gyeongju

last weekend was a three-day weekend, and we decided it'd be a good opportunity to head to gyeongju. salsa was unsure whether or not she could come, so al, kimchi, and i took the 7 am bus on friday morning. upon arrival (around 10:30), we decided to head out to the coast thinking that would be a fun place to stay for the night. during our trek, salsa called us and said she had gotten a bus ticket for later that afternoon, so she could meet up with us. we hit the jackpot with the coast- there was a whole line of motels along the water, so we got a motel room with a sea-side view. it was awesome to go to bed/wake up the next morning to the sound of waves. oh summer, i've missed you so.



anyway, while we waited for salsa, al and i decided to go to girim-sa, a mountain/temple. we found the bus we needed to take, but that only dropped us off at the bottom of the mountain at a rather empty intersection. we weren't sure how far away the temple was, so we decided to walk, but then nixed that idea because of the traffic and lack of sidewalks. we headed back down again and tried to hail a taxi, but taxis were few and far between. so, we asked the lady working at a convenience store if she'd call a taxi for us, and soon we were on our merry way up the mountain. it was quite happening, seeing how it was buddha's birthday AND children's day- music, people, and decorations galore.



after walking back down the mountain, we headed back to the motel just in time to go meet salsa. i'd been feeling like crap all day and we were all tired, so we called it a night.

saturday was pretty foul, weather-wise, but that didn't stop us from doing some sight-seeing. first, we went to see the underwater tomb of king munmu. it was definitely underwhelming, considering the rain and the fact that we were dropped off on the beach and there was no tourist information there. hard to believe it's an important historical site. yep, just a big pile of rocks in the sea. we came, we saw, we conquered, and ran back to the bus stop.



after that, we went to bulgok-sa, checked into a motel, and headed across the street to the mountain. despite the crummy weather, it was definitely an awesome place. lots of temples and gorgeous scenery. there are some great views there, including a spot where you can see the tops of the temple roofs- total crouching tiger, hidden dragon gone korean.





after that, we headed back to motel. not able to handle the rain any longer, we decided to go into the city to find a movie theater and see mission: impossible 3. it was decent entertainment for a rainy saturday night, just what we needed.

we were up bright and early sunday morning to take the 10:40 bus back. and so ended our trip to gyeongju. all in all, it's a great place to visit, and you could do it a couple of times without seeing the same thing twice because there's so much to see. the city is pretty widespread, and getting a taxi for the day or befriending someone with a car would be beneficial, but it's not completely necessary. the bus system is pretty good and quite reliable and got us where we wanted, and we spent way less than we would have if we used a taxi all weekend.

it was good to get back on sunday because all of us were beat and i was sick all weekend. not quite sure what happened to us, but all three of us ended up getting sick- al and salsa were both pretty much projectile vomiting sunday night and through monday. i wasn't throwing up, but my stomach most certainly wasn't my best friend. let's just say my toilet and i got a little bit closer. salsa's convinced it was food poisoning, and maybe it was, but that doesn't explain why i had a temperature of 101 on monday and felt like absolute crap.

on a more interesting note, i was tested for mono last time i went to the doctor, and i got the results back when i went in on tuesday. turns out mono is the reason i've been getting sick, and it's leaving my body now. just good to know why i've been feeling like crap off and on since february. anyway, i'm still not quite over whatever it was that i got over the weekend so this week has again consisted of coming home and going right to bed. i think now more than ever i'm looking forward to going home just so i can be HEALTHY again. salsa said the second she was home for that week over easter, her swollen glands started to go down (i'm convinced she also had mono because she also has been sick non-stop). also, one of my coworkers said his wife never got sick back home, but was sick for pretty much her entire time here, and was completely fine once she got home again. so that's one more thing to look forward to!

shockalockalickadookadingdingdong

so it took a while, but great scott i found it!!! it all started in either january or february, when this horribly catchy/catchily horrible commercial began to take our precious commercial airtime. so, ladies and gentleman, i present you with one of the most terrible commercials known to man.

yeogi

to me, it just sounds like some 50s doo-wop kind of song, and sometimes i sing along to it with my own lyrics. then one day it hit me that these are actual words that this man is singing. i came to this realization when one of my students was singing the song in class one day. no, these aren't some sort of voodoo/witchcraft chant, these are real-life words, folks.

oh and they eat it up over here. it isn't just some random actor in the commercial, it's (from what i hear) a big-time movie star, lee jun-gi. korean women actually consider him attractive over here, but to be honest, the first time this commercial invaded my commercial screen, my first thoughts were "who is this transvestite and why is he on my tv?" not that there's anything wrong with transvestites, but the whole commercial just seemed odd for korea if it was a transvestite singing to a room full of women. oh, and if you're wondering, the loose translation is "all the pretty girls drink pomegranate juice." sure man, you just keep singing your commercialistic prophecy.

so, enjoy the commercial, and may god have mercy on your soul.

long time, no speak-uh

well, i obviously haven't been too good at keeping up with this blog. not much has happened, but at the same time, i don't have the energy to fill everyone in on every little detail of what i've been up to.

