And a new term begins...

I'm enjoying my classes this term. It's only been 2 weeks, but they all seem pretty cheerful and well-behaved.  One of them saw she wouldn't have me today or for the next 3 weeks (my class is cancelled for 3 weeks because of middle school exams) and pouted. Bottom lip out and everything. It was cute. 

My new, un-named HI mentioned that I needed to stop holding my book, while teaching, seeing as it was a comfort measure I can't use at other times. I kind of knew I was doing it, but I just didn't think about putting my book down. I have now been putting my book down, which is going perfectly fine. However, for a couple days I felt like Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights when he doesn't know what to do with his hands during the interview scene. In this scene, his hands keep raising up and someone pushes them down again. It was like I had to re-learn how to use normal hand gestures. Hopefully, I'll get that under control soon.

I taught my students about vomit today. What vomit is and why we vomit. So showed some videos of babies vomiting and Bear Grylls eating weird bugs and almost vomiting. By the end of class, endlessly talking about vomiting and reading about vomiting, we all felt sick and about half my students said, "Teacher, I'm queasy!" (New word they learned today). Now, I'm thinking about it and feeling queasy. Or that could be the cockroach that I just killed, because it climbing over my bed and my face.

Remember previous student who said I looked like Stephen Hawking and Jack Sparrow? And drew a mustache on my face? She was in my class in the fall and spring (6 months) and is in my class once again. I think she was mildly horrified to be in my class again, but is back to her usual self, based on these comments.

Student: Do you know who (unknown female pole vaulter) is?

Me: No, I'm not sure. Why?

Student: You look like her

Me: Is this a good thing?

Student: Yes, she's very pretty!

Ok, so that went well.

Then.

Student: Do you know who Anne Hathaway is?

Me: Of course! I often hear I talk like her. And my sister hears she looks like her.

Student: Oh, is your sister a lot prettier than you?

Me: -_-

Then,

Student: Teacher, you look like you have lost weight! You look very nice.
Me: Thank you, Wendy!
Student: But your hair looks weird. Put it up with your hairband.
Me: -_-

I later said to her, "I never know if you're insulting me or complimenting me." She laughed hysterically.

I think those are all the stories I have for now...

Oh, I'm going to Japan!! I'm going for a few days to see Elaine. I'm extremely excited. We actually have a 3 day weekend, which is unusual, so Ben and I are of course fleeing the country immediately. More posts to follow.

강남스타일-Gangnam Style

For those of you who live in a box, there is this song called "Gangnam Style" that appears to be taking over the world. I think it's mostly due to the fact that the dancing is ridiculous and the video is pretty funny. I say you live in a box, because from what I've heard the song is everywhere. I live in Korea, so obviously it is everywhere here. And I mean everywhere.

Playing at the convenience stores.

Playing at the restaurants.

Playing at Clubs, not that I go.

Playing at every cafe ever.

If you have not seen it, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

But, it could just be hearsay and no one actually knows the song. I feel like I live in a bubble in Korea and have no idea what is going on in America pop-culture-wise. After seeing Yolo on the internet a lot, I finally had to ask Allison what it meant. She laughed hysterically and then made fun of me. I cannot help it if I do not hear normal references here! Though, I can honestly say, I don't care that I'm missing out on things like yolo. I am, however, extremely upset that Amy Poehler and Will Arnett have split. My hope in finding my other half has greatly diminished now that I know they didn't last.


Anyway, back to Gangnam style. It is everywhere, as previously mentioned. Even my Korean class. We just learned some new grammar skills this week, that is almost exclusively used in the song, so we watched the video approximately 13 times in class, then had to read the lyrics out loud. But, everyone was too embarrassed to sing, so we just read them. A lot of hysterical laughter ensued as we read, since it sounds soooo ridiculous just being read out loud. Very monotone with words you know you should be singing.

For a sample, these are the English lyrics. Read out loud to really appreciate how ridiculous it is.

I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy

Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end

Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style

Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

I would have posted the Korean lyrics romanized, but they look like this, which is unhelpful if you don't actually speak Korean. Also, google just tried to auto correct romanized to Womanizer.

