Sunday, January 17, 2010

Concerning...yeah, basically same old.

Well here I am in my faithful end of week post, listening to "The Swell Season/Strict Joy" which is the follow up album to the movie "Once". It's really good by the way, if you like really organic and relaxed music. Last week (was it a week? I'm not convinced...) catapulted past my head with all the speed of a...catapulting machine...? Ahem. It was a fast succession of "busy nothings" (still one of my favorite Jane Austen phrases) what with intensives week number two and really getting into the thick of graduation prep. NYU and Columbia will rise admirably to the occasion and are already beginning to do so. Since NYU in particular is my responsibility, I feel more pressure than ever to ensure that they "perform" well for their parents, so we've been practicing every day and I've extracted a promise signed in blood that they'll do the same at home. I also feel a little more anxiety than normal because as 7 year 3rds, they've been learning English since they were 5 and are the best in the program so they'd better be pretty darn fluent. Hence the 1/2 page typed speech that they all wrote and are memorizing and perfectly busting out. This would take even me a good hour to get down much less THEM. They've got the choreography nearly perfect and almost all the words, so progress is good. I've now got about 5 weeks to polish, of which I intend to make good use. Part of me feels like I've missed my calling for Broadway as the end of almost every class goes something like "Smile! Turn, hand, turn, fingers, turn, and CIRCLE!" All this practice does raise little maggots of guilt in my conscience... especially when one of my favorite little 6 year olds kindly informed me in perfect English that, "Becky Teacher, if I sing 'We are the World' one more time I will die." Needless to say we took a break after that and played a rousing, conciliatory game of "find the hidden glue sticks" which for them is the best thing since sliced bread and the wheel...or kimchi, I guess, for Korea. A very large part of me thinks that this element of the school is a little ridiculous. These kids aren't even in elementary school yet for Pete's sake (who's Pete??), and yet we demand them to be little scholars. PARTICULARLY after I had that comment, I try really hard to keep classes fun and even treat graduation stuff like a treat where we get to sing and dance at the end of class. Columbia showed me the dance they are doing and are achingly endearing in their little moves- they have to fall down at one point and all crumble into this disheveled heap of child before popping up for the next verse. They also all have to introduce themselves with twelve separate greetings so I really had to stretch my English colloquialisms to think of them but I'm convinced it's for the better as I can not WAIT to see the most timid boy in class break out the gangsta fingers with "Yo! I'm Daniel!" or David's unwitting tribute to Friends, "How you doin'?" All my kids seem enjoy it most days so that helps...but then I see the hand picked 20 dollar a pop individualized princess and prince costumes that they'll be wearing and get freshly boggled, despite how freaking adorable they'll undoubtedly be. The parents want a show, they'll get one. One question though, WHERE AM I??

Graduation aside, the week passed. There's a cute new office worker at the school which is not a bad thing in the least. Friday night was time for Level Eks again (English Club) because I have no life haha. It was surprisingly fun actually. We talked about the internet and what it can do. It did make me think slightly twice about this blog but I figure I've really said nothing for which I'm ashamed and I haven't even mentioned that person I murdered so I figure I'm golden. There was a new Mongolian guy there and he was nice, but the only reason I mention him is that his appearance stuck out like a sore thumb to me and I immediately knew he wasn't Korean. Embarrassing confession...I've been guilty of lumping all Asians together in the past but I'm getting much better at distinguishing them. It was really obvious to me that this guy was completely different so now I can tell Mongolian from Chinese from Japanese from Korean. So, that's good.

The best part of the night was when we went out to our traditional hof afterwords though, I had a great conversation with "Mission," a very cheerful and very outgoing and very middle aged member of the club. I had a chance to talk about some of my impressions of Korea and have them explained or validated. I think one of the biggest things that continues to sink in is how incredibly vital age is to the Korean social fabric. One of my Korean friends was trying to teach me all of the different titles...unni (a girl's big sister), noona (a boy's big sister), oppa (a girl's big brother or boyfriend), appa (dad), ama (mom), ahjussi (grandpa), ahjima (grandma), hyung (boy's big brother)...it is rare for a Korean to ever address each other by name. If you are even one year younger, it colors an entire relationship and you're expected to be in the submissive role your entire interaction. Funnily enough, it is actually somewhat taboo to be friends with someone of a significantly different age BUT it is completely fine to date if it's the guy that's older. You can fall in love, just don't hang out with each other...haha. Obviously, this doesn't apply to Level Eks as there are so many foreigners and they know we aren't familiar with that. Also, I mentioned how the whole of Korean society is grouped off into couples. The entire country is built for twosomes- movie tickets, popcorn and soda deals, restaurant menus, matching outfits...EVERYTHING. You see people walking and holding hands everywhere...yet, you never see a Korean couple kissing. Many little nuances exist that I love to tease out because it makes me feel more connected to my surroundings. One more little detail that I learned that night is that there's a dried fish hanging above the door of the bar...I always thought it was decoration a la Minnesota style taxidermy but apparently, it's spirit food to ward off ghosts. Most Koreans apparently believe in some form of supernatural afterlife, including a nine tailed fox version of a vampire. Huh. Guess one tail wasn't scary enough.


Friday night became Saturday morning and Renee, our friend Nikki, and I made our way to Seoul's Disney-copyright-infringed Lotte World. For what it was, I had a good time. There was even one descent-ish roller coaster. There was a "Pharoah's Fury" ride that we got to after a reasonable 70 minute wait that was totally Indiana Jones 2.0 from Disney World and a balloon ride thing and the rocking ship and a Sindbad water ride. I wanted to go on the more serious rides (having lost my fear of amusement parks back in May with my Theta pledge class in Idaho in an attempt to flee finals...) but I had no takers, so alas, the cheese stood alone for that day. Speaking of food, I had the most delicious freshly made churro in the park, and the most disgusting mystery meat fast food. Basically canceled each other out.

We got home, I slept, I talked to a lot of people this morning which made me happy and had a particularly good chat about grad school with Schaffer, my brilliant sophomore roommate who is currently getting her MFA in London and setting up her first show in London's oldest department store. My qualms about UW are on the decline, I'm running out of reasons not to do this. It's a good school. I love literature and will always be a book nerd. I am thrilled at the prospect of research and getting published. This is a very viable future that I've constructed in my head...understandably, dad has been much more "You have castles in the sky. Good, that is where they should be, now make foundations under them" (OK that's more Thoreau than Endres) so I need to get a little more information about job prospects which does daunt me, but I like what I am finding out. After that, I watched TV, peeled myself off of my couch, did dishes, pilates, groceries and went to get Indian with Chad. Mmmmm curry, a worthy end to any day. Although, the Chai was a bad decision because even 4 hours out, I'm still typing like a fiend. Sleep prognosis could be better, but oh well. Love you all!!

B

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