Nothing at All

Why haven't I blogged in a week (practically a lifetime in the blogosphere)? Absolutely nothing of interest is going on. I joined a gym last week which is lovely, big and modern. It leaves me with an important question though:
Why can my underpaid trainers all speak English, at least about anything relevant to their job, and NO ONE AT MY BANK CAN SPEAK ANY??? I read an article last week in the paper commenting on how highly paid bank employees are. If they are so highly paid, why can't they speak anything but Korean? At the banks in NY there are always one or two tellers who can speak Spanish on duty. I know that the demand isn't very high in my neighborhood but it would be lovely to go to the bank and not have to bring a note written in Korean. Of course, I could learn bank related Korean but the fact of the matter is, even if I could master what I needed to tell them, I'd have to understand their response. That is pretty advanced language mastery, something working full time in an English school doesn't leave me much time to work on. I'm done ranting.

I saw the new Terminator movie. It is frighteningly set up for yet more sequels. Wasn't that bad, all things considered. I wish the female characters weren't so lame though. This weekend I shall muster up the strength/energy/time to do something touristy in Seoul.

This week's commute: Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy. I hated the first 70 pages but now I can't put it down. Except of course, when I leave it next to the sink instead of in my bag. A commute without a book is truly boring. I can see why the Victorians hated it though, why actually address issues that women face, like rape, when you can ignore it?

Happiness or the Lack of It

I read an editorial in The Korea Times today talking about the current state of moral degradation in Korea, a country that prides itself on it's moral strength, drawing on Confucian values. While I disagree with the depiction of Korea as a country more morally corrupt than it's OECD brethren I found some of the statistics highly disturbing though unsurprising, given what I've witnessed. Of course I already recycled the paper but here is what I remember, margin of error +/- 1%. In all other OECD countries, the percent of children who said they were happy was around 88%. In South Korea that number was 55%. Almost daily, there are articles in the newspaper about the higher than average (compared to other OECD countries) suicide rates.  It seems to baffle Koreans but not so much the foreigners who live here. 

My elementary school students go to school from early morning until mid afternoon. After that they go to extra intensive classes at private schools, piano lessons, tutors, taekwondo--whatever the parent can think of. When you ask the average bed time, the answer is 11:30 at night. On average, when there is a test coming up, it is later. You see kids who are exhausted and often miserable under the amount of stress they face at a mere 8 or 9 years of age. My friends who are public school teachers constantly relate horror stories of the corporal punishment they witness, still legal in Korean schools. These children go from that to high stress exams, high stress university and high stress jobs where they work exceedingly long hours 5-6 days a week with only 10 days of vacation per year (sometimes more, this is the minimum state guarantee). If they are Very, Very lucky they might get beyond this stage. One day. 

It can't all be bad. The Korean students I went to school with at boarding school were some of the most dedicated, disciplined scholars I'd ever seen. Their success rates were prodigious.  There has to be a happy medium between the collapse of American public school education and this madness that I witness here.  Korea has gone through an incredible amount of change in the past 50 years but I worry about my students, about the children in general. 

That being said, I'm incredibly happy with my life at the moment. I have FINALLY FINISHED Le Pavillion des Enfants Fous and it was, as predicted, depressing from beginning to end. Beautifully executed but not something I'd ever read again. I have mastered the art of walking up the stairs in the subway station while reading a book (NOT to be done during peak traffic moments).  The one time I fell was not in the subway station but in front of the bank, while trying to get out my water bottle. I think I wrote about this? In any case I still have the technicolored bruise on my arm. 

Dead Kings

Yesterday was hellishly dull. I did everything I tend to put off until it becomes desperate in one day. There were errands to run, grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning--my bathroom And apartment. I really dislike cleaning for no reason (other than the fact that it needs to be done) though it isn't quite as bad when you are doing it for company's sake. Having an ipod follow me around is nice, though completely unnecessary in a studio apartment helps a little. Just a little. In any case, I rewarded my day of drudgery with an afternoon in town today. I went to the Seonjeongneung Royal Tombs (try to say That quickly) in Seoul. Seonjeongneung was recently nominated to become a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It isn't official yet but apparently once a site is nominated, it's pretty much a done deal. The park was beautiful and it was neat to see the tombs though I wished there was more information available in English. Maybe if it actually becomes a World Heritage Site there will be English pamphlets or tours available. Salsa Boy and I mainly followed the pictures on the map, snapped pictures and people watched the scattered school groups (who watched us right back and giggled). Not only did I remember to bring my camera, I had a charged battery! Salsa Boy brought his camera too but his battery died 10 minutes into the expedition. I have to say, the new Canon batteries seem to last forever. Afterwards, I did the unthinkable--I went to Starbucks for a soy vanilla latte. Hey, I tried 5 different Korean coffee shops first, independent and chains and not ONE of them had soy milk. I wanted a latte, not a cup of black coffee. This is my weekend treat after drinking crappy coffee at work all week. Okay, picture time!

