Goodbye Jong Il, though I never knew you at all

MAYBE ELTON JOHN WILL SING "CANDLE IN THE WIND" FOR KIMMIE

A gasp from one of my coworkers behind me this morning sent me swiveling around in my chair to see her computer screen. "Kim Jong-Il DIED," she said disbelievingly. It was a small line on the Yahoo email page so it didn't seem like I had to take it seriously. With all I've read about this man, it wouldn't have surprised me if this was just a ploy of some kind. He's quite a character. So I responded with, "I'll bet tomorrow, he reappears just to say 'Ha. Got you!'" But it seems real enough.

I really like when important things happen in the country I am in. I was in England when Prime Minister changed from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown, and I bought three copies of the newspaper with the headline: "You Say Goodbye. I Say Hello."


SETTLING IN

I keep wanting to buy big things here, like a sewing machine and a laptop. I've been sewing since I was young. My grandmother (Mawmaw) taught me and I love it. And I just naturally love making things on my own, so it's my inclination that if I want a new skirt, I make it. And I, sadly, couldn't bring my machine over with me because it probably would have been the weight of one suitcase by itself. I thought I'd be fine for a while without it but lately I've really wanted one! I haven't even been able to find a store that sells fabric yet. And it seems that no one understands what I mean by "fabric" when I ask around as to where I can find it. However, I had the bright idea just to search around on Korea blogs because surely there has been another foreigner like me who wanted to sew here, and sure enough, there was. So I have located a fabric-selling area in Seoul! Now for a free day to go there... And then maybe I can get a sewing machine after a while? Oh, the possibilities.

I started writing again yesterday and it was glorious. Not what I produced, necessarily, but the feeling of it and the inspiration that comes from actually getting something on paper. So about wanting a new laptop. Now that I'm here, the "small" laptop that I have is proving to be quite the burden when it comes to writing days. (And let me just say to all of you naysayers of computer-written poetry who will ask "Why don't you just write with paper and pen?" - I just don't want to and it's a free country! Oh, wait, I'm not in America anymore... Can I still use that argument?) One, the ol' Toshiba gets heavy after a while, and since I'm always going by public transportation or walking quite a ways, if I go anywhere before or after the coffee shop, I'm hauling the laptop around. Two, my battery only lasts 15 minutes, so I have to charge it while I'm writing. Since I'm in Korea, I also need a converter to charge it. See why I need one of those tiny computers that I never saw the use for until now?


APPLE ON THE DESK, PLEASE

I'm starting to feel like a real teacher. I'm learning to be really silly at times, when I'm explaining a difficult concept or when they just need some livenin' up, and the kids respond pretty well to it. Rules are being established in my classroom and the kids are learning them: No whining, no fighting, and no tattling in Heather Teacher's class. It feels so good when they repeat that to me and it actually works to stop those things, which are essentially so I'm not annoyed. I'm learning what to dangle in front of each class' noses in order for them to behave and do their work. For little kids, it's as simple as a sticker or a star drawn on the board by their name, but for the older kids, it's more of a struggle. However, I had a breakthrough that I hope lasts with my 9 and 10 year olds who recently decided they were not going to do any work at all. I forgot what it was like to be a 9 year old... what they really want is to be able to read the dialogue in the book the way they want to instead of using the correct words. So we did this today: they each read the conversation about ordering food the way it should have been read and then they were allowed to do it silly one time each, and each kid's was some variation of this:

"What would you like to order?"
"I would like a poo burger and a poo drink!"
"For on your face or to go on your head?"
"No, on YOUR face, please!"

And this is seriously the best thing in the entire world for them. Hey, whatever it takes. However, some of my other older classes are still alluding me with what will make them behave. Please let me know if you have any magic potions for 12-15 year old girls with an attitude.

I'm falling in love with these two little boys, Tony and Daniel. Daniel's the kid who, once I established what I wanted from the kids (sit nicely, raise your hand, etc), has never sat so tall and raised his hand so high before. Every time class is over, he says, "Teacher, I sat nicely! I was good?" So I give him a high five, tousle his hair, and he smiles and is SO freakin' adorable. And Tony's just precious. No other words. I know this post should be followed by pictures, but I haven't taken my camera to school yet. Soon. Very soon. You need to experience some of these kids :)


HANGUKMAL

I started language exchange tonight with a Korean girl I met a few weeks ago named Jin Ju, or Pearl, whose English is quite a bit above my Korean but still not quite conversational. I've tutored countless people, taught English and learned languages from people, but I've never done such an even exchange of language. It was so neat. She would piece together a thought or a question, and I would tell her how to say it in English and then she'd tell me how to say it in Korean and then we would answer each other in the same language if possible, and on and on. I learned so much! Learning from someone who doesn't speak much English is a huge help because it forces me to recall every word I've ever heard in Korean if it will help get my point across when English won't. We're going to start meeting once a week.


MOTHER HEAVEN

Tonight, while waiting for Pearl, I was approached by two Korean girls who were excited that I was a foreigner. They were theology students and, since I was standing there waiting with nowhere to go, they had me watch a video about the Heavenly Mother. I had never heard of this before, so I was intrigued. But I still really have no idea what it was about an their English wasn't up to the task of explaining.



And that - is how Heather "C"s it.

God, I miss Glee.

Cheese and cucumbers

Saturday I went grocery shopping. It was the only thing I did all day and proved to be quite an excursion. It's about a 15 minute walk from my apartment to the E-Mart (four-story department/grocery store) and I didn't have a canvas shopping bag yet that day and couldn't find one in the store. Somehow I ended up buying the heaviest items I could find, which made the walk back to my apartment nice and easy. Pretty sure my arms are still sore from that. However, Sunday before church, I went to E-Mart again with my new friend Daniel who has lived here for two years already (so he knows his way around quite a bit) and we got ingredients to bake sugar cookies.

Now, about a week before I came to Korea, Seth happened to notice that there were no ovens in the pictures of the apartments that the teachers lived in. For a moment. I seriously considered not coming. Baking is what I do. When I'm stressed, sad, upset, or feeling anything negative, I bake. I turn the music loud and I bake. And everything is better when I'm done. Naturally, I was pretty concerned about how I'd cope without an oven. After a bit of research, I learned I would either already have or would be able to buy a toaster oven, which in my mind wasn't good for making anything but toast. Luckily I was proved wrong. Last night

AND tonight, I baked cookies. Actually Daniel pretty much made them by himself. And they were amazing. The texture turned out better than regular oven cookies! With this sanctuary back in tact, it feels like home.

As much as I was excited to embrace a new culture, I am definitely finding comfort in eating and drinking things I'm used to. Since I've been here, I haven't had one cup of coffee that I enjoyed drinking. That's saying a lot for me and you all know it. So Sunday I bought a coffee pot and some Columbian coffee. I have no idea what Columbian coffee is, really, but it sounded familiar to me and I could brew it so that's the one I chose. Needless to say, this morning was most enjoyable, filled with the smell of brewing coffee and the knowledge that I wasn't about to pay 3 dollars for a watered-down, odd-tasting "Americano."

Other comforts for me, this week, have been a block of cheese and cucumbers. I am changing my diet for the most part, but there are some things my body doesn't know it should have stopped craving two weeks ago. Therefore, I need to be able to buy cheese and cucumbers on demand. All I'd heard about the produce here so far is how expensive it is, so I was a little hesitant to brave the herds of people milling about the produce section of E-Mart. But I found that cucumbers and the equivalent of satsumas are basically the same price as in the States, so I've stocked up on those. Cheese, on the other hand, is a different story. But I'm not sure I can live without it.

Here are a few pictures of my apartment, because I like it:

Language of the people

I realized I need to put thought into my posts so I stay sane. Teaching 7-12-year-old children whose first language isn't English for eight hours a day is proving to be detrimental to my own ability to use complete sentences with adults when I leave the classroom. Also, I find myself adjusting my language to be more Korean friendly to adults. This could be a delusion on my part that if I say "maybe not" instead of "No, I don't think so" (and other similar wordings I commonly hear Koreans say in English) they will understand more clearly, but it's becoming a habit. I debate if it's me assimilating to the Eastern culture of not wanting to blatantly deny or turn down anything or if it's simply a difference in phrasing. And then I remember that language is how we express thoughts cultivated in our cultures. And it makes sense. I assimilate pretty easily to my surroundings and I'm usually aware of it - like when I had a friend from Pennsylvania at the beginning of college, I started pronouncing things like she did. But then I could decide not to blend back into the South Louisiana accent. So now that I'm living in a completely different culture, it's interesting to see how my language is reflecting that.

On a similar note, I've been teaching one of my new English friends how to speak like "like a Southerner chewing on a straw of hay" (as per his request) and in turn have been working on my English pronunciation, which has been really entertaining. I was told by some Canadians I met in Itaewon that I do have a twang, once I talk for a while, and I was a bit disappointed. I know it's pretentious of me to not want to have any trace of a Southern accent in my speech but it's also become such a habit to purposely pronounce things "more correctly/Northern" when I realize I'm not. So much to think about!

So I'm trying to remember what it was like to be 12. The classes I'm most anxious about teaching are the older girls because they're almost teenagers and don't want to be in school or listening to me tell them what to do. But since I can't let them play on their cell phones for the entire 40 minutes, I'm trying to remember what else would have engaged me at that age. On the other hand, I'm really excited to teach the little kids. They are so much fun and have actually taken to me quite quickly! I can't walk out into the hallway without hearing "Heather Teacher!" yelled from somewhere. It's a good feeling :)

As much as my language might be adapting slowly to the culture, my daily habits are struggling to adjust. Right now, I'm blogging because I'm scared to try and wash clothes in the scary monster of a machine that I have to use here. Also, bathrooms are set up differently here, which I actually like but I'm not well-prepared for it yet. Essentially, the whole bathroom is the shower floor, so most of the time, the floor is all wet - so you need shower shoes to go to the bathroom, or in this case, since the washing machine in this dorm I'm in right now is in the bathroom down the hall, to wash clothes. And since I'm in this "box" until the first, I don't have shower shoes. There are just a lot of little inconveniences that I'm not adjusted to yet and hopefully will figure out soon.

Yesterday I had my first cup of good coffee. Yes, I paid around four dollars for it, but it was regular brewed Kenya coffee and it was delicious.

Last night the group I'm training with and I had a night of complete comfort. We went to Itaewon, which is, I think, where the largest military base is in Seoul, so there are usually more foreigners than Koreans there. We went to a place called Dillinger's and had chicken fingers and french fries and watched American football - replays of the Thanksgiving day games - and it great.

Blagging it

- Sat between two English guys at dinner and learned the word "blag."

- Was the "victim" of English sarcasm.

- Wore high heels all day and thought my feet literally might break somehow by the end of the day.

- Also didn't wear a coat and it got down to 30F.

- Can't wait for ondol floor heating in my apartment.

- Told a Korean man I want to learn Korean and he laughed in my face.

- Decided to buy smaller heeled boots for the winter.

- Need to figure out what shoes are appropriate for snow.

- Can't wait to move into my apartment.

- Learned that the British accent I do is "posh."

- Bought "Korean Made Easy for Beginners."

- Had Korean BBQ tonight and still smell like it. (They put all of our coats and bags into a huge plastic bag so they didn't smell like the food too.)

- Had Soju after a toast was given to "the monarchy" - and am still laughing at that.

Cafe Ole'

I'm giving up on well-organized posts, even if I do call myself a writer. Deal with it.

My first weekend was successful, I'd say. I hung out with Eunhwa for the first time on Saturday. I met her at Tech in 2008 and we've kept in touch until now and she's back in Korea in university and actually lives in Bundang, which is where I am now, so that's convenient and really nice.

One goal I had/have for being here is to be a part of the Seoul Writers' Workshop. I found it a few months ago and applied for jobs specifically near Seoul so I could attend meetings. In Ruston, I had a writing workshop with some good friends. We met once a week over the summer and had dinner and then all read something we'd worked on that week and gave feedback to each other. It was super helpful and I learned a lot in that time. From what I knew, the Seoul workshop would be similar. And I knew I wanted in. So I joined on facebook and Sunday was the anthology launch party. So I took the subway to Seoul by myself to find Berlin Cafe, meet some people and hear some poetry. It was a success. I met some teachers at a few different universities in Seoul who have lived here for over ten years. I had a great time with them and also learned a lot about many different things - from the difference in the buses to work opportunity at universities. I knew I was in good company when I spelled "Dana Gioia" for interested ears. (I was only talking about the thesis I wanted to write. I wasn't shamelessly promoting him that time!)

It turns out there is a separate poetry workshop from the general one and it meets once a month. I'm excited about it. Now, I just need to get a routine going so I can write in the mornings before school. Luckily there's a coffee shop pretty much next door to the apartment I will move into December 1st.

I'm excited about moving into the real apartment too. I mean, it's not exactly spacious, but where I am right now, the teachers call "the box." So yeah.

My new question: How easy is it going to be for me to buy cheese here?

Jetlag

As you all collectively say, "Good Lord, it's about time," I have finally made it to the ROK.

Main lesson learned so far (with accompanying story, of course): If you don't know where you're going, know the Korean address of where you live.

Tonight after school at 8:10pm, a friend was supposed to come from another city to meet me for dinner. I wait in the Dunkin' Donuts across the street from the ECC to get only the second cup of coffee for my day that has been filled with screaming children and sassy teenagers. Yes, to all of those who assured me Korean kids are so well-behaved, you were misinformed. Needless to say, I'm chugging the second cup o' joe to try and relieve my throbbing headache as I wait for Amy. About 30 minutes later as I decide to buy a donut, she and Kristy arrive and we plan the best route to the American restaurant they wanted to go to - Butterfinger Pancakes. After the first bus didn't take us to the right place and one taxi driver refused to drive foreigners, we found a driver who knew the place.

During dinner, Amy asked if I knew how to get back to my apartment... I did not.

And I didn't know the address, other than it's by AK Plaza, which seems to be a pretty well-known landmark in Bundang. Google did not agree. But I remembered I had the check-in slip from the room where I'm staying (a quiet floor of dorm-type rooms designated for students studying for the bar exam) and the address to the building is most likely written somewhere on it in Korean. So Amy types the name "Cozy House" in Korean into Google maps and then we set out on a bus, following those directions, to find my place. We got off somewhere that looks like the end of town, and it was definitely not the area I was staying in. We're basically lost with low cell phone battery and no idea of my address. So we see this lady coming out of a restaurant to bring the umbrellas in to close the shop and Amy calls out "English?" and she luckily says "yes." We show her the paper with maybe my Korean address on it and she calls a cab for us and tells him where to go. Whew, thank you, kind lady in white.

In other news, here are a few pictures of my room.

Yeah... However, after assigning one of those white drawers you see behind the suitcases for trash and one for dirty clothes, it's starting to feel like a home. Oh, and because I bought toilet paper tonight. It's 3-ply. I didn't even know that was possible.