Ringing in the Year of the Rabbit with a Rather Painful Bang

About three weeks ago, I woke up at 4am with a terrible itch on the side of my head. That itch turned into pain, and soon I realized that I could no longer hear in my left ear. I took some ibuprofen, waited for it to kick in and went back to bed. When I woke up for work my ear still hurt ridiculously badly. I told myself I could make it through the workday, then I would go to the doctor after work. I started teaching, informing the students that my ear was really sick, so they had to be very quiet. About an hour into class, I was checking a student’s workbook, when all of the sudden I felt this excruciating pain in my ear, it started making these frightening popping noises, and when I reached up to touch my ear there was reddish goo oozing from it. I dropped everything and ran out of the classroom. I sent my co-teacher to watch the students, then I went to the bathroom and cried for about five minutes, not because of the pain, but because it’s scary to have blood suddenly start oozing out of the side of your head.

Once I had managed to compose myself, I went back to the teachers room, and asked someone to take me to the hospital. When we got to the doctor’s office, he stuck a camera in my ear and said, “aigoo!” a Korean expression of shock and dismay. He then proceeded to suck the fluid out of my ear and poke my already sore ear with sharp metal instruments. As I got up to leave the office, my ear started to ooze yet again. So he suctioned it out again, to no avail, three minutes later it was oozing again. I got a fun pack of medication at the pharmacy (six different pills…no labels) and went back to the school to get my stuff to go home. As I was telling my supervisor that I was going to go home and rest, I was clutching an already bloody Kleenex to the side of my head. I still had tearstains on my face, and she said “go have a good rest, try to come back for your class at 2.” I didn’t go back at two. My ear didn’t stop oozing until Thursday morning.

I did go back to work on Tuesday because I felt obligated. It was our lunar new year event which means we all had to dress up in traditional Korean garb and play Korean games. The kids were really cute, and I didn’t really have to do too much, so it wasn’t too bad of a day, despite having to constantly wipe the blood/pus mixture from the side of my face. After work on Tuesday I went back to the doctor’s office to get more drugs. In Korea they only give you enough drugs to last until they think you need to come back for a check-up. So I went back and he poked me in the ear again, and it hurt. He told me my hearing would come back “soon” (I have yet to see this “soon”). He gave me a prescription for 6 whole days worth of drugs because the doctor’s office would be closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. So I went and got more medical fun packs, and went to my Korean class.

I had two doctors visits, and two trips to the pharmacy in a two day period (aren’t you proud I actually went to a doctor). I came away with clean ears and 6 different kinds of medications, all for the low, low price of 13,000 won. Which is about $12. Nice.

Wed-Fri I didn’t have to work because of Lunar New Year. It was really nice. On Wednesday I stayed in my apartment all day and “rested.” I realized I’m not very good at resting, so I cleaned my porch because I was really bored, and did laundry. Thursday I went to Gyeongju with some friends from church. Gyeongju was the capitol of Korea during the Silla Dynasty (57 BC-935 AD). So it’s a really old city with lots of tombs of ancient Korean kings. Everywhere we went there was another burial mound, it was like Starbucks in Seattle. All of the buildings had the old Asian style roofs. It was a really neat city, it’s what I always thought Asia would look like. It was also nice to be out of Seoul for a few days. There were no skyscrapers or high rise apartments. We walked around looked at old stuff, went to a Buddhist temple, ate southern food (Korean style). Thursday was actual lunar new year, so everything was closed. For dinner we called the McDonalds delivery people (Yes, they deliver McDonalds in Korea). It was a fun low key trip.

Sick and Sniffly and Stressed

I spent this week feeling alternately ill and bitter. Korean society isn’t one that believes in resting. Last weekend I started to feel slightly sick, like I was coming down with a cold. In the end I did come down with a cold, quite a rough one at that. Sadly my contract of indentured servitude does not allow for things like illness. So despite the fact that I couldn’t breathe properly and couldn’t stop sneezing long enough to say entire sentences, I still spent my entire week at work.

Even if you just have a cold, and the best medicine would be a day of rest they send you to a doctor, and then tell you to come back to work. All week, all I really needed was a day off, but there was no time for anything like that. So I went to work as usual. Then since I was “well” enough to go to work, I figured I was well enough to go to school. So I would go sit in my Korean class and pretend to learn. However, it is very difficult to concentrate on a different language when the inside of your head is so fuzzy that it’s difficult to think and speak even in English.

It was definitely an interesting week. My students weren’t that great. They were a bit hyper, which is understandable. These poor kids have been in school since last March with only a week of vacation in the summer and a week in the winter. They are 5 years old. I’m 25 and I am completely sick of school. I have no idea how these poor kids are coping with everything. And they have about 20 more years of solid education before it will all be over. I heard President Obama applauded the Korean educational system in his State of the Union address this week, but if he understood what their system actually entails, he wouldn’t speak so highly of it. Sure it’s probably better than the American educational system, but at least American kids get the chance to be kids. These poor kids are in school from the moment they turn 4 until they are 24. They are put in huge classes, and expected to study 12 hours a day. Their science and math scores are through the roof, but their creativity and imagination are phased out around 3rd grade. So far out of the three places I’ve lived in the world, I would want my own children to be educated in England.

A few days ago, Korean Immigration started sending me daily text messages reminding me that my visa expires in 30 days. I really should figure out what I am doing come March. I’ll let all of you know as soon as I do. I’m hoping to stay in Korea for another year, but that’s all in the hands of Korean immigration right now. If they will accept me without a new criminal background check. Keep you fingers crossed for me.

This week I was having another American craving. I really wanted burritos. Alas, the fixings are a bit hard to come by, but I made due. I went to the grocery store, and managed to find tortillas, lettuce, salsa and a small extremely expensive block of Colby cheese. Alas no refried beans or sour cream were available. So I got some chicken and fried it up fajita style. Then I found some plain yogurt to use as a substitute for sour cream. When all was bought, cooked, and finished, it was delicious and practically like home. Although rather a bit more expensive.

Well. That’s my week. I’m going to spend the rest of my evening resting up for the two days of work I have this week. Huzzah for Lunar New Year, it’s bigger than Christmas. Happy year of the Rabbit everyone!

The Cold Puts a Damper on One's Excitement

This week was another dud on the excitement front. It’s too cold and snowy outside to really do anything outdoors, and doing anything inside away from home means a considerable amount of time trekking through the snow and cold to get to said indoor location. So, for the most part this week, I was at work, Korean classes, or home. So, alas, another uneventful week to write about.

My Korean class this semester is a lot more difficult than the last three. I guess I’m getting into the advanced levels and I am expected to speak Korean well. It’s hard. I am trying though. I’ve started keeping a vocabulary notebook next to my computer for when I watch Korean dramas, so I can learn new words. Here are the words I learned from watching dramas this week: miracle, disappear, lover, selfish, precious, enemy, intuition, kidnap, offense, suspect, escape, quit, breath of life, disappointed, and unforgettable…Add the word amnesia to that list and you’ve pretty much got Korean dramas in a nutshell. But oh how I love them.

This Friday we took my kindergartners to a recording studio to record the song they’re going to sing for their parents at the end of the year concert. They have trouble singing loudly when they are dancing, so they recorded them singing and then they will lip sync at the concert in true K-Pop fashion. I’m pretty excited. I’m going to try and sneak some K-Pop dance moves into our Lion King dance and see if anyone notices.

On Saturday night I was supposed to go ice skating with some friends, but we decided that we didn’t feel like it, so instead we went to the board game café. Honestly, Korea has the best entertainment facilities. If you are bored in Korea it’s because you’re too lazy to try to find something to do. In the US, if you’re bored you can watch TV, or go hand out with your friends, which means eating or seeing a movie. However in Korea, when you want to hang out with your friends, you can eat, or see a movie. But, if you don’t want to sit in a theatre full of people to watch a movie, you can go to a DVD room, and watch it in your own personal theatre. If you don’t feel like watching a movie, how about a karaoke room? Singing now your forte? Then why don’t you go to the closest board game café and challenge your friends to a game? I suppose because there are so many people here, they have to think of lots of ways to entertain themselves or they will go insane. I love that they have board game cafes where you can go and sit at a comfy table and play monopoly to your hearts content, surrounded by people who are doing the same thing with their weekend.

