The Week in Short

Although this week is short because of Christmas it has not been without excitement. 

1. Harry, one of my kindergarten students, started crying in the middle of class. I think the other kids were mocking him because he and another little girl, Julie, both received stickers for winning the same game. Apparently this was enough for them to conclude they were in some kind of relationship because they all started singing "Congratulations" I think thats what happened. They were all shouting in Korean so it was hard to tell. Kind of a rocky way to start a relationship but he's young. 

2. A little boy, Larry, had a bloody nose right before class started. He was remarkably composed about it. No tears, no hysterics. He actually seemed quite cheerful, chattering away, sticking tissue up his nose, and harassing the other students. 

3. It snowed!! Not much but it was still beautiful for a few hours. The kids were very excited and some brought in hardened snowballs that proceeded to melt during class. 

4. Best of all tomorrow is Christmas. I am so very excited although I miss my family terribly and wish I could celebrate with them. Merry Christmas to all my readers. May the joy of this season be with you always. 

 

Part Three

To top off an amazing weekend, Aaron took me on a date to an Indian restaurant in the basement of the Seoul Finance Center which is a lot classier than it sounds. There were many other restaurants in the same area. One was a sushi place that had a rotating conveyer belt in the center and tables arranged around it. The patrons removed whatever food they wanted from the belt. It looked really cool. We, however, were there for the Indian food which was delicious. They had real nan and saffron rice. Aaron brought some poems and read them to me as we ate.
It was a very food oriented weekend. There is not much variety in my diet here so anything new is quite a treat. Now it is Monday and I am back to the grind. Thankfully it is a short week because of Christmas :)

Part Two

On Saturday I went to Leesum Art Museum in Seoul. It a very posh art museum, the kind of place you would hold some fabulous soiree for a high finance company or a fundraiser to save dying sea anemones or something. The museum is actually divided into two separate museums designed by different architects. The first houses an excellent collection of traditional Korean art. Beautiful pottery, calligraphy, prints, and Buddhist sculptures. I found the blue-green celadon pottery with delicately sketched cranes, peonies, and plum trees particularly beautiful. In this part, the artifacts are illuminated but the rest of the exhibit is quite dark. There are no windows and you descend to each level by a white circular staircase. It has very solemn and splendid feel.

The second museum has modern art from Korea, America, and Europe. I saw Warhol and Kooming. This part had a kind of trendy, upscale warehouse feel. An exposed ceiling, rectangular windows, and steel walls. The design fit perfectly with the abstract and often minimalistic art. One work contained rows and rows of different colored pills, another had many tv screens piled high that showed various images. On a patio outside there was one huge metal spider which I was not so much a fan of.
After visiting the gift shop, I took the subway to Itaewon- an area full of international restaurants. My little town has mostly Korean food so it was a welcome relief. I spent a good 45 minutes trying to find a french restaurant that my guidebook recommended but it was well worth the search. The food was divine. I had a pastry filled with Camembert cheese for an appetizer, roasted scallops and risotto with lobster sauce as an entree, and an amazing white wine from France. There was even a French guy sitting at the table across from me. I felt very cool and sophisticated and forgot for one evening that I was a poor schoolteacher from the countryside of Korea :)

A Fabulous Weekend- In Three Parts

It has been quite a weekend. On Friday evening Aaron and I went out to dinner with our TaeKwando class. Before dinner we played a quick game of soccer inside with a ridiculously bouncy ball. We went to dinner at a Korean pork restaurant- you grill the pork at your table and eat it with a bewildering and ever varying array of side dishes. This particular restaurant provided a box of rice cakes in which we wrapped pieces of pork. You can also eat the pork with grilled kimchi or garlic. This is my favorite type of Korean food. After the meal, we went to a karaoke room. The Koreans love rooms for specific things and they are quite taken with karaoke. You sit in room, pick songs, and sing while a little bouncing object tells you how long to spend on each word. We sang the Eagles, the Beatles, ABBA, Nat King Cole, and some Korean artists. Everyone was off key but noone really cared. It was so much fun.

