Kimchi madness

So the amount of foreign friends I have now officially is larger than the amount of Korean friends.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing.  Bad: I'll not be learning as much Korean via immersion or maybe just not as fast as before.  Good: Um everything is good about meeting more people I think.  Its nice to have conversations with people that are, funny, fast, fluid, and we have a similar sense of humor.  I was worrying that I may forget how to use prepositions (the, a, an, and the such).  My sentences were becoming a streamline of verbs, nouns, and me motioning the action with mighty intent and expressive eyes.  "Me go here.  Fast.  Now.  Where I find immigration office?"  My beard was growing back and all I needed was a club made from a tree branch and an orange cloth of some sort draped off my right shoulder to complete the Fred Flinstone scene I was sliding into.  But alas I had my teacher training workshop this last week.  It was actually really useful.  New games and activities were presented to all the "native speakers" as they like to call us.  "Uh, me native speaker.  Me no like kicmhi.  Only chicken."    It also gave me newfound confidence in my teaching watching some of the example videos they showed us of a good "native speaker" teacher.  Man was he bad.  

I'm really tired but just wanted to say a few things before getting some Z's.

So there were some "native speakers" at the workshop that have been teaching for years.  To some this was their fourth or fifth workshop.  I was speaking today with one of my co-teachers about this phenomenon and she said that they were attending so many workshops because their teaching marks were really low.  Now really, 'cause these teachers had no idea why they were attending so many workshops.  Yes instead of actually telling these people they suck they just assign them to more workshops!  Apparently some teachers, when they went to reapply for their jobs were denied the job because they did such a poor job.  Now logistically this doesn't sound too shocking but these teachers were none the wiser to their school's perception of their teaching abilities.  This seems strange to me.  But maybe I'm a weirdo.  

I just had an amazing home cooked meal from some of my closest Korean buddies.  I hate to admit this but I still can't pronounce their names correctly and still have a hard time remembering their name from time to time . . . kinda like now.  Yep I'm an ass.  This language is no joke folks.  I can't wait to get back to learning Spanish.  After trying to learn Korean (or Hanguel as they say it) most languages seem like a walk in the park.  K that was a tangent, sorry.  So dinner, yes.  We had roasted mackerel, two kinds of kimchi, marinated eggplant, some kind or shark jerky stuff that is apparently really special, rice, and goodness.  It was really amazing.  But the most amazing part of the meal was that I learned that my host has a refrigerator completely dedicated to kimchi!  And this is no small fridge either.  It takes about a month for the kimchi to fully ferment so you always gotta have some in rotation I suppose.  They are so serious about this stuff over here its amazing.   See you have the traditional kimchi made with a cabbage/bock choy sort of plant, you have the radish variety, the more soupy kind of both of these, and the list goes on and on.  I think there are actually over 300 different variations of kimchi and there is always a small dish of at least one kind at every meal.  Her kimchi was absolutely the best I've had thus far.  Maybe there is something to be said for kimchi made in small batches.  The stuff served in restaurants and at school is not that great and generally has some fish rankness to it.  

Some new korean words of consequence:

yok - subway station (very important since I live right above Jangsan-yok) it took two and a half weeks to learn that small, vital bit to add on the end of my directions to taxi drivers

pull-bul-I-yo - I'm full (good to know 'cause Korean friends will otherwise stuff you silly)

a-ssah  - their equivalent to "rad" or "awesome"

Nah-nun Jason im-ni-dah  - My name is Jason.  (my first full sentence!)

ko-gee   - fish

soh  - cow

dah(k)  - chicken (you can barely hear the k on the end of that; and chicken is a very important word, c'mon!)

twe-dgy  - pig

mul - water

and yeah, can you tell how incredibly slow this is coming along . . . ?  there are probably a few others but this is the majority of what I know.

OK REALLY FREAKY !!!! This just happened as I'm typing this.  I think Spiderman or someone trying to be Spiderman was just tapping on my window.  I live on the ninth floor and there's no ledge.  My bed is next to the window.  I'm almost positive it was my window 'cause it was really stinking loud.  The hair on the back of my neck is still standing on end.  I have those rings of adrenaline running through my body.  I don't want to look over at the window even though I know no one is there.  Do I have to go lay down soon?  Where's my bow-staff or some ear plugs and a blindfold would work nicely as well.  The curtains they bought for me are kinda see-throughish.  Thats what I get for picking out the sample in a huge book.  The lights coming from the elevator hallway in the adjacent building light up my room as I lay in bed trying to sleep.  Okay I just looked.  No more Spiderman, at least for now.  

Oh yeah and I've joined a music meditation class that meets every monday!  So far I've only been to two classes and its been really nice.  The class begins with the master giving lots of info to the other students while I sit there and stare at the wall.  Some of it gets translated to me from my friends but its kind of like the scene from Lost in Translation where Bill Murray is in that commercial shoot and the photographer goes on and on for about three or four minutes and his translator says "Turn to the left."  So I think I'm missing a few details here and there.  But I'm supposed to be meditating anyways, right?  Then upon my fellow students que we pull out the large pillows and lay down.  The master turns off the lights and turns on the music.  So far the music has been a mix between what sounds like Japanese old time music with the flutes and hand drums and some Indian percussion music.  The music lasts for about ten minutes or so and its pretty great really.  I have yet to fall asleep during class but give me some time.  Then we go and have acupuncture!  Yeah buddy!  Acupuncture is great.  So I've only done this twice ever but it feels really great.  Well not at first, but after a while I get soooo relaxed.  They also put on these heated blankets on your belly as you lie down for the treatment.  I told them that I've been having a hard time sleeping and my right hand has been really shaky since showing up so this time the needles were way deeper than last time.  Initially it didn't feel that great but once the deep breathing began my right arm actually had this weird shifting thing going on.  It felt like all this pent up energy was suddenly leaving my arm through the contact points.  Cool stuff.  I'm going to read up on this soon.  If any of you know of any solid links about acupuncture I'm all ears (well eyes I guess).  

And just briefly some things that have made me happy recently:

I just bought a cheap guitar.  Its actually really nice for about $110.  I brought some theory stuff from home with me.  I aim to be really diligent about practicing and finally becoming good at this danged instrument.   I took a number of years off there for a while and have been really excited about getting back into it just before I left for Korea.

I now have a small table for my computer.  Its red and was really cheap.  Now I don't have to shuffle my stuff around every time I want to eat something in my place.  Its the small things in life.

There is an international film festival coming next week.  I bought a few tickets to some shows.  Hopefully I wont fall asleep during the movies.  I made sure they were early screenings.

Oh and I'm going to Seoul next weekend!  We have three days off and I'm heading up there with some of my new buddies from the workshop.  We are taking the KTX train which has a top speed of 255 Km/hr or something ridiculously fast like that.  Lets see you tap on that window you freaky deaky Spiderman.  Speaking of which . . . I gotta hit the sack.  Good night folks.  

Love ya,

Jason

ps.  If you are feeling so inclined I would like to add:

Cumin and or some taco seasoning 

and Hoody's peanuts (its the red bag -salted and roasted-) New Seasons has them in the produce section (fyi)

if you feel like sending me a love package.  I could send some kimchi in the mail.  Its an acquired taste.  Or so most of it is.  YUK!  I'll stick with the home versions thank you.  

Toodaloo!