Korea is a Silly Place Episode 2: You Want What Now?

This is an actual conversation that I had with my co-teacher the morning I ended up going to the doctor about the stabby hurty:

Caroline: "Hey, are you doing anything this afternoon?"
Mrs. Kim: "I have a meeting after our last class, why?"
C: "I have a pain and I want to go to the hospital." (For those of you who don't live in Korea, they go to the hospital for everything.  It's like when we go to the walk in clinic at the doctor's office.)
K: "You have a pain?  Where is it?"
C: "It's here.  It hurts when I move certain ways and when I cough or sneeze and I want to make sure it's not my appendix."
K: "Your what?"
C:  "It's a thing on your intestines.  Anyway, I want to go to the hospital."
K:  "Ok, do you have an appointment?"
C:  "Uh ... no.  I don't speak Korean."  (She knows this.)
K:  "Well, which hospital do you want to go to?"
C:  "I don't know.  I was hoping you could help me with that."
K:  "Do you want to see my husband?"  (Her husband is a surgeon.)
C:  "No, I just want to talk to a doctor to make sure that I am ok."
K:  "So ..." She looks confused.  "You want to go to the hospital but you have no appointment?"

Pause while I think about how to rephrase my request for her to help me go to the hospital.

C:  "I know an English speaking doctor.  I will just go to him."
K:  "Yes, I think that would be best."

END SCENE.

Love/Hate/Overworked/Look what I got!

There are days when I am absolutely, madly in love with Korea.  Days when it can do no wrong.  The weather is perfect, my kids are happy, my co-workers make me laugh.

There are days when I am not so in love.  Days when I would give anything to be able to walk into a store and buy come frosting in a can.  Or maybe some vanilla extract.  Or some black beans.  Or green beans.  Good beer.  Pork chops.  Or being able to find nice specialty shops, like {nice} yarn shops.  OH THE YARN SHOPS.

This week I have been overloaded with work from a special project I have volunteered to help out with.  I didn't realize that it would be this much work when I signed up.  I have been feeling slightly under valued while being horribly overworked.  I'm pretty sure that I have already worked over 40 hours this week - normal working hours plus all the extra time I'm putting into this other project - and it's only Wednesday.

I asked the other people who are involved to help me out - that I am on the verge of being burnt out.  I'm sure they will come through.  They are good people.  This is a good project.  I'm jazzed to be a part of it; I'm just hating the amount of work that I have had to do in one week. 

The work has made me horribly cranky.  I have no patience for some people ... some students too.  I feel angry and sad and tired and empty all at the same time.  But I know that this week will never repeat itself (I am going to make damn sure of that).  This is a one time push and then it's easy street for the rest of the project.

I will show you what I've been working on, I promise.  I am too impressed with myself to not show you.  But that is a post for another day because I'm still not done working on it.

On a happier note, I got a fish!  She is a betta.  Her name is Star Shine.  She lives in a big jar.  She likes to stare at me when I eat breakfast.  Long story short: she totally rocks.

Ouchy Stabby

Last week I had a bit of a health scare.

The short version of it is that I coughed one day and it hurt.  Really hurt.  Like, stabby pain in the area where my appendix likes to hang out.  When the pain didn't go away after a few days I took myself to the only English speaking doctor I know of in Gwangju (he's in the university backgate area - email me if you need the info) to see if I was going to die from a ruptured appendix needed to worry.  I ended up getting a sonogram of my entire torso and the happy news that my appendix was totally not trying to kill me.

As of now I still don't have an official diagnosis of the stabby pain.  But Ryan (being the sporty guy he is) had me do some stretches and we are both pretty sure that I just pulled a muscle.

 Fact:  When you are an expat in Korea you will drink.  You will drink like you have never drunk (drank?) before since university. 

Fact:  Drinking like you are still at university won't do much for your girlish figure.

Bonus fact:  You will also start calling college university because no one from outside the US will know what you are talking about if you don't.

