Bali: Part 2: Ubud

In Ubud I stayed in a great little hotel that is run by an adorable little old woman, called Oka Wati. Every morning breakfast was delivered to my patio at whatever time I'd asked for the night before. I fell in love with the green pancakes wrapped around bananas and a little coconut.

I developed a routine of having breakfast around 7:30 a swim around 8 along with reading by the pool for a couple hours. After that I would take off exploring with my camera, either on foot or by bike. One day I got a car and driver for a couple of hours who took me to the Elephant cave and a couple of temples. In the late afternoon after exploring I'd have a massage or a foot rub, since they were ridiculously cheap (about $7.00 for 1.5 hours). Then a beer at a restaurant with wifi to check in and make sure all was ok and everyone knew I was alive. A nice dinner and then maybe one of the traditional dance shows and to bed around 10pm. It was a very mellow part of the trip but culturally rich.

From Bali

Eventually, it was time to depart Ubud and I headed east to Candi Dasa. I spent my last days there enjoying a quiet beach and doing a little snorkeling.

From Bali

Bali: Febuary 2010 Part 1: Kuta

I flew out for Bali on a cold, snowy Monday evening in February. I'd already spent 6 hours in Inchon Airport so I was ready to go. Due to weather and that it was Lunar New Year I hadn't been able to take a later bus or train to Seoul. I had a direct flight from Seoul to Denpensar, Bali, Indonesia. By the time I'd landed in Bali after a time change and 8 hour flight it was 1am Bali time.
The initial steps off the plane were wonderful as the hot and humid topical air assaulted my winter ravaged senses. I could smell incense and spices in the air and feel my dry lungs and skin trying to suck the water out of the air as fast as possible. I think most of the flights in and out of DPS are in the middle of the night because the lines to get your visa were backed up. I managed after learning how to deal with lines in Korea find the line that was hidden behind a cashier where you paid for your visa and move through the Visa and immigration lines fairly quickly after making friends with two Korean families who defended our place in line from several groups of Japanese tourist who were trying to cut in. Then finally I grabbed my bag and headed out to figure out how to get a taxi to my hotel around 2:30 in the morning.
The next morning dawned way too early and I decided that after 24 hours of traveling I was allowed to relax and not do much the first day. I did get moving in time to get the free breakfast at the hotel. I then spent the day taking a relaxing walk up the beach, a stroll through Kuta and ending up with reading a book by the pool.
I made plans to hire a car for the next day to go zip lining after I'd found out that the wind and surf reports weren't looking good for para-sailing or kite boarding.
My second full day in Kuta I spent with a really nice driver who took me all over and made sure I got to see more than what had been planned on the itinerary. Once he found out I was interested in taking pictures he made sure to stop some extra places so I could get good shots of the valleys with the rice terraces.

From Bali

He also made sure I got to see one of three monkey forests on Bali. The one he took me to had bats also. These weren't your run of the mill little fruit bats either they were about a meter across when they had their wings extended. I had fun taking pictures of the macaques. The only problem that I seemed to develop while there was that I got overwhelmed with how many monkeys were there and trying to cut down the 600+ pictures of monkeys to a reasonable size has been a bit of a task.

From Bali

From Bali

From Bali

From Bali

My last afternoon in Kuta I rented a boogie board and attempted a little surfing. Then I headed off about mid morning day 3 to Ubud up in the Central part of Bali. (I'll cover Udud and Candi Dasa in the next post about Bali.)

Three days in Beijing... plus the snowfall of the decade.

The dawn of New Year's Day found me sitting at Inchon airport waiting for a flight to Beijing. By lunch time I had landed met my tour companions and tour guide. We then headed off to a restaurant to have Beijing duck. If the first meal was indicative of the rest of the trip, it was going to be good Chinese food the whole way. After lunch we headed off to Tienanmen Square to walk off the lunch. After seeing it on the news for years, I had never really grasped the size of it. It's HUGE! The wind was brisk but not too bad yet since we took a quick walk through and then headed for the Forbidden city that is right behind that famous picture of Mao.

From China

I quickly figured out that after my first introduction to travel in Israel included soldiers with sub machine guns, seeing military presences in foreign countries doesn't really surprise or scare me. There were plenty of guards and soldiers all over both Tienanmen and the Forbidden City.

From China

I could have easily spent days wandering through but I only got a couple of hours. It was really interesting how the emperors thought. They had to be near gods. So they had the largest houses, most concubines (3,000) and many, many gates to protect them from commoners.

From China

From China

After that we headed for a tea house to warm up.

From China

One thing my time there taught me is while I may not like sweet tea I do enjoy many types of good hot tea.

From China

Then it was dinner time and then on to an Amazing Chinese Acrobatic show. By the time we finally landed at our hotel we were exhausted.


We started the second day with a nice breakfast while we watched a few flakes of snow fall outside our hotel. Then it was off to the Great Wall. No words for it either.

From China

From China

From China

Then on to the Ming Tombs.

From China

From China

We wraped up the day with a wonderful dinner, a beer and then massages back at our hotel. Since we had one more long day on the schedule.

Day 3 started with watching very large flakes of snow accumulate. We loaded up our van with our luggage and then headed for the Temple of Heaven. Which was wonderful, we got to see some native Beijingers hanging out, dancing, playing and enjoying life.

From China

From China

We also tried very hard not to slip and fall and the accumulating drifts.

From China

Then to a silk factory and later on to the Summer Palace. When it was built it was 30km outside the city where it was on a man made lake and much cooler than in the Forbidden city. Of course the irony of this was that it was covered in over a foot of snow that had been falling steadily all day.

From China

From China

Later on we headed for the airport so we could catch our flight home to Korea. There was a slight catch in those plans. All of the flights out of China were canceled due to snow. Thankfully our super tour guide took great care of us. She got our flight rescheduled for the next morning. She also took care of getting us re booked into our hotel and a ride back there and back to the airport in the morning. By the time she was done taking care of us, we had dinner on the tour company and breakfast to go with us to the airport.
The short version of the final leg of the trip home was 20 hours and a plane, bus, train and finally taxi.

Beijing Day 1 <1/1/2010>

First day in Beijing was busy. Our guide Wendy met us at the airport and we headed off to have Peking duck for lunch. After a year of Korean food Chinese seems like normal in some ways. We ate too much at lunch and then headed to walk it off at Tienanmen square. It is huge! We didn't stop by Mao's tomb but we did see his picture over the gate. Then we continued on to the Forbidden city. We only got a taste of what was once a huge complex. It was fairly cold yesterday and when we weren't protected by walls the wind was biting.
We also made a visit to a tea house and learned about different types of tea and how to prepare it properly. Then another huge meal and off to an acrobatics show. Think the opening to the Beijing Olympics small scale and up close. Finally we headed to our hotel and crashed.
Today it's the Great Wall, Ming tombs and I think our guide said a jade factory and a pearl shop.

Just a typical Monday

Mondays are usually my long day I'm at school by 8:05 because I have to be on the school English broadcast by 8:25am. Honestly I am usually typing out my book to read right before I go downstairs for it. This week I'd gotten everything done the week before so I was ready when I ran to the broadcast room at 8:20. I got there and the four students who usually run things were trying to set up. They'd had a few mistakes the last couple of weeks so I was going over things with them that might need to get checked. Then I started to read. The announcer was next to me and asking for a pen so while I was reading I quickly handed it to her. Then one of the 6th grade boys who is the president of the student body was acting silly on the other side of the camera trying to make me laugh. About the time the Third Billy Goat Gruff went across the bridge I had the two announcers both petting my hair cause they liked the curls. I somehow managed to get through the rest of the broadcast without losing it. There was one swift kick under the desk at one of the students petting my hair.
After the broadcast I come back to the English Center where I planed my lessons for the day with Miss. Kim. It was an easy lesson for the sixth grade so not much to worry about. We taught the three classes and nothing to strange happened, just the usual student antics. One of the classes got punished because they think they are the worst class. They are going to be better this month we hope because if they aren't they get to do a whole period of squats and chanting that they are the best class.
Lunch was the usual collection of young students really excited to see me and talk and older students trying to be cool.
Back in my office once more I was visited by three 6th grade girls who practice their English by helping me practice my Korean. They went over my homework for Korean class and then talked with me in English about Pepero day which is Wednesday.
I then had 2 periods to plan a lesson for the teachers. I used the books the school has assigned and came up with a short lesson that should have been relatively straight forward and easy. Of course nothing goes as planned. The class was to start at 3:30 and go for 20 minutes. My part got started around 4:00 and lasted till 4:20. My regular Miss Kim was out at a training so I got my old Miss Kim to translate for me. This lesson is done in front of the principal, Vice principal, head teachers and basically the whole faculty of the school.
The first round of giggles started when I made the comment that I really liked the next saying. It was "Are there any tickets available on the Monday morning flight to Atlanta?" I swear it was in the book and I didn't change it at all. Miss Kim turned and looked at me with wide eyes going Why?!? Do you like that! All the other teachers were partially confused because they don't all remember I'm from Atlanta. I said don't worry I'm not going to go home right now. I just like the idea of it. She then had to fill in everyone. Who started laughing at the idea that I was going to take off for home.
The next dialog I was teaching talked about wanting to take a trip to swim at the beach. I'd spent 30 minutes one day after school helping my translator for the day practice the right way to say "Bitch" (she'd been watching too much gossip girl.) So when we got to the line and all the teachers and principal said Beach as Bitch... there was laughter. Miss Kim then had to explain that this was one of those words where one letter mispronounced could make a HUGE difference. Of course in the middle of this one of the older female teachers who I really respect busted out with "OH! Son of a BITCH! Asah!" She had made the connection very loudly... and anyone who wasn't laughing before was then. I had to have them practice saying both words so they could hear and feel the difference in saying both of them. By the time I headed home at 4:30 I was exhausted. Having a cold, teaching, and trying to keep both students and teachers interested in English all day can be exhausting.

Love Motels

From Busan with Desi

If you travel enough in Korea you will eventually stay in a "Love Motel" I just hadn't had the guts to do it yet. Mainly due to the stereotypes I had about them. I guess I should give a little background here. Koreans live with their families till they get married, unless they get into one of the SKY colleges (Big universities in Seoul.) So if they want to have sex outside of marriage or just before they get married they have devised many places to have a little privacy to do so. They have DVD bangs, which are rooms with huge padded sofas and big movie screens so you can either a) watch a movie or b) cuddle in private with your special someone. Then they have Love motels where pretty much all pretense of doing anything other than having sex is given up. They are designed for anonymity. Garages and parking lots have curtains or barriers up so that you can't recognize the cars that might be parked there. You check in and pay in cash through a small window so your face can't really be seen. There is a light up board with pictures of the rooms available and you choose your number pay the money and they hand you a key and toothbrushes.

From Busan with Desi

The rooms are pretty nice but you know they are designed with one thing in mind. Huge beds, nice tvs, large spa tubs and showers, and a selection of condoms and porn on the tv.
Desi and I stayed in one in Busan this weekend right near the beach, it was cheap, clean, and thankfully fairly sound proof once we closed the second set of doors. Since we were only going down for one night and most of the hotels in the area where we were spending most of our time cost over 200,000\ a night. A love motel at 120,000\ was a pretty good deal since it was less than a block from the beach. I may crash at a few more of them in the future, purely to save money and they are fairly nice so long as they have good sound proofing so you don't hear your neighbors all night.

It's my parents and National Geographic's Fault

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth but I have been very busy recently. Along with my regular teaching and trying to make sure I see my friends here in Daegu, I've been planning. Well, really planning, plotting, saving, reading, researching, and trying to make some general plans for this coming winter break.  So where am I headed?
I leave New Years day for Beijing, China. It's a short 3 day 2 night tour but it covers the highlights.  I'm going with a good friend here who will probably head home next fall,  we wanted to do a big trip together before then.  I've wanted to go to the Great Wall since I was in Elementary school. I would sit and read and look at the pictures in my parents National Geographics and think that I'd really like to see that but probably never would. Heck, I didn't really like the stir-fry when Mom made it so how would I survive traveling in a country where that was like most of what they ate. UGH! YUCK!! Not for me. Of course I grew up and I've discovered they eat a lot of different things and stir- fry is not the only thing.  Of course when I was in seventh or eight grade... I can't remember which I just remember it was Social Studies with Mrs. Grierson. We talked about China and the riots in Tienanmen Square.  I still had that hang up about the food but, kept thinking that would be so amazing to see.  So now it's twenty years later and I just paid for my trip to Beijing. I'm actually going to see those things I sat and dreamed about when I was about 10 years old. Some of the people I've talked to about this have been going... um it's two months out... if you're this excited now you're going to be bouncing off the inside of the plane when the time gets here.  I know... I'm working on trying to stay focused on work and not build it up too much... but the inner 10 year old is winning some days.

I'm also taking a second trip in mid or late January not sure which thanks to having to wait on my winter camp assignments from the DMOE. This one is more my Mom's fault. Around the time I started getting really burned out teaching in Atlanta, she handed me a book "Eat, Pray, Love" told me she thought I'd like it.  What came from it is another little kernel of a dream to travel to Bali. Add in a couple of years of cold weather and craving a beach and warmth in the middle of winter and you have my second destination this winter.  I'll be there for around a week and try to see a good chunk of the island and relax and get ready for the new school year with a new co-teacher.

Along with those two big trips I've been doing short trips to Busan and Seoul, trying to soak up as much as I can in short periods of time. This weekend I'm going to Busan on a "Girls Weekend" with Desi, since she'll be heading back to Atlanta for good in February. Hopefully the weather holds and we get sun and maybe something warmer than the 55 degrees it's been averaging most of this week.

I'm a conservative?

I get some interesting information some days by just sitting around forcing the Korean teachers to speak in English. Yesterday afternoon I was eating cake and talking to Sunny. We were talking about Halloween coming up and what I was going to do for it this year. I said as much as I love Halloween in the states, really wasn't planning on joining in on any of the craziness this year here. I knew there are things planned here, but after last year I realized that it probably wasn't the best idea. She asked me why I said that. I explained that I'd realized it really didn't help the cause of foreign teachers here to dress up and act foolish. That it just gives people a bad idea about us.

She then quickly looked up a word in Korean online and then said that I must be really conservative. I almost snorted my coffee out my nose. I explained that no I really wasn't conservative but I realized that I had to act more conservative here so that I could be respected.  She said I was well liked by all the other teachers because I acted respectful of their culture.

I started thinking last night about how much I hide here. I don't just hide the big things but there are little things I change. I don't do it to be deceitful but I know that if they knew everything about me their opinion of me would change drastically.  I know I'm not conservative but I know I act like one in someways here just so that I can be respected. Its one of the prices I pay to make sure that I'm seen as a real teacher not just a dancing monkey that most foreigners are seen as.

ok time to go teach...  will work on this more later

The Best Job in the World.

My favorite co teacher is taking an English discussion course this fall. So of course I offered to help her with her homework and anything else I could do to make it a little easier on her. Yesterday's topic was the Best job in the world. I quickly threw out that I knew I had it. She was like "WHa?!?" I said I know I did... but then again it might just be the best job for me. This then followed with a mixture of discussion about why I loved it.
I started listing the reasons. 1. I get to travel and live in another country while getting paid for it. 2. I get to work with children which means I get to act like a kid about 75% of the time. 3. I have all the respect and perks of being a teacher with about a third of the paperwork I would have in the US. 4. I have a good schedule and a decent amount of time off.

