tumbling dice.

i've been in this country for almost three months now and i still love it. i have a very small apartment that i adore. it's nice and cozy despite the fact that the outside walls are basically just wallpaper and cardboard. haha. oh, korea. i was pretty horrified when i first walked into my apartment because of its appearance but now i love it. the best part is that it's very easy to clean. the worst part is that i either have to sit on my bed or at my 'kitchen' (aka living room) table. i have a tv but i haven't used it once since i've been here. the funny part about that is that within 1 minute of being in my apartment, my boss turned the television on.

koreans don't do anything without the tv. they watch it at work, at home, in the car... no big deal. everyone's flying all over the road, talking on their cell phones, catching up on some iris (korean drama), turning the lights on and off, speeding... generally, being horrible drivers. i'm really surprised nobody i know has been hit by a car, yet. we will see. there's a lot more time left in this contract. haha.

so, back to the television. i never use my tv, so now i am completely obsessed with the music on my computer. i think i need an intervention. lol. my itunes library is getting pretty large and it would seem that there is no end in sight to this musical binge. there's no rhyme or reason to the things i have, in fact, it's mostly a big hodgepodge. i'm starting to feel like diane 'i am roommates' gabelman. this is how i know that it's bad. :)

the koreans continue to be ridiculous on a daily basis. last week, kris told us that boys should not stand in front of heaters. apparently, the heat and the crotch region do not mix. i'll let you do the math on this one.

also, i asked a student what his name was the other day. he said, "silver dragon." he can't tell me what day it is but he knows the words silver and dragon? obviously, a lot of quality english teaching is going on. hahaha.

i've been doing a lot of hanging out in daegu. a trip is in the planning stage for christmas. i'm pretty sure there will be skiing, beers, and debauchery. beyond that, i'm not really sure. i'm thinking most of my big traveling will be happening in the spring and summer. although, that's generally the case anywhere you are.

madre y padre will be coming to south korea in april!! my mom will be her for her birthday so that's pretty exciting. maybe we'll celebrate by wearing some masks, korean socks, and listening to g-dragon. oh, and i think she'll be really into eating live octopus. haha. just joking, mom.

well, perhaps i will do something more excting in the future. however, for now, you will have to deal with my musings and laziness.

love you and miss you all!!!

lacey.

by the way, if you haven't seen the bad romance music video... it's my new obsession...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACm9yECwSso

she's a junkyard angel.

hello!

so, on mondays i teach at one of the hagwans that visits ibc town. there are a bunch of hagwans and ibc town is the only one with foreigners, so it's kind of like a fun trip for the students. each of us teach at a different hagwan one day out of the week. so, monday is my day.

yesterday, i got a really nice pair of students. they are very cute and speak about as much english as i speak korean. so, not that much. haha. their class is different because for the first hour we do english grammar. i really like that hour because i feel like they're doing a lot of speaking and learning something. the other hour is odyssey. it's just this book with 'creative' lessons.

in between these two classes, the students get to have a break. i was trying to explain this to them but they were not getting it. i couldn't find 'break time' in any of the dictionaries nor on my phone. i told them relax, relax in korean, wrote break time and the times on the board. nothing was getting through. so, i run downstairs and ask a korean teacher to write 'break time' in korean so that i can show the students. he looks at me like i'm nuts. he says, "easy, please." oh, man. so, i try to tell him in the easiest english possible. not helping. so, i say, "um, hangook-ah, sudah, break time. hakseng po-ayo." this means korean language, write, break time. students look. lol. finally, he understood. there was much, "ahhhhhh, ok ok ok." as he was writing, i was watching to see what it would be in korean... oh konglish. 'buh-ray-kuh tah-ee-mah.' kill me.

these are the things that happen that i just have a laugh about. this happens pretty much constantly. i thought it might be a fun, lost in translation anecdote.

lace face.

way over yonder in the minor key.

hello, my friends!

the korean love continues on. let's see...

i've started doing extra korean classes during the week. kevin and i go to a chinese hagwon on tuesdays and thursdays. it's been going really well and i think i'm speaking a lot more. i'm remembering more words and actually making sentences! :) very exciting for me.

last week was pepero day. peperos are just swizzle sticks or pocky. for some reason, the koreans decided that 11/11 should be pepero day. you are supposed to give them to people you like (like valentine's day) and students give them to teachers. i have a feeling some big business decided this was a good idea and are now making a ton of money off of it. big business aka lotte.

on that sunday, we went to hami mami's. omg. hami mami's is a greasy spoon near the army base in daegu. thank god for this restaurant. i had an omelette and a dr. pepper. ahhhhhhh. sooo good. i don't ever drink pop, especially not regular but... my god, the dr. pepper. wonderful.

onto seoul!

friday night, jen and i left for seoul right after work. we got to the KTX (korean express train) when i realized that i had forgotten the korean travel book. ah, shit. although, it ended up being ok because we went for a search the next day. we ended up getting in pretty late, so we just found a hotel and some food and slept.

saturday, we woke up and trudged through the streets like big turtles. we got to itaewon, a very big foreigner area, and started looking for a place to stay. we were turned down at two different places because they were full up. as we wandered, we got lost in some kind of rabbit hole of antique shops and cute paintings. it was very fun. jen eventually spotted 'what the book?'! it was like the most magical place i've ever seen. ENGLISH BOOKS. oh, man. it was so overwhelming i did not know what to do at all. i think if i saw a barnes & noble at this point, i would fall on the floor from the heart attack i was having. i eventually chose the korean travel book i forgot and 'anna karenina'.

after 'what the book?', i found a mexican restaurant!!! eeeeeeee!!!!!! i had fajitas and a mojito. holy crap. dios mio. mi comida fue la puta madre. (i think that's write and i hope i can say this about food. hahah.) while sitting in the restaurant, i saw a sign for a hotel. we decided to try there. thankfully, it ended up being really nice and 70,000 won for each of us for two nights. sah-weet.

we dropped our stuff at the hotel and proceeded to myeongdong. we went shopping, forever. i tried on a million things but only bought a couple things because of the weird cuts and shapes. thankfully, i am small enough to fit into the clothes here even if it does take a little longer to figure it all out.

we hopped on the subway to apgujeong. although, at this point, i don't know that we were doing much hopping. haha. we stopped at starbucks and headed to the brewery. oh, man. real beers?! what is going on?? am i in korea? i think not. the beers ended up being pretty delicious accompanied with the korean version of 'cheaters' on the huge projection screen. :) can it get better? i would like to go back to this area because we saw a lot of fun bars and restaurants.

on sunday, we met up with abby and lia for arabian lunch. masheesayo. :) hummus. falafel. yes, apparently, sunday is better than saturday. haha. we left abby and lia so that they could go shopping and we could go to the leeum samsung museum of art.

we saw a lot of traditional art in museum 1, modern art in museum 2, and experimental works in museum 3. i had a lot of fun and it was nice to just have a relaxing day. sunday was nice and lazy and calm. it was also extremely beautiful weather all day long.

monday morning, we woke up and checked out of the hotel. we went to insadong where i bought some very pretty bird earrings. they had all these little shops that kind of reminded me of the things they have in grasshopper. we all know how i feel about grasshopper, so it was a bit difficult to 'rein' it in.

this week has been pretty relaxed. we are going out for danny's birthday tomorrow... that should be pretty fun. always an interesting time with the whole work crew. haha.

i hope everyone is doing well!! i miss you all. also, if anyone wants a swine flu mask, there is a surplus here. just let me know. haha.

love you!!!

lacey facey.

chickens... you die now.

wow, lacey, terrible job of writing in your blog. haha.

hello, my friends!!! i hope you are all doing well.

last week, i participated in a little thing the koreans like to call, 'sports day'. i'm not sure who came up with this idea. more importantly, who decided this was fun? don't get me wrong, i'm a pretty athletic person so i don't think it had to do with me not being able to complete the activities. so, let us delve into the insane world that was sports day.

we arrived at the school at 7:20 because we had to practice the song and dance we were told we needed to perform... the day before. we sang three korean songs and 'everybody was kung fu fighting'. we got all ready and it was good. we took all of our junk downstairs to wait for the bus that was supposed to come at 7:30. needless to say, we did not depart until 8:15. oh, korea. lol.

when we got on the bus it was super tiny for all these grown adults, except for lena, the little korean girl whose mom works with us. the whole way there we listened to some insanely, ridiculous indian/korean/asian music that seemed to be on an endless loop. (i know you all wish you could have been there. lol)

we arrived at palgongsan (the mountain) and our boss was bus sick. but she was ok, so we went to the opening ceremony. many people talked but it was all in korean, so who really knows what was going on? they played the korean national anthem and sang some song.

when we finished this ceremony, we went up the mountain to be tied together. oh yes, i did say TIED together. we had to climb palgongsan tied to everyone else. everyone in our group has very different athletic abilities and we had a person who is about the same size as my dad. picture him next to me, you do the math. so, we started climbing the mountain (which was absolutely beautiful) and we made it to the first stop. at the stop, we had to do leap frog, the human knot (which we blatantly cheated at), and our cheer. we made it through and continued to the top of the mountain. at the top it was like you could see for days. so amazing.
we went back down to stop where we had to say a korean word with emphasis on a different syllable each time. thankfully, kris cheated and told us to pick #7. it happened to be macaulay culkin written in hangeul. hahaha. thank god for koreans and their obsessive cheating. :) the koreans were very impressed when we made it through, perhaps they don't know we know that guy. we did our cheer again, which had korean in it, and the koreans went nuts cheering for us.

back down the mountain. we ate some lunch. after lunch, we got some beers and practiced 'kick your shoe in that box way over there'. some koreans were pumped that i got my shoe in twice.


afterwards, we went up to this parking lot looking thing with gravel strewn about everywhere. this was the place we were supposed to do relay races. good idea, right? well, we started off with some jumping rope which was fine but moved to 'carry the soccer ball with your partner back to back'. meg and eric from the school upstairs went together, went too fast, and meg fell down. meg had to go to the hospital for 13 stitches.... gravel + running people = maybe NOT such a good idea? haha.

then, the worst thing...

'catching the piggy' was cancelled. instead, 'catching the delicate, docile chickens' took its place. we thought maybe one person from each team would participate in this. oh no, every single person there was asked to catch the chickens. there were only five of them. so, they set these chickens out and everybody goes nuts running for them (i refused to participate in this, by the way). needless to say, two koreans managed to rip one of the chickens apart. there were blood and feathers, everywhere. disgusting. however, the chicken got her revenge. one of the koreans had to get 18 stitches in his face because his glasses broke trying to catch her and he had some more stitches in his knee. karma? (i do feel bad he had to get stitches, though.)

after, the drawing and quartering, we went to go eat some dinner. at dinner, we had to perform our song and dance. however, because we are foreigners, apparently we are tap dancing monkeys. when we got called up to perform, we were also given interviews. i was asked, 'do you have any more piercings and do you have a boyfriend.' how nice. haha. we performed our song and the koreans got a big kick out of it. we all took a massive shot of soju after that. haha.

we finally got to go home. what an exhausting 13 hour day. oh man, only in korea. oh, and i did forget to mention that if you came in last place for any of the teams, you had to drink a large quantity of beer in front of the crowd. oh, korea, what will i do with you?

much love from this side of the world.

lacey

mirrorball.

hello everybody!!

this week has been pretty eventful. we started the halloween party last monday and it goes until friday at school. all of the teachers have to dress up. i'm normally a witch, sometimes a pirate, today Zorro. haha. our littlest kids dress up and they are so cute. i took some pictures, so get ready.

my favorite is playing the mummy game with them. this boy is obviously pumped up!

on thursday, we went out for kris's birthday. we just went for some galbi and then sang at the norae bang. pretty standard kind of night.

kris and me.

saturday was the big event, as usual. we got up, went to korean class and the fun began. after class, we ate at a japanese restaurant. directly afterwards, we went to fish feet. fish feet is where you put your feet in a bathtub and the little fish come to eat the dead skin off of your feet. we paid less than 6.00 and got drinks, all you can eat toast (love it), and fish feet. this was pretty much one of the most unusual and unappealing things i've done. it tickled and felt weird but it was mostly just creepy.

fish feet, my friends.

when we were done having the fish nibble around, we made our way to the halloween store. on the way, some children saw us and followed us through the streets. the gaggle of kids reached 7 and the hellos began. they said, "hello!" a million times. so, we turned and asked them their names... they all responded at the exact same time. lol. they were very cute and curious.

when we went out on saturday, we were found by some insane englishman. although, englishman makes him sound like he was nice. i prefer the word: hooligan. so, this hooligan comes walking in to the teeny, tiny bar with the teeny, tiny korean as bar staff. he grabs my friend's bra strap, harrasses my other friend, throws a bag at me, and throws a kettle at bra strap girl. meanwhile, he's telling us we are rude? what the hell. men: if this describes you, stop being assholes.

despite this minor setback, we ended up having a lovely, eventful evening. i got to speak spanish to some peruvian for a very long time, which was awesome! :) we all just hang out and laughed and danced and ate pizza in a cup. aw, the best.

yesterday, we went to this amazing italian restaurant called napoli. it was delicious. the best part is that i ordered everything without meat in english. :)

more fun to come!! halloween weekend.

lacey.

and i'll make my job a big vacation.

i've been a little bit sick this week, unfortunately. it seems that we are passing a cold around at the school. not such a good idea in my opinion.

yesterday, we went to busan for the night. one of the best ideas, EVER. an international film festival is held in busan annually. it is the biggest film festival in asia. so, i think you can understand what this implies. anyways, on the last night of the festival they have a huge fireworks display. when i say huge, i actually mean, HUGE. i have never seen anything like this in my entire life. first of all, the crowd was completely out of hand. i can't even guesstimate how many people were there.

this is just one area of people. the entire beach was covered with people. covered.

ok, so we were all waiting around for the fireworks to start, thinking about how this better be awesome or we're going to be pissed. lol. while we're waiting, the boys buy some rice cake things which we share with the children around us. of course, they were all adorable.
cute girl.



this is an example of how much sharing goes on in korea. these guys were just sitting in front of us and somehow soju starts to flow for the 'boys' club'.

SO, the fireworks begin.
the entire sky was filled with fireworks. FILLED. when they lit white fireworks, it was so bright i could have been wearing sunglasses. obviously, the pictures aren't good enough to demonstrate this. after a while, we just decided to roam the town. these are my friends.

i love korea. i don't think i'm ever coming home.

lace the korean face.

and i said hey, hey, hey what's going on?

hello cheengoo!

so, i haven't written for a bit because the internet at work has apparently shat the bed. however, you'll be happy (but not as happy as me) to know that i now have the internet at my apartment!!! oh, it's the little things. haha.

last weekend, i spent chuseok with tammy. :) as i said, chuseok is the korean thanksgiving. however, it's much more about ancestry and paying your respects to the people who came before you. they are very big into their heritage. about 80% of the country travels during the weekend of chuseok, so you can imagine what the bus station looked like.

when i arrived in gwangju, i had to find a waygook (foreigner) with a phone to please help me. of course, i don't have a phone yet. why would i? lol. anyways, i wandered around until i found someone to let me borrow a phone. i called tammy and of course, she got lost coming to find me. she had to call the guy back, who was nice enough to come find me and tell me this, to give her directions. the great meeting happened and it was lovely.

on friday, we went to the biennale. it's this big art exhibit. this year, it was a design exhibit. the exhibits mostly focused on spacial and house design. my favorite things were the exhibits that demonstrated inter-connectivity. there was a room with little, white houses. the houses had each been put in a different time zone with a video camera inside. then, a girl was streaming the videos on a wall so that you could see what the sun looked like at the same time all over the world. it was pretty neat. my other favorite was a room with different spaces for sleeping and resting. there were some pretty insane ideas. i loved it. they were rooms of wood, inflatables, steel, iron, mirrors, etc.

this is one of the beds. one side is for sleeping and the other for reading.

this is just one set of russian nesting dolls. they had a bunch laid out all over the place.

this is the mosaic that looks like it should be a walkway in alice in wonderland. the picture does not do it justice.

the rest of the weekend was mostly spent sitting around, chatting, and watching copious amounts of arrested development.

this week, nothing terribly exciting has been happening. although, i did get my alien card!! i'm official.

on saturday, we went to korean class which is going much better. i actually have some idea about what is going on most of the time. after korean, we all got our hairs cut off. 5 girls. i thought the lady was going to have a heart attack when she saw 5 foreigners come into the shop. lol. margaret chopped all of her hair off and it's really awesome. mine is at my chin, which i LOVE.

we wandered around a bit until i came upon the converse store and just couldn't control myself anymore. unfortunately, i did not pack any of my converse so they are all sitting in my room growing sadder by the day because i'm not wearing them. or maybe, i'm sad. haha. anyways, i bought a green pair and i love them, love them. we picked up a korean american in converse which was pretty amusing. she ended up hanging out with us for a lot of the night.

on sunday, margaret and i went to the most wonderous place on earth: costco. omg. CHEESE. HOT CHOCOLATE. GRANNY BARS. AVOCADOS. this is beautiful. costco was extremely overwhelming. there were a ton of koreans shopping. needless to say, there was much waving, saying hi, and general cheese grinning. we saw some foreigners who congregated with us in the oatmeal aisle. i have never seen such oggling of oatmeal in all my life. hahahaha. it's funny because out of 8 foreigners 5 had blonde hair. no wonder koreans are under the impression that all americans have blonde hair.

at 9:00 yesterday, we had to go to kris's mother-in-law's funeral. it was really interesting and very traditional. we walked in and there was a hall full of big flowers on stands with white ribbons and black writing. we went downstairs as a big group to support the family. when we got into the room, the family was chanting something and standing beside a picture of the woman who died. we stood, kneeled down twice, turned to the family, kneeled to them, and bowed... a lot. afterwards, we sat down and ate with everybody. danny told us that the family has to stay at the funeral home/hospital for three days. they spend the night there and everything.

the dress was very 1950's traditional. everyone was wearing all black. the women in the family wore these black dresses that were made of some thin, stiff material. the men wore black with gold sashes around their waists. nobody wears jewelry or makeup during the funeral. i guess we won't see kris again until wednesday or thursday.

despite the fact that it was really interesting and neat to actually see something so korean, it was sad that it had to be a funeral. kris was surprised we showed up but i think happy that we were there and trying so hard to do everything the "right way".

well, it is now time to get ready for work. i hope that everyone is well. :)

lacey facey.