Last update for a couple of weeks...

As I'm leaving for Incheon Airport tomorrow morning, this will be my last post for a couple of weeks... will post about China et. al. upon my return.

Check out Liz's blog for info on Lunar New Year (this weekend)...

Also, the great knee saga is ongoing, it sounds like I've pulled my MCL - good news is that the ACL problems may have been caused by MCL problems, and once the MCL is fully healed, the ACL may be much better, too? Sigh. Korean doctors are very impressed by my knowledge of knee physiology and terminology. (in Korean, ACL is pronounced Ae-she-ell). I also got a mysterious shot of something in the hip today, from the doctor... it's my first time - in Korea every time you go to the doctor, they give you a mystery shot...

Happy news of the day, three Korean teachers were looking at my Korean notebooks yesterday and told me that my writing looks like a Korean wrote it - they didn't believe at first that it was me!! AND they have also decided that microsoft should include a "Katrina" korean font, because my hanguel handwriting is so nice! WOOOT!

Also, on the subject of THONGS, Rachel and I discovered yesterday that yes, they do sell thongs in Korea (there were many many thongs at "Sexy Cookie", a lingerie chain store) but that they appear to be more common for "sexy time" (as borat would say) than for regular everyday wear... because I know you were all dying to know.

free scarf to a good home

Like the title says - the colours are all wrong for the originally intended recipent, but I really like how this is knitting up so I plan to finish it - it will be a nice and long scarf, and it's 5 inches wide... 100% japanese wool, loosely knit... I would keep it myself, but the colours are all wrong for me, too. So, free scarf to a good home. Please email me (or post a comment) to let me know if you're interested...

Auntie Katrina answers your questions about Western culture...

Sometimes, it's part of my job to be an ambassador of Western Culture here in Korea, and this means answering people's questions, no matter how unusual... take today for example:

Q: Do you know the song, it is about thongs?

A: Yes, it's called "The Thong Song".

Q: Oh, I like that song. I looked up "thong" in the dictionary, it is like a bikini?

A: Kind of, yes... but thongs are, um, smaller.

Q: Do you know who sings that song?

A: No. Sorry, I can't remember.

Twenty minutes passes...

Q: I really like that song, "The Thong Song". Are thongs popular in Canada?

A: Yes, many girls have thongs. (I then explained Visible Panty Line and comfort reasons, but it's hard to write my explanation because it involved gestures too...)

Q: I looked on the internet at thongs. Do you have any thongs?

A: Yes, of course I do. (We were in my apartment at this point... I this close to opening my underwear drawer to show him a couple of my thongs)

Q: Oh. They are very popular in Canada and America?

A: Yes, they are. Are they popular in Korea?

Q: No. Well, not in my house. My mother and my sister - I have never seen any in my house.

A: Oh. Ok.

Q: So it is a good gift for a girlfriend?

A: Um, yes. (I really hope he wasn't referring to a girl who is his friend!)

Q: Do you know who sings that song?

A: I think it was Sisqo.

Now boys and girls, (if there's anyone reading this) I would love for you to hazard a guess as to who this person is that I was talking to, and what my relationship with them is. (And no, it's not Liz's former co-teacher)

5 busy days

that's all, 5 busy days until jess arrives and brings her special brand of fantastical sunshine to my corner of the world!

i am so so so excited! there's nothing quite like knowing that you'll be able to share your world with one of your best friends, even if it's only for a short while...

and have crazy adventures in a land where neither of us speak the language (woot! china!)

on the korean language front, I've been practicing my korean by chattering to cab drivers... it's a good thing! today's outlook is positively positive. (much better than yesterday's, when korean particles were driving me to tears) and I do have rachel to thank for the positivity - a great night last night with a great friend - we both needed the chill-out time.

but back to jess - 5 days until I pick her up in seoul! WOOT!

today - going to miryang with eunsil
tomorrow - blissful nothingness
friday - busan (haeundae) with rachel, then meeting with eunji for drinks
saturday - something with chris? and laundry
sunday - off to seoul and incheon airport!!

last day of school!

That pretty much sums it up - last day of school and all the rowdy enthusiasm that accompanies it. I have (sadly) found out that one of my favourite teachers will not be teaching English next year! Happy for him, pity party for me! In fact, most of the teachers I teach with will not be working with me again next year... :-( The middle school rotates the teachers through grades 1, 2 and 3 because (apparently) no one really wants to teach grade 3... (the Canadian grade 9... ). I will not get my new class schedule, nor will I know who I am teaching with, until the day I arrive back at school!!

I am ROASTING today - the elementary school classrooms were cranked to 24 degrees C, and I think the staff room here may be even warmer! All of this, and it's about (plus) 10 degrees C outside... I don't even need a jacket.

I have figured out my barometer for when it's time to leave Korea and come home. The day I actually understand this place, language and culture, is the day I'll pack my bags...

I have my answer!

I asked one of the korean teachers today, what I can to to make them more comfortable in talking to me, and he said two things of interest -- that it's not my problem, it's the other people's problem... and his advice to me was that I should learn more korean.

So, there you have it, ladies and gentlement... I have to get back to my korean hak-gyo program. Lesson 3 - WOOT!

Liz tagged me - I'm IT?

Ok, so I have to answer this question:

the top five songs i would play at my own funeral but i'll give you 10 instead.

joga - bjork -- preferably with fireworks exploding at appropriate times...

she makes me wanna die - tricky -- pretty chill song for a pretty chill occasion...

superstitious - stevie wonder -- just cuz

blue orchid - white stripes -- to get the party started a bit (after all that downer music)

weak become heroes - the streets -- I think it would go nicely with the tricky and bjork?

this charming man - the smiths

I can feel it - sloan -- just to bug a particular friend one more time...
OR underwhelmed - sloan -- because grammar and spelling are important but not as important as feelings, guys!

she's a star - james -- because I am one!
OR go to the bank - james -- best getting-ready song ever!

evil - interpol -- because it will probably still be stuck in my head, even after I shuffle off this mortal coil...

on and on - crash vegas

sleep over it (?) - controller.controller

get up - ciara -- my current favourite cycling song


is that 10? meh. don't read anything into the lyrics, or special meanings or anything - I just like these songs. I'm really a simpleton. If you asked me tomorrow I guarantee the list would be different...

-- EDIT 13/02/07--

RIGHT Liz pointed out that I need to tag people... so Melbine and Delphine, if you are reading this, the question is now yours to answer on your blogs...

Life in Korea, summed up in a 2 minute video clip

This made me laugh. This sums it up some days: Do you speak English?

Just imagine that the two guys are Korean.

On Friday, two English teachers that I have been teaching with FOR FIVE MONTHS told me that they are nervous and afraid to talk to me... (it came up in conversation - people aren't usually that direct!) so I've spent all weekend trying to figure out if it's me or if it's them, or if it's a combination of both... I can understand fear of native speakers, but it's not like I laugh or make them feel stupid (not intentionally).

Although funny enough, on Friday at school, I tried out a new Korean verb I've been working, the word for "to be cute", I put together my little sentence (on the fly! WOOT!) and the (non-English) teacher to whom I said "Cute blouse!" smiled at me, giggling, and said to another teacher passing by "Katrina blah blah blah "gyopda" and then they BOTH giggled! So, I spent the day trying to figure out if I used the word properly or not... I did, I pronounced it fine, I guess the idea of me speaking Korean is just _that_ funny. Ok, to me too... I have software that records me saying phrases to compare against native speaker samples, and it makes me giggle too...

But, I tell this story because it's by no means the first time this has happened, yet I continue to try to speak this language - and English teachers who are capable of (and have done) simultaneous translation for me (when I'm teaching...) are afraid to speak to me. I know it's not about level, but still... what am I doing that makes them so uncomfortable?