On Friday night I wasn’t feeling 100% so I stayed home and made a stop motion K-Pop music video with Ken. It was fun. If you want to watch it I put it on YouTube.

Enjoy! It was so much fun I think I’m going to make another one. So stay tuned. Maybe Ken can break into the K-Pop dance scene…

Santa is Korean...No English...

This week started out a bit stressful. I spent all day at work alternately teaching and studying for my finals. After work, I went to school, studied for another hour, and then took my last two finals. I was much better prepared for the second two finals, and it definitely showed in my scores. For the Writing and Speaking tests we took on Thursday I got 86% and 84%. For the Listening and Reading tests we took on Monday I got 93% and 100%…not too bad if I do say so myself. I beat all of the overseas Koreans in my class on those two tests. If only I could match their speaking skills, I would be unstoppable.

Tuesday was my last day of Korean classes for the term. It was a little sad. We all kind of bonded with each other over the course of the term, and now a lot of people are leaving Korea, or moving on to other things. After class on Tuesday we all went to this German place, and just hung out for almost two hours. Even our teacher came, as much as we annoyed him at times, I’m pretty sure he liked us. On Tuesday, my teacher handed me a tiny piece of paper and told me I needed to go to this room at 8:20. Turns out he recommended me for a scholarship, so I had a surprise scholarship interview. There were a lot of candidates, so I doubt I’ll get it, but it was nice to be nominated nonetheless.

The rest of the week went on as usual. It was odd having free time after work on Thursday, but I think that this week is going to be even more odd. I have to do a lot of studying to prep for level 6 of the language program, so I should be using my free time for that…however I’ll probably end up watching Korean drama instead, because that’s what I do.

This week wasn’t very eventful. I am growing ever more frustrated with the child in my class that cannot behave, and is in turn corrupting all the hard work I put in to get the other students to behave. I’m so frustrated that there’s nothing I can do. There’s no principal I can send him to. If I send him to a Korean teacher he just gets baby talked to and told not to do it again. I can’t punish him, he doesn’t respond to yelling, he rarely listens when I’m talking to him. I’ve run out of things to do except ignoring the kid, but I don’t want to completely give up hope on him, or else he will stay like this for the rest of his life, and he will never have any friends.

This week I had a terrible craving for chicken Caesar salad. So I went to the store to see if it would even be possible. I easily found lettuce, and assorted veggies for the salad part. Chicken was easy to come by, I even managed to find a bottle of salad dressing that said “American Caesar” on it. Then I went on search for cheese, and in the back corner of the store, I found a whole block of feta cheese…it cost 10,900 won($10), but I didn’t care. I went home made my salad, listened to Christmas music, and spent the evening wrapping presents. It’s fun how just a small taste of home, can improve my mood and give me a small sense of Christmas spirit. Last year I had no Christmas spirit. This year, however, I am REALLY excited. Probably because my favorite little sister is coming to visit me, and unlike last year, I don’t have to work on Christmas Day.

This week I was trying to use Santa as a threat to get my children to behave in the classroom. So I told the kids that I had Santa’s phone number and if they were bad I would call him, and he would bring them rocks on Christmas. One of my students looked and me with this knowing look on his face and said, “But teacher, Santa is Korean…no English.” I didn’t fight the Santa is Korean thing, because to each culture their own, but I did explain to the student that Santa is a genius and he can speak any language in the world. After I explained that, they took my threats more seriously.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. And remember that the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is by singing loud for all to hear.

Love,

Jessica

In Which North Korea Does Not Blow Up South Korea

This was a pretty good week. I think. It all went by so fast that I don’t really remember what happened. I started practicing our winter play with the students in my class. It’s going to be an unmitigated disaster. The performance will require my ten 5 year olds to stand in a straight line and only move when it’s time for them to deliver a line, or complete and action. My students are a very energetic bunch of students. They can’t stand still in a line for 5 seconds much less five minutes. It’s not going to be a fun next couple of months.