About half way through she was agreeing with me. I do have the best job in the world. I told her my theory that if you don't like your job either you're in the wrong job or you're working in the wrong place. I'm wondering how the class went. I'm sure we'll talk about it a bit this morning as we get ready for to teach the 5th graders.

Diffrences between Teaching in the US and Korea

Today has been one of those surreal sort of days. I was giving the practice golden bell quiz to the 5th grade. The schedule had been changed cause the 5th grade also was getting their yearly sex talk. I taught two periods of 5th then my one period of first graders. We were working on parts of the body because they are starting the clinic zone. The plan called for the students to label a cut out of a little boy and say the parts of the body. So I had kids coming up and sticking the labels on. This one little girl got up and stuck the label on for Arm. Then proudly turned around and shouted ARSE! The whole class responded "ARSE!" I somehow managed not to start giggling and then said arM! and the class after 2 more rounds of listen and repeat figured out it was an arM not and arse.
The next period it was back to the 5th grade. One of the boys, who actually is rather smart and good at English, decided while Sunny was out wrangling other students to draw an anatomically correct penis and testicles and label them. After he drew them he then turned his white board to me and asked if it was right.
I think the second he saw my face he knew he was in trouble... I told him to erase it and we'd talk about it after class. I sat down with him and explained that he was in trouble and that for a change I was going to punish him US style not Korean style. (Koreans still use corporal punishment.) He has to over night copy a poem in English 4 times. I gave him "A Picture Puzzle Piece" by shel silverstien to copy. Hopefully that will keep the drawings at bay. He actually came back after school to get the poem cause of course I don't keep things like that ready.

It's been a long day of having to really tighten down on the students. Hopefully the 6th grade boys being kicked out of the English Center except for class for 2 weeks will get them back in line.

Cheusock can not get here fast enough. I'm ready for a long weekend of travel with friends.

Perfect weekend back in Korea.

Round trip ticket to Busan = 32,000 won
Motel for the night= 39,000 won
Drinks, dinner, cab fare= 28,000 won
Playing 6 degrees of separation with a group of Lesbians in Korea and finding less than 1 degree using friends back home = PRICELESS!!!!


Went down to Busan on Saturday and spent the afternoon, evening, wee hours of the morning with an amazing group of women. I'm going to have to make sure I can make it to a few more of these weekends. Not a hook up group just like minded women hanging out and having fun. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. I'm now back in Daegu and getting ready to go do some shopping for the new place and I'm completely relaxed and grounded for the first time in what feels like forever.

I'm probably going to crash hard later today but it was completely worth it.

New place... no more showering with the washing machine.

Here is a short Photo tour of my new place... staying on a second year does have it's perks.

I now have an electric lock on my door. I just have to remember the combination when it's time to get in.


Inside the door I now have a shoe closet so it doesn't look like a centipede lives in my place. I'm really enjoying these and might want them in whatever place I land next.

I have a much nicer Kitchen. The big black box over the sink is a dish drier/ sanitizer. Hopefully I'll figure out how to use it properly soon.

View from the doorway through the kitchen, through the bedroom, to the porch/ laundry area. The bathroom is on the left hand side.


My very blue bathroom, I like it except it's so dark that I have to be very careful if the lights aren't on.


View from my window. It's nice and in the evening I can here the call to meditation from the temple. The tree below my window is a persimmon tree. I'm hopeful I'm not allergic to it.

Counting Down

I've been trying to keep it to a minimum but with tomorrow making it one week till I take off on a plane to the US, it's not easy. A week from today I will finish my last English camp and hop on a train to Seoul, then take the subway to Incheon, crash for the night in a hotel, and then grab a plane to Tokoyo and then on to Atlanta. To say I'm excited is an understatement. I'm ready to see my friends and family. It's been 11 months. Have things changed in the last 11 months, yes. But it will be good to see everyone.
I was thinking last night as I was eating a yummy bowl of bibimbap and some gu mandu that, I've come a long way. When I got here I had no clue how to order food in Korean. Much less what anything was. Now I can order food and know what I'm ordering. I also have made new friends, done some things I never would have thought about doing before, and generally had a good year.

I no longer feel like beating my head against the wall when I get told things that would have seemed totally asinine if I was in the US. For example, last week I was chatting with my co-teacher Sunny and we were talking about what needed to get done when I get back from the US. She said, she had bad news from the VP. I have to be in quarantine in my apartment when I get back. I can't go to school on that Wednesday like planned. Why? you ask. Because they are afraid I will be bringing Swine flu back with me. Now I might have been offended, if it was just me, but anyone, teachers or students, who go overseas during the vacation can't come back to school till they have been in Korea for at least 4 days. That gives me plenty of time to get over my jet lag. The nice and sweet part of this is that Sunny was mad cause she said she's going to miss me and want to see me after my vacation, she doesn't want to have to wait for the quarantine period.

I'm sure some of my vocabulary has changed. I have a bad feeling I'm going to answer someone in Korean when I first get home. I've just gotten in the habit when it's easy questions of just using Korean to make things easier and clear for the Koreans I'm around. I'm fairly sure I will answer some question I've been asked with a "Nay!" not a "Yes." My newest muttering of "I-go" will get some strange looks where as it is normal here. My "oye!" has slowly been changing. They are little things that I have noticed I picked up but they don't surprise me here. But the strangeness of them in Atlanta will be a bit of a shock.

I'm sure I will be having reverse culture shock. I'll probably bow at someone, yell out Anyoung haseo as I walk into a store. Things that are normal and expected here, but never done at home.

I also know, but I'm not sure how it will feel, that people and things at home have changed also. There has been a year of events, relationships, growth, etc. That has happened while I've been gone. It's tough to think about how my relationships with my friends are going to be different, I'm just visiting this trip. I no longer live there. My home, is in Daegu.

There will be questions about how many more years are you going to be in Korea? Answer: I don't know. Do I have my future planned out right now... nope. I just know that I've signed a contract saying that I will be teaching for the DMOE for the next year. I'm fine with that plan. But I know others will be interested in answers I don't have yet.

It's not time to worry yet....

I've been jokingly asking Sunny since the first rumblings with North Korea started and she said don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. So every time something happens I ask her "Is it time to worry yet?" She always says "No, don't worry." Today at lunch I was eating with the 6th grade teachers and Sunny and I said ok I'm asking with everyone here. I then prefaced the question with there is a lot of coverage in the US papers and International news about North Korea doing things. After the missiles this weekend "Am I allowed to worry yet? I know my mom is worried and I'm going to have 3 weeks at home dealing with my mom worried about it." They all said nope. We'll tell you when it's time to worry. So then it was follow up question time. So if everyone else is worried how come you aren't worried? We're not worried cause we have the US Army here. Why would any one attack us when we have your army here? I was like... hold it. All of your men have to do military service and yet you are counting on the US Army? Yup.
Then they changed the topic. It was interesting. But as I've said before to people it's not time to worry. The South Koreans don't think it's a big deal so, all of us over here really aren't worrying.

Food thoughts

After being here almost a year I've discovered a few things. Firstly my taste in food has expanded and changed. Over the last week I've tried a few new things and eaten somethings that I've learned I love. I"m sure my mother will have a small heart attack reading this next bit but. When I was at the Organic, Vegetarian, Korean buffet with some of the other teachers and the principal and VP I found and dug into one of the traditional foods I've developed a taste for. They are a type of mushroom that are cooked in a tempura batter and then covered with a sort of sweet and sour sauce. I also ate quite a few other mushroom dishes. There are so many different types of mushrooms here that I'm learning to like them. `I'm still not a fan of the plain old mushrooms that are slimy and everywhere in the US.

I've also developed a taste for this soybean and red pepper paste that is a main stay of Korean cooking. I've been really lucky. In recent weeks thanks to the cafetria being under construction I've been bringing my lunch. I've also been invited out to lunch or invited to have lunch with a couple of different grades. 6th grade took me out for noodles one rainy afternoon. They were wonderful but burnt the heck out of my mouth they were so hot. This past week one of the 1st grade teachers made Sunny and I lunch. It was wonderful. It was 2 different types of rice, the soybean/pepper paste, chicken, lettuce wraps, and homemade Kimchi, a cucumber and some red spice salad. It was wonderful. There has been a lot of talk around the school about how "Korean" I am. I was given a great complement by the Vice Principal she said I must have been Korean in the past because I have done so well at picking up customs and taking to the food.

I should probably talk a little about the soybean/ red pepper paste. When I first got here I could only tolerate a very little bit of it. Now I love the stuff. I slather it on when I have BBQ. I also have bought some to have a home to make a meal of it's wonderful.

This was dinner tonight, lettuce, rice and the paste. It's all that's needed. I'm wondering how my new taste buds are going to react to eating food back in the US. Are things that used to be too spicy be bland now? Is my body going to react well to the switch back to American food for 3 weeks? Just things I'm thinking about right now.

Shoes and Socks!

Guess it's time for a cultural interlude. In Korea, like may Asian countries. You take your shoes off when you go inside many places. At school every morning my first stop is the shoe cabinet for teachers. Inside sit in nice neat rows the slippers or shoes for all the teachers at the school. I pull off my tennis shoes and slip on a pair of slippers and then head up stairs. Meanwhile the students go in two side doors where they take their school slippers out of the shoe bags they carry every day and put them on. Then they put their tennis shoes or whatever they are wearing in the bag. When they get outside the classroom there are rows of shelves where they line up their shoe bags. They wear their slippers all day with the exceptions of in a few classrooms. The English Center is one of those exceptions. Because the students sit on the floor they take off their slippers at the door. They then are supposed to line them up against the wall. They don't always get them perfect but since it has been part of the class score in the English center, they are getting better at it.
I've talked to a couple of students and they were telling me that if they wear their shoes inside at home their parents get really angry at them. They were asking me why we don't take our shoes off in the US. I said I think the difference is that our floors aren't heated.
One by product of all this time spent in slippers or without shoes on is that the socks here are really fancy. I have acquired a few pairs of fun socks while I've been here. I have a pair of Mickey Mouse ones that even have little ears that stick out. I also have a pair of Starbucks socks (copyrights aren't really respected here). The best pair I have so far are a pair I don't wear at school. I found some Obama socks the other day that I've been debating picking up and bringing home with me. You can find anything on socks. Most socks for kids are band members, cartoons, sports people, or just whatever current trend is going on. Adults tend towards simple patterns or plain. I figure I can always play the crazy American card and go for a mix of fun and plain socks at work most of the time.

Korean Queer Cultural Festival

Adventures in Korean communication

Cellphones are everywhere in Korea, if you don't have one you are way behind and will probably get laughed at. I've had a phone here since I got here but it was a "pay-as-you-go" phone. Which meant that every month I had to hike down the street to a store and hand over some won to make sure it kept working. Occasionally I'd go through the won on my phone quicker than expected and suddenly I'd be without a phone. It happened at odd times. Usually while I was out of town or even on a weekend when I couldn't go add minutes so I was not accessible on a weekend. I have enough ways to get in touch with people it wasn't really a big deal for me except when I was out of Daegu and trying to meet up with people. My cellphone was in the name of a nice Korean guy who owns a cellphone store at the corner. I started talking to Sunny about her helping me get a phone in my name. She was more than willing and we took off from school one afternoon to visit a couple of stores in the area and get me a phone in my name that would direct bill from my bank account. We walked into 3 stores and they would be friendly but say nope we don't have the right type of phone to let a foreigner have. I was like is it because they are in Korean? Nope. Is it because they are afraid we will leave the country and not pay our bills. (well maybe.) Nope. If you want a phone in the name of a non Korean here. It can't shoot video. This is in a country where cellphones can be used to pay for everything from subways to food. You can listen to music, watch tv, play games, everything on the cellphones. But they lock them down so that foreigners can't use all the features. We eventually had to take a bus downtown and ended up with the phone in Sunny's name but auto-pay from my bank account.
It's just another reminder of how things work over here.

Kidnapping at my school

I waited to write about this till things have finally settled down about this here. About two weeks ago now I started hearing strange announcements during the school day. Sunny told me that one of the 3rd graders hadn't made it to school and the principal wanted to know if anyone knew anything about it. At the end of the class day the students all went home but the teachers walked around the area trying to find him. Around 4:30 when I go home I was walking down wondering what was going on and I found out that the student had escaped from where his hands, feet, mouth and eyes had been tapped and he'd been put in an abandoned house in another part of Daegu. The boy's father had been called for a ransom but the student had escaped and been heard by a neighbor and they got him to the police. He was back in school two days later but they still hadn't found the kidnapper. So for about a week I walked to school past crowds of police both in uniform and out. It was a little crazy. I know that the only reason I wasn't stared at harder was that every morning I'd walk with some students and they always came running at me and yelling my name.. so it filtered through the police ranks that I was the English teacher at the school so I wasn't a threat to the kids.
I heard yesterday that they finally caught the guy in Busan. I guess he'd run to a family members house. Through the whole thing I was thinking that I really hadn't appreciated amber alerts and such much till now. Cause there are no systems like that in place here in Korea.
I'm just glad the kid is back safe and sound with no major injuries. (though that is a relative statement cause I've got 3 students with casts on right now.) But he's actually really good no injuries and back happy and talkative in class.

Been Slammed

Not sure where to start. There has been a lot going on over here. I've been grappling with getting to know the kids better and running head long into some of the same things I found in Atlanta. Kids learn what they see around them so if all they see are negative images of people other than Koreans they are going to pick them up. I had a child tell me that she likes Africans cause they are made of chocolate. I'm not sure if that is just the color she knows their skin is or if someone unthinking said that and it stuck with her. I showed her some pictures of my old students and she was trying told me they were all chocolate. It was then followed by a conversation about why their hair was in braids. I've been talking to a friend here who has it worse. His students pull on his skin and say "Yo, Man!" in greeting because that's what they see.

Then I have the joy of listening to and judging speech contests. I really hate that I feel like some of the kids got an unfair advantage because their homeroom teachers came to me and asked me to edit their speeches. Which I did happily. The ones who didn't had potential but the English was so bad it took away from their over all scores. I'm taking time these days to work with the students more on finding a rhythm and tone in how they speak. It's interesting to see the kids realize without fully understanding my words that you don't yell when you are asking someone for directions so it makes sense to speak in a normal voice while practicing. Some days teaching here is easy and fun others it's painful. Overall I love my students and I really enjoy working with them. The current class of 6th graders are really getting comfortable with me so they come in to my office and hang out and talk with me. The only downside of this is I'm picking up more and more Kpop references. I now can throw out singer and band references at them and cut them off before they start singing things like Super Junior at me.
I thought American kids were good little consumers but these Korean kids have them beat. They can rattle off cellphone ads, chicken ads, you name it. They also can do all the dances that go with the songs on command (I just had 3 girls doing the dance to that video in my office when they heard it playing.)

Time to get back to teaching... I'm staying in Daegu this weekend to go to a festival downtown and catch up on sleep. Next weekend I'm headed to Seoul. I'm going to really miss being able to hop on a train anytime I want to get anywhere when I go back to the States.