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!