Christmas is approaching

Because Christmas is on Saturday, the whole week at school I spent teaching my students Christmas vocabulary and why we celebrate Christmas. I asked them a lot of questions about what they were doing and what presents they wanted. And sometimes there were some really funny answers. These are the ones that made me laugh out loud.

Me: What would you want Santa to bring you?
3 girls: A boyfriend!
Boy: Superpowers!
Another Boy: The Universe.

Can you see a trend? All the girls want a boyfriend and the boys want supreme power. Awesome...

Me: Who was Jesus' mother?
Girl: Mary.
Me: Right, and Jesus was born in a stable.
Boy: What's a stable?
Me: A place where horses and cows live.
Boy: Mary was a horse?!?

After doubling over in laughter, I was able to explain that, no Marry was not a horse. But it was probably the best class, just because it was so funny. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that my little stories have brought a smile to your face. Merry Christmas!

It still makes me laugh

I had the following conversation with one of my male Korean coworkers -

Me: Hey Son Ho, have you found a place where we can play basketball?
Son Ho: Not yet, but I'm looking.
Me: Really? Because I asked you like a week ago.
Son Ho: I'm looking I promise. Don't worry.
Me: I don't believe you.
Son Ho: You SPICY woman!
Me (doubled over in laughter): Did you just call me spicy?
Son Ho: Yes, all you American women are spicy and scary.
Me: Am I scary?
Son Ho: No, you're cute.

I'm still not sure what to make of this conversation. It's the first time anyone's ever called me spicy. I'm going to take it as a compliment...

Sometimes I wonder...

Sometimes I wonder if I'm cut out to be a teacher. For the most part I really like my job. It's a whole lot more interesting than the desk job I had in D.C. And I get to joke around with kids and ask them silly questions and call it work.

But sometimes I don't know what they're thinking or feeling. Today I made a 12-year-old boy cry, and I don't even know what I did. Okay, I do know what I did - I scolded him for talking in Korean and then playfully, and I mean playfully, tapped the brim of his baseball hat. And apparently that made him really upset because he told me that he wasn't the one that had spoken in Korean. I said it was because I liked his hat, but the next thing I know his head is down, with his hat brim covering his face and tears streaming down his cheeks. I felt awful! But I swear I wasn't being mean, I was just doing my job. So after that I took him out in the hall and apologized. But I'm pretty sure he was still mad at me. So I felt really bad, but then I thought, "I didn't do anything wrong! And he's 12, he should not be crying." And then I felt bad for thinking like that.

Ugh, it can be an ugly cycle. Let's just hope that when I see him again on Thursday that he won't hate my stinking guts.

Painting

There is a really awesome and kind lady in my church branch, Susan Mortensen, who is also talented at painting. One day I was at her apartment and she was showing me her paintings. I said, "I want to learn how to paint. Will you teach me?" And she quickly replied, "Sure." So now, on Tuesday mornings I go over to her house and paint for a couple of hours. It's fun... and frustrating. Because painting can be frustrating. But I'm really enjoying it. Yesterday I finished my first painting. Here it is:

My artistic rendition.

Here's the picture I painted from. A few things in the painting were changed.

Sometimes I really love my students...

... because they make me laugh. I have a couple of classes that are just a riot. Sometimes it's because they mix words up and what they end up saying is humorous. And sometimes it's because they're genuinely funny.

This was one of my conversations with a boy I've nicknamed Angel -

Me: What did you do this weekend?
Angel: I went to the angel.
Me: The angel? Did you see it in a museum.
Angel: No. Teacher, how do you say 'kyohwae' in English?
Me: Church.
Angel: Yes, I went to the church.

And then there was me laughing with the other student because it was just so cute. And then I said his new nickname was Angel and he was fine with that.

I have this one class that has two boys, Min Seok and Sung Hyun, who are totally hilarious. They are friends and feed off of each other and are basically the only ones that talk in that class. Min Seok is always telling me he's a fashionista and Sung Hyun is always making fun of him. Well, a couple of weeks ago they were both absent which made class kind of painful. I asked the class, "Where is fashionista and the other funny one?" (at that time I couldn't remember their real names...)

