Ok, so I left my book at home today, which might be a good idea from now on if I want to update this more regularly. School's been great. It's tough to describe it on here, because so much of my life in Korea necessitates body language. Ashley, one of the most unique girls on earth, has begun wearing a winter hat that looks like the head from a stuffed animal. It's her husky hat. She has an odd preoccupation with huskies which I have yet to understand. It's amazing to me how much Kiwi class has progressed since I got here and how little Banana class has. My greatest handicap is my ability to explain things. I always considered it a strength, but when teaching English to people who are too young for a logical system, repitition is far more effective. I'm learning that more and more on a daily basis, but explaining things is one of the toughest habits to break myself of. I see it most in Banana and Cornell classes, and little bit in my fourth grade class. They're all at a level where they can understand a little bit of my explanation. This little bit is all it takes to confuse them to the point of mental meltdown. Again, I'm slowly breaking myself of it.
Outside of school, I'm doing well. I met an awesome girl named Meghan who I've been spending at least a night of every weekend with. We have similar interests and a lot of fun together. It's been nice to have a friend I can just be myself with in Korea. I've also just started doing yoga and I continue to read more than I ever read at home. I've started drinking a lot more milk as I've been exercising more, and the milk here is probably altering my chemical makeup because I really have no clue how many hormones and chemicals are in it. Anyway, I'm still doing well and I'm feeling like a cog that turns rather than a cog that is turned again. I wouldn't say it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's nice to be more active again.
I love you all and hope all is well back home.
Joe
Monday, November 19, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Kafka on the Shore
So I've now finished Nausea. It was a rough go and took me longer than I thought it would. I'm about 350 pages into a new book now. It's called Kafka on the Shore, and it's one of the most amazing books I've read, but for different reasons than all of the other books I've read here were amazing. It's somehow taken the place of the cartoons I watched to get out of my last funk. It's taught me an important lesson, and I decided I ought to jot it down here while I have it in my head. The lesson of Nausea, it seemed, was that one must be for a reason, rather than merely existing. One must change things, affect things, and somehow be something to others. It is through these actions that one can know himself, but I'm already allowing Murakami to leak into my memories of Sartre. This book is full of Hegel, Haydn, Greek tragedy, and Arabian Nights. It creates a universe in which it can make sense, and a comfort in finding sense there. It's strange, because so much of the book, when looked at squarely from a normal context, is utterly absurd. Every time I try to talk about it, I lose it and end up trying to justify it all.
But, I suppose, I must now get to the lesson it's taught me. I've learned that sometimes I must feel the cogs turning. That's where I was for about a month. Other times, I must be the cog that turns, effecting change and driving the machine. Still other times, and this is one of them, I must be the cog that is turned. I must feel the universe, feel God changing me, using me, and let it pass through me. The only way I can explain this feeling is to call forth memories from when I was acting or singing or running full speed through the woods. It's like taking my hands off the steering wheel for a while, except that now I understand that it was not me taking my hands off the steering wheel and sitting in the driver's seat. I was ceasing to be the driver, and starting to be the car. I'm learning to do that now. Perhaps this is what they all meant when they prayed that God help them to accept the things they cannot change. That never really made sense to me. I still think it's a silly way to live, but I think I've found something similar that works for me. When you can't be the driver, be the car. When you can't be the car, it's best to be the driver. And on long, lonely trips from Philadelphia at midnight, it's sometimes just good to be along for the ride.
But, I suppose, I must now get to the lesson it's taught me. I've learned that sometimes I must feel the cogs turning. That's where I was for about a month. Other times, I must be the cog that turns, effecting change and driving the machine. Still other times, and this is one of them, I must be the cog that is turned. I must feel the universe, feel God changing me, using me, and let it pass through me. The only way I can explain this feeling is to call forth memories from when I was acting or singing or running full speed through the woods. It's like taking my hands off the steering wheel for a while, except that now I understand that it was not me taking my hands off the steering wheel and sitting in the driver's seat. I was ceasing to be the driver, and starting to be the car. I'm learning to do that now. Perhaps this is what they all meant when they prayed that God help them to accept the things they cannot change. That never really made sense to me. I still think it's a silly way to live, but I think I've found something similar that works for me. When you can't be the driver, be the car. When you can't be the car, it's best to be the driver. And on long, lonely trips from Philadelphia at midnight, it's sometimes just good to be along for the ride.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Busy busy busy
So, today's been rougher than the past few, which were rougher than the few before that. Not entirely sure why, but I've just been having a tougher time of things. The old tension I sometimes feel inside is surfacing for the first time in Korea, and I feel the withdrawal that typically accompanies it as well. I'm tempted for a moment to blame it on Nausea, but I think it's just happening to coincide with the book. It's been a really long week, and I think that's my problem. It's not that the weeks been long, it's that I know that the longness of it is completely subjective. It's as though somethings churning below the surface, and it is this churning that makes me anxious. The anxiety, of course, is self-perpetuating, and I need to take the off-ramp this weekend so that I'll be able to get going again on Monday.
The nice thing is that in Korea, detoxing is pretty easy after a long week. I'm going to go to KFC tonight and have some good food, and after that I'll be going to the sauna to try and soak the week out of my tired bones. I'm finding it tough to be positive, but I'm also laughing at myself for not being able to. I guess, in all honesty, that I'm feeling homesick again. Remember about two months ago, when I couldn't tell you whether the things I felt were here or there? Well, I'm there again, or here, or whatever. So, anwyay, I'm in some nebulous space for the time being, and hoping to shock myself out of it, or ease out of it, or write my way out of it. I'd like to be out by the end of the weekend, but I'm not setting a time limit, just taking a day at a time. For now, I teach, and try not to be a monster.
Tomorrow, I'll do my best to live as though I weren't in a funk. That's always worked best. If I try to figure out why I'm feeling like this, I'll inevitably have to go onto the turf of the monster to do so. I've been there, and don't plan to visit. It's a pretty useless place. I'll just move fast, make do, and hope that it can't keep up with me as I go for bike rides, relax, and read all weekend.
The nice thing is that in Korea, detoxing is pretty easy after a long week. I'm going to go to KFC tonight and have some good food, and after that I'll be going to the sauna to try and soak the week out of my tired bones. I'm finding it tough to be positive, but I'm also laughing at myself for not being able to. I guess, in all honesty, that I'm feeling homesick again. Remember about two months ago, when I couldn't tell you whether the things I felt were here or there? Well, I'm there again, or here, or whatever. So, anwyay, I'm in some nebulous space for the time being, and hoping to shock myself out of it, or ease out of it, or write my way out of it. I'd like to be out by the end of the weekend, but I'm not setting a time limit, just taking a day at a time. For now, I teach, and try not to be a monster.
Tomorrow, I'll do my best to live as though I weren't in a funk. That's always worked best. If I try to figure out why I'm feeling like this, I'll inevitably have to go onto the turf of the monster to do so. I've been there, and don't plan to visit. It's a pretty useless place. I'll just move fast, make do, and hope that it can't keep up with me as I go for bike rides, relax, and read all weekend.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Banana Class
Ok. So here goes, the description of my life teaching. My first class every day is Banana Class. They're 6 year olds, Korean age, which means they're five year olds by our standards in the West. Koreans start at one and get a year older every new year. They don't really celebrate birthdays. To them it's an interesting day, but they get older each year at the same time that their friends do. Banana class is the toughest for me because they are my youngest students, and they haven't really reached the age of true pattern recognition yet. This makes it tough for me to teach them because I see the entire universe in patterns, logical or chaotic.
In the class, there are a wide variety of levels. Eric was my nightmare child when I first got here. He's probably the lowest level student, and he has a lot of trouble focusing. Within the past month, however, I discovered his artistic abilities. He's got an amazing artistic eye for a boy his age, and is also much more quick to retain information if he's doing something involving crayons. He's really latched onto me, too. He was the first student who clung to me and told me he liked me. I hate to say that it's because of this that I tried so very hard to get through to him, but it's true. I knew he was my biggest problem, and I've tried my best to get him back on the level of the other students. It's a bit of a fruitless venture in many ways, but I get so much pleasure out of seeing him get even the littlest answer right. He's really one of the best parts of my day.
Daniel is quite a character. My first memory of him is him coming to the teachers' room to return the pencil I'd lent him. He'd slyly slipped it into his pocket. He does things like that. We often have growling matches when I tell him that we're doing phonics instead of free-coloring, and he's a bit of a headache to handle sometimes, but if you could see the kid you'd understand.
Amy's a sweetheart, and has pretty good English, compartively. She and Jini can sort of be grouped together as the girls in the class. They keep me accountable, and were really the ones who showed me the ropes when I first started here. They know the rules and hold the other boys to them. It's funny how the class controls itself.
In the class, there are a wide variety of levels. Eric was my nightmare child when I first got here. He's probably the lowest level student, and he has a lot of trouble focusing. Within the past month, however, I discovered his artistic abilities. He's got an amazing artistic eye for a boy his age, and is also much more quick to retain information if he's doing something involving crayons. He's really latched onto me, too. He was the first student who clung to me and told me he liked me. I hate to say that it's because of this that I tried so very hard to get through to him, but it's true. I knew he was my biggest problem, and I've tried my best to get him back on the level of the other students. It's a bit of a fruitless venture in many ways, but I get so much pleasure out of seeing him get even the littlest answer right. He's really one of the best parts of my day.
Daniel is quite a character. My first memory of him is him coming to the teachers' room to return the pencil I'd lent him. He'd slyly slipped it into his pocket. He does things like that. We often have growling matches when I tell him that we're doing phonics instead of free-coloring, and he's a bit of a headache to handle sometimes, but if you could see the kid you'd understand.
Amy's a sweetheart, and has pretty good English, compartively. She and Jini can sort of be grouped together as the girls in the class. They keep me accountable, and were really the ones who showed me the ropes when I first started here. They know the rules and hold the other boys to them. It's funny how the class controls itself.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Another day
So it's been nearly a month, and I apologize. I've been reading too fiercely, living too much to pause long enough to write things down. I've finished three books, all of which I'd gladly recommend to anyone who feels like reading something that makes the mind spin round on itself. The first, I've already mentioned, was Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, an Italian writer whose literary essays I've sampled recently as well. It was an immense book in so many ways, and there were only about a hundred pages in the middle that got terribly cumbersome. I'm sure they would fascinate a grail legend afficionado, but I am certainly not one. It was a story about intellect striving to find happiness, about the tendency of human beings to complicate rather than simplify their existences. It has led me toward a more profound contempt for my more complicating notions of self and toward a more nebulous view of self. I am not yet sure whether this is a good or a bad thing, but it is interesting nonetheless.
The second was, without a doubt, the most incredible book I have read in years. Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated taught me a new reason to laugh and to cry each time I opened it. It taught me to read myself as a stranger, taught me to escape my language. I don't really know how else to describe it. It was profound, counfounding, and illuminating all at once. The words were like delicious crumbs on a meandering forest trail toward truth. It left me both hungry and satisfied.
I then turned to Vonnegut, whom, I must admit, I have not read thoroughly enough. Cat's Cradle was quick, smart, and relatively light. I read it so as not to lose the pace I'd accidentally discovered, to propel me through my current venture: Nausea. It's dense. It traps me as only a void can trap, but it is so perfect in so many ways. At times I can barely pick it up for its weight. At others, I open it to find myself unable to stop reading, as though it is dragging me toward heaviness itself. I will let you know when I've come out on the other side of it.
Teaching is wonderful. I don't know how else to describe it. I have to go do it now, and then I will write more to tell you why.
Regards,
Joe
The second was, without a doubt, the most incredible book I have read in years. Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated taught me a new reason to laugh and to cry each time I opened it. It taught me to read myself as a stranger, taught me to escape my language. I don't really know how else to describe it. It was profound, counfounding, and illuminating all at once. The words were like delicious crumbs on a meandering forest trail toward truth. It left me both hungry and satisfied.
I then turned to Vonnegut, whom, I must admit, I have not read thoroughly enough. Cat's Cradle was quick, smart, and relatively light. I read it so as not to lose the pace I'd accidentally discovered, to propel me through my current venture: Nausea. It's dense. It traps me as only a void can trap, but it is so perfect in so many ways. At times I can barely pick it up for its weight. At others, I open it to find myself unable to stop reading, as though it is dragging me toward heaviness itself. I will let you know when I've come out on the other side of it.
Teaching is wonderful. I don't know how else to describe it. I have to go do it now, and then I will write more to tell you why.
Regards,
Joe
Friday, September 28, 2007
Cogs turning
So it's an eternal oscillation between gratification and the undermining of confidence. On any given day, I can't be certain whether it is I or my students who have changed. My perspective seems to shift a bit and suddenly I've made loads of progress, established repor, and am gaining traction. Then it shifts back and I see what massive quantities of work lie ahead of me. On a good day, the shift happens within a single lesson. During a bad week, the days drag and I'm wading through a swamp with memories of running on dry land.
Yale class seems to be understanding more lately. A lot more. Method helps loads, and so long as I don't occupy myself with the disciplinary issues (I've started to come up with and borrow new tactics for regaining control of a classroom), I can make significant headway within a single period. Today we reviewed an entire month's worth of lessons and made progress into new material.
Cornell class today and everyday is just a little bit wonderful. They react a little better to my intstruction every day, and I'm beginning to understand that the boys are just being boys their age. The quick ones completely zone out, and I can't and probably shouldn't do anything about it. They get most of it. The slow ones, Billy in particular, have a little more trouble, but I'm finally connecting with them, and Billy is really trying as hard as he can to catch up and exceed the work of the other students. Once I get him past James (if it's possible) I might be able to get James' attention agian. The girls, on the other hand, are wonderful, and I'm making great progress with them. Their pronunciation and listening comprehension has gotten much better since I came, and I love teaching them.
My kindergarten classes will require another entry at some point to go through my relationship with each student, but Kiwi class continues to be an interesting little comedy hour. They're my favorites, probably, and I love the days when we get to color and talk a little bit. Because of the number of personalities in the class, they tend to get a little unruly at times, but because of my co-teacher, they're pretty easy to get back under wraps. Laura (one of my coworkers) took an amazing video of Ashley dancing today. The girl could dance for five minutes straight without noticing anything else in the world. She is impossible to discipline because she frankly doesn't care, but only because she's pretty happy wherever. When she's on my side, I have no need to discipline whatsoever because she's constantly telling the other students to sit nicely and be quiet. At some point, I'll try to explain why she's so incredible and what she's teaching me about life. The rest of the class is great as well and I love watching Danny perfectly finish his coloring in half the time it takes everyone else to sloppily do it, because it doesn't end there. He is immediately willing to walk around and help each other student in the class. I would probably be best off describing each student through the way they color. They're such amazing tiny people, and I haven't quite wrapped my mind around that yet.