So please, watch the video! (and Liz, tell me if this isn't your life too!)

(Suggestions are welcome. Anyone with feedback is welcome to post about how uncomfortable I make people, or how intimidating I am, but constructive comments only, please!)

Also, to fledgling language learners out there, Declan's Korean HakGyo program is ROCKING my world... it's a lot of vocab in each lesson, but the grammar is great - well paced and well-explained... let me know if you're interested, I bought a license... (you have to be able to read/write hanguel to use the program - no romanizations)

Friends in high places

In the following post, I will address several seemingly unrelated issues. They'll tie together at the end, I promise.

Those who have traveled with me before are very aware of this - I am a relaxed traveller, but I do demand ice cream treats with some regularity.

Cut to Katrina extolling the virtues of Koreans... being a foreigner in Korea, I stand out like nobody's business. There is no way I would be mistaken for an ethnic Korean, ever. This means that sometimes, I'm an object of fascination, sometimes, I'm an object of rude stares, and often I'm an object upon which friendly Koreans want to practice their English...

Side note: my favourite, favourite thing is when a little kid gets a look of shock on their face and says something to their mom or dad like "waeguk saram" (foreign person) or "waeguk imnida" (she's a foreigner). Being the wiseass that I am, I jump back with equal shock and say "hanguk saram!" (korean person!) or "hanguk saram imnida!" And that REALLY shocks them, which make me and the Korean adults giggle ㅋㅋㅋ

Back to the story... I have now met a Korean university student who works at an ice cream shop, we are emailing back and forth... I also stop in to help with her English! (No, really, for the English, not for the ice cream!) How great is that! (It should be noted that we did not meet at the ice cream shop, but instead at a middle school I was teaching an English camp at). WOOT! Last night, rainbow sherbert! :-)

This country just gets better and better!

Back at school!

So, I'm back to my full-time schedule now. I was originally told that I had all week off, but s'all good... Funny enough, my full-time schedule is: I'm teaching 2 classes today, and 3 classes tomorrow. And next week, 5 on Monday, 4 on Tuesday and then I'm ... finished teaching until March 02.

I don't know how I'm going to make it through an entire month of regular classes (March) without dying. I have become quite accustomed to lazing around the house, doing whatever. Someone will be very happy to hear that her socks are (finally) finished... just in time to start on this year's birthday present...

For those who care, my Veronica Mars addiction is still in full swing, and now thanks to peekvid.com I am also addicted to House.

My back is sore today, too, but I think it's psychosomatic. Also yesterday I finally got my Chinese visa! WOOT! And picked up the plane tickets, you know what that means -- I'm actually going to China!! I am so so excited!

Also of note, today mom figured out how to call me on my cell phone from Canada. I have a funny feeling my world will never be the same again.

And to those in Korea reading this, my sister has formally announced her objection to being a packmule (apparently she wants to bring some clothes for herself and some toiletries for herself and stuff) so it's a fifty-fifty lottery as to whether you're receiving what you've requested! It's time to start plotting how to meet army boys in Seoul... (to get onto the base, of course!)

And finally, saving some kick-ass news for last, I haven't had a knee problem in 20 days - that's right people, I'm almost at 3 weeks without incident! My knee is totally getting a gold star for being so well-behaved, this is a record here in Korea for me!

Sorry I dropped off the face of the universe...

I've been having internet problems. They are finally (almost) resolved. So I am sorry that I've dropped off the face of the universe...
On the upside, the serious lack of internet has meant time spent painting, knitting (someone will be happy to hear that I'm about 2 seconds away from being done their socks) and studying Korean. (I am now proud to say I speak at the same level as a three year old)

Here's a funny - you know when you're a kid and you're chasing your siblings around threatening a tickle attack, and you say "ticky, ticky, ticky"? The "chasing your siblings around threatening a tickle attack" sound is the same in Korean! Sweet!

Also, went to the newly renovated "Homever" (kind of like a Zellers but 1/2 groceries, 1/2 appliances, clothes and everything else under the sun but alarm clocks)... all I needed was an alarm clock (see last sentence), but was amazed by all the crazy amounts of waygook food they have! Whoa! I can now go no further than the Homever for all my nachos-salsa-and-cheese needs. However, it should be noted that it's still worth the trip to Costco... my co-workers are still teasing me about the green beans.

Oh, one more little thing... I signed my "request to renew" for my contract today. I haven't committed to a second year at my school yet, but I think I will. My evaluation was "excellent" on everything... The contract will be negotiated mid-June, but I will have the terms negotiated before then... it's not a for-sure thing, but it is a very likely thing, especially if I want to do my Masters when I come back to Canada... I really like my school, I have friends (most of whom are leaving, *sob*) and I do have a pretty sweet deal here...

Kimchi, kimchi, kimchi

I like kimchi. Kimchi is yummy.

This is my fridge. It is small and cute.This is the kimchi shelf of my fridge.

The plain white bag, that's the kimchi I made in Gwangju at the kimchi festival (I hope it's still good!)
The sealed kimchi bag, I won that at the kimchi festival in Gwangju. I had more kimchi, but I finished it. Luckily. Because the brown tuperware, that is from a local shop owner that I'm friendly with - she just surprised me today with a whole lot o'kimchi. I had to reorganize my fridge shelves to fit it in there.

This is the kimchi that she made and gave me... as well as the other two bags of kimchi.Jess, prepare yourself for a kimchi-eating odyssey because there is no way that I can eat all this kimchi in a month and live to tell about it.

Oh, and this is Angela and I posing with Kimchi at the Gwangju Kimchi Festival.

Off to the doctor's... (on my own!) Wish me luck.

... Back from the doctors, with much success (depending on how you define "success"). He's recommending another ACL recon for my poor knee (I had misunderstood about the patella tendon thingy, apparently) and has given me a referral to his "mentor". SOOO I think I'm going to join the local tai chi joint for classes starting tomorrow night, and amp up the exercises a bit. Sigh. There are mountains to climb in the spring and I damned well will be able to do it.

Lost!

No, not the t.v. show, this is about Katrina-the-cyclist. And how after school today, I decided to go exploring -- 1/2 an hour, I was going to give myself. An hour later, so absolutely confused and surrounded by nothing but mountains and farmers fields, I was so lost I actually started to worry a bit. That, and I was getting really sick of biking up and down mountain foothills, trying to find my way. Doubled back a bit, and I finally found a familiar sign... pointing to the Carrefour (department store), a few kilometers away. And in the right direction I went.

Lesson learned. Don't travel to parts unknown without phrasebook and a charged cell phone. Also, no camera, can't share the beautiful things I saw... (beautiful things are more beautiful when you have some idea of your actual location in relation to anything else familiar, by the way).

On the upside, students who saw me riding through their neighbourhoods (upon my return) now think I'm some amazing thing because my ride back was mostly no-hands...

Oh, and to those who don't believe my students are everywhere - today two different students came up and told me about their random "Katrina-sightings" -- one in Shinae (the old downtown) and one in Samsondong (the new downtown) -- both over 1/2 an hour by bus from my 'hood. I don't even remember when I was in Samsondong... I hope whenever I was there, I was behaving teacherly!

My Local Celebrity-ness.

Hee. I was in the Ulsan newspaper - colour photo - on Saturday. Why? Because I'm a non-Korean teaching an English Winter Camp through the school board. That's right, photographer and reporter showed up to my class on Friday morning. I was a bit, uh, shocked ...(could someone have warned me, I would have done something about my hair!)

But apparently everyone's pleased, my principal brought me the article today and congratulated me. Like I had anything to do with it! I was actually kind of cheesed about the whole thing, the kids lost their break because we had to do a "Katrina fakes teaching" photo shoot... and that's not really fair to them.

I don't really know what the article says, except that there are three of us waegooks (foreigners) teaching an English Camp and that it's fun and exciting for the kids. Right. I find it ironic that they came to my classroom - I'm teaching grammar and writing. Fun and excitement just oooozes. Well, I'd like to think it does, but I can be a bit delusional.

I'm a joiner!

Guess what? I found a stitch-and-bitch in Busan! And I can make the first meeting! I am so stoked - and yes, I am traveling at least one hour so I can sit in a Starbucks and knit with expats who I do not know. But you should be happy for me - you don't have to listen to me chat about my knitting anymore, I can talk to actual knitters about it!

The meeting is next Thursday afternoon, so I'll let you know how things go. (Or maybe I won't - and keep true to my above pledge to not speak of my knitting anymore...)

Also, may be going to Daejeon this weekend, to hang out with a rock climbing club... see, look at me, being a "joiner"!

dialogue journals /or/ the awesomeness of my students!

I've just passed the 1/2 way mark with the first of 3 "winter camps" that I am teaching. This round there are 20 middle school students, about 13-14 years old, separated into two classes. I am teaching writing and grammar, two subjects which ALL students find incredibly interesting and fun (that was sarcasm).

My students are golden. I gave each of them a little notebook at the beginning of class, and I give them about 5-10 minutes in class to write in their journal. I then collect the journals, take them home, and write back... it's kind of a conversation (thus the name "dialogue journals") and they can write without fear of being told they're wrong about things, I will only correct global errors that are recurring. I love it! They are writing more and more each time - the progression in almost all students is noticable! Some students even ask to take the journals home because they want to write more than what they got to in class... that's right, they're actually volunteering for homework! And we're really getting the opportunity to develop relationships with each other through these journals. I can see why this is a popular method in North American ESL classrooms, to increase fluency and communicative comfort! It is so much easier to teach in a classroom when you're able to get to know your students like this. And they are voluntarily writing, some of them up to 1/2 a page a day! WOOT!

So I just wanted to share how wonderful my current batch of students are - an opinion that I feel I can offer validly because through this exercise we are getting to know each other outside the classroom too... I will be sad to see them go (in two days *sob*) but I hope that in our short class time, they were able to really experience English as something not just theoretical - it is an interactive means of communication between people.

I know this is cheesy, but it's things like this that really reaffirm my decision to come over here to teach for a while. I look forward to doing this exercise with my regular after-school conversation classes in the new year, too. The extra work this project creates for me is well-worth it - and fun!

oops...

Um, you know how I just proudly gushed about finishing Chris's hat, and how it's all superawesome because it's my first fair-isle style project? Well, all that pain and agony will have to be repeated, the hat is a shade too small and so I'm going to frog it all the way back to the earflaps (essentially, I'm starting over again). It will therefore be both my first and second fair-isle style project. Or does it just count as one project?
hrm.

(shhh! don't tell Chris - I told him that it would be hardly any work and that's a bold-faced lie, it will take me many many many hours of counting stitches and untwisting tangled yarn but I don't want to give him a hat that he won't wear, right?)

Aaaah, my knitting is truly my constant companion this month!!

If Na-Young's sweater doesn't fit, I swear to god I will scream. Knitting for people (surprise gifts) is not as easy as it looks - how do you nonchalantly attack someone's head with a tape measure to ensure accuracy?

On a different note, met more foreigners (and Koreans) tonight. One of the (newish) girls said that she's here to break through all the inequities (I'm paraphrasing) that we (women) deal with here - I'm not sure at all that it's any of my business to do such a thing though. As much as I'm a feminist and believe in equality for all, this isn't my culture to change. I am happy to speak about the issues if asked, but when not asked, I respect the culture as it stands.

To me, that sentiment is no different than a particular super-power government deciding to bring their own brand of democracy to the world. Change like that doesn't come from foreigners, it needs to come from the people who are the members of society -- who actually fully understand the constructs of the society. The Korean language is structured based on hiarchy and respect. There is no first person/second person/third person or plural in the verb conjugation. It's all about the hiarchy and where you fit in to it. To abolish hiarchy would be absolutely revolutionary in a linguistic sense, too, I think.

ringing in the new year with a bang

New Year's Eve has come and gone - 2007 seems to hold so much adventure and loads of promise! Spent New Year's Eve in Busan with Liz, Chris and a variety of others, partying late into the night. Check out Liz's blog for photos of the evening - I didn't really take any but Liz sure did!

Chris and I were still getting served at 5am, but decided to head on back to Ulsan, to watch the sun rise. And proceeded to fall asleep on the way home, both on the bus and in the cab. If there's one thing I wish I had taken a photo of, it was Chris at the bus terminal walking about 2 steps behind me and then POOF! he was gone -- he had decided to take a nap in some nearby bushes! Poor guy, I'm always telling tales of his misadventures (and never my own!) here...

I'm quite enjoying my 2-hours-a-day work schedule right now. Last night, went for tuna and stayed out until late into the night... met many wonderful Koreans, and was (sometimes) expected to act in a much more demure way than I ususally do. Y'all would laugh, because it's coming second nature to me now. Knowing when it's appropriate to sip my soju delicately, covering my mouth when I'm giggling, editing what I say and even how I react - and deferring to the males in the group. It drives me nuts, but I understand that it's important and don't even notice when I'm doing that kind of stuff anymore.

Tonight, off for the weekly foreign-teachers-pint-night at the local bar. It's a nice hump-day thing but I'm the only middle school teacher in the bunch, so I don't even want to mention my work schedule tonight (most hagwan teachers have a very full load during winter vacation!)

On the knitting front (because you all care SO much) I've finally finished Chris's hat, my first attempt at fair-isle style knitting (on double pointed needles, I was just asking for hell there) and am trucking quite quickly through the sweater I'm making my co-teacher. I am no longer afraid of the knitting store, and they are no longer afraid of me (wooo!).

Another haircut by the way, and this time, when I went in, the girls rushed to the counter and pulled out a phrase list that they had compiled -- I have to assume just to speak with me, as I'm really the only waygook in my 'hood, everyone else is on the other side of Hogye. SO sweet!

This country drives me nuts, any time I want to be frustrated with things, the niceness of everyone makes it impossible.

However, I still feel like, some days, my life is like a korean film without any english subtitles!

revised opinions again

Today at lunch I was sitting with a girl who has been nothing but sweetness to me since I've arrived- she doesn't really speak english so much, so we just smile a lot and she invites me to lunch, etc. And I asked her a question... there is nothing, nothing worse than watching someone, knowing they understood your question, trying to formulate a response. It is the most awkward, horrible embarassing silence ever. And that is why I want to learn Korean, I think. To end that. People are totally willing to communicate within their abilities, if I approach. But when their abilities are not sufficient, I don't want them to feel bad or awkward, it's me that doesn't speak THEIR language, the native tongue of this country. Thus, with the help of my Korean tutor, and the independent study I do, I will master this, or at least get to a point where I can communicate at least reasonably within a month. I have the time, I have the motivation, there's no reason why this won't happen...
hope springs eternal.

revision to the last post

ok, I just read that last post, and I'm not editing it, but I do sound like a pouty sucky-baby. I should be endeavouring to communicate with everyone in this country (co-workers included!) in Korean. I'm in Korea after all. That's where the weird conflict comes in though... I've been told by my principal, co-teacher, etc. that I should be speaking only English at the school. They requested specifically a teacher who speaks no Korean, so that everyone's English must improve. Unfortunately I don't know that they took into account that people would just decide not to communicate at all. It's certainly not fair for me to expect people to communicate in a second language just to deal with me, when I barely speak a few words of their first langauge, the language of the country I happen to be working in. It's such a pickle of a situation, I think. I'd be interested to know what anyone else thinks on this one.

What would be fantastic, is if everyone who was in our teaching program had to go through language training when they landed in Korea, or a few months after arriving.