Tag Archives: south korea

Naked Nails

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It has been a very long time since I went that many days without posting. I had a conversation with my dad about it on skype and he said, “Yeah, I kept going back to your blog and noticing the same post from the last time I visited.” OOPS.

Blogging keeps me creative, and reminds me to take a second to sit back and reflect on what I am doing, I just love blogging. I hope throughout the holidays I am disciplined enough to write down my adventures and share my pictures, because I am going to be having SO MUCH FUN.

Yesterday, I posted my first Wordless Wednesday, and I REALLY wanted to explain myself— but I couldn’t— it would have defeated the whole purpose of “wordless”. So, I am explaining today. I got the idea from a blog I follow In other Words and Pictures, who got the idea from David Williams, seriously I just love the blogging community.

The picture I posted is part of a project I am working on at the moment, I will blog about it when it is finished— promise!

Today, I wanted to make note of the fact that I am officially on day 5 of having naked nails. I believe it has been over three years since I have gone this long without wearing nail polish. I appreciate Korea’s bright, cheap, nail polish (only $1 a bottle, and it isn’t terribly quality!) because it helped me break a habit I had for 24 years. Before coming here I bit, ripped, and tore my finger nails a part.

Now they look like this:

naked nailsSlight improvement from the bit off, bloody, hang-nail look, eh? Thanks Korea!

signature

the end of an era

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On August 20th, in the year 2009, one hundred expats were thrown together for an intensive ten-day training on what to expect from life as you lived and taught in South Korea. We were told (by many speakers) that it was either going to be like a living nightmare, or as if you were lying on a bed of roses… this didn’t freak anyone out, obviously… :/ We had three sessions a day of different workshops , and survival Korean lessons at night. We were bunking with strangers, taken to a popular Korean show, discovering noraebang (singing all night in a room with a disco ball? SICK), thrown in a bus on a three-hour drive to a Korean folk village, and ate rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean, I had to learn how to use metal chopsticks,  metal… or I couldn’t eat my food (okay, okay… they provided forks, but I was in Asia! I had to use chopsticks…)

What I couldn’t possibly have known at the beginning of those initial ten days, was that when it was over… I would have made amazing friends (as cheesy as this will sound I have to write it) for life.

My Seoul Family was born at that orientation. Six friends, so different from each other that you would have never, in a million years, handpicked us to form a family, have lived so much life together over the past two and a half years… it is truly special. Along the way we have added additional family members, and said several goodbyes. Out of the core six, one left after the first year, and has already been back to visit us.

the original six:

But now, it is the end of an era. This past Sunday evening was the last time (I wrote this forever ago, so it was actually two Sunday evenings ago…), for a long time, that five of the original seoul family, got together.

Kathleen, the mother hen of the group, is moving to Australia. What a lucky country. I am going to miss you boo. Can’t wait until Paul, Sam, Tami, Eric, and I come to visit you and Steve!

Until we meet again.

the help & air force onesssss

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I walked into the local GS25 down the street from my work (school) today during my planning time (I needed CHOCOLATE okay?!) and my ears are embraced with the sound of an old song from high school blaring throughout the small convenience store.

Yes, I am in South Korea and I can still walk into a store and hear, “Air Force Ones” by Nelly. I could not stop smiling as I mouthed the words (wait… how do I know these words?!) thinking back to my days as a seventeen-year-old, sitting on my schools bleachers, and singing yelling along to the song as they played it during basketball warm ups. Nine years may have passed since then, but I can still remember loving to all-attitude up the girl part, “Kyjuan, where are you gettin’ them colors, are you dyin’ them?” Do you know how many people didn’t realize that song was about shoes? Well, a lot!

I left GS25 with a smile, still singing the song in my head. Then I saw a guy ride by on a scooter (or mopeds as they are commonly called in the states) with his helmet barely fitting on his head (let alone strapped around it) because he couldn’t handle the thought of taking off his baseball cap. Not sure the helmet is going to help much buddy.

In other news, I read The Help last week. SHOOT. That is One. Good. Book. I can’t wait to see the movie, but it hasn’t come out (and we aren’t sure if it will!-sad face-) in Korea yet. In all seriousness though, reading it made me realize how little I still know about the world I live in. The fact that mindsets like that could/can/and do exist. Wow. It made me think. I like to think. Sometimes…

rooms

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Laura, Emilie, Charlie, Kate, Dianne, Jordan, Daniella, Clara, Jennifer, Zach, Rachel and Nikki… These are the names of the friends I have had to say goodbye to in the past month. Yes. Count them. My life is not normal. It’s one of the worst things about living abroad. Always having to say goodbye.

I would rather say goodbye though, than never having said hello.

Especially with the case of one extra special goodbye (I really shouldn’t call it that though, since I will most definitely being seeing her again!) this past Sunday.

Christina.

The first person to start teaching me about Korean culture by the way I watched her interact with her family when they dropped her off at orientation.

My first ten days in South Korea will always be among the best, because if Christina and I hadn’t been roommates I am not so sure we would have become friends. Luck of the draw, and I won the lotto!

I will miss you rooms. Come back sooooon.

my heart aches

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The DMZ. You may have heard of it. The one thing my mom told me before I moved to South Korea was, ‘Melody, do NOT go to the DMZ.” Sorry, mom.  I went.

I appreciated the experience and my eyes were opened (physically and mentally) to how close I really do live to North Korea. This trip really upset me. I went with my two friends who are visiting (J & S) and Dyanne (a fantastic friend and coworker). The four of us joined a larger tour group, the total was probably 20-25 people.

As I was taken to the “Freedom Bridge” and the “Bridge Of No Return” (7th paragraph in link) and as I stepped on the other side of the room in the MAC Building (the building where North Koreans and South Koreans come together for meetings), technically finding myself in North Korea, my spirit was on fire. Besides the group I came with, every other person seemed to be treating this as just another “tourist attraction”, their attitudes being more like “I stepped on North Korean soil and survived!” rather than one of solemnness. There was a war going on inside of me as I wanted to shout “THIS WAR IS STILL GOING ON!” to the people who acted as if North Korea is just a fake place where men are playing really dangerous nintendo games and using up other people’s lives instead of their own during the tough levels, while at the same time I thought these things I wondered why I needed to come and see this. Was it a tourist attraction for me too?

NO.

My heart aches for North Korea.

this shot was taken near freedom bridge

ribbons bought to support peace between north and south korea. ribbons with messages of freedom. ribbons for family members still in north korea.

flags on freedom bridge

looking north

inside the MAC building

officers standing on guard outside the MAC building. it is all for show, as soon as we left our US Soldier (escort) told us if we looked back once our bus took off they all meandered back inside. The North Koreans, however, have guards on duty 24/7.

the bridge of no return

the real essential things in life

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Throughout college, during my internship, and even while substitute teaching, I never understood how teachers could spend so much of their own money  for things in their classroom and on their students.

Yesterday was payday (yippee) and as I headed off to good ol emart to get the essential things in life (milk, bread, pants) the entire time I kept finding things I wanted to buy for my classroom and not for myself, “If I had this we could do this”, or “this would make reading time so much better”, or “this would make my classroom’s environment more comfortable” were all the phrases that kept echoing in my head.

I am starting to realize that my apartment may be the place I lay my head to sleep, but my classroom is my home,  I mean I do spend the majority of my awake time here. Who needs to eat breakfast when I can buy a bunch of new books for my kiddies to read? Who needs pants without holes when this game would make indoor recess more enjoyable? Okay so technically I would never be allowed to wear pants with holes at school,  but you get my point.

Paying back college loans? Pssshhhh, I will be doing that until I die anyway. Or until I get an awesome book deal for my memoir of my first year in this country known as South Korea. I might need to finish writing it before that happens…

running away? yes.

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South Korea may get some things wrong. But there are a lot of things that this country has dialed in. For example, this Wednesday is Children’s Day, a day Koreans have set aside to celebrate… well, Children. It is a National Holiday in Korea. Nice. Children get presents. Parents get the day off work. Win-win.

My birthday is coming up and my sister sent me a card that said, “You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.” Which leads me to pointing out that the people who benefit the most from Children’s Day are not the children, or the parents, but me. And people like me (not people like me, but people who are like me, though people like too, but that is beside the point). I get a day free of responsibility and I don’t have to buy a present for my child, since I am child-free. I love staying immature.

My school took into consideration the fact that Children’s Day falls on a Wednesday this year and gave us Thursday and Friday off as well. TRIPLE SCORE. I have decided to take this five-day vacation and visit Hong Kong (happy early birthday to ME) with some girlfriends. The trip happened so fast I haven’t even packed yet and I am leaving tomorrow right after school. Oops.

Hong Kong here I come, I hear there’s lots of shopping to be done there. Great, because no one shops in Korea. Breath of fresh air.

these lights are prettyyyyyyyy.

Picture courtesy of this website, thanks friends.