Ok, it’s been three weeks. I figure it is high-time for an update!
I don’t even know where to begin, life has seemed like a mish-mash of things lately. Time seems a bit stagnant, nothing really changing. In the past few weeks, I have had many days off from school, including a four-day weekend, a random day off mid-week and a sick day last week. Here we goooooo!!!!
Right after I published my last blog update, I had a day off on Thursday and spent it in Daejeon with my friend Rebecca, who lives here in my town, Jochiwon. We went to a café/coffee shop that also doubled as a fish foot spa. You sit on the edge of a bath, dunk your feet in the water and little fish eat the dead skin off of your feet! It was a bizarre, very Korean thing to do. So, I decided I had to do it. Although at first it was seriously the weirdest sensation I have ever felt (almost like little bolts of electricity, gently tapping against your skin) we both eventually relaxed into it and stayed for hours! It was really fun. There was talk of travel, Korea and life…all while getting our feet exfoliated! The fish really enjoyed my feet, which means I had a lot of dead skin! There was a marked difference on my feet before/after. They actually made this hole-like thing in my skin! It would be really good to go to right before getting a pedicure to loosen up your skin! The movement is called Dr. Fish. Google it if interested! I have videos and pictures up on Facebook. My feet are now nice and soft ( :
After Dr. Fish, we headed off to Costco, because I can’t go to Daejeon and NOT go to Costoco. I purchased two things there that have radically changed my life here in Korea: a fan and sheets. Yes, that’s right: changed my life! I am used to sleeping with a fan on throughout the night thanks to my many travels with Kristina. It is just nice white noise and refreshes the air in the room. But, let me tell you, getting a fan in Korea was NO easy task. Why? Fan Death. Yes, Fan Death. At some point in the 1980’s the Korean government announced this horrible occurrence that became known as Fan Death. There was a rash of suicides (or so the story goes) and to cover it up, the government created/announced Fan Death. Fan Death is when a fan is left on all night and sucks all the oxygen out of the room, resulting in the occupant’s death. Yes, I am serious. As a result, fans are not only very difficult to find here (I even went from store to store, pointed at my dictionary, and was given a very emphatic and horrified NO NO NO NO NO!!!! With wildly waving hands), but they often also come with time switches that prevent you from keeping it on all night/aka saving you from Fan Death. Apparently, the government recently came out saying that they have “proven” that Fan Death doesn’t really exist…LOL! Anways, I found a fan at Costco that also has a constant button! So, now I have my fan, I am risking Fan Death at night and get to sleep on real, nice, soft, sheets! I didn’t have sheets since I’ve been here because I switched from a twin bed (which the school provided sheets for) to a queen size bed. It made for very uncomfortable nights of sleep. Fans+sheets=a very happy Kimberly.
I had one day more that week (Friday, Korea doesn’t observe holidays on say, Friday or Monday, you just get them off where they fall, boo!), and then I had a FOUR day weekend! It was glorious. I so needed it. I really didn’t do anything of significance, which was exactly the point. I hung out, spent some time drinking and laughing my ass off until I cried, slept, cooked, cleaned, did laundry, went to the gym, read and watched Mad Men. Chris came for the day on his way out of the country before leaving for Australia to say good-bye, which was a fun day as well!
The weekend before last, my friend Amy from graduate school, was in Seoul for business. I was so excited and happy when she contacted me and said she would be here and wanted to spend a day together! I last saw Amy about this time last year in San Francisco (where she lives) and before that, in good ol’ Vermont. We decided to spend the day in Suwon. We went to a living history museum (think Colonial Williamsburg or Plymouth, Korean style). It was entertaining and I am glad I went, but it wasn’t overly impressive. The company was great though! It was good to see someone from home, catch up, and bitch about grad school, debt and life! Sometimes you just need those moments with friends. We also went and saw this huge, old fortress and palace. Unfortunately, some of it was down for refurbishment, so it was covered up in tarps! Oh, well. Amy speaks fluent Japanese (she taught/lived there for FOUR years! I don’t know how she did it), so at tourist centers she was able to communicate in Japanese! How fun is that?
Speaking of languages, I have started Korean classes through the educational office in my town. I missed one due to my illness, but have been studying a bit on my own. I can officially read/identify most of the alphabet! Translation: This is the hardest f*cking thing I have ever done, in my ENTIRE life. For some reason, the Korean language and I are not friends. We just aren’t. At least four people have tried to teach me, and I took a two-hour class at orientation. But, slowly but surely, it is comin’ along. I am up to about 22 (I counted, lol) Korean words that I can say (forget reading/writing) and successfully read the word “Pirates” (it was a literal translation from English to Korean) in the movie times! It was a happy, exciting moment! This is what I sound like reading: Piiiii, oh that is a P! Iiiii, oh that is an I! Raaaa, R! Ttttt, T! Es!!! PIRATES!!!!! It takes awhile, but I can get the job done…sometimes!
Speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean, I saw the movie here this past weekend! I have decided that the Pirates movie franchise is the one that I have seen in the most exciting places. I saw Pirates 1 and 3 at the drive-in theater in Everett (North Seattle), that is unfortunately no longer with us, RIP Puget Park!!! I saw the 2nd Pirates in Munich with Kristina, where we chose seeing two movies in the city and not sightseeing (lol) and now the 4th, in Korea! For this reason, the Pirates franchise has a soft spot in my heart. Plus, it is Disney and based off of one of my favorite rides, so no brainer!
On the teaching front, I thought I would share one of my most heart-warming moments that I recently had. And by heart-warming, I mean it raised my blood-pressure to a dangerously high-zone, warming. Thursdays are my hell days. I have my two worst classes (I have 16 total every week) and every class of theirs is always, ALWAYS Hell. I don’t even try controlling the majority of them anymore. I teach to the 8 girls who give a shit, and let the others do what they want. I also teach 6 classes on Thursdays (I teach 2 and 3 most other days) so I don’t have the energy to put forth to get them to STFU. My first class of the day is the worst, which contains my worst student, whom I have nicknamed (not to her face, of course!) psychopath. She just…is. There really is no other way to describe her. Even my Korean co-teacher told me to ignore her and not try, because they can’t even control her. She will randomly laugh maniacally in your face or do something just…completely psycho. Case in point: Last Thursday, I had to teach without a coteacher (she warned me of this the day before), so I was emotionally prepared for battle, I knew that it was going to be hell. The class was, of course, rambunctious and insane. I am doing something on my computer and all of a sudden, I hear this WHIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. A whirring sound in the distance+psycho laughing is never, NEVER a good thing to hear. I look up…and WTF!?!? I see pyshopath girl with a mother fucking DRILL! An electric drill. She is holding it in the air, drilling away, laughing psychotically, while other students lunge at the drill and try to get the drill to stab papers as she is dodging with a moving drill that has a drill bit on it!! I literally, outloud, though I know no students heard me because they were too engrossed with the paper-drilling-dodging-just waiting for an eyeball to come out-goings on, I go, “What the FUCK?!?” One of the girls involved in this little charade is half Australian/Korean, so speaks 100% fluent English (it is spoken in her home), so she also adds trouble to the class because she knows how to say, Hi my name is Kimberly and I like animals, or whatever…Anyways, I go over and yell, “ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!?” The Australian/Korean girl clearly understood me, I don’t know if the other girls understood my English, but they got the message. Psycho handed the drill over and then I was like WTF do I do with this?!? And just put it under my desk. I then proceeded to turn on Youtube videos (which I’ve never done before) and sat on the window ledge convincing myself not to jump…ok it wasn’t that bad lol. But, I was definitely having a moment. It didn’t make matters any better that I was extremely sick and really didn’t want to deal with drilling, paper-dodging psychos. The rest of the day followed suit and was a day from hell.
Speaking of being sick. I am sick AGAIN. Though, on the tail end of it as I write this. I started getting sick about 10 days ago, just feeling lethargic and felt the all-telling tickle in my throat. By last Sunday (8 days ago) I was SICK. Full-blown, crazy sick. I knew I wasn’t going to school Monday, but hoped for the best. I woke-up last Monday morning and had no voice, felt like dying and was just in pain, everywhere. Sore throat, sinus pressure/infection, migraine, cough etc…So, I called in. My coteacher didn’t give me any grief, which I was shocked about! Tuesday morning, I go to school, (had I been in the US I would have been home), and the FIRST thing he says to me is, “It is my opinion that when we have many holidays, you should not take sick days.” I was enraged. We had the four-day weekend and the random holiday. But, seriously?!? Yes, I purposely planned this. Monday is a super easy day for me (teach few classes), but I decided to just waste one of my 7 sick days merely to piss you off. Next time, I will make sure I get sick on a holiday so I don’t irritate you. The nerve. But, it makes sense. Koreans don’t take sick days, either do Korean children. One of the reasons I am always sick. Or, as my co-teacher thinks, because I am vegetarian. He says to me (almost immediately proceeding the don’t take sick days when we have holidays comment), “It is my opinion that you should begin eating meat.” Ok, I’ll get right on that. Screw 6 years of vegetarianism, it is causing the common cold and flu!!! Someone get him a Nobel Peace Prize. So now everyday, I get to hear (at least twice) to eat meat and asking what meat I have eaten the previous day. And, for the record, no, I am not eating meat. What I want to scream at him is, “Maybe, Mr. Jang, I am getting sick because you people NEVER wash your hands (there isn’t even soap in the girls bathroom, and the teachers rarely wash their hands in the teacher’s room, case in point: a bar of soap lasts an entire month in the bathroom for 20+ women), don’t take sick days so you come to school sick and spread germs EVERYWHERE! And my poor, compromised, American immune system that isn’t used to these new strains of bacteria, IS FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!” But, instead I say, “Ok, thank you Mr. Jang.” Sigh. At least this bout of illness I was fully equipped. Between my Mom/Aunt/Grandma, I had liquid Nyquil, day/night cold medicine, inhalers, antihistamines, Vick’s, Mucinex and probably more stuff. My poor kidneys have taken so much abuse here from all the drugs I have to dump into my body!
