Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring...

not even a mouse...

When all of a sudden in my ears I did hear,

A gunshot that rang through the night sky so near.

I sprang to the window and threw open the sash,

Just to see a in the distance, a faint ruby flash.

It was Rudolph! He exists! but not for much longer,

Apparently he had been shot down by one much stronger.

While he fell through the sky, antlers a-flalin,

I heard in the distance, that stupid b!tch Palin.

"Oh deary me!" she cried with delight!

"How easy to shoot when with that glowing red light!"

"I was just thinking, ya know, that I needed some meat,

and, golly gee whiz, the kids wanted to help with the feast!"

"So we hopped on our snow mobiles (or whatever the hell she calls them) even the little retarded one,

And I handed them each their own, personal gun.

"And, well, ya know, we saw this red light kinda zooming around through the sky,

And I thought, what the heck?!? I bet that darn thing'd make a right tasty pot pie."

"But Ms. Palin! Why would you do such a thing?!" I cried in despair.

"I may not answer the questions that you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also." She replied with a dumb stare.

"What? I've heard that line before! You must be some spawn of satan come to ruin Christmas!" from her some answers I sought.

"Absolutely not. I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the shots that we've taken, that ... that would ... bring this whole ... I'm not doing this for naught."

"Oh wow, 'naught'! what a big word for you sarah! Wait, i'm missing my point here!" I cried

"You killed the most famous reindeer of them all....." I sadly sighed.

As she dragged off the dying red light in the cold dreary night,

I couldn't believe Christmas Eve had brought such a sight.

On a good note however, as I gazed on her with the corpse she did carry,

It was great to know that the dumbass wouldn't be in our white house come January.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

East Vs. West Graphic depiction

This is great, and some of them are amazingly true:

http://buburuza.net/?p=8664

Please check it out! It explains a lot of my praises and frustrations with this country!

To.Alex

Yesterday as I finished up my last class, I received a nice letter from one of my less than lovely students. I don't think she has participated in class even once--she is usually sleeping or straightening her hair or playing cards or talking in korean with her boyfriend....anything but speaking English. She is one of the "cool" girls with a major teenitude. But, apparently she does know some English, i have proof now. Here is a transcription of the letter, it's pretty cute:

To. Alex
Hi Alex my name is 신소라 (Sin Sora).
Alex Cute. me too ^^*
Alex, school fun? ㅋ
I'm not like school
Bye Bye (picture of heart) Alex.
I love you.
~ (another picture of heart)

from. Sora.

After she gave it to me, she wanted candy, but I didn't have any. Now I know the price of love for ninth grade girls--Chocolate (strange, that doesnt seem to change much....).

Chicken University

Happy Holidays Beautiful People!

So, I'm still in Korea, fancy that. Life here is becoming more routine and less hilarious, which is fine—all of that amusement can be tiresome. A couple of weeks ago, actually, I was so fed up with Korea that I wanted to hike north, through the land of Kim Jong-Il (maybe have a bit of a chat with the little, dying man), a nice hike through Russia, and then a refreshing swim to the land of Palin…The sound of Hangul-mal (Korean language) was like finger nails on a chalk board, and the superficiality and artifice that seems to drape over every single thing in Korea were really, really starting to rack my nerves. My good eighth grad girls were caught drinking at the elementary school (and one of them vomited—at the elementary school), the ninth grade boys have severed themselves from any notion of respect and "normal" social behavior, and my sixth graders have started to draw phallic symbols on everything and anything in sight. Oh, the joy of teaching middle school.

Please, do not worry or have many negative thoughts toward this country! After a bit of ranting, I will share some incredible acts of human kindness and beauty, and some fun times in Korea.

One of the more entertaining and god awful boring things I've done in the recent past was a teacher's "Retreat" to Chicken University—at first I thought maybe we were going to a school of poultry science or something, but no, it is actually called Chicken University!!! Haaahaaaa. I guess it's a place where people from a large Korean fried chicken chain, under the name BBQ chicken (BBQ= Best of the Best Quality) come to train and be surrounded by chicken-ey things. Mom, you would have loved it, there were huge roosters everywhere!! I will post pictures soon. Well, this "Retreat" was not what I expected; it involved all of the teachers and administrators sitting around a table, with a lot of chicken and other food, for SEVEN hours…talking about how to discipline the students (which, you can tell from the first paragraph has worked incredibly well). They did this all in Korean, of course (which I am not angry about, only two of them speak English). In the few instances that I did know what they were talking about, I would pipe in with a suggestion and promptly get shot down, or looked at like I am a crazy, naïve white girl who has no say in how to discipline the students. So why was I there!!! Aaarrrggghhhhh….I wasn't happy to say the least.

