Christmas post turned day's events turned Korean tidbits

For the record, I had full intention of making this post entirely about the Christmas weekend. However, as I started writing it I realized my brief "day's events" recap/warm-up turned into a full-on stand-alone post. Therefore, I'm turning this entire post into a Christmas warm-up. Enjoy. Or don't. I'm not the one killing time reading some punk's blog.

As I sit here, still a little clammy from shootin hoops in the gym with Roger, Jun-Young, and Mr. Lee (who will from now on be known as Min-Chul....I finally learned his name!), I've decided it's about time to reflect upon the weekend that was, Christmas in the ROK.

But first, let me give you a QUICK recap of the day's events:

Winter vacation started today! I was told I was going to have only first period but the kids were a no show. Score. But let me tell ya, the waiting game that ensues after the bell rings at Korean schools is quite the mind game. For the record, we all came here with the full expectation of teaching 22 English classes a week, but nothing can quite brighten a day like a cancelled class. Unfortunately, the nail-biting suspense is usually terminated when 40+ Korean kids come barreling in 5 minutes late screaming, hitting, and grabass...ing. Which you then have to tell everyone you're google chatting with a little something like this:

me: damn
you: what?
me: 3rd graders actually showed up, i dont understand why they always do this
you: yea man that sucks
me: alright well they're all looking at me and ms lee is givin me the stinkeye
you: ha aight later have fun
me: thanks...fml

But today, after sweating it out (it was freezing mind you) for TEN minutes without the usual ruckus parade, I was in the clear. Boom goes the dynamite! Instant fist-pumping jubilation. Besides being bowed to on entering the school by Korean boys calling you handsome like it's their j-o-b, this is one of the best feelings for a native English teacher (no, no one else?).

But the funny thing is, I usually spend that 45 minutes of free time doing anything but productivity. I get so excited when a class gets cancelled yet twiddle my thumbs while g-chatting, checking fantasy, watching NFL highlights, playing Dungeons & Dragons (just kidding......or am I?), etc.

It's getting to the point where I'd rather stand in front of the kids, lecture about Christmas, and play games with them. Maybe I'm starting to grow up? Nah still too early to call that one.

Aaanyways, after skyping my mother all morning, I was ambushed on-camera by Min-Chul. It was his way of telling me it was time to go to lunch. Since winter vacation started today, we had to say bye-bye to the lunch ladies and hello to being on our own (Well, not entirely. Jun-Young and Roger will be showing up to school every day just like me and we've agreed to do lunch together every day. Should be fun). Today was an exception though since the school was treating us to lunch. We all went to a sujebi restaurant to dine on the house specialty. Sujebi is a soup made with homemade noodles, kelp, and whichever meat your heart desires. Much to the dismay of Min-Chul, our table received two orders of the sujebi made with mussles (he wanted one with bossam, or pork belly). It was a little bland, but a satisfying meal to combat the snowy conditions outside.

What should have been an ordinary teacher lunch turned a little crazy mid-meal when a little sparrow flew into the restaurant. It might as well have been a dementor flying into The Hog's Head (I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but I'm teaching a Harry Potter--themed winter camp next week...) because some people were losin' their marbles. However I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed the little guy buzzing my head. Somehow the owner caught it with his bare hands (of course!...) and proceded to parade it around the restaurant. Well one of my more entertaining coworkers thought it would be a good idea if she could hold the embattled flapper. Any guesses what happened next?

A fellow sujebi soup slurper shrieked as the poor little guy escaped mid-exchange. She really blew that one. Talk about a fowl. Young Seong Middle represent! Soon after the unwelcome guest was ushered out and harmony was restored.

During lunch I found out that one of my favorite coteachers, Helena (her English name of course), would not be continuing to teach at Y.S. Middle for 2011. Instead she would be taking one of her THREE allotted years for maternity leave! Three years! Per child! She has two kids so that means she can take SIX years if she wanted. Six years absent and the job is there waiting for you. Only teachers and some government workers are given this generous benefit. The only kicker, if you can call it a "kicker", is that only one of those three years is paid leave. Still, that's pretty nice. And well-deserved if I may say so myself. Pregnancy? Yikes, no thanks. I guess that's one of the many reasons why being a teacher in Korea is such a sought-after position, especially for women.

The sobering moment was momentarily rectified by going out for coffee with some of my favorite coworkers after lunch. I treated Min-Chul, Jun-Young, Helena, and Roger to some Americanos (that's espresso and water for those keeping score) to show my appreciation for them. It was well-received. Also, found out that Min-Chul, whom I previously thought was heading to NYC to work at a restaurant with his uncle, may be staying in Korea a little longer than originally planned, which would be nice. I'm already losing Jun-Young and Helena, don't wanna lose Min-Chul too! Anyways, he invited me to spend a night in Suwon, where he lives, for a soju-filled evening, followed by a day trip to a Bean Pole outlet store (more to come on BP on my next post) some time this winter vacation. Should be awesome.

When we got back, we played a basketball game similar to PIG (see: beginning of post), I said goodbye to my friend Helena, ate some ice cream courtesy of Roger (he lost at basketball), and headed to Starbucks where I am now.

Okay! That was some QUICK recap of the day's events. Now for Christmas. Hold up. Julie just texted. Dinner time. Ah crap, I guess Christmas will have to wait...

"This little piggy goes to the doctor".......and gets a shot in the bum

For the past week or so the "index toe" on my left foot has caused me some serious discomfort. One night I couldn't even sleep due to the itch intensity. Now I'm no rash/itch expert (or am I?) but it seemed to me that I picked up some sort of bacteria on my little 2nd-in-command. I typically squeeze 2 days out of each wool sock so I figured my socks felt overworked and were getting revenge on me. After 5 days of no improvement I figured it was time to pay a visit my old friend: the Korean clinic.

After complaining to my go-to, Paul, about the itching and redness, he contracted the help of Junyoung and the new guy at school serving his two-year mandatory national service (Junyoung's replacement), who is a Korean-American raised in Seattle, of all places, named Roger, to take me to the clinic. I can foresee it being nice to have Roger around since he's fluent in Korean. And he's a cool dude too (but who isn't from Seattle; shout out to Kitchell and my Issaquah cousins).

Anyways, we left school at 4:30 (and not a minute earlier, Vice Principal, I swear....), hailed a cab, and headed for a dermatologist in Yatap, my hood. Like my other healthcare experiences in Korea, the dermatologist visit was smooth sailing. Roger did the talking and I did the head nodding. After giving the receptionist my Alien Registration Card (or what we call the ARC on the streets) to take care of insurance issues, I waited less than five minutes to directly to see the man in charge. His English was average, but had pretty good medical English (he's a doctor after all). I took my sock off to show him the "infection" and he immediately started touching my itchy toe. If anyone should be taking precaution with a potentially contagious foot infection, shouldn't a dermatologist??? 

He then took a magnifying glass to my poor little guy and after about 10 seconds of contemplation, he hit me with the news. Guesses anyone??

If you guessed eczema (I had to look up the spelling), deduct 3 points for you are wrong. The official diagnosis was frostbite. FROSTBITE?! When he told me I second guessed him. And can you blame me? Now I'm no eskimo (Bob Dylan would beg the differ), but I figured I were ever to develop a case of frostbite it would be in Wisconsin......or HIKING MT. EVEREST. Not in Korea. But since we're on the topic, let me complain for a little bit. The schools heat most of their rooms but never their hallways. If you are teaching (or taught) in Korea, this isn't news. And if you know someone else here and they've already told you, it isn't news for you either. But for the others, lemme tell ya, it gets cold in school. [B]rrrreal cold. And It was okay at first. Wearing a sweater at school. Putting on the wool socks. Wearing gloves while teaching. But frostbite is the final straw. It's too cold. My feet have literally been borderline numb all week. And I paid the price (which was only about $5 for the check-up, the meds, and the shot in the bum. Yes, a shot in the bum. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm all about the Korean healthcare system). So, in the future, if you should ever find yourself faced with the following question: 

"Do you know if Korea gets cold in the winter?"

