An Amalgamation of News, Part II

It seems like two days goes by, and I can write a short novel on the events that are happening here. It is late, so this is the truncated version.

Saturday. An Introvert Out of Her Comfort Zone
I planned to meet up with a few students from Seoul I had met on the subway. They are in school here in Pusan to become teachers. Sunny is a funny, handsome guy who writes scripts. Young Hee is a beautiful outgoing woman who got me on the right train in Seomyoung, where the transfers are not easy. Mingyoung has a beautiful haircut--she may show me her stylist--and she speaks beautiful English. So does Young Hee.
Anyway, we met up at the University of Education and walked around a bit. Sunny brought day-old donuts, but we walked to a coffee shop and drank coffee for a couple of hours talking about literature, economics, society, languages, and many other things. The thing I remember the best is when Sunny was describing the city where he is from. It is near Seoul, and I thought he said the area was know for their legs. I got a strange look on my face and started giggling. I lifted my leg and asked, "Known for their legs?" We all laughed. Sunny thought this was great.
No, lakes.
Then, I ran from the University to MeyoungNeyoung (I didn't spell this right, but what does it matter? It sounds something like this) to help my manager teach an English class at her church. She is usually in suits for school, and she is very tough with the students. However, she was very different at church. We met with a brother and sister who don't have contact with foreigners, and I believe they don't have the money for English school.
They were fantastic.

Sunday. Thank God for Good Church
Jenna met me for church, and we had a great time dispite our coughing and running noses. I think all the teachers and half the students have TB (for those of you not familiar with my sarcasm, I am kidding). About ten of us went to Chinese afterwards, and we sat for a long time--well, we were waiting for our food, too--having a fantastic discussion about the differences in Korean church and Western church. Apparently, the Korean work ethic spills over into religion, and Korean Christians often feel they must spend all day at church, from the morning service until 6 or 7 at night. Jenna and another Korean were discussing the causes, positives, and negatives of this. It was really interesting.

Monday. I can't remember.
School. Teaching. New class. Starting a new schedule. It's a blur.

Tuesday. The Fish Lady.
Her name is not Mrs. Sexy, as I thought previously. Her name is Sun Sun Duck.
Last night, she offered me more food, but my throat was bothering me, and through gestures, I think she understood this. She walked me up the street, and at first I thought she was walking me home. She pinched me a little, saying something I didn't understand, but she was making motions to tell me to eat more. Mom should be proud.
So then she took me into her apartment. I'm not worried. I trust her (maybe more importantly, I trust God, and I'm not afraid of this woman because she takes care of me). She shows me a room that looks like a spare room, then takes me to her kitchen and puts on a pot of water. I have out my Korean phrase book trying to say silly things like "You will meet my father," or "This is beautiful" or anything. It isn't working.
Incidently, her apartment is beautiful.
She then goes into her largest room and makes a phone call, handing me the receiver (this has happened to me before, so this is not very surprising). Her daughter is on the line. Sun Sun Duck's daughter explains that Sun Sun will let me stay at her house if I want to. I can sleep there.
I try to explain that I have an apartment that my employer pays for. That I make more money than I deserve to make. That I should pay her for all the food that she gives me.
I don't really think she understood. At this point, Sun Sun Duck takes my phrase book and begins to look through it. She points to a phrase after a few minutes: "Will you go to church with me?"
I try so hard not to kiss her. I find the words for English and church and the name of the town where my church is. Again, I don't know if she understood. I know I don't understand most of what she says.

Wednesday. Chaos at Halloween.
Forgot to mention that I got heating oil on Saturday, but my stove still is working. I foolishly thought they were related, but aparently they are not. Boo.
So I got to dress up like Snow White for all the kindergarten kids. They think it is great when the teachers dress up, so all the teachers dressed up: Spiderman, Princess Shrek, a Mexican, and I can't remember the others. It was pretty fun. We played limbo, sang some songs, and ate some candy. Mostly the teachers stood around and tried not to yell too much.