I just received a package from my family. It was full of wrapped presents, candles, an ornament, fudge, and nuts. What a wonderful surprise!! I miss my family especially now that it is Christmas so it was nice to find a little bit of home in a box that traveled around the world.

I have been taking TaeKwanDo lessons here with a teacher, Master Kim, who attends my church. Its alot of fun and a great way to stay in shape. On Wednesday evening, Master Kim introduced Aaron and I to the ballet teacher who has a studio on the same floor. She took us out for drinks at a nearby bar and we had a fantastic time. Her English was limited and our Korean basically non-existent but somehow we managed to have a good conversation. One of Master Kim's students and his parents came too. The ballet teacher handed the student a shot of Soju, a Korean liquor, to the boy when his mom got up. We all giggled surreptitiously when she came back.
It has been a long time since I have had so much fun with a big group of people. Just when I feel most isolated God blesses me with an experience like that. He is very good.

I sadly do not meet one of the most important requirements for a grade school teacher; I cannot draw to save my life. Any four legged animal I attempt to sketch on the chalkboard ends up looking like some bizarre combination of a dog, a rabbit, and a horse. My stars are lopsided and even my rectangles are mishapen. All this has lead me to conclude that Google Image is a beautiful thing.

To Arcadia

In order to obtain an E-2 visa for teaching I had to travel to US soil and since my employers decided that the mainland was too far away Guam was the best option. It was a beautiful island and a welcome respite from the bitter cold of winter. I think it was 80 degrees when I landed. On Monday I spent about 4 hours on the beach, enjoying the clear water and a nearby cliff. I even got a sunburn ... in December. Oh the irony of life...







After the beach, I ate at Wendy's, went shopping, and found brown boots that fit! It was pretty exciting :) For dinner I went to an upscale seafood restaurant and had real cheese, pinot noir, and tuna. The whole trip was an idyllic vacation from the challenges of teaching. I would definitely love to go back someday.

On Learning to Yell

I have learned many things after 2 months of teaching.
Keep plenty of pencils handy becuse children, for some strange reason, children are incapable of bring their own.
Never trust small children with pens-they will unscrew them and throw the pieces at each other. Always use bribery. Always. It works wonders.
Besides these useful principles I have learned some lessons in self-improvement. One in particular has been surprising but extremely useful. I have learned to yell. Most people would describe me as quiet and mild-mannered; unless I feel comfortable in a group I tend to be reserved and even when speaking to friends my voice is soft. In one memorable Econ class a professor could not hear my answer to his question and asked me to speak up. When I spoke louder he responded, "That was speaking up?" If only he could see me now - I believe the transformation would shock him. Because you see I have become a proficient yeller. 2 months of teaching has taught me what 22 years of life failed to do. Sometimes I feel that I spend half the class yelling at the students to be quiet and stop vandalizing the classroom, a favorite past time of theirs. I yell everyday now and in every class. Yesterday I yelled at a student without provocation and did not realize until after I started yelling that it was not really necessary. It was an odd moment for me as I realized that such loud volume has become my default setting in a classroom.I still do not enjoy yelling but I now appreciate it benefits and am willing to employ my newly strengthened vocal chords whenever necessary.
I have also learned that I was not made to teach kindergarten and elementary students. People who are must be saints. I really have enjoyed teaching in Korea but I don't think I have the patience or the compassion to do it for years and years. Teaching college kids will have its challenges but at least they can sit still for 50 minutes. Most of the time :)

Learning to Love

The Halloween party last Friday went well. As soon as I download the pictures I will probably describe it in more detail. For the time being I wanted to share a revelation. During the party amidst all the stress and chaos I had an epiphany. I have learned to love these kids. They still drive me crazy and make me want to kill them on a regular basis, but I do care for them. I want them to learn and do well in my class. It was a refreshing thought.

