WAY TO GO NEW MEXICO!!!!!

So Wednesday morning Rachel and I made a big egg breakfast and spent hours glued to the TV watching the results roll in from super Tuesday. I was really confused after a couple hours when NM was not even mentioned well after the polls closed. I got online and looked for some sort of results and found something showing only 1% of the results counted(mind you 15% of the vote was for Edwards... he dropped out people!!!) I figured the website was just not updated, but have come to learn that yes indeed it was taking that long to count the paper ballots. In true New Mexico style, there were not enough ballots for the huge turnout, (why you would not have enough ballots for everyone registered to vote is beyond me) so people started voting in whichever precinct had enough ballots. This is why only 1% was counted when I checked, because all of these random ballots had to be verified as registered voters. It also shows why Edwards had such a high percentage, because it was the absentee ballots from people like my sister who voted before Edwards dropped out. Leave it to New Mexico! This is why people in Oregon refer to me as Paco...this is where I come from. I would like to congratulate my state though on their support for Obama who came in with 48% behind Clinton with 49%. Way to go NM!

Remember how I told you men carry purses in Korea? These are just some pictures to show you how common this weird phenomena really is. Enough men carry purses to necessitate a sign warning not only women about getting your purse stuck in the subway door, but men as well. I like that the woman has a pink purse and the man's is black. In reality men here wear far more pink than women. Stalls that sell ties in the subway are a sea of pinks and purples. I kind of wonder what it is going to be like to go home to the boys that are not more girly than I am? I think I will like it. I miss guys emptying the pockets of their baggy jeans of everything they carry with them whenever they reach a destination, all because they don't carry a purse. (I bet they have never been faced with the problem of a purse wedged in the closed subway doors!)

I have not written much lately as many of you may have noticed, my apologies. The last few months were rough and I have not really been in much of a writing mood. Fortunately the tides have turned and I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel much better. As far as work, things are still crazy, but I think that is just the Korean way, just another one of the many things in this country that I will never understand.
Speaking of things I don't understand, here is another example. This week is the Lunar New Year so we have a 5 day weekend and our boss bought us gifts. During the holidays in Korea they have all kinds of gift packs. You can buy a toiletries gift pack with shampoo and toothpaste, a wine gift pack, a dried fish gift pack, or perhaps a spam gift pack.... take your pick For the last holiday we all got a toiletry pack, and this time around we were lucky enough to find the spam gift set on our desks after class. "The Spam Gift Set: It is a tasteful gift with full gratitude. It is for you and your loved ones". Not only do you receive more spam than I have consumed in all my 26 years, but also two large bottles of canola oil. Who wants some fried spam for breakfast? This is considered a very generous gift here, and so ofcourse I am grateful, but I can't get past the stigma that spam is disgusting and usually eaten with Raman (another delicacy here) by college students who would rather spend their money on beer than food. Here on the other hand it comes in expensive gift packs... kind of like Goidava Chocolates, except it's processed meat in a can and not decadent chocolates. Luckily I do understand the American ideal that "it's the thought that counts" and can appreciate that I received a gift.
So if anyone has any killer recipes that include spam, send them my way, because frankly I don't really know what to do with the stuff. Maybe the next time one of my students whines about how hungry they are (since they spend dinner time at English school) I will hand them a can of spam. I hate to see food, even processed meat go to waste.

Before and After...

Last weekend we went out on the town with our friend to see the downtown area during the light and snow sculpture festival. It was nice to get out and see another part of the city and enjoy the winter fever. There were lights, ice skating, ice sculptures, and tons of people. The highlight of the night was this creepy pink creature who takes pictures with kids attacking me. Yun Hi wanted a picture with it and I agreed, and then it started attacking me in not so child-appropriate way...
Next we walked down the street to a river trail. It was really beautiful, a nicely lit river below the buildings of downtown. There were lots of families out despite the freezing weather. We came across these old pictures hanging under one of the bridges (only in Korea could a city leave pictures hanging under a bridge without being harmed). The pictures were fascinating because they were of this area over the past 100 years. This one I posted in from about 50 years ago.... Korea has come a long way. It is amazing to think that Seoul (and all of South Korea) was completely destroyed during the Korean War, and now it feels like a normal metropolitan area. The Korean government really worked some economic wonders, considering how far they have come. They used the aid money to start a number of companies that produce almost everything that Korea needs, providing jobs and supporting their own needs and economy. Most things in Korea that you buy are local because they are cheaper and of good quality. As I watch the economy in my own country go to shit I can't help but respect the economic policy that was put in place here after the war, and the ways they try to protect it. For example, by Korean law, movie theaters can only show a certain amount of foreign films and are required to show Korean films in order to protect the thriving movie industry. Foreign goods are very expensive while local products remain affordable, making the Korean people the winners, rather than the corporations. I wish I could say the same for my country. Maybe next November I will be able to :)

Watching my school (and my sanity) go down the tubes

I have not updated the old blog in a while mostly because I have been very very angry. So my school was a really great place to work for when I first arrived, but in the past few months it has been going down the shitter. It all started a few months back when our boss told us that enrollment was down. The reasons why kids were quitting was blatantly clear to the teachers, (like excessive vocabulary tests, and materials that are way to hard) but why would the school ask our opinion...we only spend hours on end with the kids. Nope, instead our genius boss decided it was an image thing and that we needed to make kids sit up straight in class. Why change the curriculum so they are not bored in class when you can just force them to not look bored in class. I know I am just a peon teacher, but I think a good start to changing the image of the school would be painting over the walls that have things like "shut up nigger" written on them...just a thought. As any intelligent person would predict, the no slouching policy really hasn't done much to make the school better, so the big man Mr. Jung came up with another brilliant idea. Once again the fact that I am teaching The Great Gatsby and Dr. Zhivago to 6th graders didn't seem to be the problem. Instead he decided that teachers aren't motivated enough to do a good job (which I partially agree with). Solution: Let ELEMENTARY students vote on which teacher they want. As far as I remember the qualifications for a "good teacher" when I was in second grade was one who showed me movies, brought me candy and didn't discipline me....hmmm we have some teachers like that....I wonder who the kids are going to choose? On top of all of this we are in our intensive month where kids come to English school instead of have a a winter break like normal kids. This means I teach morning classes and evening classes. Today I was at work for 13 and a half hours...and they arranged the schedule in such a way that they don't have to pay us overtime. The most annoying part is that I am so close to done and sticking it out is a matter of about $ seven grand. It is such a shame because in a lot of ways this country is really great, but at this point I feel pure hate for the place. I think it really is a crap shoot and I got detoured down a bad shoot.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

This is the first New Years in a long time that I am not hungover, is this a sign that I am becoming an old woman?
This holiday season has been tough for me. I have never been much of a Cristmas person, but this year it made me sad not to be home for the holidays. I think a lot of if is just from being burned out on being away and living in Asia, and missing people and hobbies from back home. This year has been really good fro me in many ways, but above all it has reminded me of how important family and good friends are. Adventures are great, but without close relationships even an adventure is unfulfilling for me.
Working in Korea is starting to grate on me. My boss is quite possibly the dumbest person I have ever met. On Christmas Eve he told us we had to come in early in the morning for a meeting on Boxing Day (even though most poeple don't work until like 4). It was so painful to sit through his meeting which was barely comprehensible and completely contradictory. He is seriously like the George Bush of Korea, he speaks in sound bites, but none of the sound bites match. I have always been a pretty easy going person, but sometimes in this coutry I find myself full of rage and turing to an angry person. For example the other day at the gym I was stretching on the mat, but then a stretching class started. Now you can not be on the mat during a stretching class, which is really annoying because first, the mat is huge, and second I pay a ton to use this gym and feel like I should be able to stretch before my workout. On this particular day I was there before the class started and there were only 3 people taking the class and the man still kicked me off. I could feel the rage building up inside and felt as though flames might come out my eyes at any moment. Instead of yelling though, I decided to move my routine right next to the mat, performing my seated excercises on the floor. I purposely did this knowing it would horrify the Koreans, you just don't sit in the floor in Korea. I think I proved my point, but realized that all of this negative energy built up inside me is not good, and it's not who I am. A day later quite coincidentally I was reading my book and came across a quote by the Buddha which reminded me of these moments of rage I have been feeling lately. " Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned"
So to get to the point of this long drawn out story, I think my New Years resolution is to practice some of the things I learned in my meditation retreat. I am going to try to have loving-kindness (even for my boss) and make a real effort to let things go and just be mindful of my feelings and actions throughout the next three months. Thats right, three months baby!!!!
Oh and here are some pictures from our staff Christmas party.

To be wierd, or not to be....

Are all people who come to Korea weird before they arrive, or do you progressively become more strange from being here? That is the question.....my question.
From the moment I arrived it was rather obvious that most of the foreigners you meet in Korea are, well, a little "off". This is a judgement from my perspective, assuming I am somewhat normal, you can make your own judgments based on that statement. In any case I have been a little worried lately that its not that weird people come to Korea, its that Korea makes you weird, and I think I am right. I have comprised a whole theory on the phenomena:
It seems to me that most non-Korean people on the penninsula fit into one or more of the following categories:
1. trying to make money, fast: usually the most normal
2. running from something: a little less normal
3. too socially akward to function at home: weirdo
Now picture a "spectrum of weirdness" made out of the above groups. Luckily, Korea does not make everyone weirder, if you are on the stranger side of the spectrum you actuallly become more normal. The reason for this is because all of the above groups of people are forced to intermingle and be friends through default, because we all speak English. In order for this social system to work, the more normal people (such as myself ofcourse) have to move down on the spectrum while the oddballs move upwards to meet in the middle area. I am not sure I am a fan of the middle of the spectrum because if I am going to be anywhere on a weird spectrum I would prefer to be on the more normal third of it. So this is my predicament... am I going to be socially akward when I get home? OK just kidding about that last part, I am not too worried about it. I am quite excited to come home and not be on the weird spectrum at all though. Luckily here in Korea I have found some others with whom I can stay clear of that sketchy middle area though.