AARRGGHH

After more than on incident with my wallet being "borrowed" in the past few months, I've been pretty careful about only bringing it to school when I know I'll need it for something. This is annoying, but effective. And when I do bring it, I'm pretty careful to make sure that I don't leave it alone.

Today I had to pay for my gym, so I brought the wallet with me.

Guess what happened?

I'm so angry I could spit. The only time it was not in my possession was when I put my bags in the teacher's room when I went to the restroom after school on my way out.

I have taught in some tough places. This is the first place where I have ever had things stolen.

More Busan

A couple weekends ago, friends and I ran the Busan Race For the Cure (called "Pink Ribbon Love Marathon" here).

+ I ran the 10k, and had my best 10k time ever. (1hr, 9min, 3sec)
- I'm pretty sure the race was somewhat shorter than 10k (according to my running watch, it was only 9.6, I think).
+ so in reality, my race time is staying pretty consistent.
- However, the half marathon will not be happening - I'm just not getting the distance in during the week, and my ankles and knees don't like the running and the playing of frisbee and volleyball.
+ I'm going to try to bring my 10k speed up
+ We will still be running in Jeju in June
+ We have registered for another 10k - in Boseong, an area near here that is known for their green tea fields. We'll also go to Daewonsa, a Tibetan Buddhist temple in that area
- my bet is that Boseong will be hilly.

We weren't in Busan for very long, but we had a great time. Amazing food, great friends, beaches. There are lots of great things about living in Korea, but sometimes it gets a little exhausting. Visiting bigger cities is almost like have a break from the overwhelming Korean-ness of living here, as there is more diversity of food and foreigners aren't quite such a novelty.

They have grass in Busan!


And people wear high heels on the beach:


The four runners on the beach on Saturday afternoon.


After the run:


I still love the picture from the previous post - these races have been a really amazing part of living here, and I can see the happy in it.

Busan

Last weekend some friend and I went to Busan to run the Race for the Cure. In Korea, they call it the Pink Ribbon Love Marathon.

I have bunches of pictures, but I am getting ready to leave to go to Jeju to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament, so one picture before I head to the ferry:



Carol, Sloan, Monique and I have run several races together, and these trips will be one of the highlights of my time in Korea.

Field Trip

Last week my school went on a "picnic" by which they meant "field trip" that ended up being "run around in a field and torture geckos" and "try to shake the snake out of the tree" (that last one isn't cute analogy for anything - there really was a snake in a tree).

Before we left for the trip, I was told that it would be something about planting trees, which I interpreted as perhaps an Earth Day sorta thing, or at least something with a bit of structure. The entire school went on the trip, and because of the number of kids going, the buses had to make two trips to the site. So I took a bunch of pictures and hung out with the kids while we waited.

The Kindergarten and part of the students lined up on the schoolyard.



One of my favorite students. She has special needs, and last year would wander in late, sit in the back, and refused to engage with me at all. This year, she sits in the front, participates, and will at least talk to me in Korean. I give a lot of credit to her homeroom teacher and the student she sits next to (who I bribe and compliment the heck out of for being nice to her). I could talk a long time about the way kids with intellectual special needs are treated here, but to put in all in a summary, NOT GOOD. Anyway, love her.


v-line


This student is a boy. He thinks he is extremely attractive.




What actually ended up happening was that kids sort of ran around all morning in a "park" that was near a major ship-building area. There were a gazillion geckos (which the children enjoyed torturing) a snake in a tree,


and games. And more games. And then a few more games. Including the always popular, make boys look like girls game. Think I'm joking?

Dear school

Dear school,

Hi, how are you? I'm good, but there were a couple of things I thought we should talk about.

First of all, I know that you want me to be more involved with things, especially volleyball. I think it is great that you let me play now that you have a tournament coming up and you need someone tall enough to block. It would be nice if you would set my direction in the actual games instead of ONLY setting to the male players, but I long ago gave up hope for anything remotely non-sexist, and you are just as offensive to the other strong women players. Still, it would be awesome if you didn't waste my time, then tell me how much you want me to stay late to practice with you.

Just so you know, I'd be a lot more likely to WANT to hang out with you if you weren't so totally and completely offensive. For example, while I don't know enough Korean to understand what you were saying about me yesterday, I DO understand MY OWN NAME. For example, when you say, "CHESHEKA, momomomo, heh heh heh" I know that you are talking about me, and the dirty old man chuckle gives me an idea that you wouldn't have said it in front of me if I could have understood. But more than the fact that you were saying inappropriate things, I'm offended by the fact that you weren't smart. Here's a tip - if you don't use my name, I don't know that you are talking about me. I know you feel it is your right to view me as a non-person, but I don't really like that and very soon will loose my ability to not tell you how horribly I think you act.

