Enjoy the Respite

I can't speak Korean. My students really need to stop getting their hopes up. This time, it wasn't because I felt compelled to throw around a few words of Korean in class to control the students, but because we teachers were commanded to administer speaking tests through the phone (so the parents can see our dedication). In order to actually get whoever answers the phone to give it to the student, however, requires a few phrases of Korean. However, there are still two students who are very resistant - one who never picks up the phone, and the other whose mother prattled at me in Korean for a while curiously (and I, of course, could answer none of her questions, and when I said I'd call back tomorrow, she was all too eager to hang up. Was she just giving me a hard time?)

The other instance I had to speak bits of Korean was about two weeks ago, when my vice academy owner came to observe my youngest class three days in a row. I didn't mind letting her see that I used little bits of their language to control the classroom. The students also expect me to speak Korean more than the other foreigner teacher - he's married to a Korean woman so he actually Can speak Korean - because I look Asian. I run into this on taxis a lot, when they ask where I'm from, and I reply "American" and then they gesture to my face or say, "Oh, but you're Asian..."

This week is madly easy, though. If this job were this way all the time, I'd stay here forever and ever. There are no middle school classes, because they are taking some time off to study for their midterms. While administration gave us those phone calls to make so that we'd have something to do, plus all those meetings about how to teach TOEFL and NEAT (the standardized tests to get into middle school and college, much like the U.S. MCAS and SATs). Today I even had to quickly design a test for the youngest classes, because the academy owner felt that they should be inundated into the standardized testing system early.

Before we all left work today, the academy owner came around to pass out little plants to everyone. I stared and was like "What is it?" The head teacher says "You Eat it" so I immediately bit into it and chewed. Perhaps it was good for you, but one of the other teachers says it is bad for pregnant women. It tasted really bitter, and I forgot to say Thank You, but I appreciated being given the spice and having had the chance to taste it nevertheless.

A Scented Relaxing 26th

It was an amazing weekend, thanks to two girl friends. Happy Birthday to me! It was the first and probably only birthday I'm going to spend in South Korea.

I spent Saturday helping a friend shop in Yongsan for some 18mm photography lenses. I don't know enough about photography to know the difference, but it was pleasant walking around in a brightly lit mall making fun of soldiers and types of people. We ate Korean hotpot at a restaurant, and then had some coffee at Dunkin Donuts. I love hotpot. I love noodles. I love sweet things, and even though I can't cook, I love food in general.

Then we three girls had a sleepover. We spoke about all sorts of things, as women do when we get together. All of us have pets, and even though they have dogs and I have a cat, it feels similar to come home to and love a creature. Even if my creature is passed out on the wood floor (so cute!) after giving me an ultimatum about being away for Two Whole Days and leaving him alone to the silence. He hid one cap of one of my contacts lens cases as suitable punishment. My friend's two dogs are adorable, very full of personality, creating an enjoyable background while we talked about work, life and ourselves, and love.

We woke up the next day around noon. Sundays are made for waking up at noon. Because her windows took up the wall, the light streamed in to tell us that it's daylight. We dressed, deciding to go to the massage place to delay the appointment for an hour so we can eat. There hung a sign that said that they'll be back at 4, so we went to brunch anyway at this nice place named the Moru. I had strawberry pancakes, which was delicious, paired with refreshing peppermint tea. My friends had banana pancake and a dish that had fries and a salad.

When we walked outside, a lady in a businesslike navy blue dress was waiting for us. She introduced herself as I-Sohn, and led us to the Mannam volunteer organization's cafe in Dunsan-dong, very near where my friend from Saturday lives. I hissed at one of my friends about the way this lady was just waiting for us outside of Moru. We made small talk as we walked, threading underground through the stairs and hallways of Daejeon Station and coming out onto a too-familiar street. When we got to the offices, we said hello to some of the other organization's members who were just leaving.

After that randomness, we went back to the massage place, and they were ready for us. We each changed into pajamas after drinking some tea, and they gave us oiled foot baths. Then we laid down on these thick mats, and they covered our eyes and went to work on our muscles. I was tense in my hips, pelvis, buttocks, shoulders and neck, much more so than my backbone itself, which was surprising. The masseuse was a Korean lady smaller than even me, but she used her body weight to apply deep pressure to all of my joints. Soft new age music was playing the entire time, in a nice softly lit room with wood relief carvings and pillows. One of my friends had a male masseuse, so that resulted in silent hilarity worthy of an episode of Sex and the City.

None of us wanted to leave when it was over. All of our necks were rubbed with peppermint oil, and we were so relaxed and sleepy. We laid there, speaking of happy nothings until a woman came in to gently tell us to leave, so we changed back, sat in the lobby with our well being tea, and then left. She was in long mid bow when the elevator doors closed. The weather was still perfect when we walked outside - just windy enough, the sun still just high enough, and beautifully airily warm.

We went to a coffee shop to have tea and cake to close our relaxing time. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend. The company was great, the food was delicious, the massages were relaxing. Thank you, girls, for an awesome 26th birthday!