Healthy Food

Last week's Show and Tell was bring in a healthy food. Thomas' mom sent in a juice pouch for everyone in class. Literally a small plastic bag with a straw. It looked like apple juice and it had what seemed to be a fall motif on the front of it. Upon closer inspection it had apples, oranges, grapes, pumpkin and onion on it. Yes, each of those things were part of the flavor. No, it did not taste very good. Yes, the kids seemed to like it.

What a lovely Weekend

Friday: K-pop concert

Saturday: a great girls movie night

Sunday: Seoul Hiking Group
A Korean guy by the name of Warren organizes hikes for expats. I had been meaning to do another hike like this for a long long time..... a great cap to a wonderful weekend.

side note: at the end of the hike we stopped for dinner and by the time we were heading home the sun was down and we were feeling very damp and cold. Megan and I bought matching wind breakers so we wouldn't freeze on the subway. As I tried mine on, the Korean salesman with good English helped me. As he zipped it up for me I said "Oh, perfect" and he said "perfect body." Hilarious.

Rainism

Oh my.....yesterday was awesome!

Titania has the best hook ups in Korea. She had a friend of a friend call her yesterday and ask if she wanted to go to a free concert with her at her university. They have been meaning to meet up for awhile, so this girl thought Titania might want to come to the school's 60th anniversary party. She wasn't really feeling it until she told us that Rain was going to be there and we freaked out!

Back story on Rain:
Born Jeong Ji-hoon in 1982. Know as 비(Bi) or Rain in English. Hit the stage in 2002 with his debut album. He has also stared in some very popular Korean TV dramas. In 2007, Rain topped Time's open online poll. He beat Stephen Colbert by 100,000 votes; Colbert jokingly retaliated by producing a parody of Rain's music video for "Ways to Avoid the Sun" called "He's Singin' In Korean". Stephen Colbert has since challenged Rain to a dance-off "or a cuddle-off, or a spoon-off". On May 5, 2008, Rain appeared in a "surprise" guest segment at the end of The Colbert Report and proceeded to engage Stephen in a dance-off. It was hilarious. Also, I have a calendar with two years worth of pictures of him on my desk at school.

So, at first we didn't really believe what she was saying. How is it possible that 4 white girls are being welcomed to a free concert with arguably the biggest pop star in Korea? We were intrigued, excited and ready for disappointment at the same time. We ran out after school to try to get to this concert having no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

A 50 min train/bus ride got us to a really college campus, with tree lined streets and everything. It made me very nostalgic....the girl (crap, now I can't remember her name...) met up with us and said that her friends had saved us seats. We battled the crowd to an outdoor stadium where we sat on stone benches. The whole time we were walking there we were all debating if it was really crowded enough to be a Rain concert or not. I looked at the crowd and felt like it was just a typical Korean even crowd....I think that might be a sign that I've been here too long, because it was packed.

We were in our seats around 6:15 and there was plenty of entertainment for the rest of the night. The first act was the school's own dance students. They were doing a lot of ballroom dancing type things. It was like watching a very bad version of the show "So You Think You Can Dance", where people try their best to dance a style they just aren't meant to.... A band with a student singing. A countertenor sang and Italian art song, which sang along to at the time, but now I can't remember what it was... and some other singing acts that did a lot of what I call "ajama" (grandma) music. It sounds like Korean polka ballads. And then there was the pop music.

It turns out they had quite a few pop acts that I had heard, but I just didn't know what I was listening to before. It made it that much more exciting, because the crowd would go crazy, we would ask our hostess who it was, we wouldn't recognize the name but when the song started we got excited because we knew it. Four major groups preformed: After School, Son Dam Bi, Lee Hyori and Rain. They only did about two songs each, but it was AMAZING!!!! I have a really bad video footage here. I also highly recommend youtubing these wonderful k-pop entertainers. It was a totally surreal experience. Can you imagine ever having a completely free concert with Justine Timberlake, Beyonce and the Pussycat Dolls that just anyone could walk into? This would have never happened back home. When I asked why they had this concert and how they got these famous people to come she just said that since its the 60th anniversary of the school, so the school put it on. Beyond that, she did seem to think it was all that crazy that Rain and Lee Hyori just performed.

Sadly, our hosts had to go do something afterward, but since it was only 9 pm at the end of the concert we stopped to get a drink and some food in this fun new area we had to explore. We went to Dorthey's Diary, which had a Wizard of Oz theme. Each page of the menu had a title such as "Run Scared Lion" and "Tin Lumberjack". Yes.

And now I leave you with a quote from the T-shirt I bought walking back to the subway:
I am a great person in the world. Love myslef... Some on who loves you will love the others about sojunghame...

True story.

GAH!

Two examples of the Korean way of business that drives me crazy!