While we are clearing the air, can we talk about food? I'm really happy that you have stopped trying to force me to eat octopus by almost shoving it in front of my face. It would be great if you didn't hold out the still-wriggling legs out to me when you already know I won't eat it, and really, no matter how many times you tell me how delicious it is, or how good for health it is, I'm still not going to change my mind. Thanks for making the beef soup for lunch at the field trip. I really liked how the meat was cooked, and how I didn't have to see you put the still-alive octopus in the pot. It was interesting how you were able to work octopus and/or seafood into almost every single dish on the table - impressive, really - but thanks for at least not putting it in with the rice.

In all honesty and without a trace of sarcasm, thank you for letting me hang out with your students. Seriously, I have an almost ridiculous amount of fun watching them go goofy for stupid counting games, or listening to them sing silly English songs, or taking silly self-camera pictures with them. Seeing the little tiny kindergarteners in their little matching outfits, the third and fourth graders who want to talk but really only know "hello-my-name-is," the maybe crazy fifth grade boy who wants attention so badly he often just sticks his head in the room and growls. You make me laugh every single day. Thank you.

Sincerely,
J

A few more...

Looking at the last post, I realized that there are a lot of pictures of me by me. My name is Jessica and I am a selca (selfcam) addict. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

So here are some pictures of other things.

Dr. Fish is one of the newer trends in Seoul. Go into a nice, comfortable lounge, have a cocktail, and put your feet into a pool of warm water. That is filled with little fishies that eat the dead skin off your heels and toes.

I knew it would be ticklish, but I had NO IDEA it would be THAT ticklish. I was able to force my feet into the water for a few minutes at a time, but couldn't take it for very long at all! Euughh!! But how often do you get to say you had a glass of wine while fish ate your feet?



One of the things that I have deeply mixed feeling on is the more traditional markets. In the small towns, it is mostly old women with grains, vegetables and fruit in bowls and on blankets spread on the streets and sidewalks. You also have the same thing for fish, seaweed, octopus, and "I don't know, comes from sea." Even in major urban areas, sometimes a market springs up on a street corner, not far from a grocery store which everything neatly wrapped in plastic. This was on the streets of Seoul:

(the first few things are peanuts and candy-coated peanuts. As you move down the line, I think it changes more to the grains that are often mixed into rice)


I am completely addicted to the mandarin oranges you can see on the right. They are fading out of the markets now and when you do find them, they aren't as good. It makes me sad.


More kinds of kimchi than you could imagine. The smell was powerfully bad.

I really like the old markets for vegetables and fruit. When it comes to meat and seafood? Maybe I'm just a princess, but I would prefer to buy things that haven't been sitting out in a bucket on the side of the street. But maybe that's just me.


This is the picture I took of the Seoul subway map because I kept losing the pocket maps I had. I was incredibly proud when I could navigate around the city using only the Korean version.

Photo Backlog

I haven't posted photos in FOREVER, so I have a bit of a backlog. There are more where these came from on the Flickr page.

In Seoul:
We went to a cultural performance (they had examples of all kinds of traditional music and dance) and got to try on hanbok - traditional Korean dress. I was able to try on one of the headpieces, which brought me great joy. One should note that hanbok supersedes empire-waisted tops/dresses as the worst offender in the "makes you look pregnant even if you aren't" category.


Amanda and Ian are new parents. We had a baby shower for them in March:

"What if" (Amanda, Randi, and Rachel)


Sloane, Virgina, and me.


We said goodbye to Garrett multiple times, including this one at P-Club (one of the "foreigner" bars in town)
Nicola, Garrett, Virgina


Krista, Camille, Me



Nicola got treated with bee venom at the traditional medicine doctor:


We celebrated Monique's birthday:



And Jongwon and my birthday: (the only pictures I have of us together, one or the other of us looks bad. You should imagine revelry and awesomeness. At least from what I can remember...)


There was a pub quiz night:
Ricky and me


And I saw the greatest sweatshirt on a student I have ever seen in my life:

pictures

It was pointed out to me that perhaps more pictures would be nice. I haven't uploaded from my camera for a while, so this one by a new Mokpo-ian (Zach) will have to suffice for the moment.



I should probably cop to the fact that I cut out someone from the picture - I think his name is Will? Maybe? Though I have to admit, the original was sort of "movie star in hiding" and cool in that respect.

Korean conversation

There aren't many times for me to use what little Korean I know in a conversational setting. Interactions when at the grocery, translating key words while teaching, basic politeness (hello, thank you, goodbye) in social situations are pretty common, but don't make me use much of what little vocabulary and grammar I have.

The one place I can regularly speak in Korean is in the taxi. Drivers often will start up conversations that use the small talk I know. Lately, a few drivers have been pretty forward (telling me they should be my boyfriend, even though I use the pretend boyfriend excuse) and things like that, so I have been sort of avoiding it.

But last night I was in a cab with a friend who speaks a lot more than me, and we realized that individually we were okay, but together (with someone to check that we understood what was going on) we rocked! And it was SO MUCH FUN! It was one of the best spontaneous conversations in Korean I've ever had! Yay!

This is what a feminist looks like.

I like this.

delicate flower

I've spent not a small part of the afternoon looking at Natalie Dee comics and fell in love with many, but this one made me laugh.