Change

Annyeong!

I suppose it’s been a while, hasn’t it?  There I was back in August raving about my wonderful adventures in Japan and then haven’t bothered to update you on a thing since. Like my thoughts on being back in the United States, or my, shall we call it, eventful trip through the San Francisco airport. Like driving thousands of miles down Route 90 and gradually realizing that maybe, just maybe another year in Korea’s not for me right now. Or the ensuing job hunt I’ve embarked on and the not one but two positions I’ve been offered that have been postponed by slow-moving FBI paperwork. The past three months have had their ups and downs, their Kimchi and reverse culture shock, but all in all I’m glad to be home.

So as the leaves continue to fall outside and the times keep on a-changin’, so must this blog. It’s hard for me to provide you with thoughts from the thirty eighth parallel when I no longer live close to that latitude, much less the wonderful ROK it represents a hemisphere away. Sad sad. I can, however, continue to provide you with my thoughts about the ROK from time to time or whenever the mood strikes my fancy. So all is not lost, that is, if that would be acceptable to you. ㅠㅠ

안녕히 계세요!

Cheers!

 - Christine

Counting Down (again...)

At the risk of sounding cliche, I just don't know where the past twelve months have gone! Can you believe I have only 5 more days of teaching in Korea!?!?! What happened? Where did the time go? And how am I already 24? Whoa... 

I bet you're all thinking to yourselves, yeah cool, that's great, congrats and all, but what's next? Well, dear readers, let's talk a little bit about this future of mine, shall we?

Let me start out by sharing a very simple fact about myself. I am not much of a planner. At all. I am a chronic procrastinator opposed to anything even remotely involving decision-making, especially of the large-scale life-changing variety. When confronted with a decision to make, I generally just clam up, refuse to acknowledge that I am in the midst of a decision-making situation, try to weasel my way out of said decision-making situation by convincing myself that the whole thing is not really all that important anyways, before finally at the last possible minute, doing something about it. It's a ridiculous process filled with lots of anxiety (and animal metaphors). 

So for those of you looking for more concrete answers than "Yeah, I still have no idea..." here's what I know so far. If it's not specific enough for your liking, please refer to the above paragraph. I'm serious, it's unhealthy how bad at planning things I really am. 

July 27 -- Last day of teaching. Sad, (but also definitely not...)

July 28 -- Fly to Tokyo. At 8:40 in the morning. Bienvenido a Japan!!!

August 5 -- Fly back from Kyoto to Seoul. (See that gaping hole in the middle, the part about me somehow getting from Tokyo to Kyoto? Just let it be...)

August 6ish -- Take Kimchi back to our Bucheon vet for one final checkup, before...

August 8ish -- Fly to Cleveland

(September-ish -- Begin Korea round 2. TBD)

The last two dates are extremely rough estimates (emphasis on the rough part), so please forgive me if they are totally wrong. Something about not having any America-bound plane tickets yet to speak of plus the whole flying with a puppy thing. Yeah, there's a lot of room for change. I will try to keep you posted on my tentative itinerary, but since it turns out getting out of Korea is just as complicated a process as getting into Korea, I might not have the time. 

Cheers!

 - Christine - 

re: Expectations

Today is a very, very special day, and I bet you almost missed it! (Don’t worry, I’ll forgive you) One year ago today, I began documenting my Korean life on this very site. Happy birthday, Tft38P!

In celebration of this momentous occasion, let’s revisit my first real post, shall we? I distinctly remember writing my first expectations post, sitting in my parent’s basement, typing away in the one room in which my then-vintage, now-antique laptop could get internet. I remember my initial thoughts about moving to Korea centered mostly on what things to bring, what things I would miss, and I had this major initial struggle about not wanting to appear too materialistic for the whole internet to see. I ended up limiting my “things” discussion to about two sentences, and then organized the rest of my expectations and concerns about moving to the other side of the world into three seemingly-important and encompassing bullet points: language, public transportation flirting, and cake.

