Halloween Party

Ok being as sick as a dog, didn't help much to give everyone a non-jaded perpective, but this is the viewpoint that is Halloween: every Korean child is either a witch or a wizard!

Korean children need to step their Halloween game up! It was very hard to judge the Halloween contest when everyone partically wore the same costume. There was maybe one devil or one vampire. Ironically most Korean women sported devil horns for Halloween or cat ears. Very basic. However, I think Korean children are perhaps the children American people want as trick or treaters. All the children were greatful to get candy and they were not bratty about it.

I wanted to go to Hongdae to perhaps see the rest of the drunken English teachers/ military people get wild out in costumes. It's just one of those days where complete idiocy is acceptable and sometimes encouraged. Cultural note: I am mainly reffering to the military here, although I have crossed some sleezy English teachers in my time in Asia. I am still slightly sick and I openly wish everyone had my cold after being sick on what is usually my funniest 2 weeks of the year. Of course just this is a gross exaggeration.

Quick Posting

Thought I post something quick like Nick. For those of you who got the Seattle Supersonics reference, give yourself a hug. For those who didn't ; cbar. Yep that's right cbar. One of the many ways Korean children tell their teachers to go nplmu themselves. Gotta love Korean code. Korean children are polite yet some are fairly straightfoward in expressing themselves. I can see the contrast between Japanese children and Korean children. Usually most children are very over worked from all the hogwans they have to go to. At my old hagwon, there was a girl who went to 7 different hagwons.

Collecting homework at my new job is an eventful task that requires the utmost amount of wit and diplomacy. Because in actuality hagwon ESL work is a combination of ESL teaching and customer service. A lot of teachers fall into the traps of being overly harsh or being felt underly appreatied in Korea. They forget the customer service part of the job: if the child is performing well, that is one thing, but the child has to be happy as well. Otherwise you will hear things like : "teacher, teacher, pinishi!" or "I cut this academi." I am perhaps just writing this quick piece to A) give advice and B) make a quick posting. The book idea has been delyaed from the whole moving hagwons and also due to other events that are personal and cannot be disclosed on the information super gossipway. This is Charles signing out, so go nplmu yourself.

Stubbed My Toe and Went to Seoul Aquarium

Good part about the day: I say a movie and went to Seoul Aquarium. There were a lot of animals and attractions. Bad part about the day: I stubbed my toe. It looks purple and I am in Korea. I seriously do not want to go back to CastleVania Korean Rendition. I will try to wait a day or two, maybe this minor annoyance will go away or maybe my toe will fall off. The good news is that I can bend it.

If anyone lives in Korea, you have to make a trip to the Coex Shopping Center. It is worth the visit and honestly it is filled with many exciting things to do. I was thinking of other activities to plan there as well. In case anybody was thinking "what the Lotte", they have a Lotte World there. I have to give the Koreans credit for the abundance of Lotteria; they have been curbing my hunger for fast food. This next paycheck, I am hoping to finally do something about my accursed teeth. So to the best of my ability, I have been trying to just eat traditional Korean food. I feel a lot more energetic from making the switch in diet, but Korean people really lay out the side dishes. I think I spent a little more than I wanted to, but that was because I went out and had this deep dish pizza. It was okay, but not really Chicago style like it said on the menus.

I guess I'll end this with "I'm crossing my fingers, hoping my toe doesn't fall off".

Laundry: by far the most troublesome chore in Korea next to crossing the street.

Okay. I have have to say this will be a two part post. So I figured I'll talk about the bad first. And yes, I mean bad.

So I am doing laundry today for one week's worth of clothes and this is with me even going a little college clean on some days. I have a grand total of 3 loads to do =(. I really need to figure out a system where I do not have as many. I can only wash so many clothes per hour as well. My laundry hanger is sprawled out throughout the room. And no, I did not make any grammatical error: it literally is sprawled out throughout the room.

So what does this mean of me? One of those class days will have to be devoted towards washing those tighty-whites that I had put off for the longest time. Another thing it means is that I have to break up the sessions it takes to dry laundry. Usually eight to twelve hours does it for laundry drying. Other than that, I like my place a lot. I feel that I am able to concentrate on things without much interruptions, loud room mates, people inviting me over to parties or to LAN sessions. (Not that the occasional LAN session isn't fun; I'm burnt out on it right now.) And for the last month in the states, it was a pain attending all those going away parties and studying Korean at the same time even though everyone meant well. So if I am lucky, maybe my clothes will be dry by the time I sleep. If not, they will hang over me while I sleep.

