I've had my first Christmas away from home ever in life, and really, it wasn't very traumatic or distressing for me. I slept in a lot, considering I've been keeping pretty early hours for those kindergarten buggers this month -_- Then the coworkers and I hit the grocery store for supplies for Christmas lunch/dinner. Our menu was assorted: corn, bacon wrapped around cocktail wieners, sushi, mushrooms, chicken, croissants, and mashed potatoes. We were going to make fajitas, but the guacamole didn't work out, the chicken and cheese got cold, and there was no sour cream to begin with, so we made a last minute menu alteration and had breakfast tacos instead ^.^
Why was your Christmas feast so weird? You might be wondering. Where's the bird? Also a good question. Simple answer, too. No oven, no microwave, and rotisserie isn't too big here. We take what we can get :-)
So we sat on the floor and ate out of pie tins (no table or chairs and not enough plates) and watched White Christmas on a computer. At one point my friend dropped the plate of eggs into soapy water (no counters for the plates, and we were using the drawers as makeshift counter space), but we rinsed them off, fried them up a bit more to steam off the water, and resolved that if any of us got food poisoning, we'd all call in and get an extra holiday :-D
Dessert was a lovely homemade cheesecake, made from my partially-molded cream cheese, but we didn't eat the moldy part, natch. So not a bad Christmas, really. I talked to the fam via webcam, because we're super-modern that way, heehee.
Less than six weeks till I'm back home, y'all!! I'm starting to get a little excited (and tired of teaching, lol).
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Chapter 63: "Death Threats to Santa"
Here are some letters to Santa that some of the kids wrote. I think they're all about ten or so.
(Edited slightly for grievous grammatical error)
"Hello! Santa, my name is Do Yeon. This year you give me a mobile phone. Where are you living? You live in Santa Town? And how old are you? Um....I think you are 1,000! Are you alive? You have a lot of presents. I want a lot of presents. Bye."
-Julie
"Hi Santa. You didn't give me any presents. I'm very angry. Maybe if you don't give me presents, your Rudolph will die. This is true. You look like who? Please give me presents. How old are you? I think you are 10,000 years old. Give me an MP3 player."
-Paul
"Dear Santa Claus, my name is Soung Je and my English name is Evan. You give me a present. Next year you can give me wings and magic powder, please. I like you, because you give presents to children. I'm angry because last year you didn't give me a present. Santa have a happy Christmas!"
-Evan
"Hello, Santa Clause. I like you. But you didn't give me any presents. I'm angry. Then where do you live? I live in Korea. How old are you? I'm 11 years old. Do you have any brothers or sisters? I don't have any brothers or sisters. What's your hobby? My hobby is listening to music. Are you alive? Your life, it's a lie. Next year, please give me Rudolph as a present. Bye bye."
-Kevin
"Hello Santa Clause! I'm Cindy. I'm 12 years old. However I haven't been given any Christmas presents so far. So Christmas is nothing special for me. I want some presents please. I want a hand phone. Santa give the presents to me. I love Santa. Give me presents! I will kill you!"
-Cindy
Ah, kids these days. Readers, I give you the future of Korea!! Hide your reindeer. And your presents.
(Edited slightly for grievous grammatical error)
"Hello! Santa, my name is Do Yeon. This year you give me a mobile phone. Where are you living? You live in Santa Town? And how old are you? Um....I think you are 1,000! Are you alive? You have a lot of presents. I want a lot of presents. Bye."
-Julie
"Hi Santa. You didn't give me any presents. I'm very angry. Maybe if you don't give me presents, your Rudolph will die. This is true. You look like who? Please give me presents. How old are you? I think you are 10,000 years old. Give me an MP3 player."
-Paul
"Dear Santa Claus, my name is Soung Je and my English name is Evan. You give me a present. Next year you can give me wings and magic powder, please. I like you, because you give presents to children. I'm angry because last year you didn't give me a present. Santa have a happy Christmas!"
