or
THE Hog?
I need to know.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
evidence can and will be used against you in a court of law.
pleased as punch.
one from the back!
this is photographic evidence that the cat will, in fact, go into the carrier willingly. she will try her hardest to get you to believe this is not true. however, i'm obviously the one taking the pictures so who put your ass in there, cat?!
as long as she thinks this is mcdonald's playplace, i'm willing to keep her carrier out.
Friday, December 3, 2010
don't park here!
this is the very first sign that i could understand and recognize in korean. it means don't park here. i used to walk past this sign on the road everyday and i would repeat it all the time so that i could try and remember to ask my korean teacher what it meant. joo cha kuhm jee. joo cha kuhm jee. in the style of a train. haha.
it's really funny because my friends in busan seem to be under the severe delusion that i can speak korean well. i can speak a little korean but by no means can i speak it well. although, i do feel happy that i've tricked a group of people into thinking i'm more intelligent than i really am. my plan to take over the world is working! must be all those episodes of pinky and the brain i watched.
galbi, yum-o.
i'm having the time of my life.
only the cutest face i've ever seen.
brothers in action.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
oh, so unbelievable! bust a move.
as i sit at my desk, i'm convinced i can slowly feel my eyeballs falling out of their sockets. i am so bored it is just beyond belief.
i got back to korea on november 23th and today is december 1st. i've been watching classes for almost that entire time. the rest of that time, i was hauling my shit from daegu to busan and sleeping in my bed all weekend. literally, i did not leave my apartment all day on sunday. ha.
anyways, i've been watching these classes, right? i taught last year, right? i figured i would only need a couple days of observing, you know, just so i can get the hang of how avalon runs... foolish. the new semester doesn't start until december 10th. SO, by that time, i will have watched 12 days of classes. i know this may not sound like a terrible thing but when you can speak english and you have to sit and listen to a teacher repeat questions and students incoherently answer... it is a slightly terrible thing.
don't get me wrong, i'm so glad to be back. the kids are fun and my coworkers are some pretty fun guys BUT i'm just sitting here on my ass ALL DAY. haha.
i mean, enough sitting around chat.
korea is fun. i hung out with one foreign and three korean coworkers. we drank makkoli. thank god i have learned my lesson about makkoli. think: massive headache, spinning in circles until you fall down, annoying noises (like my cat exploring my tiny apartment non stop THROUGOUT the night)... and this is what the day after drinking makkoli feels like. again, thankfully, i remember this feeling and only drank 3 little bowls of it. i successfully survived. bring it koreans.
face.
i got back to korea on november 23th and today is december 1st. i've been watching classes for almost that entire time. the rest of that time, i was hauling my shit from daegu to busan and sleeping in my bed all weekend. literally, i did not leave my apartment all day on sunday. ha.
anyways, i've been watching these classes, right? i taught last year, right? i figured i would only need a couple days of observing, you know, just so i can get the hang of how avalon runs... foolish. the new semester doesn't start until december 10th. SO, by that time, i will have watched 12 days of classes. i know this may not sound like a terrible thing but when you can speak english and you have to sit and listen to a teacher repeat questions and students incoherently answer... it is a slightly terrible thing.
don't get me wrong, i'm so glad to be back. the kids are fun and my coworkers are some pretty fun guys BUT i'm just sitting here on my ass ALL DAY. haha.
i mean, enough sitting around chat.
korea is fun. i hung out with one foreign and three korean coworkers. we drank makkoli. thank god i have learned my lesson about makkoli. think: massive headache, spinning in circles until you fall down, annoying noises (like my cat exploring my tiny apartment non stop THROUGOUT the night)... and this is what the day after drinking makkoli feels like. again, thankfully, i remember this feeling and only drank 3 little bowls of it. i successfully survived. bring it koreans.
face.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
hot child in the city.
i look in the mirror and ask myself, "is there a reason that you're wearing those mom shorts and billowing blouse?"
the answer, my horrified friends, is yes.
it is so blazingly hot here that it 'feels like' one hundred and two effing degrees. are you serious? so here's the thing: daegu has the coldest winters and hottest summers in korea. this is not a joke. how did i manage to move from erie, do i need to say anything about the weather, pennsylvania into this center of apocalyptically terrible weather?
here's the other thing about the weather. today it is so hot i will die. today i tried to go get my fingerprints taken at the big police station. i mean, it seems like an easy thing... right? wrong. you forgot, you are actually still in korea... despite the fact that korea has been masquerading as a lovely place for the past few months.
so, jen and i took a little trip to suseong to get these prints taken. i even had my nice, neat purple folder with me. my folder with every single thing we will be doing come september. we found the police station and went up to the second floor like the nice guard nervously told us to do. haha. when we got there this lady took us back downstairs to the heat box. when i say heat box, i mean no JOKE Heat Box. first of all, there were no people in this heat box and it was pretty obvious those were the people who were supposed to do the prints. secondly, that damn lady could not find the ink pad. should it be so difficult to find an ink pad for fingerprints in a, dare i say it, Police Station? so, while this lady scampers around mumbling in korean, i swear to you i am melting into a puddle on the floor. i fanned myself with that useless folder and waved my shirt away from my stomach, like that fat kid in outfield whose dad is making him play, but nothing was helping. nothing. i have never sweat(ed) ((haha)) so much in my whole life. not ever. not when i did gymnastics. not when i did color guard in august. not when i was in 100+ degree weather in texas. never. holy shit.
so, she finally decides she can't find the ink pad and takes us to a new room. this room has 5 or so guys just sitting around. she finds an ink pad in there and then tries to just give it to us like we should do our fingerprints ourselves. i'm sorry but i've never committed any crimes and i don't really remember having my fingerprints recorded at birth... so, i'm pretty sure i don't know how to do this. we try to explain that we need her to help us but she doesn't know what the hell is going on. so, we call our korean teacher, eun jeong, to clear this mess up. after much passing back and forth of the phone, all we can figure is that that lady thinks we don't think she knows how to do fingerprinting and eun jeong is very confused by the bilingual chat she is attempting to have. SO, we just decide to try this out and if it doesn't work then we'll come back. (it's pretty obvious by this point that we will have to come back.)
we walk over to the table where that lady tries to get us to put our right hand fingerprints in the left hand boxes. so, i grab her hands and show her which hand is which... we have a little laugh and go back to the printing. a younger guy comes over, who speaks at least a little english!, and he tries to show us how to do it. he did his prints perfectly so i'm thinking this is going to work. BUT, not to be outdone, the older man who smells of cigarettes and kimchi comes over to help. oh, man. please. he has no idea what he is doing and completely ruins the card i've brought. my fingerprints are completely illegible and there are some korean fingerprints all over the paper. that lady decided not to wipe her fingers off before holding my paper... really. really?
in conclusion, we will have to go back to get the fingerprints done. my questions is this: why wasn't there one person in that police station that knew how to take fingerprints? i mean, am i crazy to think that officers should know how to do that? i know we came at their lunch hour but there wasn't one single person there who could do fingerprints? how hard is that to learn? i am baffled.
so, with ink on my fingers, my sweat soaked shirt, and my mom shorts, we walked out defeated.
today, korea won.
lace face.
the answer, my horrified friends, is yes.
it is so blazingly hot here that it 'feels like' one hundred and two effing degrees. are you serious? so here's the thing: daegu has the coldest winters and hottest summers in korea. this is not a joke. how did i manage to move from erie, do i need to say anything about the weather, pennsylvania into this center of apocalyptically terrible weather?
here's the other thing about the weather. today it is so hot i will die. today i tried to go get my fingerprints taken at the big police station. i mean, it seems like an easy thing... right? wrong. you forgot, you are actually still in korea... despite the fact that korea has been masquerading as a lovely place for the past few months.
so, jen and i took a little trip to suseong to get these prints taken. i even had my nice, neat purple folder with me. my folder with every single thing we will be doing come september. we found the police station and went up to the second floor like the nice guard nervously told us to do. haha. when we got there this lady took us back downstairs to the heat box. when i say heat box, i mean no JOKE Heat Box. first of all, there were no people in this heat box and it was pretty obvious those were the people who were supposed to do the prints. secondly, that damn lady could not find the ink pad. should it be so difficult to find an ink pad for fingerprints in a, dare i say it, Police Station? so, while this lady scampers around mumbling in korean, i swear to you i am melting into a puddle on the floor. i fanned myself with that useless folder and waved my shirt away from my stomach, like that fat kid in outfield whose dad is making him play, but nothing was helping. nothing. i have never sweat(ed) ((haha)) so much in my whole life. not ever. not when i did gymnastics. not when i did color guard in august. not when i was in 100+ degree weather in texas. never. holy shit.
so, she finally decides she can't find the ink pad and takes us to a new room. this room has 5 or so guys just sitting around. she finds an ink pad in there and then tries to just give it to us like we should do our fingerprints ourselves. i'm sorry but i've never committed any crimes and i don't really remember having my fingerprints recorded at birth... so, i'm pretty sure i don't know how to do this. we try to explain that we need her to help us but she doesn't know what the hell is going on. so, we call our korean teacher, eun jeong, to clear this mess up. after much passing back and forth of the phone, all we can figure is that that lady thinks we don't think she knows how to do fingerprinting and eun jeong is very confused by the bilingual chat she is attempting to have. SO, we just decide to try this out and if it doesn't work then we'll come back. (it's pretty obvious by this point that we will have to come back.)
we walk over to the table where that lady tries to get us to put our right hand fingerprints in the left hand boxes. so, i grab her hands and show her which hand is which... we have a little laugh and go back to the printing. a younger guy comes over, who speaks at least a little english!, and he tries to show us how to do it. he did his prints perfectly so i'm thinking this is going to work. BUT, not to be outdone, the older man who smells of cigarettes and kimchi comes over to help. oh, man. please. he has no idea what he is doing and completely ruins the card i've brought. my fingerprints are completely illegible and there are some korean fingerprints all over the paper. that lady decided not to wipe her fingers off before holding my paper... really. really?
in conclusion, we will have to go back to get the fingerprints done. my questions is this: why wasn't there one person in that police station that knew how to take fingerprints? i mean, am i crazy to think that officers should know how to do that? i know we came at their lunch hour but there wasn't one single person there who could do fingerprints? how hard is that to learn? i am baffled.
so, with ink on my fingers, my sweat soaked shirt, and my mom shorts, we walked out defeated.
today, korea won.
lace face.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
take me home country roads
perhaps i will regret this blog after i have written it, considering, my parents will say, "i told you so." haha.
so, anyways, i was watching the office today. naturally, dwight and andy were having a guitar/banjo battle over a girl. during the battle, they played 'country roads' by john denver... bringing us to this post.
ever since i can remember, i've wanted to live in a city. i'm sure my parents will attest to my constant complaints of how the country is terrible and it's too far away from everything. all of my friends lived at least 15 minutes away (if not more), it was a 45 minute ride to and from dancing, and we didn't even really live anywhere. i remember people thinking it was funny that i had a North East phone number, went to school in the Wattsburgh school district, and could walk to New York state. i mean, really.
which brings me to my first big city experience: the most memorable and special birthday was when my mom and i went to new york city for the first time. i love it there. i love everything about it. love.
i know that erie is no new york city and daegu is, certainly, no new york city. however, i still like living in the city. i like how close i am to everything. i like the variety of choices for dinner. i like public transportation.
however, i started listening to that song today and i was like, "man, i miss the country." then, i double checked just to make sure i was still alive. haha. how can i have such thoughts? i like the city. i guess today is my day to admit, that yes, i like the country... too.
this song reminded me of a lot of things: driving to my house in the autumn, the farms, dirt roads, clean air, stars. most importantly, it reminds me of my family.
the last time i talked to my aunt helen, we had both watched an episode of 60 Minutes about people living in the Appalachian Mountains. we chatted a bit about the show but then she started telling me about how it reminded me of her life. a lot of the things she said makes me think about the things i'm thinking now. the way living in the country feels and the way you feel when you think about it. it's nice. it's comfortable.
the point is this: i do love the city but the country will always be home and my parents were right. haha. that is the last 'you were right' they will get for another 5 years or so. :)
if you want to share my country love:
take a drive out of the city.
plant a garden.
pick some flowers.
go outside and look at the stars.
i know it sounds cheesy but it's nice if you just admit it. haha.
in another news: i will be home sooooooooooooooooooon!!! get ready. you think there's a roar on the shore now?...
you. just. wait.
lacey
so, anyways, i was watching the office today. naturally, dwight and andy were having a guitar/banjo battle over a girl. during the battle, they played 'country roads' by john denver... bringing us to this post.
ever since i can remember, i've wanted to live in a city. i'm sure my parents will attest to my constant complaints of how the country is terrible and it's too far away from everything. all of my friends lived at least 15 minutes away (if not more), it was a 45 minute ride to and from dancing, and we didn't even really live anywhere. i remember people thinking it was funny that i had a North East phone number, went to school in the Wattsburgh school district, and could walk to New York state. i mean, really.
which brings me to my first big city experience: the most memorable and special birthday was when my mom and i went to new york city for the first time. i love it there. i love everything about it. love.
i know that erie is no new york city and daegu is, certainly, no new york city. however, i still like living in the city. i like how close i am to everything. i like the variety of choices for dinner. i like public transportation.
however, i started listening to that song today and i was like, "man, i miss the country." then, i double checked just to make sure i was still alive. haha. how can i have such thoughts? i like the city. i guess today is my day to admit, that yes, i like the country... too.
this song reminded me of a lot of things: driving to my house in the autumn, the farms, dirt roads, clean air, stars. most importantly, it reminds me of my family.
the last time i talked to my aunt helen, we had both watched an episode of 60 Minutes about people living in the Appalachian Mountains. we chatted a bit about the show but then she started telling me about how it reminded me of her life. a lot of the things she said makes me think about the things i'm thinking now. the way living in the country feels and the way you feel when you think about it. it's nice. it's comfortable.
the point is this: i do love the city but the country will always be home and my parents were right. haha. that is the last 'you were right' they will get for another 5 years or so. :)
if you want to share my country love:
take a drive out of the city.
plant a garden.
pick some flowers.
go outside and look at the stars.
i know it sounds cheesy but it's nice if you just admit it. haha.
in another news: i will be home sooooooooooooooooooon!!! get ready. you think there's a roar on the shore now?...
you. just. wait.
lacey
Monday, June 28, 2010
jesus is just alright with me.
i've had a pretty fun and interesting week in korea. :)
this weekend i went to an island, bijindo, for my birthday. before jen and i went, i asked around for a LOT of different things: a mat for sitting, cooler, grill, firewood, etc. you would not believe how expensive the coolers are in this country. for some reason, rubbermaid coolers are shipped to korea and sold. what? it seemed like everything that we would need was extraordinarily expensive. so, we brought it up to our korean teacher, eun jeong, and she was so helpful. haha.
i've read a lot about how helpful koreans are and how much they like to 'mother' their friends and family. (i have witnessed a lot of koreans helping out but not to the extent of eun jeong.) anyways, we've known her for a while now and she was more than thrilled to give us a bunch of stuff for camping. she gave us a cooler, mat, cans of tuna... lol. she tried to get their range working but we think maybe water got into it. she called some korean who told her when our ferry would be leaving and asked for times and prices. then, after we left, she texted jen to let her know where we could buy ice and what the korean word for ice is. all i can say is that if it hadn't been for eun jeong and todd (her husband) we would have had to spend a lot more money. it was really nice to finally feel like we have a good korean friend. she talks to us like we've known her forever and goes out of her way to be the 'cool aunt' (korean style).
i've found it's pretty difficult to make serious korean friends. their cultural norm for relationships is so different to ours that it's hard to break through. not only that, i don't speak korean. koreans really don't have friendships with people who are different ages and statuses from them. it has a lot to do with saving face and not making others feel uncomfortable because they aren't at the same level as you. it's hard to understand from the outside but the longer i'm here, the more obvious the differences are. don't get me wrong, the koreans i am friends with are great people and, like eun jeong; helpful, loyal people.
i think my point is this: i really appreciate that in american culture you can have relationships with everyone, regardless of age and status. i mean, i have a wide range of friends and i'd like to keep it that way. i can't imagine not having this wide range because of the things that we can all learn from each other and the different stories we all have. it almost reminds me of being in a constant high school state. in high school, you really do hang out with the same age group all of the time. let's recall how well that went... lol.
anyways, maybe it sounds silly, but i'm happy for all the ages of friends i have. :)
back to the camping trip:
so, i really wanted to have a campfire on the beach. like, real bad. obviously, we don't really get to do that in erie and i wanted to make it happen. so, i asked my boss where i could by some firewood. at first, she looked at me like i was out of my mind. i said, 'i want to have a campfire and i need to know where to buy the wood to do that. you know, you put the wood in and then you can sit around and have a campfire.'
her response: you could buy some ook.
me: what?
kris: ook.
me: what is ook?
kris: wood. but i think ook is very expensive.
me: do you mean oak?
kris: oh, yee, yee, oak. you should buy that.
me: um, i don't think you should by oak for a campfire.
kris: yes, i know, it is very expensive.
me: ok, well do you know where i could buy some other wood?
kris: i think the president (the boss of our company) cut some old tables and desks apart last year.
me: oh, alright. well, maybe we could get some from him? (trying desperately not to laugh)
kris: (laughing) maybe you can have the man build the fire for you.
me: um, what man?
kris: you know, the fire man.
me: what.
kris: yes, this man builds the fire and you pay him. then, we sit and watch the fire.
me: um, where should i find this fire man?
kris: i don't know.
needless to say, there was no campfire for the camping.
