Things Making My Seoul Happy

A stairwell of roses.

Recyclables hanging as art.

Bibimbap. Delicious. 

Seeing greenery ... anywhere.

Random installations. 

Blocks of rice for breakfast.

Korean babes and their dogs named "bean paste". Really. 

Buddhist monks chanting.

Plastic monks at all ages of life.

Buddha's Relic. 

My Heart, It Aches

I've found myself revisiting the last three years of my life this week. Thinking of a place that I love so much. A place that holds so many fond memories. So many stepping stones in life. So many amazing friendships. 

San Francisco is a place like no other. I moved away because I felt trapped. Trapped in an unhappy routine called life. I wasn't doing what my heart was telling me I should. Instead I went to Macy's everyday and crunched numbers from inside a cubicle. I wasn't doing good. I wasn't helping a soul. The only person I was benefiting was me, and it just didn't feel right. 

Now I find myself in Korea, looking back on three years that held so much greatness. Training for my first marathon in one of the hilliest places I can think of. Meeting one of my closest friends and completing a marathon seeing her face at the end. Meeting Nicole on Fillmore, outside Peet's for a coffee and some sun on weekend mornings. Going to countless concerts so I could continue to be a music snob. Attending movies alone, because in SF, you just can. Running the Lyon street stairs with Renata. Coming home at the end of a night wondering where the $100 went that I pulled out just earlier that day. Walking Haight street and scoping Amoeba Records. Laying out in Golden Gate Park. Playing tennis with my friends who also aren't good at the sport. Getting hit-on by the workers of my favorite coffee cart each day during (and sometimes after) work. Roaming the dirty streets of the Mission after long nights out drinking, just looking for a good taqueria. Catching my skirt just before the wind blew it up over my face each day. Walking down to the pier to watch the sealions play. Taking up Samba dancing with the best roommates a girl can find, only to realize weeks later that our hips don't naturally move like that. Eating amazing vendor-sponsored dinners that showed me what a five thousand dollar meal looks like. Walking out my front door to find a beautiful environment awaiting me each day. Attending countless happy hours, sitting around talking about how much we all loved working for The Man. Waiting 30 minutes for my bus to pick me up from work. Embracing amazing scenic runs, or walks, with just me and my music on days when I just wanted to be alone. Being so close to the ocean I could almost smell it. Always leaving the house with a winter jacket, no matter what time of year it was. Meeting so many amazing people, in such a short amount of time, that taught me so many things, and changed my life in so many ways. I really miss the place. I feel like a piece of my heart was left there, and I have a little less of it right at this moment. 

One day I'll return, if only for a visit. As amazing as it may be, it will never compare to the life I had there these past three years.

A Slapping on the Subway

And not just any slapping. A 75 year old woman bitch-slap. Okay, not really a bitch-slap, it was a slap on my arm, but if she were younger, you know she would've done it across my face. 

We're all just standing around chatting it up like normal. There's about five of us, and I'm the only one who looks fair, lets just put it that way. Or as my friends here would so eloquently say, I was the "white person" or "white girl". So, one of my friends turns and starts talking to me. I go for the reply, and I get about one line out when I feel the intense slap to my forearm. My first reaction was like "WTF just happened?". Then I see my friends turning to watch this 75 year old woman creeping back to her seat. Then the woman continues her battle with me by waving her finger in the air and then putting it up to her mouth as to summon my silence. I stand there in shock thinking, "What did I do to offend her? We're all just talking. There's Korean people over there talking and they aren't being slapped!" Actually, I didn't think all those things. I really just stood there in shock and pure embarrassment, while all my friends and all the Korean people on the subway looked at the woman like "no she diiin't!!". 

My friends told me as we were leaving the subway (which thankfully happened to be the next stop), that things like that happen here sometimes because some elderly Koreans don't like people using English. Some people are bitter towards Americans and the role we've played in their society. Some are bitter towards the influence that English is playing in their culture. They don't like to hear it. They don't like people using it. And unknowingly, that day, I represented all of those bitter thoughts to this woman. As much as I considered it really rude to slap a complete stranger and a foreigner, I had to think twice about how I'd feel in her shoes. Here, the older generations rule. The hierarchy goes by age above all else. It's not uncommon for the elder people to behave in manners such as this. They feel it's their duty to inform the young of their wrong-doings. And though it seems universal for older people to shed such light on us young ones, here elderly people just go up to complete strangers who are young, and correct their behavior. 

Obviously, I'm not used to a culture in which the elderly act the same way. I don't have some random grandma lecturing me in public or slapping my legs when they aren't crossed in the US. At the end of the day though, I'm in her country, on her subway, not speaking her language, to people who to her, look like her people. I guess if I were her, maybe I'd have slapped me too. 

Probably not. 

But maybe. 

Not.

 

Chuseok

Chuseok is the Korean holiday that's probably most equivalent to America's Thanksgiving. It's a time when families get together with distant relatives and share in a feast. And as my students put it, I don't have family here (although my sister would beg to differ based on my eye structure), so I will be spending the holiday, "alone" and "lonely". All of which my students had to think very hard in order to get the correct word use, so I praised them for their comments. 

Luckily, I didn't end up spending the holiday alone. I managed to find some cool things to do, and some cool people to hang with. 

Here are some pics (since it seems to be what I do these days):

(Visiting Changdeokgung Palace on Saturday)

(Evening Out in Hongdae/Sinchon)

(Lunch with the girls on Sunday....)

Reggin Please!

People in Korea like to walk slow. They also don't like to move if you are walking by. They like to stand in the middle of the sidewalk. They also don't care if you have to maneuver, shove, or push your way by them. They'd rather have that, then have to walk faster.

I'm resorting to the art of shooting up or taking a mild sedative before going to work anymore. 

(Please notice in the picture above how everyone must walk in 2's and they must hold hands. Please also notice the high heels. This is one major cause of slow walking. Also, talking on the phone, while wearing high heels, while holding onto a boyfriend for balance can also be a major cause of slow motion. And this shot is of a slow holiday weekend, with far fewer people on the street.)

My Little Korea So Far

In front of my street.

The view from my porch.

One half of the apartment....

.... The other half.

The shower, toilet, sink all-in-one. 

The Joys of Teaching

I'm going to give you a preview of one of my classes. Definitely my most challenging class, and it is comprised of all boys and just 2 girls. I find the class sooo hilarious, but being the teacher, I have to compose myself, which has been really hard so far:

Lindsey: "Ok guys, so the question posed in the recording was 'Can money bring true happiness?'. The student said that he disagreed and gave his reasoning for why. However, does anybody agree with that statement?"

Kevin: "Teachu, I agree."

Lindsey: "Ok Kevin, good, why do you agree with that statement?"

Kevin: "Uuuuhhhh, I buy everything, I happy."

Chris: "Teachu, I can buy BMW!"

Lindsey: "Ok, very good Chris and Kevin. But will it make you truly happy to just have those things? Can you buy someone's love? (Students give teacher confused looks and sit in silence.) Okay, right, you can buy whatever you want and that will make you happy! Very good!

Alright, who else agrees with this statement?"

(Intae raises his hand)

Lindsey: "Okay, Intae. Why do you agree?"

Intae: "Teachu, if I money, I buy plastic surgery."

Lindsey: (Shocked by this statement and laughing slightly) "Okay, very good. You can buy plastic surgery. What kind of supporting detail could you give that Intae? If you have money, you can buy plastic surgery, and what details support that that is a good thing?"

Intae: "Teachuuuuuu! I buy a new face!"

(Teacher doesn't know how to respond because to her, this is hilarious!)

Lindsey: (Laughing) "Okay, very good. You can buy a new face."

Seok Bin: "And new body Teachu!"

Lindsey: "Okay, very good. Let's move on!"

(We start reading in our books and the story talks about a middle-aged person being kidnapped.)

Intae: "Teachu! Kidnap mean only kid?"

Lindsey: "Well, no. Originally they may have made the word because of kids being taken, but it can be anyone."

Boris: "Mannap."

Lindsey: "Uh, yes, a man can be napped, but it's still kidnapping." (Starting to laugh a bit)

Intae: "Teacher, napping??" (Gestures he is sleeping)

Lindsey: "Okay, I see where you would get that, but that is not what the word means. It refers to someone being taken"

Intae: "Uhh, Grandmanapping?! Why no Grandmanapping Teachu?!"

Lindsey: "A grandma can be kidnapped Intae, we just call it kidnapping."

Boris: "Teachu he a fool."

Lindsey: "Okay Boris, let's not call names." (Being interrupted by Intae)

Intae: (Pointing across the class to Boris) "Stupid boy. Ehhh. Stupid boy."

Lindsey: "Intae, don't call names."

Intae: "Teachu, I call him boy."

Lindsey: "Yes, but don't say mean things."

Boris: "He gay teachu."

Intae: "stupid!!"

San Hae: "Transgendered!"

Lindsey: (dying laughing, and trying really hard to compose herself) "Hey guys? Guys?! Please stop calling names."

Intae: (Also laughing uncontrollably with the rest of the class) "Teachu, why you laugh? Teachu you red!"

Boris: "Teachu you crying!"

Lindsey: "Okay, please stop. You guys are crazy. Look at Christine back there. She is being very good and you are keeping her from learning! Please stop so we can move on."

Intae: "Yes Teachu. (still laughing). Sorry Teachu."

Boris: "Sorry Teachu"

Lindsey: "That's okay, lets move on. Christine! Can you tell me the answer to question number one?"

Boris: "Washington D.C.!"

Lindsey: "Umm, hi Christine! I didn't realize I had two Christine's in my class?"

Boris: "Hi Teachu. I Christine."

(Christine is laughing and reeaaaallly embarrassed).

Intae: (Pointing again) "He gay Teachu."

San Hae: "Transgendered!"

Lindsey: "Guys! Enough. Christine?"

And the fun continues for two more hours......