Banana class continues to be a struggle, and while I at first was ready to blame it on my co-teacher, I'm now wondering if it's me. I know in my head that kids need discipline and consistency, but I'm starting to internalize the fact that I must have discipline and consistency in order to give it to them. They're wonderful kids, but I'm afraid I'm perpetually confusing their universes as I learn to teach them. They're both behind and ahead of Kiwi, but their age makes it much tougher to level with them and explain new concepts. I'm not the greatest at teaching without some thread of logic or mechanical reasoning. It's tough. I need to get more creative.
My more private lessons are all unique and less difficult to track. The one that's frustrating me the most right now is Prodigy G4. They're two fourth grade boys who I have an incredibly tough time getting to speak in real English. They can read and form English sounds very well, but they're too lazy or too poorly taught to comprehend anything they read. They're good, smart kids, but they are my greatest point of oscillation. One day, they're great, and the next they're down below my kindergarteners.
Well, I have to go teach now. I wish I could write more, and might late. For now, all is well and I've really settled in to Korea in so many ways.
I love and miss you all. Hope to talk to you soon.
Joe
Yale class seems to be understanding more lately. A lot more. Method helps loads, and so long as I don't occupy myself with the disciplinary issues (I've started to come up with and borrow new tactics for regaining control of a classroom), I can make significant headway within a single period. Today we reviewed an entire month's worth of lessons and made progress into new material.
Cornell class today and everyday is just a little bit wonderful. They react a little better to my intstruction every day, and I'm beginning to understand that the boys are just being boys their age. The quick ones completely zone out, and I can't and probably shouldn't do anything about it. They get most of it. The slow ones, Billy in particular, have a little more trouble, but I'm finally connecting with them, and Billy is really trying as hard as he can to catch up and exceed the work of the other students. Once I get him past James (if it's possible) I might be able to get James' attention agian. The girls, on the other hand, are wonderful, and I'm making great progress with them. Their pronunciation and listening comprehension has gotten much better since I came, and I love teaching them.
My kindergarten classes will require another entry at some point to go through my relationship with each student, but Kiwi class continues to be an interesting little comedy hour. They're my favorites, probably, and I love the days when we get to color and talk a little bit. Because of the number of personalities in the class, they tend to get a little unruly at times, but because of my co-teacher, they're pretty easy to get back under wraps. Laura (one of my coworkers) took an amazing video of Ashley dancing today. The girl could dance for five minutes straight without noticing anything else in the world. She is impossible to discipline because she frankly doesn't care, but only because she's pretty happy wherever. When she's on my side, I have no need to discipline whatsoever because she's constantly telling the other students to sit nicely and be quiet. At some point, I'll try to explain why she's so incredible and what she's teaching me about life. The rest of the class is great as well and I love watching Danny perfectly finish his coloring in half the time it takes everyone else to sloppily do it, because it doesn't end there. He is immediately willing to walk around and help each other student in the class. I would probably be best off describing each student through the way they color. They're such amazing tiny people, and I haven't quite wrapped my mind around that yet.
Banana class continues to be a struggle, and while I at first was ready to blame it on my co-teacher, I'm now wondering if it's me. I know in my head that kids need discipline and consistency, but I'm starting to internalize the fact that I must have discipline and consistency in order to give it to them. They're wonderful kids, but I'm afraid I'm perpetually confusing their universes as I learn to teach them. They're both behind and ahead of Kiwi, but their age makes it much tougher to level with them and explain new concepts. I'm not the greatest at teaching without some thread of logic or mechanical reasoning. It's tough. I need to get more creative.
My more private lessons are all unique and less difficult to track. The one that's frustrating me the most right now is Prodigy G4. They're two fourth grade boys who I have an incredibly tough time getting to speak in real English. They can read and form English sounds very well, but they're too lazy or too poorly taught to comprehend anything they read. They're good, smart kids, but they are my greatest point of oscillation. One day, they're great, and the next they're down below my kindergarteners.
Well, I have to go teach now. I wish I could write more, and might late. For now, all is well and I've really settled in to Korea in so many ways.
I love and miss you all. Hope to talk to you soon.
Joe
Friday, September 21, 2007
Down by the station, early in the morning
So today's been a pretty great day to end a pretty great week. My attitude is, of course, influenced by the fact that I'll be on break for the next five days, which means I'll get to escape my routine and get around a little more.
Today was activity day number two for me. We had a potluck meal to celebrate Thanksgiving, which may seem odd to you since it's September, but the Korean holiday that's giving me this vacation is their closest analogue to it. The food was great, and we made all of the kids little Indian headbands and had them color pilgrims while we talked about the first Thanksgiving. It's so fun and so wonderful [read in the fullest sense of the word] to see education from the other side. It amazes me each day as I go back and imagine my teachers being exactly where I am in so many ways. I thought they had so much figured out, and I never realized that there might've been days when we colored because the teacher was filling in for what was lacking. Teaching is really pretty hard, and it's so full of brick walls and students who you can't get through to one day and who amaze you the next. Today was a welcome reprieve from the anxiety that I've been feeling about whether or not I'm getting through. I got to simply spend time with the kids, speaking conversationally and trying to just relax with them. We sat down to watch Garfield after the meal and there was practically a dogpile of kids on me watching the movie. They're all pretty wonderful, and it's great to know that as frustrated as we get with one another, we can put it all to the side and just enjoy one another's company.
Today was activity day number two for me. We had a potluck meal to celebrate Thanksgiving, which may seem odd to you since it's September, but the Korean holiday that's giving me this vacation is their closest analogue to it. The food was great, and we made all of the kids little Indian headbands and had them color pilgrims while we talked about the first Thanksgiving. It's so fun and so wonderful [read in the fullest sense of the word] to see education from the other side. It amazes me each day as I go back and imagine my teachers being exactly where I am in so many ways. I thought they had so much figured out, and I never realized that there might've been days when we colored because the teacher was filling in for what was lacking. Teaching is really pretty hard, and it's so full of brick walls and students who you can't get through to one day and who amaze you the next. Today was a welcome reprieve from the anxiety that I've been feeling about whether or not I'm getting through. I got to simply spend time with the kids, speaking conversationally and trying to just relax with them. We sat down to watch Garfield after the meal and there was practically a dogpile of kids on me watching the movie. They're all pretty wonderful, and it's great to know that as frustrated as we get with one another, we can put it all to the side and just enjoy one another's company.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Somewhere in-between
So I've now taken it upon myself the daily task of retaining and expanding my use of the English language. The tendency is, of course, to pare down my use of language to the irreducible chunks that can be easily transcribed into the minds of my students. In many ways, for clarity, I follow this tendency. First though, I intend to confuse them. I am here as a native speaker, and to reduce my use of language to what a native English speaker would only recognize as caveman talk would be a disservice to my students and to myself. They must learn to hear the language as it's spoken.
That said, I am attempting to restrict myself to a finite number of phrases rather than the infinity of constructions toward which a native speaker tends. The point of all of this, minus the digression into ESL teaching philosophy, is that I have noticed in the speech of fellow westerners a significant shift toward an almost Korean grammar. Perhaps I notice it more now that I am learning bits and pieces of Korean language, but it is particularly bad among those who have learned more of the language or taught here for longer periods of time. Feeling little slips myself, I've undertaken a reading of Umberto Eco, who, I've been told at various times, is an excellent and challenging read. It's true. I'm a little over 40 dense pages into the novel, and I'm loving it. It's occupied most of my free time today, and I forsee it taking a good deal of what I have remaining until I've finished the novel. I'm reading Foucault's Pendulum, and I can feel lamps burning in my mind that have long been dark. As the flames burn brighter - as they are exposed to more of the oxygen of thought - I can feel more of the lampblack burning away. Or, to to twist the metaphor a differet way, the lampblack is dripping away into the ink upon the page, and thus more is illuminated while the page before me is filled.
Another product of this shift is that I've begun to define more of those shadows that I mentioned recently. Life here gets better and worse with each passing day, but in naming those things which bother me, I am able to quantify them, classify them, and put them in their proper places. My mind reels more as I realize its motion, but each day, without slowing, the reeling becomes more like standing still. I suppose some would say it's all relative. Foucault would likely say that it's all relative to context, tradition, and the all-pervading cultural symbols(if I remember correctly).
All in all, I should say that, while little is new lately, new light is shed each day on those things with which I come in contact. The world continues to spin, and each error is part triumph and each triumph is accidental. Vigilance is good practice, but never an exact science. Teaching has become a sort of metaphor for my quest. Those things I tried so hard to do at first come so easily now in bursts, and those things which seemed so easy then get more difficult by the day. Perhaps it is that I see with new eyes, and perhaps it is that the field is everchanging. Perhaps the two are really part of one larger same.
Anyway. I'm digressing more and more lately, but somehow getting closer to telling you the truth of what I'm feeling here, cryptic as it may be. It has been so good to be in contact with home: to know that life is not standing still for any of you. It gives me great comfort to know that my world there is no more constant than my world here. Perhaps, that is its constancy. For the moment, I am musing on the fact that "perhaps" means something like "chance may be" at its core, and my mind is again in awe at the seeming randomness and simultaneous congruency of life. Creation is so easily difficult and so troublingly easy.
For now, I'm off to teach one of my favorite students. They're all teaching me what a terror I once was, while simultaneously showing me why my teachers held out hope.
Hope to write soon, and sorry if the syntax gets cumbersome - I'm trying to keep my English up to snuff.
I continue to keep all of you in my thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Joe
That said, I am attempting to restrict myself to a finite number of phrases rather than the infinity of constructions toward which a native speaker tends. The point of all of this, minus the digression into ESL teaching philosophy, is that I have noticed in the speech of fellow westerners a significant shift toward an almost Korean grammar. Perhaps I notice it more now that I am learning bits and pieces of Korean language, but it is particularly bad among those who have learned more of the language or taught here for longer periods of time. Feeling little slips myself, I've undertaken a reading of Umberto Eco, who, I've been told at various times, is an excellent and challenging read. It's true. I'm a little over 40 dense pages into the novel, and I'm loving it. It's occupied most of my free time today, and I forsee it taking a good deal of what I have remaining until I've finished the novel. I'm reading Foucault's Pendulum, and I can feel lamps burning in my mind that have long been dark. As the flames burn brighter - as they are exposed to more of the oxygen of thought - I can feel more of the lampblack burning away. Or, to to twist the metaphor a differet way, the lampblack is dripping away into the ink upon the page, and thus more is illuminated while the page before me is filled.
Another product of this shift is that I've begun to define more of those shadows that I mentioned recently. Life here gets better and worse with each passing day, but in naming those things which bother me, I am able to quantify them, classify them, and put them in their proper places. My mind reels more as I realize its motion, but each day, without slowing, the reeling becomes more like standing still. I suppose some would say it's all relative. Foucault would likely say that it's all relative to context, tradition, and the all-pervading cultural symbols(if I remember correctly).
All in all, I should say that, while little is new lately, new light is shed each day on those things with which I come in contact. The world continues to spin, and each error is part triumph and each triumph is accidental. Vigilance is good practice, but never an exact science. Teaching has become a sort of metaphor for my quest. Those things I tried so hard to do at first come so easily now in bursts, and those things which seemed so easy then get more difficult by the day. Perhaps it is that I see with new eyes, and perhaps it is that the field is everchanging. Perhaps the two are really part of one larger same.
Anyway. I'm digressing more and more lately, but somehow getting closer to telling you the truth of what I'm feeling here, cryptic as it may be. It has been so good to be in contact with home: to know that life is not standing still for any of you. It gives me great comfort to know that my world there is no more constant than my world here. Perhaps, that is its constancy. For the moment, I am musing on the fact that "perhaps" means something like "chance may be" at its core, and my mind is again in awe at the seeming randomness and simultaneous congruency of life. Creation is so easily difficult and so troublingly easy.
For now, I'm off to teach one of my favorite students. They're all teaching me what a terror I once was, while simultaneously showing me why my teachers held out hope.
Hope to write soon, and sorry if the syntax gets cumbersome - I'm trying to keep my English up to snuff.
I continue to keep all of you in my thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Joe
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Engine back in gear
Ok. So I finally went for a run last night, and I'm planning on a follow-up run or a visit to the gym tonight. It made such a huge difference, even though I didn't make it that far. The air here isn't great for a run, but when I compare running in smog to not running at all, the choice becomes obvious. Last night, I didn't idle away a few hours. I didn't follow the pattern that inevitably leads to depression in my case, which is pretty much the one where I sit and stare at the computer all day or watch shows I've downloaded until I get so sick of my own company that I burst forth, only to run around seeking attention and approval.
I apologize, the self-interrogation that preoccupies me of late can't be stripped from my entries that easily. It is what I think about, and try as I might, it continues to bleed through in what I write. Things are sublty shifting, and I'm trying to track the changes without overestimating them. The strangest change I've noticed is that I'm no longer the kind of man who can sleep through the night, unstirring. I dream. and dream. and dream. At first my dreams were about home, and then came the displacement dreams wehre I was constantly placing things from home here or things from here at home. The third type that arose was the utterly displaced type of dream, the surreal sort of revery where I am at once in a Kafka novel and a Dali painting. Those were pretty cool. Recently, and particularly last night, the two chief occupants of the room that is my mind combined to create an interesting scene. It was as though I were on trial before a room of my students. They scrutinized me innocently, in the fashion after which they comment on my armhair or the fact that I blush. They spoke with such a wondered curiosity, matching their daily behavior as I explain new things to them. But things were different in the dream. It wasn't my clothing or my hair that they looked at with rapt curiosity, but instead they looked at my faults, my past, and the very things that have been vexing me lately. I call it a trial, because I had somehow to explain these things to the children without making them alright and without the children shunning me. It was something of a nightmare, and it's haunted me today.
But, as with all other things in life, no one thing can occupy the mind continuously, and in my moments of forgetting, today has been a pretty great day. I'm blaming it on the run last night and the little ways I keep reminding myself that the kids have progressed since I got here. I'm doing my best to see things as they are, stiving toward some sort of objectivity. Camus has taught me that objectivity is pretty impossible if one is to continue to interact with an absurd world, which I find darkly funny at the moment. I'm doing my best to keep rolling the rock up the hill, though, because if I can never achieve my aim, I might as well get better at failing. I hope you can hear the smile in my words, and understand that I'm actually doing quite well. For now, I'm off to class. I hope all is well back home and I look forward to hearing from you, if you have the time.
