Thursday, September 30, 2004
sheena, queen of bad movies
school was back in session today. there was no kindergarten class. sara wasn't there. i spent most of the day planning my lessons for next month. i have two new classes, so now i have a total of five. for lunch i had kimchi soup. very spicy. damn that soup is tastey but makes you sweat. nothing too exciting happened. i printed out some pictures from one tree hill to hang in my apartment. its time to put something on the walls. i'm tired of looking at all this white space. this morning i got to im with both pauline and derek. that was fun. what a great way to start the day. last night i watched sheena queen of the jungle. what an awful movie. it would have much more interesting dubbed in korean. tanya roberts just can't act. now i'm making some pork cutlets for dinner and planning on just relaxing. thats really about it. until next time. stay tuned to more ketv…
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
a day of nothing
well today's blog is going to be short and sweet. i did absolutely nothing all day. actually i did speak with misty on the phone which was great. i also spoke with huegel and got to im with derek. its always good to hear from folks back home. the rest of the end i spent cleaning, doing laundry, and catching up on emails. i also squeezed in some tv watching. saw yet another korean soap opera and caught the end of my favorite movie pretty woman. yes for those that don't realize it i'm being sarcastic. i can't stand julia roberts. why must that movie haunt me. time to watch some more bad tv. until next time. stay tuned to ketv…
namson park photos and more
here are pictures from namson park, seoul tower, fairy land, and donguk university.
Links
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
chusuk [korean thanksgiving]
today is chusuk, or as we call it back home thanksgiving. its a day filled with ritual. families visit the graves of loved ones to pay their respect. they bow before the graves, aay a little prayer, and then pour a rice drink on the grave. its very beautiful and moving. we got to watch jk, jane, and kelly pay respect to jane's grandfather. we invite over to jane's parents apartment for dinner. they have a very nice apartment. think of jefferson with their penthouse pad. very nicely decorated with a 64 inch flat screen tv, inside garden, and sofas. it was so nice to sit on a sofa. i was in heaven. it was a little overwhelming at first. they have a large family. i sort of felt like i was on display. everyone was very nice and very welcoming. jane's younger brother had just come back from the states so we talked to him alot and the older brother con, who also spoke english and had been to the u.s. they told us about the custom and things like that. we sat in the living room on the floor where tables were brought out with variuos dishes on them. the men ate first. we started the meal with another type of rice liquor made from the fruit of rose plants. on the bottle it said it was good for backache, health, and cuts. it was sweeter than soju but very tastey. i liked it. the meal consisted of various vegetables, several side dishes one of which was potato latkes, and otehr delious things. there was also kimchee and soup. the soup was a bit fishy so i avoided that. especially since there were various unknow meat products floating in it. we also had rice and meat. the meat was like pot roast and it tasted just like pot roast. it was so good.
they were all impressed with our usage of chopsticks. thank god. i was so self-conscious during the whole meal. i constanstly felt liek i was be watched and everytime i went for a piece of meat i was praying it wouldn't fall. i did have one slight snag. getting the meat off the bone. finally one of the elder men showed me how to use the spoon to debone it. they also served rice cakes filled with sesames and beans and fruit for dessert. the whole experience was wonderful. i'm so glad i was able to experience this. needless to say there were several rounds of toasting and shots during of the rice drink during the meal. good thing all those years of drinking vodka paid off. when some of the younger guys left the women came out to eat. although they were also eating in the kitchen. normally i think they all eat together but since there wer so many people they had to do it in shifts. after eating jane's dad and the other men turned on the tv and watched golf. it was just like being at home. i felt like my dad could have walked in any minute.
shortly after that we walked over to the graveyard so jk and his family could pay their respect. all this i mentioned above so i won't go into detail. the mountain on which the relatives are buried are owned by jane's family. apparently her family is very well off. as if that wasn't apparent by seeing the apartment. both con and the younger brother offered to show us around korea whenever we wanted. they told us that if we got into any kind of trouble to call them. they want to take us to a tradition village sometime. i'm looking forward to that. very nice people. on the way to the train station jk told us that he wanted us to meet his family because he thinks of us as family. he said that everyone thought we were very nice. i forgot to mention this but at one point outside con was remarking on my watch and then the younger brother [i can't remember his name] made a comment how harace and i were very stylish. thats right we bring some STYLE to korea.
now i'm back at home relaxing. i finally got my cable for my tv this week. and last night i discovered the magic of korean tv. there are about 3 stations that play some american stuff but i was watching korean soap operas. thats the one good thing about soap operas. you really don't need to understand what they are saying because its all the same. i also managed to catch some korean videos and a station that had a bunch of pop stars performing live. i finally got to see bdsk or tvrfx, not really sure what their name is. tht the pop hair band i wrote about beofre. they are so like nsync and the rest of them its funny. all these korean teenage girls were crying and screaming. too funny. can't wait to see whats on tonight.
until next time. stay tuned for me ketv…
they were all impressed with our usage of chopsticks. thank god. i was so self-conscious during the whole meal. i constanstly felt liek i was be watched and everytime i went for a piece of meat i was praying it wouldn't fall. i did have one slight snag. getting the meat off the bone. finally one of the elder men showed me how to use the spoon to debone it. they also served rice cakes filled with sesames and beans and fruit for dessert. the whole experience was wonderful. i'm so glad i was able to experience this. needless to say there were several rounds of toasting and shots during of the rice drink during the meal. good thing all those years of drinking vodka paid off. when some of the younger guys left the women came out to eat. although they were also eating in the kitchen. normally i think they all eat together but since there wer so many people they had to do it in shifts. after eating jane's dad and the other men turned on the tv and watched golf. it was just like being at home. i felt like my dad could have walked in any minute.
shortly after that we walked over to the graveyard so jk and his family could pay their respect. all this i mentioned above so i won't go into detail. the mountain on which the relatives are buried are owned by jane's family. apparently her family is very well off. as if that wasn't apparent by seeing the apartment. both con and the younger brother offered to show us around korea whenever we wanted. they told us that if we got into any kind of trouble to call them. they want to take us to a tradition village sometime. i'm looking forward to that. very nice people. on the way to the train station jk told us that he wanted us to meet his family because he thinks of us as family. he said that everyone thought we were very nice. i forgot to mention this but at one point outside con was remarking on my watch and then the younger brother [i can't remember his name] made a comment how harace and i were very stylish. thats right we bring some STYLE to korea.
now i'm back at home relaxing. i finally got my cable for my tv this week. and last night i discovered the magic of korean tv. there are about 3 stations that play some american stuff but i was watching korean soap operas. thats the one good thing about soap operas. you really don't need to understand what they are saying because its all the same. i also managed to catch some korean videos and a station that had a bunch of pop stars performing live. i finally got to see bdsk or tvrfx, not really sure what their name is. tht the pop hair band i wrote about beofre. they are so like nsync and the rest of them its funny. all these korean teenage girls were crying and screaming. too funny. can't wait to see whats on tonight.
until next time. stay tuned for me ketv…
Monday, September 27, 2004
seoul tower
we met up with miss vicky today and all headed for namsan. today we'd be tourist. while trying to figure out where we were going some nice korean man stopped to help us. instead of showing us on the map he basically walked us to where we need to go. he was a fast walker too. of course most of them crawl but the one who decides to help is a power walker. go figure. anyway he lead us to a sign that said namsan park and pointed up the stairs. we said thank you and began our ascent up the stairs. little did we know that stairs would be a very intergral part of our day. after climbing yet another round of stairs we got to the base of the park. out came our cameras. we passed by some toilets which had glass walls. lets just say that you could see completely into the mens room. don't think i'll be using that one. we found a little store where this toothless woman was saying howdy to us and wishing us a happy chusuk. we got drinks and sat a bit.
once rested we decided to attempt the next flight of stairs. this lead to another little park with various statues. there was one little girl blowing a whistle non-stop. i thought horace was going to rip it out of her mouth. from this park we ascended even more stairs that lead to a museum. in the front of the museum were these giant rock structures with writing. very cool. you could also see seoul tower pretty well from here. seoul tower was our destination. by the way seoul tower was on top of a mountain. we played tourist for awhile shooting pictures then made our way up yet some more stairs where we stumbled upon a zoo. i say zoo but it was a very sad looking zoo. tiny cages for these animals. it actually made me depressed walking through it. vicky decided to wait for us at a table. smart move.
from the sad zoo we came across a botanical gardens. after debating for several minutes we decided to skip this. instead we decided to take the cable car [which is an air lift] up to seoul tower. first we had to find it. we headed down and eventually came to the building for lift. we bought oneway tickets figuring we'd walk down the mountain. we were definitely a site. all three of us basically don't like heights. this was going to be fun. we were crammed into the cable car. if the sign says 38 people max, they definitely try to squeeze in 5 more. didn't have a great view from inside although it was really cool watching it approach the tower. it kept looking like we were going to go right into the trees when we were actually going on top of them. i liked it.
at seoul tower we bought tickets to take the elevator up to the observation decks. it was pretty cool to view all of seoul from that height. we also realized that fairy land was in the building. how exciting is that. after leaving the observation deck the elevator takes you to the basement floor where, yes fairy land is. we bought tickets for fairy land, $3. it was funny cuz the ticket guy was telling us its scary with ghosts and all. we entered fairy land which was all dayglow. it was basically like entering a cheesy haunted house. the first glass window had snow princess and the dwarves. then there was the master and servant window and from there on out it turned into a haunted house. it was so rad. they had everything from the rickety bridge to the moving tunnel. we did the moving dayglow tunnel three times. so far that's been the best thing ever.
on our descent down there was a woman walking her three white dogs who all have bright pink ears and tails. i tried to get a picture however it doesn't do it justice. i'll post it anyway. someway we managed to find our way to danguk university or something like that. it was pretty cool walking around the campus. there were actually students studying during the holiday. i don't think they know how to have fun. in one part of the campus we stumpled upon some wild elephant statues and a statue of buddha. we saw some kids at basketball practice too. there was a really cool poster on the bulletin board that i wanted to take but the guard was facing my direction so i thought i'd better not attempt it. by this time we were starving and of course no nothing was openned and if it was they didn't have menus we could read. so we walked. and walked. and walked. along our journey we came upon two giant bowling pins. i stopped to have my picture taken by them for misty. and then like a mirage an outback steakhouse was infront of us. of course the first resturant is a chain one. we were all so hungry we went there. i order a chopped steak which tasted like hamburger meat marniated in soy sauce. i was so hungry i didn't even care. the fries were awesome. i also ordered an iced tea thinking i was going to get this unsweetened tea. hello ethan, your in korea. it was a giant glass of instant nestle tea. you know the kind you always begged your parents to get when you were younger. its not until your much older that you realize its really brown sugar water. needless to say that didn't stop me from having two glasses. the things you do. all i know is i want to go back to korea food. its cheaper and better. good thing with have thanksgiving tomorrow. i can't wait for that. horace and i bought two bottles of rice wine to give as a gift.
that pretty much sums up my day. until next time. stay tuned for more ketv…
i leave you with the smiths singing handsome devil
p.s. my parents anniversary was on the 24. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM + DAD. love you
once rested we decided to attempt the next flight of stairs. this lead to another little park with various statues. there was one little girl blowing a whistle non-stop. i thought horace was going to rip it out of her mouth. from this park we ascended even more stairs that lead to a museum. in the front of the museum were these giant rock structures with writing. very cool. you could also see seoul tower pretty well from here. seoul tower was our destination. by the way seoul tower was on top of a mountain. we played tourist for awhile shooting pictures then made our way up yet some more stairs where we stumbled upon a zoo. i say zoo but it was a very sad looking zoo. tiny cages for these animals. it actually made me depressed walking through it. vicky decided to wait for us at a table. smart move.
from the sad zoo we came across a botanical gardens. after debating for several minutes we decided to skip this. instead we decided to take the cable car [which is an air lift] up to seoul tower. first we had to find it. we headed down and eventually came to the building for lift. we bought oneway tickets figuring we'd walk down the mountain. we were definitely a site. all three of us basically don't like heights. this was going to be fun. we were crammed into the cable car. if the sign says 38 people max, they definitely try to squeeze in 5 more. didn't have a great view from inside although it was really cool watching it approach the tower. it kept looking like we were going to go right into the trees when we were actually going on top of them. i liked it.
at seoul tower we bought tickets to take the elevator up to the observation decks. it was pretty cool to view all of seoul from that height. we also realized that fairy land was in the building. how exciting is that. after leaving the observation deck the elevator takes you to the basement floor where, yes fairy land is. we bought tickets for fairy land, $3. it was funny cuz the ticket guy was telling us its scary with ghosts and all. we entered fairy land which was all dayglow. it was basically like entering a cheesy haunted house. the first glass window had snow princess and the dwarves. then there was the master and servant window and from there on out it turned into a haunted house. it was so rad. they had everything from the rickety bridge to the moving tunnel. we did the moving dayglow tunnel three times. so far that's been the best thing ever.
on our descent down there was a woman walking her three white dogs who all have bright pink ears and tails. i tried to get a picture however it doesn't do it justice. i'll post it anyway. someway we managed to find our way to danguk university or something like that. it was pretty cool walking around the campus. there were actually students studying during the holiday. i don't think they know how to have fun. in one part of the campus we stumpled upon some wild elephant statues and a statue of buddha. we saw some kids at basketball practice too. there was a really cool poster on the bulletin board that i wanted to take but the guard was facing my direction so i thought i'd better not attempt it. by this time we were starving and of course no nothing was openned and if it was they didn't have menus we could read. so we walked. and walked. and walked. along our journey we came upon two giant bowling pins. i stopped to have my picture taken by them for misty. and then like a mirage an outback steakhouse was infront of us. of course the first resturant is a chain one. we were all so hungry we went there. i order a chopped steak which tasted like hamburger meat marniated in soy sauce. i was so hungry i didn't even care. the fries were awesome. i also ordered an iced tea thinking i was going to get this unsweetened tea. hello ethan, your in korea. it was a giant glass of instant nestle tea. you know the kind you always begged your parents to get when you were younger. its not until your much older that you realize its really brown sugar water. needless to say that didn't stop me from having two glasses. the things you do. all i know is i want to go back to korea food. its cheaper and better. good thing with have thanksgiving tomorrow. i can't wait for that. horace and i bought two bottles of rice wine to give as a gift.
that pretty much sums up my day. until next time. stay tuned for more ketv…
i leave you with the smiths singing handsome devil
p.s. my parents anniversary was on the 24. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM + DAD. love you
Sunday, September 26, 2004
insadong pictures
all right. i tried to do things the easy way but due to some problems with flickr and my photo albums i'm going back to snapfish. you'll will just have to view them there.
here are pictures from our day in insadong.
here are pictures from our day in insadong.
