Cross-culture bitchiness

First, a little bit of back story:

A few months ago I was sitting in my classroom (as I'm wont to do) when *knock knock* there was someone at the door! "Come in" I say, expecting a student who forgot something. To my suprise it's an adult! A teacher come to visit? What are the odds? "Hello Margaret, can I talk to you for a few minutes?" I set about offering her a seat and heating water for tea. Generally making her comfortable while racking my brain to recognize her. "Oh, you are so polite" she says. "Of course, I want you to be comfortable" Teachers so rarely come to see me and when they do they are usually quite nervous so I do my best to set them at ease. "What do you want to talk about?" I ask, figuring she wants to practice her English a bit.
Then, this stranger who knew my name, launches into a sales pitch for Korean Exchange Bank. She knows I'm with NH bank and is telling me why KEB is better and has a whole line about credit cards. I tell her I don't want a credit card, I'm uncomfortable with them. In America most people have debt so I'm avoiding them. She talks down to me a little about controlled spending but I shake it off. I politely thank her and tell her no, I am quite happy with NH, just recently they had gotten me a debit card that I could use abroad and their service was exemplory, but yes, I'll accept her card and brochure about credit cards and send her on her merry way.

Not long after that NH called me to say that because I'm a foriegner my card doesn't actually work abroad and I should try and get a credit card. I asked if I could get a credit card and was told no, because I'm a foriegner. LAME. After that run-around I decided maybe I should change my banks. After all, KEB has cheap cheap money transfers and free online banking. They're designed to deal with foriegners.

To our main story:

Yesterday I emailed her reminding her who I was and saying "I'm not ready for a credit card but I'd like to open a bank account. What do I need to do?"

She replied:
I will visit you today
Thank you for your email
Talk to soon
xx (the x's are her name)


I had a very busy day yesterday (Heck, I'm having a very busy week) so I replied:

If you come today, please don't come until after three. I'm teaching before then.
Thank you
Margaret

and then it was radio silence until I got a botchy phone call around 4:20 from the office asking me if I was late and had made any promises and was Helen (my co-teacher) in the room. Mildly confused I said I had no promises and Helen was in the teachers lounge. A minute later the intercom went off asking Helen to call the Vice Principal. Not overly concerned I went about my afternoon. The day was almost over I'd written the bank lady off and figured she'd come tomorrow.

Helen came in, agitated and asked me if anyone called for her. "Toe Gum" (Not the right spelling, but that's how it sounded to me.) "called for you. Did you hear the intercom?"
"Yes, Margaret, did you have an appointment?"
"No, I didn't"
"Really? Someone called for you."
"What? OH! It must have been the bank lady, what happened?"
"Margaret, the Vice Principal is upset. This person was rude, rude to the Vice Principal!"
"Oh NO! Helen, what happened? I'm sorry, are we in trouble?"

Helen urged me to call xx and tell her not to come to the school. We didn't need to get into more trouble.

I called xx and she aked if I'd gotten her message and could I wait afterschool to talk with her. I said I was in trouble with my boss and I couldn't talk today. She kept asking why I was in trouble and she just called to say she'd be late, she was almost to my school, it wasn't her fault I was in trouble, things of that vein. I told her I was in trouble and had to talk about I'd explain later.

Helen told me how when xx called she didn't introduce herself, diddn't ask to speak to me, or say who she was working for, just to tell me that she was late. The VP was upset to be spoken to so abruptly and for having 'private business' calling the office.

While Helen was explaining all this I got this text:
that lady has no any reason to be angry I just contacted you because I was late

When I got home I found an email time stamped 4:19 :
May I visit you soon in 15 min?

Oh well. I didn't worry to much about it but figured xx deserved an explanation so I wrote her this email today:

XX,
This is the reason why I couldn't talk to you yesterday.

I was not sure you were coming so I didn't tell my co-teacher Helen. I didn't see any reason to if you were not coming. You called the school, and spoke like you would to me, or to a secretary. However "that lady" was my schools Vice Principal. My boss. She said you didn't introduce yourself, say why you were calling, what company you represented or even ask to speak to me directly (they could have transfered your call to my room). She felt you were rude and was confused since no one knew what you were talking about. She then chastized Helen. I have been warned not to invite you to the school since changing bank accounts is private business and this is my work place.
So please don't come here, and please don't call the school again. You have my number now if you have any questions.
I will find a KEB office and apply in person.
Thank you for pointing me towards Korean Exchange Bank I'm excited to open an account with them and will be sure to mention that you helped me.