An Amalgamation of News

I think I have written about ten blogs this week in my head. Too bad none of them made it too my computer.
The first one may have been on

Tuesday October 23, 2007: The House of Mirth
I am disliking several of the foreign teachers. They whine, they take advantage, they borrow things (like pillows that end up on the floor in some random bar? what?), and they call in sick and I have to cover half of their classes, they hate their housing, they don't like their food, and then they let me know they have a copy of my apartment key (and have had for the past two months and didn't tell me? what?).
Am still trying to get my heating oil filled, but I still have hot water. I talked to Cindy, and I think she will help me.

Wednesday October 24, 2007: The Grapes of Wrath
Today was the monthly birthday party for the kindergarten. Mostly fun, lots of chaos, and repeated "happy birthday," over and over. Lots of pictures, too.
The main event was the infamous clown suit. One of the foreign teachers gets to wear the over-sized clown suit for the kids. No big deal: it's only for about a half an hour. Caleb, though, put up a fight. He is one of the new teachers, and hasn't been getting along well. When Terri (the ETS [kindergarten] boss) aked Caleb to do it, he started giving her a bunch of reasons why he wouldn't: it wasn't in his contract, it was like hazing, why should the new guy have to do it, etc. He was very defensive.
Talked to Cindy again today about getting more heating oil. She says she will talk to Cindy. Hmmm.

Thursday October 25, 2007: Another One Bites the Dust
So Caleb quit today. He came in this morning and yelled at Terri for awhile. I guess some drunk guy came to his door in the middle of the night and he was awake for awhile, so he was pretty upset.
Funny thing is, he came back later that today to try to beg for his job back--or at least that is what the grape vine is saying.
The school is down another teacher.
Talked to Eddie about getting more heating oil. He says he will put in an order tomorrow. I hope so. I still have hot water, but my stove doesn't work. I missed my hot coffee/tea this morning. Boo.

Friday October 26, 2007: The Power and the Glory
Still no oil. Hmm. Eddie says he forgot. I still have hot water, but my stove still doesn't work. Hmm.
Funny how God works. I came here and thought I would make friends with the foreign (Western) teachers. The foreign teachers don't like to be called American because many of them are Canadian. This is limiting or exclusive.
Anyway, I have met a few Korean teachers that are absolutely fantastic. Terri (see previous day) is a Christian, and I think I will help her teach an English class at her church some Saturdays. She works so hard, twelve hour days, plays piano at her church, teaches extra classes on the weekends for people who can't afford it. Wow.
And then there is Jenna. She is from Seoul. We went out for dinner last night and had such a great time. We had a great Korean dinner and sat and talked for two hours.
She doesn't really know anyone here because she has only lived here for three months. She moved here to live with her mother when she got sick with depression. She is doing better, she says.
We have so much in common. She loves literature and writing and teaching, but really she considers teaching a means to her ultimate goal: writing.
She will meet me to go to church with me on Sunday. I am very excited. She thinks it is funny that a foreigner would show her around and introduce her to new people.
I think it is the power and the glory of God.

A Sort of Whirlwind

It feels like the days are flying by. I'm really glad about this because when I think too hard about being in Korea, I think about how long it will be before I get to see my Mom and my sisters again.

I can see Dad in two weeks, thank God.

Well, I thought I would share a few wonderful things that have happened in the last few days.

Thursday night. The fish lady on Market Street who gave the fish cookies gave me some corn on the cob. She tried to tell me her name, but it sounded sort of like Mrs. Sexy. I don't really think that is right, but if it is, I won't forget it.

Friday. The field trip to the Busan Aquarium. Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I have a strange fascination for the "underworld" of the sea, mostly sharks. Busan Aquarium was amazing, but I will need to go back. Something about herding a hundred kids, ten of which I am directly responsible, makes this spectacle less enjoyable. But the aquarium had plenty of sharks, including one that appeared to have some sort of scoliosis. Its back was bent at a forty-five degree angle. Very strange.