Links
western delight
we met vicky at sanbon station then jumped back on the train and headed to government complex stop. todays mission was to find the black market american product shop. all we knew was that it was near the newcore department store in the basement two buildings to the right of mcdonalds. this had the makings of being something good. hopefully they'd be selling babies, livers, etc. of course we found it in the back of a grocery store. snore. and it was set up up like a flea market. another snore. and all the products they sold were even a bigger snore. needless to say the black market was a bust. after deciding there was no need to pay $5 bucks for a hersey bar that i could get for $1 back home we decided to check out the rest of the building. afterall there were 4 floors. well, the whole thing reminded me of a giant flea market. or as horace put it "it feels like we are in a dying woolworths." the whole area was rather boring. i will say this though, they have this lock by lock tupperware stuff that rocks! i'm so getting some of it. we sat on a bench watching children play in the water statue to figure out our next plan. we decide to go to the tourist area known as itaewon.
itaewon is where the military base is so you can only imagine what was in store for us. tons of military, westerns, crap, and hookers. unfortunately there were no hookers out today. it was sunday after all. walking around the streets of itaewon is like walking around the mission in sf. although it was a bit cleaner and a more mix of people. we decided today that korea is the place where american men come to find girlfriends. its the american sitcom syndrome here. fat unattractive guys with these pretty women. we must have seen couple after couple of hot women with troll boyfriends. it almost makes you want to shake these women and say "look at what your with". i know that sounds petty because you all are thinking "but i'm sure the guys are really nice." we are know what nice equals. nice = unattractive. anyway so that's what itaewon is like. it has its charm. i'm more curious to see what its like at night. we are going to go back sometime to hit the bars. its a great place to find cheap gifts. we did have lunch at a "mexican" resturant. i had the most expensive tacos of my life. i will give them props for serving cold beer in frosty mugs. you can't beat that. some guy was also selling bunnies on the street. they are so cute. would aikea kill me if i brought a bunny home. I WANT ONE!! that was pretty much our day. we did buy a subway card. so now we don't have to worry about getting tickets every time. we just put a lump sum on the card and refill it when we need to. phew. it was always a challenge trying to get them to understand us. tomorrow theres no school yeah. happy chusuk!! i think we are going to some temples with vicky. should be fun. until next time. stay tuned for more ketv.
itaewon is where the military base is so you can only imagine what was in store for us. tons of military, westerns, crap, and hookers. unfortunately there were no hookers out today. it was sunday after all. walking around the streets of itaewon is like walking around the mission in sf. although it was a bit cleaner and a more mix of people. we decided today that korea is the place where american men come to find girlfriends. its the american sitcom syndrome here. fat unattractive guys with these pretty women. we must have seen couple after couple of hot women with troll boyfriends. it almost makes you want to shake these women and say "look at what your with". i know that sounds petty because you all are thinking "but i'm sure the guys are really nice." we are know what nice equals. nice = unattractive. anyway so that's what itaewon is like. it has its charm. i'm more curious to see what its like at night. we are going to go back sometime to hit the bars. its a great place to find cheap gifts. we did have lunch at a "mexican" resturant. i had the most expensive tacos of my life. i will give them props for serving cold beer in frosty mugs. you can't beat that. some guy was also selling bunnies on the street. they are so cute. would aikea kill me if i brought a bunny home. I WANT ONE!! that was pretty much our day. we did buy a subway card. so now we don't have to worry about getting tickets every time. we just put a lump sum on the card and refill it when we need to. phew. it was always a challenge trying to get them to understand us. tomorrow theres no school yeah. happy chusuk!! i think we are going to some temples with vicky. should be fun. until next time. stay tuned for more ketv.
Saturday, September 25, 2004
insadongno
today horace and i went into insadong to go to kobo bookstore. they have english book that we can read. the subway trip there is about 45mins to an hour. it was a good thing we had seats. the bookstore was packed with people. it was strange to see so many westerns in one area. we are so use to being the only ones that for awhile there i felt like i was in back in sf. we left the bookstore which was connected to the subway station and made our way outside to explore what insadong had to offer. plus horace was hungry. there were a lot of cool little alleyways so we just randomly pick some and walked down them. this one street we were on had a lot of shops similar to that in china town. at the end of block we stumbled upon the buddhist temples. it was really cool. there were all these people coming out, praying, lighting incense and candles. they had a information center there about buddhism that we are going to check out next time. after checking the beetle map we located the main drag. the atmosphere around insadongo was a lot more relaxed than in meyong-dong. it kind of felt like walking around the castro. it was crowded but not in a crazy way. we both really like this area. there were alot of westerns walking around and alot of the shop owners spoke english. we were one shop and this lady kept trying to sell me stuff but once i mention that i'd be here for a year she asked if i was a teacher. i said yes and then she left me alone. i've now found the secret. tell them you live here and they leave you alone.
the score of the day though was finding this kitschy store. for those of you in sf think of it as a cross between happy trails and uncle mames with all lot of vintage stuff. the store was tiny and crowded. and let me tell you one thing about koreans. they take pictures of everything. basically you're moving in a slow circular motion through the store but at a snails pace because they're too busy snapping photos. they had a lot of cool stuff there. i bought a few things. it made me happy.
during our journey through this wonderful insadong we came upon the millieum plaza. kind of like the mall of america but smaller. while inside i discovered my new favorite band the trax. the hair bands of the 80s are now alive in korea and in the form of the trax. i got sucked into watching their video. so great. my new quest is to find their album. we found the single but no album yet. thats one thing i've noticed so far not too many cd stores. i can't even tell you how great that video was. my other great discovery this week was dong bang shin ki [dbsk] other hair band but this one on the korean pop scene. their album doesn't come out til may. i'll keep you all posted.
on our way home we saw the bosingak bell temple. it was built in 1936 and they would ring the bell to tell the time. sometime in the 40s or even later it was moved to where it is now. it was pretty cool looking. i'll post the pictures of it some time tomorrow.
along with all the other photos of today.
back in ansan we passed by one of those electronic arm games where you try to win a prize thats too heavy to stay in the clutches of the arm. you know the ones i'm talking about. anyway horace pointed out that they had a plastic kettlefish toy. i got excited and told him to try to win it. he did and of course nothing. then i noticed the same kind of toy in the one next to the one horace was using so i decidced to try. the arm grabs it, starts bringing it up but as soon as it got to the top the toy dropped. damn. meanwhile horace moved on the stuffed bunny that have a nude lady lighter attached to it. i decided to try again and this next as luck would have i WON the kettlefish toy. how excited was i. this was the first time i ever won anything out of that game. i took a picture of it. i'll post that too.
i feel like i've been babbling forever now. i'm going to sign off and get some sleep. until next time.
blog set list:
listening to henry rollins radio show. very cool
the score of the day though was finding this kitschy store. for those of you in sf think of it as a cross between happy trails and uncle mames with all lot of vintage stuff. the store was tiny and crowded. and let me tell you one thing about koreans. they take pictures of everything. basically you're moving in a slow circular motion through the store but at a snails pace because they're too busy snapping photos. they had a lot of cool stuff there. i bought a few things. it made me happy.
during our journey through this wonderful insadong we came upon the millieum plaza. kind of like the mall of america but smaller. while inside i discovered my new favorite band the trax. the hair bands of the 80s are now alive in korea and in the form of the trax. i got sucked into watching their video. so great. my new quest is to find their album. we found the single but no album yet. thats one thing i've noticed so far not too many cd stores. i can't even tell you how great that video was. my other great discovery this week was dong bang shin ki [dbsk] other hair band but this one on the korean pop scene. their album doesn't come out til may. i'll keep you all posted.
on our way home we saw the bosingak bell temple. it was built in 1936 and they would ring the bell to tell the time. sometime in the 40s or even later it was moved to where it is now. it was pretty cool looking. i'll post the pictures of it some time tomorrow.
along with all the other photos of today.
back in ansan we passed by one of those electronic arm games where you try to win a prize thats too heavy to stay in the clutches of the arm. you know the ones i'm talking about. anyway horace pointed out that they had a plastic kettlefish toy. i got excited and told him to try to win it. he did and of course nothing. then i noticed the same kind of toy in the one next to the one horace was using so i decidced to try. the arm grabs it, starts bringing it up but as soon as it got to the top the toy dropped. damn. meanwhile horace moved on the stuffed bunny that have a nude lady lighter attached to it. i decided to try again and this next as luck would have i WON the kettlefish toy. how excited was i. this was the first time i ever won anything out of that game. i took a picture of it. i'll post that too.
i feel like i've been babbling forever now. i'm going to sign off and get some sleep. until next time.
blog set list:
listening to henry rollins radio show. very cool
Friday, September 24, 2004
oh what a night
tonight was like a very bad korean sitcom. there was so much happening that i feel i should really let it all sink in before i write. however, i'm not. before i going into the details of this evening i'll start out with my day.
the mood at school today was pretty somber. which was strange because it was the last day before the holiday. yes next tuesday is the korean thanksgiving so we have monday, tuesday, and wednesday off. yeah! sammy spoke to horace and i this morning about keeping the lounge and our classrooms clean. i guess someone was complaining that it was a bit too messy. i gave the kindergartens a lot of work to do. they missed a day and i decided to try to catch them up. they were actually quite good for a change.
sally came into my class today asking me if we were going to play a game like i promised. now granted, i don't remember promising to play any game but she insisted that i did. i made a deal with her that if we got through the workbook we'd play hangman. the korean kids all seem to love hangman. we did the assignments and then played 4 rounds of hangman, each taking turns. for her first word sally used the word carrier which is the brand of airconditioner in my classroom. the second word she choose was ils which stands for international language school. we also made paper airplanes from orgami paper. mine didn't fly so well but hers did.
in my orange b class i gave them a 6 page test which they weren't too happy about. although they all did very well on it. i wanted to make sure that they were understanding everything that was taught to them. afterwards we read for a bit, then played hangman. they seemed to enjoy themselves.
the korean thanksgiving is a cross between day of the dead and thanksgivng but they also give out gifts. i love gifts. we ended of leaving with three gifts. one case of pears, a case of dried seaweed, and some socks from jk. just like christmas. it was actually kind of cool. teachers in korean are treated really well. i like that.
that night horace and i went out with sammy, jean, and christine. we went to the manhatten bar for beer, snails, and sausage. the whole night was like a bad sitcom. the only thing i'm semi sure of is that christine likes one of us but i'm not sure who. she got completely trashed and was asking us the most randon and bizarre questions. the whole evening was so surreal. the ladies complained about the food not being as good as before so they brought us out additional snacks. one was nachos. the kind you get at the movies theater processed cheese and all. the other was a bunch of little snacks like dried bananas, nuts, seaweed, some other kind of seaweed, squid, and two kinds of fish jerky served with mayo and bbq sauce. i tried the squid and one of the fish jerky. lets just say i want be having either of them again. a bit too fishy for me. by the time our third pitcher arrived christine was completely gone. we decided that it was time to go but before we could leave we had to spend 20 minutes figuring out where she was going. the running joke was that she coming home with either horace and i. then she wanted one of us to give up our apartment for her to sleep there. i suggest that she go to school and sleep there. finally jean asked her brother to drive her home which he did. it was all a little crazy and mind you most of this was discussed in korean with horace and i just sitting there. the cool thing about the whole evening is that we made friends with the people that work there so maybe manhatten bar will become our watering hole. afterall its right behind our apartments. what more could you want.
time to turn in. i'm not even sure any of this makes sense. i should have waited until the morning to write but felt the urge to do it now. perhaps i'll reread it in the morning, however, i doubt i will. until next time i'll be here eating pears and seaweeds while wearing my new socks.
the mood at school today was pretty somber. which was strange because it was the last day before the holiday. yes next tuesday is the korean thanksgiving so we have monday, tuesday, and wednesday off. yeah! sammy spoke to horace and i this morning about keeping the lounge and our classrooms clean. i guess someone was complaining that it was a bit too messy. i gave the kindergartens a lot of work to do. they missed a day and i decided to try to catch them up. they were actually quite good for a change.
sally came into my class today asking me if we were going to play a game like i promised. now granted, i don't remember promising to play any game but she insisted that i did. i made a deal with her that if we got through the workbook we'd play hangman. the korean kids all seem to love hangman. we did the assignments and then played 4 rounds of hangman, each taking turns. for her first word sally used the word carrier which is the brand of airconditioner in my classroom. the second word she choose was ils which stands for international language school. we also made paper airplanes from orgami paper. mine didn't fly so well but hers did.
in my orange b class i gave them a 6 page test which they weren't too happy about. although they all did very well on it. i wanted to make sure that they were understanding everything that was taught to them. afterwards we read for a bit, then played hangman. they seemed to enjoy themselves.
