Concerning tulle and temples

Friends and loved ones, we are gathered here today in cyberspace to celebrate the ridiculousness of Korean weddings. Oh my dear lord. I was invited to my first one on saturday and it was certainly an experience. But first- last week was pretty good, sorry I haven't posted sooner. Work was work as usual, still getting everything together. A highlight included the two nights where Asteria, one of the other teachers, and I got pizza and watched the new Sense and Sensibility. That was really nice, especially now that we have discovered the Domino's 3 minutes from our apartment and with it, normal pizza without sweet potato paste (although it's still offered, of course). Hooray! Another interesting development is that I am starting to be bit by the grad school bug. I've started some internet research and am beginning to pull together a rough list of colleges I want to look into. A lot of it really appeals to me- most of the doctorate programs require two languages before graduation so I'd get to study Latin or Greek or something fun like French! I have been paying special heed to what research the faculty is conducting, because I would be limited by that, and privileging those with any Victorian focus. I like that kid in a candy shop feeling I get when excited, I haven't felt it in a little while. Though this is SO so very far from definite, it is nice to feel like I still have passion for English.

Anywho, back to the weekend. We all got dressed up and went to the 'Crystal Wedding Hall' which is 3 floors up this random building. We are greated inside by an explosion of pink and slikscreen flower designs on the walls. Many of the older women walked around in hambow (traditional Korean outfit that is a sort of tent beginning about 3 inches above the boobs) which was really interesting to see. Ere long, they marched (or shuffled) out the bride and perched her in this bizarre little room with a tulle arching canopy and tea lights and a fussy little chaise, on which her considerable skirts were displayed. She looked pretty but Korean fashion seems prone to excess, it was hard to see her and not be blinded by bedazzled embellishment. Lots 'o sparkle. We took a picture with her, ensconsed in her little princess area, and then went upstairs for a lunch buffet. This was really cool because they had a huge variety of foods to choose from, of which I tried quite a few. They had good sushi, corn salad, fried spring onion, sashimi, meat ball things and a lot of other stuff that I couldn't identify but ate in good faith. Pretty nice. Afterwards, we went back downstairs for the ceremony which was bizarre. It was cabaret style with a plexiglass aisle up the center with fake flowers and string lights underneath. There was also a fake champagne glass mountain and even a fake cake. The bride walked up the aisle to a compilation of odd western romance ballads (Celine made a cameo) and then everyone promtply went back to what they were talking about before she came. From what I was able to hear over the din, the ceremony was pretty short. A choir sang them a song and they bowed to their parents (in the groom's case, a full on floor prostration) before coming back down the aisle and being bombarded with streamers. Throughout the whole thing, the wedding planner hovered like a pesky fly, even butting in during inappropriate moments to tug at some insignificant thread or make the couple hold hands or something...even when they weren't taking pictures. I think this is a cultural difference, but the whole thing seemed displayed. They never looked affectionate (even hand shakes were forced by the wedding planner) and there was no kiss in the ceremony. Oh well, she looked happy enough so I think this must be normal over here.


Then...yesterday. I got it into my head that it would be a great idea to get out of the city and explore a national park nearby. It did turn into a spectacular day but took its pound of flesh. We bussed to a Buddhist temple called Dongkhasa, had a look around at the really ornate and colorful roof and eaves, and started up the trail. UP being the operative word here. Precisely 3 hours of unrelenting up, in fact. This was compounded by the fact that the trail was not forgiving dirt but more like a loosely arranged avalanche of rocks that was meant to be some sort of a staircase. AND, Koreans don't seem to understand the value of a switchback so it was essentially 3 hours of clambering straight on up one of their very dramatic mountainsides. Once it got bad, we literally had to stop every fifty feet. Along the way up, we there was a stone pagoda thing with incense and recorded chanting that had a really nice view of the altitude we had gained and looked into the surrounding mountains. We continued, and I was basically crawling up the rocks at this point and seriously considering turning back when we hit the ridge and went down just as drastically as we went up. This part was much more fun, we literally flew down the mountain with the aid of some handle rails where the rocks got steep. The last of the trail descended along this pretty little creek to the temple of Gapsa, and there we were, a mere 5 hours after setting out from Dongkhasa.


This temple was better, in my opinion, because one of the buildings had hundreds and hundreds of mini golden Buddhas behind a bigger version. That interior literally glowed from them, it was so pretty. I couldn't resist a taboo and likely disrespectful picture. There were also all of these orderly prayer flags or lanterns or decorations covering quite a chunk of the interior ceilings. They were even writing prayers on each new shingle used to upkeep the roof. It was cool seeing people chanting and praying and prostrating themselves, I have never really seen this religion enacted and it was a nice introduction. I did find it ironic that Buddhist doctrine seems to have become engrained in the very landscape surrounding the temples, however-- suffering before enlightenment, indeed. We hopped a taxi back to Daejeon, in which I promptly fell asleep, and had sausage, potatoes and beer for dinner at Weisenhous, at which I also promptly fell asleep. Sheer exhaustion made a grumpy dinner companion out of me and made my bed feel like paradise. I borrowed Asteria's camera for it, so expect facebook pictures soon! Today, my calf muscles have conducted a full scale revolt against my nervous system in protest of yesterday but not a bad weekend.

Love, me

Concerning the real Asia in all of its glory...

To start off, things are much better on the teaching front. I found out that the complaints were pretty exaggerated and the one class that I did make a mistake in, I bribed with chocolate bon bon pie things so we're good to go. Most of my classes seem to like me a lot, I have been dubbed "Banana Teacher" in one...I think because banana and Becky start with the same letter but I am not entirely clear on that. I am feeling more and more competent as I get up to speed, and I'm up to being able to plan two days in advance which is definitely progress. I feel less frantic running around the school, order is cautiously peaking out from behind the chaos. The one really interesting thing about hogwon life (Korean private academies), and I suppose Korean life in general, is swine flu. As far as this country is concerned, this is the next god-sent plague and it is treated with fear roughly equivalent to a coming apocalypse. There is a new national policy that the school is also implementing of quarantining anyone coming back from international travel for about a week from work or school along with mandatory testing. This may alter my plans to galavant off to Thailand, but we'll see how that unfolds.

This weekend was a nice rest after my first full week. Asteria and I spent all of saturday trecking to the nearest mart, buying cleaning supplies, and attacking our apartment. As the blackened water that clogged our tub later will suggest, it was an out and out war. It is probably only breeding 3 kinds of E. Coli now, down from the 50 it must have been before. Saturday night, we went out to a bar called "The Santa Clause" for this foreigner open mike thing. I am certainly learning soon here that the prospect of living abroad attracts all types...I have met my share of eccentric expats already but they are mainly really amusing. It was a fun, relaxed night.

Next day, we ventured into old downtown via the very nice, shiny new subway system. We wandered the underground mall for a while, and I have never seen that many cell phones stores in my life. Seriously, Korea is obsessed- for as strict as it can be about etiquette, the one rule they notably do not have is answering or talking on the phone during meals. It's practically an unnamed extra dinner companion. After, we wandered around some of the winding market outside. THIS was cool. I finally really felt like I was in the Asia I expected- disorienting, dark tunnels filled with the really suspicious smells of cooked intestine, spices (yes, dad- kimchi), and every kind of fish and sea food. The corners would usually be punctuated by really bright and luscious looking fruit stands, interspersed with second hand clothes and (more commonly), shoe stalls. I totally felt like Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods, except I didn't try any of the gross stuff. Some of it looked good- for example, Korea has these potato pancakes that are kind of like spicy latkas that are pretty yummy. However, I am perfectly content to remain a spectator to the vast majority of what I saw. After the market, we went into a more affluent shopping area and got some cheap DVDs to watch and nail polish. Nothing but the essentials, of course.

After we got back, Asteria and I were tired and worn out so we decided to bite the bullet and experience the Korean bath house. We went to one of the nicer hotels in a region of Daejeon that is over Yuseong Hot Springs, where royalty used to bathe in ye good old days. Yusoung Hotel was pretty cheap- 5,000 won to use the spa, or about 6 dollars. It was like I fell off of Korea and accidentally stumbled into a harem. It is gender segregated, so all of the women get naked, thoroughly rinse off, and then soak in any one of five pools in a big room, all just sort of hanging out together in every possible sense. Each pool was slightly different; there was a warm one, a cold one, a really really hot one, one with a waterfall jet to massage the muscles, a scrubbing pool, a steam room, and a really really hot tiled bed area. Once you were done soaking, you'd thoroughly scrub (or pay some fiersome looking women to do it for you) and presto, clean as a whistle. I got pretty used to it after about twenty minutes, despite all of the stares of being the only foreigner there, when a 10 year old girl named Michelle came up cool as anything and had a whole conversation with Asteria and me about where we were from and then fetched us ice for the next 15 minutes. Pretty relaxing...though I do beg to differ about the healing properties as I pulled a neck muscle somewhere along the way and have been moving like a grandma the whole day.

