Light White Raspberry Latte, Please.

Can you believe it?? There is a Caribou Coffee in Seoul, Korea! Back home, this is my favorite place to get my morning brew--it is a local coffee chain out of Minneapolis, and has opened many new shops nation-wide (and apparently, world-wide). I have had a policy these past years that I am allowed to reward myself each Friday with a coffee drink. I look forward to Fridays and usually have my drink planned way before Friday even hits! I did not have a good start today... I woke up way too late and made it to work fifteen minutes late! I had set my alarm as usual, but this morning I am not sure what happened! I woke up just after 8!! I usually leave at 7:45 or 7:50 in order to get to work on time, so since I already told you that I was only 15 minutes late for work, you have probably rightly concluded that I skipped a lot of my morning routine! No shower, no breakfast, and no peaceful cup of coffee. So, I am thinking that I may need to cash in on my reward coffee a day early. I am going to order a cup of light white raspberry latte (they cost 5,000 won--and you think YOUR coffee is expensive!).

California WOW!

I signed up for a gym membership last month at California WOW. I have had a gym membership for years, so it was something I looked for right away when I got here. It is generally the same here as in the States--that is one thing I really like. The only major difference I notice is the fact that the temperature is much much warmer in there than the gyms in the States. A friend told me that the Koreans really like to sweat when they work out and feel that they are getting a better workout the more they sweat. (I would like to see research on that.) Other than that, the gym doesn't feel like a foreign culture to me. It is just a bunch of sweaty people trying to get fit. Oh, today I had a funny conversation with someone at work. It is totally unrelated to my gym membership. I met a new co-worker at lunch and when we were walking back to our office cubicles, she pointed toward one a couple of rows from mine and said, "I live there." Her English is not great, so I assume she meant that she works there, but, haven't we all felt like that at some point or another? :)

AFN TV

I have a love/hate relationship with military TV. It is nice to have a few shows in English, but the commercials are almost unbearable! There is one about not shaking your baby ("It's OK to let your baby cry"), and another about not throwing away old uniforms ("You never know who is digging through the trash"). The commercials are geared toward the military, but I can't think those guys enjoy them any more than I do! The news segments are also really bad. The home videolike segments are all about military dealings and are not interesting. The nice thing is that there aren't any product commercials, only the military ones after the show is over. Anyway, recently my friend told me that AFN might be blocked to the general public, in which case my only English channel would disappear!! NoooooO!

Cue the M*A*S*H theme song now!

I have often had the M*A*S*H theme song rolling through my head since I have been here. It is predictable and unstoppable. As soon see the green, rolling mountains, it starts! I found a cool acoustic version for you to listen to as you read my blog...enjoy! :)

What do you mean exactly?

Whenever you have the chance to work with people who are learning English, funny conversations are sure to happen frequently! I had one of these the other day, and as I relayed the conversation to a friend here, she encouraged me to blog about it. So, here is the conversation I had with a 27-year-old, female English co-teacher:

Korean co-worker: Would you like some chocolate?
Me: Yes, thank you.
Korean co-worker: You know, it is important for women to chew on things like squares of chocolate. It keeps our teeth healthy.
Me: Really? I didn't know that.
Korean co-worker: Yes, that is why chocolate is good for women. Also, it is good to chew on gum and penis.
Me: Gum and what?
Korean co-worker: Gum and penis.
Me: (laughing) Do you mean peanuts?
Korean co-worker: Yes, penis.
Me: (laughing harder) I will write what you said on paper. (I write it down and hand it to her)
Korean co-worker: (immediately realizing her mistake and red in the face) Oh no!

No Keys!

I haven't had to carry around keys since before I left Minneapolis in June. I was kind of looking forward to having a set of keys and a cell phone again, but I don't have either in Korea! My apartment is opened with codes (and I secretly fear that I will completely forget my codes someday!). Also, as you may know, it is required to remove one's shoes when entering homes and some restaurants. I have acquired quite a pile and don't always put them away as often as I should! I brought a lot of shoes and even had my mom send a couple more pairs because my feet are unusually large here in Korea. It is embarrassing to tell the shopkeeper my shoe size! Their eyes bug out and they make a gesture with their hands that reminds me of how people describe the size of fish they caught! There is always about two feet of space between their hands! :) (I wear an American size 9 shoe)

Seafood Rissoto and Kimchi?

