I've just returned home for the first time in 104 hours and have 400+ photos to upload to the computer, crop, edit, and upload online. Heaven help me. I had a blast. Lengthy update is forthcoming.
Highlights:
Creepy old Korean men
Chickens & chonies
Toasted sandwich
Engrishee to the max
Koreans + snow = fail in more ways than I can count
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
For fun: favorite words
My brain was bored today, and I don't get to use my SAT words anymore now that I teach a bunch of dumb little kids. So I made a list of my favorite words, for their sounds, their spellings, and sometimes their definitions. In the end, I think this list says horrible things about the kind of person I am.
Amalgam
Bamboozle
Cahoots
Dongjak (Okay, so it's a proper noun, but I can't help giggling every time I pass this station on the subway.)
Eviscerate
Fizzle
Gobsmacked
Halcyon
Ignomy
Jezebel
Kvetch
Lascivious
Machination
Niffeneger (Another proper noun, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife." But I can't find a better N word.)
Ogle (It's not oogle or oggle, dumbasses!)
Penultimate
Queue (The most ridiculous spelling of a word.)
Reconnoiter (A very silly word typically used to describe very serious missions of very serious soldier-types in novels)
Shussboomer (A fast downhill skier)
Tryst
Ukulele
Virile
Witticism
Xenomi (a fish)
Yoni
Zuit suit
Honorable mentions: adage, lackadaisical, undulation, titillate, manipulative, rut (as animals do), presage, wanderlust, loquacious, renege, sycophant, malapropism, bailiwick, praxis, silhouette
What are yours?
Amalgam
Bamboozle
Cahoots
Dongjak (Okay, so it's a proper noun, but I can't help giggling every time I pass this station on the subway.)
Eviscerate
Fizzle
Gobsmacked
Halcyon
Ignomy
Jezebel
Kvetch
Lascivious
Machination
Niffeneger (Another proper noun, author of "The Time Traveler's Wife." But I can't find a better N word.)
Ogle (It's not oogle or oggle, dumbasses!)
Penultimate
Queue (The most ridiculous spelling of a word.)
Reconnoiter (A very silly word typically used to describe very serious missions of very serious soldier-types in novels)
Shussboomer (A fast downhill skier)
Tryst
Ukulele
Virile
Witticism
Xenomi (a fish)
Yoni
Zuit suit
Honorable mentions: adage, lackadaisical, undulation, titillate, manipulative, rut (as animals do), presage, wanderlust, loquacious, renege, sycophant, malapropism, bailiwick, praxis, silhouette
What are yours?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Wicked weekend fun
Friday night I went to a burlesque fundraiser show for Haiti called Cabaret Noir at Club TA. Luckily I ran into some foreigners on the subway going to the same place because it took us 20 or 30 minutes to find it after going down the wrong street and passing it twice on the right one.
This was just the thing to snap me from a two week funk. The crowd was awesome, everybody laughing and talking and having a great time- not an emo kid in sight, surprisingly for a burlesque show. After the show, about 15 people stayed to dance and had so much fun doing it, none of that restrained, trying to impress attitude you see at the usual clubs. Dan, Daphne, and Mitch- y'all would have LOVED it.
I met a Korean girl named Sunny, and she introduced me to her friend from NY, Alex, who showed us to a reggae bar where we hung out until the trains opened and giggled at the ajushi passed out and sawing logs at the table next to us. Sunny also introduced Veronica, who took both my hands in hers, squatted, and greeted me with a long and loud "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!" then stood and pulled me close to wrap me in an awkward and amusing warm embrace.
At about 6 a.m. Saturday I made it to a jimjilbang in Itaewon to pass a few hours and freshen up before belly dance class. It was my first time ever, and most everyone was asleep, so I had the pools all to myself. At first I was a little bored sitting alone in the jacuzzi without even a book, but soon I realized how much fun swimming naked is and was jumping from the warm to hot to ice pool like a little kid, swimming over the bubbles and giggling as they tickled my tummy, and swimming in circles for kicks. I had too much fun. Unfortunately, there were no sleeping mats left, so I slept on the hard marble floor with no blanket, but it was nice and warm.
I couldn't rouse myself early enough for the tribal lesson I wanted to attend, but I saw the tail end of it and stayed for an oriental lesson. I will definitely be returning to try out the tribal.
I wandered Itaewon hoping to find a Mexican place to have lunch. I'd given up and decided to return to the subway when I passed "Amigos." Oh happy day! I had a chicken burrito con queso and a watermelon margarita. The food was mediocre, but I'd been craving it something fierce, loved the atmosphere, and had a nice waiter. I left with that intense, dreamy, ultra satisfied post-coitus look on my face. :0) It was good.
Next up: Korean lessons. Nothing sticks, and I don't study, and I find it terribly dull. But going to dinner with my classmates after makes it all worth it. Good food, good company, and often weird conversation. And then sugar pumpkin bubble tea! FTW. The weird conversation led to my being invited to bake cookies Sunday afternoon and I got to watch Die Hard and play Scrabble. Good times.
The end.
This was just the thing to snap me from a two week funk. The crowd was awesome, everybody laughing and talking and having a great time- not an emo kid in sight, surprisingly for a burlesque show. After the show, about 15 people stayed to dance and had so much fun doing it, none of that restrained, trying to impress attitude you see at the usual clubs. Dan, Daphne, and Mitch- y'all would have LOVED it.
I met a Korean girl named Sunny, and she introduced me to her friend from NY, Alex, who showed us to a reggae bar where we hung out until the trains opened and giggled at the ajushi passed out and sawing logs at the table next to us. Sunny also introduced Veronica, who took both my hands in hers, squatted, and greeted me with a long and loud "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!" then stood and pulled me close to wrap me in an awkward and amusing warm embrace.
At about 6 a.m. Saturday I made it to a jimjilbang in Itaewon to pass a few hours and freshen up before belly dance class. It was my first time ever, and most everyone was asleep, so I had the pools all to myself. At first I was a little bored sitting alone in the jacuzzi without even a book, but soon I realized how much fun swimming naked is and was jumping from the warm to hot to ice pool like a little kid, swimming over the bubbles and giggling as they tickled my tummy, and swimming in circles for kicks. I had too much fun. Unfortunately, there were no sleeping mats left, so I slept on the hard marble floor with no blanket, but it was nice and warm.
I couldn't rouse myself early enough for the tribal lesson I wanted to attend, but I saw the tail end of it and stayed for an oriental lesson. I will definitely be returning to try out the tribal.
I wandered Itaewon hoping to find a Mexican place to have lunch. I'd given up and decided to return to the subway when I passed "Amigos." Oh happy day! I had a chicken burrito con queso and a watermelon margarita. The food was mediocre, but I'd been craving it something fierce, loved the atmosphere, and had a nice waiter. I left with that intense, dreamy, ultra satisfied post-coitus look on my face. :0) It was good.
Next up: Korean lessons. Nothing sticks, and I don't study, and I find it terribly dull. But going to dinner with my classmates after makes it all worth it. Good food, good company, and often weird conversation. And then sugar pumpkin bubble tea! FTW. The weird conversation led to my being invited to bake cookies Sunday afternoon and I got to watch Die Hard and play Scrabble. Good times.
The end.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
I'm an asshole-io-ioloiole...
I learned today that I am one effing rude foreigner- knocking down old ladies on the bus who won't move an inch so I can reach a handhold and walking in on women in the bathroom who don't bother to latch, much less shut the damn door. You should have seen the vitriolic looks they and everyone in the vicinity gave me and heard them curse me in their strange tongue. After a day like today, my ass is so deported.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Culturally retarded
Some of my kids really threw me off yesterday. My last class on Monday consists of six 14-year-old boys. This was one of the few days they didn't seem to be trying to gas me out of the tiny classroom. Our textbook led us to the conversation topic of dieting. I asked if high schoolers in Korea worry a lot about dieting. (I ask them a lot about the norms for Korean teenagers so I can explain the differences with American teens.)
Somehow they decided to discuss who they think is fat and needs to go on a diet: Charles, the previous teacher in my position, and Claire, my favorite of the Korean teachers at school. I was aghast and countered that she was not fat, but they insisted. I explained that maybe because I am from the U.S. and see a LOT of fat people every day, I have a different opinion of the definition of "fat" than they do because they see only skinny people every day, and that no one is wrong; we just have different cultural perspectives. But they would have none of it.
I was really hurt, inexplicably personally offended on her behalf. Claire is only a little heavier than me but in a good way with wide hips, and she wears awesome jeans that look darn good on her, if I may say so. I guess because I don't associate much with Koreans I don't experience the opinions on weight in this society- I've only heard *about* them...until now. It's disgusting.
I have no doubt that I have the mental fortitude to weather a year in this image-obsessed culture, an image I can never ever live up to, fit into, or meet. But it's still depressing to consider the pressures put on young women here to be rail thin, moreso than we see back in the states. The most fashionable clothing is not made larger than the equivalent of a U.S. size 4 because designers don't want fatties wearing their clothes. (See link below.) Children's mothers will starve them out of their natural childhood pudge. And I mentioned in an earlier post a person's character is often determined by his or her weight.
Anorexia runs rampant but is blamed on the permeation of American ideals and emphasis on image. Part of the problem is that this country doesn't believe in psychology. Yeah, you read that correctly. Psychiatric doctors are few and far between and haven't a clue what to do about the cases of ana on the rise. "Crazy" doesn't mean the same thing here as it does back home. Every Korean is the picture of mental health because such a stigma is placed on showing signs of anything to the contrary. Mental health "problems" such as depression and anxiety (both highly treatable, by the way) are screened before you can even get a job teaching here.
"Experts debate whether these problems are caused by Western pathologies that have infected their cultures via the globalized fashion, music and entertainment media..."
"But standards of beauty have changed dramatically in the 1990s with democratization, as South Korea's government decontrolled TV and newspapers, allowing in a flood of foreign and foreign-influenced programming, information and advertising." (Read article here)
But explain to me how the U.S. could influence a whole country to put mirrors on every escalator, cell phone, trees on hiking trails, sides of vendors' booths, even in individual bathroom stalls so one never need worry about how his or her hair is looking. And explain to me how the U.S. can be to blame for upwards of 76% of Korean women getting plastic surgery in their 20s and 30s. (From another blogger, not sure of the source.)
Sorry, my html-fu is limited.
I like to think of myself as an open-minded person. But there are just too many things in this culture that are retarded. And I am ill-equipped to influence my students to see outside their wacky Korean cage.
Somehow they decided to discuss who they think is fat and needs to go on a diet: Charles, the previous teacher in my position, and Claire, my favorite of the Korean teachers at school. I was aghast and countered that she was not fat, but they insisted. I explained that maybe because I am from the U.S. and see a LOT of fat people every day, I have a different opinion of the definition of "fat" than they do because they see only skinny people every day, and that no one is wrong; we just have different cultural perspectives. But they would have none of it.
I was really hurt, inexplicably personally offended on her behalf. Claire is only a little heavier than me but in a good way with wide hips, and she wears awesome jeans that look darn good on her, if I may say so. I guess because I don't associate much with Koreans I don't experience the opinions on weight in this society- I've only heard *about* them...until now. It's disgusting.
I have no doubt that I have the mental fortitude to weather a year in this image-obsessed culture, an image I can never ever live up to, fit into, or meet. But it's still depressing to consider the pressures put on young women here to be rail thin, moreso than we see back in the states. The most fashionable clothing is not made larger than the equivalent of a U.S. size 4 because designers don't want fatties wearing their clothes. (See link below.) Children's mothers will starve them out of their natural childhood pudge. And I mentioned in an earlier post a person's character is often determined by his or her weight.
Anorexia runs rampant but is blamed on the permeation of American ideals and emphasis on image. Part of the problem is that this country doesn't believe in psychology. Yeah, you read that correctly. Psychiatric doctors are few and far between and haven't a clue what to do about the cases of ana on the rise. "Crazy" doesn't mean the same thing here as it does back home. Every Korean is the picture of mental health because such a stigma is placed on showing signs of anything to the contrary. Mental health "problems" such as depression and anxiety (both highly treatable, by the way) are screened before you can even get a job teaching here.
"Experts debate whether these problems are caused by Western pathologies that have infected their cultures via the globalized fashion, music and entertainment media..."
"But standards of beauty have changed dramatically in the 1990s with democratization, as South Korea's government decontrolled TV and newspapers, allowing in a flood of foreign and foreign-influenced programming, information and advertising." (Read article here)
But explain to me how the U.S. could influence a whole country to put mirrors on every escalator, cell phone, trees on hiking trails, sides of vendors' booths, even in individual bathroom stalls so one never need worry about how his or her hair is looking. And explain to me how the U.S. can be to blame for upwards of 76% of Korean women getting plastic surgery in their 20s and 30s. (From another blogger, not sure of the source.)
Sorry, my html-fu is limited.
I like to think of myself as an open-minded person. But there are just too many things in this culture that are retarded. And I am ill-equipped to influence my students to see outside their wacky Korean cage.
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