Knife Tips and Norebangs

Ok, I know!  I've neglected this a bit and have some catching up to do. Its been a crazy week and I realized that I started this post about 5 days ago, but never finished. I guess I will start at the beginning and bore you all to death, with what I think were some bizarre adventures during the first bit of Chuseok. The later half of my week was a whole different ball game; so, that will have to wait. I am trying not to compete with my Jane Austen reader here...I know you will all be waiting on the edge of your seats.

The first half of this post goes out to my HGTV loving momma and anyone who knows of, and shares my feelings towards knife tips. Hope some of you are reading this because it made me think of you!

My Chusoek vacation started off with a typical rainy Saturday, which spoiled my plans to go exploring and find a temple I want to see in Seoul. Not wanting to feel like a waste of space, I decided to try to be productive, in spite of the weather. Over the last few days, I've started to visit some UW Gepik-ers in their towns and have since realized that the apartment I was given is unusually gigantic. In reality, it's more space than I need, but I guess that's the trade off for living in an area that I sometimes think resembles one big empty storefront.  While my apartment was clean on arrival, and my school provided me with some basic furnishings, it is in serious need of some HGTV lovin.' The lack of any real color (excluding of course my pretty pretty princess bed) has already left me spending far too many precious moments pondering my bare, cream, wallpapered walls. I also narrowly escaped disaster a few days ago, simultaneously stepping on my medicine bottle, rolling my ankle, and nearly crushing my already hurting ipod. Both items had been living on my make-shift bedside table... the floor. Determined, I walked my tush to Homeplus and picked up some much needed items, including: a mirror, a small bedside shelf/table, a small lamp, a bath mat and some garbage cans. I also picked up some cheap frames that I filled with large printed pictures (printed in full color on my office printer, obviously) for the walls. Well these help a bit, the search for colorful, won-friendly wall decor continues.

After returning home very soggy, I was ready to start turning my apt into a home. I spent a few minutes rearranging the furniture in my bedroom, before opening all of my packages and promptly realizing the flaw in my plan. Being the crafty, yet slightly scatter-brained, lady that I am, I had bought a small shelf that needed to be assembled, forgeting that I do not have the screwdriver required to complete such a task. I had already made the decision to stay inside until the rain subsided and thus spent the next hour of my life testing random items in my apartment, to see if I they could be the substitute I knew must exist. 12 nearly stripped screws later, the clouds parted and I found what I was looking for. What could it possibly be?  A KNIFE TIP. I will make an observation here; If I can put together a shelf with the tip of my kitchen butcher knife, I am quite confident that every camper at Beber Camp can make a PB+J without breaking the tip of their knife into the peanut butter jar. I know it.

Feeling as though my apartment was slightly less hospital chic, I set off on adventure number two, meeting up with my friend Amanda in Seoul. What follows are 10 of the most unexpected hours I have had since arriving in Korea. The mere fact that I am meeting up with Amanda in Seoul is amazing to me.  For those of you who don't know, in an wonderful twist of fate, Amanda found Solly's ad for a subletter exactly one week before moving in to 615 N. Henry. When, within about a month of her moving in, we had both separately decided to go to Korea, I think we knew the friendship was meant to be! Anyways... after a 1.5 hour journey on the Subway, spent in between the cutest Korean baby I have ever seen and a very friendly woman who gave me a what I can only describe as a doughnut hole filled with red beans and a walnut, I got off in Hongdae and went to find Amanda. Turns out we were waiting at opposite exits and, seeing as both parties are still phone-less, it took a while to find each other. But, as always, at the end of the day it was worth it!

Highlights of the evening include:

• Accidentally eating something which directly translates to "meaty bones soup" but in reality was a spicy soup made from what appeared to be large chunks of spine
• Getting lost and having to visit two PC Bangs before finding our hostel
• Arriving at the Yellow Submarine Guest House and being told 
• We didn't know you were coming." ("Hey, did you know they were coming??")
•  "The directions from the subway are totally accurate" (no way jose)
• "You can sleep here, but there is a weird guy in your room."
• "We will have to go to the laundry mat (at 11:45 pm) because we sent out all the sheets."
• and, my personal favorite, "Are you girls drunk?"

At this point were were stone sober, but had been dissolving into fits of giggles over the entire situation.
The night progressed from there, eventually ending with some crazy singing, dancing, and drinking of Welch's grape drank in a 노래방 (norebang). A norebang is a Korean karaoke room, found two or three to a street anywhere in the city, or perhaps anywhere in Korea. Korean's love their karaoke and take their norebang-ing pretty seriously. The result is the most intense list of options I have ever seen which, if you're lucky, include thousands of Korean and English tunes. If you're even luckier, like Amanda, myself,  and our new Korean friends, the norebang will serve exclusively grape soda and every song will be set to the background of what appears to be generic Korean music video footage. Overall, a norebang is a hilarious experience and an excellent addition to any night.