I garner a lot of attention as a foreigner in South Korea. Children stare and point as I walk down the street or shout out the three or four English words they know. One night Aaron and I took the train home and met some Korean teenagers while waiting for a taxi. They told Aaron he was handsome and called me beautiful. They also complimented us on our fashionable clothing and then one of the boys claimed to be a Korean superstar.
Older Koreans have accosted me at a park, a train station, and a street corner. They are not hostile, but merely curious why I am in their country. Of course explaining my presence can be difficult since our languages don't even have the same alphabet. I mean I understand the whole Tower of Babel and the division of languages but seriously couldn't we all have had the same alphabet? It would make life so much easier.
I've never felt so different in my life or felt the truth of that phrase about sticking out like a sore thumb (which by the way does not make much sense. does a sore thumb stick out any more than a perfectly normal one?) It is readily apparent from my physical appearance that I am not a native in this country. I am tall for a woman and my hair is not jet black. I am a curiosity.
It is a novel experience. I was three when my family moved to Germany and 5 when we left so I don't have any vivid impressions of the country or the people. In England I blended in well enough as a long as I kept my mouth shut. Besides, the English are happiest when everybody minds their own business; they are not a welcoming people.
Some days I can laugh at the children as they stare open mouthed at me and other days I want to lecture them on good manners. I think it will be nice to return to the US and blend in again.

Since Halloween is this Friday the entire staff here, all 5 of us, has been busy planning games, prizes, decorations, and food for our school party. Christine who is sort of the headmistress told me to forget about following the books this week and focus on the party. Because you see this is not really a party if by party you mean a time to slip into some fabulous outfit, eat tasty, but seriously unhealthy food, and have a drink or two. No, this is a performance. The kids are going to demonstrate their English skills in order to impress their parents and convince them they have made the right choice in our academy. We are prepping the kids beforehand, introducing new vocabulary, and choosing games that will showcase their speaking skills. Korean parents want results immediately - one little girl was pulled out by her mother because her English wasn't improving quickly enough - so we are trying to give them some. Hopefully the kids will be excited about showing off. The teachers are just stressed.

A Collection of food

After finally figuring out how to add pictures to my blog, I have decided to share some pictures of the interesting food I have eaten in Korea. This is some kind of fruit. One of the guys at our school who is there to take care of the computers and other random tasks gave it to me. He does not speak English so I don't really know what it is.


I think these were supposed to be french fries, but they were dry and a little sweet.





This is an iceflake - the cup is full of ice and they pour jam, red beans, and white marshmellow like things on top. The beans were a bit too much for me.






To be honest I am not really sure what this is. It looks like bird seed and had light, salty taste. A random vendor gave it to me for free.

All My Children (well at least some of them)

Teaching children is an adventure. I am rarely bored- frustrated, impatient, exhausted, yes, but not bored. This week has been rough. My kindergartners have acted like little monsters, mimicking everything I say, unscrewing their pens, and throwing the pieces at each other. They also discovered a new trick; one child will lay his head on the desk as if distressed and the others will tell me that he is sad. The first time I believed them, but fortunately I am smarter than them and did not fall for it a second time. Quite an accomplishment really - outwitting kindergartners.
I have a first grader named Paul; he is probably 12 or 13, but in first grade because the kids are arranged by ability not age. He is a real piece of work. He can transform a fairly well-behaved group of kids into an unruly, disrespectful, and mocking mob. Paul is not loud but he talks constantly and draws the other kids into conversation. I tell him to stop and immediately afterwards starts talking again. He calls them names, pretends not to understand me, and carries himself with an I'm -too- cool-for-school- kind of attitude. The younger children are impressed and mimick him adoringly. Needless to say I am not so impressed. And he never does his homework. Ever.
But for kids like Paul there are kids like Sam and Ariel who make my job worthwhile. Sam is an adorable 7 year old full of boundless energy and enthusiasm. He loves the class and learning English. Unlike many of my students he is quite bright and catches on to new concepts quickly. Like any teacher, I work for those precious moments of illumination when the mental light bulb goes on. Sam becomes quite excited when this happens and that is a lot of fun to watch. Sometimes all his energy gets him in trouble because he has a very difficult time sitting still and staying quiet. The other day Sam told me he does not eat snakes. I was relieved to hear this :)
Ariel is the same age as Sam, but she is a girl so she can sit still much better. She is so tiny and sweet and eager to learn. In everything she is very intent and deliberate - opening her bag and removing books is quite a ceremony.
Sometimes my work feels so futile; I wonder if they care, if they understand anything I say, if they enjoy the class. I struggle to make them pay attention and do their homework. Am I doing any good? But then I remember those moments when they understand or those students who genuinly want to learn and I find fulfillment in those things. Often they are small, but I suppose that is the nature of the job.