#1: Last week I was told I would be getting a new child in my kindergarten class on Monday. At the end of the week I went to my supervisor to ask for new supplies for the kid. This prompted her to remember that the kid had been pulled out already due to some payment altercation that made the parents mad, so I did get things ready for him. On Monday morning I had a feeling that I might walk into class with a new student sitting there, so I checked with my supervisor just one more time. At this point a light bulb went off in her head and she said that "Oh, yes, he is starting school today." Sweet, way to let me know.

#2: During one of my 10 min breaks yesterday I was pulled into my principles office to all but sign a contract to stay another 6 months based on a conversation from over a month ago. They seemed put off by the fact that I still wanted to think about it and want to know ASAP. This is something I've been struggling with for the past month, and still not ready to make a decision.

Last minute and immediate. This is not the way I function....but at least I'm getting used to it and can see it coming.

May 15, 2009: A day to go down in history

Event #1: Spring Picnic
We boarded all the little kindergartners onto countless Kid's College buses and headed over to the "boating stadium", which is basically a short man made river made for rowing races. We went there because the parents complained that Olympic Park was too close. The theme of this picnic was color wars. We got pretty into it. Ari looked like a red version of Braveheart. The kids had fun running around and just being outside. I would say it was one of the more successful events days I have witnessed so far. My favorite part, however, was when we got back and had 20 mins to kill in the class room. I just opened a box of toys and told the kids to just play. Sarah P and Eryn decided they were going to play teacher. They sat in a chair at the front of the room and had me sit in front of them. They then proceeded to pick words out of a bag and ask me "What letter is this?" and "What word is this?" Adorable little 4 year olds.

Event #2: Teacher's Day
I received a gift from 4 of 9 kindies, plus one from Kelly from my last Cherry Class. I'm going to count that as 50% and be happy with it. I got another two pair of stockings that I will likely never wear, one being nude colored with gold glittering roses on them. Yikes! A nice bottle of perfume, a Polo baseball hat, and bath salts were also in the mix. Too bad I don't have a bath tub or wear baseball hats. Oh well, the cream of the crop was certainly my gift from Kelly. Picture a fancy barbie doll in a display box wearing handbok. Not exactly my style, but I'll be taking that one home.

Event #3: Kyle's Graduation
I missed it, but it happened none the less. One more Johnson child is released into the real world. With this and the baby of the house turning 21 next month, I'm feeling pretty old....

The Tale of the Runaway Octopus: And other short stories of Busan

The first thing we did was go the fish market. Indoors and outdoors people filled the area with stands of creatures of the deep, some dead and some alive. My favorite part was a small tub of octopus in the middle of the walkway. We just happened to see one escape over the edge and start to make a run for it. Megan and I stood in awe / in the way of the man in charge of the little guy. He was very accommodating in that he did not yell or push us out of his way. He reached over to pick it up, and after a few tugs (the octopus was clinging to the pavement and tubs around him like his life depended on it) he gave us the added thrill of shoving the suction cup end of this creature in our faces. Naturally we both jumped back with a little scream. I realized that this was just his attempt to give us a good photo op. just a little too late. I got off one clumsy shot which shows the octopus being held up, but not the same view of the tentacles coming at me that will forever be burned into my mind. The other disappointing thing about it is that the man's face is cut off. It's a shame, because he went through this entire ordeal with the exact same look of total and utter boredom that I really wish I could have captured. We also eat some wonderful fried fish while we were there.

We also rode a cable car up a mountain, found some beautiful rocks to sit and read on, took the cable car down the mountain and rode a kiddie amusement ride on our way out of the park. We spent quite a lot of time deciding if it was worth making a spectacle of ourselves, and it was. We were the only people on the ride, and each time our cars passed the operator he gave us a push for a few extra spins. We were both pretty nauseous.

Headed to the beach to see what all the fuss was about. Watch the sunset and the sunrise out there. Not continuously though...the worst night of sleep I have ever had was sandwiched in between those two events. At least the insomnia / bad bed / noisy neighbors made it easy to get out on the beach at 5 am.

Spent the morning on the beach and then headed home after lunch in China town. I personally felt we conquered all that needed to be conquered in the 27 hours we were there.

Photos to be posted soon.

Oh, and Happy Children's Day / Cinco de Mayo! No school today so everyone can celebrate their children. I celebrated with a margarita and steak fajita for $30,ooo won at On the Board followed by an outdoor orchestra concert inside Deoksugung Palace walls. A lovely little day.

Happy Birthday Buddha!

Seoul city street view:

8:30 am- two men, in their 60's -ish, sitting at a picnic table in front of the Mini-Stop drinking cans of Cass beer

9:15 am- a temple greeting patrons in hanbok for a special Buddha Birthday service also had vendors set up outside selling trinks such as prayer beads, lanterns and one man selling cotton candy

A great start to this (hopefully) eventful 4 day weekend. It's all still up in the air right now.....