This is at the entrance to the park area. No idea what this building used to function as but the outside had the same traditional painting style that you see at Buddhist temples and monestaries.

The first tomb. The animal statues surround the mound but because of the restricted area that you can walk on, getting a perspective shot was a bit difficult.

This one Salsa Boy took. Pretty flowers, me, what's not to like?

Teachers' Day!

This month has been full of new holidays, Parents' Day, Children's Day and Teachers' Day. Today is Teachers' Day. I have no idea what the history of the holiday is but it appears that small gifts, such as flowers or food are customary. In the States, my Mom usually made a homemade cake or something to give to our teachers during the holiday season. If I had one of my Mom's cakes right now, I'd probably explode from happiness. Miss I Used To Bake the Fancy Deserts for a Fancy Restaurant chef of my LIFE.

I think I might have mentioned the fact that I miss my Mother's cooking...once, twice, a hundred times on this blog. Just maybe.

In any case I got a pretty nice selection of gifts from my students. The haul:
-2 movie tickets/gift certificate thingies to Lotte Cinemas (I'll have to ask someone if the 6 bullet points on the back are how to use them...oh Korean, why am I so bad at you?).
-a traditional tea set pot thingy
-flowers
-1 flowering plant of some variety (which will be kept in my classroom to cheer up the place).
-A tin of candy vitamin C (this is a smart parent, does she know how often I get sneezed on??)
-an Italian silk scarf (zebra print, which isn't exactly me but it'll look funky as a headband or somethign)
-a wallet
-a coffee cup (THIS IS AWESOME! It is large and yellow and has cute animals on it. I'm not sure if my student's Mom figured all teachers could use a coffee cup or if her daughter mentioned that I always have a mug of tea or coffee with me in class. In either case, her Mom is obviously fabulous).
-Nail stickers....this was from a student who brought in a package for everyone in class, including me. Right now I have bright yellow leafy things on all of my nails. My little girls think it's the cutest thing ever I--well I do teach 8 little girls.
-So much food was given to the teachers as a whole at the school, rice cakes, donuts, cakes...it's a little ridiculous.

I have to say, my favorite gift is definitely the cards and pictures that my students made for me. There is one of me, all in pink, labeled "Princess Alex." Another one is of me and a rocket ship with 5 crossouts of my name before they got it right. I got a very nice butterfly and also some unidentified scribblings with my name written out industriously from the less artistic boys. I shall call them modern art and value them with my revered Jasper Johns and Jackson Pollock. Who is to tell me that I'm wrong, eh?

In an hour, my boss is taking everyone who works in our school out to a nice dinner in Beomgye. I'm excited, she always chooses good restaurants. In the mean time, I have an hour to kill before we go while the last teachers finish up their classes. I have already vacuumed, dusted, and sterilized my classroom for the weekend and have zero desire to immerse myself in my super depressing book before I have to go be social. Note to self: stop choosing such depressing books!

Food Adventures...at Costco

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, after 9 months in Korea I finally got my butt over to Costco (mooching of course off of a friend's membership). It was strange and amazing to be in a store where the primary packaging was in English with a Korean sticker somewhere translating it. I got all sorts of yummy American food, among the items:
-Honeynut Cheerios
-Regular Cheerios
-REAL BACON
-Bagels
-Eggo Waffles (shhhhhhhhhhh)
-Onion Powder
-Garlic Powder
-Cold cuts
-Oreos (The imported American kind which don't have milk! The Korean made Oreo in the supermarket is made from real milk instead of chemicals.)
-Tortillas
-South African wine (Hey, there was a free sample and it was tasty and inexpensive.)

Notice a theme here? Most of it is breakfast foods. Since Koreans eat the same types of food for all three meals, the western breakfast selection at the supermarket is sadly lacking. Not to mention, I can only eat a small fraction of the items that are available. The spices and tortillas are mainly for Salsa Boy, who promises me Puerto Rican food in the near future.

I spent an obscene amount of money on the groceries (well, obscene by my standards) and you know what? I don't care. Not only is the food a necessity, it's soothing mentally to have the same foods I have at home. Granted, I haven't had eggo waffles since I was a kid but still. They are SO DELICIOUS. Comfort food is fantastic and very much needed at this point.

My parents berated me for not taking pictures of this momentous occasion but to be perfectly honest I was a bit overwhelmed in Costco. It's larger than the one I used to go to in New York and is disorienting (for me at least). Go do a google image search of 'Costco Korea' and you'll get an idea of what it looked like. OR go to your local Costco and imagine it twice as large.

From the Former Vegetarian Comes the Girl Who Ate Food That Was STILL MOVING

That's right, I ate food that was still alive and twitching while I ate it. Let me back up.

Salsa boy (who else) and I decided to go see the new Star Trek on Saturday. Unfortunately, it's not like Long Island where the theaters are massive and you can just stroll up and buy tickets half an hour before the show starts. Oh no, in Korea you have to go early and get them, between 3 and 6 hours depending on location and popularity. A lot of Koreans will just buy their tickets online instead of going to the theater in the afternoon and coming back later. The usual catch applies for us waegooks (foreigners)--we have to be able to read enough Korean to navigate the website and get what we want. I might have a good handle on survival Korean but it definitely doesn't extend to movie websites. It wasn't really a big deal though, the basement of Lotte has an ice cream stand that is DAIRY FREE! I do believe I've waxed on about this before. It's the first time I went and didn't eat a pint or two on my own, I actually restrained my gluttony and had a small cup of cookie avalanche (the non dairy version of cookies and cream). Anyways, we had a few hours to kill in Anyang and were wandering around. The things I subject this poor boy to...such as:

-make-up shopping

-Starbucks (He objects to their use of non fair trade coffee...and I concur but find me a place in Anyang that DOES use fair trade coffee and has soy milk. I thought not. Also, it is tasty. I can usually win him over with a double mocha latte though.)

-getting distracted by all of the shiny window displays and sales.

I was very good though, I didn't buy anything but the make-up stuff which Was organic and they always give me a bag full of fun free samples. I don't have the heart to say that if the label isn't in English I can't use it because I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it but some of it is obvious enough. After the make-up shopping we heard a loud, very excited "MISTER A-----!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO!" My Salsa Boy was greeted by about 10 of his elementary school students who were ecstatic to see him and practice a bit of English. They were also very excited to see me.

Cute girl with freckles: OOOOOOOOO. Mister A---- Girlfriend?!
Salsa Boy: Yes. *blushes furiously*
All of them: OHHHHHHHHHH VERY beautiful! You, marry? *points between the two of us and gesticulates wildly*
Me: Errr, no. Just girlfriend. *looks amused*

Anyways, after this we were debating what to do and decided to wander out of the downtown shops into the traditional market across the street. I've been before but Salsa Boy never had and it was fun to point everything out to him. And then, we ate live octopus for dinner. Live Octopus. We picked out what we wanted out of the tank. The man chopped of his head, cut up the tentacles a bit and then it was put on a plate (of course there were side dishes and sauces to dip it into). The thing about live octopus is that even chopped up into fairly small pieces it will still move independently and suction away and wriggle for a good hour or more. I still can't believe I actually worked up the nerves to do it. Salsa boy and I tend to spur each other on to be more adventerous though to be fair, he'll eat just about anything. We were the only foreigners in the market (that I saw) and definitely the only ones eating live octopus. I'm not sure if the owners had ever had foreigners or very rarely. They were quite excited about us and very friendly. The people at the neighboring table thought it was great that we were eating the octopus and brought over some of their raw oyseters for us to try (awful...they taste SO MUCH BETTER BOILED PEOPLE). However, raw octopus is surprisingly good. You just have to make sure to chew it well so it doesn't stick to the inside of your throat. Where are the pictures you ask?! Never fear, they are here. As usual, these were taken from Salsa Boy's camera since I didn't think I'd need mine for the movie theater.

This guy was so cool, he was playing with the fish for us and just chatting us up in Konglish, very friendly. Definitely the reason I decided to bite the bullet and just do it.

I like the progression here. It was weird, it tasted really good but I couldn't stop freaking out about the fact that I was eating something that was still alive. My heart rate was so elevated I felt like I was running. I bet it gets easier with practice. I think I'd do it again but we'll see. Tonight a group of expats are going to try dog for the first time. I am coming but I don't think I'll partake in the dog, I grew up considering dogs as loveable pets, not food. I don't have anything against it per se, I know that it's simply a different cultural view point I just don't think I can bring myself to do it. We'll see, there might be soju involved when it comes to convincing me.

I am terrible at picking out books...

Okay, this is not entirely true. However, choosing to read a book about a girl who gets institutionalized when she is 13 and has a traumatic experience is perhaps not the best choice for my morning commute. I need to brace myself for being unfailingly cheerful and patient which means I need literature which, if not happy, doesn't drag me down. Let's just say that my current book fails to meet the minimum requirements. Why don't I just demote it to a weekend reading book? BECAUSE IT'S TOO INTERESTING TO STOP READING. I shall just have to plow through it and hope that it doesn't make me cry, which would be awkward.

No, there is nothing going on in my life this week. This weekend I am going to go do something touristy (no idea what) and go to the new Star Trek movie. This is in exchange for having a movie partner for the new Harry Potter when it comes out later this summer. I brought my Gryffindor track jacket thousands of miles across the world just for this occasion. Salute my nerdom!

Family Fun and Metal Bands?

Today Salsa boy and I went into Seoul to see some sort of festival. We weren't sure what it was exactly only that the adverts were shiny and it looked like fun. This is what happens when ADHD people choose what to go and see. Our friend J., had said to just get off at this one station and "follow the crowd." Pffffffffffffft. Wrong station! Oh well. Salsa boy had never been to Insadong-gil (a lovely tourist street in the area) so I decided to take detour and show him around. Insadong is great the first few times but I have to say, the 4th time I just wanted here. It doesn't help that it's a holiday weekend and it was so packed as to be difficult to move. I did finally get a picture of myself with the robot statue/sculpture/thingy that I always see people posing with. I was brilliant, I remembered to bring my camera! Less brilliant: forgetting to put the memory card back in after downloading pictures to my computer. Needless to say the pictures are all care of Salsa Boy's camera (he never forgets his, responsible person that he is...at least with photo opportunities) but it I wanted my camera. It is shinier! Shiny seems to be a theme here...

Anyways, a couple of hours later (and 2 stops at tourist information booths) we manage to get to the "festival." The main attraction seemed to be cotton candy and mask making for kids (free) and live music. It was a hard core metal band. Okay, maybe not the hardest of hard core but it was metal music. The parents seemed a bit baffled by this too. In any case, I'm going to go ahead and say the festival was Not a raging success though the other foreigners seemed to be as amused as we were. On the plus side, they did give out free bottled water.

The festival!

In front of a pavilion thingy before the festival.

The Robot Statue!

What next? I dragged Salsa Boy shopping. To be fair I did appease him greatly with:

-a mint mocha latte

-coal fried squid (though I stole about half of this)

-freshly made strawberry smoothie (I stole a good 1/3 of this too)

I had heard that the Forever 21 in Myeongdong actually had cool clothing and wasn't as trashy as it's American counterpart. The best part: AMERICAN SIZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not a size large or extra large! I got tshirts that were a SIZE SMALL! It was fantastic! The button down shirt I bought for work has DARTS IN IT for people who aren't completely flat chested! If only they sold bras! I know, this paragraph grossly overuses the exclamation point. Good thing my literature professors don't read my blog. I can just imagine Danny Kaiser ranting at me...only I won't dwell on this since it has been a good 2 weeks since I've had a college workload related nightmare. After that we headed back down south to go home.

A side note:

I finished the Jane Austen book. Loved rereading Northanger Abbey which made me extremely homesick for my home library where I already have duplicates of most of Austen's work. I just can't bring myself to buy it again here though if I find it used I may succumb to temptation. The unfinished novels were just that, unfinished, unpolished and only interesting to read from a literary fanatic's perspective. Her spelling is also atrocious, not just the words with 'period spelling.' It made me feel better about not mastering the apostrophe until my freshman year of college. I replenished my stock of novels at What the Book on Saturday and managed to score 3 books for only 20,000won (about 16 dollars). I am already 200 pages into Bluebeard by Vonnegut (I worship Vonnegut at the moment). It will probably be done by tomorrow. This is why I laughed when a friend asked me what book I bought. BOOK I say? I never buy just one. Well, I do in the states but America has ENGLISH libraries. I simply pay my library fines (and I always have, I used my allowance when I was a kid). Next up on the reading list The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot, Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy (how have I never read this?!) and a FRENCH BOOK. When we were changing subways today to go into Seoul we passed Bandi and Luni which has 2 shelves of French books! I squealed and danced and dragged/skipped/pulled Salsa Boy with me. He didn't really need to be dragged but I think my raging bibliophilia unnerves even him sometimes. Le pavillon des enfants fous, by Valerie Valere is about this girl who is sent to a mental asylum when she is 13. It sounds a bit 'Girl Interrupted' but I don't care. A French novel that isn't 19th century on the shelf! Fantastic! 19th century French novels are fine if I can sit in a quiet room and concentrate very hard but not for reading on the bus to school. I can think in French, I cannot however, think in 19th century vernacular which renders the text very difficult for me. I miss my personal collection. Right now I really want to read Vanity Fair but I have a perfectly good copy at home and I don't want another. Oh well.