So yesterday I come into class and Sung Hyun asks, "Teacher, why am I the other one?" I think he was kind of miffed. I replied, "I said the other funny one. You're funny." Then he said, "But why the OTHER one?" I responded truthfully and said, "I'm sorry, I couldn't remember your name." He was like FINE, marched up to the board and wrote in really big letters, both in Korean and English, Won Sung Hyun. I don't think I'll forget his name now.

Also yesterday, Min Seok was wearing an Adidas jacket that was purple with hot pink stripes down the arm. It really looked like a girls jacket. He was also wearing skinny jeans. I was making the kids ask me questions to practice conversation and Sung Hyun asked, "Teacher, what do you think of Min Seok's fashion today."

Well, Min Seok likes to joke around so I know he can take some teasing. I responded, "Girls jacket, girls jeans." Min Seok rolled his eyes at me and replied, "Skinny jeans are fashionable, and I like pink and purple! Teacher, you don't know about fashion. I'm the fashionista." I laughed and nodded my head in agreement. Then a bit later Min Seok said, "Teacher, I have a new name. I'm the Fashion Bible." That made the whole class bust up. They're really too funny, and honestly you kind of have to be in the moment. But trust me, it's fun.

The good and the bad

The good:
1. I have awesome friends in Korea.
2. My awesome friends like Asian pop culture as much as I do and we can spend many an hour rehashing stories about music and dramas and cute boys.
3. I have tickets to several upcoming Korean pop concerts that I'm totally stoked for.
4. You can totally see the back of my head in a Korean drama because they filmed a concert scene at one of the concerts I went to. My dreams of being a star are that much closer to coming true. It pays to be tall and redheaded in Korea sometimes.
5. My awesome friends also like to shop - which I did with them on Saturday.
6. The Fall here in Korea - the weather was perfect yesterday and not to bad today.
7. The fact that cute boys randomly hold up signs that say "Free Hugs" and you can totally hug them. (I still haven't figured out why they do this - and it's not just boys but girls too. Are they just really nice? Do they really like hugs? Is it a gimmick? Is it a service project? I have no idea)
8. The fact that I own a sweatshirt (bought in Korea of course) that says "Free Hugs" and that I was wearing it yesterday when I saw said cute boy holding his sign. I pointed at his sign then I pointed at my sweatshirt and smiled. We had a "heeeyyy" moment and then we hugged. And he gave a pretty darn good hug.

The bad:
1. That I have to go to Itaewon, aka the foreigner part of town, to find clothes that will actually fit me and then of course they can be expensive.
2. That there are hordes and hordes and hordes of people in Seoul - particularly Myeong Dong where we went after Itaewon. On the plus side there are lots of pretty lights, pretty advertisements, an pretty boys to look at. On the down side there is lots and lots of pushing and shoving.
3. The ahjummas. In Korean ahjumma basically means a married woman - but I tend to refer to ahjummas as the middle aged to over middle aged woman who have no qualms about pushing you aside in the metro or on the sidewalk because they think they're entitled to. I have been shoved by an ahjumma countless times (and yes it happened yesterday), and all I can do is shake my head and mutter in my mind, "AHJUMMA!"

Does the good outweigh the bad here in Korea? Definitely.

FT Island!!!!

I went to another K-Pop concert because I will thoroughly admit to being just a little bit obsessed with K-Pop. This time the concert was FT Island. And it was awesome! We had standing tickets and we were super close to the stage. FT Island is actual band, meaning they play their own instruments. All the members are adorable and can all sing really well. We had a rockin' good time.

Waiting excitedly for the concert to start!

Lee Hong Ki - the lead singer (we were really close, but my camera also has really good zoom :)

Song Seung Hyun - guitar, vocals, rapper.

Lee Jae Jin - bass, vocals and Choi Min Hwan - drums, vocals.

Choi Jong Hun, lead guitar and piano.

At the end of the concert Hong Ki said that his friend was coming out to sing for us. Turns out they were using us, the audience, to film a concert scene for a TV drama. So we might be on Korean TV!

This is Hong Ki with the actor Yoon Sang Hyun. We had to act like we were at an "Oscar" concert and wave our hands back and forth. It was kind of funny.

The guy in the middle is another famous Korean actor Hyun Bin. He's in the drama they were filming for, so that's why he was there as well. The girls screamed so loud when he came in.

FT Island saying they're final goodbye.

Kids are...

I have a wide range of feelings towards these kids that I teach...

Some are funny (but not on purpose) - Me to boy: "Are you jealous?" Boy: "What? Am I jelly?"

Some have big egos - 14-year-old boy: "Teacher, I am the school fashionista. All the girls love me!"

Some are cute - Another 14-year-old boy: "I like Alice teacher." Me: "Why?" Boy: "Because she's pretty, and a good teacher, and pretty, and nice, and pretty."

Some are terrible listeners - Me: "What's your favorite fruit?" Girl: "Yellow!"

Some are complimentary - Super cute boy after I killed a mosquito in class: "Your skill is very good." Same super cute boy: "Teacher, you resemble Kelly Clarkson."

And some are little monsters - 10-year-old girl: "Teacher, are you a boy or a girl?" (really? really?!?); Boy: "Teacher, how old are you? I think you're 45!" (uh, thanks kid); a lot of students: "Teacher, why aren't you married?" (I wish I knew that myself...)

Halloween

For Halloween I went to a small party, where there was a ton of really good homemade food, music, a costume contest, and some games. Sadly I did not win the costume contest - I went as a Newsie but not may people got it. It was the best I could come up with last minute and in Korea. But my team did win at Taboo. It was fun times. Then Amber, Robyn, and I went dancing of course, where we saw more costumes ans stayed out way too late.

Me and Amber at the party.

The singles at the party: Brooke the cat, Robyn the race car driver, me the newsie, and Amber the sexy cat.

The trio outside the club Monkey Beach. Sadly there are no monkeys and no beach, but a lot of fun. This was bittersweet as it was Amber last weekend in Korea :(

P.S. sadly I have not seen the flyer guy again. My days are now emptier.

The Flyer Guy

The past couple of days I've been passing the same flyer guy on the corner as I walk back and forth between the elementary and middle schools. For a few days he'd hold out the flyer to me, but I'd politely demur as I bowed to him in passing. (I bow a lot now, and I'm afraid when I go back to America I'm going to bow to everyone and they're going to look at me like I'm a freak.)

Yesterday he held the flyer out to me and said, "Bicycle." I again politely bowed but refused to take it. I know that Korean alphabet but that doesn't mean I know what the words mean. And I don't really need a bike.

Today as I was walking to the elementary school, he held out the flyer to me and said in very good English, "Are you going to take it today?"

I smiled and said, "Anyeyo." (no in Korean)

He smiled back and asked, "Don't you know the Korean alphabet?"

I said no again - I didn't want to go into details.

He asked, "Not yet?" I guess he'd assumed I'd been in Korea for a long time. I replied, "A little."

For some reason I find our exchange humorous. I'm intrigued by the increasing level of communication. Maybe tomorrow he'll tell me I have to take the flyer.

It was my birthday!

My birthday was October 18th, and in celebration I had a joint birthday party with my super awesome friend Amber on Saturday. About 20 friends got together for dinner - really tasty pork, yum! Ange and Young Soo brought cakes, double yum. After dinner about half the brave souls went to noraebang (aka the singing room) where we belted out tunes really off key for two hours. And then the really brave ones - me, Amber, Jessica, Robyn, Gina, and Aaron - went dancing. We danced a lot and probably stayed out too late, but it was a blast. Birthday = success.

Friends and food!

Our crazy table.

The birthday girls!