-Evan
"Hello, Santa Clause. I like you. But you didn't give me any presents. I'm angry. Then where do you live? I live in Korea. How old are you? I'm 11 years old. Do you have any brothers or sisters? I don't have any brothers or sisters. What's your hobby? My hobby is listening to music. Are you alive? Your life, it's a lie. Next year, please give me Rudolph as a present. Bye bye."
-Kevin
"Hello Santa Clause! I'm Cindy. I'm 12 years old. However I haven't been given any Christmas presents so far. So Christmas is nothing special for me. I want some presents please. I want a hand phone. Santa give the presents to me. I love Santa. Give me presents! I will kill you!"
-Cindy
Ah, kids these days. Readers, I give you the future of Korea!! Hide your reindeer. And your presents.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Chapter 62: "The Nerve"
So, being typically Korean and all, my neighborhood has roughly one hundred-twenty-seven tiny corner shops for all of your random late-night eating needs. Seriously though, on the back street off of where I live, there are about seven corner shops over a 3-block span.
The corner shop closest to where I live is this little bitty shop run by an older couple. And some corner store chain has had the nerve to open another shop of theirs right across from this little one. Because it's a chain, it's bigger, it's got a pretty sign lit up outside, the aisles are big enough to walk forward through, and not sideways. And poor Mom and Pop across the street are trying to compete with all these sales and such, even though their store is about the size of my bedroom, and it's being run out of the front part of their apartment.
So we (the other foreign coworkers and I) have been stoutly boycotting this shiny new shop by shopping quite frequently at the old one. I swear, could this new company not have set up their store just a block down? All of the other stores seem to exist in relative peace.
In other news, there is a girl in one of my classes who I particularly don't care for. She's just getting into junior high, and she's always got the nastiest attitude in class with me. She screams and slams things around when I give homework, and I'm like, uhhhh....how old are you? (She's about 12, if you're actually curious.) She's pretty much just putting on a very juvenile show. She'll barely speak any English to me, and when she speaks Korean, she kind of glares at me and whines and shouts a lot, so she permanently sounds angry and rebellious.
But I was complaining to the Korean head teacher about this (after they locked me out of the classroom), and she said that this girl isn't actually angry, her face is just stuck that way. And her voice is stuck that way too. If that's true, and she isn't playing the Korean teacher a big fat lie, that must be a horrible life. Lots of times Koreans tend to sound angry when they're not, but this girl has it baaaaaaad. I mean, if you're screaming and your eyes are narrowed and you've got a frown on, it must be hard to convince people you're not about to slap them.
The corner shop closest to where I live is this little bitty shop run by an older couple. And some corner store chain has had the nerve to open another shop of theirs right across from this little one. Because it's a chain, it's bigger, it's got a pretty sign lit up outside, the aisles are big enough to walk forward through, and not sideways. And poor Mom and Pop across the street are trying to compete with all these sales and such, even though their store is about the size of my bedroom, and it's being run out of the front part of their apartment.
So we (the other foreign coworkers and I) have been stoutly boycotting this shiny new shop by shopping quite frequently at the old one. I swear, could this new company not have set up their store just a block down? All of the other stores seem to exist in relative peace.
In other news, there is a girl in one of my classes who I particularly don't care for. She's just getting into junior high, and she's always got the nastiest attitude in class with me. She screams and slams things around when I give homework, and I'm like, uhhhh....how old are you? (She's about 12, if you're actually curious.) She's pretty much just putting on a very juvenile show. She'll barely speak any English to me, and when she speaks Korean, she kind of glares at me and whines and shouts a lot, so she permanently sounds angry and rebellious.
But I was complaining to the Korean head teacher about this (after they locked me out of the classroom), and she said that this girl isn't actually angry, her face is just stuck that way. And her voice is stuck that way too. If that's true, and she isn't playing the Korean teacher a big fat lie, that must be a horrible life. Lots of times Koreans tend to sound angry when they're not, but this girl has it baaaaaaad. I mean, if you're screaming and your eyes are narrowed and you've got a frown on, it must be hard to convince people you're not about to slap them.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Chapter 61: "North Korea Does NOT Got Seoul"
Wow. I'm past the 10-month mark, meaning my weeks and days are numbered. I haven't started an official countdown yet, but I think my mom did...about six months back. Also, it's been a little while since I've written anything. I've had another schedule change, and last weekend I went to North Korea, which was interesting.
