New Job Lessons

I have now been at my new job for two months.  I am still learning kids names, and really getting the system down and smoothed out, but already this job has taught me several new lessons.

1. Small children are not as scary as I thought.  I now teach kids as young as six.  This prospect terrified me at first.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I do not do well with kids.  They make me nervous and jumpy.  They cry and strange fluids come out of their noses and they are someone else's whole world and can't take care of themselves.  I am learning that they are much tougher then I thought, bonce better, and obey pretty well.  I may even think about having one or two of my own someday... very far in the future.

2. Bribing is more effective then anger. When my kids get nuts and I am so annoyed I could spit fire, I put away the books and bust out hangman and the candy.  As soon as they hear the crinkle of the bag, the demon spawn disappear and turn into perfect little angels. I feel is this works on children, I should be able to translate this over to adults.  I just need to figure out the perfect bribe....

3. Scented toilet paper is the devil's work. My boss insists on buying lilac scented toilet paper.  I don't not want my toilet paper to smell flowery.  It is as bad as those scented tampons.  It doesn't smell good and no way I want my bits smelling like that.... ew.

4. Being idle is more exhausting the work. I have a lot of free time at work.  A LOT.  And I don't have much to fill it with.  I have a lot less work then I did at my old academy, and most of my classes are using the same book and are on the same page, so once I teach my first class on Monday, I am pretty much set for the week.  And I am never more tired then on the days where most of my time is spent doodling or watching TV on my laptop.  I finish work and all I want to do is crawl in bed.  I feel more tired then I did after a 16 hour day at Summerfest.

5. Sock monkey slippers are the bomb. All of my students love my slippers.  All of my co-teachers love my slippers.  My boss loves my slippers.  I love my slippers.  Enough said.

That is all I got for now.  I may add more at a later date if I think of them.  I have students coming into my room and I get to actually do something for the next two hours and fifteen minutes.  Ahh the joys of teaching.

 

 

  

Newnessosity

I know it isn't a word but I like how it rolls off the tongue.  And it helps show my feelings at the moment.  I have started looking at Korea as if it were a new place.  I went back to the guide books and travel sites and blogs about travels here and I am making a list of the things I plan to see this year.  I do not know if I will stay here again, though my boss has already asked me to, and I don't plan on thinking about that until I need to.  But I am going to live here like I am leaving, and that means seeing all the things I missed last time.  I had big plans to go out and explore this weekend, but I ended up staying in for a lot of it, besides a few hour walk around my apartment, because it was just way too cold and windy.  I did get some pretty awesome pictures on my walk, as well as a fresh burst of life that comes from walking around with no destination and simply enjoying being where you are at the moment.  I came home and cooked food and pampered myself with some girly stuff.  I hung out with my new kitty Dash.  Oh, for those of you that don't know, Ginger ran away about a week before christmas, and sadly, I have been unable to find her.  I adopted Dash after seeing him online and falling for his eyes and his resemblance to Ginger.   There is a chance that he may be her litter mate, but I am not sure.  We had a few rocky days, but now we are pretty cuddly and he is snuggled next to me under the blanket, twitching in his sleep as I write this.  Not a lot else to report.  I am almost finished with the tattoo, soon I will post pictures, I am making lists of places to see and things to do, and once it warms up a little bit, I plan to be super busy traveling around and seeing the sights.  I am off now to reheat some pancakes I made this morning (which just aren't as good without maple syrup)  and to maybe crack open a bottle of wine and watch a movie.  I leave you with a picture of Dash and some of my walk.  Have a great day peeps!

Food Making In Korea -- American Style

It has been brought to my attention that I have not done a food post in a very long time.  I could blame this on the fact that it is difficult to make food here and I was able to use only a frying pan and a stove top. But, That wouldn't be the whole truth.  It is also because I have been crazy food lazy the past several months.  Working from two o'clock to nine o'clock means that dinner happens around eleven p.m. if I have enough energy to actually cook and shop for food.  It is also harder to find food that I consider everyday, easy meals.