so, we went to bijindo. we rode a bus to tongyeong where we were told to get a taxi to the ferry. eun jeong told us that there were two ferry terminals, one that would take us on the island and one that would do a tour around the island. we figured our taxi driver would be able to figure out that we wanted to stay on the island considering the massive packs we were carrying... wrong. so, we get in the taxi and this guy is a maniac. typical korean driving: aka swerving, veering, hitting the brakes every five seconds, chatting on the phone. however, he was really nice. lol. so, he drops us off at the wrong terminal but we don't know this. we get to the ticket booth and the man tells us we're at the wrong place and we have to get to the other terminal. meanwhile, it's 10:40 and we have to catch the 11:00 ferry. no big deal. so, we wait around for a taxi, and wait, and wait, and wait. omg. a taxi FINALLY comes and the guy that told us we were at the wrong terminal talks to the taxi driver. all i hear is 'bali' which means fast. i don't know how he did it, but we made it to the ferry with time to spare. yea, korean drivers! haha.
we get on the ferry and there are rooms where you can sit with your stuff and lay on the floor. this would never be allowed in the u.s.! i love it. haha. so, we are riding and we here the captain say 'bijindo'. we try to get out but the guy won't let us leave... we're not sure why, so we just go sit back down. we get to the next stop about 10 minutes later and the captain says 'bijindo'. so, we get up and try to leave. the guy won't let us. we're frantically trying to explain that we need to get out while the guy is screaming 'TICKET!' but we're not sure why because we already gave a different guy our tickets. so, there's a lot of korean screaming and a lot of english screaming and a lot of jen and i trying to talk to this guy calmly (in both languages)... all of this is happening, while the ferry is pulling away from the dock. THEN, this other guy figures out what we want and starts screaming at guy #1. the ferry turns around and we get off of the boat. i just smile and say 'oh, korea'. hahaha. it really was very amusing.
we set up our tent quite a way from the sign that says 'no camping' and have a lovely time. we pretty much had the island to ourselves. we only saw one group of koreans. they were on the beach for an hour or so and then disappeared. it was so awesome. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures because my camera's lense is broken. so, you will just have to imagine a tent on a beach on an island where you can see other little islands and mountains in the mist. yea, like i said, friggin' AWESOME.
my birthday weekend finished up with us returning to daegu, getting ready to go out, and heading to maya. maya is a little indian restaurant owned by the cutest korean/nepalese couple. love them. food was delicious. we headed to sugar joe's to grab a drink because a few people in the group hadn't been there and then we made our way downtown. we grabbed a bag drink and while we were standing around, a friend came over and asked where we were going to watch the korean world cup game. we didn't know so he told us about (get ready) a church that was serving free beers and playing the world cup. LOVE IT. we went across the street and watched korea get hammered while we got hammered. awesome. haha. it was sad to see korea lose but nice that those church people gave us those beers.
we danced and a had a lovely time afterwards. the ending was sad because the u.s. lost their game but i was happy to ride home on the subway instead of paying $10 for a taxi. haha.
in conclusion, my birthday was very korean and very successful. :)
laceface.
this weekend i went to an island, bijindo, for my birthday. before jen and i went, i asked around for a LOT of different things: a mat for sitting, cooler, grill, firewood, etc. you would not believe how expensive the coolers are in this country. for some reason, rubbermaid coolers are shipped to korea and sold. what? it seemed like everything that we would need was extraordinarily expensive. so, we brought it up to our korean teacher, eun jeong, and she was so helpful. haha.
i've read a lot about how helpful koreans are and how much they like to 'mother' their friends and family. (i have witnessed a lot of koreans helping out but not to the extent of eun jeong.) anyways, we've known her for a while now and she was more than thrilled to give us a bunch of stuff for camping. she gave us a cooler, mat, cans of tuna... lol. she tried to get their range working but we think maybe water got into it. she called some korean who told her when our ferry would be leaving and asked for times and prices. then, after we left, she texted jen to let her know where we could buy ice and what the korean word for ice is. all i can say is that if it hadn't been for eun jeong and todd (her husband) we would have had to spend a lot more money. it was really nice to finally feel like we have a good korean friend. she talks to us like we've known her forever and goes out of her way to be the 'cool aunt' (korean style).
i've found it's pretty difficult to make serious korean friends. their cultural norm for relationships is so different to ours that it's hard to break through. not only that, i don't speak korean. koreans really don't have friendships with people who are different ages and statuses from them. it has a lot to do with saving face and not making others feel uncomfortable because they aren't at the same level as you. it's hard to understand from the outside but the longer i'm here, the more obvious the differences are. don't get me wrong, the koreans i am friends with are great people and, like eun jeong; helpful, loyal people.
i think my point is this: i really appreciate that in american culture you can have relationships with everyone, regardless of age and status. i mean, i have a wide range of friends and i'd like to keep it that way. i can't imagine not having this wide range because of the things that we can all learn from each other and the different stories we all have. it almost reminds me of being in a constant high school state. in high school, you really do hang out with the same age group all of the time. let's recall how well that went... lol.
anyways, maybe it sounds silly, but i'm happy for all the ages of friends i have. :)
back to the camping trip:
so, i really wanted to have a campfire on the beach. like, real bad. obviously, we don't really get to do that in erie and i wanted to make it happen. so, i asked my boss where i could by some firewood. at first, she looked at me like i was out of my mind. i said, 'i want to have a campfire and i need to know where to buy the wood to do that. you know, you put the wood in and then you can sit around and have a campfire.'
her response: you could buy some ook.
me: what?
kris: ook.
me: what is ook?
kris: wood. but i think ook is very expensive.
me: do you mean oak?
kris: oh, yee, yee, oak. you should buy that.
me: um, i don't think you should by oak for a campfire.
kris: yes, i know, it is very expensive.
me: ok, well do you know where i could buy some other wood?
kris: i think the president (the boss of our company) cut some old tables and desks apart last year.
me: oh, alright. well, maybe we could get some from him? (trying desperately not to laugh)
kris: (laughing) maybe you can have the man build the fire for you.
me: um, what man?
kris: you know, the fire man.
me: what.
kris: yes, this man builds the fire and you pay him. then, we sit and watch the fire.
me: um, where should i find this fire man?
kris: i don't know.
needless to say, there was no campfire for the camping.
so, we went to bijindo. we rode a bus to tongyeong where we were told to get a taxi to the ferry. eun jeong told us that there were two ferry terminals, one that would take us on the island and one that would do a tour around the island. we figured our taxi driver would be able to figure out that we wanted to stay on the island considering the massive packs we were carrying... wrong. so, we get in the taxi and this guy is a maniac. typical korean driving: aka swerving, veering, hitting the brakes every five seconds, chatting on the phone. however, he was really nice. lol. so, he drops us off at the wrong terminal but we don't know this. we get to the ticket booth and the man tells us we're at the wrong place and we have to get to the other terminal. meanwhile, it's 10:40 and we have to catch the 11:00 ferry. no big deal. so, we wait around for a taxi, and wait, and wait, and wait. omg. a taxi FINALLY comes and the guy that told us we were at the wrong terminal talks to the taxi driver. all i hear is 'bali' which means fast. i don't know how he did it, but we made it to the ferry with time to spare. yea, korean drivers! haha.
we get on the ferry and there are rooms where you can sit with your stuff and lay on the floor. this would never be allowed in the u.s.! i love it. haha. so, we are riding and we here the captain say 'bijindo'. we try to get out but the guy won't let us leave... we're not sure why, so we just go sit back down. we get to the next stop about 10 minutes later and the captain says 'bijindo'. so, we get up and try to leave. the guy won't let us. we're frantically trying to explain that we need to get out while the guy is screaming 'TICKET!' but we're not sure why because we already gave a different guy our tickets. so, there's a lot of korean screaming and a lot of english screaming and a lot of jen and i trying to talk to this guy calmly (in both languages)... all of this is happening, while the ferry is pulling away from the dock. THEN, this other guy figures out what we want and starts screaming at guy #1. the ferry turns around and we get off of the boat. i just smile and say 'oh, korea'. hahaha. it really was very amusing.
we set up our tent quite a way from the sign that says 'no camping' and have a lovely time. we pretty much had the island to ourselves. we only saw one group of koreans. they were on the beach for an hour or so and then disappeared. it was so awesome. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures because my camera's lense is broken. so, you will just have to imagine a tent on a beach on an island where you can see other little islands and mountains in the mist. yea, like i said, friggin' AWESOME.
my birthday weekend finished up with us returning to daegu, getting ready to go out, and heading to maya. maya is a little indian restaurant owned by the cutest korean/nepalese couple. love them. food was delicious. we headed to sugar joe's to grab a drink because a few people in the group hadn't been there and then we made our way downtown. we grabbed a bag drink and while we were standing around, a friend came over and asked where we were going to watch the korean world cup game. we didn't know so he told us about (get ready) a church that was serving free beers and playing the world cup. LOVE IT. we went across the street and watched korea get hammered while we got hammered. awesome. haha. it was sad to see korea lose but nice that those church people gave us those beers.
we danced and a had a lovely time afterwards. the ending was sad because the u.s. lost their game but i was happy to ride home on the subway instead of paying $10 for a taxi. haha.
in conclusion, my birthday was very korean and very successful. :)
laceface.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
sugar magnolia, blossoms blooming, head's all empty and i don't care.