I decided that I didn't like the direction my waist was going (out and over the top of my pants) so a couple of weeks ago I decided that I would join a bootcamp.  I'm pretty sure that the super intense ab workouts we did were the cause of my stabby pain.

The best part of all of this?  The doctor declared that my liver function is normal.  Which I wasn't worried about but is always reassuring to hear from a medical professional.  Especially when you live in Korea.

AND I now have a foot long print out of crappy sonogram pictures of my insides!  I'm thinking I might frame them - but I'm open to suggestions.

A Brief Hitory of May (Part 1)

Well, the most important thing to mention is that it is finally starting to get warm here. FINALLY. I walked home from knit night tonight with bare legs and was totally comfortable and not even a little cold. That's pretty remarkable for me since I have somehow turned into that person who is always cold.

Pretty, pretty Spring flowers.

Next most important thing to mention is that Ryan's little sister came to visit us along with her wonderful friend.

Ms. T is going to not like me much for putting that Dunkin' Doughnuts picture up but really, how could I not? It would be a crime, I tell you. Too cute.

We did all sorts of crazy stuff with them ...

We went to Jinju to see Korean bullfights.

Which, just in case you are wondering, is an extremely humane sport. I was expecting the worst since Koreans are pretty well known for how poorly they treat animals. I once was at a festival petting zoo where there were two rabbits, a skunk having a panic attack, a tortoise and the saddest monkey in the world all in the same cage. It was heartbreaking. I have have teared up a bit and run away.

Anyway, this is how it works: they bring two bulls into the ring and put them face to face. If it looks like one of the bulls is just going to run away, they call the fight and move onto the next match. When the bulls do fight, they just sort of rub their heads together until one of them gets tired and turns tail. The most exciting match we saw was the first one and those two bulls kept taking breaks to give each other kisses. Not to mention these bulls are some of the healthiest looks animals I've seen in Korea. True story.

But enough about Korean bullfights.

Green tea fields. Purdy!

We also took them to the green tea festival in Boesong. If you are ever in Korea and want to go to a festival, I would tell you to come to this one. It was the most un-Korean festival we've gone too since we got here and therefore was the best. Because I am a lazy blogger and Ryan does all the heavy lifting when it comes to blogs you can check out his post here.

We also spent some time on an Island called Namhea-do (I think. But that's probably wrong. I can never remember the name of this place. Hopefully Ryan will blog about it soon so that you can have accurate information) that was caked in fog the entire time we were there. But even covered in fog the island was beautiful.

Roman candles

In Korea beach = fireworks at night. So we did as the Koreans do. In fog of course.

Sparklers

On this island there is a German village, populated by German speaking Koreans, and an American village, populated by Koreans who lived in America and then moved back to Korea to live in stucco houses next to the ocean and make tons of money by having home stays.

And who also happen to be Redskins fans.

We saw some beautiful rice terraces.

In fog.

And drove up the steepest driveway ever ever EVER to see a really interesting monastery all decorated for Buddha's birthday.

Nice view, right?

By the end of our time on the island we were all starting to wonder if the rest of the world was covered in fog. Good news though, the world is not covered in fog. Hooray!

Part 2 is coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

Health Day

I have a terrible cold and as soon as my co-teachers told me we were going to climb the Mudong Mountain (our local mountain - a 30 minute bus ride gets you to the base) for our health day, my nasty cough suddenly got nastier. I'm not really one for climbing mountains and, just so you know, Ryan and I climbed Mudong during another little break we had from school on a day when the weather was nice.

See? We even made it all the way to the top!

Even though getting back down from the top almost killed us. The path up there was caked in ice and if a nice Korean man hadn't stopped to give us his hiking spikes we would have ended the day black and blue and with me in tears. But! I didn't cry even one time! In fact, I would go so far as to say I enjoyed it. Weird right? I don't even know who I am anymore ...

Anyway, I opted to come home and rest. And by rest I mean clean. I don't know what has gotten into me but I have become obsessed with getting our hamper to be empty for at least 15 minutes before we fill it back to overflowing with dirty clothes.

I don't think that's too much to ask for, do you?

And when you have to hang up all your laundry to dry it, you're kind of limited in how many loads you can do in a day. And while I'm all for saving electricity and line drying your clothes (I used to do it all the time in my apartment back in the states) it's a smidge depressing/aggravating when you're really motivated to wash and fold everything that's in the hamper you can't because there just isn't enough space on the rack.

Black and white makes pretty much anything look interesting and arty.

And I would totally invest in some extra floor drying racks but there is just not enough floor space. So instead of being a crazy laundry lady, I settle for washing as many clothes as I think I fit on the rack at once. And usually that's too much. But I look at it like a challenge. Usually I end up the winner. Take that laundry.

Cultural Differences

There are a number of things that Koreans do differently than Americans. Which, duh Caroline. Anyone with a brain in their heads can tell you that different cultures do things differently. For the most part I like to think that I am a pretty easy going person. I'm not so set in my ways that I can't be a little flexible. Besides, it's kind of fun to do things the Korean way (I have the rest of my life to do things my way, amIright?).

Since I got here I have tried extra hard to be patient and to try new things. I have tasted foods I never would have otherwise (hello, kimchi!) and have had experiences that I would never have been open too a few years ago. But, there is always another side to each story. Along with the good that being here brings, there are still a few things though that I just can't deal with:

• Constantly being asked to explain myself.
• I have to explain my opinions (Do you like this? No? But why?). Or why I don't want to eat a particular food (You don't want it now? But why?). Or if I had breakfast that morning (No? BUT WHY? - also, this is always followed by a sad shake of the head. You always eat breakfast in Korea, apparently).
• Fish.
• For every meal. Sometimes with their heads still attached. And the bones. All the time forever and ever, ugh ... can we please just eat some chicken for lunch?
  
• Leaving the windows wide open while the heat is blasting.
  
• Or leaving the windows open without the heat on at all. Really, the whole idea that I have to wear a coat and scarf while I'm in the school building.
• There are no sick days until you are actually dieing. For real.
• There is no toilet paper in the bathroom stalls.
  
• You have to get it from the community roll that is next to the sink. Not taking enough paper is a huge pain in the ass (also, gross).
• Speaking of bathrooms, they aren't heated.
  
• At all. In fact, the window to the bathroom on my floor was open up until last week.
  
• There are still mosquitoes in this freaking country.
  
• MOSQUITOES! Don't they know it's DECEMBER?!

But for all the little things that bug me (or make me really, really cold) I still am having a super awesome time here and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Thoughts on a Thrusday

This is my actual journal entry from yesterday:

December 9, 2010

I hate this day.

- Caroline

Pretty much sums it up.

Korea is a silly place episode 1: Attack of the Recorders

In between the last two classes I teach at my main school, my co-teacher and I go and sit in the music room. It happens to be on the same floor as the 5th graders that we teach and at that point in the morning we are too tired to walk down all the stairs to our office.

The other day, however, instead of coming in and sitting to stare at the kids who are cleaning up her classroom during the 10 minute passing period (child labor builds character!) we walked in to find the music teacher seated on a piano bench while two students were taking turns smacking her back and shoulders. At first I was completely shocked, but the look on the music teachers face made it pretty clear that she was actually enjoying getting beat on by her students.

My co-teacher later explained to me that she was getting a massage. I guess she had had a rough morning and needed some TLC ...

After about 5 minutes of non-stop back slapping, the boys were clearly tired (smacking your teacher is hard work, yo). They grabbed their books and their recorders and started to head out the door.

But then their eyes locked and they slowly glanced down at the recorders they had in their hands and (I'm not even kidding) both their heads swiveled, horror movie style, back to their teacher, who was still sitting on the piano bench waiting for more of her "massage". They grinned at each other as one of the boys walked over and tapped the music teacher to see how she'd react. When she didn't say anything, both of the boys started to wail on her (and I mean wail) with their recorders.

And she was smiling. She actually looked relaxed.

And that's when I almost fell out of my tiny, Korean desk chair crying from laughter.

Bombs over Yeonpyeong Island or HOLY CRAP WE'RE GETTING BOMBED.

First I would like to take this opportunity to point out the obvious fact that I was not blown up by North Korea. Second, I would like to let you know that there was no kind of military activity of any kind going on in my city.

In fact, I didn't even know that mortars had been fired until a fellow expat teacher wrote about it on Facebook because her students had come to her class yelling about bombs and going to war. None of my co-workers have mentioned it to me or asked me if I will have to leave the country, so I'm guessing from their general lack of alarm interest there is nothing to worry about right now.

That didn't stop me from registering with the embassy though. And also after reading this, I think I am going to make myself a SHTF bag. But beyond that, I really haven't given this latest North Korean temper tantrum any thought.

I wrote this on Friday ...

Hi internet friends!

I am going to skip the part of this post where I go on and on about how I haven't posted one single thing in almost two months (which, ps, I've been living in South Korea for 3 months already. WHA-?) and just give you the quick and dirty of why.

1. When I want to post something, I'm on a bus and no where near a computer.
2. When I sit in front of a computer, I can't think of a single thing to write about that isn't whine-y and complain-y.
3. I have been home sick for the last month and a half or so (see #2).
4. Sometimes I just don't feel like posting.

That being said, I am in a fabulous mood today for a few reasons:

1. It's Friday.
2. I am in the process of packing up for a fun little weekend trip.
3. I love to make lists that are not of the "to do" variety.

I also wanted to get some "housekeeping" out of the way. Armini has started blogging (you can find him here) and he is blogging under his real name and happens to use my real name as well. So there really isn't any reason to keep my name a secret anymore.

Ta da!
(That's what Seoul looks like, if you're wondering)

Other than that, I just really wanted to share this dumb little video of Ryan telling a joke to our new friends Becky and Zach (who are also bloggers! You can find them here) because it's Friday, I'm in a great mood and it makes me laugh every single time I watch it.

Here is the bit of the joke that I didn't get on video:

"So two whales are swimming in the ocean and one whale says to
the other whale ..."

Greetings from South Korea!

I know you've probably been wondering what happened to me since the last time I talked about moving out of the country.

Well *spoiler* I moved out of the country! I am currently living in South Korea. In a town called Gwangju. It's in the southern part of the country. Also, I live down the street from the World Cup stadium. It's pretty sweet.

This is where I live now. GAH.

We haven't done anything worth mentioning since we've been here, which I cannot believe has already been a month. Teaching has its moments of awesomeness (like the other day when I student read a sentence and realized that yourself should have been yourselves. I wanted to kiss him) and it's moments of total despair (like when I'm teaching almost totally by myself and I ask the kids a question and get nothing but blank stares as an answer).

I also really want to learn how to speak Korean. Mostly so that I can tell taxi drivers where I want to go and then have them understand and take me to the place I want to go. Also, knowing what is going on around me would be nice.

I've already learned the lesson that when someone rings your doorbell and you aren't expecting people you shouldn't open it, or if you do don't let the people inside, because it will probably be crazy church people who will preach to you about God for an hour (in broken English) after you already started the conversation by telling them you were a Christian. Also, then you will have to lie to get them to leave. Sorry, God. It was the only way.

At this point in the post I would love you be all, "LOOK AT THESE PICTURES". But they are on my laptop, which is not at school with me today, and I forgot to bring the little thingy that lets me read the spanky new mini USB card I got for my camera before I left the country. So instead I will leave you with promises of pictures and this picture of the back of me taken in a pretty sweet cafe/bar thing in downtown called The Ethnic Cafe:

There are also lots of nooks and cranies for making out.
Armini and I are totally going back on date night. RWAR.