December Descends

It’s December. WHAT? I kept hearing that this year would fly by, but it still amazes me each week when it suddenly becomes Friday again. On December 1^st I remembered to say ‘rabbit, rabbit’ as the first words out of my mouth when I woke up, which is supposed to bring me luck for the month. I think my old roomie Molly G. was the only other person I know who has heard of that and also tried to remember to do it the first day of each month. I have an inkling I learned this odd habit from Nickelodeon, which I watched way too much of as a kid and loved every minute of it. N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-Nickelodeooooon. I’m glad I can remember that jingle so well but can’t name all the countries in Africa.

Now that December has descended upon us here in Seoul, Christmas season has begun. It doesn’t seem as overwhelming as in the US, but I think that’s due in part to the fact that I don’t watch TV and don’t understand any advertisements I see around town. The only real Christmas-ey things that I see are some decorations and I think they’re quite lovely. Usually the consumerism of the holiday aggravates me, both because I don’t think the holiday should be all about buying stuff and also because I suddenly have these bad feelings around Christmas time when everyone is supposed to have jolliness oozing out of them. I’m happy to not feel aggravated, but now I just feel plain weird. I see Christmas trees popping up in all the subway stations, lights on some trees, and Christmas window decorations on the chain store windows, but it’s not that cold, it hasn’t snowed, and I haven’t seen my family in over four months. I miss seeing the lights going up on the trees on Church Street in Burlington and hearing the Christmas music pump out of the speakers; I miss seeing the ridiculous decorations all around NEPA including Christmas alley and the pole; I miss buying things for people I love knowing I’ll be able to hand them over to them and watch them open them. Yet I am slowly becoming a more rational person as I get older and instead of feeling overly sad, I’m pretty excited to spend Christmas in a foreign land. My mom’s visit for the Christmas holiday will surely help to quell any feelings of sadness, and I am also looking forward to being more grown-up and creating my own holiday tradition. I have an inkling this year’s holiday tradition will include kimchee.

School continues to consume my life, which is pretty glorious for a good portion of the time. Our End-Of-Year Performance is quickly approaching, which is a time for my Kindy class, the Deer Class, to show off what we have been working on for our end of year theme. I talked with my kiddos about it and we decided to do the theme of space, which has been really fun to work on. They each got their own planet to write about and they (we) are also creating piñatas for each planet. I fondly remember doing piñatas in second grade with my favorite teacher Mrs. Carpenetti, who inspired me to become a teacher, and all I remember was how fun it was. Especially because the year was 1992 and as the Simpsons were HUGE the characters were a big theme throughout the piñatas in class. However I chose to make mine of Sammy, my dog at the time who still holds a most special place in my heart. Mrs. C, being the bad-ass teacher that she was, made Otto the Bus Driver. When we were all finished, she took a picture of all the creators of the Simpsons piñatas and she chose me to hold her Otto piñata. I was SUPER PSYCHED, though still very shy at this point so I probably only smiled from underneath the hood of bangs I sported back then. Lo and behold Mrs. C mailed the picture into Simpson’s magazine and we got in! I was floored.

Anyway, now that I’m on the other end of piñata creating I see how incredibly messy and time-consuming it is. This is especially true when it comes to the painting part and you happen to turn around for a hot second, then look back to find that all the kids think it’s WAY more fun to paint their hands/arms and then the piñata/planet. Michelle looked like she put her hands in lava, Sean looked like he forgot to use toilet paper, Max was becoming frost bitten, and James was turning into the Grinch. Luckily I like kids to be messy, the sun was shining in the windows in that late morning kid of way, and we had a kids music CD on that they were all singing along to. It’s those moments that I stop, smile, feel a real connection and know I’m here doing what I’m supposed to do.

More to write about soon, but I think that I will do this a bit more consistently if I make these shorter and don’t try to jam in everything at once. It’s still bizarre to me that as I go to post this it’s a bit after 10pm on Tuesday, and at home it’s just after 8am. I hope you all have a grand Tuesday. Peace from the Far East.

Kimchee and Manatees

I just experienced my first BIG holiday away from America and it was, well, uneventful. It was so bizarre to have to work on Thanksgiving and be in a country where most of the people did not even know it was Thanksgiving. I kept expecting Koreans to see me and give me a nod of the head or something so as to say ‘Happy Thanksgiving Tall White American Girl.’ Then I quickly realized that was just more of my white privilege emerging. Most of the Canadians I worked with didn’t even realize it was Thanksgiving day, let alone the millions of Koreans I interact with in some form throughout the day. It was a good experience for me to go through; sometimes I need to be reminded that America is not the end all and be all of the world, which I’m finding to be ingrained in me in a deep level. I find it a bit disconcerting, but I’m glad some of it is fading away with this new experience.

I had to do some language exchange ‘work’ on the evening of Thanksgiving day. I thought the family would remember about it being an American holiday, especially since they lived in America for some time, but no go. I had dinner with them, which was fish soup that had the bones and innards of the fish included that gave it a weird taste, along with kimchee (of course), rice (another staple), apples/cherry tomatoes/tangerines/corn in a yogurt sauce, some sort of seaweedy thing seasoned with sesame perhaps (very tasty), boiled beef and quail eggs in soy sauce, and pickled radishes. It was almost as though the mom thought to herself, I’m going to make the complete opposite of a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. Bam! It was, and an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

Korean food is definitely one of my favorite things about this country. It’s delicious, surprising, spicy, and homemade with knowledge passed down from generation to generation. I feel much more connected to the culture and the people enjoying and eating their food so much. My school started allowing the foreign teachers to opt for school lunch for $2.50/day. It’s a SWEET deal. There is always kimchee, rice and some form of soup, along with a variety of sides; kkakdugi (kimchee made with radishes), fried lotus root, acorn jelly, pickled radishes, random meat dishes with random brown sauces, omelet like pieces of egg, and all the foods I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of repetition in the food here, but each meal is accompanied by so many sides, you appreciate the simple basics of every meal.

One of the best parts about eating our (I chose this amazing lunch option as did two other girls I work with) Korean lunches is that we get to do so in the little lunch room at school along with others from the Korean staff; the front desk lady, two bus drivers/maintenance men, the music and art teachers, and the principal (who never did end up quitting, though she threatened to for a while.) It’s great to get to ‘hang’ with more people who are from Korea. The two bus drivers are my favorite of our little lunch bunch. One of them has complimented me on my chopsticks skills multiple times and looks at me and giggles approvingly. He often talks to me and then waits for one of the bilingual Korean staff to translate. One day, after he noticed how much kimchee I consumed during lunch each day, he told me how happy he was that I and the two other foreign teachers liked Korean food so much. Koreans, especially of the older generation of which this man is, take their food very seriously and are really overjoyed when you like it. The next day he proudly brought in his own kimchee and kkakdugi that he and his wife had made to share with us. So good! So happy!

Now is kimchee making season as fall is coming to a close, so there is a lot of kimchee flowing everywhere you look. I have seen stacks of napa cabbage (the main performer in kimchee) that are fifteen high, five deep and 55 wide. Or something like that. This is fine with me as it’s my favorite of the Korean dishes. FAVORITE. I eat it at least twice a day and sometimes as a late night snack. Though the big downfall of having your own is that it STINKS up your fridge (my water sometimes tastes like kimchee, which I’m not all that cool with.) Though most people here have a kimchee fridge. Just for kimchee. This makes sense now knowing that they make the shit out of it once a year and need a big place to store it. I wish I could mail some to everyone I know so they could enjoy the splendors, too.

And holy moly! I almost forgot about an amazing experience that I was recently privileged enough to have. I SAW MANATEES. Most people know about my love of manatees because the obsession at one point in my life was so large, and they somehow make their way into my thoughts and/or conversation at least twice a week. So naturally when two friends of mine here went to the aquarium and saw the manatees, they took a video and showed me the next day. That weekend, I was there. At Co-Ex Mall Aquarium. It was so, so, so, so, so, so, good. There were so many weird fish, sharks, MANATEES, seals, jellyfish, an octopus, and lots of animals you wouldn’t expect to see in an aquarium; monkeys, bats (they were AWESOME), prairie dogs, and even a rabbit on the bank above some water filled with fish. I saw the manatees and I cried a little. I would give my right arm to go to Florida one day and hop in the water with them and have a manatee and the sea adventure day. I can’t wait to go back.

I’m went to an American Thanksgiving celebration last night and got to indulge in the glories of an American Thanksgiving feast; turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing (thanks for the Stovetop, mom!), cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, dinner rolls, and the like. There were a ton of us there crammed into our friend Tia’s tiny (but luxuriously big compared to the apartments the rest of us have) apartment, both foreign teachers and some of the Koreans we work with. We ate, drank, were merry, played a turkey trivia game, had a ‘photo booth’, and played pin the wattle on the turkey. It was so fun and felt like a real-live holiday. It makes me feel a bit more grown up experiencing a holiday away from home and making it my own. I was grateful to have the holiday celebration because I really did miss being home and in a country where it was the national holiday.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are ready to be bombarded with CHRISTMAS. It’s happening here, and I can only imagine the mall displays and commercials in America. Time to get a little jolly.

Until next time.

