Classes, Han River, Osaka, Notes

Good afternoon, kids! My first week went well and my classes are pretty cool. My smallest one has 2 students (11 and 12 years old) and my biggest has 13. I have one class of teenagers that absolutely doesn't talk. I swear, I could dance on their desks or teach naked and it wouldn't phase them. We have a 5min break every hour and they don't even get up to get water/pee. I thought about offering an iPod at the end of the 13 weeks to whomever had the best participation, but my Assistant Director said that she's going to come in and tell them that participation is part of their grade. Thus far, I've just resorted to letting them do the work on their own and I just go around and help them individually. May be better that they get the direct attention from me. Other than that one, most of my kids are pretty good-- rowdy and loud, like middle schoolers can be, but all manageable. The smart ones always raise their hands or shout out the answer-- so at least they're into it. We had our first round of tests yesterday and they all did pretty well, so I must be reaching them on some level.

There are some really cool things to be seen around this city. Saturday night, after having dinner with our co-workers (the director got VERY drunk b/c he had everyone-- 7 of us-- take a shot of soju--40 proof-- from his glass as a sign of respect-- and he drank the same after each one. Here though, you hire a driver to bring you and your car to your house, and their company follows and picks up the driver-- pretty smart, esp. considering that a lot of people drive drunk b/c they want their car the next morning) Andy and I went to meet Amy, Brian and my LSU friend Jacob in Itaewon, a very touristy place. We met some of Jacob's rugby friends, most of whom were "kiwis" (New Zealanders). We enjoyed some beer, jokes, culture talk, and they headed off to Hongdae, the clubbing part of town, and the rest of us went home. Sunday, I went for a jog across the Han River, which is only about a block from my apartment, and it was one of the single most exciting, breathtaking, incredible moments I can recall. I don't even know why, there was some level of realization that came with it, but it really was just beautiful. Very neat. Of course I didn't bring my camera, but I plan to go again on Thursday, weather permitting, and get some good shots so that I can share them with you!

I go to Japan tomorrow! I'll only be in Osaka for the day to get my work visa. There's a typhoon in the Pacific (My friend Chris Aghayan is in Hiroshima and he has off of school b/c of it!) so I expect rain while I'm there. Still though, pretty exciting to get to check it out! I was told to bring at least $150 b/c things are so expensive. Can you imagine getting used to spending that much on a regular basis?

I made notes of things that I should report back. So here they are, in no particular order:
-Men hold hands with men, women hold hands with women. It's not gay, it's just normal here. They laugh at Americans when we suggest there's a homosexual element to it. Koreans are just touchy feely.
-All the cars here are Kia or Hyundai. All of them. You see BMWs and Mercedes now and then, and I've seen a Dodge Dakota, 2 Grand Cherokees, and 1 Ford Explorer. There's a car here called Renault Samsung which is Nissan/Infiniti parts just put together by Samsung, so they look like Maximas for the most part, but with a different symbol on the grill.
-People drive on the sidewalks. They park on them, motorcycles push you out of the way on them, etc., but you always see cars on the sidewalks. A typical street is 4 lanes wide in each direction.
-Toilets here can be different. Some are just holes in the ground (I refuse to use them. The first time I saw that in a subway station, I decided I didn't need to go anymore.) It tends to be older places that don't have Western toilets. And when you do find a Western toilet, it's not uncommon for them to be pretty fancy. They have all these buttons on a little arm on the side that you can press. It must do cool things. I mean, to make the effort to put gadgets on your potty, it's gotta be neat, right?
-People stand when you enter a room. When we were at the hotel, the people at the front desk stood up every single time we walked through the front doors or came down the stairs. It's just customary to be polite and acknowledge newcomers I guess.
-Andy and I have apartments in the same building. Our walk to work is ~15min and it's pretty nice, with the exception of the sleazy car salesmen we must pass (I have a potential remedy for them-- since they look at me like I'm such a spectacle, I'm going to take pictures of them one day. Just stand there snapping. They'll wonder what the heck I'm doing, but they'll know what it feels like to be on display. Oh, and I will invest in some large, JLo style sunglasses, and maybe a hat. I find I get fewer looks when I have sunglasses on, so maybe if I get even bigger ones that cover, say half of my face, I should be good to go.) We are right across from SBS, the broadcast station, where crowds of girls line up every Sunday morning (our only day off) to watch their favorite celebrity drive in and out. Imagine 300 12 year old girls excited. It's absurd. If I knew how to say "keep it down" in Korean, well I probably wouldn't even do it because I know they wouldn't listen. It's not a pleasant sound to wake up to. You can tell when they see their guy though, b/c it's like unmuting the TV b/c they all unleash at once, and then silence at once.
-There are little markets all along the way to work. People in a tent-like set-up selling fruit, breakfast, lunch, clothes, etc. I've noticed that no bananas are ever green, and it's because they have to import all of the fruit here. You definitely get it fresh! I bought some grapes from a one-armed man and they are some of the best I've had! Only deep purple grapes (no green) but they were great!
-I like tofu. I knew this before I came here, but they use it in a lot of different dishes here. They put it in sauce, soup, this jell-o looking side dish, and it's good. I don't know why people laugh at vegetarians and veagans for eating tofu, because it's good!
-Mr Lee told us about one of his first times in America when he went to order a fast food burger. He was at Burger King and thought the whopper looked pretty good. So he got to the counter and said, "I'll have the hooper burger." The cashier said, "The what?" and he repeated it, "The hooper. Right there, number one." "Ahhh, the WHOPPER," the cashier responded. "Sure, the whopper, whatever," Mr Lee said. He couldn't understand, "who" sounds like "hoo" and "pper" is just that. Hooper burger.

Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed