In passing...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Not much has been going on that's worth reporting. I'll try to change that this weekend. Bye ya'll.

Yeah, I like make-up. So what?

[Girly topic. You have been warned.]

Today was a good day. I lazed around the Internet then took a walk to various make-up shops. Now, Korea loves their make-up shops. You don't really buy make-up at places like E-Mart or Homeplus--but that doesn't mean you have to spend loads of money on make-up either. Here we have Face Shop (my favorite), Innisfree, Nature Republic, Skin Food, Aritaum, and probably a few more that I've forgotten. They all sell the same stuff, more or less--make-up, hair stuff, skin stuff, body cleanser, and nail stuff. The make-up costs about the same as Cover Girl or Maybelline back home. They're also wonderful because you get tons of freebies with your stuff. I've got a shopping bag full of lotions, cleansers, masks, toners, sunscreen, hair stuff, etc. It's my go-to bag for traveling.

I bought some foundation while I was home--Maybelline Dream Mousse or something like that. It's crap. My face looks like I'm smack in the midst of puberty again. I only bought it because every store was out of my color in my favorite foundation, Almay TLC 16-Hour. That stuff rocks. I could sweat all day in the summer and my make-up still looked great. A little creepy, yes, but very convenient. And my face never broke out.

Anyway, I haven't had much luck with the Internet and I hate always asking for people to send me stuff. So I've been shopping around to the different make-up shops and I bought some "Aeromix Make-up Base" and "Aeromix Foundation" and "Herb Soft Twincake". The Aeromix is formulated with MD201 water, whatever that is. The Herb Twincake has lavender in it--oooooh. Other than that, I have no idea what to expect. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I could just go to Debec or Lotte Department Store and get MAC or Chanel or Clinique, but those brands are SO EXPENSIVE here. I bought a Clinique blush when I first arrived, maybe $12-18 back home, but it was $30 here! However, if this foundation thing doesn't turn out I may just have to suck it up and spend the money for something decent.

Mmm, Korea. You're so vain. I love it.

Give me all your kimchi, or I'll shoot.

[I actually wrote this a few days ago, but I forgot to add it here.]

Recently, a Korean Navy ship mysteriously exploded and sunk (right now suspicions are on North Korea) in the Yellow Sea. Only 58 out of 104 crew members were rescued. Therefore, one of the largest cherry blossom festivals in Korea was cancelled in honor of it; this sucks because we were actually going to go.

Also, recently, a Korean-operated ship was hijacked by Somali pirates (Damn pirates!). I normally don't comment on Korean news, because I really just don't care. However, I was reading some random blog and the guy was talking about how some Koreans seem to think the pirates were directly targeting Korea, not just any old ship that happened to be passing by. This, of course, is because Somali pirates are so discriminatory with their piracy and all. Whatever. Anyway. Onward to my point.

A lot of foreigners in Korea have this problem with Korea as a whole. Koreans have so much pride, straight up down and dirty nationalism, that anything that happens to Korea is because the world is working against them. Now, I'm not saying that I share this view--again, I don't pay enough attention to the news to really form an opinion on this matter. But it does seem as if most foreigners believe this; and not through any of their own research. Nope, it's only because some other foreigner on some website said so.

And they're the first to accuse Koreans of acting like a bunch of sheep!

Korean Green Tea Energy

Korean Green Tea Energy Mask--I feel energized!

Me and Korea, it's a love-hate thing.

Some days I really like it here. Maybe even love it. The people are pretty nice, I have a good job, it's cheap to live here--most days I feel this way. Oh, and let's not forget that it's damn cheap to travel around Asia. Who wouldn't love it?

Then there are those days when I hate it, loathe it with such passion that I just want to pack up and go home. However, most of it is not really Korea's fault, per se--well, except for the whole squat toilet thing. (Go read this person's R-rated take on Korean toilets: Lousy Korea) On these "Korea must be the 8th layer of Hell" days, it's more because I'm missing family/friends, or because I'm sick of not understanding the language, or one too many people opted to walk straight into me rather around me on the sidewalk/subway/in E-Mart.

It's partly America's fault for spoiling me with such fantastic food. America's the melting pot--therefore, Greeks make Greek food, Italians make Italian food, Mexicans make Mexican food... you get the idea. In Korea, Koreans make Mexican food, Greek food, Italian food... so it's all Korea-fied. It's always just a little too sweet, or a little too bland, or just plain wrong. I think that's what I really miss. To get any really good food (because, let's face it, Korean food sucks), I have to be willing to spend copious amounts of money--and even then there's no guarantee. I already spend too much money on coffee everyday and the gym, isn't that enough? What more do you want from me?? All I'm asking for is a decent Gosh Darn taco! (Speaking of which, Taco Bell is opening in Seoul in May--3 glorious floors! I hope I'm not setting myself up for disappointment.)

So, basically, what I'm saying is that sometimes I love Korea, sometimes I hate Korea. I really don't mind being here all that much. (It's gotten infinitely better since I mastered using a squat toilet while keeping my pants on.) I'm not counting down the days until going home (yet) so that's good, right?

And now for your viewing pleasure:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Korea in Your Kitchen
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

I'm pat, yo.

I've been talking with my co-teacher a bit about a couple of kids that I think might really be a bit on the slow side, and not just when it comes to Englishee. One kid, whose English name is Dree (I have no idea what it's from), tends to stutter a lot and he always speaks just a little too loudly. He also doesn't always catch when we're moving on to something different.


Tonight I was teaching about superlatives and everyone was making "So-and-so is the blahblahest in the class" statements. A couple of kids said, "The teacher is the fattest in the room," to which I kindly told them that's not very nice and they should think of something different. A couple of minutes later, Dree starts shouting, "TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! 


I was in the midst of helping other students and I couldn't just stop and give him the same exact speech, but he wouldn't shut up. TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! 


I was trying to get his attention so he'd snap out of it... "Dree? Dree? DREE!" Still nothing but TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! TEACHER EESH DA PATTESHT! 


Of course by this time the other students were trying to tell him to stop talking too, but nothing worked. Finally I just stood right in front of him, knelt down, and firmly said, "Dree! STOP! TALKING!" And that was that. I saw a look of confusion flash across his face, then he just smiled. It was like he literally was just stuck on repeat, but didn't even realize what he was doing. I don't know. 


Then he wrote a story where I was the angriest monkey. I was just happy he spelled "angriest" correctly.

Jealous much?

We've been contemplating where to take our vacations this year. We've decided that we're really not "touristy" people, meaning that if given the choice, we'd really much rather be beach bums than walking all over looking at old stuff. We're going to be all touristy in Beijing in June, so our remaining trips will be random tropical locales.

So far, I'm 99% sure that we're going to Tioman Island, Malaysia in October. It'll cost a bit to get there, but it's super cheap to stay there and the food's not too much either. 

After that, possibly Thailand in January. We'll see. I feel like we need to see all these places while we're on this side of the planet and it costs less than $500 to go anywhere, as opposed to over $1000. 

We'll also be taking random weekend trips around Korea. We really need to get out and see more of what this country has to offer before we head back to America. Only 50 weeks to go! )J/k. I'm not really starting a countdown. Yet.)

Your love is like a river...

Does anyone remember that song? Wasn't it Backstreet Boys? *looking up in Google* Oops, no, it was 'N Sync, "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You." Crap, that's a long song title. And the line is, "Your love is like a river, peaceful and deep..."



Anyway, I was saying that I remember I used to change the line to say "Your love is like a river, murky and contaminated..." because 'N Sync was pure crap. Duh. Except that they were my guilty pleasure and I loved singing their songs really loud when I was alone. Them and Britney Spears, man. Of course, I eventually managed to find like-minded closet teeny boppers who listened to the same music in private. (It would have totally ruined our dork/hipster images if word got out that we listened to that crap.)

(Hey, remember when Britney was all cute and sweet and a positive role model for young girls? That lasted all of what, 20 seconds?)

Yippee!

Hm. My new tattoo looks kind of disgusting right now. It's scabbed over and the scabs are starting to come off (totally normal, I swear) in big chunks. It's just not pretty at the moment.

My new job is going well. I really like my Korean co-teacher; maybe in another life, we could be friends. However, I've not yet mastered the art of making long-term Korean friends so I think we will just remain friendly coworkers.

I have roughly 200 students now. I teach 6 classes every day, with the same students on M/Th, T/F, and then different students on Wednesdays. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. I've got one student who's like 15 and has absolutely no motivation. Luckily he just sits there and does nothing, so he doesn't give me any problems. When I give out a test, he doesn't even try. He just writes his name, then turns it over and doodles on the back. Then there's another student who's maybe 9 years old... his attitude came across as really rude and disrespectful, but I talked to my co-teacher and she said she thinks he might be a little bit "retarded". Of course, after that I really felt bad because I was getting on to him and he probably just didn't even have a clue as to what I was saying. Oh well. He'll get over it. I hope.

I still haven't used the squat toilets at work. I try not to drink too much, and I try to eat "normal" food before work so I won't have any "problems" (if you know what I mean) while I'm at work. Only 50 more weeks, right? I can make it.

I'm going to talk my husband into going out tonight. It's Saturday night, y'all, time to party!!!! (or so they say.)

Excuse me, is that a sun on your foot?

Last weekend, I decided to get a(nother) tattoo. I've been thinking about it pretty much since I got my last one, so I finally caved. I thought about doing it while I was at home, but there just wasn't enough time. I managed to find a good quality tattoo studio here in Daegu, so that kind of cinched it for me. Anyway, without further ado...

In case you were wondering, it did, in fact, hurt like a you-know-what. I came close to tears one time, when he was filling in the sun. The writing on the side didn't really hurt, but that sun, man. Wow. Most of the swelling and redness is gone now, but it still hurts sometimes (like after I've been standing at work for 6 hours). 

Why did I get this tattoo, you say? My mom used to sing that song, a lot. Not so much when I was younger, but when I was older she started singing it--mainly to our dog Fremont (he died in May 2007) and then after. Anyway, it's one of my more recent memories of her. I like it.

Why did I get it on my foot, you say? Because your foot doesn't really age like the rest of your body. Feet don't sag or get wrinkled. Duh.

Oh, check out this photo of Daegu I took last weekend. Isn't it a pretty day?