You can matter-of-factly say, "Why yes! I do know! Some jackass who writes a blog about Korea got frostbite doing day-to-day stuff. Yeah, I know. What a sap!"

Ok don't say that.  But you get the picture. This brings me to my next topic: the bum shot. No not Bum Shots, nor Bum Shots 2 (probably movies, I said probably!). The bum shot. Now I've heard in the past that it is very difficult to avoid the bum shot when you go to see the doctor in Korea. I was 2 for 2 before this doctor visit in not getting anally injected (Sorry, I debated about making this joke for about 30 seconds but decided to go with it in the end). This time I did not have such luck.

After chatting with the doc about how often to take my medication, apply the cream, etc. he told me to go into the room next door for a shot. I've always been curious what's in this shot. I'm assuming it's just vitamins and immune system boosters but who knows (do you?). 

The nurse, who spoke little to no English, told me to pull down my pants for the shot. Before I could even ask if she wanted me laying on a table on my stomach (it's how I've always imagined bum shots to go down), she'd already pulled out the syringe and was ready to penetrate. Since I'm what you would call a needle namby-pamby (thanks thesaurus.com), I decided to stall. I asked her if she wanted me to put all of my weight on the leg that wasn't receiving the poke. She looked at me slightly puzzled and answered in Korean. Then, she backed up and kept saying something to me in Korean. At this point, I'm extremely confused. My pants are halfway down. The nurse is yelling at me. And the receptionist, who can see me because the door in between the nurse's office and receptionist area is open, is looking at me laughing. Finally the nurse abandons the Korean and laughingly says to me in English "You are done now. Please pull up your pants." At this moment the receptionist bursts out laughing as I realized I was already poked. Korean nurse-1, me-0. If only shots were this easy in the States no one, myself included, would ever have a phobia of them from such a young age. Or maybe she used a numbing pad. Or maybe I'm just growing up and finally getting over that stupid phobia. Nah it was probably the numbing pad.

Here's a picture of my toes. The photo doesn't really do it justice but the vice big toe is very red near the nail. 

 

You thought the post was done eh? Sorry to inform you but I still have more to say. After the visit (and countless jokes about how my feet are so soft and delicate at the hands of Junyoung and Roger), the guys accompanied me to buy some more warm socks. Ones that I can sleep in so my feet aren't freezing in the middle of night. Even though Junyoung had to go to his second job, and Roger barely knew me, both insisted they come along. And that's what I love about Koreans. Once they open up to you, they are extremely generous and friendly. They see to it that you are taken care of in their country and I am very grateful, not only for Junyoung and Roger, but for the numerous Koreans who have taken the time to help a waygook out.

So to conclude, I'm blaming my Mom. She must have jinxed me as a toddler when she grabbed my toe number toe and said "this little piggy goes to the doctor".....

Just kidding Mom. Love you.

Blograstinating Part 2

One of the beauties of Blogger is that it saves blog posts until you are ready to officially unveil them. Well for me, that's also one of the problems. I started a post, entitled 'Adjummania' a little after Halloween but never finished it. And then forgot about it. I will basically have written it at 2 different times but hopefully it reads seamlessly. We'll see. Anyways, I feel weird posting about Halloween in December so after this I'll post some T-giving photos and then a little taste of Xmas. Ok go...

Also want to give a little shout out to my friend Alex Kimball. Last night was his last night in Korea. A few of us got together at his favorite restaurant for some dwaeji galbi in Suwon, his hometown. It was the tastiest galbi I've had in Korea. He's leaving because he was offered a job with Kohl's Corporate in Milwaukee that he couldn't refuse. He will be missed in Korea. Here's a little photo from the Yang Yang Surfing Festival we went to. Kimball's on the far right. Have fun at the Rose Bowl brooo!

There's no season like Finals season

As I log consecutive hour #7 sitting at my desk for the day, I've check and rechecked my fantasy roster, texted Predick, done some serious damage on Hype Machine, chit-chatted with teachers about my new haircut (some think it's very handsome, some say it won't attract young Korean girls as much as the last haircut did......haven't yet decided if that's a good thing or not), successfully gchatted (all the cool kids are doing it) with my family, and then pretended to do more research on our Thailand-Malaysia-Vietnam vacation but then got distracted by this song. But now, it's bloggah time!

This is becoming a normal routine. I blograstinate, tell you guys, write down what's happened recently, and make empty promises of posting new videos. Well here's another installment:

Last week I had a demo lesson in front of the principal, the vice principal, and the whole English department. This job has definitely improved my public speaking skills tenfold, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad bit nervous.

...got distracted again...

I was definitely trying harder than usual, and I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but the class went pretty well. They said that I am a very good teacher and apologized for students not bringing pens/pencils to class. A few days later the English department went to a restaurant to celebrate the successful lesson and appraisal from the bosses. We went to an American buffet (obviously) called Ashley's. It was pretty funny actually. First of all, the vice principal and principal turned down the offers because they "dislike American food," and most of the teachers that went didn't like American food either. They only went to be courteous. And for a free meal.

I was very curious as to what American food in Korea would constitute. I'm not expert, but it reminded me of a classier version of any of your standard American buffets. Just with a hint of Southern Dixie. It was actually kind of expensive too. Koreans must think American buffets are a classy endeavor. The best part was seeing all of my co-teachers awkwardly struggle with forks. They didn't really know how to hold them. At that moment, I got a little glimpse of what I must have looked like trying to use the über-slippery Korean chopsticks the first couple of weeks. This may be a simple example, but it's always fascinating putting yourself in foreign people's shoes.

After getting stuffed on sweet potatoes and cheesecake, most of the teachers decided to call it quits. Lee-Minchun, Helena, Paul, and I, however, hit the night in stride and headed to a place where you can always find Koreans 24/7 who don't mess around: the billiards hall.

Ahhh the Korean billiards halls, a thousand square feet of nineteen, mean, green, Koreean billiards tables complete with gambling, cigarette-laden, Korean caballeros. I used to think bowlers were the most intense "athletes" I'd seen in this country. That is, until I hit up the Korean pool table scene. And oh what a scene it is.

Paul and I ended up losing to Mr. Lee and Helena, but afterwards Paul and I decided that it wasn't because we were playing so poorly but because we didn't want to crush the confidence of Helena. Yeah. That's it. We  lost on purpose...

Aaaaanyways, this week's empty promise is hoping I can finish my videos of Lotte World and of the school festival. The same ones I thought I would have completed months ago. Probably won't happen tomorrow, but I'm shooting for next week. I feel like O'Hare during X-Mas with all these delays.

And speaking of flying, my Dad will be arriving in South Korea about 24 hours from now! I'm very excited to spend some quality time with family, albeit only a weekend. Whether he knows it yet or not, I am going to be taking him to the Santacon in Seoul on Saturday so check back for photos/details of that gem of a night. My school gave me the green light for taking tomorrow afternoon off so I can meet him at Incheon airport. Maybe I'll make a sign for him. It's every man's dream to have someone waiting for you at the airport holding a sign with your name it. Sorry I can't be a supermodel, Dad.

OKay! Well this post only took me forever to write. And if you haven't been sold on the hype machine links I've dispersed throughout this post, this is sure to melt your face off (for proof, see: Geoff Johnson's fb wall).