Later today, I'll be traveling to Seoul. Tomorrow, I fly out with California Matt (Refer to Hogye Boys' Club), heading for Taiwan! Yay, Spring Break!
[Sidebar, Cali Matt re-signed his contract, so we're out of the mourning period! Yay!]
Anyway, I'm going to Taiwan for nine days and, as such, will be unable to post on my blog. When I come back, I'll hopefully have many Taiwanese adventures (Sweep Panorama photos) to relate (post). I'll be back in school shortly after my return, which means plenty of time to update the ol' blog. Then it's my birthday (March 2nd), Micki and Colie will be in the ROK, Kacie "J.Lo"Stewart will be in the Eastern hemisphere with a high probability of visitation, and my amazing sister also has a plan to visit in the works. It'll be a great way to reboot my senses as I start the second half of my tenure.
March is the best.
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Thursday, February 17, 2011
Blog Sabbatical
Would I Be Friends With You Back Home?
As an English teacher in Korea, I'm part of this unique enclave. Sure, I try to make Korean friends, but let's be honest, most of my friends here are native English-speakers.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Arbitrary Musings
Fun Fact: In my head, I refer to all Korean children as "buttons," (ie "What an adorable little button," or "I will destroy the next button that speaks to me.").
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Anatomy of the Dream Center
Okay, I've posted pictures of my English room and the spectacular view just beyond the fifth-floor windows, but I haven't brought them to you in panorama... until now. Are you ready for this?
Inside:
This'll probably be more impressive if you click on it for full-size. |
I've mentioned the Sweep Panorama function, right? |
Portrait of a Little Lady
I talk a lot about Devil, I know. Sometimes, I think I should give my proper respect to some of my other favorites. There's Jenny, a tiny fourth grader with the Minnie Mouse voice who makes me smile delightedly every time I look at her. She's featured in some videos. Keith and Nick, who try so desperately to be cool boys and pretend they don't like me, but they'll climb on my lap and poke their heads in my room when they get the chance. Even Kevin, reluctant to learn, with his sheepish smile when I put him in the spotlight. Jim, of course, I've mentioned. Jenna and Sally, a little skittish, but trying to figure themselves out. Bright and quirky Na Min Jeung, Mouthy little Beckham, sassy Stephani, pretentious Sallome, and Nicky, adorable, nerdy Nicky with the chubby cheeks. There are any number of memorable children at my school (all the above are former seodang students, who I got to know best in the school), but Devil surpasses them all. Not just in her brightness, but in consideration.
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Monday, February 7, 2011
Three Small Words
- Annyeonghaseyo (안영하세요)
- Kamsahabnida (감사합니다)
- Annyeonghigyeseyo (안영히계세요)
Potent Quotables
In another segment detailing why Devil (김채령- Kim Che Ryeong) is my favorite child in this country, we have a series of text messages she sent me during the Lunar New Year. When I first found out that my cell phone number had been mysteriously leaked to the students, I was a little concerned. Turns out, Devil's the only one who uses my number and I'm fully fine with it.
Part 1: "I want to say the happynew year for you again."
Part 2: "I hope you can do anything, how much you want."
Part 3: "Teacher the health is very important in your life. you must be care the health."
Part 4: "-from.Devil-"
Too adorable.
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Sunday, February 6, 2011
New Design Feature!
This just in: I added a stat tracker to my blog, as per Shane's request. It's in the sidebar to the right, underneath my profile, archive, and followers. Shane said he'd be interested to see what kind of traffic the blog gets and I figured some of you might be as well. So, uh, there ya go.
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Lunar New Year, Part Two
Kyu had a birthday celebration in Busan to commemorate turning 24. Clearly, I joined in. First, we had some delightful Korean barbecue, followed up by touring around the world's largest department store, Shinsegae.
That's how I knew. |
The place was chock full o' expensive things. And food. Oh yeah, and an ice skating rink. There was some talk of ice skating, but it was a bit busy and there were too many kids. I'm a hot mess on skates, anyway.
I got to creep up on this action, too. Awesome. |
At the top of the department store, there was an area to check out a beautiful bird's eye view of Busan.
I may or may not be drunk on Sweep Panorama Power. |
The only way I can tell I'm not still in college is the presence of a wine glass in the center of the ring. |
Friday, February 4, 2011
Another New Year
I'll keep the writing brief. For Lunar New Year, I hopped a train to Seoul with train. Since nothing in my life can occur without event, I ate it hard on the walk to the train station, injuring my right ankle and left knee. Surprise. I got to the station and realized the area of legging around my knee was kind of wet. Rolled the fabric up, yeah, my knee is bleeding. A lot. Do I have a band-aid? Eh, nooooo. I wiped it off, no biggie, right? A decent way into the train trip, I feel my legging being uncomfortably stiff. The cut had healed to the legging and the cloth was kind of fused to my leg. Perfect.
See that red circle? Not a design flaw. |
Boom, bandag'd. |
The park is partly indoors, which is pretty interesting. We saw a couple shows, which were pretty weird. Oh yeah, and we had some typical park fare, like corn on a stick...?
Shane and I tapped out of the vacation early and took the train home today. As for tomorrow, there's some talk of a trip to Busan for Kyu's birthday. We'll see what develops.
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Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Case: Closed
The disappearance of my camera goes yet unsolved, but the void it left has finally been filled by an exact replica of the original. I'll say one last thing on the matter: shopping from Sony direct is a much better experience than shopping at HomePlus. They sat me down, setup my camera, switched it to English, inserted by 4 GB memory card and gave me a fully- charged battery, making my camera ready for immediate use. The customer service rep even told me about Sony's Product Repair and Service Center, right upstairs. Fantastic.
I know you kids were over my camera debacle, but now everything's as it should be and I am back in the game!
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Hot Child in the City
Did I ever tell you about that time I played Spin the Bottle at the bar? Sure did. I kissed so many men. Of course, it would have been a lot more interesting if any of them had been straight. I played Spin the Bottle at a tucked-away gay bar in Korea. That's right, my friends. Americans and Koreans.
The thing about homosexuality in Korea is that it doesn't officially exist. As a collective, the Korean people are in denial about the whole affair. As a result, the Korean gay community has gone underground, so to speak. Here's an article that discusses homosexuality in Korea: http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=7351116&page=1.
The gay bar I went to was a men's club. I don't know how the lesbian community fares. That would be interesting to see. Women are already a bit repressed, what would it be like to be a homosexual Korean woman?
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The Gods Must Be Crazy
Today was not the day. To be brief, the camera could not be replaced with an exact replica. I tried HomePlus, where I even bought a similar model, but it didn't feel right, so I returned it immediately. Afterward, the journey continued all the way over to LotteMart, where they surely would have more options. They didn't even carry Sony. Oy. Quickly indulged in a mini-pity party and looked up cameras on the English Sony website. Blah.blah.blah, eventually realized there had to be a Sony outlet in Samsan. In fact, there sure is. Enlisted Shane to accompany me downtown. Stopped by Beat Bar and W Garden just one last time. Nothing doing. So, we sought out the Sony store.
At 8:06 PM, we found the Sony shop. Closed. At 8. Of course. I figured I could come back early in the morning before my Seoul trip. But will it even be open? It's Lunar New Year's holiday. Hmm. No worries, I asked Han Solo if he thought the store'd be open. He called and confirmed they would be. I love my Korean friends.
Big trip to Samsan chock full of failure, Shane and I decided to salvage the night by seeing if we could catch a timely film. Luckily, timing was perfect for a showing of Ben Affleck's The Town. It was pretty good. Best moment of the night, for sure.
Tomorrow: Camera, Take Two?
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