For those of you who have not seen my short hair

At home


With my Babbo (note: pay no attention to my roll of fat!)

students' and teachers' comments

SO here are some of my students' comments to me after I cut my hair:

teacher... hair
teacher, you are so handsome!
teacher, hair, pretty
teacher, your hair... you cut,... beautiful
teacher, you are sexy
teacher, you cut your hair... you look like a man (love the honesty)
teacher, beautiful

teachers' comments
Why did you cut your hair?
But why did you cut your hair?
omg, you cut your hair!
I like your hairstyle
you are crazy!
But your longer hair was so pretty....

extra classes

This morning when i got to school I was a bit relaxed because it is the last day of my extra classes after school so I was kinda happy because I thought.."finally a bit of a break!" Then I looked at my calendar and realize my new extra classes (2 sessions) start this week! omg.... at least I am almost done with all 40 lesson plans for those classes. Yes, 40. Nowadays though, i am not spending as much time lesson planning for these classes as i finally figured out it is not worth the time. I mean, i still put a considerable effort into them, but I dont spend hours putting them together.

SO yeah, my new schedule will be as follows
monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday
8:05-9:00am ( morning conversation class )
9:00am-3:00 during school time I have 4 45min classes during the day
3:40-5:10 (xtra class)(essayclass)(essayclass)(xtraclass)

my tuesday essay class actually is from 4:10-5:40.
and then there is my sat class

thats about it. Anyways... gotta get ready and get the rest of my lesson planning done.

School bags

Ok... so this morning i was on my way to school when i realized something I had not realized before.. or at least not really thought about. So koreans are supposed to be really studious and all and are supposed to study super hard and stay at school until 11pm and all right? So why is it that my students' bookbags are so freakin' small! seriously, they are almost the same size as my purse. And I just realized this! I kept thinking.... dude... when I was their age I used to bring home so many books because I had to study and do homework and projects ....etc etc etc, but these bookbags my students bring to school, i mean... you could barely fit a pencil case into them! (ok maybe i am exaggerating a bit) but still... you get my point. So either they finish all their school work at home or they just dont do homework or study at home. But its gotta be one or the other. Anyways, this was just an observation i made this morning I wanted to point out before I forgot to write about it.

Women and short skirts

So i think i might have mentioned in a previous blog that korean women wear ridiculously short skirts. I heard from a friend of mine that they wear the short skirts and super high heels because on average, korean women are quite short and so this makes them a) look taller and b) it makes their legs just look longer.

something is quite common here to see is korean women going up the stairs and covering their ass with their huge purses... and you wondered why they carry such big purses?!@?!?! yeah, you got it. So they can cover their ass when going up the stairs. Is that ridiculous or what? i mean, at what point do you not realize that if you have to cover your ass with your purse while going up the stairs it means the skirt is waaay too short! for real. Use some common sense and use a skirt that is a tad bit longer and will not show your underwear while going up the stairs.

the one good thing i CAN say about this whole issue is that korean women at least have nice lean legs so the short skirts and mini mini shorts actually look good on them. If they didnt have nice legs, they would definitely not be able to pull off that look. BUT still..... just because you have nice legs it doesnt mean you have to show them to the world. - serioulsy thinking about it.... if you saw IN THE US someone dressed the way korean women dress here... (especially the younger population) you would think they were hookers. No joke. You gotta see it to believe it. But since here it is no big deal it doesnt even cross people's minds how slutty some of these people look.

p.s. sorry for my brutal honesty. but its the truth

Sitting in a car

I am not sure if I have written about this before but just in case i have not i am going to mention it. So in the US when you ride with someone in a car and it is just two of you or even three people you always have someone take the front seat next to the driver. It is impolite to leave the driver alone and have one or two people sitting in the back because then it is like they are your choffer or something. Well, in korea, the person driving actually considers it polite (on their part) to let you sit in the back and drive wherever it is that you are going. This is so strange for me. But I guess that is how they do it here. Anyways.... just wanted to make mention

It is thursday

Today is thursday, which means tomorrow is friday and friday we dont have school because it is a national holiday or something. SO I am happy because then Ivano and I can get lots of work done. These days we have been doing a lot of brainstorming on the coffee shop I wanna open and so we are starting to put ideas together and figure out what steps we need to take literally step by step for this project. Everyday that goes by I get more and more excited about this project. I just hope everything works out financially. I have a feeling its gonna be tough getting a loan from the bank, but we will have to figure something out.