(Oh dear...)

1. I was actually pretty close in my initial analysis of the Korean language. For the most part, the language seems to follow rules, but trying to learn those rules is another story completely. I’ve learned to read Korean pretty well (if I do say so myself), but I really haven’t gained much vocabulary during the past twelve months. Although as I’ve come to realize, it’s amazing what a big smile and 감사합니다 (formal “Thank you”) will get you. If nothing else, people will think you’re cute for trying, which leads me to…

2. Public transportation flirting. Note, not public transportation, as in living in a city and relying solely on busses and subways for the first time in my life, no no no. Public transportation flirting.

Korean public transportation is actually much different than in the US. In the US, if a subway car is full, the doors gently close, and the leftover people wait patiently for the next train. Easy as that. In Korea, if the subway car is full, you should expect at least twenty more people to climb into the car with you. You will be touching other people, and other people will be touching you. It is awkward. If you’re lucky, the driver will be experienced and slow down gently, but if not, meh. There are too many people for you to possibly fall down anyways.

In terms of flirting, the main differences I’ve noticed would have to be the age of the flirter and the cultural assumptions about flirting. In the US, my public transportation flirting experiences generally came from people approximately my own age. In Korea, public transportation flirting typically comes in the form of very old men staring at me and occasionally asking me if I am Russian. Oh, what I would give to have my own car out here, just for a day…

3. Cake. In retrospect, I think it’s hilarious that this was one of my three biggest concerns about moving to Korea. Luckily, however, the Korean cake scene has not disappointed me. Mmm mmm mmm.

For one, there are little cake shops and bakeries on every corner, which make delicious cakes possible at any time you’re having one of those “I need cake, NOW!” moments. Although, I’ve rarely had such moments, considering I fill my cake quota pretty regularly through the coworker birthday cakes we seem to have every couple weeks. It’s great, I get to sample all the different flavors from all the different bakeries around for free! Furthermore, it turns out I do have a working oven (kind of), which I have used several times throughout the past year to remedy my sudden and insatiable cravings for baked goods.

Assa!

So in summary, despite my questionable priorities and initial concerns about moving to Korea, I was 100% correct in my assumptions that my first year in Korea would be amazing, eventful, and hilarious. Despite its quirks and absurdities, I am completely in love with this country, and am thrilled to be spending another year out here. Horray!

Cheers!
 - Christine -

Hunt

I have a confession to make. It’s a little strange, kind of like how some people enjoy Hello Kitty or dunking Wendy’s french fries in Frosty’s. Just makes you lift up your left eyebrow, and go “Yes, but… why?” There’s really no excuse for it at all, in fact, and I can only hope you’ll still like me after I tell you about it…

I am bizarrely obsessed with scavenger hunts.

Let’s quickly recap this admittedly strange obsession of mine, shall we? It all began with this kid I met in college named Matthew Jay Forrest. Maybe you’ve heard of him, he’s kind of famous. Anyways, Matt decided to create this big scavenger hunt at Miami, the Redhawk Hunt, which involved 50 teams competing for 24 hours straight running around campus taking hundreds of pictures, doing a slew of side events, and learning copious amounts of Miami history trivia.

Round #1. Team Kind of a Big Deal.

Four of us joined into a team at the last minute. We were disorganized, unprepared, and took breaks for napping. I had a terrible cold, and by the end of the event, had nearly murdered the whole team. A generally miserable experience, which I vowed never to repeat. 6th place.

Round #2. Team Party Planning Committee.

After spending twelve months forgetting how miserable Round #1 had been, my dear friend Matt Jolly and I decided to give it another whirl, co-captaining a team of mostly RA friendies. We did some research beforehand, and set more rigid rules about sleeping and down time. A much more successful experience. 3rd place.

Round #3. Team Hungry Hungry Hippos.

