Struggle.

When I moved into my apartment, there was one major bonus: it had a washing machine.  As it turns out, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

I guess the girl who lived here before me didn't use the washing machine while she lived here.  Ever.  Who knows what she did to clean her clothes for an entire year.  I try not to think about it.  Anyway, when I ventured into the room to take a look for the first time I found that the thing was pretty much crusted with dirt and more unmentionable things.

After spending half an hour wiping the monster down, and an hour waiting for it to run a cycle without clothing, it was time to make my first attempt at washing my clothes.

First of all, just like the heater, the whole thing is in Korean.  There are tons of buttons, but only two seemed to do anything.  The big green one turns it on, and the big red one starts the wash.  I put my clothes in a laundry bag (just to be safe) and popped them in, hoping for the best.

An hour and a half later, this is what happened:

1. There was water all over the floor next to the washing machine.
2.  Upon taking my clothes out, I find a huge hole in my laundry bag.  (Luckily it seems like my clothes survived.  So far.)
3.  The clothes came out dirtier than when I put them in.
4.  They smell like a swamp.

Needless to say, this girl will be tracking down a laundromat sooner rather than later.

Confusion.

Somehow the word "no" has been lost in translation to many of my students.  And I don't mean that they just agree to do anything I ask, I mean they say "yes" to every single question I ask them, whether it makes sense or not.  They take everything very literally.

Here's a sample conversation:

Jessica Teacher:  "Sunwu, do you have your homework?"

Sunwu:  "Yes."

"Well, can I see it please?"

"Yes."  But doesn't move a muscle.

"Sunwu, you didn't do your homework, did you?"

"Yes."  With a hopeful look on his face.

"Yes, you did your homework?  Or do you mean you didn't do your homework?"

"Yes."

"You have your homework?

"Yes."

"Sunwu, please take our your homework."

At this point, the student finally gets the point that they need to take out their homework book but-low and behold-the pages are usually empty.

This is a daily conversation I have with at least one of my students.  No matter how clear I attempt to be, it never fails.

Help.

This little gadget must have been made by the devil himself.

It might not seem that interesting, but it basically controls everything in my apartment: the heat, heated floors, hot water.  Everything.

I thought I had it figured out, but it turns out I'm still completely confused.  So many buttons.  So much Korean.

If anybody wants to drop me some hints I'd be eternally grateful!

Frosty the Snow Puppet

My Jaguar class will be performing their version of Frosty the Snowman in the school-wide Christmas show next week, so I thought it might be fun for everyone to make their own "Frosty".  After almost an hour of grueling crafty work, the kids were pleased with the final result.

Engrish.

There isn't a whole lot of English around here.  And many of the things that are translated sound a bit different than they should.  I appreciate that Koreans are attempting to make things easier for us, but some of it is just too funny not to share.

Thus, the Engrish segment of this blog.

My American-style Korean Birthday.

It's pretty cool that I'll be celebrating my entire 24th year of existence in South Korea.  For some reason, the actual birthday celebration turned out to be a little taste of home.

Early in the week, Meagan and I decided to check out our local TGI Fridays.  To our delight, they served us giant pitchers of beer and some chicken wings.

Then, on Sunday, a few of us ventured to a bar called Traveler's.  We got some juicy burgers with fries, and knocked back a few beers while listening to a pretty stellar open mic night.  It was perfect.

Christmas Time in the Seoul-ty.

Okay, I know the title of this post is tacky-but I just couldn't help myself.

Everywhere I go in Korea there is Christmas music blaring, and it's usually accompanied by some extreme displays of Christmas lighting and decor.

I love it.

Here's a giant Christmas tree, made of Christmas trees!  Can you even imagine?

And the ceiling of the hallways throughout a popular shopping center.

aaaaaand the entrance to a shopping center/subway station.



Guilty Pleasure

I don't like Dunkin' Donuts.  Especially here.  The coffee is crap, and who really needs a donut?

Turns out, I do.

For some reason, Dunkin' Donuts has become an almost daily stop for me.  The sugary donuts make the perfect desert for all of the spicy Korean food.  And as it turns out, working with kids requires at least minimal caffine intake-no matter how cute they are.  It also doesn't help that this particular Dunkin' Donuts is located right underneath our school.  So it just sits there, taunting me, every time I go to work.

Here's Ashley displaying her similar love of the donut with one of the beautiful "Mr.Snowman" variety.

Insadong

I spent the day before my birthday exploring an area right outside of Seoul called Insadong.  There are tons of souvenir shops in the area, so I got some mad Christmas shopping accomplished (you better hope you were nice to me this year). 

There is also an amazing Buddhist temple right around the corner.  Although it was a bit strange to be wandering around while people were worshiping, the place was so gorgeous Ashley and I just couldn't help ourselves.

KPop Round 2

Remember the boy band I shared with you last week, 2 PM?  Well, here's another little gem.  And guess what this band is called?  2 AM.  I kid you not.

Apparently creativity is not a Korean boy band's strong suit.

But it doesn't even matter.  Just have a listen to this magical tune and your heart will be aching so badly that you'll forget all about their nearly identical names.

Happy Tuesday!

Food Update.

I grabbed a sandwich from a convenience store on the way to work today.  It clearly looked to me like it was a simple ham and cheese.  Turns out it was more along the lines of:  bologna, lettuce, some egg salad, mustard, and sweet pickles.  At least that's what I'm hoping it was.

Chew on that for a minute.

Happy Birthday.

Some of the Korean teachers at SLP were nice enough to get a cake in early celebration of my birthday.  It was awesome, some kid of yogurt and blueberry.  Definitely a great way to kick off the birthday weekend!

Update.

Here are some of the pictures we took as proof of how utterly disgusting my new home was the day I got to move in.  Four other teachers came with me as we ventured into the unknown, and only one remained mere minutes later.  Besides being an avid smoker, this girl pretty much lived in filth.

As horrible as it looks, the school I work for had it mostly cleaned out for me the next morning.  Thank God.  I've since moved everything and this little place has become some version of a home away from home.  Pictures of the renovation will be up soon.

Here's what I saw upon entering the apartment for the first time:

 This is what the floors look like around the entire place:

 And the tables in the room:

My bathroom sink:

I got brave and decided to check it out under the bed.  Bad idea.

Oh, and the "pet snails" she left for me.

And finally a photo of all the garbage bags that came out of this room.  Want to know the worst part?  This is before we went upstairs to check out the apartment.  Therefore does not include any of the junk still left in the apartment when I got there.

I'll finish this post with a quote from a co-worker:

"I hope the cleaners just walk through that place with a flame-thrower."





Life.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I finally moved into my apartment. 

Scratch that.  I just moved into a crack den.

Updates to come.

Techy Korea.

There was a flair show at one of the bars we stopped at the other night.  The bartenders were throwing flaming bottles around everywhere.  After watching for a while, we started to get thirsty.  There were no waitresses in sight.  We were just about to leave before someone realized that the iPad in front of us wasn't just something a drunk person left behind, it was a menu.  Ordering was so easy.  You punch it what you want and, poof, it's headed your way.

Flair Bar in Gangnam.