Korean Celebrities

Seeing as how real guys I talk to and associate with are totally lame, I've decided to give my heart to someone who is completely unattainable.

Meet Kim Hyun Joong (this is a Korean name, so Kim is really his last name):

He's got a killer smile.

He's a decent actor.
He's a pretty good singer.
He's a pretty good dancer.
And well, he's just plain pretty.

This is really when I fell in love with him:



Plus he looks really, really good in a suit and even dances in it. Bonus points in my book.

My Korean friend Chris told me that Hyun Joong's not a real man - he looks too much like a girl. I told Chris he's just jealous and all the girls are envious of Hyun Joong's skin. But Chris also has connections. He has a quasi-famous nephew (he's been in a couple of movies), who introduced him to an actress, Kim Ok Bin. Chris taught Ok Bin English. When I was out to lunch with Chris yesterday, he called her and gave the phone to me saying, "She speaks English, talk to her." She did not say one word of English to me. Our conversation was broken bits of Korean, and then the called dropped. She texted Chris and told him she was in the middle of a photo shoot - NICE! I now feel truly special - I talked to a Korean celebrity, kind of. Chris said he'll introduce me to her. Now if only I can get her to introduce me to Hyun Joong...

Andong

I like living in Seoul, but it's nice to get away every now and then. On Saturday I and five friends went to Andong - a smaller city three hours away by bus. The air actually smelled clean, and at one point there were absolutely no cars whizzing by. It was great.

Me and Amber - we are so adorable...

The Andong walking bridge we crossed over

Andong has an annual Mask Festival. This was to the entrance of the festival. At the festival we saw some performers, walked around the booths, bought stuff, ate, and enjoyed the activities.

Masks

One of many of the dancers we saw.

Epic Saturday

Some of my dreams came true Saturday night when I went to a Korean pop concert with Jessica and Amber. We went to see Taeyang, a beautiful man who can sing and has some sweet dance moves. It just might have been the best two hours of my life...

So, this is where the concert was held. Despite that it looks like a church, it's actually not - it's a concert hall on a college campus. We kind of laughed as we approached it. I said, "So we're going to a pop concert in a church? Awesome."

Posing with Taeyang before the show. Yes, he's shorter than me, but does that really matter? He is hot, and do you see the abs in the cutout in the back? Yeah, they really look like that - he took his shirt off during the concert so I'm a witness.

Unforutnately we weren't allowed to take cameras into the concert hall, so I have no pictures from the actual concert. But in retrospect I'm glad because we got to appreciate Taeyang in all his glory without having a cameras in front of our faces. I don't know how to describe the concert other than EPIC. He has a great voice, he had awesome dance routines, cool costumes, etc. At one point he brought a girl from the audience onstage and sat her on a couch, sang to her, laid in her lap, brushed her hair from her face, and kissed her cheek. Amber and I were going into slight hysterics from jealousy, while Jessica sat in awe. AND, our seats were three feet from and aisle way where G-Dragon and 2NE1 (other famous Koreans) walked by. I know I'm sounding like a 15 year old girl, but I don't care. It was sweet!

After the concert, super excited and waiting to stalk Taeyang with all the other teenage girls. We never actually saw him leave, but we did see a van that possibly had him in it...

Japan Wins

Why Japan wins:
1. People were nice and friendly, even when you can't speak Japanese. Take the nice bus stop attendant guy who helped us find our hostel - he spoke two English words to us "English" and "North". There was lots of pointing, hand motions, and map drawing - but he was sooooooo nice about it. And we did find our hostel.
2. The hair and fashion. Guys seriously have some awesome hair and fashion sense in Japan. We captured many with our stealth photo taking skills. It was nice to see people being individuals - here in Korea people tend to have the same style.
3. The vending machines. They were everywhere! There were drink vending machines, and beer vending machines, and even cigarette vending machines. Oddly enough we never saw a food vending machine.
4. The food. We had some good food - even though we didn't know what we were ordering half the time. It was an adventure that turned out well, most of the time. And it was nice to have something other than Korean food.