After many hours of karaoke, Amanda and I ended our night over sweet potato ice cream and made our way back to the Yellow Submarine. We parted ways early the next morning, as I had to return home to pick up my ARC and passport. These all important documents have finally been returned to me, which means that, once again, I have an identity and maybe one day soon (or maybe Thursday when I go back to school) I will be a real person with my very own bank account, cell phone and internet connection. As of now... a girl can only dream.

That's all for now! Miss you all, next post... palaces and Muui-do!

Hello Teacher!

안녕하세요 friends!

I'm almost through week 2 of teaching at Banji and while the kids now seem used to seeing me around school, they are no less excited to scream, "Hello Teacher," every time I pass. Those who remember to be polite, will even manage to stop and bow mid-hallway sprint. I bow so often here (every time I see a teacher or speak to someone older than me ...) that I feel as though, in a years time, it will be difficult to come home and not bow to everyone... who will, in turn, look at me like a crazy person.

Last weekend I spent Friday night lazing around my apartment and then ventured back into Seoul on Saturday. It was raining (shocking... only a week or so more of the rainy season, they tell me) so I met up with a few people from UW and headed to the Coex Aquarium. I would say it wasn't the best and wasn't the worst.  A few too many creatures in way too small of tanks for their size, some pretty sweet fish, a handful of sharks, a beaver???, a room filled with household items converted into fish tanks... and over all a decent rainy day activity. The aquarium was followed by my first experience with real Korean BBQ.  We ate Sam Gyeop Sal, which is basically strips of pork grilled right at your table which you then wrap in a lettuce leaf with sliced/grilled garlic cloves, onions, bean sprouts, kimchi and  gochujang (spicy Korean bean paste). It's basically deliciousness wrapped up in a lettuce leaf. I look forward to many future meals of Sam Gyeop Sal! About 7 of us went into Hongdae for a night out and slept at a friends apartment, about 20 min outside of the city. The next morning, 4 of us took the subway to Itaewon. This is an area that has been built up for foreign service men/woman and, as such, is full of all different kinds of restaurants, some shops that sell non-small-Asian-sized clothing, lots of people who speak English and ....da da da... an English book store! Oh ... and apparently lots of hookers... I think I shall stay away from Itaewon at night. BUT... back to the bookstore... I was just about in heaven when we found this place. It is half brand new English books (novels, travel guides, children's books, language books...you name it) and half an area that buys and sells used English books. Now I know that I don't have to ration out the 5 books that came with me, to make sure they last the full year! I restrained myself and only bought one book, a Korean cook book in English. This week my project has been an attempt to start learning both how to cook Korean and, more importantly,  identify food items on a menu... progress reports to come.

I can already tell this year is going to run away from me. I keep reminding myself that I need to make the most of each day and appreciate the opportunity that I have, while I still have it. The last few days it has been far easier to appreciate my surroundings, as the sun has finally peaked out from the clouds. This coupled with a drop in humidity (formerly 100%, as listed on weather.com) has made it practically delightful to walk around outside. I even got my tushie off the couch and went for a run, though I still need to find a better route. My current state involves wandering aimlessly through complexes of ugly apartment buildings and past more car repair and tire shops than I can count... there has to be a better way. Unfortunately, there looks to be rain in the forecast during a chunk of next week. Boo weather! Way to literally rain on my vacation.

After Friday I actually wont come back to school for almost 2 weeks. Next week, I have no school for Chuseok Holiday. Chuseok is Korean Thanksgiving, one of the most important holidays here. Most Koreans will travel to visit their elders, have ceremonies honoring their ancestors, eat many song-pyeon (rice cakes) and, I believe, children will receive money if they honor their elders "enough," whatever that is. Needless to say, I look forward to hearing about my co teachers celebrations! I myself have no idea what I am doing yet. As my passport is still being held hostage by immigration (they take it while processing your ARC) I cannot used my glorious 10 days for international travel, booooo! But, hopefully I will have many Korean adventures to report on by the end of the week.

For now, I am off to bask in the glory of 3rd graders ("I can swim!") but, as I promised myself this would one day turn into my artist blog,  I think my next post will be some of the sketches I have (very) slowly started to accumulate.

Missing my fam on the holidays. I expect pictures of the family progressive on facebook with in the week!!

Emily

Photo tour of week 2

My English Room 

"The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer." -unknown

Rainy Day Plan - Coex Aquarium

Samgyepsal Korean BBQ

Hongdae

Bar snacks... mmmmm fishy

 

First Attempt...bibimmyeon

 

Hanboks in Namdaemun

ArtsyFartsy ... somewhere in Itaewon.

