My blog is now at www.thetexasgypsy.com.
Come check it out!
14 February 2011
11 February 2011
Speak Now Tour!
One of my students, who is also a huge Taylor Swift fan, told me she was coming to Seoul a few months ago. Fast forward to last night, and Keara and I were there! Not up in the nosebleed section, but down on the floor.
I can't pinpoint exactly what made the concert so great.
Was it because it was at Olympic park?
Was it the excitement?
Was it the cowboy I spotted?
Was it the same cowboy who got creeped out when he saw me take a picture, and moved to the other side of his wife?
Was it the ukulele she played on a small stage in the back?
Or was it the guitar she played on a small stage in the back?
Was it the man sitting next to me singing along and dancing with his purple skull and crossbone pants?
Was it the music?
Was it because Keara was with me?
Was it because Taylor brings cowboys with her on tour?
Was it because of the cute sound guy?
Was it because she walked within 2 feet of us?
I love you! Who are you wearing!? Will you be my best friend?
I'm not sure, but I can tell you one thing:
Taylor Swift is a rock star!
I can't pinpoint exactly what made the concert so great.
Was it because it was at Olympic park?
Was it the excitement?
Was it the cowboy I spotted?
Was it the same cowboy who got creeped out when he saw me take a picture, and moved to the other side of his wife?
Was it the ukulele she played on a small stage in the back?
Or was it the guitar she played on a small stage in the back?
Was it the man sitting next to me singing along and dancing with his purple skull and crossbone pants?
Was it the music?
Was it because Keara was with me?
Was it because Taylor brings cowboys with her on tour?
Was it because of the cute sound guy?
Was it because she walked within 2 feet of us?
I love you! Who are you wearing!? Will you be my best friend?
I'm not sure, but I can tell you one thing:
Taylor Swift is a rock star!
08 February 2011
추워
As Taylor Swift says, "this is me swallowing my pride..."
For those that know me back home, you probably know that I hate the Texas heat. I complain. My face turns red easily. I sweat. My hair frizzes even more than usual. I always fight with my Dad about the A/C. Hannah can't ever sit in the front seat when I'm in the car, because she gets too cold.
I always said, "I can't wait for winter!"
However, I've come to realize that there are different definitions of winter.
Texan winter- a mildly cold season ranging anywhere from one week to two months; average highs in the 50s, possibility of snow one day a year resulting in a holiday
I know Texas has had some freaky weather this year. Be glad its freaky and not normal.
Korean winter- the closest one can get to death without actually putting one's self out of misery, ranging anywhere from 3 months to eternity; average highs in the -200s, possibility of sun one day a year resulting in absolutely no snow or ice melting
Even though winter is coming to an end, I still feel as cold as ever. The happiest moment of the day comes when I walk into my apartment, immediately throw on my sweats, and jump under the covers for an hour to thaw out.
Oh how I miss thee
let me count the days
I miss the days flip flops didn't give my feet enough breathing room.
I miss the days of walking around my apartment without socks and a hoodie on.
I miss the days of needing to put ice in my water.
I miss the days my A/C blew 100 degree air for the first 5 minutes.
I miss the days when more than 2% of my body could be exposed to the sun.
I miss the days of wearing flip flops on Christmas.
I miss the days when I could feel my toes.
I miss the days I couldn't sit in my car without putting a towel down to keep my legs from getting 3rd degree burns.
I miss the days when I had to watch out for mosquitos at night.
I miss the days when it was too hot to even go swimming.
I miss the days when I had to change my shirt during the day because I was sweaty.
I miss the days when my nose didn't run...all the time.
I miss the days I would burn the bottoms of my feet when walking to the pool.
I miss the days when ice cream wasn't cold enough.
I miss the days when Uggs were ridiculous.
I miss the days pants simply were not an option.
I miss the days when my shoulders didn't have to be tensed up in order to walk.
I miss the days when the only bumps I had were from dull razors, not geese.
I miss the days when my breath was invisible.
I miss the days of sunburn, rather than windburn.
I miss the days of showering to cool off.
I miss the days when scarves were an accessory, not a necessity.
*Shout out to my 친구, Laurie, for her input with some of these!
For those that know me back home, you probably know that I hate the Texas heat. I complain. My face turns red easily. I sweat. My hair frizzes even more than usual. I always fight with my Dad about the A/C. Hannah can't ever sit in the front seat when I'm in the car, because she gets too cold.
I always said, "I can't wait for winter!"
However, I've come to realize that there are different definitions of winter.
Texan winter- a mildly cold season ranging anywhere from one week to two months; average highs in the 50s, possibility of snow one day a year resulting in a holiday
I know Texas has had some freaky weather this year. Be glad its freaky and not normal.
Korean winter- the closest one can get to death without actually putting one's self out of misery, ranging anywhere from 3 months to eternity; average highs in the -200s, possibility of sun one day a year resulting in absolutely no snow or ice melting
Even though winter is coming to an end, I still feel as cold as ever. The happiest moment of the day comes when I walk into my apartment, immediately throw on my sweats, and jump under the covers for an hour to thaw out.
Oh how I miss thee
let me count the days
I miss the days flip flops didn't give my feet enough breathing room.
I miss the days of walking around my apartment without socks and a hoodie on.
I miss the days of needing to put ice in my water.
I miss the days my A/C blew 100 degree air for the first 5 minutes.
I miss the days when more than 2% of my body could be exposed to the sun.
I miss the days of wearing flip flops on Christmas.
I miss the days when I could feel my toes.
I miss the days I couldn't sit in my car without putting a towel down to keep my legs from getting 3rd degree burns.
I miss the days when I had to watch out for mosquitos at night.
I miss the days when it was too hot to even go swimming.
I miss the days when I had to change my shirt during the day because I was sweaty.
I miss the days when my nose didn't run...all the time.
I miss the days I would burn the bottoms of my feet when walking to the pool.
I miss the days when ice cream wasn't cold enough.
I miss the days when Uggs were ridiculous.
I miss the days pants simply were not an option.
I miss the days when my shoulders didn't have to be tensed up in order to walk.
I miss the days when the only bumps I had were from dull razors, not geese.
I miss the days when my breath was invisible.
I miss the days of sunburn, rather than windburn.
I miss the days of showering to cool off.
I miss the days when scarves were an accessory, not a necessity.
*Shout out to my 친구, Laurie, for her input with some of these!
06 February 2011
"We may or may not get back tonight."
Those were the sweetened words from Laurie's mouth about the cold hard truth.
All I could do was freeze for a second, then proceeded to laugh it off, and order some sweet potato cheese balls and water.
I walked to the counter and placed my order only to find my water in an actual glass cup with red hearts.
"Look at this! Has nobody ever ordered water here before?"
There was a stack of the normal cups, two of which were used for our cokes. They were sitting next to their water machine.
laughing, laughing, laughing, "I just don't understand why they gave me what is clearly an employee's glass."
laughing, laughing, laughing, "We are in Korea, Rachel."
Daegu, Korea to be exact. A few minutes after 3:00am.
"Our sandwiches and french fries were so good. And the nachos and burrito we had tonight."
"OMG that Tex Mex was so good! And don't forget the popcorn we had at the GoGo bar."
"That GoGo bar was so seedy."
"But we still had fun drinking our vodka mangoes. Remember those? Those were so good!"
"Almost as good as the shirts we bought from the same seedy bar! Good idea, Laurie. Now we'll always have something tangible to remind us of tonight."
"I should just say again that we may or may not get back tonight. That in itself might be enough to sear this night into our memories."
It's true. We had, in fact, stumbled across a seedy downstairs bar that was clearly the Daegu U.S. military hot spot. For 2 1/2 hours, we sat at the bar drinking our unlimited vodka mangoes while contemplating life, popcorn, guys, and everything in between. Three things happened at around 1:45am. Every single military guy immediately left to make it back before curfew, every single tiny Korean girl left because the military guys left, and Alex and Jodi left the hip hop club around the corner to come get us.
After purchasing our bright pink GoGo shirts, we hopped in a cab and sped off into the night. Since we were visiting A & J, there was no need to pay attention to the details of navigation. After all, its their city, and we were on vacation.
We arrived at their apartment, but Laurie and I discoverd, after taking a few goofy pictures of ourselves in the shirts, that we weren't sleepy. Not in the least bit.
We were hungry.
And you can't stop two margarita, sangria, and vodka mango filled girls from satisfying a hunger like ours.
Alex and Jodi were already asleep in the other room, so we decided to sneak out. As if A & J are our parents and we are going to meet Victor and Cody (or whoever you would hang out with in your younger sneaking out days).
After creeping down the stairs, ever so loudly, we start walking down the street to hail a cab. But as we walk arm in arm with our "GoGo vinyl" shirts on, we realize A) there's no restaurants anywhere nearby and B) we have no clue where we are.
"Oh! Here's a road sign for a girl's primary school. I'll text it to you, and it'll be saved in my phone. Then when we need to get back, we can just say this school. Easy leasy pemon squeezy."
"Good idea Rach! I think we should walk back the other way though to get a cab in that big intersection on the bridge."
A few minutes later, a cab was pulling over for us. We hopped in, giggly and upbeat as ever.
"Uhhhh, Lotteria?"
"or McDonald's?"
Cab driver: "Lotteria? Ok"....laughing
Cab driver: laughing..."Hungry?"
"Yes, yes! Hungry."
As Laurie and I discuss our insatiable need for french fries, the cab driver is zipping through the light 2am traffic. We arrive at the Lotteria, and he drives off.
Its at this moment I say "Man, I wish he would just wait on us to take us back. That way we won't have to worry about directions."
"We'll be fine. We've got that primary school's name."
We mosey on in, order our generic McDonald's wannabe meals, and proceed to inhale the most delicious food of all time.
It's amazing how time has such an important affect on how food tastes.
Well, that and vodka. and tequelia. and sangria.
After reluctantly leaving the heart covered glass in the restaurant, we leave. Somehow we remember to cross the street to get a cab going back the way we came. We hop in as I'm pulling out my phone.
I read off the romanization of the hangul* for the school.
"Hyeomyeong girls primary school"
Cab driver: "???"
"Uh, Hyaemyeong primary school?"
"Hyomong hakyo?"
Cab driver: "???"
He just starts driving. Its at this moment we realize we seriously may or may not get back tonight.
As we are driving, though, Laurie spots something familiar.
"Oh! There's that big Homeplus! We definitely passed it on the way."
But after a few more blocks, the cab driver stops, asking us which way. He can turn left or go straight.
The vodka quickly retreats from our brains, leaving us with the cold empty shock that comes from being lost at 3am in a city that is not ours.
"rencho?"
After hesitantly telling him to turn left, he confidently flies down the street, leaving us with nothing familiar in sight.
"Hey we're in a school zone. Maybe its Alex or Jodi's school!"
"Yeah maybe. Or maybe its not their school at all. Maybe we aren't even in Daegu anymore. Maybe we accidently told him to turn north and we are headed for Kim Jong-il's house right now."
"Like I said, we may or may not get back tonight."
Then a miracle happened.
"THE BIKE STORE! I've seen that before! RENCHO, RENCHO!!"
"THE DOG STORE!!! We made it! Yogi, yogi!!!"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we miraculously steered him in the exact location we needed.
There's a lesson in all of this.
Never drink alone. Do it with a friend. It makes for a much more fun night.
*Hangul is the Korean alphabet. A lot of times, when they use the roman alphabet to translate, the sounds don't exactly match up. For example: my town is spelled Seongnam, but its pronounced Songnom. In other words, its pointless.
Also, after proofreading this, I realized that reading THE DOG STORE in Korea might elicit a disturbing image in your mind. This is a pet store, like to get dogs as pets, not snacks.
All I could do was freeze for a second, then proceeded to laugh it off, and order some sweet potato cheese balls and water.
I walked to the counter and placed my order only to find my water in an actual glass cup with red hearts.
"Look at this! Has nobody ever ordered water here before?"
There was a stack of the normal cups, two of which were used for our cokes. They were sitting next to their water machine.
laughing, laughing, laughing, "I just don't understand why they gave me what is clearly an employee's glass."
laughing, laughing, laughing, "We are in Korea, Rachel."
Daegu, Korea to be exact. A few minutes after 3:00am.
"Our sandwiches and french fries were so good. And the nachos and burrito we had tonight."
"OMG that Tex Mex was so good! And don't forget the popcorn we had at the GoGo bar."
"That GoGo bar was so seedy."
"But we still had fun drinking our vodka mangoes. Remember those? Those were so good!"
"Almost as good as the shirts we bought from the same seedy bar! Good idea, Laurie. Now we'll always have something tangible to remind us of tonight."
"I should just say again that we may or may not get back tonight. That in itself might be enough to sear this night into our memories."
It's true. We had, in fact, stumbled across a seedy downstairs bar that was clearly the Daegu U.S. military hot spot. For 2 1/2 hours, we sat at the bar drinking our unlimited vodka mangoes while contemplating life, popcorn, guys, and everything in between. Three things happened at around 1:45am. Every single military guy immediately left to make it back before curfew, every single tiny Korean girl left because the military guys left, and Alex and Jodi left the hip hop club around the corner to come get us.
After purchasing our bright pink GoGo shirts, we hopped in a cab and sped off into the night. Since we were visiting A & J, there was no need to pay attention to the details of navigation. After all, its their city, and we were on vacation.
We arrived at their apartment, but Laurie and I discoverd, after taking a few goofy pictures of ourselves in the shirts, that we weren't sleepy. Not in the least bit.
We were hungry.
And you can't stop two margarita, sangria, and vodka mango filled girls from satisfying a hunger like ours.
Alex and Jodi were already asleep in the other room, so we decided to sneak out. As if A & J are our parents and we are going to meet Victor and Cody (or whoever you would hang out with in your younger sneaking out days).
After creeping down the stairs, ever so loudly, we start walking down the street to hail a cab. But as we walk arm in arm with our "GoGo vinyl" shirts on, we realize A) there's no restaurants anywhere nearby and B) we have no clue where we are.
"Oh! Here's a road sign for a girl's primary school. I'll text it to you, and it'll be saved in my phone. Then when we need to get back, we can just say this school. Easy leasy pemon squeezy."
"Good idea Rach! I think we should walk back the other way though to get a cab in that big intersection on the bridge."
A few minutes later, a cab was pulling over for us. We hopped in, giggly and upbeat as ever.
"Uhhhh, Lotteria?"
"or McDonald's?"
Cab driver: "Lotteria? Ok"....laughing
Cab driver: laughing..."Hungry?"
"Yes, yes! Hungry."
As Laurie and I discuss our insatiable need for french fries, the cab driver is zipping through the light 2am traffic. We arrive at the Lotteria, and he drives off.
Its at this moment I say "Man, I wish he would just wait on us to take us back. That way we won't have to worry about directions."
"We'll be fine. We've got that primary school's name."
We mosey on in, order our generic McDonald's wannabe meals, and proceed to inhale the most delicious food of all time.
It's amazing how time has such an important affect on how food tastes.
Well, that and vodka. and tequelia. and sangria.
After reluctantly leaving the heart covered glass in the restaurant, we leave. Somehow we remember to cross the street to get a cab going back the way we came. We hop in as I'm pulling out my phone.
I read off the romanization of the hangul* for the school.
"Hyeomyeong girls primary school"
Cab driver: "???"
"Uh, Hyaemyeong primary school?"
"Hyomong hakyo?"
Cab driver: "???"
He just starts driving. Its at this moment we realize we seriously may or may not get back tonight.
As we are driving, though, Laurie spots something familiar.
"Oh! There's that big Homeplus! We definitely passed it on the way."
But after a few more blocks, the cab driver stops, asking us which way. He can turn left or go straight.
