This is a follow up to a previous post.
I finally posted my mash-up of stalker-esque exercise videos on YouTube. To get this footage I had to point my camera at the workout station but pretend I was about to take a picture of Alex… for a really long time. lol. Experience ajumma exercise for yourself:
It’s now been almost 2 months since my return to the U.S., and I think it’s long overdue that I add my final thoughts. As many of you know, I titled this blog Spaghetti and Kimchi to chronicle my experiences and feelings about living overseas in Seoul. I hadn’t really intended to keep the blog after I returned to the states, although I have been playing with the idea of starting a new one.
Since our return, Alex and I have been meshing nicely into American life again. We flew into Houston’s Intercontinental Airport on August 11th after a 15 hour flight and not a whole lot of sleep. Alex said the biggest reverse-culture shock he experienced was feeling surprised that people were speaking English all around him; he wasn’t accustomed to understanding every single conversation! I remember looking around at all the people dressed in sweatpants and UGGS at LAX airport and just cringing. Koreans are very good about maintaining a well-dressed and well-manicured appearance, but these Americans…. whoa. The whole experience of returning to the States was a little bit numbing and surreal to me, but I think my mind adjusted quickly in the following days. For Alex, his home and his family were still in the same state he had left them in, but for me, I had a bit more to get used to. My parents had begun living separately shortly after I left for Korea, my sister had gotten a dog and grown a few inches in height, and my mom had filled the family house with all new furniture, including a disco ball installed in our living room. Don’t get me started. After getting over the initial shock of coming home to a weird and different house, I went to sleep around 1am and woke up around 9am feeling like a champ. I thought, jet lag? Psshhh what jet lag? I spoke too soon. I think I felt the after-effects of jet lag for the next 3 weeks.
When we arrived in Austin the following week we found more surprises waiting for us. The biggest changes were the new buildings that had transformed Austin’s skyline from a handful of stubby buildings to… well, a skyline. West Campus had only gotten uglier and trashier since we left, except more of the charming antique houses had been uprooted and replaced with new industrial-style condo construction. Gross.
The UT campus used to seem like the center of the universe and a part of my daily life, but I’m now finding that I feel completely disconnected from it now that I’m an alumni. In fact, I like to avoid the mob of undergraduates as much as I can! Hopefully someday I can return to the campus again feeling like a welcome grad-student… more on that later.
Okay, our apartment. We managed to find a really charming apartment complex in Hyde Park that was built in the 70’s but was recently renovated to look awesome! Since we were renting so late in the game, we got a good deal on a 2 bedroom apartment with Pergo flooring. Essentially, we went from a 350 sq. foot Korean efficiency to an 866 sq. foot apartment with HUGE closets, full kitchen, double-sink bathroom, and study! Sometimes we get lost in all of our space. Hyde Park is a great, liberal minded, eco-friendly, organic foodie type neighborhood… I love it! We’ve outgrown the university life and moved far from the frat houses but still close enough for Alex to ride his bike to the law school.
Speaking of the law school, Alex is in the middle of his 2nd month of classes and his workload is really starting to pick up. He goes to school at 9am everyday, and comes home for dinner around 7pm. After that, it’s more studying until bedtime around midnight. Last night we estimated that he studies about 80 hours a week! He’s very diligent. As for me, the job market in Austin hasn’t been good to me. I really want to get a job in the science or environmental regulation field, but unfortunately these sectors haven’t exactly been rolling in the dough lately. My plan is to work in the science field for a couple of years before applying to graduate school for my master’s (or maybe PhD!). I’m extremely interested in UT’s Evolution, Ecology and Behavior program at the moment… it pretty much incorporates everything I love! Right now my job hunt is focusing on government agencies so that I can really learn about the regulation and policy related to the environment. Please cross your fingers that a good job comes my way! I’m really hoping that I don’t have to venture out of my area of interest, but it might come to that if the market doesn’t pick up.
I have to say, I am loving Austin’s music scene, Town Lake, Whole Foods, etc. but I do miss Korea sometimes. I made jajjangmyun the other day, and just last night I had a dream I had a plane ticket back to Seoul. This was one of about 3-4 Korea dreams so far. I definitely miss Korean food delivery, shopping, public transportation, and my students. I’m also afraid that I’m forgetting all of my Korean, but I’m also glad I can have an in-depth conversation where people understand me! There are advantages and disadvantages wherever you go I suppose. I hope that one day I have a chance to go back and visit my old co-workers and neighborhood!
