ROK 2.0

Dear Korea
I may be a little irrational because I didn't sleep last night. The pint of icecream I consumed can only be blamed for part of the reason that I didn't get much rest. What kept me awake was the tinging sensation that pulsed through my body as I tried to comprehend the news--I had just accepted a job offer in Kenya. I know, I know, your little world is spinning right now. What? How? Where did all this come from? And you are right, you deserve an explanation. Here goes... We had been getting along so well, I love and appreciate everything that you have offered me but this new temptress, Nairobi, has me hooked and I cannot deny my lust for her. She seduced me with an opportunity to train teachers and write curriculum, the need for a Masai warrior bodyguard is only an added bonus that heightens the thrill factor for when we get together. I get to help thousands of slum children gain literacy and open their world with the power of education. You know that this is what my wet dreams are made of. So I will leave you in August, with a heavy heart of course but knowing that I have lived to my fullest here and the time is right to move on.
That's not to say that I will not miss you. There will be many mornings where I will yearn for the spicy taste of kimchi on top of my eggs, but it will not be nearly packed away in a giant tupperware in a separate fridge. Nor will there be a tetris game of "where do I put the tupperware" when I attempt to retrieve myself a snack after school. I do solemnly swear that I will continue to use chopsticks when I eat my meals, life is just more fun that way. I will also miss getting things from students with both of their hands extended, even if the object is a pinky nail sized eraser, two hands will be used. I will miss their cheerful hellos and immediate burst of laughter. I will miss the people that Korea has brought into my life that for no reason outside their own kindness have made my time here so pleasant. Oh, and I will miss the bromancing boys holding hands in the halls of guiding each other lovingly out of my classroom. I will probably cry when my catchphrase-"Good Morning Class", does not yield a return of "Good Morning Ms.Lenets" along with a laser beam of smiles that easily eradicates negativity from my body. Oh Korea, you have been a fine mistress. Your bitterness in winter was complimented well by your summertime heats of passion and never again will I see a club full of 20 somethings in stellagmite heels dancing away in near choreographed unison to Panamaricano. You will find a new English teacher to fill the gap that I leave behind, but lets think of this as not a goodbye but a see you later, because destiny-willing I hope to cradle a Korean youngster as part of my own brood someday.
Forever grateful of your boundless love
Olenka
p.s. do you think it's a coincidence that I am moving from one ROK to another? The wise old turtle from the Kungfu Panda movie says "There are no mistakes, there are no coincidences!"

My computer is FIXED!!!

Hooray!
Today really restored my faith in humanity, though living in Korea it is rare that my faith is every dissolved in the first place. My computer was fixed by a kind man who is a friend of my host dad. He tinkered with it for literally 2 minutes before taking out the battery and then replacing it back- the act breathed life into my little computer baby and all was right in the world once again.
That was not the miracle that I was most impressed by however. Upon waking this morning I was informed that today was my host dad's birthday. Sure, a nice heads up would have been nice, but this is Korea so I guess I shouldn't have expected much. Anyhow, he had promised me yesterday that right after school we would go to the repair shop that his friend owns and he could take a look at my computer. I had little faith in this being a fruitful outing but I love my baby computer so any chance of it getting fixed was worth a shot. Now, he did not mention that today was his birthday so I was surprised to learn this fact because he knowingly commit himself to the unpleasant task of taking me to a repair shop on his birthday. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't commit myself to such a mundane experience if the roles were reversed.
When I arrived back that the house, he was already making phone calls and inquiries about where we could go to fix my computer because his friend was busy at the moment. Then he spent about 30 minutes on the phone with the IT lady and translated her questions as a scrunched my face up into a thousand varied but equally unpleasant grumpy faces as I made each response. Then he ran off to a meeting with his sister and allowed me to take over his room and use the computer for the work that I needed to finish as well as responding to my apologies for having to use the computer late into the night with- "That's fine, make yourself at home." At this point, he had already earned his gold star for the day but the kindness kept going as he left his birthday dinner with me in tow to go to the repair shop where he had arranged a special meeting past their working hours. It felt really nice to be treated like a real korean daughter. I had witnessed it from the waygook end in my previous homestay, where the girl's needs ran the show. But to have someone go out of their way to help me, especially on their birthday! That was something extra special and very very kind. I am grateful and will strive to do something equally kind for him.

Tempe Stay

Copied over from my journal that I used during the temple stay:

The orange vest and purple pants outfit is topped off with a large straw hat that the wind threatens to blow off my heat at any moment. The outfit has transformed me into a temporary Buddhist monk. I am looking down on a temple outside of Yesan and the chilly wind is giving me goosebumps. I cam to experience a side of Korea that is so dominant on travel brochures but not quite so transcendent in daily life. Buddhism. From what my previous host family taught me about their religion I know that building a tower out of rocks near a statue is the equivalent of releasing a dream. A hope that I have constructed from stone is that I have a secure job for next year that will bring me happiness as well as a new cultural understanding and finally set me up for a career that I can enjoy for the duration of my employed years.
******
It is very fitting that this temple stay experience allowed me to channel my happyness about being in Korean in a Korean way- through the 3 step bowing followed by meditative prayer. We listened to monks beating away on the drums to bring salvation to those who walk on land, fly in the sky and swim in the sea. We beaded a necklace of 108 beans- each one focusing on a particular dream or wish that we hoped would come true. A hike in the morning allowed to me talk about my experiences with a Korean woman who was very insightful because of her 3 year stint in America. Then, teatime with a monk brought a nice closure to the stay as he reminded us that even though we make choices about our lives we were destined to make those choices so what we are doing at all times is exactly what we should be doing. He also emphasized that Buddhism may be a way to find out the meaning of life it is only through our complete selflessness and continuous prayer for others that we carry through on the path to enlightenment. All in all, it seems that Buddhism asks very little of the people who chose to follow it's teachings. Thus, when people do make time to devote their energy in payer, meditation or bowing we can be assured that those actions are completely genuine and done with the utmost sincerity. At first, I was slightly puzzled by this hand-off attitude that I attributed to Buddhism's outlook on worship practices, but then I realized that it does make sense and allows the devotees to choose their level of involvement and so making the experience tailed to their needs.
Summary: Because Korea has given me so much to be thankful for it is nice to have a structured Korean way to say thank you for all of my blessings. :)

Rainy Day

So if I were to put together a pro and con list for the topic of "rainy day" the only thing on the pro side would be that it gives me a valid reason to wear the bright pink polkadot rainboots that my mom sent me. The con side carries more weight. For starters, a rainy day "washes away" about 50% of my energy allotment for the day and I feel it necessary to supplement the kilacals by consuming "comfort food". In this weeks case, it has rained three times, thus forcing me to consume an entire 17,000 won bag of assorted mars candy- think bitesize snickers, twix, milky way(both regular and midnight) as well as the boring musketeers that are the last to be picked out of the batch. Another go to staple is my beloved roasted almonds. The energy drain that results from even a mere glimpse at the miserable weather is also a reason that I was able to finish off season 7 and 6 of family guy in the past two weeks. So basic moral of this post- rain rain go away or else i have to curl up with a bin of chocolate and a movie for the rest of the day.

Seoul Spending for the Soul

First, I don't think that the puns about SEOUL/SOUL will ever get old and I apologize...not really though.

Second, I returned to Seoul this weekend and spent money like a raging maniac. My total (drum roll please...) 201,400 won. Actually, that's like nothing by most people's standards. But I'm not most people and the last time I went to Seoul I literally only paid for bus fare and ramen, so this is a pretty astronomical figure. It's not terrible thought, (IF I wasn't a penny pincher to the extreme!) 200 bucks isn't all bad for all of the things I enjoyed/experienced/saw. Here is the weekend breakdown:

I met up with Shreya and had a lovely round of catching up (SHE IS GETTING MARRIED) over a round of beers (just for me though) and played around with her fancy new camera and did psychoanalysis. Then more people joined up but I swiftly parted ways to spend time with a little friend. The next morning we had a hearty brunch of Porridge. A "slow cooked" food that the sign assured me was good for my "wellbeing". I had pumpkin and she had seafood and both were delicious!

Then we shopped. For 7 Hours. No Joke. During our extravaganza we encountered two H&Ms, two Zaras and 1 Forever21. When asking for direction to forever21 SHreya's makeup free smoke eyes scared a woman so badly that she went stumbling down some steps. I came out of the shopping bonanza victorious- a pair of jeans that finally fit my curves! A true rarity in Korea. Shreya also killed at H&M, spending 3 hours and hundreds of dollars at the "good" store. There are 2 H&Ms within 10 feet of each other, one is amazing and the other really blows. Same for Zara, one has nothing while another scored me 3 pairs of pants. As always the fitting room mirrors shed an unflattering light and reminded me to pop in the P90X videos as soon as I arrived home.

After a short break at the conveniently located hostel I put on my fly new kicks and a hoodie that would make Olen proud and headed out to Debbie's birthday at an Indian restaurant. I had snacked earlier so I didn't expect to eat too much...that is until I took a look at the spicy garlic naan. That shit is food porn both in the sense that there is a penile shape to it as well as the way it makes you moan when you eat it. It was so good that it was decided that the same restaurant would be our lunch spot the next day. After dinner we joined with many other ETAs to have some drinks. Taking over the bar we had two tables full of people catching up over Budweisers. The most memorable moment of the night was the dart game. Who knew we had so many dart-sharks amongst us? Shreya had an unbelievable couple of rounds and player 3, who was a compilation of about 8 people, won the game with an astonishing 406 points. Just shy of the 444 we needed for a free pitcher of beer. I love throwing a good game of darts. My years of softball have left me with a throwing form that delivers with a lot of power, but not quite as much accuracy. But, if the dart does make it somewhere near the target the sound on impact is quite satisfactory. It's a healthy way to work off some rage. Still worn out from shopping we called it a night and headed back to our hostel where I proceeded to ram my head into the ceiling of the upstairs sleeping quarters.

On Sunday morning I woke up early and made it to the Seoul Art Museum just in time for the opening to catch the Chagall exhibit before it got too crowded. It was interesting and I had a few favorite paintings that really stuck out. A peacock picture was my favorite. Go figure. I got back home in time to change my wet shoes (rain and new cloth shoes don't mix well) and head to lunch with Shreya and Brian. The spicy garlic naan once again managed to rock my world. We had a little time to kill before departing for our respective placements so we did the only sensible thing and binged on Doughnuts. I had three. The first and third were stuffed with creme and powdered in sugar and certainly are not helping me train for the jeju half marathon. But the experience was a perfect way to top off the great weekend in an absolutely indulgent fashion. Soon after, we left Seoul with a full and happy belly. I return to Daegu permless but permeated with a good feeling that comes from spending time with quality friends!

I made it out of clay

So I am taking a pottery class two days a week. Yesterday was my first day and I arrived promptly at 6:50. The room had a damp stench and many ladies were already hard at work at their individual pieces. This seemed like a very self-guided class and so I sat down and waited for instructions.
There was not time machine that I knowlingly stepped into but the next hour and a half is a testament to human evolution from the cro-magnoman onward until modern times. I say this because once the block of clay was gracefully dumped in front of me I was no longer a 24 year old English teacher, I was indeed a cave dweller with no means of communication (with the rest of the class or the teacher) and I relied heavily on body language and facial expressions to follow along with the instructions.I mimicked and she mimed and we got down to business. In about 30 minutes I made the ugliest coffee cup in the history of the world. My next subject was a plate and to my surprise- it turned out to not be terrible. I HAD EVOLVED. The next 20 minutes were even more significant in creating a superior being because I was allowed to use man kind's secret weapon- tools! Oh glory.

It seems however that as I was illustrating Charles Darwin's point about adaptation quite literally and progressing human kind at the speed of light I was digressing chronologically. By the end of the class I acted like nothing more than a rambunctious 4 year old wielding a sharp object, looking for my next....KILn! hah, play on words. I began to act out, not out of spite, and surely not out of boredom or frustration but I did feel rather confined creatively. The teacher would come over, redo all of the hard work and effort I had put into a piece for the last 20 minutes in a single spin of the heavy thingy and then tell me (with her hands, eyes, body- basically everything but her mouth) what to do next. I had no time to practice the skill she had taught and I couldn't even learn from my mistakes because she corrected everything into a flawless artifact. If these soon to be pots were found by archeologists years from now my chiseled emblem would be associated with pottery perfection and not the shoddy unskilled results that were actuall taking place.

By the end of the class I was using my tools to cut her corrections into odd shapes and I succeeded in getting her to put both of her hands on her cheeks in a "Home Alone" like gasp when she saw me destroy (or maybe transform...) a plate into my version of a maple leaf.
I cannot wait to go back next week.

olenka poem

Taking you back to middle school poetry class
Olenka Y Lenets. My middle name is a shining example of my father’s dedication to cheesy humor, even on official documents
Love this quote- “Be intelligently selfish” the Dali Lama said it, to me it means only do the kind of good in the world that you enjoy doing…
Erupting in laughter with a group of fabulously dressed people in a club is equally as enjoyable as reading a book in bed next to my hostsister
Never stop striving for better, once you quit trying, you might as well be dead
Knowing the nutritional content of a Snikers by heart, I still find it to be a worthy and delicious snack
A citizen of the world, I prefer to pledge my loyalties to people and not geographic areas