Haircut -

So yesterday I finally went from my crazy longer permed hair to short hair. Now my hair is actually shorter than what it was when I came to Korea. I gotta confess, while the lady was cutting it I kept thinking to myslef "i hope she doesnt mess it up" in the end, it turned out well. The only part I was not happy about was the back of my hair. I think Ruth is the only person so far that has been able to do a decent job with the back of my hair.

Also,.... just for your information, ivano and I went last week to get our professional whitening done. It is something that I had wanted to do for a long time but had not been able to becuase it is super expensive in the US. So we went to this one dental clinic in Kangnam, got a general cleaning, and then got the whitening done. For the whitening it is actually two sessions so we have one more to go to and it takes about 45 minutes. Ivano's teeth definitely look a lot better amd mine do too. Though the lady said that because my teeth were already much whiter than his, that my results would not be as dramatic. But I am still super happy about it. My teeth look beautiful! :-) happy camper!

extra note on the haircut- one thing I dont like.... everyone at school staring with faces that say " OH........... MY............. GOD............ ! hahahaha.... one of the teachers said, "why did you cut your hair??!?!?" But then she said in korean that I looked pretty. So im not sure if it was a compliment or not. At any rate..... gotta go. I have class soon.

bye

Slow day

Today the kids are out on a field trip so I get to do some work here at school. Guess its good cuz I can catch up with a bit of work. I have SO much to do but I just keep procrastinating. Just dont feel like getting anything done. At any rate.... gonna try to get as much as I can done, and then at 4:30 im outta here!

Shopping

One of the most annying things about going shopping in Korea. As soon as you go into a store people come up to you and ask if they can help you. Even if you are just looking around, they stand right next to you. And I mean "right next to you" or directly behind you (literally giving you no space). It is so annoying. I mean.... like dude... if I need help with something I will call you over and let you know I need some help, but if not... give me some freakin space!
"

Recycling

Wherever you go, there are always different recycling bins for everything!

Students' names

Yeah, Korean names are not the easiest to pronounce. This is why for all of my extra classes, I ask students to pick an english name. Also, english names are much easier to remember. Just so you get an idea of how korean students names sound like... here are some names (english version)
wang jun ha
wang min gu
wang eun sok
wang ji su
song ji young
meng myong hee
ho min ji
ho min ju
han myong suk
cho young suk
hon eun ha
chang hyon ok
ee jin hee
ee chong hee
kim hyo suk
kim hyon ha
kim cha kyong
kim yong su
kim sun ok
kim na jin
kim mi kyong

Ordering food

This was me my first months in Korea. Now I have learned at least what some of the main dishes are and so for the most part, I know what I am ordering. But every once in a while I still might order something when I have no idea what it is.

No toilet paper

You dont get your own toilet paper in your bathroom stall. A lot of public bathrooms just have a roll of toilet paper outside and you just grab whatever you think you will need. Guess this keeps people from wasting it

McDonalds

"Kimche opseyo" means "no Kimchi" As I mentioned before, every korean meal comes with Kimchi. It is one of the staple foods here. Anyways.... when you have been in korea for a while and have eating nothing but korean food you really do feel a huge sense of happiness when you come across a McDonalds or Burger King or any other western restaurant

Lost in Translation

"Annyeong Haseo" means Hello. This happens to me all the time! Hahahah... so funny. SO many times people start talking to me in korean like I undestand everything and so I just say "nay nay " meaning "yes, yes" and hope that they are not asking something to which the answer is not "yes". Somtimes i can grasp part of the meaning of what they are saying but there are SO many times when I have not the slightest idea of what they are saying and so I just keep saying yes.

Kinda when we moved to the US and I did not understand kids at school. I mean... i these american kids speaking to me in english super quickly and I did not understand what they were saying. Eventually, I felt really bad that every 2 second I had to say "what did you say? im sorry? can you repeat?" and so I opted for a much better option which was to use one of the following phrases when in doubt:
oh really?
aha.
no way?
yeah?
oh wow!
cool.
yup, these couple phrases helped me keep my sanity for at least the first couple months in the US. Then as time went by, little and little I started to pick up a bit more of what people were saying to me.

Laundry

Yes, in Korea there are no drying machines, so you gotta do it the old fashion way and hang up your clothes so they can dry. And if it is not warm outside, it sometimes takes 1-2-3 days for the clothes to dry (especially in winter). But now that the weather is a little bit warmer usually for me, it only takes one day for my clothes to completely dry. But then I gotta actually iron them. Back home, I could just take them out of the dryer while they were still nice and warm, shake them out and hang them, and so there was no need to iron. But here... cant do that.

Frustration

Just got finished with my first class of the day and so frustrated! it just frustrates me how immature korean girls and boys are.... mostly girls though. I mean... they are just so shy and have absolutely no personality. Like .. come on, i ask you a question and all you can do is keep your head down, shrug your shoulders and slightly laugh without looking at me???!?!??! are you kidding me??? like wtf! I mean, if you compare 13 year olds in the US and in korea, two totally different worlds. Yes, the kids in the US might not be as studious, might be a bit more disrespectuful and rebellious, but at least they have personality. Ahhhh!!! sometimes these kids just drive me crazy//. And whats worse... there is nothing i can do about it. I mean, they are shy and thats that. It's not like I can change them. Sorry, just needed to get my frustration out, so im doing it on my blog. hihihi.... already feel a bit better. This is why i am learning to love blogging, because I can just vent, talk, share my thoughts, etc etc etc....

well, my second class is about to start in like one minute so I have to go. But I will try to write some more later. I know I havent written in over a week and have just posted some comics. Promise I will write a bit more... its just, not really much interesting has been going on lately. Pretty much just school and lots of work.

bell just rang. BYE

The typical korean student

The typical korean student usually has all kinds of academies, extra classes, etc after school. Education is the priority number one here and parents make sure that their kids use every single second of the day to learn something and so of course they have no playtime. It is not uncommon for you to see a bus leaving 10 year old kids at their homes at like 11pm. Their idea is the more education, the more schoolings, the more homworks, the more studying the better. I think this is kinda sad because I feel that the kids here forget to be kids and just focus and stuyding the whole time and dont really have too much fun and see more school as a task than as an opportunity to willingly learn and expand their knowledge. Learning should be a pleasurable experience and not torture!

Iteawon

This is the foreigners district where all the foreigners go hang out and where you might be able to find things from back home that you usually cannot find in other parts of korea

Staring right at you

As a foreigner you experience this every day when walking around, when on the bus and subways, when going shopping etc. Yes, people stare and they know that you know that they are staring and they do not care. I dont think they think staring is rude. In the US, people would not stare or they would do it discretely, but here they dont even try to hide the fact that they are staring right at you. I must say, the first month or so it kinda bothered me, but then you get over it. And well, if you live somewhere like Seoul you get a lot less staring, as people are much more used to foreigners, but the smaller the city the more staring you get. Also, of course, you get lots of stares at bath houses as a foreigners body is different from the typical korean body. SO of course people are curious. For me.... it was really weird the first couple times i went to the pool at to the bathouses because I am a lot heavier than the typical korean woman by about 15 kilograms and have big boobs and a big butt. So people stared A LOT . But now i just ignore it and do my thing.

Waiting to get out

This is true for elevators and subways as well. Whenever you are waiting to get out, people wait right infront of the door and when i mean right infront I mean RIGHT INFRONT! Actually, it was kinda funny... the other day at the subway station I waiting to get into the subway and all of a sudden I realized I was standing right infront of the subway door even though there was no one behind! Guess im picking up some habits from here.

Your bathroom at home

So bathrooms here are not like bathrooms back home. This is the typical korean bathroom (my bathroom at home is like this too) where the showerhead is pretty much over the sink and so to use the shower you rotate the sink handle and to use the sink you rotate it again in the opposite direction. But sometimes you for example, shower and just turn the water off , but forget to turn the little handle and so the next time you go into the bathroom to brush your teeth, wash your hands ,etc SURPRISE! the water comes out of the showerhead and you get soaked. This has happened to me plenty of times and trust me... its no fun. Especially when you just finished getting ready to go out and all you have left to do is brush your teeth and then you find yourself getting soaked!

Im fascinating

I guess every teacher goes through this at one point or another. Maybe more males than females. But yeah... i mean, you are different so people think you are fascinating, especially little kids. I, at least have middle school kids so they dont go around pulling myu hairs or anything

At the hospital

Yup, totally normal scene for people to be walking around with their Iv's around the hospital or for them to go out for a smoke. At first, I thought this was a bit weird, but here it is totally normal

Goal list

This is what most foreign teachers goal list looks like. Soju and Mekju and both very popular alcoholic drinks here. Koreans drink hardcore. And of course Kimchi is a staple food of korea. Pretty much anything you order in Korea will come with kimchi. So i think even if you dont like it you learn to like it

Haircut

This is why I was afraid to get my haircut the first time around! Pretty much the vast majority of the female korean population has bang and they all cut them the same way, so I guess hairdressers maybe just assume that is what you want too.

Food

Yup, this is your typical korean meal. Pretty good.... guess anyone could get used to good food, though you after a while you do end up missing the foods from back home because you quicky discover that korean food, at the end of the day, is all the same. Always, rice, always kimchee, always some kind of soup and they do not have variation in that the same thing that they have for lunch they have for breakfast and dinner. So koreans might have pork and rice and soup for dinner and they might have it for breakfast or lunch as well. In that sense, korean food does lack a bit of variety i feel, which i think is why western restaurants are so popular- because they offer something different!



oh- funny note- its seems that every time i have gone out to eat to a western restaurant i see a lot of pregnant women around. I think it is because their husbands are spoling them just becasue they are pregnant. I can totally picture it on my head

wife:"honey, im really craving some Outback/T.G.I.Fridays or whatever" ...

husband: "of course honey, anything you want" (while holding her tummy) :-)

i mean serisously. Would you say you agree with me?

I think im right.

At any rate... it IS nice to have something different now and then.

Bus drivers

Self explanatory. Bus drivers really do drive like crazy here, so if you do not hold on to something you will most likely fall and hurt yourself. Even if you ARE holding on to something, many times it is difficult to stay standing ... you literally struggle not to fall down on your ass and make a fool of yourself. What most impresses me is how older people manage with this. I mean.... i guess having lived in korea for years they must either A. be used to it or B. have developed supporting muscles that help them keep their balance. (which B would be no surprise as it seems older korean people for the most part are pretty fit and healthy)

Matching clothes?

Yes, couples in korea think its romatic or cute or something to dress in exactly the same way! so it is not strange whatsoever to see couples walking around wearing the exact same outfit with the same accessories, shoes etc. WEIRD- to me at least. I dunno,,, i just dont think you need to express you love/ affection or whatever for each other by dressing the same way. It's called "be your own person!"

Church people

Yup, every once in a while you get some of these... i guess we also get some of these back home. Pretty self explanatory... if people CAN avoid them, they will!

Christmas

Of course, i guess this holds true for all foreigners since we usually do not have time to go home or cannot afford to go home for christmas or both. So as seen, we communicate via skype and celebrate with our loved ones.

Phones

This scene you see every day in korea... people on their cell phones, but rarely making calls. Wherever you go you always see people usually watching tv or listening to music and playing video games on their cell phones. They do love their korean dramas, so I guess they just dont wanna miss them. So yeah, seriously impressive. I wonder what they would do if they didnt have their cell phones... i think they would grow desperate!

Subway shopping

There's always all kinds of people that sell all sorts of stuff in the subway. You see people selling arm stockings, music, shoe insoles, toys... i mean, all imaginable things.

"NO"

So in korea we have this thing that whenever we want to express "no" or "thats not right" or
"that doesnt work".... (different kinds of negations) we mark it with our body by corssing the arms as in the comic or both index fingers. I actually didnt realize I was doing this until someone mentioned it to me. I think people just pick it up somehow... maybe just from seeing it done... i dunno. note: i ALWAYS use this in the classroom... i think I believe that maybe my students will understand whatever im trying to negate if I use body language. So in this comic, we have the foreigner who is back home for the holidays maybe and of course, he brings with him his habits from korea. So when at the restaurant he just wants to say "no more water" by crossing his arms like that (totally normal in korea) but of couse, he is NOT in korea and so..... yeah. well, you can see

At the doctor's

This one is super funny. I have thought exactly the same thing. It seems that every time you go to the doctor, no matter what the problem is... whether you have a headache, cramps, muscle pain, trouble sleeping.... they always seem to give you the same blue and white pills and they all come in the same kind of package (like in the comic) and they always tell you three times a day after each meal. I starting to think maybe doctors just give people placebos and make them think they are taking medicine, but they are really not. Seriously! I mean.... i got the same kind of pills when I got my eye surgery and when I twisted my ankle.

Personal Space

So this one is pretty much self explanatory I think. In Korea, there is no sense of personal space. So if you are a person that has a big personal bubble, meaning you dont like people to get close to you... then korea would definitely not be the place to be. Here, people push you all over, you get squished in elevators, subways, supermarket lines etc etc etc.... so no personal space!

Another foreigner!

So as foreigners, we always complain about being stared at, or at least talk about it. But whever we see another foreigner we find ourselves staring at them and always wondering what to do. It is weird because some foreigners think "just because you too are a foreigner doesnt mean you have the right to say hello and think we are gonna become best friends or anything" while others think "cool, another foreigner! someone I can chat with on the way to...." So yeah, i myself find myself having the same conversation in my head when I run into foreigners. It's always..."ummm, do I just behave like they are korea, do I ignore them, do I say hi...???" this is always the dilemma. I think pretty much everyone goes through this at one point or another

Advertising girls

Sometimes around korea, you will see people advertising all kinds of products. Many times it is girls and as good korens, they always have these super short skirts, high heels.... the stereotypical korean.

A beautiful sunny day

So koreans think that having white skin is beautiful and really having darker skin is not considered beautiful. So, once the sun comes out you will see all these korean people walking around with umbrellas so the sun doesnt hit them. They also wear, like in the comic, these beach-style looking hats that totally covers their face along with their face masks. Again, they are just trying to protect their skin. As a foreigner of course, if there is sun, the first thing im gonna do is get out in the sun so I can get some color!

Comics

My friends Jennyfer came across a super cool website from this one guy that i guess is a foreigner and has made some comics about living in korea. The comics are seriously hilarious and hold SO true for life in korea! But as jennyfer said "you will not 'get them' unless you have lived in Korea" , SO.... over the next couple of blovs (there are a bunch of these comics) im gonna be posting the comics and then writing a bit of an explanation for each. I hope you will enjoy these. These i really do believe,.... will give you a good picture of some of the most common experiences us foreigners have here in korea.

Hi

Just stopping by to say hello. Yesterday was a long day. I felt so tired for some reason. I seriosly thought I was not going to be able to finish the day. It was one of those days when you feel like you have no energy whatsoever. At any rate... the nice part of the day was that Wang teacher stopped by the school and she came and said hello during my after school class, so it was really nice to see her. Then, after school i headed home and to my surprise Ivano was still in bed! I was like... "Ivano, sono gia le 6 di pomeriggio, che cazzo fai ancora nel letto! Dai, su... alzati!" hehe... he must have been exhausted. Anyways.... so he ate some Kimbap and then we headed out to the gym. We worked out, then headed back home, watched a movie, and slept.

today I still feel like i have no energy... we'll see how the day goes. I think my kids just drained all my energy yesterday cuz they were being super obnoxious... would not listen to me, would not be quiet, would not do their work.... so yeah, i was trying to get everyone to listen and spent a good 10-15 minutes of classtime quieting kids down.

On the other hand,... i am happy for tomrrow because tomorrow is children's day so there is no school! Which means.......... yup, that I can stay in bed a bit longer, and spend some time with Ivano and actually do something.

bye bye