erin, two: gross korean food, zero

those faithful followers of this here blog will remember my initial freak out about certain korean foodstuffs. recall if you will the mysterious crunchy noodles and shrimp-eyeballs-and-all that lead to the creation of erin's rules of korean dining:

1. don't ask, don't tell
2. i won't eat eyeballs

overall i have extremely enjoyed korean cuisine. however. given my rules, there were two specific korean treats that i was dead-set against ever letting cross my lips:

1. bondaegi. aka steamed silkworm larvae. the smell of this stuff permeates every corner of every quaint little market in korea. i can smell it from 10 stalls away and oh barf.

2. three words: live. baby. octopus. this stuff you have to chew really really well, otherwise it will attach itself to your esophagus on the way down, and possibly choke you.

i don't know what has come over me. but i ate them both this week. i think it must be like how when i started working at burger king in high school i didn't like hamburgers, french fries, dr. pepper, pickles, fried chicken sandwiches, mustard, tomatoes, or mayonnaise; but then after working there for three years i developed a taste for all those things, to the lament of my thighs.
(sidenote: i am currently reading eats shoots and leaves and i felt like i should use a semicolon there. is it right? or, more importantly, do i care?)



to my credit, i only wanted to eat the octopus. kg made me eat bondaegi in seoul against my will, i do declare. and i would eat live baby octopus every day for the rest of my life if it meant i never had to eat or smell bondaegi ever ever again. blech!

i mean, seriously, do i look like i want to eat this? do i? seriously kg. seriously.


i ate this stuff on the sidewalk with not a chaser in sight.
it was all i could do not to hurl my dolsot bibimbap.
i kid you not, it was the grossest thing i have ever eaten. ever.

then on sunday it was off to a "whay" bar (raw fish bar) for live baby octopus with my friend david. you go in and you select the fish you want to kill and eat with your bare hands from these tanks.



so after you pick out and name your fish
(harold the flat-fish-with-both-eyes-on-the-top-of-his-head and henry the octopus, in our case)
you take your new friends over to the men with knives who nicely chop them up for you while you wait and watch. then you go sit down and good luck to you all that you chew them up properly.


it took me a while to get started, but once i did, live baby octopus is actually pretty cool to eat. you can leave it on your tongue and the suction cups will suck right onto that baby. it was so weird and so cool and possibly cruel.
it was salty.
it was an experience.
but i didn't eat the eyeballs.

video fun section!

1. erin torments a dying animal with chopsticks
2. erin's first bite of food that is still moving
3. david lets it all hang out


i sure can't wait for my dad to get here, boy howdy! . . .

kg's nephew's first birthday

my happenin' korean friend kg took me to his nephew's first birthday party last week. the first birthday is a really big deal in korea, so it was a blowout. it was at a banquet hall kind of thing. a place set up with a large buffet in the middle and several small rooms off the buffet. people reserve rooms around the general buffet for their own shindig and then all the shindigs eat from the same buffet. kind of a nice idea. you reserve the room, they take care of everything else. and the food was wonderful. although kg (and other koreans) told me not to eat the kim bap because it was cheap. if you're at a buffet, you should only eat the expensive foods. leave the kim bap for the dollar restaurant tomorrow. makes sense. but i still like my kim bap. expensive or no.



the family! around the 1-year-old baby! oh! the balloons!





there is a small ceremony that takes place with the baby. first, kg took the cake and took it around to lots of different tables trying to sell the cake to the highest bidder. he "sold" the birthday cake for about $60. he tried to sell it to me, and i had no idea what was going on. everyone had a good laugh. thanks kg! then the money, a computer mouse, some doctor thread (whatever that is), and a pencil are laid in front of the kid. his hands are held up, and when released, whatever he picks up indicates what job he will grow up to have. this kid picked up both the computer mouse and the doctor thread, at the same time. computer doctor maybe? biological human parts technician? biomedical engineer? who knows.




