A Day in Daegu

I took the train down to Daegu this morning to spend one last day with my friend G and her family before heading back to the US (I leave next Saturday!!). It was rather a lazy day, as we just hung out and chatted and ate (and as the weather was pretty crap down there), but it was a good day. Baby S was very excited to see me, and kept saying my name over and over and over. At one point, he woke up from his nap feeling very cranky, and didn't want his mom... he wanted me. Babies scare me, and usually the feeling is mutual, so this was a bit odd :-)

Overcast, dreary, and cold in Daegu.
G and Baby S
Baby S
Baby S

Me with Baby S after his nap.

Daegumas!

I got up early Saturday morning, pleased to discover that my headache was (mostly) gone. I grabbed my stuff and set off for the train station - and was quite pleasantly surprised to wander outside to discover that we'd had quite a bit of snowfall in the night. In fact, there was a good deal of snow blanketing the peninsula nearly all the way down to Daegu, although Daegu itself was above freezing and free of snow.

The snow on my street

Somewhere just south of Seoul

This is not fog; it was actually a blizzard. Somewhere between Seoul and Daejeon.

I had a lovely weekend with G, YM, and Baby S, and I saw Seth (Charlie's former cat-sitter) and met several new people as well. A couple photographs of the weekend are below. The full set of photographs (probably of interest only to people who know me and my friends) can be seen by CLICKING HERE. Enjoy! :-)

 
YM, G, and Baby S

Me and Baby S, followed by tons of photos of Baby S hamming it up for the camera.


The full set of photos can be seen here :-)

Around the world in 80 days? Try 35.

Thirty-five days. Five weeks. Korea -> Ukraine -> USA -> Korea. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am back in South Korea. I landed at 4am Korea time on Sunday, September 4th. After the unbelievably long delay in Charlotte, my flights both to LA and from there on to Korea left on time... and my checked bag (which as of 15 minutes before boarding my last flight hadn't shown up) actually made it to Seoul. Whew! And I really will blog about my time in the US as soon as I get the chance.

I took a wonderful five hour nap after getting back to my apartment. When I awoke, I went out and bought cat stuff (litter box, litter, food, toys) to prep my apartment for Charlie's arrival, then set off for Daegu to reclaim my cat. Seth - the fellow living in my old apartment, who took care of Charlie while I was gone - had told me that he would be gone all day on Sunday, but he promised to leave the door unlocked for me. Unfortunately, I'd emailed him from Charlotte saying I probably wouldn't be coming until Monday. Additionally, I don't yet have a phone. As such, when I made the decision to pop down to Daegu (an $80 round trip on the KTX), I had no way of getting in touch with him first to see if he had left the door unlocked or not. Now, having lived in that apartment for a year, I knew exactly how to break in... which is, of course, exactly what I did when encountered with a locked door.

Perhaps if I'd done like a normal human and come in through the front door, Charlie would've been easier to catch. As it was, it took about thirty minutes (plus her favorite cat food, some toys, and some catnip) to lure her into my grasp - whereupon I promptly shoved her into the carrier. She was not happy - and expressed her displeasure by peeing. In the cloth carrier. So yes, I took a stinky cat in a stinky bag back to Seoul on the KTX. My sincere apologies to anyone sitting in my vicinity.

Charlie is a little freaked out by being in a new place, although she's been purring and demanding attention, so I suspect she'll recover from the shock fairly quickly. Now if only I can recover from jet lag... My first day of work is tomorrow, and I don't want them to think I'm a half-awake moron. (I woke up at 3am today - which tends to happen when you fly from the US to Korea - and drugged myself back to sleep with some NyQuil. I woke up at 7am, which is around the time I'll need to be getting up on a daily basis anyway, so here's hoping I've defeated the jet lag somewhat!)

Saying Goodbye to Daegu

As I type, I am sitting in my new apartment in Seoul, where I will be through Monday morning (when I leave for my vacation in Kiev). I came up to Seoul with the last of my things this morning.

Yesterday I stopped by all of my favorite stores along my street to say goodbye to all my favorite shopkeepers. The woman at the accessories store gave me some free socks and a big hug; her husband shook my hand. My Paris Baguette gave me free ice tea. Everyone told me that I must come back and visit.