the korean thanksgiving is a cross between day of the dead and thanksgivng but they also give out gifts. i love gifts. we ended of leaving with three gifts. one case of pears, a case of dried seaweed, and some socks from jk. just like christmas. it was actually kind of cool. teachers in korean are treated really well. i like that.
that night horace and i went out with sammy, jean, and christine. we went to the manhatten bar for beer, snails, and sausage. the whole night was like a bad sitcom. the only thing i'm semi sure of is that christine likes one of us but i'm not sure who. she got completely trashed and was asking us the most randon and bizarre questions. the whole evening was so surreal. the ladies complained about the food not being as good as before so they brought us out additional snacks. one was nachos. the kind you get at the movies theater processed cheese and all. the other was a bunch of little snacks like dried bananas, nuts, seaweed, some other kind of seaweed, squid, and two kinds of fish jerky served with mayo and bbq sauce. i tried the squid and one of the fish jerky. lets just say i want be having either of them again. a bit too fishy for me. by the time our third pitcher arrived christine was completely gone. we decided that it was time to go but before we could leave we had to spend 20 minutes figuring out where she was going. the running joke was that she coming home with either horace and i. then she wanted one of us to give up our apartment for her to sleep there. i suggest that she go to school and sleep there. finally jean asked her brother to drive her home which he did. it was all a little crazy and mind you most of this was discussed in korean with horace and i just sitting there. the cool thing about the whole evening is that we made friends with the people that work there so maybe manhatten bar will become our watering hole. afterall its right behind our apartments. what more could you want.
time to turn in. i'm not even sure any of this makes sense. i should have waited until the morning to write but felt the urge to do it now. perhaps i'll reread it in the morning, however, i doubt i will. until next time i'll be here eating pears and seaweeds while wearing my new socks.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
pizza crave
started my morning with an im session with misty. i love im. it was great to chat with her. i miss my roomie. its not the same as having a face to face conversation but it'll do.
kindergarten class was good today. i had them practicing writing the letters u and v. sara though was eating a coco pie the whole time. she got chocolate everywhere except in her mouth. kelly stole my pencil. can't really complain too much because at least they are learning the alphabet, shapes, and colors.
for lunch i brought a bag of seaweed, which i thought was seaweed salad. well it wasn't. it was pack in tons of salt and one of the teachers told me i had to soak it for 30 mins before eating. so much for that. i had my first craving today for pizza. one of the teachers were printing out a picture of a pizza and even though it was a black and white drawing i still wanted one. who would have thought a black and white drawing would create such a craving.
jk asked him he could sit in on my class with sally. this had me a bit freaked out. i'm not sure why he wanted to but i said sure even though i was nervous about it. before class jane arrived with our alien cards. we are offically aliens now. how exciting is that. sally should up for class today with a weave. she was so excited to see if i would notice her fake hair. of course i didn't. we were learning prefixes and one of the words were unreal. i asked her what it meant and she said not real. then she gave an example of how her hair was unreal. she's so cute. halfway throught the class christine knocked on the door and jk left. at least that was over. the rest of the clas went fine. afterwards i gave sally another superhero printout. this time it was green lantern to add to the supergirl i gave her the other day. i told her i wanted her to make a collage like i did. i think she liked the idea.
on my way back to the teachers lounge i met sally's mom who was there talking to jk. she was very friendly. when i got to the lounge i noticed a pizza hut box there. it smelled so good. my prayers were answered. there was a pizza. it seems that sally's mom brought the pizza in for us teachers. how great it that. after she left we all dug into the pizza. it was a little different than in the states. besides meat there were sweet potatos and ricotta cheese on it. very tastey. they also serve a side of pickles with the pizza. while we were hanging out jk told us that may 15 was teacher's day. it seems that on this day the parents give us presents. how sweet is that. i spent the rest of the day working on my second class board. its almost done now. yeah.
for dinner i went to horaces. we played cards, ate food, drank soju, and watched some episodes of strangers with candy. i've seen them before but for some reason they seem so much funny over here. that show is too much. i never laughed so hard. we also toasted adawg like i said i would. i miss my pooh. now that i got a soju buzz going on i should probably go to bed. until next time…
blog song set:
bow wow wow - i want candy
blondie - underground girl
cyndi lauper = she bop
madonna - swim
red house painters - funhouse
kindergarten class was good today. i had them practicing writing the letters u and v. sara though was eating a coco pie the whole time. she got chocolate everywhere except in her mouth. kelly stole my pencil. can't really complain too much because at least they are learning the alphabet, shapes, and colors.
for lunch i brought a bag of seaweed, which i thought was seaweed salad. well it wasn't. it was pack in tons of salt and one of the teachers told me i had to soak it for 30 mins before eating. so much for that. i had my first craving today for pizza. one of the teachers were printing out a picture of a pizza and even though it was a black and white drawing i still wanted one. who would have thought a black and white drawing would create such a craving.
jk asked him he could sit in on my class with sally. this had me a bit freaked out. i'm not sure why he wanted to but i said sure even though i was nervous about it. before class jane arrived with our alien cards. we are offically aliens now. how exciting is that. sally should up for class today with a weave. she was so excited to see if i would notice her fake hair. of course i didn't. we were learning prefixes and one of the words were unreal. i asked her what it meant and she said not real. then she gave an example of how her hair was unreal. she's so cute. halfway throught the class christine knocked on the door and jk left. at least that was over. the rest of the clas went fine. afterwards i gave sally another superhero printout. this time it was green lantern to add to the supergirl i gave her the other day. i told her i wanted her to make a collage like i did. i think she liked the idea.
on my way back to the teachers lounge i met sally's mom who was there talking to jk. she was very friendly. when i got to the lounge i noticed a pizza hut box there. it smelled so good. my prayers were answered. there was a pizza. it seems that sally's mom brought the pizza in for us teachers. how great it that. after she left we all dug into the pizza. it was a little different than in the states. besides meat there were sweet potatos and ricotta cheese on it. very tastey. they also serve a side of pickles with the pizza. while we were hanging out jk told us that may 15 was teacher's day. it seems that on this day the parents give us presents. how sweet is that. i spent the rest of the day working on my second class board. its almost done now. yeah.
for dinner i went to horaces. we played cards, ate food, drank soju, and watched some episodes of strangers with candy. i've seen them before but for some reason they seem so much funny over here. that show is too much. i never laughed so hard. we also toasted adawg like i said i would. i miss my pooh. now that i got a soju buzz going on i should probably go to bed. until next time…
blog song set:
bow wow wow - i want candy
blondie - underground girl
cyndi lauper = she bop
madonna - swim
red house painters - funhouse
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
too much on my mind
woke this morning at 5:30, stuffed up and short of breathe. i think my allergies are underattack. tried to get a little more sleep but it was sporadic. of course when the alarm went off at 8 i didn't want to get up. i ate a beanpaste bun for breakfast. it was all right. it would have been better if i could have warmed it up or steamed it, but since i living with the bare esstenials i couldn't.
school was school. nothing too exciting happened. the kindergarteners were actually well behaved. that is once i got them into the classroom. that was a chore of its own. at lunch the witches of eastwick/triplets of belleview/three headed monster [we can'tg decide on a name although i've always liked three headed monster] were all huddled together. somethings up with those three. horace and i decided it was time to lay low for fear of the monsters. you should have seen them at lunch. bascially sitting on top of one another picking at their food like jackals. barely stopping to take a breathe. its definitely going to get more interesting as time goes on. nelly [i've now nicknamed them all] was going through my mail when i finally had to put her in her place. she is so freakin nosey. i mean come on. get a life girl. i spent the rest of my day working on my second poster. this one is going to be basic on thing you can talk about. my categories include: books, music groups, movie stars, tv shows, films, places to visit. i'm having fun working on it.
now i digress. the other day i heard word that someone i knew back in high school had died while trying to escape her abductors. i haven't seen this girl since 9th grade but now all i can do is think about her. wondering what she was like, did she still talk to anyone i was friends with, what has she been doing up until that day. and then i can't help but imagine how she must have felt at that moment she was taken. i'm obsessed with finding out everything that happened. it funny but when things like this happen all of sudden you have to know it all. its like watching the tv when jfk, jr. or princess diana died. you become transfixed. wanting all the information. thats how i am now. its also saddens me to think someone around my age was taken in such a horrible way. this incident brings up another memory of a friend who also was killed about 14 years ago. and now i sit here and think of them both. sometimes it feels like things are so freakin messed up. its like we are living in a society where we have to constanstly be looking over our shoulders. i don't want that. the other night when i was on the payphone the streets were littered with high school kids. its was 11pm and all these kids were roaming around wihtout a care in the world. wouldn't it be nice to have that attitude again. instead we are left with the over dramatization that our newscasters give us every night at 5:30, 6, 6:30, and 11. time for me to step off my soapbox. until next time…
blog set list:
depeche mode - enjoy the silence
le tigre - les and ray
neutral milk hotel - oh comely
the ramones - howling at the moon
throwing muses - mania
le tigre - deceptacon
pixies - dead
school was school. nothing too exciting happened. the kindergarteners were actually well behaved. that is once i got them into the classroom. that was a chore of its own. at lunch the witches of eastwick/triplets of belleview/three headed monster [we can'tg decide on a name although i've always liked three headed monster] were all huddled together. somethings up with those three. horace and i decided it was time to lay low for fear of the monsters. you should have seen them at lunch. bascially sitting on top of one another picking at their food like jackals. barely stopping to take a breathe. its definitely going to get more interesting as time goes on. nelly [i've now nicknamed them all] was going through my mail when i finally had to put her in her place. she is so freakin nosey. i mean come on. get a life girl. i spent the rest of my day working on my second poster. this one is going to be basic on thing you can talk about. my categories include: books, music groups, movie stars, tv shows, films, places to visit. i'm having fun working on it.
now i digress. the other day i heard word that someone i knew back in high school had died while trying to escape her abductors. i haven't seen this girl since 9th grade but now all i can do is think about her. wondering what she was like, did she still talk to anyone i was friends with, what has she been doing up until that day. and then i can't help but imagine how she must have felt at that moment she was taken. i'm obsessed with finding out everything that happened. it funny but when things like this happen all of sudden you have to know it all. its like watching the tv when jfk, jr. or princess diana died. you become transfixed. wanting all the information. thats how i am now. its also saddens me to think someone around my age was taken in such a horrible way. this incident brings up another memory of a friend who also was killed about 14 years ago. and now i sit here and think of them both. sometimes it feels like things are so freakin messed up. its like we are living in a society where we have to constanstly be looking over our shoulders. i don't want that. the other night when i was on the payphone the streets were littered with high school kids. its was 11pm and all these kids were roaming around wihtout a care in the world. wouldn't it be nice to have that attitude again. instead we are left with the over dramatization that our newscasters give us every night at 5:30, 6, 6:30, and 11. time for me to step off my soapbox. until next time…
blog set list:
depeche mode - enjoy the silence
le tigre - les and ray
neutral milk hotel - oh comely
the ramones - howling at the moon
throwing muses - mania
le tigre - deceptacon
pixies - dead
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
superheroes, halloween, and emart oh my!
thank god for nasal decongestion meds. not only did i sleep soundly but i awoke unstuffed. i'm happy now. spoke to my sister about dad. found out there were going to put him on meds to see if that helps. hopefully it will. she told me mom was home so i hung up with her and called mom. it was good to hear her voice. she seemed to be doing all right. i didn't have much time with her cuz i had to go to school. my mom said that dad would be coming home tomorrow. i'm going to call them tomorrow.
on a happier note its my sister's anniversary today. let's all wish zoe and greg a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. love you.
there was no kindergarten class today. YEAH!! sara was going out of town and kelly didn't want to come. can you say spoiled. most of the morning was a blur. i did a little of this and a whole lot of nothing. after lunch horace and i went to the post office. exciting stuff huh. "that's my hagwon!" sally getting a lot more outgoing. today as she read she walked around the classroom. she even stopped me during my lesson to point out the sunburn on my face. its seems that she could see where my sunglasses were. everyday she stares at the superhero collage i made so today i gave her a extra printout of supergirl. i think i'm going to bring in one of my comics and give it to her. for a minute i had her believing that superheroes really existed in america. how funny would it have been to have her grow up thinking batman and the others really existed. today we also had to fill out student comments which i created. see my design background is coming in handy. sammy also asked horace and i to plan a halloween party. which is kind of difficult when you live in a country that doesn't celebrate it. i think she wants us to make all the decorations. me thinks she's crazy. i wanted to have themed classrooms where as horace and mine would be the houses with the GOOD candy and sammy and jean would be the houses that hand out apples and toothbrushes.
in the afternoon we returned to emart where we pimped ourselves out. its so funny to see so many kids afraid of us. i had one girl almost cry when i tried to hand her a notebook and one boy said no and stuck his tongue out at me. children, aren't they cute. it was a rather slow day on the emart strip so we didn't stay that long. i realized today that i've been slacking in my korean studies. time to start studying. horace asked sammy to type out the names for the stuff in our apartments so we can paste notes everywhere. hopefully over the long break i'll get some studying done.
time to watch some "ca". thats charlie's angels incase you were wondering. can't wait to see what the caper is tonight. until tomorrow…
blog song: stereo lab - sudden stars
on a happier note its my sister's anniversary today. let's all wish zoe and greg a HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. love you.
there was no kindergarten class today. YEAH!! sara was going out of town and kelly didn't want to come. can you say spoiled. most of the morning was a blur. i did a little of this and a whole lot of nothing. after lunch horace and i went to the post office. exciting stuff huh. "that's my hagwon!" sally getting a lot more outgoing. today as she read she walked around the classroom. she even stopped me during my lesson to point out the sunburn on my face. its seems that she could see where my sunglasses were. everyday she stares at the superhero collage i made so today i gave her a extra printout of supergirl. i think i'm going to bring in one of my comics and give it to her. for a minute i had her believing that superheroes really existed in america. how funny would it have been to have her grow up thinking batman and the others really existed. today we also had to fill out student comments which i created. see my design background is coming in handy. sammy also asked horace and i to plan a halloween party. which is kind of difficult when you live in a country that doesn't celebrate it. i think she wants us to make all the decorations. me thinks she's crazy. i wanted to have themed classrooms where as horace and mine would be the houses with the GOOD candy and sammy and jean would be the houses that hand out apples and toothbrushes.
