Santa Clause? Really?

We’ve heard a lot about this bar / lounge called Santa Clause here in Daejeon. It’s supposed to be the main hang out for foreigners in our area. “That’s seriously the name?” is my typical response when people tell us about this place. Since this was the first weekend that I wasn’t sick since we stepped foot into South Korea, we though we would give it a try.We’ve been here for five weeks now, so I guess we should start meeting people. There are some foreigners living in our same apartment building, but I’ve never seen them. I hear them at various times of the night once they’ve drank too much and their voices carry through the cheap walls of this old apartment building. Sometimes I run out into the hallway when I hear them out there, because I think that maybe I can catch a glace of what they look like before they make it through their doors. I don’t know exactly what I would say if I did catch one of them. Yesterday I caught two Korean girls by surprise because from inside our apartment it sounded like they were speaking English. They looked at me strangely and then said, “Hi,” and started laughing. It was an odd moment so I just closed the door going back inside our bedroom without having gained any new friends.

It’s within walking distance . . . that’s my first thought when I think about Santa Clause, so that tells you how overrated it is. You can chose songs for the play-list, which is sort of cool, I guess. But it’s actually only cool when the songs you chose play, because for the rest of the night you have to listen to the songs that other people chose which, last night, consisted of country, early 90’s rock, and an overabundant amount of song about getting high, drunk and treating women like meat. Everyone there was strange. The sort of people who we would never befriend back in the States, so we sat there for a while wondering why we were there. That’s something we’ve noticed here and have heard about from our directors: A lot of people who come here to teach are misfits back home, but they think they will be cool here, or something along those lines. I know I sound uppity and snobby right now, but it really all just means that we miss our friends who are like us and understand us. Won’t you please come visit?

Josh and I played Jenga at Santa Clause for two and a half hours. That was fun. The people – weird, the music – terrible, but my husband – fantastic.

“Oh, good song, finally. Hey! I know what movie this is from! Don’t tell me . . . Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind”

“Yep. Do you know who the director was?”

“Yes. Umm . . . hold on. Lemme think. Ok, give me the first letter of his first name”

“He’s from France.”

“I know.”

“First name: M. Last name: G.”

“Don’t tell me, don’t tell me!”

“It sounds like the name of someone from work.”

“Michel Gondry!”

We smile at each other because we both realize that this is useless information that Josh cares about and because of that I now know director’s names because he talks about it too much and we are both thinking about how much we love each other and how wonderful this experience is and how we are best friends and the moment is really good. We’re in this terrible little bar filled with strange people speaking English, but we don’t care because we have each other and that’s enough.

We left Santa Clause and 1:30 in the morning and found another place, with fewer people and only Koreans. We get chocolate martinis. I pull out my recycled notebook from my purse, Josh gets his moleskin from his coat pocket, and we both start asking the bar tender questions about Korean and vigorously writing down anything we understand or think could be useful information.  It was 3 when we finally walked home in the freezing winter cold, ran across the streets, almost got hit by a car and finally made it back to our little one bedroom apartment that for the next year is our home.

The games got intense.

of course

At our Hogwon we get every National Korean holiday off, which we were told would equal out to be about 14 three day weekends in the year. Of course this year, most of the Korean Holidays fall on a weekend, so we only have 2 three day weekends in the entire year.  Goodness . . .  this is going to be a looooong year.

Better

I am finally feeling better today (Sunday), and Josh is a really good nurse. He waited on me hand and foot on Saturday. I guess he didn’t have a whole lot of choice, because I couldn’t even stand up on my own without his help, but he served me all day with a smile on his face. What a Valentine’s Day, right?

At the moment I’m debating whether a detailed story of my illness is too gruesome to blog about, so for right now I will say this: I spent nine hours on Friday in a clinic a block from the school. By the time we all realized how sick I was, it was too late to get me to a hospital which would have been far more suited to deal with my condition. I thought I had caught a virus from some of the kids at the Teddy Bear Museum the previous day because I woke up Friday morning throwing up and couldn’t stop. Once I got to the clinic, the doctor thought it was more serious than a virus and decided to take x-rays, which revealed severe digestive problems. (It’s all this confounded rice I’ve been complaining about.) Plainly speaking, my intestines backed up into my stomach and overflowed everywhere is the translation I received. I was having toxic shock among other problems as you can imagine. I continued to throw up all day and was excreting much blood from places that shouldn’t shed blood. I was also suffering from severe dehydration when the nurses finally gave me an IV, but by this time my veins were hard to find because I was so dehydrated.

It was the worst day of my life, and I’m not just being dramatic. Josh had to teach both classes at the school to cover for me, so the Korean staff took turns being there at the clinic to help me get to the bathroom. There was someone there for most of the day, I think I was only alone for maybe 3 or 4 hours. Interestingly, in Korea buildings don’t have bathrooms in every office like in the States. More economically and energy savvy, every floor has a bathroom that is shared by all of the offices on that floor. So, that means that I had to go from my room in the clinic, down a hallway, through the waiting room, past the heavy front doors, down another hallway, over a step and into the bathroom while pushing my IV and picking it up over the step and bleeding. You’re getting the idea. It was hell.

But, I’m better today. Yesterday (Saturday) I was still in significant pain on and off throughout the day, but today I can stand up and even walk around on my own. It feels like a real accomplishment after what I went through on Friday.

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Much love,

Mandi

sick

So not to scare everyone, but mandi got pretty sick yesterday (Friday) morning. She spent the day in a clinic near our school. I am sure that she will blog about the whole ordeal so I wont steal her thunder. She is feeling better, I am a good nurse.

josh

Cats are amazing

I miss Margot so much. I can’t think about her too much because it still makes me cry.

Homeplus is that gigantic grocery store I told you about before, remember? Well, aside from carrying groceries, shoes, pencils and clothes, they also have a pet store. I went there last week to look at the cat they have. That’s right. The cat. There is only one. She is a solid white persian and has a stained poo face like Doc, Jake and Carrie’s dog. It made me so sad that I wanted to buy her. She was living all alone in such a tiny glass cage. No other cat friends. The cage was so small she couldn’t even walk around.

Margot used to spoon with me in bed. I miss Blackey, too, and Shay a little. I definitely miss Perry. I hope he’s still eating like the fat little glutton he is. I was just thinking about ways that I could get Perry over here. Don’t you think he could make the flight? We need a fish in this apartment or something. I really miss Margot.

Margot knew we were leaving. She knew things were getting different. It’s incredible to think how we packed up everything, rented our house, gave our lovie cat away, and left with four suitcases in hand to a country that we have never even visited before. I know people do it every day, but it’s definitely different when you’re the one doing it. It all seems sort of brave when I look back on it now. We’re lucky that we ended up with great directors and a fantastic school. Lots of people come here with less teaching experience than us and aren’t so lucky with their situation. I don’t regret coming here. I am so happy that we decided to do this. We made the decision and then everything was set into motion. It all happened to quickly and now we’re here, actually living in South Korea. I guess this is everything sinking in, right? All the same, it’s good. It’s different and exhilarating  and good.

Much love,

Mandi

Video upload on facebook

I am uploading a video from the Teddy Bear Museum fieldtrip we took today. I will write more about that later. . .

I am also uploading a video of the school we are working at that I took before classes started. I was planning on taking another with the kids in the school, but it’s too hectic during the day, so here is one without any kids and just of the building and Korean staff.

Love,

Mandi

Little hands

My favorite part about teaching kindergarten are the little hands of my students reaching up high over their heads to pat my stomach while saying, “Teacher, teacher!” Or gym class when we play “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” and the little girls hold on to me around my waist and the boys grab a hold of my legs and beg me to drag them around the gym floor in search of the BIG BEAR!

Just a few of my favorite things,
Mandi

Josh’s Class

Sorry everyone, but I didn’t have time last night to upload Josh’s class. I know, Sarah Bear, you are patiently awaiting these pictures, so I am doing it before work for you. Here are his babies:

This is Min. She is Josh’s wild child, but he loves her. Only his energy could handle it!

Taylor is Jay and Sunny’s youngest daughter. She is so petite and I think she’s one of the most precious students.

David is so little. I really don’t think he’s even four yet, because he acts like a toddler still.

The girl in the front with the gray sweater is also named Min. She is Josh’s assistant. They’re called Korean Teachers and we’re called English Teachers. More or less the Korean teachers give the students lunch, take them on break, to the bathroom, and help us prepare arts and crafts for the classroom. The girl behind Min is Souji. She works in the office, but is leaving this week for college. She will be missed!

I don’t have a picture of Jenniffer, Josh’s other student. She is very, very shy and hates having her picture taken. I’ll try to sneak one when we are at the Teddy Bear Museum tomorrow.

Josh was really getting tired of me taking a million pictures on our lunch break. Haha!

Day seven continued

This was the best day so far. I am getting into a better routine and my kids are understanding enough commands at this point to make classroom management a little bit easier. For example, when I say, “Eric! Stop jumping on of Kevin’s head!” He kind of understands what I’m saying.

I finally have pictures of our little bits for everyone to enjoy. They sure are adorable. Right now Josh has four in kinder and I have six. Come March 2, we will both have between 10 and 12 in kinder. I don’t have any pictures of elementary, sorry. We are with them far less time in the day, so we don’t get quite as close with them. We have one elementary class from 2:30 to 4, and then another class comes from 4:00 to 5:30. We have kinder from 9:30am until 2:30 pm, with an hour lunch break at 12noon. My kinder class students are seven years old, in Korean years, which is kind of like dog years, but two years instead of seven. Seven years old in Korea is actually what we consider five. Josh’s students are six, which means they are only four years old!

My Class. Kinder II from left to right: Stella, Eric, Alice, Maddison, Kailey, and Kevin.

From Left to right:Stella, Eric, Michelle, Maddison, Kailey, and Kevin. We are in the school’s library here.

(Hold your browser over each picture for the name of the child who is starring in it)

Eric has a lot of energy and speaks the most English.

Michelle is very obedient and rather intelligent.

Maddison is the little girl in pink- always in pink. She is Jay and Sunny’s oldest daughter. Their younger daughter, Taylor, is in Josh’s class. Maddison is so quiet in class, but outside of class is a real firecracker. She’s quite shy with English even though both of her parents speak it, but she does have a very high comprehension level.

Kevin, I don’t have a solo picture of. He was misbehaving while we were trying to take photos. Enough said.

Kailey is always quiet and studious.

Stella is my craziest girl, but she’s still very bright. She wears her hair the same every single day, just with different bows.

Mom, do you recognize that scarf? You should! I took it before we left so that I would have something to remember you by while we are away. I wore it all day today and thought of you the entire time. It’s a good thing the 80’s are sort of back in style or I couldn’t have gotten away with wearing these colors! Love you!

Lunch break at work. Day seven at Kid’s College.

I talked to my parents last night, and Mom said that I hadn’t been blogging lately, so – hello! We’re here; we’re alive, and we’re teaching. Today marks one month that I’ve been sick. I decided today that it’s completely redeiculous that I’ve been sick for too long, so I’m getting an antibiotic shot after work today. Ahhhhh . . . I’m a tad nervous about it.

Classes are going well.  I finally have pictures of the kids to upload and will do so when we get home tonight.  Josh and I combined our cooking  classes today and did fondue with them.  It was so much fun, but I don’t think they were as interested in the chocolate as I was.  We are going on a fieldtrip to a Teddy Bear Museum on Thursday.  It was described to me as a “teddy bear paradise”.  Saturday we are going snow skiing/boarding with Olivi and Souji, two girls who work  in the office here at Kid’s College.

This past weekend I wasn’t feeling very well, so I went to bed at 8pm on Friday and slept until 11am on Saturday. Poor Josh. I’m boring him with my illness. But we did go out on Saturday for a while with Jay.  He took us to Costco and the Galleria mall, which is a really upscale mall here in Daejeon.  Costco was much smaller than the ones in the States, but still sells everything in bulk. We bought bagels, chips and laundry detergent. I found what I think is an all natural laundry detergent. Or at least more natural than the toxic stuff I had been suing. Tide sold for 30,000 WON at Costco, which is $21! yikes. That is some expensive detergent.

All right, I need to get ready for my next two classes of kinder before elementarty starts this afternoon.  Love and miss you all!

-Mandi