Apartment Tour: Terribly Exciting.

Haha, the first image looks pretty grim, eh?

Picture Post. Video Post Soon.

In Naju:

Sujin (with a Korean radish)

Hyung-bu and some of the super delicious food Sujin was constantly preparing all weekend.

"Do you usually eat this often?"

"In winter season, yes. Are you hungry?"

The childrens!

My camera is sometimes being stupid as of late. Sorry 'bout the quality.

Also, Chong-won is holding the puppy I made her at Build-A-Bear. She liked it, I think.

Oh no! Dong-gun is dead!

No, really. Look how dead he is!

The family presenting my welcome-back-to-Korea cake. ^_^

The axis deer antler I brought for Hyung-bu in its place of honor.

Back in Busan:



 The kimchi that Sujin sent home with me. Soooo good.

Largest department store in the world, eh? Take that, America.

Also, I LIVE IN THIS CITY! AHHHHH!!

Some flatscreen TVs.

(the one to the left is about $6000)

HOLY HELL, LG! You're not kidding around!

(My coworker Kelly is in the background taking a picture, doing the same thing I am...cuz holy shit)

ja ja!

And today, I love my job.

had a set schedule, only taught 4 classes, only 1 was grumpy and the other 3 were AWESOME, had books (mostly).

Done at 5:30. Gonna do laundry and draw (exciting, I know...). Maybe I'll even bop around.

quickie

SIMCHAH!!!!!! MY WEEKEND WITH SUJIN'S FAMILY WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Also, my address (finally):

부산 수영구 남천1동 69-6 로얄오피스텔 1005 호

or

1005 Ho Royal Officetel
69-6 Namcheon 1-Dong
Suyeong-gu,  Busan

Korea: Where nothing is a To-Don't

Good gravy, it's been an up and down couple of days. Yesterday morning, I decided to finally watch Harmony, the Korean Sister Act. It was sooooooooooooooo cute. It played me like a fiddle and I cried my face off like 7 times.

Then I went off to the bank, praying that I still had a bank account and that I could somehow figure out how to communicate whatever needed to be done to get me a working account and bank card. I was a bit nervous and when I bopped upstairs with my terrible "sorry, Korean language, a little,*" the woman replied in perfect English. Oh, big city life....you're the best.

* I'm a serious douche-b for not even knowing how to properly say "I'm sorry, I don't speak very much Korean," after living here for a year... >_<


So, good news there, then it was off to the hospital for the round of pokings so that I can work in the country. I really, really suck at peeing in a cup. I don't even understand the trajectory that happened in there. But again, there was NO WAY I could have done my med check by myself last year. Well, besides the fact that I was a bit overstimulated, Eun Ju and I had to run all over the hospital to different buildings and floors and I think I would have just sat on the floor and cried. The Good Kang-An Hospital in Namcheon was easy as pie. There was a desk for foreigners to ask questions, I got directions, and off we started. I bopped around the numbered stations that were all in the same large room. For some reason, my bust was measured and the nurse ran out of tape. That was pretty priceless. It was mind blowing that I was able to do it alone. The nurses were really sheepish about their English, but they'd think a minute and say "oh! urine sample!" SO MUCH ENGLISH. AH, THE CITY.

The big adventure today has been hauling ass back to Jeolla province to see Sujin & Co. and grab my stuffs from Whit and Lindsay's. Soooo late for the first train, grabbed a cab, bought a later train ticket. Then I realized I left the bag containing gifts for Sujin's family and my army bag to haul my shit home IN THE TAXI. So I ran around hoping the ajushi would have left it near the entrance or given it to the ticket people. Then I gave up and decided to get on the train. And stood at the platform as it slowly left (I missed it by about 30 seconds). Well, then I did sit down and cry. For a second. And then got a new ticket and tried to leave my address at the ticket counter. The woman there to me to try lost and found (oh, duh...). It seemed pretty hopeless, but I explained what happened and the man there took me down to a mini police station AND THERE IT WAS! Oh, the dance I did. And now I'm chilling here in Daejeon where I had to change trains. The two KTX lines are like an atari symbol. Busan is the end of the right leg and Naju is about 3/4 of the way down the left leg. So in Daejeon there are 2 train stations on the opposite sides of town and you can swap lines. CRAZY MORNING and it's worked out pretty well, despite looking pretty bleak for a while there (at 7am, mind you). Thank G-d.

Now on to work stuff.

I did get Wednesday off of work! Thank G-d, I needed it. Got in, bought some food and a broom (at the department store with the small box fiasco), passed out, and cleaned.

 My first day of teaching was ok. A bit boring as I only had 2 classes, no computer, and none of my drawing stuff, but the classes were AWESOME! The lesson plan were super easy to implement, the students were super smart, eager, and curious, AND there was only 5 or 6 of them per class. BADASS. And my foreign co-worker IS really nice dude in person. We work with 3 Korean teachers (who speak such good English!!! AHHHH!) and they're pretty cute. Although our department is kinda new and they're running their asses off doing a million things to get things proper and would kind rather not do a bunch of translating for us to speak with the director. Adam and I don't really like the arrangement either...they're our co-workers....they don't need to know that my gas wasn't working. But our director doesn't speak English and the "team leader" who was going to help with our logistics quit for some reason. sigh.

Yesterday was not as fun a teaching day. There were missing books, books with lots of Korean (which won't be a problem once we work on translating together, but it was a shocker at first), missing CDs, pissy kids, and messed up schedules. I had 5 classes (not bad in and of itself, but it was a big jump from 2) and my last class finished at 10:10. I finished up with a class of two ja-sa (advanced) boys and we did some story writing. That was nice. Then home to pass out (still have jet leg. blech) and up again at 5am to go on TODAY'S crazy adventure. Eeesh.