in the afternoon we returned to emart where we pimped ourselves out. its so funny to see so many kids afraid of us. i had one girl almost cry when i tried to hand her a notebook and one boy said no and stuck his tongue out at me. children, aren't they cute. it was a rather slow day on the emart strip so we didn't stay that long. i realized today that i've been slacking in my korean studies. time to start studying. horace asked sammy to type out the names for the stuff in our apartments so we can paste notes everywhere. hopefully over the long break i'll get some studying done.
time to watch some "ca". thats charlie's angels incase you were wondering. can't wait to see what the caper is tonight. until tomorrow…
blog song: stereo lab - sudden stars
Monday, September 20, 2004
pretty in pink
horace came up with a new catch phrase for our sitcom, "that's our hagwon". we now say this anythime something out of the ordinary happens. so today when we walked into the school jean, who supposedly got fired was behind the desk. it seems the new teacher is not going to work for us after all and they called jean back. "that's out hagwon." which means i'm back in the damn pink room. just when i though i was rid of beauty and the beast.
jk told us today that we might start teaching adults. yeah!! jk asked horace to teach him and christine the new receptionist. i was so glad he didn't ask me. i'm not sure when the adult teaching is going to happening but it might be one of those situations where we go to the offices to teach them. can't be any worse than my kindergarteners who are so not behaved. although i did seem to keep their fascination with my talent of writing their names with 2 crayons. oh, the things we come up with. my other two classes were pretty uneventful.
ferret has become our new nemisis at school. i don't think she likes whitey. or at least not horace and i. eating lunch with them is always interesting. as soon as horace and i start talking to each other they get all quiet to earsdrop. we're planning on inviting our own language. and other times they speaking in korean and don't even talk to us. whatever.
it rained all day which is probably the reason for my dreary disposition. that plus the fact i found out my dad is in the hosipital. its seems he had a minor heartattack. i spoke to my sister a little while ago but she didn't have any news yet. being here makes me feel kind of helpless. i wish i could go home to help my mom. all i can do here is wait for news. i didn't me to bring everyone down, thats just how i feel right now.
all right i'm off to bed. i think i'm catching a cold. i'm all stuffed up. i wonder if it could be because noone here covers their mouth when they sneeze or cough. where's miss manners when you need her.
jk told us today that we might start teaching adults. yeah!! jk asked horace to teach him and christine the new receptionist. i was so glad he didn't ask me. i'm not sure when the adult teaching is going to happening but it might be one of those situations where we go to the offices to teach them. can't be any worse than my kindergarteners who are so not behaved. although i did seem to keep their fascination with my talent of writing their names with 2 crayons. oh, the things we come up with. my other two classes were pretty uneventful.
ferret has become our new nemisis at school. i don't think she likes whitey. or at least not horace and i. eating lunch with them is always interesting. as soon as horace and i start talking to each other they get all quiet to earsdrop. we're planning on inviting our own language. and other times they speaking in korean and don't even talk to us. whatever.
it rained all day which is probably the reason for my dreary disposition. that plus the fact i found out my dad is in the hosipital. its seems he had a minor heartattack. i spoke to my sister a little while ago but she didn't have any news yet. being here makes me feel kind of helpless. i wish i could go home to help my mom. all i can do here is wait for news. i didn't me to bring everyone down, thats just how i feel right now.
all right i'm off to bed. i think i'm catching a cold. i'm all stuffed up. i wonder if it could be because noone here covers their mouth when they sneeze or cough. where's miss manners when you need her.
Sunday, September 19, 2004
emart trek + lake ansan park pics
hey all. here are some pictures from this weekend. just click on the photo and you'll be off. enjoy!
power rangers!
ah, sunday morning i found myself awake at 7 am. why can't i sleep in anymore. this places is brighter than 4051. i made myself stay in bed and managed to catch a few more winks. my day staqarted around 10am. horace and i headed to carrefour. i needed to get an iron to try to de-wrinkle my clothes. i also need groceries. i found frozen kentucky corndogs at the store. of course i bought them. although soon after i realized i didn't have a toaster nor an oven. hmmm. returning to my apartment with my two overstuffed bags, yes i tried to cram it all in two bags because they charge for the plastic bags, and broom, i decided to cook the corndogs. the frying pan and oil would work. i burned them ever so slightly but they were still good.
after lunch horace and i decided to walk around lake ansan park. not much going on there since they are still building things. looks as if on one side of the street they are building a skate park, what might be an ice skating rink, and some tennis courts. maybe they'll be done before i leave. next to the bridge that goes over to these fine soon to be things is a mural with a anime beaver. you knows. later on we stumbles by some wall structures with the beaver again plus they had handprints and writing on them. and one wall had children drawings. very interesting. not much else happening in the park beside the crazy poodle dog that was running and wearing shoes. yes, the poodle was wearing shoes. there were a few people here and there having picnics and stsuff like that. it's actually a nice park.
after the park we stopped in dunkin doughnuts. i attempted to order an iced decaf but that wasn't happening. not sure why i thought they'd have decaf when you can hardly find diet soda here. i end up with a regular iced coffee [i haven't had coffee in over 3 years] and a boston cream doughnut. while we were in there the tae kwan doe teacher spotted us and stopped in to say hi. we found out that he use to live in the states and also worked as stunt cordinator on one of the power rangers show. how cool is that. he told us to call him next year. there only two tae kwan doe schools that have english speaking teachers and ansan is one of them so we figured we have to do. i think we are going to start in october.
the rest of the day i spent doing laundry and trying to iron my clothes. it took like 3 hours to do all the ironing and my clothes still look wrinkled. at least now they don't look like they've been rolled up in a ball for ten years. i give up. the wrinkled look is in anyway. isn't it. time for bed. until the next time.
after lunch horace and i decided to walk around lake ansan park. not much going on there since they are still building things. looks as if on one side of the street they are building a skate park, what might be an ice skating rink, and some tennis courts. maybe they'll be done before i leave. next to the bridge that goes over to these fine soon to be things is a mural with a anime beaver. you knows. later on we stumbles by some wall structures with the beaver again plus they had handprints and writing on them. and one wall had children drawings. very interesting. not much else happening in the park beside the crazy poodle dog that was running and wearing shoes. yes, the poodle was wearing shoes. there were a few people here and there having picnics and stsuff like that. it's actually a nice park.
after the park we stopped in dunkin doughnuts. i attempted to order an iced decaf but that wasn't happening. not sure why i thought they'd have decaf when you can hardly find diet soda here. i end up with a regular iced coffee [i haven't had coffee in over 3 years] and a boston cream doughnut. while we were in there the tae kwan doe teacher spotted us and stopped in to say hi. we found out that he use to live in the states and also worked as stunt cordinator on one of the power rangers show. how cool is that. he told us to call him next year. there only two tae kwan doe schools that have english speaking teachers and ansan is one of them so we figured we have to do. i think we are going to start in october.
the rest of the day i spent doing laundry and trying to iron my clothes. it took like 3 hours to do all the ironing and my clothes still look wrinkled. at least now they don't look like they've been rolled up in a ball for ten years. i give up. the wrinkled look is in anyway. isn't it. time for bed. until the next time.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
emart
well. lets start off by saying i didn't get all the sleep i really wanted to this morning. it seems that sleeping in is not going to happen here. after last nights craziness i was moving rather slow this morning. horace stopped by around 10:30am and i still hadn't showered. we decided to make our trek to emart in an hour. he left and i tried to revive myself. of course as soon as i was out of the shower it started to pour outside. another rainy saturday. oh joy.
i finally made it down to horace's by 11:30. with umbrellas in hand we decided to go to emart anyway. we're not going to let a little rain stop us. along the way we stopped into a parisian bakery. i was starving. everything looked so good. i choose a giant piece of sugar bread. yes thats exactly what it was. pure sugar and bread. i was in heaven. washed that baby down with a coke and i was ready to go. it was about a 20-30 minute walk to emart. pretty uneventful. it was fairly dead outside. by the time we hit emart all the schools had let out and there were kids everywhere. they would all say hi and laugh and gigle. it was very comical.
i forgot to mention the other day when we were passing out notebooks. there was this one boy who was probably 9 or something. he comes strolling down the street carrying his man purse on his shoulder so i hand him a notebook. as he passed by i noticed he use sporting a mullet so i yelled nice mullet. with that he turned and smiled real big. it was so funny. now back to today…
so basically emart is a nicer/fancier/bigger carrefour. there's actually no yelling in the grocery store part. too bad its too far to shop at. we walked around for bit to wasted time. on the food court level it was so funny to see the shopping buggies all parked like cars while people ate. yes there's a buggy parking lot. what will they think of next.
on our way home we find some shops that reminded me of the mission. now i know where to go for really cheap stuff. we stopped off for food at this place horace likes. he was craving the chicken and cheese. unfortunately they were out of the chicken and cheese. instead the guy pointed to the menu and said tenderloin. we were like sure, why not more pork tenderloin. its pork all the time here. so when they brought the food it wasn't pork afterall but breaded fish and shrimp. the shrimp which were fairly large still had their heads and eyes. nothing like a shrimp staring at you when you're trying to eat it. i must say once i got past the head part and took it off the shrimp the whole meal was very good. i don't think i've had on bad meal here yet.
the rest of the day was spent playing on the computer and doing laundry. my favorite. i now call it the wrinkle machine. thats my saturday in a nutshell. until next time…
i finally made it down to horace's by 11:30. with umbrellas in hand we decided to go to emart anyway. we're not going to let a little rain stop us. along the way we stopped into a parisian bakery. i was starving. everything looked so good. i choose a giant piece of sugar bread. yes thats exactly what it was. pure sugar and bread. i was in heaven. washed that baby down with a coke and i was ready to go. it was about a 20-30 minute walk to emart. pretty uneventful. it was fairly dead outside. by the time we hit emart all the schools had let out and there were kids everywhere. they would all say hi and laugh and gigle. it was very comical.
i forgot to mention the other day when we were passing out notebooks. there was this one boy who was probably 9 or something. he comes strolling down the street carrying his man purse on his shoulder so i hand him a notebook. as he passed by i noticed he use sporting a mullet so i yelled nice mullet. with that he turned and smiled real big. it was so funny. now back to today…
so basically emart is a nicer/fancier/bigger carrefour. there's actually no yelling in the grocery store part. too bad its too far to shop at. we walked around for bit to wasted time. on the food court level it was so funny to see the shopping buggies all parked like cars while people ate. yes there's a buggy parking lot. what will they think of next.
on our way home we find some shops that reminded me of the mission. now i know where to go for really cheap stuff. we stopped off for food at this place horace likes. he was craving the chicken and cheese. unfortunately they were out of the chicken and cheese. instead the guy pointed to the menu and said tenderloin. we were like sure, why not more pork tenderloin. its pork all the time here. so when they brought the food it wasn't pork afterall but breaded fish and shrimp. the shrimp which were fairly large still had their heads and eyes. nothing like a shrimp staring at you when you're trying to eat it. i must say once i got past the head part and took it off the shrimp the whole meal was very good. i don't think i've had on bad meal here yet.
the rest of the day was spent playing on the computer and doing laundry. my favorite. i now call it the wrinkle machine. thats my saturday in a nutshell. until next time…
Thursday, September 16, 2004
breakin in korea
what a freakin night this was. school was pretty routine so i'm not going to go into much detail expect that i'm leaving the beauty and beast room and am moving into the dalmations rooms. yeah. its a much bigger room plus there are windows that actually open. this change came about because they got rid of one the native teachers today. so i took her room. i know it sounds cold but all is fair in love and war. had some very spicy ramon and rice cakes for lunch today. i think i'm still sweating from it.
tonight horace and i went to our favorite bbq place. i swear the owner loves us. durning our meal her tae kwon do teacher stopped by our table and told us to give him a call if we were interested in learning. we figured that she called him at some point because it seems verky random that he would just show up. how cool is that. obviously she is talking about us. i love her even more. i wore my big shoes tonight and when i was leaving she made a comment about them. i know she wants a pair. horace and i decided to make her a mixed cd to play in her resturant. we are give it to her next friday.
after the bbq we went to the western bar.all i can say is i wish i had my camera with me. of all nights to not bring it out. i don't even know where to begin. it was so surreal. first of all there were a few other westerns there. most likely canadian and they plan some musice. some very bad music but it was intertaining to say the least. after that there was a korean breakdance team. YES, i said breakdance. its seems breakdancing is still big in korea. can i say it was so freakin good. i so wish i had the video camera. horace and i were laughing the whole time. however the fun didn't stop there. after the breakdancing they had a big chuggging contest were you had to drink a pint of beer through a straw. there was also the bartenders lipsinging to micheale jackson and madonna. so bad. but thats not all. then there was the random guy dancing behind the bar followed by a round of female arm wrestling and then male arm westling. after that another guy danced behind the bar then drink a pint sized mixed drink that was a brownish-black colored. after he drank it he made out with some girl. it was a wild night in ansan. we are going back next friday with camera to capture it all. korean are crazy. all right, that about all i write for now. i've had one cocktail, a bottle of soju, and two pitchers. its time for bed.