My students were also incredibly sweet. Several classes brought food, and many students gave me gifts, letters, and cards. A student who collects foreign coins gave me three American coins (a dollar coin, a quarter, and a fifty-cent piece). A student who collects pressed leaves/flowers and stamps gave me some of each. Another hand stitched a toy rabbit for me, another made me a cat-shaped fan. So many adorable gifts and letters. Here are some of my favorites:

I had just listened to this really interesting podcast on dollar coins, so I was quite amused to receive this!





(I often yelled at a student named Maria in this class - apparently that made an impression on her classmates!)

I feel silly blurring out my face and no one else's, but as long as I'm trying to keep this blog semi-anonymous, I figure I should... Anyway, below are some pictures of me with some of my favorite classes.

These two fellas are replacing me and my cousin. They're both named Seth.

Seth on the right will be living in my old apartment and keeping Charlie until I get back. She's rather terrified of him right now, as the only people she has had contact with are me and the vet... and of course the vet did not leave her with a positive impression of Other People. When I left, she was hiding under the couch :-( So sad; I miss her already. The youtube video below is the last Charlie video I'll be posting for six weeks or so. I'm trying not to worry. Meanwhile, if you'd like to follow the adventures of two brand new Korea newbies, here are their blogs: Seth in Korea and Minor Misadventures in Asia Major. Enjoy!

Dental Damage

I was never one of those kids who had a fear of the dentist. I even kind of enjoyed going, despite the fact that many of the trips were to have teeth pulled (most of my baby teeth didn't fall out on their own, then later when I was getting braces, I had to have some permanent teeth yanked because my mouth was too small). I had my first cavity discovered, drilled and filled by a super-cute Costa Rican dentist in Tilaran back in 2002. It wasn't until 2004 or 5, when I was living in San Diego, that my fear of the dentist started.

I had gone in for a cleaning - just a cleaning - although the whole thing was terribly painful. I left with all of my gums bleeding and the dentist telling me that was just because I was on birth control. The whole event was pretty scary, and soured me on the whole dentist thing. Since then my trips to the dentist have been pretty few and far between - although I went to one here in Daegu back in May. I had my teeth cleaned, the abraded enamel on my front teeth fixed, and two cavities diagnosed. It wasn't a bad experience at all.

I went this morning to have the cavities worked on. It was pretty horrible. While the Costa Rican dentist had drilled-n-filled without any anaesthetic, he had told me to let him know if I felt any pain, and that then he would shoot me up with some novocaine. This fella didn't give me that option; he just started drilling. All the yowling in pain coming from the patient on the chair (me), didn't slow the drill one bit. He only did one of the two cavities... meaning that I need to go back and do this again if I want the other one fixed. My filling choices were gold or amalgam... as the former cost $250 while the latter cost $25, I went with the amalgam. It's pretty ugly - I look rather like I have some chewing gum stuck on one of my molars. Not a big fan.

It doesn't hurt any more (the pain stopped as soon as the drill did), but it feels odd, like it almost hurts, if that makes any sense. And I've felt nauseous all day :-(

Now I'm faced with the choice of finding a new dentist in Seoul, or returning for more torture in September when I come back to Daegu to collect Charlie. According to my boss, getting cavities filled without being numbed is normal over here...

sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away...

No more nasty rainy weather for now (although more is predicted for this weekend). Instead what we had to day were beautiful blue skies and smotheringly hot heat. I walked to the post office in the middle of the day, carrying two packages, and by the time I was back in the land of AC, I felt like I might die. I got a couple of fun photos though (with my point-n-shoot, not my DSLR... I didn't feel like carrying it in addition to the packages!) - enjoy!

questionable marketing

The school where I've been working for the past year is part of a chain of schools. While each branch is operated independently, they all use the same curriculum, the same advertising, etc. The current batch of promotional posters that arrived last week are... interesting. The theme is something along the lines of similar but different - comparing the teaching of English Literature to the teaching of the English Language. The theme is fine, but the graphics? I don't get it.

Similar but different: Hitler ≠ Chaplin


Somebody didn't pay attention in biology class.... one sperm and all those eggs?

Charlie and Friend

Orange Cat likes to hang out on the roof of the neighbor's porch. Charlie is, of course, fascinated. Today they were meowing at each other.

