Fall in the SK

True to form, I’ve yet again waited way too long to post. Living in Korea has changed me in many respects, but it seems to have done nothing to alter my procrastinating ways. I’m trying, I really am…old habits die hard.

It’s fall in South Korea and a hella busy time here for me. Work has been chaotic lately. For a job that was supposed to be easy-peasy and a minimal time commitment, I feel like it’s ruled my life this past month…



In the middle of October, we had what the school called a “Sports Day”, although the day actually involved zero sports…more games, really. Translation mistake. At any rate, it was quite the production. All the kids’ parents, brothers, sisters, grandmas, grandpas –and goodness knows what other relatives—came and participated. Kind of nerve wracking to be meeting all the parents for the first time and at the SAME time. But between getting to witness the trademark ultra-competiveness of Koreans at its finest (one dad literally pushed another dad over intentionally during a relay race, and had we pinned the students against their parents in a game I have no doubt in my mind that the parents would have gladly whipped their kids’ butts) and watching mother after mother show up to this “sports day” (sounds casual, right?) wearing expensive, cutesy, impractical, brand name outfits, the day ended up providing much hilarity.

Halloween was another interesting experience at school. Halloween isn’t really celebrated here—at least not to the same extent as it is back home…definitely no trick-or-treating—but Koreans are very aware of the holiday, and you can easily find costumes and other Halloween-related stuff at E-Mart or Lotte Mart. However, because at GDA we pride ourselves on being an institute that churns out little Americanized, white-in-every-sense-save-skin-color Korean children (no lie, our pamphlets and other public relations publications all use pictures of WHITE boys and girls even though a real white child has never set foot inside our doors), we had to do Halloween up in a big way. The kiddies came dressed in what seemed like one of three costumes—a Disney princess, Spiderman, or Harry Potter—and went around all hyped up on sugar to the various stations we organized for them. I was in the Monster Dancing room, and if dancing around like a fool and trying to put on a big, excited front for the chil’en all morning wasn’t tiring enough, we then had to take all the students “trick-or-treating” around a few blocks outside…blocks lined with the kids’ parents waiting to give them more candy. Fun, weird, and exhausting all rolled into one.



Sports Day and Halloween behind us, we’re now practicing for the Christmas concert in full force. On top of that, we have the month-end tests to create, administer, and correct, monthly report cards to write, lesson plans to make for next month, and a bunch of other unnecessary work our administration has decided to heap on us to do. The teachers’ stress level reached an all-new high when the school announced the other day that they would no longer be able to pay us on the last day of the month (as they’re contractually obligated to); they said that because the school is struggling financially right now, they need to wait to pay us until after the parents have paid tuition at the end of each month. Feeling like this is one bad sign of things to come, I’m thankful for my kids right now—they’re what’s keeping my sanity…


Yeah, there’s nothing like a shower of hugs every morning from a bunch of adorable, cuddly six year-olds to keep you smiling…and nothing like the good dose of candidness I get from my students on a daily basis—the kind of honesty only socially acceptable when it’s coming from small children—to keep you grounded. I brought my laptop to class the other day to show a Power Point presentation, and the kids insisted I also show them some of my own pictures I have on the computer. They loved seeing all the pics from back home of houses and wide open spaces, but when I got to one of me from a few years ago—apparently a particularly unflattering picture?—Na-Yeon yelled in a shocked voice, “Teacher, that is you?? Teacher, you is very fat there!” (probably true in comparison with the rail-thin Korean women!). And when I came to school with my freshly-dyed hair (I did, by the way end up finding someone who would dye my hair…unfortunately she didn’t speak any English and must have though “natural with subtle highlights” meant “black”—thankfully it has now faded to an acceptable shade of brown), the kids all screamed, ran away from me, and said, “MONSTER HAIR!”…a statement only slightly more discreet than Yu-Rim’s “Teacher, I don’t like your hair style” comment when I wore my hair curly another day. Other things that have made me smile about my kids lately: Hey-Sun starting off her written story about dinosaurs with, “Ones open a time” and Amy randomly bringing me 4 sandwiches one morning and a dozen Dunkin Donuts a few days later… “All for you!” she said. Wow- I guess they really do think North Americans can pack it in!

Even though work does consume my Monday to Fridays, I’ve tried to keep my weekends work-free. We did a cool hike at Bukhansan National Park just outside of Seoul a few weekends ago. Koreans do everything to the extreme—if they’re going to do something, they go all out and do it right. Hiking is no exception. They get all decked-out in expensive, colorful hiking gear and use these weird, ski-pole-like walking sticks. I wanted to laugh at them until I started actually hiking up the mountain, at which point Korean men, women and children of all ages started passing me, not even breaking a sweat while I huffed and puffed and probably complained quite vocally like an obnoxious foreigner…and then the joke was on me. The hike was beautiful though; the leaves were just starting to change, and the view at the top overlooking Seoul was worth the physical pain and the embarrassment of being out-hiked by 70-year-olds.


Last weekend I discovered a dangerous thing—the new, ginormous, three-floor Forever 21 (American clothing store) that just opened in Seoul. To understand my excitement, you need to first realize how difficult it is for foreigners to buy clothes here. For one thing, women’s clothes in Korea tend to come in only one size—extra small. Even if by some miracle I were actually able to fit into something, there would be no way of knowing it because most stores won’t allow you to try the clothes on. We’re still trying to decide if that’s a rule for everyone or if it’s only enforced with foreigners because the stores are afraid we’ll stretch the clothes out with our existent chests and big boo-tays. Given the apparent lack of change rooms though, I think it must be a rule across the board. Very strange. Also, the sales people follow you around like you’re a 13 year-old girl about to steal something. It doesn’t make for the most pleasant shopping experience. Anyway, the clothes are itsy-bitsy, you can’t try them on, you can’t return them, and you feel like you’re under surveillance while shopping. Walking into Forever 21 was like walking into heaven on Earth. Rack after rack after rack of clothes in small, medium, and large…sales people too busy to stalk you…and glorious, glorious change rooms. I hope that trip satisfied my shopping craving for a long time because my pay check can’t handle too many more trips like that.

And I’ve saved the best for last. This weekend…I saw… the man, the legend…Billy Joel himself, live in concert at Olympic Gymnasium in Seoul. It was unreal. He played for two hours straight—no opening act. Sweat was dripping off his face by the end. He has ridiculous piano playing skills, and his voice sounds better live than recorded, if that’s even possible. At one point in the concert security started moving everyone back and away from the stage. Billy literally STOPED playing “In The Middle of the Night” mid-song, said "Wait a minute. What's going on here?" made security let everyone back, and then started the song over again. Yes, I realize I have a bit of an obsession, but I’m almost peeing my pants with excitement just remembering the night. It was just that awesome. You gotta give the man props—he’s like 60 and still throws around mike stands. I have to admit that when he popped his collar during “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me”, I was a little bit jealous of his 27-year-old wife ;). Not much tops hearing “Piano Man” sung live by Billy Joel himself in a packed arena. So, so, so cool.

As amazing as Billy was, he’s only runner-up for the highlight of my month; getting Kraft Dinner and Babybel cheese from Mom and Dad in the mail takes first place. Low point of the month: stapling my finger…not once, but twice.