We of course did a lot of sightseeing and temple wandering. These were great as well - except for the gazillion stairs we climbed, and I don't think I'm exaggerating. There was an ill conceived idea to hike to the top of a mountain because on the map we had it didn't look "that far." The map lied - and it was pretty much vertical stairs the whole way up. And it was hot with I think 100% humidity. But these are slight things. We had a great time, walked a lot, and enjoyed being in another country for a short time.

View of Hiroshima with the Atomic Dome on the left

In front of the Shinto Shrine on Miyajima

Evidence of truly epic hair. Later we saw this guy driving a Mercedes with glow in the dark license plate - even more epic.

Sunset on Miyajima

The Golden Pavilion in Kyoto

Kyoto main drag

Fushimi-Inari Shrine. There were LOTS of orange pillars.

More orange pillars

Geisha!

Kiyomizu temple

Preparing to turn Japanese

In one week I'm going to Japan on vacation with Jessica. In preparation we spent Saturday having a "Japanese Day." This is what we did:

1. Researched and decided what we wanted to see on our trip. We're going to Hiroshima and Kyoto. And at the same time, badly mispronounced Japanese temple names in a creepy, old man Japanese voice.

2. Looked up Japanese phrases in Jess's book - none of which I can remember.

3. Watched a really sad Japanese movie online. Jessica blames me for picking it - it made us cry. It was really, really depressing.

4. Went and ate pork cutlet - because technically it's Japanese - and kimbop, and pretended it was sushi.

I can't wait for Japan!!!

The view

On Saturday Amber, Jessica, and I went to the top of the 63 building - one of the tallest buildings in Seoul - to check out the view. The elevator going up is glass so you can watch your progression, which freaked Amber out, but surprisingly I was fine. Then Jessica made some comment about how it was like the elevator in Willy Wonka and would fly out of the top and just keep going, to which Amber had to say, "Okay, stop!" Anyway, we picked a pretty good day to go, seeing as how it was sunny and you could see quite of bit of the city.

View #1

View #2

View #3

Jessica and Amber - oh how I love these girls!

It was also an art gallery of sorts at the top and you could take your "self portrait." I am cute. The End!

Weekend antics

The weekend consisted of a Korean culture singles activity which included a Korean language lesson, listening to a Korean instrument called the Kayagum, learning the Korean fan dance (which was somewhat hilarious), and eating kimchi pancakes.

Young Joo playing the kayagum

Young Joo doing the fan dance

Us attempting to learn the fan dance

Following the activity a group of us went on a night cruise on the Han River. It was pleasant and nice to be out on the water.

Our group on our boat

Amber, Young Soo, and me - Young Soo wouldn't smile with teeth so I tickled him.

Relaxing with my new pirate boyfriend. Isn't he handsome?

Farewell Cindy Ford

It's a sad day in the land of Korea, for Cindy Ford has left it. She's probably already in America as I type this. Korea will be a bleaker place without her presence.

What can I say about Cindy? She is a RIOT! She makes everything more fun. She takes amazingly awesome photos, like this one:


She can talk to anyone. She likes to touch guys' pecs. She convinced a really hot Korean guy to wear a couple shirt with her in public. I am in awe. I am envious.

She is up for any adventure. She buys some really interesting things - like candy that has a fist on it just so she can "pound it", and really ugly fake glasses.

But she can pull it off, as always. I shall miss you Cindy Ford. More than you will know.

Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!

And giraffes, and rhinos, and monkeys, and even skunks, raccoons, and armadillos. All at the Seoul Grand Park Zoo - which was huge. So huge in fact we got to ride a ski lift to the top and then walk down. It was hot, and humid, but also a blast. When you're with friends it's always a good time.

Amber and Gina (and Erin in the background)

Cindy G. and Jess

Me and Ben

Young Soo on the ski lift.

Mike and Cindy F.

The whole group after the dolphin show. Our photographer cut off the dolphins' heads :(

And Giraffes!!!