Margaret


Seemed clear and polite enough to me. Apparently I was wrong.


Good morning and thank you for your criticism.
I sent my message when I could visit you (second response from the bottom) yesterday.
Yes, I also contacted you before late arriving because I worried you would wait for me so long.
When i called your school (this was only way to let you know what i do instantly, I did introduce my self that I was the person to have an appointment with you as we communicate through email and ask if I could ask to you for my late arrival through her(your principle)
That was all I said yesterday.
If she ever felt that I were very rude, I can't help about this because all I did was what I did say as the above.
If she really felt so, she just should have talk to me then first anyway. She just told me "Yes and Ok"
Second,
I couldn't know that I have to let your co-worker, Helen know first about my visit and I just thought this was your personal issue and right to decide (I never visit the person who are in class, i just can meet him/her while they are having break time)
No of course I won't visit you and I don't want to have a customer who can't remember what you said each other neither.
Why I enter your business area?
I am one of a parent or as a visitor, I can enter to your school (your school may have the policy about this point)
Thank you for making me not involved in you again.
xx.



What? Was I really that rude? Was my email inappropriate? Am I reading to much into "Thank you for making me not involved in you again." Because that seems like a super bitchy thing to say to anyone, much less a(n almost) customer who thanked you. I've had an upset stomach all day because of this. Now I'm divided into three parts, part of me wants to write an equally snarky email back giving her actual cricisms and telling her she's driven me away from KEB and I'm going to contact her bank and complain about her. A very small part of me wants to write her back and apologize for the misunderstanding, that she didn't need to contact Helen, that was my fault and I wasn't criticizing but trying to explain, and did she talk to the VP in English because that might explain the short answers. Then there's the part that's actually going to happen which is not responding at all and just thinking angry thoughts at her.

So yeah. Crabby today.

To add an extra level of creepiness, since she knew my name the first time she called I totally assumed she was visiting with the schools blessing. I mentioned that to Helen hoping it would make things a little better but she said no, the school wouldn't do something like that since I already had a bank account. How did she know my name? How did she know where to find me? CREEPY B****

Working with O-Soon continues to be irritating. She keeps bringing things to share for lunch but everytime I do she says she doensn't like that. Now back when we started talking about lunch I mentioned that I wanted to learn to make Kimbab and would probably be bringing some. She seemed enthusiastic about the prospect of having kimbab. When I brought some in today (store bought admittedly) and proudly showed it her to her she was like "That's your lunch" "I brought it for us to share" "That's your lunch" with a disdainful look on her face. Aaargh! Then she went on to lecture me on how we couldn't have a movie day because the parents would complain and if she were a parent she wouldn't like it. The movie day was her idea. It was her fucking idea. Also as a note, when she and I first started discussing the lesson plans for English camp she asked me "Do you have any ideas?" as if it was the only English she knew...Needless to say when I hear it now I cringe

"No problem we could have a game day" I offer.
"We could make a worksheet for the students"
"Sure, we could that if you like"
"It would have to be a worksheet about the movie."
"Okay"
"What English can they learn from the movie"
"The movie is a listening exercise. It's not really to learn English"
"What English can they learn from the movie for the worksheet?"
"The worksheet should probably be in Korean so we can ask harder questions, can you make it?"
"They can watch this movie at home."
"Well, if they watch it at home, they watch it dubbed not with subtitles"
"If I was a parent I would complain to watch a movie"
"We don't have to watch a movie"
"Do you have any ideas?"


At this point I punched her in the face.



Not really, instead I said


"We don't have to watch a movie. We can play a game instead."
"I think we should change the schedule. Not watch a movie."
"Okay"
"What's your opinion?"
"About changing our schedule?"
"We should play a game. Golden Bell Quiz game."

At this point I went into a blind rage and slaughtered everything in a 100 mile radius.

Or I said.
"Okay."
"Do you have the materials?"
"What?"
"Do you have the boards and markers and quiz?"

