(A Not So) Short Post

Okay. I have been terrible at keeping this up.

People keep asking me what I'm doing and what kinds of adventures I'm going on. Dudes, I've been to Seoul and to Cheongju, but I work a 40-hour-a-week job (re: the differences between living in a country and traveling to a country for a short period of time?) Teaching is an adventure in and of itself.
I will be going on more travels, fear not, but until then, my life is pretty similar to before except...I'm living in Korea, working in Korea, learning Korean, pointing at things a lot more, and being a lot more productive. I've also succumbed back into my internet persona activities (social networking, and the like.) I don't know why, but I do this every once in a while and I'm no good at it.

My current goals are:
-Teach myself Korean via--guess--social networking! Aaand a textbook that teaches me super formal Korean and is only helpful until my co-teachers tell me not to say it like that. I can say 저는 선생님 입니다 ("I am a teacher." Hopefully there are no mistakes, hah!)
-Finished NaNoWriMo (BEAT IT! 50,000!) so my next goal is to continue writing. I've set a goal for myself, 500 words per day or an equivalent amount of work planning. Today is the second day I've taken off, but my throat is sore and I woke up ten minutes before work today (the excuses begin.)
-Plan some weekend adventures for next month, when Ariel comes to visit!
-Try to get some care packages together and send them to people.

Okay. Yep. Sore throat leads to a very lackluster blog post, which leads to me laying in bed and watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as my next activity, because my original intention of watching Old Boy is already dead due to tiredness and sore eardrums.

What else would I choose for my first photo but this:

I'm so funny. I got paid in CASH for my first paycheck. Clearly, this is terribly innappropriate, but let's just be real as to whose blog this is.

I finally got to see a temple, though I think it was a replica since the original was supposedly burned down, but whatevs. Went to Cheongju for the day one weekend and got to see this place, which was attached to the Printing Museum. The museum was quite fun for me, because I'm into that kind of thing, but also because of the robots. I will attach a video for evidence. There was also a nun walking the circle path around the grounds here (I'm going to go ahead and assume it was meant for Buddhist walking meditation, but don't quote me,) which I found to be an interesting mix of things.

          At this point, I would like to revert back to the topic of social media. This has nothing to do with Korea, but everything to do with blogging.
It has been several years in the making, but I still can't get over connectivity. To start with, I am a very private person. Being on the internet intrudes on your privacy basically no matter how you do it. So fine, I'm going to share some things on the internet that you probably have to be good friends with me for me to tell you in real life, because social media is strange like that. However, there are different venues for this. I have always been an internet person, but circa 2000 when I was in my prime, everything was anonymous. You posted on forums with different identities, you could have different AIM names and AOL accounts (lol,) different Neopets accounts for different personas, different Livejournals for different story-tellings. This list proves that I am kinda old and it also exhibits how I used to spend my time, but that's neither here nor there.

When MySpace came along, it was a very strange thing to me that anything about my real self was on the internet. That was fine, though, because Myspace was not connected to anything else. Youtube was great, because even though you were putting your face on the internet, it was--at the time--a small community of people who were just messing around with new technology. Then Facebook happened. Then there was a social media explosion and I'll be honest, I've joined so many of them...Twitter (never could get the hang of it,) Tumblr, Instagram, Google +, VYou and Dailybooth (which have since shut down.) Through all of that, I struggled to keep each profile's identity separate and I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHY except that I know myself and I know that's how I like to exist.
These days, Google owns everything. My Youtube and Blogger account are linked to my Gmail, which is linked to Google Plus (obv) and I don't know how I feel about that. I guess I feel fine about it, since it's not stopping me, but every once in a while--when I post a slew of photos on Facebook--I go into massive panic mode about how every facet of my life is being tracked, recorded, and shared with the world. Of course, this is only true to some degree but it's the fear that never lets go (kind of like the fear that I have when I think about the journal that I lost somewhere in between my trek from Massachusetts to Seattle, awkwarrrrd.)

This turned out to be long and convoluted, not to mention off topic. Some days, the fear makes me delete all of my Facebook friends. Other days, I don't care and post videos of myself on Youtube.

Anyone want to respond with any helpful tips on how to not think about it? Let's see.

Boricha 보리차

During my hunt for a decaf tea at my neighborhood CU mart, I found a huge box of barley tea for 2,000 won. Not sure I've had this before, but sipping it now and it's quite yummy!

Not to mention:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/238461-the-health-benefits-of-roasted-barley-tea/.

If there's something about being an Angelino-by-birth that I will never get over, it's health food fads. At least, however, I recognize them for what they are. Instead of sporting "EAT MORE KALE" bumper stickers about three years ago like the northern coastal regions I was in, I roasted  my kale chips and moved on with my day. 

Okay, this post relates to Korea only in its mention of barley tea--boricha 보리차. YumYum.

I haven't posted a single picture yet. ENJOY MY WOOORDS. 