Oh well, still worth it if only for the experience. All in all, still going well! Love you all!

Concerning the start of the daily grind and nesting

I wish I could type Korean for hello, but as my language skills are not quite that far along, I can only half mumble it in passing. It sounds something like ahnya ha seyo. Hello, at any rate! The big news on this front is that I moved into my apartment yesterday night. Yay for cereal! It doesn't look quite as bad as it did at the party and the removal of several tacky decorations and movie posters that shall remain nameless (Leon? Really?) have definitely helped. AND, my mom's afghan is just the size to cover up the worst of the rips in the leather sofa. I have unpacked all of my clothes and will organize the rest when I get home from work later today. We did arrive to the nice surprise of a freezer literally half crusted over with ice. Luckily, a very nice and obliging friend spent about half an hour hacking into it enough to clear some space. We did the best de-frosting job we could on immediate notice with groceries lying in wait.

The experience of getting those groceries is definitely worth an aside. It is such a cliche that the way to a culture is through its food, but it's so very true. We went to a Korean supermart and oh...my....lord. Each food department functions separately and is manned by people hawking their wares to beat out the surrounding choices. It was a bizarre hour walking down the aisles being half yelled at in a language I don't know. The food situation will be interesting. There is precisely 1 kind of butter, cheese is really really expensive, there is a whole aisle devoted to ramen (though NO helpful pictures to distinguish seafood from chicken from pork flavors...) and a lot of really slimy and ambitious cuts of meat and obscure vegetables. We might have to go back more frequently than I am used to because apparently food goes bad more easily. The highlight of the trip for me, though, was finding pancake mix. Yay. And for people who talked to me before I left...I did find bread, pasta, and potatoes and bought all 3. So on a subsistence level, we're good.

Teaching is going OK, I am definitely learning and have only gotten 2 parent complaints and made 1 child cry. Despite momentary panic, I am told this is completely normal and actually ahead of the curve. Things are going better now that I have at least taught all of my classes and have a better handle on planning them. These last few days have revealed some more Korean quirks to my roving mind though...

1.) Education. Woa. I have an upper level class that goes to 5-8 other academies and don't get home until 11. They say their mom doesn't let them play on the weekends because they have to study. In some ways, I understand the need to take advantage of what you can when Korea has so SO many people vying for jobs, but it is sad to kind of lose your childhood like that. Needless to say, I feel really really guilty assigning them homework.
2.) Mirrors in elevators. Every single one, in fact. This might seem handy and it can be until you realize that for the fifth time in a row, you have been checking yourself out in the mirror and forgot to push the button. Embarassing? I think so.

Anyways, things are putzing along! Keep emails and comments coming, love and miss you!

B

Concerning ankle biters.

I am sitting at work winding down to the end of my first day of teaching. Wow, what a day. It certainly wasn't slow, I'll say that much for it. My replacement left yesterday so I was on my own for the first time with all of my classes. It started very well, I have a class of 6 yr olds that I adore. I had them rapt with attention discussing the uses of a hard "U" sound and we read a story about a dog. The next class, however, is filled with twelve five year olds and I suddenly made the transition from competent teacher to frazzled child wrangler. The school was demonic to give me a science project to do with that class that I could barely even do myself-- add in twelve demands for folding, cutting, taping, looking and whatever else that went over my head, and I didn't have a prayer. I had another phonics class with them that basically turned in to me pleading them to color the octopus and practice their Os while they wandered the class at random. I hope to make headway though...I implemented "one, two, three, eyes on me" when they have to clamp their lips shut and they kind of liked that, even if they don't get that it's supposed to last until I am finished talking. Lunch was a swap of the battle wounds that all of the new teachers have already sustained over the predictable rice, kimchi, mystery meat balls and very unsettling triple boiled, sauteed and and god-knows-what-else-ed quail eggs. At least it's free. After, I had my afternoon classes. The first I absolutely love, it's four students and they are all delighted to be there. Really cute. The next was a little comatose, jokes didn't go over too well. I haven't had the last yet, we'll see once we get there. BUT...and I regard this as quite the honor....I am already the recipient of not one, but TWO stickers from various students. I hope this is a mark of early favor that will continue to grow into full fledged adoration with any luck...but I will try and survive my first week before I bank on that.

