Confession

If I were any sort of real person I wouldn't sneak out of my apartment at midnight on a desperate hunt for corn chips. In one of the trendiest cities on the Asian continent. Even Eurasian continent. In pajama pants and dress shoes. Without socks. In a country that uses corn as a garnish.

God I wish I had a casual pair of shoes. And why oh why were there *that* many people using the elevator tonight? I've never seen that many co-tenants. And did I really have to go to the Family Mart on the main street? Only to settle for these things?

Quick update

Hey everyone,

Sorry to have left the blog standing for so long. I've sort of fallen into a routine just to grind through the semester, but its finally over. Summer is about to get brutal here, and we have a new teacher from Canada just in time for him to suffer. He's replacing the guy from Savannah who has been here for a year and three months, who was sadly the closest person to me on this continent.

The previous Korean president committed suicide last weekend, so that's dominated the news rather than North Korea's latest tantrum for attention. In other news, swine flu has arrived. A westerner brought it over to another institute. Everyone there got 10 days paid vacation, but the bad news is Koreans are hysterical about this whole epidemic. The drop in enrollment, as disease crazy Korean mothers whisked their germy little brats to another school, effectively closed an entire chain of hagwons.

Cross your fingers Avalon doesn't get hit or I'm out of a job! If you never heard I was going to be an executive consultant in my free time, then you're actually on the right page. The gig fell through being that someone who held the job previously asked for it back the day after it was offered to me.

Miss you guys

The Yardstick

There are several ways through which we could measure how far Korea is behind on race relations, but since I'm supposed to be working right now I will just give you this one. The students are reading a novel about a middle school boy who has a science accident and turns invisible. Adventure ensues. When asked to write about the novel, this is one yardstick by which we can guage civil rights progress in Korea. Lifted from sentence #1:

"Justin is a Negro then his friends are banter Justin."

KoreanEssays.com

Topic 3:
Book Report "Invisible Boy" In this story, why do you think Justin wants to disappear? Have you ever wanted to disappear? Why?

Meriel:

Read 'Invisible boy' and...

I read 'Invisible boy."
I difficult to me. So I well can say answer to first qustien. First qustien is 'Why do you think Justin wants to disappear.' I think long time, but I can. So It's pass. The second qustien is 'Have you ever wanted to disappear? Why?"
Umm,I some time want disappear, sometime is because, I'm disappear, play behind, I can behind well. but always disappear and anybody can see me. So I want some time disappear or sometime not.

Oh, by the way...

This was not given to me but rather to my friend Caroline. That doesn't mean I can't share it! An Easter card, by Androied [sic].

This is the point in reading the card that I assumed Android had misspelled something along the way. Mommy?

But then:



Easter basket? Grenades, a gun, and a knife.
(The backwards 'F' characters signify a sort of laugh.)

The Lantern Festival

Lots of lanterns, old people carrying lanterns, and floats in a two hour long parade! Fun weekend activity, even though the weather kinda sucked. Check out the parade of photos, which can be so much more quickly uploaded to facebook than to blogger.

Menu Update

While in the market, we got some fresh food that's only available out by the clean rivers and such.

Bing Eo and Eun Eo:


These are minnows and some other slightly larger fresh water fish, both of which you can only get from the streams outside of Seoul. Good luck pronouncing them! We, of course, got them fried up crispy. I ate the big fish's heads. Kinda a psychological barrier, but nothing wrong with them I guess. I'm told though that you can eat the minnows live in the winter. An adventure that awaits me!


Clams:
Special southern clams! We ate them two different ways: once as some sort of room-temperature spicy salad (kinda like chicken salad I guess)...

and once boiled in broth.

They were really tiny, but so delicious.

Acorn Jelly:
The translation always sounds gross, but its literally a jelly made from acorns, so what am I supposed to do? I've had this in Seoul on several occasions, but this was a specialty of the market's. I've never seen it with so many veggies stirred in. Particularly good!