tonight horace and i went to our favorite bbq place. i swear the owner loves us. durning our meal her tae kwon do teacher stopped by our table and told us to give him a call if we were interested in learning. we figured that she called him at some point because it seems verky random that he would just show up. how cool is that. obviously she is talking about us. i love her even more. i wore my big shoes tonight and when i was leaving she made a comment about them. i know she wants a pair. horace and i decided to make her a mixed cd to play in her resturant. we are give it to her next friday.
after the bbq we went to the western bar.all i can say is i wish i had my camera with me. of all nights to not bring it out. i don't even know where to begin. it was so surreal. first of all there were a few other westerns there. most likely canadian and they plan some musice. some very bad music but it was intertaining to say the least. after that there was a korean breakdance team. YES, i said breakdance. its seems breakdancing is still big in korea. can i say it was so freakin good. i so wish i had the video camera. horace and i were laughing the whole time. however the fun didn't stop there. after the breakdancing they had a big chuggging contest were you had to drink a pint of beer through a straw. there was also the bartenders lipsinging to micheale jackson and madonna. so bad. but thats not all. then there was the random guy dancing behind the bar followed by a round of female arm wrestling and then male arm westling. after that another guy danced behind the bar then drink a pint sized mixed drink that was a brownish-black colored. after he drank it he made out with some girl. it was a wild night in ansan. we are going back next friday with camera to capture it all. korean are crazy. all right, that about all i write for now. i've had one cocktail, a bottle of soju, and two pitchers. its time for bed.
pimping out the americans
i'm baaack! and feeling like a brand new person. my giant tapeworm went into hybernation. thanks god. i'm wondering now if it was the fried chicken. which is actually a third of the size of chickens in the us. at least i think it was chicken. who really knows. i think i'll avoid it in the future to be safe.
it was raining again went i woke up at 7am. i decided to stay in bed til 9:15 giving me a whole 15 minutes to get ready for school. nothing like waiting til the last minute. this morning sammy took horace and i to open up a bank account. now that was an experience. the bottome line was that we couldn't open one without our passports and we won't get our passports back til next week since the alien people have them. oh well. horace did transwire money to his account in the us, so all wasn't lost. can't wait until i have to that. it's not an easy task especially since they hardly speak english and sammy won't always be with us. we are going to try openning accounts next week. wish us luck.
when we got back to school i had my kindergarten class. they so did want to do anything to do except run around speaking korean to me. there's nothing like having two little ones screaming korean, jumping all over you, and poking you in the morning. can't wait until we get more little ones. after my class with sally we had to go to emart, another giant walmart type place, and pimp ourselves out. yes it was the two hours of "hey come to our school we have americas". talk about a flashback to girlfriends events. instead of pushing subscriptions on lesbians we were passing out notebooks to korean kids. half of them were so surprised to have us talking to them. it was actually cute. i had one girl who became my shadow. she was trying to talk to me in korean and i'm like "um, i have no idea what you are saying." finally jk came by and she wanted to know how old i was. i told her 20. we actually got one new student today from passing stuff out. jk was very excited about that. he said it was because of my blue eyes. yes, i've offically turned into the blue-eyed devil i offered joked about.
horace and i have basically taken over the teachers lounge. we were giving the new counsler grief today because she stole our filing cabinet. we now call her ferret, since they are known for stealing and that way she won't know we are talking about her. we are so bad. jk bought a new table for the teachers lounge so we rearrange the area. we're like male cats spraying our territory. i don't think they had any idea what they were in store for by hiring us.
tonight i made pork cutlets and rice. well i didn't make the rice actually. they sell precooked rice in packages here. love that. that's how lazy i am. i'm now buying pre-cooked packaged rice. it was delicious. for my down time i watched an episode of charlies angels. in this episode kelly went undercover as a radio reporter. and kris krimped her hair. meanwhile sabrina got injected with a truth serum. talk about your high drama. can't wait to watch the next one. until tomorrorw. goodnight all.
it was raining again went i woke up at 7am. i decided to stay in bed til 9:15 giving me a whole 15 minutes to get ready for school. nothing like waiting til the last minute. this morning sammy took horace and i to open up a bank account. now that was an experience. the bottome line was that we couldn't open one without our passports and we won't get our passports back til next week since the alien people have them. oh well. horace did transwire money to his account in the us, so all wasn't lost. can't wait until i have to that. it's not an easy task especially since they hardly speak english and sammy won't always be with us. we are going to try openning accounts next week. wish us luck.
when we got back to school i had my kindergarten class. they so did want to do anything to do except run around speaking korean to me. there's nothing like having two little ones screaming korean, jumping all over you, and poking you in the morning. can't wait until we get more little ones. after my class with sally we had to go to emart, another giant walmart type place, and pimp ourselves out. yes it was the two hours of "hey come to our school we have americas". talk about a flashback to girlfriends events. instead of pushing subscriptions on lesbians we were passing out notebooks to korean kids. half of them were so surprised to have us talking to them. it was actually cute. i had one girl who became my shadow. she was trying to talk to me in korean and i'm like "um, i have no idea what you are saying." finally jk came by and she wanted to know how old i was. i told her 20. we actually got one new student today from passing stuff out. jk was very excited about that. he said it was because of my blue eyes. yes, i've offically turned into the blue-eyed devil i offered joked about.
horace and i have basically taken over the teachers lounge. we were giving the new counsler grief today because she stole our filing cabinet. we now call her ferret, since they are known for stealing and that way she won't know we are talking about her. we are so bad. jk bought a new table for the teachers lounge so we rearrange the area. we're like male cats spraying our territory. i don't think they had any idea what they were in store for by hiring us.
tonight i made pork cutlets and rice. well i didn't make the rice actually. they sell precooked rice in packages here. love that. that's how lazy i am. i'm now buying pre-cooked packaged rice. it was delicious. for my down time i watched an episode of charlies angels. in this episode kelly went undercover as a radio reporter. and kris krimped her hair. meanwhile sabrina got injected with a truth serum. talk about your high drama. can't wait to watch the next one. until tomorrorw. goodnight all.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
korean is hard
i woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain. rain coming in my windows so i had to get up and shut the windows. damn rain. turned on the airconditioning then went back to bed. my nice concrete bed. have i mentioned how i hate that bed. anyway when i finally got up in the morning i felt 90% better than i did the other day. hopefully by tomorrow i'll be 100%.
with the little ones today we went over capitol and small case letters. like they really cared. we did a few worksheets then i decided it was time to have them color. today it was coloring farm animals and making a barn. the girls made very color barns. i've never seen multi-colored barns like these before. even the animals were very colorful. from a goat with a green head and red body to a horse with a green mane, pink tail and yellow body. these were some of the craziest farm animals i've ever seen. i had to cut the barns out for them and then we placed the animals inside. oh,what fun.
playing it safe today i brought a sandwich. figured i'd lay off the kimchee for awhile. horace and i ventured out to the conveince store. on our way we saw a pet store/groomer. all the puppies were so small like tiny bunnies. we played with the one that was outside. he was very friendly.
i tried to get sally to dance today in class but she wouldn't. korean child are a bit shy about stuff like that. i'm going to work on her though. my prediction is that i'll have her dancing by late october. i was teaching her catergorization today so i used my superhero poster as an example. we had three major catergories: flying, underwater, and girls. she was quite good at picking which one went were.
in my other class i had to try to explain vacation to them. not one of them knew what going on a trip meant. hello. sometimes i think they don't pay attention on purpose. we had to read this story called train song. they were having a hard time with the clickety clack lines but seemed to enjoy themselves. we finished early and played a round of hangman. they seemed to like that.
after work horace and i went to carrefour. i needed to pickup some supplies i wasn't able to get the last time since i didn't have enough won. i bought a ham log. there's nothing like a good old ham log to make sandwiches with. for dinner i had grilled cheese. it was so good. i also did some studying today. my goal is to have the korean vowels learned by friday. korean is hard. i guess its time for bed. see ya tomorrow. i leaving you with the pixies singing "stormy weather". how fitting since its raining again.
with the little ones today we went over capitol and small case letters. like they really cared. we did a few worksheets then i decided it was time to have them color. today it was coloring farm animals and making a barn. the girls made very color barns. i've never seen multi-colored barns like these before. even the animals were very colorful. from a goat with a green head and red body to a horse with a green mane, pink tail and yellow body. these were some of the craziest farm animals i've ever seen. i had to cut the barns out for them and then we placed the animals inside. oh,what fun.
playing it safe today i brought a sandwich. figured i'd lay off the kimchee for awhile. horace and i ventured out to the conveince store. on our way we saw a pet store/groomer. all the puppies were so small like tiny bunnies. we played with the one that was outside. he was very friendly.
i tried to get sally to dance today in class but she wouldn't. korean child are a bit shy about stuff like that. i'm going to work on her though. my prediction is that i'll have her dancing by late october. i was teaching her catergorization today so i used my superhero poster as an example. we had three major catergories: flying, underwater, and girls. she was quite good at picking which one went were.
in my other class i had to try to explain vacation to them. not one of them knew what going on a trip meant. hello. sometimes i think they don't pay attention on purpose. we had to read this story called train song. they were having a hard time with the clickety clack lines but seemed to enjoy themselves. we finished early and played a round of hangman. they seemed to like that.
after work horace and i went to carrefour. i needed to pickup some supplies i wasn't able to get the last time since i didn't have enough won. i bought a ham log. there's nothing like a good old ham log to make sandwiches with. for dinner i had grilled cheese. it was so good. i also did some studying today. my goal is to have the korean vowels learned by friday. korean is hard. i guess its time for bed. see ya tomorrow. i leaving you with the pixies singing "stormy weather". how fitting since its raining again.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
pain pain go away
woke up this morning around 2am with serve stomach pains. didn't fall back asleep until 4:30am. all i could think about was "what if i had to go to a doctor." i don't even know where the hospital is let alone able to speak the language. when i got up at 9am i felt a little better but didn't have much time to get to school.
the whole day seemed to drag. all i wanted to do was go home and sleep. teaching the kindergarten class was definitely a challenge. i had no energy and all they wanted to do was organize their papers. i decided i'd just let them color. for lunch i ordered rice cake and dumpling soup hoping that would make me feel better. i actually felt worse after lunch. i barley made it through my last class. sally did like my superhero poster i managed to get up earlier. we spent the beginning of the class going over who they were. i gave her a review test which she did very well on. she's definitely a cutey.
i was never so happy to see 7pm come in all my life. once home i took a little nap. feeling a bit better when i got up i made a sandwich and watched some more episodes of jem. first they competed in the battle of the bands and now they're making a movie. they can do it all. i think i'm going to turn in early. not feeling all that creative or inspired today. hopefully tomorrow will be better.
the whole day seemed to drag. all i wanted to do was go home and sleep. teaching the kindergarten class was definitely a challenge. i had no energy and all they wanted to do was organize their papers. i decided i'd just let them color. for lunch i ordered rice cake and dumpling soup hoping that would make me feel better. i actually felt worse after lunch. i barley made it through my last class. sally did like my superhero poster i managed to get up earlier. we spent the beginning of the class going over who they were. i gave her a review test which she did very well on. she's definitely a cutey.
i was never so happy to see 7pm come in all my life. once home i took a little nap. feeling a bit better when i got up i made a sandwich and watched some more episodes of jem. first they competed in the battle of the bands and now they're making a movie. they can do it all. i think i'm going to turn in early. not feeling all that creative or inspired today. hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Monday, September 13, 2004
we are aliens
i slept like shit last night. i think the mystery mosquito that was haunting 4051 19th followed me here. i woke up around 1:30 am scrataching and sweating. i've been trying to avoid using the air conditioning since i have no idea what thats going to cost but i caved in and had to turn it on. my bed, which is suppose to a twin is really a bit shorter than that. i have a constanst fear that i'm going to roll off of the damn thing. plus my feet completely hang off the side and its like sleeping on concrete. the pillow is just as bad. all i crave right now is a soft, comfy, giant bed. i guess i should be thankful that i even have a bed.
there was no kindergarten class today. instead jane took horace and i to get our alien registration cards. yes i'm officially an alien. it took about an hour to get there. both jane and jean were laughing when we put on our seatbeats in the back. good thing we did because i think she ran 3 yellow lights and one red. i'm telling koreans don't stop for anything. at the registration place horace and i basically sat there and smile while jean and jane filed out our paperwork. it's so weird not being able to do anything on your own. we were like dolls, being dragged here, placed there all the while people are staring at us. i found out today that jane is our sponsor while being here. once we get our cards which will take 1 week we'll be able to get cell phones. how exciting.
back at school we ate lunch. i actually brought mine today but was craving korean food. how odd is that. it must have been because i ate nothing but faux-western food that i made myself this weekend. i missed having my kimchee snacks at lunch. i decided to today that i'm not going to bring lunch anymore. at least not this week. the rest of my day was pretty routine. my class with sally went well. she recited two different stories to me. i wore my glasses today and she pointed at me saying "teacher, teacher why are you wearing those." my response was i need them becasue i can see near and not far. do you remember what that is?" and she said nearsighted. we learned that last week. so smart. during my pre-teen class i have a new teacher sit in to observe. i was a little nervous at first but then i forgot she was there. today was the day i made the students standup in front of the class and tell us what they did this weekend. no one wanted to volunteer so i made shaun go first. after he was done i made another student answer some questions about what he did to see if they were listening. i did this for all four of them. of course they all had the same answer: homework, computer games, studying. their homework today was for them to write down "what they did after school." however this time they can not use computer games, homework, or studying as answers. i'll get them talking yet. they are actually coming around. afterwards joe, the teacher who was observing said she like how i'm making them interact. that made me feel good.
the rest of the day was spent working on my superhero collage for my classroom. i'm almost done. hopefully by friday it'll be done. jane also brought me a frying pan today. now i can actually cook something. how exciting. tonight i'm going to kick back and either watch a dvd or read. or maybe i'll just turn in early. all these choices.
