I don't have this thought very often here in Korea, but when I do, I'm usually in my oven-less kitchen, accidentally pouring too much chili oil on my broccoli or trying to pick up thinly sliced pickled radish with chopsticks. Sometimes, it's when I'm in my bathroom and have forgotten to turn the dial from the shower to the faucet (long story, seeing pictures helps) and end up getting showered on in my clothes.
Other times it's when I'm tired of eating rice all the time! I miss mashed potatoes. Yummmm! I miss basil. I miss oregano.
Sorry, negative thoughts.
Other times, it's when my kindergartners say things like, "We never cry in any other teacher's class." That one hurts.
The other day I found myself giving my students a recipe for guacamole just so that I think about it for a while. Damn you, California! You've forever ruined my experience of just about everywhere else in the world....
OK, I'm feeling better now. Sorry, I was pretty hungry and tired when I wrote this blog.
Hope you're all well. I miss you tons. Sleep well.
Maria
PS: If you laughed at this at all, I guess you're the one I talk about in the subject header.
mercoledì 22 ottobre 2008
lunedì 20 ottobre 2008
my favorite moment of the day so far.....
So I teach two kindergarten classes when I come into work. The first one, "Bear class," has been the source of all the drama in my life. Today for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long we got through the entire lesson with no one crying....wonder of wonders.
My next class, "Chipmunk class," has been the source of all joy and pleasure (not to mention paper airplanes). I love this class to pieces! Two of the students, Sam and Jasmine (their English names), sit next to each other and are so cute! I keep secretly hoping they'll date someday soon.
Yesterday Sam was practicing a recitation of "The Hare and the Tortoise" for an English contest next week, and suddenly, Jasmine hugged him around the neck and started swinging him around. Everyone started laughing. Sam didn't seem to mind it either.=)
But, today there was a bit of scandal.
The students had to write a journal entry about their friends in class. Jasmine, Sally and Kate (all of whom sit nearby Sam) all wrote about how much they love him and how they should be married to him! Naturally, Sam wrote about his friend Leo.
His journal went something like this:
I like Leeeeooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Yes, a good day =)
My next class, "Chipmunk class," has been the source of all joy and pleasure (not to mention paper airplanes). I love this class to pieces! Two of the students, Sam and Jasmine (their English names), sit next to each other and are so cute! I keep secretly hoping they'll date someday soon.
Yesterday Sam was practicing a recitation of "The Hare and the Tortoise" for an English contest next week, and suddenly, Jasmine hugged him around the neck and started swinging him around. Everyone started laughing. Sam didn't seem to mind it either.=)
But, today there was a bit of scandal.
The students had to write a journal entry about their friends in class. Jasmine, Sally and Kate (all of whom sit nearby Sam) all wrote about how much they love him and how they should be married to him! Naturally, Sam wrote about his friend Leo.
His journal went something like this:
I like Leeeeooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Yes, a good day =)
lunedì 13 ottobre 2008
Re new found purpose in life
New favorite activity: making funny faces at Korean babies without their parents seeing me do it. Hope by the end of the year to make all Asians think Westerners behave wildly inappropriately in the subway. Thanks God: have finally found purpose in life.
Have a good day everyone and special shoutout to Jordan for her birthday!! Love you!
Maria
Have a good day everyone and special shoutout to Jordan for her birthday!! Love you!
Maria
venerdì 10 ottobre 2008
John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany"
I don't like buying modern fiction unless it's specifically recommended to me by someone I can trust (extra points if the person is an English major). Turns out my fellow teacher Carly is one such person. On our first excursion to What the Book, a famous foreigners' bookstore in Itaewon (a spot of the city famous for its Muslim community and appeal to foreigners), she told me how much she loved A Prayer for Owen Meany. She's read it three times, and it began her love of John Irving's writing. She's read several of his books, and there was even a period of about 3 months when that was all she would read. I bought the book on the spot. Always take the passionate advice of an English major.
So glad I did. It is an exquisite book.
John Irving, himself, writes in the Afterward about the significance of the first sentence, which reads something like this:
'I am doomed to forever remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he made me believe in God---I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.'
