life in korea

It's one thing to say you want to live in a foreign country. It's a whole different thing to live in a foreign country! It's pretty safe to say that I took most everything for granted before coming here. I can't even mail a letter without assistance from my director! I never knew how good I could possibly become at pantomiming. With some creativity, you can communicate, though extremely shakily. Trying to get a passport photo taken for a visa to China tonight, it took the clerk a patient 5 minutes to explain to me that for 8,000 won I was getting 8 photos, not 1.

I was in Dunkin Donuts yesterday ordering a latte, waiting on some friends to go to the Daegu shooting range (more on that in a bit), when I was very aware of the most adorable little girl staring at me with a teensy shy grin on her face. I've gotten this so many times- little shy kids who are probably taught by someone just like me, and they so desperately want to get my attention and proudly say hi. Her mom was sitting next to her, and I could tell that she was nearly mouthing the word "hello" to the little girl so she could say hi to me. She finally did, and over the course of 10 minutes and countless attempts at building enough courage, she said "How are you?" then later told me "You are beautiful." It made me feel good the rest of the day. It's funny, I've seen some of my kids outside of school, and it's like they forget every word of English they know! They're so chatty in class, but then I think they get embarrassed or something once they vacate school premises.

So, Daegu shooting range. I have a map of the city hanging on my wall right beside my computer, and I saw there was a shooting range, and for whatever reason I decided I'd like to try that one day. I was out with some friends the other night and I suggested we make a Sunday sojourn to shoot some guns. I could never guess how excited a group of Brits and Canadians (I was the sole American) would be to hold firearms! After signing my name to some waiver written entirely in Korean, suiting up in my bullet proof vest and clamping giant yellow headphones on, I was "ready." The first gun I chose was the glock 9mm. I have no idea why- maybe because rappers talk about glocks, and to be honest it might be the only gun I'd actually heard of! Ok, that little thing I mentioned above about not even being able to mail a letter on my own in this country... hahaha- try taking instructions on how to aim and fire a gun! Shot number 1 was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. My hands were shaking so terribly. I had no idea what to expect, and this gun was way too powerful for me. After almost tearfully glancing back at my friends as if to say "Oh. My. Goodness. What am I doing?!" I tried it again. I don't think I breathed the whole time and just kept praying each shot was the last!! It was terrifying. However, out of 10 shots, I hit the target 5 times.

The second gun was a Smith & Wesson 22. I'm so happy I decided to try shooting again! Disregarding the fact that dude moved the target about 10 feet closer, this gun was so much easier to use. Plus, it was a revolver, and not to sound like a dopey gun-happy American, it was smooth and awesome. I hit the target with all 10 shots, and the proof is now hanging on my wall in my apartment. Yay for new experiences!

Smith & Wesson 22


I'm going whitewater rafting outside of Seoul in 2 weekends. I'm about to book a flight to Beijing in a month (hence the Chinese visa I have to get). Spring is here, which means baseball games, bike rides, night hikes, etc. The weather has been beyond gloomy the entire time I've been here (minus a few gorgeous days). Greg comes back in 3 months (too soon to count down? ha, probably....). His second visit will mark my halfway point of this adventure. Today is actually 3 months exactly that I've been here. It seems like nothing and forever at the same time. I have no idea how that is possible. 9 months to go!

My kids are continuing to say hilarious things, and my little 4 year old Suin finally likes me! It's so rewarding to see him acknowledge me with a smile, then run up to me and wrap his little tiny arms around me. Today I pushed up the sleeve of my shirt and asked him to count my freckles on my forearm. According to his very accurate counting, I have 19 freckles (skipping number 16, so really only 18). Ha, if you've seen my arms you know I have more like 19 bajillion freckles.

This has nothing to do with anything, but one thing I miss more than anything (sorry family/ friends/ boyfriend) is good Mexican food! Last night I ordered a vegetarian burrito from a place downtown. Somehow it tasted like pizza. FAIL! Reason 82 that I cook 98% of what I eat here!

Busan

Cherry blossoms right outside my apartment

Haeundae Beach, Busan, South Korea

Lighthouse in Haeundae Beach, Busan

Dude is totally smoking



I went to Busan this weekend for my friend Tashia's birthday. She's leaving soon and she wanted to celebrate in a beach town away from Daegu. It was a fabulous weekend full of laughs and birthday celebrations. Busan looks like southern California, if so-Cal had only Koreans! We ate Mexican food (completely lackluster), got our hair done (I felt like I was going to a wedding), and just generally spent the weekend hanging out and having fun. We tried to go to a casino, but I think that 20+ foreigners scared the staff, and a couple people didn't have their alien cards, so they wouldn't let us in. The hotel we stayed in is what's called a "love motel." Deduce what you'd like from this moniker, but we were only staying one night, and it was less than $35 per room. Sold! No, it wasn't trashy like it sounds!

On Sunday we set out to have an authentic Korean brunch, at Bennigan's! Ha- obviously not authentic Korean. After eating the most gluttonous, disgusting, calorie-ridden meals of our lives, we took a walk along the beach towards a lighthouse I spotted in the (not so close) distance. It was a very beautiful walk full of scenery. Busan is a great city- and definitely has a different vibe than the mountainous city that I live in.The KTX train ride there and back was great, too. (Though we got shushed once- you aren't "allowed" to talk loudly on trains- which is weird because it seems that most rules and laws are mere suggestions here, except for that!) We could see all the landscape outside, including the famous Korean cherry blossoms. They are so beautiful here. I guess they're blooming later than normal this year, but once they bloom they'll be around for about a month. I'm so excited that spring is here. 3 cold months in NYC followed by almost 3 more cold months in Korea was brutal! I was cold for almost 6 months straight.

Field trip tomorrow at school! We're going to the arboretum! Yay.

"she" is PEE!

It all makes sense now. "Pee" is blood. "She" is pee. Yesterday I was teaching a new, pretty low level class very rudimentary vocabulary words. "Repeat after me, 'she'." Little Paul, who is probably 7 years old, says "Ah, Teacher! She!" and pulls the front of his pants down chanting "She! She!" Luckily the waistband of his corduroys was restrictive enough that they wouldn't stretch to expose the inevitable and we were all spared! And, I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure by the end of the class they were all chanting "Emil-she!" There's no way they could have known my childhood nickname- Emil-pee though. NO WAY!

Separate class- we're reading "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Pardon my cursing- but they have trouble with this, constantly pronouncing it "The Itchy Bitchy Spider."

And Suin tried to give me a ponytail.


And one class kept whispering to each other and cracking up, all agreeing that I look like this female pilot from their textbook:
It's better than what I get from my kindergarten class of boys. They say "Emily Teacher is a boy-girl!"

:) :) :)

The best thing my parents ever taught me was how to ride a bike. I can't name many more things than just taking off on a bike somewhere that make me that happy. I was wasting away a gorgeous day yesterday, when I finally just hopped on my bike and took off in a vague general direction. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. And my cellphone. And a watch. But it worked in my favor, completely freeing me of any possible distractions. The only thing I regret is that no one was there with me to see my jaw drop at the ridiculous beauty I saw, or the permanent smile I had on my face all day.

At first I just set off heading west, but when I saw 4 junior high girls on bikes turn the to right in front of me, I decided to follow them because they looked like they were headed... I don't know... somewhere. Well, my stalking didn't last long because I got distracted by a group of geriatrics playing croquet. If there was a day to forget my camera, this wasn't it. But if there was a day to remind me why I came here- this WAS it. I just kept biking and biking and eventually I came to the Samunjingyo Bridge near Hwawon Resort in the Seongsan-ri section of Daegu (southwest of the city, if you're looking at a map). Sidenote, just spent 20 minutes searching google for some photos to post, but no dice. So you'll have to wait until the next time I go back!

Anyway, so I'm peddling across this ridiculously long (and totally empty except for me) bridge, and a gathering of parachutes in a flat field right next to the river on the opposite side piques my interest. Like a creep, I park my bike directly above them on the bridge, and in genuine stalker fashion watch them for the next 20 minutes, trying to will myself the courage to suck it up and go down there and talk to them. What did I have to lose? I'm already completely out of place just by existing here, so I had nothing to lose! I wound my way through the sand until I eventually got to the field they were in. I precariously parked my bike in the sand, and walked slowly and unsteadily as if I'd never walked before into this group of foreign strangers, just because I was in awe by what they were doing. They all smiled at me (about 8 middle aged men and one woman) and waved, a few saying hi, one asking me where I was from. Basically they were paragliding, only not leaving the ground. So it looked more like a mix between paragliding and flying a kite! I could tell it was hard work. They were all sweating. But it was a truly unique experience to be right in the midst of something like that. The picture below is basically what they'd be doing if they were actually leaving the ground. Perhaps they were just practicing? I may never know.

After the paragliding, I saw this little pagoda on the top of a mountain and it was my next goal- to figure out how to get there. Trees have started blossoming, and it's quite gorgeous to bike through a park in early spring with nothing but blue skies above you and flowering nature surrounding you. After winding my way up into the mountain, I finally get to the top, and to my surprise there's a petting zoo! But also to my surprise, even the deer here didn't know what to make of me! They were walking riiiight up to all the Koreans, feeding directly out of their palms. They ran away when they saw me, then slowly yet skeptically approached me again. I had to laugh.

Yesterday was the kind of happy, carefree, encouraging day of exploration that makes all the other emotions I'm feeling here totally worth it. I probably had bugs in my teeth from the constant barrage of smiles I was producing. It was nice. Really, really nice. I'm sad I don't have any pictures to show, but I will most definitely be returning. To top of my day I bought a few new plants to adorn my apartment, make it feel more like mine.

Today I was stopped in the hallway at work by one of my Korean co-teachers. She had something to tell me. "Emily, I just wanted to let you know that David's mom and grandma wanted to thank you for being such a good teacher to David. He says you're really fun and energetic and that he always enjoys coming to your class. They also went on to say that before coming to ILS (my school) and being in my class, that David was always really unhappy and kind of depressed. This surprises me because he's always really happy and outgoing in my class. Equally surprised were his mom and grandma, but for the opposite reason! T o my co-teacher this may seem small, but for me it means so much. Getting through the difficult days that leave me wanting to scream makes it all worth it to be thanked by my students' parents.

Remember my difficult 4 year old? Well, he seemed to have had a breakthrough last week. This time when he looked up at me and his little black eyes were dripping with tears, and he started screaming and wailing, he actually let me comfort him. Before he would have just pushed me and walked away sobbing. This time he let me hold him and even though we don't understand each other, I am really happy to see him caving a little! His mom also told a different co-teacher of mine to thank me for being so nice to Su-in even though he hates me. I promise- those were the words used. The kid hates me. But I also know it's because he's 4 and he's frustrated. Well, I'm 27 and I'm frustrated, too!! That's another thing his mom said- that she knows it's got to be difficult for me to teach her son because he is very difficult in general. I taught him a new game yesterday though. He has now started to hate learning from the book, but I make him learn the same material in a different way aka I trick him. Yesterday we spent 80 minutes giggling and tossing a stuffed doll back and forth. "Catch! Throw!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again- teaching these kids has taught me that I have an incredible reserve of patience that I would have forever sworn didn't exist if I never came here to do this. Maybe it's because I'm so used to working with adults, and my patience for those who should know better is very limited. Children have an excuse- they shouldn't know better! They're kids. I like the youngest ones best. It's so rewarding to see them understand something that even a week ago was out of the realm of their comprehension. I still have a class of three boys (ok, ok- my favorite class) that insist on pronouncing "pennies" as "penis" and another class slips in the word dong (feces) in wherever they can. It's hard being the authority sometimes! When I was in school I know for a fact that everyone was doing the same thing to teachers. We never had a foreign teacher come in, but I can best compare my position to being a substitute teacher. I don't quite receive the respect I deserve because the kids think they can get away with anything. In a way, this is a similar situation to subbing. It's transient. In 10 months I'll be back in the US and my kids will be hanging off their new teacher- "Emily Teacher" long forgotten!

To end this I'll tell a funny little story about my morning at the gym today.
Ok- I know and accept the fact that I am very particular about tiny little things that most people don't even think about or notice. In restaurants Greg and I do a mental scan to locate the table farthest away from all the other tables, and the most out of the way. We hate feeling crowded or being bumped into. On the subway platform I head to either the front or the back- statistically the 2 least likely crowded locations. (Not the case in NYC...) Since my gym assigns lockers upon each visit and I can't choose mine in the farthest back corner, I silently pray each time that I won't be directly across from a naked butt bending over to apply lotion that might accidentally rub up against me (the butt, not the lotion). I can only guess I'm not alone in hoping that no strangers' butts will touch me during my gym visits. Anyway, so today I enter the lockeroom. Turn into the aisle in which locker #83 is located, and can hardly contain my gasping surprise to see not 1, not 3, but 8-10 elderly special needs naked Koreans all sitting/ standing, mumbling to themselves. Some partially dressed thanks to some nurses. Guess where locker 83 is located? Yup. right in the middle of this gaggle. I think I was touched by perhaps 3 naked butts this morning. Now, that's just too much to handle before I've had my morning coffee!!!