Check out this video… it’s a Korean prank/comedy show and this time they make 2 guys try to eat jjajangmyun (black Chinese noodles) while riding a huge rollercoaster with the steepest vertical drop in the world. I haven’t laughed this hard in a LONG time!
Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve dusted off my wordpress account. Ron, thank you for kicking my butt back in gear! I’ve actually had more free time than usual but haven’t really had the urge to blog. That may be related to the way my third graders in summer camp have been driving me to the brink of insanity and exhaustion at the same time! At this point, I just want my 5th and 6th graders back… so badly! Third graders are annoying in several ways:
UGH. I’m going to put a movie on during the last week of class, seriously. Wish I was teaching 5th and 6th still 
Anyway, I’m Texas bound in only 11 days! It feels like yesterday that I kept saying “wow, only 3 months left” and now I turn around and I have less than 2 weeks! Summer camp has prepared me for the transition well. I’m so ready to quit being a babysitter and get back to the city I love; see you soon Austin!
…a continuation of my post from a few days ago.
Here is the heart that class 5-1 made me! I picked out a couple of the notes that cracked me up:
From 5th grade, class 1!
LOL! I told you, all the kids got it in their head that I'm leaving Korea to get married!
Another congrats on my upcoming 'nuptials'
Absolutely my favorite letter! How can a tiny 5th grader already ooze such depth?
Yesterday it rained for a full 24 hours, if not more (I can’t account for the rain while I was asleep). It wasn’t just a sprinkle here and there, it was 24 hours of absolute downpour, followed by heavy wind gusts; the kind that flip your umbrella inside out and plaster your wet hair to your face. Just when I was beginning to contemplate how I would go about building an ark, the rain slowed but the clouds lingered ominously. Today Seoul got some patches of sunlight through heavily clouded skies, so I decided this was my window of opportunity to get back in the saddle and exercise. Plus, I had spent the entire day at work doing three things and three things only:
All of the teachers in my office teach a subject such as music, art, English, or home ec. During the first and last weeks before or after a vacation we have no classes, so we spend 8 straight hours sitting at our computers. To spice up our day, it’s become a habit for the other teachers to bring food to share with everyone while we take breaks and chat. Today we had onion pancakes (fried in tons of oil), Rotibun (a super-sweet bun/cake filled with butter), and dduk (rice cakes), all in addition to our normal school lunch. I tried to eat in moderation, but Koreans ALWAYS notice when someone isn’t eating and they think you’re sick or anorexic or something. Therefore, I was coaxed into eating bite after bite of each snack while feeling more guilty each second. Ugh.
Okay, back to exercising. I left the house intending to jog along the river, since I was sure the local track would be flooded from all the rain. It was. Big time! The track was built adjacent to a water treatment facility, so it’s surrounded on 2 sides by huge water collecting ditches that overflow when the drains are inundated by rainwater. Basically, the track is a backup tank for nasty sewage-smelling rainwater.
I continued on toward the shore, only to find that the Han River had hopped its banks and overflowed onto the jogging trail, leaving a thick layer of slimy, smelly mud EVERYWHERE. The level of flooding yesterday was really ridiculous! I really regretted not bringing my camera with me. The only exercise I ended up getting today was the walk to and from the river.
***edit: there is some guy somewhere out there in the city near my apartment who wails some kind of strange haunting chant almost every night…. did we get a mosque or a buddhist temple and I don’t know it?!?
…. I’ve added pictures of my students to the “T-minus 32 days” post. Enjoy!
I had to switch my blog back to the old theme (but kept the header!) because all the other themes cut off my photos and captions really badly. Anyone know if there is another solution to this? Otherwise I’m stuck being a one-theme woman.
July is officially monsoon season in Korea. What does that mean? Rain, rain, rain , raIN, RAIN, RAIN! About 4-5 days of the week you can expect to pack an umbrella, with the other 2-3 non-rain days being completely overcast. I think my jogging days in Korea are pretty much over for now, seeing as the local track is totally flooded over. I’ve heard that Texas could use some of this moisture!
