe so, maybe so. OK, I'm down for the coal walk. Thanks for talking me through that.
On the "No news is bad news" front, there's been no progress on the girl situation. We had a great time on Friday -- went out with Mi Jin, had spicy octopus, went to a bar, drank so-mek (soju+maekju... soju beer bombs, basically), then finished up at the noraebang. Tomorrow night we're hanging out again, going out for dinner. And I guess we'll be spending the weekend together (well, not together-together, but you know) at this resort too. When I write it all down like that, it sounds great, huh?! Well, unfortunately, we're hanging out a lot but it feels awfully platonic. Still, not giving up.
Ok -- 1st post promised long long ago about some Korean cultural oddities, rarities, what-have-you. Let's see, where to begin. I'm not gonna go all deep into why these things are the way they are. For one, I'm not much of an expert on Korean culture and pyschology, so I'd probably just be wrong, and two, it's funnier this way. OK, here we go.
You can't pick up your chopsticks for dinner until the oldest person at the table does first. You can't pour your own drink -- you must wait for someone to pour for you. This sounds like it might be a pain, but they're very observant: by the time you finish the drink, but before you put the glass down, they're ready to hit you up with a refill. When the drink is pouring, you should hold the bottle/glass with both hands, to be respectful. When you drink after an older person poured for you, you should turn away to drink. It's customary during a meal for younger people to take their empty glass and soju and kneel down and offer the glass to an elder. Then you pour them a drink, and they shoot it. Then you take the glass back and they pour you one, which you throw down, while turning your head away, of course.
You always take your shoes off when entering a home, school, church, or any traditional-type restaurant. Some kim-bap places and fast food joints you can just walk in and sit down, as well as stores, but any place where people generally spend a lot of time or go to relax, shoes off at the door. It's important to wear clean matching socks, for this reason. I suck at this. I realized soon after I moved here that a good percentage of my socks had holes in the toe or heel or both, because hell -- who sees your dress socks in the states?
It's rude to smoke in front of your elders. It's rude to fail to acknowledge the eldest person first when making your introductory bows. So, people in Korea, upon first meeting, will almost always ask your age either right before or right after your name. Soon after will be your job title. This is because your age determines what verb endings to use when conversing, and your job title (and not your name) determines what they will call you. Koreans rarely use names with strangers or people they've just met. Or with their superiors. Or colleagues. Or elders. Or family members. Or anyone, really, except people you've known and been friends with since you were in the same grade in elementary school. Yes, the same grade. That's important.
I'm a teacher: in Korean, it's 선생님 (sun-sang-nim). This is also a general title of respect for strangers or people whose position you're not certain of yet. Teacher is a very respected profession here, by the way -- as it should be. So when teachers talk to each other, they just call each other sunsangnim. Or, if there are many teachers present and they're addressing a particular one, they'll use their full name + sunsangnim. So, Hwang Bo Il Sunsangnim! Yes, it does take a lot longer to say than "Hey Sean!" in case you were wondering. Now, with text language and those crazy kids changing the language all around (sounds familiar), it's ok to shorten sunsangnim to just 쌤 (ssam). Or, Hwang-ssam! The kids use this a lot but I hear it even more from the younger teachers when they talk to each other, actually.
Now -- this aversion to using names goes much further. In families -- you don't call your siblings by their names. Like, if I had an older sister -- she'd be 누나 "nu-na." An older brother -- 형 "hyung." But if a girl has an older sister -- she calls her 언니 "un-ni" and her older brother 오빠 "ohp-pa." There are different words for younger siblings too, actually... which means a boy who has an older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother could actually be "a nam-dong-sang," "oppa," and "hyung" all at the same time. Weird, right? But get this -- people in school who are even a year above you... well, they're called the same things. So like, in my after school class, the 2nd grade boys call the 3rd grade girls "Nuna!" (mostly because I can't for the life of me get them to remember each other's English names...) Which technically means older sister, but it applies to the more general Korean family as well. When you go out to a restaurant, and you want to get the waitress's attention, and if she's around your age (because she gets a bump in respect for working there and taking care of you) you can call her Nuna or Unni (if you're a girl) as well. Or you can just yell out "Yogi-yo!" Which sounds rude when translated into English ("Over here, please!") but is perfectly acceptable. If she's older, she's "Ajuma" -- literally, woman who's already raised children. Always makes me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, quoted here in its entirety for your enjoyment:
King Arthur: Old woman!
Dennis: Man.
King Arthur: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I'm 37.
King Arthur: What?
Dennis: I'm 37. I'm not old.
King Arthur: Well I can't just call you "man."
Dennis: Well you could say "Dennis."
King Arthur: I didn't know you were called Dennis.
Dennis: Well you didn't bother to find out did you?
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the "old woman," but from behind you looked...
Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior.
King Arthur: Well, I am king.
Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.
Note that in Korea, ajuma is a title of considerable respect, for it's said that women must be something akin to superheroes to successfully raise children. So if Dennis were Korean, he might not have minded so much about the "old woman" thing.
One more interesting factoid: Lots of Korean girls call their boyfriends Oppa. Sounds funny, at first, but no worse than Hispanic guys calling their girls "Mamacita," right? Ha, anyway... I guess the guys like it cause it makes them feel like they're in charge and the protector and all that. Coming up next time (or at least, the next time I feel like writing about this): Why the guys are definitely not in charge...
I'm back, baby! It's the summer of Sean!
And I'm going to make a concerted effort to update more regularly, promise.
Good news first. Classes are over for the semester. I've got 2 weeks of English camp starting next week, and then off till September. Unless (at the last minute, as always here) some school wants to participate in a summer program at the Global Center, in which case I'll have to rush back from wherever I am to work, or something. Doesn't sound like a very restful vacation, but I'm sure it'll work out. Also, I'm going with the other teachers to a resort this weekend. I think it'll be pretty low-key, but we're leaving Friday after school, relaxing in the sun, maybe some swimming, then a barbecue (with soju, of course) and then something on Saturday. Not sure why, but I keep getting flashes of the Beach Games episode of the Office in my head. Where, by the end, Michael was trying to get people to walk across a bed of coals for his job? Yeah, I'm getting that kind of vibe. Hopefully I'm wrong though. If I burned my feet and went to the hospital, I'm 99% certain that part of the treatment would be an injection in the ass. And a whole boatload of happy pills. Worth it? Hmm... maybe so, maybe so. OK, I'm down for the coal walk. Thanks for talking me through that.
On the "No news is bad news" front, there's been no progress on the girl situation. We had a great time on Friday -- went out with Mi Jin, had spicy octopus, went to a bar, drank so-mek (soju+maekju... soju beer bombs, basically), then finished up at the noraebang. Tomorrow night we're hanging out again, going out for dinner. And I guess we'll be spending the weekend together (well, not together-together, but you know) at this resort too. When I write it all down like that, it sounds great, huh?! Well, unfortunately, we're hanging out a lot but it feels awfully platonic. Still, not giving up.
Ok -- 1st post promised long long ago about some Korean cultural oddities, rarities, what-have-you. Let's see, where to begin. I'm not gonna go all deep into why these things are the way they are. For one, I'm not much of an expert on Korean culture and pyschology, so I'd probably just be wrong, and two, it's funnier this way. OK, here we go.
You can't pick up your chopsticks for dinner until the oldest person at the table does first. You can't pour your own drink -- you must wait for someone to pour for you. This sounds like it might be a pain, but they're very observant: by the time you finish the drink, but before you put the glass down, they're ready to hit you up with a refill. When the drink is pouring, you should hold the bottle/glass with both hands, to be respectful. When you drink after an older person poured for you, you should turn away to drink. It's customary during a meal for younger people to take their empty glass and soju and kneel down and offer the glass to an elder. Then you pour them a drink, and they shoot it. Then you take the glass back and they pour you one, which you throw down, while turning your head away, of course.
You always take your shoes off when entering a home, school, church, or any traditional-type restaurant. Some kim-bap places and fast food joints you can just walk in and sit down, as well as stores, but any place where people generally spend a lot of time or go to relax, shoes off at the door. It's important to wear clean matching socks, for this reason. I suck at this. I realized soon after I moved here that a good percentage of my socks had holes in the toe or heel or both, because hell -- who sees your dress socks in the states?
It's rude to smoke in front of your elders. It's rude to fail to acknowledge the eldest person first when making your introductory bows. So, people in Korea, upon first meeting, will almost always ask your age either right before or right after your name. Soon after will be your job title. This is because your age determines what verb endings to use when conversing, and your job title (and not your name) determines what they will call you. Koreans rarely use names with strangers or people they've just met. Or with their superiors. Or colleagues. Or elders. Or family members. Or anyone, really, except people you've known and been friends with since you were in the same grade in elementary school. Yes, the same grade. That's important.
