Under the Rule of Ginseng

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my co-teacher maria is da bomb. sincerely. she picked me up from orienation and whisked me away after we awkwardly held hands because we had no idea how to greet each other. we left very fast so i didn't get to say goodbye very well to people but hopefully i'll be seeing many of them soon. we got in the car and i asked her name and she said" kdsfjlkdjglsd" (that's how i write korean with my american computer,
"but just call me maria, i am catholic."
will do maria! at first i was nervous about what to say to her especially because her english is decent but nowhere near fluent so conversation was very stop and go. we had a two hour car ride so i knew i had to keep conversation going because i didn't want be a dud. i found out maria just started teaching again after a seventeen year break! when i asked what she was doing those seventeen years?
"mountain climbing."
AWESOME! she is so sound of music. the woman is 56, or 57 in korean years. in korea you are instantly one years old when born, i still haven't figured out the nuances behind that. she already impressed me with her athletic ability and then i found out she is a traveling woman. well hell yeah maria! she always wears a green necklace of beads from turkey and she wants to go to egypt this winter with her friend. maria's husband wants her to go with him to china, but she thinks that is boring. for a married woman she is quite independent. she lives alone since her husband lives in another city for his work. she prefers it. he called her and asked to speak to me so he yelled some korean at me while i said "annyo haseo??" and laughed. maria also kept saying to me," my son is 25, you are 23!" and then laugh. this happened mulitiple time so i don't know what she's up to but it scares me.

we arrived in geumsan (usually prnounced keumsan) and saw the massive ginseing monster welcoming us to the small little city. ginseing is huge in this area and the ginseing festival is starting this week i believe. geumsan is one of the largest producers of ginseing and they are PROUD. why else would there be a 100 ft ginseing man/monster and his son/monster of ginseing? raw ginseing actually looks incredibly like a human body that is turning into a sea creature.

my school is geumsan girls middle school. i heard all these stories of teachers arriving at schools and kids going ape shit treating them like brad pitt or angelina. no one really seemed suprised to see me. sigh. maybe when school starts. i want my glory damnit! i met the other co teachers, mr nim and sunni. i also met the vice principal and tried my best to bow. holly, the american teacher whose place i'm taking, was there which i was no expecting! it was above and beyond what i had hoped. she was so helpful explaining the schedule and classes to me, giving me all her old lesson plans, ideas, and tons of resources. she even let me put some of my luggage in the appt i would be taking from her the next day and explained how to use everything. i would have been screwed without her so thanks a million! maria kept telling me what a wonderful teacher holly was and it got a bit intimidating so i hope i can live up to the standard she has set.

maria and sunni took holly and i to dinner at a very non korean resturant. no chopsticks and i had steak, chicken, clam, and rice. no worries kimchi showed up. oh and side note, i am no longer vegeterian. i knew it would happen. props to those who can do it but most koreans don't even know what vegeterianism is. meat is in almost everything. perhaps when i go back to the states i will veg out again but for now i am partaking in the splendors of korean culture.

after dinner maria took me to my hotel in daejon, the big city about 40 min from geumsan. a real nice hotel, i stayed up all night watching some robert redford movie in a prision. i was real into it.

DAY II

maria picked me up again since she is from daejon and we went to get my alien registration card, bank account, and cell phone. getting my arc felt like going to the dmv and maria kept not understanding the whole queue and get a number deal, we just pushed in front of everyone. sometimes she can be an ajumma. found out i can't get it until i have my medical forms back. sigh. i was told i couldn't get a cell phone or bank account but maria haggled and it happened! even though she was talking in korean for about an hour and when i asked what had happened she just said "they said it is impossible." koreans don't sum up very well. at the bank i found that you can withdrawl money AND buy grain! oh happy day. we then went to e-mart which is like a mix of walmart, ikea, a mall and a nuclear bomb. three floors of clothes, appliances, beauty products, food, and a food court. i got a pillow, hair dryer, and some FRUIT because i have been craving it. koreans don't eat it all that much. we went to eat at the food court and there was a huge glass case of plastic dishes of food with numbers so you can see what you are ordering! great for the foreigner. i got ja-jahm-yahn, a student fav, which was gooey dark sauce on chinese noodles and messy but real good. maria laughed at me trying to use chopsticks and said i could use a spoon which was depressing because i thought i was getting good.

as we were driving home zeus got PISSED OFF. the rain was pouring in sheets and the lighting flashed right above our heads! maria was freaking and we pulled over but it wasn't letting up so we kept going and the poor thing was so worried.

"the weather has changed many times today, like the man's mind."

oh maria, you rock. as we sat in the car on the side of the road again she gave me some soun-pyan which is made of rice, some plant, sugar and sesame jam. at first it looked, smelled, and tasted FOUL. she had made it though so there was no way i would let on. after another bite it started to taste good though! nothing i would have more than one of but good to try except it got it allllll over myself and her seat belt. then she tried to clean me up because she is like a mother bird always trying to help me lift things and even tried to move the shopping cart with me. so impossible to walk a shopping cart with two people but she does her thing and she's sweet so be it. i also showed maria a picture of my brother evan on my phone and she said "oooh american idol! cute" haha i hope she meant clay aiken.

we went to the school again and i found out i am teaching an afterschool class, english conversation, and i get paid extra so thats cool! it might be hard to teach though eee. i am so nervous. i start on THURSDAY. just going to be simple and do an powerpoint intro to myself, basic my name is...i like to..i don't like...i am from. try to get them to give me some basics on themselves and going to lay down some rules. i have to try hard to not be super smiley this week because i need respect at first then i can lighten up.

now i am in my new kick ass appartment. i'm living by myself!! yeah! loving it, if only i had internet. that's killing me. please please let it be easy to figure out because trying to convey technology to koreans who don't speak english is such a headache. i have a balcony that looks out on geumsan and from here it looks much bigger with all the neon lights. korea has so much neon going on that i expect sleezy men and slot machines to be around every corner.

well i must go to bed and rest up for school tomorrow!

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