dollop of solipsism

not that last weekend was filled with activity, but i definitely need to make tomorrow and sunday a quiet, restful two days. the tense atmosphere in the office this past week has helped induce an intermittent headache. today, my face was stuck in sour mode and i couldn’t seem to shake it off.

i came home and watched some good tv: grey’s anatomy, the office, ugly betty, and 30 rock. the entire time, i was munching on food. my body senses the weather change (it is cold), so i’m preparing for hibernation. just this evening, i ate ddeok (꿀떡), korean popcorn (뻥튀기), ddeokbokki (떡볶이), deep-fried squid (오징어 튀김), and kimbap (김밥). plenty of food to store for winter. i need to get my shit together and control the bingeing.

i’ve made room in my tv schedule to watch the popular korean drama (it aired last year) coffee prince (커피프린스 1호점). i know the storyline vaguely. a girl pretends to be a gay boy to work at a coffee shop. the manager of the establishment actually hires her (well, he thinks she’s a boy) because he wants to arouse suspicions that he is a homo so that people can leave his bachelorhood alone. something like that. i could be totally wrong, though. it’s a comedy…nobody dies, nobody gets cancer, there is no melodrama (i’m hoping). i want to get hooked.

i seem to be dissatisfied with something. i can’t seem to place it just yet. the weather is cloudy, chilly, and wet. that may be affecting me in a negative way. plus, nighttime seems to come earlier. oh no, i have sad!

for the past week, all the english teachers at my high school have been extremely busy. the reason behind the chaos is that today, teachers from various schools in daegu and other VIPs were able to attend open (or ‘demonstration’ (demo)) classes at our school. seven or eight of our english classes were put on display as some sort of models. guests could weave in and out of these demo classes to get inspired, feel inferior, what have you.

ms. shin and i (we teach 6 classes a week together) put our co-teaching class up for exhibition. to spice things up, we created an elaborately detailed detective game to reflect the structure and tone of the novel (hoot) we’re teaching the first graders. it went well, i think. for the most part, we got positive feedback. so i was told.

immediately after the demo classes were several conferences between teachers and guests. instead of sitting in on the conferences, diana and i were sent to babysit class 1-5 (cuz teachers were in meetings). after school, we heard through the grapevine that there’d be an office dinner to close the ‘very important day.’ instead of being invited to the dinner, diana and i were told that it was for korean teachers.

i stormed off at around 4:45pm without saying goodbye to anyone. i thought the whole thing was bullshit. i don’t go around thinking i’m the shit or that i’m entitled to being recognized as a real teacher, but i feel it is rude—no, wrong—that people can be so impolite. i understand that they may think diana and i may not want to join in on the conference or the dinner, but dude, let us make the decision. as far as i’m concerned, i feel like we are all english teachers. could i feel more unwelcomed?

whatever.

diana and i had dinner at gusto, an italian restaurant nearby. it was lovely and the food was delicious. in the middle of dinner, we heard ‘diana!’ and sure enough, four second grade girls were seated at the next table. they politely greeted us and then went about their conversation, as diana and i resumed ours.

when i came home, i received an email from my older sister:

Everything’s been going good, we fixed the roof for $650 and now all we got is the fence and that’s no hurry.  Oh, me and mommy went to vote.  You think you can vote online?  We voted for McCain.

 

Okay, see you online sometimes. 

whatever happened in the US is causing shitty effects in all other countries. today, i read in a student written essay, ‘whenever the US coughs, other nations catch a cold.’ or something to that effect. she was talking about the economic crisis happening at this very moment. i didn’t take business classes, and i’m not that interested in economics, so i can’t say for sure what happened with lehman brothers. i do remember being riveted to CNN the day that it happened.

people were freaking out on wall street. freaking. out. it was like the world trade center attack, minus the body count. and the rubble. i had absolutely no idea what was going on, i just knew that it was big. the name lehman brothers was mentioned over and over again. i associate that name with my friend nelda, who had previously wanted to work there after graduation. i’m glad she ended up not working there. cuz they gone bankrupt.

whatever the cause, whatever the reason…we’re in some sort of economic turmoil, eh? gas prices are still high, houses aren’t selling, and people are getting laid off. events happening in the US have repurcussions all over the world, and ex-pats in korea are feeling them.

a couple of months ago, $1 was equivalent to ₩1,000. i would assume that that’s an equal conversion of monetary value. nowadays, $1 is equivalent to ₩1,450. that’s a 45% decrease in the value of the won. in order for me to send $1000 home, i now have to send an additional ₩450,000 (yeah, i never see that again). for ₩450,000 i can buy a month’s worth of groceries or 3 pairs of shoes. think about it. three. pairs. of shoes.

the asian financial crisis occurred in 1997, and at its worst (korea was one of the countries that was most affected by the crisis), $1 was equivalent to ₩1,700. that is scary. diana and i have been waiting to send money to the US in hopes that the exchange rate will start to drop. on friday, it was at ₩1,430. we waited until monday. it jumped to ₩1,450. today: ₩1,463. it’s been on a steady incline for days now. when will it end? (i buckled under the pressure and sent ₩1,600,000 home yesterday. i have bills to pay!)

forecasts are predicting that in november, we’ll see the peak. from then on, the exchange rate will gradually decline and go back to the 1200s and 1100s in Spring 2009. until then, i’m holding onto as much won as i can. stupid america. and stupid korea.

i’m deciding not to have a housewarming party. it would be too much of a hassle and i have a full enough plate as it is. items would need to be purchased for the one-time only occasion (wine glasses and floor cushions), and i ain’t about to waste money. those two or three would-be guests may be disappointed, but they’ll get over it.

instead, let me give you a virtual tour of my living space (refer to the beautiful map, please!). we walk in and leave our shoes on the maroon tiled floor in the ‘foyer’ (or place them in the gigantic shoe closet). before us is a dining table that functions as my work space, which is why it is a little messy. the sliding doors make a strong impression (they have frosted windows), and divide the living area and the veranda. the veranda is more like a greenhouse as opposed to a balcony. it is considered interior, not exterior. there, we do laundry and dry the laundry.

the living/dining area has hardwood-patterned linoleum-like paper pasted to the floor; this is needed to radiate the heat under our feet (known as ondol). the kitchen is open to the living area, and has tons of cabinet space (that i don’t use). the little hallway leads us to the larger than average bathroom. yes, there is no tub or shower, but there is a hose and showerhead attached to the sink faucet (that’s how we do it in korea).

the bedroom has a different color floor (it’s the traditional yellow). the bedroom, tv, bookshelf, and wardrobe are in here. separating the work space and the tv has been tremendously helpful to my work regime; i actually get shit done before midnight. i like to think of my bedroom as a sanctuary. after i eat, after i take a shower, after i work at my desk, i unwind in the pristinely clean bedroom. it’s very rewarding.

for the party, i would’ve bought a low eating table and some floor cushions. since i no longer cook, we would’ve ordered some korean food good for groups (bossam, jjim-dak, pizza, etc.) or gone to a nearby meat-grilling place. arranging flowers in vases, buying a lamp, framing pictures, and a creating the perfect itunes playlist are things i would’ve obsessed about for days.

my apartment costs ₩400,000 (≈$281, with the current exchange rate) a month. the school pays 350 of it, and i pay the extra 50. after a long day at work, i look forward to being in my apartment, which gets a lot of sunlight (good for my plants and wet laundry). also, i love that i have rooms (my previous place was a studio); it makes the place more home-like.

in truth, my living space isn’t an apartment in the korean sense. in korea, apartments are those big tall buildings containing units with similar floorplans. i believe i live in what is called a ‘villa.’ villas are buildings of three or four stories, each floor housing 4 or so one-rooms, two-rooms, or three-rooms (that’s konglish for studio, one bedroom, two bedroom, apartments). these villas sprout up in clusters, creating curving, winding, confusing alleyways and sidestreets. convenient stores, food delivery establishments, and childcare centers are popular in these thriving neighborhoods. most of the residents in my building are college students because keimyung university is close by, but i see families, elderly couples, and working singles walking around all the time. waryong market (와룡시장) is a feature that makes this neighborhood even better. on any given lazy day, i have the option of walking 2 minutes to the open market to buy fresh produce or cheap food. it’s wonderful…

i should do some work so i can continue to live here.