Saturday, yesterday. Mostly, I kicked around Seomyoung, Dongnae, and Meyoung-nyeong (not to be confused with Meyoung Jang where I live). I was looking for a digital camera. For the highly observant, no pictures are posted today: therefore, no camera. All the cameras I found either were in the four hundred dollar range (much more than I am willing to spend), had directions completely in Korean, or were not compatible with Macintosh. Oh, well. On the way home, I met a couple of Korean gals that are students here. They study English, but they are from Seoul. They do not know many people either because they have only been here for about eight months. I may try to meet up with them next weekend.

Sunday, today. I went to church today. It has been a bit chilly (yes, Mom, I have out my down coat) in the mornings and in the evenings, so it was nice to be back in my apartment early for my Sunday afternoon nap. I haven't done that in a few weeks, but it was fantastic. We did go out to eat after church: a group of us went to a good Italian place. The selection wasn't huge, but I had an alfredo dish with different kind of mushrooms. Delicioso!

Now, refreshed from my nap, I'm catching up on some emails.

Time to go back to bed soon. Ha, ha. Miss everybody. If anyone talks to Kate, tell her to email me.

The small crazy things

Another new teacher today. Funny, I feel like the teachers are rolling in and out like high school employees might at a McDonald's. I didn't get to talk to him very long: he is a young bloke from Los Angelos.
On my way home, I was feeling a bit tired and frustrated. Classes were tough today, and the introvert that I am, I didn't get enough time to myself this weekend. The time with the kids just makes it a little worse.
Walking down market street, I passed by a stand that I usually pass every day. The two ladies there sell fresh fish and these odd fried fish-shaped things. I smile and call, "annyongseyo" to them when I pass. My pronunciation is terrible, but they grin back like I am a good friend.
Tonight, a little tired and crabby, I smiled and said hello to the woman as usual. The older woman came up to me and began demanding the other woman to give me some of the fried fish-shaped things. I don't really know this, because they were speaking in Korean, but the younger tried to give me two, and the older woman grabbed two more and stuffed them in a bag. She gave all four of them to me. I was, of course, trying to give them money, but neither of them would take any. Then, I said, "Komapsumnida, (thank you)" about five times, before the older lady gave me a push down the street.
These fish "cookies" are a strange concoction. The beans inside have the consistancy of refried beans, but they are mildly sweet. Then, the cookies have a layer of fried coating. In the shape of a fish.
This is the best, most graceful meal I have had in weeks.
Funny the way God works in these small ways.

More apartment news...

Quick update on the raging battle that I have begun to call "home."
I thought I was winning the battle with the cockroaches. Then last week, a nest hatched. I killed many fierce beasts last Monday armed with toilet paper and cockroach goop. I lost track after twenty. I am rethinking the notches on the wall to claim my victories. Since then, I have seen a couple of dead babies (I sprayed a bunch of goop where I assume the nest was) and one other random bug that I have lumped into the cochroach umbrella but probably is a different species than the cockroachia obnoxnia.
And of course, the mold. I thought this was gone. The stuff in my bathroom is under control, so I thought everything was sort of okay. Every once in a while, though, I catch a smell of something a little fungal. On Saturday, when the new teacher and her boyfriend were over, I mentioned this to them. He lifted a place in the laminate floors. Mold everywhere. He recommended I ignore it and get some room fresheners. Sigh. I have some scented candles and lots of bleach.
The new thing. One of the other teachers told me that he had rats in his apartment last spring. I quickly discarded this idea: I keep my windows closed when I'm not here, don't keep my window open, etc. No, Andre says. In the subfloor under our building is a great place for little critters. They can get through the cracks in the tiles in our entryways.
Gasp, sigh, and scramble to look at it. He's right. I have a hole into the ground. I didn't know what else to do, so I taped some cardboard in front of it. At least if it moves, I will know to look for trouble.
And the saga continues....

A month and a half down...

