Waygooks Wandering

Spring has finally sprung in Daegu...although I shouldn't say finally because we hardly got any snow this year, and it was no where near as cold as I know it was at home. Anyway, the weather has been beautiful for the last week or so, except for the rain we've been getting. I think it's rained for recently than it has since I've been in Daegu--I guess it's a sign of spring. I haven't really noticed it, but apparently the yellow dust has started moving down from China. Some people are really sensitive to it, and I'm sure I would be, but I don't notice it being that prevalent here in Daegu. We are doing our best to get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful weather before we start to die of heat in the summer.

Last weekend, we met Serena and Max and ate dinner and got drinks downtown. It was a really great evening. On Sunday, I went on a 4 mile run around our area of Daegu. I ran by Gianni's apartment and school. I impressed myself with my navigation skills. I used this app for my phone to keep track of my distance, but it was hilariously far off! It stops the music every 5 minutes to tell you how far you've gone, and how many minutes you've been. After 5 minutes, it goes: "you have run for 5 minutes. you have gone 2.3 miles. your average pace is 2 minutes and ____ seconds." I was like, "wow! Korea has turned me in to a better-than-Olympics runner!" Anyway, I ran for about 40 minutes, so I estimate I did somewhere around 4 miles. I didn't even need a jacket though. The weather is just perfect! After that, we met up with some friends in a huge park in Daegu that is actually pretty close to our house, Duryu Park. That's where the body painting festival was, and this was our first time back since then. Everyone brought some food to share, and we just relaxed outside. There were soooo many people there! I think it's so great that Koreans will just go and relax outside. I know people in the US do this too, but not on the same scale I don't think. People of all ages were outside relaxing or playing games with friends. We saw an asphalt area with TONS of little kids riding their bikes. I have no idea how they were even moving because of how many people were riding on it. Another amazing thing that needs to start happening in the US is the chicken man. There are men who ride around on delivery scooters taking chicken orders in the park. If you order something, they will give you a metallic blanket to sit on, which identifies you as a customer. He then goes to get your chicken and bring it right to you! It's amazing! I definitely need to do that next time.

The semester has going well so far. Things seem to be going by really fast. I actually teach a 45-minute after school class once a week. No one signed up last year, but this year, we've got about 15 kids. It's kind of a big undertaking because Rhys and I both teach the same class of kids, so they end up getting taught twice a week. That means we have to make sure the after school topics are always different and never overlapped with each other or with our normal classes during the day. My first class was horrible! It took half the class to get them to play a name game, and I still don't think I played a game. They are really bright kids though, so I will improve it for next time. My classes themselves have been going well. I instated a new point system where the class gets 5 points a day, and if they aren't being good or doing their work, then I can drop the points down. I have different rewards they can earn with their points as well. Whenever I go over to the board where my points are written, the kids are like "NOOO!!!" and they quiet down, so I think it's been effective. Thanks Maria for that idea! We have different books for the grade 2s than we did last year also, and I kind of like the book better. It's more grammar focused, so I'm actually teaching small grammar points. The other book was more about the vocabulary of a certain topic. Both have their merits. I might try to add a bit more vocabulary in for certain topics though. I start the class with a powerpoint about the grammar point to explain it, then we do the book work, then I have them do my own activity that I make up. I find it's working better than straight book work--less boring for both them and me. I've also started this thing where they are going to make English portfolios for my class. I'm really trying my best to legitimize myself and make them see my class as one they actually need to do work in. Since I can't grade them or really punish them, this is the best option I think. I'm going to grade their work and all of their worksheets will go in that portfolios. It will also give me a chance to see how they're improving. Anyway, that's the school life.

We've also started Korean classes at the YMCA. The class is twice a week, and I find that's really helped me learn things better. Also, this class goes at a MUCH easier pace than the last class. The last Korean classes we had were good, but they covered a whole book in the time it would usually take to cover half of it, and each chapter had like 50 vocabulary words. We have no time to learn 50 vocabulary words in a week. This class is much better. It tends to focus on one or two key expressions, and I like that it teaches you a question as well as how to answer it. The last class, we focused on answering and less on the actual question that you're asked. Also, our Korean teacher speaks wonderful English and is great at explaining things. We also both downloaded this app for our iphones called "Memrise." It's been sooo helpful in learning vocabulary. I recommend it for anyway learning a language. Someone had already made one for our exact book, so we can study the words as we learn them. Basically, they show you the word and what it means in English, but below the word is a picture or something to help you remember the word--and it's really effective! For example: yorisa is chef, so below the word is a picture of Lisa Simpson cooking, and it says "YO! Lisa!" It's really amazing, and we've learned a lot with it. I'm studying the vocab from our book as well as the old one. I'm really motivated to learn to speak Korean. It's really fun!

Random note: for some reason, all the girls on the soccer team at our school have cut off all their hair for the season! I noticed on a few girls last semester, but this semester it is literally the WHOLE soccer team. It's fine if that's what they want to do, I get it. Our team is supposedly really good, but it makes it super hard to figure out who is a girl. I already have trouble with some kids because sometimes their faces are just gender neutral. The uniform usually helps because the girls wear skirts, but sometimes the girls will wear the boys' uniform. I totally messes me up! Sorry if I call you a boy, girls! My bad

Korea really gets it right in terms of medical costs because, as far as I know, most surgeries, procedures, and prescriptions are much cheaper than those at home, even in terms of dental care. Medical tourism is big here--people come from all over the world to get surgeries done, and, many times, the hospitals will actually put these people up in hotels during their procedures. I think it's really funny that I went from one big medical city (Boston) to another (Daegu). Daegu is always advertising for medical tourism, and it seems like there are a lot of things around.

Korea's cosmetic and plastic surgery fields are massively popular. It's kind of sad, but Koreans tend to get surgery on their eyes and faces to make them look more western. In addition, counseling and mental health is kind of taboo and, since you have to report your medical history to your employers when you get a job, can lead to issues finding work. In my opinion, it is these two factors--the high frequency of plastic surgery and the lack of counseling options--have contributed to the fact that Korea has one of the highest suicide rates of any country. It's really sad and deeply upsetting.

For my own part, I have never really wanted plastic surgery or anything of that nature, but I have been considering getting lasek for my eyes, which is about half or a third the price of getting it at home, or so I hear. Maybe next year I'll do it. Other than that, I decided to go with 4 of my friends (Sian, Marie, Kat, and Stef) to a laser hair removal clinic in Chilgok (it's far outside of downtown Daegu, which, I'm sure, contributed to the low cost of the procedure). I went for the first procedure last night after school. All the girls are getting their arm pits done. I can't tell you how excited I am by the prospect of not having to shave my arm pits ever again! It's a simple, painless procedure that takes all of 2 minutes. You go in and put on a gown that fits around your chest like a towel after you shower, but you can leave on all your clothes except your shirt. The nurse doesn't speak much English, but she took it as a personal challenge to learn to pronounce my whole name, even when I told her to just call me Abbi. It was cute. You're supposed to shave the day before you come, which I didn't know, but the nurse did it for me. The doctor spoke better English and was trying to explain things to me as best he could. He kept referring to it as an "operation," which makes it sound way more scary than it is. I barely felt the laser at all. It was slightly stingy and made my skin feel kind of warm. It took two minutes, and I was finished for the session. The doctor said that 5 sessions typically make 75% of hair go away and 10 sessions takes care of 90%. You do 1 session every month. Apparently, light or fine hair is harder to hit with the laser, so it takes more sessions. Most people then go back once or twice a year for a clean up after their sessions. At this place, 5 sessions of laser hair removal for your arm pits is only 34,000 won (like $30)! When my friends told me that price, I knew I couldn't pass it up. In addition, I asked the doctor how much it would be to do my legs from the knee down, and it is only 165,000 won ($160) for 5 sessions! You do one session per month, and I'm starting my legs next time I go, and I'm so excited! It is going to be amazing not having to shave. Seriously.

After I finished my first session, I took the bus to Maria and Matthew's house, since they sort of live near Chilgok. Gianni met me there. We all tried to order pizza and pasta together, but it was way more difficult than it needed to be. We wanted 2 pastas and 2 pizzas, but the lady kept trying to tell us we couldn't have 2 pastas for some reason. We ended up with one pasta and one pizza, and it wasn't enough food for the 4 of us. After we ate it, we went to a really delicious coffee shop and got drinks and some honey bread (basically just toast covered in honey and topped with whipped cream) while we played Settlers of Catan.