Another potential cause for my persistent illnesses (other than those listed above) is the fact that my girls love me, and as a result, will randomly pop food into my mouth mid-sentence, so I don’t have time to react/refuse. These are the same hands that go unwashed after using the bathroom….While I appreciate the sentiment, my immune system/germophobic self, does not. I obsessively use hand sanitizer (so much to the point that my students ask, “Teacher, why, always lotion?” and after each hand-to-mouth food incident, I make up an EmergenC shot in a dixie cup and shoot it. It is like sanitizer for my mouth….the logic works, right?!?! Lol.
The weather continues to get warmer here (yay!) and more humid (not so yay, but I will take it over the bitter cold!) With nice weather, comes travel plans! This weekend I head to the beach, and soon I will be headed to Jeju Island. Think Hawaii, but less tropical.
On a more sad note that I feel I must mention because it is still bothering me....is something I witnessed on Saturday. I was walking out of my gym, and heard a little whimper and cry, sounded very much like a puppy's whimper. There are usually two dogs chained up on the side of the gym (the kind of dogs that are eaten here) and I looked, to see that the large adult white dog had been replaced with a small, furry little puppy. My heart broke into a million pieces. As soon as he saw me, he tried lunging to get to me and was crying like crazy. I hesitated for a moment, afraid I would get yelled at for petting the food/dog, but thought, I don't give a shit! I went over and gave him some love and pets. He was so happy! Wagged his little tail like crazy and gave me kisses. Our little moment was short lived because the remaining adult dog on a chain kept lunging at me (couldn't get to me because he was chained) and barking like crazy. So, I reluctantly stopped and walked away...to more puppo cries ) : Poor little puppo. It really bothered me. I know some people make the argument that "we" (Americans/westerners) eat cows, and others think those are sacred, we eat pigs, others think those are sacred/have behaviors very similar to dogs and etc...but, I DON'T EAT ANY OF THEM. Because of this, it deeply bothered me. I see the dogs often here chained, waiting for their eventual death and place on the dinner table, but I just have to try and ignore it. But…the puppy. Seeing a PUPPY just killed me. Usually the dogs look really depressed and aren't animated. This puppy was very animated because...well, it is a puppy! I know it is something I can't change here, just as I don't agree with the way animals in our own country are raised/slaughtered for food. It is just hard when something so cute and fuzzy is in your face, and giving your hand kisses, to ignore the harsh reality it faces. My heart is still broken from it. I am an animal lover (one of the reasons for my vegetarianism) and a dog/puppy lover. I wasn't raised with dogs (we always had cats), but when my sister had goldens (Sadie and Sammers), I realized I had a dog-shaped hole in my heart and didn't even realize it. I am now a bona-fide dog person and this just...ahh. Clearly, really bothered me. Thoughts of stealing said puppy have definitely entered my mind...but how to get said puppy back home, LOL.
I think that is about it for this long story. This Friday marks the official I’ve been teaching for 1/4 of a year in Korea. Craziness! I have been gone (including orientation) for over three months now.
Since I have been gone officially for over three months, I thought I would talk about some of the things that I miss. I clearly miss all of my people, but beyond that, the “things” we take for granted, or never had to do without before, or have, but don’t like it.
They are: Trader Joe’s. Wine. Washing machines that don’t eat/destroy my clothes (for whatever reason, they are really hard on clothes here.) Washing machines that have the ability to wash in hot water. A dryer. Non-stiff clothes due to air-drying. The ability for clothes to dry quickly (the humidity that is starting makes air-drying quite the process). Animals as pets in my life. Driving. The ability to get in a car and just go where I want to go. The radio. New music on said radio. Having a choice of many different outfits rather than having to wear the same damn thing every week to school (I only have so many modest/professional outfits!). Diet Pepsi. Seltzer water. Ovens (I don’t have one). Farmers markets. PCC. Taco Time. Chipotle. Mexican food. Limes. Avocados. Guacamole. Good, crisp apples. The ability to go to the doctor without hassle or wondering if you’ll be understood. Not being sick constantly. Refried beans. Baths. Showers that don’t get my entire bathroom wet. Carpet. Shopping/wandering aimlessly at Target or Wal-Mart or wherever. My gym. Spin class. Weight lifting class. Nice gym equipment. Elliptical machines. Yoga class. Hot tubs. Saunas. Recycling. Being understood/understanding everything. Comfortable beds. The smell of BBQ in the air. Fresh air. Not having allergies. Grass. The smell of fresh cut grass. Seeing water. Seattle.
And of course, I miss all of you!! Talk to you all soon, write me and update me on your lives ( :
Love ya!
Kimberly