I'm typing this in a tiny pc bang in the Seodaejeon train station. In about 2 hours, I'll be in Naju again with my Korean family!!!!! YAY.

displacement

It's suddenly occured to me that almost all of my work clothes are on the other side of the country. Oops.

The good news is that two washclothes work just fine as a towel. I was pretty impressed.

state dependent memory

Soooo effing tired, but some things I don't want to forget once I've rested up and become a normal human again. stream-of-I'm-typing-this-shit-as-I-think-of-it.

• being in Korea again is really bizarre. it's like that time I went before was a dream and now, I've just randomly decided to go where I had a dream about. Like, say, you had a dream about selling pickles in India. Then you wake up and actually go there and do that.
• the little baby on the bus to the hotel last night was THE CUTEST THING, AHHHHH. His name was Eugene.
• I have Korean city culture shock. There's a mega mart near my apartment. Where they sell pet stuff and coffee beans and Heinz mustard. Ho-ly shit. Lacey works nearby. I might go have tacos with her after I pass out. THAT IS BIZARRE AND AWESOME
• Don't ever, ever think you know what you're doing in Korea. Because I've never been for-real-shopping at a Korean department store, I didn't realize that you have to request and then pay for bags or go to a counter, tape up a used box, and put your shit in that. great for the environment. I was mightily perplexed by it, however.
• The taxi driver who drove me from the Busan airport put glasses over his glasses to read the paper I gave him with my recruiter's phone number on it. I giggled and assumed bifocals. WRONG. The glasses he was already wearing didn't have lenses in them.
• the apartment next to mine is a babysitting placement agency
• I WILL LEAVE HERE NOW AND SHOVE KIMCHI IN MY MOUTH AND THEN HAVE THE BEST SLEEP

close enough!

Safe in Korea!

Busan tomorrow, cuz flight delay.

Don't worry...no more travel entries after this one. Promise. Next mention will be a home safe mention.

I got an outlet! And wifi suddenly happened!

Now I'm sitting pretty for my last 2 hours here. Just enough time to watch Being There starring Peter Sellers.

Airport face.

Also, just found out I live on the same floor of the same apartment building as my coworker...erm, I really hope we like each other. He seems like a pretty nice dude and we've both got our own stuff going on, so it should be easy to not get all up in each other's business. Anywho, Adam says our building's a bit old and the apartment is small (most Korean apartments are and I knew karma/logistics was gonna knock me down a peg or three after that palatial set up I had last year), but that the insides have just been redone and the appliances and cupboards are tops. Cool.

Mom's talking me on Skype. She's the cutest and just reminded me that when I finally hit a bed, I won't have a blanket. Jerk. Hahaha.

MOVIE TIME. THANKS, BRO.

Annyong from Seattle! It's my first, very own flight delay! I've been hanging out in this airport for 4 hours and I've got 4 left. There aren't enough outlets for everyone to charge their various electronic bits, so my laptop's died. There was news of free wifi, but Sir Sparkles wouldn't pick it up before his demise, so I've hopped on this TERRIFYINGLY expensive internet kiosk ($5 for 15 minutes) to alert my recruiter of the haps. And the entire post shall go in the subject line because the box for the body won't load. But I'm safe, and I'll get to Korea eventually. Maybe I'll even get Wednesday off. Haha, likely not. Now, let's see if this uploads. only 40 seconds left!

My flight HAS been booked!

Just got (some) of the haps this morning in a series of e-mails from my recruiter. And one e-mail devoted entirely to fretting about blankets. Like three paragraphs of blanket fret. Adorable.

So, I fly out from Cleveland at 6:30am on Monday (because when has a flight ever left at a reasonable hour?). With the general rule being to arrive 3 hours early for international flights (especially this close to Christmas), Dad and I will simply leave the Belden house at midnight. You know, when I've just finished packing. ^_^

Two small issues.

One is that my itinerary isn't showing a flight to get me from Chicago to Seattle. I e-mailed my recruiter about it and hopefully the document they sent me is simply a compilation of all my flight schedules and they just forgot to paste one in. Or there's a giant gap in flights and they've got a serious problem to deal with, haha. My mom, being the cleverest lady, reminded me that the airports will be insane because of holiday travel. Maybe it would just be faster to take a bus for those 2000 miles. ^_^

Also, I HATE layovers. They terrify me. It's not the hassle or waste of time or blah. I'm just afraid I won't be on time for my next flight or I'll miss some crucial memo and not be allowed to go. I CAN'T LIKE IT. Oh well. At least I didn't have to pay for the flight up front like last year.

The other, smaller, issue is that I've got to change airports in Korea. I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Korea is a silly place, full of last minute tomfoolery, disorganization, and just plain chaos. .....+ Airport. Dear G-d. Incheon International's got its pants on, but who knows where the pants are at Gimpo Int'l. Not to mention I've never been to Gimpo airport, but there's likely a shuttle that I'll stumble into.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'll get to Busan on Tuesday around 9:30pm KST (or 7:30am EST...25 hours in transit....yaaay) and I'll go to work the next day. Now here's what's up...I looked for this job for THREE MONTHS. My ass doesn't go to work until 2pm. Suck on that, public school.

That's haps.

And here's my dad grinning next to the family's yet-to-be-chopped Christmas tree:

(also Tyler sitting in the snow)

ja-ja!

Uhm, I think I leave in 3 days. I wonder if my flight's been booked yet...

Hopefully my visa comes tomorrow or Friday. If not, Namcheon Highest ELC is going to be pissed at all that money they spent/will spend on a useless plane ticket. Excellent reminder of the everything-at-the-absolute-last-minute life I'm headed back into, ㅋㅋ. Also, haven't started packing yet. Thought I'd make a day of that on Friday.

Also, also, if you or someone you know is thinking of bopping on over to Korea to play at teaching, go read this excellent blog entry:
http://imnopicasso.blogspot.com/2010/03/formspring-2-lizs-first-top-ten.html

This is also a really handy way to make sure I know where this link is the next time I get an e-mail asking about what to expect. ㅋㅋ And her blog is quite excellent in general.

And of course, make sure to check out http://kimchicornbread.blogspot.com/ for a great picture of life in Korea (and great pictures, period) as well. Whit and Lindsay are great writers and their blog helped me understand what my life might be like be like once I landed. And luckily for me, they started their own recruiting company just as I started looking for a recruiter. THEY ARE EXCELLENT AND I RECOMMEND THEM 100%.

So, yeah. Ally's coming home from school for the semester tomorrow and I leave (again, tentatively) Saturday. One in, one out, eh? In general news, my parents had their 19th wedding anniversary yesterday. I made them a brownie cake and they were huggy and cute.

Happy Annivers(mumble), Mom & Dad!

Please take a moment and learn of the hilarity that is the Korean National Assembly: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/12/ask-korean-news-yearly-tradition.html

NYC, Here I don't come!

I DON'T HAVE TO TRAVEL TO THE KOREAN CONSULATE IN NYC!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I can just mail my application! yeah! yeah, yeah, yeah! oooooh oooooooh!

by Kate Beaton (click to enlarge)

I almost wrote "Ack," but then was suddenly reminded of "Cathy." Man, Jim's a dick.

I (finally) got my Visa Issuance Number! That's the take-home!

I'd suggest skipping the indented bit. Ceaseless whinging.

I suspect my aforementioned recruiting agency is a bit swamped. While I've been waiting for my visa issuance number for two weeks (and freaking out a bit as it's not supposed to take that long), I suddenly get an e-mail asking when my visa will be finished. Which I just stared at, blinking. Uhm, what do you mean? I pointed out that I was waiting on my visa issuance number and suddenly "YOUR VISA NUMBER IS READY!" I'm sure that I'll be getting frantic/snarky e-mails about needing to hurry up to meet my start date......because someone at my recruiting agency missed a memo. Adorable.

I've got to order transcripts that may or may not actually be required and then figure out how to get to the nearest post office (currently buried under 3 feet of snow) without a car. The post office is 7 miles away.

I want to spend as much time as possible living in a place where a bank, post office, and a market are within walking distance. Or at the very least, where there is extremely regular public transportation within walking distance. Urban sprawl infuriates me. Getting from store to store without a car in many places in Erie is incredibly awkward if not outright dangerous. And I don't understand why there's a casino closer to my parents' house than a post office.

I didn't even call the consulate today because I was afraid. Afraid that I'd have to go for another 10 minute interview in New York City, a shitstorm of money and logistics 300 miles away.

All I want to do is fast forward through the next week and a half, when I should be soaking in every last second I have left with my family before I leave for a year. I am SO annoyed and I'm acting like a giant bitch. I keep snapping at everyone and I hate it. I think I need a nap.

Edit, Some hours later: I finished reading Bone by Jeff Smith, had a small sleep, and then told my family sorry for being such a grump.

 (click to enlarge)

My dad had been explaining that he'd help me get to the post office and we'd figure everything out, but I just wanted to be upset. Anywho, after reading and indulging a moment of ridiculous self pity (Phyllis taught me that a good way of doing that is to press the back of your hand against your forehead and cry "My life is soooo hard!"), I was a decent human again. It's all about just doing the next right thing. I don't know why I insist in all of this fit pitching so much of the time

Someone from my recruiting company called and we talked about document stuff and I've got a list of questions for the consulate. Tomorrow, I've just got to think of my Julie and get outta bed, make those phone calls, help out around the house a bit, and do some drawing. Oh, and lay off the coffee a bit. I think it was tweaking me out a little. It's possible that the paperwork for the consulate could be in the mail tomorrow and that's when I've decided, officially, to stop stressing out about my new job in Korea. And if things don't mail tomorrow, progress will be made.

In other news, all this snow and holiday stuff is making me feel rather warm and cheery. I guess I missed it last year. My mom's been the biggest bundle of cute....and so's my dad. And all three siblings. I love my family. 

As I've been told a dozen times and I'm (obnoxiously) quick to forget, I'm a lucky girl.

bleh.

the exact location of my school! still dunno where my apartment is yet!

p.s. There's a great blog post [>> here <<] from "Ask a Korean" about how "South Koreans generally tend to grit their teeth without necessarily expressing their frustration [toward North Korea]. . . . and the exceptions to that general case are rather spectacular."

Oh, right...the incident.

I am aware that there's been some commotion around the Korean peninsula. I'm still planning on going over in a week or so (whenever my paperwork goes through), unless something absolutely bonkers happens. And yes, CNN would have you believe that what happened last Tuesday IS absolutely bonkers, but the shit hasn't hit the fan yet. What happened (loss of life) IS a big deal. But the South Korean people are resilient (comes with practice) and still hope for reunification some day. Korean people are Korean people. South Koreans tolerate a lot of crap, in part, because that's their family.

Also, read things written by people who know more than I do:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/asia_pacific/
http://www.koreaherald.com/
http://askakorean.blogspot.com/

Mostly, check out [ this ] BBC article and listen to the sound clip by Michael Breen, about 3/4 down the page, on the right. Good perspective, thinks I.

DO NOT bother with CNN and if you take Fox News seriously about anything....uhm, G-d help you.

I've been e-mailing expat and native Korean friends about the goings on and daily life, for the most part, remains the same. Frankly, most South Koreans aren't alarmed in the slightest. Just a bit sad. So the plan is, for meow, to return to the Land of the Morning Calm (shit ain't open 'til 10am).

Also, Thanksgiving was awesome!

24 lb. Turkey. Dang.

FANCY DELICIOUS.

Wanna know the best loves?  I went to see Harry Potter 7, Part 1 with my family. I kinda burst into tears a bit when Harry saw his parents' graves for the first time and Ally, my sister, just held my hand for a while. That moment is one of the many things I'm grateful for.

SCHMALTZ.

I could leave a week from tomorrow. That's weird to think about.

I just wanted to say (again), officially and for all records:

IF YOU COME TO VISIT ME IN KOREA, 
I WILL PAY HALF YOUR PLANE TICKET!

Kimchi: You know you want to try it.

JIM JAMS! NONSENSICALITY!

My visa documents have just arrived in Korea. According to my recruiter*, I could fly out of the county as soon as December 6th. Lesbian Mario Brothers, that's soon! I kind of panicked at poor Don (as I'm wont to do...I'm rather high-strung+), but then I called my parents to let them know the haps.

I talked to Stevey J and he was all calm about it. Being rather sensible (not always, just during this particular phone call, haha), he pointed out that having a quick second to be in Korea before teaching might be nice. And that my ass is lucky to be employed and that I should kinda do what my school asks. Felt a lot better after that. My dad raised good points, but the most comforting part is that he didn't throw any guilt my way for leaving. Telling my siblings isn't going to be very fun. It's lovely being loved, of course...but I my heart breaks when it's time to say I've got to be going. Luckily, I've explained to Noah a few times that I'm leaving again. .sigh. We'll deal with that when the time comes. And good G-d, I need to write my Oma. Talk about abandonment guilt... Sweet Moses.

By the time I got off the phone, Don had replied, letting me know that sooner was better than later, but that they could work it out with school if I felt I couldn't leave before a certain date. (SO MANY COMMAS IN THAT SENTENCE) I apologized for being a spaz, thanked him for his kindness, and assured him I could leave once my documents were finished (but no rush).

I'm a lucky woman.

I can't believe it. My second year in Korea already. There were definitely times I thought I would not finish my first contract. It's gonna be a good year, I think. Ah, Jeremy's back! Time to watch 30 Rock and play with the opaque projector!

* I worked with [ RBI Korea ]to get my BANGIN' job in Busan. If you're looking for work in the coolest city in South Korea (don't kill me, [ Lindsay ]...I know you luuuu Gwangju), hit them up. The funny thing is they were recommended to me at the beginning of my job search last August. And I e-mailed every recruiter on my list of leads, but they somehow got left out. Although I kinda ran out of money and didn't wanna go back for like a week and feared that I was suddenly an unemployable failure for just a second, things worked out for the best, haha. I learned a lot. A metric ton.

+ 2010 nominee for "Year's Most Obvious Statement"

Now I get a tour of Willy Wonka's Kimchi Factory!

MY FBI BACKGROUND CHECK GOT THE GOLDEN SEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

yeah! yeah! yeah! yeah!

...............


   ........................



.....
YEAH!

Next Job Mention!

Got the Job!

Starts December 20th in Namcheon-dong, Suyeong-gu, Busan. OH YEAH.

(for those of you unfamiliar with Korean geography, that is BADASS).

Some Busan Cityscape

I'll be teaching middle and elementary students this year and living in the same city as Lacey. BANGIN'. AND there'll be another foreign teacher. His name is Adam. I hope we get along. He was nice on the phone, anyway. ^^

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeefinally!

I was a bit worried for a minute. ^^

But, with a few exceptions (money being the main one), the timing on this whole venture has been perfect. Got some things done. And G-d willing, I'll leave the country with a driver's license! (getting the permit...THAT was already an adventure, haha).

That's what's up.

L to R: Ally, Shark, Noah, Mom

Up to Down: Upside-Down Ajumma Visor, Jeremy, Ridiculousness (his ideas are stored in his belly)

OhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-dOhG-d, Please let my FBI check get an Apostille seal! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE AH FREAKING OUT. Maybe I don't get an Alien Registration Card...no one will notice for the first 3 months....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hell, I'm drinking instant coffee today anyway...

And lo, I am mighty weary of recruiters. This process makes me struggle with my love for Korea at all. Getting the hagwon runaround on one end and then checking out each prospective school on the sometimes ceaseless stream of negativity that is Dave's ESL cafe forums.... blech.

I need to read me some [ KoreaLove Lovely ]. And right meow, I'maremind myself of why I love Korea....

1. My Korean family

Dong-in and Dong-gun at their country house. 

2. Highspeed Trains

3. [ Peppero Day ]
4. Banchan-- Korean sidedishes that are endlessly replenished
5. Mountains
6. Being in the middle of a lesson and realizing it's going supremely well.
7. A class freaking out with pride when I manage to spell something correctly in Korean.
8. 17 year old boys walking down the hall, singing in the HIGHEST of falsettos.
9. Perms
10. PC rooms
11. World Cup Fever-- and my students cheering on North Korea and Japan as well
12. Jimjilbangs-- Public bathhouses. Dude, you can even sleep there for 10,000won (about $9) if you're hard up on Love Motel cash ($38).
13. Old ladies on the bus stealing (they won't hear no) my heavy packages while I'm standing (if there's standing-room only), so that I don't have to carry them.
14. Pretty much anything Korean old ladies do anyway. They badass and hilarious.
15. "Service"-- Konglish for "free shit"
16. Statues everywhere.
17. Handsome hairless forearms ^^
18. Man bags
19. Getting anywhere in the country in 5 hours or less
20. Fusion coleslaw pizza

Ah, that's better. For today, no more e-mails and no more phonecalls. If I'm supposed to go back, I will. 

The V.A.T./Real-Time Fighting system is AWESOME, but srsly, gtfo Bethesda

Been staying up late playing Fallout 3 for the past two nights. Besides feeling like a pathetic bum (being an unemployed 24-year-old, playing video games all night while crashing at my parents' house) truth is this shit takes a really long time. And, uhm, I don't give three shits if I complete a quest. I don't much care why Dad left the Vault (uhm, for there to be a Main Quest, Sally). It's not where I'm at anymore. Bummer.

Well, time to catch some sleep, bike to the notary and finish carving a pumpkin (that I'm really not all that into...I had a perfect pumpkin design idea a month ago. Then it flew out of my head and I haven't been able to pin it down since). If I can finish those things before playtime with Lacey and Lauren, it'll be a good day. And then I'll do my damnedest to hop back on the art-making wagon. Honestly, I drive myself self insane with all the art I don't make. Eeesh.

sigh...

Bollocks. Jinxed it. Next Job Mention will be Got The Job Mention.

Kuh-chigguh!

I had a phone interview for a job last night! And I'm really excited about this position, so I shan't jinx it by talking about the gig itself. I actually didn't have a phone interview last year. Lindsay sent along my introduction video (which you can see on her recruiting website [ here ]. How cool is that?), so my school didn't feel the need to call me. My friend Stephanie reminded me to smile (a great tip!) as it would be appear in my tone and I think I did. But my heart was all but pounding out of my chest so I don't think I spoke slowly and clearly enough. Most school representatives (this one included) speak English as a second language, so slowing down a bit is helpful.

I just got some more adorable pictures from my Korean family. Here's a picture of their dog, Baekgu (who lives at their country home), and her seven adorable new puppies.

Their dog is named after a famous Korean dog. Here's the story:

Baekgu was born in 1988 in Donji-ri Uisin-myeon Jind-gun and its master was Mrs. Park, Bok Dan.  Although it was sold and sent to Daejeon in March 1993 at the age of five, Baekgu could not forget the love of Mrs. Park and her grandchildren.  Eventually, Baekdu cut its leash and escaped.  It traveled 300㎞ and finally returned to its original master in October 1993.  When it came back home, it was skinny and exhausted. 


Baekgu retrieved its health with the love of Mrs. Park and later gave birth to cute puppies.  Well-known in Korea as the most faithful dog, Baekgu lived a happy life with Mrs. Park and her family until it died in February 2000 at the age of 13. 
Baekgu crossed many mountains and rivers to find its way back home and showed the faithfulness, brightness, and mysterious capacity of Jindogae. 


To remember Baekgu, a Jindogae, Baekgu Park was established at Donji-ri Uisin-myeon Jindo-gun in June 2002. 


I'm enjoying a coupla  days visiting Conneaut Lake. My friends, Jim and Phyllis have a house here and it's one of my favorite places in the whole world. I love lake.

My friend Lizbith invited me to go with her and some other lovelies to the haunted house at Conneaut Lake Park this past Saturday. I'd never been to a haunted house before and this was a particularly large one...with 7 separate houses and a coaster to ride on. I'm a giant weenie, so I screamed non-stop (and recorded it for my sister using my voice recorder/mp3 player. Maybe I'll post some highlights when I get around to editing the tracks). I walked through each house holding on to my friend Brian's shirt. 'twas a great time with great people. And then they kindly dropped me off and PnJ's 'round the other side of the lake.

Oh, I've just checked my bank account and I've received a charge from the FBI for processing my background check! This is great news! It means, hopefully, that my background check was able to go through. I've been worried that having them done in Korea would be a problem. It could mean they couldn't complete the form, but charged me anyway. Either way, at least I'll know if it's gone through or not.

I'm reading Bone by Jeff Smith with Noah after school. And Axe Cop [ www.axecop.com ].

Here's another fall-ish video to enjoy.

"Bloody Nose" by Jack Conte

Prison Chart

If I were a cowboy, I'd be dead. Time to draw. 

Tomorrow is meditation and the first round of storyboards. Period.

Edit: http://tamzprojects.blogspot.com/

Happy Fall!

I am stupidly lucky to be home. Fall is beautiful beyond reason. See my friend Jenny's recent blog entry about fall, HERE...she articulates the beauty of fall better than I ever could. And I love my loves.Can't wait until the boys get home...I want to hear more about Noah's second boyscout meeting and Tyler and I are going to watch yesterday's Glee together. Now it's time to study for my driving test and then scrub Hyung Bu's antler. ㅋㅋㅋ

Enjoy this gorgeous music video (it's got a fall-ish vibe to it).

"The Daylight Here" by My Terrible Friend

Umbrellas ( 우산 "oo-san" ) of all Things

The weather in NWPA has been absolute crap lately. Cold & Rainy. Something, something, storms someplace. Anyway, I'm visiting Meadville and I left Jeremy's apartment to go do some Visa paperworky stuff (yes, that's still happening. ugh.). By the way...the Meadville post office is open 24 HOURS PER facking DAY. SWEET MOSES. That's like the coolest thing. But I digress. On my way out, I grabbed an umbrella and as I grumpily tromped towards the bank, pouting about the newest crap direction my acne has headed, I felt a bit silly. And I remembered that for the five years I lived in Meadville, I never owned an umbrella. It rains all the damn time here (meh, 44in. annually)...but I just couldn't be bothered with the damn thing for whatever reason. I hate holding extra stuff when I walk around and that pet peeve beat out being cold and wet.

And in Korea, people luuuuuuuuurve umbrellas. Ho-ly crap. If it's barely even sprinkling, the streets are a sea of (very fashionable) umbrellas. Korean children are told that because of acid rain, if their hair gets wet, it'll fall out. One of my students repeated this to me with concern and I simply pointed to another student who had decided that the fine mist didn't warrant an umbrella either. I asked my friend Hyun Jung about it and she explained that this is just told to "Korean ladies" to keep their hair pretty. So it's essentially like when your mom says "if you make that face, it'll stay that way." So there's that.

And then there's the parasols.

I've probably mentioned this before, but Koreans are SERIOUS about protecting their skin from the sun. More to the point, they're serious about keeping/making their skin white. And that means face masks, visors, scarves, "arm socks" (also handy for covering your tattoos or, if you're in a biker club, giving you temporary tattoos to look tuff while you ride), gloves, and, you guessed it, umbrellas.

Upon hearing I was moving to Busan, famous for Haeundae beach, my former student Hansuk wrote me: "Do you know Haeundae is registered in Guinness book to numerous parasol. ㅋㅋ" And I tried to explain to him how silly I find parasols. Oh, Korea.

Aaaaaand back to Amrrrrca. While bopping about, I noticed HOW FEW people were carrying an umbrella. Seriously, like no one could be bothered. Most people just scooted along quickly from their car to wherever and got a bit wet. I saw some men with heavy coats and baseball caps. And I felt like a bit of weenie, haha. I have one little swatch of machismo that I guard rather fiercely. And the big men didn't have umbrellas. murr.

Those are my terribly interesting observations on umbrellas ( 우산 "oo-san" ) in Korea and NWPA.

THE END.

P.S. I finally remembered to download [ I Love You Phillip Morris ], a silly little film starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. It was released in South Korea last July and won't release in the States until December. Likely because many audience members would throw rocks at the screen, hahaha (assuming they had brought their own rocks to the theater). I have NO IDEA why it was picked up in K-town. But my friend Kevin and I bought tickets at Mudeung Cinema and were ushered to an underground theater that you had to go outside to get to. And were the ONLY people at that showing. It was awesome! So anyway, downloaded that and when I went to plop the shiny new file into my movies folder (GET ON WITH IT), I saw the Korean movie Harmony ( 하모니 ) in there. I watched about 5 minutes of it and it is THE CUTEST THING. Maybe I can persuade Jeremy to watch it with me. I think my mom would like it for sure...but we'll see if she can be bothered with all the reading. Some people hate that which is fair enough, really.

Anyway, if you feel like watching something Korean and A-DOR-ABLE, download a copy of 하모니 (2010) with subtitles and prepare to squeeee from all the cute. ^^

MOAR Amrrrca

I'm a bit sleepy and that's stream of consciousness gold right there. I've been home for an entire month after a marvelous (overall, ㅋㅋ*) year teaching English in Korea. That's a lot of ground to cover and it's much more fun to approach it all slapdashery than to actually attempt THIS SENTENCE IS TOO BORING.

* oh yeah. That character is like a 'K' in English and several of them in a row is the Korean version of “haha.”

My sister with a goat!

Oh, so I've quit the Facebook for the time being. If I ever want to publish a comic book before I die (and I do), it's not going to happen if I continue to piss away time at the current rate. I could ramble on about the pros and cons of the thing, but 1. that'd feed more time to the monster and 2. I've already spent pages whinging about it in e-mails to friends. So, that's that. Kerchow!

What's going on here?

I've watched like a bajillion movies and tv shows this past month. Oh, p.s. The Shake Weight is like the cleverest marketing in the universe. The people who made it totally know what it looks like. And that that's a hilarious novelty and enough to get it sold. Genius.

Do you know what I am saying?

BRO LOVES BURGERS. That's a triple whopper, baby. No foolin'.

The county fairs were kinda late this year and I was able to catch the Wattsburg AND the Waterford fair. I got to try deep fried: oreos, cookie dough, and reese cups. I thought I was going to die. And there were SO MANY MULLETS. And farm animals!

"Dad, will you point at those gourds for me?" "What, THESE gourds?"

Dude, I totally left this off of my culture shock list. When I was at the airport in Newark, NJ, I was standing in some queue for immigration. And there was this white woman standing next to me talking...and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She looked funny and her voice was weird. And then I realized I was confused because she was a 15-year-old girl. I hadn't seen a western person under the age of 22 for most of a year (excluding the 2 weeks I spent in Germany in January).

Mom got a new car! A BRAND NEW ONE. Her first since she was 19! Don't roll this one in a ditch, Dad! HEY-O

I spoke at my alma mater to some of the kids in the psych department about teaching in South Korea. Well, mostly I tried to ramble about linguistics because I didn't want to admit that I didn't know what I was doing a lot of the time. I got to the good stuff, though. The kids were terribly silent, but hey, I'm used to that, haha. And SOMEONE in the room asked “have you ever whipped out your love stick?” TOO GOOD. It was fun. And a bit bizarre to be in an old classroom with a bunch of students and a former professor.

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!

These leaves made me single-tear (v.) a week ago.

It's been great to be home.

To help Noah with his spelling tests.

To watch the Madonna episode of Glee with Tyler. He's SUCH a dapper gent.

To meet Ally's boyfriend (THIS GUY) and get a tour of her university's campus.

I'm also still on a “I never have to see The Cha again” high and I'm getting a steady stream of adorable e-mails from my former students.

And of course, lots of e-mails from my Korean family. With ADORABLE pictures. I'd post some, but it's taking AGES to get my photos to upload and now I'm super mega tired. Might could take a lil nap before I put Noah on the bus at 8am.

The woman on the news right meow has THE WHITEST teeth. I plan to ship some stuff to Korea as soon as I have an address to mail things to. Still Visa paperworking. And I've denigrated into minutiae and misusing SAT vocab words.

The Takehome is: I sure do love my life.

Ok, byeeeeeeee!


p.s. I have seriously gained 15 pounds.

1st round of stuffs I've noticed in Amrrrrca.

• Buildings and houses are super far apart.
• Houses are really big.
• Fritos and meatballs are delicious. I want to eat so many things, but I'm not hungry. I couldn't finish my DELICIOUS steak for dinner. I know I'll gain weight anyway, so I'm trying to curb the urge to be a gluttonous fat fatty. But FRIIIIIIIIIIIITOS!
• I bowed to everyone who helped me at the airports.
• It's weird when people wear shoes in the house.
• Noah talks really fast and it's hard to understand.
• My dad is a giant.
• Being able to communicate through subtle body language is AWESOME.
• I'm not a fan of understanding commercials.
• I keep trying to calculate the time for other people in the States. THE TIME IS NOW.
• Seriously. Fritos.

be-Beldened: like bedazzled, only with family

[psssst. no pictures in this post....maybe add some?]

As of yesterday, I've been in Korea for one year! That's pretty cool! On a 1 to 10 "different from America" scale, it's like an 8.2. Nothing to sneeze at. It got a little rough in the middle there (although, I never entirely lost my affection for this country, no matter how frustrating things got...mostly, it was feeling a bit lonely), but then New Friends-Taekwondo-Radio Show happened in April and my life got really full and really happy. Well, the radio was a bit stressful, but that's because I'm a damn spaz about writing.

So, I've got two more days of teaching (mostly, two more days of not murdering my co-teacher*) and then I'm off on a train to Seoul. I'll sleep...somewhere in the city. Sleeping in a jimjilbang (Korean bathhouse) would be cool (and only $10!). But there'd be no place to put my luggage and it would be a bit of a journey in the morning. Flight's at 11:30am on Wednesday, so I've got to be at the airport around 9am. Thankfully, Korean hotels are extremely cheap (there's A LOT of them...for a reason. but, that's for another day) so even an "expensive" room will be way under $100. NICE.

*That relationship began to go steadily downhill in April (perhaps offsetting the awesome swing in my personal life?), while preparing (drilling) the students for our demonstration class. It won't help me withstand her company for the next two days to rehash that here...much as I DO love a Cha-rant. Just gets me all worked up. 

I'm pretty much packed for home and my other stuff is stored with friends Wendy & Kevin (they're looking after the art toys), Whit & Lindsay (my [ amaaaaaazing recruiters ]. hey, [ guys ]! They took MOST of my stuff and I'm just blown away by their ceaseless kindness), and Sean & Stephanie (they got a miscellaneous box which hopefully be lovingly sat upon by their clumsy slurp cat). It's soooooo awesome to have my stuff waiting for me in the country and not having to haul it all to America and back. Dunno how I'll get it from Gwangju to Busan, but that's another...oh. Wait. [ Got it ]. Had the apartment cleaned and my good-byes are pretty well done. Possibly one more with my neighbor Alex and then a weepy love visit with my Korean family.

Dude, I just read that for my next visa, even an FBI criminal background check (which I applied for 2 weeks ago) has to be [ apostilled ]. Ho-ly shit. I mean, I guess that makes sense...that's what makes it legit internationally...but I thought involving my fingerprints and the FBI was amping the process up enough. I'm guessing that's 25% "ok, no criminals, please...yeah, that trip to Bali counts..." and that 75% is "more hoops means you want it!"

AHHHHHH I GET TO SEE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS SO SOON. sooooo many happy and excited. Also, ALLY IS IN COLLEGE NOW. And Tyler is officially taller than I am. And I'm gonna order a voice recorder before the week is through to record Stevey J stories. Oh, them Beldens. I can't wait to be covered in sloppy love chaos. yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

And I got annoyed getting stared at the other day on the bus (... about as silly as getting annoyed that water is wet...) which means that I'm clearly in NEED of some Amrrrrca time.

egad. it's way past my bedtime.

Ah, still need to plan tomorrow's lesson. Best get to bed.

Ker-Chow! Wizz-Bang! Schlazazzle!

Oh, I've just been absolute crap at updating, haven't I? Facebook has made me most lazy. I change my status and throw some pictures on there and I totally think that should count as an expression of my experience abroad. Lame. And I really would like to have a written record of this experience later. Bah.

So, what's been going on? It's about halfway through my 2nd week of summer vacation. I get three weeks of paid vacation, which is absolutely amazing. I will miss this next year when I (G-d willing) work in a private academy, but I kind of feel like a spoiled prat getting all the time off in the first place. It's fun to feel guilty!

ahem.

Before my time off, I had two weeks of summer English camp. That was me teaching 4-13 students every morning for 4 hours. Prepping four classes per day for the same group of students takes a long time. Ain't nothing to shake a stick at. All in all, I think it was a pretty good camp. We had some fun activities, the coolest being having the students [ swede ] scenes from [ Twilight ] and [ Karate Kid ]. Some activities were not as successful, but that's kind of the nature of teaching. Things don't work sometimes. Back up plans are recommended, but don't always happen. At any rate, I really enjoyed getting to know the students better and we did a fair amount of reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

And we ate together at Kimbap Nara (kind of like a Korean version of a diner).  I gave them a budget for lunch and instead of ordering singles dishes for each of them, they ordered a bunch of giant shared dishes. It was an excellent feast. Korea is a food culture. These people know how to eat. For serious. Have I mentioned the bajillion side dishes that come with meals and are constantly replenished? And that most meals cost around $6-12?

For example, this meal costs $7 per person. This Wendy, Kevin (behind the camera) and me at a [ baekban ] restaurant. The meals here are made up almost entirely of sidedishes... The standard meals has around 5 sidedishes and 3 at the very least.

Vacation so far has been pretty tops. It's included finishing a three page letter to my Oma in German (and I got to use the phrase "as crazy as a bag of weasels" or "als verrückt als eine Tasche von Wieselen") and sending my cover letter and resume all over the place.

Plan is to spend another year working in Korea (as aforementioned), but move to the city of Busan. Busan is the second largest city in Korea. It's on the beach, it's got an epic art museum and has the ferry to Japan. Lacey and I will both be moving there, so finally getting to live in the same city (rather than 3.5 hours apart) will be quite terrific. Korea is ridiculously cheap to live in, so if I'm going to try a big city (and I don't much want to live in Seoul, thankyouverymuch), this is pretty much the best way to try it out.

And also previously mentioned, gonna give the private academy thing a whirl. Yeah, public schools are a pretty cushy gig, but 1. why not try the other system. can't really appreciate either without trying both and 2. as in American public schools, there's a lot that goes on that (seemingly) has nothing to do with the students learning the material. And this can be spirit crushing. Dunno if that situation will be alleviated in my school, but maybe? At any rate, it seems from the people I've been polling the last few months, if you were to draw a line to gauge job satisfaction, public schools guarantee a pretty fat blob of satisfaction in the center of the line (meaning you can be pretty well happy there and even if everyone you work with and your students are dreadful, you'll still be pretty ok). And private academies seem to be pretty much a crapshoot. They can be fiery rings of doom, with boatloads of work, screaming korean moms, sneaky bosses, and not getting paid on time. Or they can great, supportive, engaging places to work (while still sometimes frustrating because all jobs are and teaching is hard at least some of the time). And everything in between. If you've got a good recruiter, you should be able to navigate away from the total crap schools.

That's a lot of text. You've earned yourself a pretty, dear reader.

My contract finishes on August 31st, then I've got 24 hours to get the hell out the country (you can, if so inclined, file for a 2 week extension after your visa expiration in case you've got loose ends to tie up). So, September 1st, I'll fly home and spend about 3 weeks in Erie and Meadville. Then I'll grab a few days in Germany with my Oma before coming back to Korea and moving to Busan for that Job I Hope I Get, Dear G-d.

And vacation has also been full of visits with my favorite people in the province, reading cool things, a bit of writing, and drawing. Quite nice. More drawing needs to happen though. Plan is to pretty much go into hiding and just draw my face off. I've got a wedding gift to finish, Lacey's shirts to finish designing, my slide to storyboard/research, at least the Queen's character sheet to finish [See: The Hazards of Love by the Decemberist ], and possibly a rooster tattoo to doodle.

Next week, plan is to have myself a 24-hour period of silence. Maybe this Sunday. This particular brand of silence means no drawing or reading, either. I think there may be a period of panic. I sure do looove distraction. And talking. I've never done such a thing properly before. Shall be a time.

I saw Toy Story 3 in Korean this past Sunday with Sujin and the kids. I liked the story and even got a few of the jokes. And Pixar's surface textures and physics were absolutely stunning. I was impressed by their felt rendering. Then we went to lunch and Sujin let me pay! That's a difficult thing for an older (than the other person present) Korean to do. We had samgyetang, which is chicken soup made with a whole, tiny chicken, ginseng, dates, and rice.

And THEN! Sujin took us to a traditional Korean clothing store to buy some hanbok as a going away present for me. Oh. Man. It was too much. She gave me a light set for the summer and heavier set for the fall. The light set is a pair of red pants and a rather plain white shirt (it's gorgeous and I will spill kimchi on it. I can't have nice things). The heavier set is green. The pants are pretty much the same as my red ones (and possibly not any heavier) and the shirt is just soooooooo handsome. Love. PICTURES SOON. OR EVER. maybe.

Here's a rough idea of what my pants look like for meow:

Super light. Super comfy. So much win.

I didn't realize she was going to buy both sets... I tried to lie and say that I didn't want the green set as the sleeves were too long, but she could tell I was lying. I lie about as well as Friederich in The Sound of Music (that means NOT WELL). I was also heart-warmed by the exchange (in Korean) that happened when we walked in:

Retail Woman: We don't have finished hanbok in her size.
Sujin: That's ok. She prefers men's clothing.

Eeeeee. So many loves.

Here's are some pictures of Sujin and Hyung-bu (her husband) from the day they whisked me off to play in the splash pool on top of a nearby mountain.

And at home, Tyler turned 14, Noah turned 8, and Ally had her college orientation and graduation party. Holy Life-Moves-On, Batman.

Ah, hello 3am. Well, time to a read a bit more "Making Comics" by McCloud and then crash on the awesome couch that my good friends Stephanie and Sean extended my way.  We finished watching "The Cell" (lovely eye candy) almost too late for me to catch a bus home (could have caught it maybe...). Also, saw District 9 the other day. Twas Awesome (though a dash heavy on the allegory).

Oh, also, it's super hot and humid here. I sweat almost constantly. Now the end. byeeee.