Year TWO in Korea

It has been 6 months since I have updated my blog. Luckily, through the use of my computer journal and through old emails, I can put something together for the past 3 months. I didn't edit this as much as I would like. I apologize in advance for my lazy writing.

DECEMBER 15: I finally had my first two day weekend since early November. Our school closed down for a week in November during the Swine Flu scare and they made us work four Saturdays so they could earn their money back. It was so nice to have the two days off this weekend to go into Seoul and have a look around with my coworker Patrick and his friend ByeongChul .  I also got to meet up with my old coworker, Melinda, there too.  Its strange how much I like the cold weather here.  Most people want to cuddle up and stay inside all winter, but I get super happy when its cold and want to go for a walk outside.

I am going home to Portland in 8 or nine days.  Should be amazing.  I am a little nervous though because I'll be home for such a short amount of time, that I won't be able to see all of the amazing people I miss.  Shannon will be back in town for winter vacation from Indiana, so I'll see her which will be great.  Over the past couple of years I've only seen her a handful of times.  So strange to think it has already been 3 years since she and I were roommates.

DECEMBER 24-JANUARY 3: Christmas in America.

JANUARY 4
I arrived safely back in Korea on Sunday. It was a great trip home, thanks everyone!



The trip home was calm, though not particularly restful. I was jet lagged most of the time and not as energetic as usual, though I swear I was twice as loud. I can't tell if I am always that loud and my family is the only one who will bother to tell me.



I got to visit Seattle and Portland. I went shopping, ate a cupcake, took a bath, drank lots of coffee, played Scrabble and Cranium, ate gourmet food (the Pacific Northwest's version of Italian), saw my family, went shopping, uploaded videos to YouTube, baked cookies, etc. By the way, if you are interested in watching videos of my students, I uploaded several over the holiday. My YouTube account name is: BucheonSK.



It was interesting to see my siblings coupled up. Now only my younger brother and I haven't a significant other. My family circle is growing!



School was closed on Monday due to a “blizzard”. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground and even with the heat on and bundling up I was pretty cold today. My officetel is drafty and sucks in the cold.
I heard reports that Monday was the highest accumulation of snow in Seoul for 100 years.  We won't have to make up the snow day by working another Saturday, thank goodness.  On Tuesday, I brought in the gifts of chocolates from home for my Korean co-workers, which they really enjoyed.

JANUARY 9

I forgot to mention how much I loved seeing Bella when I got back. I had feared that she would be angry with me and pee on my pillow or something. However, she was quite the little sweetheart. She crawled under the covers and laid her back against my belly and slept next to me all night. Thanks to ByunCheol's excellent cat watching skills, Bella was not so lonely as I would have expected. BC came to the house each day and sat and played video games with her on his lap for a couple of hours. Thank you thank you!



My new favorite thing to cook is what I am going to refer to as "Boiled Mush". Basically, it would be a thick soup if I could get my hands on a food processor. My favorite combination is a mix of peeled and boiled squash, garlic, ginger, fennel, and today I made a great leap of faith and satisfied my cooking ego by adding a little soy sauce and half an apple to the mix. Before you throw up, let me assure you, this ugly little meal tastes fantastic! And it has no added fat or sugar, unless you add a fried egg on top, which is my favorite part.


Last night I went out to dinner and drinks with Jenny at The Park. That bar will soon run RnB out of business, I suspect. I had a grand old time with Jenny, and SuJin. The bar's margaritas are excellent, and I had fun flirting with a couple of guys.


I've already finished reading my first book of 2010, Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hara. I'm now reading The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler.


JANUARY 10: Rachel and I met for coffee and had fun catching up.



I cooked a lot of food for lunches for this week. It should be nice to have foods I like, prepared for the next couple of days. It will at least keep the temptation for snacking on convenience store food at a minimum.


JANUARY 16 : Yesterday was a long day of work. Then I went out to dinner with Patrick and BC. Then I met up with Jenny, Shayna, Brandon, Kara, Jess, Rachel, and Adam at the Park Bar.


FEBRUARY 6: I talked with my parents today on the phone. Finished book number two. Started Zuleika Dobson.

FEBRUARY 8: I got homesick after talking with my parents on Sunday.  I am really glad they called me.  I miss them.

I can't wait to get paid.  I've had 40 bucks for about 10 days, with not much food in the fridge except eggs and penut butter.  Tomorrow night I'll get paid.  I could've asked for an advance, but didn't want to get behind.


FEBRUARY 13: I finished Zuleika Dobson. What an odd book! I started Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Last night SuJin (now dubbed Camille), Jenny, Kara, and I met up with two Korean guys so that Jenny could go on a blind date with one of them with the comfort of a casual group hangout. We went to a foreigner bar in Bupion, that I didn't care for at all. It was dark and not set up to mingle.

Today Jenny and I ate lunch at GS Square then Jenny went on a shopping spree for her birthday. She got some beautiful items. We met up with SuJin and Kara at Kosney (a "lifestyle store" similar to Anthropologie). We also bought coordinating friendship bracelets. Had dinner at Dakgalbi (spicy chicken, cheese-dakboki, and cabbage cooked in a wok on the table). Doug, SuJin's boyfriend, stopped in for a quick hello, and informed us that we were really “high school” for buying friendship bracelets.



Last Wednesday I went out with Tim to Galbi then we went over to The Park. Then we went to RnB and played pool. We played against some University professors. There was this really cocky guy there named who reminded me of my Shakespeare professor in college. Then Tim and I went to Kava, a bar that caters to businessmen. We got the royal treatment there because Tim makes an effort to show customer loyalty in order to make good connections. We ate warmed up dried squid dipped in hot sauce and mayo. I didn't get home until about 3AM, so I was exhausted the next day.
But luckily I was not too grumpy.  I won't be in a hurry to go out late on a weekday again.

Afterwards I went home and tried to sort through photos for my 2000-2010 photo project.  But with all of the school photos my co-teachers took I have 2,000 photos not including my own.  I've gone through 500 so far but the file format is so large that everything is slow to load just to view and delete them.  I got a headache around 11:30PM and went to bed.

FEBRUARY 16: The bank's server has been messed up for 3 days and I tried sending money home but couldn't.  I can't withdraw cash or use my card either.

I've been feeling kind of crappy about myself lately.  I have gone into a shop twice this week and been shooed out because they said I was too fat and wouldn't even let me look at their clothes.  I fucking hate Korea sometimes.  Anyway, my students started reading a book that seemed much more appropriate for adults than children called "Its okay to be different".  I've pasted it in. It helped me, maybe it'll help you too. 
 
It’s Okay to be Different
It’s okay to be missing a tooth
(or two or three)
It’s okay to need some help
It’s okay to have a different nose
It’s okay to be a different color
It’s okay to have no hair
It’s okay to have BIG ears
It’s okay to have wheels
It’s okay to be Small Medium Large Extra Large
It’s okay to wear glasses
It’s okay to talk about your feelings
It’s okay to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub
It’s okay to say NO to bad things
It’s okay to come from a different place
It’s okay to be embarrassed
It’s okay to come in last
It’s okay to dance by yourself
It’s okay to have a pet worm
It’s okay to be proud of yourself
It’s okay to have different Moms
It’s okay to have different Dads
It’s okay to be adopted
It’s okay to have an invisible friend
It’s okay to do something nice for someone
It’s okay to lose your mittens
It’s okay to get mad
It’s okay to do something nice for yourself
It’s okay to help a squirrel collect nuts
It’s okay to have different kinds of friends
It’s okay to make a wish
It’s okay to be different.
You are special and
Important just because of being who you are.
Love,
Todd Parr

FEBRUARY 21: A package from home arrived today, but unfortunately it had been ripped open and some of the contents stolen.  I was bummed about that.  I received: the note, the concealer, and notepad, but the socks and the candy were gone.  Grace recommended that next time the package be sent as registered mail so that the front desk signs for it.  Unregistered mail is just left downstairs where anyone can see it.  Bummer.
 
I went to GwanJu, near Daegu, this past weekend with my co-workers and had the time of
my life. We were celebrating Jenny's birthday. We (Jenny, Kara, Patrick, Shayna, Brandon, ByeongChul, and I) took a comfortable 5 hour long train ride down to Daegu for 40,000 round-trip fare. We took a bus to GwanJu, where there were several UNESCO World Heritage sites. When we arrived, we were starving. We searched for a place to eat and happened upon the most amazing beef galbi run by an old woman whom we had woken from a nap. The food was totally different from normal Seoul galbi. The meat was better, and it was pre-sliced before they put it on the grill on the table. It was also marinated and had big hunks of garlic on it. The lady also served us her special 1 year old kimchee, amongst other amazing sides. Sounds gross? It's awesome. I like old kimchee better than fresh kimchee.

