Christmas Eve – Korean style

Started the day by having coffee and toast (made with the new creamsicle orange appliances . . .) then ventured out on my own to see a bit of the city. Wasn’t able to get too far, because we had a staff meeting at the school mid-day. After the meeting, several of us went to eat tak-kalbi. Another new Korean dish that is delicious. Chicken and cabbage and hot sauce and pasta things and root vegetables all grilled together at the table. We decided that, since it was Christmas Eve, we should celebrate not only with our staff (the Suseong Kate School) but also with the other staff across town (Chil-Guk Kate School). It was agreed that we would all meet at Bennigan’s (yes, again . . .) downtown between 8 and 8:30.

About 7:30 the 5 of us from Suseong Kate School met to get a taxi. Three men: Mark, Ted, and Rob; two women: me and Chanta. We knew we would have to take two taxis, so we started trying to hail cabs. None would stop. At least not for us. We stood on the main street for almost 25 minutes trying to get a cab to stop. One finally did. We all looked at each other, which three should take the first cab? Chanta and I both immediately told the guys to get in the cab, because we felt we would have more luck getting a cab to stop than they would. The boys were off. Chanta and I return to the curb, taking bets on how long it would take us to hail a cab. My guess was under ten minutes. Bam! Three minutes later we were in a cab, heading downtown. Or so we thought.

Whenever we get in a cab, we tell the driver a major landmark, then get out and walk from there. The largest department store in Daegu is called Debec. And it’s a huge landmark downtown. So I told the driver Shinae (downtown) Debec. He drove, then let us out at Debec. It wasn’t until after we were out of the cab that I realized we weren’t downtown – he had taken us to the River Debec! So Chanta and I flag another cab (again, less than 5 minutes – sometimes it’s really convenient being a woman). As soon as we get in the driver says to us, “I am Korean man and I very handsome.” Well, okay, yes. He was a student and wanted to practice his English. A few blocks later he exclaimed, “Oh, I forgot meter! You so beautiful you make me (then a lot of Korean . . .)” He wanted our phone numbers (which we don’t have yet) because he said we would practice English and be best friends. It was an entertaining ride.

We walked to Bennigan’s and saw the teachers from the Chil-Guk Kate School. We asked where the boy teachers from our school were. They looked at us funny and said that they hadn’t arrived yet. What????? Chanta and I were able to hail two cabs, get lost, and get hit upon and they hadn’t even arrived????? They arrived shortly and claimed traffic was bad. The wait for a table at Bennigan’s was two hours. “Oh, darn, I guess we’ll have to go somewhere else . . .” Yeah! We wandered into a bar/restaurant, got a table for 9, and got a couple of pitchers of beer. The largest pitchers I’ve ever seen. 5000cc. I think that’s about 2 liters, right? Anyway, after a few drinks we decided we would have dinner there as well. We looked at the menu (typical bar food) – it seemed, well, sometimes English translations can be funny. Chanta and I decided to split a couple of dishes. She ordered “popcorn chicken” (yes, chicken, not shrimp) and I ordered “cooked potatoes with flavor.” Seriously. And guess what we had for Christmas Eve dinner? The smallest chicken nuggets I’ve ever seen and tator tots! Oh, yeah . . .

While we were eating the ever present techno Christmas music was playing. I was kind of dancing/bouncing in my seat. One of the teachers suggested we try to find a dance club after dinner. Yeah! I said I thought that would be a most awesome idea – that I love to dance! One of the teachers, Rob (also from San Francisco) looked at me and said, “I wouldn’t have pegged you as the going out type.” ???????? Little does he know . . .

I asked our waiter about dance clubs. He asked if we wanted a Korean club or an American one. Korean, of course! He told me the names of a few, but warned me there was a cover charge. Sure, no problem. How much? 300,000 won. Excuse me? Did I just hear you correctly? Yes, 300,000 , or maybe 400,000 won (roughly 210/250 US dollars). Per person? Yes. Okay, then, how about that American nightclub? Oh, it’s just around the corner, it’s named Elvis. So, armed with the name of the club and a rough idea which alley it was in, all nine of us head out.

We found the club without *too* much trouble. As we were walking up the stairs we heard some good beats. Chanta turns to me and says, “Oh, yeah, booty music! This is going to be fun!” And sure enough, it was serious shake your booty music. Only problem, though, no one was. Plenty of people in the club, but no one on the dance floor. So I turn to Chanta and say, “This just won’t do – come on.” And take her on the floor. We start dancing, and sure enough, within a few minutes, the floor is packed. There are a mixture of other American/Canadians and Koreans in the club. People seem to be pretty friendly. My favorite introduction of the night was this: I’m dancing and a very attractive Korean woman comes up to me and says with a huge smile, “Hel-lo, my name Kim Soo-Jun and I lesbian” and starts to dance with me. She’s with another woman (duh) and they are having a serious good time. Chanta turns to me and says, “Your mission tonight is to get her number – they look like the type of girls who know where to go to have fun.” Sadly enough, I wasn’t able to get her number, I think the only English she knew was her introduction. Alas . . .

About 4:30 am we decide to head back to our area of town. Ahhhhh, the issue of the cab. It’s Chanta, me, and Rob. We tell Rob to hang back until the cab stops. Sure enough, a cab stops for us right away. We’ve figured out how to beat the system.

Okay – most of you know how I love to make lists, so here are my first lists from Korea:

Things I’m really glad I brought:

Sheets and pillow (very hard to find here)

Framed pictures of family and friends (worth the weight in the suitcase)

Beach flip flops (for the bathroom after I’ve showered and there’s water everywhere)

Silk long underwear (it is *freezing* here)

Crossword puzzle books

Things that are useless here:

My shoe bag/storage unit for the closet (there are no closets here – besides, all shoes are taken off at the door and stay there)

Pastry cutter (there are no ovens here. Oh, I’m going to miss macaroni and cheese)

My CD player (forgot the cord, can’t get it to work)

So far, the list of things I’m really happy I have is longer, life is good . . .

Now for the tale of the day . . .

Sunday, December 23

My first day off. Yeah! And I am on a mission. As I mentioned, there are no closets here. Let me explain my apartment a little more in depth. A studio. Which is wallpapered. Pink and white striped on the bottom half of the wall. A dainty pink floral print on the top half. Not quite my style, but I’ll work with it. A double bed. With a puffy, yellow comforter. With little daisies embroidered on it. My table/desk has two chairs that look like they came from an ice cream parlor, with wire hearts and curlicues on the seat backs. My tv sits on a mint green cabinet. The sliding glass doors to the balcony have Minnie Mouse and pink heart decals stuck to them. As well as a poster of a popular Korean pop singer. I feel like I’m in a teenager’s dream room. I’m not going to fight the decor, but embrace it. I will have the ultimate “sweet 16” apartment by the time I am finished.

First mission of the day – to go to Nais Mart (pronounced Nice Mart-Ha) to get household appliances. It’s sort of the Korean version of Wal-Mart. Has just about everything. Including the ever present techno Christmas carols piped over the loudspeaker. That’s all I’ve heard since I’ve arrived. In restaurants, in bars, in stores, on the streets. Four of us go together, me, Chanta, Mark, and Ted. We each purchase what we feel we must have (my purchases included a white plastic bathroom shelf, pink and purple plastic coat hangers, some food items – not sure what – but the pictures look good, and a red rice cooker). Since I bought a rice cooker, I figured I would buy rice as well. Nearly impossible to find a bag smaller than 10 kilograms. I wouldn’t be able to eat that much rice in the whole year that I’m here. After much searching and a lot of sign language, I find a 2 kilo bag.

Chanta and I share a cab back to our apartment. Normally we tell the cab driver the area of town we’re in (suseong-gu) and the name of a major department store that is only a couple of blocks from our house (DongA) then walk the rest of the way. But we had lots of gear. We decide to try to give specific directions. I had grabbed a piece of old mail from my mailbox before leaving the house. I showed the address to the taxi driver. He looked puzzled (we live on a small alley, so it’s not surprising he didn’t know the address). With much sign language, we were able to guide the cab driver back to our apartment. Victory!

We put our purchases away and embark on the next mission – lunch. We had noticed a new restaurant was opening (by virtue of the helium baloon arch and dancers in white go-go boots) near our house. It looks good, so we decide to try it. We take off our shoes and are led to a table with a burner in the center. We sit on the floor and look around. There are no pictures, the menus (on the wall) are all script. Korean script, of course. The waiter comes and asks us what we want. At least that’s what we think he’s asking. We point to the first thing on the wall. He asks us if we want 3. (I know the numbers). We say 2. And then the food comes. Amazing. Bowls and bowls of salads and vegetables. Then he turns on the burner and places more vegetables on it. As well as kim chi. I am loving the kim chi. And served warm it is so good. Then, another platter with what looks like the thickest bacon I’ve ever seen. He fries that up for us as well. A most delicious lunch. I look in my phrase book for the phrase “this is delicious.” Mashi isso summnida. Chanta is laughing. She thinks they won’t be able to understand me. The waiter comes back, I try my new phrase. He understands me, but does laugh. A lot. Okay, so maybe the pronunciation isn’t quite there yet, but the meaning was conveyed. At least I think it was . . .

Update on what I can say in Korean. Thank you. Please. Yes. No. Maybe. Hello. Numbers. How much? I’d like this. And now, this is delicious. It’s amazing how much meaning you can convey with those phrases and a smile.

As we were leaving, the owner handed us a box. I guess when a store/restaurant opens they give gifts to the customers. We open the box – a Hello Kitty dish towel! Score! Another item for the teen dream apartment!

We’re off to the furniture district. Wandering throughout alleys and alleys of small furniture stores. Each seems to have a specialty. All chairs. All desks. All nightstands. Chanta finds a wicker shelf. I’m looking for a wardrobe (no closets here). I see a baby blue one. Oooo – that would fit in well. But then, I see a silver and white one that has a full length mirror on one of the doors. Blue? Silver? The silver wins. I need a mirror. As I walking, I see the perfect nightstand. Pink. With green sides. We pay for our purchases and the women explains (through sign language) that they will deliver the furniture right then. I show her the old piece of mail. She nods, the driver motions for us to get in the truck. We do. And once again, successfully navigate back to our apartment.

Unload our purchases with the help of the delivery man, and we’re off again. This time to the electronics market. Or so we thought. We tell the taxi driver where to take us and he drops us off in a market. But each alley is a different ware. One alley is all food. Another is all clothes. Another is all shoes. Another is all toiletries. But no electronics. We say hello to a passing Korean and say CD player? She busts out with Korean, assuming we understand. We smile and say thank you and follow where she pointed. And sure enough, there are the electronics. Leave a short while later with a couple of more additions. A periwinkle CD player. Oh, yeah. A Creamsicle orange toaster and coffee maker set that Chanta and I plan to share. I will have the dream pad soon enough . . .

Let’s see . . . the days are already running together. So here are highlights from the last few days.

FIRST – I have a mailing address (it’s for the school, which is the best place to send mail):

Lori McLeese

Suseong Kate School

1288-29, Jisan-dong

Suseong-gu, Daegu

SOUTH KOREA

Lots and lots of placement testing for the students. I was excited to see that the school will have a great number of younger students (I had been told upper elementary to high school). It’s so exciting to be back in a classroom! The ability of the students ranges from “the blank stare” to quite decent conversationalist. We’re having a staff meeting this afternoon (Saturday) to find out what each of us will be teaching. I’m hoping for the younger students, either the reading or speaking modules.

The first morning in my apartment (Thursday) I went to use my hand held shower. I turned the sink faucet on and let the water run. But it wouldn’t get warm. Oh, I forgot. The temperature controls are such that the heat and the hot water can’t be on at the same time. So I scurry back to the main room and turn off the heat, turn on the hot water. Scurry back to the bathroom. Turn the water on, and sure enough, it warms up. So I’m ready to use the shower. I push the only knob I see, thinking it is the shower control. It’s not. It’s the stopper for the sink. Hmmm. Look around. See no other controls, knobs, buttons, etc. And I’m getting very cold. And feeling very stupid. I turn the water on and off, but that doesn’t affect the flow of water to the shower head. I pick up the shower head, turn it over, see nothing there. Getting colder. And feeling stupider. Turn the water back on. Just start poking. And pulling. Finally pull what looks like a permanent part of the sink fixture, think I’ve broken the sink, when all of the sudden, whoooooooooshhhhhhhhh. Okay. Not exactly whoooooooooshhhhhhhhh. More like driiibbbbbbbbb-bble. Nonetheless, the shower is working. Victory.

Tried my first street food yesterday. Not sure what the name of it was. But it was tasty. On a break two other teachers and I were walking through the neighborhood. All along the sidewalks there were people squatting, selling their wares. Mostly foodstuffs. Stands of hot noodlelike dishes, rice cakes, fish cakes, pancakes type things. So Chanta (another teacher) and I shared a bowl of what seemed like gnocchi with tobasco sauce. With a little fish thrown in. We then bought a bag of bread-like, pancake-y, sort of sweet, but not too sweet, things. Some were shaped like little peanuts (and had peanuts in them), others were shaped like walnuts with a sweet fish paste inside (go figure). The streets were lined with women and men selling live fish (looked like tadpoles), dried fish, dried squid (huge mothers), bok choy, sprouts, and vegetables I’ve never seen before.

Last night (Friday) we were taken out as a staff for our “Welcome to Kate School” dinner. To a traditional Korean restaurant. Sitting on the floor (which was heated – I love that!) at a table with burners in the center of the table. And many, many bowls of, well, I’m not sure what, but it was good. Lots of bowls. Everything is in a separate little bowl. I pity the dishwasher. I was sitting near the owner of the school, Mr. Kim (of course), and he suddenly exclaimed, “Lori-ga!” I’m not sure what the “ga” means, but everytime someone says it to me instructions are coming. Not quite, but almost, the equivalent of “Hey, lady!” Maybe it’s just a way to get someone’s attention. Mr. Kim, through the aid of an interpreter (he doesn’t speak any English, he says it gives him a headache), told me I was holding my chopsticks incorrectly. I was trying to move both of them. He showed me how to hold them the proper way, anchoring one against your thumb and moving the other like a pencil. Throughout dinner if I slipped and reverted back to the “improper” way of holding chopsticks, I would hear, “Lori-ga!”

International diet trick #1: If you don’t know how to use the utensils, you won’t eat as much. Because it takes twice as long to get food to your mouth because you’re always dropping it.

Halfway through the dinner I was trying to pick up bulgogi (marinated beef) that is served with slippery, clear noodles. The noodles seem like they are miles long. They just keep coming and coming and coming out of your bowl. I couldn’t figure out how to get them on the chopsticks and into my mouth without looking like I was a 4 year old slurping spaghetti. One of the other teachers explained to me to bite the noodles and let the remainder drop back into the bowl. Okay. So I had picked up some noodles, was putting them in my mouth, and heard Mr. Kim exclaim, “Lori-ga!” It startled me such that I gasped, causing me to slurp the noodles, which proceeded to flip up and slap me on the forehead. We had not been given napkins, so I was trying to keep my composure, gracefully wipe the bulgogi juice off my forehead, and turn my attention to the senior Mr. Kim. I decided that I probably had had enough to eat (though I was still hungry . . .)

Monday, December 17

Well, Emily and I started the day (at 4 am) with a few observances:

“It’s indecent to wake up before the morning newspaper is delivered.” EM

“I can’t believe we’re on the road before the stoplights are working. This is just so wrong.” LM

I began my journey by going to the wrong concourse at SFO – hope this isn’t a harbinger of the year ahead. The flight from SFO to Vancouver was uneventful, but I was too excited to sleep. Had to clear customs in Vancouver, even though I wasn’t leaving the airport (???). My apologies to my Canadian friends, but your agents are not friendly. At all. I was interrogated by a female agent. She stamped my immigration card and I started walking towards the exit. As I was walking, a male agent stopped me, “Lady, come this way.” You know it’s never a good sign when someone calls you “lady.” I went to his window and he examined my immigration card and passport. He then wanted to know why I was at his window when I had already cleared customs. Hello??? You stopped me and brought me back to your window.

Found my gate, had a few minutes to kill before boarding the plane. Looked around the boarding area. Pretty crowded. Looked like a lot of people were going home for the holidays. Since I was in the next to the last row of the airplane, I was one of the first to board – lucky me! I thought leg room on United was sparse. On Air Canada it’s even more limited. But, looking on the bright side, if we crashed, I wasn’t going anywhere. I was securely wedged in between my seat and the seat in front of me. As lunch was being served, the flight attendant spilled a bottle of water on me. My first thought was, “How did Katie get on this flight?” 🙂 Met one of my new colleagues, Brian, on the plane. He had one of the flight attendants (same one who spilled on me) ask me if I was going to Korea to teach and if my name was Lori. I asked him how he knew it was me. Another lady statement. “Lady, how many Caucasian women do you see on this flight?” Good point.

Once we arrived in Seoul Brian and I had to transfer to Gimpo, the domestic airport. That is where we would catch our flight to Daegu. The bus ride to Gimpo took about 30 minutes. Brian was getting pretty edgy. I asked him what was wrong. He pointed at the clock. It was 7:35 pm. I said I thought we’d have plenty of time to catch our 8:30 flight. We would have. Except that our flight was at 7:50, not 8:30. We ran to the Korean Air ticket counter. The women at the counter looked at our tickets and squealed. Then she walkie talkied someone. Then some men came over. They grabbed our bags, then grabbed us. Wait! Another walkie talkie transmission. The men took us back to the security area. I had to unlock my suitcase to show them my iron. Lots of bows and smiles, and my suitcases were on the conveyer belt again. Another man is assigned to take us to the gate. Not take, exactly. Run. Very fast. The three of us are running through the concourse (I’m in high heeled boots, not the most practical footwear for jaunts through the airport, but . . .) and I’m thinking – we are *not* going to make this flight. And even if we do, our bags will not. But, alas, we make it to the gate; they’ve held the plane for us. We get on – our seats are, once again, in the next to the last row. As I’m walking down the aisle, I think to myself, “Wow. I am in Korea. I’m really here.” I also was thinking that there is no way in hell that we would have gotten such outstanding customer service anywhere else in the world. We arrived to the airport 15 minutes before our flight, and they made it their mission to see to it that we boarded that plane.

After a 30 minute flight, we land in Daegu. Amazingly, so do our bags. We exit, and there is “Mr. Bijing” from the school to meet us. As I look around, I notice that I’m considerably taller than most people in the airport. Mr. Bijing takes us to a hotel, he thinks we will be more comfortable there for the night (it’s already after 10 pm); we can see our apartments tomorrow. At this point, I’ve hit the wall. I just want to sleep. A hotel sounds great. As we walk into the lobby, I notice playing cards strewn across the floor at the doorway. I look closer. There’s naked women on the cards. What kind of hotel are we at? Mr. Bijing talks to the hotel clerk, again, lots of nodding and bowing. He tells Brian and me that our rooms are ready. I ask him if he has the keys. He looks at me very surprised. “Why do you need a key?” Well, I guess I don’t. But it would be nice to lock the door. Brian and I exchange looks. But, he appeases us and gives us keys. Mr. Bijing takes me to my room first. I pass a shelf of videos. If I wasn’t so tired, I would grab one to watch. I look again – most are porn. Where am I???? Mr. Bijing opens the door, there are slippers in the entryway. I gasp; I think we’ve walked into someone else’s room. He keeps motioning for me to enter; I ask him who the slippers belong to. He laughed and said they were for me.

The room was perfect. Small, but with a most comfortable bed and a heated floor. Ahhhhh . . . . Sweet dreams . . .

Wednesday, December 19

The next morning I wake up well rested, but really desiring a hot shower. The bathroom has a bathtub with a showerhead, but no shower curtain. I try to take a bath, but the tub is so narrow, I can barely fit my hips into the tub. Hmmm . . . So I shower, proceeding to get water all over the bathroom. But I did get clean, and was feeling quite refreshed.

Mr. Bijing met us in the hotel lobby and took us to a restaurant for a typical Korean breakfast. First thing I learned, shoes always come off when you enter a restaurant or someone’s home. Again, boots are not the most convenient for this. We sat on the floor and had a most delicious pancake with scallions and octopus in it then bebimpop – a conglomeration of lots of spices, vegetables, and rice that you mix together in a bowl. And lots of kim chi. Stas, you would be in heaven – so hot and spicy!

We arrived at the school, which is still under construction. Met Ted, the head teacher. And many Mr. Kims. Smiled and bowed a lot. Waited a lot. Saw many apartments (since I was the first female, I got to choose which one I wanted). They didn’t quite look like the apartments I had been promised in the States. Actually, they didn’t look anything like the pictures I was shown. I settled on one near the school on the second floor of a building (I have a balcony). It is a true studio. One room. The bed in one corner, the kitchen in the other. But, I do have a washing machine on the balcony. Don’t know how to use it, all the instructions are in Korean, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. And the bathrooms here are interesting. A western style toilet, which they promised. And a sink. I asked where the shower was. They pointed to the corner. A hand held shower head attached to the sink. That’s your shower. I guess it will make cleaning the bathroom easier. Glad I didn’t bring my bubble bath with me . . .

Back at the school Ted showed me a brochure for the school that they’ve been distributing throughout the city. There was a section with the teachers and their pictures. I didn’t see my picture, so I said, “Oh, I guess my information arrived too late to publish.” Ted said, “No, here you are.” And sure enough, there was my name, and my university, but someone else’s picture. I told him (obviously) that that wasn’t me. He said they didn’t have a picture of me, so they just picked one. As they did with all the other teachers. I guess I should be thankful they at least got my gender correct (on many others’ they didn’t).

Students arrived today for placement testing. Ted showed me the test, then put me to work. About 2:30 the secretary announced we would break for lunch. She had order pizza. With cheese and crab in the crust. Okay . . . We tested students until about 7:30 then Ted and I walked to the department store. I needed to get a towel (that’s not included in a “furnished” apartment). I procured a towel, Ted got a coffee maker, and we proceeded to walk home. Or try to. I thought I knew the way. But suddenly all the landmarks and all the signs (all in Korean, of course) looked the same. We wandered for about 20 minutes before my building magically appeared. At that moment one of the Mr. Kims (one of our bosses) called and said he wanted to meet us for dinner. Even though we were exhausted, Ted strongly reccommended we attend. So we met him in downtown Daegu at Bennigan’s. Yes, Bennigan’s. I don’t even eat at Bennigan’s in the States. But when in Rome . . .

It’s a 24 hr Celebration

Friday, Dec. 14th

It’s a 24 hour Party Celebration – come join for part or all!

Why

Because I won’t be able to do this FOR A YEAR!

5 pm

Cosmopolitan Cafe for drinks

other various and sundry spots

11 pm to 2am (or 3am)

Sno-Drift

for some late night dancing

after that

The End Up

then

breakfast

Any questions?

Call my cell phone 613-4471.

or e-mail me lorimcleese@yahoo.com

I’m not sure what I won’t be able to get in Korea. I’ll add that to my list of things to research. Suggestions welcome.

Hey –

What can’t you get in Korea? What do we need to send Lori off with?

bryan@b-may.com.

You’re welcome, Lori.

Has anyone else noticed that Lori only teaches in countries bordering terrorist states?

Yeah, she’s gonna get a knock on the door one day and some guys in government-issued suits are gonna have questions.

Okay – it’s true. Once again I’ve decided to leave this wonderful city I now call home and head overseas. This time to Korea. South Korea. Daegu. To teach English. The reactions I’ve gotten so far are mixed. Some people are excited, some think I’m crazy, some wonder how I’ll ever be ready to leave in a mere two weeks. I wonder too. But I know it will work out. It always does. Thanks to Mr. Mason for getting me onto Blogger. You rock!

I’m going to Korea!