Speaking of jogging and exercise in general…. oh there is so much to talk about. Actually, I’d rather just show you! (I’ll be working on that.) First of all, I’ve given up on trying to play tennis in Korea. As a “foreigner” in the land of Asians I always attract glances and curious stares from Korean people, but if you’re a foreigner trying to enjoy a sport it’s a whole different story! Tennis is a skill that I try to keep up just for fun, but I was never too serious about it except for the annual summer lessons. I bought two tennis rackets for Alex and I a few months back with a secret hope that he would become my permanent tennis buddy until we’re 80+ years old. One weekend we decided to hit the local court to practice some strokes and rally a little. Of course, the only full court was occupied by other players so we were stuck using the backboard to practice. It wasn’t long before two old Korean men were chuckling at us from the sidelines, shouting tips, and fetching our badly-aimed balls for us. Alex and I wrapped up that session ASAP while mumbling in Korean to the two confused men that we were ’soooo tired’. Dreams… crushed! I think Alex loathes tennis now
Then, just the other day (which was attempt #4 or 5 maybe?) I went to the backboard for a solo practice and immediately had an audience– some guy who wandered over to see whether the ‘wei-gook’ was any good. After quietly watching me for a few minutes he decided to show off his English skills by rattling off tips and telling me he’d been playing tennis since 1975. “You need to swing big. Your stroke too short.” Yeah, maybe… okay okay. “Oooohhh yeah, see? It’s better!” Thanks buddy. Actually my old tennis coach used to bitch at me for my ‘wind-up’ stroke and kept pushing me to shorten it more and more. Everyone’s a pro!
This isn’t the only area of exercise that has annoyed or perplexed me. Tonight Alex and I took a stroll to the exercise park near the Han River. We like to walk down there to get some air when our one-room apartment gets too claustrophobic. In Korea, there is exercise equippment installed by the government in many public areas; the biggest users of these being the older population. But Koreans have awwwwwfffuullll exercising/stretching form! It seems like their mentality is “the harder and faster and more violently I push my body, the better the results will be”. Just tonight we saw a 60-ish woman using the ‘elliptical’ strider by swinging both legs in the same direction at one time. It really seemed like she was trying to launch herself into space by going faster, higher, more vigorously. After we finished laughing at her, we turned around to see an older man standing up at the side of a bench-press set, lifting only one side of the barbell off the stand by violently & quickly thrusting his body and hips without really moving his arms. Alex cringed and waited for that guy to throw out his back. Stretching really isn’t much different. Koreans are taught to stretch by swinging their arms in huge, jerky motions that are likely to dislocate a shoulder or two. Want to stretch your legs? Just swirl your knees in the most abnormal fashion possible. It works best if you defy the direction of every ligament and tendon in your legs!
We decided to make it our goal to capture this kind of ridiculous ‘exercise’ on video before we leave Korea (which is in 29 days!). You really just have to see it to believe it!
Today, I wrapped up my 5th and 6th grade classes for the semester. I had to tell all my students that I’m leaving for good, which was met with mixed reactions:
I teach 22 classes total, each with about 34-36 students in it. At least one kid in every class wanted to know if marriage was the reason I had to leave Korea, which set off a chain reaction of gasps and ‘ooooooooh’’s. So funny! I really have no idea where everyone got that idea. Well actually, I found out today that the entire 6-9 class knows Alex’s name because their homeroom teacher told them. I’m so confused! How did they end up talking about my personal life in their homeroom class?
Yesterday afternoon some of the kids brought me goodbye notes, candy, and gifts. Class 5-1 made a huge hot pink heart with 36 post-it notes pasted to it, containing their goodbyes. It was so cute! I’ll have to remember to take a picture of it and post it here. I also took pictures with all but one of my 22 classes, which was a really tough job considering the fact that students can’t stand in organized formations for more than 2 seconds!
It’s Friday and 4:35 so that means it’s time for me to go home! Wanted to post an update though because I realize it’s been a while.
Pictures with my most memorable classes below….
5th grade, class 1... sooooo cute! This class was really fun to teach! All the students were really positive and eager to participate
5th grade, class 9; another cute & enthusiastic class that made the period right before lunch bearable!
And now my 6th graders, who I’ve known and taught the longest….
6th grade, class 7; you can tell by their neatly organized rows that they're well disciplined! The kids in this class are silly & always crack me up 
6th grade, class 5; I was only smiling because it was my last day with them! The notorious and dreaded class 5....
I have to make an additional comment about class five because I really don’t know what on Earth their deal was. I think a class’s attitude is really dependent upon the homeroom teacher’s personality, and obviously this teacher didn’t give off good vibes. All the subject teachers dread teaching them, and each teacher has their nightmare story about this class. It’s a common occurrence to enter the room at the beginning of the period and find boys rolling around on the floor pretending their rulers are machine guns, while the girls scream and scold them. If they’re not shooting each other, they’re physically wrestling each other to the floor or chasing their friends around in circles, wrecking all the desks and chairs behind them. Class time isn’t much better. America: Asian students are NOT perfect! Where the heck did that stereotype come from…..
Moving on.
6th grade, class 10; the other best class in 6th grade. I used them for my open class (a lesson 'performed' in front of the principal, vp, etc.)
Remind me to blog about giving up on tennis in Korea….
I just checked my Google countdown clock, and I only have 41 days left in Korea… FORTY-ONE! Someone please tell me where the last year of my life went. Until August 11th I will be doing everything in my power to enjoy the rest of my time here. Still on the to-do list:
I was able to knock one goal off my list last weekend by visiting Haeundae beach in Busan. Actually, this trip practically fell into my lap one day and it worked out beautifully. For the past 2 months or so, I’ve been reading books with So-Hee’s (my co-worker’s) 7 year old daughter Ro-un. Her English is already near-fluent from the year she spent living in Australia, but her mom wanted her to have some guidance from a native speaker too. As a token of appreciation for my voluntary tutoring, So-Hee and her husband decided to rent us a seaside condo in Busan for the weekend! Since my 5th grade co-teacher Hae-Sun grew up in Busan, she gave Alex and I a long list of things to do and see during our trip.
Busan is located on the Southeastern coast of Korea, and Seoul is completely opposite to it on the Northwestern end. It takes about 5.5 hours by bus to reach Busan, which is why we opted to take the more expensive (but much faster) KTX or ‘bullet’ train. The KTX speeds across the peninsula at 200mph (300km/hr) and arrives in less than 3 hours. Love it! I really wish we had one in the states because I hate driving hours on end.
Our beach condo ended up being on the 28th floor of the Hanhwa resort hotel, and the view of Gwang-an bridge was absolutely breathtaking:
After we dropped our bags in the room and finished admiring the view, we wasted no time getting into our bathing suits and out to the beach! Haeundae beach (the most popular one in Busan) was a 10-15 minute walk from our condo. Alex and I bought some cheap beach towels, water, and snacks and planted ourselves near the water. Haeundae was full of beachgoers from all around the world, which made for some really interesting people-watching. For a while I lounged out on my towel and watched a group of white guys dig a hole about chest-deep for no apparent reason. Then I turned my attention to some Korean guys giggling, splashing each other, and burying their friend in the sand. They were pretty entertaining. Though some westerners raise their eyebrows at some of the behavior here, there’s actually no ‘gay stigma’ in Korea because Koreans deny that anyone is gay in the first place. Because of this, it’s perfectly acceptable for guys to hold hands, wear a man-bag, or romp around on the beach playfully shoving their buddies.
A little while later, when the heat got too intense, I decided to take a refreshing dip in the tropical waters. No wait, that never happened. Actually, I only managed to get one toe in contact with the water before squealing in surprise. The water was ICE cold!!! Korea, why do you have to be so close to Russia?!?! But alas, if you go to the beach you have to swim, right? It would be silly not to.I spent the next 10 minutes coaxing my body to accept the freezing water, and still only got in about waist-deep before I’d had enough. The next 3 hours were devoted to napping on my warm towel, which left me feeling amazingly relaxed
Haeundae Beach
By the way, Koreans must think Americans look like total floozies on the beach. Probably 85-90% of Koreans swim in t-shirts and shorts (both guys and girls) for various reasons. Most want to protect their pristine and milky white complexions, but others just feel that regular bikinis are too revealing. I even saw a little girl wearing a jacket in the ocean… gimme a break! Koreans do have some amazingly beautiful skin (and I admit I have a lot to learn about sun protection), but sometimes their fear of the sun goes a little overboard.