With that said, any of you who were "bad seeds" in your schooling years have any advice for how to deal with these hellions?? I'm pretty sure these students are more like the American "bad" students of the eighties and nineties than they are similar to anything the Korean teachers are familiar with. P.S. after SEVEN hours of bickering, there were no conclusions or decisions made. It was all a grand waste of time and energy. I did get out some wonderful poetry though, classics I'd say. Here is one :

I am so bored,
This is worse than orientation,
At least I have Somaek and apples.
Let's just send all of the little F@#$#ers to boot camp!

Beautiful, isn't it? I was truly inspired.
After staying up until 1 A.M. talking about students we awoke the next morning at an ungodly hour and went for a hike, which ended up being Very Danger. It was a short hike, on Dodomunsan, which means "Crying Pig Mountain." It should have been peaceful and quick, but the teacher who led us was keen on going off trail—which was cool, apart from the two older ladies with us and my aging principal. He brought us to these cliffs that, if someone had fallen or slipped, would have killed one of us. The way down was less treacherous, and it was enjoyable overall.

That same week as the teacher's conference I spent four days with the seventh and eighth grade students at a kind of camp, where they learned about Korean history, did team building stuff and generally practiced good ol' Korean camaraderie. It was very fun, I got to rock climb a bit with the kiddies, and we all bonded. I was the only non-Korean there with three schools present, so I was part of the entertainment for the few days. Fun fun. I think that week straight of only Korean interaction is what helped drive me to my state of discontent. That, and missing the excitement around elections…GOOObbbaaammaaaa!!!

Since then, things have looked up! I've gone on some more hikes, visited some fellow teachers and celebrated Thanksgiving! A couple of weekends ago, three of my friends and I visited Mt Seoun (or Seounsan) in a neighboring city. It took us a long time to get there (about 2.5 hours on a bus, in a car it would have been about 40 minutes), and we were hungry once we arrived. (annnddd, we were a bit lost, I was the organizer…never a good thing. I thought we were getting dropped off at the bus terminal, but apparently the bus doesn't stop at the terminal, so the bus driver kind of dropped us off in the middle of the street once he realized we were still on the bus, and we had to wander a bit to get our bearings). We stopped in a restaurant that was closed, so we left, but then the owner yelled after us and told us we could eat there still! It was so nice of him, and it was a great place to eat. For 9,000 won (about $7) we could eat as much as we wanted from his buffet. And this was no ordinary buffet. It had all of the Korean side dishes, like kimchi, veggies, little shrimpy things, condiments, and other Korean faire. The best part, though, was the huge array of raw meat to choose from. There had to be about twelve different types of pork and beef, in different marinades and different cuts, and we could take as much as we wanted. We just grilled it all on our table and did the lettuce wrap thing. It was delicious, nutritious and extremely kind of the old man.

We finally made it to where we wanted to hike, after a long cab ride, and hiked a bit. People on the mountain were extremely nice too. One kept taking pics of us and told us he would e-mail them to us (which he hasn't yet….) and we were fed pretty well on the way up as well. After we finished the hike, we couln't figure out the bus schedule, cause it didn't appear to go to where we needed to catch a bus home. There was a temple at the base of the mountain, so we checked it out, and a Korean woman started speaking to my friend Sarah. I approached her and asked her if she could call a taxi for us, and Korean hullabaloo ensued. About ten Koreans immediately came from the woodwork, and in about ten minutes we were in somebody's car headed for the bus terminal. These people are crazy, and nice. Crazy nice. The best thing about that little interaction was when the woman showed us her "studying English" notebook, and the first thing we see is the word "lusty" and how it used in a sentence and then translated into Korean. Hilarious.

Well, this is getting pretty freaking long…but I'm gonna keep writing.

Last week a few of the Americans in town and one Canadian and I celebrated Turkey day in my apartment (which is extremely small). It was nice, we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, mac and cheese, apple Danish things, and some wine. There was a small incident with the wine. I'll include one picture, to give you an idea, you can ask later if you'd like. It was clumsily hilarious.

I've also participated in the national sports of badminton and ping pong, and seem to be alright at both. But, I am not a fan of competitive ping pong. Or should I say, table tennis. The boys here are way too competitive. Whatever taste I had for poker is now totally gone, and I'd rather never speak about American football ever again (since I was such a fan before!!). I'll stick to playing with the girls I guess, they are way more fun.

Okay, I'm getting sick of writing now…sorry to rattle your ears/eyes. I hope the Holidays are treating you all wonderfully and with great cheer and all that jazz. Miss you mucho, wish I could be at home during this time!!! Let me know how life is going for you all!! Peace and Love, Alex p.s. I did start a blog, it is http://www.arexinkorearand.blogspot.com/, it is a bit random, and so far has a lot of Calvin & Hobbes cartoons. But check it out, leave me some love, maybe it will entertain you a bit. I'll try to update that more often than I write e-mails. I will also post e-mails to the blog.

I'm Walking down the Street with my Nike's on...

This past weekend was swanky-chic and a lot of fun! Since my birthday was on Friday, and two of my friends have birthdays on Thursday, we all decided to celebrate together by seeing some DJs at the Seoul W hotel. I had never been to anything like it, I've been in very nice hotels (Thank you dad :)) but I have never been to a night bar super swanky scene like this one. Koreans, and I think Asians in general, are especially adept at dressing to the nines and looking overall fabulous. Their impeccable style was complemented by the incredibly chic interior of the W's Bar--the Woobar (doesn't have that classy of a name...). Everything was white, white, white, with a huge bar--about fifty feet long. The Dance floor was shrouded in mirrors and the Dj booth was this space age looking bubble pod thing. And there are these egg shaped pod chairs everywhere too...Pretty futuristic and surreal.



We saw some pretty good DJs, house music mostly, and a House band called Oriental Funk Stew--I failed to hear any funk though...more Disco-ey. One of the best songs, which I have to track down some how was a remix of a song that goes, "I'm walking down the street with my nike's on..." and it repeats it a few times. There were also some remixes of some pretty bad songs, like that annoying "One more time" (not britney spears, the more nineties sounding one...), which the Koreans loved.

I have to say that at first I felt TOTALLY out of place....not expensive enough clothes, skinny enough legs, high enough heels (or any heel at all really...) or done up enough hair and make-up. I got over that relatively quickly though once we started dancing and realized that those people who were all made up and expensive A) didn't care what we looked like and B) were not having nearly as much fun as we were having.

Finished off the night at a cute motel with cheap rooms (about $20 a pop!) and had breakfast at an "American Diner" the next morning (wellll, i guess it was almost 2 P.M.). I had real bacon for the first time in a while!!

and the love affair continues

My obsession with Calvin and Hobbes continues, and perhaps is getting stronger. I totally forgot how perfect this comic strip can be for almost any occassion. This one for example...it explains korean cuisine to a T. hahahaaaaaa....freaking hilarious.

And then there was "Snow"

two things:

1) I'm having a slight love affair with Calvin and Hobbes

2) Last week it snowed. By snow I mean about twenty seven miniscule flakes. I was excited. But now, I just want more...

We'll plague the middle class with naked babies!!!

I spent a large portion of my past weekend riding subways throughout the southwestern regions of Seoul. It was hot, long, frustrating at times, and offered me plenty of Korean people watching opportunities. The large portion of time spent on said subways happened because of my own inability to send e-mails....I was meant to meet up with a friend, who is phoneless and internetless (she is a good hippy :)), so i was supposed to send her an e-mail, during her school hours, indicating the time i would meet up with her. Unfortunately, the whole "let's be really relaxed, then rush around like chickens with their heads cut off" mentality got the best of me. As I was finishing up my e-mail to my friend, this phenomena (its called "Bali Bali" which translates to "fast fast") ensued, and i failed to press the send button on my e-mail. Consequently, I ended up stranded in Incheon...with nothing but my clothes, and my hand-me-down copy of Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels.

The title of this entry is a line from the book, and it is oddly fitting for my whole situation over the weekend. First, my friends are hippies, and they definitely will "plague the middle class with naked babies running across the earth." Secondly, it led me to wonder whether or not Koreans would let their babies run around naked...I hope so, cause that's one of the things that must make babies very happy. Furthermore, I think I must be surrounded by people who employ this mentality--of naked babies that is.

Kerouac leads me to think about strange things sometimes, but that is quite alright with me. I've found a lack of inspiration in this country over the past few weeks, which is....uninspiring?? no, it's discouraging. After reading Kerouac on the subway (one of the presumably least inspiring of places), I've decided to find inspiration in my lack of inspiration (does that make any sense??). Kerouac, in this book, writes of "the void" and desolation even amongst the most populous of places. Yet, he can still see that each and every person is an "angel"...He can still appreciate a situation no matter how empty it feels. This isn't a groundbreaking discovery or anything, but a good reminder to myself, that I won't always be in a place that is "right" for me. It may even be more beneficial to be in a place that totally challenges what my ideals are. The Korean mentality and culture, I believe, will prove to challenge my ideals on a day to day basis. Do you remember psych classes? and the polarization effect of arguing? It shows that opposing sides, when the argue, generally strengthen their own opinions, rather than come to a more moderate understanding. I am usually a little flip-floppy on issues, mostly non-philophical ones like taste in movies and literature...they are so subjective. But the issues that I do care about to a great extent--the environment, human rights, women's rights, the role of education in children's lives, to name a few--will probably be strengthened in my time here as I silently battle with them (maybe some day I'll be able to get my opinion across a little better). Let it be known, that I'm not saying that every aspect of Korea is a battle with my ideals...there is a lot of beauty in the land and people here. There will always be a place to find solace and people with whom I can muse about likeminded ideas.

time to get back to worky work...

and they get worse

as soon as i finished writing that last post, my co-teacher says, "so, do you have your powerpoint finished yet?"

no, i don't.

melodrama finished, thanks for reading.

when good powerpoints go bad

Now that I have the freedom to write whenever, and in the shortest forms possible, there will probably be some angry, frustrated posts like this one...

