Seoul Sara

Annyoung!

2008-08-07T09:24:00.002+08:00

After six years of blogging, it seems that it's finally time to call it quits. I haven't updated in months and, while I still have stories to tell, I no longer feel I need to tell them here.

Today is my last day in Korea and it hasn't hit me yet. I'm sitting here in my empty apartment wondering where the year went. It was a long year. And a hard year. There were absolutely fantastic things about this past year and other things that left me lower than low.

I've spent the past two and a half years here in Asia and now I'm heading back to Canada to try my hand at "real" teaching. This coming year will be tough. Teaching jobs are few and far between in the cities and everyone wants in. But, you've got to start somewhere and that's what I'm going to do.

Keep your fingers crossed for me and, who knows, maybe I'll be back with more adventure stories some day soon.

Blog-worthy

2008-06-04T18:57:00.003+08:00

This week in middle school we're studying Lesson 5: How MP3 Files Work. In theory, the textbook authors are brilliant. They've created a topic that will capture the interest of "today's youth". In practice, try teaching students who answer the question "How are you today" with "I'm 14 years old" about "downloading" "copyright" and "convert a file".

However, in reviewing the worksheets students used for a debate in class, I found a small gem that reminds me why teaching can be great.

The topic of the debate was: It is impossible to stop file sharing, so music and film industries should not try to do so.

The student said:

I agree with file sharing. Because there are two reasons. At first, it can help an access of people to the culture. Many people, especially the poor, can't access to the culture easily because they have to pay a lot. File sharing helps people to access to the the culture and improve their culture level.
Second, we cannot stop file sharing. There are billions of file sharing network. If we try to stop file sharing, it must be a waste of time. Instead, we should work hard to develop other forms of products that can compete with file sharing network.
In these reasons, I agree with file sharing. I know it's illegal but some people have to sacrifice for the more good.

Finally, something news worthy!

2008-04-15T19:41:00.003+08:00

In Grade 3 this week, we're practicing the sentence structure "Have you ever heard of ____" and "I can't believe it! What else can you tell me about him/her?"

Using the textbook example with Paul Bunyan (and this only begins to highlight my problems with the middle school textbook), the students had to create their own dialogue using a famous person from Korea or abroad.

Just incase that's too small to read, the dialogue is as follows:

A: Have you ever heard of Sara?

B: Sara? No. Who's that?

A: She is a teacher in Noil middle school. She is good at teaching.

B: I can't believe it! What else can you tell me about her?

A: Well, she is more beautiful than any teacher in Noil middle school.

Suwon Folk Village

2008-03-07T19:36:00.003+08:00

Last week, Kelly, Richard and I spent much too long on Line 1 travelling to Suwon to go to a Korean folk village. The village itself is actually a 30 minute bus ride outside of Suwon city but the trip was worth it.

Richard got tired of carrying his camera around so he gave it to Kelly. She managed to capture the day with a grand total of 500 pictures.

There were traditional acrobats and numerous kimchi pots along with too much spring mud.

It was the most successful day trip yet... we'll ignore the fact that it's been the only day trip yet.

Kimchi Pots

2008-03-02T21:10:00.002+08:00

JimJilBang: A Trip to the Spa

2008-02-29T10:01:00.004+08:00

After a morning spent perusing the Yongsan electronics market and a lunch of on kim bap (Korean sushi) and kimchi jjigae (spicy cabbage soup), it was decided that the only thing that could possibly conclude this very ‘Korean’ day would be a trip to the sauna.

Now, if you remember my first Korean sauna experience, you’ll recall the whole the only-clothes-your-wearing-is-your-birthday-suit “thing” about Korean saunas. I was feeling confident, though, and determined to push through with the whole thing. We had done our research, this was a 10 000won sauna (approximately $10.00) so it was pretty much guaranteed to be a good one.

After a few minutes of standing facing my locker, avoiding eye contact with anyone near me, I finally felt brave enough to march down the stairs to the baths area. With a hand towel draped casually over one arm, which also conveniently doubled as full frontal coverage, I made my way to the baths.

My confidence was immediately shattered when a group of 12 year old Korean girls, who were splashing around in the ‘Children’s Bath’, stopped what they were doing and started giggling and pointing at me. I made a hasty retreat to the “36 Celsius” bath (they’re were all labeled by temperature) and plunged in. While relaxing (read: hiding) in the bath, I saw the scrubbing ajumas and decided that it had to be done.

At a sauna/spa/jimjilbang, there are ajumas (older Korean women sporting black undergarments) and ajoshis (older Korean men with no undergarments) who work in the female/male parts of the baths. They offer scrubs (a full body exfoliating treatment), massages and other things that I couldn’t understand from the ‘menu’.

And so I walked over hesitantly. One ajuma took my locker-key wristband while another gestured for me to lie flat on my back on the plastic covered massage table. I laid down and fought hard not to burst out laughing. Here I was, laying stark naked on a plastic table, in a bath house with a nearly stark naked woman about to scrub me down with exfoliating gloves. What had I been thinking?

And so the scrub began. Ankles, calves, thighs and… oh my! Then stomach and something akin to a breast exam. Shoulders, arm pits, arms and hands. Repeat all of this on the left side and then change to lying on my side where there was more scrubbing of legs, thighs and oh dear!! and up to the torso. Repeat while lying on my stomach and then again while lying on my right side. Add some washing with soap and a few buckets of water thrown on me to rinse off and it was a done deal.
I'm still not sure what to think about the whole thing - definitely the most invasive experience I've ever had - but when in Rome...

Dr. Fish

2008-02-19T18:50:00.006+08:00

Sunday marked 2 years since first coming to Asia. It seems that I have indeed been here for awhile when things like this are just part of another Saturday night.

Jeff's feet enjoying a fishy nibble.

I first heard about Dr. Fish in China. I believe it was somewhere between Lijiang and Dali that I heard about the phenomenon of sitting in pools where little fish nibbled the dead skin off your body. No thank you very much, I though. I’ll stick to my loofah. At the sauna in North Korea, there was the opportunity to have the little suckers nibble the dead skin off of your feet. But the idea of a nude-sauna was more than enough challenge for one afternoon so I again declined. Finally, a few weeks ago, I got brave (read: all my friends were going) and decided to see what the whole thing was about.

While everyone plunged their feet in…

Jen and Jeff in the Dr. Fish pool. Apparently Jen's feet didn't taste so delicious. I however, spent most of the night like this...

For the 2 hours that we were there, I spent most of the time putting the heel of my right foot just below the surface of the water and yelping every time a fish came up for a nibble. I would gradually work myself up again to put a heel in the pool, wait for a fish to come, yelp, and retract the foot. And so the process continued for the evening. The nibbling fish felt like a cross between pins-and-needles in your legs and a strange tickling sensation. That combined with the fact that I generally have a fear of fish eating me (snorkeling is a whole adventure in and of itself), Dr. Fish and I have agreed to disagree.

The Running of the... Koreans?

2008-02-17T19:49:00.003+08:00

Since coming to Asia, I’ve adapted to life as a functioning illiterate quite well. Phrasebooks, picture dictionaries and a big smile have become a regular part of my interactions with people. If a restaurant has a menu with pictures, it’s like striking gold. If a bank clerk even says ‘Hello’ to me in English, I immediately like them more than the rest.

While Korea certainly has more English in every day life than China did, there are also many more rules regarding formal social behavior here. From bowing to elders to pouring drinks using two hands, I’m constantly watching everyone around me to know just what exactly I should be doing. And so, when attempting to make it on the last train home last night, my fate was completely in the hands of the other passengers.

After stepping off the train at the interchange station, there was a blaring announcement over the loudspeaker. I thought I understood it. I thought it said that the train going to Madeul Station (the station before my stop) was coming. In retrospect, I have no idea what the announcement actually said. However, I sensed urgency in the announcement because it acted like a start gun for the 100 meter Olympic sprint. In something akin to the running of the bulls, everyone who had been on the train went charging down the stairs, dashing along the corridor of the line-change and plunging down another set of stairs to the train platform.

Since I could hear the rumblings of a train on the other line, I immediately followed pursuit.

I’ve also become quite good at running for trains and navigating through large masses of people since living here. I zigged when everyone else zagged and made it down the second staircase in record time. When I reached the train platform, I found a few sheepish looking runners and… no train…

It seemed that the announcement was for the train heading in the opposite direction.

Rules are Rules

2008-02-15T22:05:00.001+08:00

From the Lamphu Guesthouse, Bangkok

Beach Bummin'

2008-02-13T20:27:00.004+08:00

After a day in Bangkok, it was time to move on to Koh Chang. This involved a 6:00am wake-up call, a 20 minute late bus, a 6 hour bus ride, one ferry and a ride in the back of a truck to Koh Chang Lagoon Resort, where, unlike in Bangkok, they still had our reservation. It was set to be the perfect beach holiday.

There was soft white sand, shady palm trees, and calm water. With four days of relaxing on the beach infront of me, I couldn't have been happier. And then I woke up Saturday morning and heard the most dreaded sound anyone on a beach holiday could hear - raindrops on the window.

I pulled the blankets back over my head (the air conditioner was on extra-freezing-mode) and hoped that I was dreaming. Two hours later, I woke up again and everything outside was quiet. I slowly pulled the curtains back, fingers crossed, but found only gray skies.

And that's how it stayed until the day I left to go back to Bangkok. So much for that perfect beach holiday.

Bangkok

2008-02-11T15:42:00.000+08:00

I had been in Bangkok for less than 24 hours, had slept not quite enough but rolled out into the sunshine anyways to go to a one of the most delicious breakfast places I’ve encountered while traveling these past two years. After devouring a tasty mushroom and herb omelet and downing the second-best pineapple shake of the trip (the best pineapple shake would be had the following day), Kelly and I made our way to Wat Phra Kaew for a touristy morning.

While meandering through the park on the way there, I noticed a man in neon-green-short-shorts and unbuttoned flannel shirt carrying a paper lunch bag. That’s an odd combination, I thought. Before this thought process could go any further, the man moved the paper bag from in front of his groin to reveal the contents of his lunch (if you will).

I gasped, averted my eyes and tried to cross the street as quickly as possible.

While shoving a protesting Kelly into oncoming traffic, she managed to ask what was wrong before a motorcycle almost took her out at the knees. Stepping back on to the curb and waiting for traffic to subside, I explained what I had just seen. She turned around, saw the guy (and his lunch) and said he was still looking at us. We immediately plunged into traffic and ran across the street away from any men in odd combinations of clothing.

An Interview Interlude

2008-02-10T11:39:00.000+08:00

Taking a short break from updating about the trip to answer Jen's "interview questions".

The Rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions

The Questions and Answers:

1. What is the best thing about living in Korea?
If I have to pick just one, I’d say the friends I’ve met here.

2. What is the most frustrating thing about living in Korea?
Saving face, the complete lack of vegetarian options at Korean restaurants, how expensive everything is compared to the rest of Asia and how cold it is in the winter. Oh, and how long it takes me to get anywhere from Nowhere-gu… that's more than one though...

3. What do you miss most about home?
Family and Friends. Having an oven to make pizza and chocolate chip cookies. Automatically understanding everything I see/read/hear.

4. What was your favourite part of your trip to Shanghai?
The familiarity of the city. Knowing how to get everywhere, delicious restaurants, where to go to buy things, and being able to communicate with people in Chinese.

5. What are you passionate about?
Chocolate. Also, learning/teaching. Travel.

The Questions for Jen:

1. What was something you found different about China (as compared to Korea)?
2. What was the best moment of your trip to China?
3. If you could eat only three foods (choosing just one would be too difficult!) and one drink for the rest of your life, what would they be?
4. Who taught you how to knit and why?
5. Where will you be five years from now?

The Offer:

I'm no Barbara Walters but I'll ask you questions if you want me to.