my favorite part, besides being the only western lady in the building and getting love from kg's grandma, was this girl in the bright yellow dress who lead the festivities with some sexy j-lo songs and a microphone. she was as fantastic as this outfit.

my kidlets (heart heart heart)

oh no she didn't!

don't be so quick to walk away. i want to rock your birthday. please stay.

it's my friend megan elizabeth's birthday today. or yesterday. or tomorrow. depending where you are in the world and when you read this. i would tell a few embarrassing moments about her. since i know a few. one involving a balcony room in currier hall. one involving dirty dancing and broken glasses. but i'll spare her, lest she tell the details of the time she had to come pick me up behind an apartment building in iowa city early in the morning because i had a wardrobe malfunction on my way to class, and other tales of the less than glamorous moments of my life.
megs has been my coworker, my roomie, my swayze,
my therapist, my bunk buddy, my dance partner, my pimp,
my halloween-bodily-function-t-shirt-twin, and my good good friend.
we have been to key west.
we have been to kansas city.
we have been to montreal.
we have been really, really drunk. we have rented showgirls.
whenever i clean out my shoebox,
i always find it chock full of love from megs.
she is spectacular!
thoughtful, fun, smart, kind, good, and freaking hilarious.

sadly, i only have a few photos of megs on my computer.
this is a travesty.
and only one that i can share with the public. this is funny.
above, brett and alison on the left, megs's brother and sis-in-law.
erin and megs on the right. my kansas city peeps.

so here's a rockin' rendition of happy birthday song
from me to you megsly. keep it real all day long baby.














happy birthday to you!
happy birthday to you!
cry me a river! oh!
if you wanna be happy
for the rest of your life!
happy birthday dear megan!
won't you back that thang up!
ain't nobody love ya like i love ya!
happy birthday to you!
stay away! steve guttenberg is mine!

more adventures in grading

1. fur

"The country and the city is too too fur."

2. poster

"The poster color!"

chal ga (so long) william

i found out today that one of my favorite little kidlets is leaving. on friday!!
this was very hard for me to take. i love this kid a lot.
he used to cry every day when he started school.
so i danced a lot and buttoned his coat and pretended to be various animals.
and he stopped crying.
he loves me in a way that gets me through the day
because his is my last class
and if i ever feel like high-tailing it out of there,
i know i can hang in for this little guy.
plus he makes me laugh. see attached photos.







he's great.
he calls me "erin maschita"
which translates as "delicious erin."
this is because i pretended to eat my own hand one day.

now, let's analyze:

1. it's not just william. i'm actually in love with this whole class of kids and his leaving is the beginning of the breakdown of this whole happy zone for me.

2. it makes me so sad that i almost cry when i think that i will never see these kids again and i will never know what becomes of any of them because all i know are their fake-o engrish names.

3. i am a hypocrite because i leave in three weeks. but i was going to leave first!

4. this is the beginning of the end of korea for me.
it's slow to sink in, but oh so sad.

my first summer working as a camp counselor, my boss had to pry me from one kid who it was breaking my heart to leave. and that was just the short, one week pre-session. after many summers as a camp counselor, i guess i have learned nothing, as i don't even remember that kid's name now.

it all feels very cheese romantic like some quote carved on a brightly laquered piece of wood about "people leave footprints on your heart and i'm better for the struggle of love and walk beside me and be my friend and if you touch the life of one child bah bah bah bah."

i honestly bask in the warm glow of completely unconditional love for six hours every day. i get greeted in the morning with cheers and sincere smiles and i leave with hugs and usually candy of some sort, or at least a sticker or two. and when i can see that i have taught them even the smallest bit of english in the process of just showing up for work, it's so cliche, but it's so rewarding and makes me feel like 8 billion dollars (or 8 hundred billion won).
this is going to be hard to leave behind. especially when i think about the fact that i have to tell 25 5-year-olds that i'm leaving and never coming back. i hope they remember me at all.

ouch.

you know who will remember me is the little stinky 9-year-old girl i made sit in the hall today during class for lying to me and manipulating the boys in the class and playing with marbles and defying my authoritay who now totally hates me. she'll remember.

grading again

1. feed

"I feed weed to a cow."