Love,
Joe
I apologize, the self-interrogation that preoccupies me of late can't be stripped from my entries that easily. It is what I think about, and try as I might, it continues to bleed through in what I write. Things are sublty shifting, and I'm trying to track the changes without overestimating them. The strangest change I've noticed is that I'm no longer the kind of man who can sleep through the night, unstirring. I dream. and dream. and dream. At first my dreams were about home, and then came the displacement dreams wehre I was constantly placing things from home here or things from here at home. The third type that arose was the utterly displaced type of dream, the surreal sort of revery where I am at once in a Kafka novel and a Dali painting. Those were pretty cool. Recently, and particularly last night, the two chief occupants of the room that is my mind combined to create an interesting scene. It was as though I were on trial before a room of my students. They scrutinized me innocently, in the fashion after which they comment on my armhair or the fact that I blush. They spoke with such a wondered curiosity, matching their daily behavior as I explain new things to them. But things were different in the dream. It wasn't my clothing or my hair that they looked at with rapt curiosity, but instead they looked at my faults, my past, and the very things that have been vexing me lately. I call it a trial, because I had somehow to explain these things to the children without making them alright and without the children shunning me. It was something of a nightmare, and it's haunted me today.
But, as with all other things in life, no one thing can occupy the mind continuously, and in my moments of forgetting, today has been a pretty great day. I'm blaming it on the run last night and the little ways I keep reminding myself that the kids have progressed since I got here. I'm doing my best to see things as they are, stiving toward some sort of objectivity. Camus has taught me that objectivity is pretty impossible if one is to continue to interact with an absurd world, which I find darkly funny at the moment. I'm doing my best to keep rolling the rock up the hill, though, because if I can never achieve my aim, I might as well get better at failing. I hope you can hear the smile in my words, and understand that I'm actually doing quite well. For now, I'm off to class. I hope all is well back home and I look forward to hearing from you, if you have the time.
Love,
Joe
Monday, September 10, 2007
Understanding the contrast
Ok, so I'm going to stop writing these entries as though I'm actually going to post more often. I'm certain that there will come a time at which I will need to write on here every day in order to feel close to you all, when the true tide of homesickness washes over me; but, at present, I'm still so busy trying to grasp hold of the world that it's next to impossible to write about it. Anyway, here's my attempt to discern light from shadow, to at least give you the silhouette of what I'm experiencing now. I say this because I've recently realized how much of my life I'm currently living outside of language, in a world of non-linear thought, where things are so indefinite and intractable that I have intense difficulty in truly charting them, even with the infinite scope of the English language.
From a perspective of making sense out of my world, things seem to have been grey for the past month, but only in retrospect. The world has slowly filtered its way into shadows as my new sense of self develops its lens on the world here. It is as though throughout the past month, I've been gazing through vaselined glasses at a world that I could not describe and it's slowly coming into focus. The lines surrounding each islet of existence that shares my world are coming into clearer focus. Honestly, it might be better to say that I've started seeing their shadows. It's all sounding a bit like the beginning of Plato's cave analogy in The Republic, but that's the way it is.
Life is profoundly more existential here. I see so much of my life as completely out of my hands, but my solution thusfar has been to do my absolute best to control those things that are within my grasp and to leave the rest to Korean benevolence and God's grace. I've shed several layers of self already as I've tried on personalities from my past. In many ways, the past month has been a run at several brick walls in the world of self-discovery. Actually, it's been like a walk of several short piers. These are all analogies I'm making largely for myself, and I will probably never go into this with any of you, but you should know that I'm growing, and peeling off unnecessary layers out here.
An example of what I mean is that for many foreigners here, Korea is analogous to that scene in Pinnochio that I always forget about. It's the scene where he goes to that land where all of the boys play and are mean to one another and eventually turn into donkeys. That's what life is like here at times. One skin I've done by best to shed is the one that would lead me to have ears for all of eternity.
One of my biggest issues so far with the journey has been that of wondering where I ought to head. Part of me was putting that on hold, hoping that it would come alongside my calling in life and there would be a moment where I spontaneously understood both what I should do for the rest of my life and who I ought to be while doing it. I have come no nearer to figuring out the former, except to say that I don't know that I want to have to worry about money too much in life. I really don't think that that's going to be escapable though. The latter, however, just like my life here, is starting to appear as a shadow of a thing. I've been reading my C.S. Lewis daily book from Mary and I just finished The Plague by Camus. Both books have been nudging me in a direction that I've been pulling away from in so many ways for so many years. I read them for the habit of it, knowing that if I set out to change my mind by will, I'd fail. In putting the ideas into my head, one drop at a time, I've started to finally feel a subtle shift under the surface. In the past, it seems, all of my best intentions were revelatory and awesome. There is something quietly wonderful about this change in me. I don't want to spook it with words, but it is the shadow of something like who I am to be. It's strange really, because I've been flailing as usual in all of the other directions. The only parallel I can really draw here (and many of you won't get this entirely) is to what Dave did for me when I moved back to Kentucky. He let me flail until I wore myself out, and I finally did and found my quiet joy again.
All of this probably sounds wildly disturbing to some of you, because it's a little more personal than what I've written on here so far. But, the lump sum of it is that I'm going to begin trying to do my best to not give what "plague" I carry to my fellow man. Dr. Kling once called me a "wounded healer" and now that I'm beginning to understand what he meant, I'm humbled by the high praise. At one point, I might have been merely that, but the work begins now to make myself worthy of the appelation of "wounded" healer. Again, rambling nonsense to many of you, but I've got to spill it.
So, anyway, the teaching goes well. Some days are wonderful, and others are frustrating. I feel myself becoming, by practice and subtly, a better teacher. Just like the C.S. Lewis and Camus, I'm adding a drop to the bucket each day, trying to put forth just enough effort to reach through without overreaching myself. I will not be the best teacher in the world overnight, and to think that I would be is ridiculous. I'm just doing my best to be a little better every day.
Otherwise, life goes on. Summer is turning to fall, so the sun has come out here and the humidity has lifted somewhat. Fall is supposed to be the best season here, which is the reason I'm going to be buying a bike as soon as I can. I need a way to explore more, and it'll get me to work faster and to the park to go running (traffic lights are killing my runs here). I'm feeling the need to get out of myself soon, and the bike might be the way to do it. If not, I'm counting on a few good runs to help.
All in all, I'm happy. I'm learning so much about myself, and the Korean, just like everything else, seems to be seeping in without much effort. I just keep constantly focusing, and slowly my vision improves. I guess what's really changed is that the focusing no longer feels like so much work. That's one to write home about.
Love to all of you. I miss you all so terribly it hurts, but only in fleeting moments.
Joe
From a perspective of making sense out of my world, things seem to have been grey for the past month, but only in retrospect. The world has slowly filtered its way into shadows as my new sense of self develops its lens on the world here. It is as though throughout the past month, I've been gazing through vaselined glasses at a world that I could not describe and it's slowly coming into focus. The lines surrounding each islet of existence that shares my world are coming into clearer focus. Honestly, it might be better to say that I've started seeing their shadows. It's all sounding a bit like the beginning of Plato's cave analogy in The Republic, but that's the way it is.
Life is profoundly more existential here. I see so much of my life as completely out of my hands, but my solution thusfar has been to do my absolute best to control those things that are within my grasp and to leave the rest to Korean benevolence and God's grace. I've shed several layers of self already as I've tried on personalities from my past. In many ways, the past month has been a run at several brick walls in the world of self-discovery. Actually, it's been like a walk of several short piers. These are all analogies I'm making largely for myself, and I will probably never go into this with any of you, but you should know that I'm growing, and peeling off unnecessary layers out here.
An example of what I mean is that for many foreigners here, Korea is analogous to that scene in Pinnochio that I always forget about. It's the scene where he goes to that land where all of the boys play and are mean to one another and eventually turn into donkeys. That's what life is like here at times. One skin I've done by best to shed is the one that would lead me to have ears for all of eternity.
One of my biggest issues so far with the journey has been that of wondering where I ought to head. Part of me was putting that on hold, hoping that it would come alongside my calling in life and there would be a moment where I spontaneously understood both what I should do for the rest of my life and who I ought to be while doing it. I have come no nearer to figuring out the former, except to say that I don't know that I want to have to worry about money too much in life. I really don't think that that's going to be escapable though. The latter, however, just like my life here, is starting to appear as a shadow of a thing. I've been reading my C.S. Lewis daily book from Mary and I just finished The Plague by Camus. Both books have been nudging me in a direction that I've been pulling away from in so many ways for so many years. I read them for the habit of it, knowing that if I set out to change my mind by will, I'd fail. In putting the ideas into my head, one drop at a time, I've started to finally feel a subtle shift under the surface. In the past, it seems, all of my best intentions were revelatory and awesome. There is something quietly wonderful about this change in me. I don't want to spook it with words, but it is the shadow of something like who I am to be. It's strange really, because I've been flailing as usual in all of the other directions. The only parallel I can really draw here (and many of you won't get this entirely) is to what Dave did for me when I moved back to Kentucky. He let me flail until I wore myself out, and I finally did and found my quiet joy again.
All of this probably sounds wildly disturbing to some of you, because it's a little more personal than what I've written on here so far. But, the lump sum of it is that I'm going to begin trying to do my best to not give what "plague" I carry to my fellow man. Dr. Kling once called me a "wounded healer" and now that I'm beginning to understand what he meant, I'm humbled by the high praise. At one point, I might have been merely that, but the work begins now to make myself worthy of the appelation of "wounded" healer. Again, rambling nonsense to many of you, but I've got to spill it.
So, anyway, the teaching goes well. Some days are wonderful, and others are frustrating. I feel myself becoming, by practice and subtly, a better teacher. Just like the C.S. Lewis and Camus, I'm adding a drop to the bucket each day, trying to put forth just enough effort to reach through without overreaching myself. I will not be the best teacher in the world overnight, and to think that I would be is ridiculous. I'm just doing my best to be a little better every day.
Otherwise, life goes on. Summer is turning to fall, so the sun has come out here and the humidity has lifted somewhat. Fall is supposed to be the best season here, which is the reason I'm going to be buying a bike as soon as I can. I need a way to explore more, and it'll get me to work faster and to the park to go running (traffic lights are killing my runs here). I'm feeling the need to get out of myself soon, and the bike might be the way to do it. If not, I'm counting on a few good runs to help.
All in all, I'm happy. I'm learning so much about myself, and the Korean, just like everything else, seems to be seeping in without much effort. I just keep constantly focusing, and slowly my vision improves. I guess what's really changed is that the focusing no longer feels like so much work. That's one to write home about.
Love to all of you. I miss you all so terribly it hurts, but only in fleeting moments.
Joe
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Visa Walk, Stumble, and Run
Ok, so I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Fukuoka, hoping to dear God that I'll make it back tomorrow. I somehow forgot to get an itinerary before I left the office yesterday, but from what I understand, my flight is supposed to leave at 10:30 AM. The only problem is that the visa office doesn't open until 10, and it's a real crap shoot if my passport will be ready by then. The other issue is that my flight was with Japan Airlines, but operated through Korean Air, so there was no way to check my itinerary for tomorrow and change the flight today. We'll see what happens, and I'm going to just hope and pray that it all works out.
Today, however, has been a blast. I woke up on time, found a great taxi driver who was willing to attempt to communicate with me. I feel like such a nimrod sometimes, not knowing the language, but coming to Japan has shown me just how friendly Koreans are and how much I'm already getting their culture and understanding, if not words, at least sentiments and general ideas.
Once we got to Yeongdeungpo Station, the taxi driver pulled in front of the airport limousine, and blocked it so that I could make the 5:20 departure. It's called a limousine, but it's really just a nice bus with huge leather seats and great Air Con. I proceeded to sit and read most of the way to the airport as the sun rose and wound up getting there at about 6:25, give or take. The airport is way more intense going out than coming in, because there's so much more to do. Koreans LOVE duty free shopping, and since the terminal did not have any domestic flights whatsoever, they've built an entire duty free mall in the airport. Fortunately, I do not have an intense craving for duty free shopping as of yet, so I was able to slide by.
Once at the terminal, I met a few other ESL teachers doing the same thing I was and we got breakfast and started chatting about how long, where, and why we were in Korea. They were some pretty cool people and we all pretty much stuck together the whole day. One was just doing exit and entry (I think her name was Jen) and we split off from her around midday. We travelled to the embassy in a party of six, and I led the way because I had the most idiot-proof directions.
Once we got there, I realized that I hadn't brought my passport-size pictures, or rather, my school had neglected to give them to me. I sent them with my original documents back in July, and assumed that those would be the photos I'd take with me for the visa run. Fortunately, I was able to get my picture taken in the booth right inside the embassy for 600 yen. There were also plenty of other things I didn't really know, like my employer's phone number and my own address (I know, I've been promising to get it forever now). Fortunately, this isn't the strictest process in the world and they already have so much information on me by now that they probably know more about my contract, employment, and Korean habits than I do. All in good fun, I say.
So we dropped off our passports and headed across the street to check out the wonderful Hawks Town Mall, which included some great Western stores and an arcade place where we wound up going bowling. I won with a score of 78, so you can guess how pro we all were. We really just needed to kill time until 3 PM when we could check into hotels.
The cool thing about bowling in Japan is that you get shoes by depositing a token into the shoe-vending-locker-thingies. We had to give it a couple of goes because none of us knew our foot size in centimeters off-hand. We wound up doing alright and Carson, one of the guys with us, won a bag of spicy beef soup-flavored corn curls. I tried one. They are just as amazing as they sound, really, they are.
Shopping in Japan is really cool. I wound up buying nothing, but saw very few things I didn't like. I would have never thought I'd really want a hoodie from a Nike store, but the way design works in Japan is pretty amazing. I wanted a lot of things, but fortunately I've been spoiled by living in Korea, where most things are fairly inexpensive. Japan is anything but inexpensive.
So after bowling, we went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, where I had Macaroni and Cheese with Chicken and enjoyed an Alabama Slammer for old-times' sake. It was intensely filling and utterly bizarre to have a western sized portion set in front of me. We truly eat like pigs.
After the meal came the panic attack. As we walked up to pay, Rhiannon, a teacher from London, realized that her wallet was gone. The madness that ensued and the number of possible exit scenarios that played through my head were a bit overwhelming, but in the end, I wound up finding it on the bar where we'd waited for the table at Hard Rock. After, of course, running wildly back to the bowling alley and preparing to find the British consulate. Anyway, disaster averted, and international crisis held at bay for another day.
Finally, it was approaching 3, so we headed for the subway, which, by the way, is another supercool thing in Japan. Every subway stop has an avatar, so the Korean consulate is a piece of pottery, while another is a flower, and another a running anime boy, and so on. It's really cool, though, because it's almost impossible to miss where you're going or to get too far down the wrong track, which we would've done at one point today.
We got to the hotel and headed off to our rooms for naptime. Three in the afternoon is really late when you've woken up at five and hopped across the Sea of Japan, so we all passed out until around seven when we woke up to go exploring and find dinner. We wound up wandering for a while because none of us really knew what we were doing. Carson had been to Fukuoka before, but proved to be less of a resource than Rhiannon. Raechel and I were both newbies, so we just tagged along and I tried my best to keep them accountable to a compass at least.
We wound up on Canal Street, which is a bit like a red light district, but a lot less in-your-face about things. Since none of us were Japanese men in business suits, we were accepted as crazy foreigners wandering around. Japan is so much rougher than Korea for people who don't know the language, but we all used our masterful ESL skills to mime just about anything we needed and sought out restaurants with picture-menus. In the end we found a lovely Japanese noodle-shack and had a pretty good dinner. Mine wound up having more seafood in it than I'd expected from the lacquered model of the dish in the window, but was pretty decent nonetheless.
We wandered back to the subway and rode home to the hotel, and here I am. Carson and Rhiannon (who work for the same school but hadn't yet met) were booked in the same hotel by their school, and Raechel and I both were left to make our own reservations, so we got a room at the same place as the other two. It's definitely not home, and unlike Korea, there's nothing on TV in English. I also stupidly assumed that Japan would have the same plugs as Korea, but instead it has US plugs! There's also no wireless, so this won't be posted until tomorrow night (if I get home). There were PJs in the room and the pillow is, well, bizarre along with the bathroom. Unfortunately, the Air Con in the room is so dry that it's aggravated my cold.
Enough for now. Here are the pictures I took today with my cell phone (my American one–see? it's good for something...hah). If you want to know what the picture is, click it. They're labeled on photobucket.
Hope all is well,
Love,
Joe
Today, however, has been a blast. I woke up on time, found a great taxi driver who was willing to attempt to communicate with me. I feel like such a nimrod sometimes, not knowing the language, but coming to Japan has shown me just how friendly Koreans are and how much I'm already getting their culture and understanding, if not words, at least sentiments and general ideas.
Once we got to Yeongdeungpo Station, the taxi driver pulled in front of the airport limousine, and blocked it so that I could make the 5:20 departure. It's called a limousine, but it's really just a nice bus with huge leather seats and great Air Con. I proceeded to sit and read most of the way to the airport as the sun rose and wound up getting there at about 6:25, give or take. The airport is way more intense going out than coming in, because there's so much more to do. Koreans LOVE duty free shopping, and since the terminal did not have any domestic flights whatsoever, they've built an entire duty free mall in the airport. Fortunately, I do not have an intense craving for duty free shopping as of yet, so I was able to slide by.
Once at the terminal, I met a few other ESL teachers doing the same thing I was and we got breakfast and started chatting about how long, where, and why we were in Korea. They were some pretty cool people and we all pretty much stuck together the whole day. One was just doing exit and entry (I think her name was Jen) and we split off from her around midday. We travelled to the embassy in a party of six, and I led the way because I had the most idiot-proof directions.
Once we got there, I realized that I hadn't brought my passport-size pictures, or rather, my school had neglected to give them to me. I sent them with my original documents back in July, and assumed that those would be the photos I'd take with me for the visa run. Fortunately, I was able to get my picture taken in the booth right inside the embassy for 600 yen. There were also plenty of other things I didn't really know, like my employer's phone number and my own address (I know, I've been promising to get it forever now). Fortunately, this isn't the strictest process in the world and they already have so much information on me by now that they probably know more about my contract, employment, and Korean habits than I do. All in good fun, I say.
So we dropped off our passports and headed across the street to check out the wonderful Hawks Town Mall, which included some great Western stores and an arcade place where we wound up going bowling. I won with a score of 78, so you can guess how pro we all were. We really just needed to kill time until 3 PM when we could check into hotels.
The cool thing about bowling in Japan is that you get shoes by depositing a token into the shoe-vending-locker-thingies. We had to give it a couple of goes because none of us knew our foot size in centimeters off-hand. We wound up doing alright and Carson, one of the guys with us, won a bag of spicy beef soup-flavored corn curls. I tried one. They are just as amazing as they sound, really, they are.
Shopping in Japan is really cool. I wound up buying nothing, but saw very few things I didn't like. I would have never thought I'd really want a hoodie from a Nike store, but the way design works in Japan is pretty amazing. I wanted a lot of things, but fortunately I've been spoiled by living in Korea, where most things are fairly inexpensive. Japan is anything but inexpensive.
So after bowling, we went to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, where I had Macaroni and Cheese with Chicken and enjoyed an Alabama Slammer for old-times' sake. It was intensely filling and utterly bizarre to have a western sized portion set in front of me. We truly eat like pigs.
After the meal came the panic attack. As we walked up to pay, Rhiannon, a teacher from London, realized that her wallet was gone. The madness that ensued and the number of possible exit scenarios that played through my head were a bit overwhelming, but in the end, I wound up finding it on the bar where we'd waited for the table at Hard Rock. After, of course, running wildly back to the bowling alley and preparing to find the British consulate. Anyway, disaster averted, and international crisis held at bay for another day.
Finally, it was approaching 3, so we headed for the subway, which, by the way, is another supercool thing in Japan. Every subway stop has an avatar, so the Korean consulate is a piece of pottery, while another is a flower, and another a running anime boy, and so on. It's really cool, though, because it's almost impossible to miss where you're going or to get too far down the wrong track, which we would've done at one point today.
We got to the hotel and headed off to our rooms for naptime. Three in the afternoon is really late when you've woken up at five and hopped across the Sea of Japan, so we all passed out until around seven when we woke up to go exploring and find dinner. We wound up wandering for a while because none of us really knew what we were doing. Carson had been to Fukuoka before, but proved to be less of a resource than Rhiannon. Raechel and I were both newbies, so we just tagged along and I tried my best to keep them accountable to a compass at least.
We wound up on Canal Street, which is a bit like a red light district, but a lot less in-your-face about things. Since none of us were Japanese men in business suits, we were accepted as crazy foreigners wandering around. Japan is so much rougher than Korea for people who don't know the language, but we all used our masterful ESL skills to mime just about anything we needed and sought out restaurants with picture-menus. In the end we found a lovely Japanese noodle-shack and had a pretty good dinner. Mine wound up having more seafood in it than I'd expected from the lacquered model of the dish in the window, but was pretty decent nonetheless.
We wandered back to the subway and rode home to the hotel, and here I am. Carson and Rhiannon (who work for the same school but hadn't yet met) were booked in the same hotel by their school, and Raechel and I both were left to make our own reservations, so we got a room at the same place as the other two. It's definitely not home, and unlike Korea, there's nothing on TV in English. I also stupidly assumed that Japan would have the same plugs as Korea, but instead it has US plugs! There's also no wireless, so this won't be posted until tomorrow night (if I get home). There were PJs in the room and the pillow is, well, bizarre along with the bathroom. Unfortunately, the Air Con in the room is so dry that it's aggravated my cold.
Enough for now. Here are the pictures I took today with my cell phone (my American one–see? it's good for something...hah). If you want to know what the picture is, click it. They're labeled on photobucket.
Hope all is well,
Love,
Joe
Monday, August 27, 2007
Stuck in the middle outside
Wow. A lot can change in a week. I finally have time and energy to sit down and write (well, not as much as I'd like, but enough that I can respond to the outcry at over a week between posts). Reading last week's post makes me feel as though I'm on a different planet now, but I suppose that's how adjustment goes. I feel like I've been here loads longer, and really I have. I've gotten through homesickness and real sickness. I got strep last week, and now have developed some sort of cold. Here's hoping it's not going to continue getting worse, as I have to wake up at 5 AM tomorrow to get on a plane for Japan. If it's not better when I get back on Thursday, we're going to go to the doctor.
Tomorrow should prove an interesting day, as it will involve first getting a taxi at 5 AM, second getting to a bus station I've never been to, third getting a ticket from a guy on the street for the bus to the airport (this is one of the less certain parts of the trip), and then picking up the ticket at the airport (not sure how that's going to work either).
I'm sure all of this sounds incredibly rudimentary to all of you, but it's the idea of a timetable that frightens me. Throughout all of my adventures in Korea, the only thing I've had to do "on time" is get to work. These next few days are going to be pretty intense, because it's coping with a foreign culture on my own and on a timetable.
After all of the above is accomplished, the real fun starts. At that point, I'm actually going to a new country where they speak even less English to find the consulate for a country that is not my own. It will be the first time that I'm almost acting as a Korean, mostly because I will not be interacting with the US at any point on the trip. I'll drop my passport off at the korean consulate fairly early and then have to find a hotel, dinner, and whatever else I need to survive for the 24 hours that I'm there. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure it won't be too terrible.
Ok... now that we've covered the future... on with the past. This past week I've met a ton of new people, and had a lot of fun. I took my first ride on a motorcycle, which is kinda scary here because anything paved is pretty much a road. I explored even more neighborhoods. Saturday, I met a really cool guy named Jakub from Poland, and he was moving to London on Sunday, so he left me his cell phone. I tried to get it activated yesterday, but Sunday is a "day off" here, so I won't be able to get it done until after I get back from Fukuoka on Wednesday afternoon. Otherwise, I'll have to find a place around school to get it taken care of. Meeting more and more people, the cell phone is getting more necessary, and since rates are so cheap here, it's pretty great. I think it's $20 to set up and I have to put on at least $10 a month to keep the number active.
Last week I fell into a bit of a funk for some reason. It might've been fighting off strep and it might've been anything. I was wondering whether I'd taken the right job and wondering whether I should skip out on my contract and try to find something a little more satisfying before I went out of town to get my visa.
I think the worst part of my funks here has been that I haven't had the words to describe any of it. Everything is both between and outside of everything I've ever known as emotion. It's delicate to describe, but my loneliness is somehow a combination of wanting people near and wanting no one around at all. My excitement is both empty and chock full of meaning. I love the kids here, but at times feel as though I'm beating my head against a brick wall. Really it's probably that I haven't processed much of this so far, and it's finally coming through the filters.
The nice thing is that I'm reading Camus' The Plague, which describes a lot of my sentiments quite accurately. As the town deals with the plague outbreak, there are distinct phases. I'm currently getting through that first phase where I still believe that this is all temporary. Whether I mentally know I'm looking at a year here, my body still hasn't internalized it. It's still going through the first stages, seeing life as merely surviving until tomorrow and survival rather than planting roots and settling in.
I'm hoping some of what I've just written actually translates across the ocean, and should cap all of this off by saying that if I weren't sick right now, this would all be loads peppier. Really, I want my cold to go away. I also wouldn't mind getting to sleep at about 8 tonight. We'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow should prove an interesting day, as it will involve first getting a taxi at 5 AM, second getting to a bus station I've never been to, third getting a ticket from a guy on the street for the bus to the airport (this is one of the less certain parts of the trip), and then picking up the ticket at the airport (not sure how that's going to work either).
I'm sure all of this sounds incredibly rudimentary to all of you, but it's the idea of a timetable that frightens me. Throughout all of my adventures in Korea, the only thing I've had to do "on time" is get to work. These next few days are going to be pretty intense, because it's coping with a foreign culture on my own and on a timetable.
After all of the above is accomplished, the real fun starts. At that point, I'm actually going to a new country where they speak even less English to find the consulate for a country that is not my own. It will be the first time that I'm almost acting as a Korean, mostly because I will not be interacting with the US at any point on the trip. I'll drop my passport off at the korean consulate fairly early and then have to find a hotel, dinner, and whatever else I need to survive for the 24 hours that I'm there. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure it won't be too terrible.
Ok... now that we've covered the future... on with the past. This past week I've met a ton of new people, and had a lot of fun. I took my first ride on a motorcycle, which is kinda scary here because anything paved is pretty much a road. I explored even more neighborhoods. Saturday, I met a really cool guy named Jakub from Poland, and he was moving to London on Sunday, so he left me his cell phone. I tried to get it activated yesterday, but Sunday is a "day off" here, so I won't be able to get it done until after I get back from Fukuoka on Wednesday afternoon. Otherwise, I'll have to find a place around school to get it taken care of. Meeting more and more people, the cell phone is getting more necessary, and since rates are so cheap here, it's pretty great. I think it's $20 to set up and I have to put on at least $10 a month to keep the number active.
Last week I fell into a bit of a funk for some reason. It might've been fighting off strep and it might've been anything. I was wondering whether I'd taken the right job and wondering whether I should skip out on my contract and try to find something a little more satisfying before I went out of town to get my visa.
I think the worst part of my funks here has been that I haven't had the words to describe any of it. Everything is both between and outside of everything I've ever known as emotion. It's delicate to describe, but my loneliness is somehow a combination of wanting people near and wanting no one around at all. My excitement is both empty and chock full of meaning. I love the kids here, but at times feel as though I'm beating my head against a brick wall. Really it's probably that I haven't processed much of this so far, and it's finally coming through the filters.
The nice thing is that I'm reading Camus' The Plague, which describes a lot of my sentiments quite accurately. As the town deals with the plague outbreak, there are distinct phases. I'm currently getting through that first phase where I still believe that this is all temporary. Whether I mentally know I'm looking at a year here, my body still hasn't internalized it. It's still going through the first stages, seeing life as merely surviving until tomorrow and survival rather than planting roots and settling in.
I'm hoping some of what I've just written actually translates across the ocean, and should cap all of this off by saying that if I weren't sick right now, this would all be loads peppier. Really, I want my cold to go away. I also wouldn't mind getting to sleep at about 8 tonight. We'll see how it goes.
Friday, August 17, 2007
International Aftermath
Alright... so the homesickness has ebbed a little bit today, as I've learned to make tteokbokki and am again reminding myself of the things I'd already miss if I weren't here, among which are now Milkus, Korean efficiency, the subway system, the little gummy candies whose name I do not know, my students, eating things with chopsticks, tteokbokki, anything made with red bean paste, and more.
Last night, Thomas, Jason and I ate spaghetti again over at Jason's apartment and then watched Blood Diamond, which I must painfully admit was an excellent film. I was sort of hoping it would be terrible so that I could bar Jason from picking movies, but I've been forced to keep him on probation. His taste was in question for having me download Babel, which was possibly the worst movie I've ever watched for more reasons than I can name at present. If you haven't seen it, don't. If you have and wish to argue this point with me, don't. I will probably stop speaking to you. Hah. But Blood Diamond, really, see it.
So, speaking of contrived international calamities (Babel), I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering how International Day went today. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of my own, but I'll do my best to get the link to the Wonderland photo album as soon as possible. I was on my own with two classes (Cherry class and Tomato class), both of which I've had no contact with, for the first three periods of the day today. Having fresh kids was both great and terrible. It's almost impossible to control a child whose name you do not know, but the kids were also great new faces and very creative. They spent over an hour decorating their sombreros and headbands, and looked really cute in the costumes I made for them. Once Michelle got out of her special classes, she came up to help and was great. I enjoyed working with her quite a bit. She's creative, smart, and has a great grasp of how to keep kids in line without discipline, which is a skill I'm desperately seeking to acquire.
The culmination of today, just like the monthly birthday-day, was a photoshoot where the kids refuse to smile. They wind up looking like we'd forced them into the costumes and the facepaint and the whole experience, which, of course, we have. The interesting thing about working for a for-profit school is that we have to do a lot of things for appearances, and teach along the way, which is really not so bad, but makes discipline and grading rather unorthodox and keeps us doing some pretty ridiculous stuff from time to time.
All that said, I think I was the teacher having the most fun today. The other western teachers seemed pretty worn out by it all, but I really enjoyed dressing the kids up and doing arts and crafts all morning. It's probably because I'm new, but I think it's also my outlook. I'm along for the ride for most of this stuff, and the more fun I bring, the more fun there is. I'm not particularly worried about how it's all going to go or how I'll feel when it's done, I'm just trying to add a little fun and learning whenever I can get through.
So, since it's Friday, I'm going to recap what I've learned this week.
1. About my teaching style:
I teach everyone as though they were an adult, or maybe as though I were a child. Either way, it's both working wonderfully and not at all. I get very frustrated when I can't get through to a child. Harold is one of them. He doesn't know what "Ask" means and does the blank stare thing when I directly address him. I'm not so great at dealing with that yet. Michael 1 (that's what we call him since there are two Michaels) is another one like Harold. Michael 1 came in during an intensive session and must've learned nothing. Today I spent five minutes trying to show him how to make an "F" sound, which is one of the tough ones for these kids, and he kept completely zoning out. As much as I'm ADD, when I'm directly addressed, I'm engaged.
2. About me as a teacher:
I get to plan a lesson for Monday about "Earth," whatever that means. I decided that it means climate, so I'm teaching some earth science on monday about deserts and hurricanes and glaciers and I'm ridiculously excited. I really had a moment today when I caught myself getting giddy about my earth science lessons for the next two weeks. Anything that isn't two pages from a phonics book seems scintillating at this point, which probably means I need to refresh my approach to phonics. Honestly though, I'm loving what I do, and I'm apparently enjoying each day's work more than any of my western coworkers, who seem a little worn out with it. Maybe I'll be there a few months from now, but I hope not. I hope I teach like Laura (far better than I am now) and I have as much fun with it as I did today.
3. About me as an Ex-Pat
I adapt quickly. Today I was ready to order movie tickets online, on a site in Hangul, but Tom didn't trust me to do it. I hear more words I recognize each day and I'm learning to read the language much better. I think I was being impatient with myself. I also feel like I'm picking up the culture pretty quickly as well. Ricky (one of the Korean English teachers) asked me today how long I'd been here, and replied to my response that it seemed like I'd been here well over a month by the way I was acting. I think admitting that I was homesick yesterday served the same function as when I first admitted to myself I was in culture shock. I sat and processed the emotion and, once I'd seen it for what it was, started dealing with it. I miss home, and I've been missing it for a while, but now that it's on the surface, it's just like the next lesson I have to teach. I'm not completely sure how I'm going to get through, but my friends here and everyone at home are just like the kids, supportive and eagerly hoping I'll succeed at whatever I'm doing, so I'm definitely going to make it.
4. About me as a cook
Fact: I cannot tell a Korean butcher that I want only a chicken breast. Fact: I cannot cook an entire chicken, especially in the absence of an oven. These two factors combined this Monday to form a temporary rule: Chicken is only to be consumed at restaurants for the next month, while my Korean improves. I can, however, make tteokbokki with red chili paste, and mandu. Both are wonderful and really spicy and have become my staples for snacking Korean style at home. I hope to branch out to other dishes soon, but my cooking is very dependent on my Korean, so it might take me a little bit.
5. About my senses of adventure and direction.
Fact: I cannot tell where I am and how to get back after a cab ride, especially if it's to somewhere I haven't been, and especially if I've been hanging out with people I've just met. I'm adventurous, and I'm breaking out on my own so that I can build more of a life for myself here, but I wound up walking on my own trying to find a cab that could understand me for about a half an hour the other night. On the bright side, getting lost is wonderful for learning a city. When I finally figured out where I was, my brain had done a wonderful job of mapping the unknown so that I could put overlay it on the page. It's also wonderful that Korea is safe and its people patient. In America, a lost Korean with little to no knowledge of the English language would be SOL to say the least. Here I was able to walk around for quite a while, at night, alone, in a neighborhood I did not know, and eventually found a taxi driver who would listen while I fumblingly pronounced the name of my subway stop and pointed at the map. I hate seeming so culturally insensitive, but I'm learning much faster by submersion than by immersion, so I'm probably going to keep taking new plunges.
And that's it for now, my fingers and your eyes are likely very sore, and there are more adventures to be had. I hope all is well back home and love hearing from you all. I wish you could all come and visit, there's really so much to show you, so much more than what I can write that I want to share with you, but I'm learning that the disconnect is part of the beauty of life, and that it's phenomenal that you can even be a little bit here with me when the gulf between us is so wide.
Love and high hopes,
Joe
Last night, Thomas, Jason and I ate spaghetti again over at Jason's apartment and then watched Blood Diamond, which I must painfully admit was an excellent film. I was sort of hoping it would be terrible so that I could bar Jason from picking movies, but I've been forced to keep him on probation. His taste was in question for having me download Babel, which was possibly the worst movie I've ever watched for more reasons than I can name at present. If you haven't seen it, don't. If you have and wish to argue this point with me, don't. I will probably stop speaking to you. Hah. But Blood Diamond, really, see it.
So, speaking of contrived international calamities (Babel), I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering how International Day went today. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of my own, but I'll do my best to get the link to the Wonderland photo album as soon as possible. I was on my own with two classes (Cherry class and Tomato class), both of which I've had no contact with, for the first three periods of the day today. Having fresh kids was both great and terrible. It's almost impossible to control a child whose name you do not know, but the kids were also great new faces and very creative. They spent over an hour decorating their sombreros and headbands, and looked really cute in the costumes I made for them. Once Michelle got out of her special classes, she came up to help and was great. I enjoyed working with her quite a bit. She's creative, smart, and has a great grasp of how to keep kids in line without discipline, which is a skill I'm desperately seeking to acquire.
The culmination of today, just like the monthly birthday-day, was a photoshoot where the kids refuse to smile. They wind up looking like we'd forced them into the costumes and the facepaint and the whole experience, which, of course, we have. The interesting thing about working for a for-profit school is that we have to do a lot of things for appearances, and teach along the way, which is really not so bad, but makes discipline and grading rather unorthodox and keeps us doing some pretty ridiculous stuff from time to time.
All that said, I think I was the teacher having the most fun today. The other western teachers seemed pretty worn out by it all, but I really enjoyed dressing the kids up and doing arts and crafts all morning. It's probably because I'm new, but I think it's also my outlook. I'm along for the ride for most of this stuff, and the more fun I bring, the more fun there is. I'm not particularly worried about how it's all going to go or how I'll feel when it's done, I'm just trying to add a little fun and learning whenever I can get through.
So, since it's Friday, I'm going to recap what I've learned this week.
1. About my teaching style:
I teach everyone as though they were an adult, or maybe as though I were a child. Either way, it's both working wonderfully and not at all. I get very frustrated when I can't get through to a child. Harold is one of them. He doesn't know what "Ask" means and does the blank stare thing when I directly address him. I'm not so great at dealing with that yet. Michael 1 (that's what we call him since there are two Michaels) is another one like Harold. Michael 1 came in during an intensive session and must've learned nothing. Today I spent five minutes trying to show him how to make an "F" sound, which is one of the tough ones for these kids, and he kept completely zoning out. As much as I'm ADD, when I'm directly addressed, I'm engaged.
2. About me as a teacher:
I get to plan a lesson for Monday about "Earth," whatever that means. I decided that it means climate, so I'm teaching some earth science on monday about deserts and hurricanes and glaciers and I'm ridiculously excited. I really had a moment today when I caught myself getting giddy about my earth science lessons for the next two weeks. Anything that isn't two pages from a phonics book seems scintillating at this point, which probably means I need to refresh my approach to phonics. Honestly though, I'm loving what I do, and I'm apparently enjoying each day's work more than any of my western coworkers, who seem a little worn out with it. Maybe I'll be there a few months from now, but I hope not. I hope I teach like Laura (far better than I am now) and I have as much fun with it as I did today.
3. About me as an Ex-Pat
I adapt quickly. Today I was ready to order movie tickets online, on a site in Hangul, but Tom didn't trust me to do it. I hear more words I recognize each day and I'm learning to read the language much better. I think I was being impatient with myself. I also feel like I'm picking up the culture pretty quickly as well. Ricky (one of the Korean English teachers) asked me today how long I'd been here, and replied to my response that it seemed like I'd been here well over a month by the way I was acting. I think admitting that I was homesick yesterday served the same function as when I first admitted to myself I was in culture shock. I sat and processed the emotion and, once I'd seen it for what it was, started dealing with it. I miss home, and I've been missing it for a while, but now that it's on the surface, it's just like the next lesson I have to teach. I'm not completely sure how I'm going to get through, but my friends here and everyone at home are just like the kids, supportive and eagerly hoping I'll succeed at whatever I'm doing, so I'm definitely going to make it.
4. About me as a cook
Fact: I cannot tell a Korean butcher that I want only a chicken breast. Fact: I cannot cook an entire chicken, especially in the absence of an oven. These two factors combined this Monday to form a temporary rule: Chicken is only to be consumed at restaurants for the next month, while my Korean improves. I can, however, make tteokbokki with red chili paste, and mandu. Both are wonderful and really spicy and have become my staples for snacking Korean style at home. I hope to branch out to other dishes soon, but my cooking is very dependent on my Korean, so it might take me a little bit.
5. About my senses of adventure and direction.
Fact: I cannot tell where I am and how to get back after a cab ride, especially if it's to somewhere I haven't been, and especially if I've been hanging out with people I've just met. I'm adventurous, and I'm breaking out on my own so that I can build more of a life for myself here, but I wound up walking on my own trying to find a cab that could understand me for about a half an hour the other night. On the bright side, getting lost is wonderful for learning a city. When I finally figured out where I was, my brain had done a wonderful job of mapping the unknown so that I could put overlay it on the page. It's also wonderful that Korea is safe and its people patient. In America, a lost Korean with little to no knowledge of the English language would be SOL to say the least. Here I was able to walk around for quite a while, at night, alone, in a neighborhood I did not know, and eventually found a taxi driver who would listen while I fumblingly pronounced the name of my subway stop and pointed at the map. I hate seeming so culturally insensitive, but I'm learning much faster by submersion than by immersion, so I'm probably going to keep taking new plunges.
And that's it for now, my fingers and your eyes are likely very sore, and there are more adventures to be had. I hope all is well back home and love hearing from you all. I wish you could all come and visit, there's really so much to show you, so much more than what I can write that I want to share with you, but I'm learning that the disconnect is part of the beauty of life, and that it's phenomenal that you can even be a little bit here with me when the gulf between us is so wide.
Love and high hopes,
Joe
Thursday, August 16, 2007
a few pictures with a broken camera
For those of you who don't know, my camera's broken. This should explain what's to follow, as the pictures aren't so hot and aren't so many. I'm also not much of a picture taker, because i feel like a voyeur or a tourist trapping images for consumption later. I also feel at times as though I'm perceived as some sort of inspector or critic of the world when I have a camera. I guess, in the end, that I'm just awkward with one, and it shows.
These pictures are in reverse order:
This is the wonderful fish-killing aquarium on the way to school (The crabs are huge-normous... I wouldn't want to be the one to pull them out)
This is a building that really just started being built around the time I got here. Gotta love Korean efficiency.
This is a view on the walk to school of the sidewalk ahead.
This is the view across the street from my apartment building.
>
This is the door to my apartment.
And that's it for now. I might post more after tomorrow, which is the ridiculous "International Day" where we dress kids up as stereotypes. Michelle (one of the Korean teachers) and I were going to do Mexico, but are doing Mexico and Native American because, as Sun put it, "Mexico is, for girls, you know, kind of ugly." So my girls are going to have their faces painted while my boys put on marx brothers mustaches and panchos. It should be interesting. I will sleep well knowing that my kids aren't going to be leprechauns from Ireland or girls in coconut bras from Iran (figure that one out, please?). It's all in good fun, however, and it's very interesting to see how their stereotypes work here.
The result of it all is that I spent three hours today making ponchos and hats, and tomorrow morning I'm going to try to convince children to decorate headbands and wear silly costumes without crying. All the while, they'll probably learn little to no English, but it's all in good fun.
On a more personal note, I'm starting to feel my first pangs of homesickness. Today I had a flashback to Mom singing all of the "I know"s in "Ain't No Sunshine" while we shopped in Big Lots. It's probably going to be a rough couple of weeks as I move out of honeymoon and into settling in, but I've already made it half a month and I've still got a ton of books to read and a ton of things to see, so it's all going to be fine, I'm sure.
Love to all, will write more soon,
Joe
PS- Thanks for all the comments. They make me feel like I'm actually in touch with all of you and make me feel less far than I am.
These pictures are in reverse order:
This is a building that really just started being built around the time I got here. Gotta love Korean efficiency.
This is a view on the walk to school of the sidewalk ahead.
This is the view across the street from my apartment building.
>
This is the door to my apartment.
And that's it for now. I might post more after tomorrow, which is the ridiculous "International Day" where we dress kids up as stereotypes. Michelle (one of the Korean teachers) and I were going to do Mexico, but are doing Mexico and Native American because, as Sun put it, "Mexico is, for girls, you know, kind of ugly." So my girls are going to have their faces painted while my boys put on marx brothers mustaches and panchos. It should be interesting. I will sleep well knowing that my kids aren't going to be leprechauns from Ireland or girls in coconut bras from Iran (figure that one out, please?). It's all in good fun, however, and it's very interesting to see how their stereotypes work here.
The result of it all is that I spent three hours today making ponchos and hats, and tomorrow morning I'm going to try to convince children to decorate headbands and wear silly costumes without crying. All the while, they'll probably learn little to no English, but it's all in good fun.
On a more personal note, I'm starting to feel my first pangs of homesickness. Today I had a flashback to Mom singing all of the "I know"s in "Ain't No Sunshine" while we shopped in Big Lots. It's probably going to be a rough couple of weeks as I move out of honeymoon and into settling in, but I've already made it half a month and I've still got a ton of books to read and a ton of things to see, so it's all going to be fine, I'm sure.
Love to all, will write more soon,
Joe
PS- Thanks for all the comments. They make me feel like I'm actually in touch with all of you and make me feel less far than I am.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Strange things
Ok, so it's strange to be posting again today, but I have a few things to write down that I'm finding pretty fascinating and ought to capture in words while the sensations are still fresh.
First, I've discovered one thing that's pretty amazing. I know a ton more French than I thought. I think trying so desperately to learn Korean has activated the language center of my brain, causing my ears and my brain to reach so hard for meaning everywhere that today when I watched Gouttes D'Eau Sur Pierres Brulantes, a film from one of my favorite directors, I was able to understand almost all of it without subtitles. I know to some of you this seems like no big deal, but my ability to understand native-speaker speed French is a new development–a development that came about in an environment completely devoid of spoken French. The human brain is fascinating. This discovery has brought about a resurgence of my interest in the French language, and I'm listening to Carla Bruni as I write this. I'll admit, music is a little tougher than film, because context is lacking and the language is more tightly poetic.
I'm picking up little bits of Korean again, but it's very slow progress. The problem isn't that I don't understand--it's that my brain has somehow been set to dump anything that's not immediately useful. It takes days of recognition to pick up and start using each new phrase, because I have to make it functional, not merely present it to my consciousness. I've finally figured out Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, Do you speak English?, I speak a little Korean, Excuse me, and a few other phrases. I'm picking up some basic grammar points as well, but very little of what I've attained so far is there on the tip of my tongue when I need it. I can hear far more of it than I can produce verbally. The two things I need to work on in earnest are the numbers and alphabet. Once I can start reading the language, I'll be able to think in it a little better and I'm sure I'll pick it up much more quickly. Again, though, it's been impossible to learn the alphabet without making it functional. I've got to come up with some new study tactics.
On a completely unrelated note, I'm having far fewer "not in Kansas anymore, Toto" moments. For the first week, I kept wondering if I was dreaming that I'd come here, and reeling each time I tried to wrap my mind around the distance between here and there. Now, I feel myself adapting and settling in. My mind's starting to wrap itself around how far you all are from me (and it is far––one very long day's travel). When I went to karaoke (or whatever it's called here, maybe noribang?) it was so interesting to see the types of artists that have made it here. There was Keane and Keren Ann, but no Fiona Apple. For some reason, I stupidly thought that Korea was on the other side of some American filter, and that everything they got here was trickled down from us. That's not how it is though. Korea is its own filter, and its own market, even for the English language stuff. I'm slowly breaking my western thought habits––at least those I'm able to break, because I know that I'm fundamentally incapable of understanding their context here. I'm tied to my past and my culture, and everything I see here is filtered through the life I was born into. It is wonderful, however, to question the things I've taken for granted for so long, and to try to figure out why we do it the way we do it.
It's now occurring to me that I might've written all of this yesterday, but as there's no way to check while I'm at work, I'm going to keep writing and again tell you how immensely proud of myself I am for eating chocolate cake with chopsticks. It was one of those moments when I'm reminded that I'm in Oz or down the rabbit hole or something.
I went to the grocery store alone last night after I finished teaching. I was way too hungry to be there, and knowing as little Korean as I do, it was a really silly thing to do. I wound up buying a whole chicken (it was pretty cheap) because I didn't know how to ask the butcher to cut the breasts. I then proceeded to cook it pretty wretchedly and eating very little of it. Oh well, that's life, and it made me laugh at myself. I did, however, get some Korean spices that I'm very eager to experiment with, and some basic Korean food that I know I like.
Since I'm all about tangents today, I've also been having some really random dreams as my body adjusts to a completely different world. They run the gamut from waking up in America to this wonderfully Kafka-esque dream I had Sunday night, which woke me up at 5 AM Monday to write it down. It might or might not become a novel. I'm letting the images stew in my mind before I go back to it. Typically, I wake up a few times a night, but on the whole have found sleeping here, with all of its peculiarities, far more interesting than sleeping back at home.
For now, I'm kinda cruising through the day, wonderfully pleased with the knowledge that I don't have to work tomorrow, because it's Independence Day here. That means tonight can be another night of exploring and hopefully a good night for a run if it quits raining.
I'm going to run downstairs for some candy and maybe to take a few pictures because Dave's been harassing me.
First, I've discovered one thing that's pretty amazing. I know a ton more French than I thought. I think trying so desperately to learn Korean has activated the language center of my brain, causing my ears and my brain to reach so hard for meaning everywhere that today when I watched Gouttes D'Eau Sur Pierres Brulantes, a film from one of my favorite directors, I was able to understand almost all of it without subtitles. I know to some of you this seems like no big deal, but my ability to understand native-speaker speed French is a new development–a development that came about in an environment completely devoid of spoken French. The human brain is fascinating. This discovery has brought about a resurgence of my interest in the French language, and I'm listening to Carla Bruni as I write this. I'll admit, music is a little tougher than film, because context is lacking and the language is more tightly poetic.
I'm picking up little bits of Korean again, but it's very slow progress. The problem isn't that I don't understand--it's that my brain has somehow been set to dump anything that's not immediately useful. It takes days of recognition to pick up and start using each new phrase, because I have to make it functional, not merely present it to my consciousness. I've finally figured out Hello, Goodbye, Thank you, Do you speak English?, I speak a little Korean, Excuse me, and a few other phrases. I'm picking up some basic grammar points as well, but very little of what I've attained so far is there on the tip of my tongue when I need it. I can hear far more of it than I can produce verbally. The two things I need to work on in earnest are the numbers and alphabet. Once I can start reading the language, I'll be able to think in it a little better and I'm sure I'll pick it up much more quickly. Again, though, it's been impossible to learn the alphabet without making it functional. I've got to come up with some new study tactics.
On a completely unrelated note, I'm having far fewer "not in Kansas anymore, Toto" moments. For the first week, I kept wondering if I was dreaming that I'd come here, and reeling each time I tried to wrap my mind around the distance between here and there. Now, I feel myself adapting and settling in. My mind's starting to wrap itself around how far you all are from me (and it is far––one very long day's travel). When I went to karaoke (or whatever it's called here, maybe noribang?) it was so interesting to see the types of artists that have made it here. There was Keane and Keren Ann, but no Fiona Apple. For some reason, I stupidly thought that Korea was on the other side of some American filter, and that everything they got here was trickled down from us. That's not how it is though. Korea is its own filter, and its own market, even for the English language stuff. I'm slowly breaking my western thought habits––at least those I'm able to break, because I know that I'm fundamentally incapable of understanding their context here. I'm tied to my past and my culture, and everything I see here is filtered through the life I was born into. It is wonderful, however, to question the things I've taken for granted for so long, and to try to figure out why we do it the way we do it.
It's now occurring to me that I might've written all of this yesterday, but as there's no way to check while I'm at work, I'm going to keep writing and again tell you how immensely proud of myself I am for eating chocolate cake with chopsticks. It was one of those moments when I'm reminded that I'm in Oz or down the rabbit hole or something.
I went to the grocery store alone last night after I finished teaching. I was way too hungry to be there, and knowing as little Korean as I do, it was a really silly thing to do. I wound up buying a whole chicken (it was pretty cheap) because I didn't know how to ask the butcher to cut the breasts. I then proceeded to cook it pretty wretchedly and eating very little of it. Oh well, that's life, and it made me laugh at myself. I did, however, get some Korean spices that I'm very eager to experiment with, and some basic Korean food that I know I like.
Since I'm all about tangents today, I've also been having some really random dreams as my body adjusts to a completely different world. They run the gamut from waking up in America to this wonderfully Kafka-esque dream I had Sunday night, which woke me up at 5 AM Monday to write it down. It might or might not become a novel. I'm letting the images stew in my mind before I go back to it. Typically, I wake up a few times a night, but on the whole have found sleeping here, with all of its peculiarities, far more interesting than sleeping back at home.
For now, I'm kinda cruising through the day, wonderfully pleased with the knowledge that I don't have to work tomorrow, because it's Independence Day here. That means tonight can be another night of exploring and hopefully a good night for a run if it quits raining.
I'm going to run downstairs for some candy and maybe to take a few pictures because Dave's been harassing me.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Long awaited update
Alright, so it's Monday and I haven't posted in almost a week. Teaching's been going very well, and I think I'm getting better each day. The kids are wonderful, and I'm learning how to be stricter. i just really hope they're retaining what I teach, and I'm looking for new ways to make things interesting. The older kids, of course, are more responsive, and therefore I enjoy teaching them more. The younger kids are tougher for me, as I have yet to learn to fully restrict my language usage to words they already know. On the other hand, I've unconsciously begun using my hands when I talk, drawing pictures in the air for every word I use. It's both funny and scary how quickly the human organism will adapt to new surroundings and to what lengths it will go to be understood.
Life's been treating me pretty well, and I'm preparing for my trip to Japan next week for my visa run. I've finally adjusted to jetlag, and it's been wonderful getting into a new rhythm here. Last Wednesday night, I had my first feeling that this was home, and I've already tried and found several things that I know I'll miss when I've gone. Korea's such a brilliant country in so many ways, from their public transportation system to their recycling system to the fact that the shopping carts lock their wheels on the moving sidewalk. It's all pretty wonderful.
I'm learning to change the way I live, as well. I've learned that big towels are ridiculous, because they take ages to dry and there's really no need for them. Hand-size towels do quite nicely for drying off and take up so much less space. In general, things here and people here take up less space, and have a smaller footprint. Where we each require a separate dish at home and countless other individual allotments, life and other things are shared here in a way I'm not quite yet ready to describe. To steal words from Valentine Michael Smith, there are many things here that I don't yet grok in fullness yet, but waiting is.
For example, I do not yet know whether soju is from hell or heaven. It tastes wonderfully like kool-aid, but washes reality away as quickly as you drink it. I'm taking a break from soju for a while, I think. I went out with Jason this weekend, and discovered that I no longer have the alcohol tolerance I once possessed. This is a good thing, and I don't think I'm going to try to push it back up in the other direction.
I met a great guy named Travis, who's Korean and from the province to the east (the name of which I can't remember at the moment). He speaks great English and is a really cool guy. I feel like I have more in common with him than with the other teachers I work with, and he's willing to do something like a language exchange with me, where I learn Korean and we fine tune his English. I'm looking forward to it. What I've discovered in first meeting him are the things I take for granted as a westerner that are pretty fundamentally ridiculous. I will probably never buy a pair of shoes I can't slide off again. I've also developed a heightened sense of minimalism, and don't really see a need to have more than I'm going to immediately use. They also eat out a lot more here, but it's far cheaper. If the restaurant buys all of the food, fewer containers are needed, and less is wasted. It's a pretty interesting concept.
Some time soon, I'll have to explain Korean side dishes and tell you all about the pepper incident last week that turned me into a cartoon with steam shooting out of my ears, but for now I've got to go back to teaching. I hope all is well back home, and wish that I were closer sometimes so that you all could visit and discover the life I'm living now.
Love to all
Joe
Life's been treating me pretty well, and I'm preparing for my trip to Japan next week for my visa run. I've finally adjusted to jetlag, and it's been wonderful getting into a new rhythm here. Last Wednesday night, I had my first feeling that this was home, and I've already tried and found several things that I know I'll miss when I've gone. Korea's such a brilliant country in so many ways, from their public transportation system to their recycling system to the fact that the shopping carts lock their wheels on the moving sidewalk. It's all pretty wonderful.
I'm learning to change the way I live, as well. I've learned that big towels are ridiculous, because they take ages to dry and there's really no need for them. Hand-size towels do quite nicely for drying off and take up so much less space. In general, things here and people here take up less space, and have a smaller footprint. Where we each require a separate dish at home and countless other individual allotments, life and other things are shared here in a way I'm not quite yet ready to describe. To steal words from Valentine Michael Smith, there are many things here that I don't yet grok in fullness yet, but waiting is.
For example, I do not yet know whether soju is from hell or heaven. It tastes wonderfully like kool-aid, but washes reality away as quickly as you drink it. I'm taking a break from soju for a while, I think. I went out with Jason this weekend, and discovered that I no longer have the alcohol tolerance I once possessed. This is a good thing, and I don't think I'm going to try to push it back up in the other direction.
I met a great guy named Travis, who's Korean and from the province to the east (the name of which I can't remember at the moment). He speaks great English and is a really cool guy. I feel like I have more in common with him than with the other teachers I work with, and he's willing to do something like a language exchange with me, where I learn Korean and we fine tune his English. I'm looking forward to it. What I've discovered in first meeting him are the things I take for granted as a westerner that are pretty fundamentally ridiculous. I will probably never buy a pair of shoes I can't slide off again. I've also developed a heightened sense of minimalism, and don't really see a need to have more than I'm going to immediately use. They also eat out a lot more here, but it's far cheaper. If the restaurant buys all of the food, fewer containers are needed, and less is wasted. It's a pretty interesting concept.
Some time soon, I'll have to explain Korean side dishes and tell you all about the pepper incident last week that turned me into a cartoon with steam shooting out of my ears, but for now I've got to go back to teaching. I hope all is well back home, and wish that I were closer sometimes so that you all could visit and discover the life I'm living now.
Love to all
Joe
Monday, August 6, 2007
TESOL- Solo Flight One
Ok... So here goes... Teaching in Korea
On Friday, approximately 39 hours after arriving in Korea, I started school, but mostly to observe. I'm responsible for nine forty minute sessions Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and seven on Tuesday and Thursday. I leave for work about 9:00 and get home around eight at night, which sounds like a long day, but I have a few one or two hour breaks in there that keep it feeling a little better.
Friday was both more and less scary than I thought it would be. Just like everything else, I've prepared for all the wrong things, which is teaching me to laugh at myself. In my head I was figuring out how to structure my lesson plan, which was intimidating, but in reality I'm taking two pages of material per class and figuring out how to stretch it into forty to eighty minutes. The toughest thing is realizing that it needs to take that long to teach the pages, and that hammering pronunciation into the minds of these kids might be the most important thing I do. I'm realizing that I'm not great at it, but that I'm alright and at least comfortable considering that I'm midway through my first full day of teaching.
On Friday, I was frustrated when I couldn't just take the reigns in the classroom. Today I keep thinking to myself that I'm missing something and I'll only realize halfway through the following class that I'd forgotten to review the homework in the first. Thankfully, the morning is all kindergarden and gave me a little practice before the afternoon. I've successfully learned all of my kindergarteners' names, which I was kinda worried about, and had my first student vomit in the middle of class this morning. I think I handled it pretty well, mostly because it didn't smell at all. i just felt bad because I didn't know where stuff to clean it was, and asking turned into one of the Korean kindergarten teachers cleaning it up for me, which made me feel like a snob.
Anyway, right now I have an hour and a half break before I teach the elementary-age students, who are far more interesting to me. The kids are kids, and great ones, but I enjoy the ones I can engage with a little more. It's a totally different experience.
I am, however, a little intimidated about this afternoon in at least one way. The class that had only three students on Friday will have about nine today. Last week was school holiday here, so many of the kids didn't show up for Friday because it was the only day of class all week. I pretty much taught my afternoon classes because Sun, the supervisor, was walking me through the afternoon, while the first half of the day was only observation. When Sun stepped out, I was able to take over pretty naturally, which is why I'm also less intimidated. The lessons I'm teaching are more like the French lessons I used to teach and feel more like language lessons than kindergarten pronunciation books. In other words, this afternoon will be easier in some ways and harder in others, just like everything.
Hah, just got some good news. I don't have to stay until 7:30 tonight. My private student doesn't come back until the 13th (if I'm reading the schedule correctly). I get to go home at six. The day is half done!
To cope with the long day and to compensate for jet-lag and culture shock, I've rediscovered coffee, but will, I hope, wean back off of it as soon as I've started running again. I'm hoping that'll happen tonight. It's just been hard to get motivated to do it with everything feeling a bit out of whack and not having my fuel-foods from home. If only I could make my protein shakes, ha! I'll figure it out soon, I'm sure.
Anwyay, since I'm at work, I won't be able to post this until tonight, at which point I'll have finished a full day of teaching solo. I just wanted to get my reactions down now while they were fresh and I had nothing else to do.
Now I'm off to prepare my afternoon lessons.
Alright... It's 6:15 Monday night and I'm back home. I love the afternoons, because I get to really challenge the kids and they understand SOOOO much more. Nice thing is that I don't have either of my late private lessons until the 13th, which is amazing because I get extra time to adjust and can really feel my way through this a little better.
Things I discovered about myself today:
I'm exacting, and almost cruel when it comes to potty time.
I understand very little Korean (i.e. the word for vomiting).
I am a pretty damn good explainer, but that doesn't carry over when the kids don't know what the words I'm using to explain things mean--also I'm fairly inventive.
Teaching the word "hug" is very rewarding and can make any bad day good.
Drawing things and inspiring competition will keep anyone involved.
I need to bring things that the kids can compete to get.
Korean kids know how to cheat.
Cheating will not help kids learn English AT ALL.
I hate myself a little when I recognize myself in the personality of students.
I think that's enough for me to have learned in one day. I also learned a few new words and am making my first teensy bit of progress with Korean. It's a tough language, which means that English is just as tough for these kids. I owe it to them to learn their language, if only so that I know what they're going through.
Anyway, all is well. I've survived a day of observing and a day of teaching. Life isn't half bad. Tonight we're thinking about making steak and potatoes because the meat market around the corner's pretty good and Jason's managed to acquire potatoes (no small feat, from what I understand).
Within five days, I have:
Learned a little Korean.
Navigated the subway and taxis alone.
Found a Catholic church with mass in English.
Visited five different "dong" (kinda like neighborhoods-- Somewhere between Chelsea or the East Village and Brooklyn or Manhattan).
Tried a lot of food I can't name.
Read a little C S Lewis.
Taught (kinda) two days of classes.
and made new friends.
Not bad, if I do say so myself.
If you have questions, post a comment. There's so much to cover, and I know I'm leaving out heaping chunks, so let me know what you want to know or if I'm being too long-winded.
Love to all,
Joe
On Friday, approximately 39 hours after arriving in Korea, I started school, but mostly to observe. I'm responsible for nine forty minute sessions Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and seven on Tuesday and Thursday. I leave for work about 9:00 and get home around eight at night, which sounds like a long day, but I have a few one or two hour breaks in there that keep it feeling a little better.
Friday was both more and less scary than I thought it would be. Just like everything else, I've prepared for all the wrong things, which is teaching me to laugh at myself. In my head I was figuring out how to structure my lesson plan, which was intimidating, but in reality I'm taking two pages of material per class and figuring out how to stretch it into forty to eighty minutes. The toughest thing is realizing that it needs to take that long to teach the pages, and that hammering pronunciation into the minds of these kids might be the most important thing I do. I'm realizing that I'm not great at it, but that I'm alright and at least comfortable considering that I'm midway through my first full day of teaching.
On Friday, I was frustrated when I couldn't just take the reigns in the classroom. Today I keep thinking to myself that I'm missing something and I'll only realize halfway through the following class that I'd forgotten to review the homework in the first. Thankfully, the morning is all kindergarden and gave me a little practice before the afternoon. I've successfully learned all of my kindergarteners' names, which I was kinda worried about, and had my first student vomit in the middle of class this morning. I think I handled it pretty well, mostly because it didn't smell at all. i just felt bad because I didn't know where stuff to clean it was, and asking turned into one of the Korean kindergarten teachers cleaning it up for me, which made me feel like a snob.
Anyway, right now I have an hour and a half break before I teach the elementary-age students, who are far more interesting to me. The kids are kids, and great ones, but I enjoy the ones I can engage with a little more. It's a totally different experience.
I am, however, a little intimidated about this afternoon in at least one way. The class that had only three students on Friday will have about nine today. Last week was school holiday here, so many of the kids didn't show up for Friday because it was the only day of class all week. I pretty much taught my afternoon classes because Sun, the supervisor, was walking me through the afternoon, while the first half of the day was only observation. When Sun stepped out, I was able to take over pretty naturally, which is why I'm also less intimidated. The lessons I'm teaching are more like the French lessons I used to teach and feel more like language lessons than kindergarten pronunciation books. In other words, this afternoon will be easier in some ways and harder in others, just like everything.
Hah, just got some good news. I don't have to stay until 7:30 tonight. My private student doesn't come back until the 13th (if I'm reading the schedule correctly). I get to go home at six. The day is half done!
To cope with the long day and to compensate for jet-lag and culture shock, I've rediscovered coffee, but will, I hope, wean back off of it as soon as I've started running again. I'm hoping that'll happen tonight. It's just been hard to get motivated to do it with everything feeling a bit out of whack and not having my fuel-foods from home. If only I could make my protein shakes, ha! I'll figure it out soon, I'm sure.
Anwyay, since I'm at work, I won't be able to post this until tonight, at which point I'll have finished a full day of teaching solo. I just wanted to get my reactions down now while they were fresh and I had nothing else to do.
Now I'm off to prepare my afternoon lessons.
Alright... It's 6:15 Monday night and I'm back home. I love the afternoons, because I get to really challenge the kids and they understand SOOOO much more. Nice thing is that I don't have either of my late private lessons until the 13th, which is amazing because I get extra time to adjust and can really feel my way through this a little better.
Things I discovered about myself today:
I'm exacting, and almost cruel when it comes to potty time.
I understand very little Korean (i.e. the word for vomiting).
I am a pretty damn good explainer, but that doesn't carry over when the kids don't know what the words I'm using to explain things mean--also I'm fairly inventive.
Teaching the word "hug" is very rewarding and can make any bad day good.
Drawing things and inspiring competition will keep anyone involved.
I need to bring things that the kids can compete to get.
Korean kids know how to cheat.
Cheating will not help kids learn English AT ALL.
I hate myself a little when I recognize myself in the personality of students.
I think that's enough for me to have learned in one day. I also learned a few new words and am making my first teensy bit of progress with Korean. It's a tough language, which means that English is just as tough for these kids. I owe it to them to learn their language, if only so that I know what they're going through.
Anyway, all is well. I've survived a day of observing and a day of teaching. Life isn't half bad. Tonight we're thinking about making steak and potatoes because the meat market around the corner's pretty good and Jason's managed to acquire potatoes (no small feat, from what I understand).
Within five days, I have:
Learned a little Korean.
Navigated the subway and taxis alone.
Found a Catholic church with mass in English.
Visited five different "dong" (kinda like neighborhoods-- Somewhere between Chelsea or the East Village and Brooklyn or Manhattan).
Tried a lot of food I can't name.
Read a little C S Lewis.
Taught (kinda) two days of classes.
and made new friends.
Not bad, if I do say so myself.
If you have questions, post a comment. There's so much to cover, and I know I'm leaving out heaping chunks, so let me know what you want to know or if I'm being too long-winded.
Love to all,
Joe
Friday, August 3, 2007
Apartment Photos
Alright, so here's the apartment. Dave kindly uploaded the photos and has been a super help with all of this because I've been intimidated by the Korean buttons. I think the real issue is that I didn't know where to begin writing HTML. So here's my desk, complete with the speakers George left behind, which have come in super handy
Here's my bed, with the air conditioner above it.
Here's my kitchen area (note the box of protein bars, the boxes of fruitsnacks, etc). The bottle of orange stuff is my laundry detergent and the thing that looks to be a dishwasher in the lower right is my washing machine.
Here's inside the bathroom, a shot of the shower/sink for those of you who've never seen one.
This is my window, clothes drying rack, and TV (the TV here is great- Luke was right, they even televise Starcraft battles here, lol)
All in all, the apartment's been pretty great so far. When I took the pictures last night, I was doing my first load of laundry, which is almost dry this morning. Laundry's just another way that time is redefining itself.
More on that later, when I talk about work and stuff. That post is really still coming, I promise.
Love to all
Joe
Here's my bed, with the air conditioner above it.
Here's my kitchen area (note the box of protein bars, the boxes of fruitsnacks, etc). The bottle of orange stuff is my laundry detergent and the thing that looks to be a dishwasher in the lower right is my washing machine.
Here's inside the bathroom, a shot of the shower/sink for those of you who've never seen one.
This is my window, clothes drying rack, and TV (the TV here is great- Luke was right, they even televise Starcraft battles here, lol)
All in all, the apartment's been pretty great so far. When I took the pictures last night, I was doing my first load of laundry, which is almost dry this morning. Laundry's just another way that time is redefining itself.
More on that later, when I talk about work and stuff. That post is really still coming, I promise.
Love to all
Joe
Koreans flying, driving, and staring at the crazy american
OK, so the real reason I haven't written a post in the past few days hasn't really been that I had a lack of time. It's that blogspot assumes that you want the menus in the language that fits your IP address and I've been intimidated by Hangul like it's my job. I found the right link by clicking most of the other ones first.
Really, I should've learned some Hangul (Korea's writing system) by now, but haven't because I've been blaming it on the fact that my Hangul-teaching program hasn't downloaded yet. I've really got to spend the time to learn this stuff.
So, wow, gotta go about two and three quarters days back to get you all caught up. The flight was pretty incredible and incredibly long. 15 hours in a plane is even longer than it sounds and my delirium (see previous post) did not really help me get any consistent sleep. I watched a few movies on the flight, three to be exact, and I got to pick which ones to watch because I had my own screen. I also had a video game controller but was restricted to a version of Brickles that didn't have very accurate physics, so I kept dying and playing the same levels over and over again. I think I played the pointless game for about two to three hours of the flight, if not more. Zodiac, howver, is a great film and I suggest it to all who can stand suspenseful mystery flicks. 23, on the other hand, was disappointing at best. I'm not entirely sure what other movies I watched, which I found humorous on the ride from the airport to my apartment with Paul, my recruiter. The rest of the flight was pretty wonky, but in a very good way. The stewardesses were dressed in white shirts and shiny mint green skirts and had what looked like those ribbons you wear to support a cause in their hair except they were longer, thinner, and pointed sideways so that each stewardess had mint green horns poking out of one side of her head. Pretty amazing, when seen.
These stewardesses served me about twelve drinks throughout the course of the flight, most of which were pineapple juice, which I didn't understand entirely. We got two big meals (don't eat the Korean Air beef, for god's sake), and several snacks, though I couldn't count them or describe to you exactly what they were. The food was food to me at that point, and I tried and continue to try just about everything someone puts in front of me. Other interesting things that were passed out included:
mint green socks, in case one wanted to remove ones shoes and socks for the duration of the flight
mint green eye masks, which I saw other people wearing, but was not offered myself. I think that I accidentally got socks instead
one wetnap, near the beginning of the flight, which was indicated for refreshing all exposed skin, and is also practiced at some nicer restaurants.
one steaming towel, delivered about midway through the flight, for relieving cramps and secondary refreshment
All in all, it wasn't a bad deal, just a really really long flight.
When I got in, I was a little paranoid about customs because I didn't want to have to declare my fruit snacks, nutty bars, and protein bars. I chose not to in order to avoid the complications that would ensue. I learned later that this was mostly a moot point, as Americans' bags are rarely checked at customs. I got through, and Paul grabbed me pretty quickly after I emerged from the baggage claim.
What happened next was pretty interesting. Driving in Korea is pretty strange and I doubt that I will ever attempt it. People drive ridiculously slow or ridiculously fast, but rarely at the same speed as other cars. They also try to stay as close to sideswiping one another as possible, and while they signal everywhere, they obey no traffic light that is not convenient. I never felt as though my life was threatened, but was continually glad that I was not the one driving. Paul, I believe, got lost on the way to the apartment and could not quite figure out how to make the air conditioning and the wipers work at the same time because it was so muggy out. I'm doing well so far at not stealing the reigns to show others how to do things, and getting better at finding other approaches interesting and unique, if not entirely functional.
Once I got to the apartment, I met Jason and Tom, my neighbors and coworkers at Dong Jack Wonderland. Jason is an Airforce vet from North Carolina who owns a mink coat and a Yorkshire Terrier named Oscar who is wonderful. Jason's a handful, but a great guy who is his own social lubricant. Tom's the guy I can discuss the otherness of the other with. He's a laid-back guy with a pretty liberal bent on life. The two of them could hardly be more polar opposites, but they seem to get along well.
So I got settled in a bit, showered, and we were off for galbi, which is like barbecue that you cook yourself at the table. The first think that strikes one about korean food is the massive quantity of side dishes that just come because you sit down. I'm glad I knew how to use chopsticks already, because otherwise I'd be SOL. However, the chopsticks here are metal and reusable, which makes them harder to eat rice with. The food's great, but spicier than I'm used to. It'll take some time for me to be up to eating kimchi regularly, but I'm going to try. After dinner in central Seoul, Tom and Jason took me to see Itaewon, which is the foreigner area of Seoul, jam packed full of hiphop clubs, dives, nice places (Helios was wonderful), and other things which will remain unspoken. It was a fun night, and a good taste of Seoul, but I wound up pretty exhausted.
Thursday was spent fighting jet lag and, well, sleeping. I went out to get a bottle of water since you can't drink the tap here and discovered that I did not know the door code for the outside entrance. It was an interesting fifteen minutes wondering how long it would take me to get back into my room before the mail guy came. I spent the day eating protein bars and fruit snacks because I couldn't muster the energy to go exploring, but Jason made some excellent spaghetti for dinner, so all in all it wasn't a bad day. I wound up meeting Laura as Jason, Tom, and I neared the end of Val Kilmer's epic film, The Saint, which we found to be utterly stimulating. She's a great girl and an amazing teacher and knows more about this than I will know by the time I leave, because she's been here longer than I will be. She certainly has my admiration.
Alright. Enough. I've typed more than a sane person would want to read, and there's a ton more still trapped inside my head. Because I'm new here, every experience is novel and I don't know which ones have narrative importance yet, so I'm cataloguing everything. I did have a full day of teaching today, but that narrative will have to wait until my fingers heal from this one. Maybe later tonight. We'll see.
For now, I hope all is well on the home front.
