The Korean Sport of Subway Pushing

So did I kill this blog by not posting in four months?

~segway~

A few days ago Chris and I watched with disgust as a hoard of elderly ladies tried to get on the subway before anyone had gotten out. An elderly man struggled with them for a few seconds, until he pushed with his arms and yelled something in Korean, clearing them like bowling pins just enough to get through. He was then followed by a woman with a stroller and some other people. Why don't people wait? Why are they so selfish? Usually when it's this crowded there's not even room for people to get on until the others are off anyway, but it still happens. I don't like having to push people out of the way, and it just burns me when I get pushed by an inconsiderate person who runs to cut in front of me, or jostles me off balance. I am so close to slugging them sometimes it's not funny. The social norm is to slightly bump people so you can get through rather than saying "excuse me" or something, but the social norm for many is also to not move when you are bumped, because otherwise you may lose your spot. I never get over the people who walk into the subway and then stop right in the doorway, as if there is no one behind them trying to get in too.

My point is that it's not good; the selfish behaviour and also my attitude. It's on par with road rage. It can wreck an otherwise happy morning for me, being angry at someone who doesn't know I'm there. I need to let it go, and not with the consolation that they are such a stupid selfish person and next time I will be ready with an umbrella or a spraybottle or my fist... because one day I will be that person, hopefully never on purpose, but oblivious to someone else and how I cut them off or knocked them out of their happy day into a seething pit of doom.

~end of segway~

Chris and I have decided to work another year in Korea. Our last day is June 12, and a week later we will be flying back to Canada to once again become wondering nomads visiting people for two months. Were basically doing the Ontatio circuit, with main stops being Barwick, Toronto and Windsor, and we will fly back in the fourth week of August sometime.

A lot has happened to come to this point -we were even really close to quitting a couple times, but I'm glad we persevered.

I've been realising that mostly it's just so easy to complain about what is wrong than to cherish the blessings I do have. There are always co-workers who do stupid things or annoy me, children who decide to not listen, or sneeze in my food. See here I am complaining. Kindergarten is a hectic place. It's not that the work is hard, it just takes so much effort to keep it good, keep it happy. To discipline children all day while still teaching and then playing with the kids too, like kids can play, it's draining. But my blessings - Chris, a job, a place, people I could call if I needed help, family I can talk to on Skype =D, and God is always there, always waiting.

Kay =)


These guys we named Aslan and Donkey Kong - parking space holders in front of a bar near our house.

Putting the 'pro' in procrastination

Well, as the title of this entry would show, we've been experts in the art of putting off these posts (not so much intentionally, but I'm always of the mind the True Ultimate Masters of Procrastination (TM) are so good at putting things off they no longer need to consciously be aware of things they're putting off). As there are a number of other things I could be doing now, it's thus the best time to shove those aside in favour of this blog posting. Actually it's kind of the contrary as I still have an hour left at work and I find myself more prepared than I regularly am for the next day/week/etc in classes.

So I guess last we left off, we were just beginning December which means there's a whole lot of updating to do. For December field trips we went to the post office first. The students made cards for their parents and as a surprise were going to put them in the mail as opposed to just giving them so they ended up reaching the parents near Christmas. We were also going to learn all about the post office but it happened to be very slamtastically busy that day and we just ended up getting the kids there, stamping and mailing it all, then turning around and coming back. Our *real* field trip however was a very cool production of the Nutcracker for kids (it was very modernized and used an entirely different score of music than the traditional). It had a lot of dance, colours, lightshow effects and the kids loved it; it was a *tiny* bit too long at an hour and a half but still good enough to keep
the kids engaged until the end (they were starting to squirm a bit near the finish from sitting so long and paying attention). Images below:

Most of the rest of December was spent rehearsing ad nauseum for our Christmas performance, which the parents ended up loving so it must have been worth it. It was a bit stressful, and I think the kids got really tired of doing the same things over and over, but in the end people seemed happy. I was even given flowers from the father of one of my students as a gift. I think it was the first time ever a man has ever given me flowers (Ladies, you never told me how nice that is :P).
The parents also gifted Kay and I with a number of really impressive looking confections (they were filled with some kind of sugary sweet potato filling that was really hard to eat more than one of... but they looked really cool!) and a bottle of red wine (which we regifted to our pastor as we don't drink... but shhhh, don't tell). All in all it was *very* nice to start our vacation on the 19th.

We started our vacation with a trip to Costco compliments of our pastor, Steve Chang. It was soo nice to be able to stock up on certain things that are relatively unfindable in regular stores and available in bulk if you can get a car to Costco. Interestingly enough, they only take cash or a Samsung card there (no debit or other credit cards...) so we ended up letting Steve pay and then wiring the money to him online afterwards. We did fairly well there, though the price of everything imported has risen a lot in past months. We splurged on cheese, muffins, large quantities of pasta sauce and other condiments though and are managed to have a pretty enjoyable Christmas foodwise because of it.

The next day we went to pick up our new child. We're up to four now though we miss the ones we left in North America. Here are a few snaps of her... she has twoish names in a sense as Kay calls her Miss Fitz and I just call her Misfit (or whatever comes to mind when I look at her). She's a purebred Russian Blue... people in Korea only seem to be interested in purebred animals (there's a bit of trophyism here) and her story is that she was adopted by a Korean family who kept her until she first went into heat. They were horrified at how a female cat acts in heat and sent her back to the vet to be put down. The vet, at least, was compassionate and kept her to find someone else to adopt her. She was taken in by another foreign teacher from Ireland, who cared for her until she realized that Ireland has really strict quarantine laws for animals and that the cat would have to be in quarantine for a month on coming into the country. She put up a posting for someone else to adopt the kitty, preferably from the US or Canada where the rules are a little less strict. She had already invested in getting her spayed though, which was a big difference for us as it's still pretty pricey here. We spent 2 hours each direction on the subway just to pick her up (the way home was a bit stressful for her, but she's doing very well and is a very happy, loving cat that has huge Random Awkward Playful Attack Fits of Doom (also TM).



I haven't even gotten into our vacation yet and there's only 15 minutes left, so I need to pack up... I'll have to do more later.

Until then!

Overdue

Well, it's been almost a month since our last post, so I'm going to put up a short posting sans pictures (they'll go up later) to catch people up on some highlights (as much as I can remember of significant things :)).

November has been a rough month healthwise. November has been Kay's turn to have a nasty case of bronchitis. Our systems are still finding all new and less-than-exciting challenges with the environment and cuisine even after a few months of being here. I'm pretty much better though I had some throat issues and.. my very first mouth ulcer. That's what the doctor called it anyway, I just knew it was kind of like a canker sore on steroids with an energizer battery (it kept going and going). It's since gone away on its own (though I might be starting to get another one... urk!). Kay has had a rough time with the bronchial virus, hacking and coughing. It seems to be getting a *tiny* bit better from what I can tell but it's still long. She also managed to do something to her ribs/back so it's painful when she coughs too hard and feels like something is a tiny bit out of place. It's already shifted once and seems to have gotten a bit better since at first.

Outside of health, it's been a fairly busy month. Our themes for November (and most of December) have revolved around multiculturalism... learning about countries, flags, anthems, traditional clothing and foods, etc from different parts of the world. We also had a week for American Thanksgiving which involved inviting all the grandparents of the students to join us for our 'Thanksgiving Feast' and take part in a special cooking class where they each made a cake with their grandchildren (some elderly from the church congregation were invited as well as some students didn't have grandparents who could make it).

We actually had an extra two days off for Thanksgiving, which was really nice (Thurs, Fri off leading into the weekend). In celebration, Kay and I went out to Lotte World (apparently pronounced -'Lu-teh' but we pronounce it 'lotta' because it that's how we saw it first and it makes for a whole lotte jokes ;) (I suspect a good 70%+ of every consumer product you can buy in a grocery store is somehow from Lotte). Anyway, Lotte World is a big amusement/theme park (partly indoor, West Edmonton Mall style, and partly outdoor). We ended up going in the morning and getting day passes (we stayed pretty much the whole day). It was sensory overload... a lot to see, ride on, hear.. it was kind of like their version of a Disneyland in some ways (though not as big... it was still pretty fair sized).

We'll try to put some pictures up for the month and post more content (I have about 5 minutes until my next class so I need to sign off); I'm sure I've overlooked a lot of stuff to mention.

'til the next post!

a ladybug, a bee, and some kittens.

Well I think it's about time for a blog entry...

I am starting to find a few food items that I really like, such as aloe juice, sesame seeds, and mandu (pork dumplings.) We get aloe juice every grocery run now, we bought a huge container of sesame seeds, and we found a really great dumpling place where they are served as soon as they are done because of the line up for 1500 won each. I also should mention the soooooo good ice cream bars called Black Crunch Bars by Lotte. It's basically an Oreo cookie with chocolate and cookie pieces as vanilla ice cream, but really really good. We found them on sale the first time, and when we went back tot hat store they were still on sale so we bought 6 bags of them =P.

The kittens I found by our school were moved a few times by their mother to actually pretty good hiding places in the front gardens of apartment building. The last one had an open window we could see into the basement, so they can have some warmth in the winter. We had it in our minds to take two home, as there were only two left, but now that they are older, we couldn't catch them. So we fed them and that's that... =(

In school Chris is up to six students with a seventh coming on Monday, and I am up to five, the latest addition being twin girls. They are very sweet and mainly only fight with each other, although hey still don't understand that we don't speak Korean and they talk to us a lot... We went on a field trip to a bear farm on the 24th, which had lots of activities and bears that we didn't actually get to see because it started to rain. Chris' wedding ring slipped off at some point and we didn't find it. They made an announcement but there were so many places it could have fallen to never be seen again. Ironically it's made of tungsten carbide, so it will last forever, wherever it is. The farm gave everyone chestnuts to take home so I had some fun cooking them. The first bunch I boiled for too long which produced mush. This was painstaking to separate from the shells. I tried to save it by frying it with some sugar and a chocolate bar, but I can say I'm never doing that again. The second batch I steamed and they worked, but still tasted very not exciting.

At church on Sunday they had a Canadian cuisine pot-luck lunch. I wore the only Canadian thing I had, my red Canada winter hat, and we brought a cake. There were quite a few good things though, like waffles, pizza, sandwiches and applesauce.

We had a Halloween fun day on Friday, which besides being stressful and exhausting turned out some interesting costumes. I made candy apples with the kids and Chris took them on a pinata treasure hunt. Do Hyun won best costume for being a cowboy, and was really happy to shoot me...

Kay =)
oh yes, and after two months of avoiding it, I now have a cold. Chris still has a lingering cough.

Life and Death

Hi.

This week the pond in the school yard got a bit low, and one of our students grabbed the only surviving fish and squeezed it until it's eye popped out. The fish lived, and now has one eye. The boy had a half day detention, and we had a long talk with his mother, who was quite shocked... but so were we.

The same day Wednesday, in the morning I was gathering leaves for a school activity in the park beside our school, and I discovered a nest of 3-week old kittens. They were so cute! all tiny and orange, with their eyes and ears open, but no teeth yet. I kept checking on them throughout the day and then after school their mother was back, which was really glad for because I wasn't sure what to do about them. She picked a good spot for the nest because we'd walked by it so many times and never knew it was there. Friday someone had build a roof shelter over the spot they were nesting in. At lunch recess one of the kittens got adventurous and wobbled over to the school's fence and tried to come underneath it. All the kids saw it and after I told them to be more quiet (they were yelling excitedly) I ushered them away so the Mom would retrieve her kitten. And then they were gone. After school they were simply no longer there. A man who looked like a security guard of some sort brought a dish with some food in it and took away an empty one and paused to look confused because the cats weren't there. So we figure either the mother cat moved her babies to a more secluded spot, or someone came and took all of them... =( I just hope they are ok.

We tried the movie theater near our house, and because we were splurging, bought the 10,000 Won snack combo which came with two kinds of popcorn, nachos, two pops and of course a bag of fish pieces.

We thought we wouldn't be doing anything for Thanksgiving, but at church a bunch of people decided otherwise, because of the number of Canadians attending, that we should all go out for lunch to Ashley's American Grill. Yes, we saw the irony, but there were no restaurants with Canada in the name. We all had the salad bar buffet which is more of a buffet and less about salad, but still very good food. Cheesecake mmm. =)

Today we went on a field trip to a fire station. The bus driver got lost on the way there, but once we arrived it was pretty cool. They had four different hands-on activities the kids could do. the first was where they had to call 119 (that's what it is here) and then 'put out' a fire on a screen by spraying it with fire extinguishers that shot water. =) it was fun - yes I did it too. There were two different mazes you had to go through in the dark with fog... as if you were escaping a burning building, and the last was a simulation of an earthquake in a kitchen. Basically we hid under the table and got shaken up... a couple of the kids were too scared to do the last ones. Poor Ye Jun, he started to cry when we were in the first maze and a door we opened flashed a bright red light, like it was fire, and he pretty much didn't stop crying until we were done doing activities. Then I remembered that although he is in my class of 5 year olds, he's still 4, which by North American age measurement would be 3. They are all so little.

Chris has another student who started today, so he's up to 6 kids, and we got word of another who will start in a few more weeks, also a girl (yay!) although he's teaching more than half the school now. I'm sure more kids will come soon, but I'm starting to think they will all come at once, in March when the Korean school year starts... which could turn out to be pretty interesting.

Kay =)

A Blog out of time

So much happened this week! When I think of it all I’m surprised it was all in one week, which technically still isn’t over yet.

Sunday we found our church! We went to Hallelujah Christian Church in the area of Seongnam where we work called Yatap, and we liked it a lot. It’s the biggest church I have ever seen, with it’s own bus route to pick people up, but the English service is about 30-40 people, and kind of remind me of IVCF, but with a lot more adults… =). The people were friendly, the message was good, and the music was great (although a tad loud) but nothing is perfect. We will definitely go back. http://hem.hcc.or.kr/

Tuesday we finally got our alien registration cards, which means we are legal registered foreigners, and they can’t just kick us out on a whim. We also went and after much time got bank accounts – and got paid! Yay! Even banks are different here, we couldn’t have a joint account which confused us, so we just got one under Chris’ name, and then I had to go back and get one for me, because the school would not pay me into Chris’. Anyway it happened, and then Thursday we transferred money over to pay our credit card and loans. They said it would take a few days, but it was there in a few hours. Double yay! It felt really good to be able to put something on to Chris’ loans, even if it barely made a dent… We also got a cell phone, after much communication efforts at a local dealer who did not speak english, but who was very nice. And we discovered after one month of living here, that there is a fantastic garden on our roof, with a mini put with 4 holes.

Friday was a holiday – Foundation Day, celebrating when the first part of South Korea was founded, more than 4000 years ago! So we thought it fitting to go visit the restored ruins of a palace in Seoul. An 70 min Subway ride got us there just after noon, and we were immediately swamped by groups of university students wanting to take a picture with us… this confused us until one of them mentioned it was homework and they had a list of English words to say. It felt really strange though, because we were surrounded by the palace guards who are not aloud to change face expression or acknowledge anyone while tons of people get their pictures taken with them. I did too, just because. After a while of exploring the palace area buildings we went out for lunch. Suddenly starving we went to the first thing we saw, which was called The Restaurant, although it turned out to be very pricey and mostly fish. =( but it was something. Beside the palace area was the Korean Folk Museum, so we explored that too, which in some ways was better because it was a lot more varied. So, we took tons of pictures and I will post them on facebook at some point =). Supper consisted of egg, cabbage, ham, and cheese sandwiches we bought in the Subway when we were switching lines, and I am sad to say I greatly preferred it to lunch. And I can’t forget ice cream sticks from Paris Baguette. They are so good. =)


Our work week is still very exhausting and sometimes very tough, but they are still trying to change it so it is better. Chris got more antibiotics, and is improving but still tired more easily. Thank you for your prayers,

Kay =)

p.s. I also made cookies in a pan...

Experiences Galore!

Chris was off of work this entire week. Friday he went to the doctor and discovered that he not only had bronchitis (for three weeks now) but had also recently developed sinusitis, and rhinitis, which are fancy ways of saying sinus infection. So needless to say, he is now on better medication, and doing better. Last night he slept through the night for the first time in a long time. =)

Friday was also a field trip, we packed up the kids and went to an Batangul Art Center, which was an hour drive away. Sigh… I am tired just thinking about it. For only having ten kids, it was a lot harder to keep them all together and quiet/not toughing things than it should have been, but I was glad the actual walking around looking at art part was only half an hour. After lunch they all painted T-shirts to bring home, and then were herded into a large auditorium where another school was waiting to watch a movie about… a piece of poo. Seriously, Poo. And it lasted about 45 minutes! Everyone there thought this was normal. Ok, it was stop animation, and was supposed to teach the kids about fertilizing, what plants need to grow, and the seasons, but the main character was a cute little piece of poo left by a dog on the side of a country road. It cried a lot because it was alone, and there was so much emotion it made the youngest of my kids cry. It ended somewhat happily though as the poo became fertilizer in the spring for a weed that grew out around it, and then it wasn’t alone anymore and it stopped crying. The End. It was very well done, the animation and the sound, but I was not impressed. On the way home three kids in the back of the bus with me all fell asleep, and one in the front did too.

We’re starting to discover more of our neighborhood, including a pizza school three blocks away that has 5,000 Won pizzas ($5) and a shopping mall with a theater and a Subway restaurant. =) We went there on Thursday night for supper as a treat. The prices are pretty much the same, but I must say the chicken teriyaki is definitely better. Someday soon we will try the theater, they have some Hollywood films, that seem to be a few months behind when we would have them in Canada, right now it’s Mama Mia, and HellBoy II, which were out in July.

Last Sunday we went to a small English service at a church for the first time. The people were very nice, and kept us after for lunch, but it wasn’t what we were expecting. The singing kind of reminded me of bad karaoke, it was very heartfelt, but lead by a man who was tone deaf and very enthusiastic. I kept telling myself that it’s not about what it sounds like, but about praising God, which the people were very enthusiastically doing. The sermon was kind of like Sunday school for kids, because almost everyone there was speaking English as a second language – so the pastor spoke slowly, simply and used lots of pictures. Needles to say I think we will look around for some other English congregations, maybe even for one that is closer.

But the school is coming along, I’m getting more used to teaching young kids who don’t understand me – and there have been some fun times too.

Kay =)