I'm a teacher: in Korean, it's 선생님 (sun-sang-nim). This is also a general title of respect for strangers or people whose position you're not certain of yet. Teacher is a very respected profession here, by the way -- as it should be. So when teachers talk to each other, they just call each other sunsangnim. Or, if there are many teachers present and they're addressing a particular one, they'll use their full name + sunsangnim. So, Hwang Bo Il Sunsangnim! Yes, it does take a lot longer to say than "Hey Sean!" in case you were wondering. Now, with text language and those crazy kids changing the language all around (sounds familiar), it's ok to shorten sunsangnim to just 쌤 (ssam). Or, Hwang-ssam! The kids use this a lot but I hear it even more from the younger teachers when they talk to each other, actually.
Now -- this aversion to using names goes much further. In families -- you don't call your siblings by their names. Like, if I had an older sister -- she'd be 누나 "nu-na." An older brother -- 형 "hyung." But if a girl has an older sister -- she calls her 언니 "un-ni" and her older brother 오빠 "ohp-pa." There are different words for younger siblings too, actually... which means a boy who has an older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother could actually be "a nam-dong-sang," "oppa," and "hyung" all at the same time. Weird, right? But get this -- people in school who are even a year above you... well, they're called the same things. So like, in my after school class, the 2nd grade boys call the 3rd grade girls "Nuna!" (mostly because I can't for the life of me get them to remember each other's English names...) Which technically means older sister, but it applies to the more general Korean family as well. When you go out to a restaurant, and you want to get the waitress's attention, and if she's around your age (because she gets a bump in respect for working there and taking care of you) you can call her Nuna or Unni (if you're a girl) as well. Or you can just yell out "Yogi-yo!" Which sounds rude when translated into English ("Over here, please!") but is perfectly acceptable. If she's older, she's "Ajuma" -- literally, woman who's already raised children. Always makes me think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, quoted here in its entirety for your enjoyment:
King Arthur: Old woman!
Dennis: Man.
King Arthur: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I'm 37.
King Arthur: What?
Dennis: I'm 37. I'm not old.
King Arthur: Well I can't just call you "man."
Dennis: Well you could say "Dennis."
King Arthur: I didn't know you were called Dennis.
Dennis: Well you didn't bother to find out did you?
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the "old woman," but from behind you looked...
Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior.
King Arthur: Well, I am king.
Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.
Note that in Korea, ajuma is a title of considerable respect, for it's said that women must be something akin to superheroes to successfully raise children. So if Dennis were Korean, he might not have minded so much about the "old woman" thing.
One more interesting factoid: Lots of Korean girls call their boyfriends Oppa. Sounds funny, at first, but no worse than Hispanic guys calling their girls "Mamacita," right? Ha, anyway... I guess the guys like it cause it makes them feel like they're in charge and the protector and all that. Coming up next time (or at least, the next time I feel like writing about this): Why the guys are definitely not in charge...
I'm back, baby! It's the summer of Sean!
And I'm going to make a concerted effort to update more regularly, promise.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
You take the bad, you take the good...
And today was really good. As I may (or may not) have mentioned, I'm not giving up that easy. We went out for lunch today, caught the new Terminator at the theater, and then had a couple drinks at the bar before coming back from Icheon. It was... nice. Maybe persistence will pay off? Remains to be seen, I think, but there were good signs today. Either that, or she's just heartless and is toying with my emotions. But I didn't get that vibe today.
Terminator was pretty good, actually. Perhaps because I had literally zero expectations going in, but it was entertaining. Not at all terrible. I was pleasantly surprised. Lunch was amazing though -- she took me to 초이 수제비 -- Cho-i Soojebi. We had 비빔밥(bi-bim-bap) , 졸면(jol-myun), and 수제비(soojebi) -- mixed rice (with egg, vegetables and hot sauce), spicy cold noodles with bean sprouts, and dumpling soup (which tastes almost exactly like the chicken and dumplings at Pioneer's Cabin near Carterville, minus the chicken). And it was a whole lot of food. And it cost about 7 dollars. Maybe less. And no, not each -- total. I love this country.
The movie was good. We held hands, even (dare I say) cuddled a bit. Fun times. Then we went to WaBar for drinks and tried to talk in Korean. I can say some things, I promise. But with my extremely limited vocabulary the conversation pretty quickly devolves into a lot of one-word sentences (on my part) followed by what? or why? (from her) followed by my old standby, I don't know. Less than spirited conversation, to put it mildly. There was a really cute baby hanging out at the bar though, which always amuses me. I mean, he wasn't just chilling alone trying to pick up older women or anything. He was there with some girls already. But seriously -- who brings a baby to a bar?!
Other observations: the bugs (mosquitoes, especially) are getting bad. And they have no trouble getting into my apartment, even with the doors and windows shut, it seems. It's hot in the summer. Not Houston hot, or even Marion hot, but it's uncomfortable nonetheless. The new cheap awesome pizza place is killing me, but no worse than I expected. It's just... right... there. Sucks. Mud Festival is coming up -- I'll do a post about that soon, but I'm definitely going. Still don't have a firm plan for summer vacation. That's starting to freak me out a bit. Federer's rolling through Wimbledon, no surprise there. The Cardinals' offense blows, slightly bigger surprise. But their pitching has been fantastic, even bigger surprise. Brett Favre is un-retiring, so, um... negative infinity surprise on that one. My electricity bill is gonna suck -- I keep forgetting to turn the A/C off when I leave the house. Oopsie.
And actually, that's all I've got to say about that.
Terminator was pretty good, actually. Perhaps because I had literally zero expectations going in, but it was entertaining. Not at all terrible. I was pleasantly surprised. Lunch was amazing though -- she took me to 초이 수제비 -- Cho-i Soojebi. We had 비빔밥(bi-bim-bap) , 졸면(jol-myun), and 수제비(soojebi) -- mixed rice (with egg, vegetables and hot sauce), spicy cold noodles with bean sprouts, and dumpling soup (which tastes almost exactly like the chicken and dumplings at Pioneer's Cabin near Carterville, minus the chicken). And it was a whole lot of food. And it cost about 7 dollars. Maybe less. And no, not each -- total. I love this country.
The movie was good. We held hands, even (dare I say) cuddled a bit. Fun times. Then we went to WaBar for drinks and tried to talk in Korean. I can say some things, I promise. But with my extremely limited vocabulary the conversation pretty quickly devolves into a lot of one-word sentences (on my part) followed by what? or why? (from her) followed by my old standby, I don't know. Less than spirited conversation, to put it mildly. There was a really cute baby hanging out at the bar though, which always amuses me. I mean, he wasn't just chilling alone trying to pick up older women or anything. He was there with some girls already. But seriously -- who brings a baby to a bar?!
Other observations: the bugs (mosquitoes, especially) are getting bad. And they have no trouble getting into my apartment, even with the doors and windows shut, it seems. It's hot in the summer. Not Houston hot, or even Marion hot, but it's uncomfortable nonetheless. The new cheap awesome pizza place is killing me, but no worse than I expected. It's just... right... there. Sucks. Mud Festival is coming up -- I'll do a post about that soon, but I'm definitely going. Still don't have a firm plan for summer vacation. That's starting to freak me out a bit. Federer's rolling through Wimbledon, no surprise there. The Cardinals' offense blows, slightly bigger surprise. But their pitching has been fantastic, even bigger surprise. Brett Favre is un-retiring, so, um... negative infinity surprise on that one. My electricity bill is gonna suck -- I keep forgetting to turn the A/C off when I leave the house. Oopsie.
And actually, that's all I've got to say about that.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What a Terrible Day
It started out good -- didn't have to work today. Got a call at 9:30 last night from my coteacher letting me know I didn't have to come in. Texted the girl, let her know I had the day off too, asked her to meet me for lunch. She said yes. Good start to a good day, right?
Well, lunch was good. Then we bought ice creams and went to the park. And talked. And it came out that even though we have fun together... her family wouldn't approve, and we live in a small town and work in a small school, and i'm white. (the horror!) and she likes me as a friend, but doesn't think we can date.
