I am about to leave Korea in about 2 days, and it has been a whirlwind. It feels weird to be moving on and packing again. But I've been in this place many, many times before, in many different states and countries, with many different feelings about leaving a place.
But one thing that always sets me right when I'm packing is some good tunes. This one comes from a Canadian named Vince Vaccaro, who brings me back full circle to where I vision my life in the near future. If I could take all the places that I have lived and traveled in the world, and pack them into one place where I could live and wallow in forever, I would. This music in a strange way kind of does that for me. It reminds me of the laid back vibe in Hawaii, the nature vibe in Colorado and Tennessee, the hippie vibe of Humboldt, the friendships of Spain and Boston, the craziness of Korea.
It reminds me of that simple life that is so good.
I have to write about my time here in Korea now, even though I don't leave for another week. I'm afraid if I leave and write about it when I am at home, I won't be able to convey the types of emotions I am feeling at this particular time.
I can honestly say that I couldn't be happier how things are ending here in Korea. For awhile, things were a struggle here. In the beginning I had a blast, and then the 'new-ness' wore off, and I began to struggle. I struggled with meeting people, with work, with the culture, with the daily life of being a foreigner in a different country. I have always traveled, and always loved being a foreigner, but here I felt embarrassed to be a foreigner. I felt like everyone hated me, stared at me, pointed at me, pushed me on the subway, got angry because I didn't speak any Korean.
For a solid three or four months I became a hermit, I hibernated in my tiny apartment and did things on my own. I explored on my own, went to art galleries, restaurants, and coffee shops alone. All I wanted to do was be comfortable in Korea, but I didn't want to give up my independence, I didn't want to accept that my attitude had something to do with my outcome.
But something started to change right before Christmas. I felt like I was beginning to get back to the person I used to be, the independent, strong, open-minded person I've always been. And I began to really like myself, really like being alone, and just became happier. In turn this made me happier at work, happier with my friends here, happier and more willing to say "yes" instead of "no". So I promised myself after Christmas I was going to go out with a bang.
So the ending of Korea has been a blast, just like the beginning was. I have met people from all over the world here, and am leaving Korea with a smile on my face. I think this was the best decision I could have made at the time, and I don't regret it. I have struggled with regret in the past, but I truly think that the experience here and what I have gone through personally, will forever affect the person I am once I leave this country.
It is really nice when things come to an end, and everyone seems to just come together because it's the right thing to do. People are nicer, people are happier, people say things to one another they probably should have said a long time ago. But I don't think it would have been the same if things didn't happen the way they did here in Korea. It's just how it was supposed to happen. It was like the universe was testing me, asking me if I could take it, testing my ability to react to things.
Hey universe, I see your test, and I raise you a lifetime of being able to take it.
The last few days at work have been really great to say the least. It really has been a very good ending to a wild ride in Korea. I couldn't ask for a better send off. I will miss the kids and the people I worked with dearly.
Minji (my co-teacher's daughter) and Chloe.
My girls! Stacey, Olivia, and Celine.
My director Sunny.
Dustin, he is cutting a rice cake which I will miss immensely in the states! Yum!
Hajun. The most annoying child ever, but look at that face. Hard to be mad long.
Stacey and Dustin laughing. Too cute.
Last day teaching. We did a little photo shoot of 'emotions'. This was supposed to be 'funny'.
Both of these little gems fit in my belt. Sad, sad, day.
The love-birds of my class. Andy and Olivia.
Love is in the air!
They're seriously going to get married.
Rachel and me on our final good-bye.
Stacey and me.
Here is the devil child himself, Nathan. It may look like I'm choking him, I swear I'm not. Just holding his head still for the camera. ;)
My co-teacher Monica! I will miss her a lot!
Here is a little video of Nathan, the devil child. Although he has extreme behavior and social problems, he is extremely smart. Go figure, eh? We were doing a worksheet on the letter 'H' and identifying the pictures that start with 'H'. It was actually pretty cute because he was saying 'hangaber' instead of 'hamburger', and my mom used to say 'hangaber's' when we were little. He also said 'hippopie' instead of 'hippopotamus'. It's extremely loud, so I apologize for the sound quality, but it is a typical day in the Fish Class. We even have some rock, paper, scissors going on in the background.
Because I like all types of music, I'm gonna give it up for Kanye West for this Sunday's Funday. Although he is always causing some type of controversy, especially when he was all up on my future husband Matt Lauer on the Today Show. Still, he's doing something right....right?
I have mentioned my co-teacher a few times in earlier posts, but now I think it's time to dedicate an entire blog post about her. She is truly, one of a kind.
First of all, she's Chinese. She speaks English okay, and she speaks Korean okay. But the point is, she's CHINESE. In a typical day in my class, the kids have no idea what I'm saying in English, Monica has no idea what the kids are saying in Korean, and nobody in the entire school has any idea what Monica is saying in her half English, half Korean, half Chinese abilities. (Three halves make a whole right???)
Even though nobody can understand her, she is extremely prepared when it comes to teaching materials. However, she hoards paper even worse than my dad. I'll come into the copy room to see her standing there with a giant stack of paper to her left, a giant stack to her right, and look down at the copier machine only to see it says '499 copies to go'. It's ridiculous. I think she just like to copies things to copy. Half of the time it has nothing to do with our kids, or what we are talking about in class that month. But her excessive copying does pay off. At the end of the day I'll be planning for the next day, and ponder aloud "I wonder what we should do for our science plant theme tomorrow?". And BOOM. There it is. She'll pull out five different worksheets on plants for me to chose from.
She is also extremely terrifying. Only in that 'good teacher, yelling' kinda way. She can silence a room in 2 seconds flag with a loud but effective, "QUIET!". But more than terrifying, she is also really sweet and has a hard time saying 'no', especially to her daughter who is in the class next to us. I think I've learned a little something about Asian mother's since living here. They simply do not say no, and their child can do no wrong. Minji, who is teacher Monica's daughter, can and will eat whatever she likes at any point in the day. They come to school early to eat breakfast, and I'll come into class coffee in hand, only to find them chowing down on some fried chicken. At 8:30 a.m mind you! If Minji wants coffee, her mom will give her coffee. If Minji wants wine, her mom will give her wine. She's 4! The parents of our children often send donuts or treats for the staff, and you can usually find us all towering over a table of treats in the afternoon discussing the events of the day. On Thursday we had some fancy smancy donuts delivered, and Minji ate THREE of them! Three ooey-gooey, frosting covered, sugar-loaded, saturated fat outta this roof, donuts!
Aaahhhh teacher Monica. I will miss her dearly when I am gone. I will miss her loud roar of a voice from down the hall. I will miss her making coffee in the morning. I will miss her laughing as her 4 year old eats a double quarter-pounder with cheese. I will miss her three language jibberish. I will miss her standing in the middle of the hallway, sweater up around her neck, while she tries to hike her pants back up to her boobs. I will miss so many things about that woman, she's a riot.
But all laughs aside, she has probably been the most honest, truthful, and accepting person I have met in Korea. And I can bet that I will never again meet anyone like her.
This week flew by, even though I only had to work two days. It was wonderful and relaxing the rest of the week, although I'm already dreading the two work filled weeks ahead. But hey, that's life right?
I'm going to continue my new tradition of posting new and old music that I love, and have the utmost desire to share with you. I think I will also try to do something with photos soon, maybe called a 'photo walk' where I take photographs along one of my daily (or unexpected) routines here in Korea.
If you haven't heard of the website LA BLOGOTHEQUE, you are being greatly deprived of amazing-ness. It's a website that gets artists from all over the world, stripped down, performing their songs in off the beat kind of ways, appropriately entitled "Take Away Shows". Great artists perform in all the best cities in the world, in phone booths, elevators, parks, apartments, restaurants, you name it. It is very similar to another website I love called Black Cab Sessions, where the artists perform songs with whatever they can fit into the back of a cab. Very cool stuff here people.
Anyway, long post short, one of my favorite videos thus far from LA BLOGOTHEQUE (however there are SO many to pick from), is Iron and Wine's 'Tree By The River'. In this particular video session, Iron and Wine's, Sam Beam is in France drinking wine, and delivering a wonderful acoustic performance of 'Tree By The River'.
So I live in a tiny, tiny, tiny little studio apartment in Bundang Korea. While living in Korea the past 11 months has caused me to be very confused on many occasions, this is a special post dedicated to the confusion that my tiny, tiny, tiny apartment brings.
Exhibit A :
This is on the middle of my living/bed/dining room wall. The small black square is actually a video camera, so when the doorbell rings (which is does to the tune of Fur Elise) you can see who is outside your door. However, you have to know exactly which of these buttons to push to get the song and the video to stop. In my case it usually leads to frantic button pushing, accompanied by yelling "Hello! Don't go away! I see you! I'm coming!!!!"
Exhibit B:
This lovely picture is attached to something that opens (I can only assume this because there is a button to push there on the bottom). But alas, it does not open. It seems to be jammed or glued shut. I'm afraid if I try to open it I'll come face to face with the peeping Tom I'm convinced is living next door, so needless to say it stays shut.
Exhibit C:
Again, assuming that anything remotely makes sense in this country, I would have to guess this big red arrow is probably telling me where the fire extinguisher is....or is supposed to be.
Exhibit D:
Ahhh....the space saver/kitchen counter top washer combo. Nothing like fryin' eggs while throwin' in my whites. Don't even get me started on the insanity of these buttons. Trial and error is what's gotten me through this year. Although there have been numerous times where I have opened the washer door, to find my clothes soaking wet in two inches of water. And no dryer to boot!
Exhibit E:
And this little gem is in my bathroom, directly to the right if you were to be sitting on the toilet. I can't even begin to tell you what this does or what it's for. I only know that it brings me a lot of anxiety when I'm trying to do my business, in fear of hitting the damn thing with my elbow and thus setting off some sort of alarm signaling the fire department to come.
I have managed to figure everything out in my apartment to successfully live in it for a year. But I'm not gonna lie about how much I miss my dryer at home!