Jeongsu-khae boijiman nol ttaen noneun yeoja
Ittaeda shipeumyeon mukkeot-deon meori puneun yeoja
Karyeot-jiman wen-manhan nochulboda yahan yeoja
Keureon gamkakjeo-gin yeoja

Needless to say, my Korean class is fun, despite being enormously frustrating and difficult. But, I will survive.

To end with, here is a parody of Gangnam style, which is in Hongdae, which is where I live. Well, very close to where I live (maybe 15 minutes walking distance). So, if you ever wanted to know where I live, here it is. And no, those are not gang tags, as mother thought. It is very safe. No need to worry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmIlbyLIcKg

Learning Korean

I posted this three years ago about learning German and it applies to me so much more now.

This is exactly how I feel when learning Korean. When I speak, I don't think people understand a word I'm saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yJ_HrZImWQ

Busan, or where I ate the escaping octopus

Ok, I'm officially a terrible blogger. I've continued to be very busy, even though I've recovered from my mini-coma phase and moved on to a normal stage of life. Normal life here is difficult to blog about, since I do the same thing kind of every day thing each day. Go to work. Eat. Go to the Gym. Study. Go to Korean class, which just started etc. But, I am finally writing about Busan. Before I do, I'll write a little about the strange foods I've eaten recently. Then, I'll write about Busan and the strange foods I ate there. I'll start with the most normal and move to the worst.

This is the egg moat barbecue place. Basically, it's normal BBQ, but with a moat of eggs. It's near Carrie's place. They add peppers and other things to the eggs and it's very delicious. I don't even like eggs, but these eggs are great.

Carrie's friend Rosie was visiting for a while (We went to Busan because she was here.)

While she was here, she wanted to eat 곱창, aka Gop Chang, aka cow intestines with vegetables and kimchi.

Now, I can tell you that it did not taste all that terrible. It was kind of weird and tasted a bit like sausage. But, it tasted ok.

However, it looked like this and I was very aware that I was eating cow intestines.

Then, I would think about eating cow intestines and felt like vomiting.

Then I'd drink some cider and decide, "Ok it's not too bad."

Then eat some and then think, "eww cow intestines" and want to vomit again. It was a strange experience. I ended up not eating a ton of it, because it was too gross to think about.

Yet, as indicated, it was not the grossest thing I have eaten recently.

This is Shola. We met in Vienna 3 years ago back and have kept in contact since then. She's in Korea for a couple months visiting her family (since she still lives in Vienna) so we met up of course. Shola, her sister and I met for dinner. We got normal food (BBQ) and also ordered this:

Pig skin. We ordered one serving, obviously, but it came with 2 slabs like that. Shola and her sister So Young had never had pig skin either. After one bite we said, "Oh no we have another one!" It was not delicious. It was extremely chewy and strange. And we had to eat it all. There was a lot of chugging of the water and eating of the vegetables to make sure we finished it. We then made sure to order something else to make sure that we didn't vomit. Bleck.

But it was great to see Shola again after 3 years! I really must make it back to Vienna in the near future.

Also, I saw this dog that was shaved a looks like a lion. In the winter, it's huge and has a ton of fur, but since it's been approximately 300 degrees outside for the last month or so, it has been shaved.



Ok, on to Busan. I went with Carrie, Rosie, Alex and Alexis. (Rosie's from Taiwan originally but lives in America, Alex is from Macau and Alexis is from France). We were quite the international group. We left Seoul bright and early in the morning. And slept on the train, since we were all a bit tired.

Here's Rosie.

We arrived in Busan and headed to the subway station to take the subway to Haeundae (the famous beach) where our hostel was. And more importantly the beach. The subway system is a lot older in Busan, so there's no glass blocking you from falling of the tracks. Luckily, I did not encounter a crazy person to push me onto the tracks.


Oh wait......I did encounter a crazy person. An extremely crazy person. While minding our own business on the subway, not really talking, this lady started yelling at us. "YOU AMERICANS AND YOUR DRUGS! YOUR HEROINE AND COCAINE! YOU ARE ALL EVIL! GO BACK TO AMERICA! F***YOU AND YOUR DRUGS AND YOUR HAMBURGERS!" No I am not joking about the Hamburgers. Little did she know of the 5 of us, only 2 of us were actually American. She shouted at us for a while. Then this very nice man said to me, as the one who was clearly American, "Please don't think that Koreans feel this way about Americans. We also think she's crazy. We like America. I am so sorry." I thanked him for the gesture.

We got off the train. She followed us. We walked to the transfer. She followed us. We got on the connecting train. She got on with us. We walked through 4 train cars. She followed us. And sat down right in front of us and continued yelling about the cocaine and heroine. So, naturally, I took a Claritin in front of her.

She continued yelling at various people on the train about us Americans and our hamburgers and how, if they spoke English, they should never speak English because we're evil.

For 40 minutes. Until she finally got off the train one stop before us.

Also, we saw this sign:

We finally arrived at our hostel. Mr. Egg hostel.

I'm not joking. See the sign.

This was the view from the hostel.

We then headed to lunch on this street.

We got this, which was quite delicious, but definitely a mixture of interesting seafood that I'd never seen before.

Like that large shell.

And this, which is called pajeon, which is a Korean pancake, which is quite wonderful.

There's some octopus, well cooked.

Then, we went to the beach and went swimming, of course.

There we are at the beach, with our bubble swords. Obviously, we are all adults in our mid-twenties.

Well, except Alexis who is younger than Grant. I'm so old.

We all swam for about an hour. The waves were large, but it was perfectly fine. It was so much fun and great to be by the ocean again.

Then the waves got crazy strong and decided to head back in. As I was attempting to get out of the water, a wave hit my legs and completely knocked me on my back.

I was thinking "RIP TIDES!" but I was still in ankle deep water, so it wasn't an issue.

A building by the beach.

Some Surfers.

After swimming and getting dressed, we walked towards dinner along the boardwalk, which had some cool murals, which we took pictures at, of course.

Here are Carrie and I in Busan.

We then ate here at a seafood place, where you choose your seafood fresh and they kill it in front of you, if you choose to watch.

There's the lady choosing the fish for us.

There's the octopus we will eat in the near future.

And the fish we ate.

Octopus and the fish together.

and together again. Notice how the octopus is moving. It never stopped moving...

They added that darn sea squirt as service, which unfortunately I ate again and it was gross still.

Here's the lady chopping our fish and octopus.

Here are all the pictures for the full effect.

The final product. Freshly chopped octopus. Oh look, it's still kind of slimy. But, just wait.




IT WAS STILL MOVING!!!!


See look, here's a video to prove that, not only was it still moving, but also I was the one who ate it first.
 Notice it sticking to the plate as I tried to pick it up?? It really wasn't all that bad. Definitely better than the gopchang and the pig skin. It definitely did move around in your mouth and stick to your teeth...

I do not believe I need any words beyond video and the pictures.














The fish we ate, which was wonderful.

There was a wonderful sunset at the same time as dinner, so naturally I took a ton of pictures.

Rosie and Carrie before.

Alexis and Alex during.

Carrie after eating the octopus...

Me during, perfectly cheerful. I think I am braver than Carrie.

With the rest of the fish, they made a soup, which looked like this.

Horrifying, right??

Not really. The broth was great, though I can say I did not touch the fish's head.

Then, it became nighttime and I took more pictures. Naturally.

I will say this is probably my favorite picture I have ever taken. No, it is not photo-shopped at all. The colors in the water come from the lights from the buildings nearby and the lights created a strange light on the beach as well.

While the others rested, Rosie and I wandered around a bit and took pictures. They were having some sort of event on the beach that night, which the entire population of Korea seemed to be attending.

View from the hostel at night.

The hostel.

The Viking Hat returns.

Then, everyone did fireworks on the beach (including Korean people) but there was announcement not to do fireworks on the beach, so I hid far away and didn't do fireworks. I just took pictures from afar while pretending that I was not with them, so I would not get in trouble.

Obviously, since it is me.

We headed home the next morning, uneventfully. Thank heavens. I didn't want more people yelling about how much they hate me.