"A nine! a nine?" the shopkeeper cried in astonishment after I told him my shoe size. He looked at me with an expression that seemed to ask "are you even human?" I only wanted to try on the cute and incredibly inexpensive boots he was selling - they were $7.50!! But alas my monstrous feet got in the way. This second incident at a Korean shoe store signaled the death knell of my shoe-buying desires. Its really quite tragic because, as I mentioned in an earlier post, they have adorable shoes. But those beautiful ballet flats and elegant boots are forever beyond my grasp because I have German / Norwegian blood in me and those illustrious ancestors bequeathed their enormous feet to me. Sigh.
Besides the shoe-incident, it was a fun and successful shopping excursion. On Sunday after church Aaron and I went to "Fashion Street" in Seoul. Tiny boutiques, mostly selling women's clothing are cramped together on a few narrow and somewhat dirty streets across from a university. There were clothes stores, shoe stores, hat stores, and stores with American imported brands like Calvin Klein and Hollister. Our guidebook had promised a place to buy one of kind designer pieces for affordable prices. I'm not sure about the designer part, but the prices were great. I found a very nice black coat for under $60 and brown tights for $5. Everbody in Seoul wears tights and every tiny little street side vendor sells them.
Koreans have a fetish for the "I woke up this morning and threw all the cleans clothes I had left on-look" I've also noticed a Western / country theme - plaids, brown leather, ruffled shirts, floral patterns. Neither look really works for me so I didn't really have much luck besides the coat, but it was fun just to walk around the neighborhood which was full of stores, restaurants, and trendy college kids. If only Hillsdale had been in a big city :)