Dinner tonight was awesome! My friend and I went to a great Indian restaurant and ate way too much! We both had the seafood rissoto with a glass of their house red wine. It is great to have so many options of food available! In one building, there were two Italian restaurants, a Kebab stand, a German buffet, an Indian place...oh, and an oral surgery office! Seoul has almost every kind of food you could imagine. It is loaded with good things from all around the world--I thought Minneapolis had a lot of options, but I am constantly amazed at which restaurants are available here! Anyway, you can see in the picture that there is a liquid form of kimchi (it's more like a soup, really)...almost EVERY place I have been to here serves kimchi with the meal.

Overcrowded in Gangnam Station!

Lately, Gangnam Station has been under construction. This is inconvenient, but is OK during the normal workweek. It really gets to be a problem, though, during rush hour--especially Friday nights!! The construction workers have basically cut the stairwells in half to work on one side, and have built a dividing wall to do this. They are working back there...I hear their saws and hammers, but even after all these weeks, we still have to squeeze together to squish through the door! The picture above shows people in a long line waiting to exit the station...the line is about 6 people thick, and stretches almost to the subway stairs! I taught the word "crowded" to my students last week and should have showed them a picture like these...they would have instantly understood this word! :)

Health Drinks

I have been sick the past few days. Just a little cold, but it was enough to make me lose my voice. There are some other teachers with this same cold. We have magically had small bottles appear on our desks! These are health drinks...they are extremely sweet and incredibly potent. Anyway, I had to take a picture because I think it is so funny! I had teachers take my classes for me because they didn't think I was well enough to teach!

Walking Day and Art Day

Every year the students at my school have a day where they can display their art and classes are shortened so students and staff can look at it. Let me tell you--their art beats the American middle schoolers' art by 10 times!! Some of the sixth graders were drawing and painting stuff that looked professional! Wow!! I was so impressed as I looked over the drawings, ceramics, and even flower arrangements! I was asked to make something to share my culture, so I did a very basic poster board with lots of pictures of things to represent America. It was displayed between some really amazing comic book art, and some clay models of the brain. I was embarrassed at my measly attempt at "art"! :) The day after "Art Day" is "Walking Day" where all staff and students go to Grand Park and walk 6KM. It is actually a competition and there were awards given, but students were required to walk. If they ran, they got red X's on their wrists. This seemed ironic to me because they barrel down the hallways at school and never get red X's, but when we were at the biggest park in Seoul with lots of space, they were made to walk. Well, they weren't my rules! The guy in the picture wearing the bright yellow jacket is an art teacher. I taught my students the word "highlighter" a couple of weeks ago, and several of them came to tell me that his jacket looked like a highlighter! I am glad to know that they have learned something from me!

Food Festival?

Last weekend my friend and I went to a food festival that was about 5 hours south of Seoul, near the ocean. The interesting thing about this food festival is that there wasn't really much food there--at least, none of the delicious foods that were described to us in the brochure...just the same foods as in Seoul. We did see some interesting octopus on a stick being grilled, which reminded me of the MN state fair. I think I will try to market a new "on-a-stick" item--it might work! Most of the festivities were finished by the time our bus got there and we were at the tail end of the celebration. We tried to make the most of our time by walking around, meeting new people (like the mayor's wife of the town we were in) and looking at some of the ceramics, foods and toys for sale. It was a cold day. Cold and windy. It was nice to be out of the city and to be able to breathe clean air--I take that for granted sometimes, but here in Seoul the air is not clean. My friend and I found things to do until around 9 PM when we turned in for the evening. We had been told that we would be staying at a hotel, but we soon figured out that we had a room booked for us and three other people at a traditional-style room (pictured above--the cute, little cottage). That means a small, empty room with a stack of blankets in the corner (also pictured above, only these blankets were stacked on the kimchi fridge). There were five of us placed in this room (I only knew the friend I came with), with four blankets and two pillows. It was an interesting night to say the least! I think it is always a little ackward to sleep in the same room with strangers and is especially ackward to sleep on the floor with people snoring and rolling all around. Anyway, I survived the weekend, but have to say that if there is an opportunity to attend another "food" festival, I may just pass! :) I am really looking forward to a quiet weekend at home in a couple of days! I have Monday off to "enjoy the fall colors," but may just see what fall colors are out in the stores and shops in the city! ;)