hello everyone!!
so many things have happened since the last time i updated... big shock. haha.
well, the thing most prominent in my mind right now is my upcoming departure from korea. the plan is to travel to vietnam, scotland, and then! usa. jen and i are planning on booking our tickets to vietnam tonight. i actually have no idea what i will see there, it just seems like an exciting place to go. plus, it is extraordinarily cheap. the prices for rooms are $7-$15. sweet. needless to say, i'm very excited to be going there and getting an unbelievable deal on a hostel. the plans after that are not so clear cut. we will be in scotland for a bit then home to erie to see everyone and go to the b & b wedding extravaganza.
the next thing is: job hunt. i've finished my resume and plan to work on my cover letter after updating this blog. i've been putting the letter off because i HATE writing them. i never know how to word these things so i don't sound like ryan seacrest (tool of the universe). i was up in seoul this weekend and chatted with some friends from busan about potential job opportunities and bureaus in busan. it's looking like near the beach is the best place to live (shocking) and most likely to have laidback employers (again, shocking). i'm getting very excited about the move to busan. it is a beautiful city with much nicer weather than daegu. daegu is the most conservative city in korea and we all know that is something i'm not. lol.
my parents visit was a lot of fun. we traveled all over korea and i'm surprised that we're all still alive. haha. it was very tiring but nice to see everything with them. i always feel like the thing i like the least about traveling is not being able to share the experience with people from home. obviously, it was the best thing about having my parents here. my mom didn't like most of the food but was surprised to find some of the food edible and appealing. haha. there is a dish called sam ge tang which is just a chicken soup. while a traditional korean dish, it tastes a lot like food from home and both of my parents really liked it. i was really impressed with how well they dealt with the culture shock... believe me, korea is a shock to the system. haha. i'm proud that my parents were able to come here and managed to survive two greuling weeks of: spicy food, drive-by hellos, constant stares, impatient taxi drivers, no sense of personal space, and all that is korea. :) i think they had fun and ask them if you want to see their pictures. my dad will be thrilled to show them. (it was all we could do to keep him with us with his constant picture taking!)
my birthday is coming up (as you should know if you're reading this blog!! lol) and i'm planning an overnight camping trip! i have the day off!!!!!!!!!! i would like to camp out on one of the little islands on the coast with my tent and sleeping bag!! then, the next night will just be a dinner and drinks. i think it should be fun and i'm excited to just hang out with everyone. i do wish that my usa friends could be there but it will be neat to say i had a birthday in korea. haha.
i continue to work on my korean skills. sometimes i'm under the impression that i'm a little slow but i keep trying and hopefully i will get there. haha. the lessons are fun and my teacher, eun jeong, is very entertaining. i will write more about her in a different blog. :)
i think that's just about it for any exciting news... obviously, not so exciting. haha. it seems like everything is going really well and i'm very happy. i don't think you can improve much upon that. oh! i will be looking for an acting troupe and hopefully a dance studio in busan. i miss it sooooooo much!!! i need to get my shit together. eeeeeeeeeeee!!!
anyways, i'm very excited to see everyone and i hope you are all preparing for my return. hahahahah.
love love love love love love,
lacey the facey.
so many things have happened since the last time i updated... big shock. haha.
well, the thing most prominent in my mind right now is my upcoming departure from korea. the plan is to travel to vietnam, scotland, and then! usa. jen and i are planning on booking our tickets to vietnam tonight. i actually have no idea what i will see there, it just seems like an exciting place to go. plus, it is extraordinarily cheap. the prices for rooms are $7-$15. sweet. needless to say, i'm very excited to be going there and getting an unbelievable deal on a hostel. the plans after that are not so clear cut. we will be in scotland for a bit then home to erie to see everyone and go to the b & b wedding extravaganza.
the next thing is: job hunt. i've finished my resume and plan to work on my cover letter after updating this blog. i've been putting the letter off because i HATE writing them. i never know how to word these things so i don't sound like ryan seacrest (tool of the universe). i was up in seoul this weekend and chatted with some friends from busan about potential job opportunities and bureaus in busan. it's looking like near the beach is the best place to live (shocking) and most likely to have laidback employers (again, shocking). i'm getting very excited about the move to busan. it is a beautiful city with much nicer weather than daegu. daegu is the most conservative city in korea and we all know that is something i'm not. lol.
my parents visit was a lot of fun. we traveled all over korea and i'm surprised that we're all still alive. haha. it was very tiring but nice to see everything with them. i always feel like the thing i like the least about traveling is not being able to share the experience with people from home. obviously, it was the best thing about having my parents here. my mom didn't like most of the food but was surprised to find some of the food edible and appealing. haha. there is a dish called sam ge tang which is just a chicken soup. while a traditional korean dish, it tastes a lot like food from home and both of my parents really liked it. i was really impressed with how well they dealt with the culture shock... believe me, korea is a shock to the system. haha. i'm proud that my parents were able to come here and managed to survive two greuling weeks of: spicy food, drive-by hellos, constant stares, impatient taxi drivers, no sense of personal space, and all that is korea. :) i think they had fun and ask them if you want to see their pictures. my dad will be thrilled to show them. (it was all we could do to keep him with us with his constant picture taking!)
my birthday is coming up (as you should know if you're reading this blog!! lol) and i'm planning an overnight camping trip! i have the day off!!!!!!!!!! i would like to camp out on one of the little islands on the coast with my tent and sleeping bag!! then, the next night will just be a dinner and drinks. i think it should be fun and i'm excited to just hang out with everyone. i do wish that my usa friends could be there but it will be neat to say i had a birthday in korea. haha.
i continue to work on my korean skills. sometimes i'm under the impression that i'm a little slow but i keep trying and hopefully i will get there. haha. the lessons are fun and my teacher, eun jeong, is very entertaining. i will write more about her in a different blog. :)
i think that's just about it for any exciting news... obviously, not so exciting. haha. it seems like everything is going really well and i'm very happy. i don't think you can improve much upon that. oh! i will be looking for an acting troupe and hopefully a dance studio in busan. i miss it sooooooo much!!! i need to get my shit together. eeeeeeeeeeee!!!
anyways, i'm very excited to see everyone and i hope you are all preparing for my return. hahahahah.
love love love love love love,
lacey the facey.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
annyong! hi! hello!
this has been an interesting couple of days.
it all started after korean class...
jen and i tried to ask our teachers if the ymca had a microwave that we could use to heat up our lunch. we explained that we were going to seoul and wanted to eat quickly so that we could leave. bo sun got confused and told us where we could go buy a nice microwave. haha. so, we re-explained the situation, the teachers understood that time and went on the microwave hunt. unfortunately after all the confusion and hunting, we figured out that the ymca did not have a microwave. oh well, the haggis was still pretty good cold.
after lunch, we headed to the ktx. the ktx is the high speed train that goes in a big ataris shape across korea. i didn't realize how thankful i was for the ktx until this weekend. we got right on the train and i promptly fell asleep.
when we got into seoul, we took the usual trip to itaewon. we stopped at what the book. while we were there, tammy called. jen went and grabbed her and we continued browsing. i bought a book called the white tiger and another book about buddha. man, i love books. then, we headed for some delicious mexican food. i am so happy that seoul has mexican food!!!! thank you for foreigners!!!! let me just tell you... you don't realize how much you will miss that skanky el canelo food until you can't have it. oh man, gimme some grease. <3.
we decided to go out that night even though we were meeting my mom and dad in the morning... BEST idea. first off, we met the gayest, (i seriously mean) THE gayest boy i have ever seen in my entire life. not only was he the flamingest queen i have ever seen, he was a giant. i'm not kidding, this guy was like 7 feet tall. he was so over the top and so did not speak english. haha. he was just thrilled with us. needless to say, we were thrilled with him.
we had a wonderful time chatting up the koreans and dancing like fools. (how else can you dance to k-pop?) it was really nice to be in a bar where there were mostly koreans and everyone was having a fun time. sometimes i think there is a problem with the separation between koreans and foreigners in daegu. however, i think the reason for this is that there are a lot of people in daegu that don't speak english and korean. it's difficult for both sides to converse. this leads to awkward silences and language lessons... not so fun.
saturday morning was the big T and P meetup! tammy and i successfully managed to remove ourselves from the baller suite we managed to snag in itaewon and head to the coffee shop. (i thought i might die when my dad gave the wakeup call at 8:00 but we did manage it.) not only did we make that happen but we SUCCESSFULLY found the hotel in mere minutes upon exiting the subway. it was truly a miracle.
the lady at the front desk was so nice because, of course, i didn't know my parents room number. i called up, my mom told me the number, and it was reunion 2010. haha.
we got to the room and i thought my mom was going to crush me with her hug. you guys aren't going to believe this but my mom did not cry. let me repeat that: *MY mom did not cry ... when she came to see me in korea... THIS is the true miracle.* hahahahah.
so, we waited around for my dad to get back upstairs from his massage. obviously, his 6'+ body was smashed all up in the 13 hour flight. when he came back to the room, we got ready, and headed to insadong to see a palace.
the palace was so beautiful and was used until the late '80s. i think both of my parents really enjoyed it but it was a LOT of walking around. i mean, it's a palace, the thing's supposed to be giagantic, right? it was really nice to see the cherry blossoms and flowers and trees and grass and everything growing. ah, so awesome. don't worry, i will post another blog later with pictures... my dad certainly took enough.
we wondered around insadong which has all these cute little shops with earrings, trinkets, traditional korean things, etc. it was nice to look at all of the stuff in insadong because it seems so well made. also, the whole street is so colorful and there are people everywhere. we bought some stringy, honey candy from these korean guys that obviously target foreigners. i've had the candy before and really liked it, so i thought my parents might enjoy it. i think my mom enjoyed the korean boys' routine more than the candy. they yell words like, "wow! amazing! exciting!" as you can imagine, she was very into the whole thing and it was cute to see my mom talking to the korean people.
yesterday, we went to the coex mall. it is huge. holy crap. we just walked around for a little bit but we were pretty tired from the day before. it was really interesting to see and i think i would like to go back another time. there was just so much to see and so much shopping to do. it's hard to stay away from the materialization here.
after that, we headed to myeongdeong for some actual shopping (the coex was far too expensive). GIRLS you must go to H&M. uh, i thought i was in heaven. honestly. i could try clothes on and everything. so wonderful.
we pretty much wrapped up the day with dinner at mad for garlic and beers at the platinum brewery. even though garlic is not hard to come by here, good beers certainly are. my dad and i had a good time sipping a sampler called morphine down... 8.4% alcohol. do i want to die? maybe. haha. don't worry, it was just a tiny cup.
overall, i think they've been having a fun time. it's so funny to see what they think is so interesting and unusual. i remember when kids saying hi to me, guys spitting in the street, food slurping and so many more things were so crazy just a few months ago. it seems so weird how used to some things i've gotten and how far there is to go. they also seem pretty impressed with the amount of korean i can understand and the little i can speak. it makes all the hours of studying seem much better. i know there are a lot of us who get stuck in a rut thinking we're not learning anything and the cultural shock is just too much sometimes. it's nice to have people around who can show you just how far you've come.
i'm happy to have my parents here and excited to show them around some more. we're planning on gyeongju and busan. also, they haven't seen any of daegu, yet. this should be funny...
love you all!!
lacey.
it all started after korean class...
jen and i tried to ask our teachers if the ymca had a microwave that we could use to heat up our lunch. we explained that we were going to seoul and wanted to eat quickly so that we could leave. bo sun got confused and told us where we could go buy a nice microwave. haha. so, we re-explained the situation, the teachers understood that time and went on the microwave hunt. unfortunately after all the confusion and hunting, we figured out that the ymca did not have a microwave. oh well, the haggis was still pretty good cold.
after lunch, we headed to the ktx. the ktx is the high speed train that goes in a big ataris shape across korea. i didn't realize how thankful i was for the ktx until this weekend. we got right on the train and i promptly fell asleep.
when we got into seoul, we took the usual trip to itaewon. we stopped at what the book. while we were there, tammy called. jen went and grabbed her and we continued browsing. i bought a book called the white tiger and another book about buddha. man, i love books. then, we headed for some delicious mexican food. i am so happy that seoul has mexican food!!!! thank you for foreigners!!!! let me just tell you... you don't realize how much you will miss that skanky el canelo food until you can't have it. oh man, gimme some grease. <3.
we decided to go out that night even though we were meeting my mom and dad in the morning... BEST idea. first off, we met the gayest, (i seriously mean) THE gayest boy i have ever seen in my entire life. not only was he the flamingest queen i have ever seen, he was a giant. i'm not kidding, this guy was like 7 feet tall. he was so over the top and so did not speak english. haha. he was just thrilled with us. needless to say, we were thrilled with him.
we had a wonderful time chatting up the koreans and dancing like fools. (how else can you dance to k-pop?) it was really nice to be in a bar where there were mostly koreans and everyone was having a fun time. sometimes i think there is a problem with the separation between koreans and foreigners in daegu. however, i think the reason for this is that there are a lot of people in daegu that don't speak english and korean. it's difficult for both sides to converse. this leads to awkward silences and language lessons... not so fun.
saturday morning was the big T and P meetup! tammy and i successfully managed to remove ourselves from the baller suite we managed to snag in itaewon and head to the coffee shop. (i thought i might die when my dad gave the wakeup call at 8:00 but we did manage it.) not only did we make that happen but we SUCCESSFULLY found the hotel in mere minutes upon exiting the subway. it was truly a miracle.
the lady at the front desk was so nice because, of course, i didn't know my parents room number. i called up, my mom told me the number, and it was reunion 2010. haha.
we got to the room and i thought my mom was going to crush me with her hug. you guys aren't going to believe this but my mom did not cry. let me repeat that: *MY mom did not cry ... when she came to see me in korea... THIS is the true miracle.* hahahahah.
so, we waited around for my dad to get back upstairs from his massage. obviously, his 6'+ body was smashed all up in the 13 hour flight. when he came back to the room, we got ready, and headed to insadong to see a palace.
the palace was so beautiful and was used until the late '80s. i think both of my parents really enjoyed it but it was a LOT of walking around. i mean, it's a palace, the thing's supposed to be giagantic, right? it was really nice to see the cherry blossoms and flowers and trees and grass and everything growing. ah, so awesome. don't worry, i will post another blog later with pictures... my dad certainly took enough.
we wondered around insadong which has all these cute little shops with earrings, trinkets, traditional korean things, etc. it was nice to look at all of the stuff in insadong because it seems so well made. also, the whole street is so colorful and there are people everywhere. we bought some stringy, honey candy from these korean guys that obviously target foreigners. i've had the candy before and really liked it, so i thought my parents might enjoy it. i think my mom enjoyed the korean boys' routine more than the candy. they yell words like, "wow! amazing! exciting!" as you can imagine, she was very into the whole thing and it was cute to see my mom talking to the korean people.
yesterday, we went to the coex mall. it is huge. holy crap. we just walked around for a little bit but we were pretty tired from the day before. it was really interesting to see and i think i would like to go back another time. there was just so much to see and so much shopping to do. it's hard to stay away from the materialization here.
after that, we headed to myeongdeong for some actual shopping (the coex was far too expensive). GIRLS you must go to H&M. uh, i thought i was in heaven. honestly. i could try clothes on and everything. so wonderful.
we pretty much wrapped up the day with dinner at mad for garlic and beers at the platinum brewery. even though garlic is not hard to come by here, good beers certainly are. my dad and i had a good time sipping a sampler called morphine down... 8.4% alcohol. do i want to die? maybe. haha. don't worry, it was just a tiny cup.
overall, i think they've been having a fun time. it's so funny to see what they think is so interesting and unusual. i remember when kids saying hi to me, guys spitting in the street, food slurping and so many more things were so crazy just a few months ago. it seems so weird how used to some things i've gotten and how far there is to go. they also seem pretty impressed with the amount of korean i can understand and the little i can speak. it makes all the hours of studying seem much better. i know there are a lot of us who get stuck in a rut thinking we're not learning anything and the cultural shock is just too much sometimes. it's nice to have people around who can show you just how far you've come.
i'm happy to have my parents here and excited to show them around some more. we're planning on gyeongju and busan. also, they haven't seen any of daegu, yet. this should be funny...
love you all!!
lacey.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
zombie land aka canada.
so, the kids here are completely obsessed with zombies. as luck would have it, they are also extraordinarily gullible. i recently heard a friend tell a story about one of the teachers in her school who told the students the reason she took a job in korea was because there are too many zombies in canada. the friend went to teach the class one day when the canadian teacher was on vacation. she asked the class which adjectives describe people. as she was going over the list, she happened to ask the word, “delicious?” to her surprise, all of the students said, “oh, yes, teacher.” this is when the zombie story came out. don’t worry, the friend did not ruin the children’s belief in zombies. when the Canadian teacher came back, she assured the students that the friend didn’t know anything about them of course… she’s from America.
i thought you all might enjoy that little anecdote. this is a short story by one of my students about a new land she imagined. as you may have guessed, it includes zombies.
Live one side is white people, one side is blake people.
They eat Jelly fish and sea water.
And another people is zombie.
Zombie ate we are.
So we are run & run.
But Sam is fall.
So Sam is die.
And we are run and go to the house.
Hand grenade throw but Sally and Sarah is die.
So Mary is very sad.
but go go that time Sam bite Mary.
The End.
hope you’ve enjoyed a look into my daily routine!! haha.
laceface.
i thought you all might enjoy that little anecdote. this is a short story by one of my students about a new land she imagined. as you may have guessed, it includes zombies.
Live one side is white people, one side is blake people.
They eat Jelly fish and sea water.
And another people is zombie.
Zombie ate we are.
So we are run & run.
But Sam is fall.
So Sam is die.
And we are run and go to the house.
Hand grenade throw but Sally and Sarah is die.
So Mary is very sad.
but go go that time Sam bite Mary.
The End.
hope you’ve enjoyed a look into my daily routine!! haha.
laceface.
Monday, March 8, 2010
hello, my friends.
the topic of this blog is: understanding and tolerance for those who do not speak your language.
first and foremost, the examples i will share are few and far between, however, the effect that these situations have on foreigners are great. the point of these examples is to demonstrate that despite intelligence, background, and culture, a person should not be judged based on native language.
1. i happened to be riding on the subway with a few friends a couple of weeks back. we were chatting and having a good time. i don’t think we were being terribly loud but i’m sure that we weren’t being quiet, either. the subway is very loud and so are the koreans that ride with us. while in the middle of a nice conversation, a woman came up to me and said, “maybe you should stop speaking so loudly.” she went on to say that we were very noisy and that we were bothering other patrons on the subway. didn’t we know this was a “public place”? i would like to point out that it is completely normal for an older person to tell a younger person what to do and for them to obey in korea. of course, this situation was annoying and not fun but at least the woman tried to be nice about asking us to be quiet.
The Problem: i’m pretty sure we were asked to be quiet simply because we were speaking english. i had a friend ask her students why someone would come up and say something to us. at first, the students were very shy but eventually one student did say, “teacher, sometimes koreans don’t like to hear english speakers.” also, the subway was very crowded and it is very possible (based on following examples) that people did not want to hear any english.
2. yesterday, jen, abby, and i went to see alice in wonderland. on our ride back to siji, we were chatting amongst ourselves. i will be the first to admit when i’m being loud and i’m frequently shushing friends on the subway because of example #1. however, there were only three of us and we were quietly talking about books. all of a sudden, a man reaches across the aisle to get our attention. the three of us look up and he’s saying, “um, in korea, speaking korean. english, no.” i think we all understand what this means. at one point, he reached over and grabbed my bag because we had ignored him. for the remainder of the ride, he kept trying to get our attention to tell us how wrong it was that we weren’t speaking korean.
The Problem: i am taking korean classes. i am actually making an effort to learn the language. i am interested in korean culture and would like to be able to speak to the folks who are native of this country. i don’t need to be told by someone that i should be speaking korean. i find that it is incredibly rude and offensive. i am an intelligent person and will, hopefully, speak korean soon. what this man didn’t know was that, sure, i could chat to him about how much something costs, whose is that, and if he had flash cards i could even name some of the things in korean but i can’t say anything important to him.
3. when i am walking down the street, it is not unusual for people to say, “hello”. that’s completely fine. most of the times, these ‘hellos’ come from adorable school children who are just excited to see someone different. it almost seems like a dare amongst the kids, who’s more willing to talk to the foreigner. however, sometimes i will be stopped by koreans for some ‘english practice’. some koreans live for this.
The Problem: it seems like there is a ‘catch 22’ for foreigners here. koreans really want to speak english to us but at the same time they want us to speak korean. if i refuse to speak english to someone, i feel bad and like i shouldn’t be rude. however, that’s what my job is: speaking english and teaching english. i don’t want to do that during my private time as well. the other problem is that they want us to speak korean to each other and them. i’m not sure how to know which language is appropriate when.
I’m writing this blog because I’m sure that most people who read it know me. It’s common knowledge that I’ve graduated high school and college. I received a minor in Spanish. So far, I’ve traveled to 10 different countries and tried to learn about their cultures. I’ve been taking Korean classes since the second week I arrived here. I’m not unintelligent. I’m not ignorant. I do speak English.
I find there are many people in the U.S. who are convinced that people should be speaking English. I think we need to take the time to remember that people think in their native language. I don’t think in Korean, I think in English. I don’t dream in Korean, I dream in English. My friends don’t speak Korean, they speak English.
I really like Korea. I like being here and I enjoy the people. However, I can leave this country if I want to. I don’t have to be here forever. Think about the people who have to move to a new country to start a new life. They are trying to do better for themselves and their families. They shouldn’t be judged and called stupid because they don’t speak English, Korean, or whatever the language happens to be.
I challenge you to think about the things I’ve written. Think about how it would be to be reprimanded for speaking they way you know how. Think about what it would be like to not be able to communicate. How difficult would it be for you? How long would you be able to tolerate it?
I’m sure there will be people that disagree with me. I know that everyone has their own opinions. I’m not asking for agreement. I’m simply asking for contemplation and an attempt at understanding what this might be like.
the next blog will not be this serious, i promise. it’s just something that I felt I needed to share.
lacey.
the topic of this blog is: understanding and tolerance for those who do not speak your language.
first and foremost, the examples i will share are few and far between, however, the effect that these situations have on foreigners are great. the point of these examples is to demonstrate that despite intelligence, background, and culture, a person should not be judged based on native language.
1. i happened to be riding on the subway with a few friends a couple of weeks back. we were chatting and having a good time. i don’t think we were being terribly loud but i’m sure that we weren’t being quiet, either. the subway is very loud and so are the koreans that ride with us. while in the middle of a nice conversation, a woman came up to me and said, “maybe you should stop speaking so loudly.” she went on to say that we were very noisy and that we were bothering other patrons on the subway. didn’t we know this was a “public place”? i would like to point out that it is completely normal for an older person to tell a younger person what to do and for them to obey in korea. of course, this situation was annoying and not fun but at least the woman tried to be nice about asking us to be quiet.
The Problem: i’m pretty sure we were asked to be quiet simply because we were speaking english. i had a friend ask her students why someone would come up and say something to us. at first, the students were very shy but eventually one student did say, “teacher, sometimes koreans don’t like to hear english speakers.” also, the subway was very crowded and it is very possible (based on following examples) that people did not want to hear any english.
2. yesterday, jen, abby, and i went to see alice in wonderland. on our ride back to siji, we were chatting amongst ourselves. i will be the first to admit when i’m being loud and i’m frequently shushing friends on the subway because of example #1. however, there were only three of us and we were quietly talking about books. all of a sudden, a man reaches across the aisle to get our attention. the three of us look up and he’s saying, “um, in korea, speaking korean. english, no.” i think we all understand what this means. at one point, he reached over and grabbed my bag because we had ignored him. for the remainder of the ride, he kept trying to get our attention to tell us how wrong it was that we weren’t speaking korean.
The Problem: i am taking korean classes. i am actually making an effort to learn the language. i am interested in korean culture and would like to be able to speak to the folks who are native of this country. i don’t need to be told by someone that i should be speaking korean. i find that it is incredibly rude and offensive. i am an intelligent person and will, hopefully, speak korean soon. what this man didn’t know was that, sure, i could chat to him about how much something costs, whose is that, and if he had flash cards i could even name some of the things in korean but i can’t say anything important to him.
3. when i am walking down the street, it is not unusual for people to say, “hello”. that’s completely fine. most of the times, these ‘hellos’ come from adorable school children who are just excited to see someone different. it almost seems like a dare amongst the kids, who’s more willing to talk to the foreigner. however, sometimes i will be stopped by koreans for some ‘english practice’. some koreans live for this.
The Problem: it seems like there is a ‘catch 22’ for foreigners here. koreans really want to speak english to us but at the same time they want us to speak korean. if i refuse to speak english to someone, i feel bad and like i shouldn’t be rude. however, that’s what my job is: speaking english and teaching english. i don’t want to do that during my private time as well. the other problem is that they want us to speak korean to each other and them. i’m not sure how to know which language is appropriate when.
I’m writing this blog because I’m sure that most people who read it know me. It’s common knowledge that I’ve graduated high school and college. I received a minor in Spanish. So far, I’ve traveled to 10 different countries and tried to learn about their cultures. I’ve been taking Korean classes since the second week I arrived here. I’m not unintelligent. I’m not ignorant. I do speak English.
I find there are many people in the U.S. who are convinced that people should be speaking English. I think we need to take the time to remember that people think in their native language. I don’t think in Korean, I think in English. I don’t dream in Korean, I dream in English. My friends don’t speak Korean, they speak English.
I really like Korea. I like being here and I enjoy the people. However, I can leave this country if I want to. I don’t have to be here forever. Think about the people who have to move to a new country to start a new life. They are trying to do better for themselves and their families. They shouldn’t be judged and called stupid because they don’t speak English, Korean, or whatever the language happens to be.
I challenge you to think about the things I’ve written. Think about how it would be to be reprimanded for speaking they way you know how. Think about what it would be like to not be able to communicate. How difficult would it be for you? How long would you be able to tolerate it?
I’m sure there will be people that disagree with me. I know that everyone has their own opinions. I’m not asking for agreement. I’m simply asking for contemplation and an attempt at understanding what this might be like.
the next blog will not be this serious, i promise. it’s just something that I felt I needed to share.
lacey.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
and then we are die.
I will have you all know that Mulholland Dr. was a terrible movie. I mean, seriously, terrible. I understand that many people like to analyze it and come up with very creative, emo ideas about it all, but what was the point? Waste of my time.
So, the last time I wrote about my Korean adventures, I forgot to mention that I saw:
1. A Korean Fight. I have not seen one in quite a long time so it was pretty exciting. There were 2 guys fighting with each other while 2 girls were trying to break it up. Mind you, the girls were wearing super short skirts, high heels, and bows in their hair… pretty useless in a fight based on looks.
2. A Korean Blackout. There is a website called ‘Blackout Korea’ where people send in pictures of people passed out in crazy places. I thought these pictures were probably very realistic considering the huge drinking problem the country has, however, I have not been lucky enough to see such a blackout. The guy was laying in the entryway of a club. Clearly, he was just having a nap because his friends had kindly covered him up with his coat and were standing guard. Oh, Korea.
Back to the main topic.
A couple weekends ago, Jen, Anne, and I went hill walking on a mountain behind the World Cup Stadium. I was informed by my boss that it was not a mountain but, ‘a little hill’. Oh, alright then. haha. We walked up to the stadium and saw tons of families out for the day. It was really nice to see all the kids riding their bikes, playing badminton, and just being kids. A lot of the time when we see our students, they are exhausted from another long day of school and don’t really look like kids anymore. Thankfully, these families all looked really happy to be out in the awesome weather.
After the family exhibit, we started our way up the ‘little hill’. It wasn’t a difficult walk and we got to the temple pretty fast. I guess this is a temple that was built pretty recently. You could tell that it was newer by how bright all of the colors were. It was kind of weird to see because it seems like everything is new in Korea except for the temples and historical sites. I don’t know if I really liked the new temple… even though it was pretty.
At the temple site, there was a mountain spirit statue. He was sitting with a tiger and other guards behind him. People had given him Soju and incense as offerings. Anne has been here for quite a while so she explained the statue to us. Apparently, the tiger is always with the spirits, this is because the mountain spirit can sometimes become a tiger if the mountain is threatened. Very interesting. The statue was really cool but I mostly wanted the incense because it smelled so wonderful.
It took us about 5 hours to climb the mountain and go from Siji to Gisan. We had a dinner break at Anne’s house and then headed back to Siji.
Once we got back to Siji, it was JimJilBang time. OH, man. The JimJilBang is a spa that is very popular amongst the Koreans. You must go naked into this spa. Now, we get stared at A LOT on the subway, downtown, in a normal bathroom, movie theatres… um, pretty much everywhere. You can see why a foreigner might be a little bit nervous about the naked thing. If you don’t look like a Korean, who knows what’s even going to happen!
So, after a bit of a pep talk to ourselves, we decided it was time to go. When we got to the front desk, the lady spoke almost no English. She knew, “What do you know?” “Shower,” and numbers. This was hilarious. So, I was saying, “Um, Spa. um, no clothes? bath? Oh, man.” hahaha. Things started out pretty rocky but we finally got her to understand what we wanted and got our towels for the bath.
We walked into the locker room to be greeted with a throng of naked bodies. I mean, for real, naked bodies… EVERYWHERE. This is not a Western thing, at all. hahaha. It was pretty awkward for the first few minutes and when we got naked but we walked into the bath and it started to be more ok. Surprisingly, when we took showers, nobody stared at us. We got in the spa, and nobody stared at us. We walked around, nobody stared. What. Awesome. Love it. We had two younger girls come up and ask where we were from but after that they said, “Nice to meet you,” and moved away. I think I get more stares at E-Mart then I do at the spa.
There was much soaking, much scrubbing, and much scrubbing. Overall, this was amazing. I think it may be my new favorite thing in Korea.
Well, this has been an epic post. The next will hopefully be soon because there is more to write about. Not much. Not many important things but many cute pictures of many adorable kindergarteners. You know you want to see that.
sending you soju wishes and kimchi dreams,
lace face.
So, the last time I wrote about my Korean adventures, I forgot to mention that I saw:
1. A Korean Fight. I have not seen one in quite a long time so it was pretty exciting. There were 2 guys fighting with each other while 2 girls were trying to break it up. Mind you, the girls were wearing super short skirts, high heels, and bows in their hair… pretty useless in a fight based on looks.
2. A Korean Blackout. There is a website called ‘Blackout Korea’ where people send in pictures of people passed out in crazy places. I thought these pictures were probably very realistic considering the huge drinking problem the country has, however, I have not been lucky enough to see such a blackout. The guy was laying in the entryway of a club. Clearly, he was just having a nap because his friends had kindly covered him up with his coat and were standing guard. Oh, Korea.
Back to the main topic.
A couple weekends ago, Jen, Anne, and I went hill walking on a mountain behind the World Cup Stadium. I was informed by my boss that it was not a mountain but, ‘a little hill’. Oh, alright then. haha. We walked up to the stadium and saw tons of families out for the day. It was really nice to see all the kids riding their bikes, playing badminton, and just being kids. A lot of the time when we see our students, they are exhausted from another long day of school and don’t really look like kids anymore. Thankfully, these families all looked really happy to be out in the awesome weather.
After the family exhibit, we started our way up the ‘little hill’. It wasn’t a difficult walk and we got to the temple pretty fast. I guess this is a temple that was built pretty recently. You could tell that it was newer by how bright all of the colors were. It was kind of weird to see because it seems like everything is new in Korea except for the temples and historical sites. I don’t know if I really liked the new temple… even though it was pretty.
At the temple site, there was a mountain spirit statue. He was sitting with a tiger and other guards behind him. People had given him Soju and incense as offerings. Anne has been here for quite a while so she explained the statue to us. Apparently, the tiger is always with the spirits, this is because the mountain spirit can sometimes become a tiger if the mountain is threatened. Very interesting. The statue was really cool but I mostly wanted the incense because it smelled so wonderful.
It took us about 5 hours to climb the mountain and go from Siji to Gisan. We had a dinner break at Anne’s house and then headed back to Siji.
Once we got back to Siji, it was JimJilBang time. OH, man. The JimJilBang is a spa that is very popular amongst the Koreans. You must go naked into this spa. Now, we get stared at A LOT on the subway, downtown, in a normal bathroom, movie theatres… um, pretty much everywhere. You can see why a foreigner might be a little bit nervous about the naked thing. If you don’t look like a Korean, who knows what’s even going to happen!
So, after a bit of a pep talk to ourselves, we decided it was time to go. When we got to the front desk, the lady spoke almost no English. She knew, “What do you know?” “Shower,” and numbers. This was hilarious. So, I was saying, “Um, Spa. um, no clothes? bath? Oh, man.” hahaha. Things started out pretty rocky but we finally got her to understand what we wanted and got our towels for the bath.
We walked into the locker room to be greeted with a throng of naked bodies. I mean, for real, naked bodies… EVERYWHERE. This is not a Western thing, at all. hahaha. It was pretty awkward for the first few minutes and when we got naked but we walked into the bath and it started to be more ok. Surprisingly, when we took showers, nobody stared at us. We got in the spa, and nobody stared at us. We walked around, nobody stared. What. Awesome. Love it. We had two younger girls come up and ask where we were from but after that they said, “Nice to meet you,” and moved away. I think I get more stares at E-Mart then I do at the spa.
There was much soaking, much scrubbing, and much scrubbing. Overall, this was amazing. I think it may be my new favorite thing in Korea.
Well, this has been an epic post. The next will hopefully be soon because there is more to write about. Not much. Not many important things but many cute pictures of many adorable kindergarteners. You know you want to see that.
sending you soju wishes and kimchi dreams,
lace face.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
you can dance if you want to.
hello, my friends.
the k-love has been restored this weekend. :)
it was our last day of early schedule because we are now heading into february. it was a really good day. the one talking class i teach is with a girl who speaks quite a lot of english and we had a good chat about the zodiac. we are both cancers so we talked a lot about similarities and differences. she seemed to really enjoy talking about her family and their different qualities. i wasn’t sure if the lesson was going to work but we had a fun time. my next lesson was with nari. i’ve had her in class for a few months now. she’s actually really impressing me with how much more she’s communicating. we did ‘would you rather’ questions and she was seriously cracking me up with the stuff she was saying. she mostly tells me about how she likes to exercise, can’t ride a bike, and hates children. i love it. these two girls are my favorite students and i’m so lucky that i get to see them all the time.
after work, i hopped on the subway to siji. i had some donkas with lia and jen. i think what’s important about this word is that the korean word for sh** is ddong. donkas is pronounced ddongass. hilarious. despite my 8 year old boy’s opinion on this word, it is very delicious. lol. seriously, i know i’m ridiculous but you have to admit that it’s funny.
saturday morning, we headed to korean class… on time. my god. this never happens. NEVER. i mean, they moved class to 10:30 on saturday mornings. i know it doesn’t seem that early but almost all of the foreign teachers are used to getting up later because we work second shift. so, you can imagine how well this works out for a ymca korean class. back to the point – actually on time. korean class is going a lot better now. at first, things were a little slow and i was feeling my brain eat away at itself. however, the teachers picked up the pace and now we’re moving along. we got to play a game in class which was really fun. the teachers would write a sentence on the board with one person facing away from the board. the people who were seated had to act out or speak in korean to get the person to say the sentence. it was kind of a mixture of taboo and charades. listen, our korean isn’t that good yet… we need a lot of help. at the end of class, we convinced the teachers that they needed to come out with us. after much discussion of plans and pushing the date back 3 times, we finally decided that the big date will be on 20 february. don’t worry, i predict a good blog about this. the class is going to learn a korean song so that we can sing it at the norae bang. oh man. haha.
i’m tired of writing right now. i will post the end of this blog very soon. now, i will either watch mulholland dr., study korean, or read.
i hope everyone is well. miss you all!!
face.
the k-love has been restored this weekend. :)
it was our last day of early schedule because we are now heading into february. it was a really good day. the one talking class i teach is with a girl who speaks quite a lot of english and we had a good chat about the zodiac. we are both cancers so we talked a lot about similarities and differences. she seemed to really enjoy talking about her family and their different qualities. i wasn’t sure if the lesson was going to work but we had a fun time. my next lesson was with nari. i’ve had her in class for a few months now. she’s actually really impressing me with how much more she’s communicating. we did ‘would you rather’ questions and she was seriously cracking me up with the stuff she was saying. she mostly tells me about how she likes to exercise, can’t ride a bike, and hates children. i love it. these two girls are my favorite students and i’m so lucky that i get to see them all the time.
after work, i hopped on the subway to siji. i had some donkas with lia and jen. i think what’s important about this word is that the korean word for sh** is ddong. donkas is pronounced ddongass. hilarious. despite my 8 year old boy’s opinion on this word, it is very delicious. lol. seriously, i know i’m ridiculous but you have to admit that it’s funny.
saturday morning, we headed to korean class… on time. my god. this never happens. NEVER. i mean, they moved class to 10:30 on saturday mornings. i know it doesn’t seem that early but almost all of the foreign teachers are used to getting up later because we work second shift. so, you can imagine how well this works out for a ymca korean class. back to the point – actually on time. korean class is going a lot better now. at first, things were a little slow and i was feeling my brain eat away at itself. however, the teachers picked up the pace and now we’re moving along. we got to play a game in class which was really fun. the teachers would write a sentence on the board with one person facing away from the board. the people who were seated had to act out or speak in korean to get the person to say the sentence. it was kind of a mixture of taboo and charades. listen, our korean isn’t that good yet… we need a lot of help. at the end of class, we convinced the teachers that they needed to come out with us. after much discussion of plans and pushing the date back 3 times, we finally decided that the big date will be on 20 february. don’t worry, i predict a good blog about this. the class is going to learn a korean song so that we can sing it at the norae bang. oh man. haha.
i’m tired of writing right now. i will post the end of this blog very soon. now, i will either watch mulholland dr., study korean, or read.
i hope everyone is well. miss you all!!
face.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
why do you ring the bell 33 times?
first things first,
CONGRATULATIONS to ed and katie!!!! they are married and i am happy. i love you guys!
enough marriage chat, back to korea.
for new year’s eve, we went downtown to party in the new year. i wore a dress but this was foolish to do because i have never been so cold in my whole life. (this is obviously an exaggeration, considering i am from erie, pa… i think you guys who are there know what i’m talking about). however, it really was cold. i thought i might die.
anyways, we all met up at the bar and then walked over to the park for new year’s festivities. like busan, it was like the koreans came out of the woodwork. where do all these people come from? i mean, really, where are you all hiding? it’s a mystery. so, we got to the park about 3 minutes before the countdown to prevent our extremities from turning into ice blocks. of course, we were the only foreigners surrounded by koreans. haha. we did the countdown and we were all hugging and kissing each other… but, none of the koreans were. haha. once again, foreign freaks. lol. but then! the koreans joined in on the hugging fun. the people around us were hugging us and kissing our cheeks and yelling, “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” of course, this got us more looks from more koreans but we didn’t care because we were all having a good start.
on new year’s, the koreans ring a bell 33 times to honor men that fell in the korean/japanese war. i don’t have a lot of details about this because most of the people i know don’t speak enough english to tell me or are too young to know exactly why this is done. anyways, the bell was ringing forever so we decided to head back inside out of the tundra when all of a sudden… there were fireworks! omg. i love fireworks. so, we stood on the street and watched the fireworks. mainly, i watched the fireworks and jumped around like a fool because frostbite was starting to set in. we all know how much i dislike gangrene. ha.
on to…
the BIG snow!
CONGRATULATIONS to ed and katie!!!! they are married and i am happy. i love you guys!
for new year’s eve, we went downtown to party in the new year. i wore a dress but this was foolish to do because i have never been so cold in my whole life. (this is obviously an exaggeration, considering i am from erie, pa… i think you guys who are there know what i’m talking about). however, it really was cold. i thought i might die.
anyways, we all met up at the bar and then walked over to the park for new year’s festivities. like busan, it was like the koreans came out of the woodwork. where do all these people come from? i mean, really, where are you all hiding? it’s a mystery. so, we got to the park about 3 minutes before the countdown to prevent our extremities from turning into ice blocks. of course, we were the only foreigners surrounded by koreans. haha. we did the countdown and we were all hugging and kissing each other… but, none of the koreans were. haha. once again, foreign freaks. lol. but then! the koreans joined in on the hugging fun. the people around us were hugging us and kissing our cheeks and yelling, “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” of course, this got us more looks from more koreans but we didn’t care because we were all having a good start.
on new year’s, the koreans ring a bell 33 times to honor men that fell in the korean/japanese war. i don’t have a lot of details about this because most of the people i know don’t speak enough english to tell me or are too young to know exactly why this is done. anyways, the bell was ringing forever so we decided to head back inside out of the tundra when all of a sudden… there were fireworks! omg. i love fireworks. so, we stood on the street and watched the fireworks. mainly, i watched the fireworks and jumped around like a fool because frostbite was starting to set in. we all know how much i dislike gangrene. ha.
on to…
the BIG snow!
i woke up last monday to some kind of nightmare. snow. everyone has been telling me, “don’t worry. it doesn’t snow in daegu,” or, “even if it does snow, it only happens for like 5 minutes.” 5 minutes my ass. apparently, this is the most snow that daegu has seen in like 80 years. are you kidding? i mean, this is no erie, but still. what? is the rule: if one person from erie enters south korea, we must have a massive snow? the snow was actually beautiful but the next day… ice city. it seems like the koreans of daegu really didn’t know how to handle the snow because they aren’t used to it. however, i was confused because i feel like things have to freeze sometimes, so why wouldn’t salt or sand be readily available? well, i guess it doesn’t matter anymore because it is finally gone. yay! sorry, my erie friends.
i’m tired of writing now. hopefully, it will not take me 8 months to write another blog entry and i will be up on the times.
in conclusion, another picture of adorable kids.
once, again, i love you guys.
face.
Monday, January 11, 2010
christmas: part 2 in a short series.
ok, it’s time to suck it up and write a blog. i am terrible at updating this! ah!
so, we left off with part 1 of christmas…
the first day, we went up to bulguksa temple. it was absolutely beautiful. it might have been serene had there not been people wandering all over the place. haha. despite the winter weather, the walk up to the main temple was lovely. there was a pond on the left that was starting to freeze up and a small waterfall on the right. it was really cool because the water had frozen over top of the rocks.
at the top, we wandered around inside the temple. each building had a different bodhisattva or buddha sitting inside. we went into one where people were praying to these massive statues. all over the ceiling, pink and green balls hung with prayers dangling off of them. i think that the balls were supposed to look like lotus flowers but i’m not exactly sure.
i got yelled at for trying to take a picture of one of the statues and paintings. however, i just backed up to the korean guy behind me and took pictures with him. i figured if they weren’t going to yell at him, they couldn’t yell at me. haha. this was my favorite. i seriously have no idea how many hands are even in that picture. this is the ‘bodhisattva of perfect compassion’. he is very popular among common people because of his willingness to help those who suffer. apparently, the original shrine was built in 751 A.D. pretty impressive.
after the temple, we took a bus up to the top of the mountain where there was an enormous shrine with this guy in it:
it was seriously so amazing. i can’t remember the significance of this besides the fact that it is very old. it was very impressive. i will do more research so that i can remember exactly what i saw. lol. sorry, it was a little while ago.
the next day, we saw an excavated tomb. i was a little unimpressed by the whole thing. i’m not sure how you make an excavated tomb uninteresting? i guess because they removed most of the stuff to put it into the museum down the road. so, anyways, we went in this tomb and saw a million other of these hills sitting around everywhere.
across the street, we saw: two forests, a fortress, an ice house, an astronomy tower (i might be making that up), and some people wheelie-ing on some ice. we went into the museum, which was pretty cool. there were things that were so old it was unbelievable. i mean, we’re talking 3rd century stuff here. amazing.
during the museum tour, we started getting super tired. i feel like i saw so much while i was in gyeongju for just two days. it was very exhausting. so, we just took the bus home around 5:00 that day to get back to daegu.
that was christmas. it was fun but didn’t really seem like christmas. christmas is not as commercialized here as it is in western countries, especially the u.s. it was nice though because it made me not feel as homesick.
next entry: soon.
next entry: new year’s eve and daegu’s infamous snow.
miss you all!!
lacey facey.
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