An all-star team combining the best of both Redhawk Hunt Rounds #1 and #2. I captained this team solo, although I still relied heavily on Matt Jolly for guidance. We studied more and fulfilled basic human needs like sleeping and eating less. Intense, but well worth it. 1st place (by roughly 4000 points).

Given all that, just imagine my excitement at finding a new scavenger hunt to do! Hooray, Seoul scavenger hunt.

There were, of course, some key differences between the Seoul scavenger hunt, and my beloved Redhawk hunt. For one, the Redhawk hunt was sponsored by RHA, an on-campus group aiming to promote safe and alcohol-free events for students. The Seoul scavenger hunt was put on by a bar. As such, the clues were much more straightforward (i.e. not “This hall shares its name with the same men who presented Miami with the statue of George Washington that currently resides in the building named after an old Western building no longer located on Western campus?”) than I was used to, but they were also much more ridiculous… (ps. The answer was Laws. Bam.)

Some of the tasks were quite typical of scavenger hunts… “Build a human pyramid.” “ Fit your entire team into a telephone booth.” “Have the police fake handcuff you.”

Some of the tasks were silly… “Be a dinosaur on the subway.” “Act out the jumping scene from Dirty Dancing.”

Some were just plain awkward… “Lick a stranger.”

Some were violent… “Slap a teammate. Make it hurt.”

Some were sweet… “Propose to a Korean stranger. Bonus points if she says yes.”

Some were disgusting…”Eat a raw egg.”

Some were borderline illegal… “Stick your head in a fish tank.”

Some required dedication… “Get something pierced.”

Some were over the top… “Shave a teammate’s eyebrow.”

Some were hilarious… “Wax a teammate’s chest.”

Some were in questionable taste… “One shot an entire bottle of soju.”

Some of them were painful to watch… “Eat a spoonful of wasabi.”

And some of them were really just there for the alcoholics… “Drink a pint of beer in under a minute through a bendy straw.”

In the end, we placed second, which was completely fine with me. With clues like those, I don’t need to be a winner. It was a fun experience, but I don’t know that I’ll be doing the Seoul scavenger hunt again. I’m perfectly happy with two eyebrows and no salmonella.

Cheers!
- Christine -

USA v. ROK

Remember me?

I apologize for yet another blogging hiatus, but oh man, I've been busy lately! We're nearing the end of another semester at work, so I've been stuck doing extra paperwork, grading, and classroom management which leaves me just drained at the end of the day. Add to that the TEFL certification class I've been working on, and a recent custody battle I've been thrust into over this one for apparently barking too much and throwing crazy parties (진짜!?!) while I'm away. Which is almost certainly not the case, seeing as I, unlike many of the Korean dog-owners I've met, have trained my dog to do things like sit, stay (and not bark). Let's just say it's been a frustrating week...

But you know what makes frustrating weeks all better? Burger King, and Korea Lists. Assa!

Now when I was in college, I took a class about Intercultural Communication. Without going into too many specifics about any individual cultures, the course as a whole taught us to be aware of the fact that different cultures are, well, different, and that crazy as they may seem to us, they really do work out just fine.

Obviously, Korea and the USA are fundamentally different in a number of ways, and that my friends, is the theme of today's third official Korea List. USA v. ROK.

In the USA, if you go to a baseball game, you will probably expect to find hot dog and peanut vendors walking up and down the aisles of the stadium. In the ROK, you can expect to see them selling dried squid.

In the USA, if you are dashing onto a subway and the doors start to close on you, they will probably stop. In the ROK, they will crush you. K-doors are merciless.

In the USA, women can wear cleavage-showing tops, and no one will care, but if you wear short shorts and heels, people will think you're a slut. In the ROK, short shorts and heels are no big deal, but if you show any more cleavage than Hilary Clinton, watch out. They'll think you're Russian.

In the USA, we try to save energy by turning off unnecessary lights at night. In the ROK, not so much.


In the USA, at least half of young Americans can't find Iraq on a map. In Korea, my students can not only find, but also spell Liechtenstein.

