My decision to write something (however small) at least once a week has failed yet again. It’s not because I don’t have anything to say, it’s more like I haven’t used my down time properly.
Plus some of the things that’ve been going on at my school aren’t really blogable (how do you spell a made up word? blogible?).
For instance, there was some drama with one of our foreign teachers who got in a fight with a Korean teacher. Not fistfight (though that’d be interesting), but more of the screaming variety. It’d be pretty awful of me to go into details about just how *ahem* extreme this foreign teacher got that day, but it sure made for an interesting week.
We also had our “New Year’s Show.” This is a very big deal at our school, and the kids had to prepare for a play, several songs, and speeches. We rented costumes that fit with our plays and had props and songs in the middle. There was even a costume change for the “speeches,” which were a reprisal of the Halloween stories they memorized months ago. The kids sang, danced, and acted. If you think this was a little much for a bunch of six year olds, you're right. But my kids were happy through all of it. They had the best attitudes, and I hardly had to bribe them with candy or anything (until the last day).
My class did “Shepherd Boy,” which is the story of the boy who cried wolf. I didn’t pick the play or the parts (I wasn’t teaching them yet). But I can tell you, the child who played the Shepherd Boy was typecast. He said his lines with such glee, there was no doubt in my mind about what he’d be doing if he were in charge of sheep. Unfortunately, he’s the biggest child in the class, and the wolf was played by the smallest. However, the wolf was so adorable it didn’t matter at all.
Plus the Shepherd Boy wasn’t exactly wearing an intimidating costume. I picked out a shepherd costume for him, but my partner teacher didn’t think it was cute enough (no comment). So this poor kid had to wear what I could only describe as a wood sprite costume. I.e: Brown spandex with a tiny grass skirt. He wasn’t pleased, and I couldn’t blame him. I can only imagine the look on his face when they pulled out the brown spandex suit. He’s a big kid, and that was a tiny jumper.
Anyway, I guess I did have something to talk about. The show went off with a couple hitches, but nothing disastrous. Plus now I can just relax with my kids and do art and science, etc in the afternoons. Yea! We’re teaching instead of rehearsing!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Home is where the food is
I don't usually get homesick here, but yesterday I got news that a friend is going to have a baby (congratulations!). It made me think about all the things I miss out on by being in a different country.
On the plus side, baby clothes and such are really cute and really cheap here. So she has no idea what can of worms she opened by telling me.
The great thing about Seoul is that when you feel like something from home, you can usually find it or a close facsimile. I mean, I live a block away from TGIFridays. Outback steakhouse is a five minute cab ride in either direction, and Dunkin Donuts is everywhere. I don't actually go to those places, but they are an option. There's also Costco, which can be a source of those hard to find items. A foreign food market is in Itaewan, not to mention a plethora of foreign restaurants.
So in short, I have a lot of food from home available to me. Food is a big factor in how homesick I feel, so that's helpful. Granted no amount of McDonalds can make up for the fact that I can't have my mom's homemade cinnamon rolls or turkey tetrazzini. I can make some of those things here (but let's be honest, it always tastes better when she does it). Then there are always those kind of disgusting items that you crave but can't find as easily. My parents remedied that by bringing me candy corn for Christmas. Mom was a little concerned about it being old, but it's candy corn after all. It was probably already a year old when she bought it. I think it was available around Halloween, but I had trouble finding it. Now I'm holding my breath for Easter jelly beans.
Though in a funny twist of fate, I got homesick for Korean food when I was in China. I'm not sure what that means for me when I get home because I'm not sure South Dakota has any Korean Restaurants.
I guess that means the main source of my homesickness is going to be when people I love and care about have positive or negative news. So far, I haven't been able to be home for a wedding, the baby news, or a friend with serious medical worries. Maybe it doesn't make a HUGE difference to them, but when I can't even call someone to say "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE HAVING A BABY!" without planning the time days in advance, it kinda sucks.
Stupid fifteen hour time difference.
On the plus side, baby clothes and such are really cute and really cheap here. So she has no idea what can of worms she opened by telling me.
The great thing about Seoul is that when you feel like something from home, you can usually find it or a close facsimile. I mean, I live a block away from TGIFridays. Outback steakhouse is a five minute cab ride in either direction, and Dunkin Donuts is everywhere. I don't actually go to those places, but they are an option. There's also Costco, which can be a source of those hard to find items. A foreign food market is in Itaewan, not to mention a plethora of foreign restaurants.