so, in a nutshell (help! i'm in a nutshell! how did i get into this bloody great big nutshell? what kind of shell has a nut like this?):

katherine and steph came, saw, and conquered. it was a lot of fun, though it sucked that i still had to work when they visited. surprisingly, they liked the spicier food like kimchi jigae, but they weren't as keen on korean food as i'd hoped they be. they took a trip by themselves to busan and gyeongju (i had to work, therefore i had to stay here). we went to seoul the second weekend- that included friday night in itaewon getting sketched out by all of the shady foreigners, spending the night in a yeogwan in insadong, going to a tea museum the next morning, sending katherine off on her merry way, and then steph and i western-ed it up at the marriott on saturday night. it was HEAVEN... we're talking swimming, playing on the aqua gym machines, and hot tubs... where you can wear your swimsuit! god bless western hotels where you don't need to see millions of koreans naked for the sake of a relaxing day at the spa. we ordered room service for dinner (it was absolutely amazing... i'd never really ordered room service before, who knew it was the same price as eating in the hotel restaurant?!) and ordered a movie- the perfect man- that's right, totally a hilary duff guilty pleasure movie, and we loved every second of it. anyway it was nice doing that with steph because she's finishing up her year in thailand so she appreciated the western-ness just as much as i did. she's actually going home in early may, hard to believe her year in asia has come and gone... speaking of, as i was leaving for daejeon that sunday, it made me feel homesick because katherine was going back home, steph is so close to going home, and i have no one left to come and visit me, so now it's just the final stretch for me. can't believe it's 14 weeks left!

anyway, the weather's getting nice and springy, which is awesome. i'm getting major summer fever, all i can think of is spending days outside, and going home and spending a week at the cape. oh, i'd kill for a day at the beach. turns out, though, i have cinco de mayo off! children's day here falls on may 5th, which means a 3 day weekend for us. alisun and i are thinking of gathering everyone maybe on her rooftop or something and making a fiesta out of it... i have two old el paso taco kits from costco and some guacamole in the freezer that i have yet to use... i'm saving it for a special occasion, and i think this might just be it. i'm also thinking mojitos would be the perfect drink for the day.

ok what do i have left to mention... oh, salsa is home for the week for a friend's wedding, so i've been filling in at her morning job at 2 public elementary schools... it's an easy gig, working with a korean co-teacher, and you're basically there as an example/object... the kids watch videos, you ask questions about it. not much actual "teaching" involved for me. it's been fun seeing how the korean public education system runs, and the schools are surprisingly more cheery than i imagined they would be. i'm also really happy with getting this opportunity because the more teachers i work with, the more ideas/inspiration i get for my own classroom. which reminds me, i read about a program called nyc teaching fellows, where you work for your masters degree in education while teaching in a public school, and the government pays for most of your schooling plus you make starting teacher's salary. kind of like teach for america. anyway, it's something i'm really interested in, and i'm thinking (didn't mention this before but i'm moving to nyc) of applying for that within the next year... the next program starts in june so there's no way i could do that, but maybe i'll work on some language like spanish, get esl certified, and then apply for the program to hopefully be an esl teacher. tough thing is this program is pretty competitive.

ok, i guess the last note of interest is that the stupid tonsillitis came back. of course it came back last week when i started filling in for melissa so i had no time to go to the doctor until friday afternoon. the doctor kind of scolded me because i was kind of talking about the swelling of my throat in a joking manner and she it was serious. anyway she gave me two weeks-worth of medication, they're different pills this time and unfortunately they didn't kick in until yesterday, so i spent all day saturday inside too tired to do anything. i just can't get over the fact that i NEVER get sick, yet i come here and tonsillitis strikes three times. awesome. i shall leave you from some inspirational words from my momma: "'tough titty,' said the kitty, 'but the milk tastes good.'"

white day

so today is march 14th, aka white day. "what exactly is white day?" you may be asking. believe it or not, it has absolutely nothing to do with korean white supremacy.

there are three "romantic" days over here in the span of three months: valentine's day, white day, and black day. our idea of "valentine's day" isn't the same as korea's... we get 'er dun on one day, while korea (and from what i hear, japan) must milk these days for all their commercial worth. as a result, valentine's day here is a day where girls give boys gifts and white day is just the reverse- boys give girls gifts (apparently the reasoning behind this is that the boy has a month to decide whether or not to accept the girl's valentine aka confession o' love). and of course, there's black day, which falls on april 14th... the opportunity for singles of the country to unite and celebrate a day of misery. legend has it that singles must wear black clothes and drink black coffee and eat jajang noodles (black noodles) with their single friends. oh, and the holidays don't stop there. for your commercial enjoyment, the 14th of every month is devoted to love in one form or another. from silver day- a time to meet the parents and receive gifts- to green day, in which singles of the world are encouraged to drink alcohol with a green theme (in soju-ville there's only one choice for this), korea, inc. is sure to be raking in the dough.

at the moment, i am enjoying some candy presented to me by my male students. life is good for a teacher on these holidays.

of course, not all of my days here are fun-filled holidays. so what have i been doing in my moments when i'm not blogging my heart away? well, last weekend i went to seoul with al and salsa to see grease. we were pretty damn excited, until the show started and it was more reminiscent of a high school production... nothing close to broadway-quality. kind of ruins it when the actress who plays sandy is originally from estonia. forget conquering the australian accent, let's just pick one accent and stick with it. after that we went to a mexican restaurant. did you read that? MEXICAN! not only was it not bad, it was actually really good. we also got mojitos and they too were awesome. after that we went to a drag club in itaewon.

the good part of going to a drag club in itaewon? getting out of the insanity that is itaewon- military guys and westerners all over who seem to think "hey!" is the best line to get girls into bed. oh wait, we did get a slightly more inventive "so are you gonna sleep with us?" at one point. al's response was to give him the finger and keep walking.

the bad part of going to a drag club in itaewon? you're surrounded by korean men who are prettier than you can ever strive to be. how depressing is that? we didn't stay long, just enough to say we've been to a drag club in seoul. after that we checked the sicky salsa into a yeogwan while al and i did some champagne and norae. the next morning we tried to do some shopping, but the temperature had dropped DRASTICALLY. we're talking spring-like "don't need a jacket weather" one day, to bitter cold the next day. we surrendered to the bus back to daejeon and parked ourselves with pizza in front of my computer with the latest american idol and top model episodes downloaded. weather got worse from there- monday (yesterday) it was snowing pretty much all day. how much does that suck?

it's ok, i've got more chocolate i can handle to keep me warm.

more celeste pictures

the rest of my week with celeste went swimmingly. thursday we went to gyeryeongsan so she could take in a little korean mountain/temple scenery, and thursday night melissa, rika, kate, and lucy came over for a girl's night. friday we went shopping in the underground mall where celeste finally found some boots, and then friday night was our night out- celeste's crash course in korean nightlife. we started off with yogurt soju at the soju tent, then headed over to the noraebang. after that we took a brief intermission at 7-11 for some lemon remix soju, and then went straight over to bubi bubi. one thing that's starting to suck about bubi bubi is the atmosphere change- they seem to have found a new deal that they like and stuck with, because now every time we go it's all you can drink beer for $5, which is great in and of itself, but it's starting to attract a lot more people. one of the things we liked best about the place was that we could go there and dance and be left alone and not be a spectacle, but lately the guys have been a lot more adament about dancing with us and can't take the hint that we don't want to dance with them when we run away from them across the dance floor. all in all, it was a fun night. i ended up running into jim, a coworker from canada, which i thought was funny because it was my first time seeing him out. we were there until about 4:30 in the morning, and celeste, i'm sorry to say, i think that mom and dad ended up staying out later than you did when they visited.

for saturday we planned on spending the night in seoul, and decided to splurge on ourselves and make reservations at the marriott. we were pretty tired when we got there and decided that, even though we were in seoul and most normal people would go out sight-seeing, we were going to stay in the hotel the entire night. so we ate good food at the restaurant and reveled in the sense of normalcy brought by to us a grilled tuna sandwich and a reubin, bath tubs, ben and jerry's ice cream, and two full-sized beds. it was nice.

so, without further ado, here are some highlights of celeste's week here:



putting on our best oasis faces



celeste, me, and aaron at oasis



remember when it was cool for you and your sister to wear matching dresses? what? it's not cool?



at the soju tent



al pouring celeste soju, korean style



you oughta know



new year's day with aaron, obviously we had a whole dance choreographed



at bubi bubi: jim, me, al, celeste, aaron

adventures with celeste

well, this is the first chance i've gotten to update since celeste got here. ok really, i've had the time, i've just been too lazy. it's been quite an adventure so far. i've always been a believer that things just naturally work out, but we've been thrown a few curve balls since the moment she got to the airport in elmira. long story short, she got here later than expected (not too much later, but late enough to miss the last bus to daejeon which i had already gotten tickets for) after a hellish day of traveling for her. so we ended up taking a $187 taxi ride all the way to daejeon, because by that point, both of us just wanted to be home and neither of us cared how much we'd pay.

this korean visit has been authentic right from the start. by monday celeste had already seen the hospital twice, had lunch at outback steakhouse, and dessert at baskin robbins. yeah the tonsillitis came back so we were rather limited with what we could do. but by monday night the medicine had taken effect again and i was feeling better, which meant we were good to go for oasis the following night! didn't take my camera for that one, but aaron brought his, so pictures will soon be posted. we had quite an experience that night- the concert itself was good, then after we got something to eat celeste and i tried to stay the night in a love motel, while alisun, salsa, and aaron just waited around to kill time. after spending $40 to stay in the seoul motel in incheon, i can safely say to anyone considering spending some time there "run away! run away!" this motel had all elements working against us- hairs under the cover, small room, no water jug, and after the moaners and groaners and bed knockers on the other side of the wall went at it for the upteenth time, we decided we'd try to take a train out. god only knows what the man working at the desk could have thought after two girls checked out of their room only an hour and a half after checking in. on the way out we met some people i knew from daejeon (who were wasted), and the girl there decided she'd come catch the train with us. of corse this meant i had to spend the entire hour sitting next to her on the train as she talked my ear off (she even stopped and bought another bottle of soju before we went into the station). she got my number, let's pray she doesn't call me. also, it turned out that alisun, salsa, and aaron had tickets for the same train because it's the first one out and they ended up sitting in our car.

that was the longest night of my life, and we got back at about 6:30 in the morning. after sleeping about an hour we got ready and headed downtown for some shopping. it was a fun day- we got some clothes (including matching 60s-style shirt-dresses), had some bibimbap for lunch, and then did two hours in the noraebang. i'm proud to say that celeste is no exception to the smith noraebang legacy. she is a master of all performances vocal. secretly, i'm a little relieved, because this really was just an audition to see how well she performs before i put her out there with all of my friends. i wanted to avoid the possibility and humiliation of bringing in a sister who couldn't sing. luckily, she made the cut, so she's allowed to sing with my friends. so generous of me.

but seriously, folks, here are some noteworthy pictures of her visit so far:

with kimchi:



eating ssamgyeopsal:



(apparently she didn't realize this wasn't a playboy shoot, and changed her shirt when we got back to the apartment)



at the noraebang:

sicky mcsickerton

so this is my (i admit it, it's kind of boring) post about being sick in korea. flashback to two nights ago, when my throat was feeling kind of sore, which i took for slight dehydration. monday morning i woke up and it hurt to swallow, but i still thought it was just from not drinking enough water and thought i'd maybe feel better as the morning went on. nope, took a look at my tonsils- my left one was swollen and covered with white stuff (lovely, eh?) and i had a killer neck/headache. took a nap before school, woke up feeling like i hadn't gotten any sleep. went to school, throat kept hurting more and more, and my body was aching and skin felt irritated whenever it touched anything. made a deal with myself that if i wasn't better in the morning, i'd go to the hospital, at this point i suspected strept throat or tonsillitis.

so, i came home that night, crawled into bed at 9:30 with my alarm set for 8. woke up (this morning) and this time my right tonsil was also swollen and covered with white stuff. since melissa had volunteered to go to the hospital with me, we headed off to eulji medical center. i wasn't sure what to expect because 1) i had read that they had english-speaking doctors there, but tried calling in the morning and got really frustrated when i kept saying "hanguk mulayo" and they kept blabbering in korean instead of tranferring me to an english-speaking person and 2) i don't have health insurance (my school offers it, but never thought it would be necessary because i "never" get sick. but i got there and right away knew it'd be ok, the woman at information spoke english and called an english-speaking nurse, who was hired for cases just like me. she was really nice, only her second day working here- she said she was disappointed because yesterday no foreigners came in, so we were her first ones. so she acted as our tour guide/translator for the rest of the visit.

so she brought me to the ear and throat specialist, he sat me down, put some torture devices in my mouth (one of which was a long metal suctioning rod, that i assume was for taking a throat culture or something and reduced me to tears and a coughing fit) but it only took one look for him to say "severe tonsillitis. i think you should stay in the hospital for a few days to rest." i wasn't about to have that, i was still planning on going in to work today, but because i didn't have insurance, they said it would be ok for me to just rest at home and take my medication there. so the next step was telling my school that i'm supposed to stay home from work for a few days. i was quite nervous and feeling guilty about that because i have next week off (celeste is coming!) so originally they were going to write a doctor's note for me, but then i started thinking that it would take a while to get to them and i wanted them to know as soon as possible, so i asked if they could call to get my school's fax number so we could fax it to them. my tour guide called up and ended up getting dr. kim himself and explained everything to him, and then i talked to him and he said take 2-3 days rest, and then we can talk about my health later. that was a huge relief because even sick days are hard to take here, you pretty much need to be on your death bed, depending on the school, in order to take the day off. he was very cool about it, but i still feel bad that they have to scramble to cover my classes for the next few days. this is coming from a girl who NEVER takes sick days, in any job.

anyway, i came home stocked with medication i have to take three times a day- a set of pills (one thing i love about medicine in korea is they package it according to how you should take it- i got nine numbered baggies with the pills i have to take for each time), along with some gargle and syrup. fun stuff. and i still don't regret not having insurance because i only had to pay $15 for hospital registration, and then my medication only came to $21. good times. nowhere in america could a hospital visit/examination/medication come to $36.

all in all, i'd say if anyone in daejeon is reading this, i highly recommend eulji hospital. the english-speaking nurse was a life-saver, and everyone there was really friendly. and i swear i am not being paid for this endorsement.

it's the little things that count

so i shamelessly stole this entry from an email that salsa got from her friend lisa, who taught for a year in korea. lisa wrote her an email discussing the trials and tribulations she experienced during her time here, and salsa forwarded it to us, along with her response (she followed the format of lisa's original email). i thought her thoughts were too funny and true to not share with those who just can't imagine the small funny things we encounter every day here. first, i give you lisa's email:

"I could talk about Korea for days... what's the social climate in your opinion in Daejeon and other places you've been? What do you do to teach? Who are your good friends that you mentioned? What ajuma do you buy your apples from? How much do you pay? Have you eaten anything that had an unknown, unremoved stomach that exploded in your mouth? Have you found a black market that sells chicken broth, cocoa powder and deoderant yet? Did you buy a bike? What do you think about matching couple outfits? Did you receive socks? Do you do pullups or lift weights on the tops of mountains? Do people think you're a genius because you know how to say hello in the language that you've been hearing for the last 4 months? Do you find that you like TGIFriday's and Starbucks even though you were previously against globalization, and still are at heart? Have you eaten Shabu-Shabu? Are you obsessed with raw garlic? Does kimchi slide down your throat like a pad of melting butter? Does the sight of raw meat make your mouth water? Does a picture of a dirty pig make you think of eating Doeji-Kalbi? And many many more questions I would like to ask you and that I know would spark a million great conversations."

and here is salsa's response:

"When I teach, I use books with Peter Pan and the characters from Toy Story on the cover. They highlight valuable words like "wigwams" from the historically accurate Disney's 'Pocahontas.' Did you ever feel like you were singing and tap dancing just to keep the attention of your youngsters?

I buy my apples from the ajama with the plaid pants, visors and pollution mask...do you know her!!!Did ajamas ever slap your butt at the grocery store, steal your taxi or push you out of the way while entering an elevator? Did you ever develop theories about how ajamas are planning to overthrow the government...an ajama coup d'etats if you will?

I have eaten things with an unknown stomach AND I'm growing fond of them! Did you ever get handed a fork and a 'service coke-a-cola" at a restaurant b/c clearly meegooks can't handle chopsticks and the spiciness of the Korean 'stamina' food?

I haven't bought a bike, but did you ever have a near death experience involving cars and sidewalks?

The matching couple outfits!!! AND the pink spray painted dogs! Do you now make your hubby hold your purse everywhere you go as a means of declaring, "Hands off ladies - He's holding MY fake Louie Vuitton for a reason!"

I have received socks -- ones with dogs with red noses. Come to think of it, maybe they were suppose to be Rudolph? Did you ever get vitamin drinks from your students' parents or cooked sweet potatoes from your boss's wife?

Starbucks coffee means more to me than water. What's globalization???!!! Do you wonder how America survives with so few Dunken Dounuts and 7-11s?

My girls and I ARE in fact obsessed with raw garlic. How do you feel about dried kim in small rectangles for appetizers at bars and restaurants? There's nothing like looking across the table at your friends and seeing tiny, green speckles stuck to their lips!

I ACTUALLY had some Korean bbq for the first time last week. After 4 months of getting harassed by my boss to eat meat...I finally decided that that cartoon dancing pig on the sign outside IS, in fact appetizing! Is your favorite part when they snip-snip the raw meat with scissors? Yummm.

We shall have some fabulous conversations!!! Thank God. Makes me happy to know that just when I think that I will forget about the most elaborate pencil cases that transform into board games and robots....SOMEONE can remind me!

Anyway...hope we stay pen pals! I still have 8 months here so I WOULD love to seek your guidance on important issues like, 'must you eat the entire dried squid when you order it by accident? Will it taste better if you dip it in the bean paste/mayonnaise combo sauce?''

aaaand finishy.

free at last! free at last!

or... free in another three days. and by free i mean i'll be able to sleep in on the weekdays again because it'll be the END OF INTENSIVES. i know i shouldn't be complaining because i have friends whose schedules are far worse, but still, i have the right to celebrate the fact that i'll soon be snoozing well past the 7 o'clock hour i'd been getting up at for the past month.

i'm hoping this week will fly by because it's only a four day week, and tomorrow's already wednesday. today became extra-special because fred came in right before my two hour middle school class started and asked me if today would be the last day we saw our middle schoolers. i hadn't heard anything about it, so he checked with the korean co-teacher and confirmed that it was in fact our last day with these classes. not that they were a particularly horrible class, but they definitely weren't my favorite in terms of conversation, interest, and overall cuteness (really, how cute can a class of middle schoolers be?) they were a class made up of maybe 11 boys and 5 girls, and you know how 14 year old boys can be. so farewell students, especially troll and ogre, you won't be missed too much.

no other major reporting to do. this weekend wasn't particularly noteworthy, despite the fact i had three days off. i only went out one night (friday) which i think was a good choice on my part because the rest of the nights allowed for a decent night's sleep (none of this get in at 6 or 7 am crap). friday i discovered the wonder that is yogurt soju. we went to a soju tent next to bubi bubi, our favorite club, and threw back a couple bottles. don't let the yogurt part fool you- it wasn't weird or thick or dairy-ish, it tasted just like candy. oh and as it turns out, apparently you can't drink in the 7-11 because we went there for a soju break (post-soju tent, pre-bubi bubi) and although we'd been there many times before for the same reason, the guy actually asked us to drink outside this time. lesson learned.

baby tomato starts lagging behind...

"so there's papa tomato,momma tomato and baby tomato walking along the street. baby tomato starts lagging behind, and papa tomato starts getting really angry. so, he turns around and squishes baby tomato and says, 'ketchup.' (catch up) "

yeah. ketchup is what i need to do.

my internet has been out off and on for the past week, which was getting really annoying. i called the internet company one day about two weeks ago and someone was supposed to come fix it when i got home from work, but then i got home and it was working again. well then last weekend it was out again so someone finally came today and changed the cable connector, apparently that's where the problem was. so, there you go, internet problem is fixed.

but because of that i didn't have much time to post anything. i shall try to ketchup now.

nothing too exciting has happened, can you tell?

i did have an amusing moment last week, apparently worthy of a standing ovation, because that's what i got. so this is what happened: last week i decided my hair was too long to do anything with except for get in my eyes and be annoying, so i decided to get a haircut. no big deal, right? i'd already gotten my hair trimmed once here, at a hole-in-the-wall place for just $5, but i wanted to do something a bit different and went to mod's hair paris near timeworld. i always see the place and thought it'd probably be a fun trendy place to go. so i brought with me a few pictures i printed out of winona ryder and jean seberg, wanting to go pretty short and pixie-ish. i walked in, the only megook in the place, and showed them the picture when they sat me down. now, koreans just don't really get the idea of short hair on younger girls, so the woman actually kind of laughed when i showed her the picture of winona ryder. i didn't really care though. anyway, there was only one english-speaking person in the place, and her english was a bit shaky anyway (well i didn't think so, but she was kind of shy in using it) but they stationed her right next to me to brush the hair off while the woman cut it. anyway, long story short, as they were cutting, stylists kept passing by and saying beautiful, and then by the end of the cut, they were all standing around me and when they took the cape off everyone started clapping. classic korea moment... getting a standing ovation for a haircut. and the best part? it was only $10, pretty good because it was a nice place and i would have easily spent $40 or so in dc for that.

here's another funny korea thing: it's a huge compliment for koreans to tell each other their faces look small (or their heads for that matter). apparently having a small face is a beauty ideal or something. it's actually quite amusing- in the past when i've taken pictures with koreans they'll demand to retake it because "their head is too big." when my kids want to butter me up and get me to play a game, they'll say "oh teacher, you are so beautiful. your face is so small and eyes are so big." little suck-ups.

in other news, i've joined the gym in my school's building. it's really nice- all of the treadmills have tvs attached to them so you're not at the mercy of other people and get to watch what you want to watch. and if you're stuck running indoors, the time goes by much quicker when you have a tv to watch. i really like this gym though because they give you a shirt and shorts to wear so you don't have to worry about laundry, and i also rented a locker to keep my shoes and shower stuff in so i don't have to lug it back and forth all the time. god bless korean efficiency.

three days off this coming weekend! finally! i was beginning to feel a little bit of burnout working the intensives schedule (we've had no holidays off since september i think). still sucks though that every holiday this year seems to fall on the weekend. this weekend is lunar new year, the biggest holiday in korea, and we only get one day off because new year's day falls on sunday, and i've heard that if it just happens to be on the right day you could get as much as 5 days off. what a lousy year for vacation.

whew, you went over the line with this one, guy

ok so i have this theory about the countless konglish sayings i encounter on a daily basis here in korea. everywhere i go, from pencil cases to t-shirts to food products, i discover yet another english sentence that doesn't make sense in the slightest. i swear there must be some pot-bellied middle-aged waygookin that sits at a computer all day chain-smoking cigarettes who was hired to create "english" slogans for all companies korean. little do these companies know that their "trusty" native-english speaker is getting a good laugh with everything he gets away with.

but i thought i'd share this picture with you, which proves this guy has gone a step too far with his jokes. it has been stirring up a bit of interest in the news lately (and passed around and chuckled at quite a bit by the foreigners here):



as it turns out, if you do an image search on google , this is the first picture that comes up. so rumor has it that some schmo working for naver, a very popular korean newssource (think yahoo equivalent) put this picture up along with a news article (i presume about krispy kreme, but it's in korean)- maybe they just did a web search for a krispy kreme logo and this is the first thing they found and didn't know what it was, seeing how they speak korean and not english. i would link you to the original picture and article, but someone finally caught the mistake and replaced with a g-rated krispy kreme picture. but i still count my lucky stars that i got to see this picture when it was actually on the site. anyway, this is the revised article, and a little less shocking than the original:

http://news.naver.com/news/read.php?mode=LSD&office_id=018&article_id=0000344977§ion_id=101&menu_id=101

with that, i'm out. maybe i'll go get a krispy kreme.

ahssaaaaahhhh!

many of you have asked me, via emails and ims, what "ahsahh" means. honestly, i have no idea how to spell it, but thought i'd clear the meaning up on here. basically, it's the korean way to say "all right!" or maybe "awesome"- not sure exactly what it translates into, but it's what my kids say everytime they get to put a chip down in bingo, or really anytime they're really excited. expect me to say it a lot when i return home, because it's a majorly overused phrase over here.

anyway, i thought the subject was appropriate because, even though this day got off to a rocky start, it finished quite nicely. we're doing winter intensives right now, which means kids are on vacation from public school so they go to hagwon earlier which means we have a change in schedule for about 6 weeks. so basically i have to get up at 7 am every day but thursday, when i don't have to get up till 9:30. i was in the mindset that i had to be at school at 8:30, and usually there are teachers there when i get in, but today i was the only one there besides the vice-principal and head teacher. and it became by far the most AWKWARD moment at school to date when they had a full-out screaming match. i didn't know what to do, so i kept sitting at my desk, just staring at the paper i had in front of me. i didn't even want to move. when that was over, the head teacher left and slammed the door- meanwhile the kimbap delivery man had come in (mid-fight) to drop the morning kimbap off, so the vice-principal brought a kimbap over to me saying "tanyaaa... i am sorry." i just forced a smile and accepted the kimbap. then the teacher came back in and was slamming her books around and slamming her desk drawers and they started the fight all over again- when the teacher was slamming her books i seriously thought she was packing up her stuff and quitting, but i didn't dare look. i have absolutely no clue what they were fighting about, but they sounded pretty worked up over it.

anyway, i also had a two hour class today with middle-schoolers, which is a LONG time when the class is extremely boring because it's a toefl prep writing class. anyway, long story short, i ended up having lunch with kelley and tom, who work next door, so it was just a really nice break during the day to speak with friends and vent about the long intensive hours. i also finally got the ok from dr. and mrs. kim and GOT THE WEEK OFF THAT CELESTE IS VISITING! i'm so excited that not only is she visiting, but i actually have a week-long vacation to enjoy it with her. i really want to do some traveling- like busan, gyeonju, seoul, and a ferry ride to fukuoka, japan. we've got the seoul part in the bag because aaron found out oasis is playing the tuesday night of the week celeste is here, so we all got tickets to see them. celeste put it best when she said "i'm an american girl traveling to korea to see an english band and play with a mexican dog and stay with another american girl." sounds pretty good to me. regardless to say, i'm soooooooo excited for that week (she's getting in on saturday, february 18th and leaving sunday, february 26).

speaking of mexican dogs, kimchi had his first vacation last weekend. i took him to busan with me since i didn't really have anyone to watch him and figured "it's about time i get him used to traveling because he's got a looonnnnggg day ahead of him come august." so busan was tons of fun- kimchi did very well and rather enjoyed the circular bed at the love motel. it was awesome to spend new year's on a beach- it wasn't exactly warm weather, but it was quite a mild weekend- warm enough to get away without needing a scarf, hat, or gloves and enjoy a beer on the beach at night. we went to haeundae beach and just wandered around the streets. we wanted to make it to see the sunrise on the beach, which is a tradition there, but i think we passed out around 2:30. busan is an awesome city and it was such a nice change of pace from the korea that i got used to. it was well worth it, even though we missed our 3:30 bus that we had reserved tickets for by 2 minutes and everything else going to daejeon was sold out so we had to take a 6 pm bus to cheongju and then grab another bus there to daejeon. i ended up getting home at 11 pm, which sucked seeing how i had to get up at 7 in the morning and was still recuperating from the weekend. oh but we were those obnoxious foreigners running around the city saturday night that i hate when i see them. but really, who cares, it was my birthday and we were in busan.

speaking of birthdays, it was a nice one- melissa and aaron ran out to buy me a cake and put those crazy mushroom cookie/snack things on it, along with a bunch of candles and some cookie cigarettes (don't know what that was about, guess they thought it needed a little extra flair). all in all a good weekend enjoyed by all, and here are some pictures to prove it (seriously, if you look at my pictures on shutterfly, it was just a night of random events, and the blurriness of the pictures only adds to the proof).




kimchi channel surfing and enjoying the circular bed at the love motel



blowing out the candles on my birthday cake




aaron, melissa, kate, and tom with the random guy we met who stalked us the rest of the night. all we know is he does lighting for movies and he had to shoot one the next morning. we concluded that could quite possibly be the only thing he knew how to say in english. but we won't complain, he gave us beer and tangerines. quite a funny picture, all i can think of when i see it is "he's gonna blow!"

happy new year, all.

christmas in corea (oooo i just pissed off about 48 million koreans)

what a weekend it has been. to bring you quickly through the series of events:

~friday night was spent downtown at watermelon sugar
~we had a very outback christmas eve dinner followed by a night at everyone's favorite korean night club, booby booby
~it was a lazy christmas day consisting of a super-good brunch at my place and a special screening of napoleon dynamite, followed by an outing at friend bar, dinner at kimbap nara, and a trip to hunter bar (a tiny bar around the corner from my apartment)

and now i'll break it down a little bit for you: the funny thing about this weekend is that it turned out exactly how i hoped it would. why is that funny? because i wasn't hoping it would be like anything in particular, i just wanted to do random things and have fun, which i did. i wasn't even expecting to do the christmas brunch, but i'm so glad that's how the day turned out. any special things to remember? let's see... i'm slowly building up my clothing collection via trips to booby booby. since this is the place that i lost my camera at, i've taken it upon myself to make up for what was lost... i still have a long way to go, but thus far, from past visits i've acquired a scarf, a pink hat, a bright red soccer tshirt that says "be the reds," and the latest addition is a santa claus hat wtih blinking lights. of course most of you would consider this "stealing," but i assure you that most of these items were abandoned at tables or entrances with their owners somewhere far away in the city of daejeon.

here is chris, alisun's friend from home who's visiting for 3 weeks, after our dinner at outback, hanging out with korean guys in a hot tub:



and who knew kimchi was a champion jenga player? we were all quite impressed when, after the game was set up, kimchi ran up to it, started sniffing, and plucked a piece right out.



and here he is with his winning piece



alisun tried the same thing after, but it ended up toppling over. must suck to know that a chihuahua has better strategy than you do.



because we wanted to keep the streak of going out and were denying the fact that we had to work the day after christmas and had no days off, melissa, tom, and i decided to check out friend bar, a bar fairly close to my place that's on the top floor of a fairly tall building. it was really nice inside with an awesome view. after that we went to kimbap nara and shared bibimbap, kimchi mandu, and chamchi kimbap and the bottle of wine we shamelessly brought in to drink there. and we weren't ready to end the night there, so we went to one of the tiny hole-in-the-wall bars right around the corner from me to have a beer. it wasn't at all a crazy night out, but it was definitely a nice way to wind down from the weekend.

all in all, a very fun weekend- i got a little bit of the christmas feeling, but also did some things to make it feel very korean too, and it was nice to have no expectations that the weekend would have to measure up to in my mind. i'm hoping for the same "no expectations let's have fun" weekend next weekend, which happens to be my birthday AND new year's eve. assaaaa!

and steph will too!

it's official, steph and katherine are both coming to visit. assaaaaa!

anyway, i'd like to tell you a little bit about the blackout of 2005. there i was sitting in kimbap nara after work, getting ready to enjoy my chamchi kimbap (actually it hadn't even made it to the table) when the power went out. i figure it was probably from the giant heater they had in the middle of the place. but that didn't stop business from being carried on as normal, because the guy was midway to my table and didn't even hesitate in his step to deliver the food to my table. so i sat in the darkness eating and thinking "well, this is bizarre." that's it, no high point to the story, i just found it to be an overall amusing experience, sitting in the dark eating kimbap.

in other news, i just got back from the store... i made purchases that will ensure a very sugary christmas for all of my kids today, so i can release them in all of their sugar-high madness to their next classes... i love being the evil foreign teacher.

and now you may be asking "tanya, what do your christmas plans entail?" and i can proudly announce... i have no clue. my friends and i have no aspirations to make this a very christmasy christmas- i think we all tired ourselves out after all of that thanksgiving cooking. so we're probably going to maybe get together for a little $5 gift exchange, or maybe go out to dinner, or maybe just go out and have fun... perhaps we'll do all three. at this point, it's just our goal to have fun, and i'm ok with that. same thing goes for new year's eve. i keep forgetting that i will be 23 and still i don't have any huge plans for that weekend. so class, what have we learned so far? that my friends and i have no idea what we're going to do, but sometimes things are more fun when you don't plan anything.

happy hollendaise all.

katherine does korea

so this is a story about a little girl named katherine, who will be visiting the first week of april, 2006! i didn't even realize she'd be able to visit until last week when she announced she had enough money... and she purchased her ticket yesterday. so now is the time to get excited! and what's even more awesome is it will be almost like a trailer 13 reunion (minus certain girls in africa) because steph found a cheap flight from thailand for the same time! i'll be twice as excited when it's official and steph also has her plane ticket purchased. i just don't want to get over-excited in case something goes wrong with that, but i just keep thinking how great it's gonna be having not one, but two friends visiting at the same time. so what's the first thing i plan on showing them? our beloved j-rock, because secretly i think they're going to love it because it's so much like trashy johnny k's.

and i'm sure this is the kind of madness we're gonna have when they get in, which was the typical scene on any given night in trailer 13:



of course, i don't have a couch or coffee table that we can randomly break out into dance on, so my bed is gonna have to do. and there's always the noraebang for all of our couch needs.

little things that make my day

so i had one of those great weeks where i love all of my students, and mostly it came from these little things that just make my day. for example, one class that i won't be teaching after next week because they're moving to junior high wasn't too happy to hear that they're going to have a new teacher. one even went as far as to tell me to go to the principal with a knife and tell her i must keep the class. a little scary, yes, but the sentiment behind it was nice.

and then today i got a christmas card from another student that i won't be teaching after next week that was very nice. looked like she put a lot of effort into it, and her english was pretty good in the letter, also. i just had to take a picture of it to show people back home.

front:



inside:



message:


it's kind of hard to read what she wrote, but it says:

"To: Tanya Smith. <3 (teacher) in cursive next to this it says "I love you" surrounded by hearts

Hi, Miss Tanya Smith

I'm Bella. Thank you for teaching me till now.
Well, we'll can't see each other, I'm so sad.
But I believe that we can see each other later
If we are still alive until 20 years or more,
Maybe one day, we can meet, right? Anyway I'll really miss you then and bye!

Merry Christmas"

almost too cute. anyway, if there are any teachers out there who are finding themselves in my situation (end of the "term" with a few classes left and a finished book), i highly recommend showing the class "the santa clause" with tim allen. most of the kids hadn't seen it or even heard of it, but they all loved it, no matter what their age was. a nice, safe movie for kids, even junior high age, who won't feel like their intelligence is being insulted by being shown a family/kids movie because it's pretty funny.

fa ra ra ra ra.

calvin and the snowmen

my post to appease celeste's nagging

dear diary,

i sat next to billy today in class. he had a really cool new spongebob t-shirt. i was going to pass a note to him asking if he wanted to sit next to me in art, but we had to go out for recess. i love him 4-ever.

love,
tanya

but seriously, folks... i don't have a ton to update on. i brought kimchi to the vet this morning for the last of his shots (yay!) then i came home a little worried because my vet said to bring him back if he has an allergic reaction to the rabies shot. so now i'm going to be paranoid until the day is over. awesome. i'm sure he's fine though... i can't really see him right now because he downed a bottle of soju and is crawling into the toilet... cute little guy, that one is.

my vet also asked if i wanted to get him castrated (seriously that's the word he used) sometime in the future... i'm sure korea's vets are wonderful and all, but i told him i'm gonna save that for america. secretly, i'm planning on making a little bach of kimchis when i come home for some cross-cultural puppies.

this weekend was fun. the foreigners soccer club had their annual christmas party at k.o.p, so a lot of people went out for it, resulting in a pretty crowded bar. naturally alisun and i (basically everyone else was sick so they stayed home) hung around till about 6:45 in the morning (seriously, who are we?) with maybe 4 other people.

on saturday we went to alisuns for a day-long feast... we just kept making everything in stages- fruit and yogurt, then hash browns, then eggs, then baguettes with olive oil and sauce, then hot chocolate. nice relaxing day (i feel like i say that about every weekend). and yesterday melissa, alisun, and i decided to take a random city bus and get off at the end of the line and see where it would take us. nothing too exciting though, we ended up in koondong, which is just another fun little area (where santa claus the bar is) so we did a little bit of shopping, wandered around looking for this place where they have a pizza buffet for 7,000 won that includes a salad bar. we couldn't find it though, and just ended up taking a taxi to pizza hut. i've said it before and i'll say it again... man i love being a turtle. no that's not right. i meant to say i'm so korean it hurts.

then we made a trip to the grocery store to get some food for tom, who must have some sort of flu because he's basically bed-ridden. everyone ended up getting sick this week- melissa's finally getting over her bronchitis, tom's stuck in bed, and alisun and i battled colds during the week (we're so brave) what can i say, 'tis the season of kids with green snot bubbles coming out of their noses. those little vermin are the ones that get us sick- them and their "don't cover your mouths when you cough, don't wash your hands after the bathroom or EVER, and above all make sure you aim your face right at teacher when you sneeze, and then pick up teacher's bottle of water and drink from it."

snow!

had a nice little surprise this weekend! at about midnight on friday night/saturday morning i got a text from sean saying "snow! get into it!"- looked outside and... this is what i saw:




that definitely helped me get a little more into the holiday spirit, so i took some pictures of it from my apartment window. i went to bed thinking "oh well, it's not gonna stick, but at least i got to see the first snow of the season." woke up this morning, didn't even bother looking outside until alisun called and said "have you looked outside?" well, i looked outside, and this is what i saw...!







turns out it did stick- we must've gotten 2 or 3 inches. it was even cooler that we went shopping downtown today and it was snowing lightly pretty much the whole day, and it's snowing pretty steadily right now. completely awesome when you're not even expecting it!


(alisun and tom enjoying the snow downtown)

today definitely had that nice, cozy holiday feel. we started at starbucks and enjoyed peppermint mochas while listening to christmas music, and then i was pleasantly surprised that most of the stores were also decorated and playing christmas music! christmas music and lights completely make the christmas season for me. we went to the dollar store where i got a little charlie brown christmas tree, and a small set of lights and decorations for it... completely gaudy, but that's why i love it. it's only about a foot high, but i still got into the holiday spirit and played christmas music while i set it up... it's sitting on my desk now, looking quite beautiful... ok ok, at least it was set up with love, that's all that matters. i'd take pictures of it, but my camera battery is dead. it's a nice addition to the other christmas lights i put up in my room and the $1 stocking i also got today.

anyway, i've found out (as i'd already had the hunch) that there's nothing better on a cold wintery day than getting some ssamgyeopsal while sitting on the warm ondol floor. made the day that much better for me. plus, we hit the jackpot in choosing the place, because their sidedishes were nothing short of awesome.



(alisun, tom, and kate)

mmm, i feel like it's been a while since i posted. i didn't even talk about our thanksgiving feast last week, but it turned out rather well. i think there were 11 or 12 of us, and we had all sorts of food. and of course, like any normal thanksgiving, we had to end the night in the noraebang. i just put the pictures up on tanyainkorea.shutterfly.com (if you lost the link)... it was a fun night.

ok i figure the best way to end this snow post is to quote salsa from the text message i just received: "i slipped outside. now i'm sitting on frozen mandu to numb my ass. i <3 korea."

p.s. i've officially been in korea for four months exactly- time sure does fly.