For example, Butter.  Butter here in South Korea is expensive.  A four pack of butter that would be about 3 bucks at home costs an astounding nine dollars here.  And I don't know about you, but I happen to like using butter to cook.  Fried eggs just don't taste the same with olive oil in the pan in place of butter.  And, while I love olive oil for cooking veggies in the oven, sometimes you need that fatty-buttery goodness to soak the veggies in when they are a bit to bitter or old.

And the veggies here can be a bit different then the ones at home.  While a lot of them come from local farmers or nearby farms and are far fresher then a lot of the veggies back home, this also means that they are smaller, or larger, then I am used to, varieties I haven't seen before, or not as supermarket-flawless as those used to wal-mart and the pig back home are used to seeing.  Now, the bumps and bruises and dirt don't bother me so much, I did spend two summers eating veggies that came mostly from my own garden, so I am used to dirt and bugs and oddly shaped produce.  What gets me, is the ability to tell what it is that I am buying.  A lot of leafy greens available here are not like any I have encountered at home.  Most of the time, the names are simply written in Hangul, so translating them can be tough to impossible, and if it is in english, there is a good chance the name isn't right anyway.  The other day, I was buying bell peppers and the package said "Paprika" on it.  I know that paprika is made from peppers, but I couldn't help but laugh a little.

I have also run into a problem that foods I am used to being cheap and readily available, are very much the opposite here.  I found some asparagus here a few weeks ago, the first asparagus I have seen in korea, and I could buy a package that contained five stalks of asparagus, and cost about 3 USD.  Anyone who knows me can attest to how much I LOVE asparagus, but even I couldn't justify spending so much for so little.  And beef here.... Oh man.  First, I do want to mention I understand why beef is so insanely (to my mind) expensive here.  South Korea is mountains, or at least really big steep hills, which means that grazing land is not very extensive here.  So cows are not as easy to come by as, say, a pig or goat.  But, this doesn't mean I don't get depressed when I want nothing more then a nice big homemade hamburger and the cost of the ground beef for one burger is about $10-$12 bucks.  And don't even get me started on the steak.

But, I have started to cook again.  Maybe it is a sign I am finally settling in to the new place, maybe it is a sign that I am really bored with eating the same five meals at work each week, maybe it is a sign I have too much free time... Who knows.  But it has all been tasty so far, and the toaster oven I acquired has helped a great deal to expand my food options.  So never free friend wo was concerned about the lack of food posts and photos, there shall be many more to come.

One Of Those Things

Last weekend, I got out of Daegu and went to see a friend in Gunsan.  I stayed on a base there and was reminded of all the little things I miss about the states.  Little things like signs being in english, real showers with an actual shower curtain, and food you can get delivered.  Didn't really see a lot of Gunsan, but it was definitely more rundown then Daegu.  It was also very flat over in that area when compared with being where I live.  I could almost look out to the horizon and not see mountains, almost, but not quite.

I dragged myself up early in the morning so I could catch the train into Seoul in time for my tattoo appointment.  I made it there (only a little late) and took a look at the design.  No, I am not going to show you guys yet.   It is only half finished.  I must say, when you walk in a room with three strange guys and they tell you to take off your top, many odd things run through your mind.  They were all completely professional and very good at making sure it was all perfect before they started.

The tattoo process... I had forgot that pain.  About halfway through I was seriously questioning the size of the tattoo I had chosen   The thing about tattoos is that once that first line is drawn you can't really change your mind.  Not that I had any desire to do so.  Every time I stood up and looked in the mirror at the evolution of this tattoo, I got more and more excited.  I also appreciated the chance to take a break from the pain.  Overall, the pain wasn't too bad.  There were certain spots that were insanely painful and I almost screamed, but I didn't, I held it in and made it through the four hours it took to finish the outline.  It wasn't four hours of straight tattooing, there was a nice break in there when we ate dinner.

