One Month Mark

Another week has gone by, which means I have now been in Seoul for one month. One month in! It can't be right. Last Friday there was a meeting for all the public school teachers in my city. I was able to meet the teachers who I haven't run into yet and we discussed this year's summer camp. I am desperately trying to organize my summer break at the end of august, and school gets out in mid July, so my camp schedule is of the utmost importance. In Gunpo, all the teachers participate in an overnight camp for one week from Monday to Friday. We drew our assigned weeks from a hat, and lucky me! I drew the first week! I also found out that I'll be teaching cooking, which is going to be a blast. The other teachers tell me that the camp is really fun, plus, we get paid extra for it. I also found out there is a large possibility that I will have more than two weeks off this summer, depending on the day camp schedule. Bali here I come!!!

I spent the weekend in Seoul as usual, only this time Maddy and I met up with a friend of hers who works at the U.S. Embassy. We got to see his house on the military base (the U.S. has a massive active base in the center of Seoul) and it was just like being back in the states. Maddy and I now refer to last weekend as "our weekend in America." We got to bake brownies in an actual oven, and hang out in an American style restaurant eating real chips and salsa and paying in dollars!! Even better, we got to drive in a car. It was definitely a trip, but it made me realize I'm just not homesick yet.

On Wednesday I only had to work a half day. Once a month we get to leave early on Wednesday to do an activity with the other teachers like hiking or watching a movie. Everyone was exhausted because its the first month of the school year, so we got to just go home this time. I spent the afternoon reading in bed with a cup of coffee. Heaven!!

Then yesterday we had a dinner for all the new teachers at my school. We went to a Korean restaurant after our classes and sat at two big long tables (Korean style, on the floor of course). They served us plates of kimchi, rice cakes, and cabbage salad and then set huge bowls of broth onto burners that were built into the tables. The bowls were filled with every kind of mushroom known to man, and they slowly cooked before us. After eating the mushrooms, they brought out beef (I obviously declined in favor of more mushrooms). Then, just when I thought we couldn't eat any more they brought out bowls of rice and vegetables, which they poured into the broth and we cooked until it formed a porridge. Think of it as Asian risotto. To finish we drank bowls of a cold sweet liquid that tasted very strongly of cinnamon.

It's always strange being the only foreigner among a huge group of Koreans, mostly because of the language barrier. Many of them tried to speak English to me, but still, I spent most of the time lost amidst a hum of sound I could not recognize. It didn't feel awkward at all this time, however. I felt like being the only non-Korean there made me privy to a secret world. I watched the way they ate their food and listened to the way they pronounced their words. It's amazing how much you can learn in this way.

There were definitely some memorable interactions, however. First, the school receptionist (the saucy secretary mentioned earlier) announced to everyone that she was afraid of me because she couldn't speak English. Later, when they handed out roses to the new teachers, she gave me mine, saying, "This is for you" in English. I was sure to respond "komapsumnida" (thank you). Later, the head teacher, one of two male teachers present, came over to me and said very loudly, "I want you." For several seconds I was mortified thinking that he had hit the soju too hard. It turned out he was trying to say "I want you to teach me English." and everyone had a good laugh because "I want you" has the same meaning in Korean as it does in English.

I also had the chance to speak with another teacher, who is young and is in the small group I have tea and lunch with once in a while at school. It turns out he took a course on teaching Korean to foreigners. He really wants help with his English, so maybe we can work out a language exchange. He is immediately on my good side because he said to me, "You are very skilled with chopsticks, did you learn when you were a baby?" That's really the key to my heart, my chopstick skills are a matter of personal pride.

Window to my Life

My name in Korean - apparently it's not an easy translation

Street fish: pancake outside, red bean inside... so good!

A note left for me after English Club from Kelly(her "English Club name")

Late night in Seoul with my left arm and my right arm

Seoul Tower

A view of the city from Seoul Tower - high rises stretch to the horizon in every direction.

I'm a Barbie Girl in a Korean World

I'm just starting to settle into my new life. I've bought a toothbrush to keep at work so I can join in on the after lunch tooth brushing ritual, which, I must say, is heavenly. I've found the world's spiciest green onion kimchi at the supermarket and learned to cook some damn good tofu/seaweed/lettuce wraps. I've begun to pick out personality types at school even without language. I know the "saucy secretary", the "popular girls", and the "vice principal who actually runs the world" among many others. I have my T Money card for the subway and plenty of cutesy animal key chains on my key ring. I have even started to approve of the whole indoor shoe thing.

Tomorrow is Friday again and I'm not sure where the week has gone. Wednesday was Parents Day, so the school was flooded with proud mamas and papas and the teachers were on full alert. Luckily for me no parents observed English class. In fact, I only had my first two classes because the kids had to be elsewhere. My only duty was to appear on the school broadcast and smile then bow when the principal introduced me. At the time, I had no idea what he was saying, but I later found out that I am "Brittany, our very beautiful teacher." It turns out, in Korea this is the number one qualification for an English teacher. Nobody wants to talk about your resume, you are really just for show and tell (except maybe the school handyman who has apparently read through all my application materials). My friends and I spent our first days at school being gushed over, and I can't say that I minded. I especially like the fourth grade boys who call me "pretty teacher." I am totally not above being flattered by nine year olds.

In the afternoon I was really cranky because it was an hour past the normal lunch period and no one had told me when I was going to eat. Normally there is delicious Korean food waiting for me at noon, but the teacher's room was locked. Then my co-teacher came and informed me I had to fork over 20,000 won for a mysterious "first period teachers meeting". After some hard core questioning I found out that it's a community pot used for special lunches and tea between some of the teachers on my floor.

We headed to one of the other classrooms and there was a really nice lunch waiting that had been specially ordered. I ate with three other female teachers and one male teacher. I didn't understand a word they said, which was much more awkward in such a small group. I definitely knew when they were talking about me though, because they would all turn and look at me with amused expressions. The male teacher was impressed with my eating. He said, "You like Korean food! You have been to Korea before!" Koreans love it when you eat, especially if you are eating kimchi. There are always several community plates to eat off of in addition to your actual meal, and I've noticed that they eat a lot here. They also eat extremely quickly. I am definitely what people at home consider a fast eater, but I can barely keep up here. Lunch is a ten minute affair.

After finishing I sat awkwardly during more Korean talk and had a cup of coffee and something they were very eager for me to try which they called a "flour cake." They passed me a tray of small round cookies in different colors and I chose a green one hoping it would be green tea flavored. It tasted like crumbly sugar cookie dough. Desserts are always just sickeningly sweet sugar bombs in Asia. Luckily they are also tiny.

Later I learned that English Club would be starting up next week so my afternoons were about to get busier. I had to choose my own textbook at the bookstore and come up with a curriculum for the Spring semester. I'm going to have two classes with four students in each, and then one combined class every week. The small size means we can do a lot of fun activities, so I'm really excited. It's also nice to be able to plan my own lessons instead of using the boring national curriculum and it will be good experience. This year the club is for low income students who can't afford English tutors. In Korea, it is very competitive and standardized tests basically determine your entire future. Families with money spend a lot of it getting their children extra classes and the other kids unfortunately get left in the dust. Korean kids work hard! They are in some type of class from morning to night.

All in all, it's been a good week. One of the highlights was overhearing an extra class my co-teacher was teaching this afternoon. She taught the kids the song "Barbie Girl," which, if you've heard the lyrics, is completely inappropriate for sixth graders... "I'm a blonde bimbo.... kiss me here touch me there hanky panky..." She definitely had no idea what she was teaching them and those sixth grade boys certainly go into it.

Let's Talk About Kimchi, Baby

While the number one question students ask me is undoubtedly, "Do you have a boyfriend?", "Do you like kimchi?" runs a close second. Korea loves its kimchi and its fairly easy to see why.

Kimchi is made from mixing and fermenting vegetables with garlic, red pepper, vinegar and salt. The most common version is made with cabbage, but kimchi can be made with many other ingredients such as radishes or green onions. The result is a spicy super food regularly named as one of the healthiest foods in the world.

Koreans eat kimchi at nearly every meal, and it has been a staple of their diet for centuries. It is believed that the consumption of this food aids digestion and boosts immunity. Indeed, studies have shown lowered cholesterol, improved intestinal health, essential vitamins and minerals, and live probiotics are just a few of kimchi's considerable charms.

If you are going to enjoy kimchi, you better like your food with a lot of garlic and a lot of spice. Luckily for me, I can never have enough of either, so naturally, kimchi and I get along perfectly. Plus, the Polish side of me is all about anything pickled/fermented and anything with cabbage. At every Korean meal you'll be served kimchi and I for one would never turn it down. I think my students and my body will approve.