So, I'm in the middle of making a powerpoint for my demo class that is coming up on Friday (stressful in and of itselft--I made it all the way through college having made one powerpoint presentation, I think; and now, I am making ppts in Korean, fun stuff. And the upcoming demo lesson will be viewed by principals and other teachers in the area and we have to a ton of useless paperwork for it). I'm totally in the groove, digging my slides and finishing them quickly, when the teachers start to yell at a group of students. These students get in trouble constantly, so it isn't a big deal...the only difference here is that the art teacher is yelling at them and the vice-principal. Now, the art teacher doesn't yell...so that's a little out of the ordinary. But these kids are the worst in the school by far, so they are in the office about every day.

So, they're yelling and making wierd gutteral noises at these students and the students look all sad, and i'm here making my ppt...trying to ignore the yelling all around me, which is fine, cause the teacher seem to yell about everything. And the vice principal asks me to LEAVE!! I was so angry....no other teacher was made to leave, either they assume that I can't handle the yelling or they want to yell louder and are ashamed to do it in front of me. I FLIPPING WORK HERE TOO PEOPLE!!!! if they have to put up with students getting yelled at then I should too. Arrrggghh, i was (and still am) probably unneccesarily angry...but what the hell??! And then, since the hallways are freezing, i had to sit in the administrators office and look at a korean make-up catalog. whhoooopeeee!

I don't even want to work on my powerpoint right now

So wise, and yet, so silly

Oh, to be a kid....The students here need to think about this just a bit more, I think.

A quote that I totally forgot about...but kind of is a short synopsis of living abroad

from John Updike's "Bech in Czech" from Bech at Bay.

"That is why, he supposed, you travel to places like this: to encounter fictional selves, the refreshing false ideas of you that strangers hold in their minds"

While encountering those fictional selves will hopefully lead to a discovery of my nonfictional self, it is fun to toy with those that know nothing of me other than the stereotypes they have learned about the society from which I come. I have not reveled too much in a false representation of myself...but I would l ike to more in the future, maybe once I know who the real me is?? If that happens, if it is possible...I guess that is a struggle that many people face for the entirety of their lives. I am prepared to do that, if that's what it takes.

Korean Laundry Machines

Anyang again there friends and family,

Korea is still amazing, I'm falling more and more in love with it! I've started to become more familiar with the way things operate around here and I've been exposed to a few more things... Number one is my "apartment." i moved into it last Friday, which took all of an hour to do. Right now it is a glorious place, with my pink, flowerty floral sleeping mat, huge pink floral fluffy blanket, a huge pink floral quilt and a huge pink floral pillow. Oh, and there's a wardrobe, with no hangers. ummmm....there's also a pile of books in one corner and my luggage/backpack in another corner. It is lovely, and will be furnished some time with rice cooker and everything!!

My bathroom is my favorite part. it is about four by four feet and the shower and sink are one unit. As we have been fondly saying here, we can shower, shit and shave all at the same time!! So, I just got back from trying to do my first load of laundry (I have a samsung washing machine on the "porch" too, one of my friends has his in his bathroom, so he can shower, shit, shave and do laundry at the same time!). The whole machine is in Korean and my little conversation book apparently doesn't think that we need to do laundry while abroad, so all I could translate on the damn thing is the word 'water' (mul-믈 ), I think it said water temperature?? I dunno. So I pressed some buttons and different times kept popping up, ranging from 15 minutes to an hour and a half. I think it's supposed to be a washer/dryer combo thingy cause other english teachers have told me that there's are combo machines, so I chose one of the hourish times, hoping that it would dry my clothes too.

Well, at first it made some funky noises, and i figured out that i have to turn the water taps on to allow water to enter the thing. It started to do a super loud swishing thing for about five minutes (it sounds kind of like waves hitting a breakwater wall over and over) and then it would drain, spin around and do it all over again. it did this for more than an hour, and then it played a little happy song, which was long, like a minute and half). and my clothes were clean. and wet. so i haphazardly placed my clothes around my apartment and they are at this minute hopefully drying, although it is incredibly humid here today...i'll see how the situation is when I get home and i will write all of the words down for my co-teacher to translate for me tomorrow.

The end of last week was awesome. I have two classes that I teach everyday, one to the teachers and one to a group of students. I taught the teachers weather conversation words, so they talk to me about weather in the office now. Their favorite words are galoshes and muggy. Yes, the weather is hot, muggy and sunny out today! but we don't need to wear galoshes! On Friday with the student class, i had the students sing The Yellow Submarine after filling in a lyric sheet with a lot of the words missing. They had so much fun! I asked them what other songs they would like to do and one of them requested Surfin' u.s.a., which made me think of beaner and his old obsession with the beach boys.