until next time…
there was no kindergarten class today. instead jane took horace and i to get our alien registration cards. yes i'm officially an alien. it took about an hour to get there. both jane and jean were laughing when we put on our seatbeats in the back. good thing we did because i think she ran 3 yellow lights and one red. i'm telling koreans don't stop for anything. at the registration place horace and i basically sat there and smile while jean and jane filed out our paperwork. it's so weird not being able to do anything on your own. we were like dolls, being dragged here, placed there all the while people are staring at us. i found out today that jane is our sponsor while being here. once we get our cards which will take 1 week we'll be able to get cell phones. how exciting.
back at school we ate lunch. i actually brought mine today but was craving korean food. how odd is that. it must have been because i ate nothing but faux-western food that i made myself this weekend. i missed having my kimchee snacks at lunch. i decided to today that i'm not going to bring lunch anymore. at least not this week. the rest of my day was pretty routine. my class with sally went well. she recited two different stories to me. i wore my glasses today and she pointed at me saying "teacher, teacher why are you wearing those." my response was i need them becasue i can see near and not far. do you remember what that is?" and she said nearsighted. we learned that last week. so smart. during my pre-teen class i have a new teacher sit in to observe. i was a little nervous at first but then i forgot she was there. today was the day i made the students standup in front of the class and tell us what they did this weekend. no one wanted to volunteer so i made shaun go first. after he was done i made another student answer some questions about what he did to see if they were listening. i did this for all four of them. of course they all had the same answer: homework, computer games, studying. their homework today was for them to write down "what they did after school." however this time they can not use computer games, homework, or studying as answers. i'll get them talking yet. they are actually coming around. afterwards joe, the teacher who was observing said she like how i'm making them interact. that made me feel good.
the rest of the day was spent working on my superhero collage for my classroom. i'm almost done. hopefully by friday it'll be done. jane also brought me a frying pan today. now i can actually cook something. how exciting. tonight i'm going to kick back and either watch a dvd or read. or maybe i'll just turn in early. all these choices.
until next time…
Sunday, September 12, 2004
jem is my name
another rainy day here in ansan. was up early so i decided to give mom and my sister a call. there was no one out. it felt like being in a deserted city. it felt kind of weird. after several tries with my favorite yellow phone here, i struck out. no one was home. was going to go to dunkin doughnuts but they weren't open yet. instead i ate cold pasta for breakfast/lunch. yummy. the day was spent pretty much the same as yesterday. work on blog, burn some music, upload photos, write emails. i also managed to squeeze in a nap and three episodes of jem. you know she's truly outrageous, truly. that cartoon is so bad its good. i'm glad i brought it with me.
after several hours of sitting korean style [indian style] i had to stand up. i felt like i was going stir crazy. all couped up in a smurf style apartment with no furniture can be draining. i went down to horace's and of course he's been doing about the same. i didn't even shower. we needed some things so we went to, yes can you guess, carrefour. i feel like i freakin live there. i tried to stock up on groceries but i only had 30,000 won so i had to put some stuff back. i did get some fried chicken. it was tastey. its so hard to think about preparing food when one doesn't have a microwave, or a frying pan, and can't read the directions on the packages. it definitely makes things interesting. i forgot to mention, there's a whole lot of yelling happening in the grocery store. there are all these little stands: kimchee, baked good, seaweed, meats, etc, and they all have people yellin into microphones to get you to buy the stuff. it can be quite taxing at times. the fried chicken guy actually spoke some english which was nice.
we met another foreigner in the store. he's from canada and has been here for 7 months so far. its funny watching all the foreigners basically buying the same crap. milk, ceral, bread, kimchee. all the things we know. i got to see the bunny today. he's still there. every time i go in that store i'm tempted to buy him. he's so little and cute. i tried to talk my school into getting a bunny the other day. they didn't go for it. tonight i think i'll watch a movie maybe more jem episodes and call it a night. this was a rather dull weekend. i hope its not raining next weekend. i finally bought an umbrella today. yeah. now i can stay dry.
after several hours of sitting korean style [indian style] i had to stand up. i felt like i was going stir crazy. all couped up in a smurf style apartment with no furniture can be draining. i went down to horace's and of course he's been doing about the same. i didn't even shower. we needed some things so we went to, yes can you guess, carrefour. i feel like i freakin live there. i tried to stock up on groceries but i only had 30,000 won so i had to put some stuff back. i did get some fried chicken. it was tastey. its so hard to think about preparing food when one doesn't have a microwave, or a frying pan, and can't read the directions on the packages. it definitely makes things interesting. i forgot to mention, there's a whole lot of yelling happening in the grocery store. there are all these little stands: kimchee, baked good, seaweed, meats, etc, and they all have people yellin into microphones to get you to buy the stuff. it can be quite taxing at times. the fried chicken guy actually spoke some english which was nice.
we met another foreigner in the store. he's from canada and has been here for 7 months so far. its funny watching all the foreigners basically buying the same crap. milk, ceral, bread, kimchee. all the things we know. i got to see the bunny today. he's still there. every time i go in that store i'm tempted to buy him. he's so little and cute. i tried to talk my school into getting a bunny the other day. they didn't go for it. tonight i think i'll watch a movie maybe more jem episodes and call it a night. this was a rather dull weekend. i hope its not raining next weekend. i finally bought an umbrella today. yeah. now i can stay dry.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
come to jesus
it rained all day today. in the morning i had a long im session with misty. that was nice. i miss her. im is my new favorite thing. god i love technology. if it weren't for emails, internet, and im i'd be going crazy. i also got to i'm my friend derek for a bit and amy too. its not the same as talking but it'll do for now. the rain actually made me a bit homesick today. it's funny i've only been here a week but it feels like forever. i was lazy today. i did manage to post some pictures and video but that was about it. i also snuck in a nap. although i didn't have any sheets because that were in the "wrinkle your stuff and take 8 hours to dry" machine. its my darth varder. i can actually hear it mock me. how sad is that.
i did eat some eggs and lettuce today. i know you all are thinking "how delicious". it was like eating an egg salad sandwich without the bread. for breakfast i had the corn flakes. not sure if i mentioned this before but the milk taste like cream. its so rich. pour in on sugar cereal and you are going for days. horace stopped by around 6 pm and we went to carrefour to get some drinks for tonight. he invited ths girl vicky from london, who he met when he was getting his visa in japan, to come over and play cards. he picked up some soju and snacks. for dinner i made pasta. it actually didn't taste as good as when i made it back home. it could be because i have no spices except salt and pepper. at eight we left for the station to meet vicky. it was pouring and of course i didn't have an umbrella. its a good thing i brought that rain jacket. thanks misty for convincing me to take it. needles to say we got wet. at point horace decided to sing to "singing in the rain" and started dancing. as if we need any more attention brought to us.
after meeting vicky we went to hoarce's apartment. it was so great to talk to yet another foreigner. she's a really nice girl. we sat around talking, playing cards [with the deck adawg gave me, dirty], eating shrimp snacks and drinking soju. not sure if my tolerance is down or not but between hoarce and i we had two small bottles and i was feeling a good, if you know what i mean. we also watched two episodes of "strangers with candy". around 11:30pm we walked vicky to the street to pick up a cab to take back to the station. we were having quite the time trying to tell the driver where to go when a young boy walked up and helped us out.so nice.
i forgot to mention but two different people yesteday tried to convert us to jesus christ. the woman only handed a pamphlet. the guy was all in our face.
anyway, thats my very uneventful saturday. maybe something exciting will happen on sunday.
i did eat some eggs and lettuce today. i know you all are thinking "how delicious". it was like eating an egg salad sandwich without the bread. for breakfast i had the corn flakes. not sure if i mentioned this before but the milk taste like cream. its so rich. pour in on sugar cereal and you are going for days. horace stopped by around 6 pm and we went to carrefour to get some drinks for tonight. he invited ths girl vicky from london, who he met when he was getting his visa in japan, to come over and play cards. he picked up some soju and snacks. for dinner i made pasta. it actually didn't taste as good as when i made it back home. it could be because i have no spices except salt and pepper. at eight we left for the station to meet vicky. it was pouring and of course i didn't have an umbrella. its a good thing i brought that rain jacket. thanks misty for convincing me to take it. needles to say we got wet. at point horace decided to sing to "singing in the rain" and started dancing. as if we need any more attention brought to us.
after meeting vicky we went to hoarce's apartment. it was so great to talk to yet another foreigner. she's a really nice girl. we sat around talking, playing cards [with the deck adawg gave me, dirty], eating shrimp snacks and drinking soju. not sure if my tolerance is down or not but between hoarce and i we had two small bottles and i was feeling a good, if you know what i mean. we also watched two episodes of "strangers with candy". around 11:30pm we walked vicky to the street to pick up a cab to take back to the station. we were having quite the time trying to tell the driver where to go when a young boy walked up and helped us out.so nice.
i forgot to mention but two different people yesteday tried to convert us to jesus christ. the woman only handed a pamphlet. the guy was all in our face.
anyway, thats my very uneventful saturday. maybe something exciting will happen on sunday.
Friday, September 10, 2004
video page added to web site
i just added a video page to my web site. check it out. i'll be adding to it regularly. i'll post the new additons on my blog when i do. this first one is from myeong-dong. enjoy!
Links
pink no more
well. i finally got just the dryer to work last night before i went to bed. this morning i put another load in to wash. i officially hate the washing machine. when i got home of course the clothes were still wet. after fighting with it for several minutes i got the dryer to work. when i got back dinner my clothes we dry but my pink shirt is now greyish lavendar shade. damn machine. i realize now that this is going to be an ongoing battle for an entire year. great.
kindergarten class went well. i realized today that the girls don't like story time. everytime i go to read they fake being asleep. i decided not to read and had them color instead. that we keep busy for a good 20 mins. or so. today i did high fives with them. they seem to like that. i worked on my superhero collage for the classroom today. i really need something on the walls. not sure if i mentioned this or not yet but all the classes are named after kid movies. i got stuck with the beauty and beast room. its a sort of pink color with windows that don't open. they also put this giant plant in my room with has a giant pink bow on it. not sure what's up with that. it looks like a badly decorated christmas tree. i asked if i could take the bow off. they said yes.
for lunch i had sweet potatoe noodles and rice. not the best thing i've had but it was all right. in my green a class with sally we were talking about sharing. she shared a sad story about a girl that was killed by her father. at least thats what i heard. supposedly her elementary school teacher read it to them. ok. sounds like a very interesting story to me. she brought in a lion hat today and i wore it for part of the class. she's a great student. very bright.
i'm making headway with the orange b crew. i got them laughing today. i told them that i now they can talk and i want to hear them. shaun wasn't paying attention so i make him read twice. he looked at me and said "read". and i told him yes. i'm making them write about what they did this weekend and on monday they have to read it to the class. its a slight progress but i'll take anything.
friday is casual day so i decided to bust out the giant shoes. it felt so great to me in my "normal clothes" no one even noticed them. i'm so excited. now every friday i can wear the giant shoes. yeah!
horace, sammy, and i went to the manhatten western bar for dinner. they bring over snacks that you get to choose. we had one thing that tasted like styrofoam carrots. not so good. there was also this cookie thing that have burnt sugar icing. so good. its my new favorite. we ordered pitchers of beers and some appetizers. one was noodles and snails. so good. i never knew snails were so tastey. the other was a platter of sausages. which means assorted hot dog type of things.
tomorrow night we are going to play cards with vickie. she a teacher too that horace met when he had to go to japan for his visa. it should be fun. thats about it for now. goodnight.
kindergarten class went well. i realized today that the girls don't like story time. everytime i go to read they fake being asleep. i decided not to read and had them color instead. that we keep busy for a good 20 mins. or so. today i did high fives with them. they seem to like that. i worked on my superhero collage for the classroom today. i really need something on the walls. not sure if i mentioned this or not yet but all the classes are named after kid movies. i got stuck with the beauty and beast room. its a sort of pink color with windows that don't open. they also put this giant plant in my room with has a giant pink bow on it. not sure what's up with that. it looks like a badly decorated christmas tree. i asked if i could take the bow off. they said yes.
for lunch i had sweet potatoe noodles and rice. not the best thing i've had but it was all right. in my green a class with sally we were talking about sharing. she shared a sad story about a girl that was killed by her father. at least thats what i heard. supposedly her elementary school teacher read it to them. ok. sounds like a very interesting story to me. she brought in a lion hat today and i wore it for part of the class. she's a great student. very bright.
i'm making headway with the orange b crew. i got them laughing today. i told them that i now they can talk and i want to hear them. shaun wasn't paying attention so i make him read twice. he looked at me and said "read". and i told him yes. i'm making them write about what they did this weekend and on monday they have to read it to the class. its a slight progress but i'll take anything.
friday is casual day so i decided to bust out the giant shoes. it felt so great to me in my "normal clothes" no one even noticed them. i'm so excited. now every friday i can wear the giant shoes. yeah!
horace, sammy, and i went to the manhatten western bar for dinner. they bring over snacks that you get to choose. we had one thing that tasted like styrofoam carrots. not so good. there was also this cookie thing that have burnt sugar icing. so good. its my new favorite. we ordered pitchers of beers and some appetizers. one was noodles and snails. so good. i never knew snails were so tastey. the other was a platter of sausages. which means assorted hot dog type of things.
tomorrow night we are going to play cards with vickie. she a teacher too that horace met when he had to go to japan for his visa. it should be fun. thats about it for now. goodnight.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
two photo albums uploaded
not sure if this is going to work so please let me know if it doesn't. i've uploaded some photos to my snapfish account. yes you have to sign in. sorry. but until i can figure out some other way to post them this is how its going to be. try the link below and let me know if it works. i've also put a link on my home page. later.