That night, Alex and I grabbed some Italian food at a cute little ocean-side cafe. Gwang-an bridge looked spectacular at night, which served as a nice backdrop for our post-dinner stroll. The next morning, we woke up early to hit the breakfast buffet and then the beach before it was time to check out of the hotel. This time, we rented a beach umbrella and mat for only 5,000 won (~$4). Going to the beach in the morning was definitely worth it; the sun was causing the water to sparkle and reflect a brilliant blue/green color, and the tourists hadn’t flooded the area yet. Alex and I were also far more successful in legitimately swimming in the ocean water that day.
Around 10:30am, we said goodbye to Haeundae Beach and headed back to the hotel to shower and check out. Our next stop would be the Ja-kal-chi fish market, which was recommended by my co-teacher. The fish market was enclosed in a giant building that reminded me of the Austin Convention Center, but far more fishy. Inside, hundreds of vendors sat behind giant tanks full of unimaginable sea creatures waiting to be bought. Ajummas chopped up live octopi while eels and giant grabs squirmed in their tanks. The special attraction of this fish market is that you can buy a live fish one minute and be eating it the next. The first floor consists of the live fish vendors, while the second is packed with restaurants waiting to cook up your fresh purchase. Though I cringed a little bit at the thought of locking eyes with the fish I was about to eat, Alex and I really wanted this unique experience. So, we did it. We chose one flat fish (Gwang-uh in Korean) and one strange looking black-ish fish that was recommended for barbecueing. The vendor non-chalantly scooped out the fish and took the still-wiggling prize the short distance up the stairs and over to a restaurant. Fifteen minutes later, fresh sushi and a whole barbecued fish were sitting on our table. Yay! I guess. I was a little sad about the whole thing.
Fish market
A picture of our future meal... the flat brown fish became sushi, and the black one became BBQ
The fish market restaurant
Flat-fish sushi (광어). Please note Alex's mad chopstick skillz. I could have mistaken that hand for an Asian person's 
scary but yummy BBQ fish
When lunch was over it was time to head back to the train station and be on our way back to Seoul. This trip left me wishing I’d had more time to spend in Busan, since there were still about 10 other things on the recommended list. The weekend still made for a really fantastic, much needed mini-vacation. Next up, Seoraksan!
Yesterday all the subject teachers (English, home ec., art, music) went on a field trip to an ‘herb village’ just outside of Seoul. The herb village was basically a huge garden/farm of beautiful plants, flowers, birds, vinyards, orchards, butterflies, bees, sculptures, etc., all perfectly tended to by an army of gardeners. It was really cool, but that’s not the point.
When we were preparing to leave, I got into my co-worker’s car with 3 other co-workers and my co-worker’s 7 year old daughter, Roun. I buckled my seatbelt as usual. This prompted my co-teacher (who was also in the backseat) to chuckle and make a comment in Korean to the other teachers in the car. I looked up quizzically and said ‘what? Are you making fun of me for putting on my seatbelt?’ They said, yes because Koreans never wear seatbelts in the backseat. This was the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve been made fun of for wearing a seatbelt in Korea… are these people nuts?!?! Korea’s drivers are totally erratic, irresponsible, and pushy, making the car accident death toll very high. I gave everyone a ‘you are ridiculous’ look and said “people die in the backseat all the time”. They responded 맞아요 (that’s right) and then looked at Roun and said “do you want to wear your seatbelt like Andrea?” like it was some kind of fun activity rather than a necessity. WTF!
Another weird Korean quirk that I’ve been forgetting to mention is the occasional ‘escaped patient’. In Seoul, space is very limited and hospitals blend in with the masses of other buildings and shops on the busy streets. Most of the time, you have no idea you just walked by a hospital. But here is one way to confirm that you are near one: look around for random people hobbling on the street wearing a hospital gown and pulling an IV trolley behind them. They might be window shopping, grabbing a bite to eat, or just getting some fresh air… all in their hospital issued clothing. In fact, just yesterday I saw a guy in a motorized wheelchair driving on the street in a hospital gown, with no hospital in sight. Then this morning, an ‘escaped patient’ got on the neighborhood bus and nobody batted an eye.
In the news today: Republicans cannot keep it in their pants (Gov. Sanford, Ensign) and protests continue in Iran. My crazy church girl co-teacher (Hyun-Jin) did not even know Iran had an election. She lives in a hole with her bible.
Also , I’ll be home in 47 days
