Do You Come Here Often?
Oh, hello again. Sad to see another resolution fall by the wayside, but, to my credit, I have been a busy bee. I've also decided to expedite the process of catching my blog up to the present by flipping cohesion the proverbial bird and presenting my last two weeks as a series of vignettes. Yay, vignettes!
It's a Good Thing We Like Each Other.
Six of the ten people in my language class are ETAs. There are six more (including extendees) in the classes above ours. February is, in many quite literal ways, orientation revisited. Aside from those taking Korean at our school, Alexis is taking a class at Ehwa, Jen, Steve, Jy, and Robin are all doing the embassy internship, and Kiehl is in Sincheon getting fat. Fatter. There are 3 more ETAs who live in Seoul permanently. That's 21 out of 76(?) ETAs living in Seoul in February. Not to mention that at any given time there are several people visiting at once.
I'm Not Complaining...
When signing up for my class at the Ganada Language Institute, I was mildly amused by the fact that almost all of the photos displayed on the website are of large groups of people, in which 3/4 always seem to be attractive, young women. Of course, my interpretation of this was that it's a marketing ploy and the school is not actually Seoul's hidden Shangri-la. Funny thing is, every teacher at the school is, in fact, a young, attractive woman. As is every person I've ever seen working in the main office. And many of the students. It's quite curious. Take a look for yourself: www.ganadakorean.com. It makes me wonder who's in charge...
Hell Has a Lot to Offer.
I'm thinking of extending for a year. Thinking. A week ago my answer would have been a 99% certainty of not extending, conceding 1% to miracles, fairies, unicorns, and other fantastical things that might lead to a drastic change in emotional health.
Well, I went to a doctor. And his name was Japan. But that is not for this vignette. You will search elsewhere for that story.
Pros and cons. Upon extending, Fulbright allows us to live in our own apartment in a city of our choice. Rent is free, and our monthly stipend is modestly increased to offset utility and food expenses. I have a much greater knowledge of what kind of school I would like to work at. I will already have a year's worth of lesson plans ready, personally field tested to boot. All the traveling that I want to do this year that I won't have time for can all be done during my two month paid vacation next year. My current Korean class has reinvigorated my desire to learn the language as well as redeemed part-time language courses in this country to me. Making it a priority to find a language class that I can take every night, or close, makes me confident that after a year I'll be speaking Korean at a fairly proficient level. I will be able to apply for JET in the fall in order to spend the following year in Japan, ideally taking the same steps toward fluency in Japanese.
vs.
Being in Korea.
It's weighing pretty evenly at the moment.
My Mom is a Tape Recorder.
I very rarely call home, and typically I've chalked it up to being a bad son, but today I had a bit of an epiphany while on the phone with my mom. The reason why I never feel the need to talk to her is because she never talks about what's going on at present, and constantly rambles about my future and the things I should pay attention to and care about. It's all very positive and, on the whole, good advice, but it's never about how I am at the moment and it's more or less the same thing every time. Money is important, but not everything. You're young, take advantage of the opportunities you have now. Think about investment and the stock market. Your health is the most important thing in your life. It was uplifting when I was 16, now it's just repetitive. I was on the phone for about an hour today with her and I may have spoken less than 20 words the whole time, and everything I was hearing I had heard before.
Show Me The Money!
Korean ATMs have this badass function where you can insert your entire bankbook into a slot, and it will print out your entire transaction and deposit history, flipping the pages automatically if space runs out and everything. I figured out how to do it yesterday for the first time and stood at the ATM for 3 minutes while it printed my account history for the last 6 months. Turns out some of my sneaking suspicions were right... my school has been paying me little bonuses here and there for reasons I'm completely unaware of. I've accrued literally thousands of mandu worth of these mystery sums. Gwangbei! (That's cheers to you weiguk.)
Hey, Do You Like To Party?
Me and Ryan's apartment has become somewhat of an unofficial preparty spot. We have the closest and largest apartment to the nightlife district in this area, and ever since we took the initiative to invite people here on the first weekend, most now know how to get here. We're breaking from tradition tomorrow though and having the preparty at Dana's place which is in the next building over. Tomorrow is an event called "Sound Day" where you pay $15 for entrance into 10 different live music clubs all night. Translation: after Dana's we'll be in full form to make complete asses of ourselves at the expense of an assortment of live Korean music performers, very likely soiling the good name of Fulbright and indirectly causing a total breakdown of foreign relations between SK and the US. I can't wait!!!!!!
It's a Good Thing We Like Each Other.