In the USA, coffee shops open early in the morning, so you start caffeinating before the sun comes up. In the ROK, the bars are still open at that time, why in the world would you have a coffee shop open before 10am?

In the USA, Boy Bands stopped being popular in the 90's. In the ROK, they're still going strong.

In the USA, candy and flowers might be appropriate gifts for a favorite teacher. In the ROK, designer socks are acceptable.

In the USA, the -> <- elevator button is really just there to make you feel better, but never actually does anything. In the ROK, the button works every time, and is great for not only barring creepy people from getting into your elevator, but also crushing them. Remember, K-doors are vicious.

In the USA, people make fun of Cleveland almost as much as they make fun of Detroit. In the ROK, people think Cleveland is awesome and wear Cleveland gear proudly. Thank you Choo Shin- Soo. Sorry, Detroit, they still haven't heard of you...

In the USA, you do your makeup and hair in the morning, and then maybe check it once or twice throughout the day. In the ROK, you should carry a mirror and comb around with you at all times, just to make sure you're always looking good. Classrooms and crowded subways are especially good places to do this.

In the USA, we mark the start of a new school period with a bell/annoying buzzer. In the ROK, they play a little song.

To be continued... Have I ever mentioned I still love Korea!

Cheers!
- Christine -

Snow

It finally snowed in Bucheon. It’s not much snow, maybe seven or eight centimeters tops, but for literally the second time in my life, I’m pretty excited about it.

Let me start out by apologizing for my poorly-timed blogging hiatus. Remember that respiratory whatnot I had back during Chuseok? Well it’s never really fully gone away, and the week before Christmas was the worst I’d felt in a long time. I spent an entire day in bed unable to move, my head hurt so bad. If I had such a thing as a sick day, I would have used it, but of course, why would my hagweon that prides itself on being the overachieving academy open when all the other academies are closed give its teachers time off? In short, I felt just terrible for most of the Christmas season, and I have come to the conclusion that I will probably continue to feel more or less sick for the remainder of my time in Korea…

Regardless, you know what’s exciting about Christmas? When I woke up Christmas morning, sniffly as ever and thousands of miles away from the family I usually spend my Christmas with, I still had that Christmas morning feeling. I’m not sure how best to describe the Christmas morning feeling, maybe warm, maybe childlike excitement, or maybe almost fluffy even? Pretend you know what I’m talking about, even if I’m still struggling to find the right words to describe it. (And of course what added to my Christmas away from home was the overwhelming number of letters and gifts people went to the effort to ship all the way around the world for little old me! I feel so loved, thank you all!)

But let’s return to the topic at hand, snow. It would be an understatement to say that I merely dislike winter. My negative feelings for the season are actually so strong that they overflow into the adjacent season of fall as well, the dread of my impeding least favorite season marring my opinion of the otherwise prettiest season of the year. It’s bad, I find every excuse I can to not go outside for a good three months of the year. Granted, I come from northeast Ohio, where lake effect snow and getting several feet dropped in a single day is not uncommon, but still. I hate it all.

Yet, when I looked out my giant wall-sized window and saw that it was snowing outside, I couldn’t help but smile. Call me sentimental for the winters I’ve grown accustomed to, but I couldn’t wait to go outside and run around in it! Let me emphasize how strange this is for me, this is literally the second time in my life I’d had this feeling. I distinctly remember, the first was in 2007 when I lived in Austinburg. It was a lazy day of winter vacation, it had just snowed, the sun was out, and everything outside was just sparkling. Typical me, I decided to take some pictures...











And with that photo shoot, I can honestly say January 2007 was the last time I enjoyed a day of winter.

... Until now. Who knows, maybe it's just the Ohioan in me that no matter how much I hate winter and everything the season entails (namely, snow and being cold), I'm supposed to be excited to see the white fluffy stuff. I'm lucky this year, Korea doesn't get nearly as much as snow as I'm used to, so I'm only trudging through maybe 8 centimeters now (I'm trying to figure out this whole metric thing the rest of the world uses...) on my lengthy trek to work (next door).

Per usual, I decided to spend the past few mornings taking long walks in the snow and (you guessed it) taking pictures...































I guess I've never really experienced, nay, appreciated snow in an urban setting before, but I think it's really cool! Very different than the snow I'm used to back home in my natural country bumpkin Austinburg. I took most of these in one of the big parks near where I live, which has a huge frozen lake (at present, anyways) standing amongst all sorts of traditional Korean relics (like the folk straw-roofed hut, with icicles) surrounded on all sides by uber-modern apartment complexes. It's a pretty awesome part of Bucheon, and I really like it... (even more so when it's not freezing outside!)...

So there you have it. For literally the second time in my life, I can say I enjoyed a snowy day. Korea, what are you doing to me!?!

-Christine -

Counting Down

I finally got a solid departure date from my contact person – July 26!!! – which means I’m suddenly into the single digits of days left in the United States! I’ve been so focused for the past month on filling out paperwork for background checks and VISA applications and getting the same paper notarized literally four times, it’s a little shocking to me that I’ll be working a legit job and teaching actual Korean children in less than two weeks! It’s a really weird feeling, and I don’t exactly know what to expect. I guess real world, here I come!

But yes, I will be leaving Cleveland on the 26th at the beautiful hour of 6am and arriving in Korea at around 6pm on the 27th…. Which is sadly just 2 days after my lovely friend Alan leaves Korea… yet another reason, kids, to not procrastinate like me.

Of course I have so much left to do in the next 8 days, but I’m ready to go! Now, back to that whole packing thing…

- Christine -

Expectations

As we rapidly approach my still TBD departure date, I keep realizing just how much I have left to do…

Can you say overwhelmed?

Though I’ve been told South Korea contains many of the amenities and familiar American products I’m used to here (with a few important exceptions like western-style deodorant and American-women sized “support items”), it’s still a truly daunting move. I’ve been reading everything I can and talking to everyone I know trying to prepare myself for this new adventure of mine, and so far here’s what I know:

1. The Hangeul writing system itself is very systematic and is apparently one of the most scientific in the world (the shapes of the written consonants resemble the shape your mouth makes when you make that sound… fun fact, right?). Regardless, it’s definitely not an easy language to learn, and I'm not too terribly good with learning new languages anyways, so I’m working on just the basics for now…

An-nyeong-ha-se-yo? – “Good morning/afternoon/evening/How are you?”
Kam-sa-ham-ni-da – “Thank you”
Ch’eon-man-e-yo – “You’re welcome”
An-nyeong-hi- ka-se-yo – “Good bye”
Nam-eui-tteok-i teo k’eu-ge-po-in-da – “The other person’s rice cake looks bigger” (Apparently the Korean version of our “The grass is greener on the other side”… Hooray phrase books)

Annnnnndddd hopefully I’ll pick up more once I get over there!

2. Koreans are incredibly warm and friendly people – just not necessarily on the trains and buses during rush hour. I’ve been told to expect frantic bustling, shoving, and pushing very unlike the casual flirting and goofy pickup lines I’ve been getting on the trains into Cleveland this summer... Which will be just a little bit missed... Sad day…

3. Though I should in theory have a slightly larger apartment since I’ll be living in Bucheon, just a few miles outside of the much more expensive Seoul, I will almost certainly NOT have an oven at my disposal. Noooooooooooooooooo!

How will I make people birthday cakes shaped like other foods? Tragic…

Despite the whole no oven or public transportation flirting I’m likely to encounter in Korea, I’m really excited about this whole thing! Knowing an exact departure date would be fantastic for my mental sanity, but regardless, this will be an amazing/eventful/hilarious year and I can’t wait!

- Christine -

Helloooo

Hello all,

This is where I’ll keep you posted about my adventures living in South Korea for the next twelve months! Stay tuned!

- Christine -