The Conclusion of the Mystery Trip

It started, of course, like any good trip starts: me, running across the platform, unshowered and unkempt, to a train that is going who knows where. That's not actually how it started per se. It started with a phone call ten minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, 1 minute of clothes, 8 minutes of terrifying taxi, then running across the platform to the train going who knows where. I literally boarded the train and the guy on the platform was holding it. As soon as I stepped on, the train left. Couldn't have cut it closer!

holy crap what is all of this?!?!

I was glad that I made it though, because we went to a southern province to see some cherry blossoms. Though the blossoms were about a week past prime and thus unimpressive, the weather was beautiful and it was nice to get some fresh air for once. We went to a big outdoor market where I got a bunch of grain (for mixing in with my rice at home to liven things up).


We then walked to the nearby Buddhist temple for some quick photo ops.








Fun trip! Thanks Inhee for planning it all!
PS The bus was hilarious

Mystery Trip

I am less than three hours from leaving on a trip. I have no clue where I am going. Wish me luck.

Menu Update

When I'm not eating dog, I'm eating very traditional Korean food. Namely, the mountain of side dishes. I've done this before and it is both delicious, healthy, and affordable. This time was a special treat however, because we got to enjoy Lotus-leaf Rice. How do you make Lotus-leaf Rice? Take some delicious rice mixed with a few nuts, beans, and seeds, then wrap the mixture in a lotus leaf. Steam the whole little package so the rice soaks up the flavor of the rice. Serve with a mountain of side dishes and enjoy!

Let the Engrish Begin!

Inspired by my friends recent discovery of a shirt that featured a picture of a chic, Asian woman and the word 'Rolita,' I went on my own hunt for crazy English. Spring is almost here, and the shirts are only just starting to make their way out. With the help of Caroline, Blake, and InHee, I managed to find some good one's for you. Here's the first batch of Engrish shirts:

Always
Hear
White
& Clean

Sometings
Taste
Favorite Somtthings

KEEPERS
Black History
Boel Team

We
Hood
We
Votin
& Throwin
It Up!

MUST BUY
CATALOGUE
ptesents by
YUKA WATANABE

Take Life
with a
Grain of,
Sait

never want
to play
the games
that people

Tea
Orange juice
Doughnut...
Sometime
You HUG me
Sometime
You do not

Superlative
Conspiracy

TOM AND JERRY
That friendly mouse
may tell the cat

EALTH

Low Carbohydrate Pale Ale
LOW
'C'
For Beerdrinkers
with a Weight Problem

FRANKENSTATE
Routo
HYC
66
BASKETBALL
It doesn't take too much high
IQ's to see what you're doing to me

5 MILE
HEAVEN
SUNSHINE

Gaudi Picaso Demi

We

LOVE

not war

Can't Unaware of the Evil
IN THE
WORLD
deuce

DONKEY
The mud houses, cave dwellings, and donkey carts on the parched
landscape do not fit the image of China whose frantic development
has catapulted its economy to the fourth largest int he world.

Peyote

MINUTEMEN
MEATPUPPETS
DESCENDENTS
ANGST

BoShinTang part 2

I ate delicious dog stew again last week. This time it was accented by seeing a genius dog an hour before hand. This dog was crossing at a busy crosswalk without a leash. Following this chick. And carrying her purse. For the sake of juxtaposition, the dog:

The stew:

When we're not learning...

I have a very creative batch of young kids. Their English is the worst of any of my students, but they are so much fun too teach when they can focus on something. Anything. Which oftentimes won't be learning. Here are two examples of the fun and creative things that they've been able to focus on in the past couple weeks.

Bill:They got really into making a 'new student' for the class.








If you can say it:
A little bit more educational, but also a little bit crazier was the drawing on the board game. It started out innocently. The workbook wanted the kids to unscramble animal words (igret = tiger) and then draw a picture of that animal. In order to help them figure out the words, I started drawing the animals on the board. Then the kids started asking me to change the pictures. If they could ask me in English, I did it. You'd be surprised the crazy words they can come up with when they don't know stuff like "weekend".

"Teacher! Elephant is...no ears. And snake is elephant ears!"
"Teacher! Tiger is black hole!"
"Teacher! Parrot is...drugs!"

I love that "concentrate! focus!" is still written in the corner of the board...