thru zanigirl's eyes

2009-05-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

Cahuita National Park

... is the only National Park in Costa Rica which relies upon donation. You can enter a beautiful trail protecting a plethora of wild life and see all sorts of things you've only seen in the zoo or on television previously. We saw various crabs, lizards, beautiful butterflies and other funky insects. Sloths hung high up in the trees, which was a treat because we never made it to the Sloth Rescue Center.

The park runs along miles of preserved beaches and lowlands, so we could hop in for a dip to cool off whenever we wanted. Tons of uprooted trees lay along the shore, which make for lovely resting areas. Examining the intricate sea shells, we discovered hermit crabs peeping their heads out of some - nature is quite clever.

Dangling vines, reaching Liana roots, and other unique foliage all have an ecological role and impressed us just as much as the animals. There is an amazing tree we deemed the rainbow tree for it's magestice bright colors - so I went to wikipedia and typed in "rainbow tree"... its proper name is "Eucapyptus deglupta". Another red-clayish looking tree we were told is called "the naked Indian". Seeing most of Costa Rica is comprised of beaches and rainforest, the translation of "Rich Coast" seems very fitting.

Mugged by Monkeys!!!

It is common knowledge that monkeys are my favorite thing in the WORLD! I looove them. Even after they ganged up on me and robbed my trail mix.

Unlike these adorable HOWLER monkeys (above), who stay in the trees and howl through the jungle loudly beginning at sunrise, Capuchin monkeys (aka White Face monkeys) are not shy in the least. Locals and tourists have given me more than fair warning to watch my stuff when they are around. Yet I still naively pulled out a bag of mixed nuts, raisins, and yogurt while walking along the trail. That's like walking down an alley in Harlem waiving hundred dollar bills. We heard rustling in the branches above us, which drew our attention upward, and when we looked back down we were surrounded by 15 monkeys who meant business. Rumor has it they can be vicious thieves, taking your cameras, wallets, or even entire backpacks. One particularly aggressive one sat on a branch and stared me in the face like he was going to gouge my eyes out. They were all staring at me. Apparantly fear makes the brain stop working because I went into shock and heard myself saying, "They want the trail mix. They want the trail mix. Should I give them the trail mix?" My sister shouted "Yes!" as one neared her. I threw the bag and they all went APE :) leaping for it. One grabbed the bag and ran off into the jungle, scattering the blend of treats all along the trail, which his friends immediately began to devour.

Here the culprits are, enjoying my trail mix. Sure they look cute and innocent but don't let them fool you! They had a feast while we took tons of photos and video. If you would like to see more from our trip, I will be posting all the footage when I get home on the following website: http://www.zanichild.myphotoalbum.com/

2009-05-17T06:49:00.000-07:00

Ocean & Rio Boat Ride

May starts off the "rainy season" on the east coast of Costa Rica, but in reality it rains on and off year round - mostly during the night & early morning. We were fortunate to have several sunny days... except the landslide day and the day we wanted to go snorkeling. It pourred so hard that the road to Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo, the only road that goes south of Cahuita, got washed out on both sides and our rental car barely fit through. Most vehicles turned around at that point but we like to live on the edge (literally). Besides, a couple Americans hopped off the bus there and needed a ride into Puerto Viejo. We showed them a nice hotel with air conditioning. The waves were insane that day and all the stray dogs gathered at the shore to watch. After dropping off the c.d. player and food to the soup kitchen, we hurried back out of town before that section washed out entirely. The next day we took our hike through the National Park and had to cross through 2 rivers along the path which were flowing higher than usual because of the rainfall: one was up to our chests and the other (only up to our waists) was RED! We're not exactly sure why that is but I've heard some interesting theories on the chemicals released by banana companies.

The day after our hike, the waters still weren't settled enough for snorkelling but we were determined to venture out and see some Ocean life. So I paid some men with a speed boat to take us out to the coral reef and requested they go fast over the waves. "Not too fast." Angela said but I rebutted with "Very fast!" and now my poor sister has a big bruise on her bum (sorry Ang). We came smashing down over the waves with speed so intense it made James Bond look like a little boy on a merry-go-round. Angela came smashing off her seat once but otherwise we had a blast!

We pulled up to a couple fishermen who showed us their catches and pulled up a squid while we were next to them. Perhaps it was an octopus? Either way, he flung it at Angela in a joking manner and pulled it back before it made contact, laughing hysterically. The coral reef was beautiful and we saw 4 sting rays among the marine life. The reef off Cahuita has at least 35 species of coral, 140 species of molluscs, and 123 species of fish. They let us out at Puerto Vargas to swim for a while then putted along in shallow waters for us see more coral.

As a special treat, they took us down the deep river canal we had walked through the previous day. We had crossed at the point where the river merges into the Ocean but these men took us deeper down to the swampy area with snakes and caimans (small alligators). Here the boat driver picked up a rotting alligator head on his oar and posed it for us. They also took us up on shore to see more sloths, one carrying her baby. The adventure lasted over 2 hours though I had only requested a brief expedition.

2009-05-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

FAMILY ART

One day I hopped off a bus in a random area. As I was wandering down a street I chanced upon a hand crafted sign that read "Family Art" with an arrow pointing up a hill. The narrow path led me through a stream and to the greatest family I have ever met. This family strolls through the jungle collecting organic materials such as seeds, plants, shells, coconut, clay, and naturally fallen wood. Jarrel, who carves all the masks and statues, explained each material to me and what kinds of plants and trees they come from. There is only one kind of tree in Costa Rica which can be cut down legally (because it is so plentiful) and it is called Laurel. While Jarrel was explaining to me that they don't use any machines, a man showed up at the door and spoke to him urgently in another language. Not broken English, not Spanish, but Bri Bri. The language of the Indigenous people of Talamanca. The man was telling him that a huge tree had fallen into the river during a recent rain storm. This would be used as material. Dorcus, his beautiful wife, handcrafts all the jewelry. She doesn't speak any English so he would fill her in on parts of our conversation and he always called her "mi amore".

Knowing mom and Angela would love to meet Jarrel, Dorcus, and their adorable toddler girl, I brought them there one day in a rental car. We brought snacks for the family and purchased some of the amazing authentic work for our loved ones back home. I found an awesome mask for Greg and Jarrel reshaped a coconut shell watch I had bought in Cahuita. Now it's the perfect watch for me! Jarrel and Dorcus are incredibly talented and thanks to the tour agencies who have connected with them, they now have a website so people can order their amazing art online. (I'll post that later, it's back at my cottage in Cahuita)

Jarrel told us a great deal about the Indigenous people in Talamanca, including his wife's mother who operates a chocolate house down the road. She is the most adorable little old woman in the world.

2009-05-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Though chocolate is used to keep women happy in the states, Bri Bri use Cacao (or Cocoa) in a different kind of healing process: spiritual and purification ceremonies. They never mix it with sugar. Instead, a Shaman mixes it with with other natural ingredients and boiling water and pours it over a woman's big toe to rid her of her impurities after a pregnancy or menstrual cycle. A Bri Bri woman gives birth alone on a mountain inside a small hut she puts together with leaves because no one can be around her during the "impure" process and some time after. Here, Dorcus' younger sister is giving us a demonstration of the tradition which has been past on through generations for over 300 years.

The Cacao Plants, native to the tropical region of the Americas, require a humid climate with regular rainfall. Partu Nona, Dorcus' mother, showed us a tree bearing cacao pods in all 4 stages - she cracked open a ripened fruit and let us abstract the seeds, which were smothered in a delicious, white, milky pulp. We sucked the sweet nature right off those seeds & it was like nothing we've ever tasted. The only thing better than chocolate is chocolate in its rawest form.

Cacao flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, not bees, and grow right off the trunk and branches.

Another plant the women showed us had pods which contained small red balls. Bri Bri women dip their fingers in these and use it as lipstick, one of many uses the seeds provide. They can also be mixed with garlic and other ingredients to create a potent cooking spice. Angela and I bought a container each for our boyfriends to cook us delicious meals at home- we are both very fortunate to have partners who rock in the kitchen!

To please tourists such as ourselves, the women sell several flavors of organic chocolate at the end of the tour - with sugar and absolutely yummy. Our big toes were very happy none of us have recently given birth. The ladies were so nice, they even brought us out 2 free bags of cocoa butter and told us all the uses for our skin, including facials and massages. Looks like our boyfriends really have their work cut out for them! As they say in Bri Bri, "aki aki" (bye bye).

2009-05-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

Angela was interested in surf lessons, so she spent 2 hours riding the waves while mom relaxed on the beach and I frolicked in the Caribbean Sea. East of Central America, the water is much saltier and clearer than what we're used to in North America. Being so close to the equator, the water is much warmer... and for some reason, we could walk out very far before the water went over our waists. I decided to rent the last surf board the shop had - a small one for experts - and had no luck despite the crash course I was given in California years ago.

After surfing, we took private transportation to another beautiful region just south of Limon. Mom decided to skip the Canopy Tour when they showed us the zip lines 100 meters in the air.

Some very nice Ticos took her in a tractor through the rainforest to watch Angela and I zip over rivers and trees at a pretty good speed between 10 platforms. Our guides were amazing and fun and showed us Sloths, Iguanas, and colorful frogs along the way. In New York, our family had a pet Iguana for about 10 years, so that particular lizard did not excite us. However the "Jesus Christ" lizards, which walk on water, were pretty darn fascinating.

Even though the guide was holding it on a leaf, I made Angela pet a colorful frog to prove they aren't that poisonous. A couple weeks ago I held one in my hand and a local told me after a little while my hand would "sting" from the secretion. Angela and I survived, the frogs and the zip lines. All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip. I'm still here; I'm staying an entire month... in hopes of a tan.

2006-07-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

MUDFEST

Every summer Daecheon beach holds a Mud Festival, to which thousands of fun people flock. Like most foreign teachers in Korea, I said, “Get drunk & muddy? I’m there!” So a bunch of us met in Daecheon, some by bus, some by train, some by car. I thought we were really lucky Jenny’s friend offered to drive us in his SUV, even though we got lost on the way there and had a flat tire on the way back. Men never listen to me when it comes to auto mechanics… so as usual, I sat back and waited for the inevitable, “You’re right.” It also rained the entire 2 days we were there. Many people didn’t come because of it. I don’t understand; you’re COVERED in mud. What is mud made of? Dirt and WATER.
Despite these trivial things that bother most ‘normal’ people, I had a grand time. I met up with a friend who had a large bottle of soju. This bottle encouraged us to tag-team U.S. military soldiers in the mud pit. I only wrestled the girls and Korean men, b/c I was in a bikini and I know American men. I won most of the time. Jeff did too, and I’m glad he was on my team, b/c he fights dirty. Hee hee… dirty.
After the mud pit, we raced in a bouncy-room style relay and I nearly broke my neck. So we decided to wash off, by swimming in the ocean. I love the Ocean. The guards kicked us out 3 times for swimming out too far. They don’t like to get wet, so they simply turn on some sirens and wave red flashing wands at us. That evening we skipped the squid & octopus dinner with the group and got fake tattoos instead.
The next morning we all had Ramien noodles for breakfast. Yes, I’m in Korea. There were about 15 of us in this one huge room called an “Ondel”: Just a wood floor with blankets and sliding doors. The hotel owners LOVED me. The woman said something to Jenny as we were leaving and Jenny said, “She says you have a good character.” I was SO incredibly touched. I wished so badly at that moment I could speak fluent Korean, but I used the universal hug instead. Awwww!!

Before we left, we hit this huge Sauna (hot tubs, mud tubs, cold tubs, sea water tubs, steam room...and lots of naked women scrubbing eachother clean.) I was so modest before I came to Korea I didn't like getting naked to shower by MYSELF. I didn't realize til half-way through this sauna experience, that I'd been AJUMIZED. (Ajuma = korean woman, usually married) I had no problem walking around nakie in front of my friends. So girls back in New York... prepare to be ajumized. We'll eat Ramien noodles and get nakie.

2006-07-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Daejeon Hanwha Eagles

(an amazing day with my favorite students)

We talk about everything in class and one day we started talking about baseball.

" I play baseball."

" I like playING baseball."

Turns out Denny is MVP at his elementary school (the big guy) and we started talking about how my brother was when he was younger too. They're both pitchers, etc.... a little bonding chat. Well it turned out he had never been to a REAL baseball game. None of his classmates had either. I was SHOCKED! It's $1.00 a child for admission. $5.00 for adults... and a cheap cab ride away. Why not? The kids LOVE baseball too.

Bruce and Paul, big pimpin'

So I took some kids to a game this past weekend and we had a remarkable time!

First, I took them to a restaurant; they're so cute, they asked if they had to use Forks. Awww. Of course I said they could use chopsticks. They spoke English the ENTIRE time. They are very comfortable with the language and I have conversations with them as if they were friends from home.
Here you see the boys practicing their moves in the back of the taxi. Both these boys caught balls to take home. Well, one was thrown over the fence by the Foreigner player "Jay Davis" who's a friend of a friend.... and thinks he's hot shit. Fortunately, the boys thought he was hot shit too, and were SO impressed that I knew him. Paul kept yelling out, "Jay Davis! Nicole is your friend?" And they were instantly the coolest kids in the stadium after Jay waved to me. It rained a little off and on, but the game went on - nothin' umbrellas couldnt handle. Most of the fans sat together behind first base - rowdy crowd.

Denny caught a ball too - a toy rubber ball for a contest. They threw 3 out into the stands and the fans had to SHOOT for a prize. Denny was the only one who made it (knew he would) and he won a ticket to Kumdoriland! It's an impressive amusement park nearby, the first place I went to when I arrived in Korea. Our group was on the big screen much of the time. That happens a lot though, camera men LOVE the foreigners. Attention is always drawn to us.

A good example? Well Mike (my good friend who joined us at the game and DOUBLED the spoiling of my students)

was pulled out of the crowd to dance with the cheerleaders. What? He was crazy up on stage, and for a big guy... the man can MOVE!!! Watch out girls, he just might be at the next try-outs.

What else happened? Well the game was close and very exciting. We were winning most of the time until the very end (ho hum) but the kids still said they had a blast. Alice understood most of the game, but I had to explain some things to her. Smart girl. The game went much longer than

anticipated. 11pm - ouch! So I made them call their parents & get permission to stay. They were very well fed though b/c Mike bought them some kind of burgers and drinks, then the cheerleaders came out dancing with Domino's pizzas... and of course, gave one to us. I got them souvenirs and thanked them for being so well behaved. I'd take them out again ANY day.

2006-07-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

Jeju-do

Jeju-do (also spelled Chejudo) is Korea's largest Island, located well south of the western side of the peninsula. The whole island is one gigantic volcano, dormant since 1007 CE, with one main cone / crater and over 350 smaller ones. Some 20 beaches encircle Jeju-do. The main island is 1,810 square kilometers, half of which is still naturally forested. Green tea and semi-tropical fruits are widely grown.
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I know this guys it tall, and I seem to be grabbing him in an inappropriate display of affection.... but he's not my new boyfriend. His personality was stone cold. (yes it IS funny) Ok, he's one of many Tolharubang Statues on the island. No one knows what they represent, people only guess it was a god or something. Because people who came to the island found them there. Interesting.

