Having taken a months rest, I will now begin to update again.
Consider this post’s title my only apology. I certainly wasn’t feeling guilty every time I thought about this blog, which was nearly never. Certainly no guilt. No, none at all. Not in the slightest. Didn’t bother me so much I couldn’t get back into it and have to confront my self betrayal to blog-commitment. No siree, no.
For those of you uncertain as to what “naega” means, I don’t know either, but please watch this video, which is sung and danced at me by my students every time “sorry” or “story” is spoken in class.
Noteworthy features: there are far too many boys in this boy band. I don’t know how the crazed fangirls keep them straight. The only one who stands out to me is Mr. Pudge in his spiffy silver jacket, mostly because I was under the impression that pudge has been banned from the media here, except in the Before pics of “Before and After” sets. Also: the use of English words, such as “shorty” and “girl”. I … just … don’t know what to say about this.
I remember one of the first days out of SMOE orientation, skulking around Nowon with Alice picking up freebies at makeup stores; hearing this song or one similar to it and Alice asking,
“Did they … Did they just say “shorty“?”
Ooookay so past month. What have I been doing?
- Korean classes. Alice and I cheated to get into Beginner level 2 (to bypass Hangeul and level 1, both of which seemed boring, both of which were during work times.) Every Monday, we went to have our brains pounded in Korean immersion for two hours. Not a lot, considering our entire life here is Korean immersion, but I only spend a small fraction of that time actively listening to Korean. Usually I just tune it out.
But our hard work paid off. We both killed the level-up test, and are totally rocking this language. I could tell you what I did last weekend, or what I will do next weekend, and can talk to you about buying things. It just feels really good to be able to have conversations in Korean. Slow, torturous conversations in Korean, granted, but valid nonetheless. - Dancing and staying out too late on Saturdays. Mostly at Hongdae. Once in Itaewon. *mutter* Hilarious things are always going down.
- Getting sick. 2.5 times. No swine, knock on wood. I’ll leave the swine to Alice. (GET WELL SOON! YOU SHOW THAT SWINE WHO’S BOSS!)
- Work. Things have been heating up in preparation for English camp. I’m running some sort of performance. TBA
- Icheon pottery village with Alice and Sujin. We stayed overnight at a jimjilbang (which I will never again do unless I bring heavy duty ajumma-snore-proof earplugs. We had to leave the hot sleeping room because of the snores and the heat, and found sleeping mats near the kitchens. At 3 a.m. (people just sit and talk all night it seems) I awoke to witness two ajushis talking earnestly with Alice who seemed uncomfortable. Chief adjushi’s name was “Pony Boy”. At 5 a.m. Alice woke me up to point out a creepy reacher at the foot of her mat. I had noticed him at 3a.m. with his arms stretched above his head and touching the edge of Alice’s mat. He had since shimmied his entire torso up ON TO her mat and was currently groping her leg. In his sleep of course. I advised Alice to kick him. She did, he retreated. Slowly.) We explored the pottery village, which was very cool even in the rain, and we made some pottery old-school style. We don’t have the pots yet, but I’ll try to post some pics when I do.
- Making amazing new friends. Alice has a great building-neighbour with great friends.
- Chasing meteors. We tried to watch the Leonid metors from Suraksan mountain, but DAMN it was early. I saw some huge fireballs on the 18th though.
- Exploring my neighbourhood. It really is pretty bleak. (But I love it.) Here is my neighbourhood and what I’ve explored so far.
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I am tred. I’ve heard you shouldn’t rush these things. Over exertion etc.
More later.
Probably.
(P.S. I miss you everyone in Canada!!!)