This past Thursday was my speaking and writing finals for my Korean class. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had much time to study…it definitely showed on my speaking final. I went into the room for the test and the teacher asks me a question that I don’t understand. It was apparently about family reunions, which I only understood after clarification. It was rough, and I ended the interview by apologizing to my teacher. I think I did a bit better on the written test. And I actually made some time to study for the reading and listening portions this weekend, so I hope that they will go better tomorrow.

On Friday night I went to the really fancy part of Seoul to meet some friends for dinner. This is the part of Seoul with Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Mercedes parked all over the place. I thought I knew how to get to the place I was going, but I was mistaken, so I ended up wandering around in the bitter cold for over an hour. I tried to flag a cab but the cab driver refused to take me because I was a foreigner traveling alone. I even talked to him in Korean, so it can’t be because he was afraid to speak English. I was lucky enough to be raised in a place where I didn’t have to encounter racism, but coming to Korea has truly been an awakening experience on what it’s like to live as a minority. People often refuse to sit next to me on the train, cab drivers refuse to stop for me, I get lousy service at restaurants, people at stores ignore me until they have no other option but to talk to me. It hurts my feelings sometimes, but at the same time, I’m grateful that as a white middle class suburban female, I get the chance in my life to experience this racism so that I will NEVER treat anyone like I am often treated here.

Saturday I slept in which was glorious. I haven’t had more than 7 consecutive hours of sleep in about a month, but I slept for almost 10 hours on Friday night. It was amazing how much energy I had on Saturday. Saturday afternoon I went with some friends to the Embassy housing on the military base, and had Thanksgiving dinner with a family from church. They are both Foreign Service Officers working at the US embassy. One of them is one of the leading North Korean experts (you may have seen some of his work on WikiLeaks). We asked them about the North Korean situation, and neither of them seem to concerned, which was comforting, because if anyone knew, they would know. They briefed us on what we should do if something does happen. The place we have to meet to get shipped out of Korea is only a 25 minute walk from my house. Then they filled us with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie…all acquired from the military base…it truly is a magical place. Walking through embassy housing was like walking through suburban America…a car even stopped at a cr

osswalk and waited for us to cross instead of trying to run us over. It was shocking.

Saturday night guess what I did? If you guessed another K-pop concert then you are right. But this one was a pretty extreme K-pop concert. If you know anything about K-pop at all, then you know about Big Bang…I saw Big Bang!!! and 2NE1 and Se7en, and Gummy. It was a really good concert. My favorite Korean musician is TaeYang, and he is a member of Big Bang as well as being a solo artist, and I got to see him again! We were even closer to him this time. I may or may not have screamed like a teenage girl when he came over to our side of the stage.

Now that it’s December, it’s time to get into the Christmas spirit. So I would just like to tell everyone how thankful I am for the savior and his birth and all of the many possibilities that are available to us in this lifetime because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope everyone will take this Christmas season to think not about gifts, and shopping, but about what you can do to help others, and to feel the true peaceful spirit of Christmas that can’t be found in the crowded stores.

Big Bang Dancing it up on Stage...crazy costumes and all.

Even North Korea Couldn’t Keep Me From Harry Potter

As anyone who pays any attention to the news whatsoever knows, this was a bit of a rough week for the Korean peninsula. The week was going along as usual until Tuesday. During my afternoon class, I was teaching, and all of the sudden, the power went out for a second and we heard a big bang. I jumped, and all of the students laughed at me. We never did figure out what had caused the short power outage, and the bang, but it set me on edge. After class was finished and I had sent all the children on their way home, I entered the teacher’s lounge to discover all of my coworkers deep in conversation. North Korea had bombed an island of the coast of Incheon.

My co-workers who haven’t been in Korea for very long were really afraid, and one even left early to call her mom. For some reason, despite this being the worst attack since the Korean war, I didn’t feel any fear. I am a bit worried about what’s going to happen in the next few weeks. The whole city is going about business as usual, but everyone is definitely on edge.

