kevin

here is a shrine to kevin, one of the 18 preschoolers.

korean bbq....finally

The headmaster of my school (joseph) has been in america for a month and i guess he felt bad because when he got back yesterday, he took the teachers out for korean bbq. it took me ten weeks to get a chance to eat the korean bbq i had heard so much about. it was delectable.
it was the whole "grill it at the table, sit on the floor, eat funky things" that i so much love about this country.

a dream, a bad day and love

i haven't a clue what i am doing here. here being asia, here being teaching, here being this whole chunk of my life. yet here i am. i had a dream on monday night that i was living in seattle, buying coffee at every corner, drinking it plentifully, and soaking in the bohemian vibe. i've never been to seattle, but the dream made it feel so familiar. i think i'll move to seattle next.

today was such a hard day. hard because hannah is leaving in 4 days, hard because i'm tired and worn thin and wonder why i'm here more often than i expected i would. hard because these 10 weeks has felt like 4 lifetimes. hard because loving people is so often a lose-lose situation. you love people too much, and then it hurts to so bad when you miss them. you love people not enough and then you miss that you even hurt them.

I can think of a thousand places i'd rather be, a thousand jobs i'd rather be doing. but i'm here. and, even though some might not understand this, for now, i feel called. to this: snot-wiping, english-teaching, recess-supervising, kimchi-appreciating, to this. just for now. till whenever. till whenever i get to move on and drink coffee plentifully again, be passionate again, feel enthusiastic again and (hopefully) am better for it because of this.

a friend wrote to me yesterday:
"are you convinced God told you to go to korea?"
(my answer is yes)
"do you have real friends there?"
(my answer in four days will be no)
"cry out to God a million times, push through the confusion, he is at work in you for sure"

"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Eph 4:1-3)

dtuk-buk-kgee lips

Really, what else can I say?
The giant lips are eating giant dtukbukkgee.
Dtuk-buk-kgee is like the Korean version of Mac and Cheese only, it's 40 times spicier, chewy, has no cheese and is made of ricecakes, not pasta. But, it is comfort food.
And, when I saw these lips in the Myeong-dong neighborhood of Seoul, I knew the lips and I would get along. Because, if there's one thing I've determined these last two months in Korea, it's that I will crave dkuk-buk-kgee until my dying day.

huh?

Large sweeping generalization:
Logic is something that Koreans deem unnecessary.
Case in point: On Saturday in Seoul, I gave in to my curiosity and bought a waffle cone filled with chicken chili. courtney chose the chicken alfredo. i was a little apprehensive, but it seemed to be quite the hoppin' place so, it couldn't be that bad. and, I would say it was worth every Won. For under 3 dollars, I was quite full, quite entertained and even determined to try another "savory cone" next time. Who needs ice cream when you can fill your cone with steak or salad or chicken chili, right?


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In other news:
The two friends I have in this country, Hannah (fellow ANCA teacher) and Courtney (new teacher friend living in Seoul) are both abandoning me in the month of December, leaving me virtually friendless in Korea.
Hannah leaves on monday. that's 5 days from now. Guh. I'm not sure if i'll be ok.

To pay them back for their cruel abandonment, I am posting this abnormally bad photo of the both of them. Eat that. that's what you get for leaving me to teach snotty korean babes by myself. :) (in truth, it's just the only photo i have of the two of them...sorry girls)

my Narnia

Friday night was the magical monthly cafe music night at our little freakishly surreal "neighborhood cafe". Hannah and I swept in like pirates and ate our body weight in hor'dourves. The cafe was the best I've seen it. Entirely dark apart from candlelight. The rain splashed methodically on the metal roof, we sat listening intimately to the cello, violin, piano trio. Mid-concerto, we realized they were high school students. They could have fooled me.
Two hours later, we laughed in our swift exit, walking into the dark with umbrellas and fancy clothes because we were but a quarter mile from our apartment and felt like we'd left the country. This cafe is the wardrobe to my Narnia.

it SNOWED!!!!!

this morning, while I was still working up the courage to get out of bed, I heard Hannah's voice outside my window (her apartment's window is a mere 6 inches from mine, and we communicate daily through our windows, just never at 7 am).
"Laura! Laura!" Open your window!"
(our windows cannot be seen through unless you open them)
I opened my window.
This is what I saw.


In case you didn't know this about me, I am transformed into an 8 year old the second I see snow.

Driving out of our apartment building is a steep incline that the teachers learned this morning is impossible to get out of with snow. We would make it near the top, get stuck, back up, try again, almost make it, back up, try again... And, I confess, while this was happening all of us were praying that it wouldn't work, that we wouldn't make it, that we would maybe get a day off from this insanely thankless job. But, 12 tries later, after the landlord hand-dumped sand all across the top crest of the hill, the van popped over the top. Much to our dismay.
Apparently at our beloved school, they've never canceled school and haven't even heard of a two-hour delay. No worries that all the teachers almost died on the way to school, crazy obsessive Korean parents would throw a fit if their blessed child would miss a day. Because, as Hannah likes to remind me, every Korean parent literally thinks that their child is going to be the next Korean president. I hate to break it to those ridiculous parents that most of their children are far from president material.
Oh well, only 10 months and 8 days to go until my job here of teaching the awful children of disillusioned korean parents is complete. Not that i'm counting...

after the climb (the rest of my Seoul saturday)

sunday (11/11) in Korea is "pepero day", a holiday devoted entirely to pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate (i am posing as i proudly devour one of many peperos).
for lunch, hannah worked her magic and got her rich aunt who lives in seoul to take us to fabulous korean restaurant. the meal had about eighty courses. the aunt was thrilled that i "ate korean food so well" (see photo of food dishes).
then we met with a friend of a friend who is teaching english in seoul and explored the city together (note photo of me and new friend, courtney on enlarged magazine covers).
we explored new territory and had some great finds. observe the Starbucks sign that becomes all the funnier when you read korean letters (literally the sign says "sa-tah-bug-sa kuh-pee"...say it a few times, you'll hear it soon).
Oh the joys of Korea.

Seoul: autumnal november

Another climb up Namsan (the big mountain that the city swallows)proved worth it yet again as we found fabulous colors that I assumed would be long gone by now.

all this within a few minutes walk from the school where i work

Yangpyeong

this is the town I live in. though really, i live outside of it and see it less than you might imagine. it is charming and feels busier than i think it really is. there is a lot of fruit for sale. everywhere fruit. i wonder, how are these people eating so much fruit?
and the lights. so neon and (in my mind) so typically asian. i like it.

the neighborhood cows

another week gone by....

This weekend was different.
I didn't go to Seoul for the first Saturday in four weeks.
I didn't do much and it was gorgeous. The weather, and the nothingness. Both were surprisingly gorgeous. I did some laundry, ran, discovered some local cows, wrote a song and sat.
It was good, though I did miss my Seoul.