We were in a hurry to get to a historical site after eating, because we had only a few precious hours of sunlight left. We went to a Buddhist temple and took the most beautiful golden sunset pictures. There was a pond with the ice half-frozen over it. Branches hung along a bridge. Gold lighting fell upon ancient buildings. We saw monks making their rounds for evening duties and a monk invited us to follow him. He played drums, sang, and chanted in three different areas on his rounds. The most amazing of which was when he and two other men took turns playing on a drum maybe nine feet tall. Each person played very differently from the next, it was as if each turn of drumming had it's own personality and its own power. We were invited to a monk's service, but some people didn't seem interested, so we declined.

We stayed in the sleepy town just below the temple at a love motel called Hue. Love motels are cheap, clean, and convenient here in Korea. At this love motel, the owner lent his car to our group for 4 hours. I was too tired by this point to go with them, so I stayed in, but Kara, Patrick, ByeongChul, and Brandon went to a beautiful lamp lit pond that night. I regretted missing out afterwards.

The next day went to the Grotto, which houses one of the most respected replicas of the Buddha. It was on top of a huge mountain. My friends were nervous the bus was going to fall off the edge of the road as we wound up and around. When we arrived, there was a prayer service inside the cabin with the Buddhist statue, which unfortunately meant that the place was packed and we couldn't see a thing. Still, it was a nice little hike. We had to hustle back to the bus because it left only once an hour. I ran ahead of the others and asked the driver to wait. Later we went to the kings' royal tombs. I think there are a total of 50. They are these huge mounds of dirt where the kings and their wives were buried. We went inside of one that had been excavated. It had an unusual crown on display.

Not wanting to miss anything, we took a cab from the royal tombs to a Confucian school with an hour left before we had to catch our bus back to Daegu. However, along the way, Patrick and I got side-tracked when we saw an old man working in his yard on rock art. We asked if we could take a photo of his work, and he invited us in for a better look and to show us books of his exhibitions in museums. We we called everyone who had gone ahead and they joined us. The man gave us an explanation of his work while ByeongChul translated for us. His art was to make rocks look like replicas of familiar mountains. He said that only extremely wealthy patrons were able to purchase from him, and that only a few people understood his art. When we said goodbye, he gave BC his card, which was in Chinese (traditionally, Koreans wrote in Chinese even though they spoke Hangul) and asked us to send him a letter with the photo with all of us together. Our time in GwanJu was up, and we had to make it back to the bus station quickly.

The train ride home was quiet. We turned the seats around (they do this cool swivel thing!) and looked at the LCD on Shayna's and Patrick's cameras. I have a film camera, so I didn't see how amazing the photos were until two days later.

FEBRUARY 25: I watched a little bit of the Olympic replays today. Korea is SOOOOO proud of Yuna Kim.
 
I got a comment card back from my student's parent:  "Brian showed me your YouTube videos.  I like the one of your family.  Your mom is so young and beautiful!"  I was surprised that a 5 year old child remembered my YouTube account name and brought it home to show his mom! I was pleased to see a compliment for my own mom, though.

MARCH 4: It has been a fast overwhelming first week of the new school year.  I've been training new staff, helping the new academic coordinator, and trying to communicate with Korean speaking 4 year olds.  I miss my old students even though I see them in the hallway sometimes.  I got two presents from my old student's parents: tea and earrings. 

I am tired.  I went to bed by 8:30 PM and was up at 7:55 AM.  The cat is in heat and she sprayed on my clothes.  I'm angry about that.  Time to get her fixed.  My house is kind of messy. 

Everyone wants to go to the bar tonight, and even though it is Friday I am thinking about going home to do laundry and clean house.
 
MARCH 9: By lunchtime today I wanted to quit Poly. I felt like it was a big mistake to re-sign and I wanted to go home. Not move to another school, just pack up and go to America. I am burnt out, exhausted. I like to feel in charge of myself. It gives me a sense of self-respect. I hate micro-management and I hate constant changes. I was warned in my education classes about this feeling. It sucks that there are only two weeks off a year for Poly schools, and no personal days for mental wellbeing.


MARCH 21: I went to a Poly conference in Ilsan on Saturday. The conference trip was from 8:30AM to 5:30PM, including travel to and from Ilsan.  Way to go working on a Saturday! Actually, even though I missed part of my weekend, I was really glad I went. I got to know my Academic Coordinator a little better, had a great time with my new-ish co-workers, Kara, Joanne, and Casey. I also found out that the head Poly Research and Development team has headquarters in Seattle.  I am going to try to find out more about it and explore a continued career in teaching English or creating materials for English teachers.  I have also thought it would be really neat to explore a career in publishing/lesson planning for children's publishers.

Yesterday I went to dinner with Jenny, Casey, and Kara at a Vietnamese restaurant.  Then Casey, Kara, and I went to Alice in Wonderland in 2-D.  I enjoyed the movie a lot. Even though movies are expensive here, it was well worth it to watch something in English and the dresses in that movie are amazing!  Plus it was fun spending time with Casey and Kara, who are amazing people and are so funny that they help lift me out of my generally serious demeanor.    We went to The Park Bar, where I didn't drink but other people were already really drunk.  I knew 90 percent of the people in the bar which was really fun.

Today I slept in late and sadly missed Skype with my family.  I met up with my friend, Rachel, in the afternoon for coffee and she invited me to dinner at Jessica's house.  So Jess, Jessica, Rachel, and I had a wonderful dinner of Caesar salad, garlic bread, and I brought some strawberries and vanilla ice cream.  (Strawberries taste so much better in Korea, than America!)  It was a great evening of conversation and good music.

MARCH 28: I had a great weekend again.  Friday night I went to the release party for NEH magazine, Bucheon's new foreigner magazine.  It was really crowded and all my friends were there.  I bought a copy of the magazine and read it cover to cover on Saturday. 

Saturday Jenny and I went to our favorite meal in Korea, called "SangSanGui". It's a fried white fish that they serve with awesome Korean sides, rice and a fried egg each.  That was our breakfast.  It sounds weird, but it's a really nice breakfast.  Jenny came over and chatted for a while, then I looked at beautiful designer dresses on a discount website called "Gilt" for drawing inspiration. 

That night I got dressed up to go to the most amazing Jazz group ever !!!  They're a Korean band called The Lemon Brains. The vocalist and drummer were particularly amazing.  They played jazz but with an edge.  The vocalist made me want to come home, study jazz piano and sing in a similar style to hers. Jenny, Jamie, and I had a lot of fun in the relaxed atmosphere of good music and good people. I also got to see a few other friends and meet Jess Yonke's mom and brother.

On Sunday, Jenny, Tim, Doug, SuJin and I went to Jenny's boyfriend's traditional theater performance.  He got us in for free, with the demand that we bring him some chocolates.  It was all in Korean, so I didn't understand everything, but it was about the competitive wives of the king plotting to poison one of the king's pregnant wives out of jealousy.  All with singing, dancing, traditional instruments, hanboks (Korean traditional dress), and a “happy ending.”   It was a lot of fun.  After the performance, HeChun, Jenny's boyfriend, came out to chat with us and we saw his costume up close. It was pretty cool! He was dressed like an old man, with convincing age lines on his face and a microphone taped to his forehead.

After the performance, we looked around Namdaemun Market for a while, then took the subway home to have galbi for dinner.  It was a great weekend, though I think I am starting to catch the cold that's going around.  However with the healthy foods, activity, ample rest, and happiness I have been experiencing, I might be able to minimize the cold.

MARCH 29: I am really proud of the progress I've made as a teacher this year. I know I have a lot to learn. I have realized that the first year teaching really is about “survival”. Now that I have done all of the activities before in pre-kindergarten so I am much more prepared for the potential problems the activities might bring. I also don't sit down much anymore. I get tired and my feet hurt, but standing is more effective. I also dress nicer than I used to, which my students and their parents definitely positively respond to. My new itty-bitties are completely different from my students last year. My homeroom class is at a much lower level now. But then again, I am slightly more experienced and I know what children can accomplish in one year, so I am doing my best. Part of the hagwon life, though, is I have to get 4 and 5 year olds who are complete novices to READ in a foreign language in 1-2 months of schooling! It is a lot of pressure.

I had a nice compliment from my last class today, GT2C2-2 (lower-level second graders). They said they didn't like Monday's because that was when they took vocabulary quizzes. Then they said grammar was their favorite class! They said they couldn't wait for Wednesday, because it was grammar day. I was totally surprised and flattered, because this is my second year teaching them grammar. Most of the Koreans I have met who have talked about their English learning experience make it quite clear how much they hate learning grammar. Yay! I am doing something right.