Knew it would happen

I'm leaving a week from yesterday. I want to come back for another year. Korea, why you gotta be so good? 

I think this is the first blog I've written on my iPod. It will probably be the last. 

finishee!

Camp ended yesterday. I will miss parts of it (the cafeteria food was amazing!), but I'm really happy it's over. Like everything else in Korea, they couldn't just end it quietly. They needed a ceremony. Yes that's right, a graduation ceremony for a month long camp. Not even a month, because there were two groups of students, and each group came every other day. So we had to have a graduation ceremony for students who attended 12 days of lessons. They got diplomas, awards, gave speeches, etc. It was longer than my sister's college graduation ceremony. It was probably longer than mine as well, but I can never be sure because I skipped it in favor of eating dinner at The Feed Store in Malden, Illinois then returning home by myself and watching tv while drinking a TGI Friday's premixed cocktail straight from the bottle. True story. Those are life's treasured memories.
So anyway, part of the ceremony was a performance given by each class. The teachers were responsible for the entire performance. We had no scripts to choose from, no props, etc. My Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday class was all boys, between the ages of 10 and 13. I decided to have them do an American Idol type show, with judges, performers and a Ryan Seacrestesque host. The script was written by yours truly, and it was quite the crowd pleaser.
One of my students was a boy named Robin.  He was unique. The best way I can describe him is for you to imagine Forrest Gump trying to learn to speak Korean. He didn't click too well with the other boys in the class, so he latched on to me. Every day he brought a bag of marbles to school and would give me one or two. I now have about 20 marbles rolling around my bag. I understood about 1/3 of what he said, but that didn't stop him from talking to me nonstop about who knows what. I found a few American coins in my purse yesterday, and gave them to him. His reaction would lead one to believe he'd been given the Hope Diamond. A short while later, during performance practice in the auditorium, I looked up to see Robin crawling around the auditorium floor on his hands and knees. I asked him what he was doing. Clearly distraught, he said "Teacher, American coins is no." They'd fallen out of his pocket somewhere along the way to the restroom. Thankfully I was able to scrounge up another couple pennies from the bottom of my purse, because we had a show to do.
I let the performers in the show pick what performance they did. We had singers, dancers, and a magic show. Robin chose to dance to Gangnam Style. In my opinion, he stole the show. The parents and students liked it as well. I was happy he had his moment in the sun.
Please do enjoy.
Side note- not being a college sophomore in a sorority, the "keep calm and Gangnam Style" was not my doing. It was made by one of the Korean camp assistants, who were all college students.

New babies

Two updates in one day! This is what happens when one works 6 days a week and lives in a goshiwon. Actually I just wanted to share this. These are my homeroom kids. They are some of the youngest kids at camp.

Every day starts with circle time, which is just learning to sing various pop songs. I'm not sure who picked the songs out, but they suck. They are not really bad songs per se, but for ESL learners who are children, they are terrible. For example, we have sung five Mocca songs, and the other day our song was "Yesterday Once More" by the Carpenters. "Upside Down" was our song yesterday. I don't know what it is about Korean children and this song, but they all think it is the greatest masterpiece ever recorded. The kids at SLP loved it and all knew the words already. The kids at camp were the same. I've listened to it at least 15 times in the past two days. It's not a terrible song, it just gets stuck in my head and is there for weeks. At least it's more age appropriate than "Yesterday Once More" I guess. 

Please notice Kevin doing his Gangnam Style dance at the end. I love this kid. Every time I see him I want to pinch those cheeks. And yes, he is wearing a brown and pink apron that says "Prince." We had cooking class today. 

And because the video quality is not awesome...

My big announcement!

Good morning!
I still at some point plan on writing all about the lovely place I've called home the past three weeks. I've gotten more used to it, but sharing a kitchen with Koreans is gross. Every morning I walk into the kitchen to fill my cup with hot water for some instant coffee (my coffee maker shattered, sob), and I'm hit with different smells. This morning was fish and kimchi. Yesterday morning a guy was in there cooking ramen noodles with what smelled like hot pepper sauce. It will forever be a mystery to me how an entire country of people can be so confused about what breakfast is.

But questioning breakfast choices is not the reason for this blog update. I have some exciting news! It's something I've dreamed about since I was young.
And unlike the big announcements made my most people my age, I'm not getting married, nor am I having a baby. This is something I've wanted for so much longer. And something I want much more than either of those. Sorry mom, no grandkids at this time.