And this was on the one month-iversary of our first date. Just a shitty day, all around. I haven't given up yet. But damn, did that suck. I've never been discriminated against because I was white before. To any minorities reading this, I'm sorry. Discrimination is a bitch, affirmative action or no. Anyway, I did what any good minority-type person would do. I shanked a bitch, smoked some crack, did some advanced mathematics and then went to prison, where I refused to eat beef and pork and then called home and talked to 19 different people before I found someone in my family because they were all out mowing lawns when I called. Actually, haha... no. I did what any Korean would do and drank some soju and then got online and enjoyed my ultra-fast broadband connection. But still, have some sympathy, yeah?
I'm not giving up, though. Presents. Sweet-talking. And if that don't work, well then blackmail's never let me down before.
Well, lunch was good. Then we bought ice creams and went to the park. And talked. And it came out that even though we have fun together... her family wouldn't approve, and we live in a small town and work in a small school, and i'm white. (the horror!) and she likes me as a friend, but doesn't think we can date.
And this was on the one month-iversary of our first date. Just a shitty day, all around. I haven't given up yet. But damn, did that suck. I've never been discriminated against because I was white before. To any minorities reading this, I'm sorry. Discrimination is a bitch, affirmative action or no. Anyway, I did what any good minority-type person would do. I shanked a bitch, smoked some crack, did some advanced mathematics and then went to prison, where I refused to eat beef and pork and then called home and talked to 19 different people before I found someone in my family because they were all out mowing lawns when I called. Actually, haha... no. I did what any Korean would do and drank some soju and then got online and enjoyed my ultra-fast broadband connection. But still, have some sympathy, yeah?
I'm not giving up, though. Presents. Sweet-talking. And if that don't work, well then blackmail's never let me down before.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Weekend Update (like SNL, but not funny. Oh, wait, it's just like that)
Friday night -- traditional Russian dancing in Icheon. No, I wasn't the one dancing, as much as I hate to ruin the mental image for ya. But we went to watch a performance troupe at the Arts Hall in Icheon. It was cool... lots of hopping around, and costume changes, and girls shrieking. Yeah, that's right. Shrieking... like, during the singing and dancing. It's weird.
Afterwards we went to WABar for beers. Met up with Tom and Travis and headed over to meet a big group of foreign teachers at "Sports Bar." Actually, the name is something else, something I don't recall. But they call it sports bar because they have darts and you can play Wii sports there. Which, sadly, I didn't do. Boo. Also, instead of normal pitchers for the beer, it comes in these like meter-long tubes with smaller ice-filled tubes inside them. And you get your own tap and everything. Good stuff.
I did play a Korean drinking game too, which was kinda awesome. It's called Titanic. You put an empty shot glass into a mostly full mug of beer. It floats... then you take turns pouring tiny amounts of soju into the glass. Whoever makes it sink has to chug it. I did fine... you know. I'm all good when it comes to drinking games. Practice makes perfect, all that... haha. But Mi Sun -- yeesh. She was driving and so she enlisted me as her drinking surrogate. I think she was screwing me over on purpose! Anyway, I got pretty toasty, but I also got a ride home. You know, 6 of one, right?
Saturday. Rain, rain, all day. But still warm, and sticky, and just gross. Today was sunny and hot and nice, but I didn't really have anything exciting to do.
Tomorrow we have an open class. This means that the principals and some parents and others get to come watch our 4th grade class. Now, my coteacher Mrs. Yun is also a music teacher, so she's combining her discliplines and we're doing a music class, but in English. So, that should be fun. I get to wear a tie, and play the recorder. Yee-haw! On the plus side, though, we don't have any groups coming to the Global Center this week! So, apart from Monday, and Tues/Fri after school classes, I got nothing to do! Awesome... gives me time to study Korean, and maybe practice English with the girls at work. I'm also trying to talk Mi Sun into playing tennis with me sometime. She's got these weird double-jointed elbows that allow her to twist her forearms around like 50% more than a normal person. I think she might be good at tennis, although her athletic skills are uh... less than developed overall. And she's kinda lazy. Actually, I don't have high hopes for this at all, apart from good exercise and the inevitable humor factor. Which is totally worth it.
Speaking of tennis -- Wimbledon starts tomorrow! Hell yes. And the Cardinals are back to their winning ways, leading the division, half a game ahead of Milwaukee! And uh... yeah. That's it. That's my life.
Oh, one more thing. Turns out China's kind of a pain in the ass for American citizens. Visas are expensive, and you can't just go to the consulate to get them. You have to use a Chinese gov't-approved travel agent. You also have to prove that you have transportation out of the country and hotels already booked. It just doesn't sound like it's well-suited to my current situation. I have no idea where I might want to go, or when exactly I'd be leaving. I was just planning on hitting Beijing for a while and then hopping a train south. And coming back eventually, to take the boat back to Korea. Anyway, I'm now entertaining other options. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Afterwards we went to WABar for beers. Met up with Tom and Travis and headed over to meet a big group of foreign teachers at "Sports Bar." Actually, the name is something else, something I don't recall. But they call it sports bar because they have darts and you can play Wii sports there. Which, sadly, I didn't do. Boo. Also, instead of normal pitchers for the beer, it comes in these like meter-long tubes with smaller ice-filled tubes inside them. And you get your own tap and everything. Good stuff.
I did play a Korean drinking game too, which was kinda awesome. It's called Titanic. You put an empty shot glass into a mostly full mug of beer. It floats... then you take turns pouring tiny amounts of soju into the glass. Whoever makes it sink has to chug it. I did fine... you know. I'm all good when it comes to drinking games. Practice makes perfect, all that... haha. But Mi Sun -- yeesh. She was driving and so she enlisted me as her drinking surrogate. I think she was screwing me over on purpose! Anyway, I got pretty toasty, but I also got a ride home. You know, 6 of one, right?
Saturday. Rain, rain, all day. But still warm, and sticky, and just gross. Today was sunny and hot and nice, but I didn't really have anything exciting to do.
Tomorrow we have an open class. This means that the principals and some parents and others get to come watch our 4th grade class. Now, my coteacher Mrs. Yun is also a music teacher, so she's combining her discliplines and we're doing a music class, but in English. So, that should be fun. I get to wear a tie, and play the recorder. Yee-haw! On the plus side, though, we don't have any groups coming to the Global Center this week! So, apart from Monday, and Tues/Fri after school classes, I got nothing to do! Awesome... gives me time to study Korean, and maybe practice English with the girls at work. I'm also trying to talk Mi Sun into playing tennis with me sometime. She's got these weird double-jointed elbows that allow her to twist her forearms around like 50% more than a normal person. I think she might be good at tennis, although her athletic skills are uh... less than developed overall. And she's kinda lazy. Actually, I don't have high hopes for this at all, apart from good exercise and the inevitable humor factor. Which is totally worth it.
Speaking of tennis -- Wimbledon starts tomorrow! Hell yes. And the Cardinals are back to their winning ways, leading the division, half a game ahead of Milwaukee! And uh... yeah. That's it. That's my life.
Oh, one more thing. Turns out China's kind of a pain in the ass for American citizens. Visas are expensive, and you can't just go to the consulate to get them. You have to use a Chinese gov't-approved travel agent. You also have to prove that you have transportation out of the country and hotels already booked. It just doesn't sound like it's well-suited to my current situation. I have no idea where I might want to go, or when exactly I'd be leaving. I was just planning on hitting Beijing for a while and then hopping a train south. And coming back eventually, to take the boat back to Korea. Anyway, I'm now entertaining other options. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Summer Squash
I had an awesome workout today. I was feeling kinda tired after class, so I drank some coffee before leaving the office. And yeah, it was crappy Korean insta-coffee, but it must have had some kind of magic pixie dust in there because I felt great at the gym. It was one of those days where each set left me feeling like I had more energy, not less. So I lifted for over an hour and then went downstairs to hit the squash court. My squash-buddy (whose name I can't recall, oopsie! she works in the office at my school though) wasn't there today, so I just started hitting by myself. Now, I wish that I could've had a facility like this for tennis back in the day, but I guess squash is a much easier sport to play by yourself. Since, you know, you're in a room and all... the ball pretty much always comes back to you no matter what you do.
Well, a squash ball doesn't actually bounce very well. It's hollow, soft rubber. And no, not like a bouncy-ball rubber... squishy... dare I say, even squashy? Ha... But anywho, you really have to whale on this thing to get it to come back all the way to where you're standing. Or hit it really high, I guess, but that ain't nearly as much fun. Naturally, when you do haul off on it, it comes back pretty damn quickly. I'd say, without a partner, it works out to like a shot every two seconds or so. Maybe once every three -- I wasn't actually counting. Although I will, now that I've thought about it. But yeah, that gets tiring quick, yo. I was trying to work on my backhand, which is definitely my weaker side. And it's even harder with the squash ball than in tennis, because the low-bouncing ball means you're always having to lunge and bend your knees and hit from about mid-shin level. It's quite a workout. I ended up hitting for almost an hour, until my forearms basically threw down their goggles, took their ball and went home.
