Monthly Archive

The election has passed, the worst of my cold has (hopefully) passed and most of the week has passed. Some things I’ve been meaning to put in here:

-For what is likely to be the first and only time during my stay in Korea, the Armed Forces Network (the only English-language channel I get) broadcast live election coverage. All day Wednesday, we got live news from ABC, which would have been infinitely cooler had anyone at home been watching Charles and Diane instead of Anderson and holograms. Anyhow, Charles Gibson caught me off-guard at 1 p.m. Korea time (11 p.m. EST and 8 p.m. in California) when he said the polls in the west had closed and Obama had won. I guess I just wasn’t expecting it that quickly? It was all very anti-climactic. Then again, I was alone in my room, not doing much aside from watching the coverage and occasionally Skypeing with people in the States, which is pretty much a 180 from last year, when I watched the wires, ate free food and had my ID badge confiscated by USA Today security. Here’s the Youtube clip of the second-most defining moment of my generation:

-Autumn here is a lot cooler than I thought. I know I already posted about this earlier in the week, but it got even better over the past few days. The colors outside my apartment are loud and vibrant and absolutely gorgeous. I snapped a few pictures during my lunch break today, will put them up this weekend.

-I got a great coat the other day–it’s sleek and black and (channeling Paris Hilton) totally hot. Sixteenish bucks on sale at a clothing store called Bang Bang isn’t a bad deal, but it’s still more than the $2.50 I paid for the sweet plum winter coat from the thrift store above the main train station in Prague. My friend Nick called it a “horse coat” and said it looked like something a rider would wear. Whatever, it’s really cute. We shall discover it’s heat-containing capacities within the next few weeks.

-There are some homeless cats hanging around near my apartment. I think they’re pretty young, and sometimes I can hear them crying, WHICH BREAKS MY HEART. A couple nights ago, Erin, Jeanette and I went on a late-night recon mission to find the kittens, but were unsuccessful. Pro: I haven’t heard them crying in a few days, though I did see one running around earlier. Con: That I haven’t heard them is a pretty good indication that most of them are dead.

-I really need to blog about the food here. That will also be coming soon. I’ve started to venture out and eat things besides made-in-bulk Korean camp food, something my tastebuds and immune system are very appreciative of.

-Still sick, but feeling a lot better than I was last weekend. Now I’m just congested, and I’m not sure if that’s A. because I tend to get sick when I leave the country, B. because I have a tendency to get sick in the fall and stay that way for a few months (2004-mono, 2005-tonsillitis, 2006-no idea because I was too afraid to go to a Czech doctor), C. because of the horrible air pollution here or D. because I work with germy children every day. My friend Mark gave me a huuuuuuge vitamin the other day, which had been given to him by one of the Korean staff. Possibly TMI: when I peed a few hours later, I swear to God it was radioactive. Despite the momentary excitement that comes from such a moment, I think I’m going to stick with my Centrum vitamins.

-Some news organizations have been coming in this week because we had a group of six Russian students here. I ended up getting some camera time today when a journalism group from Siberia came into my cooking class and recorded us making cupcakes. I’m pretty sure I was covered in batter and flour and wearing a dirty apron. Awesome.

-Last night, to celebrate the election being over (and a new America?), about a dozen of the teachers went out for a few hours to Penelope’s, the local pub that seems to be the go-to place for events such as this. Enter the beer, soju and wine. Plus of the night: I was only charged for one glass, even though I ordered two. Woot!

-So those Russians who were here this week? Their teacher speaks excellent English. A few hours ago, I was watching a movie in a friend’s apartment when she just knocked on the door and came right in. She sat down and ended up talking to us for nearly an hour. Oh, and she invited us to come to Vladivostok, a Siberian port city. We exchanged information and are tentatively thinking about going in February or March, when things are slow here at SEV. I’m hoping our trip will be the exact opposite of Transsiberian, which we watched last night.

That about does it for right now. It’s almost 1 a.m. and I have class in eight hours, so bed might be a smart move. I do have some fun ones lined up for tomorrow–I think two cooking classes, a group activity, a class of kindies and then two hours of graduation. I’m still getting called Melamine though, so that sort of blows. Something tells me that I’m not going to be able to shake that nickname until some new Chinese poison scandal rocks Asia.

Oh, October 31st. While all of you in America and Canada were drinking, dressing like sluts and making poor choices, it was, sadly, just another day on the Korean calendar. Koreans, as well as a majority of the world’s population, do not celebrate Halloween, which is really a shame, considering I get it twice a year (it’s one of the perks to being a conservative Jew-Purim AND Halloween). Luckily for us here at SEV, we celebrate it with the kids the weekend beforehand. Getting ready this year got me thinking about Halloweens past, so hop into your Delorean and let us recall the Halloweens of my young adult life.

Truth be told, every Halloween from age 0-15 sort of blends together into one convoluted mess of Disney princess, American Girl doll and Supergirl costumage. I emerged from that cocoon during my senior year of high school, when I missed out on Halloween entirely to attend my youth group’s Fall Kinnus in Albany. I actually took a four-hour hiatus from the convention to take the SAT IIs the next morning up. When I got back to Kingston that night, my mother told me that my aunt, with whom I had been very close, had passed away on Halloween. Worst Halloween weekend ever.

Halloween 2004 could only be better, right? I was a freshman in college and looking forward to dressing like a slut and strutting my stuff all over College Park (sorry Mom and Dad). My friend Josh was at UDel the day before to play hockey, and decided drive the extra hour to come visit me for the weekend. During the day, we went into Washington to walk around and grab dinner at a great tapas place in Chinatown (otherwise known as one of four restaurants I have gone to for a meal in the District–I am, after all, a devoted Kramerbooksite). While in Chinatown, we went into Urban Outfitters, where Josh bought a straw hat and I purchased a shirt that said “I’m proud to be a farmer’s daughter.” That night, we ended up wearing our Urban finds to a stranger’s house party, where I experienced my first ice luge (helloooooo, rite of passage) and made out with a guy dressed as a woman (sorry again, Mom and Dad). Anyhow, here’s one of the pictures I scrounged up from Webshots. My costume is pretty weak, and Josh had taken off the hat my that point. Not the finest of years in terms of creativity, to be perfectly honest.

Josh left for Binghamton the next day, and a few hours later I got a phone call from a high school friend, telling me that the mother of a guy I dated before coming to college passed away that morning after a very brief bout with cancer. So much for change. Second worst Halloween ever.

In 2005, I went into Halloween weekend wondering what horrible things would befall me that year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing went awry, for once. I dressed as a pirate. Sort of. I’d been diagnosed with tonsillitis a few days beforehand, so I was incredibly under the weather, despite being heavily drugged. At the last minute, I threw on a striped shirt and short black skirt and made my way to a frat party, armed with a bottle of water because I was on antibiotics.

Halloween 2006 was infinitely better than the previous three, mostly because I wasn’t sick and nobody died. I was in Prague, and the owner of a nearby restaurant was throwing my building a Halloween party, since most of us were Americans and Brits. I decided to jump on the pop culture wagon and went as a pregnant Britney Spears. My finest hour? No, but a damn good costume.

By the time Halloween 2007 came around, I was back in the States and ready to do it the good old American way (that’s what she said?). Costume brainstorming was time-consuming, but I did come up with such ideas as The Diamondback (what’s black and white and not red/read at all?) or teaming up with someone and going as a Duke lax player and the stripper (which is now even funnier, considering that less than two months later, my good friend Stef began dating one of the three accused of rape). Anyhow, lacking for truly good and original ideas, I stole my friend Margalit’s Purim costume idea and went as a black eyed pea. This costume involved minimal effort, some cutting of construction paper and a whole lot of eye makeup.

So here we are in 2008. Now out of college and working with children, it is no longer socially acceptable for me to be a slutty anything or any kind of wench. However, in retrospect, I think I’ve been pretty good about staying mostly clothed. This year, I borrowed tiger ears and a tail from my friend Jennifer and went as a tiger. I even wore yoga pants instead of leggings because they’re more kid-appropriate.

The problem with wearing a tail around children is that they like to invade personal space. If I had a won for every time a small child grabbed at my tail…well, you get the idea. To make them stop, I’d have to shimmy around until they jumped back in a fit of giggles. Funny, that same trick doesn’t seem to work when I’m dancing with unsavory characters at the bars…

All in all, this was a solid Halloween. My only true disappointment this year was that I missed out on seeing several hundred thousand slutty Sarah Palins. Oh well, maybe (but hopefully not) next year, right?

Oh, and I guess I should show you some of the cute kindies we had this past week. Stolen from my friend Jeanette, these pictures will melt your heart. Seriously.