North Korea....hmmm. It's hard to say what's really going on there, because we weren't even allowed to take photos in most places, just our destinations and the South Korea encampment where we stayed. Also, we were only about a ten minute drive over the border, so who can say if border-land looks the same as interior-land. But if the border land is supposed to be an optimistic view, I don't even want to know what the interior is like.
The border is a complicated arrangement of no-citizen territory for a couple of kilometers, the DMZ, and then another 2 kilometers of no-citizens. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the DMZ, but I can say that it is brown, with lots of barbed wire and some soldiers.
Immigration was scary, because our tour guide told us that the North Koreans wanted to fine tourists for every tiny thing, and he said that they especially disliked Americans. He said that they would interrogate us about where we worked, our background, etc. We all had to stand in line outside of these big tents, where loudspeakers played this obnoxious traditional North Korean song on repeat. The gist of it was welcome, our leader is great, our leader is wonderful, etc. (Translation courtesy of Liz, our Korean coworker who came along.)
Fortunately, I got through with no hitches, and the officer didn't even ask me anything! I was especially relieved, because the occupation printed on my tag (we all had to wear ID tags the whole time) was wrong, but the tour guide said to memorize it anyway. I'm horrible under pressure!
We passed several villages while touring around (there is a nice spa and several hiking courses through the mountains that are the tourist attractions). They were walled in, and all the houses look the same. Our tour guide said 2-3 families live in each one. Also, the villagers had to hide while the buses passed. We could see them through the trees and looking out of the windows, and they came out once the caravan had gone by. Lots of the trees were cut down "to prevent South Korean spies from hiding out."
The eerie thing, besides there being little life aside from North Korean soldiers posted every 200 meters on the road, was that there's zero sign of an economy. No stores, and I only saw one cornfield the entire time I was there. Of course maybe there's a nice Wal-mart stuck way back in one of the villages, but otherwise the soldiers definitely win the best-dressed award, and probably the most well-fed award too.
While we were there we did a lot of hiking around really tall (and cold) mountains, and slept when we weren't hiking. I doubt I've ever gotten so little sleep over a weekend, because Friday night we had to spend the night on the bus, and start the hike at about 9 or 10 in the morning.
Everywhere there are signs carved into rock and stuck on walls about how North Korea will have unification again (under their political way, natch), and one even said death to the American invaders, or something of that sentiment. I felt loved. They're into their Mr. Kim hard core.
Here are some pics.
While you are perusing the pics, you might notice some extra cute Korean children. Those are my new kids :-) Well, some of them are. With my new term schedule, I teach kindergarten! And yeah, they're pretty much adorable. Right now they're practicing for Open Class, which is a performance for their parents. And they've got English lines for plays and everything and it's sooo cute. I'll be filming it, so hopefully I can post some clips online soon.
The rest of my classes are pretty good, and those that aren't, well, I've only got 2 months with them. I have some of my old kids, and a lot of new ones, too. My evil class has been split up, so I don't have to teach them all together. My annoying class with the two girls that cheat and get away with it has grown bigger, but it is now a listening class, which means they have to shut up if they want to hear :-)
I should tell one story about a particular book I have taught OVER AND OVER, Let's Go 3. That is an annoying book, because the material is limited, and every time I teach it, it's to regular elementary-school students, and not super-smart little kids. That age group is really loud and obnoxious. But this term I teach it to two classes, and one of them is entirely mute. Like, they never say a word. It's great.
The other one is a class of six boys and two girls, and they're just as crazy as they come, but oh well. Can't have everything, I guess.
Sadly, I parted ways with the Class of All Boys and One Girl this term. I shall miss them terribly, Emo Kid and the Smart One in particular. The new teacher has them, and I hope he enjoys them because I think they were my favorites, over all.
Later days, kids. Don't give the New Guy gray hair!!
North Korea....hmmm. It's hard to say what's really going on there, because we weren't even allowed to take photos in most places, just our destinations and the South Korea encampment where we stayed. Also, we were only about a ten minute drive over the border, so who can say if border-land looks the same as interior-land. But if the border land is supposed to be an optimistic view, I don't even want to know what the interior is like.
The border is a complicated arrangement of no-citizen territory for a couple of kilometers, the DMZ, and then another 2 kilometers of no-citizens. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the DMZ, but I can say that it is brown, with lots of barbed wire and some soldiers.
Immigration was scary, because our tour guide told us that the North Koreans wanted to fine tourists for every tiny thing, and he said that they especially disliked Americans. He said that they would interrogate us about where we worked, our background, etc. We all had to stand in line outside of these big tents, where loudspeakers played this obnoxious traditional North Korean song on repeat. The gist of it was welcome, our leader is great, our leader is wonderful, etc. (Translation courtesy of Liz, our Korean coworker who came along.)
Fortunately, I got through with no hitches, and the officer didn't even ask me anything! I was especially relieved, because the occupation printed on my tag (we all had to wear ID tags the whole time) was wrong, but the tour guide said to memorize it anyway. I'm horrible under pressure!
We passed several villages while touring around (there is a nice spa and several hiking courses through the mountains that are the tourist attractions). They were walled in, and all the houses look the same. Our tour guide said 2-3 families live in each one. Also, the villagers had to hide while the buses passed. We could see them through the trees and looking out of the windows, and they came out once the caravan had gone by. Lots of the trees were cut down "to prevent South Korean spies from hiding out."
The eerie thing, besides there being little life aside from North Korean soldiers posted every 200 meters on the road, was that there's zero sign of an economy. No stores, and I only saw one cornfield the entire time I was there. Of course maybe there's a nice Wal-mart stuck way back in one of the villages, but otherwise the soldiers definitely win the best-dressed award, and probably the most well-fed award too.
While we were there we did a lot of hiking around really tall (and cold) mountains, and slept when we weren't hiking. I doubt I've ever gotten so little sleep over a weekend, because Friday night we had to spend the night on the bus, and start the hike at about 9 or 10 in the morning.
Everywhere there are signs carved into rock and stuck on walls about how North Korea will have unification again (under their political way, natch), and one even said death to the American invaders, or something of that sentiment. I felt loved. They're into their Mr. Kim hard core.
Here are some pics.
While you are perusing the pics, you might notice some extra cute Korean children. Those are my new kids :-) Well, some of them are. With my new term schedule, I teach kindergarten! And yeah, they're pretty much adorable. Right now they're practicing for Open Class, which is a performance for their parents. And they've got English lines for plays and everything and it's sooo cute. I'll be filming it, so hopefully I can post some clips online soon.
The rest of my classes are pretty good, and those that aren't, well, I've only got 2 months with them. I have some of my old kids, and a lot of new ones, too. My evil class has been split up, so I don't have to teach them all together. My annoying class with the two girls that cheat and get away with it has grown bigger, but it is now a listening class, which means they have to shut up if they want to hear :-)
I should tell one story about a particular book I have taught OVER AND OVER, Let's Go 3. That is an annoying book, because the material is limited, and every time I teach it, it's to regular elementary-school students, and not super-smart little kids. That age group is really loud and obnoxious. But this term I teach it to two classes, and one of them is entirely mute. Like, they never say a word. It's great.
The other one is a class of six boys and two girls, and they're just as crazy as they come, but oh well. Can't have everything, I guess.
Sadly, I parted ways with the Class of All Boys and One Girl this term. I shall miss them terribly, Emo Kid and the Smart One in particular. The new teacher has them, and I hope he enjoys them because I think they were my favorites, over all.
Later days, kids. Don't give the New Guy gray hair!!
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