And no -- squash players don't wear goggles, but I really think they should.
That's it for me tonight. I'm chillin like a villain at home, and I'll probably be going to bed soon.
Weeds is back! I watched the first episode of season 5 and it reminded me how much I loved the earlier ones, so I'm working through season 1 again now. I'm also checking out True Blood... mostly because Anna Paquin gets nakie. We'll see if it's any good. You know, the show. I'm sure that other thing is just peachy.
I really didn't have anything to say about vegetables, gourds or otherwise. Sorry for the misleading title.
Well, a squash ball doesn't actually bounce very well. It's hollow, soft rubber. And no, not like a bouncy-ball rubber... squishy... dare I say, even squashy? Ha... But anywho, you really have to whale on this thing to get it to come back all the way to where you're standing. Or hit it really high, I guess, but that ain't nearly as much fun. Naturally, when you do haul off on it, it comes back pretty damn quickly. I'd say, without a partner, it works out to like a shot every two seconds or so. Maybe once every three -- I wasn't actually counting. Although I will, now that I've thought about it. But yeah, that gets tiring quick, yo. I was trying to work on my backhand, which is definitely my weaker side. And it's even harder with the squash ball than in tennis, because the low-bouncing ball means you're always having to lunge and bend your knees and hit from about mid-shin level. It's quite a workout. I ended up hitting for almost an hour, until my forearms basically threw down their goggles, took their ball and went home.
And no -- squash players don't wear goggles, but I really think they should.
That's it for me tonight. I'm chillin like a villain at home, and I'll probably be going to bed soon.
Weeds is back! I watched the first episode of season 5 and it reminded me how much I loved the earlier ones, so I'm working through season 1 again now. I'm also checking out True Blood... mostly because Anna Paquin gets nakie. We'll see if it's any good. You know, the show. I'm sure that other thing is just peachy.
I really didn't have anything to say about vegetables, gourds or otherwise. Sorry for the misleading title.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Baseball!!! Cheeseburgers!!! Yay, America!
Yep -- went to the ballpark on Sunday. It was awesome! The home team won, which is always fun. Final score was (I believe) LG Twins 5, SK Wyverns 3. Something like that, anyway. There were a couple homeruns, the crowd going wild, all that. Here are some fun things that are pretty different from ballgames in the states:
In school, the class sandwich project was a big hit! All the kids had a ham sandwich (well, half of one, actually) and some chips. I let them all taste the yellow mustard -- I think only a couple of them had ever had it before. It was about half and half, love and hate. Some of them loved it and so I showed them that they could put it on the potato chips also. Used to be one of my favorite snacks, ruffles with mustard. Yum. The other half got this awful kitty-killing look on their face and sputtered around saying something about how godawful it was and wondering what the hell they were thinking. I mean, I guess. It was in Korean, after all. People rarely sputter in their second language, it turns out.
Then I made a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which was entirely new for them. I cut them into quarters and let them have at it. Most of them liked it... poor Flounder really hated the jelly, and a couple of them absolutely weren't into the peanut butter... but I was proud that they all wanted to try it. I was just picturing getting American 5th graders to eat the school lunches that we get every day -- now that would be some funny shit. Oh, and the best -- Mi Jin, one of the teachers at the Global Center, made herself a ham, cheese, pickle, mustard and grape jelly sandwich. And ate it. All. I tried it... it was exactly as delicious as it sounds... mot-upseoyo.
And friday night I made cheeseburgers for Mi Sun and Mi Jin. They turned out absolutely amazing. I mean, burgers are easy, I know, but I was (inordinately) proud of myself nonetheless. I finely chopped some onions and mixed them with garlic, salt, pepper, and just a bit of American spicy barbecue sauce I'd gotten from the Army base into the meat and threw them on the skillet. I also fried potatoes (cut the long way, so they resembled french fries) and tossed some salt on there and served them with a ketchup/tabasco mix I threw together. On the burgers -- cheese of course, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mustard and ketchup (and mayo, for Mi Sun. I tried to talk her out of it, to no avail). They were fan-flippin-tastic. Oh, and I bought some Budweiser from the corner store to complete the American-ness of the meal. I rocked the shit, I must say.
You wanna hear something evil? Of course you do! A new pizza place opened up in town not too long ago. Carry-out only, which blows. But a large pepperoni pizza is only 5oooWon. Which is like, less than $4. And lest you think this is some hot cardboardy garbage-circle pizza, a la Little Caesars... I mean, damn... these things are good. 100% real mozzarella, the best pepperoni I've had in Korea, and this kinda thin, firm yet chewy almost New York style crust... wowzers. And the hot chicken pizza... spicy barbecuey goodness, in a box. So anyway, that's evil. And it's about 100 feet from the bus stop, on my way home, to boot. Bastards. So, long story short, I've been kicking it up a notch at the gym to account for what will soon be a ludicrous level of pizza consumption. I'm now lifting for an hour a day and then playing squash (yeah, I didn't really know what it was either -- here ya go) with this girl who works in the school office after. I'm pretty much hoping to break even, what with the afore-mentioned pizza fiasco.
And now I'm going to study some Korean. I'm still sexy ya'll!
- Cheerleaders. Oh my, yes... good ones too.
- Every batter for the home team has a personalized song or cheer when they come up to the plate. All the fans sing along. There's also like an MC (with a stage and everything right behind us) who hops around and yells and leads all the songs. My favorite -- this Venezuelan player whose song was the Macarena... hey, Petagine!
- Beer is cheap -- a tall boy (or Korean equivalent) costs 3000 won -- less than $2.50 a pop. Win.
- Dried squid is awesome with beer, it turns out.
- You can buy KFC and Burger King inside the stadium. I didn't, but the couple we met there brought some chicken in with them, so I did eat fried chicken. Oh yeah -- I saw people carrying in whole pizzas too. Strange food for a ballgame, in my humble opinion, but I like it.
In school, the class sandwich project was a big hit! All the kids had a ham sandwich (well, half of one, actually) and some chips. I let them all taste the yellow mustard -- I think only a couple of them had ever had it before. It was about half and half, love and hate. Some of them loved it and so I showed them that they could put it on the potato chips also. Used to be one of my favorite snacks, ruffles with mustard. Yum. The other half got this awful kitty-killing look on their face and sputtered around saying something about how godawful it was and wondering what the hell they were thinking. I mean, I guess. It was in Korean, after all. People rarely sputter in their second language, it turns out.
Then I made a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which was entirely new for them. I cut them into quarters and let them have at it. Most of them liked it... poor Flounder really hated the jelly, and a couple of them absolutely weren't into the peanut butter... but I was proud that they all wanted to try it. I was just picturing getting American 5th graders to eat the school lunches that we get every day -- now that would be some funny shit. Oh, and the best -- Mi Jin, one of the teachers at the Global Center, made herself a ham, cheese, pickle, mustard and grape jelly sandwich. And ate it. All. I tried it... it was exactly as delicious as it sounds... mot-upseoyo.
And friday night I made cheeseburgers for Mi Sun and Mi Jin. They turned out absolutely amazing. I mean, burgers are easy, I know, but I was (inordinately) proud of myself nonetheless. I finely chopped some onions and mixed them with garlic, salt, pepper, and just a bit of American spicy barbecue sauce I'd gotten from the Army base into the meat and threw them on the skillet. I also fried potatoes (cut the long way, so they resembled french fries) and tossed some salt on there and served them with a ketchup/tabasco mix I threw together. On the burgers -- cheese of course, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mustard and ketchup (and mayo, for Mi Sun. I tried to talk her out of it, to no avail). They were fan-flippin-tastic. Oh, and I bought some Budweiser from the corner store to complete the American-ness of the meal. I rocked the shit, I must say.
You wanna hear something evil? Of course you do! A new pizza place opened up in town not too long ago. Carry-out only, which blows. But a large pepperoni pizza is only 5oooWon. Which is like, less than $4. And lest you think this is some hot cardboardy garbage-circle pizza, a la Little Caesars... I mean, damn... these things are good. 100% real mozzarella, the best pepperoni I've had in Korea, and this kinda thin, firm yet chewy almost New York style crust... wowzers. And the hot chicken pizza... spicy barbecuey goodness, in a box. So anyway, that's evil. And it's about 100 feet from the bus stop, on my way home, to boot. Bastards. So, long story short, I've been kicking it up a notch at the gym to account for what will soon be a ludicrous level of pizza consumption. I'm now lifting for an hour a day and then playing squash (yeah, I didn't really know what it was either -- here ya go) with this girl who works in the school office after. I'm pretty much hoping to break even, what with the afore-mentioned pizza fiasco.