The Hobbits

The Koreans love food, I mean really love it - they are like the all the Greek and Jewish grandmothers in books or movies who are always urging you to eat more. This obsession with food can be sen from a brief narration of our hike yesterday. Aaron and I went to a Korean national park with a group from our church. In the morning we stopped for breakfast at a traditional Korean restaurant that served kimchi and beef soup at 7:30 in the morning. Spicy beef soup mind you. That was a little rough on the stomach- fortunately they had rice, nice, mild-tasting rice. After breakfast we settled down for a two hour bus drive. The Korean sitting in front of Aaron and me gave a us a bag of full of crunchy-sweet things (I'm not really sure what they were since the words on the bag were all in Korean) A little later they passed out the lunch we were supposed to carry up the mountain - two cucumbers, two clementines, a soy drink, a package of beef jerkey, two chocolate bars, a water bottle, and a handful of mints. To this we added three packages of kimbobs, a kind of role made with seaweed, rice, and other fillings like pickles, cucumbers, ham, and chicken.
The hike was beautiful, but pretty intense. We climbed for a solid 4 hours and often up flights of almost vertical stairs. Fortunately, we had enough food to sustain us :) On the way up we saw a Buddhist monastery , complete with their oddly shaped roofs and elaborate painting, and a number of trees whose leaves had changed to a luminous orange. At the top the view was spectacular - I saw other high mountain peaks all around and a clear, blue sky above. We finished up our lunch at the top. Someone in the group had brought a pear and he shared with the rest of us. We also tried some kind of nut that has a potatoe like consistency on the inside and a smooth texture on the outside. After such a strenuous hike up we took a gondola down and then had to wait for the bus. Lest we starve to death during the 45 minutes we waited for the bus our Korean friends provided more food. First Mr. Jin, the director of my school, bought some "fried sweet potatoe bar."It was a bad translation. They were like dried french fries with sugar instead of salt. For some reason the Koreans are adverse to salt.
Then some random vendor provided us with free food that looked like, well, birdseed. I kind of liked the crunchiness of it. Lest we waste away after finishing the bird seed, Mr. Jin bought a Korean dessert - it involved a cup of ice topped with jam, whipped cream, and some strange crunchy pieces that looked like tiny beans. The beans were a little much for me.
Finally the bus arrived to rescue us from our starvation and take us to dinner. Well, we did play Korean football which is a combination of soccer and volleyball before that, so we went almost two whole hours without eating. It was tough.
Dinner involved pieces of lettuce in which we placed raw fish, peppers, sauces, mushrooms, and a number of other unknown dishes, spicy fish soup, rice, and a rice-based alchohol that surpassed any of the wine I have tried in Korea. Koreans are not know for their wine. On leaving the restaurant a member of our group, an older gentleman who speaks a tiny bit of English and was very kind to us throughout the day, gave me some more potatoe-like nuts. You know, I needed my strength to walk from the restaurant to the bus. Ironically, dinner was so spicy and salty that Aaron and I both wanted something sweet so we bought icecream and chocolate in our city.
I have decided that the Koreans are like hobbits; they eat all the time and are very short :)

On Saturday Aaron and I went into Seoul again. We had lunch at a fun little rice place - they bring you a skillet with a mound of rice of various meats or vegetables which cook right there on the plate and then you add different sauces to the whole mixture. After that we wandered into this fantastic shoe store that carried Prada and Gucci and $1500 purses. They had some beautiful shoes, but unfortunately the biggest shoes on the first floor were 8 and 1/2's. So I had to go to the fat foot floor upstairs - I think my feet need to go on a diet, darn these Asian women and their tiny feet. Its really sad because they have such pretty shoes. We went to an American Apparel like store and tried some clothes on there - Koreans like the urban grunge. Cute stuff but everything is so small! I had to try a large jacket and couldn't even fit into their jeans.
After shopping we jumped on the Metro and headed to Changdeokgung Palace, home to Korean royalty since the 15th century. It was a beautiful place. The Koreans believe that emptiness is beauty so there were alot of open spaces that gave the palace an elegant simplicity. The buildings are intricately painted with simple colors like green, black, white, and blue. The inside of the throne room was striking, with a high ceiling, elaborate light fixtures, a raised throne in front of painted wood scene, and lots of lovely wood carvings. Oh, they also had a building for, as our guide said, making babies. Over the building they painted chinese characters that say, "For the making of something great" Towards the end of the tour we saw the gardens, a lilly pond, the library, and lots of little Eastern pagodas. At the pond we learned lots about the "pish"- Koreans have trouble making the "F" sound which leads to some funny guffaws like "pish" and "oppicial" for official. Its pretty funny :)
For dinner we went to a pizza parlor with a salad buffet; salad is a rare thing in a traditional Korean meal so I was pretty excited. They had strange fruit that looked like some underwater amoeba, but tasted like an almost flavorless melon. On the way back we saw an Outback and a TGI Fridays. Sometimes its almost like being home.
The next day we went to our Korean church and listened to an almost incomprehensible translation of a sermon about slavery, Korean television, and the blessing of having God with us. As a new believer I am having a hard time finding nourishment through these sermons :) After church we had lunch at a Korean restaurant where you sit on the floor and mandoo, dumplings, and soup full of thick noodles and clams. That night Aaron and I walked down our Central Park and saw a 30 minute water show complete with music and changing colors. Very impressive.
It was a fun weeekend, but now I am back in the grind trying to prevent small children from killing each other. Life is never boring!

Well I have now been in South Korea for almost two weeks and haven't written a single post. Life is not terribly busy, so I really don't have a good excuse besides the confusion that arises from living in a new culture and adjusting to a completely new schedule. (and the really strange food that Koreans eat, like bracken and ginseng) Because I am so behind I will share a few, brief highlights from our adventure in the East.

1. Walking to the plane, Aaron and I met a girl from Vietnam who was taking the same flight. During our discussion she asked if Aaron and I were brother and sister. Of course I couldn't understand what she said until after I answered yes. She must have thought we were unusually affectionate siblings.

2. Korean Air is very classy - the stewardesses wear well-tailored pants and teal cardigans. They give you metal silverware and little packages with socks, sleeping masks, and toothbrushes. I watched three different movies, slept a little, and ate authentic Korean food.

3. We landed in Seoul and were met by Jin, a fellow teacher, and Mrs. Park, the director of our school. They took us to a Korean / Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor and ate food cooked in a huge bowl of boiling water. Then they dragged us, jet-lagged as we were to a giant Korean version of Sam's Club, complete with about a million floors. It was slightly overwhelming.

4. On Monday Aaron and I became Christians. I know that many of you will be glad to hear that we have repented of our heathen ways. We went to the director's house for Chusok, the Korean Thanksgiving and the pastor of the church we visited on Sunday was there. We ate bracken, Korean pumpkin, lots of rice, and delicious apples and pears (apparently this year was very good for Korean agriculture because they keep offering us gigantic apples and pears that look like sumptuous fruit Lewis always talks about in Narnia) After dinner the pastor wanted to explain the mission of the church to us, at least that is what the translator told us. It turned out to be the gospel message and he had us pray a prayer of acceptance. So now everyone in Korea thinks we just became Christians and they are continually astonished by our prior knowledge of Biblical truths. Its pretty ironic.

5. The first week of classes was fairly exciting - I broke up my first classroom fight. One little boy, Alex, who is the most emo kindergartner I have ever met threw chalk at another boy, James. Naturally, James was highly offended and threw the chalk back. This infuriated Alex and he lept up and grabbed James by the shoulder. I managed to wrench the two apart and both boys were sent out of the classroom.

6. On Saturday Aaron and I went to Seoul and I finally saw the Koreans I had imagined- incredibly beautiful, slim, and fashionable. As I walked down the street admiring everyone's clothes I was seized with an almost overwhelming desire to replace my entire wardrobe right then. I have so many clothes, that are so two years ago.
We went to a huge mall attached to the aquarium. The aquarium was impressive - we saw a beaver, eels, seals, penguins, and adorable otters. I kind of wanted to take one home. I also got my haircut at the mall; earlier in the week I was flipping through a Korean fashion magazine, saw a style I liked, and snapped a picture. I showed the picture to the man at the salon and he did a great job. I look very Asian now :) On the way out we stopped at Cold Stone to buy good, old American icecream. Seoul has basically everything American- MacDonalds, 7-11, American Apparel, Outback, Burger King, Uno's. I love Seoul.

Hope that gives you all some idea of what Korea is like :)

As I was trying to think of a witty name for my brand new blog, e.e. cummings poem "somewhere i have never traveled" came to mind. The line seemed particularly appropriate since I will soon be living in South Korea - a country I have never visited. At least, I hope to be living there soon; at the moment I am waiting for an elusive visa and a finalized departure date.  Until then, I am living with my parents which, all things considered, is not that bad. Good food, free housing, access to an aging, but still workable car. Not too shabby. Still I am ready to set out on my grand adventure to the Far East.