Look, Zach found a drinking buddy.

Back in May, Zach took a new teaching job on this beautiful island & invited me out. At the end of June, I flew out for 3 days & it was a wonderful vacation!!! He lives on the southern part, a beautiful area called Seogwipo. There are less than 200 foreign teachers on the island, so I told him I'd help him plunge into the social scene and meet new people. So we made friends with statues... and some of the coolest people I've met the entire year I've been here!

There was an international surfing competition on a beach near his house, so we went to check it out and there was a big group of people sitting around drinking beer and playing volley ball. They were warm & welcoming and we stayed with them for a bit. They'd camped out the night before and I wish SO badly we'd met them for that! Zach played with his new friends on the beach while I went swimming in the ocean. For those of you who don't know..... I looooove the Ocean.

I also love waterfalls. Jeongbang falls is "the only waterfall in Asia that falls directly into the sea." And it was a short walk from Zach's apartment. The water was chilly, but I couldn't help but to dive in - in all my clothes. SO invigorating. It felt incredible even after I was out of the water. Zach's a chicken, more into rock-climbing and stuff that requires physical stamina... so I just swam and giggled by myself!

Also, we picked up some oranges at a stand near the falls. Jeju-do is called the "Island of Love and Oranges". These oranges, grown on the southern slopes of Hallasan, were absolutely savory! Marta, I brought one back for you, but haven't seen you in weeks. So I had to eat it. Yummy! I brought you back some of the love too, but I'll hold onto that til I see you again.
"Every Korean feels he should visit Jeju-do at least once in his life and most do for their honeymoon." I saw a bunch of honeymooners out and about that weekend; surprisingly, none sportin' the 'couple shirts'.
Jeju-do was once listed by Newsweek magazine as one of the world's top ten undiscovered paradises. "do" is the Korean for island.

Jeju-shi means Jeju city and it is the main city on Jeju-do. That's where Zach and I went to meet the foreign teachers at night. The only real Western bar on the island - Blue Agave. Everyone seemed to know eachother and everyone seemed familiar with a guitar. The 3 man band, who plays there every weekend, was remarkable: 3 teachers who've been friends for years and travel together. I got the ladies to take off their shoes and dance the night away. I'm meeting them up in Seoul next weekend for a photography exhibit, in which 2 of the girls have photos in.

A bunch of the teachers have invited me back to the island, and I'll be sure to visit because there's so much I've yet to see:

- Udo, or Cow Island, is to the east and can be reached by ferry. Some say it's more beautiful than Jeju.
- I'd like to actually look into a volcano pit.
- Goseong Dinosaur prints (though I don't believe in dinosaurs)
- And then there are the Manjang-gul caves, which we didn't have time to visit.
" you can pretend to be Indiana Jones and explore one of the longest lava tunnels in the world. Of course, there's no rolling boulder inside. What you'll find instead is a deep, damp cave that was created by molten lava from Hallasan years ago ."

* Many geological wonders have been working their way into my year & I'm putting together quite the photo album!*

2006-07-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

"A black boy killed my hamster."
"No... no Max. I'm pretty sure a black boy didn't kill your hamster."

Today I was teaching a unit on PETS, which is always an interesting lesson with my students. NO ONE has pets here! EVERY single class is the same. "Who has a pet? No one, okay." Then little Sarah raises her hand and says she HAD a pet, but it died. Then Adam raises his hand and says he's had 2 pets, but they've both died.... and so on. Why do they die? The kids never know. Max told me today how the mommy and daddy hamster went to the mountain.... then a black boy killed his hamster. After some discourse, I think the black hamster (who was a male) killed the other hamster. Is the black hamster alive, you ask? No. The awkward moment always comes when we reach the page we have to list everyone in the class and ask that person "Do you have a pet? What kind?" So today I had 11 names waiting for a 'NO' next to them and the kids looked at me like, "Are you really gonna make us ask eachother?" If people DO have pets in Korea, they're small.......... especially dogs.

I wasn't gonna write about this, because I didn't want to think about it. But there was a horrific image branded in my memory that nearly caused a breakdown a few weeks ago. I was getting ready for school when my dogs started whining. I didn't know what they were whining about b/c they had eaten and gone out. Then I thought I heard a dog growl. I knew it wasn't my neighbor's little yapper, this was a BIG dog. I heard the growling a few more times, but dismissed it, because you do see the occasional Husky around. For some reason, that breed is acceptable as a pet here. Think it's the blue eyes. Well as I walked out of my apartment, in my nice little floral, linen skirt.... thinking only of the innocent things in this world and how much I love Korea...... I heard another growl. I turned to see a white pick-up truck parked in front of my house. There were 4 cages in the back, which only took up half of the truck's bed in total, and were gruesomly PACKED with large, beautiful dogs. Beautiful, beautiful dogs looking at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen. They were smashed in so tightly they couldn't budge, faces pressed up against the cage, legs distorted around other dogs. Some were whining, some growling, some numb in shock. I was numb in shock. I couldn't move. My first thought was, "Who would do such a thing? Why do they treat animals so badly here?" Then I realized. There's a plethora of restaurants around my apartment. I've heard you can go into "any" restaurant and ask for dog, which is slightly more expensive than beef and "very healthy in summer to keep you cool.". They only eat cats when a person's "very sick". Because westerners frown on this particular kind of meat, they don't advertise it openly.... I don't understand why it's any different than a cow, pig, or chicken... just taught. Buddhists in India will drive a busload of people off the road rather than kill a sacred cow. I prefer not to kill any animal, especially for FOOD this day in age.
... So I was standing there in shock. Couldn't move, felt it was physically impossible. Then I thought, people leave their keys in the ignition all the time here in Korea. If anything's worth getting deported over, this is. But where do you bring over 50 traumatized dogs who are large & don't know how to survive in the wilderness? They were probably chained and abused their entire lives. They were obviously "bred" for eating b/c they all looked exactly the same. Not sure which breed. Gorgeous, brown hair. Agh. I didn't even know HOW to get to a mountain by car.
Suddenly, 2 'ajumas' (older women) came out of a small restaurant, laughing and talking, with their permed hair, high-heels, and red lipstick. I looked at them with utter disdain. They walked up to the driver's side door and finally stopped talking when they realized I was staring. There was nothing I could do. I walked away. I could only walk away. THEN... the other night a woman invited me up to a pool hall (which turned out to be similar to pool, but the tables had no pockets... b/c the kind with pockets is "for girls".) Her English wasn't that good, but she said, "Do you like dog meat?" I said, "WHAT?!" and she quickly repeated, "Do you like pork? Do you like pork?" Reminds me of the time my parents tried to get me to eat squirrel by telling me it was chicken. ..... I don't eat animals, period.
I suppose dog meat is MUCH more popular in the summer, because I hadn't actually been exposed to this aspect of their culture until recently. Today, after Max told me about his hamster, I told him about my 2 dogs. He said, "My cousin has MANY dogs. BIG dogs!"

2006-06-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

Traveling Abroad

When I came to South Korea, I was naive about the world. Thought I knew everything.... well not facts (geography, history, pop culture, ...) but thought I completely understood people and how the world worked. I was wrong.

I definitely didn't know anything about South Korea, as an American who's media fed about the evils of North Korea and their desire for Nuclear Power. I thought I'd live in a beaten-down "traditional home" and be the only foreigner in my city. Didn't realize how westernized and industrialized Korea's become, with some financial assistance from Western Powers. Though much of Korea's traditional culture has been preserved, a woman is usually only seen wearing a hanbouk on holidays or Weddings. Many restaurants now have forks to accompany their chopsticks. And most people speak a little English. Hence, the flood of foreign teachers in Korea. I've met so many people over the past year ... some of the most interesting characters I've ever encountered. I usually hate or love them, because they fall into 2 very distinct categories: those who are running from something and those who are running to (searching for something more). Unfortunately, most foreigners here are looking to escape the problems they've created back in their home countries. It frightens me to hear a teacher of little children say they came to Korea b/c it's "drug free" and the best way to quit cold turkey. Or that they couldn't find girlfriends at home and heard Asian women flock to Western men. Sad, but true. Well I've weeded out the weirdos and met some great companions who, like myself, have come for the experience. To be part of a different culture, learn the language and ways of other people. To teach. To travel.

a little HISTORY lesson: Korea was invaded and ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II in 1945. On August 10, 1945 the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Korea along the 38th parallel (Japanese forces north of that line would surrender to the Soviet Union, those south to the United States)

The Korean War, ( June 25,1950 - July 27, 1953) started as a civil war between North and South Korea. The north was communist and was backed up by the Soviet Union. The U.S. and U.N. "saved" South Korea when they were nearly defeated by the North. American opinion was "solidly behind the venture", however Truman failed to obtain a declaration of war from Congress before sending troops to Korea. Our troops have been here ever since; though I hear we're removing them soon. Hmmm. I'm supposed to visit the DMZ next year with friends.

2006-06-24T04:44:00.000-07:00

Dae Ha Ming Guk!!!

which translates to Korea ,

but in literal terms it means

"Great Nation.”

{red sports teams}

I recently went to another Hanwha Eagles game here in Daejeon with some friends. We lost because of a bad call at the end and the fans waited outside the gates for the umpire. Guess Koreans aren't always peaceful.

Then there were the WORLD CUP SOCCER games, which were crazy! The people of this country take the world cup VERY seriously! You could hear cheers all throughout the dongs. Woke me up once! I love the people of this country, so I became an instant fan of the

Red Devils.

Our school gave us shirts and my students put Korean Flag tattoos all over me; I bought a red hankerchief to put my hair up and went to my friend Jenny's "foreigner's bar" to watch the game against Switzerland... which knocked us out of the tournament. Their goalie was like a superhero on crack. We lost 2-0.

2006-06-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

Bug Museum

There's a famous science park here in Daejeon with various exhibits, called Expo Park. We've been to body world, we're going to the water park soon, and we recently visited the bug museum. It was interesting. I adore butterflies with a passion. I prefer to see them flying (like the conservatory I visited with my sister, Angela, near Niagra Falls in Canada.) But now I've had the chance to appreciate the details and vast differences withing the species. There are SO many kinds of bugs out there I never knew exhisted: BIG, SCARY insects I would've mistaken for aliens had I ever chanced upon them in nature. OH MY GOD, you wouldn't believe the size of some of the bugs in Indonesia (East Asia), Malaysia(Southeast Asia), India (South Asia), Ecuador (South America), and other Nations. We even got to hold some live ones.

There were several of these beasts made of metal scraps just outside the museum. They were cool, but I couldn't make the connection with bugs.
The students seemed to grow more excited over everyday things than the actual exhibit. That's what I love about them. They were more interested in the ants crawling around while we waited for our bus than the bugs pinned down inside the museum. I also made the mistake of swinging from the trees and acting like a monkey. Now every day the kids chase me through the halls screaming, "TEACHER, MONKEY!!!"

2006-06-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

2006-06-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

2006-05-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

Teacher's Day

Recently, South Korea celebrated Children's day, Teacher's day, then Parent's day. Those are some wholesome values to install in a society if you ask me. This country and it's people have seriously altered my view on what life can be like. Especially families.

For teacher's day, my student Alice invited me and the couple I work with to her father's "sum-gip-sal" restaurant. It's mostly fried pig meat, but they made "kimchi bokembop" for me. (Fried rice w/fermented cabbage.) Of course, there were a zillion side dishes for us all to pick from and everything was delicious. My other student (Bruce) came with his mother b/c he and Alice are good friends. They're only 10 years old and had to translate the entire evening. They're very good at English and did a fine job. Alice's entire family was there and they treated us royally. People here appreciate their teacher's like you wouldn't believe. Her father goes scuba diving all the time for the seafood at his restaurant and has invited me to go sailing with them in July. Also, Bruce's mother drove us all home from the restaurant and offered to take us to dinner in the future. Bruce and I discussed a lot on the ride back; he's really into automobiles. And I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up. I thought he'd said a police officer or soccer player in class. But he said, "I don't know." I said, "You don't know?" and he said, "I want adventure." That was a great feeling. He's too intelligent not to explore this world.

The other day in class I was going around the classroom asking, "What do you like to do?"

me: "Bruce, what do you like to do?"

Bruce: "ME? Really? Are you sure?"

me: "Yes."

Bruce: "I like to listen to music."

me: "And what does Sarah like to do?"

Bruce: "I don't know."

me: "She just said she likes to play basketball."

Bruce: "She's lying."

2006-05-24T03:43:00.000-07:00

Time for CELEBRATIONS!!!!

My sister Angela graduates from Towson University today with her degree in Biology (Pre-med) and I couldn't be more proud of all the hard effort and self-discipline she's put into it over the years! She's one of the most responsible people I know and she will go far in life.

Speaking of graduating with a degree in the medical field, my good friend Nicole is now officially a nurse. !!!!!!! She's been doing it for some time, and has helped brighten the days of so many munchkins, but now she has the official TITLE. Go Niki!

Aimee has her Masters in Edumacation. And has said PEACE OUT to Albany once and for all!

Then there are the birthdays of 3 special ladies in my life.
Both my grandmother and niece celebrate their births today. Violet will be ONE!!! Tomorrow her mother (my good friend Jenn) celebrates HER OWN birth. One big happy celebration of life.

And I can't forget one more special lady in my life.... MIKI!!! (his day is May 27th)

"Oh miki you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, HEY Miki!!! ...HEY Miki!!!"

2006-05-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mike!!!!!! Officially a dirty old man, who knows how to party!

We all got together today and followed Mike's orders

which were, "Enjoy yourself, it's a celebration!"

He couldn't have picked a better day to have a birthday;

GORGEOUS weather, free tickets to the baseball game, and the Daejeon Eagles won!

After the game we all went to the Outback Steakhouse... which the Australian couple loved. We all loved, even me - the veg head. The waiters loved us, sang "happy birthday", and gave us 2 free ice cream cakes as "Service". I asked the waiter about it & he said (in perfect English) "It's Mike's BIRTHDAY!!!"

As you can see, we're a very mature bunch!

2006-05-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

This stud muffin can be my best man any day. Not only is he charming, witty, and incredibly handsome.... he's also a great friend to have. It took a while, but someone finally captured this sexy beast on film and now he's eternally exposed on my blog. Relax yourself ladies, there's a line.
"D" (yeah that's right, just D) has been at the top of my list since we met in college - despite 2 very important issues we don't see eye to eye on: the New York Yankees and god (though some have trouble differentiating). Right now the Yankees are tied with the Red Sox. As long as the Yankees aren't in first place, I'm happy... and all their spoiled fans are not. I'll be back in the New England area just when things are heating up and I hope to witness the fall of the Evil Empire.... yet again.
Now the "g" word is something I usually leave alone, out of respect for other people's beliefs, no matter how warped they are. But lately I've been getting this petition via email attempting to reinstate the pledge of allegiance into public schools. I'm not even gonna get into the separation of church and state or freedom of speech. I'm just going to say that I'm very happy the country I call "home" doesn't FORCE me to stare at a flag, put my hand over my chest, and say, "one nation under god...".

2006-05-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

Lantern Festival
Buddha's birthday (May 5th) has brought out the lanterns all over South Korea. Our group took a day trip up to Seoul this past Sunday to watch the parades and enjoy traditional activities. We were blessed with perfect weather.... thanks Buddha. You're the man!

We caught the early train and started off with a nice Western-style breakfast and a few beers in Itaewon (foreigner's district). We then walked through a small parade and toured the vendors. Us girls had our faces painted and I made boxes with some foreign teachers we ran into (but know from Daejeon). We watched a man carve this amazing wooden statue, saw a fan dance show, and stood witness to a prayer ceremony behind dedicated monks in their temple. Many older, married women ("Ajumas") pull out their Hanbouks on special days like this. Men have them too, but usually stick to modern business suits. My tank top got some looks in Daejeon. The smaller parade was fun; lots of people dressed up. We even got to dress up like Kings and Queens and have our photos taken. We also had T-shirts made up with our names in Korean and cool cartoons characters. We bought lanterns and saw a band play. We devoured Subway sandwiches, then perched ourselves on the corner for the BIG PARADE. Lots of pictures at www.zanichild.myphotoalbum.com

2006-05-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Dong Chun Dang Park is right outside my classroom window; it's a huge park with "traditional style Korean homes", 3 ponds, paths, play areas, etc.. I take the pups there every day and enjoy the great weather we've been having lately. This past friday was Dong Chun Dang's 400th birthday so there were vendors everywhere selling cotton candy, squid, corn on the cob, ya know, the usual. A grand stage was set up for performances including drummers & singers. Our school decided to let the little ones go to the park, seeing we did our monthly "Themeroom" book on playground activities. God-forbid the kids get fresh air and play without it being for the sole purpose of education! Well they enjoyed themselves. Each teacher was set up at a station & had to help the kids do something. I had to teach them how to jumprope. As you can see, Nick catches on quickly.

I was on the BLUE team. The red team thinks they won the relay race, and to keep the peace, we let them think that. (heart stickers indicated the color you were). Here, Betty is wearing the popular over-sized plastic visor and being cheered on by her partner in crime, Jennifer. The pro-jumproper to your left is none other than the infamous Max. And below.....

The little angels , just waiting around like sitting ducks. Poor lads, didn't know what hit them! As you can see, Linda is still incredibly adorable, but there's a fresh crop of munchkins at Little America. The new "Berkeley Class" has 5 students. SO cute, nice, smart.... and just the right size to sneak in my luggage when I go home to the states!

Tomorrow we're taking the kids to the zoo, Thursday a musical, and friday we have OFF because it's CHILDREN's Day!!! woo hoo! I'm gonna climb in the cage with the monkeys!

2006-04-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

This was my YALE class, who've now moved up to HARVARD. Dan and Greer teach them now, but I peek in every once in a while to yell at them or tickle their pants wet.

2006-04-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Flanagans

This is the first family I'll be visiting when I go back to the states this summer. I love them.
Jenn has been my friend since my first year at SUNY ALBANY. A great mix of people was randomly thrown together on the 3rd floor of the Alden Hall dorms. Such varied personalities, that clicked very well. Jenn is definitely one of a kind. To sum her up, I'd say she's an extremely intelligent, philosophical, funny, strong, and beautiful NUT JOB. Hope her daughter, Violet, takes right after her.
The other "nut job" in the picture is Rian. Her husband. I'd like to say I set them up. I had invited Jenn to go out with my boyfriend's friends and said, "Wait til you meet Rian. You're gonna HATE him." Well he told her some stupid story about how he went to the store to buy and apple and she was hooked. That was it, he bought an apple. Love at first sight. Next thing you know I'm in the delivery room with them, listening to a debate over the difference between "a dork", "a geek", and "a nerd". They're perfect for eachother. ha ha.

Shortly after I left for Korea, Jenn and Rian moved out to Vegas. Rian's parents live there, but I think it had more to do with the casinos. I'll be flying out to visit them August 1st. Our good friend Nicole and her boyfriend, Frank, are flying out from New York the same week. Nicole also lived in Alden Hall, and the 3 of us shared a house together with another friend after the dorms. My brother Terry and his wife Kim are flying out too. I love bringing great people together.

2006-04-20T05:13:00.000-07:00

Warm Weather

I've officially busted out the flip-flops.... and once they're out, there's no turning back!
The moment I wait for all winter long is that day I can say, "Yep, it's FLIP FLOP time!!!"
The boots and thick socks go deep deep into my closet. That one little piece of plastic slides b/t my big toe and my patrician toe (longer than big toe) and I walk out into the sunshine.
Ahhhhhhh. I once moved to San Diego for the weather... and still thought it was chilly. Well now I'm in Korea, where people are way too proud of their 4 seasons. I try telling them we have the same 4 seasons back in NY, but I think they believe they are the ONLY country with this geological side effect. I must admit I'd miss snow if I couldn't ever see it again, but to trade it in for 80 degrees (fahrenheit) weather every day of the year... OKAY!
When packing for my year in S.Korea, I asked my sister if her housemate had any advice for me, being a young female who travels to South Korea every year to visit her family. She told me the word for "squid" and told me not to wear tank tops. I LOVE tank tops, but out of respect, I decided not to show my shoulders and donated them with loads of other clothes I was giving away. I wish I hadn't. Summers get hot here, and the younger generation is starting to show a lot more skin than I do. I'll buy new ones, besides... I've put on some weight that may require a new summer wardrobe anyway. Hey, as long as my flip-flops still fit!
So I've got lots of friends planning trips to Thailand and Je-ju Island (off south-western tip of S.Korea) in the near future. And a few who've gone recently. I was going to visit Thailand this summer with Jenny, but it's the rainy season and we decided to put it off til next winter. Besides, I want to spend as much time w/my family and friends as possible in the states this summer. I've decided to renew my contract with the school I teach at. I love it here. Tossed the idea over and over and seemed like it was the ONLY thing to do. I had no doubt. Now that I've told everyone I'll only be home for a couple months, I'm having sappy home-sick feelings. But if I think about leaving my kids or this life FOR GOOD in 3 months, I freak out. Can't do it. Wish I could have the best of both worlds.... but we can't have everything we want. One step at a time.

Well seeing I'm talking about warm weather and traveling, I might as well introduce my cousin Michelle. She's a free-spirited soul that loves traveling and meeting new people. She's been a dancer her whole life and appreciates the arts as well as "natural health". She keeps a raw food diet and prefers organic products and holistic medicine. All this in spite of her ultra-conservative parents. She's from my father's side, the Lawrences, and less than a year younger than I. We have great talks and I miss her. Last I heard, she was back in Costa Rica, but these photos were from a few months ago. She travels a lot. Usually with her love, an Akita named Kaya.

~ Bless Cous ~

2006-04-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

~Happy Easter~

We all celebrate holidays in different ways. I'm guessing Easter has become more about chocolate candies, colored eggs, and bunny rabbits than the resurrection of Jesus for most. I spent the day at the park with my puppies, co-worker, and her daughter. Then went to dinner with 4 good friends and 3 Jehovah's witnesses I recently met, who have never even HEARD of Easter. They didn't speak English very well, but they're very sweet and got along quite nicely with my other friends. We went to Berkeley, an elegant restaurant nearby. I made my own White Russians because they can't grasp the concept of adding milk to a black Russian.
Well my sister Jennifer emailed me some great photos of her Easter, which consisted of motorcycles and a gay parade in the French quarter of New Orleans. As she put it, "Not the typical ham around the formal dining table after church but that is the way we like it." They always seem to have a blast.

Can you see how we're family?

Jenn and I are a lot alike in many ways. Crazy girls with our father's temper. But know how to have a good time! Jennifer and her "live-in" Tim (inside joke, it's her boyfriend)

2006-04-11T04:11:00.000-07:00

Well her stay here in Korea has sadly come to an end. My best friend is now on a plane back to New York. I'd like to say I was an amazing host, but as much as I tried to expose her to the cultural differences and beautiful sights of this foreign country, we spent most of our time sleeping in after long nights of giggling and consuming MEK-JU (beer). That's our thing. hee hee!
I must say, I'm extremely proud of my lil Debbie. She learned more Korean words in 10 days than I learned my first few months here. She tried SO-JU (Korean "spirits") and even dabbled in Korean Food, which is the last thing I thought she'd ever do. She suffered a day with my students, despite her Jet-Lag. "Debbie" is on Debbie's lap.

Of course everyone loved her, except a few strangers who didn't appreciate our boisterous laughter. We laugh most of the time we're together. So our stomach muscles got a good work out, as well as our leg muscles from all the walking we did. We went to Gyeong-ju, the original Capital of Korea and visited Bulguksa Temple. It was a beautiful day, we fed huge fish with the crackers I brought for Debbie. We bowed to buddhists and made wishes on small rock piles we built. Debbie's favorite part of the trip were the beautiful trees with light pink flowers we kept seeing everywhere, just started blooming all over Korea, she came at the perfect time of year. We were supposed to go to a Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend, but everyone in Korea was there. So we avoided the crowds & went to a park instead.

The man who owned the love motel we stayed at was incredibly nice and offered to keep our luggage while we walked around our 2nd day in Gyeong-Ju. The cab driver who had dropped us off at the place, ran in to check the price before letting us out of the cab. And the housekeeper had a long conversation with us in Korean (and hysterical body language) telling us all about her "3 babies". One is 22 & in the army, the middle one (girl) is 25 & a nurse, and oldest son's 28 & a bus driver because he finished his army term. We met the kindest people, not in NY I tell ya.

We went out a couple nights in Daejeon (my city). The first night we went to SANTA CLAUS (b/c the owner is Mr. Ho). My co-workers and a few others joined. Good time, until I hurt my knee trying to jump on the pool table b/c Debbie told me to "be a monkey"!!!!! I have a thing about Monkeys.... especially when it's a shy little Korean girl in a costume at the train station. This sweater was one of many presents Debbie's mom sent over with her. Lorraine treats me so good! Like a daughter-in-law.

We also went out to J-Rock, of course. Jenny made special shots for us and we danced til wee hours of the morning. Sasha and Insu (my friends, the bartenders) were there too, despite Sasha having worked long hours covering my shifts at school. She loved teaching the kids English, and I'm SO happy she was able to cover for me.

Then we headed down to Busan .... caught the end of a roof BBQ, got mistaken for Russian prostitutes, experienced the subway a little, then hit the foreigner bars with Liz, Zach, and a bunch of their friends. What an experience. Turns out I have a real fetish for slow dancing in the streets and green bags.

Our last night together in Korea, we went up to Seoul with Jenny. First, we went to her friend's restaurant and had some Kimchi Pajeon. He's a real sweetheart and drove us around to historical sights, as well as the train station early this morning. We saw the gate of what used to be a castle and a tower from afar. We saw a famous bell in a huge traditional building, and walked along a long, beautifully-lit "river" or canal with 26 amazing bridges passing over it. At one point, Jenny decided to cross over the rocks on her heels and joke with Debbie.... she fell in. Said she did it for Debbie to have an experience to remember. Hopefully, this was an experience she'll remember. Love ya Debbie... yes, long time.

2006-04-01T03:30:00.000-08:00

St. Patrick's Day

Bringing a little Irish tradition to Korea.... not just American "culture". I had the little ones color pictures of Leprechauns and 4-leaf clovers. Told my older kids to research the holiday for homework. And told the kids for every piece of green they wore, they'd get a piece of candy.
Everyone had a blast, I did some face painting. I think it took a while to convince everyone that the whole idea of St. Patty's was to wear green and drink beer. But I think it'll be a big hit here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2006-04-01T02:44:00.000-08:00

Zach Attack

Don't think I ever wrote about my weekend in Busan. Got together with Zach and Liz, cool people from the China trip. We had a good time.... sportin wheels shown in photo. We rode the tricycle around the pool table all night and Zach busted out some pretty impressive moves off the stage. He's a dare devil I tell ya! Debbie will be arriving in Korea in approximately 24 hrs and next weekend we'll be heading down to Busan to hang out with Liz and Zach again.

2006-03-29T04:40:00.000-08:00

I'm ridiculously happy today.

I don't think most people can understand just how happy I am:
First, I got to talk to most of my closest friends from NY today on Aol Instant Messenger. I logged on to wish Vivian a happy birthday and I was talking to best friend Debbie about her coming out in 5 days!!! Then Kristin and Mario said hello and I was talking to 4 of my best friends! Then my sister Angela said hello and we never get to talk. So I was having a bunch of conversations until we all joined a chat room! You have no idea how great it was to talk to everyone today, I need to go on IM more often. If only Tina and Dwight were there. :O) It woulda been a party.
So then I did telephone interviews tonight. Usually, staying late at work is not something to be happy about. But... the kids had me rollin on the floor as usual. One kid (Alfred) is SUCH a character and though he's cute as a boy possibly can be, he annoys the hell out of me. I spend at least 20 minutes a day yelling at him. Tonight was my 1st phone interview w/him and he was suprisingly very good. Until I asked him to make a sentence using the word "hat". He said,
" I hat my baby sister." (she's cute too! a younger student, maybe 7 years old?)
Then I asked HANS what he had for dinner. In the most confident voice, he said, "Octopus and rice and kimchi and soup and nothing." He's too much. Then he couldn't tell me what a rainbow was but when asked what the sun was he explained that it was a ball of fire. I asked if he was talking to someone b/c he sounded distracted and he said, "No, computer game." BOYS! Both Alfred and Hans are in the group photo from my birthday blog.
Then I called Alice..... the girl who gave me strawberries..... from my cell phone on my walk home. She specifically asked me to call her last so we could "talk". She started every sentence with "TEACHER, ...." and kept me on the phone for 49 minutes! I love it! She told me how she made the perfumes she gave me today, using water and flowers and about her dad's pig meat restaurant and about the designs of the wall paper at her house. She LOVES talking now. She even put her mother on the phone towards the end of the conversation who said "Gaum-sa-ham-ni-da" (the most polite, respectful way to say thank you) and Alice told me her mother is so happy she's getting to learn English because SHE can't. Then she asked me if it's true that kids in America really get to sleep and play after school. That breaks my heart.

Anyway, most of the kids did very well for their telephone interviews. Sara (the girl next to me in photo) is moving in April. "My mom and dad say change the house." We've exchanged emails and all necessary information, but we're both very sad about this. However, I told her we could have a snack party and play JENGA on Friday. So she's very happy!

oh yeah, let's not forget Paul from my first class. He's about 8 or 9 years old, very clever.
We teach the kids to say, "May I get some water please?" OR "May I go to the bathroom please?"

Paul: "May I get some bathroom?"
Nicole Teacher: "No."
Paul: "May I get some bathroom pleeease?"
Nicole Teacher: "No."
Paul: "Ah, may I get some RESTROOM, please?"
Nicole Teacher: "No."
Paul: "Why?"
Nicole Teacher: "I don't have a bathroom to give you."
Paul: "I want to get some restroom."
Nicole Teacher: "really?"
Paul: "Yes. Maybe I want to EAT a restroom... is that ok?"