And now I'm going to study some Korean. I'm still sexy ya'll!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Toe-yo-il pah-may
I was walking to the gym today after work when all of a sudden, out jumped a leprechaun!
Actually, no. What really happened was that my toe started to hurt. Kinda badly, in fact. It only happens at one point in my stride, when my left foot is pushing off so the toes are kinda bent backward a bit. It's the big toe. It makes it really uncomfortable to walk. At first it was kinda sporadic, so I tried walking it off, but that only made it worse. So, resolved to the situation, I turned around and came home. Well, first I went to the grocery store, because...
Tomorrow we're making sandwiches in my after-school class! Whoo-ee. We're finishing up a little unit I created on Green Eggs and Ham, and of course one of the themes of the book is trying a new food. So I'm bringing in some western-style sandwichy stuff they probably haven't tried before. Like, peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese with yellow mustard, normal stuff like that. I'm interested to see how they like it. When I asked them what sorts of foods they would need to make a sandwich, I got some really ... uh, thought-provoking answers: butter, cucumber, cabbage, eggs... I think there were a couple other pretty good ones too. But the point is, I'm not sure my idea and their idea of a sandwich are at all the same, so it might be pretty funny tomorrow. I'm also planning to have them read the story to me, which may also be entertaining. Fun day tomorrow, fun day.
After school, I'm hosting our multi-cultural dinner group, round 4! I'm making cheeseburgers (no grill of course, but they'll have to settle for the skillet) with homemade french fries. Actually, I ain't deep-frying them, so maybe "home fries" is a better word for them. But I've got tomatoes, onion, pickles, lettuce, mustard and ketchup... everything, in fact, but the buns. Which are apparently nigh-impossible to find here. I know I've seen them in restaurants, but I sure don't know where I might find some for purchase. Anyway, I'm excited about tomorrow! Lots of food-related things going on, which you all probably know I'm a sucker for.
Baseball game on Sunday -- LG Twins vs. ... well, somebody. I'm not sure it really matters who, actually. Mi Jin roots for LG, plus they're close -- just a few subway stops from the nearest bus station in Seoul. And the games are cheap here! I'm used to going to Wrigley with my cousin and seeing 80-90 bucks a seat... hell, even the bleachers are like $40 these days. Well, we're not entirely close, but we're on the 1st base side, in foul territory somewhere in the outfield. And we paid the equivalent of about $6.50 per ticket. That, is awesome. So, a little summer-time baseball, beer, and according to Emily, dried squid and roasted potatoes with sugar. Mm-mm-mmm, the taste of summer, right there. Haha...
I got something like 12 hours of sleep last night. It was so bizarre, but around 7pm I just got really overwhelmingly sleepy all of a sudden, and crashed out. I woke up at like 10:30, moved my laptop off the bed, turned out the light and went right back to sleep. Maybe 2am or so, I woke up again, and this time I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep... you know, already having gotten a full night's rest and all. So, I fired up the internet, ate some ice cream, and within 20 minutes I was done again. Crashed once again, only to wake up feeling absolutely fantastic at 7am. Which was early enough for me to do some dishes and start cleaning the place up a bit for the afore-mentioned dinner shenanigans I'm hosting tomorrow. Such a strange night, but today I felt great, so... whatever works, huh?
Also, another girl today told me that I look like Homer Simpson. I gotta say in my own defense, I don't see it. I mean, sure I'm a little chubby, but come on; Homer Simpson fat? I don't think so. Plus, I've got hair. I mean, seriously. Maybe it's my (relatively) large round eyes and my five o'clock shadow? I dunno. She did apologize later and told me that I had a very nice face (yes, in those exact words), but I can't say that made up for the hurt feelings from the Homer comment.
Korean kids are strange about that, by the way. Almost everyday, I have at least one student tell me I'm "handsome." And about half the time, it's a boy. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I'll take it, ya know? Don't look a compliment-horse in the mouth, all that...
Oh, in case you were wondering... the title of this post is the name of a K-Pop song that is real popular right now. It might not be the name, actually, but it is the only line that I know: To-yo-il pa-mae... which means, Sa-tur-day night. But you see what I did there, with the "toe" bit, cause of my ... ok. You get it. I gotta go now. For reasons unrelated to the diminishing quality of my blogging. I promise. Peace.
Actually, no. What really happened was that my toe started to hurt. Kinda badly, in fact. It only happens at one point in my stride, when my left foot is pushing off so the toes are kinda bent backward a bit. It's the big toe. It makes it really uncomfortable to walk. At first it was kinda sporadic, so I tried walking it off, but that only made it worse. So, resolved to the situation, I turned around and came home. Well, first I went to the grocery store, because...
Tomorrow we're making sandwiches in my after-school class! Whoo-ee. We're finishing up a little unit I created on Green Eggs and Ham, and of course one of the themes of the book is trying a new food. So I'm bringing in some western-style sandwichy stuff they probably haven't tried before. Like, peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese with yellow mustard, normal stuff like that. I'm interested to see how they like it. When I asked them what sorts of foods they would need to make a sandwich, I got some really ... uh, thought-provoking answers: butter, cucumber, cabbage, eggs... I think there were a couple other pretty good ones too. But the point is, I'm not sure my idea and their idea of a sandwich are at all the same, so it might be pretty funny tomorrow. I'm also planning to have them read the story to me, which may also be entertaining. Fun day tomorrow, fun day.
After school, I'm hosting our multi-cultural dinner group, round 4! I'm making cheeseburgers (no grill of course, but they'll have to settle for the skillet) with homemade french fries. Actually, I ain't deep-frying them, so maybe "home fries" is a better word for them. But I've got tomatoes, onion, pickles, lettuce, mustard and ketchup... everything, in fact, but the buns. Which are apparently nigh-impossible to find here. I know I've seen them in restaurants, but I sure don't know where I might find some for purchase. Anyway, I'm excited about tomorrow! Lots of food-related things going on, which you all probably know I'm a sucker for.
Baseball game on Sunday -- LG Twins vs. ... well, somebody. I'm not sure it really matters who, actually. Mi Jin roots for LG, plus they're close -- just a few subway stops from the nearest bus station in Seoul. And the games are cheap here! I'm used to going to Wrigley with my cousin and seeing 80-90 bucks a seat... hell, even the bleachers are like $40 these days. Well, we're not entirely close, but we're on the 1st base side, in foul territory somewhere in the outfield. And we paid the equivalent of about $6.50 per ticket. That, is awesome. So, a little summer-time baseball, beer, and according to Emily, dried squid and roasted potatoes with sugar. Mm-mm-mmm, the taste of summer, right there. Haha...
I got something like 12 hours of sleep last night. It was so bizarre, but around 7pm I just got really overwhelmingly sleepy all of a sudden, and crashed out. I woke up at like 10:30, moved my laptop off the bed, turned out the light and went right back to sleep. Maybe 2am or so, I woke up again, and this time I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep... you know, already having gotten a full night's rest and all. So, I fired up the internet, ate some ice cream, and within 20 minutes I was done again. Crashed once again, only to wake up feeling absolutely fantastic at 7am. Which was early enough for me to do some dishes and start cleaning the place up a bit for the afore-mentioned dinner shenanigans I'm hosting tomorrow. Such a strange night, but today I felt great, so... whatever works, huh?
Also, another girl today told me that I look like Homer Simpson. I gotta say in my own defense, I don't see it. I mean, sure I'm a little chubby, but come on; Homer Simpson fat? I don't think so. Plus, I've got hair. I mean, seriously. Maybe it's my (relatively) large round eyes and my five o'clock shadow? I dunno. She did apologize later and told me that I had a very nice face (yes, in those exact words), but I can't say that made up for the hurt feelings from the Homer comment.
Korean kids are strange about that, by the way. Almost everyday, I have at least one student tell me I'm "handsome." And about half the time, it's a boy. I'm not sure where that comes from, but I'll take it, ya know? Don't look a compliment-horse in the mouth, all that...