Wo ai Shanghai... Most of the time

2008-02-08T21:49:00.001+08:00

Before I left to travel, I made a list of things I wanted to do while in Shanghai. The number one item was to eat at my favourite Chinese restaurant in Pudong - Smart Noshery Makes You Slobber. This place was a staple in my Shanghai dining. It was cheap, the food was always hot and delicious and best of all, there was an English menu (the owner spoke fluent English and French). It wasn't uncommon for me to go there 2 or 3 times a week and order the same 3 or 4 dishes each time. I loved the place.

The plan was to head to Smart Noshery for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate a triumphant return to Shanghai. So hungry that my stomach was eating my backbone, Kelly and I braved rushhour traffic, the Nanpu Bridge, and the worst weather Shanghai has seen in years to travel all the way back to Pudong for dinner.

I knew the rapid pace of change in Shanghai. I knew that what is there one day can be completely gone the next. But I almost cried when I saw the locks on the doors.

The taxi ride to Blue Frog in Superbrand Mall was the most depressing 15 minutes of my life. I couldn't believe that I would never again be able to order mapo dofu - bu yao ro - in the sticky booth with the tables that I always cracked my knees on because they were too small.

Smart Noshery, this ones for you!

On the Road

2008-02-02T12:54:00.000+08:00

As I sat on the flight from Seoul to Shanghai early last Saturday morning, I realized that it had been almost 5 months since I had last been on an airplane - this is the longest period of time in the past 2 years that I've stayed in one place.

Although it's only a short jaunt - Shanghai for 3 days and Thailand for 5 (plus a day of travel on either end) just about everything that could go wrong, has.

The flight to Shanghai was turbulent and upon arriving in Shanghai it seemed that the city was getting the worst end of the global warming stick. It was snowing, sleeting and dipping below freezing in a city that hasn't seen snow for almost 2 years. Then it snowed, rained, hailed and everything in between for the 3 days I was there. Not to mention that the heat in the hostel room didn't work.

Trying to leave Shanghai was a whole other nightmare in itself. Flights were backed up from the past 3 days of poor weather, the airport was filled with stranded travellers and my flight had ceased checking in until further notice. Further notice turned out to be 3 hours later. Add on another 3 hour wait for the flight to depart put me in Bangkok at close to 1:00am Shanghai time. Arriving at K.C Guesthouse in Bangkok, the "friendly" manager informed Kelly and I that they were over booked and consequently didn't have room for us but they had "conveniently" found us another place to stay... at double the price. "Not impressed" didn't even begin to cover it.

Expecting nothing but the worst (and hoping only for the best), I travelled the 6 hours to Ko Chang from Bangkok (which, incidentally, felt like the shortest bus travel after the 36 hour bus nightmare of Vietnam '07). Arriving on Ko Chang, the lush green mountains and warm temperatures immediately put me at ease. The resort was easy to find, it's on the brighter side of decent and the beach is only minutes away from the room. Not to mention the amazing air con and satellite TV! Travel luck finally seems to be on my side.

Gyeongbokgung / Gyeongbok Palace

2008-01-20T18:51:00.001+08:00

Entrance to Gyeongbokgung after closing. The only time it's not swarmed with people.

Inside the palace looking over the moat.

The royal throne.

Inside the palace looking out to the city. One of the things that Seoul definitely has going for it is the preservation of Korean history.

Freezing Cold

2008-01-19T09:29:00.001+08:00

I bought this jacket in Shanghai to go to Tibet. Little did I know that Tibet would be warmer than this winter in Seoul.

It’s been cold here in Seoul this past week. Last week the temperature dipped and dived from +3 Celsius to -5, then it would go hurtling back up to +2 and then the next day a nose dive to -6. Checking the weather network every morning was always a surprise. This week, however, was cold. Damn cold. -14 Celsius cold.

Each morning I contemplated how many layers I could fit under my normal work clothes and avoid looking like the State Puff Marshmallow Man. It usually consisted of long johns, knee socks, wool socks, jeans, long john shirt, turtleneck, wool sweater, Columbia jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves.

But Sara, you say, this is nothing new! You wore all that last year in Shanghai!

Yes, I say, but there’s a difference.

Shanghai continually hovered around zero degrees Celsius. Inside was always the same temperature as out because the school corridors didn’t have windows due to the extreme summer heat.

Seoul, however, gave me hope. There were windows in the corridors and air conditioners / heaters in the classrooms. It’s further north than Shanghai and is consequently colder in the winter so there has to be heating. And indeed, there is heating, in the classrooms. This means that one goes from an overheated, dry, stuffy classroom, to the frigid corridor and into another overheated, dry, stuffy, classroom. I’m not sure which is worse – Shanghai or Seoul.

My breaking point, and decision on this matter, came on Thursday. It was -12 Celsius outside and I was wearing as many clothes as possible. Being the first one in my classroom for the winter camps that I’m teaching, I’m responsible for turning on the heaters. So when I arrive at 8:30am, my classroom is only a few degrees warmer than outside. Usually, it’s retained some of the heat from the previous day.

The corridors, though, are exactly the same temperature as outside. So that means that when the school custodial team decides that it’s a good day to wash all of the floors, and then they leave for a lunch break, the puddles of water on the floor turn to ice. ICE. I literally skated my way to my office after winter camp was over.

Ice inside the building. I almost cried I was so cold. Right then and there I decided I would take the Shanghai damp winter over this.

Masagee

2008-01-16T18:02:00.000+08:00

And here I was worried that I wouldn’t have anything interesting to write about this week. Yoga class never fails!

After being propelled into a full bridge by an instructor who thinks that because I have long limbs, I can do yoga well (my Korean co-teacher translated that one for me last Friday), I wasn’t sure what else to expect from the class. It had been pretty intense so far with a good twenty-minutes spent working on core-strength and I wasn’t sure I could handle much more.

Then, the teacher says the Korean equivalent of, ‘you and the person beside you will be partners, one will lie on the mat face down, the other will be the massager’.

I panicked. Was a small Korean woman going to walk on me?! I may be big by Korean standards but I’m definitely not strong enough to support someone who doesn’t know what their doing. I almost jumped up and left the room.

Fortunately, for me (and unfortunately, later, for my partner) the instructor walked us through all of the “massage” techniques – step on their foot with the arch of your foot, move up and down. Shake their calf muscles with the same foot as their leg, step up and down and slowly bend their leg down. Massage their back by gently applying pressure with the bottom of your hand, then, rub their shoulders.

My partner did a great job, she had obviously done this before. I, however, gave her a massage that must have resembled a massage chair on drugs. I jerked, stepped too lightly then (probably) much too heavily. I rubbed her shoulders but applied too much pressure at some points and not enough at others. All the while, I worried that I was going to break this woman who was half the size of me. The instructor sensed my apprehension and spent most of the massage coaching me through it while massaging the woman's right side.

Poor woman - she probably has an extremely relaxed right side of her body and a tense, knotted, left side.

Should be interesting to see what happens at Friday’s class!

Saturday Night at City Hall

2008-01-14T19:25:00.000+08:00

Ice Sculptures

While they were pretty, they lacked any of the pizazz that Canadian ice sculptures have.

Ice Skating

There were so many people on the rink that people were walking on skates more than they were skating.

More Around Town

2008-01-13T20:29:00.001+08:00

Gwanghwamun 'Gate'

Where the city gate used to stand, there's now replica of sorts.

Close up

Grocery Shopping

2008-01-13T17:09:00.001+08:00

I love going to the grocery store. What I love even more than going to the grocery store is going to the grocery store even more in Asia. Going to the grocery store in China required patience, agility and good loud “ai yaaaaah” (the “yaaah” being more drawn out and whiney than karate chop) to let other buyers know that they had just crashed their cart directly into you. Shopping in Korea in one of the larger hyper-marts requires the same skills but after a year and a half of doing it in China, I prefer the smaller ‘marts’ in my neighborhood.

K-mart is literally around the corner from my building. It has all of the basics and even a few western luxuries (you can buy cheap and fairly tasty camembert). I go there pretty much every other day and the days that I’m not there, I’m certain that Kelly is. In fact, I’ll often be grocery shopping and she’ll come wander down an aisle or I’ll be debating instant rice dishes and she’ll magically appear to suggest a good one.

After meeting in the rice aisle, we usually spend a good 20 minutes wandering up and down every other aisle in the mart. Keep in mind, we come here every other day and the entire store is smaller than any Superstore / Loblaws produce section. It’s not that we can’t find what we’re looking for or are confused by Korean labeling (although buying soy sauce and the fear of getting vinegar is often frightening); rather, every time we go, we always seem to find something new or something ridiculous. Take for example the green grapes in a can (Kelly whipped out her cell phone to photograph these) or the maxi pads that have a central core of herbs to avoid odors (what?!).

While wandering around on Thursday night (it was the second time I had been there that day) and looking for treats to bring to my winter camp students, the produce manager came marching up to Kelly and I, handed us both tangerines, smiled and said something loudly in Korean. We smiled, thanked him and went to check out. Both a little confused by this whole production, we both immediately peeled the tangerines and started munching away so as to show our satisfaction. This was complicated by the fact that I was paying for my groceries and trying to bag them at the same time. Meanwhile, the produce manager was beaming at us from across the store quite pleased with himself.

Just another day at the mart.

Cooking Adventures

2008-01-07T15:21:00.000+08:00

In an attempt to redeem my cooking abilities, I've been hunting down ingredients for curries, soups, and sauces. It's costing me a fortune! This basil cost me $3.74 CAD.

Why is cooking redemtion necessary, you ask?

It all started last year when Kelly and I were roomates. I wouldn't get home until 7:00pm everyday so she would make dinner and I would do the dishes. It worked out great because I was usually starving by the time I got home and she hates doing dishes. We continued this tradition here in Seoul, except I would go over to her apartment for eating and do her dishes there. This worked out fine until about October when she had meetings with teachers or other things to do at school. I quickly made dinner dates with Richard, Jeff and Jen. And so we joked about my inability to cook for myself.

What was once a joke has somehow become fact. While at the grocery store with Richard yesterday, he asked what I was looking for. When I replied, "spices" he was puzzled beyond belief, paused for a moment, and said, "but you don't cook." I promptly punched him in the gut and went on to explain that I do indeed cook, I just haven't cooked lately... for the past year (or more).

And so, tomorrow will be bring another journey out into Seoul in an attempt to find curry paste, coconut milk, and cumin. Dear lord it's hard to find cumin in this city.

Saving Face

2008-01-06T18:05:00.000+08:00

Any travel book you read on Asia will, without a doubt, mention the notion of ‘saving face’. That is, the idea that it’s better to smile through any negative emotion rather than cause someone to be embarrassed or feel uncomfortable. Saving face has been the bane of my existence since coming to this side of the world.

Yesterday, while shopping in Namdaemun Market (one of the giant market of anything and everything here in Seoul) I asked the female store clerk the price of a large bag of candy to use as prizes for my winter camp students. I asked in Korean, the woman responded in Korean and, while taking a minute to compute what she had just told me, she barked “Seven thousand!” in English and turned around to continue re-organizing things in the stall. Looking around some more, both Kelly and I decided that these bags would be the most bang for our buck and went to purchase. Kelly bought hers first. She handed the male cashier a 10 000 won bill and received 2 500 won change. She was rather confused but accepted it and walked away. I, on the other hand, decided to make a fuss. I asked the price before I gave the man my money and when he said ‘chil chun o bak won’ (7 500 won) I took the calculator to disagree while motioning to the other woman and punching in 7 000.

Granted it was a matter of 500 won (a little more than 50 cents) but it was the principal of the whole thing that got me. The man shrugged okay, and started making change. I felt better about things until he handed me 2 500 won. I again pointed to the other woman and said again that she said 7 000 not 7 500. He then takes out 3 000 won in change and the woman jumps in and says “No, no no, 7 500” as if I’m the foreign idiot who couldn’t compute prices. Absolutely frustrated with the whole thing, I say okay, take my change, force a smile and marched out of the store unknowingly knocking my empty coffee cup on the ground and looking like the rudest foreigner around.

In theory, it was the two at the store who were in the wrong. One told me one price, the other told me a higher price, and I should have been given the lower price in that kind of market situation. At least, in theory. Here, however, the notion of saving face seemed to be much more important than what may be right or wrong.

The reason while the difference of 50 cents really gets my goat goes back to last year in China. All during the year, I regularly spent time asking the teachers I was working with in China if what I was doing in the classroom was satisfactory. I asked if they would prefer if I did something different or take another approach to the lessons. With a smile, they all told me that everything I was doing was fine and the students liked me as their foreign teacher. Come time to collect my final pay and “end of year bonus” from the company (the day before I was schedule to fly out of Shanghai), I found out that this wasn’t quite the story – that in fact the schools weren’t so satisfied with my teaching – and consequently, I received a horrible end of year bonus.

Now granted, the teaching portion wasn’t the whole truth of the bonus and it was more that the company was run by some less than savory characters (who knew that I wasn’t re-signing and leaving the next day and could consequently do whatever they like to my pay) but all of that aside, the predominance of ‘saving face’ rather than a sense of right and wrong has soured my opinion of people more than once and left me as one frustrated foreigner in Asia.

Yoga with Korean Characteristics

2008-01-02T19:30:00.000+08:00

Through the years I’ve taken gymnastics classes, dance classes and pilates classes but I’ve never taken a yoga class. I’ve been curious about all the yoga-hype over the past few years and have even perused my mother’s yoga books from the sixties (before I was born my mother was a yoga-doing-vegetarian and my father played the flute barefoot on the roof of their apartment – suddenly a lot of things make sense, eh?).

Flash-forward to January 2, 2008 at 5:00pm. On my left is my Korean co-teacher, on my right is Kelly. We are surrounded by a dozen or so middle-aged Korean women in various types of yoga-garb. One women still has her sunglasses on. Another decided that polyester dress pants are most comfortable for yoga. Before I can take any more in, the class begins.

My Korean co-teacher acts as translator.

“Breath in through nose and…. (loud sighing noise) out through mouth…. And in through nose… (loud sighing) out through mouth… Now, close eyes and…. Roll eye balls in eyes… roll left…. Roll right…. Left…. Right…. Roll eyeballs up… down… up…. Down….”

After 20 minutes of this I thought I was done with yoga class forever but things were, as they say, just starting to get interesting.

The instructions were to roll back from a seated position with knees bent in front towards your right shoulder, roll up and then roll back towards your left shoulder. I was completely incompetent and almost backwards rolled into the small woman behind me. My Korean co-teacher gasped, jumped up and proceeded to rock my body like a small child to show me the motion I was suppose to go in. When I finally became semi-vertical again I looked over to see Kelly completely red faced and splayed on the ground shaking with laughter. We will be, quite obviously, the waegookin comic relief of the class.

After the rolling came the difficult part of the class – foot massaging. For the life of me, I couldn’t manage to place my hands correctly to apply pressure to the ball of my foot while bending at the ankle. I cupped my hands over my foot and went to the left when I should have cupped under and went to the right. Foot massage position after position, my Korean co-teacher would jump up, grab my foot and hands and try to show me the correct way. The yoga instructor sent a few pitying glances in her direction.

The last 10 minutes of the class were spent trying to put my body into impossible positions. I held my leg in front of my body, with my foot in front of my face, with relative ease. When I had to bend my leg behind me and simultaneously lean to the side, I almost took out the small Korean woman behind me again.

The class ended with a rousing slapping of legs, backside and arms in true Asian fashion. Kelly and I walked out thanking my co-teacher for her translations and not knowing if we’re quite willing to head back on Friday.

2008

2008-01-01T11:35:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year!

Tell Me!

2007-12-30T17:37:00.001+08:00

This song is inescapable. It's on constant rotation in the stationary store in the first floor of my building. Spend 10 minutes in any type of clothing store and you will hear it. All of my students have it programmed on their cell phones.

Besides the fact that these girls are incredibly young, the depiction of them as school girls in school uniforms is not too far off. Add another inch of skirt and I could be their English teacher.

Further still, the strange and bizarre "Flasher Scene" in the video is again not entirely that far off. Last Sunday, when Kelly and I were making our way down an escalator into the metro, a man stood at the top, pressed himself against a glass barrier and shouted at us while showing us his manhood.