Estrogen Fests

This past week I met my friend Sally and we walked past the Jongno area of town and found a huge fabric market. (There was food as well, and even some electronics and other goodies). There are endless, narrow alleyways under a greenhouse-type roof with myriads of small shops. If you actually bought something here and had to return it, it would be to the seller’s advantage, because you’d have a heckuva time finding it again! You search all the rolls in all the stores and when you finally find a fabric you like, you buy it and the tailors are all centrally located, so you bring your purchases to them and have them whip up whatever creation you have in mind. It seems that Sam will be in Korea until mid June, so I was on the hunt for something from which I could have a dress made, so that I might not have any twins when I go with him to the Army Birthday formal. Sally and I finally located a really cute black material with black polka dots—nothing fancy, but just jazzy enough for me. We were trying to explain to the owner what I needed—I drew up a dress that I thought might be simple and classic. The material was going to be $12 for 3 yards. I thought something was off. So we went back and forth trying to explain ourselves and finally we found someone who was bilingual. As it turns out, we were in a lining store. The entire shop, however small, carried one thing: lining. All these colors and patterns we were looking at were supposed to go INSIDE whatever you’re having made—not be the main attraction. Well shoot! We sorta laughed and sighed and rolled our eyes, and then went on our merry little way and walked down into one of the underground markets. I talked to a tailor and in my very broken Korean managed to discover that his price for simply creating a dress, material not included, was $120. Flabbergasted, I told him that that was extremely expensive. (This is Korea, after all). He asked how much I thought I should pay, and after some finagling, we agreed on $34. Now I just had to find the material! So we headed to Itaewon. Yes, it’s the foreign area of town I’m not particularly in love with. But it’s also known for leathers and tailors. We went into two different shops before finally finding a winner with JJPark. This man and his very cute, petite wife spent time in Shreveport and Bossier, Louisiana. Well I’ll be a suck egg mule—what a small world it is! I looked through his materials and he quoted me a price I thought was a bit high. He came down a bit and I was more inclined to agree after he told me that the pure silk version would be $450 (I’m a good bargainer, but he’s a good salesman!). I put a deposit down on a satin/silk mix (I certainly can’t tell the difference in the materials. And for more than $250 difference in price, I won’t ever care to know!) and designed my own little number whose first fitting will be Friday. Hopefully all the trouble and bargaining will prove worth it!

This past weekend I was all set up to have what my friends back home and I used to call an Estrogen Fest. Get the girls together, have dinner, go to a movie, have ice cream, or just get together and solve the world’s problems, and sometimes our own. Well everyone seemed booked up on Saturday, so I decided I’d invest some time in discovering what all the fuss is about regarding The DaVinci Code. I haven’t ever had an interest in the book, but I figured that Tom Hanks’ talent and an opportunity to listen to some French would be reason enough. I went a couple of subway stops over and attempted to get tickets to the 9pm showing, but the first available was midnight. Had I not had Freakonomics with me, I would’ve headed home. Instead I sat near the fountain at Gimpo Airport’s CGV theater and read for more than two hours while I waited for this theatre to open. Seeing the movie was, once again, a great escape. My comprehension of the parts in French was fine, but it was the Italian that got me! Sure, it was subtitled at the bottom... IN KOREAN! So much for that! I guess you get the bottom line in the end, anyway, but it’s just funny reminders like that that I am where I am.

Sunday, the girls seemed to free up. Amy, Sally, Heeyun, Jennifer and I met up at Sortino’s, a true Italian restaurant with a chef from Brooklyn, New York. And they had all varieties of noodles! Penne, fettuccini, spaghetti of course, and more! You could’ve put moving octopus on top of this pasta and I probably would’ve picked out the noodles and eaten them because of how excited I was! The food was pretty good, and certainly reasonably priced. Jennifer, who had very obviously been drinking since 1:30 in the afternoon, invited her friend, a US Diplomat, to join us. She warned us in advance not to ask many questions because he doesn’t like to talk about his job. I thought he was either really important or really pretending. And my Google searches since have concluded the same, because if I’m spelling his name correctly, I’ve come up with nothing. Hmmm... Regardless, we all enjoyed the heck out of our dinner. The diplomat split early, a frustrated Jennifer followed suit not long after, and the rest of us went to get ice cream. Sitting on the curb outside of Baskin Robbins, we asked the group of guys next to us to take our picture. After having a good time and making some jokes with one another, a group of Latin-looking guys passed us by. One of them pretended to shoot us with his gun made from his hands and another one gave me a branch of orchids! It was so random and funny that I just laughed right out loud, and as they continued walking, they did the same. Little things make you happy, they really do.

So yes, it’s been a long time nearing and now it’s here! My long-anticipated vacation has arrived! I have been researching and nitpicking details so much that I’m almost going to need a vacation from my vacation. That stuff can really be exhausting! However, there’s enough adrenaline that comes with the excitement of the whole thing to keep you going! (In my research I discovered that the Korean Won has a better exchange rate in Thailand than the US dollar does. But in Australia, the US dollar is just high enough to encourage me to bring this form of currency instead of Won!) I will spend Saturday through Tuesday in Bangkok. My cousin will join me for the weekend, so I’ll be solo for two days after he leaves. I then get to Sydney around lunchtime on Wednesday, and will eat with my friend Kurt there (the same one who came to Seoul in February), then probably tour around the Harbour and whatnot. Thursday I will fly up to Cairns, where I will stay for two nights and take a tour of and hopefully snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef! (I hope one of my flights shows Finding Nemo!) I’ll get back to Sydney on Saturday afternoon and check out a few more things in the city then—like koalas and ‘roos— and indulge in "expat laundry heaven" as Kurt called it when he obliged my inquiry as to his washing facilities (Korea doesn't have dryers, so this is more exciting than you may know). He is having some people over that evening, so hopefully a relaxing Saturday night will be a great way to wind down. Sunday we plan to go surfing and then to Bondi Beach, where stars are commonly spotted. This white girl hopes there are big umbrellas—not so that I can inconspicuously view celebrities from behind a newspaper and large set of sunglasses, but so I can hide from the sun! I leave Sunday afternoon, so maybe some souvenir shopping or a tad bit more touring will also be in effect that morning. WAHOOOOOOOO!

My flights are below:

Thai Airways
TG 659 27MAY Incheon to Bangkok 0930 1305
TG 995 30MAY Bangkok to Sydney 2355 1155+1
TG 996 04JUN Sydney to Bangkok 1630 2255
TG 658 04JUN Bangkok to Incheon 2350 0715+1

Within this, I fly JetStar out of Sydney on Thursday, June 1 (Flight JQ 954) at 3:50p and arrive in Cairns at 6:50p. I am staying at the Cairns Central YHA Backpackers Hostel for those 2 nights. I leave Cairns Sat, June 3 at 12:30p (Flight JQ 949) and arrive back in Sydney at 3:20p.

Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed

Cruisin' Around On My Own Two Feet

Chuck Berry may not quite agree with that title, but hey!

Last weekend was Children's Day in Korea. A day to celebrate all the youth. And why not? We have Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, (and even Parents' Day here), Teachers' Day, Singles' Day, Couples' Day, and a whole slew of other celebrations, why not one for the kids? I had the Friday off, so I decided I'd go down to Busan and check out the parts of the city that my boyfriend would probably prefer not to be dragged to. I woke up in the morning, got my things together, and headed to the train station. Seoul was an absolute ghost town. No cars around, no people either, and no businesses open. It wasn't until I arrived at Seoul station that I learned where all 12 million people in this city were! It was rockin'! I waited til the train ride down to go through my Moon Handbook and really discovered that everything that interested me would probably interest him, too. So I did what most girls would do: shop. I also did something most girls would not do: not buy anything. I went to Texas Street/Russian Road, the "foreigner" section right across from Busan Station. (Pictures already sent). I thought it left a lot to be desired as far as shopping goes. There were a few boutiques, but really just a lot of restaurants. So I decided to take the advice of the woman who sat next to me on the train and was a native of the city and head to Nampo-Dong 2 subway stops away. This area was right along the water, very cute and clean. I enjoyed the scenery, if nothing else. I even had a random group of Indonesians ask to take a picture with me. I walked around and checked out what all this destination had to offer. Shopping was actually great, though comparable to America. I'm opposed to paying American prices when I'm in the hub of textile manufacturing, but I can still look! And such was the end of my getting out of the box in Busan!

Later that weekend, we decided to try a new restaurant. Sorrento was the name, and it said it had steak, pasta, wine, and a few other things, but we were sold after the first three items. It seemed a bit up-scale, and the prices on the menu certainly were, but the funny part was that it was a total doll house. The restaurant was cloaked in pink, green, blue, and whatever other colors remind you of childhood dreams of walking through a Barbie Dreamhouse. There were big pillows, lace and curtains and plants all over the place and the lighting was fluorescent while the tables were large and had guests sitting somewhat further apart than normal. We were somewhat bewildered, but the food was very good (and we got a lot of it!) so all-in-all, feeling like Gulliver in Brobdingnag was time well spent.

This past weekend we decided to do one more thing out of the "Seoul's Best 100" book that we've been interested in: The Han River Pleasure Cruise. For $15 each for an hour and a half, and with a band if you take the last ride, you ride down the river and just look at the scenery. One of my favorite parts of Korea thus far has been the Han River. It's really beautiful at night when you drive along it and see the lights of the bridges, the city, and those lining the water. So I don't know what I was expecting, but I unfortunately felt like the ride was pretty anticlimactic. The band sounded pretty good, but for some silly reason, part of me was expecting live music to be in my own native language! Duh! There were young children, old people, couples, and friends. We met two guys in the Army (one from Texas and the other from New Jersey) so that was cool. We decided to sit outside even though it was a bit chilly. We propped our feet up on the railings, much to the chagrin of passers-by who realized they'd have to figure out how to ask the whities to move. So we thought it would be funny if we told them in Korean that it was 1,000Won (about a dollar) to get past the toll bridge of our legs. It was only funny to us the first time, but we did it twice more and our audience laughed pretty hard. I got a few good pictures of the National Assembly Building and the Twin Towers and a few bridges, too!
Well, my test is done! At least part of it, and at least for now. I registered for it in March, changed that up a bit in May, and then went to take the test this past Wednesday. I'd visited the building where I would be taking the exam over the weekend-- just to be like a college freshman or something-- so that I could feel comfortable with it and know where I needed to go. You know, test frazzles don't really help your score! So over the weekend they told me that the 2nd floor was closed but would be open on Wednesday. When I arrived Wednesday morning there was a sign telling examinees where to go by the letter of their last name. I was both surprised and somewhat amused to see, at the bottom of every single one of these signs, my ID # and "OLIVIA REED - 2nd FLOOR" in big bold letters. I guess that's what happens when you're the only foreigner!

My vacation is booked. Bangkok and Sydney. Though I'm not sure what I'll visit in either place, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'll be gone for about 9 days and have been waiting to do my research on what I want to visit because of this test. Now that that's over, I'm taking suggestions and checking out a lot of Google! Anyone have a recommendation?

This week has been that ever-busy one we have toward the end of each term. The kids already took their level-up tests, I wrote 52 report cards, and now it's time to meet with the parents. I've always been concerned about what to tell the parents of the poorer performing students. How do you say, "Your child is a slacker" in a nice way to someone who doesn't like the way you make checks? (My parents were the ones who always took my teacher's word over mine. Not that there were many occurrences, but I was certainly never one of the ones who was without fault in my parents' eyes just because I was their offspring!) But what I've learned is that the parents of the children who aren't doing so well don't show up. What that tells me is that the ones who really care, who really invest in their child's education, who really want to know what they're learning and doing-- those are the parents who show up, those are the kids who are doing well. It makes sense!

Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed

Grab your Degree And Go!

I have a blog on it's way, but in the mean time, read this article below. It was published in LSU's Legacy Magazine and sent to me recently by a friend. I'm already trying to track down the fellow tiger here (that would make FIVE of us! If anyone tries to say it isn't a small world, they just don't know!) And for the record, I did fine in French 4... but when I wanted to register for my test, they wouldn't take American Express... or any other foreign card! ;o)


Grab Your Degree And Go

http://www.lsulegacymag.com/issues/april2006/story7.html

You are an American college graduate. You don't know what you want in life. Don't worry. You aren't alone. Do you have some sort of teaching experience? Then the rest of the world probably wants you.

In fact, you are wanted in dozens of countries to teach their masses English, "the new world language." Your tongue can be a piece of gold if you use it right, and many graduating seniors and LSU alumni have decided to go abroad to teach English as a second language (ESL).
French major Breton Boudreaux stands in her kitchen skillfully preparing vegetarian quiche. An upcoming May graduate, she spent last year in Paris on an exchange program with LSU Academic Programs Abroad. Before leaving she applied for and received a teaching opportunity through the French Embassy. Within the first few months of arrival, she was a bona fide English teacher for 8 to 11 year-olds, conducting classes 12 hours a week for seven months.

The kids, she says, were wonderful. She relished in their learning. The program had perks-she spoke only English and had eight weeks of paid vacation in addition to free health care. There were some notable disadvantages to the job, though.

"There's only one Minister of Education, therefore one program for the whole country," she says, which is a drawback because the teachers are all paid equally although prices are higher in big cities. France's notable tax rate also took a toll on what she thought she'd receive: her 1,000 Euro a month paycheck dwindled to 750 after withheld taxes. She sighs and summarizes: "It was unorganized, as is everything in France."

But Boudreaux is reapplying to the same program. Like many ESL teachers she's not doing it for the money, but for the experience. She'll share an apartment with a friend who already lives in Paris, and to supplement her income she'll have to find a second job. She's currently saving and looking at opportunities for brief summer jobs in France before the program begins again.

"I like France. I don't love it. And I certainly don't love Paris." She stops and peeks into a pot of cooking spinach. "I want to go back because it's probably the best thing I've done," she says, replacing the lid, "ever."

Mike Lilly, an LSU alumnus, has also taken his English skills to foreign countries. Lilly graduated in August 2003 with a degree in anthropology and a minor in Spanish. He'd been on the LSU in Xalapa summer program in Xalapa, Mexico, and the city took his imagination by storm.

"I was a skateboarder, so I hung out with skateboarders (over there) a lot," he says, and made friends with the locals. Upon graduation, he became a substitute teacher at Lusher Elementary in New Orleans.

His substitution lead to a permanent position for the remainder of the year after the teacher fell ill. That experience was "rewarding but really hard," and gave him some preliminary experience with teaching. It depleted him, though, and he wanted something fresh. He decided to go back to Xalapa.

"I loved the city and wanted to become fluent in Spanish after I graduated, and I wanted to move to Mexico anyway," he says. Without any concrete plans he flew to Xalapa and moved in with his skater friend, who later helped him find a job at the private, Toronto-based KIOSK International school of English. There he taught students both the underpinnings and intricacies of English.

Each of his classes lasted one hour and he taught four to six classes a day. Although Lilly taught at all proficiency levels, the majority of his classes were for advanced students. To rake in more money on the side, Lilly offered private tutoring independent of the language school.

"We were teaching mainly for the TOEFL," he says. Passing the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is a requirement for foreign students applying to universities where English is the primary language in use. Companies also use it as a measure of English proficiency of prospective employees for whom English isn't their native language.

And English as your native language is the primary requirement to get you through as a teacher, Lilly says. Although Lilly had a working knowledge of Spanish, he says prior ability is unnecessary.

"They only require an undergrad degree, that English is your mother language and some teaching experience," he says. "I have no regrets. I'd recommend it to everyone. You just have to be open-minded, be aware it's a different culture."

Mexico is one of the closest foreign cultures Americans have, but some search for or create opportunities in cultures continents away. Tanya Rawal-Jindia, a senior graduating in English literature, is putting her LSU educational future on hold to teach abroad.

Together with her grandfather, a former student and school official in Chandigarh, India, Rawal-Jindia formulated an idea to teach at MCM DAV College for Women. She plans on a future as an English literature professor, so instead of just being an ESL teacher, she's teaching an English literature class once a week in addition to assisting a professor there. She won't be compensated for it, but that's not the point, she insists.

"I am really looking at the whole situation as a volunteer. Just my being there and in the women's college will all be beneficial to me," she says. She understands the area languages, Hindi and Punjabi, and plans to conduct one-on-one research with students for a project paper she wants to turn into a book.

Rawal-Jindia's case is a particular one as most graduates looking to teach will search for and find prospective ESL jobs through myriad Web sites. LSU alumna Melissa Calvert found her job via www.daveseslcafe.com, a posting area for ESL teaching opportunities. Armed with a bachelor of fine arts but unsure of the right post-undergraduate path, she began looking at teaching opportunities. She found a deal in Seoul, South Korea, where she's presently teaching English. Like Lilly, she didn't start looking for a job until arriving in the country. Though she's only beginning to understand Korean, the language barrier is spottily problematic.

"You can get around the city and do most any thing while speaking English," she says. Her pay of roughly $2,000 per month goes toward savings, debts and traveling.

"This is exactly what I want to be doing right now. I now have mountains, snow, subways, tons of people I can't understand and I can't leave out the heated floors," she says. "That is a wonderful thing. Warm water is pumped through the floors so they are always warm on cold mornings."

So keep your feet warm and don't fret about French 4. English is as widely accepted as American Express.

Nanterns

Saturday night I invested in two tickets to a musical, non-verbal performance geared toward foreigners near Seoul 's City Hall. The production of Nanta has been open since 2000 and will continue through 2010, accolades including being performed on Broadway. Upon arrival at the Nanta Theatre, we noticed foreigners of all different ages, shades, shapes and sizes. Being that the show is about cooking, outside there was an appropriate welcome: a life-size piece of artwork made from pots and pants and other kitchen equipment. We had our picture taken by some Japanese tourists in front of the theatre before heading inside and appropriately thanked them in their native tongue, probably one of the 5 words we know in that language. The cast, a myriad five people including only one female, had a very bubbly and funny demeanor that allowed the quaint audience of about 200 people to be entertained for a full 2 hours. The "goal" of the performers was to have a wide-ranging menu prepared by 6pm, but all along the way they ran into problems, including a moronic and inexperienced new cook who was favored over one of the more experienced chefs by the Maitre d'. There was audience participation and plenty of laughs. There were children as well as elderly. The theatre was pretty small, so there were really no bad seats in the house, which for our Saturday 8pm showing, was pretty packed. After our cultural experience, we headed to the foreign section of town to help a friend celebrate his birthday at Bonji's Bistro. It 's a cute, two-story restaurant with low tables for floor seating and pillows all around for everyone 's comfort. There were two live musicians on the first floor playing guitar and singing some oldies —we really loved it! They were wearing German army uniforms and looked pretty dirty, but they had talent!

Sunday was the celebration of Buddha 's birthday. I've had several friends looking forward to this for months! There was a festival of lanterns, though I 'm not sure about the history of its origin and what the relevance is of the lights, but a parade and lots of booths with all sorts of lantern-making and other activities followed. The best part? It was all FREE! We walked around and saw the temple that was drowning in lanterns of all different colors. (Pictures have already been emailed. Let me know if you didn 't receive). There were live bands and as far as the eye could see there were tents with information or activities. Face painting, nail decorating, mat making... all kinds of stuff!

This coming weekend is a long one, courtesy of Friday being for the Children. I'll spend it in Busan, checking out the parts of the city that wouldn't interest Sam, though I'm not sure yet what those will be. If the schedule allows, we'll check out the only U.N. cemetery in the world on Saturday. That evening, we'll attend an Army "Hail and Farewell" in Daegu to welcome the new officers and say goodbye to the departing ones. And somewhere in the midst of it all, I'll be studying!

Copyright 2006 Olivia R. Reed