I Got Lost, But Then I Found

I recently went on a cleaning spree (that ended with the demise of my on-again/off-again bathroom spider friend named Clyde) that made me think about the interesting part of living ‘la vida loca’ in another country, but still having to be a real person and do things like cleaning, laundry, and cooking. Sometimes I feel as though, since I am in a new place for only this year, I need to constantly GET OUT and DO THINGS so I don’t waste my time. But then I realize how happy I am when my floor is swept and mopped, or how joyous I am to share with friends that my bathroom drain is FINALLY unclogged and the floor in there no longer makes me feel weird inside. It’s more practice of this thing Balance that I hear about, and something I get the hang of the older I get and the more experiences I have.

The cleaning spree was enacted shortly after I succumbed to my first Korean Stomach Bug, which was just like an American Stomach Bug; a major bummer. I woke up Saturday morning feeling weird and ended up spending the next two days in bed. I always feel philosophical after having a sickness that confines me inside my bed. (I say inside as I have a mosquito tent around my bed to battle the never-ending hordes of skeeters that make their way into my apartment. The tent changed my world.) I have been working a lot lately and I know that my body enjoyed the rest I got, or ‘deep rest’ as the father in my language exchange family put it when I had to cancel on Sunday. It always feels good to have to stay in bed and do nothing but watch movies, sleep and think about life and get some perspective on things.

This weekend I was able to get some perspective on things even though I wasn’t sick in bed with the flu. I had a most excellent weekend, one that makes me so glad that I am doing what I am doing, one in which I was able to appreciate the present moment a lot and made me thankful for the opportunities I have taken advantage of. I got a lot of sleep Friday night and had a fun Korean adventure on Saturday; I went with some friends to Insadong (I’m trying to link this with a website so you can see more about it if you would like to.) It’s a very traditional and touristy area of Seoul with lots of stores, restaurants, and street food, vendors, and performers. I’ve been there twice and each time have witnessed a seemingly impromptu parade. We ate in this neat vegetarian restaurant located at the end of a random alley where you had to take off your shoes upon entering and sit on the floor. I really enjoy this once in a while, but I have to say that my Western body and mind get tired of eating on the floor after a while. I always want to be really into it and have perfect posture, but the truth is that I slouch, my legs fall asleep and I constantly have to change positions. Anyway, the food was delicious and made my eyes water, my mouth burn and my nose run so I would say it was successful.

We were able to catch some street performers after that and I saw my first banjo playing in Korea!! I let out a lot of ‘Woooooo!! Banjo!!!’ while wildly trying to make eye contact with the older gentleman playing it so we could have that ‘moment’ of being excited by the same thing. There were four of us on this adventure and had previously talked about seeing the lantern festival that was somewhere in Seoul. Once it got dark we called the ‘Korean Foreigner Help Line’ and they informed us it was at the next subway stop over! Not really Proper Planning, but this one worked out in our favor. So over we headed, as did about 500,000 other people, and waited in some long lines to see wondrous, beautiful, handcrafted lanterns on a small river in the middle of Seoul. I took a quick bathroom break with my friend Amber, to one of those ‘pay 10 cents (or 100 won) to enter.’ I don’t think you should have to pay before you go pee, so I tried to cheat the system and sneak in after Amber was done and before the door shut. Word of warning, do not try this. A big jet of water spanning the enter floor sprayed out so a river of water started cascading on my feet and then the lights went out. And I couldn’t open the door from my end. So I started yelling. And Amber was laughing so hard, as were all the other older Korean women standing outside waiting in line who kept chuckling and saying ‘wey-guk’ (foreigner), that she couldn’t find 100 won. Luckily one of those old ladies had an extra so she put it in the slot for me, the door closed, I started to pull my skirt up, and the door opened up again. For long enough that it was just a liiiittle bit awkward staring everyone in the face as I waited for the door to once again close. I stopped drinking so much water after that.

But the lanterns were great and there were many interesting people to interact with. So, so, so many Koreans, which still amazes me one in a while. I love these little festivals that Seoul puts on; it makes me feel more connected to the culture and country, and the people I share it with.

Sunday was a day of victory for me. I finally found Quaker meeting!! I was hell-bent (heaven-bent?) on making it there and I’m glad I had such determination because it was quite the trek from my apartment. I had to ride the subway for a half hour, get off and find a random bus stop, take a bus from there for about 20 minutes, get off at a stop and walk for 15 minutes down a main road, then up a hill that led into a maze of alleys. I walked around those alleys for a good long while, looking for that Quaker Meeting Sign, and started to follow a Quaker looking Korean man (he had sensible shoes, and was dressed in funky clothing and I could smell the simplicity about him) but to no avail. I finally asked someone, which can be a daunting experience when you’re foreign, and he told me the way. Turns out, it was the same place as where I followed the Quaker looking man earlier, but the sign is so small I didn’t see it.

