Hiatus

Since arriving safely and with all my luggage accounted for, I've been thoroughly enjoying my time in America. I haven't, however, bothered writing about it and between blissfully doing nothing and stuffing my face, I probably will not write until I'm back in Korea mid-August.


Until then, take care!

A Look Back...

A little over a week before I go back to America, here's a look back on the people I met, the places I went, and some of the things I did during this first year.

Day 367 -- A Short Conversation with Doyup

Doyup and I went to the LG Twins (Seoul) vs Hanwha Eagles (Daejeon) baseball game yesterday. Doyup was really excited because the crowd was pretty small, so we had a good chance of being on TV due to the "wtf" factor of crazily-acting fan with his foreigner girlfriend. We did end up on TV sometime during the 3/4 inning. We know because Doyup started getting a billion messages and calls from people who were watching the game: his dad, cousins, co-workers. This conversation took place today, the morning after the game.

"Every soldier are asking me of you. They watched the baseball game. So surprise!"
"Haha, I hope I didn't look stupid!!"
"You are always stupid."



womp womp -.-

Day 366 -- One Year Anniversary in Korea!

Yesterday marked my one year anniversary of living in Korea. That means it's also been one year since I've seen my friends and family back home, so I'm really excited to jump on that plane next week and see everyone again.

That said, I'm also very excited to start a brand new year in Korea. Most of the things that caused me the most distress will be changing -- soon I'll have my own apartment and last week my fantastic co-teacher returned from her fight with cancer. I feel like this past year has just been the trial-year where I figured out how things work and got my feet under me. Kind of like freshman year in college where you learn from your mistakes during sophomore year.

Sincccce I'm on another computer, how about some pictures?

Last North Korean refugee class. One of my students (the mother) helping her daughter make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

An example of the amazing delivery service in Korea. This entire box was brought to the apartment. Inside was everything required to make a beef-and-mushroom stew, fresh right at your table. The pot with all the ingredients, a water bottle full of broth...

... a table-top burner, rice, and all the usual Korean sides (kimchi, etc)

Light up the burner, pour in the broth, and you are on your way to some really good beef-and-mushroom stew, bubbling at your table.

Yummm

Korea, besides having awesome delivery service, also has some wicked bars. A lot of bars have some kind of gimmick, for example one of my favorite bars in Seoul serves their pitchers of beer with dry ice, so the beer is super super cold and also awesome looking. This bar serves apple-flavored soju (like weak vodka) in apple cups.

So cool!

And this here is a source of constant shame for me. I go to coffee shops a lot because I think I work better in that kind of environment -- less distractions, more coffee. Here at a coffee shop in Daejeon's city hall, I order an iced cafe mocha with a slice of cheesecake. The barista kindly gives me two forks because what kind of fatty would eat a piece of cheesecake all by herself, amiright? ...ooohhh the shameeee...

An example of something Korea doesn't do well: English. It's usually just close enough that you can figure it out, but still... Nuddle isn't even a word, did nobody check that out before they made a sign?!

Day 359 -- Final Dinner and World Cup

FINAL DINNER

This past weekend was the final dinner for all us F*bright ETAs. We got together in Seoul for some delicious American food and general discussion about our years/year to come, depending on if you were leaving for good or coming back for the 2010-2011 grant year.

One of the ETAs -- our sole 3rd year ETA -- gave a speech that I thought was particularly good. He talked about how, when he first came to Korea, he wrote pages and pages about every little thing because every day, something was new and different and changing. Over time, though, things got to be routine and even feel like "home". He compared it to writing versus proofreading -- when it's new and exciting, you just write and write and write because you want to record everything. Going back to "proofread" what you wrote, you think that you sound a little naive and foolish for thinking such common things were cool.

So true.

The whole point of me writing this was to show people at home what the other side of the world was like, so even if it's routine and common for me, it probably isn't. I'm just adapting.


WORLD CUP

As of this past Saturday, Korea had been all about the World Cup. Korea in general is pretty obsessed with numbers -- test scores, world rankings, competitions -- so there was a lot of excitement about the chance for their soccer team to continue their success from the last World Cup and get the country recognized.

Things were nuts here. Everyone was donned in red (the team's color), people bought devil horns (the team's name is the Red Devils), and bars filled up every night Korea had a game. Popular music groups made songs and chants. Commercials all featured the team and expressed (company's) hopes that they do well.

Big Bang (my favorite pop group) teamed up with YuNa (the figure-skater-turned-goddess-of-Korea) to produce the national soccer anthem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RhvVxqTbH4&feature=PlayList&p=83FAA7AC9081F217&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=53

And faithful Korean fans memorized the dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq5cPaTPTpA&feature=related

...including Doyup, who recruited one of his soldier friends to stand on a table at a bar, do that dance together, and lead the crowd in cheering.

