a very long post
Hello! It's past time for a lengthy update, don't you think? I love the weekend. I am sitting in the PC room that's in my apartment building, and am surrounded by small children playing video games. Seriously. They look to be age 6 to 12. ~lol~ The little girl next to me is singing the Bingo song and clapping. B-I-N-G-O!
SO. Good news! Today my computer was fixed!! A fellow teacher took me to TechnoMart and I bought a new hard drive. I spent the afternoon reinstalling the operating system and assorted programs, and listened to music for the first time since December. Happiness.
Next weekend I will have internet access if all goes well, and then I will be updating several times a week. Joy.
Building maintenance stopped by my apartment on Tuesday to drop off extra-powerful cockroach traps. I've gone from seeing 10 a day to 2 a day. Soon there will be 0 a day. Hallelujah.
Also, on Monday I am going to throw out my crappy used cell phone since no one will give me a service plan with it, and am going to a company near my school to buy a cheap new phone and the cheapest service plan they offer. Superawesomeness.
On Wednesday, I'll have been here for a month. A month already? It's gone by really fast. I love it here. I love living in a city this big. Granted, my subway ride in the morning is against traffic. I've only had to ride jammed into an overcrowded car once thus far, when I went to Itaewon. It was kind of fun, though. ~lol~ I probably won't think it's fun a year from now.
What have I done besides teaching.... Last weekend, Friday night I went with a fellow teacher and one of his friends, S., to the Hongik University area for Song Day. The second Friday of every month is Song Day (Song Night? gak, it's Song Something). You pay $15 and have access all night to a number of small live music venues. We went to a jazz club and heard an incredible soprano sax/piano/bass/drum combo, and then stopped at a hip hop club and saw three rap groups. Had so much fun!! Can't wait for February. The last Friday every month is club night, I guess, so you pay 15,000 won and have access to bunches of clubs all night.
I really like the Hongik area. S. said that Hongik is the artsy part of Seoul, that it's different from a lot of other areas. It's very clean compared to where I live, and has tons of restaurants with all kinds of food, many bars, music clubs, dance clubs, fun clothes shopping...
Last weekend I also went walking in Olympic Park. It's very relaxing. The area I live in is pretty loud. It was nice to walk in the park and have a little quiet. I think I'll go there a lot this year.
Tonight I'm heading back to the Hongik U area, to hang out with some fellow adoptees. A girl at another branch of my school has been really, really nice and we're heading out for dinner and dancing with a big group of her friends from one of the adoptee organizations in Seoul. I'm really excited. :) The communication barrier has been a little weirder than I expected. People don't know what to think when they see a Korean-looking chick standing around with a group of caucasians. When my co-workers and I go out to eat, I'm always approached first, naturally, because they assume I speak Korean. Even after I say I'm sorry, I don't speak Korean, they keep talking to me and give me weird looks. It's getting to me a little bit. I feel sort of bad that I can't communicate, and I'm a bit tired of being stared at. Oh well. It's part of the experience. I expected that I'd be started at and people would think it was weird, but I didn't think it would bother me as much as it does. Once this intensive teaching schedule is over next week, I'm going to find a place to learn Korean. One of my co-workers gave me a few websites for Korean-language hagwons. Am looking foward to learning more.
Oi. Time is almost up. How are you? What have you been doing? I hope you are all healthy and over dratted colds and having a good weekend. :)
Love!!
~sara
SO. Good news! Today my computer was fixed!! A fellow teacher took me to TechnoMart and I bought a new hard drive. I spent the afternoon reinstalling the operating system and assorted programs, and listened to music for the first time since December. Happiness.
Next weekend I will have internet access if all goes well, and then I will be updating several times a week. Joy.
Building maintenance stopped by my apartment on Tuesday to drop off extra-powerful cockroach traps. I've gone from seeing 10 a day to 2 a day. Soon there will be 0 a day. Hallelujah.
Also, on Monday I am going to throw out my crappy used cell phone since no one will give me a service plan with it, and am going to a company near my school to buy a cheap new phone and the cheapest service plan they offer. Superawesomeness.
On Wednesday, I'll have been here for a month. A month already? It's gone by really fast. I love it here. I love living in a city this big. Granted, my subway ride in the morning is against traffic. I've only had to ride jammed into an overcrowded car once thus far, when I went to Itaewon. It was kind of fun, though. ~lol~ I probably won't think it's fun a year from now.
What have I done besides teaching.... Last weekend, Friday night I went with a fellow teacher and one of his friends, S., to the Hongik University area for Song Day. The second Friday of every month is Song Day (Song Night? gak, it's Song Something). You pay $15 and have access all night to a number of small live music venues. We went to a jazz club and heard an incredible soprano sax/piano/bass/drum combo, and then stopped at a hip hop club and saw three rap groups. Had so much fun!! Can't wait for February. The last Friday every month is club night, I guess, so you pay 15,000 won and have access to bunches of clubs all night.
I really like the Hongik area. S. said that Hongik is the artsy part of Seoul, that it's different from a lot of other areas. It's very clean compared to where I live, and has tons of restaurants with all kinds of food, many bars, music clubs, dance clubs, fun clothes shopping...
Last weekend I also went walking in Olympic Park. It's very relaxing. The area I live in is pretty loud. It was nice to walk in the park and have a little quiet. I think I'll go there a lot this year.
Tonight I'm heading back to the Hongik U area, to hang out with some fellow adoptees. A girl at another branch of my school has been really, really nice and we're heading out for dinner and dancing with a big group of her friends from one of the adoptee organizations in Seoul. I'm really excited. :) The communication barrier has been a little weirder than I expected. People don't know what to think when they see a Korean-looking chick standing around with a group of caucasians. When my co-workers and I go out to eat, I'm always approached first, naturally, because they assume I speak Korean. Even after I say I'm sorry, I don't speak Korean, they keep talking to me and give me weird looks. It's getting to me a little bit. I feel sort of bad that I can't communicate, and I'm a bit tired of being stared at. Oh well. It's part of the experience. I expected that I'd be started at and people would think it was weird, but I didn't think it would bother me as much as it does. Once this intensive teaching schedule is over next week, I'm going to find a place to learn Korean. One of my co-workers gave me a few websites for Korean-language hagwons. Am looking foward to learning more.
Oi. Time is almost up. How are you? What have you been doing? I hope you are all healthy and over dratted colds and having a good weekend. :)
Love!!
~sara
posted by smochs at 5:27 PM
4 Comments:
Boo ya! First comment! /dork
We're finishing up another afternoon of stripping in the dining room. It's become quite the strip joint here at Thorne House. I had brunch with Angie, Jen, Steph, Katie, Gary, Clarissa (sp?) and a Korean American playwright who is here for the New Eyes Festival at Mu. We were at Maria's, and I kept feeling like I shouldn't go there without you. :( I had a corn pancake with cotijo in your honor. [lol]
I'm pleased that your computer is fixed. I hope we sent all of the right systems disks with you! Kudos to Geoff for thinking of that before you left!
Well, I'm on clean up duty now, so I'd better go. Much love!!
Hey Sara!
I'm so glad: that you're going out and seeing Seoul a little, that you're making friends over there, that you're computer is working! that you're getting a new cell phone, and that the bugs are dying! Sheesh, girl, if you can make it through the month you've had all alone in a country where you don't speak the language, you can make it anywhere! Hope that's a good feeling.
I have a blessed day off tomorrow, yay! before Mockingbird tech on Monday, and then opening on Tues. Then CvS starts rehearsal next Sunday. So the grind continues, but I'm lucky to be employed. Caught up on some sleep today which was great.
Sorry that everyone keeps speaking to you in Korean, and looking at you funny. Maybe you'll just become immune to it eventually. I kind of always feel like people are looking at me funny and have stopped trying to figure out why. But that could just be cos I live in the suburbs. ; )
Anyway, I hope your luck continues to go your way. Have a great week, my friend.
Love,
Jeany.
melinite! ~lol~ you weren't a /dork 'til you wrote /dork. ;p
dude, your place is a strip joint! where's the bacon? how is new eyes going? i wish i could see it. checked out the schedule on the mu website, it looks like a cool set of work. thank you for eating a corn pancake for me. ~grin~ i miss them.
you totally sent all the right system disks with me, THANK YOU. if y'all hadn't done that i'd be so screwed. i should be grading essays right now. ~sigh~ i don't like grading them. i love reading them, i love teaching, i hate making corrections and grading. bugger. oh well. what else is up at the Thorne House besides stripping? :)
jeany! ohohohoh, happy opening! happy one day of tech (yeeps)! :) hope you are having fun, even if things are really busy.
people look at me funny at home sometimes because they think i can't speak english, and here they look at me funny because i can't speak korean. oh well. i think i will become more immune to it soon. i wish my place hadn't had bugs, it's made me a twitchy piece of paranoia. i keep thinking i see them out of the corner of my eyes. once those are gone, i have my own internet connection, and i have a phone and am able to call everyone from my apartment instead of the puke-covered subway phones, life will be muchmuchmuch less stressful. then i think i'll be able to laugh off the staring and weird language things. one of the kids at the school came up to me last week during break and started speaking in korean. i said "mianhamnida, namen hanguk-mal motayo. miguk-yo." he started yelling at me in korean. ~lol~ i kept saying "miguk-yo. i'm from america." cracked up all the other teachers, they were howling. no one knew what he was saying. bugger that. i can't wait to learn more korean.
will call both of you soon. woo hoo! i think i'm going to get a cell phone with service on tuesday. cross your fingers. happy week to you both, take care of you. :)
love,
~s
Yay! So good to see the photos and hear a more in-depth version of your life over the past month. New Eyes is going well, it's always fun and interesting and leads to lots of good discussions. But I am getting tired from the marathon! Ready....for...sleeeep....
And, especially at this time I'm missing your presence here :( It's not the same without you around!
So glad to hear that things are coming together for you! Learning the language would be way cool, I think. Sorry about the staring. I can imagine it would be bothersome and awkward. Ick. Hopefully you'll become immune like Jeany said!
Well, gotta run and prep for the reading of Ibong Adarna: Fabulous Filipino Folktale today that I'm "directing." Hee hee. It's a kid's play and is pretty hysterical in my opinion.
Hang in there and keep the updates comin!
Love,
Steph
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