I walked into meeting a little late and after taking off my shoes in the foyer, I stealthily walked into the main room and took a seat on a pillow on the floor. The room was pretty big with a lot of windows and light and there were about 15 Korean folks sitting around; two other women, and the rest were men. Some of the men looked the part of a very spiritual Asian person in big billowy pants and facial hair that came to a point off of their chin, while others were your run of the mill Korean men. Some people shared towards the end of meeting, but as it was in Korean I had no idea what they were saying. I did get a feeling of peace, which was awesome and reminded how amazing the human spirit is. After meeting was over we stood in a circle and held hands for a bit, just like in my Quaker Meeting at Journey’s End in PA and then sat down to chat. There was more Korean and I was starting to get nervous I wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone, until one of the woman said, ‘Would you like to introduce yourself?’ Yes! So I did and it turns out that at least half of the folks there spoke English and were very interested in who I was and how I ever found the Quaker Meeting in Seoul. We all chatted more during ‘hospitality’ which was held in the same room as meeting. We all sat down around a low table in the middle of the room and ate rice cakes, kimbop, bananas, and tangerines and drank tea. It was flippin’ WONDERFUL. I was able to talk a bit and also just enjoy the experience and listen to everyone chat in Korean and laugh a lot. I will be back soon, and it makes my heart sing to know that.

I’m off to school for the day, and looks like today I’ll finally pull my coat out. It’s sunny and 32 degrees, finally getting into winter! Hope everyone is well. Much love.

I had a Moment

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Sometimes when I walk around the city, am in my apartment, or during a lull in the classroom, I think and get those MOMENTS. Of clarity. Of the realization that I am here for a reason, I am in another country, and I am doing well. I’m doing IT. Daily life can get in the way of that not so profound thought, and I’m getting more adept at capturing those little moments. I carry a notebook of sorts around with me, a gift I received before embarking upon this journey, and while one of the reasons I love it so much is because it makes me feel like a spy, another more important reason is that it helps me to record those MOMENTS. So here’s to them; if it seems disjointed, just pretend that you’re in my brain. Welcome to my world.

The classroom keeps on being a wonderful place for me in the mornings, and an ‘okay I guess I’ll be here and teach’ in the afternoons. My Kindergartners are lovely, just lovely, and they grow on me more every day. Sometimes it literally seems as though they grow on me because the girls love to be all up in my business and cling to me, jump on my lap, smooth my hair and face, and call me ‘mommy.’ One little girl looked at me and said very seriously ‘Miss K, I really wish you were Korean’, which I didn’t know if it was meant to be complimentary or not. I don’t think she knew either.

The Kindys wow me daily with the intelligence they exhibit in a second language. I didn’t learn the things they are learning in my own language until I was a couple years older. And they rage right through it all. We have been focusing on planets lately as space is our upcoming End-Of-Year performance topic, which reminds me how much I love space. In fact, teaching all of the basics makes me realize how much information is out there and inspires me to want to learn more about it…with little kids…because their excitement level is rival to my own. Anyway, one of my students LOVES space and the planets, his favorite being Uranus, which he shouts out. A lot. (Uranus!! It’s my favorite!!) We had been discussing the orbit of different planets around the sun and how long it takes for different planets (88 days for Mercury, 224.7 days for Venus, etc.) James had the few we talked about down pat in a matter of minutes. He was absent on Monday and came back bursting at the seams because during his sick down-time he researched the rest of the planets orbital path around the sun and had every planet memorized, even Pluto the dwarf planet. The numbers were down to the decimals, like the thousandth place.

Those kinds of kids make me LOVE being a teacher. Another thing that makes me LOVE being a teacher is that I can sing pretty much any time I want. You know if you’re doing something, or saying something and it makes you think of a song? And you just want to sing it out loud? (My brother and I inherited this gene from our father who has been doing this for as long as I can remember.) When you’re teaching a Kindergarten class, you can. And they love it. And if they too know the song, they will unabashedly join in. This prompted me to start doing ‘song madlibs’ with them. Madlibs is the game where you get a paragraph with all the nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, etc. taken out of it and you have to think of new words to add in, making for a hilarious mixed up story. I started doing that with songs; taking out all the adjectives, nouns, verbs from songs, like Umbrella by Rhianna for instance. BIG HIT. I love when you do something with a kid and you can both genuinely laugh together. The songs we create are hilarious because the words that little kids think of in their second language are amazing. “You can stand under my belly button, you can stand under my belly button, utton, utton, eh, eh. These fancy smelly feet will never punch in between….”

I have much more to pass on to you all about the past few weeks (gotta pass along some moments, eh?), but I’ll try and do some more of this ‘blogging’ tomorrow. I am off to the Korean War Museum to see some dead bodies in celebration of the great holiday known as Halloween.

Much love to all back home.