True Life: I Suck at Blogging

I really need to get better about doing this more often. There are so many opportunities for me to reflect about my time here and life in general that I pass up constantly. I have so much to say that I find myself often saying nothing at all.

Soooo, here we go. Everyone has been asking me about the North Korea situation since the sh** hit the fan after the Yeonpyeong Island bombing a few weeks ago. The island is about an hour outside of Seoul, and about an hour and a half or so away from me. Here’s some background information on the whole ordeal for those of you who may not know.

Yeonpyeon Island is an area of South Korea territory that has been “disputed” by the North as belonging to them since the land was legally drawn up as belonging to the South by the UN at the conclusion of the Korean War. Prior to the bombing, the South’s army was engaging in military drills in that area. Not that any of this justifies the North’s actions in any way, shape, nor form, it does supply a bit of reasoning to such a seemingly random, unprovoked attack. The biggest method to the North’s madness though, is likely that the attack was a power play to beef up the transition in the transfer of power that will take place in the future, from Kim Jong Il to his son Kim Jong Un.

Although it was a bit unnerving at first and I think it is terrible that it happened, I am not particularly alarmed or feel unsafe. I know a lot of people were concerned about this and that the American media generated a lot of hype about the incident, but the Koreans I meet seem generally unperturbed. It’s still a pretty interesting and unfortunate situation. I always like hearing South Korean perspectives about the North and I think someday I will be grateful to have been present in this region during this period (as long as no war breaks out, then I will be on the next airplane home.) We shall see.

As a side note, I was Googling images of Kim Jong Il when I proceeded to spill water all over my computer and it immediately shut off. My students found this particularly amusing.

More to come soon!

Life, Seoraksan Part 2, and Pepero Day

Sooo, I'm in class, which seems to be the only time I can commit myself to blogging. Oops. So, I have decided to stay in Korea for one more year. I weighed my options and realized I should really save more money for school and try to get a scholarship with my LSAT score. I can save money here more easily than at home and I’m enjoying myself here. Wooo. What have I been up to? Well, a couple of weeks ago I went to Seoraksan (Seorak mountain) again, but this time I went with Gina, Sunny, and their friends Phillip and Jae. Aaand I hiked. Hiking is very popular in Korea and as winter is quickly approaching, there were tons of people on the mountain. So many in fact, that we couldn’t get to the top because there was a line. Hiking is different here in that it is not as “rugged” as you would say hiking is in the US. The trail is lined with stairs and there are 마걸리 (Korean rice wine, mahkali) and food stands about every mile. Also, people get pretty decked out for the event with hiking outfits. After hiking, we hung out at Gina’s dad’s cabin with her dad’s friends until they dropped us off at a 찜질방 (jjimjilbang). The jjimjilbang is a giant sauna where everyone gets naked and showers and hangs out in steam rooms. Then, everyone puts the clothes they give you on and you can rest in a co-ed area. A lot of people were sleeping there because it was close to the mountain and cheap, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. We slept on the floor and because we got there late we were without padded mats. We also happened to find a place right next to some dude that ended up snoring his head off all night, so that wasn’t fun. And they leave a giant TV and the lights on all night long. I also lost my iPod.

HAH

Basically a giant latka with squid + Korean rice wine (Mahkali)

adorable children (Gina's dad's friends)

 

I don't know whose dogs these were but they were freakin adorable.

The cabin

Sunny + pups

Wishing stones.

Cabin

Me, Sunny, and the million-person line.

Jae + kids again.

Mahkali

Overall, it was a good time. Oh... ALSO, While I was at Seoraksan, Halloween came and went. The kids know about it but they don't really celebrate here. I (sort of) dressed up as Hermoine for class that day.

Today is 빼뺴로 (Pepero, the Korean version of Pocky) day. It’s one of Korea’s many versions of Valentine’s Day. (It's called "Pepero" because 11-11 looks like 4 sticks of the candy.) Now that I have a new iPod ( I splurged on an iPod touch which has a camera, so now I don’t have to buy one of those!), I tried to take pictures of the giant displays of enormous Pepero boxes, but store clerks are pretty touchy about taking pictures in their shops. I’ll see what happens later this evening. I did take a picture of the display of Pepero that our director’s son laid out for us in the staff room, though. 

 Namsan got in on the action, too.

Also, like Valentine’s Day in the US, children exchange packages of candy (Pepero), which means they are all out of control hyper right now.

Omg. I have to go… 

And I'm Back (Again)

Okay, soOo. I am done with the LSAT until I find out my score on November 1st, which will determine whether or not I will go for a re-take in December. WOO. Almost done with applications and so totally ready to re-immerse myself in being in Korea. I took the exam at Yonsei University, which has a beautiful, almost Harry Potter-esque Western-style campus. There were A TON of people there taking the exam with me (around 100, I’d guestimate), some of whom came from as far away as China. The instructions were announced in English (obviously) over a loud speaker that sounded in the testing rooms. The whole experience was somewhat grueling, as I had to leave my apartment at 5:30 a.m. because I was nervous about being late or getting lost. I ended up getting there at around 7:30 with an hour to kill, so I just sat at a Burger King with a bunch of people who were just ending a night out at the clubs. Pretty different situation from what I was in. Haha. Once I arrived on campus, I hung out on the steps with my fellow test takers, many of whom were Korean or Korean American. I chatted with some of the foreigners and even found some guy who has worked for Chungdahm for three years and there was even someone from the military. Talking to my fellow applicants put me more at ease as a lot of people were planning on retaking and yada yada. I think we got a fairly easy version and I am fearful that the scale may be really high. I pretty much finished all of my logic games, which was my area of greatest concern. I had to guess on about 5 questions overall because I reached a couple points where I froze up with nervousness (thoughts like, “this is it… this is the real thing.) haha. Okay ENOUGH about that. 


*Side note* I cannot comment on people’s blogs, neither at home nor at Chungdahm. I don’t know if it’s because I need to update my browser’s version of flash, or what (most likely the case), but yeah. I’ve tried to comment on multiple people’s blogs unsuccessfully over the past couple of months. 


Also, I haven't been a very good blogger, so my apologies. I will get better once I get more free time (which WILL happen soon!) and a new camera. At the moment, I am in class and kind of bored because my students are reading. There is a cat crooning outside of our window and it's pretty hilarious. I just had to shut the window.
Oh, and in case you were all wondering, all cats speak the same language regardless of their global location.

And I almost forgot to discuss...

My birthday!

My birthday was awesome. I went to the Rainbow Hookah Lounge in Gagnam (pictures courtesy of Gina)

And then later to a bar where Gina and Sunny led a game of thumper. Theeen, we sang lots of

노래방(karaoke.)

Basically a vat of vodka and sugar.

Margarita or "Mahgahlita"

Co-workers: Lisa, Josh, Tony, and Greg

Greg's friend, Allison, and Tony's friend... name escaping me...

Eggs

...make me nauseous. I don't know when this started, but they now do and this makes me very sad as I have 10 eggs left and just made myself a lovely egg burrito that is not sitting well. :| So why the random update? I just got out of class and Megavideo is being a poophead but I am taking a break before I start any LSAT studying. Ho-hum. Only two more weeks! I'm realizing for the first time now, how much of my life was consumed by this test and before that intensives at my academy, soooo going to be totally amazing to get my life back! It's sooooo soon!! Yeah, I'm going to have to do grad and law school apps, but still it will be nothing compared to this. Maybe I can actually go on a date! Haha. Have had to cut that for the most part and everything else out of my life now for so long it seems. And I can SIGHTSEEEEE and go hiking! I may even go to Busan on the southern coast.

In other news, it was just the Korean thanksgiving holiday, Chuseok, a time when Koreans get three days to eat rice cakes called 송편 or "songpyun."

The really nice ajuma [older woman] who works in the little convenience store near my apartment gave me some. It was really cute.

Aaaaand here are some photos of my class, as promised. These kids were all really smart and hilarious, although hard to settle down at times. I still have some of them for a pre-IBT class.

Cell phone basket. Actually took this picture by accident but now you can see how pimped out the phones of Korean 4th graders really are.

critical thinking project time!

Cute notes students have written me. You can't really see them well from here, but some of them are actually from this ghost they think haunts my classroom, "Johnny Donut."

Alice, Anna, and Caroline.

Denny and Daniel.

Denny, Eric, and Daniel.

Jiho, Jackie, and Leona

 

AAAAANd I'm back

Wow. So, long overdue for a blog update. To say that I've been crazy busy is somewhat of an understatement. Moved to my new apartment which is much nicer than my old one. Still in the "ghetto" of Suji. Obviously, it's nothing like an American ghetto, but Suji is a really nice city, so this place is indeed a shithole, at least by comparison. I don't mind the apartment conditions, it's really just the sketchballs that live around here that I want to avoid. There are lots of teachers who live in the complex, so at least that makes it somewhat better.

Showerhead/bathroom is your shower=Normal for Korea

the essentials

desk... bare wall.. need to do something about that

There's the grand tour!

So what have I been doing all of this time? INTENSIVES. ugh. Essentially, working an extra two classes per week in the morning because the kids had break from their public schools. In Korea, break from school=more school. Been busy with that and extra work the director has had me doing so, still coming in and working at 1 three days a week. What has also consumed my life as of late is the LSAT. I don't know if I'm going to law school, as I really like the international affairs-oriented MA programs, but I figured I'd keep my options open. Plus, if I do well on this then hopefully that will better my chances of receiving some $ for school.

Another new thing is that the new term is starting! Woo! I will miss my old kiddies though, for sure. I took some pics though and I will put them up next post, as this one is getting very long.

Also, something I feel compelled to talk about that is really bothering me right now is the blind eye people turn to domestic violence/abuse against women in general. I thought maybe it would happen more frequently here than in America, but I never realized it would be in my face this much nor could I have predicted the extent to which people just ignore it. It's pissing me off. I was just making a sandwich about 20 minutes ago and I heard shrill screams, so I paused my music and opened my door. These two foreign women were standing there and yelled, "Do you need help?" in the direction of the screams (next door to my apartment). Then, I heard a man's voice and the screaming stopped. They said that he had shushed the screamer a few minutes earlier, too. In America, I would knock on the door and call the police. Here though, if I did such a thing I would probably be met with scorn from the woman and the other parties involved, as well. Ridiculous. Why do women let this happen? They need to realize it's not okay. The men who do this are fucking cowards.