a day of numbers

371 - number of days since my last blog entry.

11 - number of people who, on my whirlwind to Canada and England mentioned my blog, and reading my blog.

1 - number of people who I thought were reading my blog (my mom!).

3 - number of Korean verb forms that I could recall yesterday, when I stepped off my plane in Seoul.

8 - number of Korean verb forms that I can remember right now.

7 - number of pounds that I gained since dad and steve's visit at the end of July (and my long holiday began). (sigh)

5 - number people who have contacted me via email or text message, in the last 6 hours, to make plans.

5 - number of hours that I slept last night.

I am too tired to continue on with this, and too jet lagged. My sojourn in London was absolutely wonderful and worth every penny (pence?) spent. I wish I could have stayed longer, and the best best best part about the visit was getting to hang out with Liz-the-wonderful for FOUR WHOLE DAYS. A close second was the London Transport Museum, which was really really really fun, too. But not as fun as Liz. I am serious about the Transport Museum though. It was really interesting, especially to those oddballs like myself who (for some reason, don't ask why) LOVE the history of public transit.

Anyways. My list of things to do in London (in no particular order):
1 - sausages and mash. CHECK. (like, 3 times!)
2 - Tate Modern. CHECK.
3 - double decker bus. CHECK. (like, a million times!)
4 - visit Liz. CHECK.

Take note, Liz was a stellar hostess and it can be summed up with a simple example:
She always asked me if I wanted to ride upstairs on the bus, even if it was a short, short journey and not even worth climbing the stairs for.

I will post photos of the journey soon, and more of an update. I hope to get it done this weekend.

home in 16 days!

True, that. I will return to Canadian soil for the briefest time, in 16 days. The weirdest thing about it all, is that in less than a month, I'll be back here in Ulsan.

Weirder still, there are two good friends that I won't see here for more than a month, because of the way that our vacations overlap (or, rather, don't) and believe it or not, I'm actually thinking more about how to work that out (so I can see them before I go), than the actual Canada trip. Sometimes I don't understand myself.

It will be a busy couple of weeks -- I am out of town this weekend (Busan!) and next weekend (Gwangju). And my evenings are full right now... in the best of ways. The last couple of evenings have been particularly lovely, as I was with a good friend each night, talking about stuff that matters.

Today's my first day back at school after summer vacation. I have one class.

I will start a knitting project this week for one of the male teachers, who's wife just had a baby... I don't know him that well, but he's been incredibly kind to me... but for now, time to have a coffee and kick back.

Nothing exciting, nothing profound. Sorry.

art and white jeans

2 things:

I have found a community of visual artists. I'm going to an opening on Wednesday. It is so funny how comfortable the community feels. It seems that some things are universal. I'm able to move within the canadian art community (theatre) with comfort - apparently a transferable skill!

Also, if anyone has the number for the style police, a male teacher with no previous offences is wearing white jeans today. With a blue and white vertically striped dress shirt (thicker stripes), thus achieving some sort of strange 1980's preppy look. Vintage, but not in a good way. Is that back? I hope not. I'm pretty sure mom threw away all the strange 1980's preppy looking clothing we had.

it's happening

I went for dinner tonight with a Korean friend. Her communicative English skills are quite good - however, she and I still work to communicate in either English or Korean. And for the first time, it was a more balanced communication -- I was able to understand Korean words that she was using (ie. jja-da/salty) and provide her with the English counterpart! This is the first time that (without a dictionary) I've gone out with a Korean friend and we've _both_ had our notebooks out, writing down vocab and structure stuff. Usually it's just me with the notebook -- or it's me and my Korean friend and a dictionary, where we will both learn a new word (ie. cinnamon/kye-pi). I cannot tell you how fantastic this feels, like all those hours I've spent studying and trying to learn this language are finally starting to bear fruit. I've been feeling on the cusp for a while now, vocab retention has been easier, reading a little more fluent. Grammar is making sense (a bit) and I can identify words and sometimes entire sentences in Korean spoken at native-speaker speed. If I can keep going on this roll, keep my confidence up, then soon (maybe) I will actually be able to have a meaningful conversation in Korean. Is this how babies feel when they move from the two-word phase to sentences?

Also of note - I wrote an entire email in Korean the other day! And it was grammatically correct! Woot! Next big step, I think, is to actually be able to read a (children's) book. Will let you know when that happens. I'm really proud of myself for this whole thing and I'm noticing too that because they know I am learning Korean, my teachers are MUCH more comfortable speaking with me in English.

Side effect: I make high-larious mistakes. I was trying to say: "You're kidding me!" and ended up saying "Don't eat the bread!" (there was no bread in sight) Also, "You must be cold, you have goosebumps." and I said " You are cold, you disgust me." Baby steps, baby steps.

the gym...

Ok. A few things about this. I have joined a gym. I feel terribly guilty if I don't go, because it is ACROSS THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE. I see it every day when I come home. I see it from my apartment. I am always in its shadow, figuratively and literally. It is a looming shrine to my guilt, if I do not go. That said, it's quite the hopping little community.

First of all, the Konglish term for gym is "Health Club" (pron. hel-su ku-lub). So I now say that when I speak English too.

