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| Korean Wedding |
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| Korean Wedding |
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| Mothers of the bride and groom bowing to the families and guests |
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| Korean Wedding |
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| Korean Wedding |
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| Christmas Exchange at the Ugly Sweater Party |
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| The Nutcracker |
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| Seeing the nutcracker in Seoul |
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| Walking around the Children's Zoo in Seoul |
The last full week of school of the semester, I made it!! And whew what a crazy semester. It has been so stressful with afterschool and with learning how Juny likes to teach and my role in the classroom. As the school year progressed, I had less and less of a role. Instead Juny became the main English teacher with me being there to say some sentences once in a while and walk around the classroom like a dope. It bothers me sometimes because I feel so useless and keep wondering why I am here but then I hear about how other people have to play 25 lessons a week and they are so so busy. I know that next semester will be really busy without her because I will have to teach 22 different lessons every week which is going to be overwhelming. Many people have bigger schools so they have one or two classes for each grade level and can therefore repeat lesson plans. Not me. So I should just enjoy my laziness now while it lasts.
I also got to enjoy the kids and their silliness. Now that I don’t see them in after school and have to yell at them, they are way funnier and hilarious. Like the other day. The school is freezing. They heat the classrooms in the morning and afternoon so the rooms are semi warm but a lot of times the doors stay open in the hallways so the hallways are absolutely freezing! For that reason, a lot of the students walk around with hand warmers. Well, one morning, Juny is talking to the students and I’m just standing there (a good part of my job it to be a mannequin) watching the students. I look over and there is 6th grade who took a hand warmer from his friend and pretends that it is make-up and starts “dabbing” it in fake foundation and then dabbing his face. It was hilarious! In the states I think it would have been more weird for a boy to be putting on pretend make-up but here the men are a lot more feminine and it is a lot more widely accepted. All the kpop stars (men and women) wear a lot of noticeable make-up and perms/dyed hair are everywhere on men. I’ve seen two year old boys with permed hair. Plus the men here dress a lot more feminine than the women back home with tighter pants, more sweaters and in general seem to be into fashion way more than at home. They don’t really have “manly men” here. Yet that being said women are portrayed and seen as being very weak and fragile and men are always supposed to take care of them. Men do all the heavy lifting at school and within a couple it is common to see men carrying the woman’s purse, following her around when they go shopping to carry her things, holding an umbrella over her, etc. It’s both cute and disgusting.
Since it was the end of the year I decided to give the kids a present and, thanks to mom and dad, was able to give each of the kids a penny from the states which they all really liked. I also had two kids, Tyler and JunJe from fifth grade stay after class one day for like two seconds so I secretly gave them candy. I told them they had to keep it a secret and they said yes. Well by lunch the secret had been spilled and the other kids had found out. Those two!!! I didn’t have any more candy but I had ordered dried apple pieces online and had those in my bag so I gave out some. Before I knew it I had a line of fifth graders sticking out their little paws for food. One thing Korea has taught me is to be better with sharing food so I obliged and they each got some. I did get them to say “May I have some apple?” or “May I have some more?” They were too cute to not give them apples.
By the end of the week I was really beginning to feel more and more sick so I asked if I could leave early to head to the doctor. Juny was so sweet and even gave me a ride and said she would go with me but when we got there the doctor was at lunch and Juny had to drop off the Vice Principal somewhere so I was left by myself to come back later. It was difficult but I succeeded in my trip. In Korea the doctors are separated by their specialty so I had to go to an ENT doctor for my cold. The receptionists and nurses didn’t speak English but I just handed them my card and they took me right in to the doctor who did speak English. He didn’t really find anything but did give me a prescription for some meds and let me sit in this weird room with a heater on my ear that had been hurting. It was a bizarre appointment but at least I was able to get some medication.
I had just made it back to my apartment when I saw my friend, another American teacher walking towards me and asked if I knew where the hospital was. I didn’t but called my tutor who pointed me in the right direction and so, being the good person I am, walked with the teacher to the doctor. The teacher looked terrible and I felt bad because we had to walk around forever before we found the place and actually went to the wrong type of doctor first. Anyways, finally found the right doctor who spoke some English and told us we had to head to the hospital in Cheongju. Okay, so hopped in a cab and made our way to the Cheongju ER where no one spoke English. Thank god for Juny who I called and used as a translator between the doctor and the other teacher. We were in the ER for hours and they finally admitted my friend around 8:30. But since we had been there for so long she was hungry so I had to go out in the snow to get her something to eat. Of course, she could only eat soup and every restaurant I went to that had take-out said they do take out for everything but soup!!! God!! Finally found something, made it back to the hospital and once I ensured she was settled and okay I left by about 9:30.
I found a bus stop right outside and sat down to wait which was supposed to be about 20 minutes. As I am waiting this drunk guy walks over and stands like 2 feet away from me and just stares and stares at me. But being the stubborn person I am, I just sat there and ignored. Then he sat down next to me, I scooted over and he got even closer and leaned over to see what I was doing on my phone. Then he touched my leg which grossed me out so I said excuse me and got up. BUT when I got up he touched my butt! That pervert! Before I knew it I had kicked him in the shins and gave him the dirtiest look and was about to slap him before my alert system inside went on. I realized that it would be safer just to walk around instead of hit him as I had no idea what he would do. I walked a little ways away but still waited for the bus. It finally came and the creepy guy got on too and kept looking back at me. I ignored him and began to panic about something else. The bus didn’t turn when it was supposed to! I was going the wrong direction! I was on the wrong bus. I needed the 502 home and I thought the 50-2 was the same one—NOPE! Damn it! I hopped off and walked to the busiest street I could find and hailed a cab back to Jochiwon. Finally made it back after getting harassed and shelling out way more than was necessary all because I was being a good person. No good deed goes unpunished!
The next day, though, was going to be great as I had been invited to my first Korean wedding. A girl I play volleyball with was getting married and had handed out invitations to the entire team. Luckily the other American I play with was going and she and I went with a teacher from her school. I had no idea what to expect. We got to the venue which was a wedding hall that was hosting two weddings. When you walk in there are tables for each of the respective weddings and you go, give them cash that they put in an envelope for the couple and you get a meal ticket. Then you walk into the lobby where you see the groom surrounded by banners and flowers with his and the brides parents and you can go take pictures with him. In a small room off to the side is the bride who sits on a couch and you can go talk to her and take pictures with her. It was so bizarre. The ceremony was held in a bright, white chapel off on the side. As you walk in there are pictures of the bride and groom from a photo shoot and there is an elevated aisle (looks like a model runway) leading up to the altar. Everything was so shiny and bright and white! We took our seats and soon the wedding started with a little flower boy, the groom walking down and then the bride being led in by her father. But it is way different from a Western wedding. Here everyone was talking the entire time and no one stood up when they walked down the aisle, it was loud and boisterous! They also had a video being played at the front that had pictures of the bride and groom.
I think the ceremony was pretty but it was all in Korean so I have no idea what they said. At one point though, friends of the bridge and groom got up and sang various love songs with, of course, cutesy dancing. After the ceremony (which did not include rings or a kiss and instead including bows to both families), they took pictures at the front. First it was with the families but then all the visitors and friends were invited to come up for a massive picture. The whole time I kept thinking that in 20 years she is going to be like who are those white people sticking out!
They kept taking pictures and we went upstairs to pig out on the buffet. What a huge spread; Chinese food, Western food, Korean food, desserts, salads, etc. It was really good but it was just like being in a big cafeteria. They took your ticket, you got a tray and pigged out and then sat where you wanted. That was it. Afterwards, you just went home. The teacher we were with said that on her wedding day she got married in the morning and then went home to clean the house. SO we ate and just left. It was pretty anti-climactic.
The wedding in general was weird because they go over the top on some things but skimp on others. Like the meal was good but it was in a cafeteria with people from another wedding. Yet there was a movie that was played and the bride’s dress was impeccable. It was really an interesting and bizarre experience.
That night there was an ugly Christmas Party and white elephant gift exchange at an Americans apartment which ended up being fun. I gave a beer collection where I bought 3 different beers from around the world and a baby beer glass. People really liked it which I was happy about. I ended up getting a hodgepodge of things like a thermos, scent diffuser, socks, etc. After the exchange the others went out to a bar but as I was still recovering from being sick I headed home.
I was glad to go home and rest a bit because I had another big day on Sunday. Although I wasn’t going to be home for the holidays I still wanted to do holiday stuff and therefore I bought tickets with a friend to go see the Nutcracker ballet. I had mentioned it to another girl and she came too so three of us headed to Seoul for the afternoon. The performance by The Universal Ballet Company (a South Korean company) was beautiful but it was so hot in the theatre that I kept falling asleep. I felt terrible but I couldn’t keep my eyes open! What I did manage to see though was beautiful even though they changed things around a little bit. For example they didn’t have the mom come out with all the kids that run out from under her dress which is my favorite part.
After the show we walked around that area of Seoul and went to the Children’s Park and stumbled upon a zoo! Who knew there was a zoo there!!! Not a lot of animals were out but enough that we enjoyed walking around. To end the evening we ended up going out to eat for barbequed duck which was amazing.
All in all it was a fantastic, Christmas-y weekend!
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