Oh, in case you were wondering... the title of this post is the name of a K-Pop song that is real popular right now. It might not be the name, actually, but it is the only line that I know: To-yo-il pa-mae... which means, Sa-tur-day night. But you see what I did there, with the "toe" bit, cause of my ... ok. You get it. I gotta go now. For reasons unrelated to the diminishing quality of my blogging. I promise. Peace.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Quiet week, great weekend!
So very very sorry about the lack of regular posting. It may get better. Or it may not. Like the Cardinals "offense." No one can say for sure.
The early part of the week was real quiet... nothing doing on Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday...
Actually, that's kind of a lie. Thursday I went out for drinks with Mi Sun, which was really fun. We went to a place called I Love Hoolala -- it's got cheap bear and expensive but tasty chicken. On our way from car to bar, we actually met another foreign teacher who had been to our center sometime in March, this Aussie guy named John. He was out shooting pool with a Korean teacher at his school, so they joined us for a couple of pitchers.
Yesterday I had a fan-freaking-tastic day at work, believe it or not! We had a new school after three days of the worst-behaved kids I've had the pleasure of meeting. I actually threatened one group of kids who wouldn't shut up. Not physically, mind you. I just told them if they wouldn't listen and participate that they'd have to sit there and copy the dialogues instead of roleplaying them and having fun with the metal detector, the airplane food and the taxi. Anyway, Friday's group was much better! Quiet, friendly, pretty solid English skills for the most part. And the best thing -- we've got more classes from this same school coming all next week. Should make for a much more enjoyable work week than the last one. And, my extra classes on Friday went really well. I've been struggling to find something that interests my fifth-graders enough to actually get them to try and learn something new. Well, I think Dr. Seuss is it. We've been doing "Green Eggs and Ham" for the last two classes. We've learned about rhyming words (which is sort of a foreign concept in Korean, I gather), and also interrogative vs. declarative sentences: "Do you like... ?" vs. "I like..." and "No, I don't like..." This is actually a big step forward for this group. Happy times. I think next week I'm going to have them read the story, and then on Friday... well, not sure yet. Maybe I'll bring in some foods and we'll move from I like to I want or I have. I dunno, but the outlook is good, let's leave it at that.
Last night, Mi Sun and I went out again -- this time for kalbi, then beer for dessert, then a walk down by the river which wasn't as pleasant as I'd expected due to the bugs (boo), and then ice cream for 2nd dessert. Good night. Super bonus best part: She invited me to join her, her sister and sister's family at Everland today! So, yeah -- Korean amusement park day! Whoo-ee! =) I'm not really sure what all they have there, but I'll definitely report back on the wonder that is Everland. I know it's like roller coasters and stuff, and apparently they do fireworks after dark, so it sounds like it should be pretty cool. More to come on that, for sure.
Also -- great day in sports yesterday. Cardinals won, which it seems is becoming increasingly rare. The Lakers won also, which I don't really care about. I just don't much like Orlando. For no reason, actually. It's like how I feel about Portuguese people. Then, there were two absolutely amazing matches at the French Open. Robin Soderling, the man who "did the impossible" (in his own words) by beating Rafa Nadal, is into the final after beating Gonzo in 5 sets. Then, Federer battled through 3.5 hours of mediocre tennis interspersed with brilliance (i.e. the 4th set, a couple games in the 5th) to finally beat Del Potro and get into the finals. This is his best chance to not only tie Pete Sampras for most Grand Slams ever, but to also complete his Career Slam -- winning all four majors, something Sampras never did. Regardless of whether or not he got off easy by missing Nadal this year, if he wins tomorrow I think he has to be called, officially, the greatest ever. And he deserves it. Good for him.
OK -- time to hop in the shower and get ready for the magic and mystery and fairy dust and insanely long lines of Korean Disneyworld. Hope ya'll have a great weekend! Peace.
The early part of the week was real quiet... nothing doing on Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday...
Actually, that's kind of a lie. Thursday I went out for drinks with Mi Sun, which was really fun. We went to a place called I Love Hoolala -- it's got cheap bear and expensive but tasty chicken. On our way from car to bar, we actually met another foreign teacher who had been to our center sometime in March, this Aussie guy named John. He was out shooting pool with a Korean teacher at his school, so they joined us for a couple of pitchers.
Yesterday I had a fan-freaking-tastic day at work, believe it or not! We had a new school after three days of the worst-behaved kids I've had the pleasure of meeting. I actually threatened one group of kids who wouldn't shut up. Not physically, mind you. I just told them if they wouldn't listen and participate that they'd have to sit there and copy the dialogues instead of roleplaying them and having fun with the metal detector, the airplane food and the taxi. Anyway, Friday's group was much better! Quiet, friendly, pretty solid English skills for the most part. And the best thing -- we've got more classes from this same school coming all next week. Should make for a much more enjoyable work week than the last one. And, my extra classes on Friday went really well. I've been struggling to find something that interests my fifth-graders enough to actually get them to try and learn something new. Well, I think Dr. Seuss is it. We've been doing "Green Eggs and Ham" for the last two classes. We've learned about rhyming words (which is sort of a foreign concept in Korean, I gather), and also interrogative vs. declarative sentences: "Do you like... ?" vs. "I like..." and "No, I don't like..." This is actually a big step forward for this group. Happy times. I think next week I'm going to have them read the story, and then on Friday... well, not sure yet. Maybe I'll bring in some foods and we'll move from I like to I want or I have. I dunno, but the outlook is good, let's leave it at that.
Last night, Mi Sun and I went out again -- this time for kalbi, then beer for dessert, then a walk down by the river which wasn't as pleasant as I'd expected due to the bugs (boo), and then ice cream for 2nd dessert. Good night. Super bonus best part: She invited me to join her, her sister and sister's family at Everland today! So, yeah -- Korean amusement park day! Whoo-ee! =) I'm not really sure what all they have there, but I'll definitely report back on the wonder that is Everland. I know it's like roller coasters and stuff, and apparently they do fireworks after dark, so it sounds like it should be pretty cool. More to come on that, for sure.
Also -- great day in sports yesterday. Cardinals won, which it seems is becoming increasingly rare. The Lakers won also, which I don't really care about. I just don't much like Orlando. For no reason, actually. It's like how I feel about Portuguese people. Then, there were two absolutely amazing matches at the French Open. Robin Soderling, the man who "did the impossible" (in his own words) by beating Rafa Nadal, is into the final after beating Gonzo in 5 sets. Then, Federer battled through 3.5 hours of mediocre tennis interspersed with brilliance (i.e. the 4th set, a couple games in the 5th) to finally beat Del Potro and get into the finals. This is his best chance to not only tie Pete Sampras for most Grand Slams ever, but to also complete his Career Slam -- winning all four majors, something Sampras never did. Regardless of whether or not he got off easy by missing Nadal this year, if he wins tomorrow I think he has to be called, officially, the greatest ever. And he deserves it. Good for him.
OK -- time to hop in the shower and get ready for the magic and mystery and fairy dust and insanely long lines of Korean Disneyworld. Hope ya'll have a great weekend! Peace.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
In Brief
What my blog would have said recently if I had twitter. Which I don't. And won't. Just saying...
I just got finished watching "Lars and the Real Girl." It's a damn funny movie.
I've stepped up the workouts -- feelin pretty good.
I think I'm going to splurge and buy some real ground beef (even though it's absurdly expensive) so that I can make myself a hamburger.
I'm almost finished with Unit 3 on my Korean thing. Only 1 more to go and then on to Level 2! Whoo-ee!
Things I can say in Korean now: I came over to visit my friends. I'm wearing a red winter hat. This milk smells bad.
Going to a Korean baseball game in June -- LG Twins vs. Samsung Lions! Summer's here, with the crack of the bat, smack of the mitt, beer and peanuts and hot dogs!
I can't believe the Cavs lost to Orlando. Bron-bron ain't arrived yet, is all I gotta say...
The post from last Monday, about Yeoju and all... yeah -- that was a date! And it was really good. And we're going out again this week. And I'm really excited! And I'm giggling like a schoolgirl...
I mostly just didn't want to finish the month with single-digit posts... so this is my half-assed effort to avoid that. It's finished now, don't worry.
I will, however, be posting soon about some fun Korean culture facts. I promise. I'm just doing a bit of research, which I'm a bit out of practice on, not to mention lazy... so yeah. Till next time. =)
I just got finished watching "Lars and the Real Girl." It's a damn funny movie.
I've stepped up the workouts -- feelin pretty good.
I think I'm going to splurge and buy some real ground beef (even though it's absurdly expensive) so that I can make myself a hamburger.
I'm almost finished with Unit 3 on my Korean thing. Only 1 more to go and then on to Level 2! Whoo-ee!
Things I can say in Korean now: I came over to visit my friends. I'm wearing a red winter hat. This milk smells bad.
Going to a Korean baseball game in June -- LG Twins vs. Samsung Lions! Summer's here, with the crack of the bat, smack of the mitt, beer and peanuts and hot dogs!
I can't believe the Cavs lost to Orlando. Bron-bron ain't arrived yet, is all I gotta say...
The post from last Monday, about Yeoju and all... yeah -- that was a date! And it was really good. And we're going out again this week. And I'm really excited! And I'm giggling like a schoolgirl...
I mostly just didn't want to finish the month with single-digit posts... so this is my half-assed effort to avoid that. It's finished now, don't worry.
I will, however, be posting soon about some fun Korean culture facts. I promise. I'm just doing a bit of research, which I'm a bit out of practice on, not to mention lazy... so yeah. Till next time. =)
Monday, May 25, 2009
Our Day in Yeoju
Well, first I wanna apologize if my life and subsequent blogging have been less than amusing. It's not that I'm not happy... on the contrary, things are going really well in general. It's just a quiet kind of happiness, is all.
Sunday, Mi Sun and I went to Yeoju. We had a lot of fun, and learned some stuff about Korean history while we were at it. Yes, I did say "we"... she'd never been to these places either, it turned out. First, we went and visited the birthplace of Korea's last empress, Empress Myeongseong. There's a little museum and a park there, and a bunch of buildings. Although, as it turns out, only one of the buildings is original -- the rest are reconstructions in the style of the period etc... But still, kinda cool. It's a pretty big compound, with lots of different houses for different generations, servants, separate ones for men and women even. And, even better, most of the captions and explanations are in both Korean and English. And this Korean family came up to ask us to get a picture of them... and, for some reason, they asked me. In English. And Mi Sun kinda looked at me, like... really?! Awesome. Maybe I just look friendlier. =)
Next we went to the tomb of King Sejong the Great. He's famous here; he invented their alphabet. Which is one of the UNESCO Heritage Great Accomplishments of the History of Mankind or some such -- anyway, suffice to say that Koreans are very proud and patriotic when it comes to this guy. Again, park, museums, and a garden with replicas of some of his other inventions. For example: a scientifically accurate rain-gauge, several different kinds of sundials, and some astronomical-type doohickies that allow you to measure the movements of the sun and moon and planets. Very cool, I gotta say. I think the coolest one was a sundial that sits in a shallow pool of water and uses magnets to align itself. You know, a sundial won't really work unless you turn it to the absolutely correct angle, which is probably a pain in the ass to figure out if you're travelling and want to say... watch reruns of the Drew Carey Show at 4:00 on TBS. Well, setting aside your obvious lack of taste, you could absolutely do that with Sejong's watery sundial. You just set it up somewhere flat and the magnets turn the whole thing to the right angle for you, and there you go! Bam -- instant comedy. Unintentional, sometimes, but whatever. We did walk through the park, past a lake, up a hill and up a few flights of stairs to see his actual tomb. Well, it's just a huge burial mound set way up high overlooking his hometown, but pretty neat. It reminded me of Cahokia Mounds; if you grew up in Marion you probably took a field trip there at some point. So, yeah, it's like that. But, you know... Korean.
Oh, another cool thing -- the first book written in Hangeul was there... well, no. These are copies, but still -- it's pretty awesome to see the birth of a new alphabet taking over an established language. There was an early dictionary too, with the new Hangeul letters and then explanations of their pronunciation and usage in Hanja (Chinese characters). It struck me kinda funny to think of Koreans having to explain how to write and say their letters using way more complicated and difficult letters to do it, but I guess they got their point across.
Next, we went to the Riverside Carnival. It actually is called that, but in Korean, you know. But yeah -- they had an archery range, bumper cars, cotton candy, little spinny and swingy and bumpy rides for the kids, and a Viking Ship -- you know, the giant ship that hangs from a center bar, and rotates back and forth, and so you go up and then freefall back down and around the other side, then fall backwards, rinse repeat. That was like, the worst explanation ever. Good thing it's the same in the States as it is here. So we did that, got some ice cream, and sat in a little park and watched the kids running around and playing badminton and whatnot. We walked down by the river, I tried to show her how to skip stones but it wasn't working too well (for either of us, actually) so we bailed and drove over to Silleuksa Temple. I guess she figured our funtime intermission was over, and back to the history lesson. Now, unfortunately, the World Ceramic Exposition is still going on, in both Yeoju and Icheon. You may remember that this is the most boring festival ever. Well, crap. And of course this is happening right next to the Temple she wanted to show me. We actually found a really close parking spot, I think because it was getting late and a lot of people were leaving. So we walked for a ways, down the street, through some trees and gardens, past a lake (yes, for the second time -- there are lots of little lakes around here, apparently), and we come to the gate of the temple. Now, at this point, Mi Sun says, "Oh! We have to pay to get in!" (Like, all surprised! I guess she didn't expect that.) "But there's really nothing to see in there... let's just leave." So... um, yeah. We left. Haha... it was probably for the best though, cause we were both pretty hungry by that time. We stopped at Mr. Pizza and ate some tacos and chimichangas, then headed back to Janghowon. I read for a while and went to bed early, cause I had to teach today.
For those of you who are wondering if that's a typo or some kind of Freudian slip up there... well, I's just seein if ya'll are payin attention. Of course we had pizza at Mr. Pizza. Duh...
And for those of you who just glossed over it without going "Wha-wha-what?!?" while your eyes bugged out a la Looney Tunes, well... haha! Gotcha! =Þ
Coming up next time, by request, some cultural phenomena and oddities and such. Come on back now, ya hear?
Sunday, Mi Sun and I went to Yeoju. We had a lot of fun, and learned some stuff about Korean history while we were at it. Yes, I did say "we"... she'd never been to these places either, it turned out. First, we went and visited the birthplace of Korea's last empress, Empress Myeongseong. There's a little museum and a park there, and a bunch of buildings. Although, as it turns out, only one of the buildings is original -- the rest are reconstructions in the style of the period etc... But still, kinda cool. It's a pretty big compound, with lots of different houses for different generations, servants, separate ones for men and women even. And, even better, most of the captions and explanations are in both Korean and English. And this Korean family came up to ask us to get a picture of them... and, for some reason, they asked me. In English. And Mi Sun kinda looked at me, like... really?! Awesome. Maybe I just look friendlier. =)
Next we went to the tomb of King Sejong the Great. He's famous here; he invented their alphabet. Which is one of the UNESCO Heritage Great Accomplishments of the History of Mankind or some such -- anyway, suffice to say that Koreans are very proud and patriotic when it comes to this guy. Again, park, museums, and a garden with replicas of some of his other inventions. For example: a scientifically accurate rain-gauge, several different kinds of sundials, and some astronomical-type doohickies that allow you to measure the movements of the sun and moon and planets. Very cool, I gotta say. I think the coolest one was a sundial that sits in a shallow pool of water and uses magnets to align itself. You know, a sundial won't really work unless you turn it to the absolutely correct angle, which is probably a pain in the ass to figure out if you're travelling and want to say... watch reruns of the Drew Carey Show at 4:00 on TBS. Well, setting aside your obvious lack of taste, you could absolutely do that with Sejong's watery sundial. You just set it up somewhere flat and the magnets turn the whole thing to the right angle for you, and there you go! Bam -- instant comedy. Unintentional, sometimes, but whatever. We did walk through the park, past a lake, up a hill and up a few flights of stairs to see his actual tomb. Well, it's just a huge burial mound set way up high overlooking his hometown, but pretty neat. It reminded me of Cahokia Mounds; if you grew up in Marion you probably took a field trip there at some point. So, yeah, it's like that. But, you know... Korean.
Oh, another cool thing -- the first book written in Hangeul was there... well, no. These are copies, but still -- it's pretty awesome to see the birth of a new alphabet taking over an established language. There was an early dictionary too, with the new Hangeul letters and then explanations of their pronunciation and usage in Hanja (Chinese characters). It struck me kinda funny to think of Koreans having to explain how to write and say their letters using way more complicated and difficult letters to do it, but I guess they got their point across.
Next, we went to the Riverside Carnival. It actually is called that, but in Korean, you know. But yeah -- they had an archery range, bumper cars, cotton candy, little spinny and swingy and bumpy rides for the kids, and a Viking Ship -- you know, the giant ship that hangs from a center bar, and rotates back and forth, and so you go up and then freefall back down and around the other side, then fall backwards, rinse repeat. That was like, the worst explanation ever. Good thing it's the same in the States as it is here. So we did that, got some ice cream, and sat in a little park and watched the kids running around and playing badminton and whatnot. We walked down by the river, I tried to show her how to skip stones but it wasn't working too well (for either of us, actually) so we bailed and drove over to Silleuksa Temple. I guess she figured our funtime intermission was over, and back to the history lesson. Now, unfortunately, the World Ceramic Exposition is still going on, in both Yeoju and Icheon. You may remember that this is the most boring festival ever. Well, crap. And of course this is happening right next to the Temple she wanted to show me. We actually found a really close parking spot, I think because it was getting late and a lot of people were leaving. So we walked for a ways, down the street, through some trees and gardens, past a lake (yes, for the second time -- there are lots of little lakes around here, apparently), and we come to the gate of the temple. Now, at this point, Mi Sun says, "Oh! We have to pay to get in!" (Like, all surprised! I guess she didn't expect that.) "But there's really nothing to see in there... let's just leave." So... um, yeah. We left. Haha... it was probably for the best though, cause we were both pretty hungry by that time. We stopped at Mr. Pizza and ate some tacos and chimichangas, then headed back to Janghowon. I read for a while and went to bed early, cause I had to teach today.
For those of you who are wondering if that's a typo or some kind of Freudian slip up there... well, I's just seein if ya'll are payin attention. Of course we had pizza at Mr. Pizza. Duh...
And for those of you who just glossed over it without going "Wha-wha-what?!?" while your eyes bugged out a la Looney Tunes, well... haha! Gotcha! =Þ
Coming up next time, by request, some cultural phenomena and oddities and such. Come on back now, ya hear?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Korean (Food, Movies, Language)
Last night was round 3 in our little cooking triangle we've got going. If you remember, a while back, I cooked spaghetti for Mi Sun and Mi Jin. Then, a few weeks later, we did it again: this time, Mi Sun made bulgogi -- Korean marinated beef. Well, last night was Mi Jin's turn. And I gotta say, in all fairness to the last two meals, which both turned out really well, that this was probably the best of the bunch.
We went to the store, where Mi Jin bought some carrots, sweet potatoes, green onions, and a whole pre-sectioned chicken. Like, not in the normal pieces, but with the breasts and thighs cut into maybe 1.5-2" squares. Then we came back to my place, and I started looking for a movie for us to watch after dinner, so I didn't see all the preparations take place. The one thing I did notice was when she busted out a little tupperware container of chili-paste mixed with some other things, that she had made at home the night before, just for us! =) It was a pretty quick meal to put together, that's for sure. And we ended up with this really amazingly delicious spicy chicken stew. Yeah, that's what we'll call it. I mean, it even had most of the traditional stew ingredients, with a couple exceptions. We had carrots and onions; sweet potato instead of regular; chicken instead of beef (although my buddy Stuart does make a mean chicken stew, so that's even kinda familiar); and spicy instead of savory. Of course, we ate it over rice, but you shouldn't let that distract you. I'm not sure you can have a meal in Korea without it... unless you substitute noodles. Anyway, it was freakin good. Thanks Mi Jin! =)
Then we had cherry ice cream for dessert and watched the movie: Chugyeogja, it's called... or in English, "The Chaser." It's pretty violent, and depressing... but a pretty good flick none the less. It's about a detective who became a pimp, and his hookers keep disappearing on him. He tracks down the john who seems to be associated with each girl before she goes missing, and then, naturally, there's a good bit of chasing involved. Punctuated with punching and kicking. Then more chasing. Yeah, it's not a bad movie at all, but the girls kept getting scared at the gory parts and hiding behind my throw pillows. So, you know, I liked it. If you're a chick and uh... dainty, then maybe don't watch it by yourself.
Today has been another lazy Saturday. It rained off and on most of the day although it seems to have cleared up in the past hour or two. Tomorrow's supposed to be beautiful though, so I think Mi Sun and I are going to Yeoju to do some touristing. The tomb of King Sejong the Great is there, and also the birthplace of the last empress of Korea, and some other cool temples and historical sites... so we're gonna go have a history lesson, I guess. It's good for me, right?
Other things I'm interested in at the moment: my Korean is coming along pretty well. One of the teachers who came to the Global Center this past week was impressed. Also, the Cardinals have won 4 straight, including a really timely sweep of the Cubbies this week. (Whooooooooo-EE!) The NBA conference finals have had 4 straight nailbiters, and no team has won by more than 3 points while both series are tied at 1-1. So that's shaping up nicely. The French Open starts this week -- yes, I'm a tennis fan. I know, we're pretty few and far between, but at least my mom understands, right momma? =) Also, Ryan, the foreign teacher (the term used here for people like me) whose school came to the Global Center this week is a really good golfer apparently, so I think we're going to try to go to the driving range and hit some balls soon. Apparently, he's a scratch golfer, and is a member of the PGA and everything. Not the PGA Tour, mind you, but he is a golf pro -- like, he could work at a country club and give lessons and stuff. So, that should be cool. And, I found out I can go ahead and extend my gym membership for 3 months, and put it on pause when I leave for summer vacation. Finally, I just finished Steven King's "Desperation," which was awesome, and now I'm moving on to "Genghis: Lords of the Bow," the sequel to that other Genghis novel I liked so much.
And that's all, folks!
We went to the store, where Mi Jin bought some carrots, sweet potatoes, green onions, and a whole pre-sectioned chicken. Like, not in the normal pieces, but with the breasts and thighs cut into maybe 1.5-2" squares. Then we came back to my place, and I started looking for a movie for us to watch after dinner, so I didn't see all the preparations take place. The one thing I did notice was when she busted out a little tupperware container of chili-paste mixed with some other things, that she had made at home the night before, just for us! =) It was a pretty quick meal to put together, that's for sure. And we ended up with this really amazingly delicious spicy chicken stew. Yeah, that's what we'll call it. I mean, it even had most of the traditional stew ingredients, with a couple exceptions. We had carrots and onions; sweet potato instead of regular; chicken instead of beef (although my buddy Stuart does make a mean chicken stew, so that's even kinda familiar); and spicy instead of savory. Of course, we ate it over rice, but you shouldn't let that distract you. I'm not sure you can have a meal in Korea without it... unless you substitute noodles. Anyway, it was freakin good. Thanks Mi Jin! =)
Then we had cherry ice cream for dessert and watched the movie: Chugyeogja, it's called... or in English, "The Chaser." It's pretty violent, and depressing... but a pretty good flick none the less. It's about a detective who became a pimp, and his hookers keep disappearing on him. He tracks down the john who seems to be associated with each girl before she goes missing, and then, naturally, there's a good bit of chasing involved. Punctuated with punching and kicking. Then more chasing. Yeah, it's not a bad movie at all, but the girls kept getting scared at the gory parts and hiding behind my throw pillows. So, you know, I liked it. If you're a chick and uh... dainty, then maybe don't watch it by yourself.
Today has been another lazy Saturday. It rained off and on most of the day although it seems to have cleared up in the past hour or two. Tomorrow's supposed to be beautiful though, so I think Mi Sun and I are going to Yeoju to do some touristing. The tomb of King Sejong the Great is there, and also the birthplace of the last empress of Korea, and some other cool temples and historical sites... so we're gonna go have a history lesson, I guess. It's good for me, right?
Other things I'm interested in at the moment: my Korean is coming along pretty well. One of the teachers who came to the Global Center this past week was impressed. Also, the Cardinals have won 4 straight, including a really timely sweep of the Cubbies this week. (Whooooooooo-EE!) The NBA conference finals have had 4 straight nailbiters, and no team has won by more than 3 points while both series are tied at 1-1. So that's shaping up nicely. The French Open starts this week -- yes, I'm a tennis fan. I know, we're pretty few and far between, but at least my mom understands, right momma? =) Also, Ryan, the foreign teacher (the term used here for people like me) whose school came to the Global Center this week is a really good golfer apparently, so I think we're going to try to go to the driving range and hit some balls soon. Apparently, he's a scratch golfer, and is a member of the PGA and everything. Not the PGA Tour, mind you, but he is a golf pro -- like, he could work at a country club and give lessons and stuff. So, that should be cool. And, I found out I can go ahead and extend my gym membership for 3 months, and put it on pause when I leave for summer vacation. Finally, I just finished Steven King's "Desperation," which was awesome, and now I'm moving on to "Genghis: Lords of the Bow," the sequel to that other Genghis novel I liked so much.
And that's all, folks!
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