Born This Way

Once a month I get the opportunity to teach a cooking class with both of my kindergarten classes and this month was particularly fun–fruit kebabs!  I didn’t get any pictures of my seven year olds because I was way too busy making sure they didn’t skewer each other but my six year olds hammed it up as usual.

The real ham though (besides the decidedly non-fruit ingredient of mini viennas) was Tom who seems to have been born to be in front of a camera lens.

showing off a hard-boiled quail egg

Even when there’s not a camera around, Tom is prone to theatrics.  This morning when I walked into the classroom he was already waiting for me by the door with his pants legs rolled up to show off his “ouches” from falling at soccer practice.  Sometimes it can be trying but for the most part, it’s pretty difficult to be upset with a kid this cute, even when he is hopping around the classroom on one foot or crawling under the table when my class is being observed or moping around the school dragging his feet, head down, and refusing to speak to me because I wouldn’t let him be line leader.

How can I be so specific?  All of those things happened last week!

 

Part Two: Seoul Lotus Lantern Festival

After the liver-aching celebrations of long weekends, I was ready to take a break from bar hopping and see the famous Seoul Lotus Lantern Festival.

Several weeks prior to Buddha’s birthday, colorful paper lanterns had begun popping up all over Seoul, but remained unlit until a few minutes before a parade of thousands of lanterns that lasted over 2 hours.  I wasn’t even walking in the parade (though my group of friends was asked by a monk to join in) and my arms were sore from so much waving and my face hurt from smiling at all of the people that walked past me.

It’s just not easy to take decent photos of moving, lit objects in the dark but I managed to get a few good shots of the many phenomenal floats and groups ranging from ajummas to university students to monks to children.  Thailand, Nepal, and India were represented as well as a bloc of Westerners.  I could try to explain further in words how phenomenal this parade was, but I’d only end up sounding like a thesaurus.

Long Weekends: Part One (Less Culture, More Alcohol)

Today I embarked on my first full work week since April 18-22.  No, really.  First we had a field trip then a day off because the April session was longer than our allotted 20 day work month, then the week after it was Children’s Day, then the week after that it was Buddha’s birthday.  Monday today felt like it came out of nowhere after a traditional 2 day weekend.

So what have I been up to?  Clearly, not blogging.

Following my last real entry about the field trip to Coex Aquarium, I was supposed to spend part of my long weekend at a baseball game with my co-workers Kimmie, Jenny, Jenny’s boyfriend Tyler, and my boyfriend David but it got rained out.  Luckily, there’s no shortage of fun to be found in Seoul even when it’s raining buckets.

Jenny and Tyler knew about a place where you could rent out a room equipped with a Wii and a flatscreen so we were able to spend the afternoon in a cozy little space full of pillows trying to decipher Konglish characters for Mario Kart and doubles tennis for W7000 a piece (including drinks and snacks!).  That was probably the most wholesome part of the day.

  After dinner and margaritas at Dos Tacos (the ingredients needed for good Korean food and good Mexican jive together surprisingly well) in Hongdae, we found ourselves crossing the street to go to one of the many establishments in the Ho Bar chain and W1900 tequila shots made me hate my life the next day.

Fast forward to the next long weekend which began with me in serious pain from an allergy-related eye infection.  After a somewhat grumpy night out with David, Kimmie, and confusingly, another David we take tae kwon do with, my mood was righted just in time for World DJ Festival.

Good thing too because Koreans know how to get down!  One of the things I really enjoy about the Korean dance music scene is that drugs have virtually no presence.  People know how to have an awesome time completely sober.  You’ve probably heard the expression “High on life” and that is exactly what the bouncing, skipping, smiling, hugging-strangers-in-the-crowd, singing, screaming, super hip Koreans are.  There were some periods of rain during the first night of the festival (when I attended, though there was also a second night) which just meant dancing in multi-colored galoshes and twirling umbrellas for lots of folks.

photo credit: David B.

The next morning at 5:30 am when the subways started running again was comedy gold.  When you take the subway on a Saturday morning before sunrise you can be sure to encounter the following two groups of people 1) young people coming in from a night of drinking and 2) older people heading out to hike, go to market, and to judge the shit-wrecked party-goers.  May 6th was no exception.

Since everyone was leaving at the same time, the subway platforms were incredibly crowded as we all craned our necks to be first to spot the train coming so we could be the first in line to hopefully nab a seat and crash out until your respective transfer point was reached.  Everyone was laughing and jostling each other the second the train doors opened, jumping over seats and even though David and I weren’t lucky enough to get seats in the madness, were joining in with the general merriment.  People began just sitting on the floor of the subway and after about 20 minutes I gave in and fell asleep sitting up until we connected with the orange line.  When we did stop and pick up the occasional and always older passenger, they looked incredibly confused by the tangle of half awake bodies sprawled over every surface of the train and it was hilarious.  Most memorable ride on the Seoul Metro System by far.

After a day of sleep, I ventured to Insa-dong for the more restful and educational aspects of my back to back long weekends: the Seoul Lotus Lantern Festival.  That and my trip to the DMZ this weekend deserve their own entries, so I’ll be seeing you soon blogosphere!

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

My initial reaction to hearing that Osama bin Laden had been killed by US military was one of fear–I immediately thought of September 11th and prayed for my family’s safety in case of retaliatory attacks.  After about five minutes of digesting the information, I wondered about the impact on President Obama’s approval rating.

Despite the death of the boogeyman of Western culture, in a lot of ways the world seems less safe than before I clicked on that BBC link.  The system that backed the hatred of this individual is not gone.    His funding, his support network, his terror organization–it’s all still there and it’s angrier than ever.  Though one can say that the opposing side did the same thing when we were attacked, I’m sure the dancing in the streets of Washington is not helping our case at all.

I had never experienced being hated for being an American first hand until I came to Korea.  Sometimes I’ll be pushed out of the way or treated poorly by Koreans but I was surprised when the person that made me feel the worst was a fellow teacher who daily barraged me with anti-American statements.  A lot of them were ill-informed or childish and don’t bear repeating but it was very upsetting.  It was a dark cloud hanging over each day and I was happy when the person in question terminated their contract early and went home.  You don’t get to choose where you’re born.

This entry is somewhat haphazardly thrown together as I’m still processing and learning about the death of Osama bin Laden and its impact on American citizens, but the main point I’m getting at is that this is not something to be celebrating.  Hatred never is, no matter how great vindication feels.  So for the sake of your countrymen living outside of the safety of their nation and for the safety of those living within its borders, try to control yourself, please.