Much love,
Joe
Really, I should've learned some Hangul (Korea's writing system) by now, but haven't because I've been blaming it on the fact that my Hangul-teaching program hasn't downloaded yet. I've really got to spend the time to learn this stuff.
So, wow, gotta go about two and three quarters days back to get you all caught up. The flight was pretty incredible and incredibly long. 15 hours in a plane is even longer than it sounds and my delirium (see previous post) did not really help me get any consistent sleep. I watched a few movies on the flight, three to be exact, and I got to pick which ones to watch because I had my own screen. I also had a video game controller but was restricted to a version of Brickles that didn't have very accurate physics, so I kept dying and playing the same levels over and over again. I think I played the pointless game for about two to three hours of the flight, if not more. Zodiac, howver, is a great film and I suggest it to all who can stand suspenseful mystery flicks. 23, on the other hand, was disappointing at best. I'm not entirely sure what other movies I watched, which I found humorous on the ride from the airport to my apartment with Paul, my recruiter. The rest of the flight was pretty wonky, but in a very good way. The stewardesses were dressed in white shirts and shiny mint green skirts and had what looked like those ribbons you wear to support a cause in their hair except they were longer, thinner, and pointed sideways so that each stewardess had mint green horns poking out of one side of her head. Pretty amazing, when seen.
These stewardesses served me about twelve drinks throughout the course of the flight, most of which were pineapple juice, which I didn't understand entirely. We got two big meals (don't eat the Korean Air beef, for god's sake), and several snacks, though I couldn't count them or describe to you exactly what they were. The food was food to me at that point, and I tried and continue to try just about everything someone puts in front of me. Other interesting things that were passed out included:
mint green socks, in case one wanted to remove ones shoes and socks for the duration of the flight
mint green eye masks, which I saw other people wearing, but was not offered myself. I think that I accidentally got socks instead
one wetnap, near the beginning of the flight, which was indicated for refreshing all exposed skin, and is also practiced at some nicer restaurants.
one steaming towel, delivered about midway through the flight, for relieving cramps and secondary refreshment
All in all, it wasn't a bad deal, just a really really long flight.
When I got in, I was a little paranoid about customs because I didn't want to have to declare my fruit snacks, nutty bars, and protein bars. I chose not to in order to avoid the complications that would ensue. I learned later that this was mostly a moot point, as Americans' bags are rarely checked at customs. I got through, and Paul grabbed me pretty quickly after I emerged from the baggage claim.
What happened next was pretty interesting. Driving in Korea is pretty strange and I doubt that I will ever attempt it. People drive ridiculously slow or ridiculously fast, but rarely at the same speed as other cars. They also try to stay as close to sideswiping one another as possible, and while they signal everywhere, they obey no traffic light that is not convenient. I never felt as though my life was threatened, but was continually glad that I was not the one driving. Paul, I believe, got lost on the way to the apartment and could not quite figure out how to make the air conditioning and the wipers work at the same time because it was so muggy out. I'm doing well so far at not stealing the reigns to show others how to do things, and getting better at finding other approaches interesting and unique, if not entirely functional.
Once I got to the apartment, I met Jason and Tom, my neighbors and coworkers at Dong Jack Wonderland. Jason is an Airforce vet from North Carolina who owns a mink coat and a Yorkshire Terrier named Oscar who is wonderful. Jason's a handful, but a great guy who is his own social lubricant. Tom's the guy I can discuss the otherness of the other with. He's a laid-back guy with a pretty liberal bent on life. The two of them could hardly be more polar opposites, but they seem to get along well.
So I got settled in a bit, showered, and we were off for galbi, which is like barbecue that you cook yourself at the table. The first think that strikes one about korean food is the massive quantity of side dishes that just come because you sit down. I'm glad I knew how to use chopsticks already, because otherwise I'd be SOL. However, the chopsticks here are metal and reusable, which makes them harder to eat rice with. The food's great, but spicier than I'm used to. It'll take some time for me to be up to eating kimchi regularly, but I'm going to try. After dinner in central Seoul, Tom and Jason took me to see Itaewon, which is the foreigner area of Seoul, jam packed full of hiphop clubs, dives, nice places (Helios was wonderful), and other things which will remain unspoken. It was a fun night, and a good taste of Seoul, but I wound up pretty exhausted.
Thursday was spent fighting jet lag and, well, sleeping. I went out to get a bottle of water since you can't drink the tap here and discovered that I did not know the door code for the outside entrance. It was an interesting fifteen minutes wondering how long it would take me to get back into my room before the mail guy came. I spent the day eating protein bars and fruit snacks because I couldn't muster the energy to go exploring, but Jason made some excellent spaghetti for dinner, so all in all it wasn't a bad day. I wound up meeting Laura as Jason, Tom, and I neared the end of Val Kilmer's epic film, The Saint, which we found to be utterly stimulating. She's a great girl and an amazing teacher and knows more about this than I will know by the time I leave, because she's been here longer than I will be. She certainly has my admiration.
Alright. Enough. I've typed more than a sane person would want to read, and there's a ton more still trapped inside my head. Because I'm new here, every experience is novel and I don't know which ones have narrative importance yet, so I'm cataloguing everything. I did have a full day of teaching today, but that narrative will have to wait until my fingers heal from this one. Maybe later tonight. We'll see.
For now, I hope all is well on the home front.
Much love,
Joe
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Creepy TSA Lady Tries to Steal Liquids Ziploc!
Oh the terror, oh the humanity... oh the sleepless nights...
So I woke up yesterday morning around... well... I'm not entirely sure... the time distortion has begun. I think it was around 9:30, which is late for me recently. For some odd reason (possibly the whole quitting smoking and running business) my internal clock has finally set itself of late. Good news in some ways, terrible news in others. The realization that I did, in fact, have a functioning inner clock led me to the wild and reckless decision of last evening–inspired by Molly Carew-to avoid jetlag and the tedium of a fifteen hour flight by staying awake until it. All considered, it will probably work out for the best. I got a lot accomplished last night and the only thing I think i forgot was my baseball hat, which I probably didn't need anyway.
One side effect of sleep withdrawal is rambling, which will commence now. As i have nothing to report as yet... since I'm only in Hotlanta on layover... I will discuss with you the quantum mechanics and metaphysics involved in packing one's entire life (for a year, mind you) into a suitcase or two. I think in my mind I had stolen Mary Poppins' purse as a carry on. I kept mentally putting things into my bag and assuming that they'd just slip into the corner of my bag, making room for the next twelve things. It's pretty comical, really. If you've read the latest Harry Potter book, you know why I wish I had Hermione around to make me a little bag that can hold tents and picture frames, but still fits nicely into a pocket.
In all, I brought:
Black shoes
Brown shoes
Running shoes
A few comic books to teach with
Two pairs of running shorts
Three pairs of outing shorts
Four pairs of jeans
Five pant-shirt-tie pairings
but sadly, Six-by-Seuss didn't make the final cut, just Cat in a Hat, Cat in a Hat Comes Back, and of course Green Eggs and Ham
Ok, I could keep listing, but the real highlights are the four packets of taco seasoning and the five boxes of fruit snacks (one of which I now carry in my stomach)... which are utterly ludicrous.... and of course the protein bars I brought because I had an irrational fear of being too exhausted to venture out and try to figure out how to eat... I also brought enough audiobooks to keep me occupied for a solid week, though I can't think of the last time I listened to one while doing anything but driving.... ha... we'll see how that works out...
So I was up all night, trying to decide what I could live without, and, faced with two conflicting answers ("all of it" and "none of it"), I wound up reformatting my iMac so my dad can take it to his office and then going for the most amazing run of my life down Cranston at 3 30 in the morning. I think there's something about being around my house at night that is pretty magical and significant for me. It sounds funny, twisted, and offensive, but I feel like my family is more my own when they're all asleep and I get to skulk around and accomplish things silently. The run was just icing on the cake. I haven't gotten to run for the past few days because I've not been feeling so hot, and to get to run out in the middle of nowhere with no cars on the road and the full moon streaming through the low, dense fog was amazing. I have no idea how far I went, but by the time I got back I had pushed through exhaustion into delirium... and with delirium came the peace I'd been waiting to feel about this trip...
I got back, showered, packed the last of my stuff, weighed myself alone and with my bags again (it was pretty entertaining) so that I could see if everything fit, and it was time to go.
Mom and Dad drove me to the airport and we listened to the LIfe of Pi, which is a great book. I dozed off a few times, and got that sick gut feeling at the airport as I said good bye and then stood awkwardly waiting in line waving. Goodbyes are easier when they're clean and quick, but I'm not complaining. I have some pretty amazing parents, and they're backing me on my craziest venture yet.
Ok. I totally forgot to build to this... I'll have to remember that next time... but in comes the crazy TSA lady and the random screening. Actually, she was pretty nice and this is more of an anticlimax than a climax, except that she gave me a look like I was about to bomb a plane when i went up to her and asked if I could have my ziploc o' liquids, which she hadn't returned to me after I was frisked and my belongings were treated like nothing should ever be treated.
So I got on the plane, tried to listen to an audiobook and maybe sleep a little.... none of which worked because I'm delirious and I wouldn't even be able to tell if they did... and wound up talking to a nice woman who I think wanted to talk the whole time but I can't really be sure.
And now I'm in Hotlanta, feeling much better about life since Laura, who teaches at the school, emailed me back and said that they're going to meet me tonight (though tonight is really tomorrow night which is half as far away or something like that), and meeting them is a huge relief, because it means I can ask them how to find food and won't have to raid my protein bars immediately. She also gave me the go ahead to get a bottle of Maker's for the school director, which I got at duty free after dodging the very appealing and cheap box of Lucky Strike Lights.
And now I sit here, having decided to get Panda Express for lunch/breakfast because I love irony. It's pretty gross, but I had to have cheap, imitation, americanized Asian cuisine one last time. Really, I'm just playing games with myself. I'm not too concerned about anything right now, and as I said, I like quick, clean goodbyes. So I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Deville. Or something like that. Let's get this show on the road.
I miss you all already, but life goes on and gets more wonderful and exciting... We've got to keep meeting new people to miss later....
Here goes nothing
Joe
So I woke up yesterday morning around... well... I'm not entirely sure... the time distortion has begun. I think it was around 9:30, which is late for me recently. For some odd reason (possibly the whole quitting smoking and running business) my internal clock has finally set itself of late. Good news in some ways, terrible news in others. The realization that I did, in fact, have a functioning inner clock led me to the wild and reckless decision of last evening–inspired by Molly Carew-to avoid jetlag and the tedium of a fifteen hour flight by staying awake until it. All considered, it will probably work out for the best. I got a lot accomplished last night and the only thing I think i forgot was my baseball hat, which I probably didn't need anyway.
One side effect of sleep withdrawal is rambling, which will commence now. As i have nothing to report as yet... since I'm only in Hotlanta on layover... I will discuss with you the quantum mechanics and metaphysics involved in packing one's entire life (for a year, mind you) into a suitcase or two. I think in my mind I had stolen Mary Poppins' purse as a carry on. I kept mentally putting things into my bag and assuming that they'd just slip into the corner of my bag, making room for the next twelve things. It's pretty comical, really. If you've read the latest Harry Potter book, you know why I wish I had Hermione around to make me a little bag that can hold tents and picture frames, but still fits nicely into a pocket.
In all, I brought:
Black shoes
Brown shoes
Running shoes
A few comic books to teach with
Two pairs of running shorts
Three pairs of outing shorts
Four pairs of jeans
Five pant-shirt-tie pairings
but sadly, Six-by-Seuss didn't make the final cut, just Cat in a Hat, Cat in a Hat Comes Back, and of course Green Eggs and Ham
Ok, I could keep listing, but the real highlights are the four packets of taco seasoning and the five boxes of fruit snacks (one of which I now carry in my stomach)... which are utterly ludicrous.... and of course the protein bars I brought because I had an irrational fear of being too exhausted to venture out and try to figure out how to eat... I also brought enough audiobooks to keep me occupied for a solid week, though I can't think of the last time I listened to one while doing anything but driving.... ha... we'll see how that works out...
So I was up all night, trying to decide what I could live without, and, faced with two conflicting answers ("all of it" and "none of it"), I wound up reformatting my iMac so my dad can take it to his office and then going for the most amazing run of my life down Cranston at 3 30 in the morning. I think there's something about being around my house at night that is pretty magical and significant for me. It sounds funny, twisted, and offensive, but I feel like my family is more my own when they're all asleep and I get to skulk around and accomplish things silently. The run was just icing on the cake. I haven't gotten to run for the past few days because I've not been feeling so hot, and to get to run out in the middle of nowhere with no cars on the road and the full moon streaming through the low, dense fog was amazing. I have no idea how far I went, but by the time I got back I had pushed through exhaustion into delirium... and with delirium came the peace I'd been waiting to feel about this trip...
I got back, showered, packed the last of my stuff, weighed myself alone and with my bags again (it was pretty entertaining) so that I could see if everything fit, and it was time to go.
Mom and Dad drove me to the airport and we listened to the LIfe of Pi, which is a great book. I dozed off a few times, and got that sick gut feeling at the airport as I said good bye and then stood awkwardly waiting in line waving. Goodbyes are easier when they're clean and quick, but I'm not complaining. I have some pretty amazing parents, and they're backing me on my craziest venture yet.
Ok. I totally forgot to build to this... I'll have to remember that next time... but in comes the crazy TSA lady and the random screening. Actually, she was pretty nice and this is more of an anticlimax than a climax, except that she gave me a look like I was about to bomb a plane when i went up to her and asked if I could have my ziploc o' liquids, which she hadn't returned to me after I was frisked and my belongings were treated like nothing should ever be treated.
So I got on the plane, tried to listen to an audiobook and maybe sleep a little.... none of which worked because I'm delirious and I wouldn't even be able to tell if they did... and wound up talking to a nice woman who I think wanted to talk the whole time but I can't really be sure.
And now I'm in Hotlanta, feeling much better about life since Laura, who teaches at the school, emailed me back and said that they're going to meet me tonight (though tonight is really tomorrow night which is half as far away or something like that), and meeting them is a huge relief, because it means I can ask them how to find food and won't have to raid my protein bars immediately. She also gave me the go ahead to get a bottle of Maker's for the school director, which I got at duty free after dodging the very appealing and cheap box of Lucky Strike Lights.
And now I sit here, having decided to get Panda Express for lunch/breakfast because I love irony. It's pretty gross, but I had to have cheap, imitation, americanized Asian cuisine one last time. Really, I'm just playing games with myself. I'm not too concerned about anything right now, and as I said, I like quick, clean goodbyes. So I'm ready for my close up, Mr. Deville. Or something like that. Let's get this show on the road.
I miss you all already, but life goes on and gets more wonderful and exciting... We've got to keep meeting new people to miss later....
Here goes nothing
Joe
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