It was a really fun evening and day, and I can't wait to go back for my next laser session next month.

UPDATE: Since I first posted about laser last year, I've had many people ask me for more info. I also write for the Colorful Daegu city blog, so I wrote an article for them with all the info for people who might want to get laser hair removal. Here it is: Laser Hair Removal at Raon Clinic.

The Indian celebration of Holi Hai is also called the festival of colors. I didn't know, but apparently there is a rather large community of Indians in Busan, and they organize a Holi celebration every year on Haeundae Beach. Holi was a short celebration for a few hours on Sunday afternoon, and the ex-pats in Korea celebrated St. Patrick's Day on Saturday. Seoul has a huge St. Patrick's Day celebration, but we chose to

Haeundae Beach

just go down to Busan an extra day early to relax and celebrate both holidays there. We went down with our friend Kyle on Saturday afternoon on a train. It only takes about 2 hours to get to Busan. We ended up at Haeundae Station and took a taxi to the beach area where our hostels were. We stayed at Mr. Egg hostel. It was really close to all kinds of restaurants and only 5 minutes from the beach. A great location and really relaxing. The hostel had bunk beds, which I wasn't expecting, but it was perfectly comfortable, and there was free eggs and toast for breakfast. We decided to get some lunch and walk around a bit. As we walked along the beach, we stumbled on the aquarium, and decided to check it out. It was a small aquarium, but I think it was bigger even than the one in Boston. It was only 20,000 won for admission, and it was

Gianni and the sea turtle

completely underground! I think that is so strange for an aquarium! How do the animals and plants get any light. It was cool though. There

porpoises

were two big tanks with different animals and a tunnel surrounded by water where you could see sharks and sea turtles. We looked around there for a few hours before heading back to our hostel for a rest before to pub. In the Haeundae area is an Irish pub called the Wolfhound, so what better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Korea than at an Irish pub. Originally, we thought we'd get a late dinner there and then hang out, but because Holi Hai brought

cool sting ray

foreigners from all over Korea to Busan, it was totally crowded when we got there. Instead, we went to a nearby restaurant

you got some crazy teeth shark

and had some decent burger then went to a delicious coffee/chocolate place next to the Wolfhound. De Chocolate Coffee had amazing drinks! I highly recommend it. I got "deep dark chocolate," which was really rich hot chocolate, and Gianni got chocolate coffee. It was delicious. At around 10pm, we decided to go up to Wolfhound. It was crazy trying to move around in there and get drinks, but there were tons of people there we knew. I'm not Irish, and I don't pretend to be, even on St. Patrick's, so I decided to go with subtle attire. I wore a tartan skirt that had green in it. We chatted with our friends from Daegu, Stef, Kat, and Tara, and even Niall came. He had gone to Seoul earlier that day but still made it to Busan as well. He had some paint and was putting Irish flags on everyone. Wolfhound was playing a weird mix of regular dancing music and Celtic songs, but eventually, they stopped playing the Celtic stuff, sadly. Lish and her friends from Jinju came to Busan also, but they arrived wicked late. It was really nice to see her again and her friends were really nice. We drank and danced at Wolfhound until 2am before heading out to grab some fried chicken before bed. It was a really really fun night of singing, drunkenness, and dancing--what else can you expect from St. Patrick's Day.

The next morning we got up sort of early to make the hostel's breakfast and go pick up our colored dust for Holi Hai on the beach. They gave us each one color of dust, a soda, and two samosas. The weather was beautiful and warm on Sunday! So we spent a little time just relaxing on the beach. I found out that even Korea has cool sea shells that you can't find at home (I don't have to go all the way to Thailand). The Holi Festival started, and I stayed out of it a bit with my camera, trying to get some pictures before joining the fun. I think I got some great results except that my camera lens got some drops of champagne on it when the organizers of the event opened champagne on stage and the wind blew it. I took some pictures and then went in to get colorful myself. Everyone was having a great time, dancing and finding white spots on other people to fill in. After the colored dust got thrown, people went around with some blue paint, and it basically turned into a dance party. By that time, Lish was feeling kind of bad from the night before, and Gianni was sitting with her on the beach.  The whole thing only lasted 3 hours (12-3pm), and we only stayed for one. Lish wanted to go get some food and coffee, so we went with her and her friends. We grabbed some kebabs before heading back to the train station to check on getting tickets back to Daegu.

Stef, Jake, and Maria

Korea has a foreigner information hotline that you can call with questions about Korea, but I have found that they aren't always right.

Niall and Tara

They gave me the wrong information about trains back to Daegu. I thought there would be no seats left, and we'd have to stand. Fortunately for us--and for Kyle, who we also got a ticket for--there were seats left

Lish and her Jinju companions

on the train. We waited in the station for an hour and a half. It's strange that there wasn't even a convenience store in the station for us to get snacks at, and we started to get hungry after a while. I read some of the new book I started at my cousin's request. I think Gianni and I both spent the entire train ride back to Daegu sleeping since we only got like 4 hours of sleep the previous night. We decided to get pizza and ice cream (super healthy choice!) and watch the Veronica Mars Movie that just came out. We're serious V. Mars fans, and I backed the kickstarter campaign, so we got a free digital copy of the movie. No spoilers, but it was everything I hoped for and more!!!

Thomas and Sian

Kyle, Sian, and I

This weekend is Busan was so relaxing and fun. We got to hang out with all of our friend groups. It's so cool to see that, in Korea, we are able to celebrate Korean holidays and culture as well as those of the very strong ex-pat community. In Gianni's words, "this weekend was perfect."

In addition to being White Day, Friday night was Matthew's birthday, and he decided to spend it at Daegu Tower. We were a little late because we both had teacher dinners. Mine was at this really delicious buffet place that had all kinds of stuff to choose from. Gianni and I got a cab to the tower, which really isn't that far from our house. Only problem is that the cab dropped us off at the entrance to E-World, and we didn't know any better to ask him to drive up the hill to the tower. It was a bit of a walk--and a bit steep at times--but we got to the top of the hill with the tower on it. The tower is basically two buildings. One of the buildings has an ice rink and food area with a garden/courtyard looking thing on its roof. If you go to the roof, you can walk over to the base of the tower. We bought tickets at the coffee shop down there and headed up in a really fast but far elevator ride. My ears popped on the way up. Apparently, Daegu Tower is actually taller than Namsan Tower in Seoul. It's the tallest observation tower in Korea. At the top of the elevator is a round room that you can walk around to see panoramic views of the city. We could see the area of Daegu where we live, but the best part was being able to see the lighted archway at the top of Apsan, and part of the path leading up to it, where we did our night hike. It was like coming full circle. There's also a bungee jump off the tower that crazy people can do. It was the evening when we went up there, so I didn't actually see anyone jump off, but it looked way too scary. I think the tower is over 200 meters tall. There are also the big binocular pole things that let you look out at the view, but apartment buildings and other buildings are so close to the tower, that you can actually almost see into someone's apartment. It's a little creepy. Glad I'm not living right there. After spending some time checking out the views, we headed down. We checked out the garden area a bit more. There was a massive chess board and pieces. As we were walking away, "All I Want for Christmas is You" started playing over the loud speakers, and the garden lights began performing a timed light show to the song. It was cute, but can someone please remind Korea how long ago Chrismas was? They still have lights and decorations up for Christmas here. Strange. On the way down, we walked through a lighted tunnel and saw some other cool light displays. It was a great night, but I really want to go back to the tower during the day when the weather gets warmer. Daegu Tower is actually located within E-World, and I definitely want to go to there. It's Daegu's little amusement park.

As I said in the post-Valentine's Day post, March 14th is White Day in Korea. This is the day when the guys get the girls presents, returning the favor from Valentine's Day and showing her that he loves her back. I don't know if we will be celebrating White Day, but since Gianni and I both have teacher dinners and then Matthew's birthday party, I think not. We'll see though. Maybe Gianni has a surprise up his sleeve.

Monday was the beginning of the new school year for my kids. The Korean school year is almost the reverse of that in most Western countries. The school year begins in March, and the first semester runs until mid-July.  At this point, they have a month of summer vacation. The second semester begins in mid-August and runs until the end of December. They have winter break for all of January. Then, the students come back for a week at the beginning of February, which is technically graduation week for the grade 3's, but there's still classes. Then, they have what I've been told is called "Spring vacation" for the rest of February and a new school year begins in March. It's kind of crazy, and I don't really understand the weird teaching week in February, but whatever. We just play games with the kids and keep them busy for a little bit.

I will also never understand the fact that the Korean school systems don't have everyone's schedules worked out by the first day of school. It seems like that is something you'd work on during vacation, but the problem is that the person in charge of scheduling is typically a teacher in the department they schedule for. Since there is so much teacher turn around because Korean teachers are only allowed to work in the same school for 4 years, the teacher who is supposed to be the scheduler may not even have been hired yet. It's truly bizarre. We have new books for this year for the grade 2's as well, so I couldn't so any lesson planning over vacation because I didn't even have the new book for well into February, and even then it was just a library copy until I finally got my own copy this week. I still don't have the teacher's book to help me lesson plan for it. Oh the woes of working in a radically different school system. Anyway, given all these circumstances, and despite the fact that school started Monday, I haven't been teaching. I'm set to teach tomorrow with my new schedule. I am still teaching grade 2 and 3. With the new grade 2 book, there aren't culture topics in every chapter, so I'm going to have to make up a few more of those topics. It shouldn't be too difficult to do that though. I'm excited to get back to teaching though. I'm the teacher they know now, with Niall gone, and it's kind of nice. They already have taken more of an interest in me, talking to me as I leave school and stuff. It's cute. Hopefully, tomorrow goes well :)

I realize I never posted this! That was really lame of me. And the reason we haven't had a post in a while is that we haven't really done anything that interesting since we got back from Thailand. That should be changing next weekend, so I'll be doing a more interesting post. It's just been a bunch of the same. We watched our friend's dog again, but this time for a whole week. We've been going to see movies (Dallas Buyer's Club was fantastic!), going to trivia and taekwondo, etc. Interesting new bit of information though: I got my new EPIK co-teacher! Niall left my school to go teach at an elementary school, and he was replaced by Rhy from England. For the last week or so, I've been helping him get all sorted out. He's a nice guy. This week is the first week of school for us, but we haven't been teaching at all! I guess they don't have our schedules figured out yet. Oh well! I've been working on lesson planning a little bit (as much as I can without the teacher book to go with the new textbooks the kids are using). Also, last week was Maria's birthday, so she had the girls over for pizza and cake. It was a nice night. At the same time, the boys went out to the board game cafe together, and I think Gianni had fun with that. Anyway, that's all for now and sorry for the late post.

I read somewhere that Koreans are up there for the people who spend the most money on Valentine's Day, but here Valentine's Day is really different than in Western countries. In Korea, the 14th day of every month is a "love" themed day. There's Valentine's Day (Feb), White Day (March), Black Day (April), Rose Day (May), Kiss Day (June), Silver Day (July), Green Day (August), Music Day (September), Wine Day (October), Movie Day (November), Hug Day (December), Candle Day (January). I'm not sure what all the color days are about, and people don't really celebrate all of them. Valentine's Day, White Day, and Black Day are celebrated though. Valentine's Day is supposed to be the day when women give men a present, typically chocolate. EVERYONE goes on dates on Valentine's Day, so I'm going nowhere near downtown because it's going to be crazy crowded. The next month, on White Day, is when the man reciprocates and gives the woman a present, showing that he is returning her love. If he doesn't return the favor, there is trouble in paradise. The month after is Black Day. Black Day is singles day. It is called Black Day because if you're single on black day, you're supposed to eat black bean noodles or jajjangmyeon. They are a Korean Chinese food dish that is very popular here. It's really good. I just think it's hilarious that single day is equated with the color black. Is it that horrible to be single, Korea?

So we have the first of the three holidays coming up. Gianni and I have agreed we won't really do presents, but we're going to have a fancy dinner instead. I wanted to avoid the craziness of downtown, so I actually found a woman on facebook who, I believe, is married to someone in the military. She is a chef and does catering for Christmas and Thanksgiving and stuff. She made these big meals you could order for you and your friends, and her food looks DELICIOUS! So I asked if she was doing anything for Valentine's Day, and she said she'd be happy to make us dinner. We get dinner (I believe it is going to be lasagna), dessert (I requested chocolate of some sort), and wine for $60 for two people. Not bad. We're treating ourselves.

Update: Valentine's Day dinner was delicious. She made the most incredible brownies to go with our lasagna. Not the traditional Italian-style lasagna. There was no ricotta cheese in it, but the sausage that was inside it was really yummy. It was a nice night at home. <3