Hiatus

I have not abandoned you, I promise. I was out of town all weekend, then have been really really busy at work and with people, so I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write something decent. I will also let you know that I will probably be out of town the next 2 weekends, so again will have spotty updates. I will try to post something better soon - I need to tell you about bowling (some more), Cindy's b-day weekend and hanging out with my new bff Dallas. I also need to show you Ian's rap for me. As a teaser, here's the title: "Woman: Ryan Hackman". That's right.

Kids essays - Part 11 - Music groups and super heroes

I've had kind of a boring week. Lots of catching up to do at work (although I'm not even close!) I have lots of tests to grade, but I kind of don't feel like bringing them home with me, so I don't. Oh well. They'll get done eventually. I tried something called "melon bread" on Tuesday and it tasted as gross as it sounds. I am not even sure what melon was used - it tasted a little like cantaloupe. The other highlights of my week so far have been buying kumquats (and eating them at least twice a day) and the 161 I bowled tonight (new high score and 1 New year's resolution accomplished!).

So, I thought I'd share some more essays. As usual, enjoy!

The shuttlecock wishes an influence undergoes condition becomes accomplished plentifully from the general interior.

Having a friend is easy. You are go to another person. You say kindly or goodly. You and person is friends now.

We listen to ABBA songs in my dad’s car because he likes ABBA songs.

I don’t like to study math. My math academy is very boring. My math teacher is very scary and gives me a lot of homework.

My best friend is Son sung hyon. He is really weak but he’s funny. I think he is like a cat because he is sensitive.

A group of essays was about what kind of band they would be in and to describe it. Here are some of my favorites:

      “The name of my band would be LvL because we’re lovely.”

      “The name of my band would be popcorn because we are like popcorn and we sing pop music.

      "The name of my band would be orange marmalade because it’s new and sweet. But we have a big problem, we can’t dance. We are very well on the sing but dance is yuck.”

When I listen to their songs my heart is palpitates.

(On white lies) My friend asks me “Is this picture good?” I think it’s very ugly and bad. But if I speak like this my friend will be injured so I say this picture will get an A+.

I want to be my mother like good nice person and imitate my mother’s virtues.

A student said this to me as I was writing homework on the board, “Teacher your writing is fast so it’s dirty.”

Most children have a typical type. The smart ones wears glasses or don’t use bad language. The wicked one children used bad words and their eyes are always like fox.

Topic: What would happen if everyone lived in space?  Answer: Apartment is very like no. It’s run. In the down house come my home! Oh no ~~ I don’t happy. Than, I don’t like apartment. I am a teacher so I know teacher’s sorry but Sophia and I very special friend than I don’t a talking the class room. (yea - you try grading that mess)

I love super-heroes so I sometimes wear superman clothes. I think my dad is a superhero.

I want to see a superhero and we can fly together and we go to sky contree and I meet my grandfather.

Comic books are unconditional win to bad guys. It’s not fun.

I like bat-man than the super-man. But I like super-man than the spiderman.

I love to eat steak and salted spawn of a pollack pasta.

Earth – it was blue, white, greed…

They looked the nevior-good (neighborhood – that took Caroline and me about 5 minutes to figure out)

I think an ugly baby is more cute but I don’t want to be ugly.

Games Night - take 5 (or 6?)

For the last few months the church has been having a monthly games night. Three times it's been held at the Lawrence household in Sacheon, and twice (or 3 times) it's been at church. This month we went to the Lawrence's and had a great time. It was a smaller group than usual, but that's sometimes good because then we can all play stuff together instead of totally separating. I played 30 seconds (a South African game similar to Taboo, which I think I've mentioned before) and then Craig and Heather taught us how to play Mexican train dominoes, which was a decent game.

Playing 30 seconds with Joanna, Lance, Madia, Ilani and Jack

Olivia got into some yarn.

Children are flexible. And also distracted by camera flashes.

I spilled hummus (or tabbouleh, not sure which) on myself, but it was totally worth it.

This was one of the best parts of the night. Lance translated the "Dunkin Munchkin" song and it's hilarious.

Other than games night I had a slow weekend. On Friday, Dallas and I had coffee, snacks and then watched a movie at my house (although I made him promise not to judge me based on the mess). Lance joined us for the coffee, but went home afterwards. Saturday was the games night and some catching up on reading.

Sunday I started Korean classes at church. Yes, I am aware that I am leaving in less than 2 months, so this seems like a stupid time to start learning Korean. But, I do want to learn (and hopefully continue practicing) the basic language/reading system and Lance is teaching the class for free so I also want to support him.

Then I met up with Dallas again on Sunday evening for coffee and to show him the difference between fabric softener and detergent (boys!?). He also gave me the rundown of the St. Patrick's booze cruise that many Jinjuites attended. After that it was back to reading.

Today's highlights include my boss showing me the Crossfit butterfly pull-up video, him buying us coffee, and me buying kumquats. All in all, nice low key start to the week.

Liezle's last week

Liezle has been gone from Jinju for 3 weeks now, so I feel I should probably write the post about her last week now. I already told you about Sunday soup at GNU, lunch on Monday and glasses shopping on Tuesday. We didn't do anything on Wednesday because she was finishing packing and had coffee with another friend.

Thursday we had lunch with 2 of her co-workers, Cindy and Lindi at an all you can eat (endless refills) Shabu Shabu place. It was really good. It wasn't really all you can eat because you only got one plate of meat and noodles, but it was definitely more than enough! We took a group picture near this little water scene in the restaurant. The 2 Koreans were all embarrassed because they said Koreans don't usually take pictures in restaurants (although it's perfectly acceptable and routine to do so in a coffee shop or cafe type place). Then we went for coffee at a place that make chocolate and gives you a free piece with your coffee (it's almost like a fudge).

Us at the shabu place

On Thursday night we went bowling as usual. Alas no turkeys and we forgot to take a group picture because some people (not me, really) got drunk and left to go to a bar to continue drinking instead of bowling a third game. After bowling we all went to Pop Junko and sang for awhile. I posted a couple pictures in an earlier post, but here are some others. It was fun, but a bit awkward because 2 friends sort of broke up in the middle of us singing.

We usually meet at Kimbap Heaven before bowling. This night we ended up eating 4 or 5 rolls of kimbap as a group, so we had a kimbap cheers.

Anna and Cindy are v-neck twins. Plus they have matching soju juice boxes!

Mike and Liezle singing at PopJunko

Friday morning-ish, Liezle confronted her boss about the lack of paying her ontime and actually ended up getting a lawyer involved. It required her to get all of her stuff moved quickly out of her apartment and being a little late for a group brunch, but she managed it and he paid her everything he owed her. The same group from Thursday's lunch, with the addition of Anna, met at a place called Kilogram for brunch. They has a weird menu, and I ended up getting a sandwich with ham, scrambled eggs and cheese on it, which was good. Keung He got this weird spaghetti salad thing that was really good.

Group pic at Kilogram. It's ok to get your picture taken here.

After lunch we walked around for a bit and then I had to go to work, so I had to say goodbye. It was very awkward because neither of us wanted to cry and Cindy and Anna were there and we were in the middle of the street, so it was just strange. Both of us ended up crying a little bit anyway. We've talked a bit on facebook so she made it home safely. She still has plans to come back, so we might see each other again before I leave, but it's doubtful since she will probably not be back until May. She was one of my best friends here and I have missed her greatly. It's funny to me that she was younger than my sister (we were 10 years apart) and yet we still are really good friends. Now I'll just have to visit South Africa and she can come to the US because I don't think our friendship is over just yet.

A reason why I love Korea

Commercials like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXS8w-nt7SA&sns=fb

Jinju Birthdays

This weekend we celebrated the birthdays of 3 girls in Jinju: Caroline (my co-worker), Lexi (who shares the same bday which was on Wednesday) and Jess (whose bday was on Saturday). Cindy came to town to pick up some of her stuff from my house and to say hello. I met up with her around 6 and we had a drink at 700 beer before the start of the planned festivities.

First, a large group met at a Chinese restaurant near GNU called Shanghai. I had never been before, but the food was really good. There were about 30ish people there and we ordered family style by small table. Our table ordered sweet and sour pork, dim sum, and some chicken dish with mushrooms. The waiters were a bit overwhelmed by all of us and ended bringing random dishes to random tables. Considering the occasionally had to step over people to serve stuff, I think the did a remarkable job.

Some of the people. The only down side was floor sittin'.

It also led to us getting to try about 3 or 4 dishes that weren't ours. Our food was really good. I also tried a chicken dish that was mega spicy and another chicken dish that had an uncanny similarity to apple pie - dessert chicken! I also ate 2 kumquats, which I had never tried before. You eat the skin too (which is sweet) and the inside (which is a bit sour). Now I will buy them.

Cindy holding a kumquat. It is also fun to say - kumquat (heehee!)

After dinner, the group went to Soundgarden and had a few drinks, plus we shared an ice cream cake for Jess and Caroline (Lexi didn't come to these 2 events as she was having a party somewhere else) complete with "Happy Birthday". I actually didn't eat any cake, but I heard it was good.

Me, Jess (center), Anna, Mandy and Eve. Not sure why Anna looks like Pop-eye

Semi-group picture

Jess and Caroline - bday girls!

Next we moved on to Lexi's 80s theme party at Beast Bar. Most people, but not everyone, from the earlier party showed up at some point. We sang 3 versions of Happy Birthday (one for each girl) and had a viewing of the infamous fire show, which only had 1 drop! Cindy and I left around 3 and she stayed at my house.

Jess stole Ally's "80s" hat

Lindi looks weird, which is why I didn't put this pic on facebook. 

We got up when Anna called at 10:30 asking if we wanted to do brunch. We ended up meeting her and Cody at Beans Farm for some pancakes. Fun celebrations with fun people!
** There will probably be a photo update at some point since various people have not yet posted pictures.

Norebang - Korean singing rooms

Singing is big in Korea. Karaoke is Japanese, so that does NOT happen here. Instead they have norebangs - literally "singing rooms". It's basically your own private room, that usually has a couch, a table (so you can order food and/or drinks), a tambourine or 2, mikes and a video screen.

Dan, Liezle and Anna at my first norebang place

 It's takes the beauty of singing karaoke but without the fear/awkwardness of singing in front of strangers. Needless to say, I love me some norebang. Oddly, I went through almost my entire Korean experience without going to one. I knew I would make it eventually because of my PopJunko birthday vow, but I ended up going twice before that and the a few times afterwards as well.

Disco balls and/or strobe lights are a big part of norebanging

The first time I went, I ended up going twice in one week. The key is to go with good people and have a decent number of people. Too many and you either listen to crap songs or don't get enough time to sing; too few and your voice goes out or you have to pay a lot. Another key is to pick good songs that you know the words to and that are fast unless so cheesy that it's awesome (for example "A whole new world" from Aladdin is acceptable). The second key is essential to karaoke too and many articles have been written about how to chose the perfect song. (Google it)

Hein singing Toto's "Africa"

John and Hein singing "Sex Bomb" I think

 My go to songs are usually 80s-90s hits. "Like a prayer" kills it, as does a good Wham or ABBA song (Mamma Mia is a surprisingly good one). I also like some oldies songs and often sing "Obla-di, obla-da" or other Beatles and/or Beach Boys hits. 

Mike and Liezle duet on "Hotel California" This is one of those songs you think is awesome for singing, but it's not. Much slower than you think and looooong. But they sang it well.

Most places make you order food - Darragh, Cindy, Mike and Jon appreciate that.

 My favorite songs to sing however, are duets. One of my friends, John, loves to norebang and we have discovered that "California Dreamin'" is right in our wheelhouse. I sing the main parts and he does the back up. We have also tried the aforementioned "A whole new world" but the video doesn't separate the vocals (we don't always know who should sing what) and as I've been sick since I started going, my high notes are a little sketch (although I can hit the "you remain" on Seal's "kiss from a rose"...and did you know that it's "I've been kissed by a rose from the gray"? I always thought it was "grave").

PopJunko swirl room on Liezle's last bowling night

NYC skyline on a lamp at PopJunko

Mike belting out something...maybe "Brown Eyed Girl"?

So, add norebang to the list of things I will miss when I leave Korea. I will have to find one at home...or sing alone in my house on the Wii.

Recent (and not so recent) happenings

There are some posts that will come out of order soon, but I need a longer time to think about them and figure out how to word them the way I want to and which pictures to use etc. I also found out the other day that people (or at least one person) in Jinju actually read this - oops. Not that anything I say on here is bad - I would tell anyone what I've written to their face, but it's like finding out friends are talking about you when you're not there - it's weird (and um, that's kind of what I'm doing). Even if it's good things, it's still weird. But I am trying to not let it affect how I write.

Just to warn you, this post is a combination of weird stuff and doesn't go together at all. Enjoy.

So, here are some things that happened recently. A few weeks ago I think I mentioned how my boss came to pick me up. I now realize by looking back over the blog that I did not talk about this. Sometimes I think I posted about something and totally didn't. Or I started to and never updated it so it's in some "draft" somewhere. So, to backpedal, at the end of January we had a few days off of work for "vacation" before spring semester started. My plan was to take one day completely off and do nothing. This plan did not work. I already had previous things scheduled for Thursday-Sunday, so my only potential do-nothing day was Wednesday. Things were going as planned until noon when there was a knock on my door. I answered in pajamas (which had a hole in the leg) and crazy bed-head hair and it was my boss. I wish I had been able to capture the look of shock on his face. He tried to call me, but he had my old phone number. Basically he needed me to go with him to the immigration office (which is in Jinju only on Wednesdays) to get fingerprinted  to extend my ARC. He looked at me and said, "I'll be back in an hour, is that ok?" So much for my day of nothing.

The best part of this story comes now. After getting fingerprinted and signing some documents (my boss did that part) we went back to the parking lot to drive home. His car (along with 2 others) was completely blocked in by a person who parked sideways in the middle of the lot. This apparently is not uncommon in Korea, and most people have their phone numbers somewhere on the windshield (usually near the passenger side - this particular card had an embroidered pillow suction-cupped to the window). My boss called the number, chatted for a minute, looked at me and said, "He told me to push it." I laughed, thinking it was obviously a joke and got in the car. When my boss didn't get in after 30 seconds or so, I looked in the side view mirror and saw him go into the car, pop the brake and push the stupid car. I could not believe it - he was pushing the car out of the way. It got better when he moved and the car started to roll back. Then another guy came over, helped him push and then held the car out of the way while we reversed. Then my boss got back out, helped to push the car back and the guided the helper guy into another spot. I tried to take a picture without them noticing me, which is why it looks so weird.

Pushing cars, a common Korean past time

Last week, after church, we went to a coffee. Lance went to a street vendor and bought some breads first. He got some egg bread (which I didn't try) and banana bread. It looks like a banana, but tastes like pound cake - no banana taste at all.

Non-bananay banana bread - my favorite! (because bananas are gross)

My fridge is a dorm fridge. This has been a slight pain in the butt, but I've dealt with it. Occasionally, the "freezer" section goes a bit crazy. I can't really fit much up there anyway, so currently, that's where I put my bottle of gin (which I have had for almost a year to those who think I am becoming an alcoholic). This week the freezer decided it was an alcoholic and tried to eat my gin bottle. This resulted in temporarily shutting the fridge with a planter and then repeated stabs with a butter knife to chop out sections of ice. Not fun, but it beats letting all my condiments get funky while totally defrosting it.

Ice cold gin (alas, no limes)

It's election season here in Korea too. The big time things haven't really happened yet, as far as I've been told, but currently there are huge posters up on buildings and some commercials (I think). One friend had someone come to her apartment, hand her a piece of fried chicken and leave. They also have this, which is kind of awesome. The candidates hire road-side bowers. They stand at intersections and when the lights change, they change direction and bow while wearing a sash with the candidate's info. It's totally bizarre the first time you see if, but then you get used to it and barely notice. Especially at the intersections that also have LG or Samsung stores with dancing girls, men dressed as "The Mask" on stilts and/or dancing turnips.

Last, but not least, on Monday my boss made me go to the doctor with him as I was still coughing. This was the same doctor who told me nothing was wrong a month ago. Now I apparently have (what we hope is seasonal) asthma. He said I probably had a cold and it morphed into this. Later, I checked with Dr. Google and my guess is that the virus cold, combined with cold temperatures, extreme dryness and dust led to this asthma. So now I am on 5 different pills (don't know what any of them are) for 3 days and I need to go back after I'm done with the pills. No inhaler or anything and it's not like a can't breathe. The pills seem to be working a bit, although I still am coughing up stuff and have a nose full of snot, but at least I am not coughing for minutes at a time anymore. I will keep you updated on the cold saga.

Fame

On Saturday, a guy from our church (who's English name is WOW) and another girl who's name I never remember but I think might be Suwon (?) were in a local theater version of Fame. I went with Jamie, Brandon and Heather to support them and also because it sounded interesting.

First we went to this random building near my house that had the theater in it. We waited a bit and then they started the show at 3. The first 45 minutes or so we were confused because everything was in Korean and didn't really seem like part of Fame. It looked more like a talent show. They had a guy sing a song, then a duet with a different guy and a girl, then a group song with some crazy dancers (check out the guy to the far right - he did that move the entire song) and finally a shuffle team came out and did some dances. Shuffling is the big dance hit in clubs here. I can't really do it. When the shuffle team came out is when we figured out that this was more of a preview to the play.

Then the emcee's (one of whom was Wow) had the audience play rock, paper, scissors to get some cheesy prizes. It was fun and totally bizarre. Then they had us watch a slide show that seemed like something you would show at a cast party. It was about 3 minutes long and showed rehearsal pictures and table reads etc. Then the play started. The play lasted about 30-45 minutes and oddly enough started out with "Seasons of Love" from Rent. The only song in English was the "Fame" song, but even that was kind of different. The play was a little hard to follow, but it was still decent local theater.

I'm glad we went and Wow seemed really happy that we came out to see him. Afterwards we went to a newish Italian place called "mare" for dinner. Jamie got a salad pizza and it was, in fact, a salad pizza.

Then we went back to their house and chatted for a bit. They had to get up early because Brandon had to give a special sermon at the Korean side of the church. Heather and I went downtown and met up with Ilani and Dallas to watch Safe House. It was good, but not really what I was expecting. Still, I had a good day.

Health Code Violations

One thing that's interesting here, is how different our cultures are. For example, here, at just about every resturant (not fast food), when they place the bowls out, they give each person a wet washcloth and you're supposed to wash your hands before you eat. It makes sense, and seems cleaner than the US, where you should wash your hands, but let's face it, the extra trip to the bathroom isn't worth it.

But then there is silverware (chopsticks and spoons) in a box at the end of the table. And everyone shares food. Although if you washed your hands, it'd be all good.

The weirdest part to me is the cooking your own food part. I don't mind it at all - it's almost like fondue and is part of the culture here. It encourages people to talk while they eat, which is why dinners sometime last for hours. Other than fondue, I don't know any place in the US where they would let you cook food yourself for fear of being sued. It sometimes makes me double take when they just drop a platter of pork off at your table and trust you to cook it and don't really check on you. There would be all kinds of signs posted and regulations and people watching you like a hawk in the States. I don't think anybody has even thought about that here; they don't have a sue everyone for anything type culture, and that's nice (even from a lawyer's perspective).

As usual, I went to dinner or lunch a few times in the last couple of weeks. I tried a new place with the girls. It's a Vietnamese/Korean place and does spring rolls and shabu shabu. First, they bring you a platter of veggies and some meat. They also bring you really thin rice paper discs that look almost like taco shells and bowls of hot water. You dip the disc into the hot water to soften it, then put the cooked meat (we had duck which was awesome), veggies and sauce into the disc, then wrap it. There is a video playing on small TVs around the restaurant showing you how to dip and fold your spring roll. Mine never quite looked right, but they tasted really good. Then, we used the leftover veggies and made a soup with additional cabbage and mushrooms. After the soup, they make noodles and rice porridge. It was really good and I think we'll go there again sometime.

Rice paper wrappers and bowl of hot water

Veggies, plus our plate and water glass

More veggies. I ate the pineapple, but didn't put it in my spring roll. All the others went in though.

One of the other places we went (same girls) was the pajon place. I showed pictures of the food before (here), but I never got a really good picture of the outside or inside, which are interesting to me. The outside looks like a hole in the wall and the inside looks like a hobbit house. I still didn't get good pictures because there were a lot of people and they all were watching us, but here's what I got.

Anna walking inside. If you didn't know this place was a restaurant, you'd walk past it thinking it was a shack.

Inside. See the guy looking directly at me? I wasn't even holding the camera up, it was supposed to be ninja-like.