Plant Man

In one of my classes the current storybook is called "Medical Miracles." The title speaks for itself, but this particular lesson told the story of a college football player who injured his spinal cord in a game. He should have been paralyzed, but the doctors performed a "miraculous" surgery which allowed him to walk and fully function again. Anyway, we were discussing the word paralyzed, what it means, the implications of being paralyzed, and so on. One of my students volunteered his own story that he had seen on TV. He began to describe a man who had broken his neck and then became a "plant man."
"Plant man? what?" I asked, and continued to repeat the phrase, making sure the student and I were saying the same words. All of the rest of his classmates joined in, agreeing with this term, plant man, as if it were an English phrase that I was just unaware of. "I'm sorry, I just don't know what you're saying, or talking about," an expression I use often. They were persistent about this one, though, arguing that a plant man is someone who breaks their neck or has some sort of severe injury and then cannot move, speak, eat, or really do anything on their own. It finally came to me: a vegetable.

Jinju

Last Saturday I took a bus down to a southern city called Jinju. It's a smaller city, of about 200-300,000 people. It was definitely a nice change from the 10+million Seoul. It was a beautiful day on Saturday, and even better on Sunday. Finally! Oh yeah, and then I get back to Incheon and it's raining and 40 degrees. I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. But that's a different story...

Here are some pictures of Jinju and some parks we walked around in





We walked through a bamboo forest as well:




The actual purpose of our trip was a friend's production of The Vagina Monologues in Jinju.I jumped at the opportunity because I had never seen the show, and as I said, it is always nice to venture into a new city. Not to mention transportation is dirt cheap in this country. Anyway, overall, the show was great; a nice combination of light-hearted comedy as well as some tragedy with an underlying empowering message. The highlight was the 50-year-old co-teacher of one of the actresses. The costume theme was black with red accessories, so many people wore red belts, shoes, scarves, etc. This older woman (referred to as an "Ajama" in Korean) decked herself out in full red gear, including a fire engine red wig.



She was one of the only Koreans, so I have to give her serious props for doing this. First of all, she had to memorize an entire monologue in a foreign language. Second, the content of her speech and the whole production would be quite taboo in many realms of Korean society. Her speech was called "The Flood," so, use your imagination.

Before we left on Sunday we went to eat Shabu Shabu, which I had not yet eaten in Korea. It is kind of a 3-course meal: You begin with a spicy soup, a plate of raw meat and vegetables, a bowl of noodles, and a bowl of rice with some herbs and a raw egg.




As the soup begins to boil, you start to add the vegetables. Then when the soup is hot enough, you dip the raw meat into the soup and allow it to cook the meat. The strips of beef are so thin that they actually cook in about 5 seconds. After you enjoy the meat and vegetables, the second step is adding the noodles, which kind of remind me of fettucini. I had never seen that type of noodle in Korea before, usually only ramen or udong. Once you have finished the last of the noodles and broth, the server comes to make you the fried rice. This fried rice was especially delicious because the pan allows it to be nice and crispy. Yummy. I should have taken more pictures, but I was too busy eating.

A Day in the Life

I think the title pretty much speaks for itself; this is what I deal with day to day. However, whenever I try to get my kids on video, they stop saying and doing hilarious things. It must be the presence of a camera that makes them get all shy and weird. This particular class is my Memory Giga class, which is kind of a mid-level English class. I have 6 boys, and they're all quite smart. They're intelligence doesn't stand out as much as their energy--to put it nicely. They're crazy. And they love to participate. They are my only class that I have to force to raise their hands because they are competing to respond. In every other class, I am practically begging them to say one word. With these boys, though, I ask a question and 6 hands shoot up immediately (sometimes before I even ask) and all I hear is the sound of many "Ooohh Oooh"s, as if the monkey call will lead me to choose them to receive the great honor of answering a question. I taped them during break. It captures some of their energy level, but not the true ridiculousness of their personalities. When I stopped taping I asked where one of the students, Martin, was, and my student Steve said "he's on the toilet poo-pooing something giant" (where he got 'poo-pooing' I do not know) and my other student, Kevin, said "he went to the hospital and died and now is in heaven." I kicked myself for turning the camera off prematurely



Steve 1 (I have two of them) is the one that's dancing and what not in the video. He got a little camera-happy I think. Steve 2, on the other hand, is covering his face the entire time. The hiding in sweatshirt hoodies occurs almost every time I try to take a picture of my kids.

A quick explanation: they called me Pikachu in the middle of it, in case if you picked up on that. My face gets red quite often for those of you who know me...sometimes because I'm embarrassed, nervous, mad, hot, sick, and many times for no reason at all. So when this occurs, my students call me Pikachu (the Pokemon character with the pink cheeks). This reference is used across the board with all my students. Face red....TEACHER, PIKACHU! without fail. This particular day I actually think I was just wearing blush, so they called me out on that.

This video made me realize just how much I say "alright" and "okay." I'm like a broken record.

P is for...Palace

On Saturday I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. It is one of Seoul's main tourist attractions because it is the largest palace built during the Chosun dynasty in the 1300's. If you already read my China post, this may come as a bit of a deja vu; Gyeongbokgung and the Forbidden City are quite similar looking. However, China was lacking in the performance arts aspect. In true Korean style, every 20 minutes the guards, dressed in full costume, put on a show representing the changing of the guards.






Unlike the Forbidden City, which is like the Energizer bunny and literally never ends, Gyeongbokgung was smaller, and had more architectural variety.






On the other hand, just LIKE China, the tourists are not allowed inside the palace but can only peek in through windows. Come on, I want to sit in the throne! Is that so much to ask?



Inside the palace grounds there was also a Korean folk museum. Loved this Korean farming outfit:



My friend pointed out, "Imagine getting stuck in the rain with that on." You would be a giant wet mop. We really wanted to go into the displays of traditional rooms and snuggle up in the tiny beds, but the glass seemed impenetrable, unfortunately.