quality medical care!

i've had this cough since i got here, and nothing will make you more self-conscious than being visibly ill in a sea of people wearing face masks. so today i finally caved and went to a korean doctor. never have i experienced such an educated system. they asked for my name and phone number, which i was able to provide, and my address, which i was not (addresses are weird and not really used for anything here). i was then brought to the doctor, who asked about my symptoms, including whether or not i have rhinorhea (?). he then proceeded to take my temperature, using a mercury thermometer in my armpit, which is apparently as technical as they are willing to get. after telling me to wear a sweater at night ("in korea, it is colder at night than during the day"), i was sent into another room to get a shot of "selenium acid injection" in the ass, which is apparently their cure-all. the nurse then promptly walked away without giving me any further information, leaving me holding a wetnap over my needle wound with my pants down.

the upside, of course, is that it only cost me W14000, half of which will be reimbursed.

SKOH

first order of business: my kindergarteners reciting the school motto: http://vimeo.com/6755970.

second order of business: pictures that are on my facebook but which i feel compelled to post here:


evidence that i am indeed in asia.


ils students are apparently greatly concerned about the plight of amputees.



hanging out with some new bffs, like this rando korean businessman. on an unrelated note, i love soju.

annnnnnnnd third! shannon koh came to visit this weekend !! after a delicious soju friday night (in which i scored two bullseyes in darts!) i got up early to go meet eshannon. i made it all the way there on my first try, all by myself! it was so bizarre to meet up with someone from home. i keep forgetting that i'm on the other side of the globe, and the fact that everyone around me is korean only becomes apparently when i see other white people and do a double-take. we all regard each other with such suspicion in public - "what are you doing here?"

shannon and i spent the day in myeongdong, where i bought things i don't need, including cass bottle earrings and a sweet purse which eloquently reads "MINUTEMEN MEAT PUPPETS DESCENDANTS ANGST". it truly spoke to me. i also spotted these delightfully racist figurines:



we met up with her ra from chuncheon, ji seung, and after lunching at a "pork cutlet" establishment made our way to the "seoul drum festival"; or, "preparation for a middle school play featuring brazilians and mexicans." we were three of approximately twenty attendees at the moment, so we ultimately peaced to meet up with some of my coworkers at a rooftop party in seoul. it was so cool - because the buildings in seoul aren't very high (except for apartments, which are in weirdly-formed clusters), from the twenty-second floor you can see pretty much everything. after much confusion/burger king we left and headed to a super lame bar in itaewon, which shannon and i soon ditched. the cab ride home was also a first for me, as giving directions is near impossible in this country due to the lack of road names. so, despite his gps, he had a significant amount of trouble determining where we needed to go, since he couldn't find "jukjeon e-mart." he ultimately figured it out, i guess, though i still had to give directions for the last few minutes of the ride.

and today !! shannon's cousin brought us to lunch (bibimbap, mmmm) and then to the top of seoul tower !! it's at the top of a mountain in central seoul, and "on a clear day you can see north korea," but there are mountains all around so i'm not clear on how that would work out.


communism lurks in these hills.


hey guys! <3

tonight ryan and abby and i went shopping in seoul, and had the brilliant idea to try to find a new bus to pick us up where we were, rather than taking a cab back to hundang to catch our bus there. after multiple calls to tourist information, as well as an actively unhelpful interaction with three very inebriated korean men, we approached a cop who spoke good, though limited, english. after telling him where we wanted to catch our bus, he did what any good cop should. he offered to drive us. we got to roll up to our bus stop (just as the bus was arriving) and pile out of a cop car (with six bags of pillows). seriously, i love this country.

done with "student teaching"

today my supervisor told me that one of my students' moms called. the kid said that he really likes me and wishes i taught more of his classes. :) loves itttt.

also, a new teacher is coming tomorrow and he's moving into the apartment directly across from me. i hope we like each other, because we share a doorway and generally a ton of space. we'll see ...

oh yeah and

my boss told me the other night that i have a sexy voice.

v*^_^*v

the other night i asked one of my korean co-teachers why they always throw peace signs in pictures. she looked at me and said, very matter-of-factly, "because it makes your face look cuter."

seu sooyeon<3

my landlord's daughter just brought me food and then left. this is probably the best building, ever. she is absolutely adorable - earlier today she helped me do my laundry. i'll never need to be self-sufficient!

also, last night the entire staff went out for a very traditional korean meal at outback steakhouse. i enjoyed the steak quesadilla with coconut-battered onion rings, a favorite on the peninsula for hundreds of years. delicious.

hello anna teacher!!

so today was my first (mostly) full day at work. i wasn't actually teaching at all, which is good, considering the fact that i was not fully functional. i'm still in the observation stages, but i do get to start teaching on monday, which i am totally pumped about. i'm completely smitten with all of my kids, even the older douchier ones. i'm sure they'll seem less magical later on when they won't stop speaking korean and won't listen to me and all i have to do is get through a lesson but right now they're the greatest thing ever. i'm still a novelty at school so all the kids get really excited when they see me in the hallway and want to say my name, which about two thirds of them say wrong anyway. also, because of korean word order which apparently cannot be ignored despite the fact that the school is supposed to be entirely english, they call us all by our first names followed by the word "teacher." how could "anna teacher" possibly ever not be adorable?

one of my coworkers took me out last night so i could see some of yongin at night/try delicious korean things. we had korean bbq, which was delicious and i am really excited that the entire school is going out for more tomorrow night. i was also introduced to a magnificent plum wine, which has a very nice cherry liquid dimetapp sort of tang to it. we met some korean university students who spoke varying degrees of english, from limited to none. they all thought we were the shit and were really impressed with my vast korean vocabulary of four words. i also taught them how to say "fuck yeah!" and i'm pretty sure one of them was trying to profess his love for me in korean but i couldn't understand. :( i got one of their numbers, one who spoke pretty much no englishes, and he proceeded to txt me in korean and then call fifteen minutes after we parted ways to ask if i remembered him. yes, hyun, i remember you. please let me nap before work.

i promise to take pictures of my kids soon so you can see how great they are. i just feel weird whipping out a camera while there's another teacher observing me, so clearly it's significantly less creepy to wait until i'm alone with the children to photograph them.

babies !!

i went to school today and saw all the kindergarteners. last night the other teachers were telling me that i have the best class in the school, and i pretty much believe them. all they said to me was "HAI TEACHER ANNA," and i fell in love.

when i went in to talk with the kids in the class across the hall, two boys came up and stared at me inquisitively. when one asked, in pretty perfect english, who i was, i said "i'm a new teacher." his only response was, "i don't believe you." not sure i can argue with that.

also, for those curious, a superfluously detailed guided tour of my apartment: http://www.vimeo.com/6586753.

용인시 !!!!

remember that time i moved to korea?

i am currently standing in the corner of my room with my laptop on my windowsill stealing internet from across the street. at some point today someone's supposed to come and set up mine, but they're yet to call me, so i'm just sitting around, putting off a trip to e-mart, and attempting to make ramen noodles even though i have no idea how much water to use.

i got in around 8.00 pm local time (7.00 am est) on saturday night, and was promptly whisked away by my personal driver and brought to my apartment, which is pretty awesome despite lacking any real furniture besides a tiny bed. yesterday (sunday) one of my coworkers brought me to seoul, where we went to a tea room with birds flying all over the place, a buddhist temple, a palace, the biggest book store evar, and grocery shopping (which was utterly overwhelming).

i really like seoul (and i think yongin, though i haven't really spent any time here yet). it's weird, because everyone ever lives in apartments, which are all super tall and outside the city, so when you get into seoul all the buildings are pretty low and they're all businesses. also there are a lot of weird american restaurants and companies represented here, like outback and tgi friday's. oh and i saw what is apparently the only startbucks in the world with a sign not in english (it says starbucks in korean).

i have a few pictures which i'll post later, when i have my own internets. also, i don't actually start working until next monday, so i basically have no life plans at the moment (except possibly hanging out with the landlord's daughter, since she seems super interested in being my friend/teaching me korean). feel free to skype me or whatever i want to hear from everyoneeee. <3!

cucu

i'm leaving in eleven hours. my bags are packed (slightly beyond capacity, but hopefully it'll be so early in the morning no one will care) and i'm more or less prepared to leave. i have no idea what's going to happen after i get picked up at the airport, so hopefully my driver will speak english pretty well. i know i'm going to be back for christmas so i really shouldn't be too worked up about this, but how strange. i have to go to this faraway place and be a grown-up. we'll see how that works out.

skype!

i set up my skype in number! let me know if you want it - it's a local number and it'll connect directly to skypeeee.

flight

i finally have a flight confirmation. i'm leaving norfolk at 6.59 am on friday, september eleventh. tragically, i have layovers in chicago and tokyo, making the whole trip about twenty-two hours in total. at this point i can't even wrap my head around what that's going to mean. i'm still in california, and i haven't even really begun to pack. when i get home i'm going to have about three days to buy what i need to buy, get everything together, pack, unpack, repack with less things (inevitably), say good-bye to everyone, and leave.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh.