Slacky Mcslackersen/Living the Dream

I spent the last three days sprawled out like a lizard in the sand on a beautiful secluded Island.

I realize that I can do this exact thing at home. The difference being that my summers on Prince Edward Island usually involve working sixty hours a week so that I can save money for the University school year. Now I work nine-to-five and can actually take the time and spend the cash to really enjoy a weekend in the white sand.

Getting to the Island was an adventure and half. Four of my new friends and I decided that we wanted to spend two nights on the beach, rather than just Saturday night like the rest of the ESL gang. So as soon as the school day on Friday ended I rushed home via the express bus(which I never take because it's basically a suicide mission), jammed my stuff into a kitbag, bought some fireworks, and jumped onto the subway. We rode the subway to airport Island where we then jumped in a cab. The cabdriver informed us in Korean(AND I UNDERSTOOD WHAT HE WAS SAYING!!!!!!!!) that the ferry to the Island was leaving in twenty minutes and that he was going to have to drive very, very, very fast in order to get us there on time. We all looked at each other hesitantly and collectively told him that driving fast was fine.

The cab driver drove 170 kms an hour. And got into a car accident! He was driving dangerously close to an old fashioned looking truck and knocked his rear view mirror off....and he still didn't stop. We made the last ferry of the night(eight O'clock) and were at the camp-site by nine.

It was an amazing weekend. We spent Friday night singing along to a guitar and building a truly impressive bonfire. The next day I woke early and went for a three hour long hike, the views were spectucular. The rest of the gang showed up around noon and we played ultimate frisbee all afternoon. I also went for my first official dip in the Yellow sea, it was warm like bathwater, and a few of us spent a couple of hours diving and looking for crabs. We watched fireworks for hours that night and listened to some more guitar.

I love weekends(also I promise to be a better and more consistant blogger)!

Lazy

SO
I haven't really updated in a while. I don't really have an excuse other than just the usual "I am totally lazy" routine. Now that I've been here for a while things are beginning to feel routine and so I have less to write about. Tomorrow I'm going to make a real effort to blog about what I've been up to in the last little while.

Bang Culture

Bang is the Korean word for "room" and it's a word that dominates and pervades Korean life. It's used as suffix and is connected to places where locals and (sometimes ESL teachers) like to have all kinds of weird fun. It's pretty hard to come to Korea and not become immersed in bang culture.

Da-Bang: I have yet to go to one of these places but they're basically coffee shops where you pay extra to have the waitress flatter you. It's unusual in cities like Incheon or Seoul but it is a pretty common way for young ladies to make money in the countryside.

DVD Bang: This is a room with wipe clean sofas, tissues, a large TV, and an extensive movie selection. Sometimes it's used by those who just want to catch a flick, but more often than not it's used by young Korean couples eager for alone time outside of the watchful eyes of parents and guardians. Kind of sketchy.

PC Bang: These are twenty-four intenet cafes. People come to these for gaming marathons(usually Starcraft) and at least a few times a year people die from exhaustion in a PC Bang. Basically they play until they quite literally can't.

Game Bang: Just a giant room open twenty four hours a day where you can choose from any number of board games(including scrabble and snakes and ladders). These are cheap and because they're open at all hours, many ESL teachers choose to crash here on a night out.

Jimijibang: I love these! These are Korean saunas. You walk into a Korean sauna, pay eight dollars, and for twenty-four hours you can stay in the jimijibang. Many broke travellers sleep on the floor or the benches of a jimijibang rather than shell out money for a hotel or hostel. Picture three steam rooms and five or six different flat pools of water with orchids floating everwhere. Each pool of water is a different tempature and you're supposed to change pools every so often.

Nore-Bang: Twenty-four house Korean Karokee joints. Anytime I've gone out up for dinner with my Korean Co-teachers they always want to go sing at nore-bang after. The songs that you can choose from at Nore Bang are always English songs, but they're really random and weird English songs. Songs that were maybe played for three months on the radio in the Western world are Karokee classics here. It can be very weird to hear your Korean co-teacher suggest a sing along to a band like Marcy Playground.

Korea..Kor-eh-ah..you remind me of the west side story..growin' up in Spanish Harlem!

Oh Korea.

I love you alot. I have come to adore your food. Your people are kinder and more compassionate than I could have ever possibly imagined. Your scenery is serene and beautiful, your cities are bustling, and the nightlife is ridiculous. I love that I can't throw a rock without hitting a Budhist temple. I love that I can't go a week without craving Galbi . I love that ice cream tastes better here. Korea, I have even come to understand your obsession with delicous burning hot kimchi,(although that rumor that it cures everything from ADHD to male homosexuality....yeah Korea...I don't think that's a substantiated scientific fact).

I like most everything about you Korea... But sometimes, Korea, sometimes, I feel like you are the land that logic forgot.

Now Korea(and Korean friends of mine who might be reading this), I don't mean this in a negative way. The lack of logic I encounter(or rather the logic I don't encounter) makes everday a treasure trove of surprises. I love that I can never be one hundred percent positive that the bus I'm riding is going to end up where it the bus schedule claims it will. I love that my classes get cancelled at random and I'm often left with a ton of free time.I even love that the Korean sense of time is completely arbiatrary and that everyone is always late for everything.

I love it. I just don't "get" it. Why do you believe in fan death? Why don't you sell cheddar cheese? Why is my bus driver insane? Why is your sense of time different than my sense of time? Why is drinking and driving so common? Why do you both love and hate Westerners? Is your idea of punishment(corporal punishment) and your focus on personal appearances morally and ethically wrong? Or am I just socially constructed to believe one thing, and you're socially constructed to believe another? Perhaps most importantly, why, oh why, do you find insect larvae delicous?

Sincerely,
A confused and naive western girl

Random Thoughts

Here are some random thoughts. I'm too brain dead to come up with any sort of cool topical segway. Bare with me.

1. Today was hectic. I taught seven classes back to back and didn't murder anyone. This deserves a pat on the back right? I have no idea how someone could teach for fifty years and not end up spending retirement banging their heads against the walls of a rubber room. I've said it before and I'll say it again, teaching=a huge challenge.

2.Thank god for my new bike. I come home and take out my frustrations on the roads and sidewalks of Incheon Korea. And how awesome is my new bike? It only cost forty Canadian dollars and it's so wonderfully, perfectly suited to me. That vintage frame melts my heart everytime I see it.

3. This is not a reasonable temperture. It's plus thirty five degrees today. I'm sitting at my desk at work encircled by pools of my own sweat. This isn't pleasant for anyone.

4. I love Paris Baguette. It's a bakery chain in Korea and is the only place that sells decent cookies. I gorged on three as a reward for not killing anyone today. Here's hoping this young fast metabloism holds out.

5. The weekend is coming. I'm taking my friend's daughter to the zoo on Saturday. I'm kind of excited, I never get to spoil kids rotten. Saturday night all of the ESL teachers are going to a professional soccer game, I'm on the fence, pro-sports always seem a little deathly dull to me. Tonight(Friday) is french toast night at my house. Weekends are always better.

6. I am sick of squid and seaweed soup. My school's serves this almost everyday and it smells like feet. It's rude to say no to any dish that's been offered, so sadly, feet soup is a part of my daily diet.

I could Kill My New Co-Teacher

One of my beloved co-teachers is officially on bed rest until her baby is born.

My new replacement co-teacher is the most awkward shy person I have ever met in my life. He's twenty-two, and admitted to me yesterday that he's never really talked to a girl before. Girls and Boys are seperated at middle school in Korea, and don't interact socially until University where they are set up on blind dates by their friends and parents. This means that many young men, have never really had female friends, and therefore have no real sweet clue how to talk to women. Yesterday I was showing my class how to shake hands with each other and say, "nice to meet you", (in Korea, bowing is what they do instead), and he refused to touch my hand! I tried to explain to him, "But, we need to demonstrate shaking hands to the students", and he responded, "I'm sorry but I can't touch your hand if we're not dating". It was kind of hard to not roll my eyes to this, and I accidently said out loud, "Oh my God...seriously???"

Maybe I'm an insensitive jerk.


He's also horrible at keeping the class in order. He won't yell at the students and things get a little chaotic sometimes. I'm opposed to the usual punishment(hitting the children), but yelling, is an absolute must in the classroom. Co-teaching with guy is torture. I would rather inject the ebola virus into my eye than go to school and have to deal with this all day.

Muido Photos

I love the beach. I am going back here as soon as I can.