I'm a Barbie Girl, apparently..

Sorry for the lack of updates since I've gotten back to Korea. The flight was fine, the bus ride was ...ok, and getting back to work has been normal. Two exciting things (you could say) happened this weekend, and I realized that I seem to be a hot commodity in Korea (well, as long as the Koreans are drunk or crazy. Or both.)

Last Friday night the CUA crew met up in Itaewon to exchange Christmas and New Years stories over dinner at Santorini's (a VERY good Greek restaurant). After dinner we were walking to a bar to for a drink and this drunk Korean girl comes from behind us and shouts "Hello Barbie Girl! Happy New Year!!" ... So I waved and said hello thinking she'd leave, no harm done. Nope. Then she came up, shouting "Wow! Beautiful! Really Barbie. Really!" And then asked to touch my hair. Thinking it would make her leave I had a moment of weakness and said sure.. she SCRATCHED my head, gave me a hug, and started kissing me on the cheek. She wouldn't leave till I kissed her on the cheek. yea. It was strange to say the least. But hey, she was happy.

The next day, I was walking to the bus stop to meet Andrea, Kirsten and Liz at a travel agent. While I was waiting to cross the street I noticed a scruffy looking Korean man sort of twirling on and off of the curb. So, as one does with strange people on the street, I ignored him. Well, that seemed to really amuse him and, I kid you not, he began to follow me. And I don't just mean he went to the bus stop and hung out. I mean he was like my SHADOW. I believe he really was harmless but if nothing else it was so aggravating. He was in my face and shouting God knows what at the top of his lungs. I don't know why, but none of the Koreans around me were even trying to stop him. I missed my bus because I was trying to avoid him (you really have to flag them down here) so that meant I had another 15 minutes to spend with him while I waited for the next one. Well he really loved that and sat right down next to me. It got to the point where I couldn't hold it in and I finally yelled "Ka!!" which means go in Korean. That only got him more excited and he shouted some more. I actually tried to shoo him... which didn't work. One younger girl did try to help me and distracted him when my bus came, but he noticed, and GOT ON THE BUS AFTER ME! I wasn't too shocked when he got off at my stop, he'd come this far already. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw my friends and told them, "So here's the guy that's following me." It was so awkward. He was sure excited to now have four girls to follow around and started playing shadow again. I knew that just going into a coffee place or something wouldn't work because he was likely to just sit down next to us! So we went into a police station and explained our situation to the officers, which they found pretty amusing. We waited a while and when he didn't leave, the cops told us that we could go, and they would make sure he didn't follow us. The whole time we were inside the crazy man was standing outside with a huge grin on his face, seemingly pretending to be on of the cops and standing in rank with them ...?! As two cops held him back while we left he shouted back at us, I'm sure saying goodbye or something .... strange.

Both of these incidents are only more funny when you factor in that they happened to me - the person who hates making friends with strangers. I'm sorry, I don't know you, nor do I care to, I don't feel obligated to chat with you while we both wait for ... anything. And these two whackjobs I met only SUPPORT me in that decision as they were both crazy and best to be avoided. Good grief. Only in Korea!!

2007: Hasta la Vista

I'm not usually one to celebrate New Year's (and I didn't really celebrate because I was on a plane, flying over the Pacific..) but so much has happened in 2007 that I feel some of it may warrant a reprieve. Looking back, I can't believe all that went on the past twelve months, I certainly was busy. I'd say it has been a good year, not with out struggles - or smiles. I've been faced with challenges on many levels, admired my friends as they faced their own, officially said good bye to my childhood and moved across the world. My 2007 was filled with new things: new cities, new theaters, new beginnings and new friends... not to say that I don't still have a place for all the old ones too! I guess the year could sort of be divided up into thirds; with my last semester of college, my summer (cross country trip with Kirsten, South Coast Rep, PAWS summer camp with Mark and Tom...) and then Korea! It feels like it couldn't all fit into one year.

Well it's now 2008, and I am back from my AMAZING trip home to finish off the last 9 months in my contract. Now that I have fully adjusted to life as a Seoulite, I feel like the time is really going to fly. But that doesn't mean I won't miss everyone at home - so Best Wishes to all of you, talk with you soon, and Happy New Year!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I hope everyone is having/has had a nice Christmas. Christmas in California has been spectacular! My first meal back was a delicious dinner at Paco's Tacos in LA - yum! We had Christmas Eve at my brother's house and everyone exchanged gifts. The weather today is a brisk 68 degrees (Fahrenheit of course) and without a single cloud in the sky... just as it should be. Now we're off to our traditional Christmas afternoon movie - this year it's National Treasure. Merry Christmas!!!

Korean War Memorial and Museum

It's been a busy time for us Seoulites, as Christmas (and trips home for most of us) is right around the corner! I wanted spend this weekend doing a few things that I have been meaning to for four months, but haven't yet, so that I would be able to share them with friends and family back home. On the top of that list was visiting the Korean War Memorial and Museum. It's credited as the largest war memorial in the world and noted as one of the top five things to do in Korea.

Liz and I went to the museum this morning and the whole experience can best be described as impressive. The Museum is very well organized and hugely informative; as well as interactive! There a lots of animatronic displays of famous battles and projected videos explaining their history. The museum fee was about 3 bucks and an audio guide was 2. They had guides in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English! Basically, if you follow the plan (which is marked with arrows every 100 feet!) you circle up three floors, across the top, and then around the bottom three again. The first floor is all about Korea's history of warfare - which is mainly with China and Japan. The next two floors are dedicated to the Korean War; one tells the history of the war, and the other shows what life for Koreans and soldiers alike was like during the war. The exhibit ends with a combat simulator and a series of videos featuring veterans and survivors of the war (which were all in Korean). The combat simulator appeared to be closed - but that was okay with us. The rest of the museum gives information on Korea's involvement in other wars since the Korean War, and also has an extensive exhibit on the Korean navy and Korea's contemporary weaponry.

The most amusing thing was that many of the documentary-type films had famous movie soundtracks as their score - we heard Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones. That, or maybe the painting depicting the Koreans defense against Japanese pirates where in the corner one pirate definitely had a sword for an arm (sort of trumps Captain Hook). The most moving thing was an exhibit called "The Drop" which is a sculpture of a tear drop encircled with thorns of barbed wire and is made out of around 1300 ID tags of fallen soldiers. Also to the left of the entrance is a walkway listing all of those killed in action and what State or Province and Country they were from. Above it a quote from the Korean War memorial in D.C. is inscripted; "Our Nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met." .... Sort of sums up the sentiment of an American expat in Korea.

In front of the museum are a number of monuments dedicated to the nations who fought for the Republic of Korea (even though South Koreans still feel slighted that troops pulled out before unification was achieved), and to all Koreans, and many expressing sadness over the loss of their brothers to the North.


It was a great museum and a great day! We found out while we were there that the Dead Sea Scrolls have just arrived, and will be here till June! I had wanted to visit this exhibit when it was in San Diego and never got the chance, so I am very excited to be able to go after Christmas! Visiting the museum, I feel like I really learned a lot about Korea and definitely have a bit more perspective on the culture. Now it's out to (where else) Itaewon for some good Western food at an Irish pub called Wolfhound with Andrea, Carla and a few others. Tomorrow night we have our Secret Santa gift exchange amongst the CUA kids and then it's only 5 short days till I go home for Christmas. Can't wait!!

The Best 7-year-old EVER (with photo)

For vocabulary homework my older kids have to write sentences for about 5 new words a class. The sentences that were due today were mostly titles: Mr., Mrs., Miss, etc. As I gave them their quiz and corrected their homework I nearly died from how adorable my student, Ji Su's sentences were.




Not only am I so proud because 3 months ago when I started teaching him, he could hardly read, let alone write a sentence, but how sweet is that?! I love him, I'll try to snap a picture on Wednesday so you can all see what a cute kid he is.

Season's Greetings!

Hope you all are enjoying the Holiday Season , wherever you might be. Here's a quick video I shot walking to the subway last Wednesday night. Enjoy!

I don't know if it's Christmas magic or just the anticipation of being home SO soon, but the past week or so has been going really well. Christmastime in Korea is nice! All of the stores are really festive, and of course SLP is going all out with their celebrations. Really. Would you expect anything less?

That's what all the people say.

I don't know quite what to make of the past few weeks other than that they've made me very thoughtful. Coming here has been an experience that I will carry with me forever. I haven't met many people, but the ones I have are wonderful and I hope to know them for a long time to come. I feel I ride a roller coaster up and down within each month, week, day, etc. here. Life as a Seoulite is so unpredictable! I guess it's sort of like in old school WB cartoons when out of nowhere the character would get hit over the head with a frying pan... you know that reaction they have? That mix of mostly confusion, with a bit of bewilderment, anger and pain; and resulting in frustration is what sits at the lows of my roller coaster life in Seoul. But there are great highs too! And sometimes the rides down to the lows are exciting and fun - and sometimes they make you want to puke ... but either way, I know the roller coaster is going to go back up again.

Today after church I went for coffee and then did some Christmas shopping in Insadong. One American guy came up to me and asked if I knew where he could get guitar strings, and I actually knew! When you're new to somewhere, it's always great when someone thinks you look comfortable enough in your surroundings to ask you for help. Then, shortly after, this random Korean man with very good English really wanted to chat with me. He was walking along and really interested in what I had with me. ?? It was pretty bizarre. After that four Korean college students approached me to take a survey for their class. I figured what the heck, and went along and they ended up being really cool and friendly! Then they took turns taking my picture - VIP status over here!

Some other not so amusing things happened too- which would be the frying pan to the face part of my day. But what can you do? As Frank would say, THAT'S LIFE!