Is not as bad as it looks on the news. These images of people burning stuff in the streets is pretty funny, but that is SO not the South Korea that I know. I mean, people certainly aren't happy about it, but this is Korea, and everything is business as usual unless the sky falls down. So anyone who may or may not be concerned about my safety, you should know that it's business as usual--and probably always will be.
What ISN'T business as usual, though, is the rather frightening spike in the Korean currency, which for a few days rendered my salary considerably less than it was. But it's coming back down again, and I have confidence that by the time I need to transfer money home to my account, it will be at least somewhere back to where it used to be.
Also in the news is our New Teacher, who is wonderful to have around and great to talk to. Training another teacher has been really eye opening for me--I've come a long away. I've become an authoritative person, or so says Emily, haha, and it's hard for me to imagine how that happened. It puts the struggle of dealing with insensitive kids in perspective. I really feel like I've gained so much, after I've been able to step back and see where I was when *I* started, and how I'm able to teach another person how to do what I do. Or--I hope. Haha, I'm not sure I did a very good job training, but I guess we can ask Emily that.
Anyway... that's the news in Maggie. Got a confirmation on the India trip so I'm excitedly looking into the visa process and plane tickets. Woo!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Gyeongju
Trip was mostly a bust because it rained the whole time, but Kristen and I did have some excellent rain adventures on Saturday. Friday was gorgeous, but we spent most of the time in transit--until we rented our bicycles and took off into the setting sun and rice patties galore.
Sunday was cold and wet and things just working out for us, but one thing I really wanted to write down was that I saw an old couple spreading ashes into the sea. We went to the underwater tomb of King Munmu, which wasn't impressive or spectacular, really, but the ocean was amazing to see. I love the ocean. It was furious. The waves were huge and crashing and rolling and I just love that sound. Wherever I settle in life, there needs to be an ocean--or a lake (hehe, Superior.) An old woman simply dumped a jar of yellow colored ash into the ocean, and then her and her husband took a deep bow. It was serene. Quiet. I was drenched and getting more drenched, but for a moment I forgot about that and watched this couple, all alone, send off their loved one.
Sunday was cold and wet and things just working out for us, but one thing I really wanted to write down was that I saw an old couple spreading ashes into the sea. We went to the underwater tomb of King Munmu, which wasn't impressive or spectacular, really, but the ocean was amazing to see. I love the ocean. It was furious. The waves were huge and crashing and rolling and I just love that sound. Wherever I settle in life, there needs to be an ocean--or a lake (hehe, Superior.) An old woman simply dumped a jar of yellow colored ash into the ocean, and then her and her husband took a deep bow. It was serene. Quiet. I was drenched and getting more drenched, but for a moment I forgot about that and watched this couple, all alone, send off their loved one.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
I wrote a short story!!
Feeling thoroughly inspired by my collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors, I felt inspired to spin a short story. I like the concept but I'm not sure I really spun the tale the way it should have been spun, so I'm posting it here for you to examine and criticize. Please rip it to shreds, so that a better story comes out.
The Most Famous Destination on Earth (Working Title)
The Most Famous Destination on Earth (Working Title)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Hey!
I have an article on Suite 101, an online publishing website. Check it out!
Three Weekend Adventures in South Korea: Off the Beaten Track
Three Weekend Adventures in South Korea: Off the Beaten Track
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
A very Seoul weekend--again
Spent this weekend in Seoul to with Kristen--basically doing all the things I didn't do last weekend. We had a great time wondering around Insadong, the artsy fartsy, touristy trinkety area of Seoul. There are a lot of amazing things to buy there--everything from tourist kitsch to real antiques. I was basically in heaven, but held off and didn't really buy anything substantial.
After having an excellent time just chilling, we went to Kristen's friend's show, which was a UNICEF benefit. We supported him and then went out to Hongdae and did the Hongdae party thing. Hongdae is one of the most famous places in Seoul to party. I wasn't aware, partying in Daejeon, just how many military folks there are around here. All the Western men in the club were military, and they were quite nice, actually. A few guys were teasing their buddy who wasn't drinking, and I got to talking to this guy, who was pretty nice. The next day, after crashing on Kristen's friend's couch, we met up with this guy and headed back to Insadong to check out a book store (omg so many English books--70,000 won later). We went to Gyeongbukgung, the palace in Seoul that Stephanie and I visited back in the fall, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was a good time, just meeting new people and enjoying some sites in Seoul.
This weekend, though, I am definitely not planning on doing Seoul--I don't know where I'll go yet, or if I'll just stay home, but I definitely need to find something interesting to do, because I'm feeling very restless and frustrated. My students haven't been good to me and I just... haven't been on the ball with teaching. My temper is short. I'm homesick, and the kids know it. I try to be a better person, but sometimes it just doesn't work. I keep thinking that I can't possibly be cut out for this, so I turn to art, or writing, which just comes out bent with my already frustrated mindset.
In other news, I have a Suite101 account, where I will be publishing articles about travel and life in Korea. I'll put up some links when I have articles out.
After having an excellent time just chilling, we went to Kristen's friend's show, which was a UNICEF benefit. We supported him and then went out to Hongdae and did the Hongdae party thing. Hongdae is one of the most famous places in Seoul to party. I wasn't aware, partying in Daejeon, just how many military folks there are around here. All the Western men in the club were military, and they were quite nice, actually. A few guys were teasing their buddy who wasn't drinking, and I got to talking to this guy, who was pretty nice. The next day, after crashing on Kristen's friend's couch, we met up with this guy and headed back to Insadong to check out a book store (omg so many English books--70,000 won later). We went to Gyeongbukgung, the palace in Seoul that Stephanie and I visited back in the fall, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was a good time, just meeting new people and enjoying some sites in Seoul.
This weekend, though, I am definitely not planning on doing Seoul--I don't know where I'll go yet, or if I'll just stay home, but I definitely need to find something interesting to do, because I'm feeling very restless and frustrated. My students haven't been good to me and I just... haven't been on the ball with teaching. My temper is short. I'm homesick, and the kids know it. I try to be a better person, but sometimes it just doesn't work. I keep thinking that I can't possibly be cut out for this, so I turn to art, or writing, which just comes out bent with my already frustrated mindset.
In other news, I have a Suite101 account, where I will be publishing articles about travel and life in Korea. I'll put up some links when I have articles out.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Also
My work has been published online for the Teach ESL Korea newsletter. I have two stories up now, one for the April issue on Magoksa Temple, and the other for the May issue on Jeonju. Check it out, make comments, and look at what other people have to say about life in Korea.
Magoksa - Jeonju
Magoksa - Jeonju
Summer is finally here!
The weather is fantastic--humid, but it's quite warm and it smells like deliciousness. I've been looking for patios all the time, just sitting around and enjoying myself in a regular day-to-day kind of life. This week we had Wednesday off, which is a wonderful way to have a week--haha, I never want to work on Wednesday again.
This weekend I enjoyed just sitting on patios and being social. I really had a good time. Talking. Just talking. It was a global weekend too--hung out with people from 3 different continents. On Friday I did the usual haunts with the Daejeon crew, then I got up and went to Seoul to see Jim and his new digs there. We met up with Stephanie and enjoyed a drink at a bar, sat next to a wide open window and watched people below. Seoulites running around in their Seoul-y-ness. The city is so interesting. Every time I go there's so many things to see. Different kinds of people--even some counter culture kinds of things--something I never expect to see here. Not in Daejeon, at least, which is a lot more conservative when it comes to style and culture. (And by conservative I don't mean skin-wise, because everybody's legs are hanging out. I mean that everybody must have the same kind of style, not like Seoul where there are alternatives.)
On Sunday Stephanie and I ate shabushabu, which was immensely filling and quite nice, and then we went to Itaewon. I got a massage, and that was a very, very good feeling. I haven't had a massage since November or December... way too long. My back was just in all kinds of pain. Next time I'm going to stay for an hour and I might even ask them to do my feet, because just the little attention she gave them seemed to release so much tension. They say that your feet are the end points for all your meridians... and that paying attention to your feet will keep you safe from ailments. They have these interesting bare-foot paths that are supposed to heal you. Mostly they just hurt, but according to Jim, if you can walk on them with no pain, you are completely healthy. I wonder what bunions mean in this context... a continual growth and deformity in the direction of one's life? A build up of superfluous antics that cause the main toe to go astray.... cause the direction to go astray. I bet I could write a short story about that. Someone who gets bunion surgery and then all the things she keeps hidden in her bunion simply pour out into her life like ghosts. Now that would be absurd but oddly telling.
(I've been reading Neil Gaiman short stories at an alarmingly fast rate. I'm trying to plow through the books I have here so that I can buy new ones. I have a great list on my Amazon wishlist of travel narratives that I want to read, and other sorts of things. Ahem. For those of you who want to purchase me birthday presents, you have my address and Amazon delivers here..... quite quickly, I might add. Har har.)
Anyway, on Sunday after my massage I met up with Kennedy, my Ghanaian friend who I met in Daejeon so long ago, when I was a brand new Korea-ite. He and his business partner, Mark, took us out for drinks at a Mexican restaurant with (you guessed it) a delightful patio. Stephanie and I drank juice and coffee while they ate and we all talked together for something like 3 hours. It was amazing. I loved it. We talked African politics and development, and all these things that I had forgotten that I loved to talk about. And I fell into the grove of slow talking and moving, and I just felt very alive.
And when I tell myself "you might not have enough money to go back" or "you might not really want that anyway", there are reasons like these to remind me. The logic might not be there, but the emotion is--even with people I barely know. People I just met that day.
