rain and sexual harassment

It’s raining. Again. I don’t think it’s stopped raining this month. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. We are all going to drown in Korea.

Ok, well that’s exaggerating… a bit. It has rained everyday for the past month or so, but it’s not constant. There have been a few (I can count on one hand) dry periods. The main issue is that it is heavy. Picture a good Sou’Easter without the wind blowing the rain sideways so it’s just a consistent drenching downpour. Now take away the cold and add in heat so that even if you just got out of a freezing cold shower, you’re sweating as soon as you hit the bathroom door. Thank God for aircon! It’s that rain that even if you have your umbrella you’re soaked below the waist because the rain bounces back up at you. You wade through impromptu rivers on the sidewalks and consider bringing a change of clothes to school so that you don’t have to wallow in the disgusting feeling that is wet jeans.

Really, I bitch, but it’s not that much of an adjustment for me. I’m from the West Coast. This is weather I should thrive in. My co-worker from Seattle and I are braving the deluge like the seasoned veterans we are. I’ll survive and before I know it the rain will subside and leave behind only disgusting heat and humidity.

Sweet.

I’ve been getting the updates, and reading the news. I guess I shouldn’t really complain about the weather with what’s been goin’ on back home eh? Sucks to be you guys. At least I have some relief. Even if it is disgustingly humid (and it is), we all have aircon at school and at home. It’s a necessity here.

I’m now officially spending 12 hour days at school. Summer vacation has hit Korea with a vengeance. And what better way for children to spend their vacations than studying! For the next month I teach 3 3 hour classes a day. The same kids everyday. This is the norm for English Schools across the board. Heaven forbid that the students not study for a month. They must study MORE!! It’s only logical.

The kids get summer vacation homework from their normal schools as well. This usually includes going to a few museums, seeing some culture shows or plays, writing about them, and doing other more physical projects that are harder for them to do during school time. They go to English, Science, Math, and/or Social Studies Academies. I polled my kids and the average hours they study Monday to Friday (keep in mind…summer vacation) is 5-6. That is not including homework. About half of them also have classes on Saturdays. One lucky student goes to Academies 7 days a week.

I get to school at 8:15, teach from 9-12, do more prep and eat lunch until 2, and teach two classes back to back from 2-8. It’s not overly hard. I know what I have to do, so I do it. It’s just draining. Being “on” for that many hours coupled with standing the entire time wears out the soul and soles of your feet. It’d be nice if we could appreciate the earlier quitting time, but we can’t. I’m so done by the end that it’s all I can do to get home, walk the dog, eat something and try to read a bit before crashing around 11. It’s the pay check at the end that keeps me going. It’s also that trip to Japan I’m planning, which really needs that extra cash. As does my Visa bill.

So, yes, I have a dog. Well, it’s more along the lines of I am the best second mommy dog-sitter lady in the WORLD. I have two cats in Canada. There is no reason for me to also own a dog. Jessie was down in Gumi with Christa, but Christa’s contract finished (time flies eh). Jessie then took the scary train/subway trip for her big move to Anyang. She’ll stay with me until Christa either settles in back home or comes back to Korea. Then Jessie has to take the scary train trip again or an even scarier trip on a big plane all by herself to Canada.

Jessie together with the summer intensive classes has adjusted my sleeping schedule in a hurry. I no longer go to sleep at am and wake up at 11 am. I guess that’s a good thing…well no, it is. It hurt to rapid change it though.

Summer intensives and Jessie are just a few of the changes that have been going on lately. A ton of people have left Youngdo and new teachers have arrived in their place. The rumour circulating at the moment is that up to 5 new teachers are expected to arrive in August. That much changeover can only have huge effects on the social dynamic of the workplace. One thing about working with 28 other foreigners who are constantly changing is you learn to adjust fast to new situations and new personality combinations.

I don’t have internet at the moment. This update is being written in Works first then’ll be transferred over when I’m able to find a wireless signal. One of the people who left was my neighbour Stainton. We were sharing a wireless connection. I now have to get my own connection. That shouldn’t be too difficult right?? Ha.

Before I get into this story I shall regale you with a brief description of what it’s like to be a Caucasian girl living in Korea. Trust me; it’s connected to my internet story.

I’d never really watched our movies, television, and specifically music videos and thought, “Wow, North American girls sure are portrayed as sluts…” That is, until I came here, was constantly treated as if I was one, and started to pay attention to our culture as it is perceived by others.

We are offering a HORRIBLE interpretation to the rest of the World.

Warning….generalization ahead. However it’s not that far off the mark.

The vast majority of Korean …hell, Asian men, sees North American girls as those who would love nothing more than to be groped and ogled. We are perceived to have very little moral dignity and will sleep with most men if the situation presents itself.

In the past 2 months I have had no less than 4 direct experiences with this. I have heard far more stories from my friends. All similar in that we did nothing, usually we have no connection to the men, yet for some reason it’s assumed that we will go home with them. Just because they asked.

It’s just astounding how men who come from cultures that totally abhor such public contact with woman would deem it appropriate to grab us any way they see fit. Specifically I’m talking about Korean and Indian/Muslim cultures.

A few examples.

I’m standing outside of a bar waiting for my friends to come out. I’m alone. It’s Korea. This is normal. A man comes up to me and asks in these exact broken English words “you want come home sleep with me?” To which I replied “no, fuck off.” This made him angry. Obviously that wasn’t the way it worked when he saw it in the porno. He then got in my face, asking, nay, demanding now, that I come sleep with him. …. Wrong person to do that to. My words were somewhere along the lines of “leave before I make you leave.” He left.

Was this smart? Probably not. But it did serve its purpose. He saw that I was too much of a fight and stalked off. Expressing himself probably not so eloquently in some Muslim language.

I’m dancing in a bar. I’m dancing with my friends. We are not dancing with any boys. Korean boys come and start to dance in our circle. Normal. I don’t even talk to this guy. He comes up behind me and starts dancing with me. Normal. We are now surrounded by a big group of Korean guys. Our male friend comes over because he’s noticed just how big the crowd is around us. The guy dancing with me now deems it appropriate to grab my nether regions…we get the hell outta there before anything else happens.

I’ve dragged far too many friends out of similar situations. Where they’re dancing with one boy, and then all of a sudden they’re simultaneously being grinded by up to 6 boys, hands everywhere. It happens fast, trust me.

A friend of mine was in India. Not an exact quote but “I’ve seen Baywatch. You are American. You will come to my room tonight and you will sleep with me.” She locked her door…it was a homestay.

Another friend, sitting on a train. Man approaches her. “Are you Russian?” “No, I’m Canadian.” “Oh, you want to come to my house in ____ city? We can be friends.”

Just a few excerpts. There are way more where that came from.

Anyways, back to the internet story.

I was supposed to get it hooked up on Saturday. They can’t come during the week since I work all hours and won’t be home. I was told they’d arrive between 9 and 11 by the nice English speaking woman on the phone. They would also hook up my other neighbour Cal’s internet at the same time. He had also been connected to Stainton’s internet. Sounds good.

At 11:30...I’m now angry because I have stuff to do. I get a phone call from someone who does not speak English telling me, “…sorry…blah Korean blah blah….late…Korean blah…quick quick hurry hurry.” Ok, he’s coming. That’s all I want to know. Some guy comes into my apartment, immediately brightens when he sees a foreign girl…alone, and proceeds to look around my apartment and smile at me a lot. Great. He finally asks me where my cable outlet is, I point it out, he does some things, beeping comes out of my wall; he briefly glances at my computer and leaves.

There is still no modem or any new equipment in my apartment. My computer is not attached to a bloody thing.

I figure he has gone upstairs to Cal’s. Fine.

He comes back down; he has been up to Cal’s apartment. Done the same thing (nothing) apparently, and now he’s going to explain to us that we can’t get internet for some reason. We can, however, get it on Monday. Ok, fuck, fine. This is retarded. Korea is stupid, but fine. Thanks for nothing guy. Cal goes back upstairs and guy now deems it appropriate to chill in my room. I’m sitting on my bed against the wall reading my book. He starts to wander around looking at my pictures, asking who these people are. I’m thinking “this is extremely weird, and get the hell outta my place.” but I say nothing. He then sits on my bed and asks if Cal is my boyfriend.

a) get the fuck off my bed
b) why should I tell you
c) get the fuck off my bed

I should have said yes, but I didn’t. He then asks if I have any boyfriend. Well more to the tune of “you, boyfriend…ok?” I stopped answering his questions and hardened my expression. He commented on Jessie for a bit, and then gathered his things.

Really though. What does one do in that situation? Do you throw a huge frickin’ stink and shove the guy out of your place? Do you politely tell him that these questions are inappropriate and making me uncomfortable? Please keep in mind that he doesn’t speak English. He’d understand angry words, but are angry words necessary?? Is he really trying to get with me or is this just what he thinks North American woman are used to? I’m pretty sure that he would not have acted the same had it been a Korean girl. Does he think it’s totally normal to have these intimate conversations with me because of where I’m from?

We get asked ALL THE TIME if we have boyfriends. If our answer is in the negative then quite often we are met with either sympathetic looks, like something must be wrong with us, or a come hither once over followed by some sort of approving eyebrow raise or even a comment on how we look. More often than not it's the taxi drivers. "No, I'm not married." "Oh, your son isn't married either??" "Oh, thank you, you think I'm beautiful." "Yes, I'm sure your son is very nice..." and so on.

In the end my internet story gets better (sarcasm) because I called the internet companies ENGLISH help line to find out why I couldn’t get internet yesterday. They called the technician and apparently it’s because there’s a box locked in my basement that he couldn’t get into. I have to ask my building manager to unlock it. Don’t you think it would have saved everyone a lot less hassle if he had just:

1) Called the helpline himself.
2) Spoken to them in Korean.
3) Let them explain it to me in English.
4) Let me go and get the manager.
5) Let the manager unlock the box
6) HOOKED UP MY INTERNET???

The absence of logic and the over presence of sexual harassment astounds me in this country.

Hmmm…how about I don’t end this entry on such a negative note.

The secret is not to let it get to you. I’ve become a master at staring back until they look away, or just pretending that they don’t exist (better option). The majority of the time they’re just harmless oglers. It’s not an overly dangerous place. Just keep your wits about you in certain neighbourhoods. No different than any other society really.

Anyways…continuation of my Saturday as follows:

After buddy left I went into Itaewon and got my haircut. I think it looks pretty good. We got rid of a lot of the dead red grossness that was impossible to control because it was so fried, yet somehow kept a lot of the length. I now feel it’s possible to wear my hair down. After that I met a friend for drinks then hooked up with the Youngdo crew to celebrate another friend’s birthday. It was good times, I came home too late to a puppy that wanted to play even though it was 4 am, and managed to pass out even though she was biting my nose.
And it all balances out in the end!

P.S.
I wrote this entry on Sunday. More retarded internet chaos happened on Monday which involved me running back and forth between school and home during my valuable 2 hour prep/lunch time. I now have internet, but it wasn’t installed when I was at home (even after all the me running back home to help with the set-up). This country is retarded…enter the first major anti-Korean day of the year.

Don’t worry, the kids made it better. They have a tendency to do that.

P.P.S.
The box that was "locked" had a button right underneath the keyhole that, when pressed, opened said box. Not gonna talk anymore about it. It pisses me off too much.

this crazy, crazy world

I'm not very political, however some of my friends are (they took poli sci by CHOICE). They've raised some interesting points about what's been going on in the Middle East. So much in fact that I've actually started to look into it some more than I usually would. There's some scary shit going on. I won't comment more than that, cuz anything I have to say really isn't my own thoughts or opinions, but you should go here and read my friend Keith's blog. He puts things just so.

(he swears a bit...you've been warned)

The Clever Teacher

we just finished reading this story "Four Clever People" in my youngest class. I then got the kids to each write their own "Clever Person" story. More than a few wrote about me, their "clever teacher." (lookin for brownie points I assume - i'm not gonna argue with them). Here are some excerpts - I KNOW they don't have anything to do with being clever...I teach English, not cognitive skills:

"My teacher is good teacher because she always drinks a lot of water"

"Krista teacher is good because she teach good, but games many is no"

"Teacher is clever because she is pretty and funny" - damn straight


and now for one that may actually have SOMETHING to do with cleverness...

"My teacher is very clever because she can always tell when I am talking even when she does not see me!!"

the update

First things first...Happy Belated Canada Day to all ya'll back home. I did some celebrating here, I hope you all did as well. We come from an amazing country, truly something to be proud of.

Now, to the update...

Chapter One: Soccer in this crazy country

Korea lost...the rest of the World knew it would happen, but Korea was oblivious to this fact

Hell, I'm not saying don't cheer for your team. Go for it, get into the spirit. I bought a red shirt, I had the Red Devil horns, my face was covered in tattoos, I sang out "DAE HAN MIN GUK" (Republic of Korea) loud and proud. I didn't go quite into the masses in the above picture. I went to a neighbourhood a few kms away. Still a gongshow, still awesome time in the madness. A few of my co-workers braved the throngs though. One thing is definetly a fact: Koreans know how to cheer in unison!!

I know in a previous post I said I wanted Korea to lose...but that was during an anti-Korea period (they happen, trust me). If Korea had won I would have been just as ecstatic as the next person. It's hard not to catch the fever. So, I caught the fever, as did the vast majority of the country.

Before I get into it I'll say that Koreans are by far the best fans ever. They definetly do go all-out.

Ok, back to topic...Cheer for your team, hope and pray for the best, but let's also be realistic. Korea is good enough to do good in the World Cup. They are NOT good enough to win it. It's a fact. Possibly one day they will be good enough. They're not yet. It's the truth. Be one with the truth.

I don't want to rant about it. I do my fair share of ranting on here. Let's just say this about it:

PLEASE be realistic. There were no Canadians remotely surprised that we didn't even make it to the World Cup. We are realistic about our soccer standings. We suck, we're ok with it. Whereas in Korea they were SO pissed about the Swiss/Korea game that when the rumour spread that if over 1 million people emailed FIFA requesting a re-match, it would happen. Koreans believed the rumour and flooded FIFA with furious emails. FIFA blocked any access to their website from South Korea servers. Not that I was on it daily, but some foreigners were...we can no longer access it.

ummm, FIFA won't re-play a game because the country that lost requests it. They wouldn't re-play a game for any reason is my understanding. Is it just me, or does that seem logical?

Chapter Two: Canada Day

It was Canada Day...as I'm sure you're all aware. My weekend started on the Friday night after school. I headed into Seoul to my friend Adrienne's house to get ready for another friend, Bruce's, birthday party in Itaewon. It was good times, I hadn't seen Bruce for 7 months since he left Gumi. He's now living in Seoul. I know Adrienne from Gumi too...we all keep migrating to the big city lights it seems. We did some partying, and headed back to Adrienne's around 6.

At Bruce's Birthday there were balloons...and glasses...and roses. We had had some drinks. Whatever, I like the picture.

We woke up and headed back to Itaewon for the Canada Day Festivities.

We met up with Katie, did some shopping then headed over to the Rocky Mountain Tavern for some beers. I had planned on a somewhat early night...definetly including sleeping in my own bed in the equation. That didn't happen. I ended up crashing at Adrienne's again and dragging my ass back to Anyang around 12 on Sunday. It was worth it.

Katie and Krista at RMT

Katie and Adrienne - we bought hats and liked them damnit

RMT was packed. We'd randomly sing "Oh Canada," Celtic music was blasting and the dancing that accompaines that was abundant. One of the highlights had to be when we were playing "go up to some random person and find out a random fact...report back only when you have a fact." I asked this military guy for a fact and he told me something to the effect of, "we just beat you in the Stanley Cup Finals" (smart asses like they are). To which I replied "ya, with a Canadian Captain...he's from my home town...the Stanley Cup's in Canada as we speak, but please, more about how you're better than us..."

...in reality the situation played out funnier than it sounds, and ended with him shutting up and me going off to someone else to get a fact.

Did you know that we eat more Kraft Dinner than any other nation on Earth? That's kinda gross.

and now for a joke:

On the sixth day God turned to Archangel Gabriel and said: "Today I am going to create a land called Canada, it will be a land of outstanding natural beauty. It shall have tall majestic mountains full of mountain goats and eagles, beautiful sparkling lakes bountiful with bass and trout, forests full of elk and moose, high cliffs over-looking sandy beaches with an abundance of sea life, and rivers stocked with salmon." God continued, "I shall make the land rich in oil so as to make the inhabitants prosper, I shall call these inhabitants Canadians, and they shall be known as the most friendly people on the earth." "But Lord," asked Gabriel, "don't you think you are being too generous to these Canadians?" "Not really," replied God, "just wait and see the neighbours I am going to give them."

PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!!

Chapter Three: School Crap

I do like my school. It's way better than last year and one of the best schools education wise. I do see the kids learning. We do get treated well, this is just a rant, please take it with a grain of salt...

They took our pencil crayons :( we had to take everything off our walls, and I had to work yesterday...and it was a Saturday. But really...schools a lot better than it was last year. It's just the random dealing with Korean crap that gets to me. Like seriously, you're going to take away all of our pencil crayons? I get it, we're supposed to teach English, more writing, less pictures. Peachy keen, I'm all over it. However, when dealing with children who are under 10, it is customary to allow them some time to be creative. I'm all for them writing a huge story about a frog then allowing them 5 minutes to draw a picture of said frog. Give their little minds a rest!! These are children who get up at 6, go to school until 9, then do their homework!!

The Great Pencil Crayon Confiscation of 2006 ties in quite well to the head-boss request that we take down all student work from our walls in order to make our rooms look less "like kindergarten classes." Ok, you want me to take everything down. Sure, great. You want me to teach in an asylum, I'm all over it. However, my true opinion is this:

WHAT??

Let us all reflect back to our years in Elementary School shall we? Close your eyes...picture your classroom, picture the walls. Now, picture all of your work all over the walls...because THAT IS WHERE IT WAS!! It's a terrific motivational tool. "Hey, there's that project that Susy did. Wow, that's pretty cool, she did really good on that...I want to do something like that too." I remember back to Penfield Days. There was a board beside the Gym, right when you walked through the front doors. The best work out of ALL of the classes was posted there. It was a coveted position to have your work. What a fabulous motivator. I remember my work was there one time. I forget what I did, but remember I was proud. HOW is that bad?? I really don't get it.

It also brightens up the class! Even in High School there were things all over the walls. It wasn't generally our work, sometimes a few poster projects, but at least there were things to look at!

We're allowed putting up pictures from home...I'm gonna have to make a trip to Kodak with my memory card.

Also, umm, we teach phonics. Teaching phonics involves teaching the colors and other basics. Teaching the colors tends to involve coloring. What are we supposed to do.

"Ok, you all have your clown face right??" "OK, now write RED across the NOSE!!" "GOOD!!" "Ok, now write, GREEN across the HAIR!!"....

somehow that doesn't seem as fun to me...

Chapter Four: Random...

I'm going to Japan again!! Our summer holidays are from August 22-29. My friend from Uni, Niqie, just moved to Aomori City in Japan. I havn't booked my ticket yet, but get paid tomorrow and'll book the day after that. The plan is to fly into Aomori, chill with Niqie for a few days then on the weekend we'll both head down to Tokyo to check that out, then fly home on the Monday. Should be an awesome time.

Another friend from Uni, Jenn, is coming back to Korea. She was here when I first came last year, living down in Masan. I just got an email saying that she'll be back in 2 weeks and living in Hwaseong, a city 20 minutes away from me.

It's getting nasty hot now. Well, not really hot, but muggy. Thank God for AirCon.

Muggy = mosquitoes. mosquitoes = bites. bites = bad. I havn't seen them yet, but the trucks that drive around spraying DDT are reportedly out in Gumi and North Seoul. DDT comes out as a smoke and apparently kills off the mosquitoes. Heavens knows what it also does to our lungs. They really need a warning bell on the trucks so that people can get out of the way. Nothing like a fresh blast of DDT in the morning.

Speaking of warning bells, let's talk about safety measures around construction. In Canada there's a thing called tape. We use it to cordon off areas below where people are working to avoid things falling on people below, possibly injuring them. I was walking through a major shopping street in my neighbourhood. I saw some men on the 3rd floor installing a window (they were hanging outside of the window on strappy things...another story). I noticed that I was about to walk right underneath them, and being Canadian and therefore logical, I changed my course. No sooner had I done so than the brilliant workers dropped the plate of glass, narrowly missing a woman.

These are what Koreans use to move their furniture out of their apartments. The little platforms have no sides. They load them up with as much heavy crap as they can, then race the little platform up and down. Logic would dictate sides of some sort...or some sort of straps to secure the items being moved to the platform. Logic would also dictate TAPE to cordon off the area underneath the platform of death.

Hey...let's play Devil's Advocate. Maybe Koreans are MORE logical than us. Maybe they don't need tape to tell them that they shouldn't walk underneath something. Maybe we're the idiots...maybe

Next weekends the Boryeong Mud Festival. Most everyone has a 3 day weekend, but my school has a 4 day. I don't really know why we get an extra day. However I think it's because we just worked this past Saturday. Personally, i'd have prefered the Saturday off, but hey, who am I to choose my days off. I just work there.

Mud Festival should be good times as it was last year. Look for a post about that...later.

Take care all! For those of you going to Merritt...I hate you. But really, have a great time and drink some beer in the river for me!!

update is coming...

I havn't forgotten...and I do have stuff to post. Notes of things to look forward to:

Korea got kicked out of the World Cup, people cried in the streets (I'm not even remotely joking), my kids are beyond pissed about it

It was Canada Day...we bought cowboy hats

School crap...confiscating pencil crayons and the like...open classes and intensive classes

...AND there's more...but you'll have to wait until I become motivated (I'm hoping that happens sometime in the next few days, because I really need to do laundry)

As for right now, it's 2:30am and i'm going to sleep...possibly my sleep schedule has something to do with my lack of get-up-and-go.

something to ponder