The vodka quickly retreats from our brains, leaving us with the cold empty shock that comes from being lost at 3am in a city that is not ours.
"rencho?"
After hesitantly telling him to turn left, he confidently flies down the street, leaving us with nothing familiar in sight.
"Hey we're in a school zone. Maybe its Alex or Jodi's school!"
"Yeah maybe. Or maybe its not their school at all. Maybe we aren't even in Daegu anymore. Maybe we accidently told him to turn north and we are headed for Kim Jong-il's house right now."
"Like I said, we may or may not get back tonight."
Then a miracle happened.
"THE BIKE STORE! I've seen that before! RENCHO, RENCHO!!"
"THE DOG STORE!!! We made it! Yogi, yogi!!!"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we miraculously steered him in the exact location we needed.
There's a lesson in all of this.
Never drink alone. Do it with a friend. It makes for a much more fun night.
*Hangul is the Korean alphabet. A lot of times, when they use the roman alphabet to translate, the sounds don't exactly match up. For example: my town is spelled Seongnam, but its pronounced Songnom. In other words, its pointless.
Also, after proofreading this, I realized that reading THE DOG STORE in Korea might elicit a disturbing image in your mind. This is a pet store, like to get dogs as pets, not snacks.
This is the year that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...
This will be a quick post. A streaming of thoughts, if you will.
Final exams were December 7-10, 2010.
What has happened since December 10th?
3 weeks of class: one week of which I had none due to going over the exam, another week of which I was on my death bed, and one week of a Christmas game
Then school let out for winter vacation. Ah, but you are on the other side of the world. I need to explain further.
vacation- n. a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday
vacation in Korea- v. a period of suspension of rest, recreation or travel, usually used for extra studying at academies, winter English camp, or group study in a freezing classroom
Remember when I said that final exams were December 7-10th?
Well, today is February 7, 2011, which clearly means that kids should come back to school for one week.
This is not the first week of the new school year. This is the last week of the school year. The one with the final exams on December 7th.
"What the hell is going to happen this week?" you might ask.
Today is Monday. The first day back after over 6 weeks of no public school classes. So naturally, students have end of year exams. These won't count for anything due to the the final exams already being taken and recorded.
The next three days, class is as usual. By usual I mean kids will not listen and be stir crazy due to the fact that they literally have no reason to pay attention. And by usual, I mean I will be teaching another holiday lesson, because the book only has enough information to fill approximately 2 weeks out of a school year.
Friday is Graduation day. This means the principal and a few 3rd grade students will go into the video room and have their ceremony, while other students sit in the classroom and watch it on TV. Then kids will stay until sometime after 4:30 (my ass is out the door after that), studying in freezing classrooms.
Final exams were December 7-10, 2010.
What has happened since December 10th?
3 weeks of class: one week of which I had none due to going over the exam, another week of which I was on my death bed, and one week of a Christmas game
Then school let out for winter vacation. Ah, but you are on the other side of the world. I need to explain further.
vacation- n. a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday
vacation in Korea- v. a period of suspension of rest, recreation or travel, usually used for extra studying at academies, winter English camp, or group study in a freezing classroom
Remember when I said that final exams were December 7-10th?
Well, today is February 7, 2011, which clearly means that kids should come back to school for one week.
This is not the first week of the new school year. This is the last week of the school year. The one with the final exams on December 7th.
"What the hell is going to happen this week?" you might ask.
Today is Monday. The first day back after over 6 weeks of no public school classes. So naturally, students have end of year exams. These won't count for anything due to the the final exams already being taken and recorded.
The next three days, class is as usual. By usual I mean kids will not listen and be stir crazy due to the fact that they literally have no reason to pay attention. And by usual, I mean I will be teaching another holiday lesson, because the book only has enough information to fill approximately 2 weeks out of a school year.
Friday is Graduation day. This means the principal and a few 3rd grade students will go into the video room and have their ceremony, while other students sit in the classroom and watch it on TV. Then kids will stay until sometime after 4:30 (my ass is out the door after that), studying in freezing classrooms.
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