Six of the ten people in my language class are ETAs. There are six more (including extendees) in the classes above ours. February is, in many quite literal ways, orientation revisited. Aside from those taking Korean at our school, Alexis is taking a class at Ehwa, Jen, Steve, Jy, and Robin are all doing the embassy internship, and Kiehl is in Sincheon getting fat. Fatter. There are 3 more ETAs who live in Seoul permanently. That's 21 out of 76(?) ETAs living in Seoul in February. Not to mention that at any given time there are several people visiting at once.
I'm Not Complaining...
When signing up for my class at the Ganada Language Institute, I was mildly amused by the fact that almost all of the photos displayed on the website are of large groups of people, in which 3/4 always seem to be attractive, young women. Of course, my interpretation of this was that it's a marketing ploy and the school is not actually Seoul's hidden Shangri-la. Funny thing is, every teacher at the school is, in fact, a young, attractive woman. As is every person I've ever seen working in the main office. And many of the students. It's quite curious. Take a look for yourself: www.ganadakorean.com. It makes me wonder who's in charge...
Hell Has a Lot to Offer.
I'm thinking of extending for a year. Thinking. A week ago my answer would have been a 99% certainty of not extending, conceding 1% to miracles, fairies, unicorns, and other fantastical things that might lead to a drastic change in emotional health.
Well, I went to a doctor. And his name was Japan. But that is not for this vignette. You will search elsewhere for that story.
Pros and cons. Upon extending, Fulbright allows us to live in our own apartment in a city of our choice. Rent is free, and our monthly stipend is modestly increased to offset utility and food expenses. I have a much greater knowledge of what kind of school I would like to work at. I will already have a year's worth of lesson plans ready, personally field tested to boot. All the traveling that I want to do this year that I won't have time for can all be done during my two month paid vacation next year. My current Korean class has reinvigorated my desire to learn the language as well as redeemed part-time language courses in this country to me. Making it a priority to find a language class that I can take every night, or close, makes me confident that after a year I'll be speaking Korean at a fairly proficient level. I will be able to apply for JET in the fall in order to spend the following year in Japan, ideally taking the same steps toward fluency in Japanese.
vs.
Being in Korea.
It's weighing pretty evenly at the moment.
My Mom is a Tape Recorder.
I very rarely call home, and typically I've chalked it up to being a bad son, but today I had a bit of an epiphany while on the phone with my mom. The reason why I never feel the need to talk to her is because she never talks about what's going on at present, and constantly rambles about my future and the things I should pay attention to and care about. It's all very positive and, on the whole, good advice, but it's never about how I am at the moment and it's more or less the same thing every time. Money is important, but not everything. You're young, take advantage of the opportunities you have now. Think about investment and the stock market. Your health is the most important thing in your life. It was uplifting when I was 16, now it's just repetitive. I was on the phone for about an hour today with her and I may have spoken less than 20 words the whole time, and everything I was hearing I had heard before.
Show Me The Money!
Korean ATMs have this badass function where you can insert your entire bankbook into a slot, and it will print out your entire transaction and deposit history, flipping the pages automatically if space runs out and everything. I figured out how to do it yesterday for the first time and stood at the ATM for 3 minutes while it printed my account history for the last 6 months. Turns out some of my sneaking suspicions were right... my school has been paying me little bonuses here and there for reasons I'm completely unaware of. I've accrued literally thousands of mandu worth of these mystery sums. Gwangbei! (That's cheers to you weiguk.)
Hey, Do You Like To Party?
Me and Ryan's apartment has become somewhat of an unofficial preparty spot. We have the closest and largest apartment to the nightlife district in this area, and ever since we took the initiative to invite people here on the first weekend, most now know how to get here. We're breaking from tradition tomorrow though and having the preparty at Dana's place which is in the next building over. Tomorrow is an event called "Sound Day" where you pay $15 for entrance into 10 different live music clubs all night. Translation: after Dana's we'll be in full form to make complete asses of ourselves at the expense of an assortment of live Korean music performers, very likely soiling the good name of Fulbright and indirectly causing a total breakdown of foreign relations between SK and the US. I can't wait!!!!!!
posted by Uzura at 6:42 AM
1 Comments:
you are amazing.
now on to a lil hello and the like.
moms do that don't they? your post made me realize my mom does that a lot. however it's good (yet bad) that she turns to me as her lil (but grown) confidant and advice giver. but overall there's a constant worrying over the future.
i'm glad you're living it up w/ the music clubs and crazy korean atms. good luck on deciding about extending the F-bright and take care of yourself!
morose
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