Links
Links
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
what's in a name
my day started off with me sleeping until 9am. oops. i had half an hour to get ready for school. of course 15 mins. of that was spent writing e-mails. i've got my priorities you know. jk got a kick out of my giant sunglasses. i'm pretty sure they don't know what to think. i'll just keep them guessing. spent the morning preparing for the kindergartners, which starts at 11am. mary doesn't like her name so she's now kelly. we spend more time changing names than actually teaching. now that we have a kelly i'm one-third there to having my own set of angels. so the next new girls are going to be jill and sabrina. once we finish with all the angels we'll move on to some other tv show. this is going to fun. we'll give them all crazy american names. in class we said our abc's again, read stories, colored, and said the names of colors. it's the longest 40 mins. of my life.
after classs i work on my lesson plans for friday and next week. i figured if i could get them done early i could spend that time studying korean. for lunch i had kimchee soup. tastey and spicey. our kimchee side dishes consisted of pears, string beans, cabbage, pickles, and tiny sausages that tasted like vienna sausages.
during my green a class i couldn't get the air conditioner to work so sally and i were sweating the entire time. it was kind of hard to concentrate since there was sweat dripping down my back but somehow we managed. jane bought me some kiddie drinks like the panada juice i had before. how sweet is that. i'm sure they think i'm a giant child which i am. now that my lesson plans are done i'm going to work on decorating my room. jk gave horace and i some fiber drink. its suppose to be good for you. it tasted like soda. jean today was totally into everything we were doing as usual. i hide in my classroom most of the day. i had a korean moonpie for a snack. a tad dry but that didn't stop me from eating it. for those of you interested here's what my week at school looks like:
10 - 11 planning
11 - 11:40 kindergarten [everyday]
11:40 - 1:00 planning or whatever
1:00 - 1:30 lunch
1:30 - 3:25 planning
3:25 - 4:05 green a class with sally [everyday]
4:10 - 4:55 orange b with the preteens [mon, wed, fri]
4:55 - 7:05 planning
so thats my week. sounds fun huh.
tonight i attempted to do laundry. yes noticed i said attempted. it went for 3 hours and my clothes are still not dry. i couldn't figure out how to use only the dryer and now i'm washing them again. this is going to be fun. everyday there's new magnets on my front door. i can't read any of them but i'm keeping them anyway. the one today has some guy eating fried chicken or maybe it was squid. you really knows. tried to upload photos but it didn't work. off to bed.
after classs i work on my lesson plans for friday and next week. i figured if i could get them done early i could spend that time studying korean. for lunch i had kimchee soup. tastey and spicey. our kimchee side dishes consisted of pears, string beans, cabbage, pickles, and tiny sausages that tasted like vienna sausages.
during my green a class i couldn't get the air conditioner to work so sally and i were sweating the entire time. it was kind of hard to concentrate since there was sweat dripping down my back but somehow we managed. jane bought me some kiddie drinks like the panada juice i had before. how sweet is that. i'm sure they think i'm a giant child which i am. now that my lesson plans are done i'm going to work on decorating my room. jk gave horace and i some fiber drink. its suppose to be good for you. it tasted like soda. jean today was totally into everything we were doing as usual. i hide in my classroom most of the day. i had a korean moonpie for a snack. a tad dry but that didn't stop me from eating it. for those of you interested here's what my week at school looks like:
10 - 11 planning
11 - 11:40 kindergarten [everyday]
11:40 - 1:00 planning or whatever
1:00 - 1:30 lunch
1:30 - 3:25 planning
3:25 - 4:05 green a class with sally [everyday]
4:10 - 4:55 orange b with the preteens [mon, wed, fri]
4:55 - 7:05 planning
so thats my week. sounds fun huh.
tonight i attempted to do laundry. yes noticed i said attempted. it went for 3 hours and my clothes are still not dry. i couldn't figure out how to use only the dryer and now i'm washing them again. this is going to be fun. everyday there's new magnets on my front door. i can't read any of them but i'm keeping them anyway. the one today has some guy eating fried chicken or maybe it was squid. you really knows. tried to upload photos but it didn't work. off to bed.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
now i know my abcs
wednesday. i got to talk to my sister today. now i'm happy. although it took me four tries because the pay phone here sucks. everytime i pushed i number it entered it twice. i had my first class with the kindergarteners. there are two right now. mary and sara. they are a handful. half of the time they were talking to me in korean and i had no clue what they were saying. i did get them to sing the abc song and after the fifth time i really started to hate it. while reading to them i realized all they probably hear is me saying "blab.blab.blab.blab.dog. blab.blab.blab.cat". they got bored with that fast. i did get them to describe the pictures. ita was all mommy, daddy, brother, baby. its definitely going to be interesting. i have them everyday from 11 - 11:40. for lunch i had a cold soybean soup with noodles. there were actual ice cubes floating in my soup. very interesting. it looked like i was eating a bowl of noodles with cream sauce but every time i took a bit it was cold. there was even a hard boil egg floating around. it was actually tastey. a tad bland but after the last seven days of spicy kimchee it was a nice change. the crazy thing about ordering lunch is that when they deliver the food it comes in plastic bowls that one would get at the restaurant with this super industrial syran wrap. its so hard to get off. i've definitely bringing some back to the states with me. its beats ours hands down. anyway when lunch is over we take our dishes and place them outside and some food fairies come and collect them. love that.
on our teachers jean is quite nosey and a little know it all. today i caught here going through my notebook so i told her that in america we poke people's eyes out you snoop. its so fun to mess with her. she has no idea what horace and i are saying half the time. sally was out of town so i didn't have my second class. i gave my orange b class, the pre-teens who range from 10 to 14, korean style moon pies. i'm now buying my students affection with snacks. anything that gets them to learn i guess. they're coming around slightly. they still act very serious. i'll brake them soon.
after school horace and i went to carre four again. yes i know its like an everyday thing for us. i'm sure they hate us by now. i forgot to mention before but they have a girl who stands on a platform dancing and directing cars into the parking lot. its so great. we're going to capture it on video one of these days.
i had a ham sandwich for dinner. at least i hope it was ham. who really knows. it was the only packaged lunch meat kind of thing i found in the store. i also purchsed a mat to sit on. seeing that there are no couches, i needed something to sit on while typing. the pillow and towel i've been using just doesn't cut it. of course they didn't have any plain ones left so i got the anime hamster one. it makes me happy. still working on photos. hopefully they will be up by this weekend. i'll keep you all posted. time for bed. a bed where my feet completely hang off. goodtimes.
on our teachers jean is quite nosey and a little know it all. today i caught here going through my notebook so i told her that in america we poke people's eyes out you snoop. its so fun to mess with her. she has no idea what horace and i are saying half the time. sally was out of town so i didn't have my second class. i gave my orange b class, the pre-teens who range from 10 to 14, korean style moon pies. i'm now buying my students affection with snacks. anything that gets them to learn i guess. they're coming around slightly. they still act very serious. i'll brake them soon.
after school horace and i went to carre four again. yes i know its like an everyday thing for us. i'm sure they hate us by now. i forgot to mention before but they have a girl who stands on a platform dancing and directing cars into the parking lot. its so great. we're going to capture it on video one of these days.
i had a ham sandwich for dinner. at least i hope it was ham. who really knows. it was the only packaged lunch meat kind of thing i found in the store. i also purchsed a mat to sit on. seeing that there are no couches, i needed something to sit on while typing. the pillow and towel i've been using just doesn't cut it. of course they didn't have any plain ones left so i got the anime hamster one. it makes me happy. still working on photos. hopefully they will be up by this weekend. i'll keep you all posted. time for bed. a bed where my feet completely hang off. goodtimes.
washy machine
tuesday. sammy helped me figure out the phone card. thank god. i had one class today. green a with sally. i love sally. she has a dog pencil case which she named doggy. printed out some pictures to decorate my classroom. i decided to go with a superhero theme. go figure right. now i sitting here listening to olivia newton-john. nothing like onj to get you going. i'm working on getting pictures uploaded so stay tuned. we also had sammy come over to show us how to work the washing/drying machine. thats about it for today.
Monday, September 06, 2004
just another manic monday
monday. it was a pretty routine day. classed were good. i think i'm finally making head way with the orang b class [the preteens]. i had to demonstrate what flip-flop, wig-wag, and zig-zag meant. they seemed to get a chuckle out of that. stopped into carre four again. it's my second home. horace was craving mcdonalds so thats where we went to eat. bought some groceries. not sure why seeing that i have one small pot to cook in. it'll be a challenge for sure.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
breaded chicken stuffed with cheese
sunday. not the best day for me. got an email from misty that they had to take aikea to the vets. felt guilty for not being there. almost as if i abandoned her. on top of that i could get the freakin calling card to work. tried to get an operator and call the customer service number but no luck. it was quite frustrating. all i wanted to do was talk to my sister, mom and dad. horace and i went into old ansan city to walk around and have lunch. i ate the bread chicken stuffed with cheese dish. so good. the best medicine for when one is down, eat something cheesy. we went into yet another giant department store. i felt like i was back in high school, all punked out cruising the mall we people staring. only this time we were "the american boys" cruising the mall. it made me wonder what they thought about us.
we walked around jeoung [i think thats the name, need to check on it] park. saw some kids playing badminton. i felt like i was at dolores park with the lesbians. its the little things like that which make me happy. every where you look there are cute signs. i love that. on our way back home we passed a korean wedding. i saw one lady in this really fantastic red dress. it was so big. to escape the heat we decide to give the movies a try. this was somewhat interesting. with a lot of pointing and picking out our seats, yes there is assigned seating, we finally got tickets to see godsend. however we thought we were seeing the 4:02 movie but instead got tickets for the 6:10. after sitting in the lobby for a few minutes the usher finally explained to us that we were seeing a later movie. we decided to head home and relax before the movie started.
once we got back to the theater and entered i noticed that everyone was sitting in the center aisle. it was weird watching an american movie with korean subtitles. the girl next to me kept screaming at all the scary parts. it almost felt like being at home. the good thing about movies here is that its only $6. after the movies we eat. i had this rice cake and dumpling soup. its was so good. its the feel good soup when your sick. back at home i decide to turn in early. this boy needs to catch up on sleep.
we walked around jeoung [i think thats the name, need to check on it] park. saw some kids playing badminton. i felt like i was at dolores park with the lesbians. its the little things like that which make me happy. every where you look there are cute signs. i love that. on our way back home we passed a korean wedding. i saw one lady in this really fantastic red dress. it was so big. to escape the heat we decide to give the movies a try. this was somewhat interesting. with a lot of pointing and picking out our seats, yes there is assigned seating, we finally got tickets to see godsend. however we thought we were seeing the 4:02 movie but instead got tickets for the 6:10. after sitting in the lobby for a few minutes the usher finally explained to us that we were seeing a later movie. we decided to head home and relax before the movie started.
once we got back to the theater and entered i noticed that everyone was sitting in the center aisle. it was weird watching an american movie with korean subtitles. the girl next to me kept screaming at all the scary parts. it almost felt like being at home. the good thing about movies here is that its only $6. after the movies we eat. i had this rice cake and dumpling soup. its was so good. its the feel good soup when your sick. back at home i decide to turn in early. this boy needs to catch up on sleep.
Saturday, September 04, 2004
next stop myeong-dong
saturday. got up early. finished putting pictures up. the dsl guy came. we were having a little trouble getting it to work and seeing that niether one of us could understand the other there was a lot of time just staring at each other. luckily enough horace stopped by and figured it out. thank-you, horace.
we deicide to go to myeong-dong for the day. there are lots of shops and restaurants there. on the way to the subway station i kept taking pictures of all these signs. they're so cute i can't help myself. practically everything is some kind of anime. i think i died and went to anime heaven. i could only be so lucky. the trip to myeong-dong took about an hour. the subways here are very clean and nice. and yes there are cute anime pictures on them. we got off the subway and walked into a swarm of people. it was so crowded. out on the street it was just as crowded. it was kind of like being in chinatown but with very nice shops. as we walked around we saw a few other foreigners but not too many. took loads of pictures which i'm working on uploading so stay tuned. we also took a video snipet. can i say i LOVE the camera. thanks guys.
all the street vendors are selling squid snacks and various other fish things. not sure i'm ready for that yet. there are also deep fried pickles. thats the next thing i'm going to try. it looks yummy. saw a birdlady sitting on the sidewalk. she was writing and had two finches in cages. it made me think of the "feed the birds" song from mary poppins. not sure why but it did.
there a ton of giant target-esque stores. we found one that sold smurfs. how happy am i. very. i didn't buy any though but we all know i will. they even had smurf stickers. i told horace he couldn't show me that stuff anymore. must not buy. there are so many people working there too is unnerving. everytime you turn around someone is right behind you saying "annyong haseyo." had some lunch at western style restaurant. i had the fried chicken salad. i know i'm in korea and eating western food but you have to when the chance arrives. there aren't to many places like that in our part of town. they also brought us a side of jalopenos and pickles. love these people. it was actually nice to have some greens that weren't in the form of kimchee. horace was excited to see a coffee bean and tealeaf so stopped for a beverage and sat down to watch all the people. i still can't believe how crowded it was. we bought a korean study book. horace and i decided to study an hour a day so that we can actually learn some of the language. it will be nice to go to any restaurant besides ones with pictures on the menu. on the subway going home a young girl was helping us with the book teaching us how to pronounce some of the words. we also met a man who spoke a little english. he had lived in canada for 7 years. at one point he asked horace and i if we smoked pot. at that point he started to creep me out a bit. i think he liked the american boys.
stopped back in carre four the super target of korea. bought hangers. there's a real bunny in there thats so cute. he's only $15. i wanted to buy him but horace talked me out of it. bought a calling card and tried to use it that night but couldn't find a pay phone. when i did i couldn't figure out how to use the damn thing. i felt so stupid. decided to call it a night and try in the morning.still wish i bought the bunny.
we deicide to go to myeong-dong for the day. there are lots of shops and restaurants there. on the way to the subway station i kept taking pictures of all these signs. they're so cute i can't help myself. practically everything is some kind of anime. i think i died and went to anime heaven. i could only be so lucky. the trip to myeong-dong took about an hour. the subways here are very clean and nice. and yes there are cute anime pictures on them. we got off the subway and walked into a swarm of people. it was so crowded. out on the street it was just as crowded. it was kind of like being in chinatown but with very nice shops. as we walked around we saw a few other foreigners but not too many. took loads of pictures which i'm working on uploading so stay tuned. we also took a video snipet. can i say i LOVE the camera. thanks guys.
all the street vendors are selling squid snacks and various other fish things. not sure i'm ready for that yet. there are also deep fried pickles. thats the next thing i'm going to try. it looks yummy. saw a birdlady sitting on the sidewalk. she was writing and had two finches in cages. it made me think of the "feed the birds" song from mary poppins. not sure why but it did.
there a ton of giant target-esque stores. we found one that sold smurfs. how happy am i. very. i didn't buy any though but we all know i will. they even had smurf stickers. i told horace he couldn't show me that stuff anymore. must not buy. there are so many people working there too is unnerving. everytime you turn around someone is right behind you saying "annyong haseyo." had some lunch at western style restaurant. i had the fried chicken salad. i know i'm in korea and eating western food but you have to when the chance arrives. there aren't to many places like that in our part of town. they also brought us a side of jalopenos and pickles. love these people. it was actually nice to have some greens that weren't in the form of kimchee. horace was excited to see a coffee bean and tealeaf so stopped for a beverage and sat down to watch all the people. i still can't believe how crowded it was. we bought a korean study book. horace and i decided to study an hour a day so that we can actually learn some of the language. it will be nice to go to any restaurant besides ones with pictures on the menu. on the subway going home a young girl was helping us with the book teaching us how to pronounce some of the words. we also met a man who spoke a little english. he had lived in canada for 7 years. at one point he asked horace and i if we smoked pot. at that point he started to creep me out a bit. i think he liked the american boys.
stopped back in carre four the super target of korea. bought hangers. there's a real bunny in there thats so cute. he's only $15. i wanted to buy him but horace talked me out of it. bought a calling card and tried to use it that night but couldn't find a pay phone. when i did i couldn't figure out how to use the damn thing. i felt so stupid. decided to call it a night and try in the morning.still wish i bought the bunny.
Friday, September 03, 2004
oh no, karaoke
second day of school. got up relatively early so i decided to rearrange the apartment. time it make it more homey and get my cloths off the floor. i brought down one of the bedside tables and the long table from upstairs. it was a chore but somehow i managed it. i set up the computer first. music is a must. then gradually put away my clothes and other crap i brought. my first class isn't until 3:25 pm so i spent the morning preparing lessons for both classes. my second one is at 4:10 pm. the class with sally went off with no problems. she's a great student. the other is a different story. i have four preteens: anna, laura, shaun, and erika. they spent the whole 40 mins. just staring at me. i felt discouraged afterwards wanting to hide and go home, then realized it was only the first day it has to get better doesn't it? let's hope so.
that night the entire school went out to dinner. we went back to korean bbq that horace took me to on thursday. once jk and jane found out i liked kamja they kept making sure that my bowl kept getting refilled. we drank lots of soju. jk handed me his glass which meant i had to do a shot of soju. later i did the same to him. jk said that i will make a good teacher because i'm quite humorous. he mentioned that all the students were commenting on my blue eyes. after dinner we went to a karaoke bar. yes, my worst nightmare come true. there was no getting out of singing. its funny but being in a foreign country away of all the peer pressure and the notions of making a fool of yourself didn't seem to bother me to go up and make an ass of myself. of course the numerous shots of soju and beer probably helped too. my first song was "we got the beat". while others sang i played the tambourine. jk got us some cass, korean beer and shrimp snacks. after having several drinks the snacks weren't so bad. for my second song i decided to take it down a notch and sang "love hurts". horace and i finished the evening with "islands in the stream", probably not the best one to end on but it was pretty funny us singing a love song. horace's set included the very pc "rape me" and then "creep" which i joined in on especially since it seemed quite fitting for where we were. after karaoke horace, jean,and i went to some western bar, beer circus or something like that, to have one last pitcher of beer. we walked jean home who kept trying to get us to come to her sisters apartment. i think she wants to date us. we declined. on our way home jean came driving by with her sister telling us to get in and she'd take us home. we told her she shouldn't be driving and after several minutes of discussing this she headed home. horace looked at me and said "she wants american husband." time to make up a fake girlfriend.
that night the entire school went out to dinner. we went back to korean bbq that horace took me to on thursday. once jk and jane found out i liked kamja they kept making sure that my bowl kept getting refilled. we drank lots of soju. jk handed me his glass which meant i had to do a shot of soju. later i did the same to him. jk said that i will make a good teacher because i'm quite humorous. he mentioned that all the students were commenting on my blue eyes. after dinner we went to a karaoke bar. yes, my worst nightmare come true. there was no getting out of singing. its funny but being in a foreign country away of all the peer pressure and the notions of making a fool of yourself didn't seem to bother me to go up and make an ass of myself. of course the numerous shots of soju and beer probably helped too. my first song was "we got the beat". while others sang i played the tambourine. jk got us some cass, korean beer and shrimp snacks. after having several drinks the snacks weren't so bad. for my second song i decided to take it down a notch and sang "love hurts". horace and i finished the evening with "islands in the stream", probably not the best one to end on but it was pretty funny us singing a love song. horace's set included the very pc "rape me" and then "creep" which i joined in on especially since it seemed quite fitting for where we were. after karaoke horace, jean,and i went to some western bar, beer circus or something like that, to have one last pitcher of beer. we walked jean home who kept trying to get us to come to her sisters apartment. i think she wants to date us. we declined. on our way home jean came driving by with her sister telling us to get in and she'd take us home. we told her she shouldn't be driving and after several minutes of discussing this she headed home. horace looked at me and said "she wants american husband." time to make up a fake girlfriend.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
hello soju, goodbye vodka tonic
today is my first day of school. all jet lagged with no idea of what day it really is. this should be F.U.N. horace made us a good old u.s. breakfast of eggs and hash browns. at school we were greeted by jk. his father-in-law was there and he introduced us to him. he grabbed my arm smiling and said something in korean about my giant watch. thats one thing about koreans they aren't afraid to speak their mind. i also met the other employees: sunny, jk's sister-in-law, who is the receptionist, jean and sammy who are both teachers. everyone at school has english names. the whole was kind of surreal especially since i was running on very little sleep. i had one class that day. green a with a girl named sally. she's eight. horce taught her that day and i observed. i also sat in on one of his classes so that i could get a feel of what is expected of us.
after school which ends at 7 pm, we went home changed cloths then went out to dinner. horace took me to his favorite bbq place where the owner is this very extravagent woman. she loves westerns. we order the bbq pork which comes with all these side dishes that are refillable. the meat is cooked at the table but we didn't have to worry about it because she cooked it for us. one of the side dishes, kamja, was a cross between potatoe salad and cold mashed potatoes with a mayo type dressing. it was so good. all the food was really good. we also had a bottle of soju, a rice drink. it's like vodka but a little smoother and sweeter. i think i found my new drink. hello soju, goodby vodka tonic. the whole time we ate the owner kept coming to our table to sit and try to speak english to us. i probably understood every third word she said. the hardest part about the meal was trying to use the metal chopsticks. they're a little more trickier than the wooden ones. she brought me a fork but i refused to use it.
after dinner we went to carre four. its a super walmart/target/grocery store. it was a little over whelming. espeically since everything is in korea, however, they do have english written on the self so you get a general idea of what you are buying. carre four is my new favorite place. everything i could possible want is there. all the packaging is so damn cute, too. i wanted to buy everything. however, i only bought the staples for now. i did get some korean brand frosted flakes and herbal scented toilet paper which is now stinky up the cabinet.
the weather has been warm but i have airconditioning in my apartment. YEAH! now if i can only block out the neon lights i'll sleep like a baby.
after school which ends at 7 pm, we went home changed cloths then went out to dinner. horace took me to his favorite bbq place where the owner is this very extravagent woman. she loves westerns. we order the bbq pork which comes with all these side dishes that are refillable. the meat is cooked at the table but we didn't have to worry about it because she cooked it for us. one of the side dishes, kamja, was a cross between potatoe salad and cold mashed potatoes with a mayo type dressing. it was so good. all the food was really good. we also had a bottle of soju, a rice drink. it's like vodka but a little smoother and sweeter. i think i found my new drink. hello soju, goodby vodka tonic. the whole time we ate the owner kept coming to our table to sit and try to speak english to us. i probably understood every third word she said. the hardest part about the meal was trying to use the metal chopsticks. they're a little more trickier than the wooden ones. she brought me a fork but i refused to use it.
after dinner we went to carre four. its a super walmart/target/grocery store. it was a little over whelming. espeically since everything is in korea, however, they do have english written on the self so you get a general idea of what you are buying. carre four is my new favorite place. everything i could possible want is there. all the packaging is so damn cute, too. i wanted to buy everything. however, i only bought the staples for now. i did get some korean brand frosted flakes and herbal scented toilet paper which is now stinky up the cabinet.
the weather has been warm but i have airconditioning in my apartment. YEAH! now if i can only block out the neon lights i'll sleep like a baby.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
tokyo a no-go
wow.its a new day and i've had zero sleep. i guess that's what happens when one gets caught up in bad movies. damn olsen twins. we landed at the remote airport in narita. i had to jump on a bus with a bunch of teenaged japanese kids to get to the terminal. lucky me. i was imagining some grand ala vegas type of airport,which it might have been but i didn't see any of that. at this point i wasn't feel too well and my carry on weighed about 70 lb. damn speakers. i had a pretty uneventful time there. just sat and watched people wondering what the hell am i doing. an hour later i was on another bus going to the plane. managed to catch a few winks on the plane. we landed in icheon around 10pm. i made my way through customs where she told me i needed to get an alien registertion card within 90 days. i nodded and continued to baggage claim. had a little bit of difficutly with the cart. couldn't really read the instructions to get it out. luckily someone came by and gave me a hand. at this point i had a bit of freak out because i realized i didn't have any contact information for horace or jk. what if they didn't come or i missed them. i tried not to give it much thought. got my luggage, exchanged my dollars for wons, and headed out the door. saw horace standing of to the right. it was so nice to see a familiar face. he introduced me to jk, the director of our school, then we headed for the school bus which is actually a van with the name of the school on the side. it took about an hour to get to ansan. ansan is a suburb of seoul. for those of you reading this from florida it's like being in altamonte but with giant buildings. everything is built so high up. all the buildings/apartments blend into on giant korean sign.
when we got to the apartment the first thing we had to do was take off our shoes. right then i knew i should have brought only slip on shoes. after entering, jk apologized for the electricity being off. it seems that it won't be turned on until tomorrow. the apartment is very minimal. its basically one giant room with a loft. in the lower part is the tiny kitchen, it consists of a refrigerator, a kimchee fridge, two burners, a sink, a couple of cabinets, and a washer/dryer. yes its a combo. not sure how that works but its right in the kitchen. oh, there's also a table and two chairs. jk's wife jane also supplied me with 4 bowels, 2 glasses, 2 spoons, 2 forks, 2 pairs of chopsticks, and a pan. upstairs was a single bed. i realized at this point i will always be haunted by single beds. 2 bed sidetables and one long table. yes all my furniture was basically upstairs where i can't even stand up straight.
i almost forgot about the bathroom. there half a shower door next to the toilet. the entire bathroom floor gets wet when you shower. it seems the water drains underneath the sink. this is going to be interesting.
one thing i can't forget to mention is that with the sheets jane provide she also gave me some pajamas and a nightgown that match the sheets. horace and i will model them later. seeing that it was dark except for the neon lights from the building across the street i decided against unpacking. instead i went to horace's apartment. he's on the fifth floor, i'm on the eighth. we hung out for a little drinking whiskey and chatting. it was still so hard for me to believe that i was in korea. and horace was here, too. its so wild. around 2 am i headed back to my apartment. we have school in the morning. now that's going to be fun…
when we got to the apartment the first thing we had to do was take off our shoes. right then i knew i should have brought only slip on shoes. after entering, jk apologized for the electricity being off. it seems that it won't be turned on until tomorrow. the apartment is very minimal. its basically one giant room with a loft. in the lower part is the tiny kitchen, it consists of a refrigerator, a kimchee fridge, two burners, a sink, a couple of cabinets, and a washer/dryer. yes its a combo. not sure how that works but its right in the kitchen. oh, there's also a table and two chairs. jk's wife jane also supplied me with 4 bowels, 2 glasses, 2 spoons, 2 forks, 2 pairs of chopsticks, and a pan. upstairs was a single bed. i realized at this point i will always be haunted by single beds. 2 bed sidetables and one long table. yes all my furniture was basically upstairs where i can't even stand up straight.
i almost forgot about the bathroom. there half a shower door next to the toilet. the entire bathroom floor gets wet when you shower. it seems the water drains underneath the sink. this is going to be interesting.
one thing i can't forget to mention is that with the sheets jane provide she also gave me some pajamas and a nightgown that match the sheets. horace and i will model them later. seeing that it was dark except for the neon lights from the building across the street i decided against unpacking. instead i went to horace's apartment. he's on the fifth floor, i'm on the eighth. we hung out for a little drinking whiskey and chatting. it was still so hard for me to believe that i was in korea. and horace was here, too. its so wild. around 2 am i headed back to my apartment. we have school in the morning. now that's going to be fun…
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