"For a game I didn't plan on playing, sure, I keep all that stuff in a cupboard marked F*** YOU"

or I said

"We have boards but no markers"
"I can get markers. We need a game."
"I thought you wanted Golden Bell Quiz Game?"
"These are 3rd graders, they need an easier version. Can you do it?"

"Sorry, I'm busy writing my murder/suicide note"

or

"Right now?"
Then as if all generousity and benificence shone from her ass
"We can wait until the afternoon"

BLARGH!!!

Walk home!

Normally I get a ride home from Helen and her husband. Unfortunately something happened to the vehicle so Helen had to take the bus and I had a chance to walk home. I like walking home and exploring some days...here are some of the explorings I saw:


I spy a cemetary! I've glimpsed this cemetary peeking through the foliage up the hill across from my school. I didn't know that's where I was going when I followed the trail and was saddened to realize I could only escape the way I'd come (I hate back tracking).
So I went back the way I came and started heading up the sidewalk when much to my delight I found a set of stairs heading into the "wilderness" of a new wooded hill. I climbed and climbed this set of stairs when at the top of the hill what to my wondering eyes should appear but this awesomeness:

Now it may not seem that awesome, this rest area in the middle of rugged outback of Seongnam, but as Koreans they added this touch Which made me love it even more and made me a little nostalgic for Paisley Glen.
I also saw a dog but it ran away before I could get the picture taken. Eventually I made it out and down the very same hill I escaped all the way back from Sports Day! How about that?

stories

I love showing off my students work!

Here are a couple stories (I've corrected spelling but left everything else the same)

1.
Once upon a time their was two men. One men name Zoe another men name is Tomas. Two men kind. Tomas is rich and Zoe is very kind. One day Zoe and Tomas went to mart. Tomas buy anythings and Zoe don't buy Tomas buy Zoe anythings buy. Zoe said "Thanks Tomas." Tomas said "Ok. Thank you." Tomas and Zoe ver very good friends.
-End-

2.
Once day upon a time a two bird. One bird name is a Pen and Tape. The two bird like the honey so two bird a hard a get a honey so two bird a eat the honey so more happy.

3.
Once upon a time.
The pretty girl live in a small village.
Girl is very pretty.
but girl is very poor.
So small village's people are help the girl.
So the girl lives better lives.
-make story is end-

Sure, maybe they aren't the best stories in the world, but considering they're written by ten year olds in a second language...I'm impressed. I especially love 'make story is end'. :)

10 Lyrics That Describe

In no particular order:

1. I'm a wild and an untamed thing, I'm a bee with a deadly sting
2. Like music floating in the air, invisible but everywhere
3. You may be right, I may be crazy, but it just might be a lunatic you're looking for
4. I try to socialize but I can't seem to find, what I was looking for got something on my mind
5. 'Cause I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all
6. The sky is blue and all the trees are green, my hearts as warm as a baked potato, I think you know precisely what I mean, when I say it's a shpadoinkle day
7. There's such a fool heart, beating so fast in search of new dreams, a love that will last
8. Sometimes it's hard to be a woman
9. I've fallen to a stranger nightmare
10. Looking for adventure and a little bit of mischief

Extra points if you know the song!

Visitor!

I had a great visit from my good friend!! What a weekend!
It started off with a bang *BANG* when I got approached my some missionaries who were practicing there English before heading to New York to preach the Gospel. I had 20 minutes to kill so I went with it. They told me they had the living Mother of God, Bride of Christ hanging out in their church and would I like to meet her. I was honest and said that was a little to intimidating for me, besides here was my friend.
There is a lot to do in Seoul and Seongnam. First I took my lucky visitor to the Moran Market to enjoy the fresh produce and overwhelming crowds. It worked wonderfully. After that back to my place for a chance to rest and regroup after the crowds. Feeling much refreshed we set out to Gangnam and all the joy that is Dr. Fish!!! Yay!!! Dr. Fish!!!


we purchased our tickets, but still had a some time before the movie started so ate some lunch...ahhh Burger King, your fries weren't salty enough. That's okay. Then to the Ani Store for overwhelming cuteness.
At last...time for the movie:

KICK-ASS

Jeebus! Fantastic! I had no idea what the movie was about when I sat down. I though it was going to be some cutesy, slapstick comedy about some high schoolers in costumes...It was so much more and to make it even better...all the wishes I made for the movie came true. Yay!

Even better, my wishes kept coming true after! We wre riding the subway home and a man in a nice suit was holding a whole dried fish, then I wished so hard, and he put it inside his suit pocket! Teehee

Sunday was a pretty laid back day. We watched Die Hard with Jen. ASSAH. Silly Jen had never seen any of the Die Hard movies before. What's up with that? The idea is for the three of us to watch one ever time we get together.

After I dropped him off at the bus depot I walked home from Yatap. Whoa! Super nice.

Good all around day.

:)

A walk in the park

Helen and I went for a walk today. Earlier this year she decided she wanted to go on regular walks "to improve health" She knows she's pretty weak and wants to be stronger. So when the weather was nice we'd take a stroll. Up until now the weather has been pretty spotty but today was glorious and out we went.
Daewon Park is quite close to the school and we've been there a couple times before. This time we explored much more. We even used the exercise equipment. It was nice looking at them with Helen because she could translate the directions and what it's supposed to help. All goodness. There was an excellent leg swinging machine that I've seen before but not really understood. She used it and was walking funny and said I should try it too. It left a good burn in the thigh. :) ASSAH!
I look forward to the weather staying nice so we can keep going.

I spent some time with my friend Christine today. Our goal was the Steve McCurry exhibit.


but on the way we found some lovely flowers and here's the proof!





The exhibit was very moving. I wish I could take pictures like that! Although I'm sure if some of my pictures were framed and blown up to that size they'd look pretty impressive. Also if I went to those exotic places...but then I realized I live in an exotic place, I just need to keep plugging along. With that thought in mind I've decided to bring back my Daily Photo! Wheeeeeeee

After the exhibit we went in search of...LUNCH!!! On the way we saw some children happily playing in a fountain.

New Camera: Day 2!!!

One of my favorite pictures I've taken in a long time. Off the bridge on my way to school. I really love the shapes and lines...the round bench, the blue of the bridge, the shadow...it's all good!


Garbage man! Stuffing the garbage in the box! woohoo! I don't usually see 'em in action.


I really like this one too. I took it out of the back of Helen's car while getting my ride home. I like it because the center is pretty well focused even though everthing else is blurred while the car is moving.

New Camera Day 1!

My new camera is here! It's here! It's here! It's here! (I could say that several times but I'll stop myself) and here are some of the results



Extreme close up of hair! Isn't it purtiful?



Extreme student close up! I love how hard he's concentrating!



Extreme balloon close up! Well, it's not extreme, nor is it that close, but it's good. I almost wish my camera wasn't so good, or that I hadn't zoomed so close. I didn't want any color to show besides the balloons. That's okay. I might try again.

Poetry

My students had to make a weekly schedule and if they finished early I gave them a special project of writing a poem. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order.

Spring by Joy (최민경)

See? The bird singing
Look! a bear eating apple
I like spring
How about you?

Traffic by 신민청

vehicles tooting pass by speeding
with people wanting to fly people
who walk crossing the road

Untitled by 욘슴븬

I love Margaret Teacher
Because Margaret Teacher is tenderness
I like English
Because English is very easy and fun
Today is very happy
Because Today have English

Pencil by 김도윤

Pencil write Korean
Pencil draw a school
Pencil is small, small

Pencil write English
Pencil draw a home
Pencil is small, small

what a wonderful weekend!