I have bonded with the following people over my gym membership (and also, worked out with them - although I like to work out alone, but people seem to want to work out together when they run into me so whatevs):

- my friend Ellie's boyfriend (oh- I know you from the health club!, he said upon our first meeting... I totally got props from him for that)
- an art teacher at my school (we go for dinner before or after sometimes -- and she drills me on Korean flashcards while we bike)
- the manager of the local WA Bar (that was weird, running into him, he wasn't wearing his glasses and everyone looks so different in the gym suits!!)
- Tom's co-teacher (she's supersweet, but I usually run into her as I'm leaving)
- another waygook teacher in my 'hood (ditto)

So I have my little bit of community going with this... and then... my art teacher friend has decided not to renew her membership b/c she lives in a different area of the city. Sadness! But alas, no time to weep because a politics teacher has taken up the mantle of "asking Katrina daily when she'll be at the gym." Which I must say, increases the guilt tenfold, as when I'm across the river, out of the looming shadow of my gym, I STILL can't escape it. But there is some nice, strange comfort in being part of a community, which is slowly, slowly happening.

AND the trainers are not afraid of me anymore!! Well, they don't avoid me (in Korea, trainers wander around, they're free of charge, and offer advice and assistance.) That, surely is the sign of being a member of a community (for a foreigner in this country) - when people no longer avoid you or are scared of you. When you're normal enough to them that they don't hide when they see you, or smile bashfully and look away. When they actually smile without fear. Make eye contact, bow, whatever. Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.

When I was in Toronto, I think I took community for granted. It's so much easier to establish when there's no communication barrier. The longer I'm here, the more I realize the importance of those friendly faces that I see randomly, that help to make the neighbourhood my home.

I think that's enough gooshyness for today.

I am constantly amazed...

... that I can have no idea what's going on around me most of the time (well, a lot of the time) and still find so much happiness and amusement in it all!

It's been another week of the same old-same old... another week has been taught, another week has been planned. Some words have been learned, and some have been forgotten. I have continued to gather more tiny pieces of information about those who exist primarily in Korean around me, in an effort to give my world (and their existance within it) some context.

I fear I was on the recieving end of a Korean-style Euro-Mullet yesterday at the hairdressers. Regardless, I'll happily return next month to get "ee centi" trimmed off, and a "sheympoo".

Knee is good, more stable than it's been in (possibly) a year and a half. Three cheers for self-imposed rehab! I can't tell you how weird it is not to be conscious of my knee when I'm walking - I don't think I realized that it was so uncomfortable (and sometimes painful!) when that was a part of my normal.

Next Tuesday is an English teachers' lunch meeting. I have promised to study Korean all weekend in preparation for it. This made them chuckle, but I think I also got my point across. If there is one thing I teach here in Korea, it is Canadian sarcasm. (My kids get it now, too! Har!)

There is studying to do and lesson prep to do... have a great weekend, and check facebook next week for some new photos! (the cookout, the beach, and probably this weekend, too)

a weekend away...

For those not in the know, I literally spent all of last week madly studying Korean in an attempt to become proficient by the weekend -- my weekend plans involved going away to Gyeongju for a couple of days with some folks I know.

So, things from this weekend (in no particular order):

1 - I was able to communicate in Korean in a casual conversation context! Well, kind of. (WOOT!)

2- I suspect there's a really cute, sweet Korean guy who speaks almost no English, who is sizing me up for marriage. (I could be wrong, but I just got that sense from some of the questions I was asked, such as "Do you like Korean guys?", "If you met a Korean guy you liked, would you marry him?", "If you married a Korean guy, would you want to live in Korea?" etc.)

3- I have learned and forgotten the Korean word for "sesame leaves" 4 separate times (that's right, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday) from 3 different people in 3 different locations (Friday and Sunday were the same friend, same location.)

4- I have mastered the Korean words for "pervert", "secret" and "illusion". Also: "innocent" and "cinnamon". Funny enough, these are the kind of words that you learn when you learn your Korean from bartenders. He, on the other hand, learned the following English words: "attrocious", "illusion", "vulva", "cinnamon" and "sesame leaves". (The bartender at the foreigners' bar is helping me learn Korean - so anytime I stop by for a beer it involves the two of us testing each other on vocabulary from last time and then chatting and giving each other new vocabulary, as it comes out of the conversation...)

5- I have been given a Korean name and I quite like it... the guys and Ellie have christened me Bae Ka-Yeon. I have been told by many (well, the four Koreans that I've told) that it's a really beautiful name... I think so too... woohooo!
I should note that I've been given Korean names before, but this one seems to fit the best - it's like my English name, and I think it's pretty...

6- In case you were wondering, it IS possible to study Korean for 5 hours straight, 3 days in a row. Without your head exploding.

7- Korean cookouts rock - for one, it's tradition that the guys do all the cooking. Second, um, can anyone say FRESH SHELLFISH and yummy-yummy galbi? That sure beats spidey-dogs and marshmallows!

8- When building a fire, all that technique I learned in my youth (you know, strategically placing newspaper, smaller branches and larger pieces of wood) is not important if you have a blowtorch.

9- Don't stand downwind of the person using the blowtorch. Unless you want to be covered in ash and other sooty particles. If that is the case, DO stand downwind.

10- The Korean card game Go Stop is much more complicated than I had ever suspected. Gah!

11- I suck at poker.

12- I really just have bad gambling luck. Any time there's money involved, I WILL lose.

13- After a long weekend, I'm SO happy to see my students!!

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be standing with someone when you're both rendered mute by lack of language skills, but you want to communicate... so it's back to the Korean studying for me! But first, I'm going to take a quick nap.