I had one of those surreal, mind-fucking moments, standing in the back room of a tattoo place in South Korea, topless, and eating dinner from popeyes.  I was thinking about ten years earlier, in high school, when we would have those stupid questions to fill out about, "where do you see yourself in ten years?" and I can say with certainty that none of the above things were anywhere close to being on my list.  Ten years ago, I wold probably have said that I picture myself as a veterinarian, with a job that I planned on staying at for more then a year, probably with my own house, a serious boyfriend (if not husband) and everything in my life worked out and lined up.  Boy, does reality fuck with that image we create as teenagers of how we will be happy as adults.

It makes me think about the various articles, web clips, and other little articles out there about how my generation is becoming known as the lost generation.  When I look around at many of the people my age, I can't say I disagree.  Many of us went to college, got out, and then said, "wait.... I was promised a good job and future if I got a degree.... where is it?"  The truth is, there aren't a lot of jobs out there for us.  It has begun to improve, or so I am told, but many of my friends left college after four or five years with a degree, and went to work at places like Target, McDonalds, or other jobs they were already working in high school.  The sadder part is that some of these people's supervisors are the same kids they went to school with, who never went to college and got the degree that was supposed to be this golden ticket, and they are better off then us crazy folk who spent years and thousands of dollars on a degree that means shit.

But I digress.  I am sounding like I wish my life had gone the other way, that I had the job, the house, the man...  And there is nothing I want less.  I can't believe how amazing the adventure I am having is.  I think that they need to start telling kids in high school about the other options in life.  The high school, college, job for life route is a dying act.  With so many options out there and a world that is changing faster then most of us can keep up with, it is time for the idea of a job to change as well.  There is nothing wrong with not going for the house, car, permanent job route.  And the things I would have missed out on if I had done that, I would be much less then I am today.

So, a month into my second year in Korea, after a year of ups and downs, a year of meeting people and missing people and loving people and hating people, a year of complete insanity.... I love it here, and hate it here and it changes on a daily basis, but that is life today, that is the mental state of my lost generation.  Maybe we aren't a generation who is lost, maybe we are a generation who isn't satisfied with the everyday and the just okay life.  We are a generation who is searching for that perfect life we were promised and we are willing to go further then ever to find it.  It is my policy to never change a blog title after I write it in that little box, and it is always the frist thing I do, but I think maybe a better title for this blog would be "Lost? Or Just Unsatisfied?"  But I didn't know that until I started writing.

Turning The Tides

The new year has begun.  Full speed ahead I say.  Last year was a learning experience, this year is the time to put those lessons learned into action.  The first action I am taking this year is to head out to Seoul, several times, and acquire a new tattoo.  I found a place here that has a great reputation and is headed up by an amazing artist named Aerok Kim And is the workplace of many other crazy-awesome artists as well.  Check them out! Tattoo Korea  My particular tattoo is going to be on my right side, down my rib-cage   I am basing it off of the design of a Tradition folk-art Korean tiger.  It will probably take multiple visits to finish so I will update with pictures after it is complete.  I am ridiculously excited.

I am also pushing forward at work, with all new classes and books and a chance to get my own system going.  I have three new sets of books to learn and figure out the best way to get the kids to learn and still like it.  Right now I am keeping the unruly ones at bay with games and candy.  I really love the kids at this new academy.  The little ones, the ones I thought I would hate teaching, are my favorites.  They are just so damn cute.  I get mad at them and when I try to yell, they give me big eyes and I just melt.  All my kids try really hard and are overall much happier to be here then at my last job.  And I finally feel like I am teaching, rather then just answering the questions the book asked the kids the night before.  I am actively engaged with the students rather then someone they put up with for a few minutes a day.

Other areas of my life are also progressing.  The apartment is going well, I am starting up cooking again, I have started writing again... Everything is moving forward.  And the things that need a little push to get them started?  I am giving them the mother of all shoves this year.  Soon I will have lots of pictures to show and then, once it is finally warm enough out that I don't turn into a human Popsicle  I will have lots more trips and stories to share.

Happy New Year