2. danger

"Thunder is a danger thing."

grading assignments

assignment: use the following vocabulary word in a sentence.

student responses:

1. spill

"I spilled a crayon."

2. poor

"Some people is poor."

3. pot

"The soup is bowling in the pot."

molayo *

i just got home from the korean movie theater.
in korea, you purchase a numbered seat ticket, like at a concert.
little known fact.

also in korean theaters, when they show "english" language movies,
they have korean subtitles.
of course.
however, sometimes, but not always, the subtitles are strictly in korean. which means that in a movie like lord of war or munich, an english speaker such as myself will miss out on a lot of the dialogue, and the epilogue.

if anyone knows the epilogue from munich, please let me know.
i saw the numbers 9 and 11 and i hope it had nothing to do with 9-11.

* molayo also translates as "i don't understand."

molayo *

why is it, even with the overwhelming abundance of linguistic fodder out there, that people from any culture just end up spray-painting the f-word on the sides of buildings?

*translation: i don't know

desperado

i started humming the eagles song desperado around school last week randomly and decided that i needed to hear it again. i didn't really get around to the download search until i had another bout of whatchamacallit-gastro-whatty-what earlier this week and was stretched out all sick again on my heated floor for a few days. mmm . . . heated floors.

while i was sick, i watched the movie in america on one of my sometimes socially detrimental yet always plentiful movie channels here in korea. the song desperado is sung in that movie at a kiddie talent show, so i thought it a sign that i needed to search out desperado online.

i wanted to hear the song, but not the eagles's version. don't know why, just did. after an somewhat extensive search, i have concluded that the only good version is the eagles's version. there are also a few songs called "desperado" by groups like alice in chains and crucial conflict. don't be fooled. those are not the same song.

westlife did a version of desperado. don't bother. johnny cash did a short version. i love you johnny, but your version of desperado really sucks. why has no one done a decent cover of this song? and why did i never, ever figure out ever in all my childhood years listening to this song that it was about l-o-v-e, not really about wandering cowboys, really. not really. probably the same reason i never figured out what was really going on in dirty dancing.

i've been tagged

mckate tagged me with a meme. so here goes:

Four Jobs I’ve had in My Life
Burger King
Summer Camp Counselor
Resident Assistant, baby
Engrish Teacher

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over, and Have:
Zoolander
Sense and Sensibility
Showgirls
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Four Places I Have Lived:
Dubuque, Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Montreal, QC
Daegu, South Korea

Four TV Shows I Love To Watch:
ER
South Park
Sex and the City
CSI

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation:
Key West, FL
Paris, France
The Grand Canyon
Pusan, South Korea

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
erindoeskorea.blogspot.com
gmail.google.com
imdb.com
really, there are only 3. and the third one was a stretch.

Four Favorite Foods:
dol sot bibimbap
grilled cheese and tomato soup
poutine
grammy's sausage biscuits with gravy

Four Places I Would Like to Visit:
India
Scandinavia
Easter Island
Calgary

Four People I Am Tagging With This Meme:
jen mah
rogers
buh
la bouche

things that have been happening around here

my new class of kidlets who i love soo very much.
but don't be fooled by those innocent stares and grins. oh no.


booby shoes! yay!
booby is a cartoon character. either a bear or dog.
no one really knows.
and we also don't know if this thing's name is booby or poopy
as the english pronunciation of this korean name alternates.
either way, i find it funny.


innocent? i think not. these two have to hug and make up a lot.
i think they're in lo-uh-ve.


william. junn. jay.
william makes awesome faces. a comedian before his time.
junn is a darling, but doesn't understand that i no speaky korean.
and he loves that i call him ju-nuh-nuh. gotta say both n's there.
jay is fascinated by the fact that his name is also a letter.
at first it made him cry. then i told him how cool it really was.
i think that the contemplation still sends him spinning now and again.



the "security" booth in my neighborhood.
i think it might be made of a refrigerator box.
but it has a red twirly light on top. whew!
and it goes away during the day.
and there's never anyone inside.
safety first.



yay! snow day!
it was all spring-ish around here.
then, this morning i woke up to snow
and classes started about an hour late.
i was at work on time, but i still am enjoying
the snow day!


my korean angel, Ga-Eun.
i went to get vaccinations at a big ol' hospital
in daegu . . . where there was no english.
i was lost. she found me.
she stayed with me for an hour to help me.
then she took me to a korean wedding.
she is amazing!



the temple of god who is hot!! restaurant




the angry guardians of dongwha temple. spooky.



dongwha temple. duly guarded.
and absolutely breath-taking on a sunny day.




my freshman year room mate in college ruined rent for me.
she listened to the soundtrack every day. every. day.
i gave rent a real try in daegu on sunday.
vindication! i like rent now.




a big bug exhibit in daegu. very cool!
the look on my face =
take the picture before i kill you i am scared and i hate this haha isn't this fun weee! i'm going to scream again take the picture please yay!



big scary dead bugs everywhere.
it was fascinating. we even saw some live ones.
and got to touch them if we wanted.
or didn't want.
and we were accosted by a young korean girl.
"no, seriously, i don't speak korean."
she was funny.

a haiku

bored out of my mind on friday and just completely exhausted from the week, i was trying to teach an older student of mine how to write haikus. this is the student who lived in canada for two years. she wasn't catching on at all, and all she wanted to write were long dramatic poems about horses and boys she hates. in the middle of my instruction on syllables and haiku structure, she turns to me and says:

when you pick your nose
doesn't it hurt your nose ring?

and i say

i don't pick my nose

and that, ladies and gentlemen, is a haiku.

either or

once upon a time, i heard of a chinese immigrant to the united states of america failing his citizenship application because of a small linguistic error. as it turns out, in mandarin, there are two different words for two different kinds of "or:"

"or" 1 = inclusive (i don't know the actual terms. i'm making this up) where the two options are presented as a unit

EXAMPLE: you can't blow your nose or kiss your boyfriend in public in korea.
i just found this out, but it's true. you can be fined for kissing someone on the street in korea. good thing i was inside my school . . .


"or" 2 = exclusive (again, made up term) where you MUST choose one option or the other

EXAMPLE: do you want your kimchi bokembap spicy or not spicy?

the poor chinese fellow understood the wrong "or" on his application in the question:

Do you support the overthrow of the United States by subversion or treason?

he chose treason, as it seemed like the much less offensive offense. needless to say, that didn't go over very well with the citizenship office.

i think the same "or" problem may exist in korean.
there's a little girl in one of my louder classes who is always either singing or humming or talking. not to kill her spirit, and music is good, and i'm glad that she is talking in english, but it really distracts me sometimes and adds to the general noise level in the classroom. so i took her into the hall and asked her to stop. when i was done with my little schpeel, i asked her if she was going to sing or talk in class anymore. she was really quiet for a while.

"well?" i said . . .

her response:

"i think sing."

strange movies that i have found on korean television

*batteries not included
howard the duck
la haine
anything on channel 37 past 10:30 pm
warriors
some bee movie staring kim cattrall
bring it on 1 & 2
you got served
big fish, for the eight billionth time
harold and kumar go to white castle

and did anyone else know that henry winkler was an executive producer for macgyver?
and that there was some sitcom starring jenna elfman and molly ringwald once upon a time?


i just wonder about the impression of america this leaves upon the eyeballs of korean society.
well, except for la haine. that's in french.

and finally, i remember when watching wayne's world, that cassandra says that she learned english from watching tv. or police academy or something. i always thought that that was stupid. now i understand. the korean movie channels, of which i have something like seven, plaster one corner of the screen with the movie title in korean writing. one of my favorite games is "turn on a random tv channel and see if i can figure out the name of the movie by speaking it phonetically in korean." it's really fun. no, seriously. it's fun. i swear! ryan will back me up. ryan?