Saturday night after the Final Dinner, I went out to watch the games in HongDae (a youth club district). Unfortunately, Korea went down, much to the dismay of the decked-out-in-red fans. Later, after getting about an hour of sleep between games, America also lost. It was not a great night and I'm still sleep-hung-over from it all.


DELIVERY FOOD

So I still don't have pictures but omg guys, delivery food in Korea. Amazing. You can get anything delivered in under 10 minutes. Sure, there's the usual Chinese food and pizza, but you can also get things like ice cream and soups and stews and craziness. The other night, Doyup was hungry. He wasn't feeling Kimbab Nala (like a Korean fast-food joint) or Chinese, which are his usual go-to's. Instead, he decided on this beef-and-mushroom stew type thing. I figured this thing would get delivered in a big bowl or something.

WRONG

When I answered the door for the delivery guy, there was a giant tupperware storage box. Inside said box was a wok-style pot filled with all the ingredients -- beef, veggies, clear noodles. There was also silverware (not plastic or wooden), a pack of unflavored ramen, a water bottle filled with broth, a ladel, and A TABLE-TOP GAS-RANGE.

That's right, this delivery guy brought us all the necessary things to cook this stuff ourselves right at home.

I mean, I thought it was kind of neat that delivery food here comes on actual plates with real silverware. When you're done, you just put the plates and bowls and stuff outside your door and it magically disappears (when the delivery guy collects it). I'd never seen this though with a whole-freaking-stove.


So... "little things" still amaze me. haha

Day 354 - Apartment Arrangements Made

I am *so*, *so* relieved to write that all the arrangements are made for my apartment next year. Most of the foreigners here in Nonsan live in tiny one-room apartments (the standard set-up since we don't get a big stipend for monthly rent). Also, those apartments are a good 25-30 minute walk from the bus stop I get off at, so it would've been a huge pain or a huge taxi bill to get myself home every day.

However, I got lucky and one of the kyopos (i.e. speaks Korean fluently, so was able to strike a deal) had set the standard at a different apartment building. This place is only a 10-ish minute walk from the bus stop, is in a great part of town with plenty of restaurants and convenience stores, and I'll be able to live in a two-room apartment (not two bedroom, but a kitchen room and a bedroom) without going over the monthly rent stipend (400,000W). Assah!

Some numbers on my mind lately:
22 days >> until I move out of the homestay
23 days >> until I go to America
28 hours >> of class
12 days >> of school

Day 351 - Busan Shark Tank Diving and Video Dump

BUSAN SHARK TANK DIVING

At the Busan aquarium, they have the pretty nifty opportunity to go scuba diving in their shark tank. Being terrified of sharks ever since I saw JAWS as a child and completely inexperienced with SCUBA, this seemed like an awesome idea.

Since I can't post pictures with the proxy, here's a link to a video:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41MfbrhOtSw)

I shook like a leaf the entire time (according to the GI who was my dive partner). In my defense, it wasn't just because I'm *incredibly* brave like that, but also because the water was pretty cold and my suit had a big rip on the knee. Having the scraggly-toothed sand tiger sharks (because sand tiger sharks sounds way more badass than "nurse shark") swim right up to your face, just past you, eye-to-eye, was a really cold (also horrifying) experience. As I was descending into the tank, a huge manta ray swam right by me. Also awesome.

The scariest part, though, was the actual SCUBA experience. If you've never done scuba, I found it unnerving to be breathing underwater. I'm normally not particularly claustrophobic, but with the goggles on and being only able to breath dry tank air through a tube I was definitely freaking out a bit. After ten or fiften minutes I got more used to the experience, but not everybody was able to adjust; one girl left the training lock because she just couldn't get comfortable with breathing through the regulator.

Awesome experience, totally recommend it. It was only ~100,000won for everything -- aquarium ticket, equipment rental, SCUBA lesson, and entry to the shark tank. The aquarium is also right on Haeundae Beach so it makes for a nice weekend adventure. Since I'm already shamelessly advertising, here's their link: http://www.scubainkorea.com/Shark_Diving/Shark_Diving.htm

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VIDEO DUMP

I uploaded more videos too, since I've been slacking with pictures. That said,

1. Jungle Camp in Borneo, Malaysia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgKhFNK7cgU)
Where I camped for 3 days, 2 nights. I got a few emails asking about it, so if you're interested in this, I did it through www.uncletan.com

2. Wild Orang-Utan in Borneo, Malaysia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73WBOnIddHs)
On the last morning, we finally got a good view of a wild orang-utan eating his fig breakfast by the river.

3. TOEFL Writing Class (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgzu0Y2T8R4)
Yes, I do still teach English. Sometimes.