Really? No, seriously. Really?

I went out with James this morning to Insadong (a rather touristy shopping street) to pick up one final Christmas present. It's a mission to get anywhere outside of Uijeongbu - I think I was on the subway or a bus for a total of 4 hours today, just to walk through Insadong for less than an hour. James and I are well aware of the common courtesy that is displayed (or severely lacking) on a subway: Always try and scootch over a bit if someone sits in an empty seat next to you. Don't talk too loudly. Don't sit in the seats of three near the end - they're reserved for the elderly and pregnant. The ajumas will bodily push you out of the way to get to that empty seat first - get used to it.

I was sitting down in a single empty seat with James standing in front of me. He'd been talking to me for a good ten minutes, in a slightly low tone of voice, as the particular car we were on was a bit quiet, but not overly so. In the middle of him telling me a story, as I'm slightly straining to hear him over the sounds of the subway car, the woman sitting next to me, a Korean, interrupts him and says something to him along the lines of "Excuse me. Please lower voice. Shhh. Too loud. Softer voice please."

James and I both looked at her for a second, speechless, and then looked at each other for another three seconds before he tried to just continue with his story in the same tone of voice. He couldn't remember where he had left off, though, and so we had a brief conversation, with her still sitting there, about how that was a rather unbelievable request, seeing as how we were both being respectfully quiet, and there was a Korean man across the car from us who was speaking quite a bit louder and was being much more disruptive, if anything, than we were. At this point neither of us cared if she understood us or not, and she got off the train about 15 minutes later.

It really surprised both of us to a large degree, and I imagine I'll be telling people about it for the next week or so. I could understand if the train had been silent, or we were talking really loudly and being rowdy or something like that. But I had been missing a word here and there of what James was saying because he was talking so softly, so I find it hard to believe that she thought we were being too loud. It's more likely that she didn't like listening to us speaking English and wanted us to stop, though her English was good enough that I don't think that was the case either. I really have no clue as to why she said it, but I sort of wish we'd actually replied to her. Maybe something like "Excuse me, but we're not being loud. The gentleman behind us, however, is. You're more than welcome to ask him to be quiet, or maybe you can move to another car. There's plenty of train here for all of us, lady."

IT'S SNOWING!!!

I'm such a kid, sometimes. I was sitting in the teacher's office about 10 minutes ago, when one of the Korean teachers said "Oh, it's snowing!". I looked out the window, and sure enough I could see a few little flakes falling here and there. I gave out a little screetch, and jumped up on my desk to open the window. I get to see the first snow of the season!! (of course I don't have my camera today. grrrrrr...) It's falling a little faster now, and it definitely looks like winter now. It's great timing as well - I had mentioned to Gina the other day that I was looking for a new scarf (since mine was waaaay too thin), but the ones in home plus were really expensive. She told me yesterday not to buy one - she had ordered me gloves and a scarf off the internet because she was worried about me being from Florida and being too cold here. They both arrived today, and they're both really nice and really warm.
So yay for winter!!

Kong-gi

I had my kids make this video on how to play kong-gi, the Korean version of Jacks:

In case you don't understand the video, here's a breakdown step-by-step:

Start with 5 kong-gi pieces. Throw them gently on the ground. Pick up one piece, and throw it in the air. While it's in the air, pick up one piece from the ground, and then catch the piece you threw using the same hand. Repeat this until you have picked up the remaining pieces. If at any time you don't catch a piece you threw in the air, or you don't pick up a piece from the ground, it's the next person's turn.

Now throw the five pieces on the floor again. Pick up one peice and throw it in the air. While it's in the air, pick up two kong-gi peices from the ground, and then catch the one you threw. Repeat this once to pick up the remaining two peices.

Throw the five peices on the floor. Pick up one peice and throw it in the air. While it's in the air, pick up three kong-gi peices, and then with the same hand, catch the peice you threw. Repeat this to pick up the last peice.

You now should have all five peices in your hand. Throw one piece in the air, and place the remaining four pieces on the ground, then catch the piece you threw. Throw this single peice in the air again, pick up all four pieces, and then catch the piece that's in the air. You now have all five pieces in your hand again. Gently, throw all five peices in the air, flip your hand, and try to catch all five pieces on the back of your knuckles. Then gently throw the five pieces in the air again, and try to grab them from above.

It's worse than Valentine's Day

Imagine for a moment that you are the marketing director of a new cookie. You have been given the task of advertising for a new cookie that your company has come up with - chocolate covered cookie sticks.



So you think to yourself "what can I do to make everyone not only want to buy these cookies, but feel they need to buy these cookies. I know! I'll make a national holiday!" So you decide on a date that looks like your cookies (11/11), and announce to the country that on this date, they must buy this cookie for their loved ones (and anyone else they come into contact with on a daily basis).



And so, for the past several years, November 11th has been known as Pepero Day (빼빼로 데). I must have received about half a dozen boxes of these things from my kids, and that's all they had for snack today.

Korea presents: real men of genius. Here's to you, Mr. Pepero Day maker guy. You've turned a cookie into a national holiday.

Quantum what now?

I went to go see Quantum of Solace with James tonight - there's a movie theatre near the station that plays the bigger American movies with Korean subtitles. I have to say I was a bit disappointed with it, I thought Casino Royale was much better. I'm not going to spend much time critiquing the movie, but I say wait until it comes to video.

My morning today was actually great. I was told when I came in that all but one of my lemon students would be absent today - they all went for interviews at elementary schools to see if they could get in. Originally Julie decided to put my one student, Daisy, into Orange class instead of having me teaching one student by myself (since I wouldn't be able to do the planned lesson for the day). I still had to go to cherry class, but this meant that I had two half hour breaks this morning, and I usually don't get any. And even though 3 of my kids came in right before lunch, I still only had one class with them, and I mostly just had them talk about what they did this weekend and what they did this morning (I was trying to find out about the interview process, but the kids seemed rather uninformed about the process, and were telling me about the cartoons they had watched at the school). It would have been nicer if Julie had told me ahead of time so when I was making my plans for the week I wouldn't have had 3 lessons planed out, with follow up lessons and spelling tests on Wednesday that were based on the lesson from today. But that would have required pre-planning and thinking ahead, something that doesn't seem to be quite common here. So anyways, I got some work done this morning and finished filming my afternoon classes' gong-gi instructions. I have to edit the video I took, but when I'm done I should have a nice 3 minute video of my kids explaining how to play the Korean version of Jacks (it's actually much harder than jacks, but that's the closest thing America has to it). Once they got over being camera shy, they actually seemed to have fun playing a game and talking about it in English. To bad we have to go back to the books on Wednesday.

James and Cherita have less than a month before they leave. I'm really going to miss hanging out with James, but I'm also looking forward to meeting the two new teachers (one of whom is the teacher I replaced when I got here). Such is life as an ex-pat teacher in another country I suppose.

Allow me to wax political for a moment

Regardless of how you feel about the election or how you voted, it was a historical event, and an election that will go down in the history books. I will remember it for a completely different reason.

First of all, I voted for the first time via absentee ballot. I do not usually vote in local elections, because I am usually (sadly) quite uninformed about the issues on the ballot. I would rather not vote, than vote against something I believe in, or for something I don't. I have never, however, missed a presidential election since I turned 18 (which has only been three, but still). I'm usually very forgetful about these sorts of things, but I managed to get myself a ballot in snail mail in enough time for it to be counted. And luckily I was able to sit at my desk at work while voting, because there were a few things on the Florida ballot that I hadn't heard of (like No 2), and wanted to vote on, but I wasn't sure about the wording. I was able to look on the internet with the ballot in my hand to find out what they meant and how I wanted to vote.

The second, and more important reason that I will remember this election is what happened later on in the day. I have one co-worker from DC that had been watching the internet and the polls to see who was winning. She and I were both excited as in between classes we watched the numbers grow for Obama. During one of my afternoon breaks, we discovered it was certain. A few hours later, my Korean co-workers asked if I had seen the presidential election results. I replied with a resounding whoop that I had. They seemed just as excited about it as I was. Though I was on my way to a class, this made me wonder - why were they excited about an election in another country? I was certainly never interested in elections outside the US.

Later that night I went out for dinner and drinks like I do every Wednesday with four other people from Canada, Britain, Scotland, and South America. We must have toasted Obama a half a dozen times throughout the night - and never once was it my idea. We forget sometimes as Americans that the whole world is watching us, and sometimes not in a good way (like an ant under a magnifying glass). Not that we are that important or special, but because what we do as a country has a direct impact on the rest of the world. Foreign policy, military strategy, tolerance, religion; all of our values and morals are being scrutinized by the rest of the world. Keep that in mind the next time you vote.