a few days of rain, and the weather changes like ::snap:: i do believe the cold front did us some good. it was a fine saturday morning: cloudless, crisp, breezy. in other words, the perfect autumn day. summer has lasted a while this year, and i’m glad we’re back on the weather track. we had delicious bread for breakfast in the park downtown, and fed the leftovers to some pigeons. it was kind of neat to see them swoop down for a landing, one after another. and then some children gathered around and harangued the birds. pigeons are just flying rats (dirty and diseased) so i let it happen.

korean class this morning was okay. at first, it was just me and this guy in his thirties (matthew). he is the worst person alive. he is overweight and the most socially awkward thing you’d never want to meet. he interrupts the teacher with his inane, barely understandable questions. he speaks over people. he lets words fall out of his mouth as they come to his ‘brain.’ he’s loud and proud of how much he loves sports. thankfully, the rest of the foreigners walked in (late), so i wasn’t alone with this idiot (also, he’s lived in korea for like six years and apparently has a girlfriend…she’s probably korean (the bad kind)).

i came home afterwards and caught up on grey’s anatomy, which is still pretty good. i feel like i’m watching my best friends. speaking of friends, it seems like i don’t have that many in daegu. tristan left in august, and elisha will be leaving early next year…it kind of blows that i’m in a place that doesn’t allow for long-term friendships. even if i stay here forever, people will continue to come and go. i have great lifelong friends back in the states, but you know…people need to be around others. i suppose i just keep on truckin’ along. make friends slowly. be more open. grow up. all that jazz.

it’s chilly now. i have some lesson-planning to do. on a saturday night. i think i’ll also do some internet shoe-shopping. shoes can take the place of people.

is this like a blog thing? i’ve never been tagged before, but kelly just tagged me. i suppose i should follow the rules, because i’m a rule-follower, not a rule-breaker.

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

1) tomorrow, i will see the highest balance ever attached to a bank account under my name. this is due to the after school classes i’ve been teaching, the airfare reimbursement, my severance pay, and my monthly paycheck all rolled into one. true, in a few days, i’ll electronically transfer 75% of it to the US and lose a nice percentage of the actual value because of the horrocious (horrocious!) won –> dollar exchange rate.

2) i’m thinking about joining a gym because i’m not doing a good job of following an exercise routine nowadays. if i pay for a gym membership, i’ll be obligated to visit the gym often so as not to waste money.

3) my blood type is AB+: koreans believe that people with AB+ blood are either idiots or geniuses. i think i choose the former. my mother thinks that people with blood type AB+ are the most selfish because they can receive everyone else’s blood, but can’t donate to anyone but themselves. i agree with her.

4) i’m not big on talking. i talk to students all day. i get them to talk in english. i talk to my co-workers. i hear them talking all day. i just want everyone to shut the fuck up.

5) i like to pop my knuckles on the surface of tables.

6) i haven’t finished a book in a month. the last book i read was hoot by carl hiaasen, and i only read that cuz i have to teach it this semester. and before that, a wrinkle in time, again cuz i had to teach it. reading is not high on my list of things to do.

i am tagging:

amanda, diana, elaine, katie, and lily.

the foreign language high school had their annual fall festival today. in honor of this special day, classes after lunch were canceled to make way for the perusal of (the many) club-sponsored booths. one could purchase little snacks and drinks typical of fairs and carnivals, and participate in activities ranging from catching gold fish to having your fortune told by amateur tarot card readers. being a new teacher at the high school, i made it a point to partake in as many activities as my principles allowed me. and since i have no principles, i did almost everything students implored me to do. “teacher! come over here!” they yelled across the gymnasium.

through the course of 3 hours, i consumed a ‘pizza bread’, a waffle, ddeokbokki (떡볶이), 2 kebabs (꼬치), three pieces of korean-like sushi (not kimbap (김밥)), 2 glasses of fizzy drink, 3 glasses of peach-flavored iced tea, and countless pieces of candy. had the cinnamon stix booth not run out of their specialty, i could have included cinnamon stix to that list. all that in under 3 hours. no wonder i was ready to blow.

but i did have a good time. students at this school are friendly and not afraid to start a conversation with me. it’s refreshing. and since i am still in the midst of making a first impression, i want them to think that i’m an outgoing, generous teacher who has interest in his students. if i don’t act as that person, i’ll likely get stuck in that place where it’s too late to recreate my own image. i did that at my previous school, where, over the course of two years, fellow co-workers labeled me haughty and anti-social (they had good reason to make that judgment). and it wasn’t like i could change their idea of me after 6 months of acting like a fool. now, though, i’ve learned. on the first day at the high school, i entered the teachers’ office, bowed, and loudly and clearly announced, “안녕하십니까?” (a standard korean greeting).

and i’ve noticed the difference. teachers are generally comfortable around me. students smile and say hi. i get invited to things (like karaoke), and receive free food. the secret to success in korea is to be an extrovert! sounds ridiculous, but there’s an inkling of truth to that statement. i’ve held many a classes with korean english teachers and the consensus is that one is expected to participate in activities, to be social, to exude a happy nature. it is really important to be well-liked. if you’re the polar opposite, it’s very easy to get alienated by your peers. i consider myself an introvert, but i guess by acting like an extrovert, i’m doing what people call ‘coming out of his shell.’ so it’s a good thing, i’ve rationalized.

i’ve been in korea too long. in class, if we’re doing a role-play, i immediately look down on kids who speak really quietly and aren’t comfortable with being the center of attention (it’s a bit hypocritical of me). i just want to shake them and say, ‘get over yourself!’ but of course, i don’t do that. i don’t want to traumatize anyone (me yelling causes trauma, trust me).

a few notable things at the festival. during my first or second week, a girl asked me to pose for a few pictures. i did, thinking that it was for some school thing (like the web site or the yearbook). turns out, she is part of the photography club, and the members used my images (3 poses total) to make little rectangular, laminted cards. i widened my eyes as the club president was explaining this to me and said, “are you insane?!” i wanted to buy some, but they’d all been pre-ordered. cute, right?

i got my love fortune read to me by a member of the psyche club (in english, no less). apparently, in the past, i’ve been lonely (though it was a peaceful kind of loneliness) and experienced one-sided love (not a bullseye, but i guess it could be true). in my current state of love, i’m in uncertainty (kind of true). my future holds harmony and pure love (good news!). all that for a dollar. and in english! i promote the speakage of english!

i saw some pretty cool card tricks at the magic club’s booth. i bought some home-made lipbalm from the science club. i bought a cellphone charm from the japanese animation club. this evening, the chinese, japanese, and english majors all performed in plays (in their respective language of study). i was unable to attend because i went home at six, exhausted. i had to stay at school until 9:30pm yesterday; same for tomorrow. so i wasn’t gonna make it three in a row. that would be insane.  

part two of the festival takes place tomorrow. just call my name…

today was spent mostly in the horizontal position. i woke up around eleven and did some proofreading of my previous school’s english newspaper. i know, i know…why am i still working for a school i technically no longer work at? well, my name is on it, and i want to finish what i started. it’s looking pretty good…we probably won’t win anything this year (because we won first place last year), but there’s no point in doing something half-assed.

speaking of proofreading, i am in proofreading withdrawal. this past week has been kind of hell-ish; i stayed late almost every day after school (even until midnight on wednesday). all public school teachers have to do open/observation/demonstration classes at least once in their teaching career, but when you work at the foreign language high school, you’re constantly placed under a glaring microscope. ms. shin and i will give two of these ‘demo’ classes at the end of the month, and all the paperwork was due this past week. i worked hard on all the materials, but ms. shin worked double-hard (cuz she’s the ‘main’ teacher). because we’re reading detective mystery book ‘hoot’ in class, we thought that having a ‘real-life’ detective game might be fun for the kids.

enter me and my creativity. i came up with the scenario that something was stolen off my desk late one night, and we’ve narrowed it down to 8 suspects (other teachers at the school). using 5 pieces of evidence (a receipt from a hardware store, a lab report on strands of hair, an anonymous phone call to the police, a poorly written ransom note (and attached photo), and an instant messenger message), the students have to narrow down the list of suspects to catch the criminal. catch, there’s a red herring among the clues. so i created a fake lab report, a fake receipt, the anonymous phone call, and a bunch of other stuff. i plan on video recording the suspect stealing the object off my desk (as a way to hook the kids into the game). it’s elaborate and awesome. and it’s actually beneficial to teaching the novel (because structurally, the plot is broken into segments so that the reader has to piece together all the information to follow the story (jigsaw-like)). form follows function. anyway, so i’m excited about the demo classes.