Adjectives, Beauty and Pirated Movies

There are so many things I observe on a daily basis. Funny things that seem out of the ordinary to me because I am a foreigner here and haven't lived here long enough to understand the doings of the people amongst whom I live. I notice things like Christmas decorations in bar windows, plastic bananas wired to trees and stands of pirated videos (still being seen in theaters in the States) on each street. There are a lot of things that are spelled wrong in English or words that are used in a very unusual way (hot remonade anyone?). Some things, though, have taken me longer than just an initial observation to really notice. One thing, for example, is the consistent use of the adjective. "This is a famous Korean traditional drink." I cannot even count how many times I have heard these adjectives: famous, Korean, and traditional! I think they are highly overused in day to day conversations. Today my soup at lunch was "yummy, cool and delicious" (spoken by a woman in her 50's). I was thanked for "teaching English to the Korean students and the Korean English teachers at the school." Now that one doesn't sound so bad, but "Korean" is also used quite a bit (as if I forgot that my students and co-teachers are Korean). I have found myself saying words like, "delightful," "amazing," "fantastic," and "famous." I guess it just starts to rub off! Another thing that I have noticed and thought a lot about is the fact that each of my co-teachers has a mirror on her desk and how there are very large, door-sized mirrors on each turn of the stairs at school, near the tracks at the subway station and in streets near vendors. On the streets and subway I often see women taking out their compacts and checking to make sure that everything is just right. I was told that the Korean culture highly values appearance. It is true: appearance is very important here. It is important to look one's best and to not lose face in front of others. Losing face is a tricky thing for Westerners. We tend to use more facial expressions, body language and voice patterns to show what we are feeling or thinking than Koreans do. Here it is important to remain composed in all situations and, for women, to present a soft, feminine image. I am still thinking and observing this particular idea about beauty and how the culture reflects it's perception. So, you see, with all these new things around me, I must keep my eyes and ears wide open! How often can you see yummy and delicious plastic bananas in a tree in the middle of a huge city?

Boendagi and Lanterns

Last weekend four friends and I went to Jinju by bus--it is a small town four hours south of Seoul. Each year, Jinju has a famous lantern festival where huge lanterns are put out on the river and smaller, homemade lanterns are placed on the river bank. In one picture above, you can see that there are so many lights used in this festival that even the pagoda seems to be made entirely of huge, carefully placed Christmas bulbs The lights looked really impressive when it gets dark! The festival included a great fireworks display and a carnival-like venue with lots of rides, games and strange foods. One strange food that I tried was a boendagi. Boendagi is butterfly larvae. It is cooked in a cauldron and has a very pungent aroma. Boendagi is a pretty common snack in the fall and is sold at street vendors. For a mere two dollars, a person can enjoy a whole dixie cup full of warm, juicy, oily, salty goodness that crunches and explodes with flavor with each bite. Just a warning though: try one before popping a whole handful into your mouth. I stopped at one and followed it down with some mentos. One girl in our group was dared to eat half the cup of boendagi for $20. Once she had about three of these little guys in her mouth, she was regretting having taken the challenge. After about a third of her amount, she turned green and gaged a couple of times. She finished, though, and earned her $20 and respect from all of us that would have laughed at such a challenge! In the evening, the 5 of us rented a room to share at a motel. This room had no beds, only a big pile of blankets folded up in the corner. We laid out all the bedding and crawled onto our hard bed for the night. I didn't sleep very well. On the bus ride home the next morning, between small naps, I read a large portion of a book called "The Life of Pi." If you have not read it, I really recommend it! It was fantastic!

Around Town

Here are just a few pictures from around town. The last one is from a store that reminds me of Hollister in the States. Things are pretty good so far. Tomorrow, some friends and I are going to a lantern festival. It is 4 hours away, but should be really great!! I will post more when we get back!

There is nothing like a little humiliation!

So funny! I came into school today and noticed a bunch of boys standing outside with these picket signs. They had been caught smoking, and as a punishment, they were required to create and hold these "No Smoking" posters! It is a really great and creative way to deter students from an addictive habit (I am not sure how well it works because there were about 15 boys up there)! :) Besides this punishment, the teachers create many other interesting punishments to discipline the students. Sometimes a student must stand near his/her desk with both hands raised, or in the back of the class in the torturous Volleyball squat position for 10 minutes. Ouch! At a friend's school, the students had to actually hop like bunnies to their desks because they had come in late! Sometimes the punishments seem extremely embarrasing and sometimes they are a lot of work! Today as I walked out of work, three boys were on their hands and knees scrubbing the floor in bright pink rubber gloves and brushes. It is hilareous what students are being made to do! It makes me smile! :)