Saturday was a very beautiful day! It was warm. I felt warm. I took off my coat because it was warm. WHOA!!! Jen and I got a headstart on her birthday celebrations by joining a Family Mart Crawl. Imagine a Pub Crawl but instead we hit the many many mini-marts while exploring Seoul. We peeled off from the crawl before the pillow fight (that's right, I skipped out on a city wide pillow fight!) to go to a baseball game. Of course before we could go to the game I had to get lost. We spent a good half hour being lost before giving up and taking a taxi. Once we got to where we were going (late of course) we were happy to find our friends were being slow as well and hadn't gone inside yet. The game was alright but once the sun started to fall below the horizon it got much much colder and all the girls left early to go to Mexican for dinner. Various boyfriends joined us after the game and let us know we'd won in over time. After a most satisfying meal we headed back to an apt and I had champagne for the first time in my life! It went wonderfully with Jen's B-day cake! After the cake we chatted and had some rum and finished the evening off with a card game.
Sunday was much more laid back. I gave Jen her gifts (giant stationary and a pillow)and we went to a very extensive lunch with her co-teacher and her co-teachers friend. It was T.G.I. Friday and the burger was delicious. Was that enough? NO! Then we went to a famous cafe and had ice cream on a waffle with our coffee. We didn't get home until almost 5 and by that point I was quite tired. Now, in the morning I had boiled and decorated 13 eggs (to spell out HAPPY BIRTHDAY) with the intention of hiding them of the roof and letting Jen have an Easter Egg Hunt. Instead I just gave them to her but she seemed pleased enough and now has an abundance of eggs. Whee! We rounded out the evening with a rousing round of "Wedding Singer" Happy Birthday Jen!
Monday we (Jen and I) met up with Julia (all of the following pictures are hers and these and many more can be found on her flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/juliajohansen ) at COEX. It was Julias first time at the massive mall and it was fun to be with someone who is still in shock and awe about about all the newness. First the delight that is Quizno's. Sweet sweet toasted sub. Then we bought our tickets to watch "Clash of the Titans" but still had half an hour to kill so we went to the Ani Store and on the way we were approached by some Koreans for a photo-op



This isn't that uncommon of an experience. Especially for Jen with her blonde curly hair. Several delightful minutes were spent cooing over the cuteness to be found in the Ani Store before we dragged ourselves out and settled in to watch the movie. I knew it wasn't going to be like the original and excepted that. I was a little irritated with the ending but as I came in knowing I was watching it for it's "wow"ness I got what I wanted.
After the movie headed towards Bongeunsa, a Buddhist temple across the street from COEX. Along the way were many many statues and building art, etc. Here are some of the pictures (again, all of them were taken by Julia and posted here without her permission. You can see the rest at her website www.flickr.com/photos/juliajohansen )







and a couple from Bongeunsa itself

I went exploring this morning! I walked to school with Jen and instead of following the bus route we went...the other direction! Whoa!!! Life is crazy! We had to walk past Seongnam Middle School and both saw several of our former students. That's always a pick me up. It was fun to wander through the crooked alley ways and see all the brick buildings with their blue gates. I even had time to stop in and visit Jen's classroom. It's quite lovely.
Heading to my school from hers I stuck to a back road instead of going to the main throughfare. I'm glad I did. About halfway through there was a hill, at the top of the hill were two buildings with a walkway/stairway between them. At the end of the "porch" area a tree was growing. Not the place you'd expect to see a tree, growing straight out of cement. There were a couple bikes at its base...the morning light beamed down on it, illuminating it so it shown through the shadow cast by the two buildings. I just stopped and stared for a full minute. It was very beautiful...

I miss my camera

Gentle Readers, I apologize for my laxness in updating. I suffered the devestating loss of my camera and in my grief haven't much felt like blogging. I shall try and fill you in on some of the exciting happenings of the past month but until then, here is a summary of my weekend.

I had a pretty frickin' amazing weekend. Friday night wasn't anything special. I stayed in, caught up on my TV and went to bed early. woopdeedoo. However, Saturday I went to the National Museum of Korea because they are (well were, yesterday was the last day) having a special exhibit on the Inca and a variety of Peruvian artifacts and I love me some Peru. Unfortunately the self guided tour (with headphones!) and all the signs were in Korean. So Jen and I had to guess at some of the meanings behind what we saw. That was pretty fun. I dazzled her with my bulls***ting abilities. I was surprised to see Mummies. I think because most of the American museums I've spent time at don't show human remains (seeing as most of the remains are Native American and showing 'em off pisses people off). There were also a couple of skulls with treppaning holes. Crazy!...well not any more...that is what the holes are for. To let the crazy out. The special Inca exhibit was 10,000 won and the regular museum was a staggering price of: FREE! so after a brief lunch of Kim bap and Dokbokki (and a survey!) we went to the regular museum. We didn't look at everything, because it was really big, almost entirely in Korean and we were tired. We did spend a good 45 minutes in the little alcove looking out the window and playing "Will You" Go Fish from her English tutoring session. Then I took her to the room with all the Buddha statues. It's very peaceful and the statues are very big. After the museum we went home for a quick rest before heading off to dinner at Mad for Garlic with Veronica. DELICIOUS!!! I've had my eye on that place since it was being renovated. I mean, I am Mad for Garlic so it made sense to sample there menu. I'm glad I did. We each got something different and were able to have several courses for the price of one! We ordered an appetizer but it didn't arrive until we'd almost demolished the salad, spinach leaves with bacon and dried garlic chips drizzled in Balsamic Vinegar Dressing. The appetizer was not what we had hoped for. With a name like "Garlic Bread Tower" we imagined several steaming pieces of garlic bread stacked on top of each other, possibly displayed in some metal stand, making it a tower. Not so. It was a few inches of a baguette standing upright to be a "tower" with a poof of garlic on the top that the waitress mushed down into the soft center. Mostly we used the bread to soak up the left over dressing. Balsamic is a rare commodity here. The next course was a Gorgonzola pizza with a honey dipping sauce. The honey had sesame seeds in it. Oh man. It was a true culinary delight. My taste buds danced with joy. Rounding the meal out was a mushroom risotto. It was appropriately garlic laden to please me. As a bit of sweet to finalize our culinary adventure we had vanilla ice cream in a dish of chocolate sauce sprinkled with dried garlic and a side garlic cookie. Even that was divine. By the end of the meal we had eaten enough garlic that hints on the ice cream and cookie were quite mild and an exotic accent. After our meal we retired to Veronica's to visit with Maven. Maven is V's extremely pregnant cat. We're all a little worried about her because she seems to small and young to be having kittens of her own. One of the hilights of the evening was looking up words in the English/Korean Dictionaries on our phones. It sometimes supplies examples of how a word might be used in a sentence of "common" sayings/idioms. My absolute favorite was "F***ed by the fickle finger of fate" and I've attempted to slip it into conversation a couple times since then. Jen and I had to leave sooner than we would have liked to make sure we caught the subway home on time. A good nights sleep and I was ready to attack:
SUNDAY!!!
Frequently on Sunday Veronica goes with her pal Dave to touristy things. Often it's hiking or exploring fortresses or whatnot. Many times there is a small group but I have never gone. Until yesterday. Saturday evening she was still trying to decide where to go and I suggest Namhansanseong. A mountain not to far from where I live. It has a very famous fortress and many other wonders. There is also a bus that goes to it that stops right in front of my house. We got a later start than originally intended but that's okay. It gave me extra time to clean my apartment. Always a useful endeavor. The bus ride was a little bit nerve racking as the driver took the bus places I'd be afraid to go in a car much less something as unwieldy as public transportation. Finally the bus driver kicked us out and pointed us across the street and behold! Namhansanseong! We approached the mountain with both excitement and trepidation. We knew not what wonders we would behold or hardships we would conquer. As we approached the slopes we saw the "Master Plan" a map of the area. We had glimpsed a temple high up as we approached and after consulting a different map decided to go for it. The way was steep and treacherous so my companions made sure to stop and take many pictures allowing us all to catch our breath at various intervals. At last we could see our goal! A beautiful Buddhist temple! There were so many statues and figurines and paintings and relics. It was amazing. I mourned the loss of my camera heavily but am comforted to know that it's replacement will be coming soon. I could go on about the temple but words won't do it justice. It needs to be seen, after climbing a mountain preferably. The way down was, as always, much easier. We took another bus to a subway to a mall and waited around for Brandon, a person I met on facebook. The lot of us went to sushi for dinner. Yummy! It was a place with a conveyer belt! Kee-ripes! some of the bigger items were plastic and if you picked them the chefs would make if for you. Including a giant fish head! yuck!!! But what we ate was good, if a bit pricey for conveyor belt food. After dinner Dave and Veronica left and Brandon and I wiled away an hour waiting for one of his co-workers: Kendra, a newly arrived teacher from Boston. We spent our time in a Kyobo Book store looking at the various stationary and supplies. He seemed to get a real kick out of it. Once we picked up Kendra we went to Dublins to get settled in for Pub Quiz. Sweet sweet quiz night. As always my team came in second. We did have the excellent name of Kim Jong Skillz though.