at my school, a special group of five students have been selected to enter a city-wide writing contest, and they’re writing an essay every day for practice. diana and i have to proofread these essays daily, and while i love to help students, i’m all proofread out this week. the workload is heavier than at my last school, but it’s also more challenging. and when there’s more challenging work, there are greater benefits.

today, i spent about 6 hours catching up on american tv. i’m not all caught up yet, because there’s 20-plus hours of television on my computer, but i really needed to just put my brain on cruise control.

a ‘handphone‘ is what koreans call a cellular phone. handphones are a necessity these days, especially for people under the age of sixty. when you board the subway, you’ll find koreans sitting or standing quietly (most of the time). in each passenger’s hand is a handphone; they hold onto it like it’s a lifeline.

in the recent summer blockbuster ‘the host‘ (괴물), a young girl is taken by a giant mutant creature into seoul’s sewer system. what (almost) saves her is her handphone, which she uses to dial her father. through a frustrating process, he finds her location based on that one call. the three big cell phone companies, SK telecom, KTF, and LG have cell sites every frickin where, even under bridges (where the girl is held captive). handphones don’t work in the new york city subway station (a shame), but in korea, they work underground, above ground, and even on dokdo. i’ve never encountered a situation where i couldn’t depend on my phone for reception. a-plus for korea.

this morning, the beloved went downtown to get a new cellphone. i followed. nowadays, you won’t find CF queen kim tae hee as dominant as she was months ago with ad after ad after ad after ad. currently, the biggest star on cellphone street (where all the cellphone stores are located in downtown daegu) is none other than audrey hepburn. asians love audrey hepburn. they love her lithe body, long neck, big eyes, and grace. LG has released a new line of mobile phones, and they’re taking advantage of audrey hepburn’s popularity by putting out a slew of advertisement media with her face and name on them (by the way, the ads are gorgeous and tasteful—i hope her estate is getting paid for this). the catchphrase is, ‘i’m secret. i’m audrey hepburn.’ we went to a store today, and the secret phone costs a good $700. and you know what? i want it, because audrey hepburn is selling it to me.

but i don’t need a new phone. it’s common for koreans to exchange older phones with the latest releases (giving them your old phone gives you a discount on the newer one…i believe they sell the older phones to southeast asia). it struck me odd, when i went back to the states, that all of my friends still have the same number they’ve had since always (even after two years). it’s common in korea to have people change numbers all the time. i don’t think they’ve established a great system of letting you keep the same number (yet). other factors that contribute to the perpetual replacement of phones is that contracts aren’t as…what’s the word, bound, and they’re certainly not so limiting. i believe the normal contract term is six months. after six months, you’re free to switch over to one of the other carriers (by switching companies, you get an even better deal on your new contract).

the other week, my co-worker ms. shin and i went to have some coffee after school to work on our co-teaching class. there, i noticed, sitting on a table, two teddy bears and a basket. inside the basket was a cellphone in the midst of being charged. attached to the basket was a note written by the management: charge your cellphones here. almost every phone in korea uses the same charger (even if the phone is made by a different company). it’s the norm to ask the restaurant worker to charge your low battery while you eat. and i believe convenient stores have a service where you leave your phone with them for an hour of charging (for a small fee). you see how efficient that is? you don’t need to bring your chargers on vacation (or to a friend’s house) because everyone uses the same charger. back in the states, we would have two or three chargers between our family of four. that is stupid.

i asked ms. shin if it was law that phone companies had to streamline the process of recharging cell phone batteries. she shook her head. in my head, this is so korea. you tell koreans that they have to pay for shopping bags at the local supermarket, and they say okay. you tell them that they have to recycle or they’ll be fined, and they say okay. you tell them that all handphone batteries are charged the same way and they say okay. they are like robots. and i’m okay with that. it’s easy to teach robots.