Is this normal?

Last night at dinner, my friend Josh said to Molly and I (who have been here 8 weeks and 5 weeks, respectively), "You begin to normalize everything once you realize you live here. For instance, right now, we are sitting in a Korean restaurant down a small back alley with Nepalese flags hanging on the wall, we're drinking wine made from rice which we poured from a golden kettle out of bowls with our hands, and we're eating raw kimchi and raw tofu that was just served to us by a man who has waistlength hair and is wearing a muumuu. That's weird. But... it isn't, you see?"

The aforementioned "strange but not really" meal. It was delicious, by the way.

This conversation stemmed from a bout of venting about my past few days here... there have been several instances I've felt lost in translation past my frustration level; throw in a stressful week at school and a killer nasal infection, and a cozy Friday night dinner with friends was much needed. Sadly, my illness plus a rowdy night at a club in Hongdae after dinner led to my missing an ice fishing trip I was looking forward to this weekend... but my new Korean doctor (who wears a funny earring and speaks pretty decent English) insisted I get lots of rest and take the funny Korean pills he prescribed me, and I've decided to follow doctor's orders this time. Hopefully by Monday I'll be as good as new. 

None of my previous comments are to say that I'm feeling unhappy; I'm still having the time of my life here, and I've decided to turn my frustrations into accomplishments. I've begun to study Korean. Believe it or not, it's an extremely fun language to learn, and SUPER fun to write. I'm working on the alphabet and numbers at the moment. Luckily, I've got a few friends who know some Korean and are willing to tutor me on weeknights. 

Josh eagerly beginning my Korean lessons over dinner. Numbers 1-10 on a napkin, anyone?

Eventually understanding Korean will certainly be helpful for day-to-day life in Seoul, but for me the fascinating part is making comparisons and contrasts to English.  The more I learn about Korean, the more I realize why my kids repeatedly make the same mistakes while speaking English, and understanding why they make the mistakes they do will be extraordinarily helpful for teaching. 

Speaking of the kiddos, they were as wonderful as they always are over the past couple of weeks. My classes have started falling into routines, which is lovely. The little ones know exactly what to do throughout the day without me asking them, and that makes me smile a lot. These kids are such quick learners I still can't get over it. The amount my kids have learned and retained in one month absolutely blows my mind. I love them. 

 

Learning about shadows in my cute little classroom

 

June (love of my life)  rockin' a bowtie and some cake

While I adore my kids and would like to say I can't get enough of them, by the time Friday rolls around each week, I've had enough of them. Weekends here go by in a mere matter of seconds, so I've been cramming as much awesome into those two days per week as possible (so sad to be blogging instead of ice fishing at this moment... boo hoo illness). Last weekend Molly, Josh, Steven and I took a 3 hour bus ride to Andong, a city best known for Hahoe (pronounced "HA-hway) Village, a traditional Korean village which is home to traditional Korean masks and beautiful old houses. We visited the village, the museum, a Buddhist temple way up in the mountains, and the longest walking bridge in South Korea. We loved all the outdoor adventure, but it also happened to be the coldest weekend in Andong. After a day of freezing our collective booties off hiking and exploring, we were ready to warm up and enjoy an evening indoors.

Molly and I at the mask museum, scaring small children

 While daytime Andong is known for it's masks and villages, nighttime Andong is known for it's jjimdak and soju.  Andong jjimdakk is a delicious spicy chicken dish, nothing like anything else I've eaten here before.  Our Andong pal Nick (whom I had met on Christmas in Seoul and who graciously took us out for the evening to show us Andong)  was right when he said it reminds him a bit of home because it's quite stew-like.Our Jjimdak was accompanied by Andong soju... a special version of the Korean rice alcohol, famous for it's strength (yikes) and it's purity. Dinner was spicy, warm, tipsy, and lovely. 

Steven, Nick and I eagerly awaiting our scrumptious jjimdak

After dinner, we visited the two "foreigner bars" of Andong, met the foreign teachers of the sparsely populated city, ate some cake at the bar (no questions, please), ventured over to the noraebang across the street, and eventually retired to a "love motel" (yes, they are exactly what they sound like they are), which was extremely inexpensive and hilarious. The bed was heated, there was a dim, red lighting option in the room, and the basket of "goodies" left on the dresser was quite amusing to sort through. All four of us fell asleep giggling like little kids. It was a blast. 

The last item on today's blogging agenda is coming clean about my new addiction. As we all know, I'm not one without vices, so adding another to the bunch may or may not come as a surprise. In any case, I'm just going to come out with it: I am addicted to buying shirts with animals and funny "Konglish" printed on them. I cannot stop. I am going to end up shipping a gigantic box of these ridiculous clothes home, and I'm not going to feel bad about it for a second. I love the clothes here. The best part is, we're allowed to wear these things to school.  I'm sure my colleagues have started to wonder about me, as I show up day after day wearing shirts that say things like "Lovely Tork" and "Pussy cat, Pussy cat", but I say, "When in Korea...".

 The newest addition to my amazing Korean wardrobe... IT'S A CUPCAKE!!!

That's all for now, folks. I'd like to give a very special mention to Mary and Betsy for sending me the coolest care package of all time. I love you guys more than my new little girl with a cupcake hoodie <3.