a random week update

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Hi all!

Update time. I am doing just fine even though I did get very sick. I knew that I would get attacked by the foreign germs but I did not know how sick I would get. I had to go visit a clinic here in the neighbourhood and get some medication. I was also severely dehydrated. The doctor’s office here is very odd; you literally go into his office and sit at a chair by his desk. The way they check you out is much different as well and they are obsessed with checking your blood pressure. The doctor prescribed me 5 pills and 3 liquid medications that I had to take 3 times a day and you only get enough for 3 days. I thought that was a little excessive; however I am now writing this and feeling much better. I just have the sniffles left. The scary part was when they start injecting things into your body and you don’t know what they are. I am not going to lie their needles here hurt! I swear they are much bigger then in Canada. There was a point there when I couldn’t get out of bed that I really just wanted to go home. All I needed was sleep and some meds though. The school also reluctantly gave me a day off so I could sleep. Really people, I had no voice I was so sick....things are much different here.

I had to do my first monthly plan for all my classes which was nice since I could choose my own topics and books to use. Last month I was using a plan that the previous teacher had left for me. The age 4s are learning about clothes and the age 6s are learning about days of the week and months. Is it odd that I am excited to start making all my props for the classes? I have many games in mind. The kids are really warming up to me and now it seems I can’t even go to the grocery store without seeing at least one of them. I am however not looking forward to doing evaluations on my afterschool students. Honestly I have been teaching them for 3 weeks so I do not feel it is my place to evaluate them yet. Thankfully it was Maggie’s sister who was the previous teacher and she is going to help me. My director is also the sweetest lady I have ever met. She keeps giving me baked goods and other assortments of stuff. I am definitely not starving here, if anything I am eating better here than I was in Canada. I am starting to get used to the Korean food that I eat at lunch. I still really like meat days! I had the most amazing fish cakes that were made out of cod mmm and this soup made out of white beans. I actually now look forward to lunch as my main meal of the day. I also eat A LOT of fruits and vegetables here. The bonus is that I have never felt so healthy before. It must be having no deep fried or processed food in my tummy. I have also realized that some things are better here such as apple juice. It tastes exactly like an apple compared to at home where the apple juice is filled with sugar. They are not fans of sugar here and I realized this when I was given some cake. You could tell that there was very little sugar in it. They also do not use icing here, but a cream that is semi-sweet.

Friday was the day of a birthday party. They have them every so often throughout the school year for about 10 students at a time. Interesting ceremony it is. The birthday students wear traditional Korean clothes and the boys get crowns. First they come parading down a red carpet with flowers everywhere while the other children sing a song. They then sit at a table with many cakes, every 2 students get 1 cake. Don’t forget the heaps of rice cakes, thanks to Chris I think I now have enough rice cakes to last me a week. They are these balls made of rice and brown sugar inside sticky thin pasta. They are not too bad. Anyways, back to the party. The students then sing happy birthday to the birthday children in Korean and they blow out candles. Afterwards each student comes up one by one to sing a song and pick a plastic egg. Inside of it is a message that tells them what they have to do. They can either get a present, play a game where they throw these balls to get a total of 10 and if they don’t get the 10 points they don’t get a prize, the teachers carry the child around on their arms (it is a traditional Korean thing) or you choose a child of the opposite sex to kiss your cheek. Now I don’t agree with all of these but it is not my place to state what I believe here. Maggie, the other foreign teacher and I just sit there quietly. Afterwards they get a picture with a friend and then a picture with all their teachers. This is where I come into play, I get to sit and smile in the pictures....I had 7 of my students having birthdays! Too bad the humidity does not like my hair, I am sure the pictures are horrendous.

Life has been rather boring here. I found an English bookstore and bought the Harry Potter books. Yes, I have never read them and I must say I am addicted to them. Very good reads. The most disturbing thing this week was when I went to go have cereal one morning for breakfast and I was not aware that ants also liked cereal. There must have been about 100 little red ants in this box. Besides screaming and running down the stairs at lightning speed to throw the box outside I am sure the other people in the building think I am some crazy white girl. I am now a proud owner of many Tupperware containers and bag seals. Everything is sealed air tight and I also chased all the ants around with a can of raid. I am sure that was a sight to see but I have not seen an ant since! Hopefully that was the last of them in my food. The weather is also more bearable. I am not sure if it really is not as hot or if I am just getting used to it? The humidity does seem to be down to between 60-80% on most days. I am hoping those days of 100% humidity are long gone. I did get caught in my first rain storm on Thursday and when they say rain, they mean rain! All an umbrella is good for is to cover your face. You are still soaked right through and you have to trudge through puddles that are up to your ankles. Within 30 seconds outside it looked as if you were just in the shower. I have joined the others with the feelings that when it rains you just stay inside and wait it out. It did make for a really nice evening that was a little cooler and more bearable for a walk. I find the men here interesting, have they honestly never seen a blonde white woman before? I was proposed to by some drunk Korean guys, interesting bunch they were. I also got chased around E-mart when I was grocery shopping by this guy trying to get me to sample food. Unfortunately he knew English so I could not just play dumb. I also walked by a table of about 5 older men that started shouting things at me in Korean while laughing and then they all waved with these huge smiles. I really wish I knew what they were saying! I also get random men stopping me on the street telling me how beautiful I am. At first I was flattered now I am just getting a slight bit annoyed. I did however see the funniest thing in E-Mart however. There were people wanting to buy crabs so these two men who work there open the crate to get out a few crabs. The thing is that they don’t but a rubber band around their claws so one clips one of the guys who works there. He freaks out knocks over the crab crate and then you have these people chasing these live crabs around the store. If you were there you would have shaken your head and laughed as well.

On the weekend I finally made my way to Starbucks, boy did I miss some good coffee. I also met a Korean friend but it is quite difficult to communicate when you know no Korean and they know a little English. Our conversations involved a lot of drawings. We did go out for lunch on Sunday though to the food court at E-Mart. I had no idea there was a food court there! Now in Canada a food court would consist of a lot of fat and grease, here not so much. What they ordered for me was a bowl with about a cup or rice, chopped up lettuce, bean sprouts, about ½ cup of noodles and a fried egg with a really spicy sauce on it. It was rather good but my mouth was burning at the end of the meal. I also asked what all those DVD places I keep seeing around are. At them you choose your dvd you would like to watch and then you watch it in a room right there in the store, interesting! I have also started going for a run along the river every night. It is really beautiful, but also very busy. You probably have about 100 people down there on the track and another 100 having picnics or playing sports on the grass. You will also have the random people shooting fireworks off along the river bank. Things are not surprising me much anymore, but at least once a day I do shake my head thinking are you serious? It is gorgeous when everything is lit up at night here though.

I just wanted to rant one more time about the drivers here. I have never been honked at or forced to run so many times. It is ridiculous! I know they have road rules here but I think everyone must break them about ten times a day. Scooters, now those things I have developed a dislike for. Not only do they drive on sidewalks and zigzag through traffic but they cause so many accidents. Did you know that if you hit a scooter you are at fault even though they drive like maniacs? Did you know they even have a rule on how high they can pack their scooter? I think the family that I saw on one scooter, yes there was four people on one scooter must not have read that rule. Now an accident is interesting to see, both drivers get out and start screaming at each other very loudly and I am almost positive they do not exchange nice words. I also rode in a taxi here and for all of those who say I tailgate you have not seen tailgating until you come here. I am not going to lie I was rather scared sitting in that taxi and I have a friend who is a very crazy driver back home. He blared his horn 13 times, yes I counted, in 5 min! What I do not understand is how they drive so fast trying to get somewhere as fast as possible but they walk so incredibly slow. I know that they do not like walking as they are not fans of the sun. I have realized how busy public transportation is now that I frequently take the subway. I am always left to stand and am getting quite good with my balance. I also find it odd how people will have picnics right in the middle of the sidewalk. They will all be sitting on the ground around this device that is something like a bbq making food. They then give you a look like you are disturbing their meal when you walk by, come on you are on a public sidewalk. Most people walk on the road here but after I was almost taken out by some cars I feel just a tad bit safer on the sidewalk.

I am starting to miss certain people now that I have hit that time when the novelty of a new place is starting to rub off. Things are not as new and exciting as they once were. It is nice to know that they are only a phone call or message on the computer away. I have made a list of things that I want to do here in the next year and most of them are mountains to climb. I am hoping to get started on my list next weekend with going on a hike.

Back to work tomorrow. Talk to you all soon.

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