Welcome to the 장마

장마 (pronounced jahng-ma) is the Korean word for the east-Asian monsoon season - and we're right in the middle of it. This is my third summer in Korea, and by far the rainiest. Take a look at the forecast for the next ten days:

At least this weekend I succeeded in getting some awesome rain boots.

I went and splashed in puddles during a lull in the rain...

A moment of self-reflection :-)

And I got a new suitcase to replace the one Charlie peed on when she was in heat (back before she was fixed).

If only I knew whether or not I was coming back to Korea - I can't really start packing until I know where I'm going. If they toss another delay at me on Tuesday, I'm going to tell them to bugger off.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it...

"I am a goddess!"

Yes, I did indeed utter those words to my co-worker, J, earlier today. I had succeeded in removing the Personal Shield Pro virus from the shared computer in our office without losing any of our files, and I was feeling pretty stoked.

That feeling carried me through the workday until my 8pm break, when I sat down to check my email. I had received an email from the company in Seoul. I opened it expecting either a 'You're hired!' or a 'Thank you for your interest, but...' Instead, I received this:

It was really nice to have interview with you. It may seem to surprise you, but there is one more step for employment. This step is one of our regular recruiting process and usually given for whom is waiting for our final decision.

The mission is,

Write one page of complete paper (MS Word Format) introducing our product [******] to people who are the target of our sales.

Target readers are native English speaker. In this way, please fully show your English writing skill in the best manner.

Also, please show your understanding ability for our product.

Since our [...] executives will make decision by this Friday, I would be appreciated if you could send the paper by tomorrow, 7th July, 18:00.

They included a document on the product to which they refer (the sort of file which could be used as a promotional brochure or in the background of a presentation) for me to use in writing this paper.

I have to admit that my initial reaction may have involved a lot of profanity. It was 8pm on July 6th, and they needed this by 6pm July 7th? It's not like I'm unemployed here - I have a full-time job! I've been talking with these people for months now. Couldn't they have given me more warning? I mean, I spent most of the rainy weekend inside, kicking my heels. I could've been working on this!

And then I got over it. Yeah, it's annoying, but Korea is the land of the last-minute. That class you were told you weren't teaching today? You need to teach it. It starts in five minutes. That meeting we scheduled for later this week? Actually, it's tomorrow morning. I'm half convinced that if the South ever decides to attack the North, the US forces stationed on the peninsula will find out as the attack gets underway. (Oh, BTW, we decided to launch airstrikes. Didn't anyone tell you?)

I went home (my work day ends at 10pm), juiced myself with caffeine (which is why it's now 3:30am and I'm blogging...), and sat down and typed out a kickass paper. Well, I think it's pretty kickass anyway. If they disagree, well, it wouldn't have worked out between us. And then, because I was feeling awfully go-gettery, I edited the document they'd emailed me - complete with MS Word markups, detailing what I had done, and why.

Then I walked to my local convenience store, only to discover that they aren't actually open 24/7. Damn. And here I've gone and drunk my morning coffee.

Not much going on...

I have a sneaking suspicion that when the company in Seoul said, "We'll let you know by next Friday at the latest" that what they really meant was "We'll let you know on next Friday." So far, I know nothing either way.

I spent the weekend cleaning my house and shopping for stylish rain boots. The house is a mess again, and the only stylish rain boots I found were not in my size. In addition to not finding rain boots, I discovered that someone had bought all of the Premium Royal catfood (other than the 'special hairball formula' variety) from the only store in my neighborhood that sells it. Charlie is a tad cranky.

One of my coworkers (I don't know who, but they deserve a smack) allowed Personal Shield Pro to get installed on the work computer we all share. It's a fake anti-virus program that in reality is actually a virus. It won't let you do pretty much anything (well, it will allow you to submit your credit card number, if you were foolish enough to fall for it), and the damn thing is clever enough to prevent me from accessing/installing/running anything that might remove it. And sadly, the version we got seems to be newer than the one discussed here, as the instructions for removal don't work. There is talk of reformatting the harddrive.

I am mostly annoyed about this virus nonsense because I had typed up a fantastic summary of all my classes for my soon-to-arrive replacement. It included information on each class, such as grade, textbook, the kinds of activities that specific classes like/dislike, the students who get good/bad grades, the well-behaved kids and the discipline problems... And yes, that's saved on the shared computer. Grrrrrr.

And now for something a little more amusing - the cover of one of the new textbooks the Korean teachers at my school are using. The series is called Button Up, but there's just a little too much space between the t and the o. Every time I look at it, my brain reads butt on up.

In which one of life's most pressing questions is answered

Anyone who has watched Friends has surely wondered, "Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you?" If somehow you don't know what I mean, click here.

I have, however, hit upon the answer to this most pressing of questions: Premium Royal canned catfood. Charlie *LOVES* it. Now, Charlie is a spoiled critter - she's come a long way from the feral kitten scrounging in trash heaps and begging chicken scraps from the local fried chicken joint that she once was. She has decided that canned tuna, canned Whiskas, and even certain Fancy Feast varieties are beneath her oh-so-refined palate. She will eat Whiskas dry food, but no other dry brands, and only if canned food hasn't been forthcoming for at least a day and a half. But Premium Royal? She'll knock the can out of my hand and shove her head right on in. Waiting to be served? Nonsense! Not when there's Premium Royal around. Check it:




This is what kitty crack looks like, apparently.
Unfortunately, Premium Royal might be pleasant for Charlie going in, but it is distinctly unpleasant for me coming out. I live in a pretty small apartment... but I also purchase quality cat litter. Until the arrival of Premium Royal into our lives, litter box smells were not an issue. But now? Ohmygod. I have to febreeze the entire house every time she goes. I can't imagine anything that produces such noxious shit (in the literal sense) could possibly be good for her. I've limited her to one serving a day (leading to numerous recriminating glances), but still! This is probably far more than you wanted to know.

Becoming a Big Purse Lady

In my obsessive planning and preparation for my upcoming job interview, I went to my favorite accessories store to purchase a little black purse. (BTW, they have the photo I gave them on display in their store!) I have far too many purses as it is, although none were either black or professional looking. This was what I got:

Unfortunately, it was only after making my purchase (no worries; it was super-cheap) that it occurred to me that if I wanted to bring along presentable looking copies of the texts that I'd edited, I was going to need something a little bigger. The only way I could transport texts printed on A4 in that little thing would be if I folded them up into little squares. Hardly professional.

During a lull in yesterday's rain, I popped over to Lotte Mart to find something a little more suitable. (All the purses at "my" accessories store are too small.) Now, I've never been one of those women who carry big purses... so this is definitely a first:

Charlie finds it fascinating. I'm guessing it smells a bit like dead cow.

I am not a cook.

I probably shouldn't paraphrase Richard Nixon, as he really was a crook, whereas I most definitely am not a cook. I have perfected spaghetti-from-a-jar and Korean instant curry atop Korean instant rice, and am pretty much content to let my cooking skills remain at this level. Luckily for me, I have friends who are far more into cooking! Coworker J had expressed an interest in learning how to cook Korean food, so G invited us over for an introductory lesson featuring seaweed soup and stuffed tofu.

Seaweed soup (미역국 - unfortunately transliterated as mi-yuck gook, which to the uninitiated sounds rather gross. I promise it's not.) is easy to make (even I could make it, were I suitably motivated), delicious, and healthy. It's a traditional food for pregnant and post-partum women here in Korea, although it's certainly not restricted to them by any means.

Seaweed (미역) is usually sold dehydrated. It doesn't take much to make a lot of soup.


Re-hydrate your seaweed in water... and soak your beef in water as well to remove the blood.


Once your seaweed has rehydrated, wring it out.


Mildly 'stir-fry' your seaweed in some kind of sesame seed oil, just long enough to get all of the seaweed covered in said oil. (Yes, I realize "some kind of sesame seed oil" is vague, but remember, I am not a cook.)


Drain your beef and add it to the seaweed.


Add water and soy sauce.


Add seasoning. Er... Korean bullion equivalent?

At this point, you just boil the soup for a few minutes, and then your soup is finished! Meanwhile, my stuffed tofu section of this post is even more vague.


After browning your tofu on both sides...

...cut a slit in the center of each square. Stuff with stir-fried meat-n-onions mixed with kimchi.


The final product.


Seaweed soup and stuffed tofu... delicious!! :-)