In a brief moment of mental clarity coinciding with free time on this Monday morning, I finally have a chance to give you guys an update.
Sorry for the long delay. As you hardworking folks know, time seems to become rarer and rarer. To put an additional challenge in, there have been interesting turns of events in the ever-exciting world of me.
First notable event: I finally got my back pay from my old hakwon! Yay! It took 9 months for my old employer to scrape together the funds (plus or minus some honesty on his part) and pay the teachers. Now that the case is officially settled, I feel like I can disclose the negotiations and speculations of the case without compromising my own returns.
I know that I received 100% of what was calculated by the Board of Labor, no interest or lawyer fee reimbursement, because I just wanted him to hurry up and pay up. Adding on additional fees could have been adding risk to him deciding to just declare bankruptcy and merely pay a fine where he would then have his first criminal record (basically the same as having something put on your permanent record in high school. A slap on the wrist as far as legal ramifications go). So to play it safe, but stand up for my basic rights, I agreed to just end it after he pays me what he owes me. Given, too, that I recognize the desperation of his situation (again, plus or minus some honesty) with having an infant son to care for, he must be strapped for cash in some manner. I decided to be a little forgiving. But I wanted my money, dang it.
I got it. Paid off my credit card from when I went to the States (plane ticket and Black Friday shopping), plus my Costco expenses. Costco in Korea only takes cash or Samsung credit cards. However, they don't clearly explain that American Express works as Samsung in Korea. Yay! It's always so hard to leave with only what you went for, therefore just as hard to bring just enough cash. So that's why I always use my credit card at Costco whenever I manage to make a trip.
And make a trip this weekend I did! I went for Greek yogurt, but they were all out. Sad. So instead I got some "Denmark Plain Yogurt." I checked the sugar. If there's like... none, then you know it's good to eat! at 5g per serving compared to the next "plain" yogurt at 11g, I figured it would get a seal of approval from my inner dietician. As sour as it tastes by itself, add a little natural (not quite so processed and sugar added) jam or preserves, maybe some muesli (granola without the sugar), and it's actually not that regrettable.
Anyway. As predicted I left with a lot more than yogurt. Preserves, salmon wrap wheels, jerky, bacon bits, and a pack of bagels. Bagels are probably a no-no, but who cares, they're delicious.
I'm planning on making my own meals for lunch (the only time I'm supposed to eat normal people food). My plan: sandwich, yogurt, and a fruit of some kind. Breakfast and dinner are essentially a choice of 2 of the following: boiled egg, small sweet potato, or banana. Mix and match any way you want! and cry. Just cry. (Stand up comedy reference). Here.
Anyway. Gotta start this diet thing again. Gotta lose weight to save my knee. OH BY THE WAY. (today's transitions work so well...)
I signed up for another round of PT (Personal Training). It's a 3 month plan. I went to a training studio in the neighborhood that I had an eye on since I went looking for gyms. Training studios do not have a gym package where you can come on your own, you have to be taking classes to use the facilities, so I nixed it early on. 30 classes for about 1,500 bucks. You come use the gym whenever you want, but meet with an instructor twice a week. Last time I did this, I lost 19 kilos, about 35 pounds or so. Since then (it's been 9 months), I gained half of it back. No doubt largely due to stress from the lawsuit and also from hurting my knee.
The trainer I was matched with has a bit of experience in physical rehabilitation (as in when athletes hurt themselves, these are the trainers that get them back into competitive shape). He assessed my body imbalances (one side stronger than the other, for example, in my shoulders. That can lead to further injury if your body overcompensates.) They did a really good job doing a physical. Wednesday is the first class. Today was my first power walking exercise at that gym. (Treadmill, why hello, long time no see.) Heart rate was well over 160...
This should be good.
In addition, I finally gave in to lifting up my seat to the recommended height where the leg becomes fully extended.
Little did I know that I can't actually ride a bike. I had always taken off by pushing one foot on the ground while seated and then while coasting starting to pedal. (Yay teaching myself how to ride a bike... the wrong way). So now it's really scary to try and push off by just pedaling. It takes me about 10 minutes to get a successful start. And God save the person that makes me stop before I want to. It begins another 10 minute session trying to start. Most of the time, all of the sweating happens when I am focusing so hard on my feet and not tipping over before getting the pedals moving enough to keep my bulk centered. After that it's smooth sailing. I'll get the hang of it eventually...
There's actually a bit more to the life of Tessa, but that's all I have time to recap for today. I have lots of topics to talk about coming up. And I might post a more detailed account of my experience filing a lawsuit in Korea. For a preview, I can say that I am now looking for a job starting in September using a two pronged attack. One line safely pursuing hakwons and the other in the high risky hopes of finding an office job outside of the English education field.
I wish good luck to myself in all of this. haha.
Comments? Requests? Yes, please!
4.21.2014
2.27.2014
Learning the Language
*Note: Since a big part of my lifestyle is based around weight loss and exercise, I thought I would have a second part to my posts giving updates or tips from the past week. I'll break my posts into two parts to keep it more digestible. Scroll down to follow my exercise progress.*
It's Yellow Dust Season. I just bought my second pack of 3M 9322K dust respirator masks. I'm pretty sure they're used for construction sites sawing wood and drywall, but it's a good design to protect yourself against the yellow dust/microdust cocktail in the air these days. A lot of non-local (I'm trying other words than 'foreigner') people didn't believe me when I told them about the pollution levels being dangerous. It wasn't until they started complaining of sore throats, scratchy eyes, and headaches that they started to return for advice. Anywho. Yellow Dust Season is followed by Cherry Blossom Season (and the marker of warmer weather!!) so I'm just hanging on to the ride for now.
I had a few unexpected breakthroughs in the past two weeks. (The two weeks before that were... let's just say educational. I might get into it later after things get sorted out. Good point: it started me on a reading addiction, an upgrade from what was previously merely a book addiction.)
Let's start with the bigger epiphany.
Last week I blew my professional facade and accidentally cried in front of an associate. Arguably, they were being very pushy and patronizing, but the fact is I would never, ever have expected myself to react that way. It took me a few days to understand why.
My first year in Korea, 2009, was all good and fun. I was taking baby steps in learning the language. People were astronomically impressed that I could read Korean letters on the menus and signs, or even if I said things like 이것 좀 더 주세요 or 얼마예요? (Refill, please or How much?). I felt great when I could order Chinese delivery over the phone and felt like I overcame a huge step when I could figure out the McDonald's delivery service. At the time, you couldn't order online with your foreigner registration number. Ours weren't well integrated into the national database. Things are better now.
As time went by and I started using Korean for errands that I had to run on my own (I mean who wants to bug their friends for a favor to talk to the taxi driver over the phone more than once?), I started to feel like the impressed comments were more of a time waster. I start thinking, yeah I'm talking to you in Korean. Last I checked, we were in Seoul. Fancy that.
Then it slowly built into a kind of patronizing feeling when people keep commenting on how great my Korean is. Excluding the first year where I felt Korean was a bonus skill, Korean has been an essential method to proving my intentions in Korea. My friends have all supported my marathon toward fluency, helping me study, interpreting my broken text messages, and constantly inspiring me with their own ability to speak in better English than I could in Korean. It became a fluency competition.
The tables turned somewhere. I was first afraid and nervous to speak in Korean. Now, I get nervous and feel judged when I use English with local Koreans.
Sadly, after college, time runs short, people get jobs, and 5 hour blocks of study time becomes a rare bird hiding somewhere in a giant forest, never to be seen by human eyes again.
With thousands of corrections from friends and associates, managing to pass only the first of the two level intermediate Korean proficiency exam, and consistently missing the punch line on variety shows, I know that my Korean certainly isn't fluent. However, I'd like to think that I've showed enough devotion to show that I'm not just working in Korea, but with Korea.
As we hear intolerant people in America say all the time, "If you come to America, speak English." You might have seen the oddly controversial debate over the Coca-Cola Superbowl commercial. I don't really see how it's offensive in any way, if not touching. But the same kind of feeling that I learned in America--that people don't appreciate those who just come and take without making an effort to respect the locals are lazy and a burden on society--stayed with me. That drove me to break out of that circle of dependent foreigners and become an independent Seoulite.
In my mind, when I cannot fulfill that standard of clear communication, it means that I am not independent, and society throws me back into the barrel with all the other new arrivals and foreigners happy with the status quo of ignorance. All of my work has gone to waste. Zero.
So take a problem where my room has something that needs fixing. Needs maintenance. I know there's a peculiarity. I describe it, in Korean, and hear that they're going to come help out (course... not the warmest people are handling this situation, but we've all accepted this personality trait in some people. You just gotta work with them). Maintenance comes. They say it's not a problem with the machine, it's a problem with the pipe setup. Lots of explanations are thrown around, I get each of them, but it doesn't explain why the problem has recently crept up if the pipes were always the same way. I try to explain this, but my associate keeps getting pushier about dropping the issue and just letting it be because my room isn't special, the whole building was the same, why am I so suspicious of him, blah blah (which... after he investigated, found it was not the case, but it didn't help heal the burn he gave at the time).
Given, I'm trying to come up with a diplomatic response in a foreign language, whilst listening to his engineering terms in a foreign language... it was beyond my ability to immediately handle the conversation alone. It had exploded. Bombed. Fail. I lost credibility in my ability to judge if a machine was broken. I also lost my credentials as an equal in Korean society because my communication skill fell through. I felt one tear of frustration, and then everything after that was pretty much just tears from embarrassment about the first tear (does that happen to anyone else, or just me?).
After all of this, he came around and became a little more understanding. I think many people forget that what I say isn't all that I want to say. The information that gets to other people is sent through a language filter, where only about 80% of what I really want to say can actually get through. My words become neutered and often lack personality or sincerity. That's where I'm jealous of Sam Hammington.
It took me a while to really put my finger on why I was so stressed out. I still feel like as an outsider coming in to this society, I still have that responsibility to conform. I want to get better, but I haven't figured out my schedule to allow for study time, to the extent that I wouldn't start to hate it anyway...
At the same time, I don't know why I don't respect the progress I've made thus far. I keep pushing a perfectionist approach to my abilities. If it's not perfect, then it's completely lacking.
It may be because society here has not become accustomed to "intermediate," but rather has this perception that foreigners either can or cannot speak the language, and unwittingly throw out the array of abilities in between. All or nothing sort of approach.
I think both sides have a lot to learn.
My second breakthrough was fabulous.
I leveled up at the pool.
I remember learning how to swim when I was little. You know... stand on the diving board and jump into the arms of some loving relative in the water. From that point on, I had no fear of water (except open water for different reasons) and could manage to not breathe in water. Basic human survival skill, yes?
Then I took a class at Korea University. I needed the credit to reach 'full time' status, and hey, we can all agree I needed the exercise. (I also took a yoga class that semester.)
I learned to swim properly. Face in the water. Proper form. Swimming became an exercise, not just a fun thing to do in the summer. Later on, I would find it to be a spectacular exercise after I hurt my knee (runners knee--a chronic, but not debilitating). Swimming puts no impact on the joints, so it doesn't cause inflammation after exercising. I could get my cardio in without causing pain, as would happen with jogging or even cycling.
Since September, I've been going to the neighborhood YMCA and swimming to get my 50 minutes of cardio. I could feel it was far less intense than the heart rate I could rack up jogging, but I had to compromise intensity for pain relief.
On Tuesday, things got intense. Instead of breathing after every stroke, I can breathe after two. Sometimes three! It just... happened. Unknowingly. Automatically. And the workout got so much harder because I found work faster and push harder without having to pause for breath.
This sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I was ecstatic. That one small, minuscule improvement made the world of a difference. It picked up my speed and heart rate. No one was slowly trailing behind me.
Next... one day I will magically know how to do the butterfly stroke. Then I can join the big kids in the advanced lane. (Or not. I'm cool with this right here for now.)
It's Yellow Dust Season. I just bought my second pack of 3M 9322K dust respirator masks. I'm pretty sure they're used for construction sites sawing wood and drywall, but it's a good design to protect yourself against the yellow dust/microdust cocktail in the air these days. A lot of non-local (I'm trying other words than 'foreigner') people didn't believe me when I told them about the pollution levels being dangerous. It wasn't until they started complaining of sore throats, scratchy eyes, and headaches that they started to return for advice. Anywho. Yellow Dust Season is followed by Cherry Blossom Season (and the marker of warmer weather!!) so I'm just hanging on to the ride for now.
I had a few unexpected breakthroughs in the past two weeks. (The two weeks before that were... let's just say educational. I might get into it later after things get sorted out. Good point: it started me on a reading addiction, an upgrade from what was previously merely a book addiction.)
Let's start with the bigger epiphany.
Last week I blew my professional facade and accidentally cried in front of an associate. Arguably, they were being very pushy and patronizing, but the fact is I would never, ever have expected myself to react that way. It took me a few days to understand why.
My first year in Korea, 2009, was all good and fun. I was taking baby steps in learning the language. People were astronomically impressed that I could read Korean letters on the menus and signs, or even if I said things like 이것 좀 더 주세요 or 얼마예요? (Refill, please or How much?). I felt great when I could order Chinese delivery over the phone and felt like I overcame a huge step when I could figure out the McDonald's delivery service. At the time, you couldn't order online with your foreigner registration number. Ours weren't well integrated into the national database. Things are better now.
As time went by and I started using Korean for errands that I had to run on my own (I mean who wants to bug their friends for a favor to talk to the taxi driver over the phone more than once?), I started to feel like the impressed comments were more of a time waster. I start thinking, yeah I'm talking to you in Korean. Last I checked, we were in Seoul. Fancy that.
Then it slowly built into a kind of patronizing feeling when people keep commenting on how great my Korean is. Excluding the first year where I felt Korean was a bonus skill, Korean has been an essential method to proving my intentions in Korea. My friends have all supported my marathon toward fluency, helping me study, interpreting my broken text messages, and constantly inspiring me with their own ability to speak in better English than I could in Korean. It became a fluency competition.
The tables turned somewhere. I was first afraid and nervous to speak in Korean. Now, I get nervous and feel judged when I use English with local Koreans.
Sadly, after college, time runs short, people get jobs, and 5 hour blocks of study time becomes a rare bird hiding somewhere in a giant forest, never to be seen by human eyes again.
With thousands of corrections from friends and associates, managing to pass only the first of the two level intermediate Korean proficiency exam, and consistently missing the punch line on variety shows, I know that my Korean certainly isn't fluent. However, I'd like to think that I've showed enough devotion to show that I'm not just working in Korea, but with Korea.
As we hear intolerant people in America say all the time, "If you come to America, speak English." You might have seen the oddly controversial debate over the Coca-Cola Superbowl commercial. I don't really see how it's offensive in any way, if not touching. But the same kind of feeling that I learned in America--that people don't appreciate those who just come and take without making an effort to respect the locals are lazy and a burden on society--stayed with me. That drove me to break out of that circle of dependent foreigners and become an independent Seoulite.
In my mind, when I cannot fulfill that standard of clear communication, it means that I am not independent, and society throws me back into the barrel with all the other new arrivals and foreigners happy with the status quo of ignorance. All of my work has gone to waste. Zero.
So take a problem where my room has something that needs fixing. Needs maintenance. I know there's a peculiarity. I describe it, in Korean, and hear that they're going to come help out (course... not the warmest people are handling this situation, but we've all accepted this personality trait in some people. You just gotta work with them). Maintenance comes. They say it's not a problem with the machine, it's a problem with the pipe setup. Lots of explanations are thrown around, I get each of them, but it doesn't explain why the problem has recently crept up if the pipes were always the same way. I try to explain this, but my associate keeps getting pushier about dropping the issue and just letting it be because my room isn't special, the whole building was the same, why am I so suspicious of him, blah blah (which... after he investigated, found it was not the case, but it didn't help heal the burn he gave at the time).
Given, I'm trying to come up with a diplomatic response in a foreign language, whilst listening to his engineering terms in a foreign language... it was beyond my ability to immediately handle the conversation alone. It had exploded. Bombed. Fail. I lost credibility in my ability to judge if a machine was broken. I also lost my credentials as an equal in Korean society because my communication skill fell through. I felt one tear of frustration, and then everything after that was pretty much just tears from embarrassment about the first tear (does that happen to anyone else, or just me?).
After all of this, he came around and became a little more understanding. I think many people forget that what I say isn't all that I want to say. The information that gets to other people is sent through a language filter, where only about 80% of what I really want to say can actually get through. My words become neutered and often lack personality or sincerity. That's where I'm jealous of Sam Hammington.
It took me a while to really put my finger on why I was so stressed out. I still feel like as an outsider coming in to this society, I still have that responsibility to conform. I want to get better, but I haven't figured out my schedule to allow for study time, to the extent that I wouldn't start to hate it anyway...
At the same time, I don't know why I don't respect the progress I've made thus far. I keep pushing a perfectionist approach to my abilities. If it's not perfect, then it's completely lacking.
It may be because society here has not become accustomed to "intermediate," but rather has this perception that foreigners either can or cannot speak the language, and unwittingly throw out the array of abilities in between. All or nothing sort of approach.
I think both sides have a lot to learn.
My second breakthrough was fabulous.
I leveled up at the pool.
I remember learning how to swim when I was little. You know... stand on the diving board and jump into the arms of some loving relative in the water. From that point on, I had no fear of water (except open water for different reasons) and could manage to not breathe in water. Basic human survival skill, yes?
Then I took a class at Korea University. I needed the credit to reach 'full time' status, and hey, we can all agree I needed the exercise. (I also took a yoga class that semester.)
I learned to swim properly. Face in the water. Proper form. Swimming became an exercise, not just a fun thing to do in the summer. Later on, I would find it to be a spectacular exercise after I hurt my knee (runners knee--a chronic, but not debilitating). Swimming puts no impact on the joints, so it doesn't cause inflammation after exercising. I could get my cardio in without causing pain, as would happen with jogging or even cycling.
Since September, I've been going to the neighborhood YMCA and swimming to get my 50 minutes of cardio. I could feel it was far less intense than the heart rate I could rack up jogging, but I had to compromise intensity for pain relief.
On Tuesday, things got intense. Instead of breathing after every stroke, I can breathe after two. Sometimes three! It just... happened. Unknowingly. Automatically. And the workout got so much harder because I found work faster and push harder without having to pause for breath.
This sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I was ecstatic. That one small, minuscule improvement made the world of a difference. It picked up my speed and heart rate. No one was slowly trailing behind me.
Next... one day I will magically know how to do the butterfly stroke. Then I can join the big kids in the advanced lane. (Or not. I'm cool with this right here for now.)
1.13.2014
Swimming Pool 101
Alrighty guys. Gonna make a quick post that I've been meaning to put up since last week.
This past week flew by since I started a new schedule at the hakwon for a short 6 week winter break program. It basically takes up my Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but still gives me time to make the 8:00-8:50 swimming schedule at the YMCA. Swim, shower, home, change, work til 9. Wednesday (work at 12:30, finish at 8:00, go tutor for 3 hours, go home and sleep) gets sandwiched by 8:00-9:00 Tuesday Thursdays. Don't get me wrong, it's worth the pocket money, but goodness I'm beat by Friday night.
So about that swimming pool.
First of all, swimming pool memberships are locked into time slots prepaid by the month. Basically these time slots are the times that are not being used by various other classes and programs. Generally, it's at the crack of dawn, lunch time, and again around 7 or 8. Most pools work this way.
Getting into the pool is quite different from what the American would be used to... i.e. getting publicly naked first. It's a fusion of pool and Korean sauna. Get your key, go to the locker room, strip down (essential to going to the showers as you will be stopped along the way by some ajumma before you have time to reach the shower floor in your bathing suit), go down stairs to the shower room, shower down with soap (rinsing is frowned upon), put your bathing suit on, and go straight from the shower room to the pool (you have to go through it to reach the pool).
I first experienced that when I was going to Korea University and I took a swimming class to finish off my credits while helping out with exercise at the same time. I lived right next door, so I saw no difference between rinsing down before and leaving my house with my bathing suit on under exercise clothes and making a B line for the pool--cause who wants to flaunt themselves to the local grandma population and fellow classmates? I was stopped many a time, but pulled the "I don't know, I'm a foreigner card" and they stopped bothering me. Bad Tessa, bad.
But as time goes on, you get used to the whole naked thing and just do it for the sake of efficiency and oddly enough avoiding interaction. That was the extent of my knowledge until I got to the YMCA for free swim...
It turns out there's an unspoken social dynamic in the 8:00 swim population.
You see, there's 6 lanes, two for each level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In the first week, I went with the intermediate level. And kept getting hit on the head by swimmers in the lane (there are usually about 5 people or more in each lane, just swimming laps). They were also really slow. I'm no competitive swimmer, but this was too much. Apparently "beginner" means "I can be in water by myself and not die" and intermediate means "I can reach the other side and come back without stopping midway." I couldn't get my heart rate up with this group taking up the lane, so I got some guts and went over to the advanced level.
I got fussed at by this woman for being too slow. As it turns out one of the advanced lanes (which had the least amount of people, the reason why I went there) is for this clique of swimmers that like to have leisurely laps and then suddenly sprint with butterflies and stuff. The next lane moved at my pace, or a little faster which pushes me to swim harder. Fine with me. But I had to be shamed first to get in. I always felt the disapproving eyes of that woman ever since--and you know she comes every day, as you will notice with most of the swimmers.
Though there are jolly and light hearted old women in the swimming "community" you can't help but feel the burn of those who seem to somehow be sitting at the top of the hierarchy. Going back to the shower, there are a lot of old women striking up conversation (some people try to talk in the pool but I promptly cut conversation with the point that I need to exercise. If I stop, it's cause I absolutely should breath before I go again if I don't want to drown.) but there are many whose lives revolve around making others follow rules.
Last week I had a bad day. I woke up a little late, and rushed to the pool. Started my laps. I made a lazy stretch with my arm as I was swimming and just slammed my middle and ring fingers into the plastic lane ropes. It's still bruised. But that put me off for the swim, thinking about whether it was worth it to stop and go ice it. I didn't. Somewhere along the way in deep thought, I realized my ear plug fell out (I've got sensitive ears). I stood up and looked around. It would be impossible to find the sky blue silicone plug in the turquoise water. As I was being hit by swimmers going past on both sides, the mean lady asked me if I lost something. Disheartened, I pointed to my remaining plug and said that it fell out. To get out of the way, I popped it back in my ear and I kept moving. For about 2 laps, I was thinking about where to get it and whether internet shopping would be worth the 2.50 shipping fee for something that only costs 7 dollars... but where would I find swimming gear nearby? etc etc etc. Back to the end of the lane, the woman was waiting for me with my ear plug in hand, and gave it back to me smiling.
At that point, I felt so relieved but also in a state of surprise and near confusion about my relationship with this woman. I realized then that she wasn't there to chastise me so much as to look after me. Though she has yet to compliment my swimming, she has accepted me as a "usual" member. There's a term for relationships between Koreans--jung. It's not quite love, but a bond that people have as humans to look out and care for one another. Ah, it's not social responsibility either. You have to feel it and then you know.
That morning, I realized that there's more kindness in that cold pool than I thought, and as cliche as it seems that bad days can and do get better.
That's as well as I can conclude this story, since I have to rush off to work. I spent the morning finding a laundromat that would clean my Uggs after I spilt board marker ink on them. They're now in the "hospital" for 3 weeks... Let's hope that bad thing will turn out nicely, too. Pleeeaaase?
This past week flew by since I started a new schedule at the hakwon for a short 6 week winter break program. It basically takes up my Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but still gives me time to make the 8:00-8:50 swimming schedule at the YMCA. Swim, shower, home, change, work til 9. Wednesday (work at 12:30, finish at 8:00, go tutor for 3 hours, go home and sleep) gets sandwiched by 8:00-9:00 Tuesday Thursdays. Don't get me wrong, it's worth the pocket money, but goodness I'm beat by Friday night.
So about that swimming pool.
First of all, swimming pool memberships are locked into time slots prepaid by the month. Basically these time slots are the times that are not being used by various other classes and programs. Generally, it's at the crack of dawn, lunch time, and again around 7 or 8. Most pools work this way.
Getting into the pool is quite different from what the American would be used to... i.e. getting publicly naked first. It's a fusion of pool and Korean sauna. Get your key, go to the locker room, strip down (essential to going to the showers as you will be stopped along the way by some ajumma before you have time to reach the shower floor in your bathing suit), go down stairs to the shower room, shower down with soap (rinsing is frowned upon), put your bathing suit on, and go straight from the shower room to the pool (you have to go through it to reach the pool).
I first experienced that when I was going to Korea University and I took a swimming class to finish off my credits while helping out with exercise at the same time. I lived right next door, so I saw no difference between rinsing down before and leaving my house with my bathing suit on under exercise clothes and making a B line for the pool--cause who wants to flaunt themselves to the local grandma population and fellow classmates? I was stopped many a time, but pulled the "I don't know, I'm a foreigner card" and they stopped bothering me. Bad Tessa, bad.
But as time goes on, you get used to the whole naked thing and just do it for the sake of efficiency and oddly enough avoiding interaction. That was the extent of my knowledge until I got to the YMCA for free swim...
It turns out there's an unspoken social dynamic in the 8:00 swim population.
You see, there's 6 lanes, two for each level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In the first week, I went with the intermediate level. And kept getting hit on the head by swimmers in the lane (there are usually about 5 people or more in each lane, just swimming laps). They were also really slow. I'm no competitive swimmer, but this was too much. Apparently "beginner" means "I can be in water by myself and not die" and intermediate means "I can reach the other side and come back without stopping midway." I couldn't get my heart rate up with this group taking up the lane, so I got some guts and went over to the advanced level.
I got fussed at by this woman for being too slow. As it turns out one of the advanced lanes (which had the least amount of people, the reason why I went there) is for this clique of swimmers that like to have leisurely laps and then suddenly sprint with butterflies and stuff. The next lane moved at my pace, or a little faster which pushes me to swim harder. Fine with me. But I had to be shamed first to get in. I always felt the disapproving eyes of that woman ever since--and you know she comes every day, as you will notice with most of the swimmers.
Though there are jolly and light hearted old women in the swimming "community" you can't help but feel the burn of those who seem to somehow be sitting at the top of the hierarchy. Going back to the shower, there are a lot of old women striking up conversation (some people try to talk in the pool but I promptly cut conversation with the point that I need to exercise. If I stop, it's cause I absolutely should breath before I go again if I don't want to drown.) but there are many whose lives revolve around making others follow rules.
Last week I had a bad day. I woke up a little late, and rushed to the pool. Started my laps. I made a lazy stretch with my arm as I was swimming and just slammed my middle and ring fingers into the plastic lane ropes. It's still bruised. But that put me off for the swim, thinking about whether it was worth it to stop and go ice it. I didn't. Somewhere along the way in deep thought, I realized my ear plug fell out (I've got sensitive ears). I stood up and looked around. It would be impossible to find the sky blue silicone plug in the turquoise water. As I was being hit by swimmers going past on both sides, the mean lady asked me if I lost something. Disheartened, I pointed to my remaining plug and said that it fell out. To get out of the way, I popped it back in my ear and I kept moving. For about 2 laps, I was thinking about where to get it and whether internet shopping would be worth the 2.50 shipping fee for something that only costs 7 dollars... but where would I find swimming gear nearby? etc etc etc. Back to the end of the lane, the woman was waiting for me with my ear plug in hand, and gave it back to me smiling.
At that point, I felt so relieved but also in a state of surprise and near confusion about my relationship with this woman. I realized then that she wasn't there to chastise me so much as to look after me. Though she has yet to compliment my swimming, she has accepted me as a "usual" member. There's a term for relationships between Koreans--jung. It's not quite love, but a bond that people have as humans to look out and care for one another. Ah, it's not social responsibility either. You have to feel it and then you know.
That morning, I realized that there's more kindness in that cold pool than I thought, and as cliche as it seems that bad days can and do get better.
That's as well as I can conclude this story, since I have to rush off to work. I spent the morning finding a laundromat that would clean my Uggs after I spilt board marker ink on them. They're now in the "hospital" for 3 weeks... Let's hope that bad thing will turn out nicely, too. Pleeeaaase?
1.05.2014
Out of Retirement
It's been over four years since I came to Seoul. I honestly have no idea where most of the time went, but a lot has changed.
Looking at my old post, you could see that I was still into the k-pop scene, if at least interested. I can't say as much now. I honestly have no idea what's popular except for what I see on commercials, posters, and the occasional glance at the top 10 on Bugs (one of the main music streaming sites in Korea). Instead, I've been working and focusing on being a grown up in this giant metropolis. It's been more about cutthroat competition in the job market and education for me for the past few years.
Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't found time to go have a bit of fun here and there and meet up with my friends, who are now essentially only locals, as virtually all of my previous friends from study abroad have long gone home (except for those who have returned to teach). One day it occurred to me that I was the only foreigner in most of my circles of friends, and when people asked me about my foreign friends, I would have a really hard time thinking of more than five.
At that point, I knew something seemed different for my case as a foreigner in Korea. I have not reached the legacy of many of my mentors who have spent the past two decades in Korea, settling down with families and becoming fluent with the current events and language. I am certainly no longer the wide-eyed exchange student that I was a few years ago, either. During my time as a full time student, I had distanced myself from the "foreign community," mostly exchange students, short term English teachers, and military that come and go with such rotation that it just becomes emotionally draining to stay in that cycle (not to mention expensive to follow the Itaewon foodies). Somehow, I became that remaining 5% of long(er) term expats trying to make their way.
Though there are many expats in Seoul, Koreans are fascinated that I graduated from Korea University, worked in Korean companies, and prefer to speak with them in Korean rather than bothering with English (not to say that I'm fluent, but let's just say proficient. My grammar is still laughable and I definitely need to ask for a vocabulary next Christmas). I realized that my situation is far different from most here, and even I am still trying to place myself in this fast-changing society.
So before this becomes too much of an autobiography, I just wanted to let everyone know I'm back, after quite enough nudges to start recording my ramblings. I'll be keeping this blog as a commentary on my experiences, perspectives, and relationships here.
Let's do this.
Looking at my old post, you could see that I was still into the k-pop scene, if at least interested. I can't say as much now. I honestly have no idea what's popular except for what I see on commercials, posters, and the occasional glance at the top 10 on Bugs (one of the main music streaming sites in Korea). Instead, I've been working and focusing on being a grown up in this giant metropolis. It's been more about cutthroat competition in the job market and education for me for the past few years.
Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't found time to go have a bit of fun here and there and meet up with my friends, who are now essentially only locals, as virtually all of my previous friends from study abroad have long gone home (except for those who have returned to teach). One day it occurred to me that I was the only foreigner in most of my circles of friends, and when people asked me about my foreign friends, I would have a really hard time thinking of more than five.
At that point, I knew something seemed different for my case as a foreigner in Korea. I have not reached the legacy of many of my mentors who have spent the past two decades in Korea, settling down with families and becoming fluent with the current events and language. I am certainly no longer the wide-eyed exchange student that I was a few years ago, either. During my time as a full time student, I had distanced myself from the "foreign community," mostly exchange students, short term English teachers, and military that come and go with such rotation that it just becomes emotionally draining to stay in that cycle (not to mention expensive to follow the Itaewon foodies). Somehow, I became that remaining 5% of long(er) term expats trying to make their way.
Though there are many expats in Seoul, Koreans are fascinated that I graduated from Korea University, worked in Korean companies, and prefer to speak with them in Korean rather than bothering with English (not to say that I'm fluent, but let's just say proficient. My grammar is still laughable and I definitely need to ask for a vocabulary next Christmas). I realized that my situation is far different from most here, and even I am still trying to place myself in this fast-changing society.
So before this becomes too much of an autobiography, I just wanted to let everyone know I'm back, after quite enough nudges to start recording my ramblings. I'll be keeping this blog as a commentary on my experiences, perspectives, and relationships here.
Let's do this.
9.19.2010
Surprise Concert!
Okay guys. For the first time ever, I was taking pictures when my camera memory card filled up. All 8 gigs. That's about 3,000 pictures. The last thing I uploaded was from NYC... you guys can guess the extent of my flickr backup. I'm working on it, I promise!!
Anyway. Last week... what happened? I got to hang out with photo club some more. Met up with some friends here and there, getting dinner, coffee and such. Friday I finally went to immigration to get my second Alien Registration card (the first one got taken when I left the country... kinda pointless if you ask me). It took 2 hours of waiting. And there were still 150 people queued for the afternoon when I left. The lady treated me like an elementary student with a note pinned to my shirt. I had my document. My fee. My pictures. My passport(s). I had them stored in my classroom notes file folder that I take with me everywhere. The lady asks me for my folder... to check all my documents... I was like... "What?" She proceeds to thumb through all my personal notes and documents. The experience was a little humiliating, I do say so myself. I didn't even do anything wrong. She had all she needed in her hands to start with. Anyway I have to go back in a week to pick it up. Fun.
I then proceeded to Sinchon to hang out with my last standing foreigner friends: the Australians. They're still here because their school year works on the same Korean schedule: start in spring and end in winter. We went to get some Indian food. Decided then that we should noraebang for a few hours. And then we moved on to Adventure bar. I loved Adventure bar. It was big enough so that you don't stare at every group in the establishment, it's rather very private no matter where you are. Also, they have good anju (the food that you have to order with drinks). AND you can write on the walls. Sadly, the graffiti my fall 2009 friends so gracefully bestowed upon our favorite booths was swept away over the summer when they put up new wallpaper. [Sadface]. No worries. We started the process again. Always bring a sharpie around Seoul.
Saturday was lazy. Until it was time to go to a concert that my friends invited me to go to. They had an extra ticket and offered me to join. I got to see a slew of current pop artists including Jaebum and DJ Doc. It was great. Just like the last concerts, rather dangerous because of the crazed fans. They always present a safety hazard. But I left with all of my things in tact and about 400 pictures richer. I would have had more hadn't my memory card filled up. But honestly, I'm glad. I spent less time looking at my camera and more time looking at the stage. Good deal.