Irving has written a wonderful portrayal of adolescence which goes far beyond the tragic irony of A Separate Peace (not sure if you ever had to read that in high school--I did). The narrator, a New Hampshire-born expatriate living in Canada, tells the story of his best friend, Owen Meany, the only son of a granite quarryman. Owen Meany, a tragic and lovable character, believes in God's purpose for his life....and death. Spanning their boyhood in the 1950s, the hopeless war years of the 1960s, and the narrator's retelling of the story in the late 1980s, A Prayer for Owen Meany, weaves together historical events and fictional moments of love, friendship, and grief to perfection.
On a scholastic note, if you have ever been confused about the meaning of symbolism or allusion or foreshadowing, Irving offers a textbook of examples in this novel. It's an absolute gift for the intellectual reader.
I hope you all get a chance to read it some day. It's a thing of beauty, and totally worth the two hours of sobbing at its conclusion. Highly recommended!
So glad I did. It is an exquisite book.
John Irving, himself, writes in the Afterward about the significance of the first sentence, which reads something like this:
'I am doomed to forever remember a boy with a wrecked voice--not because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he made me believe in God---I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.'
Irving has written a wonderful portrayal of adolescence which goes far beyond the tragic irony of A Separate Peace (not sure if you ever had to read that in high school--I did). The narrator, a New Hampshire-born expatriate living in Canada, tells the story of his best friend, Owen Meany, the only son of a granite quarryman. Owen Meany, a tragic and lovable character, believes in God's purpose for his life....and death. Spanning their boyhood in the 1950s, the hopeless war years of the 1960s, and the narrator's retelling of the story in the late 1980s, A Prayer for Owen Meany, weaves together historical events and fictional moments of love, friendship, and grief to perfection.
On a scholastic note, if you have ever been confused about the meaning of symbolism or allusion or foreshadowing, Irving offers a textbook of examples in this novel. It's an absolute gift for the intellectual reader.
I hope you all get a chance to read it some day. It's a thing of beauty, and totally worth the two hours of sobbing at its conclusion. Highly recommended!
Arts and Crafts
You know that arts and crafts project where you take a ball of foil, cover it in a tissue, tie a string around it, and it becomes a ghost? The unfortunate, sick, and twisted of you will have no idea what I'm talking about. I still remember when my babysitter showed me and my sisters that lil' trick.
I've been trying to think of enjoyable arts and crafts projects for my kindergartners. Friday is art day, and while they each have their own sketchbooks, complete with an art lesson for each week, it's always a struggle to figure out which lesson to do. They all have their favorite; they all beg me to pick the one they want. And painting is normally a blast, but with kindergartners they spend 10 minutes getting their stuff--from the palette to the paints to the water container to these plastic cuffs which keep their sleeves clean--then they need at least 15 minutes to clean up all that jazz. (They insist on using soap to clean watercolor paints--ahh!) Hence, when all's said and done, they can only paint for about 5 minutes of the 40-minute period. It's ridiculous. And my job isn't as an art teacher; I become a policemen or a referee. I just try to keep them on task and away from the sink.
So, as I was searching for some art project which could jive with our Halloween theme*, I suddenly remembered the ghost craft. It was a huge success (till my class decided to launch their ghosts across the room and almost hit each other in the eyes).
I hung their beautiful art projects on the window sill in one of my classes, and found out later from one of the other teachers that we had inadvertently participated in a Japanese tradition. Apparently, they hang ghosts on the window to keep the rain away. Children will do this before a big field trip in the hopes that the sun keeps shining. Sounds like a good idea to me. I wonder if it works on gloomy thoughts and feelings, in addition to weather....
*I am starting to realize that holidays and all the pizazz that comes with them are perpetuated by elementary school teachers who are just looking for some underlying themes to keep their classrooms decorated and things interesting for their students. It all makes sense.
I've been trying to think of enjoyable arts and crafts projects for my kindergartners. Friday is art day, and while they each have their own sketchbooks, complete with an art lesson for each week, it's always a struggle to figure out which lesson to do. They all have their favorite; they all beg me to pick the one they want. And painting is normally a blast, but with kindergartners they spend 10 minutes getting their stuff--from the palette to the paints to the water container to these plastic cuffs which keep their sleeves clean--then they need at least 15 minutes to clean up all that jazz. (They insist on using soap to clean watercolor paints--ahh!) Hence, when all's said and done, they can only paint for about 5 minutes of the 40-minute period. It's ridiculous. And my job isn't as an art teacher; I become a policemen or a referee. I just try to keep them on task and away from the sink.
So, as I was searching for some art project which could jive with our Halloween theme*, I suddenly remembered the ghost craft. It was a huge success (till my class decided to launch their ghosts across the room and almost hit each other in the eyes).
I hung their beautiful art projects on the window sill in one of my classes, and found out later from one of the other teachers that we had inadvertently participated in a Japanese tradition. Apparently, they hang ghosts on the window to keep the rain away. Children will do this before a big field trip in the hopes that the sun keeps shining. Sounds like a good idea to me. I wonder if it works on gloomy thoughts and feelings, in addition to weather....
*I am starting to realize that holidays and all the pizazz that comes with them are perpetuated by elementary school teachers who are just looking for some underlying themes to keep their classrooms decorated and things interesting for their students. It all makes sense.
mercoledì 8 ottobre 2008
Stephen Colbert's "I Am America and So Can You!"
So, as promised here's the first of my book reviews. Before leaving for Korea, I bought The Prehistory of the Farside. I figured there would be times when I would feel homesick or lonely, and I really wanted a quick and easy way to laugh handy. One of my fellow teachers had the same idea. She smuggled the glorious treasure that is Colbert's I Am America and So Can You and then lent it to me. Thank God she did.
This book is absolutely fantastic! I can't give it enough praise, or at least I can't give it as much as Stephen Colbert gives it himself on the front and back covers. An erudite textbook of Colbert's pearls of wisdom on every subject for the average American. From family to immigrants to class warfare to universities to the future, Stephen Colbert creates a handbook for the way we should all think. Each chapter comes complete with footnotes, margin notes, a fun activity zone, and charts and graphs, so that when just the regular writing isn't enough, you can have extra Colbert thoughts on everything.
Nation, the best thing about it is his honesty (and, of course, how he's right about everything he says). The answer to our bleeding border controls? Stephen Colbert has it: take all the old people who've given their time, money, and sweat in service to this country and help them keep on giving. Put them on a row of porches with rocking chairs and let them yell at the Mexicans trying to step on the lawn of American soil. The answer to how to snazz up your love life? Stephen Colbert's questionnaire. If you have problems of any kind, from sex to sports to money to politics, get Colbert's book. He'll prove to you that as a red-blooded American you can face your problems because America is about freedom! (If you're an immigrant and reading this, I'm afraid there's nothing I can tell you.)
Since no one can speak as well for himself as Colbert, himself, here are some highlights from the bestest parts of the book.
1. The sex and dating questionnaire. Questions include: "What would you be willing to do to get someone to love you?"
a) anything b) not that
"Which president would you assassinate?"
a) Taft b) Ulysses S. Grant c) Harry Truman d) Martin Sheen
2. Colbert on foreign relations:
I'm afraid of Koreans.
Bamm! That's me right off the cuff. I think. I say it. You read it. Sometimes I don't even think it.
3. Chart on how you know which class your in.
Question: "What keeps you up at night?" (Please check one.)
Lower class: The sound of my own weeping.
Middle class: The sneaking suspicion that I've been duped.
Upper class: Should I arrange my topiaries according to alphabetical order by the kind of plant or by the animal?
4. The chapter on "The Future"
Warning! Don't read until the future!
5. "Appropriate bookmarks for this book include: money (no less than a twenty) and another copy of this book."
Yes, folks, you have to buy it for yourselves and read it to get the full effect. I give it 7 Colbert stars*. Before you vote, read this book! Then vote the way a red-blooded American should vote: the way Fox news tells you to.
*Note: Each Colbert star is worth approximately one and a half normal stars.
This book is absolutely fantastic! I can't give it enough praise, or at least I can't give it as much as Stephen Colbert gives it himself on the front and back covers. An erudite textbook of Colbert's pearls of wisdom on every subject for the average American. From family to immigrants to class warfare to universities to the future, Stephen Colbert creates a handbook for the way we should all think. Each chapter comes complete with footnotes, margin notes, a fun activity zone, and charts and graphs, so that when just the regular writing isn't enough, you can have extra Colbert thoughts on everything.
Nation, the best thing about it is his honesty (and, of course, how he's right about everything he says). The answer to our bleeding border controls? Stephen Colbert has it: take all the old people who've given their time, money, and sweat in service to this country and help them keep on giving. Put them on a row of porches with rocking chairs and let them yell at the Mexicans trying to step on the lawn of American soil. The answer to how to snazz up your love life? Stephen Colbert's questionnaire. If you have problems of any kind, from sex to sports to money to politics, get Colbert's book. He'll prove to you that as a red-blooded American you can face your problems because America is about freedom! (If you're an immigrant and reading this, I'm afraid there's nothing I can tell you.)
Since no one can speak as well for himself as Colbert, himself, here are some highlights from the bestest parts of the book.
1. The sex and dating questionnaire. Questions include: "What would you be willing to do to get someone to love you?"
a) anything b) not that
"Which president would you assassinate?"
a) Taft b) Ulysses S. Grant c) Harry Truman d) Martin Sheen
2. Colbert on foreign relations:
I'm afraid of Koreans.
Bamm! That's me right off the cuff. I think. I say it. You read it. Sometimes I don't even think it.
3. Chart on how you know which class your in.
Question: "What keeps you up at night?" (Please check one.)
Lower class: The sound of my own weeping.
Middle class: The sneaking suspicion that I've been duped.
Upper class: Should I arrange my topiaries according to alphabetical order by the kind of plant or by the animal?
4. The chapter on "The Future"
Warning! Don't read until the future!
5. "Appropriate bookmarks for this book include: money (no less than a twenty) and another copy of this book."
Yes, folks, you have to buy it for yourselves and read it to get the full effect. I give it 7 Colbert stars*. Before you vote, read this book! Then vote the way a red-blooded American should vote: the way Fox news tells you to.
*Note: Each Colbert star is worth approximately one and a half normal stars.
a coffee lovers dilemma
Oh my gosh, I just paid 4,000 won for an espresso here. That's about $6 with the dollar down the way it is.
On my lunch break yesterday I joyously discovered a LavAzza cafe'. LavAzza is one of my favorite Italian espresso companies. I'm pulling an especially long day today (subbing for one of the other teachers who's sick), so I decided to treat myself to some espresso (my worst vice). I just paid 4,000 won for an espresso here.... It was 90 cents in Italy. Dang it!
I'm trying to think of the Korean equivalent for something really cheap that's much more expensive anywhere else.... I'm thinking anything made of paper or plastic. But who needs paper and plastic when you can't get coffee! I know some of you out there feel my pain. I'm talking to you, Louis. =) So much for tempering my caffeine addiction.
Happily my parents (enablers that they are) just sent me a package!! The package's contents? A couple food items and two different kinds of coffee beans, a grinder, a coffee cup, and a coffee maker. I knew I could count on them. =)
In the meantime, if you think Starbucks is expensive in the US, you ought to come to Korea. You'd feel much better.
On my lunch break yesterday I joyously discovered a LavAzza cafe'. LavAzza is one of my favorite Italian espresso companies. I'm pulling an especially long day today (subbing for one of the other teachers who's sick), so I decided to treat myself to some espresso (my worst vice). I just paid 4,000 won for an espresso here.... It was 90 cents in Italy. Dang it!
I'm trying to think of the Korean equivalent for something really cheap that's much more expensive anywhere else.... I'm thinking anything made of paper or plastic. But who needs paper and plastic when you can't get coffee! I know some of you out there feel my pain. I'm talking to you, Louis. =) So much for tempering my caffeine addiction.
