fish food

so the week after collin left, someone was definitely looking out for me.

i went from team 1 to team 6, and got really lucky with a good group of kids. i ended up getting more involved than usual - likely because i was unintentionally seeking distraction from the slight earthquake going on in my life.

there was a bit of a bullying issue, and i had to keep an especially close eye on one boy in particular. but rather than letting him be my nightmare, he became one of my favourites. i decided on monday that georgie (in the blue jersey) would be my own personal project for the week. bright, charming, and bloody obnoxious - he was an immediate and effortless leader. my mission: get georgie to use his powers for good, not evil.

looking back at the end of the week, who knows how much - if any - good i did. before graduation he asked me to sign his passport (as all the kids do, with all the teachers), and i told him to hold off. i wanted to send him away with a written reminder of the message i'd been trying to send him all week. all i could come up with, and what i ended up writing above my signature, was not nearly as profound as i'd hoped it might be. though i guess, profound as it might have been, it would be completely useless if he could neither read nor comprehend it.

georgie,
be a good leader.
be a kind leader.

_______________________________________

saturday i went for a massage.
it was alright.
afterwards, shanda met me at the station for really good grilled chicken galbi, and then we went out in search of Dr. Fish.
this is something i've wanted to try for quite a while. i'm not sure what i was expecting, though i did know the general idea of what i was getting myself into: skin-eating fish.

this place is a cafe. you come in, enjoy a coffee, tea, or in my case a really amazing, icy pink lemonade, and pay an extra 2,000won ($2ish) for "foot spa" (or whatever they call it) - with which you get access to the self-serve coffee, toast, and popcorn station. naturally.
so we drink, and talk, and it's about -14 degrees celsius because the AC is cranked. we have some bread with butter and jam - free with our drinks. i can't help wondering why the area by the windows, with the three little fish pools, has tumbleweeds blowing through it. the place is busy. there are plenty of people. why is no one...exfoliating?
i'm comforted - a bit - when two men and a boy go over and roll their pant legs up before having a seat. shortly after shanda and i agree:
it's time.
we wash our feet and sit on the edge of our little pool, giggling and squirming with fear. after about 5 minutes of this, the boy from next door comes over and just hops right in. "it's ok?" i ask him, looking for a little reassurance. he nods a bit, but hardly notices we're even there.
shanda puts her feet in and they swarm.
i'm talking Piranha-style swarming.
i don't want to do this.
i think it.
i say it.
i consider walking away.
i like to think i'm not a wuss. but this...this is just scary and disgusting.
but we're here. and i've wanted to do it a while. maybe just...one...toe.......


suddenly 12 shimmering little fish are nibbling my foot.
it tickles...it hurts...it's weird...i hate it.
the next day, my friend carole told us that Dr. Fish is not safe, because they're supposed to use special fish from Europe.
the fish they use here are from China.



sunday we went to ansan to look at sunflowers...









we had monday off for chuseok holiday (korean "thanksgiving"), so i went to hwaseong - the pride of suwon! - finally.











______________________________________________________

씨유친구~~~

collin's been gone just over a week.
(it feels like well over a month~)
she might read this, so i won't say too many kind things about her...
actually, i won't say any. just gonna recap her last weekend.
friday night, after ddeok samgyupsal (pork bbq - kind of) and noraebang (karaoke), we went to the crazy duck (self bar ㅋㅋ). collin went a bit early to meet with some friends. when we arrived, her friends left, only to come back a while later with what you see above - a tower of choco pies, complete with candles. a cute and very korean farewell cake from min jin, and dong hee, who will forever be known as "chocopie".


saturday we went bowling. it was fun. i got a turkey and didn't even know what turkey was. but now i know. and i'm considering a change in profession.

these pics are collin left,
and hannah right.






and collin and i had a picnic in my room.


when it came time for her to go, it didn't seem real. it was like she was going on a trip or something, and would be back.
but it's real.
and it's very different around here.
and she knows that.
anyway...
see you soon
xo

let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_trim_our_hair_in_accordance_with_the_socialist_lifestyle

.under pressure.

greatest man that ever lived.

