High Nose, Double Eyelid, Small Face

Last time I mentioned that Mr. Oh, besides being warm and bright and likable, has darker skin and freckles, because in Korea both of those things are a considered very ugly or a sign that you’re poor.    Their standard of beauty is narrow.  It’s self-loathing and xenophobic at the same time.

Co-Teaching Tensions and Turkey

I tattled on Ms. Che’s classroom antics, and she got a talking to by one of the older and wiser teachers.  I also chose the same day to forget to make the material for the morning broadcast which Ms. Che translates and distribues.  Boy I felt like an asshole for forgetting that.

Yesterday afternoon Lil MK was in the office speaking to Mr. Oh.  Mr. Oh is one of the few male teachers I really like.  He is middle aged and dark, and has freckles.  He speaks English really well, and he seems warm and smart and calm.  Lil MK was a bit upset about something.  She needed a tissue.  I don’t think I can overstate what a wonderful teacher she is.  Well, it was her second day back and the students and administration can be abrassive. I wanted to give her a hug.

On Friday my circle of friends will have a Thanksgiving dinner.  I’m really looking forward to it.  Plus it’s Amanda’s birthday week.  She graciously, and without nagging from me, let her birthday dinner blend in with the holiday.  I was ready to abstain from our expat holiday, but I’m glad I get to do both.  We will have chicken and ham, though there is talk of someone being able to get their hands on a turkey.

November Birthdays

Everyone who has a birthday in November has cheesy parents.  November is nine months from Valentines Day.  Honestly.

Money is back, and so is Lil MK

It’s payday!  To prove I’ve reformed my spendthrift ways, I have been taking the bus and walking instead of grabbing a taxi.  Sure, taxis in Seoul are so reasonable one could call them cheap.  But one doesn’t need to take the taxi everywhere.  I’ve also decided to carry cash and not rely on my card.  You know, so I see what money I exchange for things.  Make the process more concrete.  Make me spend wisely and less.   Now is the time for all good women to start saving money.  Financial responsibility isn’t something I was ever taught, or ever sought out on my own.   

Right now I’m in the process of testing my first and second years (That would be 7th and 8th grade to us ‘Mericans.)  It’s the only grade I give them, and counts for 10% of their English grade.  I am a very easy grader.  To get 80 or 90 percent all a student has to do is write, memorize and perform a short skit, essentially what they do every week for my class, minus the writing.  To get a perfect grade they have to turn in the test paper and try to act and bring in props.  The lowest grade I’ve given to a student who took the text was 70% because they were cheating.  I had a run in during class with the co-teacher Ms. Che.  She’s young, and I like chatting with her and eating lunch with her, but she is appalling in the classroom.  She takes no responsibility for the student’s behavior.  Today she was trying to bully me into letting two students take the test who hadn’t written the assignment and hadn’t memorized it.  In my class last week all the students had to do was write a 12 line dialogue.  Those students who didn’t do the work were high level.   If you don’t do the work, you don’t get to test.   I’m trying to teach organization and responsibility and accountability. She was arguing with me in front of the class about it.  She’s fucking appalling.  I told her no several times and she kept pushing it.  Finally I told her it was my class and it was entirely inappropriate to have the discussion in front of the students.  The students got their grade, zeros, and she was sulky and pissy about it. She’s young.  I’m going to have to speak with an older, wiser, and better co-teacher to address this situation.  I’m green with this work confrontation problem thing.  I only teach one class with her, and it is really easy and tempting to ignore the situation.  But she may be here for the spring semester, and I can’t abide this nonsense in one class.  What if I have more classes with her in the spring?

Anyway, those two kids aren’t totally screwed.  We have an extra curricular program, English Cafe (it’s all English and no cafe), and participation gives you extra credit toward your speaking test. 

But on a better note, the divine Mrs. Kim, or lil MK, is back, and I have six classes with her.  She was on break because she just had her first baby.  Lil MK sounds like a North American when she speaks English.  Last time I spoke to her she was writing a paper on Chaucer.  What?  Amazing.  She also is an incredible teacher and co-teacher.  She is calm, but strict, and defers to me, and participates!  Because she is such a good teacher, I defer to her.  I love you, lil MK.  I love you, and I’ll try to learn from you.  Really, there is something divine about her.

Malt does more than Milton can to Justify God’s ways to Man

My second December in Seoul is right around the corner.  Last night I told my folks I am considering coming home for my winter vacation.  I didn’t sleep on it a few nights like I’d said I would.  I didn’t even sleep on it one night.  

They haven’t sold my car yet.  I’d have to get a new license.  I also need to see an optometrist.  My vision hasn’t been it’s bright old self.  I’m getting squinty.  The moon is blurry, people’s faces are blurry.  

I’m counting my plane tickets before their bought.  It’s a pretty penny for a roundtrip ticket.  

I had a nice relaxed, though indulgent, Sunday.  Saturday was pretty much a bust because I didn’t get home until 7 in the morning.  I’d kept my dignity all the way up to my apartment, and then I disrobed and read my favorite Houseman poem  a couple of times.  I hadn’t looked at it in years.  Yeah, I don’t know much about poetry.  Pretty friendship tis to rhyme your friends to death before their time.

The Music Says Nothing to me about my Life

I don’t like dance clubs past 2 a.m.  Vomit in the bathroom.  Everybody dancing to music about lives with a lot better drugs and a lot more money.  Angry weird drunk people doing angry weird violent things.  

Annie took me out last night, and was super generous and fun.  There was a group of about four to six folks coming and going. Before the depressing dance club we went to a couple of really adorable wine bars, plus got burritos.  I had a good time with my friends.

I am seriously thinking about going back to North Carolina for my winter vacation.  Sadly my vacation will be after Christmas.  I’m 99% sure my parents haven’t sold my (their) car, so that means I’d have freedom during the day.  I will sleep on it for a few days.  I want to mention it to my folks, but I want to be sure it is what I can and want to do.

Is it too early to get lunch? This journal is becoming a record of my reckless spending habits

The gas issue was fixed in a heartbeat.  Thank goodness someone along the way pities the foreigner and lets us go for longer without settling up our bill.  I, redfaced, asked a co-worker if she could pay my bill online if I gave her cash.  Then I harrassed several coworkers about calling the gas company to get it turned back on that afternoon.  The weather report had said it would be snowy the next day.  The gas was on when I got home, but my landlord’s middle-aged son was standing in my apartment, the door flung wide open.  A workman was in my bathroom laying down new tile in a few spots.  They had torn up three places in my bathroom looking for a leak and were just finishing laying the last mismatched tile.   They’d been there for four hours.  I’d thought I wouldn’t be able to take a shower that afternoon before going out because the hot water would be gone.  Instead I couldn’t shower because the cement had to dry.  Well, it didn’t snow.  This month the weather report has often mentioned snow, and I haven’t seen one scant flake in Seoul. 

I’m broke until the afternoon of the 24th from my own wanton, ridiculous, unpitiable actions.  I have no pity for me, leastways.  Thanks to a good friend I won’t be snitching my dinner from the lunch food in the cafeteria.  All praise to Annie!

Last week was my final time teaching the third graders (thats about 8th or 9th grade to you Americans).  They’d been my students the longest and were accustomed to my speaking and my ways.  I’ll miss them.   Now I have a very light schedule until the end of term.  Not that I know what to do with my time.  As evidenced by this journal.

Anyway, life plugs along cheerily.   I listen to a lot of podcasts to try and grow my brain big.  Big like melon!  I’m broke and have a lot of nice coats and a polaroid camera.   I’ve been a bad Briana and have been smoking socially.  It’s nice on a cold day with a hot latte and some good friends.  I am leading myself merrily down the path of grossness and bad for my healthness.   It’s appalling to think of smoking everyday during the day. 

Okay, I’m going to go look at photos of the lungs of smokers and stuff.   Read about the bad effects of cigarettes.  Ya know.

Slack Faced

Everyday around the middle of the afternoon my brain stops working very well and my eyes settle at half mast, and I consider if tis better to drink super sweet instant coffee or to slump at my desk slack faced.  

Yesterday, probably around the time I was impulsively purchasing a polaroid camera, my gas was being turned off.  I came home to a very neat and homey apartment without heat or warm water.  It’s a small place, and I could probably heat it up by jogging vigourously in circles. 

 

Shaking it doesn’t help

Today I bought a polaroid camera in a hip little store in a hip district of town not too far from where I live.  It’s a 5,000 won taxi ride.  The camera cost a little over 100,000 won, but it’s the polaroid film that is expensive.  One shot costs 1,100 won.  But I didn’t buy any clothes.   It’s a nifty little camera, and also it satisfies my need for instant gratification.  

You pull the lens to turn the power on.   Plus it has different settings. Swanky.

Ten months is closer than it seems

Life in Korea is sweet.  I go to a swanky gym, I have good friends and more money that I know how to save.  I really dig living by myself.  I am keeping up some study, and enjoy most aspects of my job, and I keep a nice daily schedule.  Things are good, but things aren’t third year worth.  I leave in August, but the first year went past so fast, and so far this year is keeping up the same pace.  I’ll have to and want to leave this zone of contentment, because honey, my life and career prospects and education aren’t going to go far here.  

For a month or two I really believed that, if accepted, I would go into the Peace Corps.  After going on summer vacation, that idea went cold pretty fast and it hasn’t been resuscitated.  With research, something pretty will show up.