As Promised

I dare you ... these are growing everywhere in peoples gardens/farms

My street in Jangdang-dong, Pyeongtaek-si

Around the corner

Jangdang-dong, Banji, Hongdae, Seoul, and Immigration

Much has happened in the last few days, most of which revolves around me beginning to get my life sorted and find a routine, meeting up with Badgers in Seoul, only slightly shorter periods of confusion, and, alas, the joys of immigration. 

I have started to get settled at Banji Elementary school and have realized how happy I am to be teaching. Regardless of the language barriers, which are significant, and having to adapt my teaching style to English lessons rather than art, I am once again convinced I have chosen the perfect profession for this stage of my life. Everything about my interests, and who I am as a person at this point, compliment teaching and little kids just make me happy, even if I am not quite sure what they are saying. As far as Banji goes, I will teach 22 hours a week and have nearly as many prep hours in the afternoon. This is essential, as I teach 6 lessons a week and have been using almost all of this time to plan. On the menu for this week: "How was your vacation?" (5th grade), "Whose boat is this?," (6th Grade) "Is this your book?" (4th grade),  3rd grade TBD. I actually do not have my after school 1/2 and 3/4 classes this week, so I only have to plan 4 lessons, but I am also working on a "Pizza Restaurant" display for the English room. So, I have been toiling away, editting gigantic slices of pizza on my computer.... nothing like Gino's East to make me miss American food.

This weekend was a nice break from school and my Korean all-day, every-day lifestyle. I took the train to Seoul to meet up with about 15 other GEPIK teachers from UW. We all stayed in a hostel in Hongdae, which is the area around Hongik University and a place where you can find tons of eating, shopping, nightlife, and young people.  The weekend consisted largely of eating and exploring, as well as two pretty fab nights out and a ton of English speaking. Apparently Seoul is a city that never sleeps, judging by the fact that we were out until 6 am on Saturday... as was everyone else in the area. The streets were as packed at 6 as they were at 12; rise and shine Seoul!

The weekend was a great breath of fresh air and left me feeling really good about the upcoming week. I am still feeling great, however, some adventures with immigration have been weighing me down and keeping me pretty occupied the last two days. Basically, within 90 days of arriving in the country, you need to apply for an ARC (Alien Registration Card). This card will serve as your form of identification in Korea, and allows you to complete the all important task of opening a bank account. The later is in turn required before you can a.) Get a cell phone b.) Get the internet or c.) Get paid! Immigration itself is pretty much a nightmare, especially since I was on my own. Just think DMV, but everything is in Korean, including the documents you are told to bring, and if you show up past the 3 hour before closing window they don't even let you take a number. I would rather not relive my own experience, but after 2 days, about 2 hours on the train, 4 taxi rides, a lot of wasted won, an thankfully the help of some friendly Koreans, I think my ARC and multi-entrance visa will arrive at my school in two weeks. Everybody cross your fingers for me!

Anyways, this is getting way to long, so I will stop here for now. My connection is too slow to upload photos right now, so those will have to wait. 

안녕히 가세오!
emily

Finding my way: Adventures of the first 5 days

• Went to the grocery store. Check
• Ordered food (with lots of pointing and numbers with my fingers). Check
• Bought a T-money (subway/bus) card from a girl who spoke no English (again.. pointing and looking things up in my phrase book). Check
• Walked to the subway station and took the train to two different places to meet a fellow Badger. Check
• Found a sweet market and bought mandu (dumplings) for lunch. Check
• Found civilization a 5 min walk from my apartment (if I haven't talked to you, this was cause for concern the first few days). Check
• Walked to and from school sucessfully. Check
• Met another American English teacher in my area (Yay!). Check
• Took a taxi home from the train station, using my hand drawn map to guide the driver. Check
• Survived my first day at Banji Elementary School.... weirdly felt so great to be lesson planning again.... I am such a dork. 

Enough of that. All in all, I am feeling really great, and finally feel as though I can actually do this for a year!

On a humorous note, today after our classes ended Juha and I were sitting in our office when a man and woman walked in, started speaking in rapid Korean and measuring all of the desks in the room. This went on for a few minutes, before Juha said, "I am sorry, we will have to move the desks." Then ... chaos! They literally started moving everything off of two of the desks (including the one I was at) and unplugging everything in the room. This man was also literally cutting through some of the computer chords, that were wrapped around a pipe, with a scissor. I felt a bit dumb just standing there so I tried to help by moving things in the same direction as everyone else. Basically over the next 30/40 min we moved all the stuff off of two desks, onto the other two, then moved two desks and a fridge out of the room, reorganized everything in the room, and eventually hooked all of the electronics/computers back up, possibly with the help of a school IT man... or just a man. Unclear. Everything about that hour of my life is entirely unclear; but, my desk is all set up now and I think the room will remain the way is it at this point.


Hope my confusion is a source of some entertainment, hopefully I will get a chance to talk to everyone soon!

Emily