It's nice to be busy and have a routine, I hit a low point over the weekend of having way too much time to think. Asteria and I distracted ourselves by going to see "My Life in Ruins" which was so so cute. I didn't even notice the subtitles. We move into our apartment tomorrow (YAY! Even if it is not the Taj Mahal, it is a space to take possession over and at least unpack, thank God) after work and we might not have internet for a little bit, so I'll email and post from work until that is up and running. Love from "Becky Teacher"!

Concerning dizzy first impressions

Hello again! Picking up where I left off, Friday I finally got to see my school. It occupies two floors in a building about five minutes from our apartment (more about that later) and all of the classrooms are named after Ivy League colleges. The kids are painfully cute, they are all dressed up in the school uniform of polos and burberry print shorts for boys and skorts for girls. In winter, they are even cuter because they have this grey sweater with the school's emblem on it. Quite the little scholars...until they set foot in a classroom. Oh, my. It boggles the mind that so much noise can come from such little packages. I am sure that to a large extent, I'll have to give in to the fact that I am, in fact, teaching young children and all that comes with them. But...I am also going to implement a trial run of the "indoor voice" philosophy.

Mostly, I think the name of the game for the first month at least will just be staying on top of my schedule. I start at 10 every day except tuesdays, when I start at 10:45, and I finish at 7. Every morning, I teach kindergarten. Unlike the upper level classes, the school teaches kindergarten as a complete program in and of itself so while everything I teach them is basically English, I teach subjects like "science" and "good manners" a couple of times a week, with the more predictable language and phonics. Since it's kindie, this is really just different excuses and prompts to practice English.

Then, afternoon classes are kind of a jumble. The kids get older as the day goes on so my last class is actually around 6th grade and pretty serious about studying. The challenge, however, is that every class has a different curriculum that I not only have to manage, but usually also coordinate with the Korean teacher that takes the class the other half of the week. AND, each curriculum involves multiple workbooks and student books and practice books and homestudy workbooks (very different from workbooks apparently...), some of which I teach, some of which I correct, some of which I assign, and some of which I leave for the other teacher. And sometimes, the lesson does not take up the class so I always have to be prepared with extra practice and activities. BAAAAAAAAAAHHH! It's quite a lot to fall into.

The good thing is that the lessons themselves are really not difficult at all to teach. It is usually a question of repetition and a lot of it. Once I get a feel for how each class progresses and what I do when, I think this should be pretty easy. I also get anywhere from 2 to 3 breaks a day to catch my breath and figure out what I'm doing. I can see myself having fun with this, especially as I get to know my kids. The classes are pretty personalized, I have anywhere from 1 student in a class to 12 at the most, so it's not too overwhelming. They already know me as "Becky Teacher". So, once I get over the noise and hit my stride, I think I can hopefully find ways to ride the wave of chaos and enjoy it. After work that day, a bunch of teachers went out to this yummy Indian restaurant and I got mango lassi, a mind chicken curry and garlic naan. MMMMMMM. It was a welcome break from Korean food, though I'm getting better with it.

Saturday, a teacher came and took Asteria and me on a walk to the Yusang hot spring district of Daejeon, where a lot of hotels have spas drawing from...oddly enough...the Yusang hot spring. We'll be going back and trying one pretty soon because it is only a few dollars to get access to the pools. It might be a bit of an experience as it is gender segregated and usually naked....but, when in Daejeon, right? As it was, we contented ourselves with this weird public foot spa that we found in the middle of a park in that neighborhood. It's basically a lot of Koreans on their lunch break soaking their feet in hot water. Random but pretty nice. We had Vietnamiese for dinner (fried pineapple rice with shrimp, not bad at all) and then went to a house party in our new apartment, where we are moving on wednesday. "Mansion of the lot"? I'm still trying to figure that one out. To be fair, it does probably have the most space of them all but it is far from palatial. One room is small, the other smaller, and it has weird narrow rooms off of rooms that are kind of pseudo balconies and one proper balcony that is screened in and random movie posters on the wall. Asteria and I have our work cut out for us though I really don't know how much we can do. To be honest, it was a little bit of a blow because I've always been a bit of a homebody in that my personal space is really really important to me. Oh well, I'll get used to it and it is only a year.

After that party (which did not help our impression of the apartment as we didn't really know anyone and felt out of place- Whitman seems very far away), we went to a club called Cacoon in the bar district. Oh. My. God. It was insane. We were the only white people in the entire club of packed dancing Asians and it was seriously like we were movie stars. Heads turned as we walked through the crowd and the guys kept coming up to talk to us and dance with us. It was a lot of fun but I am not used to getting that much sustained attention. Today, I'm feeling a little tired of being out of place and getting used to completely new surroundings. This may not be the year I built up in my head but I still have faith it will be a really good experience for me and get easier as I settle more and more into the city. I'm starting to miss everyone, email me or post comments to this! Love from this side of the Pacific!

Concerning a flight, a love motel, and a very bright city.

Well, I made it. After an 11 hour flight that passed surprisingly quickly (save the freakishly active one year old to my left and lack of personal TV), Asteria and I stepped off the plane and promptly melted in the Korean humidity. The airport itself was very orderly and logical, it was the people that defied convention and took offense at the bare idea of a patient line. After fighting tooth and nail for bus tickets, I ate my 15 hour old meatloaf sandwich (actually pretty good if somewhat...aesthetically compromised) and we started the trip to Daejeon. Worn to sheer exhaustion, we both accidentally fell asleep but still made our stop just fine where we were picked up by our two bosses. The instructions sent to us by the school were detailed enough that the whole process was pretty painless.

We settled into the cheap motel that is home until wednesday (when we get to move into our apartment) and passed out. Next morning, we went to lunch with the academic director, a ridiculously kind-hearted woman in her thirties, and tried spring chicken stew. It is Korean belief that the only remedy for heat is...more heat. I was sweating before the meal and mostly liquid by the time it was done. Objectively, it tasted fine and I would have it again but it will take me a time to click into Korean flavors. It has been the hardest thing for me so far. That night, the current teachers came to take us newbies out for Korean BBQ and it was a really really nice time. They all seemed very happy with their experiences and gave us some advice for the coming months. The BBQ itself was incredibly ornate- even if I am not used to the flavors, I certainly appreciate the effort that must go into making the 5-15 side dishes that seem mandatory here. I had the famed kimchi- kind of anticlimactic, really what it sounds like. Spicy pickled cabbage. I also found out that night that Asteria and my apartment is apparently the 'mansion' of the lot, including 2 bedrooms, a little office, a living room big enough to accommodate not one but two sofas and...get this...a bath tub. We have been told this is the culmination of Asian luxury, so I am understandably excited to move in and settle.

That night of sleep abruptly ended at 4 AM when jet lag kicked in, and I stumbled my way in the morning to the hospital for our swine flu tests. The manager of the school drove us, (similarly kind and a bit shy) and we picked up cell phones. Handy. After a lunch of the weirdest pizza I have ever had (cheese ball things on the crust, corn, mango, pepper, onion, what we think to be ham, and a sweet potato paste served with corn on the cob on the side) we met the academic director at this beautiful coffee shop overlooking the whole city. Over some delicious kiwi juice, we went over an overview of the different programs available in the school. Tomorrow, we actually start observing which will be a lot more helpful. The kids sound pretty darn cute though so I am looking forward to it a lot. After the coffee, I had the best sushi I've ever had and an early bed. This morning we had our comprehensive medical exams which was more like a circus than an appointment; Asteria, another new teacher, and I were herded around to different stations like cattle taking our charts ever which way and laughing to each other in passing. We had bibimbop (spicy spicy rice with vegetables that I had with shrimp- yummy, kind of a Korean stir fry or pad thai) to make up for losing 3 vials of blood on no food or liquids since last night and here we are.

Over all, I think things have started well. I did the vast majority of my freaking out before I left (only my immediate family know how thoroughly) so I feel pretty at peace with my decision. I have not felt the excited mania that I did in England fairly salivating over every "cheers", but I'm happy to discover the quirks of Daejeon. So far: I know it is a cliche, but my god is it bright. I am shocked that we can see nocturnal pictures from space of American lights because I would expect them to be completely eclipsed by Asia's overwhelming glow. They seem to have a monopoly on all things neon and cartoon and the senses most definitely reel. Everyone carries an umbrella all the time, because heaven forbid an Asian be wet or tanned. They actually have whitening skin products just like we have self-tanners. Cultural conventions never cease to amaze.

Last thing before I close the first of many novels that I am sure will follow, etiquette. We are learning how to blend in a little more but it does not come automatically. Take everything with two hands, but if it is with one, under no circumstances should it be the left. Never fill your own water glass. Don't make excessive eye contact with an elder. NEVER ever give things in increments of 4, it's even worse luck than 13. I am sure I'll be adding to this list as I go. That's it for now, next up: seeing the school, going to a party at our apartment on saturday, and hopefully a few touristy things over the weekend like the hot springs. Love everyone!