Wood Sprite

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!

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.

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!

Holiday Post

I thought I'd left the college mindset, but I was very wrong.

You see, we have a massive amount of paperwork due tomorrow (evaluations for all of our classes). Have I done it yet? Soooorta...

What have I done instead? Not facebook. Lots of people procrastinate with facebook, but the allure of that has long since gone for me. There's also Youtube, which is often good for several hours of wasted time.

In the past two days when I should have done this paperwork, I watched, A Christmas Story, The Year without a Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and The Santa Clause, 1, 2, and 3. Did you know there was a The Santa Claus 3? Me neither.

I guess it's just the fact that this week is holiday week. No one wants to work when they've got a vacation come Thursday. By this time next week, I'll be in Beijing with... MY PARENTS! I'm pretty psyched about it, as you may have guessed. Though I think I've seen more of them since I left the country (Skype has given me weekly viewings of their faces, though not always sound), it'll be really cool to see them over the holidays.

For those of you who don't know, we're meeting in Beijing on the Monday after Christmas. We'll go to the Great Wall (with all the benefits of my experiences...), the Forbidden City, Tienanmen square, and the terracotta army in Xi-an. Basically it'll be a brief "best of" tour. Maybe I can convince them to eat chicken feet.

Probably not. We know where those feet have been. Although apparently the majority of the chicken feet in China are shipped from the states. I can't remember if it's Wisconsin or maybe Michigan.

Over Christmas itself, I'll be in Shanghai. I'll be meeting a friend there and taking in the sights for a few days, then I'll take the train to Beijing. Considering I came here with no real idea of who I'd be spending Christmas with, or what I might be doing, I'm really happy with the way things have turned out.

So I guess I'll talk to you guys later! Happy Holidays!

Sweet?

I don’t know when I’ll stop getting surprised by things I eat in Korea. Probably never. But it got me thinking about the differences between what Americans consider “sweet” food, versus Korea’s “sweet” food.

In some things, the differences are kind of drastic. Koreans like to fill pastries and the like with a sweet red bean paste. It looks a little like chocolate, so it can surprise you. One of the first things I ate in Korea was a croissant with red bean paste inside. It took me a while to figure it out. Though I don’t really mind it, I find most of the bean paste fillings sweet but plain. Give me chocolate any day.

I was told that Koreans think of tomatoes as fruit. Before you email me to say “They are fruit,” I know. We learned that in fifth grade. Regardless, Americans don’t treat tomatoes like fruits. In our minds, the fruit thing is a technicality based on seed placement rather than flavor. However, when kids have a birthday at our school, most parents give them oranges and cherry tomatoes. We also get cakes from Paris Baguette, and if you buy a vanilla cake, they put fruit on top. Cherry tomatoes are included. I couldn’t help but wonder how Koreans feel about pizza or pasta. Do they find the tomato sauce really unappetizing and weird? That might explain why so many pizzas I’ve eaten are lower on sauce.

Those are two relatively big differences, but I also found that Koreans have pretty intense sweet teeth (that doesn’t sound right). The cakes I mentioned always have sugary frosting. I can’t eat them at all. You know the frosting on pre-made cakes that seems like it’s just made of sugar and food dye? It looks a little like toothpaste and gives people headaches? Korean frosting has more. It’s similar in consistency to a cream frosting, but somehow the people who made it managed to add more sugar.

Also, sweets abound everywhere. I know most of my impressions are influenced by the fact that I’m teaching small children, but there’s a whole lot of candy out there. Most of said candy tends toward the fruit flavors and hard candies rather than chocolate or caramel. Heck, I’ve even found the fruit juices really sugary. Granted, I used to drink cranberry juice, so maybe I’m not the best judge…

You also find sugar on or in surprising things. One of my first weeks here, I bought garlic chips (like in Gardettos). I was wholly unprepared for the sugar on top. Not having much of a sweet tooth (particularly when mixed with garlic), I swore I’d never buy chips again. About a week ago, I made the same mistake. Sure, after tasting the sugary garlic chips, I remembered my earlier experience, but what does that matter? For some reason, chips and crackers sometimes have sugar. I’m not wild about chips in the first place, so I’ve been avoiding them (not to be unadventurous but I’m not a fan of the seafood flavored chips, anyway). Apparently the result of that is a bad memory for what is sweet and what is not.

Okay, I’d better stop. I’m getting hungry, and pretty soon I’ll work up some enthusiasm for the garlic chips. I don’t want to make that mistake thrice.

Brown Class :)

Today was my first day back to teaching morning classes. I’d forgotten how quickly the days go by when you have morning kindergarten. Not to mention I spent most of the day feeling like a moron. I’ve been teaching for five months, but the second anything changes, I feel like I’m back to square one.

Case in point:
We have a Theme book that we do in morning class. I taught the book in an afternoon class, but I never had flashcards. So naturally I screwed up the flashcards and felt like a complete prat. Even though I've taught a morning class (we didn't have Theme book in baby class), it's still nowhere near natural for me.

I’d really like it if I stopped feeling like a prat sometime soon. I know growing experiences are good for people and all, but it’s damn uncomfortable.

This morning class is really sweet. While I may have made a few (okay, several) mistakes, it’s a lot better than baby class was. I’m afraid that I’ll end up eating my words (fifty-fifty odds), but I really like them. They’re all really sweet. In my previous class, a couple of the kids were kind of nasty to each other (hitting or lying). But Brown class kids aren’t like that. I’m told the largest kid isn’t always gentle, but for the most part the children are good. I just hope I don’t screw them up or ruin the dynamics somehow. Another thing that’s nice about taking an older class (they’re six years old) is that they’re less likely to cry or pee their pants. Also, they can put on their shoes on their own, take things out of their cubbies without me watching, and go to the bathroom alone. All of those things are remarkable to me.

I’ll miss the relaxation of working silently at my desk in the mornings, but my days are going to go so much faster! I lucked out on how great the kids are (please don’t let me eat my words too much), and how willing my partner teacher is to help me. We'll see if I've still got the same attitude at the end of the week.

Rubber Seoul

So there was this benefit called “Rubber Seoul” here in, well, Seoul. Basically, people went to Hongdae and paid ten dollars to get into a bar (and thus get into all the Hongdae bars). Earlier I mentioned that I thought the tiny black dolls were a little hinky. Someone posted about how I was an ignorant ass in saying so (actually, he was nicer about it, but that's the gist), and I suppose that is true. I was being flippant about an AIDS cause, which is not cool.

(The pin I was flippant about)
ref="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTRGfpdWJzJvNPNFnFeRj7zoMwT1oYpq0q7PoUm9TPHFh4SSDmaQbcrEpJrAZ86M4Q5GWUFjPMoLBURy9uD8JILcgPvzEja-CQC8KRl_FKQeHwYWUg4RrZeapUm8rPH6SgA2mQwoI5_EA/s1600-h/DSC00030.JPG">

I appreciate him commenting on my posting, because I cringed a little when I reread it (not my finest hour). Looking over the benefit site in more detail (I scanned the facebook group but didn't sit down and read yesterday), it makes more sense that it did at three in the morning last night. For those of you who are curious, here's a the organization's website: http://www.littletravellers.net

This was to benefit a specific AIDS organization based in South Africa. "Little Travellers" are made by women in South Africa who are affected by AIDS, hence the black pins. However, if you miss the slide show beforehand (which I'm guessing more than my crowd did) the reasoning behind the pins isn't immediately transparent. I may have been hasty in my comments, but I don't think they're without ANY merit. After all, if I hadn't blogged about the event (and gotten a well worded, entirely justified response), I wouldn't have learned much about the organization, and all I'd know is that there was an AIDS fundraiser handing out little black dolls and condoms. An oversimplification, but I'm not going to credit myself with an abundance of critical thinking when it comes to a late night out at Hongdae. Not everyone who happens upon a fundraiser researches the meaning behind it, especially if it takes place in bars. Of course, most of those people probably don't post their impressions for all to see after said fundraiser, so that's my mistake.

This is a good lesson for me, because I learned I shouldn't write a post at three in the morning on a Saturday night. I also learned that not just my parents can see this (I'm not sure how he happened upon my blog, but I didn't really think anyone other than people from home would take time to read it). I guess I should make sure to write when I'm clear-headed, or I may anger total strangers rather than just elicit eye rolls from the people who know me.

While we were at "Rubber Seoul" we met some people that frequent our local bar. It was kind of funny to meet them outside of our neighborhood. Either way, I ended up talking to this guy named Songbae about how cool Jeju island is. Apparently, it's the most beautiful part of Korea and I should visit during the winter. Other people may disagree, Sunbae. (Sunbae is a term of respect for a guy who's older than you while you're in school. It's too close to his name to ignore, and we just call him Sunbae. I'm sure he loves it as much as I'd love being called Janet.)

The big news, however, is that our school just got a new girl. Her name is Laura, and here’s the weird thing: she’s from South Dakota! She’s from Yankton, and she went to McCalister. Isn’t that strange? Not only was it weird that she’s from the same area as me, but she also went to Minnesota for school. I’m pretty psyched about it.

And this crow I'm eating? A little stringy.