Got my Murakami book for Korea era round one from a day trip to Seoul today (which was awesome, but that's not the point of this post.) I'm going to read Norwegian Wood.
I have a funny relationship with Murakami. This may not be interesting to anyone but myself, but so be it!

I picked up Kafka on the Shore at one of the train stations in London when I was studying in England--in fact, Kings Cross, I believe it was! For some reason, I was waiting in the station for several hours and decided to bide my time in the bookstore, duh. There was a black cat on the cover of the Kafka on the Shore and that's what initially drew me to it. I hadn't heard of Murakami before, but I read the book very quickly near the end of my stay in England. It didn't speak much to me at the time.

I brought the book along when I left for Italy so that Carly could read it, because she was staying in Paris and had less access to English books than I did. I think she read the thing in a few hours on one of our long train rides in Italy and was not impressed.
She left it somewhere on our journey, maybe at a hostel. I have no idea where that book went, but was fine to let it go because of the weight of it.
I forgot about it while we were traveling, but when I returned to the States I couldn't get it out of my mind. It wasn't so much the story, which I have more or less forgotten since. Something about Murakami's writing style--just the way he sees and says things--kept coming back to me.

A little over a year later, when I had graduated college and was back in Massachusetts working at The Mount (some of the best days of my young adulthood,) I read book after book. For one reason or another, I ended up with a copy of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle from Raven Books in Northampton, MA. Or maybe it was from the Bookmill. That was the year that I bought a whole library of used books from said places.
In any case, the point of this story is that I've since read a handful of Murakami's books, including What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, most recently. I can't really say that his are among my favorite books, but I do have to say that he is among my favorite writers. It's a large distinction that's difficult to verbalize.

This has turned into a self-indulgent post as usual, but I will say one more thing. At specific subtle turns in my life over the past few years, I have read a Murakami book. It's like I have a timer inside of me now and every once in a while, it goes off and is like, "Okay. Time for a new one." Luckily, the guy is prolific extraordinaire so I shouldn't be running out of material any time soon.
And at the end of every book, I have set it free like we set free that first book at a hostel in Italy. I have only retained my copy of Dance, Dance, Dance, which is somewhere in a box at my dad's house. It feels strange to still have it, like I'm holding it hostage.

The fact that I've picked up Norwegian Wood says something about my state of mind right now.
It also says something about the fact that I will NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO GIVE UP ON NANOWRIMO JUST BECAUSE I MISSED TODAY. Tomorrow, I will write 3500 words. Hold me to it.
There is so little time and so much to do.

Evasive Techniques

Convo A: "Teacher, you are like a boy."
"Why am I like a boy? Because I have short hair?"
"No, teacher. Lots of women in Korea have short hair. My mother has short hair. You are just like a boy."

Convo B: "Teacher are you solo?"
"Solo? Like.."
"Yes. Do you have a girlfriend?"
"A girlfriend??!"
"Yes, do you have a girlfriend?"
*children look at me seriously.*
"Okay, let's do our speaking assignments please. FOCUS GUYS."

Fun fact: I don't own a fork and have been using chopsticks--except for two times--since I've been here.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo, so will possibly be MIA for the rest of the month. Unless I'm procrastinating.

Dear Drivers of Chungju,
Please do not hit me with your vehicle! My light is green. The little person is lit up so vibrantly. Your light, on the other hand, is red. You are going through your light.
Thank you.

THIS BEING SAID: I am less afraid of Chungju vehicles than I am incited to anger by Seattle bicyclists. At least they are predictable (you never cross the street when you see a car coming. Ever.) You win some you lose some.

Today I am working on some discipline techniques. AKA, if you don't get any points taken away, you get a shiny sticker at the end of class. AKA bribing/tempting the children into good behavior, so to speak.

I had something else to say, but...I forget now.

Just a few thoughts;

I've moved into my apartment. Traditional showers in Korea, from what I understand, are a shower-in-the-room-with-a-shower-wand system (or at least that's how it is in my apartment.) Things are much more space efficient than in the States, where (coughSeattle'burbs,coughLAcough) people think they need four bedroom + living room + den + dining room single-family homes for two people. In the cities here, everyone basically lives in apartments. Let's be real, this is much more eco-friendly and a more constructive use of space.

Part of the point of me coming here was to be productive and to be inspired to write again. Guess who has written nothing, but has spent her time (when alone at least) browsing the internet, watching t.v. and k-pop videos, eating ramen and sweets, and playing Civilization 5 (one of my better habits! At least it encourages logic.)
I WILL start a productive schedule.

I have somehow eaten McDonald's twice since I've been here (having not eaten their sandwiches for like...SEVEN YEARS.) This is a phenomenon that I also experienced when on Eurotrip 2009. Carly and I ended up eating McDonald's fries on at least two occasions: stuck at a bus terminal and...er, in Bucharest and there's no excuse except that we wanted salads? Jeez. No more McDonald's, I want Dak Galbi!!!

Youtube won't let me embed, but:

---

http://youtu.be/RKhsHGfrFmY

Uyu and Waeguk

I've been trying to write a new post for a few days now but Teaching!
It will be a learning curve...I've taught my first few classes, so at least my feet are wet now but my goodness, there's a lot to learn. The teacher who I'm replacing is, like, teaching queen so I'm just hoping the students don't compare us. The older kids are much easier to work with. I enjoy the littlest ones because they're cute, but the material is harder to teach even though it's simpler. I think because the older kids are learning, like, what I learned in English in high school. It's easier to be analytical than to communicate with 6 year olds when I don't speak Korean. MUST LEARN MORE. The 7/8 year olds are super brilliant, though! And super cute.

I thought I'd learned the word for milk ("oyo") and was sooo proud of myself. In fact, the word is "uyu" (우유). At the coffee stand in E-Mart (the grocery store/market closest to me,) the lady was very nice and gave me milk when I asked for "oyo." I think she remembered me from the day before when I simply said "Milk??" (gesture gesture.) Good Lord.
This afternoon, I wanted to use some internet, so I brought my laptop down to a cafe downtown and asked "Americano Juseyo?" There was much confusion due to my amazing accent. They had to speak English to me. But couldn't. I got my drink and said, "Oyo?" The lady stared at me blankly. "Milk?" She gives me frothed milk, I DON'T KNOW! I hate not speaking enough Korean it feels douchey! I also said "Juseyo Americano?" the other day. WHAT I WILL DO FOR COFFEEEE!

(I'm not actually sure what is being said here.)

Fun facts: Cars here are basically all black, white, and silver.
Cars do NOT stop for pedestrians, but biciclysts are about a thousand times more polite than Seattle ones, even though it is customary to ride on the sidewalk.

I am getting BBQ in a little bit here with my co-teacher and her boyfriend. First Korean BBQ experience in Korea!
It is odd but expected, the waeguk (외국--foreigner) community here is larger than I thought it would be. I went out last night and met some awesome foreigners from all over the west! In fact, I was one of only a few Americans. The funny part is that walking to find a cafe today, I ran into fellow foreigners on the street. I'd heard about the EYE CONTACT--TALK phenomenon, but...you must. It seems like you are bound to run into all of the foreigners in Chungju at some point, so meeting on the street is a fine way to do it! And perhaps it is even rude if you don't say hi, you know? It reminds me of living in LA as well as traveling culture (staying in hostels etc.) I don't know, this is very scattered. I thought I'd be able to formulate a coherent blog post, but alas!

Photos will happen as soon as I move into my apartment, which will maybe happen tomorrow.

schleeep time

Scratch the expat pedestal. I'm a hypocrite and I can see the appeal. Questions questions, analyzing, AAAND succumb. The process becomes shorter by the year/experience. GRANTED (enter more here.)

Wait a minute...

I know I've only been here for one day, but so far everything is a little more Americanized than I expected. I mean, not reeeeally. Maybe mostly in Seoul. There seems to be a very solid Expat culture, which is great...but...Groove Magazine says, "Things that will make Korea better: CRAFT BEER." Dudes, why are you in Korea, just move to Seattle, you know?
In any case, I'm very knowledgable after one day, clearly -_-'
I'm sure after a few months here, I will feel very different. It's just surprising! Thoughts of globalization/comfort/culture...my ideals have changed since college, but I've still got it in me. It's hard not to notice and consider. I'm sure this will come up again.
Things to eat: Dak Galbi 닭갈비 . Okay, at least I think this is what I ate. Fried rice and chicken with vegetables. All of the restaraunts here apparently serve one kind of thing in different varieties, which makes it simple enough. My coworker treated me to some delicious Dak Galbi in downtown.
Today I start teaching. Well, today I start watching teaching. I doubt I'll be doing any actual teaching. Good thing I bought so many STICKERS.
There's a typhoon coming towards Japan! How do these things work?

안녕하세요

To start off with, I'm not great at blogging. Too much personal in too public of a space. But...! I'm currently watching a Korean kids' show ('cause that's what I would do) on the huge-screened t.v. in my motel room that my school has set me up with for my first week. The apartment that I will be living in is still being occupied by the teacher whose job I will be taking. The motel is fun. It's called "Motel Oasis" and there is black glitter wallpaper in the foyer. I'm supposed to go downstairs in a bit in order to change rooms and don't speak enough Korean for that. One of my co-teachers who dropped me off last night said to just tell her, "Change!" and it should work out. TIME TO START LEARNING KOREAN AGAIN. I've also been using big bills when I buy things because I don't know numbers yet so I figure "this will cover it." Everyone is super nice so far! I start training at school tomorrow! I ate two Korean meals on the plane instead of the Western ones (bibimbap 비빔밥 over steak any day) and they were delicious. I think the food will actually be one of the easier parts. That was on the plane, though, so I'll update more once I've had my first real Korean meal, which should be happening today at some point. Pictures and more info to come!
P.S. whatever show I'm watching has a chicken speaking Korean and wearing glasses and an apron.