Happily my parents (enablers that they are) just sent me a package!! The package's contents? A couple food items and two different kinds of coffee beans, a grinder, a coffee cup, and a coffee maker. I knew I could count on them. =)
In the meantime, if you think Starbucks is expensive in the US, you ought to come to Korea. You'd feel much better.
lunedì 6 ottobre 2008
life lessons (yes, a rather cheezy title, but read on)...
Well, friends and family, I have not written a blog is soooooo long, I'm not even sure what to write about now. Sorry about that! I have realized over the past few weeks that one of the biggest life lessons I'm gonna get from coming to Korea will be learning how to manage my time. Not because I have too little (I already know how to deal with that=), but because I have so much! I never thought this would be a problem. It seems like some sort of ironic injustice of the universe that I should be going out of my way to be busy, while my younger sister juggles two jobs, an honors program, and being a full-time student...in one of the busiest cities in the world! Sorry, Anna.=)
Anyway, part of the reason it's important to keep myself busy is simply the fact that the busier I am, the less likely I am to feel the lonliness that surrounds you when you live alone for the first time, especially in a foreign country. It's been an adjustment. I am steadily learning. My fellow Americans here don't seem nearly as intent on spending time together. Well, that's not entirely accurate, but let's just say, I'm not from the right little town in Ohio. So I'm learning to enjoy every moment on my own, savor things at my own pace, be decisive about my wants and needs, listen to the thoughts running around in my head without going insane (although would I really know if I was going insane?). I'm also learning the value of predictability, the value of doing the same thing every day, going to the same places every day, seeing the same people every day--to create rituals, if you will.
Another thing that has struck me is how I am finally in a position to choose the books I read and to read them for pleasure!!! I have always loved reading for school, even those college film journal essays, but to be able to read fiction at my leisure has been quite a blessing. I've already finished three books since coming here. I've found the three best foreign bookstores, and shall porbably be shipping books home in large boxes. =) So, I thought it migh be fun to include book reviews in my blogs. That way when we get sick of talking about Asia (which porbably won't actually happen), we can talk about books. What is more, you will be able to buy the books for yourselves, after being completely enthralled by my descriptions of them. =)
Last night I finished a book entitled A Prayer for Owen Meany, and sobbed for over an hour. This is an exquisite book. I can't do it justice here in this blog (it deserves it's own review), but let me just say that John Irving, the author, spoke to my heart when he wrote, "Ritual combats lonliness." If I weren't here, I'm not sure I would fully appreciate that line in the book. How true it is!
Missing you all. Hope all is well.
Maria
Anyway, part of the reason it's important to keep myself busy is simply the fact that the busier I am, the less likely I am to feel the lonliness that surrounds you when you live alone for the first time, especially in a foreign country. It's been an adjustment. I am steadily learning. My fellow Americans here don't seem nearly as intent on spending time together. Well, that's not entirely accurate, but let's just say, I'm not from the right little town in Ohio. So I'm learning to enjoy every moment on my own, savor things at my own pace, be decisive about my wants and needs, listen to the thoughts running around in my head without going insane (although would I really know if I was going insane?). I'm also learning the value of predictability, the value of doing the same thing every day, going to the same places every day, seeing the same people every day--to create rituals, if you will.
Another thing that has struck me is how I am finally in a position to choose the books I read and to read them for pleasure!!! I have always loved reading for school, even those college film journal essays, but to be able to read fiction at my leisure has been quite a blessing. I've already finished three books since coming here. I've found the three best foreign bookstores, and shall porbably be shipping books home in large boxes. =) So, I thought it migh be fun to include book reviews in my blogs. That way when we get sick of talking about Asia (which porbably won't actually happen), we can talk about books. What is more, you will be able to buy the books for yourselves, after being completely enthralled by my descriptions of them. =)
Last night I finished a book entitled A Prayer for Owen Meany, and sobbed for over an hour. This is an exquisite book. I can't do it justice here in this blog (it deserves it's own review), but let me just say that John Irving, the author, spoke to my heart when he wrote, "Ritual combats lonliness." If I weren't here, I'm not sure I would fully appreciate that line in the book. How true it is!
Missing you all. Hope all is well.
Maria
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