When we met, Mark was introduced to us and we passed by a Baskin Robbins. In which there was a whole slew of Ghanaians, who called out to him and called us in. And they called me obroni. I was so happy just to hear the word, and then I heard their language--Twi I think, but I wasn't sure. I could never pick them apart. But it sounded like music.
But talk about globablization. I ran into 10 Ghanaians, eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins, in Korea. And then we went to a Mexican restaurant, where we were copiously hit on by a Japanese man.
He leaned over and was bothering us, and finally he got too close to me, and I backed up, and then Mark said: "Excuse me, could you please give them some space?" In this kind of "That is not a question" way. And he backed up, and embarrassed, I said "Thank you", but all of a sudden I realized that nobody had ever done that for me before. I had always had to exhaustively deal with men who bothered me like that. I was so happy that he had said something. So glad that I could let a man speak up for me, and then I realized--why don't I speak up for me? So I made a resolution to do that more often.
Anyway the weekend was wonderful. Great time just meeting with friends. Nothing rushed, nothing hurried. Nothing too much. Just a calm, great time.
This weekend I enjoyed just sitting on patios and being social. I really had a good time. Talking. Just talking. It was a global weekend too--hung out with people from 3 different continents. On Friday I did the usual haunts with the Daejeon crew, then I got up and went to Seoul to see Jim and his new digs there. We met up with Stephanie and enjoyed a drink at a bar, sat next to a wide open window and watched people below. Seoulites running around in their Seoul-y-ness. The city is so interesting. Every time I go there's so many things to see. Different kinds of people--even some counter culture kinds of things--something I never expect to see here. Not in Daejeon, at least, which is a lot more conservative when it comes to style and culture. (And by conservative I don't mean skin-wise, because everybody's legs are hanging out. I mean that everybody must have the same kind of style, not like Seoul where there are alternatives.)
On Sunday Stephanie and I ate shabushabu, which was immensely filling and quite nice, and then we went to Itaewon. I got a massage, and that was a very, very good feeling. I haven't had a massage since November or December... way too long. My back was just in all kinds of pain. Next time I'm going to stay for an hour and I might even ask them to do my feet, because just the little attention she gave them seemed to release so much tension. They say that your feet are the end points for all your meridians... and that paying attention to your feet will keep you safe from ailments. They have these interesting bare-foot paths that are supposed to heal you. Mostly they just hurt, but according to Jim, if you can walk on them with no pain, you are completely healthy. I wonder what bunions mean in this context... a continual growth and deformity in the direction of one's life? A build up of superfluous antics that cause the main toe to go astray.... cause the direction to go astray. I bet I could write a short story about that. Someone who gets bunion surgery and then all the things she keeps hidden in her bunion simply pour out into her life like ghosts. Now that would be absurd but oddly telling.
(I've been reading Neil Gaiman short stories at an alarmingly fast rate. I'm trying to plow through the books I have here so that I can buy new ones. I have a great list on my Amazon wishlist of travel narratives that I want to read, and other sorts of things. Ahem. For those of you who want to purchase me birthday presents, you have my address and Amazon delivers here..... quite quickly, I might add. Har har.)
Anyway, on Sunday after my massage I met up with Kennedy, my Ghanaian friend who I met in Daejeon so long ago, when I was a brand new Korea-ite. He and his business partner, Mark, took us out for drinks at a Mexican restaurant with (you guessed it) a delightful patio. Stephanie and I drank juice and coffee while they ate and we all talked together for something like 3 hours. It was amazing. I loved it. We talked African politics and development, and all these things that I had forgotten that I loved to talk about. And I fell into the grove of slow talking and moving, and I just felt very alive.
And when I tell myself "you might not have enough money to go back" or "you might not really want that anyway", there are reasons like these to remind me. The logic might not be there, but the emotion is--even with people I barely know. People I just met that day.
When we met, Mark was introduced to us and we passed by a Baskin Robbins. In which there was a whole slew of Ghanaians, who called out to him and called us in. And they called me obroni. I was so happy just to hear the word, and then I heard their language--Twi I think, but I wasn't sure. I could never pick them apart. But it sounded like music.
But talk about globablization. I ran into 10 Ghanaians, eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins, in Korea. And then we went to a Mexican restaurant, where we were copiously hit on by a Japanese man.
He leaned over and was bothering us, and finally he got too close to me, and I backed up, and then Mark said: "Excuse me, could you please give them some space?" In this kind of "That is not a question" way. And he backed up, and embarrassed, I said "Thank you", but all of a sudden I realized that nobody had ever done that for me before. I had always had to exhaustively deal with men who bothered me like that. I was so happy that he had said something. So glad that I could let a man speak up for me, and then I realized--why don't I speak up for me? So I made a resolution to do that more often.
Anyway the weekend was wonderful. Great time just meeting with friends. Nothing rushed, nothing hurried. Nothing too much. Just a calm, great time.
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