February Update: Style, School, and Shout Outs!

Turning Left

Have you ever had one of those days, or experienced one of those moments that could probably define you as a person? Did you realize that’s what it was doing at that moment?

I have always considered myself someone who enjoys taking left turns. This may just be because I am left-handed, but I take note of those instances. When I play video games, I always choose the door that’s on the left, or explore something beginning with the left side. I trust my left hand more than my right, if that makes any kind of sense. If you’ve read “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell, he talks about people playing cards. There is a blue stack on the left and a red stack on the right. He found that people are more likely to draw from the red deck, which has greater gains, but also a greater percentage of loss. People who draw from the blue deck, the left side, do not suffer as great a loss and steadily increase their winnings. Whenever there are colored decks in front of me, I always choose the blue over the red. I turn left instead of right.

I remember hearing that if you want to find your way through a maze, keep turning left. I don’t know if that’s always true, but I’d like to think the majority of the time, it works.

There’s an episode of Dr. Who called “Turn Left”. It’s during Tennant’s time as the 10th Doctor with Donna Noble as his companion. The episode focuses on the effects of one decision in Donna’s life: to turn left or right. If she turns right, she will never meet the Doctor. The Doctor will die. Martha Jones will die. America will be ravaged by Adipose. The Queen will die when the space voyager Titanic crashes to Earth. London will be wiped out and the people of England will end up in a dystopian world of internment camps.

At the end, Donna turns left and the timeline is restored.

Today, I decided to do the same. Not so much restoring an alternate timeline, but making the conscious decision to help someone I had never met and will likely never see again. I was headed to the grocery store and had to wait at the crosswalk. Across the street, I saw two foreigners. The girl was trying to help a guy who was hopping on one foot. Initially, I figured this was just some strange thing they wanted to do, hop around Suji. I’ve seen stranger things. My store was straight ahead and I needn’t have bothered checking to see where they’d go or if they would cross the street when the light turned green. But as I waited, he hopped a few more steps with her help. He had to stop several times, and by the time I was able to cross the street, the girl appeared about ready to try and give him a piggyback ride. I turned left and quickly made my way to them and asked if they needed any help. Apparently the guy, Matt, had broken his foot falling down some steps and they were trying to make it to the hospital. The girl and I both took an arm and managed to get him to the elevators.

While we were hobbling to where he needed to go, they kept saying their thanks and Matt kept mumbling how so-and-so random Korean person who was staring at us could go and get screwed. I’m sure he felt embarrassed by the whole situation, but I’m also glad I could provide some kind of foreign camaraderie, even if we had no idea who the other was. It’s nice to know you’re not completely alone in a foreign country when something goes awry. I’d like to think that the group of foreigners who are in Suji would be of some assistance if they came across something like this. And if you’re in Suji and you find yourself in some kind of ridiculous bind, I hope I can help you out, even if it’s just for some kind of moral support or a shoulder to help you to the hospital.

So, Matt and your friend, I hope your foot’s alright and you don’t get fired from your teaching job just because you’ll be on crutches. Take care.

Valentine’s Day

By now, most of you know I’m in a long distance relationship. He’s in England and I was in Texas, then California, and now, Korea. He’s pretty awesome to stick with me through my apparently constant westward traveling. Skype is a godsend, even if it’s only possible on the weekends.

Last Valentine’s Day I was in Texas teaching high school. I was sick and stayed home. Apparently Guy had been a sweetheart and sent me flowers at school. I didn’t get them until the next day, but they were beautiful and I still have the card somewhere.

This year, I’m sick again, off in some distant land and still teaching. In my adventures, I have not yet managed to step foot in the post office. Still, I wanted to do something special…

Guy, I love you.

“I Should’a Learned Korean” pt.1

I am currently chillin’ at a Cafe Bene. Think Starbucks but classier, hipper and cozier. Jess came up with the idea of blog posts centering around those moments where we run face first into a language barrier. Considering we had a rather large encounter this weekend, it’s about time I shared the love.
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• Saturday night was a friend of a friend’s birthday party somewhere in Seoul, near Gangnam. Skipping over the poor choice of dropping 50,000 Won on a club, Jess, Ashley, Meagan and I piled into a cab we were hoping would take us home. There’s a very short list of what we can say to the cab drivers. “Suji-gu. Jukjeon-guk. Jukjeon-station. Yongin. Suji, Green Plaza.” This usually ends up getting very repetitive. And wouldn’t you know it, even with GPS, cab drivers have no idea where Suji is. Yes, we’re pretty backwater. Jess spent a couple of minutes with the afore mentioned dialogue. The cabbie spent maybe just as much time trying to type it into his GPS. Then we were off!It should have only taken us about half an hour to get home, at roughly 30,000 Won for the ride. We knew something was up  when we weren’t on the highway. Then again, when we passed Dongbaek, which is a way south of Suji. Jess again said, “Jukjeon-guk” and he pulled over, retyped in the directions, and we made a u-turn. We ended up getting out of the cab before our final destination because we finally figured out where we were when the cabbie was still super confused. 42,000 Won and over an hour later, we’re home.Maybe it was our accents.
•  When you go to some restaurants here as a group, the hosts want to know how many people are eating. So if there are four people, and a dish can feed two people, you’d get two orders. We ran into this problem when we had pork kebabs. There were five of us, and we apparently ended up getting five orders, which probably could have fed 8-10 people. Tonight, we went out for Shabu Shabu and spent several minutes trying to tell the hostess what we wanted and how many people it would feed. There were five of us, and one order of shabu can feed two people. I think she was concerned we wouldn’t have enough food for everyone. We added an order of dumplings, and did our best to assure her that we’d be okay. I don’t know what we’re going to do without Rebecca here to mime our food orders.
  

  Shabu Shabu Preparations

• There’s a kimbap shop right next to work. It’s cheap and one of the favorite places to go. However, the menu’s in Korean. And we’re not talking about menus on your table, we’re talking about plastered across the walls. (For more info, check out Christine’s post about “The Healthy Fast Food”.) How do you begin to order if you don’t know Korean? Well, I’ve had to rely on the tastes of my friends. Rebecca took me out to lunch there in January and I had some bulgogi dish, which was pretty decent. Then Jess and Meagan said I should try the cheese dokas (I know the spelling is incorrect, but that’s what it sounds like.) and it was delicious. It’s the closest thing I’m likely to get to schnitzel this far from Germany. Breaded pork with gravy and rice. You can get it with or without cheese inside. YUMMY and filling. I was in the mood for some soup, or jji-gae (chee-gae), and Meagan said I should try the budae jjigae, which I pronounce “Buddha Cheegae”. It was super hot, but good. The serving sizes are always too large for me to finish, but it’s nice to have something warm on a cold day.
  

  "Cheesay Dokas"

• This one quite literally JUST HAPPENED. I went to order a hot chocolate, but I didn’t see it anywhere. I thought “Chocolate Frapeno” would be as close as I could get, since it was listed under the “Not Coffee” section. The guy taking my order said something like “pee-ping?”. And I’m thinking he was speaking Korean, so obviously I have no idea how to answer his question. He turned to the guy behind him and the other man clarified, “Whipped cream?” OH YEAH! Well of course! A few minutes later, I look and see my beverage is not in a warm and snuggly mug, but rather a cold plastic cup. What? No hot chocolate? WHAT? It’s alright though, considering it’s basically all I asked for only cold. It’s more like ice cream in a cup than anything else, so who am I to argue with that?
  

  Chocolate Frapeno at Cafe Bene

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Look forward to more instances of “I Should’a Learned Korean”, as I’m sure there will be many! For now, I’ll leave you with some pictures and yes, I’ll even make an appearance. (Since my mom’s been mentioning that I should.) Also, good news, my first paycheck finally came in today! Huzzah!

Me and Ashley at Wara Wara

Club Phantom with the girls and new friend, Amy.

Keeping it classy with some McD's

Chillin' at Cafe Bene

Rebecca booking flights for her backpacking adventure.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

SNOW!

I find it strangely perfect that the last day of January is the one that threatens to snow us out of school tomorrow. It started snowing sometimes around 3:00pm today and has just kept piling up. The snow made an odd little tune while walking home. Everything was a varied crunch, that brought about as much delight as a kid gets from it. Only, it would have looked very strange if I had leapt about and giggled all the way home and perhaps even rolled about in the snow trying to make a snow angel. We’re crazy foreigners after all, that would just add even more crazy.

I did allow myself to scoop up some snow and pack it into a snowball. Yes, I did delight in throwing it at some bushes. Had I walked back with anyone, I would have happily started a snowball fight.

So here we go into February. We may or may not have school tomorrow. If we’re snowed out, well, we have to make up the day on Saturday. I don’t think many of us can decide which we’d rather have. I don’t expect the groundhog this week; he’ll probably be frozen in his burrow.

Putting Things on the Shelf

Remember how I had planned on visiting South Central Asia at some point this year? I’ve decided not to bother. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth just having to admit that, but practicality seems to be ruling the world at the moment, as well as any and all future expenditures. I’m still hoping to make it to China on a hopefully long weekend, but that’s going to be about it, sadly.

I still don’t know when my summer break will be since we only find out our schedules on a month to month basis. (I think that’s kind of crap, personally.) Guy is trying to make plans to come over for that time (again, not knowing WHEN is a problem here). I was going to tug him along for a couple of days in Cambodia to see the temples at Angkor, but I’m letting go of that idea. He’s happy just being with me, so there’s no reason to spend more money on getting there when we can spend it on more important things later. Japan is out as well. Really, I should just be satisfied with making it to China and the Philippines at some point this year.

I guess the anxiety comes from this worry that if I don’t do it now, I’ll never get the chance. It’s a personal kind of heartbreak. Sometimes, I get so afraid of settling into a predictable and routine life that I’ll forget what it’s like to meander about outside of that. It’s a scary thought.

“Or maybe you’re merely uncomfortable with uncertainty. Like the rest of the human race.” – Love, Stargirl

Lunar New Year at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival

I realize I have not beeng keeping everyone up to speed considering Lunar New Year happened last weekend. To be completely honest, I haven’t felt much like blogging lately. I’m in a state of mind flux where I’m waiting for my paycheck and warmer weather, but mostly my paycheck. Once I have an income I’ll be getting out of Suji more often.

Everyone had at least a four day weekend last week because Lunar New Year was celebrated on the 23-24th. I spent Saturday and Sunday entombed within A Storm of Swords, because it was just THAT good. Monday afternoon I set out to my local bus stop and caught the 5500 to Seoul so I could meet up with Ines. I haven’t seen that girl for over five years. We had gone to high school together, but after we both went to college, and she ended up in Korea two years ago, well, distance happens. The bus ride was nice since it was during the day and I could see everything as opposed to the night I went to Gangnam. The thing was, I was supposed to count the stops to know when to get off at Jogyesa Temple. There supposedly 19. Not really, at least we didn’t stop 19 times. I was lucky that someone boarded the bus when I needed to get off.

The entrance to Jogeysa Temple

It was cold! I had packed extra layers for our Tuesday adventure, but didn’t think about wearing them to Seoul. I wandered a bit around Insadong while waiting for Ines. When she arrived she took me to one of her favorite restaurants that was the equivalent of homestyle Korean food. It was good, though naturally, I didn’t touch many of the sides. The soups, bulgogi and rice were good enough for me. It was dark, cold, and moderately late so we didn’t bother wandering around the shops (Lunar New Year, everything’s closed anyway, duh.). We headed off to her apartment on foot, which might have been a mistake considering I felt like my fingers and toes were falling off, not to mention the constant running of my nose. We walked by a pretty massive complex that was closed for the evening. I can’t remember if she said it was another shrine or if it was a palace; I wasn’t particularly focused on absorbing the culture when my body was freezing.

Big gates are big.

We spent our sleepover night making brownies and watching Harry Potter. It was pretty awesome and the brownies were DELICIOUS. We stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning, and we needed an early start for our next adventure. To her delight, and mine, I made pancakes the following morning before we left all bundled up. Her man accompanied us for the day. We took a cab to the subway station where we’d be meeting our friend Kat. The ride just proved to me all over again I shouldn’t sit in the backseat of cabs, especially when they drive fast. We met up with Kat and her friend Shannon about half an hour later and were off to Chuncheon to catch a cab or bus to Hwacheon.

Connect the dots.

Kat, me, and Ines

An empty subway car on the way to Chuncheon.

The cab ride to Hwacheon.

Our cabbie was very insistent when we made it to Chuncheon. The bus only came every half hour, and he said he would not only drive all five of us there, but give us a discount too. We hopped in and I wisely chose the front seat. He popped in some Michael Jackson and off we went! We ended up driving through Hwacheon and being dropped off at the end of town. We were rather confused since we didn’t see any people, but we walked on and soon found ourselves right where we needed to be. We registered as foreigners (yay discounts!), picked up our fishing bag and went out to find our fishing poles by the foreigner area. We stayed on the ice for what was probably an hour and a half. I switched holes several times without catching anything, which was fine considering I had not intention of eating the fish anyway. Ines caught a total of 7 that day and she had never been fishing before. I took a break to warm up and walked around town.

I have my fishing bag and my festival money!

Ines makes another catch.

So what is this Sancheoneo Festival all about? For one thing, fish, a kind of mountain trout. I believe there’s also something related to happiness and prosperity somewhere in there too. Taken directly from the brochure:

The whole town of Hwacheon will face the icy heat from January 7 – January 29, 2012. Programs as variegated as Sancheoneo Ice, Lure Fishing, Ice Lights Plaza, Winter Cities Plaza, Experience Snow & Ice, Build Your Sled Contest, Winter Farm Village, Warmhearted Farm Village – Sarangbangmasil, and so on are waiting for your participation. Travel frugal and be home full of memories.

The fish belongs to salmon order and salmon family, a cold-water fish that lives in Class-1 clean water of low-temperature valleys. With its unique and beautiful parr marks, Sancheoneo is often dubbed the Queen of the Valley.

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It ended up being a long day, but it was fun. I saw some old friends and made some new ones. The journey home was a lot longer than I remembered it being on the way there. We ended up sitting on the floor of the bus back to Chuncheon. (Motion sickness again, ugh.) Took a much fuller subway back to Seoul area and went our separate ways. It was nice to get out of Suji to see the open air and mountains. From the brief introduction I had with Seoul, I kind of wish I had found somewhere closer in that vicinity to teach. I’ll do more exploring there in a few weekends. From Hwacheon, it took me roughly 4.5 hours to make it back home via subway. I was so grateful to find my bed and for the three day week to come and go.

For now, I leave you with hope for the new year to be full of wonder, discovery and happiness for everyone.

A Sancheoneo hope postcard and atelier (hope light).

January Update

I’ll Make a Witty Title Later

I feel as though I have been lax in updating, but really, I think that has more to do with the fact that so much can happen in a day. Mondays are far from my favorite day of the week, but the other days almost feel guaranteed to fly right by me if I’m not careful. Tuesday breaks are always devoted to writing my lesson plans for the following week. And well, this Wednesday was just awesome. I embarked on my first SLP field trip with my kids and had a blast even though I wasn’t participating. Those guys are precious, see for yourself:

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As far as general updates go, I keep meaning to take note of things while I’m at work and blogging about them, but by the time I get home… Well, it takes a bit more effort than I would like. We’ll just say that. There is some strictly educational coverage as well as fun things, but again, where do I choose to share them? How big of a commentary do I want to make on those sorts of things?

The other day, one of my Dolphin boys started singing, “It’s Raining Men”. I was so taken aback by it, I laughed in the midst of asking him how that popped into his head. (I’m pretty sure we were talking about the rainy weather.) Then, during my activity period, two girls started humming Rhianna’s “S&M”. My eyeballs were pretty huge, but I highly doubt the kids know the lyrics to half the songs they sing/hum/whistle, much less what they mean. It was just one of those moments, and one I’m sure I’ll experience again at some point in the future.

Wine-o Wednesdays are successfully running now between the six of us foreign teachers. It’s nice to unwind after one of the longer days and just get to know one another. I’m 1.5 books ahead of my reading challenge of 1 book a month, and I find that very exciting. I can finally breathe these days and haven’t had a regular cough for a while. With the exception of the upcoming dip, temperatures are climbing and will average in the 40s Fahrenheit come February. I’m also reminded that February is the month another student loan deferment ends, the month I start getting paid, and it will mark my second month in South Korea. (Don’t worry, I’ll have a vlog up about my one-month experience in a few days.)

Until next time, I wish you all well. Thanks for keeping up with me.

Going Out in Gangnam and Lamb Kebabs

Saturday night I didn’t have much planned, so I tagged along with some of my SLP teachers to Gangnam. I took my first bus ride in Korea and was much happier with the view, though I have yet to ride it on my own and know where to get off. We traversed a couple of streets looking for the expat bar “Woodstock,” which ended up proving to be a pretty fun place.

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A Korean girl at the table next to us was celebrating her birthday with her husband, friend and cousin. She enjoyed herself a little too much during the course of the evening. Three of us were subjected to lip glossing, which we found rather amusing. She spent a great deal of time talking about Miranda Kerr and how Koreans LOVE her. And she spilled a great deal of drinks as the night wore on. She also spent a while trying to pawn her cousin off on a few of us as well, which was… really odd to say the least.

I taught someone the Christmas Tree, and The Pam finally made it’s first Korean appearance. That was a big hit. We all belted out some songs from the 80s and 90s. The bathroom experience was awkward, but you learn to live with the fact that you have to sneak past a guy doing his thing to get to the actual toilet the next door over.

We had such a fun time that I was getting sleepy and had to head home before everyone else. (I was supposed to have a trip to Seoul on Sunday, after all.) Jess happily suggested I just leave from Gangnam. Partying lasts well into the morning here. I have heard tales of not getting back home until 5:00 AM, which just astounds me. I declined her suggestion, nixed Mike’s dance-off challenge, and said no to offers of more beer.

Listening to CanaDan talk about martial arts. I think.

I accompanied Rebecca to find a cab that would take us to Suji. I don’t do well in backseats. She fell asleep and I had my first experience of actually getting sick in a car. Sick as in there’s no where else to throw up but the floor. That was interesting. I felt so embarrassed by the whole thing that when we arrived, we gave him some extra won and jumped out as fast as possible. He was yelling at us, but, I assumed it was because I ended up sick in the car. Now, I’m pretty sure he was waving my scarf at me because I had forgotten it in the backseat. My favorite scarf ever. From Wales. Cue the cringing when I found out this morning. After thinking about it for a day, I realized I would be more traumatized if I had lost my grandmother’s ring, my wallet or my camera. So really, it’s not THAT bad.

I didn’t end up making it to Seoul on Sunday. I’ll leave out the details, but apparently Ines was also not feeling well and Kat was sick. We’ll reschedule for next weekend since it will be Lunar New Year.

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So how do you end a Monday on a good note? Lamb kebabs! I shall now picspam you with tonight’s meal!

I don't know what this is called in Korean, but I think it would be perfect for smores.

Our lamb kebabs and the sides that came with them.

The lady prepared all of our spice plates and even asked if we wanted it super spicy or not.

My spice plate. It was delicious.