So Vain

Korean's are some of the most vain people that I have met. I should stop being so shocked by it but I just can't. It's ridiculous!

I am currently sitting in a coffee shop and across from me is a table of three girls maybe college age. They all have compact mirrors out and are working on their make-up. This is a normal thing to see everywhere...the subway, the coffee shop, the park, the beach, the grocery store. They are always fixing and applying more make-up. They are always looking at themselves. Even if there isn't a mirror nearby they will use windows or anything else reflective. They seem to care and worry about their looks so much! Sometimes it makes me sick because everyone looks the same...plastic. There is no individuality.

So the girls who are sitting close to me have just begun taking pictures of themselves. They each have their cell phones aimed at themselves and proceed to take picture after picture of the same thing...their face. I'm sure they've each taken at least a hundred pictures by now. I wonder, what can they do with a hundred pictures of their face in the same setting with the same expression. Oh and expression, that's another thing. They never smile in their pictures, and if they do it's just a small little awkward smile. So weird! The girls here are so beautiful, but they never smile or show their teeth in pictures. And they're always worrying about their head size. Maybe they think if they smile with their mouth open it will make their heads look bigger, haha! Some Korean's won't be in pictures with me because I have a small head. How crazy is that?? They say that my small head will make their head look bigger, so they refuse to be in a picture with me.

The girls at the table across from me have now produced a large camera. They are each taking turns standing up and posing while the other girls take pictures. They are posing with their purses, with coffee mugs and with other things in the coffee shop like chairs and tables. What a scene! But no one else notices because this is so normal to them. People taking a million pictures of themselves or of the same object is normal in Korea! Everyone does it. Now the girls are changing their outfits. As if one outfit wasn't enough. They'll proceed to do the same thing in the next outfit and then probably change their outfits 3-5 more times. They'll take all these pictures of themselves, drink their fancy latte with gobs of whipped cream on top, and then leave. I have witnessed this happening with different people in this same coffee shop three times in the last month now.

My astonishment with the things they do in this culture is never ending. It's constant entertainment for me, I just hope it doesn't rub off on me after living here for too long!

The gym

My latest thing has been exercising in a little gym behind my school. I've exercised in many gyms in my life, but it's a different experience to work out in a gym here in Korea.

The gym is on the second floor of the building directly behind my school. In fact, from the teachers office at my school I can see into the gym. It's very small, just one middle sized room stuffed full of workout equipment. It has everything that that a normal gym would have, just in smaller amounts and all squished into one tight space. I love it though.

When I enter the gym I take off my shoes, place them on a shoe shelf and put on some slippers. Then I walk to the 'front desk' which is actually in the back of the gym and get my locker key. When I enter the small locker room area, I take off my slippers, change, and then put on my inside gym shoes. Oh the process!

Koreans are very particular about the inside of buildings being clean. So in most buildings, houses, restaurants, gyms, schools...etc you have to take off your shoes when you enter and either just wear your socks or wear the complementary slippers that are provided. In the gym you can wear shoes, but they can't be shoes that have touched the ground outside, therefore 'inside shoes'. I learned this all through a rather long process of mistakenly wearing my shoes inside, then taking them off, then putting them back on. I was yelled at, pointed at, lectured to in Korean, lectured in mime...and finally I figured it all out. All of that happened at another gym that I paid a full month membership to and then never went back because I was so embarrassed about the whole shoe incident. Since then I have purchased some shoes that have only been worn indoors. Now I'm a pro at shoe etiquette.

So this new gym that I have started exercising at is great. I think it's owned by a family. A father, his son and his daughter work there. The son and daughter appear to be my age, but who knows since Korean's never look the age you think them to be. They are always so excited when I come in though. Always wanting to say hi and practice a bit of English. I think I am the only foreigner who has ever worked out in this gym, so I am a bit of a celebrity there. Sometimes it's fun, and other times I feel awkward because they watch how I do things...like lifting weights. And I'm no professional at weight lifting, I just do what the picture shows, or what I think I should do. I'm sure I'm doing it wrong half of the time.

