The light of my life

I love all of my students, miss them on my holidays and genuinely look forward to seeing them everyday. In particular, I have the pleasure of teaching the most amazing boy.  He is twelve years old, brilliant, funny, sweet and sensitive.   He has Aspergers, which I didn't really know all that much about before I started teaching him.  At first, it was really hard to connect with him, and he was very distrustful of me.  As the year has gone on and we have gotten to know one another, I have been able to develop a really great relationship with him.  We spend break periods talking about Peruvian obsidian swords (or actually we spend break periods with him teaching me about them), evisceration, Chinese cicadas, and looking at his drawings of video game characters, especially "Warcraft," lately.  He produces the most amazing projects in Social Studies, and continually surprises me with his knowledge of the most obscure things.   He brings amazing energy and fun into our classroom and I am going to miss him so much when he graduates from elementary school this year!

Hiking in Daejeon

Last weekend I went hiking with some of my friends to a local mountain in Daejeon: Bomunsan.  This was my first hike in Daejeon, which is really quite pathetic considering how many mountains we are surrounded by, but it will definitely not be my last!  

On our way down the mountain, we took a different route and stumbled upon this temple in the forest!  It was really beautiful.  There was chanting being broadcast from somewhere,  and the monks invited us to eat with them.  Definitely something you wouldn't encounter on a hike in B.C.!

My favorite Korean National Treasure

    The Korean government has an extensive list of monuments, documents and cultural artifacts that are protected by the Cultural Heritage Protective Act.  There is also a list of "Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea" that has been compiled in an effort to preserve cultural traditions including things like song and dance, or artisan crafts and trades.  There are some really amazing and beautiful things in Korea, but I think my favorite National Treasure has to be.....

The Jindo!!

This adorable Jindo was getting a brushing from his owner when I went over to give him a pet.  The guy put my hat on him to take the photo!

These dogs originally come from the Korean island of They are listed as one of Korea's National Treasures!  How cute.  I really want to adopt one from the animal shelter here, but I don't think it would be very happy in my apartment with no yard.  Sigh....

Korean cooking class!

     Last semester I took a Korean cooking class through the Dajeon International Community Centre, and it was so much fun!  Three of my friends and I would attend our class in a cooking school every second Friday, it was only 50,000 Won for 5 classes and we had a feast every class!  We learned to cook some really delicious things, which have become staple meals for us, and we made a lovely friend: our wonderful interpreter! So, because it was so fun, and because I love food, I have been waiting excitedly for the next class to start! 

     Yesterday we started again, and we had a "Chuseok," (a harvest festival from the 21st-24th of September) themed class this week.  We made 송편 (song-pyon), which is a traditional Chuseok dessert.  It's a glutinous rice cake that can be stuffed with sweet red bean paste (no matter how much I try, I really can't get a taste for that stuff), honey, chestnut or sesame paste.  Then these little dumplings are steamed with pine needles and rubbed with sesame oil!  They're pretty delicious, but super labor intensive-I mean realistically, I will probably never make them again in my life.  

Our cooking academy!

선생님 (our lovely teacher)

Kelly stuffing her little 송편

Obviously Nicole was practicing at home for months before this class... (I need to give a disclaimer here: I am not talking in the third person, there are 2 of us.)

Ta da!

Little Edie talks fashion

  
 Just a quick fashion tip from Edie Beale.
 She's a legend, and I love her.

Konglish, Korançais, and....Kespañol?

If you find lexicon or grammar boring, you might want to skip reading this, because after writing it I realize that it *might* be pretty nerdy..... In any case:

       For those of you who aren't familiar with the term "Konglish" it has a couple of meanings.  The urban dictionary has several definitions, but here is the general gist:

some people call it Konglish when English is misspelled or misused in Korea, particularly hilarious on signs, T-shirts, or really any other document that might have English on it.  For example:  it's also called Konglish when an English word is used as part of the Korean language.  For example: "Television" is written as 텔레비전 in Hangul, and it's pronounced "Tel-le-bi-jon."       Basically, it's a pretty flexible word that is used in a lot of different ways.   Konglish is something that never gets old for me.  It's given me some great laughs from just walking down the street and seeing a phrase on a sign that doesn't fit the context, or is mildly suggestive and inapprops., but completely unintentional.  Another one of my favorite things is the huge selection of shirts that are emblazoned with various random "catch phrases," or sometimes just a mix of letters all jumbled onto a shirt to create the odd word here or there, but nothing even remotely coherent... (Lisa I'm thinking of your "Shik" tank top).       I don't want to come off as totally patronizing here, because sometimes I find it mildly offensive when people talk about it in a really condescending way.  As though everyone should speak perfect English, or that it's a matter of intelligence or something. What I am trying to say is that I really LOVE Konglish!  There's also something so fun and exciting about sounding out a word in Korean (Hangul) and discovering to your delight that you understand what it says because it's Konglish!! Me reading a take out menu: 수프림피자   "Su..peo...rim...pi...ja.  Hm... Supeorim..pija?  OH!  Supreme pizza!"      Having said that, if there's one thing I love more than Konglish.... it's Korançais!  What is Korançais, you ask?  Well, some of my friends at work and I were talking and we discovered that there are some words that are actually rooted in French that are commonly used in Korea, and they are also spelled in Hangul using a French, rather than an English pronunciation.  Paris Baguette anyone? One morning I was asking my Korean friend where the nearest Paris Baguette was, and he had no idea what I was talking about.   I was like "Paris Baguette! Come on, there's no way you can live in Korea and not know what Paris Baguette is!?"  They are literally everywhere!  After several attempts to explain myself, he eventually realized what I was going on about, and he said "Oh!! Paris Baguette!" (said in a French accent).   So he didn't understand me because I was totally bastardizing the French words like "Paris," and "Baguette,"  with my English accent, rather than pronouncing it with a French accent.  Of course!  It makes sense!        After discussing this-at what some would consider excessive length-with my friends, we decided the best name for it would be Korançais.  One person was really fond of "Krench," but Korançais just sounds so much more dignified (plus, it's more accurate).  Since coining the term, (or maybe we just think we coined it, but don't burst our bubble) we've been finding Korançais everywhere!   Such as:    빵 which is pronounced "pang" which sounds an awful lot like  "pain" in French! We're trying to find some more examples of Kespañol, but all we've got so far is "olleh!" that our students always shout when something good or exciting happens.   Korançais is usually not as funny to me as Konglish, due to my limited French, but just another little thing that makes me love Korea.

newer, prettier blog...

Resolution: to be a better blogger... 

I know I've said it before, but maybe having a nicer blog will motivate me to write more frequently.  Actually, seeing how visually appealing my friends' blogs are, like laserkelly.blogspot.com and farmboyandcitygirlhitasia.blogspot.com made me realize how unsatisfying my blog was... so here it is: shiny new blog.  

Living in Korea, I feel like there's at least one thing that I see, or that happens everyday that makes me laugh.  I think there's something good for the soul about living somewhere where daily events, or encounters can make you smile or laugh so frequently.  I'm going to try to record these things so that I don't forgot all of them.

Encounter of the day: The adashis (old men) at my local gym for the most part just do their thing, and get their workout on with no notice of me.  That is, of course with the exception of a guy I like to call "jeans warrior," (you can guess what his favorite workout outfit is). EVERY single time I see him at the gym, he swaggers up to me, chest puffed out like a peacock and makes the same chit chat: "You Canada?" and I respond: "Yes." Then he makes a big show of standing next to me and measuring how tall I am in comparison to him, and when he sees to his "amazement" (every time he is equally shocked) that I am taller than him, he announces this to the whole gym and makes a big scene of how disappointed he is.  Because if it weren't for that, I'm sure we would be happily together (sarcasm).  He then moves on to measure how long my legs are in comparison to his, and repeats the whole theatrical show of disappointment again.  He is "Mr. cool" according to the ajumas at my gym, who always giggle at this elaborate scene that is happening-while I am trying to ignore him and just continue lifting weights and he is standing beside me showboating.  So anyways, I've started to just completely pretend I don't understand him when he talks to me, because it is super annoying when you are just trying to work out.  So, yesterday he struck again, but this time, because I didn't acknowledge him, he just announced to all the other adashis and ajumas "size long" and pointed at me.  To which all the adashis mumbled in agreement and head nodding, "nay, size long..."  or  "long size...nay."  It's kind of an unflattering description, but rather than making it the usual annoying jeans warrior encounter, it just made me smile and chuckle to myself...oh Konglish, you warm my heart every time.