Funny. I looked at the calender and realized that I have been here a month and a half. I don't think that I had figured out when a month had passed by.
This week has been pretty hectic. In the last month and a half, seven of the foreign teachers have left (foreign meaning American or Canadian), of a staff of about fifteen. Another two will leave in the next month.
Including Ryan and I, who arrived within two days of each other, four new teachers have started in the past month and a half. I am doubled up on one class that should only be six students--it is now thirteen.
Really, it isn't that bad for us foreign teachers. We don't really work more than forty hours--sure I put in a few more of unpaid prep, but that is the way it goes. The Korean teachers really get the brunt of all of this--many of them pick up extra classes in addition to twelve or fourteen hour days, and I believe they earn half to a quarter of what we earn. This is so sad.
So yesterday I was showing around the new teacher and her boyfriend. Anthony is hoping to get a job here, too. They just arrived on Thursday night, and it is so strange to be the one to know more than someone else. I actually taught them a few Korean words and showed them around Dongnae a little. It was really great.
Today, I went to church again. I think I made it in about a hour and a half. Fantastic. Funny, I don't mind the trip so much because the city and the area always seem like such an adventure.
So after church (the speaker was Andy who I got to eat with last week, and he spoke very intriguingly about the Christian theology on pain) we went out for Japanese. So good, but I was struggling with the metal chopsticks, slippery, soupy noodles, and too much food. I'm sure it was entertaining to watch. Benny and Nicole, two Koreans I sat with offered me a couple of strategies to eat more gracefully. It only helped to some extent.
Then, we had coffee and hung out at Andrea's apartment playing cards until nearly 7:00pm. What a blast. They are so great.

Church Going

Well, I made it to church today in under two hours. The coffee shop is high on a hill, lots of windows, no cockroaches, plenty of lovely trees that I realized are turning a bit yellow, and good coffee.
I think I will go back next week.
It was a small service, with maybe twenty foreigners (non-Koreans) and maybe another twenty or thirty Koreans. The music was simple, but the music team put a lot of effort into it. One gal did sign language during one song. It was great.
They had a guest speaker come to plug the Franklin Graham crusade in a week and a half. He was good, but the message wasn't intellectual enough for me (they rarely are) because, as many of you know, I must analyze, critique, and intellectualize nearly everything.
After the service, the entire congregation headed out to lunch. This is my kind of fellowship. We sat around, eating this fantastic spicy chicken with rice and this sort of coleslaw type salad. Wonderful. All teachers except for the Koreans. I sat with Dave, a forty-six year-old who teaches at a college and preaches on the side. He has been here for six years. Patrick has only been here for a couple of months, and I think he is from Davenport, IA. Andrea also has only been here for a couple of months, and she is from Minnesota--Bemidji, currently. James has been here for six years, and he helped start up the church back in April. Matt and Andy are also on the leadership team. There are a few others, but now their names are eluding me.
They seem to be a tightly knit group. They spend a lot of time together and enjoy each other.
Everyone that has been praying for me to find a group of friends to spend time with--well, this may be it. At least, I hope so.
After lunch, we went to a coffee shop and talked for awhile--maybe just ten of us or so. It was really fantastic. We talked about Busan and religion and people and books.
Very satisfying.

Quiet Saturday...

One more note about the kitten.
Don't dwell, I suppose most of you will say. Kittens die.
I know.
The thing is, the kitten stayed on the trash heap on the corner for more than a day. People walked by. Kids played in the street. No one seemed to care. Maybe I shouldn't care either, right? I bit my lip and stared at my feet to try not to see it the second night.
Then I see a lady carrying an ugly poodle sheered down but for its fluffy ears. Ears dyed blue. Tail dyed blue.
Another little dog (I actually think it may be against the law to own a dog bigger than three pounds, I'm not kidding), has a red and white stripped sweater on.
I saw a lady carrying her little shitzu under her arm in a store.
And yet the kittens end up in the trash.
Okay.
Sooooo totally enough of that.
Anyway, I decided to try to track down the address of the English church I had found online. The directions are a little funny: take subway line one to Seomyeoun, then transfer to subway line two. Get off at stop 213 in Daeyeon Dong. From here, the directions get worse. You go down one road, then another, then look for the Pusan University of Foreign Studies. The church meets in a coffee shop on the campus.
So I arrived in Daeyeon Dong fairly easily. I have figured out the subways (well, pretty well. The hardest part was being able to locate the nearest station which is not really that easy to find). After wandering around for nearly three hours, I found the campus, with the help of a couple of kind teenage girls and a nice policeman. So, then I hiked around campus, which is vaguely reminescent of climbing around the Adirondacks or something, and I climbed around this great campus for another hour before I found the coffee house. Closed.
Too bad. I really would have loved to sit down and have a nice big glass of water. Heck, it could have been coffee as long as I could sit down.
Two hours later I got back to my apartment. Beautiful scenery, to be sure. I will try the two hour trip to church tomorrow and see if I can't do any better....

Korean Independance Day

Today is Korean Independance Day, and sadly I have not done much. I have wandered around Meyoung Jong Dong doing a bit of grocery shopping and reading and hanging out.
But one of the kittens is dead.
I have seen several cats in the "ghetto" here. A couple of larger older cats and maybe two younger kittens that are maybe sixteen weeks old. The first one I saw is a black and white kitten, another orange, black, and white kitten, an orange stripey older cat, and a black and white older cat that I only see at night, dodging the shadows. I have left several half full cans of tuna outside with my recycling, hoping this will help nourish them a bit (I got ten cans of tuna and four cans of spam in a gift package from Jenny and Eddie for Chusok. Very odd. I also got several gifts from some of my students: a pair of earrings, a strange little doll, a bottle of champagne, several hundred won, and an American quarter).
I saw the orange, black, and white kitten on a trash pile around the corner from my apartment just a few minutes ago.
It is silly the way this sort of thing affects me. Kittens symbolize something so vulnerable and innocent for me. They are simply curious and affectionate, maybe moody at times.
I have a permanent image in my mind of my cat Tiva when I found him dead.
This makes me sad to remember Molly and Tiva. I know that they are just animals, and that people mean so much more to me, but somehow, the quick glimpse of the kitten in the trash before I looked away, put tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat.

No pictures, still

As easily as I can find an entire shop for underwear or a bowl of fresh eel, I am having a difficult time finding a camera for less than $200. I may just order one.
Frustrating: I actually took myself to the beach in Hae Un Dae on Sunday and took a couple of pictures with my cell. I have tried a few things to sync my phone and my computer, to no avail.
So the last week has been kinda quiet: back to school, working a bit, new teacher started today, still exploring. My toilet officially broke last night. It was really sort of funny because I woke up in the middle of the night to a quiet sort of rushing of water. I remember thinking, "What a lovely rain we are having," and pulled the blankets a bit closer. This morning, the rushing water seemed a bit too close to my bedroom, and sure enough, a gasket underneath the tank is loose. I couldn't tighten it by hand, so I am waiting for the boss/landloord to come take a look.
It's a good thing the bathroom is tiled from three feet down. I need to take off my shoes and socks to go in there.
Some more quick observations:
People in Korea drive on the right-hand side of the road (right meaning "not left," not "correct").
Stop lights are mostly suggestions for drivers.
From what I can tell of the famous Korean work ethic, it is mostly true. People do work fourteen hour days. However, many people have their houses in the back of their shops, so they eat, sleep, watch TV, cook, visit with people, and any number of things during their work days. I am not certain if their work days are more efficient than Americans'.
Blowing your nose in public is rude. Kids are constantly asking to leave the classroom to blow their noses.
Spitting or "hocking a lugy" in public is totally acceptable.
Bus drivers and cab drivers do not know the meaning of accelerate and decelerate. It is "Stop" and "Fast." That is it.
Koreans hate to drive slowly. They pass cars in city traffic, honk at pedestrians in crosswalks, and even drive on sidewalks if necessary. But walking is another story. Koreans walk at a pace between a stroll and a crawl.
Okay, that is all for now. Except to say I wish I were in Chicago with my Mom, my Dad, Mandy, Scott, Meg, and maybe Mike. Miss you guys.