So this Korean gym is a bit different than gyms in the states. First of all, they give you clothes to wear. How awesome is that! At first it was weird because I could never find a size that fit me right. But now that I know which pile is which size it's great and I save on doing so much laundry at home. Also, then everyone looks the same while they are working out. This makes working out less intimidating some how. Another different thing is that some people just prefer to work out barefoot rather than purchasing and wearing indoor shoes. This weirds me out a bit. Almost every time I go to the gym one or two people are exercising or lifting weights barefoot, without even a sock on. Something like that is strictly prohibited in the states, but here it's just what people do...strange.

Locker room.
The locker room is a whole story in itself. I could go on and on about the locker room. Usually when I enter the locker room there is at least one or two other people just hanging out naked. Korean's have no shame about being naked. They are either sitting (sitting?!!) in the shower naked, or sitting on a locker room bench naked, or doing their hair naked...it goes on. So usually I quickly change into the gym clothes provided for me and head out of the locker room. After my workout though, it's back to the locker room. Since I exercise near my work I still have to commute home by bus afterward though. Which means I like to shower first. My first time showering at the gym was a bit awkward.
The shower room is just that, a room with a few shower heads. Everyone showers together, they use the communal cloths, the communal soap, and even help to soap each other up. So in I went! It was me and three older Korean woman who were all soaping each other up. So I quickly soaped up, rinsed off and jumped out. Then I used the teeny tiny little towel provided to partially dry myself off, then proceeded to dress quickly while still being fairly wet. Wow, I felt awkward! Things have changed though. I've been going to this gym for a month now and it feels like my second home...almost. I now take my time dressing, showering, and just like the Koreans I prance around naked with all the other ladies. I even dry my hair naked on occasion. :) The other day I met two nice girls in the shower and now we are friends. Maybe they'll help me soap up next time.

All in all, things may be awkward and different the first time I try them, but after a while, no matter how strange it may seem, I find myself adapting. Tis the beauty of living in another culture!

Oh the humor...

So much has happened that I hardly know where to start. Really most of it is work related, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. I have been in Korea teaching English for 10 months now and numerous things are beginning to get to me. Lately I have been quite annoyed and frustrated, so I am trying to remember humor and see things in a more positive light.

I am currently sitting in a coffee shop next to my school. There are a bunch of little Korean boys running around acting like power-rangers. I have just finished a morning of teaching Kindergarten so normally I would be annoyed that these kids keep coming up to me. They are so cute though, that I can only love them. :) They run circles around my table, then stop and stare. All so normally I begin to make faces at them. I stick out my tongue, puff up my cheeks, pull out my ears... Their mothers watch me from a distance probably thinking I'm a crazy waeguk (foreigner). But the rise that I get out of these kids is wonderful! They are so happy and full of life.

So work....Oh my! In the last 10 months this has been the most stressful job as well as the least stressful job that I have ever worked. Things are one day great and consistent, and the next day everything is pure chaos with on one knowing what to do or what is going on. August was a particularly bad/chaotic month. But I think January may rival it.

In January Heather and I came back from our Thailand Vacation only to start a hectic new year in a new school as well. Our school moved and with the move brought new students, new schedules, new classes, new classrooms, new and chaotic everything. I also started a split-shift day with Kindergarten class in the morning and elementary/middle-school classes in the afternoon/evening. My school day has gotten way longer now because of the split-shift as well as the fact that I can no longer just walk home during my breaks. (I take a bus to and from work now.) Kindergarten has been fun, but it brings an all new set of challenges. I love the kids though, they are adorable and always full of energy. Somedays it's hard to make them work because I just want to play and have fun.

So long story short, aside from the new classes and schedules our school decided to fire one of the foreign teachers two weeks into the new year. He was a great guy, good teacher, but a parent claimed that he was sexually touching their child. He's an honest guy, but the school and the parents didn't believe him so he was fired. That left the rest of us teachers to take over his classes. Then, the newest foreign teacher decided that she didn't like our school and quit. Luckily she is now staying on until some more teachers arrive from the States and then she will leave. All of this on top of the new school craziness though, is causing tons of tension at work. Some days I am so frustrated I just want to scream! I love the kids, and I love teaching, but I hate how hogwans are run. I hate the politics of the hogwan, the unstableness, and all the fakness that I get from some of the Koreans who work there. Bah-humbug!

So to add a bit of humor, I somehow managed to get a piece of my earring lodged in my ear canal. HAHA! It took me a whole day to figure out what on earth was stuck in my ear. Then I finally realized it. Now I just need to figure out how to tell the doctor what is wrong. I tried to get it out on my own, but in the process just lodged it further, ahh! I contemplated going to the ER to get it out, but I went to the ER once before and they just stared at me like I was an alien. I'm pretty sure they'll think I'm a crazy person if I go back there claiming that something is stuck in my ear. Oh my! So I guess tomorrow I'll venture on over to the doctor who enjoys speaking his English far too much, and see if he can help me. How do these things happen to me??

Oh, I also happened to get a doggie. :) She's a teacup terrier. I'll tell her story later.

Thailand for a week

Thailand

From the Hanoi airport in Vietnam Heather, Sebastian and I boarded the plane for Bangkok, Thailand. About 30 minutes into the flight though, the captain came on the loud speaker saying that because of 'technical difficulty'  we were going to turn around and go back to Hanoi. We were confused, but waited the flight out. When we landed they said we could stay in the plane while they fixed the problem and then we would leave again. After we had taken off for the second time we learned that there was a problem with one of the wheels and they also needed to re-fuel. So it wasn't anything too bad after all and we only landed in Bangkok about an hour late.

After landing in Bangkok Heather and I parted ways from Sebastian. Sebastian was headed into Bangkok while Heather and I headed to the bus station. There we hopped a bus to a place called Trat, east of Bangkok. The bus bounced along various roads, playing horribly loud Thai music for about 6 hours. Finally we were in Trat, thank goodness! From there, we talked to some other travelers and figured out a good place to stay. They showed us the way and then we parted. Heather and I grabbed some dinner and found out what time the taxi left for the ferry in the morning. After killing about 50 mosquitos in our room we turned off the light and went to bed.

I awoke very early in the morning to blasting Thai music. It wasn't bad music though. It was bells and chimes and other calming sounds, just very loud. While I was in the frigidly cold shower, Heather went wandering and learned that the music was playing for monks during their morning service. She said monks dressed in bright orange were everywhere. Unfortunately by the time I went looking for them they were gone.

After an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, coffee and toast, Heather and I boarded the taxi to the ferry. The taxi was the back of a truck that also held about eight other travelers. After enjoying the wind blowing through my hair for 40 minutes we pulled up to our ferry. The ferry was another enjoyable 40 minutes of sea air and people watching. Finally we got to our destination, the island of Koh Chang. Once again we quickly shuffled onto a cram packed taxi truck and were off on the windy and hilly roads of Koh Chang. The view was wonderful! Turquoise water, white sand, green frilly palm trees, and the smell of vacation. :)

We got off the taxi in an area called Lonely Beach. After checking out many bungalows we finally found our home in a cute bungalow next to the sea at a place called Siam Huts. We noticed that many of the bungalows around us had hammocks, so after dropping our bags we set out to find our own hammock. We bartered with a Thai woman for a lovely green hammock that hung on our bungalow all week. From it, I saw many beautiful sunsets and read some good books.

Heather's and my original plan was to stay only for a few days before moving on to a different part of Thailand. But, unfortunately after day one I became sick. Bed-ridden sick in fact, ugh! Any smell or look or thought of food for two days would drive me into the bathroom hugging the toilet. I don't know if it was something I ate, or just the stress of working a lot and then traveling, but it killed me for those two days. After that, I didn't feel quite the same so Heather and I decided to stay in Koh Chang for our whole vacation (one week). It was a great week though! We swam in the warm blue water, had Thai massages on the beach, drank too many fresh fruit smoothies, rode motorbikes, rowed a kayak out to a deserted island, visited a fishing village, read good books, and brought in the new year on the beach with fireworks and fire dancers.

We didn't end up seeing lots of Thailand, but what we did see was amazing. The people were also really nice. Now I know that I want to go back there, and hopefully live there in the future. :)

Vietnam on Christmas day

Vietnam

After two long hard days of work, Heather, Sebastian and I headed to the Incheon Airport outside of Seoul. We had a 5 1/2 hour flight and landed in Hanoi, Vietnam around 2pm. After getting our bags we headed outside to find a taxi and were immediately approached by a guy who spoke some english offering us his taxi. We knew about all the taxi scams so we were immediately skeptical. After more talking and debating we decided to take the taxi. The guy said he'd drive us into Hanoi for $12 US. (Vietnam uses both US dollars and Vietnam baht) So we double and triple checked with the guy that he meant US dollars and he assured us yes. 

So we hopped into the taxi and headed towards Hanoi. We saw many motorbikes, bicycles, triangle shaped hats, people working in rice fields, cows, potholes, power lines...etc. One thing we were not expecting to see though, was the back of a motorbike piled high with slaughtered dogs! The guy in the front of the taxi pointed it out to us all excitedly. He was smiling and pointing saying, "Vietnam people love dog, so delicious!" We were horrified, it was quite the site. I think we were all too stunned to even take out our cameras for a picture.

So once we got into 'old town' Hanoi the taxi driver said, "ok here you go, now pay." Since we didn't have $12 US on us we were trying to figure out the conversion into baht. The taxi driver said, "Oh no, not dollars. I said 12,000 baht!" Then he got very angry and started yelling at us. Sebastian spoke very calmly to the man explaining that we had confirmed with him that the price would be $12 US, but the man would not listen. He was obviously trying to scam us and when he realized that we weren't going to deal with it, he became very very angry. He started grabbing our money and throwing it in our faces. We kept trying to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen, he just kept yelling. We didn't know what to do because our luggage was in the trunk and he wouldn't open it for us until we paid. So after what seemed forever we finally worked out that we would pay him 5,000 baht (about $50) which was still a huge rip off, but lower than what he was originally wanting. Then he let us out and gave us our bags.

After that we were all a bit shook up and pissed off. Welcome to Vietnam, ha! So we started walking around looking for a cheap place to stay. Motorbikes were everywhere and it was hard to dodge them and not get hit. In fact I'm surprised that we got through a day in Hanoi with no motorbike encounters. After walking and talking with some other foreigners we found a good and cheap hostel. The people who worked there were very nice, but after the taxi incident we were reluctant to trust anyone. The room they gave us was huge with three beds, a bathroom, a balcony overlooking the noisy street filled with motorbikes, and a mini tv that had no sound.

We left our stuff and headed out to explore the streets. After not walking too far, we had yet another encounter with an angry person trying to scam us. Sebastian, Heather and I were standing to the side of a street trying to figure out where to go when a lady fruit vendor put her balancy-fruit basket thing on heather's shoulder, grabbed her camera and started taking pictures. Then she did the same thing to me. It all happened so fast that we didn't know what was going on. After she finished she demanded us to pay her or buy some fruit. So we thought, ok thats only fair. We tried to buy some pineapple pieces but she kept charging way to much and then yelling at us. I think in the end we just shoved some money into her hand and took off. Phew! By this time we were tired, untrusting of anyone, had horrible headaches from the honking of motorbikes, and hungry since we hadn't eaten all day. So we found a great little street restaurant and paid maybe 50 cents US each for huge bowls of Pho Bo soup. Ahh, Christmas dinner! :) The soup did the trick! We felt awesome afterwards so we walked around some more, bought some things and headed back to our hostel. 

The next morning we woke up early, had the hostel call us a taxi with a pre-arranged price (thank goodness!) and headed to the airport for our flight into Bangkok, Thailand. Vietnam was a whirl wind of a stop before Thailand, and I can't say that it was too enjoyable. I would like to go back one day though so see the rest of the country and hopefully have a better experience.

2008-2009

I was going to write about Thailand here, but I figured my first post for the year 2009 should be a recap of 2008. 2008 was a big and eventful year for me. I went many places and did many things. Last new years though, I didn't make any resolutions so I can't evaluate myself on how well I did...oh well. I guess I'll have to do that this year.

So last year, 2008, this is what I did:
-brought in new years in Southern Cali
-drove across the country from Cali, to New Mexico, to Denver, to Chicago, to Virginia
-had my heart broken
-worked on a farm and in a greenhouse
-sold my car just as quickily as I bought it
-spontaneously moved to Korea to teach English with my best friend Heather
-became an English teacher
-moved 6 times through out the whole year
-vacationed on Jeju Island
-made a new group of friends
-had an Australian roomate and a Brittish roomate
-got very sick 4 times
-lived for the first time in my life in my own apartment
-traveled to Vietnam and Thailand
-drove a motorbike
-And...brought in 2009 on the beach in Thailand.

It's been a good year. I am happy to be young and free doing exactly what I want to be doing with my life. I would have it no other way, and for that I have no regrets for the year 2008. :) I am excited to see what 2009 holds in store for me and where I will be this time next year. I hope the adventures continue!

My resolutions, or rather goals (because I don't like the word resolutions) for 2009 are as follows. To be healthy and to be more creative. I have spent a lot of this year being sick so I hope to be more healthy this year. I will adapt more healthy ways which will help me. Such as going to bed early, eating well rounded meals, and hopefully picking up a yoga class. I will also be more creative this year. Last year I was more concerned with trying to figure out what to do with myself. Now that I've figured that out for the time being I can focus more on creativity. I hope to start writing a book as well as write a piece in a friend's book. I would also like to make some small films, do more with photography, and color, draw or paint regularly.

So that is my 2008 and 2009. I am excited for this year!

Hives update

Well I'm still sitting at home sick in bed. I have so much work to be doing and preparing at school, but here I am just laying in bed. This is so frustrating for me.

Today I woke up and discovered that my hives had gotten worse. I had them all over my face, the fronts and backs of my arms, my back, stomach, legs and feet. In fact, my hands had swollen up so big that my rings were cutting off the circulation so I had to force them off. (Not and easy task) My feet were also so swollen than I had trouble walking on them. How weird and frustrating! My fever was also up, so I decided I should go to another doctor.

I called my boss at school and he arranged for someone to take me to another doctor very close to my school. The doctor spoke surprisingly good English. He checked out my hives, asked me a bunch of questions and told me the hives weren't caused by a food allergy. Instead he said maybe I was allergic to something in my new apartment, or some other place I had been recently. Then he prescribed shots in the butt for the next three days, a bunch of pills and some cream to put on my hives. I am getting quite used to this whole butt shot thing now. haha!

So since my trip to the doctor this morning I have been feeling better. My fever is going down and my hives are looking a bit better. The swelling is going down in my hands which is making them tingle and it's a very odd sensation. I just hope that everything is gone and I am well again by Monday so that I can finish everything I need to do before Heather's and my trip to Thailand. The last thing I want is to be sick and swollen during travel.

I must say, it's pretty amazing to be living in a foreign country with your best friend. I can't express how much of a help and support it's been to have Heather here with me. She has been there for everything and for that I am forever grateful to her. I feel bad that I keep getting sick, but Heather always has a good attitude and takes care of me. I'm lucky to have such a good friend. :)