Today's Homework: Watch Sex in the City

I cannot begin to tell you how much I've come to cherish my Sundays. All week long it's "teacher-this" and "teacher-that". Kids crying, whining, yelling, talking . . . you get the idea. Friday nights and Saturdays are for hanging with friends, drinking beer, and generally have a merry, usually drunken, time.

Sundays, however, have turned into "Allison Time". Cheesy, but true. It's the one day of the week that I have to myself. I do things that I really want to do. I can discover Korea by myself. And I'm really starting to like where I live because of it. Usually, I go shopping, or for a long walk, or to a museum. This past Sunday, the most beautiful day I've seen since coming to Korea, I went to a Picasso exhibit near my house. The only thing I really discovered that Picasso loved drawing every part of women, but did I see a single penis? Not one.

From there I finally, finally discovered a coffee shop near my house that sells regular black tea. Most of the tea here in Korea tastes like grass and none of it has caffeine. I miss tea. See what happens when I take a day to myself? I discover great things.

But it's back to work for the week. Right now I'm procrastinating writing report cards. I hate giving kids grades, especially since they have so much school and homework here. Seriously, kids often go to school from 8 am to 9 or 10 pm. That's rediculous! When do they have time to just be kids? I wish I could say just once, "you know what? You're homework is to just go home, watch T.V. (in English, of course) and play with your friends". But then I'd get angry parents calling me. So, sorry kids, you are the slaves, and I must be just another slave driver.

Korean word of the day: Pangu. Fart. I taught my preschool kids "Skinamarinky-dinky-doo" the other day and they've now changed the "I love you" part to "I love pangu". Actually, it was pretty funny.

I found this picture: Look how much smoke is over North Korea. I love the South.

I choo-choo-choose you!

Ahhh, Valentine's Day. A day that's never really meant that much to me. It was so much better back in the day when everyone would bring cards shaped as hearts with cheesy cartoon's on them and lots of chocolates.

Today I was brought back to those o'so simple times during our Valentine's Day preschool party. We decorated envelopes and then each kid gave each other chocolates (apparently they don't do Valentine's cards here, they just skip straight to the chocolates). The challenging part of the day was only allowing them to have one chocolate before leaving school as we don't need them on a sugar high for the rest of the afternoon.

Of course most of the kids brought in an extra large chocolate for their teachers. So now I have 17 massive chocolate bars sitting in my apartment and, well, I'd like to say I won't eat them all at once. But they're just sitting there, looking at me, looking all yummy . . . "Eat me Allison" . . .

Keeping on the theme of 'yummy', Mark, Lyndsey, Karen and I spent a crazy, hardcore Friday night at the #1 party spot - Cosco. Well, so it wasn't exactly crazy, but it was damn exciting. All kinds of food you can't get in Bundang, including (drumroll please) . . . cheese! If cheese was my new religion, Cosco would be my church.

Saturday afternoon was spent releasing some pent up frustration . . . with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun. Don't worry, I only hit a target on some paper but, damn, it was cool. I shot ten rounds but, sadly, my accuracy was only 56%. I don't think I'll be duck hunting any time soon.

After the shooting range it was off to the bowling alley, one of the few in Korea. The first two games was all typical Allison - the memories of bowling in high school flooded back to me. Basically, I sucked. Then, just like in high school, I found my beloved pink ball (yeah, the lighter one that kids use) and the game was on baby! Just when I think there's nothing left in me to give, that I'm all used up, I find some strength within and bring it back. 6 spares in a row, followed by a strike, then another spare, and then - that's right - another strike. Move over Tony Danza - I'm the boss now! Sportsfans, it was a game to remember. Well, I'll remember it anyway . . .

Could There Be Any More Vomit?

Yesterday, after almost a week of being behaved, somewhat quiet, and actually paying attention, I thought my preschool kids had turned a corner. Was this my new, improved preschool class?

Appartently not.

Today was one of those day where I had to take an aspirin and have a class of wine almost immediately after entering my apartment. It began with Damien crying because Stella wouldn't give him back his pencil, followed by Sally having the temper tantrum of all time. There was crying, kicking, screaming, and what I can only assume are bad words in Korean. I wanted to have a temper tantrum too but, oh right, I'm the teacher. Damn. I had to settle with having her sit in the corner for the rest of class and no playtime. Not that she cared - I swear that girl has no soul.

I thought things couldn't get much worse, but then Eric said "Allison teacher, bathroom". Since I've been trying to teach manners, I said "Eric, what do we say? Teacher may I please go . . . " That's about as far as I got before purple vomit landed only inches from my shoes. Needless to say, tomorrow I'm teaching them the word "sick".

Oh, but that's not all the vomit. At the end of the preschool day, as I was helping Susie on with her coat, she begins to have a coughing fit. As I took her to get some water, what do you know? More vomit. I'm just thankful that none of it landed on my new shoes.

Just as I thought that no more bodily fluids could be emitted, I mean, preschool was over, one of my 10 year-old students decides to have a nose bleed. But none on my shoes - yes!

Thankfully, my middle school class of three boys gave me an easy time today. I was so tired and worn out, I let them play games the last 10 minutes. I'm such a cool teacher.

Pics Baby

Enjoy! There will be more to come!


(Tip for the computer illiterate like me: If you click on the pictures, they'll get bigger)

These pictures are parts of the Palace complex called Gyeongbokgung in Seoul. I visited it the first weekend after I arrived in Korea with some other teachers.

Downtown Seoul at night

My apartment - I like to think of it as "cozy"

From left: Mark, Lyndsey, Me, and Karen in our traditional hanbok clothing for Lunar New Years. January 27th

My youngest preschool class (I have 2) in their traditional hanbok clothing.

The kids again. From left: Lucia, Susie, Ken, Damien, Stella, Carol, and May

Susie in Hanbok

The girls from my other preschool class learning how to bow. They bow to their parent's on New Years Day and Parent's Day.

From left: Sally, Sarah, Lily, Gloria, and Katie

Alex, Sarah, Jordan, and Eric bowing

Katie and Jordan

Sally and I

Damien

Alas, I Have Finally Joined Cyper space!

I have seen true beauty and it comes in the form of my new Compaq Presario V2000 with a Pentium M processor, 1.86 GHz, and 504 MB RAM. It's also a pretty silver colour.

It's been a long time coming, but Karen and I once again travelled to the electronics market in Seoul Saturday, braving the unbelievably numbing cold. This time I left my apartment swearing I would come back with a laptop come hell or high water and, for once, I actually came though.

When we first arrived at Yongsan market, I was completely overwhelmed - 100's of laptops lay before me. With the tiny knowledge I actually hold about computers, I walked in there looking as confident as I possibly could (yet feeling about as confident as a cow would walking into a McDonalds). After about a half hour of browsing, I nice guy told Karen and I that the only laptops that I can get with English windows installed on them is HP. Well, that settled it.

Next we looked for a seller who spoke some English. We ended up settling with the second best: a seller who spoke Spanish. We asked this one Korean guy if he spoke English, he said no, but do we speak Spanish? Well, it just so happens that Karen's fluent and I can, well, follow along. So, we did our transaction in the language you'd always expect to use in Korea: Espanol. It was one of those unexpected and strange moments that always occur when you travel. (Like when I was on safari in Africa, sitting around a campfire with some random young people talking about why we were in Tanzania, and a Chinese girl who barely spoke English asked me if I could teach her how to use a condom. Wasn't I supposed to be teaching that to Africans?).

So, after the laptop success, it was time to celebrate and off Karen, Jonathan, Partrick and I went to Itaewan in Seoul. This is the area of the city where most of the American military are stationed so you can imagine what it's like. We began at a bar named Gecko's, where I had the most succulent and delicious cheeseburger EVER. After having a few beers, I dragged my friends to a bar called "The Grand Ol' Opry" where, you guessed it, they play only country music. Though it's not really Patrick and Karen's scene, they were persuaded to stay when they found out the bar offered $1 shots. Can you say drinks all around? We did - 6 times! Patrick and I attempted to get our two-steppin and line dancin' moves out on the dance floor, but it was fairly unsuccessful. Finally, we had no chance but to leave after (1) a man with a thick Southern accent told me "Honey, this ain't no line dancin' music" and (2) they began singing "Proud to be an American" and saluting the Confederate flag. Yep, that's right, the Confederate flag. It was time to move on. Next on the journey were 2 dance clubs where we got our grooves on to gangsta rap and Korean pop music. Two types of music you always want to hear together.

Fish and Spice and Everything Nice

First off, a big shout out to my parents who are sunbathing in Mexico right now. They spent a small fortune sending me a box of goodies that I will treasure for the week it will probably actually last me. The gift of licorice and Lays chips is something I will treasure in my heart always. Thank you.

I've had a lot of questions about food here in Korea. Trust me, it's like nothing I've ever tasted before. I thought it would be more like other Asian foods, but it's very distinct and very spicy.

I'm quickly becoming an expert on Korean food as I eat lunch with my preschoolers every day. It hilarious watching the kids eat things that you know kids at home would rather die before eating. For instance, anchovies with eyes still attached and these strange, gooey egg things. They're favourite after school snack is fish larvae, which I have yet to try as the smell along would send most running in the opposite direction. I'll save it for another drunken adventure.

My favourite meal is Kimbap. It's rice, vegetables and ham or tuna, wrapped in seaweed. Delicious and healthy. I also enjoy mandu (tofu and minced vegetables and meat with wheat dough wrapped around them) and galbi (meals where you cook the meat on a grill in front of you, dip it in garlic and other sauces, and then wrap it in lettuce). Every meal here is served with some sort of soup and kimchi, the most famous Korean food. Kimchi is fermented vegetables cooked in red pepper sauce, garlic, anchovies and other distince flavours. It's hard to describe, and takes a while to get used to, but once you eat it every day for a month, you can't go a day without it.

There's also a lot of noodle, rice, and seafood dishes. Usually I don't know what I'm eating, and some of it, even on my most adventurous days, just look at little to ripe for eating. But I try to remember that food is part of the adventure too.

All in all, I'd recommened a Korean meal to anyone - just make sure you can handle your chop sticks as well as your spice.

A side note: you may have noticed that I haven't updated in a week. That's because when I went to buy my laptop last Saturday it was closed - damn Lunar New Years! But, don't worry, I'm trying again tomorrow. Wish me luck!