I've met some good people in Yeoju from all over the world. there are a lot of folks from South Africa, some Canadians and a Brit. we had a blast this weekend singing karaoke, and hanging out in my new apartment (with no chairs or couches it was easy to fit nine people in there sitting on the floor!) we taught the brit and south africans irish poker, i think they liked it very much. One of the new english teachers is a 6 foot 8 football player who stands out like a sore thumb everywhere we go, they needed to buy him two beds to sleep on! I have a feeling the korean ladies are gonna be all over him (hint hint piddy, you should come to korea).

We did our actual temple stay at the buddhist temple on saturday, which was about as hilarious as our intro to temple stays that we had last week. Yoga was the best, it consisted of a super flexible lady doing the poses in the front of the room (but nobody could see her except the first couple of rows) and one of the other english teachers reading the translations of the poses over a microphone. Korean to English translations here are a freaking hoot, so she read things like "lie on your face" "relaxing position. Breathing while butt in air" and "Putting hand tops behind butt leaning forward." I participated for a while and then sat back and enjoyed watching the students flail their arms around and put their faces on the floor.

We also had to teach the children about different "treasures" around the temple grounds. I had the Daeggangikbiki, which was a plaque composed by dude #1, written by dude#2, which said that dude #3 constructed some hall over there with help of dude #4, in memory of dude #5 and dude#6's dead parents. It was built during the reign of dude #7. it was great fun telling the children who could not understand me at all about it and then asking them questions. After a while the questions turned into "what is that color?" (pointing to the painted structure around the plaque) "what is this material?" "how many stairs are there?" "how is the weather today?" I forgot to mention that the program for these kids is called "Yeoju English Stars" and it is a city funded program for low income students in the yeoju area, so it is pretty awesome to see the kids getting to participate in something they normally wouldn't be able to, and they are such good sports! We had to particpate in the traditional Buddhist bowing ceremony which consists of 108 bows. each bow starts standing with hands together in a praying position, then you drop to your knees, lay prostrate on the ground and get back up with hands together. there is a buddhist with a very soothing voice saying something and banging a little drum thing. it is pretty intense, especially with the heat outside, but the kids participated with little complaint, and just sat down quietly if they were too hot or tired. i for one thought it was pretty awesome, at first it was a little tiring, but the words of the monk (whatever he was saying) and the intense heat (and resulting sweat) were oddly meditative and I got into a cult like mindset. I think I'm supposed to be a Korean buddhist.

Ohhh my god, i forgot about the head monk guy, he was the cutest person ever, with a perfect, stereotypical smiling monk smile--one that actually curls upwards and stretches from ear to ear with sparkling eyes. I hope i can find a picture of him!!

well, i should go, here are some funny english translations from signs that i have seen around:
-Sound of Vitality, Provides Ultimate Refreshment with Fizzy & Crisp Taste (slogan on the popular beer:Cass)
-Comfort of Funny American Diner (on a pizza place)
-Thank You & Tall Skin (sign in a clothing store)
-and the gist of a paragraph i read at a restaurant today: kimchi of us store from local presentation to us store......it is good for mind, health for vitamin, and provide and.

i love it here and i love all of you!! hope all is well in the good ol' states (or wherever you happen to be) peace out and rock on! Alex

p.s. what is bryant's e-mail address??

p.p.s. i bought some einstein's cream cheese, it was moldy and i was sad.

Very Danger!

Hello there again friends, family and assorted loved ones!

It has been a bit since I've written, sorry about that! I've realized that mass e-mails can be somewhat annoying/impersonal. So, in the coming days, i will (against what I told myself, and others, before leaving the US) put together a blog which you can check up on if you please. If, however, you'd like to keep getting these large e-mails, let me know; and I will send you my blog entries via e-mail! It will be easy, so don't worry about it if that's what you'd like :). let's seee, let's seeee (alex racking her brain about the last week and half). Oh, I figured out the laundry thing! The machine is not a washer/dryer combo (no surprise)my drunk friend just thought that when the machine spun around (aka the spin cycle) that it was kind of drying the clothes for you...hmmmm, i'm glad my mom taught me how to do laundry when i was in middle school (thanks mom!). I transcribed all of the little symbols for my co-teacher to translate and it turns out that it is rather simple. Again, learning Korean would be pretty sweet.

I have this whole week off for the Korean Thanksgiving Holiday. It's called Chuseok and falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar (which was last Sunday, Sep. 14). Families gather and make traditional food together, namely these little rice dumplings called songpyeon that are steamed on pine needles. They are filled with hazlenut or sweet bean paste, and they are pretty damn tasty. I bought some at the store and "steamed" them on my stove (they made wonderful hiking food for the "very danger" hike we did on Monday). The family then does some ceremonies in remembrance of their ancestors and eats for many hours. Some of the schools in the area only had school off on Monday but others have the whole week off. It seems that there is no real governing system for when schools are in session or not...I guess my school is kinda out in the boonies, so maybe families have to travel further to get to there hometowns. I dunno, nobody tells me anything..i just go with the flow.

Apparently, over the last four days (tues-fri) I was supposed to be doing "self-studying" as they call it. This, however, is difficult when one doesn't have internet...sooo, i've been studying the korean peninsula through a hike up a mountain, a stay in the country, a short jaunt in Seoul, and perusings of tourist map of korea. I have also spent countless hours trying to figure out the public transportation system and listening to English songs (deciding which song to teach next). Furthermore, I explored the intricacies of Korean cuisine. I did crack open my books and brainstorm for a bit too. I hope the BSing skills i acquired getting my BA help in providing a sufficient report of my "work" over break.

Side note: google is creepy, and right now there are adds for washer dryer combos on my sidebar. they are enticing...

Last week was pretty uneventful at school. I had to go the nearby town of Suwon to get my Alien Registration Card. it took a lot of waiting in a really hot room, so I decided to play on the playground outside of the office--I think I looked like the crazy American girl. I got some nice looks while on the swings. It's nice to be able to play the foreigner card whenever i want. when I got back to school for the rest of the week classes went rather smoothly. We played some new games that went over really well, the dancing as punishment routine really works. I can't tell if it's a good or a bad thing, but my celebrity status is dying a little bit (I think it's good, it was getting a bit much). I do have a following of boys that will do anything for me still, and there are several girls that give me gifts every once in a while (there nametags seem to be the most common present). The throng of boys who seem to love me are also my hackysack partners. They don't really understand the game, but they're getting better! they have years of soccer to help them out. My favorite hacky bud is the little dude named Amy...he is super uncoordinated and just flails limbs around in hopes of hitting the hacky sack.

On Friday, my friend peter, the huge dude Rob and I went to Seoul, we were planning on staying the weekend, but our plans were foiled by lack of korean language skills and too much soju. Seoul is alright, I think, but I need to go there during the day, and more sober. i don't do that well in large cities (Seoul boasts 10 million people plus in the city, 23 million including the surrounding area; it is the world's 2nd largest metropolitan area after Tokyo). We went to Hongdae, the college district and bar hopped a bit. We were planning on sleeping in a jimjjilbang (a public bath house--they give you a pair of pjs and let you find a place to sleep on a large warm rock). But we ended up walking in circles and taking the bus home at 7am. it was really rough, i'm never drinking that much cheap korean beer (it's AWFUL--like beast and natty ice mixed together) and soju ever again. Suffice to say, i spent all of Saturday on my sleeping mat, feeling very ill...and tired.

The rest of the weekend went more my style, I spent Sunday in Yeoju. It was pretty dead on account of the holiday, so i just kinda bummerd around the city. Since this area is famous for its ceramics, i went to a few places that were open, and picked up a plate and a mug. I admired a cheesy little frog that was by the cash register and the clerk gave it to me as a chuseok present! the people here are so nice. Monday was my best day in Korea yet! a couple of madisonites and I went to Chiaksan National park and hiked up the highest peak there: Birobong (bong means peak in korean). It was another one of those hilarious moments in Korea. We, all being relatively fit people thought it would be a piece of cake to do an 8 km trek, but oh no, in Korea, hiking means a cross between stair climbing and all out free climbing practically straight up. We were sweating sooo badly, and these little Koreans were passing us left and right without even a glisten on their little happy faces. Their outfits are great--either maxed out in mountaineering gear (walking poles, top o the line boots, hats, jackets, gloves, tall socks, etc.etc.) or wearing clothes you'd imagine someone to wear in the city for a nice afternoon on the town. There were old people and little pipsqueaks alike...I think we passed only one couple who appeared to be in their eighties, otherwise we were schooled by these people. We also saw one woman hiking barefoot! it was crazy...Oh, and none of them carried anything with them, not even water! We all consumed almost two liters each throughout the trek and ate lunch at the peak. I don't know how they do it, crazy Koreans. it is Friday now (four days later) and we are all still sore from that adventure--I guess that's what we get for being lazy Americans :). We also should have taken the science teacher's advice at my school when he said the hike was "very danger" haha. Annnd, over the last few days, being sore and all, i just hung out in Sangpoom (a little country town where my friend teaches) and read a bit, tried to get the next weekend in order. I'm leaving for Seorunsan Provincial park for a Climbing rendezvous of other foreign climbers from around Korea. It should be pretty awesome! i'm excited to network with the climbing community.

Damn, i almost forgot, I spent a good chunk of time researching dogs (the eating type) in Korea...cause i DO NOT want to accidentally eat any...I am adventurous in my eating, but i really really really do not want to eat man's best friend. So, I have figured out how to read all of the dishes that contain dog, and i have spotted some of the dog restaurants in my town (a couple of my friends live across the street from a pet store called "Dog Friend" and there is a dog restaurant right next to it!). The practice of farming and eating dogs is supposed to be illegal here, but that has been largely ignored, and many of the older people still eat it--supposedly it's good for men's stamina. Most of the younger people stay away from it too though.

