Abscond!!!!

Hello all! I'm back...Are you proud of me?! After this post, I should be up to date. I know I've probably forgotten a few things...but I think you'll have plenty to read. This one is pretty long. Enjoy!:

A couple of the classes that I teach are private tutoring for the more affluent (rich, they’re just rich) members of our school. One such student is a kind, older gentleman, who knew, well, zero English when he started my class. He had already been taking grammar classes with Cindy before I came so I was a little confused why he didn't know anything, ah well. He's very diligent and wakes up early every day to drive an hour from Seoul for class. The only time he has missed is because he was sitting in an 8 hour traffic jam because Koreans don't know what snow is (haha), but I'll get to that later. So one day, Mr. Lee was reading a paragraph in the book, and I corrected something that he said. He was confused so I proceeded to explain in more detail. When he finally understood what I was talking about he said "ohhhhh!" in understanding and leaned back at the same time. I will always have his next look in my memory, the universal look of "oh my gosh I'm falling all the way down and there's nothing I can do about it!!" but depending on who you are, in more profane and shorter words. He attempted to grab the table but the floor was too slick so, down he went, hitting the wall with his head on the way. Now, Koreans are all about the pride, so I was a little worried about how to react. I ended up helping him up and asking if he was ok. He kept rubbing his head and nodding in assurance that he was. Mr. Kim ran in and said "what happened?!?!" Mr. Lee said something to him in Korean and he left. We didn't speak much more about it until 5 minutes later when I was explaining something else to him, and he again realized what I was saying but instead of responding with "ohhhh!" he nodded and rubbed his head and started laughing. Yes, he had just made a joke. Bravo Mr. Lee. Then we laughed for about 2 minutes straight. Tension relieved. Alriiight.
About a week later, wouldn't you have it, another student did the exact same thing. I had moved the table away from the wall on the side Mr. Lee fell for fear of someone hitting their head again. This student ended up falling on the opposite side and did indeed, land a blow to the wall. Blast. I can't protect everyone! Now, when they lean back in their chair (as oddly, several of them tend to do), I have to warn them about falling. I have to resist the urge to say "4 on the floor 4 on the floor!" as was learned in elementary school. They'll learn, they'll all learn. :)

The snow: Well, it doesn’t happen much in this area. Obviously it snows more in the mountains but usually Korea gets a few small accumulations a year and that’s about it. But like at home, it’s a different story this year. Jan. 4^th it snowed about 8-12 inches in one day, depending on where you were. The reaction though, was the same everywhere. They didn’t know what to do. People were using what they had to the best of their abilities; shovels, brooms, and dust pans (uhhh?). The snow stayed on the roads for almost a week before they started bringing back hoes, yes, back hoes, in to clear them. The sidewalks were an icy mess, because people were packing the snow down when they walked in one path formed by some brave individual. At one point I spotted some city tucks making a valiant attempt to spread salt over the snow on the roads, at 10:00pm. So that way, the snow would melt a little, and then refreeze that same night for an interesting morning drive to work. J The snow, three weeks later, is finally mostly gone, do you know why? Because it rained. HAHAHA!

When it snowed, I received a call from Holly after work. She said “Hey, whenever it snows at home, we always go out and play in it. Do you want to do that?” You guys know me….she didn’t have to say anymore! I was ready to go! So, after some confusion (namely, me lying in the snow, not in clear view so she could see me, oops) we found each other and had a fantastic time sledding down a small hill and making snow angels! Thanks Holly. J

In the last couple months that I’ve been extremely lacking on my blog updates I visited a kind of theme park called Aiin’s World. As I don’t remember when this was exactly, we’ll just say the week of….November. haha. I went there with Jackie and Shirley. It has very detailed miniatures of many famous world monuments, buildings, structures, etc. It was quite fascinating. You’re supposed to be able to stand in a specific spot and make it look like you were actually at these places. This seems silly, because you can’t actually convince people that you went to all of them. So we took some unrealistic pictures, which I’ll attempt to include… right….here--

In December I was able to go Skiing! It was very, very cold, but also fun! About 40 foreigners/native English speakers went on the trip. We skied in the afternoon and evening. Korea is the opposite from America in that the majority of people are snowboarders. So, being a skier, I slalomed around many, many snowboarders who liked to just plop themselves down right in the middle of the slopes. No collisions on my part! Whew! We stayed the night at a youth hostel right by the slopes and it was quite pleasant. I enjoyed the 5 other roommates that I had and one of our newly made Korean friends even ordered us Dominoes Pizza!! Very Yum. Holly and I will go back for Lunar New Year in Feb. Excited!

Over Christmas break, Sarah, David, Holly and I visited Namsan Tower in Seoul. This tower is a very popular spot to visit for tourists as well as Koreans. Many couples visit with a padlock. They lock it on a fence together and then throw away the key to signify that they will be together forever. Hmmm…ok. You can ride the elevator to the top and look out over Seoul. Very beautiful at night. Before Namsan tower we ate at a Mexican restaurant (not even CLOSE to El Pueblito!) and went to Sherlock Holmes (which I thought was great). The interesting thing is we saw another couple, at all three places. Haha! They should have just joined us! On the way back to the bottom of Namsan is a very steep hill. At one point I said “Man! If I started running right now, I wouldn’t be able to stop!” and Holly replied….”Umm…I kind of feel like I can’t stop right now!” hahaha! After that, everything was extremely funny. We were tired, or happy to have someone to ride all the way home with, or both. But as soon as we were shoved onto the VERY crowded subway, and Holly said “I feel like a COW” …Koreans in the same car as us could have thought we were drunk, and we would have had no way to prove that we were completely sober. It made for an interesting and fun ride home!

The next weekend was New Year and I had a blasted cold. I didn’t feel like doing anything strenuous. Sarah and David had a longer break so they were in Japan, and Holly, God bless her, was kind enough to let me tag along with her. We went to some of her coworkers’ apartment and brought in the New Year with cake and sparklers. I barely made it. I blame it on the cold. Lol. Holly and I spent the rest of the weekend watching movies and just being generally lazy, which was so perfect. We did visit the gym (sauna really) a couple times as well as an interesting trip up Mount Okgu in the dark to investigate some mysterious lights. We scaled some rocks, got stuck in some thorns and I may or may not have had a quite hilarious fall (“before I laugh, I need to make sure you are ok…”). The weekend was absolutely great, making that next full week of class almost unbearable. I hate that.

I’ve decided that you know you miss home when you’ve kept an empty tube of American toothpaste near your bathroom sink for the last month. Luckily, Nicole, amazing Nicole, sent me two more tubes. Thank you so much! And thank you to EVERYONE who sends me care packages! You don’t know how much I appreciate them!

A couple weeks ago we went to see Avatar in 3-D and vibrating seats. It was amazing. This movie is now near the top of my very long list of favorite movies. Touché James Cameron.

Last weekend was my ice fishing weekend. It was a fantastic experience! We were able to try our hand at breaking a hole in the ice and trying to catch fish with fishing pole-ish things that thousands of other Koreans were using. None of our group (90 total) caught anything but we had very short attention spans. There were so many other things to check out and we had little time to look before our barehanded fishing slot at 3:00! We saw sculptures, ice bowling, ice soccer, sledding, four wheeling, go-karting, ice skating, and a sleigh competition. Then we headed to the barehanded fishing area and dressed in the shorts and t-shirts they gave us to wear. We had 5 minutes to catch three fish. The water was FREEZING and many people jumped out right away before they even attempted catching a fish. I only grabbed two before my hands got too cold to get that third one. Dang! I’ll also try to include a video….

The next day we went hiking and sledding. A tree stump hiding under the snow attacked my leg on the way down, but it’s almost healed already. J

Yesterday after class we got to the car and saw that someone had hit the mirror on Mr. Kim’s car. They were kind enough to place the mirror on the hood of his car but that’s about it. He was a little upset and kept saying “the abscondess!” and asking me if that was right. I told him no, the word was just abscond but he didn’t listen. I’m simply amazed that he even used this word. This is how Koreans learn English, they study vocabulary over and over. Learning words such as abscond and cordiality, words that many AMERICANS wouldn’t even know let alone use, unless of course your name is Caleb Eastman. Then you use them on a daily basis because you are a genius. J I will now attempt to use the word abscond in my daily vocabulary. Holly and I parted from out Tues. Thurs. breakfast club by shouting “ABSCOND!” because it’s funny.

I hope you all are having a great week. I am now up to date on my blog. Whew! Long one!

You are not American.

Hello all. As you have gathered, I’ve been extremely negligent to my poor, poor blog. I apologize to this inanimate object, as well as my readers, who, I can probably imagine, are waiting in agonizing anticipation for my every entry. Hahaaa….that was a joke. I would hold it against none of you if you simple gave up even checking to see if I’ve stopped becoming a lazy bum. As I have so much to tell you, I shall be writing this in installations. The first of which will consist of a few funny things that have happened or been said in the last month. The next ones will be about my exciting, silly, and sometimes stupid adventures in South Korea. And as always, I miss you. You know who you are. J Here we go!

I spend copious amounts of time at my school, so, the people who I have the most frequent and interesting situations, happen to be, yes, my boss and his wife (Cindy). Here are a few:

-I’ve been tutoring Cindy so that she can start a beginner’s free talking class. We had a conversation about favorite foods. She asked me what my favorite food is and if you know me, you will understand that I really like pancakes. A lot. Mr. Kim and Cindy also know that I really have a soft spot in my heart for bread (oh carbs, how little I care) because when they go to Costco, and I am fortunate enough to tag along, I buy the most delicious bagels I can find in Korea. So when I said that pancakes were my favorite, she laughed and said; “oh! Kaley! Bagels and pancakes! You are so cute!”

Now, when you look at Kaley Eastman, I think the word “cute” is pretty far down on the list of ways to describe me. But as you can see in the next story, in Cindy’s eyes, I must be cute. Though, I am getting a sneaking suspicion that when she says “cute”, she’s actually meaning, “silly girl who’s strange mannerisms and preferences are just as odd in Korea as they are in America.” Let’s just hope all she means is Merriam Webster’s “attractive in a dainty way” but I don’t think so. Lol.

-Time: after work, getting ready to go home- “Oh no, we have a parking ticket on our car. I don’t want to pay it, do you see the parking officer?” ~Mr. Kim

“No…” ~ Cindy and I

“Ok! Quick! Run!” ~Mr. Kim

“Oh Kaley! You run so cute!” ~Cindy

So then we run to the car, hop in, and drive away. How much money did he just save? 3,000won. About $2.75. High fives all around.

- “Have you seen the news?”~Mr. Kim

This is a confusing question to me, as are many questions that I am asked. It has such a vague feeling to it, that all I can say is…no. It didn’t take me long to realize that something important usually happened, relevant to me, for him to ask me this. Such as, the shooting at the Army base in Texas, or the big snow all over the nation in Dec./January. Every once in awhile though, he’ll ask me this, and then tell me a completely random fact like, “A woman had a baby while she was in a weight lifting competition.” WHAAAAT?! Why would I have seen that? I mean, honestly, after he tells me these things, I try to find them in the Korean Herald, or the NY Times on the internet, but….sometimes, I have no idea where he is getting his information. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep a straight face in this environment.

- “Kaley, just you and I are going home tonight. Mr. Kim has an appointment.” ~ Cindy

And “an appointment” means that he’s going out drinking with his pals. Lol. Oh Korea.

-Even though Mr. Kim studied in California for a year, he still has some very interesting, and let’s face it, funny way of saying things in English. Such as “What is wrong with your brain system?” and “Why are you giving me that smile?” Both of which were said in a joking manner, and both of which I laughed at. Quite hard actually.

Some interesting stories involving my students:

-one student has recently been having troubles with between his company and a Chinese one. Apparently, the Chinese company made a safety regulation device but all the devices are now breaking, putting his company behind on shipments. He has begun referring to the Chinese company as “the bullshit company.” I swear I didn’t teach him that.

- I was recently told, as a joke that the reason one of my students comes to this Hogwon (private school) was because of two reasons. 1. It’s flexible hours and 2. Because I’m so beautiful. Lol.

- Another student asked me “Kaley, do you understand me when I speak English?” to which I replied “Most of the time. Sometimes you only have problems with your pronunciation, otherwise you speak English quite well!” He then said “Well, you don’t count. You are not American.” He meant that I had been in Korea long enough, that I was used to how they talk and could understand, even when they mispronounce words. They won’t just accept a compliment! Lol. He likes using this phrase now. “Kaley, what are you doing this weekend?” “I’m going ice fishing!” “oh! You are not American!” hahaaa.

love and hugs!