no really...

WHY are Korean women and children afraid of my dog? My 1-year-old Yorkshire Terrier PUPPY? The happy, "hey I wanna PLAY!!!!" little puppy who you could seriously injure by stepping on?? She's made grown women scream...I'm not joking.

and then WHY do Korean men INSIST on calling her over when I'm walking her. And then WHY do they get all mad and glare at me when I won't let her run off (dragging me with her - cuz she's on a leash...dumbasses) to go see them? Also, she doesn't go because she doesn't understand KOREAN!! My puppy is ESL. When we first got her she would drift towards Koreans, but now she doesn't...she's more apt to want to be around foreigners for the obvious reasons. She actually doesn't register that they are calling her. It's like looking at a Canadian dog and talking to it in Chinese.
A) the tone is all wrong, it's not happy like when I call her - it's way more demanding
B) it's in a different language!!

My dog does NOT understand "il e wa." She knows "come here" though. She does NOT understand stupid clucking...because I don't cluck at her.

It's been awhile since I've had a dog in Canada. Do random people call other people's dogs over when they are walking them? Is this normal?? I'm just ranting because I'm tired of it. Jessie's really good with it. She all but ignores any other person except for me (and any other foreigner). but seriously...this is MY dog. I'm trying to train her to walk without a leash. We're doing pretty good with it, but I do NOT need random men calling her away from her training!
ARGG

Musings

This may sound funny, but sometimes I forget where I am. I think about it sometimes, usually when I'm magically navigating myself - successfully I might add - around Seoul alone. Sometimes I'm running errands, sometimes I'm leaving one group of friends for another, and sometimes it's just random. Last night was one of those times when, all alone in a cab going between two groups of friends in different neighborhoods of one of the biggest cities in Asia, I sat back and realized...hey, I'm in Korea.

Yesterday in Seoul, again - one of the biggest cities in Asia, I transferred between 4 different groups of people in 3 different neighborhoods. I randomly ran into 6 people I knew, yet had not planned on meeting. Today I met up with a different group for a ball game and shopping...extended into dinner and got home a mere 24 hours after I had left.

This is not a "hey, I have friends" brag-a-than. This is just a "whoa...wtf...When did I become so comfortable in Seoul, South Korea? When did it all of a sudden become 'normal' and 'home'? And why didn't anyone tell me when this happened??"

I know, I've been here for awhile. It should be/seem natural, and it is, that I have friends, do things, and feel comfortable where I'm living. It's just that it's SO different from the life I led back home. It just randomly'll hit me sometimes when, far from my apartment, i'll get into a cab, tell him where to go - in Korean, have a small conversation - in Korean, get out of the cab, walk through another part of Korea - far from my home, do some errands - in Korean, and meander my way home. I think certain things in Korean. I tell my dog to "hurry up," and "come here" in Korean. I know where to go and what to do in Seoul. I don't claim to know everything...because I most certainly don't, but I know enough.

Us teachers are easily upper middle-class here. We live the life as such. It's another thing to adjust to. Again, not bragging...just stating fact. When we want something...we get it. If it's a big purchase...we wait a few weeks, then get it. Big shocker to the system when we go home...big. It's another thing that'll randomly hit me. Hey, life is pretty good right now, but it won't be like this at home. It's a thought that keeps so many here for so much longer than planned.

I know it should be obvious, and some reading this may think "hey, Krista...way to be observant...or the opposite of, to just realize, 1.5 years after the fact, that you're in Korea and life is different." It's just that sometimes it'll randomly dawn on me. My life isn't "normal." It's pretty fucking cool at the moment...but normal it isn't. It's also something I can't fully, or even really begin to, explain...only those living this life will truly understand.

That's all for right now...my head hurts from all of this deep thought.

Disneyland!!!

Japan in a nutshell

where to go, what to do...

I'm not ready for children. At least, I"m not ready to be a single mother (not like that was ever considered). I've learned this the hard way - by having a puppy. Dude, she needs to be walked, fed AND entertained. If I'm not entertaining her to her liking then she eats stuff. I came home today (and this is somewhat funny) to find that she'd somehow found a marker...i didn't even know I had one...and drawn all over my WHITE blanket. I'm assuming she was chewing on the pen, not actually trying to scribble gibberish, but it looks like some 3-year-old went ape-shit on my bed with the thing. Well, I guess it's not really all that funny, but I have to laugh, there's nothing I can do about it now. She also ate my plant and spilled her food everywhere. Revenge I figure for this weekend.

This weekend I went into Seoul and didn't know what time I was going to be home. This posed a problem cuz I have a dependent. I thought about it, realized that I really needed a good nights sleep and needed to clean my apartment anyways so I put her in a doggy hotel. She stayed there till Monday morning. I got SO much done!! I was able to go out till wee hours on Sat, sleep until 2PM!!!, go to Costco, put away the food uninterrupted, clean without a puppy eating my paper towels and get ANOTHER awesome sleep (ie without a dog jumping on me at 9am). Without the hotel I'd go crazy. I don't care if people laugh at me cuz I put my dog in a "doggy hotel," people don't laugh at parents when they get babysitters. Same thing damnit.

So anyways, the dog was in a hotel. I don't think she likes it very much...hence the revenge in form of blanket graffiti.

Jessie also went into a hotel when I was in Japan. I actually felt bad for that though since that was a pretty good chunk of time. I'm pretty sure she's kept in a cage when she's there. She's fed though and they groom her and stuff. It's better than nothing. Japan was worth it though.

I flew into Aomori and Niqie met me at the airport. It was really good to see her, it'd been years. She taught English in Poland for almost 2 years and moved to Northern Honshu a few months ago. For the first 4 days of my holiday all I did was chill in Aomori. I went to the Onsen (Japanese JimJilBangs), did some shopping, tanned and read. Aomori's pretty small by Asian standards, the sky was a beautiful smog-free blue, the weather was hot and I wasn't in Korea teaching. I enjoyed relaxing and taking in some day-to-day Japanese cultures. It's way more laid back than Korea! Friday night Niqie and I got on an overnight bus and headed down to Tokyo. Saturday we dropped our stuff off at our hostel and then headed into Disneyland. It was amazingly awesome. Re-lived some serious childhood memories. It was a great way to spend a day. I've seen temples, I've been to Kyoto. There's no need for me to experience Japanese culture. Been there, done that. I just wanted to be happy, and I was. On sunday we did Tokyo. Saw the major tourist sites, took in ONE temple and went to bed somewhat early (hostel curfews'll get ya everytime). I flew back and was in my apartment even before Niqie had left Tokyo for home!

Upon arrival back home I settled into my old pre-intensive summer classes routine. Our schedule's back to 2-10. I got all new classes. Keith and Shamar left for China during our vacation, and 6 new teachers arrived. Life changes fast here. You make friends fast, you lose friends fast. It's a weird life, but I love it.

This past weekend was pretty sweet. I saw Mamma Mia. It was in Korean...all of it. There were subtitles running across the top of the stage though (only in korea man...only in korea). It was still amazing. I went with Jen and Dan. The three of us had shit-eating grins throughout the entire performance. We sang the RIGHT words to the songs, clapped stupidly, and coordinated our chair-dancing moves. I don't care, we had an awesome time. It actually was fairly easy to keep up with by reading the subtitles. We left the theatre skipping and singing. I'm sure the Koreans were confused as to which show was better: Mamma Mia, or us.

Our next big holiday is the beginning of October. It's like the Korean Thanksgiving. We're working on getting our butts to China. We'll see though, flights are lookin pretty booked. If not then I'll push for the Phillipines...I'll sit on a beach if I can't see a big wall. I'm ok with that. There's also a trip to North Korea, but I think we'll save that for Spring. Temple stays'll also be in Spring/Early Summer. I'm going to extend my contract through to next August to save me traveling through SE Asia in July/August.

Next big news. I was going to go to the Philippines for Christmas cuz I figured would only get about a week off. The best news of the year though is that we get off from December 22 through to January 2nd. Tickets aren't booked yet, but the new plan is that I'll come home. I won't be back home for good until December 2007 so I'd really like to come home, even if for 2 weeks.

ya, I know I suck when the biggest decision of my life at the moment is which country I should go to next month...and which other country I should go to 2 months after that. Oh, and then we get about a week off in Febuary...shit, maybe I should save the Philippines for then. Damnit. or Guam....Hong Kong?? fack.

I'll wrap this up with some funny children anecdotes:

me: "and why are the children afraid of Mrs. DeCantas?"
all students: "because she's strange."
one student: "because she's FUGLY!!!"
me: "Leon, did you just say fugly??"
Leon: "yes, my friend taught me that."
me (in hysterics): "that's awesome"

me: "ok, we're going to learn about contractions, repeat after me"
"When and did is When'd"
students: "When'd"
me: "What'd"
students "What'd"
me: "Who're"
students: "whore...."
me (laughing): "Who're"
students: "whore...."
me (not even trying to contain myself): "Who're"
students: "teacher...why?? whore....."

I'm also teaching my advanced classes to say "eh". I'm teaching them how to make questions...and really, just adding eh to a statement is way easier.
I now get this:

"hey teacher, this english grammar is hard, eh??" or "teacher, you're crazy, eh?" , "teacher, you like to sing in class a lot, eh?"

....i love my job. and yes, I realize I'm having fun at my student's expense. I'm ok with it. At least I'm not teachin 'em to speak Newfie like one teacher who shall remained unnamed...