Alone on an Alien Planet: Just a Few Thoughts.

First, I took a little heat for my comment at the end of the video in my last post, the one with the two girls trying to recite the dialogue. At least one of you seemed to think that that was irresponsible of me. Let me assure you, I've said much worse things under my breath and nobody picked up on it. You can say whatever you want in class as long as you say it fast enough and its not completely quiet in the room. Of course my camera picked it up--I was holding it. Anyway, these particular kids are some of the cool kids. They know they're terrible and its okay.

I've had some jerk teachers in my life. Most notably my swimming teacher when I was in kindergarten who made fun of me and splashed water in my face because I couldn't swim. I cried and never went back. I still can't really swim. I would NEVER make a child feel like he wasn't learning, or worse yet couldn't learn, what it is I'm teaching.

That said, here is the transcript of the video as some of you requested:

-Hey, what a cool kite!
-Thanks, I made it myself.
-You're kidding!
-No, it's true. I made it.
-Was it hard?
-No, it was easy. I'll show you.
-Great! What do we need?
-Paper and string. Let's get some.
-That was terrible.

Watch it again-- it IS terrible.

Here are some quirky things that Koreans do.. One, whenever one has to take a call at the dinner table, or sometimes on the subway, they cover their mouths with their free hands while they talk. Like nobody can tell I'm talking if I cover up my mouth? I love it.

I noticed the second one while on break and having some coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts down the street from work. People here treat DD like it's a coffee shop.. I looked around and noticed tables of hip, young college kids on a break from classes and sharing a tray of donuts. Can you picture this in the States? "Hey, Kayla, lets go down to the Dunkin' Donuts and split some chocolate glazed DONUTS and talk about boy bands."

Have you ever heard of Fan-Death? I hadn't before last night. Apparently you can ask any Korean about whether or not you should sleep with your fan on and they will say, "No! You'll die!" They are convinced that somewhere along the line it has been scientifically proven that if you do sleep with your fan on and your windows shut you could have the breath sucked right out of you as you sleep and you could die. I know.

Last Sunday I went to check out the frisbee club on Yeouinaru, which is on the island of Yeouido in the Han River, which cuts right through the middle of the city. It was beautiful but unfortunately I got the time wrong on the website and showed up shortly before they finished playing. So, I plan on going back this weekend or next if I'm feeling in shape.

This Saturday is SunnyTeacher's wedding and I'm invited-- excited to get to see a Korean wedding while I'm here.

I hope I haven't made it out to seem like I'm not enjoying myself here. I certainly am. It's just that I've only been here for 2 months and I guess I'm still a bit homesick . I love this city a lot but with how many hours I work I feel I don't get to see it all that easily or all that often. I have been enjoying my time off-- on the weekends, of course, it's partytime. I have to cram as much into them as I can while getting enough rest so Monday isn't too painful. I'm still not used to working full time. I love my kids, my apartment, being mostly alone, doing whatever I want, etcetera. And I love that I meet people here constantly. It feels like I doing nothing but talk all day long, which is new for me. Chrissy's new co-worker/friend Dianne is from, yep, Pittsburgh and she's been a nice addition to the crew. It was on the way to dinner last night with them, Nari, and Ross that Becky and I walked to the subway in the rain. I chose flip-flops for my feet, a wise choice to be sure.. On the way down the wet granite steps of the Haengdang station I totally lost it and went down hard. Hard. It felt like I shook the whole neighborhood and on the way back Becky wanted to check to see if I dented the steps.. My point is I am very lucky I didn't break an elbow or something. I'm a little bruised but it could have been a lot worse. And this just days after I decided not to spring for health-care while I'm here... Yikes!

On the weekdays I work out a good amount and play my guitar. Tammy (drop), a girl I met at Rocky Mountain Tavern during the Penguins run, gave me a guitar that one of her friends left behind. Sometimes when people leave here abruptly, be it because of personal reasons or bad conditions at their school or whatever, rather than feel the wrath that could come from not finishing your contract (not being paid for the last month of work) most people will pull what is called a 'Midnight Run' where you wait for last month's check to clear and when it does you are on a plane home without giving any notice. Your director comes to your apartment to see why you aren't at work and it's empty. Simple as that. They have no right to legal action or even to try to contact you. It's over. Anyway, that's what her friend did and I got a guitar out of the whole business that's amazingly similar to the one I never played back home. If that isn't an omen i don't know what is.. so I'm playing it a lot. Second chances for everyone.

Becky just put about 40 albums worth of music on my iPod. I was hurting for new music and now I've got plenty to tide me over. I'm not going to talk about it because I'm not pretentious but I will say that its amazing what new music can do for you when you didn't even realize you needed it.

Other than that I am growing my hair long and when my razors run out I am going to stop shaving, too. What are they going to do, fire me? Please.

Here are a couple of my new friends.