last night we went to Thailand Restaurant in Songtan (known for the US air base - interesting area) for Shanda's birthday dinner. Thailand is owned by a woman who might be the kindest, most peaceful lady I have ever met. she enters the room and it's like you breathe differently. she's always smiling, always warm, always giving small gifts. she loves Collin and is always very good to us when we're there, and because it was Shanda's birthday, and because she knew Collin's leaving, she treated us especially well (ie: complimentary spring rolls, a specially prepared SPICY dish - "It's very spicy," she said, carrying it over to the table, "very spicy, let's celebrate," and bananas in warm coconut milk - a simple dessert that could honestly and truly save the world.

on our way back to the subway station we came across the dirtiest old office recliner on the side of the road. sitting pretty on its ripped vinyl seat was a dozen pairs of old sunglasses. i carried a handful home, disinfected them, and took some pics.

lots and lots...

so here they are:
team 3 the first week of summer camp. some of the kids i remembered from regular weeks at the village, and luckily i remembered them for good reasons. this group is how i'd like to remember summer camp.

other highlights:

swimming!

being in bathing suits in front of the kids was a bit of an issue. no one was really sure what was ok, so most of us just wore shorts and tshirts. as you can see, some of the guys took their shirts off, and got some interesting comments. for instance, one boy very innocently complimented mike: "teacher, you have very nice fur."


mini-olympics!



apparently i've never seen anything more wondrous than a descending birdie, or shuttlecock, if you prefer.



haunted house!


not really a highlight, but who doesn't love staying late to frighten unsuspecting victims, i mean children. (that is me. that mask smelled like expired milk.)



and of course, the best part of every week
graduation!

actually, the best part is the end of graduation. and this picture isn't from graduation, but "recreation" - otherwise known as four hours of drama, limbo, dancing, karaoke (to the same 3 songs), and professionally administered guilt trips, and crying.

ok, so there's camp finished.
and of course, we had a big staff piss up at the end of it all. and i won't go into detail, because what happens at these things should stay at these things.
but it was fun.

the next day, collin and shanda waited an extra half-hour while i tried to recover, and then we headed to jamsil for krazzzzeeeeeeee burger! and oh yeah, Cats.

i was too hungover to really enjoy my burger; it's hard to really taste anything when all your sense-power is going to your eyeballs, searching frantically for a bathroom, just in case the next bite doesn't go down so well.

but as everyone knows, there's no cure like men in tights. and the cure's even quicker when said men are also in the heaviest hair and makeup i have ever. seen.
to be honest, the first half hour or so of Cats made me feel even queazier. at the same time, i couldn't stop laughing.



really?
what. the. fuck.
this has got to be one of the strangest spectacles. ever. and the fact that it's so famous and long-running both boggles my mind, and sort of restores some of my faith in humanity. i mean, if the minds of the masses (or at least the theatre-going contingent) are so open that they can covet something like this, well, there's hope for us all.

k, this is enough for now.
post of this past weekend (rafting and Nanta) pending.

it's almost been a month...

since my last post.
how to describe the time that's passed:
ups and ups and down down downs.



let's see...there was summer camp - which we all dreaded, but actually turned out to be a couple of my most enjoyable weeks here. it was a nice change from the usual, with some new classes and the odd mid-weekday off here and there. it seems disorder suits me.



after the first week of camp, a group of us went to firebox in hongdae for the tattoos we've talked about since i got here. i wasn't sure how to prepare myself, or what to expect when i heard the first zzzzp zzzzps of the needle.

ink met skin, and for the first ten seconds or so i was like, please - not as in please. stop. but as in, i'm tough and this is nothing. then...the burning. whatever. it was bearable. once it was done i was excited, but i'd imagined this tattoo in this spot for so long, it almost felt like it should have been there all along. so instead of, yes! wow!...the finished product was just, yes, ok. next one.
anyway, here it is.

and here we are at firebox, sometime during our five hour stay.


there was a cocker spaniel in the studio. we learned its name was cola. because it's not uncommon to hear "coke" pronounced "cock", so it makes sense the name seemed fitting for a coker spaniel. he was cute, and helped keep us entertained while shanda got star arms and nick got the world on his delt.



here she (he?) is
with her (his?) new friend,
collin.

after tattoos we got mexican at dos tacos (because that's what we do when we're in hongdae), and came home, ready to start summer camp round 2. it went well. not as well as the first, but ok. and that was followed by summer camp round 3, which was even worse than the first, but still ok. mini-olympics and swimming with the kids was so much fun!

coming up:
camp pictures, end of camp staff party, hongdae all-nighter, Cats, rafting, and nanta.