3rd time's the charm

It's been a while since I've posted my pictures. Sorry. I'll get right on that but first I wanted to share my commute. I missed the first bus because I was taking a picture, it pulled up while I was half way down the block. No worries, I don't care when I roll into work and the picture was worth it. Enjoying the wait for whoever rolls up next, surveying my neighborhood and loving it in all it's gory glory. The bus goes past the stop without even slowing down. I chased it for half a block. It started to slow down, I put in a burst of speed and so did it. Stupid bus. I swear sometimes the bus drivers are just laughing at us. Then a much longer wait. At last the bus arrived and even stopped right in front of me.
I'm looking forward to Skype date with some of my good friends.

22-26

When Jen and I were in Dongdaemun we saw a guy painting names! and we each got mine. It took me long enough but I finally got mine hung up!



I like how dark and shadowy this picture turned out. It's a tree I'm going to try and take a lot of pictures of so we can all see how it changes over the year



Stairs! 'nuff said



Same tree, different day. I took several pictures of it but I liked this one the best. I'm not sure what I did to make it so great but Wow!



I love this building. It's pink. It's ugly. It's strangely shaped. It doesn't belong with anything else. It strikes a chord in my heart. I'm sure you'll see it several times from a variety of angles. This one is from a third floor window in my school

Happy Sean's Birthday

a.k.a. Valentine's Day

I've always wanted an unforgetably romantic Valentine's Day. I've been creating them for myself on an doff for a couple years. This year I planned a most romantic trip through Seoul. I was going to meet Jen at her door with flowers and chocolates. I was going to take her to a palace with a 'couples garden' and then to Insadong for to the Flying Bird Cafe, something dinner-y, and then to Namsan Tower to watch the lights turn on over the city. Then bring her back to my place for a romantic dinner of western food from Costco...Not the way things turned out. Not one of those things happend but it was even better.

In the morning I went to the Moran Market to try and find some flowers (I waited until the last minute because she'd already gotten a really nice bouquet from her school and I was really really tired saturday evening). Now, the Market is open on days ending with 4 or 9. I went before noon and there was only a handful of stalls, now I don't know if it's because it was before noon (a lot of things open late) or because it was Lunar New Years, but there were no flowers. Not a one. I tried. I walked the collection of stalls and nada, what I did find was almost better. I found a solar powered perpetual motion bumblebee. Very cute.
I made it to her door with chocolates and a bee and it was wonderful. Then we met up with Veronica(who also got some chocolates) (quite the powerful triumverate the three of us!) and rode the subway coming up with cultural differences for our incredibly inapropriate drinking game.
We arrived in time to see the tail end of the changing of the guards at a nearby palace and then headed to Gwanghamun Plaza and all the amazingness there. We saw things like this:















Then we had lunch at KFC followed by a little more wandering around and headed to the next hot spot. A traditional Hanok village. Old style Korean houses. Good stuff. We went to see wrestling but did a good job of getting lost and saw a Popeyes. Popeyes is a fried chicken chain that Veronica has been looking for since she got here. Every time she's seen it it's been right after she's eaten. Even worse this time it was right after she'd eaten chicken! Oh no! Eventually we found the village but alas we could not find the wrestling. We meandered our way through the place but everything was closed down. Here's some of what we saw:








After that we went and enjoyed ourselves the movie Valentine's Day. A cutesy chick flick.

Dongdaemun Market

So saturday I celebrated Lunar New Year by going to Dongdaemun with Jen! We started with a most excellent ride on our reliable 302 blue bus. Every day we ride to work on the 302 and Saturday we rode it...THE OTHER DIRECTION...It wasn't a perfectly smooth start. I, in my brilliance, left my SD card in the computer...so we had to go back and I had to grab it so my card would work. Then we go on the bus...AGAIN!!! Whoa! We live life on the edge! I sat next to the window and took pictures when we stopped. It was good fun. I finally got some good shots of Korean faces, it's hard to take pics of Koreans especially without seeming like a creeper.
There was some indecision about where to get off finally but once we did how lovely it was! Unfortunately Dongdaemun Market was closed, what with it being Lunar New Year and all, but that's okay. We saw some other markets and Jen got a great Konglish Shirt. We wandered a bit more and found ourselves a nice...GATE!!! An ancient fotress gate! The number 1 historical treasure! While exploring we found a painter and bought our names in all sorts of glorious decorations.

Here are some pictures: