Monthly Archives: April 2010

how often do you cry?

Posted on by

I am not talking about tearing up during a really sad movie, or getting so angry your eyes start watering (I am afraid my anger is usually directly connected to my tear ducks). I am talking about one of those deep, moving, heart wrenching cries (like how Dane Cook describes in this clip) that happens when you need to release emotion. Life starts to build up, someone said something mean, you have to say good-bye… these type of sob moments are usually more related to women, since we live life by our emotions. But men, you cry too, and you know it.

If I am lucky I get one of these cry sessions about every six months, and I wish with all my heart it was more often. I know women who get to cry like this once a week.What is the key to unlocking my emotions? I think I may have a clue, but I am not ready to share it with the world yet.

For a happy cry check out this story about Christian the Lion, I teared up the first five (or ten) times I watched this.

Elephants Cry Too

the proof is in the pudding

Posted on by

It’s no wonder I am starting to think of Korea as home:

I miss rice if I go a couple of days without it.

I know how to marinate bulgogi.

I know what bulgogi is.

I started to walk to work… in heels.

I think it’s normal to stand shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm, leg to leg, with a perfect stranger.

I just might cry if I ever meet a K-Pop star, or any Korean star for that matter.

I bumped into someone, well almost shouldered them to the ground, during a subway transfer the other week… AND I DIDN’T SAY SORRY. WHY???? (I still feel bad about it.)

I am learning Tae Kwon Do. Enough said.

I think it’s weird when I hear people I don’t know on the subway speak in English. Like, really weird.

I know how to read Hangul.

I know what Hangul is.

I think it’s normal to see a guy holding his girlfriend’s purse.

I think it’s normal to see a straight man getting his nails done, wearing leggings, scarfs, and acting as feminine as his girlfriend.

I have started using chopsticks at home, even though I have forks available.

I think USD looks more like monopoly money now and won looks like the real deal.

Korea hasn’t got me all the way… yet.

I stopped walking to school in heels.

I will never have a place for kimchi in my heart.

I miss sandwiches.

Spitting on the street, STOP IT. (I saw a man spit in a store today. Delightful.)

I always say excuse me in the subway, except that ONE TIME.

I like to give real compliments, not ‘uncompliments’ or little jabs disguised as compliments.

Korean commercials? Hate them, good thing I don’t watch t.v.

I never thought I would say this, but I miss driving my car. Especially on the open road.

I feel like men and woman should be distinguishable in a relationship. Maybe that’s just me.

Given the choice between a squatter and a sitter in a public restroom, I go for the sitter, every time.

In no way does this picture relate to this post. I just like it.

Fat and Skinny

Posted on by

Share and share alike I say. But that could be because I am stealing a conversation topic from my sister’s blog and commenting on this news article she shared. I even want to use the same wording, copying really is the best form of flattery though. Just saying.

THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC IS NOW BEING CAST AS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT.

This article reminded me of the school lunches served here in Korea. They are all the same. The are always Korean food. They always have rice. They always have kimchi. Everyone (teachers included) eats the school lunch.  I tried for two months and started to hate my life because I could only eat rice and sometimes the soup, if it wasn’t spicy.

All males are required to go to the military. I haven’t seen an overweight Korean male in his 20s my eighth months of living here. Koreans may spit in the street, shove you in the subway, and stare… but they know how to stay skinny (must be the kimchi and the rice).

I ate a salad for lunch every day this week and I cut the elixir of life, coca-cola, out of my diet. It’s not about being stick thin. It is about being healthy. And I drank way too much coke.

bad hair day?

Posted on by

When I first arrive in Korea I wanted to blend in as much as possible. I had stages or phases of becoming Korean. My first step was the clothes, I had to dress more Korean, a little hard for me because their style here is phenomenal. The second phases was my hair, I got it magic straightened in a Salon, which means it would stay straight for about seven or eight months. And the third phase was my glasses, I changed over to the much more common and popular big frames they wear here! Well, I still try and dress pretty Korean and I still have the glasses, but I am now at the point where I don’t want to blend in anymore, I want to STICK OUT.

Thus, my magic straight left my hair at the perfect time. That really was what confused a lot of Koreans, I had them coming up and asking for directions around the subway and it wasn’t until I looked them in the eye that they realized I was a foreigner. At that point they put up their  hands, turned and ran away (this actually happened more than once… but to be fair I had bangs as well and the big glasses hid my eyes well).

I have naturally kind of wavy/almost curly/in the summer I look a hot frizzy mess kind of hair. I started to gel it this week and I wore it to school like that, I thought I looked pretty good until….

“Teacher! Your hair…..”

“Yes….?”

“Terrible.”

Gee, thanks…. To be fair they aren’t used to people changing their hair as often here as we do in the States, and kids don’t like change. Oh well, I think it looks good.

Cherry Blossom Festival!

happy black day?

Posted on by

Today is Black Day. The day you celebrate being single in Korea. I did not know this. I came to work this morning to find this status update by Kathleen:

“HAPPY BLACK DAY, a celebration of being single in korea. they’re obviously placing no value judgment at all naming the holiday with the colour of darkness and bad. great.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself Kathleen (really I couldn’t have, I think she is terribly clever). If it was up to me I would name single day “Purple Day” or “Turquoise Day” because I love being single and I think those are happy colors.

A friends response to Kathleen’s status (I love Chris so much for this):

80s Video Dating Montage

In other news, is it bad that I didn’t notice one of my fourth grade classes had a set of twins in it until… oh… the second month of the semester? Oops.

I had to “yell” (I didn’t raise my voice, it was more like “talk sternly”) at one of my fifth grade classes today. They were probably really terrified of my ‘mad’ look because I am taking Taekwondo now.

What happened to cause such a thing? Well, the students thought they had science class next and their desks were covered in all of this cool gadgety stuff to do some fun science experiment. Imagine their surprise when two English teachers walk in instead.

“NO! Science!!!”

“Not ENGLISH!”

“BOOOOO!!!”

The class was hysterical and yelling and refusing to get their English books out (I mean things were thrown on the floor, it was like one big tantrum fest, like the kind I threw when I was little. What goes around, comes back around… in Korea?). I was seething on the inside, this would NEVER happen in the States. Students here are so much more disrespectful (and it is acceptable, students are definitely disrespectful in the U.S. but it is at least dealt with and they TRY to stop it).

I stood in the front of class dead silent with a stony stare while my co-teacher told them to put their science stuff away, get their books out, and settle down in Korean (at least I think that is what she said). When the majority of the students stopped talking I said “Quiet” loud and firm. The students have yet to hear me speak like that and stopped and stared immediately.

This is the frustrating part. Giving a lecture/speech about respect and the fact that you never “boo” at a teacher and how none of their behavior was acceptable, and then having the speech translated. They don’t really have a word for “rude” in Korean. Go figure. Or maybe they do and they just don’t use it. Anyway, the students listened, nodded in agreement, and watched me fume at them silently in frustration. I had a student stand up and explain what they did wrong in Korean (not understanding any of it but agreeing with her nonetheless) and then my co-teacher and I walked out of the class.

We came back in two seconds later and I started the class with a loud cheerful “good morning!” and we continued on as if nothing had happened. But the students were the best behaved they have ever been.

I shall end with another fb quote, this time in a message thread:

Melissa, “on another note, I was stopped in the middle of the street and asked out tonight by a Korean …..black day coincidence??”

Tae Kwon Do

Posted on by

Maybe I would be more impressive if I wasn't smiling....

That’s right. You’d better watch your back. melody joy welton is learning taekwondo! When I told my students I had started taking lessons they asked what color my belt was. “White!” I exclaimed proudly “I just started!” They all laughed at me and said “Teacher, teacher me black belt.” great… “who all has black belts in here?” half of the class raises their hands, along with my co-teacher. Awesome, now I feel intimidated.

brushing your teeth, it’s weird.

Posted on by

Have you ever stood in front of the mirror in your bathroom, staring at your hand make the motions as it thoroughly brushed your teeth, while the foam inside your mouth grows? I don’t normally, I am a distracted teeth brusher and I like to multitask (or attempt to multitask, many times the brush stays limp in my mouth and I start picking up clothes and trash off the floor, realize I am drooling and run back to the bathroom) while I am doing it. The other day though, I was staring at myself in the mirror and I just thought, brushing your teeth is so weird. So completely necessary, but so…so weird.

I don’t understand why it hasn’t warmed up in Korea yet. It’s SPRING PEOPLE. Where are the Cherry Blossoms? Where are the light jackets and long t-shirts?  I am not happy with this situation, not one bit. Especially as I am hearing the awesome weather my home state, Michigan (represent), is having such lovely weather.

This month has turned into the month of happy children. I was at Costco the other day when this little boy battled the crowds to come up to me and say “hello!” So proud that he could say hi to me in my language. It was so adorable I wanted to hug him, but as his mother was shooing him back to her and giving me wary eyes I thought that might not be the best course of action. A week or two later I was walking to church (late, therefore rushing along) and this girl released her grip from her fathers hand to backtrack and say “Hi! What’s your name?” If I hadn’t already been booking it I would have stopped and had Korea’s-normal-introduction-when-you-meet-a-Korean-conversation (Hi, how are you? I am fine, and you?) as it was I had the momentum going and I just yelled over my shoulder as I waved “Mel-o-dy!!!!”

Then my friend Kathleen calls me the other day to tell me this little boy came right up to her, waved, and said “hi!” Where are these kids coming from? I LOVE IT. The older generation are normally mean to us, the more my age ones usually just stare, sometimes smiling, sometimes brave enough to speak, and the younger kids are usually so shy they just hide in their mom’s skirts. Are we actually making a difference here? Nah…. probably just the ‘almost’ spring weather.

I would like to say that I am at the point now where if people don’t stare at me I find myself thinking, psshhh why AREN’T they looking at me?

Now you go brush your teeth, and think about what I said.

memoirs of a geisha? wait…

Posted on by

Writing a book is as simple as typing words on a screen to form a story for some, and as daunting as climbing Mt. Everest for others. I would be the others. I have always, always wanted to put enough words together to form a solid rectangular object to put on my bookshelf, with my very own name as its author. I have been trying since I was ten years old.

I have finally decided that this time not only will I try, I will succeed. With the encouragement from my friends and family who read my mass e-mails  I am turning my year here into a memoir, because let’s face it… the experience is pretty book worthy.

So… what do you think? What should I call it? Goodness me, this is pretty exciting.

happy easter

Posted on by

Considering the fact that Korea has a rather large percentage of Christians that make up their population, AND their love for festivals, I was indeed surprised when Easter just happened to sneak up on me. How can you NOT make a big deal of Jesus raising from the dead? Meh, it was just something he HAD to do I guess. YEAH, He DID. Taking on the weight of the world and being flogged just enough so you could still feel your body being nailed to wood and your side being speared and the weight of your body allowing gravity to pull your joints apart? Pshh, happens every day right? Uh-huh, didn’t think so.

I remember today, and I praise God for his sacrifice, to allow his Son to feel the pain of the sins we make. I pray that I will continue to live my life the best way I know how, loving the world as God loves me.

I did get to decorate an egg during my cell group (bible study like group that I go to after the Korean church service I attend at Young Joon) today, it was fun… we made a family.

the American wife with her Korean husband and their baby... I made the man :)

because she said so… do it!

Posted on by

I love it when people do things to help others. During my university years I participated in my school’s Relay for Life (http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/) every year… staying up 24 hours while taking turns walking around a track, playing games, eating food, and hearing cancer survivor stories was an awesome experience and very humbling. My sister just posted on her blog about her friend raising money for another cause (SOAR: Speaking Out About Rape), and the way he is doing it sounds crazy, fun and unique and thus I wanted to share it… but please read her words and not mine because she is ridiculously witty. I freakin love her! Go, go, go!

Hillary’s blog: http://howtotakeovertheworld.tumblr.com/

p.s. it is under the post: operation freefall