Being schooled in pizza by Koreans

Wow, life in the fast food lane can be pretty harry. I can't seem to wrap my head around certain restuarant themes. There is Mr. Big Hamburger: they serve small, medium and extra large burgers. No I did not make that up. They actually have size catagories for burgers. I refuse to eat a Large burger simply because I do not even see the point off living up to the America sterotype that everything is big. Burgers are small in America. You have rare exceptions but compared to Korea, burgers are small.

My next point: pizza. Between Japan and Korea, I have been totally schooled in the fine art of ordering pizza. Today I had a Rion Pizza which was pizza with wrapped ham with a sweet potato filling. Call me crazy, but who thought of this? It was killer. I would probably have never thought Koreans would school Italians and Americans in pizza, but I stand corrected. Next thing is variety: Korea has it but it doesn't. Every store I have gone to, I wind up with coffee or Coke for my drink selection. Other drinks have a voice too. And Korea make some good drinks, but I would like to at least order a diet Coke every now and then. Pizza School is one of the best places to go for food in Korea. There is pizza, pizza, and more pizza. And if your insides need a break from Kim-chee, Pizza School is a winner.

Dabbling with size conversions!

Well I have to say the past week has been entertaining. All day I have been hearing this Korean couple have lover spats in Korean. At least the dishes havn't started to fly yet. But anyways, life goes on. So I mentioned before I had accidently taken someone else's luggage. I am guessing  that the airport will not check into it, so I am forced to rely on other options. I had to go to 24 Hour Mart and grunt, build fire, find clothes for wild man search land for clothes that fit. Okay you get the idea. While I didn't have any problems finding my size, I went ahead and made a conversion chart for all my dress sizes.

Shoes are 292
Pants are 97cm x 81cm
Shirts are size 110cm
Undies are 105cm

One of the websites that has a great conversion chart for people who have giant sizes (interesting enough I never shopped at Big and Tall because I was told my neck was too small for any of their clothing). Nine times out of ten I was usually in the right dress size at Wal-Mart anyways. Anyways here one of the websites I used: http://www.cutiecode.com/index.php?main_page=sizeinfo#1712 . Have fun and take care!

안 녕하새 요! This is Charles coming to you with another reporting! Gently. But anyways, Incheon has been easier on me today. I actually got around to trying out Pizza School where they serve pizza from around the world. Kind of like your slice of your country's food delivered on a slice of cheesy goodness. I found ordering food was a lot easier than before.

It is like my mind in naturally adjusting itself to everyone's body language and I am naturally figuring out the parts of when I pay and what not. I thought about buying a watch today because I am borrowing a co-workers, but decided to refrain until I can figure out the words "this one" and "that one". At first I did not want to leave the house due to the last two days of frustration, but decided I was better off to do so.

Nothing like being back in Asia drinking a tall bottle of Calpis. Nope, I am not spelling it wrong and yes it sounds the way you're thinking. the Japanese Family Mart in Korea has their own brand of goodness all over. At the 24 Mart I found undies for less than 3 bucks! That is a phenomenal deal! (Now let's just hope they fit ;) ) I also bought socks but they might not fit. They are about an inch and a half undersized, so I will have to see.

The Case of the Missing Baggage! Or better known as the case of me grabbing somebody else's baggage!

I think I am offically the most scatterbrained person I know. I need to somehow figure out a way to devise a decent lesson plan that other people can follow for the middle school readers or (Lake) readers. All the kids are given American names and I have no idea what their real names are. It is kind of sad :(. I wouldn't really buther them (much), but I understand why they were given the names. It is so I can remember them easier and so I can take attendence even faster. (That is my conclusion for now, so I am sticking to it!)

Okay so why am I scatterbrained? Only I can accidently pull somebody else's luggage and not bother to check it before leaving the airport and not even bother to unpack it until a week later. I guess I am not too bad right? Oh wait, I forgot my own way home three days ago. I am just now getting around to report missing and mistaken luggage. I feel really awful, because Samuel probably went without clothes for a few days.

Soon I will be handing out reminders to myself to wash rince and repeat. Le sigh~