lo siento

I apologize for my absence; I've been in a funky mood because it's been a crazy week...

promise to deliver over the weekend!

Martes

6 am: kinda blah...

mal dia

how right I was in predicting a disastrous day. that great morning turned sour real quick.

First of all, let's backtrack for a minute to before the vacation discussion.

I'm worried about my 10 am class because it seems no matter what the topic or lesson is; there are only 4 or 5 students who talk out of a class of 15. This is a big concern of mine because I'm constantly wondering how I can better my teaching, and help my students learn English, while making it fun. this morning I approached my boss with such concern and her response was "maybe you should rethink what you are doing." Rethink what i'm doing!!!??? This is all I do, and furthermore if I have a concern about a class she should take time to listen to my concern. No what does my boss do? While I'm in the middle of my next sentence she turns to a coworker next to her and begins a conversation in Korean, completely cutting me off. Yes, I was pissed and even more so because the whole time we were talking (or while I was trying to) another coworker was sitting beside me, and also witnessed her blowing me off. Anyways, I would not be dismayed because it's well known that our boss has no interpersonal skills nor does she know how to give advice or constructive criticism.

I let it go.

Well a few minutes later after walking out of the office and returning, I asked my boss if we could discuss MY vacation. The discussion (if that is what you could call it). I asked for two of my seven days during the week that my close friend will be visiting and the opportunity to ask someone to cover a class for me so that I may be at the airport to meet my friend. There were a few minutes of going back and forth about how she wanted me to take my vacation in February, because it was not suitable for her and work while my friend was here. Anyways at one point she made a personal attack and it ended up in me just saying "ok fine." She said I was selfish and only thinking about myself. The audacity of this statement. I'm not a confrontational person, and after that could not bring myself to even speak to her. I was completely appalled that she could call me selfish. This woman has never spent more than ten minutes alone with me. furthermore, every month she writes off a schedule of 7 and 8 classes to teachers, and then is never in the office to deal with any problems we have, to ask how our classes are, or provide us with any kind of resources etc.


never mind i'm just getting more pissed off

Lunes

it's monday again. however, getting up this morning was quite easy. No, I'm not jumping-for -joy-excited that I have to teach at 6:20 am (would anyone be?). BUT, there was no dragging ass, grogginess and all those negative feelings I sometimes associate with monday. Perhaps it's because I'm listening to Maroon 5 and eating awesome toast with butter/peach jelly and a huge glass of milk! I am a bit worried though because if my morning is good sometimes that means my day will be disastrous.

look for a post later today...

ufo

Sunday evening Larry King talked about UFOs on CNN. Apparently there was a sighting in Texas some time in January. Here is Jason's (a fellow teacher) impression of the local Texans in an IM:

Jason G Brown (7:43:07 PM): "well bygawd i aint sayin its a ufo, but erebody else seen the same weird laghts i saw, so apparntly that's what i saw"

a list

last week my students asked me to tell them what I missed from home, and before that question I really hadn't thought about it. I wrote a small list of things on the board, but when I got home I started thinking about all the things that I really miss from home. here's that list:

* cool ranch Doritos
* fresh NC air
* my counterparts of a darker persuasion
* making phone calls to my few very close friends whenever I want
* my cats
* an oven so I can cook cornbread
* ganja baby (i did not tell my students I missed this)
* my giant
* the hype surrounding basketball
* mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC
* going into a grocery store and seeing 20 different people of 20 different ethnicities
* chicken tenders and spirits from Gators
* african americans or african-ness (yes I mentioned the men already, but I mean the culture/attitudes that I love so much)
* the fam at times

un dia de estos

"When it's late, the sun hangs low
By yourself, nowhere to go
Sing a song, you dance alone"

these are the part of the lyrics to a really great country song. it speaks volumes in its simplicity. it may seem a bit melancholy, but I love this song. in the shuffle of my itunes it played, and made me realize just how long I've been single. No this is not a pity blog and I'm not sad/depressed (i'm actually quite the opposite), but the song caused a bit of reflection (as a good song should). it seems i'm the only one dancing to my song while everyone else is sharing a beat with someone. I do wonder though if there is something that I just don't get. like maybe i'm missing something. it seems I find someone I like (hasn't really happened in Korea, but before) and as soon as I reach that point where it can be something really great (the make or break point) I break it. I pull away or push away. I suppose it's good i notice this rather than deny it, but all the same. I do wonder sometimes if I'm irreversibly screwed up. oh yes i'm young and of course have plenty of time (so they say), but that doesn't take away the fact that i feel like i'm lacking sometimes. however, I only have this feeling of missing something when it comes to relationships. in fact, when it comes to myself as a person and my friendships (male and female) I have complete confidence. what gives?

winter-ish

this morning along with my thoughts about forgoing Funglish; I also decided I would go and buy a new coat. why now, in January? Well in November, when my fleece jacket was no longer enough to keep me warm, I bought an awesome toggle coat (my favorite kind of coat). Well the coat fit perfectly, and it was even on sale! BUT in the past two months it seems my chest has gotten bigger although I've not put on much weight elsewhere. maybe it's the kimchi and instead of going straight to one's hips it goes straight to the breasts. either way lately I've been committing a serious faux pas because the toggle that crosses my chest gaps open. I've been using my scarf to hide this, but wondering when someone is going to say something. Oh the horror!

Anyways, my endeavor to find a new coat was successful. It's double-breasted and a great material that makes me want to sleep in it. Not to mention it's navy which does amazing things with my eyes. ;0)

check out the before & after:

thoughts on a Saturday

when my alarm went off this morning my first thoughts were:

-thank god it's saturday
-I should sleep in and skip Funglish graduation
-no, jennifer get your ass up, everyone else will be there and so should you.


so needless to say I went to the Funglish festivities and I'm so glad I did. I got to see the children perform and talk about their past three weeks at kid's camp. Furthermore I got to see the children that became my particular favorites and meet their parents. Here are some of the pictures...

with my favorite: Robin (english name)

peace

another favorite: Eunice

group shot

korean comfort

猿も木から落ちる(japanese)

or

원숭이도 나무에서 떨어지는 (korean)

both of these are the same proverb and translate into "even monkeys fall from trees" meaning we all make mistakes. perhaps it was because it was friday, because I was tired, or maybe I had other things on my mind. anyhow, tonight I misspelled a word twice on the board and was extremely embarrassed. thankfully it was with one of my two favorite classes, so I was able to laugh off the mistake. my students made me feel better by telling me this korean/japanese proverb, and explaining that all teachers are also students so they must make mistakes. sometimes i'm completely blown away by my students. one minute i want to pull my hair out and the next I want to hug them.

pronunciation for them goes something like this:

japanese: saru mo ki kara ochiru

korean: won soong e doe namu ee su ddul ugh jil ddae ga it da (try saying that five times really fast)

Viernes por la noche

it's that time, and I only have two classes to go until my weekend officially starts. today has gone unusually well, and I'm almost expecting a bomb to drop in my night classes. I went grocery shopping today, so that tomorrow I have nothing pending thus interrupting my planned laziness. tomorrow is the kid's camp graduation and although I feel like I should go because everyone else will be there either by choice or for work, I don't know if I can drag myself out of bed. My plan was to sleep in. when I say sleep in, I mean hibernating. Yet as I write this blog I'm already trying to figure out what time I will need to get up, so that I can arrive on time. I could in theory sleep an extra three hours more than usual and still wake up to attend the play and graduation. besides I really want a chance to take pictures I didn't take because I forgot my camera last sunday.

what of the rest of my weekend?

I really have no plans, other than to do some lesson plans on sunday which will inevitably be put off until the last minute. initially I thought I might get on the train, ride 15 minutes to the huge bookstore/starbucks in Daegu and spend my day, but that depends on my attitude tomorrow. most of you know wind patterns are easier to predict than my moods/attitudes. ;0)

more later

algo diferente

yes, today was something different. of course it's friday so it goes without saying that I'm in a fairly good mood. however, this morning no one showed up for my 6:20 am class so I was able to spend 50 minutes drinking coffee in a quiet classroom while I read "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (my current read). Despite the fact that the initial bitchy thought about having to get up for nothing did cross my mind, (only for a moment) bliss is what I found when I realized I had 50 minutes of "me" time.

My second class begins immediately after the first one ends at 7:10, which can sometimes be exhausting. However, I must say that my 7:10 class is my absolute, hands-down, favorite. These students are bright and intelligent, but also intellectual and interested in learning. They shed their insecurities about making mistakes in English and talk, talk, talk.

Anyways this morning was different. Only one student showed up. She is a woman in her 30's who is an accountant at a bank in Gumi. However, unlike many in automated Gumi there is so much more to her than the accountant. Today I found out (we were able to have complete one-on-one conversation) that she loves literature and more so she loves poetry! I couldn't help but get excited. We talked about how addicted we were to books and we both share the same opinion that bookstores with cafes are perhaps the best-ever idea. Not only did we talk about books, but we talked about particular authors. To my surprise she love German Literature. And who does she like you might ask? None other than the Herman Hesse. This admission thus set off a discussion about Siddhartha.

I've read Siddhartha three different times (and even brought it with me to Korea), and to find someone who loves the novel as much as I can be likened to having a great cup of coffee or hot chocolate on a cold day: a cozy feeling. However, it was a little weird or maybe surreal that I would be discussing a German author, with a Korean in an English Language class. If my heart wasn't already full of adoration and a new respect for this woman; we began talking about poetry again. She, like me, loves poetry from other cultures. She also like me, loves to read Pablo Neruda and ancient Asian poetry. Both of us share a liking for Chinese poets. At this point I'm not believing what I'm hearing, and I'm so excited I don't want the class to end. She asked me at the end if I would recommend some of my favorite poets to her and thus would she. I thought my heart would burst. Nothing means more to me than to have someone ask me to recommend literature/poetry, and in return recommend their own for my reading.

So with all of that said, the rest of my students can all hand in their "fuck-you" cards today, and it wouldn't matter. Not that I'm hoping for such a thing to happen, but after my very refreshing morning class I could overlook such behavior. I'll let you know how it goes later.

"blue eyes blue"

monday is gone, but my blues are still here.

Gong-Yoo

even Gong-Yoo is wary of Mondays or maybe he too is beginning to think his owner looks like Harry Potter!

Jennipah vs. Harry Potter

yes I look a little crazy here, but HEY it's monday!

no, I can't save the world from evil, but I can do so much more than that...

harry potter

ok so my heart is broken, plain and simple. one of my beloved students likened me to Harry Potter! needless to say he is no longer so beloved. jk Harry Potter! is it true? have you people at home been bold-faced lying to my face and secretly thinking "I've a friend who looks like Harry Potter," "I'm kissing Harry Potter?"

ok so my heart isn't really broken, if truth be told my heart has never really been broken. At least not in the sense that many have had their's broken. yes I've suffered some bumps and bruises to my ego, and I've been let go when I wasn't ready to "let go," but my heart has never truly been broken, and for that I'm grateful. For those of you who are reading this and your heart has been broken I'm not attempting to serve as a reminder nor am I rubbing in your faces my heart's fortunate bypass of such pain. I'm just simply stating.

Back to my students though, they are RUTHLESS! did i mention my students were ruthless? I will admit the class covered very well from the recent Harry Potter likening. "But Jennipah/Jenniper Harry Potter is cute." wtf is cute? I also must give them credit because many of my students responded "well jenniper I think you're beautiful." of course perhaps this was to cover the ass of their classmate when they seen the horrified look on my face. I must say that Harry Potter is one of the better insults I've had thrown in my face. Just last week (when I felt like death) two different days my students decided to pound me with insults. "Jenniper you look really really bad, are you sick?" "Jenniper you look like picture you show us from concentration camp" OMG! I suppose this is better then the previous weeks insult of "Jenniper you have been eating a lot of kimchi, you look fat today" Fat! my students said I look fat. I will say in just the five months I've been in Korea, I've become extremely self conscious, but then again I've come to a point where I just don't care. I mean either way the students are going to scrutinize me, and point out any visible shortcomings. so Harry Potter it is.

is it true? do I look like Harry Potter?

O.S.I.M (oh shit it's monday)

so I guess having the monday blues is kinda out of question for me since I'm expected to be happy, upbeat, enthusiastic and any other choice phrase you can think of that includes lots of energy and a smile everyday, all day, five days a week. My day starts at 6 am and that leaves no room for any negativity unless you count the spare minutes between classes when I sometimes bitch and gripe about this or that. Today, though, was not bad. I was talking to a fellow teacher and we have both had a kind of epiphany. Almost everyday including after having just returned from the weekend, many students respond to "how was your day/weekend?" with "nothing special." We get it now Korea. We understand the "nothing special" response. It's having a day where nothing remotely interesting happens and is just like all of those days before it when nothing interesting happened.

All the same, this morning when my alarm went off, I laid in bed and I couldn't stop my self from thinking OSIM (oh shit it's monday) and having that feeling of BLAH come over me. how to remedy this? I've tried mantras in the morning, playing motivating music, but nothing seems to make that "blah-it's-monday" feeling dissipate.

your homework: tell me what you do for the "monday blues"

tagged

i've been tagged to share seven things about myself...

so...

I love my cat(s) so much it's almost embarrassing

I really want to own my own bookstore someday, but I have no idea how that is going to come to fruition.

I really love Spaghetti O's (sans meatballs)

Sometimes I think prejudices are growing in the United States instead of diminishing

I loooooooove to sleep

There is something I want very badly right now, but can not have.

I believe people need to listen more and say less (I myself included)

Funglish: part II

it's Sunday evening and I'm back at home. All that bitching from earlier was very unnecessary because Funglish a.k.a. Kid's Camp was not that bad. Ok so there were 50 kids, most of which were the same height as me which caused quite a bit of excitement. Each year's Funglish has a theme and this year's theme was Halloween. This may come as a surprise since it's January, but Koreans do not celebrate Halloween yet the children are very aware of the holiday and the festivities surrounding the day. So. We gave them Halloween. Throughout the week they have been making masks, trick-or-treat cups, costumes, skeletons and the like. Today we made jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin pancakes, had a pumpkin seed spitting contest, and the teachers put together a haunted house for the kids. It was great. I was in charge of helping children carve two pumpkins (which I've only done once in my entire life) and it was surprisingly successful. I only had to get them started and they went to town gutting out the pumpkins, making the jack-o-lantern faces, and even cleaning up! Can you believe it. The pumpkin pancakes were something new to me as I'm only a fan of the pumpkin smell, not the taste. This is something everyone should experience especially if you like pumpkin. The taste is something I've never experienced. It was weird, but good. Just mix pumpkin in with your pancake batter and cook like usual.

Of course there was the usual overly-obnoxious kid, but most of them were very well behaved for 50 8-13 year olds having been shut up together for three weeks. My favorite kid was a little boy who's english name was Robin. He was very small and shy at first, but warmed up to me quickly. He has the brightest smile and his personality will certainly take him far in life. I wanted to put him in my pocket and carry him around so as to pull him out when ever I needed such a smile in my day. I also got a real awesome, bright orange hoody AND the opportunity to spend the day with my very attractive-but-so-not-single-coworker Chan. He is amazing with kids and all I could think about the whole time was having him feed me pumpkin pancakes in bed rather than helping kids mix batter while they marveled over his pancake-flipping skills (he definitely showed off). So the day went well. 8 hours wasn't bad until closer to the end when I really started watching my clock closer because I was getting tired and hungry. Also at this point the kids were yelling for food, smeared with face paint, hyped up from candy and anxious for "more more more." More of what I'm not sure. more candy? more haunted house and playing halloween? more of me making a fool of myself so they would quit running in circles chasing each other? Who knows, but Funglish was not so bad and I regret having not been helping more through the week with the other teachers. Of course that wasn't possible since I was sick, but all the same.

Funglish: part I

so it's Sunday morning at 9:35 and I'm up listening to OutKast so I can get my mojo up to go to work. yes I said work. something is wrong with this because if you notice I said it's SUNDAY. oh and did I mention it's raining? It's raining outside. wtf. Can I just say for the record that Murphy's Law has been royally kicking my ass this past week. I mean royally. So anyways, I should be in bed, tangled in my covers while in a deep slumber. Instead I have to go work 8 hours with Funglish. That's Global-slang for kid's camp. Kid's camp!

ok I have to run to catch a taxi....more later

Des'Ree says

you gotta be bad
you gotta be bold
you gotta be wiser

you gotta hard
you gotta be tough
you gotta be stronger

you gotta be cool
you gotta be calm
you gotta stay together

"closer"

the song I'm really dign' as of late...

a little later

before it gets even farther into the new year I want to wish everyone I did not talk to a Happy New Year. I hope your year is slow, lovely, and full of good things. I was slow in making my resolutions this year. (I didn't make them until a week after the official holiday) The reason for this is because 2007 was such a crazy year with so many ups and downs that I wanted to make some real resolutions for 2008 and do my best to stick by them. In the past my resolutions have followed much of the same path such as eat healthier and exercise, save money, be a better person and two years in a row it was quit smoking. Well I've quit smoking and I'm saving money and well being a better person is more of a quest in my everyday life than a mere resolution. However, this year, especially since so much has changed for me I wanted it to be different. So this year my promises to myself are:

write more
stop being so self critical
slow down
become fluent in Korean (I can speak it, but it's more along the lines of a two year old)
travel and discover as much as possible
tell my loved ones I love them more (I believe there are people in my life who don't know how much they mean to me because I never tell them, and furthermore sometimes I go more than two weeks without contacting my parents :0()

kp0w8-h/2

ok, that last one was Gong Yoo's (my cat) resolution for 2008. He decided to walk across my keyboard when I got up for more coffee.

so armed and ready; into the new year we shall go...

some thoughts

today I felt like a bear after waking up. Having slept until 2 pm, a full 13 hours, I am still tired. Why am I still tired I ask myself. Of course I have slept too much, but why did I sleep so long in the first place when my body is now used to rising at 5 am every morning? And then it hits me. I'm sick! I've been so busy I've not been paying attention to the signs my body has been giving me.

sore throat
scratchy cough
unusually tired and groggy (even with only two hours of shut-eye I'm usually perky)
achy all over
losing my appetite

I'm very annoyed to discover I've neglected myself so that I can't even tell when I'm getting sick. UGH. Two months ago I would have let a few swear words about Korea and so and so making me sick slip. Not today. I can no longer feel any resentment at the fact that the country I'm currently calling home is full of industrial smog, "yellow dust" from China and other like air pollutants that are constantly assaulting my skin, hair and general health. Soon I fear I will have to start wearing a gauze mask like the rest of the population. Anyways. Some how the clouds in the sky have found their way into my heart and let loose some of their rain because now when I think of Korea, my heart could burst. Those of you at home who will read this do not fret. I do not plan on making South Korea my permanent residence. However, the plan is to come home in September and return for another year before moving on to Japan. Of course the operative word is "plan." Someone close to me once told me that "execution is what is important" and although I agreed at the time, as time goes on I realize even more how true these words really are. They ring true for almost everything I do in my life from the smallest to the largest, especially my job. However, I do not want this blog to be about my job because Monday through Friday everything centers around teaching. Today is Saturday and it's about me. MMMMM what a nice thought. ;0)

till later...

TGIF

It's finally friday!

will blog after work tonight ;0)

this past weekend...

we all went out together because starting January, 7 2007 Funglish begins and thus are social life will come to a halt for about three weeks until this kid's camp is over. here are the pictures from this weekend...

Friday night @ WA Bar

double -fisting"jenipal and likki"

no Red Stripe so we'll take Stella Artois...

joon and myself

Saturday night @ Rolling Stone

jason and the paper hat

fumble for the hat

Narcisz dons the paper hat

Will and myself (he was tryn' to be all sexy for the camera)

apologies

so it's been a week or maybe more since my last post, ugh. The new year of course brought a new schedule which came to mean, as I would soon find out, less time. It's hard to believe it's 2008 especially when I think of how 12 am Jan 1 came just like every other 12 am. My New Year or rather my New Year's Eve was spent in reflection more than celebration. Not to make this sound like someone's pity party because I was quite happy despite the lack of celebration along with my fellow expats. My classes are going so well I can hardly believe it. I've some amazing students who are not only enthusiastic , but actually "get" my humor and sarcasm. Furthermore during my New Year's holiday I added another "being" to my apartment and one more excuse for my students to tell me I'm lonely and suggest me getting a boyfriend.

side note: to hell with a picture a day or a post a day...it just ain't working ;0)

isn't he beautiful?first night: he came in and took over