Today, I was supposed to meet with a friend. Because he needed some recovery time from a night out with his sonbaes (class seniors), it was rescheduled to Tuesday. Instead, I'm staying in my apartment catching up on some homework and eating some yang-nyeom chicken (almost like general tsao meets pad thai...) and watching tv movies and game shows. Today starts my search for an affordably good chicken place around my neighborhood. This review: $5 for a chicken, but there's too much sauce. Luckily there are about 4 shops along the main road, so hopefully one will be a hit.
Tomorrow? Class, I guess. A lot of classes are 'cancelled' due to ChuSeok (Korean Thanksgiving) which is on Wednesday, but Tuesday and Thursday are also considered part of the holiday. Two of my classes on Monday are rather optional, but I shall go ahead and go since I'll be on campus to drop off my homework. And because I love to go to class of course! Heh...
[Promise of pictures!] Actually, some are on Facebook, if you're aware of my facebook page. Go go go!
PS- Check this video out by EatYourKimchi. It shows what the supermarket looks like these days leading up to ChuSeok. Look at the large packages, and try and guess what's in them. They'relarge gift showcases of anything from shampoo to spam.
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9.13.2010
KoYon Jun and Such.
This past weekend held the annual varsity competition between Korea University and Yonsei University. I covered the basics of it from last year. Notably, last year I was on the blue side of the stadium with Yonsei. This year, I got to see the world through a red lens of Korea University. It'd be a cute story to say that I had a newfound pride in my new university, that this time it was just like home, blah blah blah, but honestly I was a little nostalgic for Yonsei from start to finish. I know most of the cheers by heart and I knew so many faces. Korea, however, was a little foreign to me. Last year, it looked like an intimidating crowd, and this year it was the same... but closer. Haha.
I still had fun. I got to cheer with my friends at Yonsei, and I got to bond with my new ones at Korea University. It might be seen as a double allegiance, betrayal even, but it's all in good spirit. Oh, and Yonsei won.
Other than that, I guess I can summarize the major accomplishments this week. Classes are going well. We've been assigned to groups in most of the classes that have group projects. I wandered over to the student union building to find their photo club, HoYong Hui*. Between classes and these guys, I actually have a few recognizable faces on campus.
*HoYong Hui is YonYong Hui's (Yonsei Photo Club) arch rival. If you're interested in the name breakdown, here's how they go:
I still had fun. I got to cheer with my friends at Yonsei, and I got to bond with my new ones at Korea University. It might be seen as a double allegiance, betrayal even, but it's all in good spirit. Oh, and Yonsei won.
Other than that, I guess I can summarize the major accomplishments this week. Classes are going well. We've been assigned to groups in most of the classes that have group projects. I wandered over to the student union building to find their photo club, HoYong Hui*. Between classes and these guys, I actually have a few recognizable faces on campus.
*HoYong Hui is YonYong Hui's (Yonsei Photo Club) arch rival. If you're interested in the name breakdown, here's how they go:
- Yon (YONsei)
- Yong (for the Chinese character, shadow, 影, pinyin: ying)
- Hui (means group, meeting, 會, pinyin: hui)
- HoYong Hui follows the same kind of pattern, but the exception is the first character isn't a shortened school name, but rather a reference to the mascot, a tiger (in Korean, horang-i), hence HOYong Hui.
9.04.2010
Korea Part II
Alas, I have found myself back in Korea. Study abroad went so well that I decided to come back as a regular student at Korea University, from where I should graduate in 2012. I wish I had been blogging through that decision and process, cause it was a crazy one. Basically up until now (the first week of school) everything has been last minute and by chance, despite my best attempts at organization. It's the nature of the Korean-foreigner relationship (jumping through hoops).
I promised a lot of people that I would keep up a blog this time around. I did a horrible job at doing one during study abroad. Things have been busy. I wanted to post as soon as I got to Korea, but amidst the craziness of trying to find an apartment (we took midnight rides with my friend's cousin's realtor friend to find some), the financial loops of phones, cards, and rent, and the madness of last minute registration for classes has exhausted my time for making coherent stories in writing.
But these days I'm feeling really good. I got everything worked out and I feel like for the first time in months, I can at least predict the upcoming week (which will include the YonKo Jun festival. excitement doesn't describe my anticipation enough. glee?). This weekend is pretty relaxed. The last bits of household needs are coming in: the stuff I left with my friend from my old apartment, a table for my oneroom, and a few odds and ends like a ricecooker and pots and pans so I can cook my own meals now. I can't wait. haha.
I was talking to a friend of mine from the first semester of study abroad. We came to the conclusion that this time around in Korea, things are completely different for me. I think that the objective is so much clearer to me. Independence might be the right word. This isn't school housing, this isn't a program, and for once I really have to live on my own. As scary as that sounds, it's a very motivating idea. I have the space I need, certainly all the opportunities I could ask for, and all the time in the world to make things happen.
Cheers to a new school year!
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