So, thanks again for being wonderful people! I miss you all and hope you are doing well! I cannot wait to get my phone and internet, the blog should be pretty fun/ny. The hilarity of all of this should die off soon, but i can keep my fingers crossed can't i?

Peace and love, Alex

Letters from a Miguk Saram

Seven weeks in South Korea, and it is as fascinating as ever. I guess the intricacies and awkwardness that surround a new culture will continue to grow for however long I stay here. Now, looking at a year in this country seems like nothing—there is no way I can even begin to feel like I'm used to or familiar with this place in that amount of time. I am continually annoyed/ ashamed that I do not know the language here. I didn't think it would affect me this much, but it really is. It's really hard to sit in the teacher's office while everyone is talking (really loudly) and laughing and I can understand all of five words per five minutes. I often think they are talking about me….but that could just be some paranoia/ self involvement coming through (although, when I hear "Mi-Guk," which means American, "Song sang nim Yong-O," which means English teacher, or just straight up "Alex-uh" they must be talking about me, right?!?!) And then, I don't know if what they are saying is good or bad… Oh well, I'm sure whatever they say, about me or not, is harmless. All of the teachers here are very nice individuals; I do wish I could speak with them a little easier though.

On that note, my Korean lessons are going relatively well. I can now say "I'm hungry" "when?" "why?" "Where?" "What?" "I do (not) understand" "I have" "Give me, please" as well as some body parts, like hand, hair, fingers, etc. The literal translations for some of the body parts are really cool. The words for face translate into "Soul Cave," wrist is "hand neck," hair is "head fingers." It's pretty cool. At the moment, I am learning verbs and verb structures, this is both easy and confusing. There are a few different levels of politeness (according to a person's age), but there are only three tenses (past, present, future). Also, sentences are formed with the Subject and the Object at he beginning of the sentence followed by the verb, whereas English goes S V O….ain't too bad. Hopefully it will just click one day or something. My friend and I joke about selling our souls in order to have a computer chip implanted in our brains

… Okay….okay…. I haven't written for what, four weeks? five weeks?? Far too long whatever the time is. A lot has happened in those few weeks…I finally have a phone (if anyone wants to call J , my number is 010-2618-0527 and Korea's country code is 82), internet and cable. I also have a bed (a real bed!! No more sleeping mats for Alex), and a desk…."Wow-uh!", as they say here. So, I have an apartment right now, I'm almost like an actual adult! Weird. Also, another foreigner moved into my building. His name is Louis Orioux (pronounced Oreo) from Canada, and he seems pretty cool. It was refreshing to have him there, especially after three weeks of me being the ONLY person in my building…which was a little creepy.

Hmmmmm, you want some actual activities?? Funny ones? I have a few. One, which I found thoroughly entertaining, may be a little disturbing. When it happened I was hesitant to share the details with people back home, as they are a little intense, but, upon reflection….it is funny, and ridiculous. Remember the huge black man named Rob? Like super huge—a six foot eight almost pro football player? Well, a couple weekends ago I met him, along with some other peeps in Seoul, one of them being this obnoxious scrawny white Wisco kid named Frank. Frank has dreams of being an ultimate fighter some day, he's a little masochistic (he has burned himself with cigars and stuff, just to feel the pain), and he's just pretty flippin intense… not my cup of tea. He actually kind of makes me wanna punch him. Well, Frank had been putting Rob into headlocks and stuff for the last two weekends, and being a regular jackass (but in a "friendly"/"joking" way). And, his actions continued into that weekend. We had been out in Seoul for a while, had some dinner and were at the bars. At the last one we went to, I went to the toilet, and was fetched by my friend who said we were leaving because Frank and Rob were too drunk….just great (I don' t want to go to Seoul with large groups of people anymore). I go outside to see Frank, super bloody faced on the curb and Rob standing there over him….apparently Frank had put Rob in his last headlock and Rob proceeded to head butt him. SIX times. Oh drunken boys, what a joy…

Frank's nose was bleeding profusely and his eye steadily swelled shut, while he sat on the sidewalk crying like the real Ultimate Fighter he is. (Side note—bloody nose is pronounced Co-pee, and coffee is pronounced Cah-pee, I recently made the mistake of asking people in the office if they wanted bloody noses, not coffee, hehe). Frank's crying made Rob cry, so we had two men crying in the streets of Seoul—one, a huge man about three times bigger than the biggest Korean, and another bloody and hideous looking....a wonderful Saturday night to say the least. As the tears started to subside, and the next stage—anger/denial/I was right and you weren't started to set in, the rest of us in the group decided to head to a Norae-Bang (Karaoke bar) to lighten the mood. I had sung the Song " I believe in Angels" by ABBA (a masterpiece of a song....?) about fifteen times earlier that day on a bus full of Korean students, and I thought it would be perfect for this occasion. So, my friend Sarah and I sang it with bloody frank and recovering Rob in the background. The next three minutes went something like this:

Alex and Sarah: I believe in Angeellllsssss! Something good in Every thing IIII Seeeee!
Rob: You're not an ultimate fighter Frank! Just face it!
Alex and Sarah: I have a dreeaaammmm! A Song to siiiinnnngggg!
Rob: You're a pansy! Yeah that's right, a pussy!
Alex and Sarah: I'll cross the stream….I have a dreaaaammmm!
Frank: You knew I wasn't ready for that! Rob: You're not and Ultimate Fighter! And you never will be!
Alex and Sarah: "I have a dream….a song to sing….To help me coooopppeee with anyyythiiinnggg"

Also, there was somebody on the tambourine and another friend with a snare drum. I really, really, REEAAALLLYYY wished I could have video recorded it somehow…. Hahaaaa, this is still funny writing about it three weeks after it happened. Stupid boys. Needless to say, I hope I never hang out with Frank again.

While that story is probably the most intense and possibly the funniest thing that happened to me over the last few weeks, it plays a very small role in the fun and learning that I've had here. Over the National Foundation Holiday weekend (two weekends ago, i think) I met up with my friend Elyse and her boyfriend Zac in a city about three hours away for the Jarasum International Jazz festival. It was so awesome to see live music with old friends!! I miss it so much...the music here is mostly K-pop and electronica. We saw some bands from all over with so many different genres represented. It was great. There was also some interesting Korean music represented. Kingston Rudieska was a Korean Ska band...and there was also a blues rock singer who got everyone dancing. It was kind of wierd to be in a Korean crowd. First of all, it's pretty amazing to look at a huge sea of people, all with jet black hair--totally different than an American crowd. Second, ALL of the people in the crowd come equipped with sitting mats (not just blankets--actual mats that fold or roll up); and they don't stand up at all during the shows unless urged by the band members or for the last song.

Last week I finally had my teacher orientation, it was a shitfest if nothing else. Getting 250 english speaking foreigners together in one hotel was just asking for it. It was so cool to hang out with english speakers from all over the world. My first night I was up waaayyyy too late with a group of guys from Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, Australia, South Africa and Montana. It was flippin great to hear them all harass eachother. It was twat this, twat that, bloody 'ell, you leprachaun...f'ing kiwis....yanks....etc. etc. I was actually surprised that some of them teach English to Koreans. the English language comes in so many different forms, but I guess we can all communicate relatively easily. The Irish guy had to talk in his "American" accent a lot of the time so that anyone could understand him...he sounded kind of like a cartoon. A lot of the folks actually thought I was Irish before they heard me spoke, which was flattering...I didn't know i looked like such an Irish lass :).

In terms of learning at the Orientation, it was pretty useful. I definitely got some new ideas for fun lessons, and some insight into the present Korean curriculum and the struggles we will encounter during our time here. I learned the most from the teachers who had been here for a few years but still had to go the orientation.

Well, it's getting late...but so much more has happened...I need to get on top of this whole writing my experiences down more often. Now that I'm getting into the swing of things hopefully it will be a little easier. Teaching is going great, my kids are pretty awesome overall. My biggest problem is with the ninth graders, who think they are too cool for school. I've also had some problems with students not using their imaginations...they're too used to rote learning, and it's kind of sad. Hopefully that will change soon. I'm doing a short play next week with my conversation class. We have adapted Shel Silverstein's "Ickle me, Pickle me, Tickle me too" one of my childhood favorites. Also, I never did the blog thing. Too many people wanted me to send them the e-mail format, and when I tried to set up a blog on blogspot it was all in Korean...and I haven't had the patience to figure it out yet. Maybe someday, but not quite yet :). I love you all and I miss you sooo much. If anyone wants to come to Korea, I have a lovely floor mat waiting for you :) and plenty of kimchi and soju to keep you warm and spicy.

Peace and mucho love,
xoxo, Alex

p.s. remember that man who thought I was Russian? and liked my thighs? wellll, apparently they call prostitutes russian...ewww, i didn't know i gave off that vibe.

Here are some links to pics I've taken:
This is where I live, Yeoju : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2462293&l=97f0a&id=8600337

Jarasum Jazz Festival:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2460576&l=77893&id=8600337

Seonunsan Provincial Park, where a couple friends and I met up with climbers for a biannual Meet and Greet:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2460569&l=644e3&id=8600337

Our first hiking trip to Chiaksan, Very Danger...http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2460562&l=6851f&id=8600337

And it has begun...

I have figured out this crazy world of Korean Blogging...Finally took the time to find the change language button. I guess it didn't take tooo long! I will post on this randomly, with both updates on what I've been doing as well as random musings through my brain and observations. Please leave comments if you feel so inclined!