Linda Fung Makes an Appearance

As I write this entry, it is hotter than a whorehouse on payday here in Seoul. It's about 90 degrees and I'm sitting in my underwear in front of the fan, which is on the highest setting. My hair is...a disaster. It's been a rough time.

Ah, well. Onwards and upwards!

The big thing after the triathlon was Linda Fung's visit! Yes, that's right. Linda Fung, sassy New Yorker Extraordinaire, came to visit little ole me in Korea. It was tremendously exciting and I don't know how anything else this summer is going to measure up. Let's see, what did we get up to?

Well, as tradition dictates, I picked her up from the Hyatt and I took her to the Wood Hof for dongdongju and haemul pajon. We had a few of my friends meet us and we had a great time introducing Linda to the wonders of Korean kuisine. A couple of us continued the party at Phillie's and I got to go into work with a nice little hangover the next day. But that wasn't all I brought with me...Linda got to see the inner workings of a Korean kindergarten. She hokey pokeyd, ate lunch with us, and did the Shark Song. The kids were confused that teachers have lives outside of school but they warmed quickly to her.

That night, we went to a jjimjil bang (sauna), where Linda's dearest wish came true: she got to see me naked. We got to eat delicious soup, sit in massage chairs, and sweat a lot. The next day, my friend Damien took Linda to Namsan to hike around (and NOT start fires). I met up with them when I finished work and we had grilled meat, which was very good. We were supposed to go out for ladies night in Itaewon but we were both too tired and fell asleep shamefully early.

On Friday, Linda went exploring on her own while I went to work. On my way back, I saw her walking in the wrong direction! I nearly got off the bus to run after her but I figured she'd find her way back. We went to Insadong/Myeondong to walk around and see the sites, then met up with Steve for dinner at a delicious Indian restaurant. After, we headed over for bowling at Samgakji. Oh, man! Linda is THE most hilarious bowler on either side of the Pacific. If she ever tries to mess with me, I've got a video of her bowling and I'm not afraid to use it.

Saturday was a big one for us. We started off with food from a local kimbabchongook, which is wear most Koreans eat out. We then hauled ass to Sinchon and went from there to Idae, where we did a lot of shopping and looking at buildings. We both spent more money than we meant and had a lot of fun doing it. We had dalk kalbi for dinner (it was delicious!) and went home to shower/change for my friend Craig and Damien's housewarming party. That was a good time, mostly because I introduced Linda to the joys of makkoli. After we took a stroll up hooker hill, always lovely, then went home to pass out.

Sunday, sweet Linda left on an airplane, don't know when she'll be back again. Sadly, she didn't get to have fried chicken but I think she had a good time any how.

Pictures!

Part 2 of the Continuing Saga

Ok, let's see where we are...May still...sigh...Damn it, I forgot some April stuff.

In the middle of the month, I went out for my friend's birthday and saw another friend's boyfriend pee in the middle of a busy Korean street. Nothing happened, it was amazing. Even more so when I think that a month later, I was hauled in for a camp fire.


At the end of April, I went and saw my friend Dan's kumdo tournament. It was awesome! Dan just went and attacked hardcore and the Korean dude didn't know what hit him. Sadly, his hit on the head was discounted and the Korean dude won. Dan was robbed.

Oh, sweet. According to my day planner, nothing else interesting happened in May. June, here we go! Gah, June was eventful.



The first thing I did in June was buy my ticket for India! I'm going to spend 3 glorious weeks on the beach in Goa, in the south. I fly into Mumbai on August 4th (I spend a couple days in Singapore before that) and I'm taking the train the next day. I plan on doing nothing but take pictures of churches and laying on the beach. I'm freaking terrified to be going to India on my own but I think it'll be cool. Everyone says that as long as I keep my wits about me, I'll be fine.

The weekend of June 15th, I went to Sokcho to see Steve's triathlon. That was my birthday present to him, I would travel to be a cheerleader and dude, it was the dog's bollocks! I love bus/train travel and it was rather pleasant 4 hour ride to the east coast. Steve's tri buddy Sonny was there too and he's awesome. When we got to town, I left them to do their registration stuff and I wandered around by myself (and with my new kinda fancy camera). It was weird, I was stared at so much, as foreigners aren't as common there as in Seoul. Regardless, I had a really good day. I got a seafood feast on the cheap and saw some really pretty beach stuff.

On Sunday morning, I went and hooted and hollered for Steve and Sony. They were amazing! Sony came in something like 10th overall and Steve won his age group! I think Sony was a little disappointed he didn't place but Steve was so freaking happy with how he did (he beat his personal best time by over 5 minutes!) and it was really nice to be a witness for him. I took the pictures of him on the podium and I was instructed to push and claw my way to the front and, by golly, I did.

After the race, we had a lot of time to kill before our bus back to Seoul so we went to frolic on the beach and it was glorious! The water was bracing and cold and the beach was great. I got a nice little sun burn but it was worth it. I also kicked Steve's ass at GoStop!

Happy Birthday, Diana. You better appreciate this.

Alright, I know. I suck. I am FINALLY going to update and you all have Diana Hall to thank. This is my birthday present to you, you skank.

So what I'm going to do is flip through my day planner and write about things of note since I've last updated. Let's see...how far do I have to go back...May?!?! Blerg.

The second weekend in May was a long one, so Stef-the-Housemate and I hauled our asses to Busan. This is noteworthy because Stef and I have a glorious history of not leaving a 100 meter radius during our holidays. However, Miller the Thrilla hadn't been out of Seoul her entire time here so we made an exception. It was a ton of fun, though I was a bit sick and threw up several times on our first day. Also, the weather was poo and we didn't get to spend any time on the beach.

What we did get to do, though, is explore the city itself. We went to the fish market (the biggest in Korea, thank you) and took a ton of pictures of the delicious little fishies swimming around in tanks. We went shopping in Busan's downtown area and got matching dresses from American Apparel and saw Iron Man (which knocked my socks off). Our last night there, we went to a lovely 찜질방(jjimjil bang) and had to have some locals help us call a cab back to our love motel.

Let's see...what else happened in May...oh, yeah! I was arrested! How silly of me to forget!

It started off so innocently...My friend Steve was competing in the Seoul Triathlon very early in the morning so I wanted to spend a fairly quiet Saturday night in the neighborhood so I could cheer the next day. Ha!

It was the night of the Haebangchon street/music festival and a bunch of my friends and I were hanging out at the local bars, taking drinks outside and enjoying the first really warm night of the year. Stef and her bandmates suggested going up to Namsan to a campfire spot they'd been to before and I was down. We hiked up the hill, bringing guitars and lots of beer and started a fire. Now, keep in mind the place had a stone circle, a pile of logs stacked neatly nearby, a brush to sweep the ash, and stumps arranged all around it. Looked perfectly kosher.

So there we were, a bunch of drunkies having a sing-a-long when we notice a bunch of cop cars and fire trucks at the bottom of the hill. Not having the quickest of response times, we sat there until we were surrounded by them. They started yelling at us in Korean and we quickly put out the fire and were escorted down the hill. I thought that would be the end of it but nope. They wanted us to get in the cop cars and go to the station with them. I was all for refusing but cooler heads prevailed and I got in. But! I got in with my large bottle of Cass that I absolutely refused to get rid of. That's right, I finished my damn beer in the police station (and drank some in the patrol car. Because that's how I roll).

We were forced to wait in the station for about 3 hours while they processed us. It was wicked boring and frustrating and I thought I was going to bust a cap in someone's honky ass. We got yelled at for laughing but then an older cop stole Stef's cookies and offered them to us. When we were finally let go, they told us we had to go to freaking court on June 4th.

On the court day, we were all scrubbed to within an inch of our lives. We kept repeating how sorry we were and how back home it would have been fine to start the fire, and we loved Korea, 대한민국! and all. Finally, the judge told us to get the hell out of there and we didn't even have to pay the fine. A little anti-climatic but I'm totally ok with that!

Ok, more later. Maybe we'll get up to mid-June by the next entry.

My Roommate the Rock Star

Stef's band Les Moustaches had a show a couple weeks ago. It was freakin' awesome! I've been hearing about the band forever so it was really great to finally hear them perform. Their show was at a small club in Hongdae called Free Bird and they were hours late to perform, so a lot of people had left by then. That was a bummer but there was still a pretty good crowd. Stef sounded great and the band in general were fantastic for a first gig.



Other news:
I'm going to start volunteering with Sharing House. I'm super excited about it, as I will get to stretch my history muscles and help write educational packets. The whole history of the sex slaves in WWII is pretty much summed in one sentence in both Korean and Japanese history books...not cool. The women are getting pretty up there and are dying at a more frequent pace. It's crucial that their story isn't forgotten and I'm incredibly honored that I'll get to play a role in making sure that doesn't happen.

I'm going to be helping my friend Steve out by "teaching" a conversation class for his school's English Club. It'll be my first time interacting with middle schoolers since leaving my old job, so I'm a little nervous. At the same time, I'm stoked to have interactions with kids that won't involve me being licked or bitten. A gaggle of us are also going to go on a field trip with the English Club. They're going to take us around one of the palaces here and play tour guide for us.

Quiz Legend!

Pub quiz has become a central part of my social life here in Seoul. It started in the fall and that's how my friend Steve and I became friends. First, we were rivals (much shit-talking ensued on our Facebook walls) then we formed Team Chillax (we're now the HBC Massif). Sometime last winter one of us thought, hey! I bet we can write a pretty decent quiz. We talked to the manager of the bar and we did our first quiz right before I left for the States. It was a success, we were asked back, that was even better and now we do it once every three weeks. On our off weeks, we usually come in about 3rd place.

Steve and I split the writing responsibility down the middle and then switch off who reads. Here's the thing: the reader gets free beer all night. I get really nervous and drink a little fast so usually by the third round, I'm flat out drunk.

This week, it was my turn and oh, boy! I couldn't say the word "archipelago"to save my life in the 4th round and I don't think I'm going to hear the end of that for a long, long time.

Spring!

I know I've said this before but after growing up in a temperate climate, I really appreciate spring now. Seoul is FINALLY warming up and it's glorious. The trees are blooming, grass is growing, and the birds are singing. Claude and I are currently out on the balcony, enjoying a lovely spring afternoon. I'll be off to Yeouido this weekend to check out the cherry blossoms before they fall of the trees.

Today I had one of those days when everything seems to go right. I only had kindergarten today and it was so much fun! I taught one of my favorite groups and at the end of the day, my kids and I had an impromptu dance party and twirled around until we fell down laughing. Good times!

Tomorrow is a holiday and I am very very happy about this. Hopefully the weather will hold up and I can work on the garden on the roof. Happy Election Day, for reals!

I've read that older people should do crossword puzzles in order to keep their minds sharp and fend off Alzheimer's. I've decided that when it comes for me to make sure my brain doesn't go to mush, I'm going to plan out routes using the Seoul Metro system. Seriously, I'm becoming Lord of the Buses here.

I had to go to the immigration office today to pick up my alien registration card (Side note: I feel like I'm betraying my Mexican heritage by becoming a LEGAL alien but...what can you do?) and I managed to get from Omokyo to Dangsan using nothing but my wits. For those of you who are familiar with my woeful sense of direction, you'll appreciate that this is damn near a Christmukkah miracle.

Last night, I went to kumdo for the first time in a little over a week and when I walked in, all the kids started yelling my name and welcoming me back. It was really nice and I imagine that's what some of you are doing right now as you read this (...I hope!).

Life's been busy lately. I was sick for the entirety of last week, which was not fun. I'm having spring allergies for the first time in my life and I place the blame totally with flippin' yellow dust. It's gross and I hate it. I hate the way it coats the apartment with dust, I hate the way I hack my lungs up all the time, I hate the way it ruins the city view I have in the morning on my way to work. It's plain depressing and without a doubt my least favorite thing about living in Asia. I've been popping vitamin C and taking antihistamines, which are making me super sleepy all the time, in the hopes of being 100% healthy. Perhaps it would help if I laid off the Cass on the weekends but c'mon. Let's not get crazy.

Yes, yes speaking of weekends, I really shouldn't paint a picture of Nicole as the this invalid hobbling around Seoul. I had quite the time at Steve's birthday celebration. It started at Hooter's and ended at a bar that serves drinks in a bucket (have I mentioned this place before? I have! Monkey Beach reared its ugly head again!) and at the end of the night, yours truly tried to insist that the street outside her house was a perfectly good place to go to sleep. Goooooood times!

In other news, Stef, my house mate, has a gig with her band soon. It's the first one for them and I'm super excited. They came over to the house last week for an impromptu jam/scarf dance party and they sounded great just messing around. The show is at this new-ish club in Hongdae called Free Bird so of course I'm going to be the a-hole in the back yelling "play Free Bird!!"

About the picture: This is my favorite student, Juwon, holding a picture she drew of me. I think she really captured my je ne sais quois, don't you think?

Updates

What's going on here in Kimchi Land...

-I had my greatest triumph and greatest defeat as a pre-school teacher in the same half hour. The youngest class I teach, Leshi, has two developmentally challenged kids who are about 3 years old. There is a Korean assistant in that class who is SUPPOSED to help me keep them under control while I teach the other three kids in the class but she's pretty flippin' useless and I usually spend the class running after them instead of getting anything accomplished.

So...one of them, Jae Min, I've been teaching for about 5 months now and he's picking up things here and there. He loves singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and he knows to say "hello" rather than "annyong" to me so he's getting there. This week, though, for the first time in 5 months, he did the Hokey Pokey on his own. I was so proud of him, I was totally crying and trying to hide it. It totally made my week and I still get all weepy when I think about it.

Then, about 25 minutes later, Seog Hyun threw the big story book out the window. It was hilarious but...damn it!

-I've finally started kumdo (검도 in Korean)! To recap briefly, my friend Steve's roommate Dan has been taking lessons for a while now and I thought it would a really cool thing to do. Dan's also been talking it up to other people so there's a group of 4 adult foreigners and 5 Korean elementary school students in the class. It's pretty funny, the instructor treats us (Dan not included) like very slow kids. We even get dropped off at the subway station in the school van with the other kids.

The kumdo itself is pretty cool. We wear blue outfits and have bamboo swords. So far, I've learned the basic foot movements, how to hold my sword, and basic arm movements. I totally make light saber noises because yeah, I feel like a Jedi. Assah!

Videos!

Yes, more videos.

Video One: Claude

You know what? I'll have as many videos of my cat on my blog as I want. Did you just call me a crazy cat lady? Huh?? Say it to my face!

But seriously, he totally looks like a catnip junkie, all wide-eyed and freaking out...so cute!



Video Two: Musical Chairs

Holy crap, musical chairs was some dog-eat-dog hyper competitive game with the kindi class. There were tears, bruises, and triumphant dances. It was pretty funny.

I'm pretty bummed and pissed about some moron burning down the Namdaemun gate. I almost typed "...Namdaemun gate burning down" but that makes it sound like an accident. I guess this is so upsetting because the Japanese and North Korean armies did such a good job of destroying significant historical sites that they didn't need any help from their own people.

On my first full day in Seoul, Justin took me by this on our way to the market and its remained one of my favorite visuals in the city. A lot of people said it was pointless but I loved how this modern city sprung up around the gate. It was built in 1398, it was the number one historic site in Korea and the oldest wood structure. Sigh.

Happy Lunar New Year

Today was my first day back after 5 glorious days off for Lunar New Year. One of my favorite things about living in Asia is all the time we get off for lunar holidays...though there is the trade off of Western holidays basically ignored. I can't believe I didn't get Martin Luther King Day off, damn it!

My holiday followed two intense 13 hour days. A friend was going on a ski trip to Japan so I subbed for him on Monday and Tuesday, meaning I was working all damn day. It was kinda cool to be around the middle school/high school kids again. I forgot how fun it is to gently mock them! Apparently, I was a big hit and the director of the school offered me a job at the end of Tuesday but I declined. I would miss my little hooligans too much if I left them.

I began the break with an intense night of drinking at a little place (ha!) called Monkey Beach. They serve their drinks in buckets and that's all I'm going to say about that. Stef and I made it home around 4:30 after a detour in Itaewon for grilled meat.

After that auspicious start, I did absolutely nothing for 5 days and it was amazing! No, wait, I did do some teaching prep work and I did a major cleaning of my room but that was it. I got wicked drunk on Saturday but it was at a bar I can see my house from so it doesn't really count as getting out there in the world. On Sunday, Stef and I worked it so we each only had to leave the house once (and the trip each of us made was for food!). I really needed the rest, though. The bags under my eyes are finally gone!

The greatest thing about the break: I found another Jew!!!

I've officially gone balls to the walls for Obama. Why support a candidate half-heartedly, I always say. My lovely auntie is sending me an "Obama for yo Mama" t-shirt and whoever sends me an Obama window sign will have my love forever.

Lament of a Progressive Hippie

Alright, this is about U.S. politics so mosey along if this might offend...(see, I DO have Republican friends, thank you.)

I've come to the realization that the Edwards campaign is dead. The nail in the coffin was when he lost the primary in South Carolina, his home state. I'm incredibly sad about this and feel like the country lost a huge opportunity. Edwards is a politician I was so excited about and excited by. I thought his ideas about poverty, social justice, and the environment were great and I would have loved to cast a vote for him in November.

Alas, alack! This is not to be and personally, I blame big media. Edwards isn't a "romantic" candidate in the sense that Senators Clinton and Obama are. His story never hit the big papers, he was continually left out of things. He was the John Paul Jones to their Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

Speaking of Senator Clinton (NOT HILLARY! I am not on a first name basis with her, damn it, I am not her friend!)...I just read the lamest thing in the world at NOW-N.Y. This is something I've been fighting ever since Clinton made her interest known...yes, I am a dedicated feminist and yes, I would love to have a female president but damn it, not this one. I think the ultimate goal of feminism is to accept or reject a candidate based purely on their policies and ideas and that is what I've done. If I supported Clinton just because she's a woman, how is that any better than being against her for the same reason? Bill Richardson is Hispanic but he's also very pro-death penalty so I did not support him. Am I a bad Mexican now?

Sorry, I've been writing several emails about this to people but its something that I had to get off my chest since I don't have a lot of Americans (or any, really) to talk to about this and Canadians just don't get it...sigh. Any thoughts?

This past Saturday was the Wiz Island Kindergarten Winter Concert. Dudes, it was so cute! My kids did song and dance routines to "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" and "I Scream for Ice Cream!" They also did a play called "The Lion's Bad Breath" and they were awesome. Both my Korean co-teacher and I were so proud of them we were crying. They worked so hard to learn the dances and their lines in the play, it was so sweet. It made up for the fact that I had to work on a Saturday. Sadly, my camera has been acting up so I only got this one picture of them backstage.




I've been celebrating my return to this fine city with some nights of being sloppy drunk. Last weekend, I went to the infamous Carne Station (see entry from Jan. 2007) and drank way, way, way too much soju and suffered the consequences. Paula had to put me in a cab and I barely remember getting home. I do know that I passed out fully clothed on my couch when my bed is maybe 10 steps away. Ha ha. Winter is the time for drinking, as Craig says.


Here's another Claude movie I found while cleaning my hard drive. Justin would occasionally get it into his head that Claude shouldn't be able to have dinner until he exercised a bit. I really like how Claude is unwilling to play with the string but ultimately succumbs since he's, you know, a cat. Enjoy!

a-dor-able!

Korean Kindergarten Kute Moment #2,503

Dante: Teacher, haircut?
Me: No
Dante: Perm?
Me: Nope.

Dante thinks for a moment.

Dante: Shower?

Hahahaha! Little asshole. Koreans are obsessed with my hair. It is wild and will not be tamed by any Magic Straight perm and this intrigues them. In the summer, when its ridiculously humid, I get asked if I got a perm on a daily basis.

Incidentally, I am dying to know how Dante got that English nickname.

Oh, and I found this video on my computer...one of Claude's first feature films...I love this one because of the way he chucked the toy and just went after Justin's hand.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Life is good right now. My living situation is the best its been in nearly 6 months, people! Stef is a freakin' awesome roommate. We spent last Saturday morning making breakfast and drinking coffee. Our weekday schedules are totally opposite so we don't really see each other during the week, which I think makes us like each other more since we're not all up in each other's grill. She's just a really cool person in general, into music and dancing and having a good time. Yay! The apartment itself looks happier to no longer have a rapist in it.

It has been so nice go get back to kindergarten! I love those little hooligans and I missed them while I was gone. The other teachers looked genuinely happy to see me back, which was nice. I've started a new business class in the morning thats a lot of fun and I think I'm going to have a good time with them. My afternoon/evenings have been pretty free, though I think I'm going to have to pick up some more classes. Right now, with being so free, I've descended into a life of afternoon debauchery with Craig, my next door neighbor, who also has too much time on his hands.

Being back in Seoul is fantastic. I don't feel like a douche bag any more when I push little old ladies out of my way on the bus, because now they've pushed me first. I had my first night out back here this weekend and my god. I am going to punch the next person who offers me soju. Drinking that is like suckling from the devil's teet. No joke, yo.

I'm baaaaack!

I'm back in the Land of Morning Calm again!

My trip home was awesome and amazing and re-charged my internal battery for another year in Asia. I got to eat some awesome food...I made sloppy love to enchiladas de pollo con salsa verde a couple times. Seattle in particular was great. I got to go skiing and enjoy EVERY-thing the Northwest has to offer. Sigh...miss it already!

Seoul right now is covered in snow and very very cold. My new roommate is in already since The Rapist moved out early. Stefanie is awesome and I feel like we're going to get along really well.


Me enjoying some snow and quiet in Washington