This weekend I went out of town with some friends and their friends, and as I was packing for the trip on Friday night. I made sure to include my passport, all of my financial information, and my college diploma, just in case something happened on Sunday before I got back. Luckily nothing has happened as of yet, but it’s a strange feeling having to think about these kind of possibilities. I’ve never checked the news so much in my life. I hope that just like the last major incident in March, everything will quickly return back to normal, and we can all go about our lives again without having to worry about North Korea pulling the trigger.

This past Friday was a very happy day for me. Due to the extreme cruelty of the Harry Potter Release Date planning commission, Harry Potter 7 will not be released in South Korea until December 15th, almost a month after the rest of the world has seen it. I was devastated when I heard this, luckily I have connections. Once the military had released the base from its North Korea imposed lockdown, one of my military friends took us to the theater on the military base, and for only 5 dollars, I got to sit there for 2 and a half hours eating concession stand hot tamales, and watching Harry prance about on screen.

The theatre was filled almost entirely with Americans. It was really weird. I haven’t seen American teenagers in almost two years now, I forgot how annoying they are. It was nice to be able to disappear into a crowd for a few hours, but it reaffirmed that I’m not quite ready to go back to being a full time American yet. I am going to have a very rough readjustment when I get back to the US.

This weekend I went to Namisum, an island in the middle of Bukhankang. It was really pretty with lots of trees and fresh air. There was even some snow blowing around on the ground. We also got the go to La Petite France. It’s this whole little village in the middle of no where that some Korean guy who really loved Le Petit Prince built. There are little statues and buildings dedicated to parts of the book. It’s a really cute place, even if it is pretty odd to find it in the middle of nowhere, South Korea. I went with two friends from my Korean classes and two of their friends from work. There were two Koreans, a French Korean, a Korean-American, and me…an incredibly pale, very non-Asian red-head. It was really fun though. Almost all of the conversation the entire weekend was in Korean, and I managed to hold my own quite well. I was probably the quietest member of the group, but that also had something to do with the fact that I am completely exhausted. I am now going to try to alleviate that problem by going to bed. Good night.

Too Tired to Think of Creative Title

This is going to be an incredibly short post because I am completely exhausted and just want to go to bed. This week was much better than last week. I was pretty happy, not too many complaints about work. The child in my class who is driving me insane is starting to calm down a smidgeon of a percentage, he still drives me crazy, but slightly less.

School is going alright, but I’m so tired in class that I’m not soaking up as much as I would like. I have to give a three minute speech this Thursday about anything I want. I’m open for topic ideas.

This weekend I went to a co-worker's wedding. It was interesting to see the Korean wedding. There wasn’t even really an officiator, they didn’t say “I do” or anything like that. Basically it was a giant photo shoot in a big hall with an amazing dress, some of their family performed songs for them, and both the bride and the groom’s fathers gave them lectures, then they bowed to each other’s parents, and that was the end of the ceremony. They then had a wardrobe change, came downstairs, cut a fake cake, drank a glass of champagne, and called it a day. Apparently there’s a private family ceremony where the parents throw grain on their daughter’s skirt, but other than that, Korean weddings are simple and fast. They also have an amazing buffet afterwards, with lots of delicious food. I ate a lot of sushi.

I also went to another K-Pop concert…This time it was Lee Seung Gi. I’m trying to see concerts from all different genres, so far I’ve got amazing solo act, band, and now versatile momma’s boy. It was a good concert in which the entire cast of one of my favorite dramas made an appearance on stage. One by one all of the main characters in 내 여자 친구는 구미호 (My Girlfriend is a Nine-tailed Fox) came out on stage, and they performed the entire soundtrack. It was pretty awesome. However it went on for over 3 hours…

All in all, life is good, I’m still happy and trying not to stress out too much over what step I need to take next.

Top: The whole cast of the drama, it's fuzzy because I was far away.

Bottom: Lee Seung Gi and Shin Min Ah