2006-03-21T15:21:00.000-08:00

Mario Invades Korea

As I've mentioned, my good friend Mario flew in to surprise me for my birthday. I was in absolute SHOCK! I couldn't put 2 and 2 together when I first saw his face at my school. It's so like Mario to top off any gift idea and pick up for a spontaneous adventure. I must say, it's very reassuring to know I can be found, here in the middle of a country on the other side of the world.
Mario was only here for 3 days, but they were 3 amazing days! Of course, we went out all 3 nights. The 1st night was a local pizza place where we ate with my co-workers and ordered huge pitchers of beer. We told them it was my birthday and received the customary Korean "celebration": they blast this song and everyone in the place claps. This particular restaurant has chandeliers that turn into disco balls and the waiters pop party favor graffiti at you. Woo Hoo!

The 2nd night wasn't so low-key. We hit every bar in town, starting with a huge Korean night club called "NEWS". We were the only foreigners in the booking club. It's supposed to be a match-making place, but the staff let us alone because we were already co-ed. I was the one who'd suggested the place, knowing they have great entertainment. (bands, D.J.s, extravagant shows put on by talented Russians...) I wasn't expecting STRIPPERS to come on stage. Neither were the boys! I think they were happy with my choice. This place also did the Happy Birthday bit (hundreds of people swinging their white hand towels around while the "celebration song" blared) It was great! Mario also told the DJ to wish me a happy birthday over the loud speaker and he did, while singing along with "I like to move it move it". Does it get any better?

Yeah it does. You might think I'm referring to my Konglish Party the following night. No, I'm referring to my actual Birth day. The last 3 classes I teach are kids between 10 - 12 years old. They brought me tons of presents... really really thoughtful presents!

Alice used to be incredibly shy. She wouldn't talk and appeared to be nervous most of the time. Then one day I brought my puppies to school. That night for telephone interviews I told the kids they BETTER ask ME a question. No one-word responses, I want actual conversation. Well Alice asked me if I had dogs back in America. She then talked my ear off for 15 minutes about pets. Usually the interviews run 5 minutes at most. Ever since, she's been an extravert and TOP of her class. She kicks ASS now! For my birthday, she remembered me saying I love strawberries during our fruit/vegetable lessons. I LOVE HER!

Sara shares my love for writing. She always comes up with innovative stories and tries to be creative in her work. One time I asked the kids to write about somewhere they'd been over the summer. Every kid said, "ZOO" or "BEACH". She struggled for the longest time, trying to tell me about some lili-pad festival she'd been to. Finally I just said, "I don't care! Just make something up." She's extremely sensitive and hangs on every word I say, so she ended up crying. I felt like the biggest JERK. Then she wrote me a Christmas card saying how much she loves me and that she was sorry for crying in class 2 times. (her classmates weren't cooperating for a puppet show once). Well she gave me a journal for my birthday that says, "Don't borrow from tomorrow, live each day to the fullest." Wow. Some other girls brought me notebooks, pens, candies, and notes thanking me for teaching them. One girl even brought me a georgious butterfly necklace (another favorite of mine is butterflies) and I just started teaching those girls a couple weeks ago. And to top it off, Mario got to spend the day with my kids. They asked him all kinds of questions about his job, America, and where he was sleeping while here in Korea. They loved him and he even brought them snacks and post cards form New York. Thanks Mario!

2006-03-19T19:11:00.001-08:00

Zani Girl

Last week I received the best compliment ever ...in my life. I was sitting on the floor in our school's hallway, making fun of the five-year-olds I used to teach when my supervisor came and sat beside me. She asked if I've ever seen the film "Dead Poets Society". She then went on to tell me I'm like Robin Williams, when he makes the kids stand on their desks and shout.... breaking the rules of their school. An idealistic teacher stirs up the conformed waters of a 1959 prep school, inspiring his students to "suck the marrow out of life". A wonderfully acted and beautifully told story of the quest to maintain your individual identity and follow your dreams. He was their inspiration. He made their lives extraordinary. You have no idea how much that means to me. I'm different than most because I like to have fun and I love making others have fun. Some may perceive my behavior as bait for attention, but really it's just my fear of living inside the box.
So do yourself a favor, and live a little.

By the way, the same day I was told that I "look like Spider Man movie girl". I'd much rather be compared to Robin Williams than Kirsten Dunst.

2006-03-16T03:22:00.000-08:00

More Konglish Shirts

my photo albums can be viewed at www.zanichild.myphotoalbum.com

2006-03-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

Danien

My friend is on his way back to Canada right this minute. I'm gonna miss him. Lots of kids liked him, despite his unique teaching style. He named them things like "toast" and "pepsi". He told the kids to call him "Demon" and picked on them a lot. A bunch of us went out last night for his last night in Korea. We ate at T.G.I.Fridays and then hit the bars. We used to all frequent a local pub around the corner from my apt, called BEER HUNTER. They have 50% Tuesday specials. The group there is great though (see above): Troy and Alwyn from Australia, Mike from Texas, Ben from Canada, Dan and Greer from New Zealand, Ken and James from Canada, Danien from hell, and Me from Heaven. ha ha. I'm an angel. Danien and I have a hate/love relationship (as you can see). He's so mean to me, and I love it! We have a very immature-bickering relationship, but when it comes down to it, Daniens a really good guy. A genuine heart and endangered morals. Hopefully one day we'll meet up again and drink til wee hours of the morning. Take care Danien! I wish you the best!

2006-03-12T04:43:00.000-08:00

Konglish T-shirt party

Well it was a hit. I managed to round up all the coolest people in Korea (from Seoul to Busan) and throw a party so fun the neighbors came up 4 times! I negotiated with the little bit of Korean I know and it's all good. She went from screaming that she was gonna call the police to laughing when I told her she keeps me up many nights yelling at her husband. We compromised on a time I had to leave for the bars (3:30am!!!)

We all went to Jenny's bar afterwards and continued the party. "J-Rock". She had cake and a hat for me. Jenny's a blast, she came to my apartment with a korean drink I've never tried and I loved it. It had green olives in the bottom. (my favorite)

Everyone was incredibly sweet, from bringing me the most incredibly thoughtful birthday gifts, to fun party favors and food to share. The crowd meshed TOO well, I don't think we could've had more fun. The mix consisted of: the girls I usually go out with, all my co-workers and teachers in the area, the people I met on the trip to China, and my good friend Mario who flew out from New York to surprise me for my birthday. (I'll post pics later from my actual birthday.) You might be wondering what a "Konglish T-shirt" is. Well it's a T-shirt with a silly phrase that's supposed to be English, but it's grammatically incorrect, or just doesn't make sense. They're everywhere here in South Korea and we find them hysterical. People excuse this by calling it "konglish" (combination of Korean and English). No, it's just poorly constructed English. So everyone was to find the funniest shirt they could and wear it to the party. The girls above wore the same shirt: Greer is wearing red and Heather is wearing Blue. The shirt is more appropriate for Greer however, because it's a bunch of jibberish, then says "Dan Gregarious Unit" and her fiance is Dan. Dan wore a shirt with bananas all over it, which is pretty Dan-like.

Big sizes are rare to come across in Korea. So, many of the big guys had to impovise: Josh here wore an apron that said "Don't cry squirrel". At one point his girlfriend, Steph, was looking for him and said, "Have you seen my squirrel?" cute.
Mike actually found one covered with sports logos, which is perfect for him. Mario refused to wear the pink shirt I found with 2 cowboys holding hands, so he got a white T- shirt and everyone wrote their own Konglish messages on it. (top of page) Most of the shirts were hilarious, which means "causing boisterous merriment or convulsive laughter".

2006-03-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

Acrobatic show

Well this is my "grand finale" of blogging on the China trip. However, this amazing performance was something we were lucky enough to experience on our 1st day in Beijing. (the ladies above are spinning plates on each stick, while they manage unbelievable moves.) According to our tour guide, these incredibly talented people start training at approximately 3 years old and may retire as young as 18. If I weren't in the 1st row, I never would've believed the stunts they pulled off to be physically possible. I was in awe. I think I was the only one to buy a DVD at the end of the show - it was 95 YUAN = a little over $10 U.S. dollars.
The same night we got to experience something else amazing in Beijing: "4th of July on crack"
For 12 years the citizens of (urban) Beijing were not allowed to light fireworks. But this year, Beijing rescinded the ban. As soon as a family set the dinner table, they would set off firecrackers letting their neighbors know the New Year's celebration had begun in their household. Keep in mind how crowded China is. The capital EXPLODED! There was so much noise and so many lights the 1st 24 hours of fireworks, it seemed as if night never fell upon us. Some members of our trip went out in the streets, buying firecrackers and setting them off with the people of China. I stayed in and haven't heard the end of it since. But I had a nice, safe view from my huge window at the Holiday Inn. The hotel we stayed at was REMARKABLE! (highly recommended next time you're in China) I was asleep at midnight when the most heart pounding scene ever errupted outside. I woke right up and it felt like I was a reporter in the middle of a war at first. Then I smiled and appreciated the colors as they burst freely throughout the sky, symbolizing perhaps what is a small sign of civil liberties. Firecrackers are traditionally believed to be a symbol of happiness in China. So I was happy for them.

Unfortunately, the fireworks pictures wouldn't come out, but here is another acrobatic shot:

There are 10 people riding ONE BICYCLE. My friend Miki told me they fit whole families on a moped over here, but this is ridiculous. :O)

2006-03-01T04:58:00.000-08:00

Back to China

No silly, I'm not going back to China (ever probably) just apologizing for the brief interlude in blogging. So we boarded the plane as strangers and now we're a big group of friends. 3 of the girls I originally went with, waiting in the airport (early morning): Jordana, Lindsey, & Heather.

I took this photo of the plane, then Jordana went to take one and got yelled at. Somehow I ended up with the window seat both ways. I'm a lucky girl. Then everyone's food was pretty nasty, except for the 4 who ordered vegetarian meals.I rubbed it in Lindsey's face for a few minutes, then gave her my salad. Hee hee. Vegetarians are kind-hearted. We had to fill out lots of paper work on the plane; one of the questions on the health declaration form was, "Have you had close contact with poultry or bird in the past 7 days?"

We were waiting for our luggage at the airport in Beijing when I said, "I always have these strong urges to do things I'm not supposed to." Jordana asked, "Like what?" I told her I really wanted to sit on the conveyer belt and ride with the luggage. She hopped right on!

Another red building, in case you didn't get enough.
And a cool blue dragon:

2006-02-26T05:01:00.000-08:00

Dahnbi

She's a crazy lil girl and I love her! Not only is Dahnbi one of my students, she's also the daughter of a foreign teacher I work with. Her mom, Taunya, is from Kansas (back in "the states") and been teaching in Korea for 8 years. Dahnbi is 6 years old and adorable! She hangs out with us a lot and comes out with the funniest things.

For instance, we all went to eat & have some drinks at a restaurant for a staff party. Our friend Mike joined us, even though he teaches at another school. He's my friend who dressed up as Santa Claus for our kids. Well Mike, Taunya, Greer, Dan, and I were walking down the street together and Dahnbi thought we weren't walking fast enough. She kept saying, "Come on!!! Let's go!" Finally she got assertive and said, "Mommy, Dan teacher, Greer teacher, Nicole teacher, Santa, LET's GO!" Mike was practically rollin on the sidewalk.

Then we all went to Cosco recently, Taunya's kind enough to let us use her membership card so we go as a group. We were squashed in an elevator with a cart full of food and a Korean couple. Dahnbi was kinda squashed against the wall so I asked if she was ok. She said, "Yes, but I can't move." Dan said, "You don't have to move, you're in an elevator." And she broke out with, "I like to move it move it. I like to move it move it!" That's a true sign that I'm her teacher.

2006-02-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

Blame Canada

I have a student I named "Susie" after my childhood doll. She's precious. I sent home progress reports and she came to me asking, "Teacher, what does 'amazing' mean?" One of the Korean teachers at my school had also questioned the word, "Is 'amazing' good or bad?" I explained how 'amazing' describes something which amazes you. Can be good or bad. Well I've met a lot of amazing people here in South Korea. Most Korean citizens amaze me with their kindness. But most foreign teachers I've come across are complete WACK JOBS! Most foreign teachers in this country are Canadian. You do the math.
I'm baffled over the animosity I've witnessed from our neighbors up north. What did America ever do to their country? I could understand a loathing for President Bush, he's a dolt, but to call all Americans ignorant is .... well that's just ignorant! Sure, I'm not educated on Canada - I know Quebec wants to be it's own country, that French is the official language for a high percentage of Canadians, that hockey's big there, & that the beautiful side of Niagra Falls falls on the Canadian side of the border .... lucky for them, 'cause it brings in a lot of our American money, eh?
Well the popular claim here seems to be that Koreans prefer Canadians over Americans. That's why my school is called "Little America" and people I meet every day tell me they LOVE America and want to go there. I've yet to hear anyone say they want to move to Canada. It's too damn cold! I sure as hell don't, and therefore don't feel the need to educate myself on Canada.
Why is it that Koreans don't like us? (according to Canadians) Because we're "boastful". Actually, I've never mentioned anything about the U.S. being wonderful or expressed the slightest ethnocentrism. But now that they're mentioning it, we ARE the #1 Nation in the WORLD. Not bad, eh? I've never been proud or ashamed of the decisions of my government. Politicians make the decisions, not I. And they don't give us great options to vote from. But I am happy that I was born in a land that's got so much to offer. "The land of opportunity" has given me a great deal and I appreciate it. Wish we didn't live in a world with wars and hatred, but we do and I'm fortunate to be protected by the strongest military out there. Most importantly, it's democracy they're fighting for and if it weren't for us stupid Americans, women everywhere may be walking around in Burkas (women's dress in Islamic culture). I'm sure the benefits of oil trade provoke our intervention more than human rights, but there are a lot of people who are very grateful for our "butting in". People want us to mind our business, until they need our help. I'm sure if anyone ever felt like invading Canada, they'd be happy we're their neighbors. But I don't foresee that happening any time soon. The only thing they've got to offer is spring water and trees. Yeah, I did a little research on Canada... in attempts to de-ignorantize myself... and found that Canada is the "origin of bottled water" and has a rich ecosystem. That's nice.
So I can honestly say, until recently, I was never "proud to be an American". But ya know what, Canadians? YOU MAKE ME PROUD!

2006-02-15T05:15:00.000-08:00

Service with a smile

They have this thing called "service" here in South Korea. Nearly every time you buy something from a store, they throw something in for free. Whether it be a kind traditional custom, their way of getting you to come again, or simply "thank you for shopping with us". I used to try to refuse "service" but I was told that's offensive. So now I just say, "comme somme ne da" (thank you) and take it with both hands (to show I am taking with 'everything I've got') It seems as though foreigners get EXTRA service, often making the free gifts' value equal to what we're buying. I went to buy an undershirt once off a street vendor for $3.00 (U.S.) and while he was getting a bag I picked up a winter hat I really liked. He took it out of my hands and threw it in the bag, yelling "SERVICE!" It was $7.00. This happens with food all the time too, especially at my little family-owned restaurant I frequent. I went in one time to order kimbop (veggies & rice wrapped in seaweed, for $1.00) and they made me sit down, set up silverwear and gave me a 3 course meal. Well I've gotten used to this kind of behavior, which makes me smile every time, knowing full well you'll never see something like that in NY. But today someone brought this Service to a new level.... and brought a new meaning to the word kindness.
Once a week we go across the street for pizza (the 3 foreign teachers and I). We need something that tastes like home and "Pizza 2001" makes a mean pineapple pizza. Today the other teachers wanted to try oven baked spaghetti. I've had it before & I'm not a fan, so I just got garlic bread. Whenever the 4 of us go out to eat, it really throws them off if we don't order exactly 4 meals. If we get an extra one they usually won't give it to us, which is strange b/c it's custom in Asia to share off the same plates. Well today the waitress got really flustered when I didn't order a proper meal. Upset almost. I was really only there for the conversation. Then I was heading out the doors to make the post office when the lady said, "Chakamon!" (wait a minute) She asked why I didn't eat and I was fumbling for an explanation when a pineapple pizza came out of the oven. The man packaged 2 slices, she carefully put scotch tape on them and handed them to me w/condiment packets (gotta put hot sauce on pizza!) .
She said, "service."
I was SO touched! I didn't know what to say.... other than "comme somme ne da". Then they packaged up the rest of the pie for my co-workers. Unbelievable.

Oh, and this past weekend I bought a computer down in Busan. It's a heavy desktop and very difficult to carry by myself. The guy I bought it from was incredibly sweet and helped me bring it all the way to the train station and on to the train. The attendant showed me a special place to put it and when I got off the train, everyone was grabbing onto the larger box and trying to help. Complete strangers, helping. Go figure. I was walking from the station to the cab line up when an Ajuma (older woman) grabbed onto the self-made tape strap and started dragging along. She kept saying "please help me, please help me, ju-say-yo" She really got into putting it into the cab too. We had to load it into the trunk and she was still saying "please help me" I thought perhaps she wanted money ... or some kind of help from me.... until her husband came up and told her to "let's go." She smiled and walked away waving. She was just telling me that I should ask for help. Then the female taxi driver unloaded the huge box at my apt., despite my protests. I wish they would take tips here. SO SWEET!!!!!!!!

Why did I put a photo of my niece VIOLET on this blog? because she's cute as hell.... and smiling.

2006-02-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

More good photos from Mike. He even got a good shot of STARBUCKS.

2006-02-09T04:31:00.000-08:00

Orients of Red

It seemed as if every historic edifice we saw in Beijing was the same: red with a "traditional" roof. I love traditional roofs, and lofts, and if I ever own a home it'll have oriental features... but there are only so many similar sights I can get enthused about in 3 days. I don't know the name of the president, or if he's even a president. (head of communist party?) but this guy's gotta be important, cause his face is plastered on all the money and here at Tiananmen Square.

Tiananmen Square (dictionary.com): An extensive open area in central Beijing, China, the world's largest public square. Adjacent to the Forbidden City, it has long been the site of festivals, rallies, and demonstrations. In 1989 Chinese troops fired on student demonstrators, killing an estimated 2,000 or more.

Here we are entering the Forbidden City. I'm always doing what I'm told not to. I swear it's not forbidden any more. However, back in the day, the Emperor had 100 wives who bore his children and were "forbidden" to leave the confines of these walls... even after the Emperor died! No one was allowed in, no one was allowed out (except the Emperor). One Emperor supposedly had 40,000 wives and died in his mid twenties. What do you think about that? And what do you think about these sacred grounds in the capital of a Communist country that opposes capitalism sporting a STARBUCKS in the middle of everything. INSIDE the Forbidden City. Uh huh. What a disgrace! I've never been a "boycotter", just don't go because their hot chocolate sucks! But don't worry... it's red and has a traditional roof!

Sorry I couldn't make this shot bigger, it was borrowed off a fellow tourist (seen in shot below) Kelly and Julianne captured some better angles and I borrowed theirs for this blog.

2006-02-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not the most orderly person, well in my own unique way. I posted THE WALL 1st because it was the main reason I went to China. Then the factories altogether... to show you the beauty. Now I'd like to share a few of the moments I enjoyed the most. Then I'll continue with the rest of the trip.

This lake at the Summer Palace was frozen.... because it's NOT SUMMER! We had a fun tour group... so we ventured out onto the ice and started a game of ice ball. We copied this game, actually, off a group of older Chinese people who seemed to be having a BLAST! You kick the chunk of ice to someone else in the circle, trying not to fall on your ass. Those are the rules. The ice is coming to me in the 1st shot... it's either one of the times I MISSED the ball or hurt my foot. Don't remember which. Remember the pearl couple I told you about? Steph & Josh were my favorite among the many cool people I met on this trip!!!

Guess who these people are. More cool people I met on the trip! I will never do a tour group again, there's nothing fun about wake up calls at 4:15 am or being "cattle prodded" from place to place, or listening to people gripe because life just wouldn't be complete without complaining. However, unexpected circumstances occasionally lead you to good things. Like interesting conversations with interesting people. Don't know the 2 random Chinese guys in this shot, but the guy in the back is Denis (who took our picture 10 thousand times as we all shoved digital cameras in his hand) and the next 2 closest guys are Mike and Kelly (open jackets) who I sat in the back of the bus with for most of the trip (as the outcasted Americans). And the 2 in front (bald guy & girl) are Zachary and Emily. Also American, HEY we really ARE hated by Canadians! They were the only 2 die-hards who pulled off an all-nighter the last night of our trip. Everyone else squeezed in an hour of sleep. What good is that, really?

How do you stay awake all night? Beer of course. Nina and I ran a few blocks to a little Chinese restaurant and negotiated a case off them. I waved 100 yuan at the guy (approx $12.50 U.S.) and he seemed more than happy to let us walk away with his plastic crate. We got a few funny looks for being 2 white girls running down the streets of Beijing at 12:30 in the morning with all this beer.... but that and ice ball were 2 of my favorite moments! Laughing is good for your health.

This was our tour guide.

Jason was SO COOL!

15 of us got drunk in my room. Way to end a trip.

2006-02-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

JADE

These are some of the amazing jade carvings we saw. Turns out jade doesn't only come in green.... that's just the most popular. I enjoyed the jade factory most b/c nothing was killed in the making. The demonstrator explained how they cut through rock & polish til they reach a certain color. You really don't appreciate some things til you've seen them made. Got my mom a little gemstone, because she loves jade but couldn't afford any large items.

Pottery factory

I don't believe there are any animals hurt in the making of pottery, though I felt kinda bad taking pictures of the people creating these beautiful pieces. According to the dictionary, a sweat shop is: A shop or factory in which employees work long hours at low wages under poor conditions., but all people displayed on the tourist trip were adults. I didn't see any NIKE shops on the trip. Look at all the vibrant colors!! I wanted to sit and paint with them, but I don't think that would've went over well.

Pearl Factory

Ok, the oyster didn't survive this one. But the lady was a hoot and joked so much, my tears were more from laughter than anything else. These oysters aren't edible, each one has about 20 pearls. Stephanie and Josh were an awesome couple I met on the trip. She was the closest guesser as to how many pearls were inside so she got 2 pearls from this picture. The lady told her that meant she was gonna have 2 healthy children. You should've seen the looks on the couple's faces!

silk factory

Feels so good, and costs so much. (like the pearls & jade). I assume silk worms are killed to make silk... but people eat them as a snack here. Watched Dan & Greer eat them once. Yuck! My friends bought covers for their comforters and I'm so jealous. I saw a print that I loved but I think I'm gonna wait til I'm an adult ... I mean an older, wiser woman... to decorate with silk.

2006-02-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

The not-so-great-wall

Well if I were making a list of "been there, done that" the wall would have been a great achievement. And though I must admit it's
one of the most impressive structures ever built, I could appreciate the effort put into it without the effort of walking up it. The area we visited wasn't flat, but VERY steep steps, appoximately 3 people wide, and it was stone. That was the wall. Been there, done that.

2006-02-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

Partners for life

Okay, I'm not in love, but he's really cute and the best cuddler in the world! I think I'll keep him. Demsi is getting bigger and fluffier each passing day. He's so well-behaved and nearly house trained, thanks to some finishing touches of the book my friend sent me. She works with animals. She hurts monkeys actually, but I love her none-the-less. Kogi is cute too, and really attached to us... so if I don't find a home for either, it won't be the worst thing in the world. Not quite the Bull Mastiffs I was planning on, but I'll get a big guy later in life.

2006-02-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

The after-party

We needed this many shots of whisky after the musical. The show was great, but as I've mentioned... it was a loooong day! The waiter set the shots on top of all these glasses of beer. Here Taunya's trying to blow them; they just fall like dominos right into the glasses! Then you drink.... and be merry. Look at all the side dishes they serve in Korea! Kimchi is everywhere.... you can't escape it. My students eat it with EVERY meal. I often ask what they've had for breakfast, hoping they've tried pancakes, waffles, french toast, cereal, ANYTHING but kimchi and rice. But no. Kimchi is a cure-all that everyone LOVES. Somehow I ended up flipping the meat. How does the vegetarian end up cooking? I'll tell you how, you have a waitress slap a dead animal in front of me. Last week I had my 10 year old class singing a song about food. The words were something like, "I like strawberries, I like grapes, I like bananas, ....fruit" When it got to the meat part Jeff improvised with "I don't like hamburgers, don't like ham, don't like hot dogs... meat" while he pointed at me. Greer and I love when the kids change words to be funny... as long as they do it properly. Shows they've really grasped the English language.

2006-02-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

Nanta: these are my little drummer boys. Yes, Jana is a boy too, at heart. Dan says she beats em all in arm wrestling! That's my girl! She's also amazing at sign language. All the students did a song at the end of our musical which they sang in English and did in sign language.

Some girls LOOK so sweet ...
and some really are.
Costumes help

Ned and Nick showing some of that male affection

Amy again, cute as a dickens... they put a head set on her with a microphone, she's THAT good! I miss her. And Chris was one of my slowest learners for a while. Look at him NOW! Peter Pan. The leading role. He ROCKED! He was so confident and really enjoyed himself up there. Chris did a great job in his green tights and has been passing everyone in class. I was SO proud of him.

2006-01-22T05:14:00.000-08:00

Makeup... ACTION!!!

4 yr olds, Ruby and Linda, sat patiently through rehearsal while the other classes ran through their one-hundredth rendition of Peter Pan, Snow White, the Rabbit's Liver, and other hits in Saturday's Musical. They were SO well behaved despite the grueling hours and pounds of makeup applied for the show.

Even Ned was wearing makeup, but he still gets the ladies. Lucy is an odd little lady ... she sat through many rehearsals of our closing scene as the only child turned around and staring at the teachers. If she ever joined the singing it was a loud "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" through all three songs that somehow drowned everyone else out. But on the actual day she pulled through. Wish I could say the same for our "sound man". He messed up SO many times it's embarassing.

Berkeley class was adorable, of course, and performed perfectly. Even when the music cut out (for like 3 whole minutes) these toddlers just stopped in their positions and remained perfectly still. It got awkward after a bit, so they gave little waves to the audience and curtseyed. I, on the other hand, wasn't as comfortable with my sticks in the air during the Korean drum performance "nanta" for our one-minute of silence.

Here is Jana, beautiful and prepared, as always. And Andy, looking less than enthused.

I only wish they had these Korean Costumes in teacher's sizes. I have great shots yet to download that I will add later.

The Ugly Duckling was performed by my main class (Yale). They did very well, after a month of training with Jin (their Korean teacher). I first discovered they were doing this particular skit when I walked into class one day and Chris said, "You are SO ugly." and Eric said, "Yeah, go AWAY, we don't want to play with you!" I didn't know if I was more shocked at their insults or their impeccable english. Then Amy said, "No, you are BEAUTIFUL." I wasn't surprised by her sweet behavior, nor by her articulacy. But then she said, "A beautiful SWAN." I knew then she was quackin' up. She played the ugly duckling by the way.

2006-01-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

I WANT MY MOMMY!!!

Well something bad has finally happened in Korea. I know some of you have been waiting 6 months to hear something other than "I absolutely LOVE Korea!", just so you could say, "I told you so." I've had overwhelming support of this decision from the start, but many people were worried and warned me to be careful. (ie: register w/the U.S. Embassy, lock my door, wash my fruits & veggies with purified water) I've heeded the warnings and taken most advice ... but some things you just can't predict.
Don't you just hate those people who say, "You're not gonna believe this, but no no I can't tell you." Why even bring it up, right? Well I'm not gonna tell you. It's just that when something upsets me, I vent. And I vent some more, through every possible outlet.

Yesterday was one of the longest days of my life! I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't fall back to sleep. Most of the daytime was consumed by the musical our school put on. It was wonderful and that will be my next blog (think happy thoughts) but there were even some issues there. Despite my unreasonably happy demeanor throughout the day, I've counted 10 things that went wrong yesterday. Starting with my favorite student leaving our school and ending with a fight b/t foreigners. I helped keep the 2 idiots separated though, can't stand to see people fight. Have I mentioned how much I hate the foreigners here? No? Well I hate them.

But I LOVE Amy. Do you remember Amy? She was the first picture I sent home. Her 6yr old birthday party in my YALE classroom. Well I found out Saturday was her last day at Little America because her family is moving to another dong. She's so bright and sweet, I actually cried a little when I hugged her goodbye. I'm really gonna miss her, but I hope she's placed in a good english class at her new hogwan; she was way too advanced for the group she was in here.

After the musical, the staff had their usual dinner party at a Korean restaurant. More than 20 of us sat on the floor with all sorts of interesting morsels before us. Of course there was soju. And lots of raw, innocent animals frying in front of me. I had said I didn't want to come, but my head teacher didn't seem too happy about that. So I went and wish I hadn't.
Fortunately, the 3 foreign teachers I work with and I are all extra-supportive and protective of one another. If they hadn't been at my apartment when an uncomfortable ordeal escalated, I'd be on a plane home right now. No joke. But all is well now and I can't think of anything but the adorable little munchkin faces I'm gonna see tomorrow morning!
And the grand finale of my complaint session: I'm really sick. AGAIN! I'm not going back to the Korean nurse who sticks a needle in my bum and spanks me or the doctor who gives me pills that don't work. So I'm just waiting it out and hopefully I'll be better for my trip next week. I wish my mom was here to make me soup and listen to my whining. I handle most situations very well, but a common cold has me laying in bed, moaning & groaning to an unbearable degree. My mother's the only one who tolerates that.

2006-01-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

"We're unconventional, fuck off." These were the words of Jordana as she stuffed crackers in her mouth and the Walmart man reprimanded us. I was eating raisins. Even in our North American Supermarkets, we know it's kinda rude to eat the food before purchasing it. But WHY? We're gonna pay for it. I suppose some people would set the box down and be dishonest; and to keep order, one must apply the rules to EVERYONE. But it's fun getting away with things as the "naive foreigner" once in a while.
We always act like we don't know you can't have 5 people in a cab or that it's perfectly normal to ride around in the shopping cart. Jordana needed to sit down and eat something after her heavy night of drinking. As if we didn't get ENOUGH attention as pale girls with long eyelashes.
Speaking of cab rides, this is a shot just after the driver slammed on his brakes and Lindsey spit her Bravo Champagne all over herself. I told her it was "candid". Cabs are everywhere in Korea, but I try to take the bus. The drivers are just as bad, but I'm in a larger unit & assume that means I'm slightly safer. Besides, you have to go throught the whole line of questioning with cab drivers. "Where are you FROM?".
............... "Ahhh, bea-u-ti-ful".
I swear it's like being a celebrity here. See, I'm even in a movie, or Korean boy band. Not sure which. We got lots of looks for this one at Home Plus. Or should we say "Home Plus -a". To get anywhere in a cab, you have to add a vowel sound at the end. "Walmart-a" Guess it's just a pronunciation thing. That's how "way guks" (foreigners) get away with cursing at Koreans. You just don't add a vowel and they have no idea what you're saying. That's mean though, and I don't curse at anyone - except the foreigners who understand me. I'm getting better at my pronunciations with the little bit of Korean I know. Oh yeah, and I'll be walking down the street or through a store and some English pop song will come on screaming obsenities & no one has a clue!

And now for the Korean that got OUR attention. A tall guy. What?

2006-01-15T05:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday

Today (January 15th) is the day we celebrate the birth of ..... Dwight!!!

(God's gift to women)

Dwight is SO important, he doesn't allow himself to be photographed, so I have no pictures to share... which is better off, b/c most of you could not handly that much beauty at once. Nor does he allow people to have his phone #, so when I went to call his cell phone today for an 'international shout out', I got the voicemail of "BRUNO". I didn't wish Bruno a happy birthday.
So Dwight, we love you (me,myself, I, and all the rest of my personalities) and here's wishing you a very Happy Birthday!

Though I know Dwight won't be happy about sharing.... I'm gonna take this time to mention someone else's b-day. MOE. Tomorrow is Moe's birthday so we spent all of Saturday night and Sunday morning celebrating at his bar, "The Brick House". It was a good time with some fun people. And I broke my record; closed bar @ 9am!

Moe

Lindsey & Dan

Jordana & Me

2006-01-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

Thailand That's where I want to go. I will go before I leave Asia; it's my kinda place. I believe South Korea is one of the best places to teach abroad (economically for sure, it's safe, friendly, industrialized) but it isn't the best vacation spot. I want to go somewhere HOT and bath with elephants during my break from teaching. I had planned on going there for my winter break at the end of this month, but I'm going with friends to the Great Wall instead. It was a tough decision, but I doubt I'd work up the desire to go to China again. Why not hit all the countries while I'm here, eh? Damn Canadians got me saying "eh". So I found this "Elephants Nature Park" that you pay $68 to spend the day with Elephants. It includes your lunch and theirs. Mmmm, Thai food. You get in the water and you feed them. The ultimate trip for me would involve monkeys in Africa, but Elephants in Thailand would be just as nice. My friends Troy and Alwyn just went to Thailand for the solar New Yr and they had a great time; took a photo of a baby elephant in the street! They wore SHORTS in January! And everything's dirt cheap.

2006-01-10T04:25:00.000-08:00

"Dan teacher Greer teacher kissing!"

Even I must admit.... they are the cutest couple. I usually don't condone marriage, but this couple from New Zealand is the perfect match and I can't wait to fly out to their country in a few years for the wedding. (Especially b/c it'll be during my winter and their WARM summer!). Individually, Greer and Dan are both amazing people and were fortunate enough to meet. Then I was fortunate enough to work with them at our hogwan in Korea and make them my good friends. Along with Taunya (the 4th foreign teacher from Kansas), we do stuff together all the time. You'd think we'd all be sick of eachother after the many hours we put in at Little America.

Speaking of our Hogwan, I haven't shared any stories about the students lately and I have SO many: first of all, they always say "Dan teacher Greer teacher kissing" and ask them about making babies because they know the couple is engaged. This New Yrs shot is probably their 1st public kiss in Korea.... but the kids have imaginations. They always ask me why I don't have a boyfriend and the conversations get interesting; they LOVE to speculate! Every time I have a new piece of jewelry it's "from your BOYFRIEND?"

It seems Love and affection are displayed much more openly in Korea than in New York. Though homosexuality is "unheard of" here, men wear pink shirts and hold hands. Everyone is very touchy: family, friends, business partners, etc. I ordered "duckbogi" tonight (sticky rice in red sauce) and the couple that owns the restaurant HUGGED me and the man said "I love you". The students constantly tell us they love us and today LUCY (who I thought hated me) went into her cupboard, took out a candy wrapper that said love all over it, handed it to me and said, "I love you Nicole teacher!" ugh, tug at my heart why don't ya? I'll never leave Korea! Then there are the funny moments that I crack up over. We have gas heaters in the classrooms and the students sitting closest to the heat always complains. Today it was Jason (who I call goofy)

Goofy: "Nicole teacher, me hot."
Me: "I'm hot."
Goofy: "Me too."

Then in my last class I was grading bookwork for my oldest boys. These were Jake's answers:

"Have you ever been in a blizzard?"
Yes, I have.

"Have you ever had a sunburn?"
No, I haven't.

"Would you like to go on a cruise?"
Sure.

I wish I could document every little moment here. While I am documenting "funny moments I crack up over", I now have a photo of the boys at midnight.

As far as I know, it was also Dan's first public dropping of the pants in Korea that night. Texas, New Zealand, and Canada unite.

2006-01-08T01:07:00.000-08:00

My Vegan days are over

Well it lasted 6 days, until SOMEONE had to go and send me a huge box of chocolate. My greatest weakness. I came into work and found 2 big boxes on my desk. One was full of Pepperidge Farm chocolate chip cookies and m&ms (melts in your mouth...mmmmmm!) along with Lipton Tea bags and expensive clothes. (thanks Kathy). Ya know people, if you keep spoiling me like the little American girl that I am, it's not gonna be the livin' rough experience I was going for. I thought I was coming here to live in a hut and eat rice, but I'm in a nice "western style apartment" and have all these freakin' kind people sending me stuff I love. JEEZ! Speaking of which, someone just sent me a RIDICULOUSLY nice gift. The best possible present ever! I was shocked to open that other box on my desk and find a DIGITAL CAMERA!!! Along with all the equiptment (cable, memory card, photo cd's, batteries) Wow. I will be putting such great photos on here now & filling up your email boxes with cute kids and oriental images.
My first pictures were of my student's piano recital. John is such a great kid, really smart, around 9 years old. He told me he had a recital Saturday morning and wrote it down in Korean for me. A Korean teacher (my friend Allie) said I could just show that piece of paper to a taxi driver and they would take me, but that I shouldn't go b/c it was a 20 or 30 min. ride. SO? Well that was nearly a fiasco. I was 20 minutes late after taking 3 different taxis and calling everyone I knew who spoke Korean. I walked into a huge hall full of young children who all turned and started whispering b/c a white lady walked in. Seeing some of these kids reminded me of a beauty pageant mom put me in when I was 7. I showed up with my blond curls and simple cotton dress (blue with white poka dots). Then I walked out onto a stage full of girls in Cinderella dresses. They were wearing extravagant silk and lace GOWNS and had talents. The judges in the back room had asked me if I spoke any other languages or played any instruments and I told them NO but that I was in brownies and that one day I was gonna take a BIG truck to New York City and feed all the homeless people peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches. They didn't care & fortunately I didn't care about being the odd-one-out with the dress. I probably liked being different. But mom felt bad. Well anyway, this saturday there were kids there in jeans and t-shirts and there were kids who wore tuxedos and ball room gowns. John and his friend wore suits (and light-up sneakers). When I finally spotted him he was looking all around the hall, turned around in his seat. I'm assuming he was looking for the white girl who came to see him play. His mom seemed happy when I approached to say hello. You have no idea how sad I would've been if I missed that. And you have NO IDEA how talented these kids are. Playing classical masterpieces like they've practiced for years. Everyone here seems to take piano. Wish I did. Always wanted to - on my list still. A lot of the kids played the same songs (Mozart, Beethoven) but one kid really impressed me. Skinny little thing in a poindexter get up (red bow tie, tux pants too short, hair gelled over) approached the piano with a "shit-eatin' grin" on his face and I couldn't help but laugh when he busted out with "Oblah Di Oblah Da, life goes on". Classic.
So I didn't miss his piano moment, John played very well. I'll add pics as soon as I figure out the software program for my camera .....
And I'm a sucker for milk chocolate.

2006-01-02T22:02:00.000-08:00

It was midnight in Korea and we couldn't watch the ball drop ... so these gentlemen all dropped their PANTS instead!!! Gotta improvise, ya know. Interesting underwear to match their interesting personalities. It wouldn't have been a party without these 3 stooges; they're HYSTERICAL and it seems the drunker they get, the funnier.
left-right (Mike, no pants Dan, and James)
above (the blond is Kendra, who is engaged to James, & the 2 girls are their friends from Canada out for a visit ; alcohol consumption has made me forget their names. really nice though)

As an American, I had to supply Budweiser at my party. It went over well, especially with my boss. My boss showed up with his wife and their daughter. They brought me a HUGE bouquet of flowers and a bunch of fruit. They stayed til 11:30pm, then went home to hear the bells ring. I'm glad they weren't around to see the balls drop. We saved most of the drunken behavior for 2006 !!!
(bring in the new year right)

Around 3:30am we were all still having fun and had some booze left, but we decided it was time for the bar. Seeing this blog entry will totally depict me as an alcoholic, I might as well elaborate on the supply of beverages we had at my apartment. 1st thing we did was make VODKA SOURS. My girls from Canada stopped by (dressed to impress) and Greer and I busted out the sour mix packets my friend Wally sent from America. (he's the best btw) So we had a few of those, then there was the bud, the korean beer(Hite), and the SOJU. You can't drink in Korea and not include SOJU. Then James & Kendra brought over Whiskey, Bourbon, Malibu, and juice. I had koolade for the kids and let the puppies run loose. (everyone had fun with them). We had pretzels, chips & salsa to counteract the alcohol. "Salsa" means diarrhea in Korean. We got a few pizzas and I spoke korean to the delivery guy, he spoke English back. Ah, assimilation. It'll be the last pizza I have for a while. Why?

New Year's RESOLUTION: Every year I make a half hearted attempt at doing something different to become a better person. It's kinda hard when you're so damn perfect. But those things I've tried to change never last long. In the past my resolutions have been to stop being such a bitch or stop spending so much money. This year I tossed a coin b/t 2 things I'd like to give up: baseball and dairy products. Literally, I flipped a coin. I'm disgusted with baseball ever since the Yankees bought Johnny Damon - the mascot of their rival team (a good team player I really thought was in it for the SPORT of baseball.) but the evil empire strikes again! I think they should end TRADING in baseball. Anyway, I'd like to give up the little bit of following I do with the sport b/c it makes me angry, but I'd have to discard my big soft Red Sox blanket from MIKE and my Fenway poster from Gina and my hats and shirt.... that would be sad. So I thought about taking the extra step to veganism instead. It's hard enough finding food in Korea as a vegetarian, but I've lasted over 5months now (unlike the many others I've met who've fallen off the wagon.) Seeing I don't have all the yummy options of vegetarian food I had in the U.S. I might as well give up animal BY-PRODUCTS at the same time. I've tried this once before and it lasted 2 weeks. Let's see if I can break my record. And I don't care what you think, I don't tell you what to eat.
(see, still a bitch.)

New Year's in New York: I called my best friend and family back home when the ball dropped there. Greer and Dan invited me over to watch the craziness in Manhattan on CNN (2pm the next day our time). I miss everyone back home and wish I brought in the New Year with Debbie (tradition) but I'm having a good time with the people I'm meeting here. Which leads me to mention Sean. He's the photographer of the bunch, so I owe him a thanks. Some think I owe him an apology as well. Naaaah.

2005-12-27T20:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Korea

There are Christians and Catholics along with Buddhists and several other religions here . So they celebrate the holiday and say "Merry Christmas" (which sounds exactly the same in English and "hangul" (korean language); they don't even add an extra vowel sound at the end. But when we took this photo, everyone said, "CEESE - A" ! There's a dancing santa outside one of the local pubs singing "jingle bells" and "yellow rose in Texas" (which is conveniently right outside Mike's apt. and he's FROM Texas!) Mike was Santa for our hogwon! He says I owe him a big one. He loved it though, knowing full-well the great impact he made on the adorable children at Little America. He came in during our Song and Story festival shouting "HO HO HO" and the kids were shocked b/c they expected one of us teachers to be santa. As soon as I came in that morning the kids asked, "Nicole teacher SANTA?" I replied, "Do I look like a BIG FAT MAN?" They said yes. Hmmm. Then they thought it would be Dan teacher. Dan, Greer, Taunia, and I were all in the room when Mike came in so the kids were amazed to see it was the REAL SANTA!!! He's loud and boisterous (perfect) but I heard him whisper something special to EACH kid, telling them about the elves up north & calling the girls princess. He took a couple hours out of his day to sweat in a big red suit up on stage and call each child up to receive their gift. Most kids gave him hugs, a few even gave him kisses on the cheek. He enjoyed the time as much as the kids b/c his hogwon (like most) wasn't doing anything special for the holidays. Little America always puts together elaborate celebrations. **************************************************** Our directors even held a teacher's party after the kiddies went home. There were lots of dead animals on the grill (ya know - cow, octupus...) and a SOJU tower. These boxes of the infamous Korean liquor were displayed on the buffet table. Greer and I were amused by the words on the box claiming soju to be "voted the best spirits in the world in 2001" Yeah. But it DOES raise our "spirits".

2005-12-24T04:02:00.000-08:00

So many cliches and songs don't make sense until you've had an experience with which you can relate. I always thought, "If you love something, why would you let it go?" I understand now. And I understand the whole "It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all", which I used to think was absurd.

Glad I can't relate to :

"Life's a bitch and then you die."

2005-12-21T02:18:00.000-08:00

Girls Night Out = me dancing like a wild child while other girls cry about boys. Life's too short for that. This was a happy gals only photo.

Occasionally, I go out in Daejeon. I don't like most "foreigner bars" or "Western bars" because I feel like I'm in a meat market. I actually had a guy tell me this weekend that he doesn't like "Korean girls". I told him he was in the wrong country. Some advice for you men: if you're ever hitting on a female and feel the need to say, "I probably sound really pathetic right now." ... YOU DO!!! I've now officially heard that line in 3 countries. Usually, I start the conversation with "I'm not telling you my name, I'm not giving you my #, and I'm not sleeping with you." Then end the conversation with, "I'm not playing hard to get; I'm NOT INTERESTED!!!"

When I do go out, it's with these girls from Canada. They are a blast. Lindsey (the other girl with a drink in hand) is throwing a Christmas party at her apt. and I'm having a New Year's Eve bash. (solar) It just dawned on me that we won't be watching the BALL DROP on my t.v. but we're trying to set up nori bong (like Karaoke) and there will be lots of pizza, beer, and soju.

About 15 of us are going to the GREAT WALL for "Chinese New Year". We get time off from teaching for the Lunar new yr (Jan. 30th) so we've signed up for a 3-day package to China.

Tonight is the VIP party at a new sports bar opening up downtown. Some guys we know are opening it friday (under a Korean's name b/c you have to be Korean to own a business in Korea) and they want to know what we think about the menu. I love it already, they have VEGGIE BURGERS and VEGGIE LASAGNA. I don't think those items EXIST in Korea at the moment.

The 2 bars we currently go to (downtown) are
J ROCK and the ZOO BAR.
Here we are playing QUARTERS with the owner of zoo bar, "Dragon". My hometown friends would find it interesting that the 100 won coin is much easier to bounce than U.S. quarters. Lindsey and Heather

2005-12-15T02:52:00.000-08:00

Mr. Rogers ("won't you BE my neighbor?")

Remember that quirky old man on t.v. singing to the little puppets on the train? My mom always loathed him for some reason and in high school, my physics teacher told me he grew up as Mr. ROGER's actual neighbor (and Mrs. Rogers I'm sure) . He was friends with their daughter and discovered later in life that there were allegations of Mr. Rogers sexually abusing his daughter. Interesting.

Now - a - days, nobody really knows their neighbor. You live next to the same families for YEARS & don't even know what they look like. Well I've met a couple of my neighbors under awkward circumstances and I'd like to share these moments with you:

Sharing an apartment with some of my best friends while attending the University at Albany (SUNY). Somehow it was never named #1 party school in the U.S. while we were there ... I find that hard to believe.... but it was the year before I started and a couple years after I graduated. Well I like to throw parties, but I usually know just about every person there and NOTHING bad ever happens b/c I keep a good crowd of quality people in my court. Usually there's always one really drunk obnoxious person dancing on the furniture and creating a scene (me).... but the cops never get called and no one goes to the hospital. So, we have this one party and it turns out GREAT because everyone shows up, EVEN Dwight who is the coolest person on the face of the earth and has blessed me with his presence at 2 of my parties now. Then these 2 "freshmen" show up. Most of us were in our last year (ya know, our 5th year) and it was obvious they hadn't come with any of my friends. But I was in my happy stage of drunkenness and decided to let them stay. One of the kids lit a cigarette in my kitchen, some of my friends looked at me (eyes widened) then looked at him like it was gonna be his LAST cigarette. I feel stongly about cancer sticks. So does my asthma. So I told him off like the freshman he was and threw him in the back yard w/all the other smokers. Shortly after, someone came in and said, "Nicole, your neighbor is pissed. I think you should go talk to her." I went on the back porch and there was an old lady on her back porch in her night gown and curlers. I tried so hard not to laugh.
She said, "Do you know what's going ON in your back yard?"
"No, what's going on?"
"They're drinking BEER!"
I said it was ok b/c everyone was old enough but if my friends were being too loud I'd bring everyone inside.
She said "I saw people NECKIN' back there too!"
I said "OH MY GOD!!!" (at the fact that she'd used the term 'neckin' )
"YEAH!!!! I saw it with my own eyes!"
I turned to my friends and said, "Which one of you was NECKIN??????? GET IN THE HOUSE!!!! NOW!!!" Everyone went inside and the woman and I exchanged smiles as we shook our heads and went into our homes. KIDS these days.

The other week I met my old lady neighbor in Korea. First of all, I live on the 4th floor; all the foreign teachers are put on the 4th floor because the # 4 is bad luck in korea. Much of the korean language was based on Chinese and the chinese word for "death" is very similar to the Korean word for "four" .... so they avoid that number like the plague (or death). If you go into an elevator, the floors are listed: 1 2 3 F 5 6 and so on. "F" stands for FLOOR because most signs are in English, though most Korean people can't read English.
SOoooooo. I'm on the TOP floor and there's this couple that lives downstairs from me with a daughter about my age. We all share the same balcony to hang our clothes on and one time they stole my rags (but I'm not angry about THAT). The balcony is right outside my door and I always put the puppies out there to do their thing (b/c we don't have YARDS here). I clean it up with a plastic bag and if it's pee, there's a drain and the balcony's cement. Shut up, it is not gross. So one morning I put the pups out and they poop and the old lady goes out there before I do. And she bangs on my door like the sky is falling. I open the door & she yells at me in Korean, pointing at the poop and all I understand is "EGO" "EGO" "EGO" !!! (this this this) I clean it up while she's yelling, then she smiles very pleasantly and bows. So now I avoid her like the number 4. Then the other night I woke up from the mother & daughter fighting. Usually, I never hear a peep ... but they were really getting into it. My puppies were running all over the bed and whining. Kogi's like me and growls when she's scared. Then I heard something big and loud smash on the ground (like a t.v.) then something bigger & louder. The screaming reached psychotic level and things kept slamming to the ground for about 30 seconds until the father intervened. Thank goodness. They could've killed eachother and there's nothing I could've done. I don't even know the # for police and if I did, I don't speak Korean. Besides.... the cops here are smaller than ME and don't carry weapons. One time I saw a line of police walking down the street and the last 2 were HOLDING HANDS! It's very common for men to hold hands here, or women, but COPS!? Check out the cartoon characters they post to intimidate the bad guys.

I stole this photo from my co-workers. I will be stealing more to share with you in the future. They started a great blog, but I know most of you are too lazy to check it. In case I'm wrong, their blog is www.livejournal.com/users/mmm_kimchi

Check out what THEIR neighbors leave outside their door. (below) They actually go upstairs and hang their fruit to dry right outside their door. We don't know why everyone here dries their fruits & vegetables this way... til there's nothing left basically. But at least my neighbors dry theirs on their own floor. And our balcony. Oh, did I tell you my first time "meeting" the couple below me? I woke up early one morning to the wife CRASHING into an SUV parked in front of our apt. The husband went downstairs & fought with the other husband, no police came. Then he tried driving the car backwards but it was STUCK in the SUV. Giving both women and Asians a bad reputation in the world of drivers.

2005-12-13T03:53:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER JOKE (sorry, but it's funny)

A Red Sox Fan, a Braves Fan, a Rockies Fan, and a Yankees fan were all climbing a mountain one day; they were all talking about how loyal they are to their teams all the way up the mountain.

When they got to the top, the Rockies fan says, "this is for the Rockies " and he jumps. Then the Braves fan says, "this is for the Braves" and he jumps. Now only the Red Sox fan and the Yankees fan are standing on the top of the mountain. The Red Sox fan decides that it is his turn, so he says "This is for the Red Sox!" and he pushes the Yankees fan off the mountain.....

2005-12-08T02:05:00.000-08:00

N.Y. GIRL

Got a joke sent to me via email today; this about sums it up:

Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties.

The first man had married a woman from Alabama & bragged that he had told his wife to do all the dishes and house cleaning in their house. He said that it took a couple days but on the third day he came home to a clean house and the dishes were all washed and put away.

The second man had married a woman from Florida. He bragged that he had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking. He told them that the first day he didn't see any results, but the next day it was better. By the third day, his house was clean, the dishes were done,and he had a huge dinner on the table.

The third man had married a New York girl. He boasted that he told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day most of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye. Enough to fix himself a bite to eat, load the dishwasher, and telephone a landscaper. Got to love them New York girls

2005-12-06T02:51:00.000-08:00

Kogi and Dempsi

My 3 month old puppies are getting big very quickly. When I saved them from becoming a Korean Dish, they were only a few weeks old and could fit in the palm of my hand. Lots of love & food will do that to an animal.

I've posted an ad "free to good home" and 3 people responded already. I'm a tough cookie though and the new owners will have to literally provide a "good home". For now, they are healthy & happy. They sleep in my bed and cuddle with me most nights. They're terrified of grass, but it snowed for the 1st time Sunday and they thought nothin' of it. They're kinda backwards like that: they can sit, give a paw, and wait to eat a snack until I say "ok" (even if I'm touching the snack to their lips).... but "come" "here", "come here", "Yogi",...... you'd think I was speaking a foreign language. Yes my pups are bi-lingual. I say "let's go" or "Kaja". I say "Don't do that!" or "Hagima". (teaching little kids will make you learn such phrases quickly). I also alternate b/t English and Korean newspapers for their cage. They're learning. Just like their mamma.

oh, boy is holding boy (Dempsi) and girl is holding girl (Kogi)

2005-12-04T04:09:00.000-08:00

Harvard

A plethora of hogwans befoul Korea. A hogwan is a small, privately owned school designed to teach children a special skill. And a substitute daycare since there is NO form of daycare in Korea (not even babysitters). Kids here attend multiple hogwans in addition to their public school. It appears that most are English hogwans, hence the plethora of foreign teachers from Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, ect.. I didn't expext there to be so many teachers, nor did I have a clue that this has been going on since the 70's. However, English isn't the only priority in South Korea; my students also attend CHESS hogwans, Tae kwon do & other fighting styles, Calligraphy, dance, piano, Japanese or Chinese, and so on. I don't assign homework because some kids are falling asleep in my classes. In fact, I once took a child out of my head teacher's class and set her in an empty classroom to sleep because she was so tired she was crying. This deeply saddens my co-workers and I but there's nothing we can do about it on a large scale... knew I wasn't changing the world on this trip.
However, the result of this "cram school" system is a bunch of incredibly intelligent children. My students amaze me every day with the comments they come out with. And so I must share a few:
"LITTLE AMERICA" is the name of the hogwan I teach at. The classrooms are named: Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge, Berkeley, Brown, MIT, Yale, Harvard,.......... and my classroom is "The White House". (which means insane asylum in Korean according to the kids). Well the youngest group of kids is in Berkeley (5yrs old in Korean yrs. - 4yrs old in Western yrs.) Apparantly I have the next Rain Man in this class. "Chan" is a genius. I held up picture cards b/c I wanted the kids to say "apples" and "oranges" and "shoes"...... and the BIG one...... "caterpillar". I hold up the picture card for oranges and say, "What's THIS?" Chan immediately replies "17 oranges". The back of the card said 17 but there was no way for him to see it. Just to make sure I held up another card and covered the # on the back.. "Eleven oranges". I got tingly all over and held up more cards. Sure enough, he called out how many items were on each card. Eerie. So I told the korean teachers and they said, "Yeah, he likes math." I explained that he counted each group in under 2 seconds and they said he might go to the hogwon that shows you pictures with dots and have you memorize the image as a number. The kid hasn't even been on THIS PLANET for 5 years. What the hell?
Then there is my Harvard class, in which the students are 6 or 7 and very good at English. There are only 3 boys in this class. All very unique characters. It's the first class I teach every day, and I usually teach them Science. Here's what starts my smile every day:

(coloring pictures)

Hans: Why you is coloring hair orange?
Me: Some people have orange hair.
Hans: Your hair is yellow.
Me: Yes. In America, people have many different colors of hair.
Hans: And skin. (puts his arm next to mine) why you is this color?
Me: In America, people have many different skin colors too.
Jaime: Yes, some children skin is brown. I read a book!

Me: (reading science book) "Where does water come from?"
Jaime: (mocking me) "Where does water come from?"
I look over and his legs are crossed as he's sitting poised, with his shoe perfectly balanced on his head.
Hans: Where DOES water come from?
Me: Andy, why don't you read it so we can find out.
Andy: "Water comes from rain and snow. It lands in ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans....."
Me: So Hans, where does water come from?
Hans: rain
Me: And....?
Hans: God.
Hans: God gives me water.

2005-11-30T04:15:00.000-08:00

Lawrence Ladies

These 2 fine looking females are my sister and grandmother (father's side). They are very cool and both seem MUCH younger than their actual age. Jenn lives in New Orleans (mardi gras girl) and was lucky to have her house left untouched through the recent tragedy. Grandmom lives in Pennsylvania - still very sad about not getting the chance to visit her before I hopped the plane to come over here. I miss them both and can't wait to hang with them again next summer.
In the meantime, Korea's getting colder and grandmom just sent me a cozy sweatshirt that I'll prolly wear every day. Thanks grandmom!

2005-11-24T05:46:00.000-08:00

This is a beautiful photo my Korean-American friend sent me from up north. I absolutely love this shot and asked him if I could have it blown up for my wall. (thanks Ted). Well I went to the studio to pick it up today and they said the quality was distorted but they can make me a small size. I was terribly disappointed, but life goes on.

SO.... it's national "kill a turkey day" in my home country. Families are gathered around delicious food (and an innocent bird) to celebrate some white guy bumping into an already- discovered land and killing off the people who were happy there (and kind enough to help Chris, prolly felt bad for the doof who thought the world was flat.)

No, Korea doesn't celebrate this occasion; everyone keeps asking if I had to work today. I guess the POINT is to be "thankful" and what better way to spend the day than with 70 kids who love and appreciate you. I walked into work this morning to "Linda"; a 4yr old in a ruffled, pink, velvet dress who put her hands above her head (heart shape) and said, "I love you Nicooole Teacheeer!" Yeah, I'm thankful.

2005-11-21T08:42:00.000-08:00

Nicole in not-so-rare form:

The "foreigners bars" in Korea FREAK ME OUT. I've gone to several & I get a really bad vibe every time............ from who? The foreigners. I've been out in Seoul, Busan, and Daejeon and always get uncomfortable. I turn from the wild party girl to a scared little girl in the corner; guess it's the large number of loser guys who come here for the Asian ladies - can't find a girlfriend in my own country, so I'll go where the women love Americans (or westerners). I've had plenty of guys come right out and SAY that's why. One Korean-American from Connecticut (who speaks no Korean) was a riot to hang out with up in Seoul. But when I asked him why he came to teach, he said, "To get laid." His friends had come over before him and told him "how easy it is." Wow. Poor kids. I look around at a lot of these foreign teachers and wonder what they're like in the class room. I've yet to meet one person who says they came for the experience of teaching the kids and helping them learn English. Usually it's for easy dating or b/c they couldn't find a better job in their own country. Hmmm.
Anyway, there was ONE "foreigners bar" in downtown Daejeon that I actually had a good time at. Vibe is there, but not AS BAD - owned by a guy who used to teach at my school. It's called J ROCK. So this saturday I went back there with my friend Danien. We had a really good time again, but sometimes I have to MAKE my own fun. (foreshadowing).
Ok, we enter and see a Korean teacher he works with and her friend. So we join the ladies and I buy Tequila shots. (THAT will make me more comfortable). There's a large crowd of white men standing by the bar, giving me the eye (gross) and I pretend not to see them. Then 4 korean guys come running in & head straight for the dance floor, jumping up & down, having a blast! They looked like so much fun. (really good dancers, turned out to be a band) Of course a song comes on I want to dance to and I join the boy band. They were SO FUN and NOT HITTING ON ME. I hung out with them the whole night; we even got Danien and the girls up on the dance floor for most of the songs. Justin the DJ is really good and he played "I like to move it move it" as soon as I requested it. So he's the best DJ ever. Danien went up to get a beer and heard the tall blond guy say, "I can't believe she's talking to a Korean guy!" ummm, buddy, you're IN KOREA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course I made a BIG spectacle then, giving all the guys HUGS and kisses on the cheek. Then the song "pretty fly for a white guy came on" and I sang it REALLY loudly, pointing to all the white guys at the bar. Then 2 of the korean guys started pointing, not realizing what I was doing, and I told them not to do that (while laughing hysterically).
And the best part, I finally found a curfew that beats New York. We left at 5:30 am and the place was still jumpin. Good times, great oldies.

2005-11-21T08:31:00.001-08:00

Momma cat and her baby butterfly

My 2 girls, Jennifer & Violet Nicole Flanagan dressed up in Vegas for Halloween.

2005-11-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

THANKS

This trip has made me realize a lot. Some things, it's just made me appreciate even more than I already did: like the wonderful people in my life. I have some of the most amazing friends and I'm thankful for it every day, but I just wanna take a minute to thank some of you individually.

To my family, my best friend Debbie, and Mario... thank you for EVERYTHING. The site isn't big enought to mention details, but you have been there through everything, from supporting me in this adventure to making me happy in general over the years. Love you long time.

These are a few people whose thoughtful gifts have helped so much in these first few months of Korea. (sorry if I leave anyone out, but the gold statue's getting heavy and the lights are bright up here):

Tina : Without the C.D. you made me, I couldn't mop my apt. while screaming "I like to move it move it" and drinking cheap champagne.

Phil : Thanks for opening so many doors for me. Not only did our voyage overseas make me realize that there's too much in this world to sit in one state (whether that "state" be a comfort pacified by mundan routine or NY.) That trip also created beautiful photos, beautiful memories, and a passport that's good til 2008. I wouldn't have been able to jump on this opportunity w/o a passport.

Wally: oh, American candy. What would I do w/o chocolate and real gum? I couldn't get the vitamins I need over here (B12 is unheard of b/c vegetarians are unheard of and it's a vitamin that comes from MEAT) Not to mention the other things I need and Wally's world was kind enought to send overseas. The funny emails and health tips are equally appreciated. Thanks for making me smile.

Barbara: The HEARO earplugs will be treasured forever. Swimming has always been my thing and I've had ear problems since I was a toddler (surgery & all). Thanks to you, I can swim like a normal person now and the koreans don't look at me funny for jumping up & down on one leg. Just for being blond. And thank you for all our great talks at the pool, I miss them. The pool club members were a great part of my life before I left NY and I can't wait to join the luncheons again!

Jenn & Rian: I keep calling this "an experience", but thank you for including me in your experience just before I left. It means the world to me. AND, thanks for looking up vital info on the computer the day before my flight. I might've ended up in NORTH KOREA otherwise.

Angela: Thanks for being the responsible one in the family. You taking care of my bills and whatnot is the biggest help. I would've said you were included in the opening statement (the "family" part) ... but you were adopted. Ha Ha Ha!

Mary & Theresa: What I miss most about America is the food. THANK YOU

Sue: Thanks for the Korean culture book, ( u 2 tina) I've avoided culture shock and not stepped on anyone's little toes. You and your family are great people.

Mike: thanks for the fuzzy red sox blanket and hat - they will keep me warm through this approaching winter. The Halloween cd for the kids was priceless too!

Helping me set up this site and charging my ipod. Jeez, you're a good guy!

And thanks to the many who keep offering to send me packages. "I'm fiiine, thank you." Thanks to the 2 people who offered to buy my ticket home if this didn't work out. Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch and being the kind of people you are.

ya know what, while I'm at it.... thanks mom. For teaching me to care about people, but not what people think. For raising me to be an ignorant child - ignorant of "differences" in society. For going with less food on your plate so I could have more on mine - and making me appreciate things in life only a "poor" child can appreciate. Thanks for filling our home with animals and love. Thanks for not babying me, but ALWAYS letting me know you were there for me 100%. Thanks for all the double stuffed orios and beating up my middle school principal.

You are all in my thoughts and I miss you.

(But this will be the ONLY sappy moment you witness for years.)

2005-11-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

SCARY
I usually do "sexy" for Halloween (which happens to be the SAME word in the Korean language). Last year I was "tough kitty" and the year before that, a playboy bunny. Didn't think either of those would be appropriate for the children, so I decided to scare the crap out of them instead. The school wants them to experience a true "American Halloween" anyway. So I dressed all in black, dyed the hair dark for a day, put in some plastic fangs a friend sent me, and pulled a peel-off face mask partially off so it looked like my skin was rotting. Of course there was LOTS of black eyeliner and a little "blood" on my chin. I greeted all the teachers by waiting on our floor and AS SOON as the elevator doors opened, I lunged at them and screamed. Made a few kids cry and accidentally got some strangers who were merely on their way down to the 1st floor. They don't celebrate Halloween in Korea, so they were like, "What the...?" and frantically pushed the buttons. WOOPS! The other foreign teachers had great costumes too - Taunia & Greer were witches ( so was Ruby, see above, she's a favorite of Greer's and mine) I'm sure you can guess which one is Dan. We did a haunted house: dark lights, jack-o-lanterns, scary music. We hid and jumped out at them once they entered and eventually handed out candy. During our lunch break, I went to the hardware store and bought some rope to HANG myself for the older kids. I must say, this was probably my funnest Halloween EVER!!!!

2005-11-02T05:46:00.000-08:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I don't know the little girl's name, but she's cute as a dickens and runs up to me EVERY morning to say hello. The teacher of this class if Piby. Isn't SHE adorable too? Unfortunately Friday (the Halloween Party) was her last day. Why?

She's getting married of course.

2005-10-20T04:03:00.000-07:00

You say Potatoe I say PO-TA-TO:

Younger children dressed in their school uniforms on a recent trip to a SWEET POTATO field. We helped them dig up a zillion potatoes & brought them back to school. Unfortunately, Greer and I aren't the biggest fans of sweet potatoes (wish we went to a chocolate field). They put corn and sweet potatoes on pizza here. gross. My new favorite lunch item is pineapple pizza with hot sauce. ok, tangent. Greer is wearing a black shirt & white glove, Sunny teacher is wearing the green shirt. I can't express how fortunate I am to be working with all the teachers at my school. I've met other foreign teachers in the area and ........ my mother always told me if you've got nothin nice to say.... keep your damn mouth shut.
Today our school went to see the musical Aladdin. It was good. No Pants Dan traumtized a child from another school..... and he had his pants on.

2005-10-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

Wedding

Since I've been at "Little America" ( 2 1/2 months now) we've had 3 receptionists. Why? Because most women in Korea still quit their jobs when they get married to become housewives. This is Daisy. (well that's her English name) She was the receptionist when I arrived - GREAT GIRL, very good w/computers & other modern technology (which came in handy for me, don't know how I created this blog). We were sad to see her go but happy she invited us all to her wedding. This was the western style ceremony (the korean part was family only). It was a GORGEOUS fairytale wedding, but there were a few things I didn't understand. Like why EVERYONE was talking loudly while they were saying their vows. Why there was another bride waiting in the room to get married, like a pitcher in a bullpen, why the huge chandeliers started flashing like disco balls after they said "I do", and why everyone got lunch tickets and ate at a buffet with the guests of 4 other weddings. The best part was the display of wedding photos upon entering the hall. There were about 10 beautiful professional photos of the couple, some of the BEST I've ever seen. Each shot more elegant than the next, except the one with them both wearing tight leather, her on her knees in front of him standing w/some kind of whip???? What? Actually, it was a tough call b/t that and the boy with the rainbow mullet. I know you love that one Ang.

2005-10-18T04:45:00.000-07:00

Traditional Homes

We brought the little ones, now being raised in a society flooded with Western Culture, to see what life was like only 30 years ago for some of our teachers. Life is STILL like this for some people in Korea today. I WISH I was placed in a traditional house; my apartment's nice but these houses are SO much cooler! Take a look at the architectual designs - always loved the roofs. There's a park in my area with houses built in 1643, still in great shape. Now, they're putting up sky scrapers in days. Scary. They built a restaurant next to my building in 3 days!
The children are sitting on Pots that held food. Everything done by hand, no McDonalds drive tru back then. The teacher in the photo is Dan, we like to call him "no pants dan". He and his fiance, Greer, are from New Zealand. They're what my mother would call "good people".

2005-10-16T04:54:00.000-07:00

Korean Logic

Okay, 1st let me assure you that I LOVE Korea. There are SO many things I like better about living here than in America. Like taking off my shoes when I enter a building or sharing food with others........ how the people are honest and respectful and soft-spoken (until they yell, wooh! then watch out!) I love how cheap the food is, even if most of it's not to my liking and most of it has some form of animal mixed in.

However, there are some "ways" about Korea that I will never understand. In some cases, there is absolutely NO logic applied to the thinking of (beware of stereotypes) Korean people. Let's start with DRIVING: I mean, this is one of the most advanced countries when it comes to areas of Science & technology..... but they still haven't figured out the concept of RED LIGHTS or traffic rules in general. It's almost a joke among us foreigners; we'll tell the taxi driver in English that red means "stop". They NEVER stop. There are constantly accidents. I don't know if there IS a speed limit. There are major intersections w/o signs. I think it's great that Korea has zero tolerance for drugs & weapons... but it would be nice if they applied some traffic laws. It's like drive at your own risk. And people walk in the street, let their children walk in the streets. Mopeds go WHEREVER they want and parking, HA! Park wherever. Maybe it's b/c the cops are half my size and hold hands. Men hold hands here, and women... but homosexuality is a "disease from America" (can be avoided by eating kimchi).

Wooh, thank GOD.

Now, let's talk about FAN DEATH. Did you know that if you leave your fan on with the windows closed.... you will die. YEP. 16 people died last summer from it. The fan creates a "vacuum" and "eats all the oxygen". Then there are the HOSPITALS: the real hospitals and the clinics they call hospitals. If you have the slightest cold they make you go to the hospital. If you have anything serious, they hospitalize you for weeks or even months. And it doesn't matter WHICH doctor you're going to .... you always get a shot in the butt. Nobody has been able to explain WHAT the shot is yet, so I denied the shot at my dr. visit last week. It was a frigging nose/ear/throat specialist! Why are you giving people shots in the butt??? Oh, when my co-worker went for a fever, they did everything but take her temperature. But don't worry, she got a shot in the butt!

Then this past weekend I went to Busan to visit a teacher I met. Her friend came with us to the store....... 3 independent blond girls walking down the street. Guess what happened. I heard a girl shriek and turned just in time to see a man hit his girlfriend/wife HARD across the face. Knocked her to the ground. He immediately put his hand to his hip and looked at his watch like, "how long is it gonna take THIS time." She stayed down, in the middle of the street, for a while. We stood there looking at him. I suggested picking up something HEAVY but the girls reminded me that we'd get deported. It was the 1st time for all of us to witness such a scene, but we were all told that "men often beat their women in the streets" and that we're "NOT to get involved". What? If I didn't think she'd be back w/him the next morning....... he'd be in the hospital. Further down the block we entered the store and Blake put her cigarette out in the street b/c there are no garbage cans (anywhere in Korea it seems - very strange). You wouldn't think it'd matter b/c the streets were full of debris and posters from the film festival that day. But as we were deciding which orange juice to buy a police officer tapped her on the shoulder and escorted her from the store. For a minute, I actually thought he needed a witness for what just happened outside, but no. He made her pick up the gigarette butt and put it in a random BOX. Afterwards, my friend Janneke explained that Blake was lucky she didn't get a ticket... b/c it's illegal for women under 50 to smoke in public streets. Not sure if that's all of Korea...... but if that's true........ and I'm not even gonna comment on the double barber polls. Yes I am. If you see one spinning poll, go in & get your hair cut. If you see 2, go in and get a prostitute. They're EVERYWHERE.

Well, I guess you gotta take the good with the bad. And I'm sure America has a plethora of it's own weird habits...... a zillion situations that seem to lack logic. I just had to share the things that are "different" and make me shake my head.

2005-10-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

2005-10-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

Vivian,

ahhh VIV! This was her New yrs eve party she threw last yr and her 24th b-day w/her good friends LInda & Dana (all college buds) It looks like I won't be celebrating new yrs the same way this year, seeing Korea celebrates the LUNAR NEW YEAR. However, New Yr.s Eve is my FAVORITE holiday and it lands on a Saturday this year. Perhaps there will be a party at my apartment. By the way, for those of you who don't know... I don't give presents celebrating the birth of Jesus, immaculate my ass, so if you get a present or card, it'll be for NEW YEAR's.

2005-10-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

As soon as I landed in Korea, I knew I loved it here. My children are beyond adorable and I'm meeting lots of cool people to hang out with.Amy was the 1st b-day party we had in class (she's one of my favorite) & the other Photo is from my VISA run to Japan. Scott (far back) lives in my city & is a paraglider. Frank is the bench coach for Japan's baseballe team.

2005-10-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

Speaking of FAMILY, thought I'd share a couple shots I treasure. The lady in Pink is my sister Jenn (paternal side) at Mardi Gras last yr. She lives in New Orleans, well did. Hopefully there will be a Mardi Gras next yr. because her costumes always get better & better!
The gentlemen in the lower photo are my mom's brother Danny, who has his arm around his son Brendan, and their other brother (my uncle Eddie) on the right. I will post pics of their third brother Tommy when I get one. Oh, she has stories as the youngest & only girl.

2005-10-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

I became an AUNT 4 times shortly before I left home. Both my brothers had babies (My brother Anthony had Jessie, top photo in yellow jammies)(no pic of Austin, my brother John's son); The other baby (in blue) is John- my cousin Samantha's son. He was being born at the same exact time as my niece Violet (the naked baby). I was in the delivery room with her parents (Jenn & Rian) who are basically family. She was the only baby I got to see - the others will all be a yr old when I meet them.

2005-10-01T05:21:00.000-07:00

Just before I left, my housemate Mario gave me the BEST going away present ever!!! He got tickets to a Red Sox game....... but laughed in my face when the Yankees beat us. Errr! But we'll see how loud he's laughing after Tomorrow. (Love you MARIO)

2005-10-01T05:01:00.000-07:00

These are some of my closest friends I've left behind in New York. I always have a BLAST with my best friend (Debbie) from college, best friend from High School (Kristin) and her fiance Dima. Aimee (brown shirt) is our sexy party girlfriend and Scott (also sexy) made the group complete when we all went to Wildwood, NJ to show them just how "WILD" New Yorkers can be. :O)

2005-10-01T00:05:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a spontaneous nut job and how I packed my bags last minute to teach English here in Korea. I love my adventure so far..... and I want to share my crazy life with you all. So I'll be adding stories and pictures whenever possible. Here are a few to start you off: