Why talk is cheap and so is everything else:
1) I love skype where I can talk for hours on my computer to those online at ungodly hours, FOR FREE face to face.
Cost $0
2)I got the flu that's been going around the school and went down two flights of stairs in our building to a generic doctor's office. After waiting 2 minutes, I had a 10 minute consultation where I was given a prescription for my current flu and beginning bronchitus.
Cost $10
2a)Went downstairs yet again, to the first floor and handed over my prescription to the generic pharmacist. Two minutes later I receive a bag of goodies for...
Cost $7
3)Had a kimbab (equivalent to vegetarian sushi roll with egg, rice, kim (seaweed wrap), mushrooms, carrots, spinach equivalent (something green and nutritious and steamed), and squash.
Cost $1
4)Dinner. Took out newly arrived teachers being the old vet after two weeks here. Went to 2nd floor of building to one of the many restaurants and had shabu shabu (soup with greens, udon, mushrooms) and kimchi (of course). Also urgol mobi (sp?), a delicious carrot, green onion, parsley, egg mix with rice.
Cost $3 per person
5) Bus/metro to and from SLP school (could've walked but it's snowing and I have a fever).
Cost $1.80
Life today = nearly priceless
Love it, love it, love it!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Phase 1 in which Doris Gets Her Oats
Aside from it being the most random beginning to any album, even for the Beatles, it aptly describes my first week here in the heart of Seoul (nyuk nyuk nyuk couldn't resist a little pun there, c'mon it's too easy)!
I'm completely taken care of by everyone and everything here, something I've yet to be open to before in my travels and just in my general days on this planet. In every other experience I've dove in without a hand to hold and forged my way willfully, not here. Every step of this journey I've had little guardian angels and not spent a minute alone or lacking anything. My fellow teachers just include me and catch my weight for the check without batting an eye because I've yet to receive my bank account. It's like family and that too, is a foreign concept, at least in this sense.
I'm checked in on, called, fed, and entertained without missing a beat. It's like regressing to the pre-school age that I teach but it's profoundly invigorating and inspiring.
No doubt, I walked into a cake situation, totally set up with nothing to figure out but my role which everyone else seems clear on. I have no time to live in my head as I'm on sensory overload and shock waves abound me. I wake up to a view of the city and it doesn't feel strange, it's exactly how it should be and I've no doubt about that because there is no "should" or "shouldn't"- I can't argue with what is.
My favorite moments so far are the ones where I take the time to recognize just where I am and pinch myself that I'm here. Today walking to the bus stop through Lemon Plaza, men of all ages sat bundled on the pavement playing a cubic chess-like game and children ran under thatch huts beneath the neon signs.
The sewers waft up into your nose from the depths below, even in 14 degree weather (Fahrenheit) along with the strange taste of motorbike exhaust and a general spicy fishy scent that escapes from every door. The light is so beautiful and the moon when it rises shows itself to me from an angle I've never seen before.
I'm left without much else to say which is nice. So tonight I head out to Noraebang (karaoke) and I'll celebrate my first school day that went off without a hitch. Kamsa hamnida and anneyo haseyo my good people!
Xoxo!
This is Ella Teacher, saying Good Night and Good Morrow.
I'm completely taken care of by everyone and everything here, something I've yet to be open to before in my travels and just in my general days on this planet. In every other experience I've dove in without a hand to hold and forged my way willfully, not here. Every step of this journey I've had little guardian angels and not spent a minute alone or lacking anything. My fellow teachers just include me and catch my weight for the check without batting an eye because I've yet to receive my bank account. It's like family and that too, is a foreign concept, at least in this sense.
I'm checked in on, called, fed, and entertained without missing a beat. It's like regressing to the pre-school age that I teach but it's profoundly invigorating and inspiring.
No doubt, I walked into a cake situation, totally set up with nothing to figure out but my role which everyone else seems clear on. I have no time to live in my head as I'm on sensory overload and shock waves abound me. I wake up to a view of the city and it doesn't feel strange, it's exactly how it should be and I've no doubt about that because there is no "should" or "shouldn't"- I can't argue with what is.
My favorite moments so far are the ones where I take the time to recognize just where I am and pinch myself that I'm here. Today walking to the bus stop through Lemon Plaza, men of all ages sat bundled on the pavement playing a cubic chess-like game and children ran under thatch huts beneath the neon signs.
The sewers waft up into your nose from the depths below, even in 14 degree weather (Fahrenheit) along with the strange taste of motorbike exhaust and a general spicy fishy scent that escapes from every door. The light is so beautiful and the moon when it rises shows itself to me from an angle I've never seen before.
I'm left without much else to say which is nice. So tonight I head out to Noraebang (karaoke) and I'll celebrate my first school day that went off without a hitch. Kamsa hamnida and anneyo haseyo my good people!
Xoxo!
This is Ella Teacher, saying Good Night and Good Morrow.
Monday, February 18, 2008
A room with a view
์ข์ ์์นจ
(Good morning/day/evening)
I'm sitting at a little desk in the corner of my apartment, overlooking the whole city on the 11th floor of an awesomely safe building in Sindang of central Seoul, South Korea. I've been incommunicado as I've been staying at what's called a "love" motel which lacked internet but made up for it with its red lights and interesting sounds. I begin teaching on Monday and I've only had one day of training, so tip a glass in my general direction to the true concept of sinking or swimming. Ha! Don't worry, I'm not, everything's great. The kids are adorable and feisty and really into nose picking and playing with my yellow hair (not simultaneously). The food is actually agreeing with my stomach and the friends I've made thus far are fantastic. I've created a little family here already although I have no idea what time it is or where I am half of the time.
I just moved in to my little spot today and have yet to set anything up really so have patience but rest assured I am well, you are loved, and someone in Seoul loves ya!
xooxoxox
Ella
(or as the kids say, "Ella Teacher")
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