I'M GOING TO INDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Bold, all caps, and excessive exclamation marks mean this is serious business. I love all the places I've been. I'd love to go visit again any of those places. But India India India! I've never been more excited to travel anywhere. I've never wanted to visit any place so badly. This is the trip of a lifetime with one of my favorite people ever. I'm a lucky lucky girl!

I don't remember when exactly my desire to go there started. But it's been growing for years now. I always thought of going when I was here before, but working in a private school only allowed me a week of vacation twice a year. India deserves more time than that.
I'm a bartender, substitute teacher, and soon to be laid off English camp teacher. So financially, is this the smartest thing I've ever done? Hahahahahhahaha, right.
India intrigues me. It excites me. It intimidates me. It's one of those places I feel like I really have to see it in person before I believe it actually exists outside of books, Google image, and Bollywood movies.

Now it's time to shower and go to work. Since booking my flights, I've truthfully had a lot of trouble staying focused on teaching. I am thinking nonstop of curry and bright fabric. I'm leaving March 2. I think a paper chain will be made soon.

Bread and Jam for Francis

This time around, there's been a serious lack of cute kids on my blog. There are a number of reasons for that, the main one being that the kids at this camp are less heart melting kindergartners, and more awkward not so cute middle schoolers. 

But there are a sprinkling of little babies in this "camp" (I hate even calling it a camp. That implies these kids are doing something fun. Koreans, let's just call a spade a spade. This is school). 

This little guy is one of my favorites. 

It's probably because he wears glasses. I can't resist a small child with glasses. Glasses aside, Francis is a really special little guy. He doesn't speak a lick of English. He will be starting his first year of elementary school in March, and I guess mom and dad thought this camp would be a good practice experience for him. It was maybe a bit ambitious.  The kid can't even sit in a desk yet, and falls out at least 3 times a class. In case you are curious, those are straws sticking out of his hood. And that's a bit of his lunch to the right of his mouth. He buys a can of juice from the vending machine every morning, and without fail he spills it less than 10 minutes later. Love him and his tiny glasses! 

So much more to say, but work is beating me and winning this week. All of our tests and comments are due Thursday, so I've been working about 5 hours a night on them...so tired. 

the Great Wall of Suwon

It's Friday night! PaRtY! WoOt!

 Kimbap shop dinner, followed by an evening of Facebook, blogging, and lesson planning is what happens when one works all day on Saturday. Truthfully, I kind of forgot it was even Friday night until an hour or so ago. I realized this morning, having a 6 day work week makes me lose all concept of what day it is. Mondays still feel like Mondays, only a little steroided up. Tuesdays-Fridays feel like just days, with no real distinction between them. Saturdays are kind of exciting, if I don't think too much about the fact that the weekend is only one day long. I didn't think working 6 days a week would be that big of a deal, since between subbing and PQ, most weeks I do work 6 days. But I was wrong. Working from 9-5, 6 days a week is garbage. For many Koreans, it is the norm. Thankfully, I'm not Korean, so I'm allowed to complain about it.

But anyway, my coworkers and I do try to do stuff after work, to break up the week. As I said before, usually it just involves food...or watching the Bachelor since the new season has started. But this evening we decided to go check out Hwaseong Fortress. I'd tell you all about it, but since we all have access to Google, I'll save myself the typing, and allow those of you who are interested in what it is to look it up.

I didn't have my camera, only my ipod. And my fingers were frozen. And it was getting dark by the time we got there. So the pictures aren't the best, but it was cool. I can imagine it being a wonderful place when the weather is nice. It was a wonderful place this evening, just not somewhere I wanted to linger very long. Brr!

I seriously love this country. Sometimes I hate it. But mostly I love it. 

rerun?

I get the feeling I've written about this before. But since it's been two years since my last winter in Korea, I'm going to write about it again.

Korea is advanced in SO many ways.
They have universal cell phone chargers, so you can charge (most) any cell phone with any charger, and you can charge at restaurants, convenient stores, etc.
The Seoul subway system is nothing short of brilliant, yet inexpensive and easy to use. AND ridiculously quiet compared to other cities' trains.
Many schools still allow corporal punishment.
The food...aside from a gross affinity for stewed octopus, barf. I ate dolsot bibimbap tonight, and I can't stop thinking about how delicious it was. The rice burned onto the bottom of the bowl, it got so crispy and mmmmmm! I've twice seen the old lady who cooks at the kimbap shop downstairs from my apartment take tastes of what she is preparing then use the same spoon to continue stirring. I should probably be grossed out by this. And I guess I am a little, but not enough to stop eating there.

And up until I recently I had no idea such a thing as this existed

They are on all the chalk boards at school. I thought it was just a projector or something of that sort. Then one day I saw the kids playing with it, and my life changed forever. It's a board cleaner. It's not an eraser..it does the work of janitor. There are forwards, backwards, and  pause buttons on it. You just push whichever direction you want it to go, and it cleans the board, stopping at the end automatically. I'm so impressed by this thing, I use it after every class just to watch it go. 

Korea is seriously on top of its game for many many things. So why why why can't they get the concept of shoveling and salting??? I considered bringing my running clothes with me, then realized nope, there's no reason to. After a snow, the owners of (most) shops will use a flimsy little broom and sweep the snow away. Some of them will then dump a bucket of hot water on the sidewalk, creating a sheet of thin nearly invisible ice. Those who don't dump the hot water just leave a thin layer of snow their brooms didn't get, which gets packed down from people walking, and turns into a super slick icy snowy mix. Then there's the spots like this. 

I have no idea how this even happens. But I do know that the next time I come back to Korea in the winter, I will bring salt and a shovel and show them how to properly remove snow and ice from a sidewalk. I'll probably receive some kind of award from the government.

I'm baaaack!

Oh, so much to say.

First, I wish you all a happy 2013! Cheers! I feel like this will be a really stellar year.

Second, holy crap, it's been 13 years since I graduated high school. Old old old old old. I need to start buying centrum silver.

Third, success! I'm in Korea. It's amazing how much a person can forget in a year and few months, and I'm experiencing wicked culture shock, again. Right hand, Laura, use your right hand! Bow! Shoes off! There's chopstick rules I think, or maybe that's China? How do I even use chopsticks? What's that smell? And so on.
It's been a very eventful week, and I'm too wiped out to get into school, apartment, new town details now.

But important things:
I've seen 2 people drop their mopeds. One of them was a McDonald's delivery guy, and my first thought was not for his safety, but of the well being of the food in the little pack on the back of the bike. Priorities. I've also seen an elderly gentleman who was so drunk (at 11:45 in the morning) he fell off the subway seat and onto the floor of the pack car. A fellow passenger had to use the SOS phone to notify the subway personnel, who came aboard the car at the next stop and tried to get him off. They could not, but did manage to get him back up in his seat and leaning against the side of the train. The Korean guys on the train car gave a dude broesque laugh. The Korean girls on the train car inhaled dramatically with their hands over their mouths, like they could not believe the "horror" they'd just witnessed. Typical.

Korea is WAY colder than I remember. And the food is WAY more delicious than I remember.
My fleece lined tights from Target are the best thing ever. Seriously. For real. Last time I was here I bought some heat tech tights from Uniqlo. I tried to tell myself they were great. They were ...meh...at best. But these Target tights, man oh man. Every part of my body can be numb, but my legs will be cozy warm. I love you Target. The only bad thing is that I have just one pair, and I've worn them every day. I can't bring myself to wash them because then I'd be without for a day or two. Unacceptable.
Food food food food kimchi! I'm so happy. My new coworkers and I have all said we really just came back here for the food. It is so stinking good. I can always count on them to be up for anything from kimbap to galbi. Food partners in crime are important people to have in one's life. For dinner tonight I had kimchi jjigae for the third time this week, and I'm already thinking of when I can get a fourth.
While reading Hemispheres (the inflight mag on United, jealous?) on my flight the other day, I read a blurb on a "travel writer" named Rainbow. I remembered him because of his weird name, so I googled him once I was firmly planted on solid ground and reunited with internet. He is a blogger, living in Colombia. So then I started reading a bunch of expat blogs in Colombia. Generally random expat blogs are my preferred blogs, because I'm so intrigued. What is their job? How did they end up at this place? Are they there indefinitely? Do they speak the language? What's the food like? Can I do what they are doing? What degree to they have? How much vacation time do they get?
But other good reads are people's weight loss "journeys", the blogs of former Amish people, nail polish design ideas, and baking blogs as long as they allow me to just read the recipe (without all the background stories and macro shots), courtesy of a "print recipe" button.
Semi related note- I also find it interesting the places my blog gets visits from. I never intended for this to be a learn about Korea/France, look at all I've done travel type blog. So it's not searchable on google, and most people cannot see the address on my facebook. So pretty much the only people who come here are ones who I've given the address to. But I still get visits from random places. A few weeks ago, I had a visit from Taiwan...crazy.
The worst thing about being here is that I haven't had a chance to see Les Mis yet. :( And I called myself a fan. I'm a failure.