I love me some meguk.

Meguk (mee- gook) aka America is the greatest country in the world with the greatest food in the world. And it's not arrogance if it's true. Well, maybe it is, but it's still true.

For Lunar New Years I was able to make a very short surprise visit to the states. Being there for only 48 hours, I pretty much had time to eat and sit on the couch before getting back on the plane. It was so worth it though. Getting to see my parents, sleep in an actual bed and eat delicious Mexican food were things I needed to survive. Now that I have my fix, I feel like I will be able to complete my contract without going crazy; but I've only been back for three days, so we'll see how well that goes.

This is the one and only picture I took over the weekend. I had a layover in LA, and a friend from school so kindly took me out for a bite and to the beach. It was wonderful. This was the most amazing burger I have ever had. And, yes, it could be because I haven't had a burger in four months, but I'm sticking with my previous statement. If you know me at all, you know I don't make claims like this lightly (I kid, I kid :)). It had everything I could have ever wanted and more from a meal. I think I was always pretty obsessed with a good burger, queso, chicken fried steak, or anything tex-mex, and this trip only confirmed my suspicions. Mashisayo. Delicioso. Delicious. That's good in any language.

Bonus. I have found a way to work in Australia regardless of the outcome of this Island Reef job. That will be my next destination, and I will likely be staying for 6 months. For me, that's a much more reasonable time frame. This is great news, because now I am in a win-win situation. No matter what happens I get to travel and work in OZ (as the natives call it).

Dr. Fish

You can go to these places called Dr. Fish where you put your feet in a big tub of fish and they eat the dead skin off your body. Just an interesting Korean fact for you. I want to do this before leaving, but it seems like it might be unsanitary. 

Trash Cans Opsayo

Pronunciation: Ops-eye-yo. 

Translation: Not here.

They do not have trash cans here. Really. In my now four months in Korea, I have seen two in my city, and I can tell you exactly where they are. When we were in China, the fact that they had trash cans everywhere was one of the nicest things for me. I haven't been able to figure out why a country would do something like this until today.

And of course, it's because of money.

I teach a class of upper level students, and we spend a lot of time just talking in English. There are only two girls; and when we're done, I often ask them to teach me new vocabulary or ask questions about the Korean culture. Today they both did speeches on the importance of the environment, so it was relevant for me to question the trash cans.

From what I was told, they put them out on the streets for awhile about 5 years ago. In Korea, they have specific bags they have to buy for their trash. They are very expensive. Recycling is very big out here and we have separate areas to put different kinds of trash. I find it humorous that recycling is so important but they have trash everywhere in the streets..

Back to the point.  The money made from the trash bags goes straight to the government. And, it's illegal not to use them. What a system, huh. When they had the garbage cans on the street, people were taking their trash from home and dumping it in and around all the trash cans instead of buying the bags. So, not only was there trash everywhere just like there is now, but the government wasn't getting their money. 

The girls said they did away with that pretty quickly. According to them, the amount of trash in the streets now is no worse than it was when they actually had trash cans. I find that hard to believe. Who would have ever thought trash cans could create such a mess?

To be fair though, I don't use the trash bags. I cannot afford them at a buck 50 a piece. I use my leftover bags from Home Plus, and I guess because I'm a weguken they don't say anything to me. Thank goodness. I wouldn't be past putting trash in the street, too, if I had to pay that much just to put it away.

Fixed my flight.

Man, that was a big ordeal. The first person I talked to with Expedia said it was fine, but the fifteen I talked to after were not okay with me making the change in flights. Every time they put me on hold it would hang up on me. Finally, tonight, my fourth night of calling, they seemed more open to helping. Actually, I only had to call twice. Both people said the change was fine, but one put me on hold and that never works out for me.

So, I am going to try and stick out my contract unless I get this Australian job. There are three teachers leaving at the end of February. Two of them are finished, and one is quitting. The two that are finished will get three paychecks in the month of February and a free flight to wherever they want to go in the world. The other teacher will only get his regular paycheck, and he will have to pay his way home. It seemed like a good idea to wait for that, especially since it will get warm soon. The heat will help everything. 

It is sad that I am already in a position to be keeping a terrible job simply because it's an income (I do enjoy the actual teaching part, I just cannot relate to the management and lack of respect for the contract). I thought I had a few years before this day came, but here it is. At least I will get to travel a bit more. I think I'll be in Japan in May and who knows where in August; probably Thailand or Malaysia. I am open to suggestions.

Ice Fishing Festival. Or not.

"It is so cold, you feel like die."

This came from one of my students last Friday when I asked them to tell me their thoughts on ice fishing. I was intimidated, to say the least.

As nervous as I was, I really wanted to go to get some shots for my application video for the Australia job. I psyched myself up Saturday morning and even got to the train station right on time at 8 am sharp. However, after stepping off the train, I immediately realized I had no idea what exit I was supposed to take. I had completely forgotten to check. I think my psyche subconsciously (partially) sabotaged this weekend for me, because I was so terrified of the cold.

I really did not want to go at all, except to say that I had done it, and of course for the job ap. It just wasn't in the cards for me. This station is no ordinary station. Where I live, there is not much room to mess up your exit, you are either on one side of the street or the other.

This particular station is a maze of different lines and it is also the biggest bus station in Seoul. Talk about a cluster*. I wandered around trying different exits to see if the bus was there for half an hour before giving up. I can't remember the last time I felt so defeated; it's exhausting. I am usually really confident in my abilities to get from place to place, and I can almost always find where I need to be. Not then; it was just not my day. I had random Koreans coming up to me and asking if I needed anything, but I couldn't even tell them where to direct me since I didn't know the exit. I must have looked like such a lost puppy in there, because I've never had someone approach me and offer to help like that. It happened three times!

I finally made it home by about 10:30 am, stopping only for Dunkin Doughnuts on the way. It was nice to sleep in a warm bed for the rest of the weekend.

Bulhonkey Bulhongey

One day in the teachers' room when we were waiting for classes, one of the foreign teachers (aka Americans, that always throws me off out here) used the word bulhonkey. Apparently, in Korean, bulhongey means bad economy, and our AD turned around and gasped because she was so surprised he knew that word. Obviously, he didn't, but we thought the mishap was humorous and have since used the term bulhonkey bulhongey to describe the ever worsening economy out here. 

It's awful.

This leads me to my point. I am planning a trip to Australia at the end of this session, and I am taking three days out of the week to go. I made the reservations before I got our new schedule session, so I knew there was a chance I might have to request a day off from work. It would be the first day of the session though, so it's a good one to miss. We still haven't been officially told our break schedule, but I was planning on telling them Friday to give them a full month to find someone to take my place that day, which I thought was completely reasonable. Boy, was I wrong.

Yesterday, our new teacher asked for a Friday off in May (In May!) to go to a family reunion. They absolutely freaked out and made a big speech to all of us about how taking a day was completely unacceptable. They said that it was our choice, but if that's what we wanted to do, we would have to leave. I figured I had to tell them yesterday, and I was met with the same response. They seemed genuinely distraught at the idea of losing me, and that was quite comforting. However, from what I can tell, it is out of their control. The higher ups have a no-tolerance policy.

Right now I am faced with the decision to completely cancel my trip or shorten it by an entire day (leaving me with only 48 hours in Australia) or going home. I would, and was planning on, just saying peace out if it came to this, but the thought of losing so much money in the exchange rate is disheartening. It makes me sick to my stomach. It would be like I never even came out here by the time I bought my ticket home. 

I realized today that I have "the fear" (Friends reference), and I do not want to go back to the states in this economy with so little money in my pocket.

By Friday I will make a decision. I am still hoping to work something out with them at school, but I have not been able to change my flight. I do not recommend Expedia; they have done me wrong.

Seoul Weekend Tour

This weekend I went with a group of friends (I finally have that) and we went on a Seoul bus tour. For about $10, they took us all around the city and we could decide where we wanted to go. They had several busses running, and they would come by each stop about every half hour. It was really nice, because if we wanted to stay somewhere longer than planned, we didn't have to make a huge commitment. We got a late start since one of my friend's washing machine leaked into her entire apartment (this seems to be a recurring problem in Korea- no bueno), so we weren't able to do any of the palaces. I was actually thankful for this, since I went to the Forbidden Palace in China. In my very limited experience, it seems like if you've seen one palace, you've seen them all. Plus, none of them are going to compare to the Forbidden Palace anyways. 

We decided on the war museum and Seoul Tower. Both ended up being great, but it was a challenging day since it was so cold outside. The temperature has dropped dramatically in the past week. It's now consistently in the teens! I thought I was doing well when I was comfortable in the 30s. This is so awful. It was a huge step for me to get out at all with the weather like that; I am simply not made to be in the cold. My body does not work like this. I need a beach.

This was a love lock wall. I have heard of them before, but this was the first one I have ever seen. Lovers are supposed to put the lock on the wall and throw away the key thus symbolizing love forever. It was actually really pretty. It added a lot of color and interesting contrast to the tower. 

--For my other vertical pictures, the blogger has turned them on its own. Does anyone know how I can do this manually? It's driving me crazy for it to be sideways. Please help!

At the bottom of the tower they have a big lookout area which is where we spent our time. It cost about $7 to go to the top, and we are all pretty cheap, so we decided against it. Some of the people I was with had already been, and they have a really nice, really expensive restaurant at the top. It seemed like it would be better to spend the money if I was on a date. Hopefully I'll make it back, I'm sure the food was amazing (and maybe even Western!). They had a really nice cafe underneath with a lot of Western food that was tasty.

In the big plaza-like area where you can ride up to the top of the tower, they had a huge Christmas Tree made of teddy bears. It was right outside the teddy bear museum. They have another teddy bear museum in Suwon near our movie theatre. I've never heard of that before, and I don't really understand it. Why would anyone go to a teddy bear museum?! I guess enough people do, because they have at least two over here.. Strange-y (A lot of the Koreans have a hard time ending a word without a hard vowel, so if it ends in a silent e like above, they add the -e sound. They also say "What page-y?" all the time in class. It's a hard habit for them to break. Some of the Korean teachers and staff even do it)!

This was a view from the top (almost) of Seoul Tower. It's the highest point in all of Seoul, with a great outlook of the city. This weekend was the first time I really understood the magnitude of the city. It is just enormous. I enjoyed it, because we were in some really pretty areas. So far my experiences in Seoul have been fairly negative, and my perception of the city was really dirty and old. We saw quite a bit of modern architecture and clean streets, so it was a really positive thing for me. It felt a little bit like New York City (for the first time); it was reassuring.

We went to the war museum, and they had quite a bit of really fun and interesting things for us to play on. It costs money if you want to go in the building, so we stuck with the tanks and planes outside. It was a lot of fun to get out some extra energy and run and climb. 

This was us in one of the hover crafts. I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to climb in this, but no one ever came to stop us. Being in Korea, I was expecting someone to be on us immediately shouting "Aniyo!" (aka "No!"), but there weren't any guards at all. It was great fun.

I climbed up on top of the statue to pose with the soldiers. We had to keep moving, because it was soooo cold outside (around 15°). The climbing helped keep me preoccupied. 

Here we are about to go into the plane. It was really cool that they let us see inside everything. They were so small though. I could not even imagine being in the air in something like that; it was uncomfortable enough when it was on the ground.

Abba obsession.

There are lots of small quirky things that happen over here I never think to write about, but they definitely make the experience more interesting. The Koreans' obsession with Abba is one of them. I have no idea why they are so popular out here. When I was in high school, I saw Mama Mia! on Broadway, and have really loved their music ever since. The play was just so much fun. But, no one else my age really cares about Abba, and I don't know why they would had they not seen the play. 

Out here, they looove the movie, and our AD (assistant director), will just randomly start singing the songs in the teachers' room sometimes. I've heard it in bars, in the train stations, in the mall yesterday and in restaurants. Other than the Wonder Girls and Big Bang, which are their versions of Britney Spears and N'Sync, I feel like I hear Abba the most. It's so random and so strange. No one can really tell me why they love it so much, but they most definitely love it out here. I find it amusing.

Three hours later... 

Today was our first day of intensives, and I think I'm really going to like it. On Fridays, I teach from 1-3:30 and then 6-8:30, so I have quite a big break to get things done. I wrote about Abba on my break earlier today. On Fridays, I teach the same class three times for the last block. This is really uncommon, because I have much more control over the students this way. I took it as a compliment towards my teaching ability that they are allowing me to do this, and it's much easier for me, because they are very high level students and we just kind of sit around and talk. I don't have to do much teaching. But, usually in that class I have three girls, today it was just one. The first thing she asked me when I walked into class was if I had seen Mama Mia! yet. I laughed out loud, because I had just finished writing the above. She talked about all the songs and told me which ones were her favorite; I even got her to sing a bit which I found highly entertaining.

In classes like that I usually sit down and have them teach me Korean, because we finish with the lesson so quickly. When I learn new words it usually puts me in a good mood, and today was really nice anyways because I had the long break. When I got back in the teachers' room after work, I started singing some of the songs (even though I know that they can hear how awful my voice is, I am much more bold about singing out here with the language barrier. I just assume since they can't understand me they can't tell how bad I am, which is not true at all...). All of the foreign girl teachers and our AD joined in. It was soo funny. Then they started singing songs from Sister Act. They were singing and our AD was dancing to Oh Happy Day and I Will Follow Him. It was a fun day at school. This was quite unusual entertainment, but I was happy to have it. Everyone has been really down and stressed out lately, so it was a fun change of pace. I couldn't believe how familiar they were with Sister Act. They even starting discussing whether the songs came from the first or second movie. 

New Years Eve

This was us outside the hotel casino. We were so excited by how beautiful it was, and we felt so underdressed! Everything here is usually so casual, so it was nice to see a real new years dress and decor.

We met up with some people we had just met at this restaurant/bar. This is the menu; you can't really tell, but in the middle right, they're selling "King Cobra Sausage" (hope you can see the pic well enough) for 16 bucks!!!!!!! Eeeeeewwwwwwww!!!! That picture is supposed to influence me to buy that?!? So gross!

This was me, spending the last of my casino money ($5 big ones. big spender, I know). I got two free drinks out of it, so I figured well worth my money.

They had so much cake at the casino! I thought it was so strange. It took up an entire table; I don't know that I've ever seen so much cake in one place. I definitely haven't seen anything like that over here.

This was Amy and I standing in front of the display when we first arrived. They had someone working the front, and he started yelling at us for going in the street. Usually in Korea, everything is just chaos. I guess since it was New Years Eve, they decided to implement a little control. It was helpful (sort of) when getting a cab later in the night. We were still in Korea though, so people have no respect for lines. We must have waited 45 minutes in the "cab line" while at least 30 people ran around and cut. What a mess.

New Years went really well. In the past few weeks I have actually started to make friends out here. That has proven quite a challenge thus far! I found out this past week that someone I went to college and worked with at the Daily Texan is out here teaching as well. What a small world! She in her friends were going to a casino in Seoul, and I decided to meet up with them since I didn't have any plans. Two sisters that I met a few weeks ago, Jemma and Amy, ended up coming with me along with Amy's boyfriend who is in town visiting and another guy who works at their school. It was so nice to have a big group. Jemma and Amy are British, and it is so interesting to me how incredibly different we all speak. We spend a lot of time going, "Huh, what does that mean?" when we are all talking to each other.

It makes me curious about the entire system of "English" teaching in Korea. I can't even understand them, how does it make sense that we both teach at English schools? Whenever they pick up the phone, they say, "Hello, are you okay?" The first time that happened, I was so confused. I could not figure out what I had done that made them think I was upset. To them, it's the same as saying "How are you."

On my skiing trip, there were a lot of Aussies, and they are even more difficult to understand at times. There are so many little words that are used differently. That has been an interesting part of the experience recently.

Anyways, the five of us went deep into Seoul to this casino/hotel, which was absolutely beautiful. They had what I consider to be legitimate holiday decor. In Korea, only foreigners are allowed to gamble, so I assume they cater more toward a western crowd. I am not much for gambling, but it was a great time. I only lost $5, and I figure that was more than worth the two free drinks! We sat around and played the slots for a little bit (or, I watched them do this), and everyone won money! I couldn't believe it. I guess everyone always wins, but then they just keep playing. They all quit while they were ahead, so it was a nice and unexpected NYE bonus.

After the casino we must have spent 45 minutes waiting in line to get a cab outside the hotel. It was such a nightmare, and it was below freezing temperatures! They just absolutely cannot get things like that organized in Korea; it's always a free-for-all. They did have someone monitoring the line and trying to put people in cabs in an orderly fashion, but it was only moderately helpful. But if it weren't for him it's likely we'd still be there, so I should probably be thankful..

We went to this area called Gangnam, which was a lot of fun. They had this ultra Western coffee shop right by the station, and that was really nice. We got delicious paninis and hot chocolate; it was perfect after all that waiting for a cab! We ran into some other westerners on the street when we were deciding where to go and joined their group. That's one good thing about Korea; when you run into people who aren't Asian, they are usually very welcoming. There were probably about 10 of them already at the pub, so it was fun to make new friends. I even met a girl who graduated from UT! HOOK 'EM!

The trains stop running at 11:30 or midnight, and they start running again at 5:30 in the morning. By that time, we knew we had to stick it out and wait for a train. I do not understand how the third largest city in the world doesn't have public transportation that runs after midnight. It seems absolutely ridiculous, and it means that when we decide to go into Seoul at night, we're making a real commitment.

It was so nice to curl up in my bed when I got home! And now I have to prepare for work again. Tomorrow we start intensives, which means they are adding an entire block to our day (three extra classes). I am not looking forward to it at all, but am glad that I was able to meet so many new people on New Years.