suffix: -less

sleep·less (adjective)

1. Marked by a lack of sleep: a sleepless night.
2. Unable to sleep.
3. Without sleep.

There's something about Seoul that enables staying awake 'til the wee hours of the morning, whether at a bar, a club, or someone's apartment. Just got home after hanging out with two co-workers at one of our apartments in the glorious We've building. Had a lovely night. Before i knew it, we'd hit 4 am. After that there's really no turning back, you know? Might as well stay up 'til 5. ~lol~

doink.

i hate it when people think i have a bad perm. oi. some asians are not blessed with gorgeous, silky, straight hair.

okay, okay, okay, most asians are blessed with gorgeous, silky, straight hair. hell, 9 out of 10 asians are probably blessed with gorgeous, silky, straight hair. this one ain't.

~sigh~ i suppose if i learned how to style my hair properly, then at least people would think i had a good perm.

bugger.

bienvenido a mi apartamento

Sometimes here in Korea, I think in Spanish. Broken, barely coherent Spanish. It's natural, I suppose, when in a foreign country to attempt to speak in any foreign language you know. er. Isn't it? ~lol~

So. I had a potluck dinner party last night for my co-workers. As a result, my place is clean enough for photos. ~grin~ Mi apartamento, para tu.

The front door:


Shoes are considered dirty here, and are left in front of the door. The floor is raised to accommodate heating pipes. Yup. Heated floors here. I love it.

If you are facing the front door, to the left are a series of four closets. Lots of lovely storage space. I have yet to fill up even half of it. Hopefully I won't fill it all up, or I'll have a hard time packing later. ~lol~

Shoe closet:


Clothes closet:


To the right of the door...

Mismatched bathroom:


Oi. I've got to fix the towel/kleenex color combination. Ouch.

The rest of the studio:

Door & kitchen:


Kitchen:


Dining table/computer desk:


TV & boiler closet:


Bed:


Full circle, with drying rack:


It's a pretty large studio - much larger than I expected. It's nicer than some of the places I've lived in the Twin Cities. ~grin~ The building I live in is an officetel, which means that it is 1. newer than other apartment buildings (called villas), and 2. there are a number of businesses occupying the basement, first, and second floors. Tenants in the lower floors include a convenience store, a samgyupsal restaurant, a PC-bang, a luxury noraebang (an extremely fancy karoke place), a Korean pool hall, and other businesses I have yet to check out.

The only thing I don't like about my place is the lack of color. Everything is a uniform off-white. So, thank you for all of the cards, and especially thank you to Jeany for sending me photos from home. I didn't bring enough photos with me because I figured I'd have them on my computer. When my hard drive died I lost them all, and Jeany sent me a bunch of photos. They're all here, as are cards from you. Thank you!

Favourite people:


Thank you!:


Last, a few scenes from last night. We built a fort. It was fun. ~grin~

Random food:


Sandy & Michelle:


Noah:


Noah, take II:

Please Teach Me Canadian

It's a nice day out, ay? Many Canadians at my workplace say "ay" at the end of a statement to create a question ("Speaking Canadian is addictive, ay?"). It's pronounced "ay," as in day. Yet they spell it "Eh."

Huh. Who else thinks "Eh" looks like it should be pronounced "eh" as in meh, feh, heh? Anyone? ~lol~

Oh, it's fun to tease the Canadians, even though I'm going to sound just like all of them by the end of the year.

I've been listening to a lot of fun music lately. My favorites at the moment are from Brazil and France - Os Mutantes and MC Solaar.

song samples here and here

~sigh~ Yes. Not much Korean pop culture going on at the moment. I did watch the film "The Promise," which is Chinese but stars one of Korea's top film stars, Jang Dong-gun. It's playing in theaters here, but I had to download it to watch with English subtitles. Darn language barrier. It's not a fantastic film, but I enjoyed it. The visuals are stunning. The story is a bit suspect.

Also watched "Please Teach Me English," a really cute Korean film from 2003. I might go see Munich tonight. Or I might go wander in the markets and look for cheap clothing. Either will be fun.

Am having some much needed alone time this weekend. I'm not used to being around people so often - constant interaction every minute at work and most every minute of the weekend. It's probably good for me. ~grin~

Today, though, I have yet to open my mouth to speak. It's been kind of nice. I slept in very, extremely, embarrassingly late for no reason at all, mucked around on my computer, sang a bit, and then went for a walk along a great path by the Han River. The riverbank is lined with parks. There is a biking/running trail, soccer fields, grassy areas, basketball hoops, etc. It's a bit chilly outside today. Still, I saw several families flying kites, playing basketball, or playing catch. Two soccer games were going on, and several bikers and runners passed me along the path. I didn't bring my camera, but will post photos another time.

Will leave you tonight with this. It's my new favorite photo. Must learn to read Korean so I know what I'm supposed to enjoy. Happy day!

Go See A Show in Minneapolis!

If you're in Minneapolis between February 17 and March 5, check out Mu Performing Arts' production of Cowboy Versus Samurai. It's a hilarious retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac story. The script is fantastic, and the production has uber-talented actors and a kick-butt stage manager. Break a leg this weekend, folks!

ARGH, I'm so sad I'll miss this. It's going to be awesome. All of you readers in the Twin Cities area, please buy a ticket and see the show for me. :)

Details here.

in which...

... i show a photo of work people and talk more about namdaemun. sorries for the lack of capital letters. too lazy tonight.

work folks:

don't we look silly waving? the photographer wanted us to wave. oh well.


~ Namdaemun, trip II ~

went back to Namdaemun on Sunday with my co-workers Michelle and Helen. Michelle is another Korean adoptee from the states (she's in the red blazer in the photo), and Helen is one of the Korean counselors at work (she's at the far right in the black sweater). We had a super time. Ate lunch at a restaurant in Namdaemun and talked for a few hours, wandered around the market, went back to Cheonho, went out for dinner and talked again, and then went grocery shopping at E-Mart. ~lol~

namdaemun gate:


ginseng:


knock-off purse heaven:

necessity dictated the purchase of a new purse. the handles on my little black purse are finally going to disintegrate after five or so years of use. a moment of silence, please. [-----------] cool beans, thanks. ;P five years out of a $10 purse isn't bad. i paid $25 for my new knock-off, probably too much, but oh well. i hate bartering. the seller was asking $35 or $40, i think. my co-worker Michelle talked him down to $25. thank you!

delivery:


i have yet to explore all of Namdaemun. it seems like most of the market is divided into sections by goods. a few smaller sections are designated food spots. there are a few alleys crammed with small restaurants, where ajimas stand outside the door and try to forcibly yank you inside to eat their food instead of a competitor's. yikes. another area of the market has outdoor food stalls.

at the stalls, heavy plastic encloses several small plastic tables, plastic stools, a grill, piles of food and drink to order, and numerous stand-alone heaters. i think (?) that the Koreans generally go to these stands for a snack and drinks. though, to me...
~ skewers of barbecued chicken or pork,
~ grilled clams,
~ grilled squid,
~ mandu (korean dumplings),
~ dukbokki (rice cakes and fish cakes in a sweet and spicy red pepper sauce),
~ bindeduk and pajon (mung bean or flour pancakes with vegetables &/or seafood),
~ and many other items i didn't recognize
...are more than just a snack. maybe people only order one thing? i'd like to eat at one of these someday soon, have yet to try them. i've tried the street food around Cheonho, which is a little different.

wandering between food stalls.


food:


more food:


pig, and lots of it:

this woman was busy carving pork. are these ham hocks? i don't know my cuts of meat, wouldn't do well on Letterman. her stall was set up in front of a restaurant, but the entire glass or plexiglass sheet above the meat was covered in plastic wrap. for cleanliness? to wrap meat? i have no idea. it looked neat, though.

very tired. must go to sleep. more posts soon on street food in cheonho, shopping at E-Mart, kids at school, and the profusion of caucasian faces in advertising here. it's so strange. i thought i'd be in a place where asians faces would finally play a dominate role in mass media, but it's not the case. bugger. but. more on that later. sleep now. :) g'night!

the neighbourhood

Hooray, photo-posting works tonight! Here are a few photos of my neighbourhood.

day:





night:





the kimbap place i eat at all the time because it's one of the few places where i know the names of dishes to order ~lol~ (yep, my co-workers are walking in for a late dinner):



last weekend i walked with a few co-workers to this crazy store called TechnoMart. it's about a 30 minute walk from Cheonho to the store, and you cross one of the many bridges spanning the Han River to get there.

on the walk home, views of Cheonho from the Cheonho bridge:






hrm. this is a rather dull post. i am a bit tired today, have been staying up too late. ~insert sheepish grin~ what's new, though, ay? OH. ay. uh-oh. the canadians at work are slowly infiltrating my speech patterns. i'll sound more canadian than anything else by the end of the year. they outnumber the american teachers at work, 5 to 4, and their accents are all much more powerful than ours. help. :)

will leave you with a horribly blurry photo of a cheap cute hat i picked up to replace my uglyboringtoosmallblack winter hat. g'night!

militarysuperbowl

Watched the Superbowl yesterday morning. Poor Seattle! rats. :( AFN, the military channel, showed the game. I'm Superglad it was playing, though it wasn't quite the same as watching at home. :)

AFN plays their own commercials - lots of public service announcements about safe driving, safe drinking, safe sex, etc. mixed in with messages from home about supporting our troops and ads for local shopping/gyms/dating services. er. Not anywhere near as cool as the funky commercials that usually play, though possibly just as entertaining for the sheer oddness factor.

Many of the commercials on AFN have an access-cable production quality to them. Also, members of old 70s and 80s metal bands - Skid Row is the only one I can remember right now - have taped really peppy public service announcements. It's a bit surreal to see these grizzled men in leather and long grey hair, covered in tatoos, saying things like "Drive safe!" and "We love our troops!" :)

Anyway, here are a few random photos.

Oi. Nevermind. Blogger isn't publishing my photos right now for some reason. Aigh. Well. I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime, a few photos are here.

hug!

~sara

A good day

Today has been a good day. Productive. Creative. Content. Nothing much out of the ordinary happened, but this feeling of quiet satisfaction sits solidly in my core. Today I went to work, planned for three classes, graded some quizzes, taught the classes, left work, went out for a beer with my fellow teachers and two of the Korean counselors at work, and went home. Fairly routine. Hrm.

I had a great conversation during break today with one of my students from January whom I no longer teach. She told me how much better she likes this hagwon than her previous one, because here she learns conversation. At her old school, she only studied grammar. Oh, I miss my students from last month so much. Two of them wave whenever they walk by my door. I love it. (All about hagwons here.)

It's easier to remember my students' names than I expected. I am still hoping to have a Captain Crunch someday, but for now the most unusual name in my classes is Ace. One of my co-workers has a student named Bread. !! I would love to call on a Bread in class.

I like making my students laugh. I feel so badly for them sometimes, they have so much pressure to be perfect - perfect test scores, perfect high grades, perfect bodies, perfect everything. (Intro to the Korean education system here.) It's a cultural difference, so I shouldn't feel badly, I guess. Too bad. I do. Hell. It's culturally acceptable to hit kids here - if they don't do well in school, some of them have parents who will hit them. Their teachers in public school can smack them on the head with rulers. I am having a really hard time understanding this.

Oi, they have so much homework, too. I asked my youngest students (age 8-12) last month what time they go to bed. Most went to bed around 1 am. 1 am! These kids have to do homework for their public school, plus any hagwons, plus most practice some kind of musical instrument, and then they want to read or play computer games or watch tv or something in order to have at least a little bit of time not spent on homework. Oi. It's nice to try and make them laugh. I haven't figured out how to make every class fun yet. Soon, though. At least part of every class has to be fun.

I guess this is the first day I've felt mostly prepared for teaching every class. That explains the satisfaction. I want to find Mr. Schleh, Ms. Oslund, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Holmes, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Davis, Mr. Murphy, Janet, Dean, Mr. Johnson-W., and bunches of other teachers to say thank you. And ask for teaching tips. ~lol~

Hope you all have a content, creative, ordinary, happy day soon, too. It feels so lovely.

love,

~sara

gigantic organic apples and other random ramblings

The company I work for gave all of the teachers and staff a Lunar New Year's gift. Five kilos of giant organic apples. Just over 11 pounds of giant apples. Fourteen apples per box. I've eaten just one. Took me two days.

I gave 5 of them away last week to my kids as the grand prize in a grammar game. They were ecstatic. Jumping-around-the-classroom ecstatic. I had candy as a smaller prize, and the kids liked that, but they said that to have an apple is better because it is a healthy gift. The other teachers said that giving boxed fruit is a common New Year's gift in Korea. It conveys wealth. Apples are freaking expensive here. They are also giant. There is no such thing as a small apple, a green apple, a variety of apple. You can buy a humongous, reddish-skinned apple, and that's it.

For perspective, here is the box of apples with my wallet, my crappy US cell phone, a can of Korean 7up, and my cool Korean cell phone:



I love that the pop cans here are small. 250 ml max. 8.4 ounces. I can't finish a whole can of pop at home. Beer here, however, comes in the standard size bottles we have at home and also in 2 liter bottles. I think it's 2 liters; it might be 1 liter? It costs around $2. HOLY COW.

Here are apples with my adorable, lovely, cute, awesome Korean cell phone (complete with gay cowboy kitty courtesy of jen & angie in honour of Brokeback Mountain, which has 8 Oscar nominations!! how cool and well-deserved is that?!). My cell - called a handphone here - was only $50 -- just as much as my crappy overpriced US cell phone that doesn't even have any games. My cell here has a game I can't figure out b/c it's in Korean, a great camera, an really cool FM radio tuner, a super calendar (using Roman and Lunar dates), almost 50 ringtones, and even the ability to download karoke songs for noraebong practice. Can you tell I like it? *snort* Yep. It's awesome. I am spoiled for life. My phone isn't even that great by Korean standards.



The new work schedule is going really well. I love going in to work around 1:00. I've spent the mornings doing yoga, calling people at home, and catching up on sleep from the past month. I miss the kids I taught last month, very, very much, but my new students all seem to be fun thus far. They are all so smart. They get a kick out of asking me to say words in Korean during break, because I massacre the pronunciation. Mianhamnida is the favorite thus far. They can't understand how someone who looks Korean can't pronounce anything. ~lol~

Though, looking Korean is still up in the air. Some Koreans here think I am Korean, some think I am Japanese. Thus far, I have yet to see someone I really look like. It's weird. I've seen people who look like friends at home, people who look like my Korean co-workers, but no one I really look like. Maybe I have to go to Pusan. Maybe I'm a mutt. Hrm.

Did a little sightseeing this weekend with a few fellow teachers at Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was called the Kyongbok Palace when I was here 14 years ago, I think. Dratted changes to the romanization of Korean. ~lol~ I think the old way is easier to read with the correct pronunciation, but it's probably just what I was used to reading. Anyway, I want to go back to the palace in the spring when the weather is a bit nicer and take a tour in English. We just wandered around the palace grounds this weekend. Here are a few photos. Gyeongbokgung was first built in 1395, was destroyed at least once (in 1592), reconstructed in 1868, and is currently still being restored today.

the central building, with throne room:



brilliant colours - in the throne room:


every important building on the palace grounds has small statues stitting in a line atop the corners of every builing. i think they are there to guard the buildings from evil spirits, if I remember correctly from 14 years ago. the more important the building, the more statues it had. photos of the guardians:





many families were touring the palace, with many people in traditional dress for the holiday. we stopped for a while at a section that was full of traditional (?) games - spinning-tops, hackey-sacks, seesaws. here are a few random people shots ~

blue mouth boy with cotton candy:


a very small hanbok:


beautiful:


twirl:


trying to hack:


spinning tops:



More later. Sorry this post is a bit unorganized. Hope you are all well! I am slowly catching up on email and phone calls, hope to be in touch with you all soon. I'm off to sleep. Love to you!