So in short, I have a lot of food from home available to me. Food is a big factor in how homesick I feel, so that's helpful. Granted no amount of McDonalds can make up for the fact that I can't have my mom's homemade cinnamon rolls or turkey tetrazzini. I can make some of those things here (but let's be honest, it always tastes better when she does it). Then there are always those kind of disgusting items that you crave but can't find as easily. My parents remedied that by bringing me candy corn for Christmas. Mom was a little concerned about it being old, but it's candy corn after all. It was probably already a year old when she bought it. I think it was available around Halloween, but I had trouble finding it. Now I'm holding my breath for Easter jelly beans.
Though in a funny twist of fate, I got homesick for Korean food when I was in China. I'm not sure what that means for me when I get home because I'm not sure South Dakota has any Korean Restaurants.
I guess that means the main source of my homesickness is going to be when people I love and care about have positive or negative news. So far, I haven't been able to be home for a wedding, the baby news, or a friend with serious medical worries. Maybe it doesn't make a HUGE difference to them, but when I can't even call someone to say "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE HAVING A BABY!" without planning the time days in advance, it kinda sucks.
Stupid fifteen hour time difference.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Beijing Again
It's been really busy since I've come back, and the knowledge that I have to report an entire vacation trip was daunting.
So I'm not going to go in depth. Let's be honest, how many of you are interested in hearing about how beautiful the Great Wall is? Again?
My vacation started with a Christmas Eve dinner/Yankee swap at S and D's. I made crescent rolls, which went over well. Crescent rolls have to be the most magical recipe in history. I've never met someone who didn't like Mom's fresh crescent rolls. They're practically a legend in our family (as some of you family members may attest), and they certainly were popular at the party.
Anyway, the next morning I flew to Shanghai. I met my friend Erika there, and we had a whole lot of fun. Practically everything was closed or under construction, though. Lonely Planet also led us astray with a "History of Sex" museum that we thought sounded interesting. It turns out that museum hasn't existed for a while. So we basically asked a whole bunch of strangers where the "Sex Museum" was for no reason. Oops. Most people just laughed and shook their heads anyway. Crazy foreigners!
I planned on taking an overnight train to Beijing, but as apparently was the theme of my trip, I missed it. There were a few tense hours where I envisioned my parents wandering the airport, worried that some disaster had befallen me. Luckily, my sister was able to text Mom’s cell while they were on a layover in Vancouver. You’ve got to love modern technology (email and text equals disaster averted! Okay, maybe not a disaster, but a whole lot of worry and waffling was averted. Nobody likes wafflers. Though waffles are universally loved.)
Sorry.
We met at the hostel (by the way, Mom and Dad are cool enough to want to stay in a hostel in China) and had Peking duck our first night. We hit all the major sights (Tienenman Square, Forbidden City, Night Market, Lama Temple, GREAT WALL, etc). Mom and Dad were really game. That’s something, considering I was kind of inconsiderate when I was making arrangements. As a good example, I didn’t book the overnight train to Xi-an in advance, partly because I couldn’t figure out the website. So when I had the hostel book the beds, I just jumped on whatever was available. “Whatever was available” turned out to be the top bunks in a hard sleeper. Top bunks of triple bunk beds, that is. Now, that’s not a big deal for me, but Mom and Dad aren’t in their twenties anymore. To top it off, I may have laughed at them when they hoisted themselves up into their bunks. Just a little.
Yeah. They love me (or else I’d be dead long ago).
Naturally top bunks were the only things available on the way back, as well.
Mom and Dad were infinitely good natured about the fact that we went to and from Xi-an in twenty-four hours, not to mention hard sleepers and my crabbiness about being in charge. (We’ve established that I’m not a planner, right?) But the fact is, they got off 15 hour flight, slept one night in good beds, and then took a hard sleeper to and from Xi-an. Dad and my brother figured out that doing Xi-an like that would be about like going to and from the Grand Canyon from Sioux Falls in a day.
So basically insane.
But they were good. If my daughter put me through that (in thirty years or so), I’d probably want to smack her. They may have felt the same way, but they hid such feelings very well.
We proceeded to take in the Great Wall at Mutianyu and an acrobatics show. We also toured a few temples and a bell tower. Our toes got cold, and my parents embarrassed me a little. If you guys know my dad, you can’t imagine it’s a stretch. If you don’t, let me describe him as succinctly as possible (by the way, I love you Dad): He’s a big, booming man with a big booming voice. He stood one or two heads taller than most of the people in the subways, has a beard and mustache, and wore a fedora.
A fedora.
Yes. He may have stood out a little. That didn’t bother him in the least, but I’m kind of used to being the lone Caucasian and most people avoiding eye contact.
Going home was as problematic as getting in to Beijing (I got snowed in and almost didn’t get home.) but that’s a story for another time. No one needs to hear about my heels getting frostbite right now.
Overall, I think it was a successful trip. I wasn’t as patient or nice to my parents as I should have been. I’m sorry about that. But they’re stuck with me, and I doubt they expected perfection from me. Lord knows, I’m probably the least good natured of the family and that was never a secret. But they CLAIMED they liked the trip, and I hope this will just be an indication of more international travel for them in the future!
So I'm not going to go in depth. Let's be honest, how many of you are interested in hearing about how beautiful the Great Wall is? Again?
My vacation started with a Christmas Eve dinner/Yankee swap at S and D's. I made crescent rolls, which went over well. Crescent rolls have to be the most magical recipe in history. I've never met someone who didn't like Mom's fresh crescent rolls. They're practically a legend in our family (as some of you family members may attest), and they certainly were popular at the party.
Anyway, the next morning I flew to Shanghai. I met my friend Erika there, and we had a whole lot of fun. Practically everything was closed or under construction, though. Lonely Planet also led us astray with a "History of Sex" museum that we thought sounded interesting. It turns out that museum hasn't existed for a while. So we basically asked a whole bunch of strangers where the "Sex Museum" was for no reason. Oops. Most people just laughed and shook their heads anyway. Crazy foreigners!
I planned on taking an overnight train to Beijing, but as apparently was the theme of my trip, I missed it. There were a few tense hours where I envisioned my parents wandering the airport, worried that some disaster had befallen me. Luckily, my sister was able to text Mom’s cell while they were on a layover in Vancouver. You’ve got to love modern technology (email and text equals disaster averted! Okay, maybe not a disaster, but a whole lot of worry and waffling was averted. Nobody likes wafflers. Though waffles are universally loved.)
Sorry.
We met at the hostel (by the way, Mom and Dad are cool enough to want to stay in a hostel in China) and had Peking duck our first night. We hit all the major sights (Tienenman Square, Forbidden City, Night Market, Lama Temple, GREAT WALL, etc). Mom and Dad were really game. That’s something, considering I was kind of inconsiderate when I was making arrangements. As a good example, I didn’t book the overnight train to Xi-an in advance, partly because I couldn’t figure out the website. So when I had the hostel book the beds, I just jumped on whatever was available. “Whatever was available” turned out to be the top bunks in a hard sleeper. Top bunks of triple bunk beds, that is. Now, that’s not a big deal for me, but Mom and Dad aren’t in their twenties anymore. To top it off, I may have laughed at them when they hoisted themselves up into their bunks. Just a little.
Yeah. They love me (or else I’d be dead long ago).
Naturally top bunks were the only things available on the way back, as well.
Mom and Dad were infinitely good natured about the fact that we went to and from Xi-an in twenty-four hours, not to mention hard sleepers and my crabbiness about being in charge. (We’ve established that I’m not a planner, right?) But the fact is, they got off 15 hour flight, slept one night in good beds, and then took a hard sleeper to and from Xi-an. Dad and my brother figured out that doing Xi-an like that would be about like going to and from the Grand Canyon from Sioux Falls in a day.
So basically insane.
But they were good. If my daughter put me through that (in thirty years or so), I’d probably want to smack her. They may have felt the same way, but they hid such feelings very well.
We proceeded to take in the Great Wall at Mutianyu and an acrobatics show. We also toured a few temples and a bell tower. Our toes got cold, and my parents embarrassed me a little. If you guys know my dad, you can’t imagine it’s a stretch. If you don’t, let me describe him as succinctly as possible (by the way, I love you Dad): He’s a big, booming man with a big booming voice. He stood one or two heads taller than most of the people in the subways, has a beard and mustache, and wore a fedora.
A fedora.
Yes. He may have stood out a little. That didn’t bother him in the least, but I’m kind of used to being the lone Caucasian and most people avoiding eye contact.
Going home was as problematic as getting in to Beijing (I got snowed in and almost didn’t get home.) but that’s a story for another time. No one needs to hear about my heels getting frostbite right now.
Overall, I think it was a successful trip. I wasn’t as patient or nice to my parents as I should have been. I’m sorry about that. But they’re stuck with me, and I doubt they expected perfection from me. Lord knows, I’m probably the least good natured of the family and that was never a secret. But they CLAIMED they liked the trip, and I hope this will just be an indication of more international travel for them in the future!
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