one of these things is not like the others...

tonight after yoga, i hopped into the elevator and just as the doors were closing, there was a girl coming out of yoga ready to leave so i made a heroic dive in between the doors and just as they were about to squeeze the life out of me and turn me into a martyr, they re-opened and the girl walked in. "yikes! that was a close one!" i gasped with pride. her response? no thank you, no smile, not even eye contact. just as the doors were about to close again, two more people walked out of yoga and, despite the lack of appreciation from fellow yoga-er #1, i threw myself between the closing doors again, allowing for two more little korean women to join us on the elevator. again, no response. and let me tell me, it sucks when you just miss the elevator b/c yoga zen is on the 9th floor and it takes a long time to wait for the elevator to go down to the first floor and all the way back up. but despite their lack of expression, i maintained my good spirits and even told one of them that i liked her shoes. they were a leopard print stiletto type of thing and they were fabulous. i pointed, gave a thumbs up, and she looked at me in confusion and annoyance. come on, lady, every country knows what thumbs up means. so then i started looking around at the shoes of the other women. one pair of leather pointy toe boots, one pair of red and blue patterned heels with a little diamond thing. and then i looked at down at my own pair of black and white pumas that look like they're made for rock climbing and have been several times. suddenly i found myself whistling the tune to "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong" from sesame street. my whistling turned into humming, my humming turned into full out singing. (well, not full out. i was singing the words loud enough for them to hear.) i thought it was hillarious, but i don't think they got it. apparently, they don't have sesame street here either. today, we also found a place with a tanning bed, which was shocking considering that every skin product and lotion in korea is purposed to whiten the skin. they want to be white, we want to be brown. but mary's going to thailand for christmas and i'm going to the philippines and both of us will be on the beach for a week and a half straight and i'm petrified of turning into a painful and peeling bright red tomato after day 1. i haven't been to a tanning bed since high school prom (with the exception of once) and i really hate them. they smell, they're claustrophobic, they make me all sweaty and hot and, the obvious reason--it's a box of cancer. but i figured a few times wouldn't hurt and would also make my transition into beautiful beaches much smoother. anyway, we went after school today and seriously, i think the bed was from 1979 and i don't think they've cleaned it since then. i felt like i had been slimed. or given an std. i'm taking some cleaning materials next time. gross.

hannah got some pictures from the website of the 10k we did. here is the start.





there's me! #1399 just about to cross the finish line. and just to clarify, the children who are about to beat me walked the 5k and sprinted the last 10 feet of it. so no jokes. they aren't beating me.

look at the sea of koreans! try to find us! it's like where's waldo.

the one who makes me bendy turned 28.

our thanksgiving meal turned out to just be the tip of the iceberg as far as as our celebration of thanksgiving was concerned. sunday afternoon, we all headed to annie and matt's, friends who have a beautiful apartment in the city, and spent the entire day, preparing (well, i did a lot of sitting on the couch--i'm not really the first to jump up and get all helpy helpy in the kitchen and there seemed to be enough of them crowded around the oven), anticipating, and enjoying a fantastic turkey dinner. they have a real oven so we could actually have turkey. it was super delicious and i think i'm still full.

but i did more than eat this weekend. saturday night, we celebrated amelia's (my yoga instructor who's the size of my leg) 28th birthday. about 7 of us headed to hongdae, a really hip and lively part of the city, to a bar called bricxx and it was sooooo cool. probably one of the coolest bars i've been to, and that says a lot cuz i lived in chicago for a year. it was dark and candle lit and underground and we sat on cushions on the floor and i think i may have said "seriously you guys, i just love this bar! seriously! it's so cool!" about 15 times over the course of the night. so we ate food that was too spicy and drank some german pinot grigio that was too delicious and had cake that was too small, and then we hit two other places and i danced my face off and didn't get home till 4 am. what am i, like, in college or something? i know. i haven't stayed out that late for a really, really long time. but i was having a genuinely great time and enjoying the people i was with so much. one of them, debbie, was a girl i met at church awhile back and she goes to yoga with me, and debbie's roommate rob came with his korean girlfriend mido (i don't know why i specify that she is korean, but i'm just trying to create a picture for my readers), and then amelia along with 2 more of their korean friends. i think one of the reasons i enjoyed the night so much (other than the fabulous atmospheric bar) was because it was with different people then i often find myself hanging out with. it was really nice to hang out with non-work people and not talk about work stuff (b/c that is what tends to happen when you're with work people). i can't swing those up-till-4-am nights like i used to (i don't know how the kids are doing it these days), but it was most definitely worth it.

so i found an old white head board in the trash and decided it would make a nice art project. so i spent a night last week painting it and had a blast. i'm no artist to say the last, but i enjoyed every stroke of the brush. :) i put it by my window b/c when i put it behind my bed, 3/4 of it was covered. (i just sleep on a mattress on the floor). so here is the finished project.

kimchi stuffing.

happy thanksgiving!!!! as the only american in a sea of koreans and canadians, i hosted the thanksgiving meal at my place last night and it was fabulous. here is what our menu looked like: mary and i both made chickens (we found turkey at costco but it was about 4 times the size of any of our little conventional ovens) and mary even made stuffing to keep the insides of our birds happy, and her and matt also provided the mashed potatoes and wine. i made a DELICIOUS pumpkin soup and broccoli, hannah and rocko brought sweet potatoe casserole and carrots, lucy (she's the korean teacher who helps us with all of our classes and is kind of like our korean mother figure) brought apple pie that we were all too full to eat anyway, and elly (our korean friend) was supposed to bring bread but she said she couldn't find any (couldn't find any bread? what?) so she brought two large pizzas. i don't think she really gets what we do at thanksgiving. but it was hillarious and thoughtful nonetheless. i totally made everyone go around and say what they were thankful for and there was much laughter and good cheer. to end the night, we headed across the street to nuribong--korean karaoke--and spent the remainding hours of thanksgiving day belting out christina aguilara's "beautiful" and kelly clarkson's "since you've been gone" and will smith's "gettin jiggy with it" (which i would not recommend nor ever do again--there's more words to that song other than "na na na na na na na gettin' jiggy with it." a lot more words in fact and lets face it i am a white girl who can't rap.) we met up with elly's mom and some of her friends who were there and i even got a lap dance from one of her mom's friends. not exactly what i would expect from a korean woman. i had never done nuribong yet and it was awesome. karaoke asian-style means you get your own private room that you pay for, complete with two microphones and tambourines. it was a memorable thanksgiving.

that didn't take long.

I'VE GRADUATED!!! I'VE GRADUATED!!!

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baby it's cold oustide.

so i've now officially been in korea for 3 seasons. summer, fall, and as of yesterday, winter. as i speak, the first snowfall of the season is making it's way down my window, and i'd just be lying if i tried to hold back my excitment. THE FIRST SNOW!!! it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! hannah and mary and raquel and i were all sending each other texts and calling and saying "can you BELIEVE how big those snow flakes are!?!?!?" and they were all groaning and i was so excited i wanted to hug them through the phone. it makes me feel like a little girl again!

it also makes me realize that i think this is the last time in my life i will live alone. if it's up to me. at first it was sort of a novelty, a rite of passage, i felt sort of carrie bradshaw from sex and the city-ish. and now i find myself talking to my plants and sharing my excitment about the first snow in my blog rather than grabbing the hand of a roommate and skipping outside and opening my arms and sticking out my tounge to catch as many of the season's first snowflakes as possible while making a beautiful memory with another person that we can talk about years down the road. i guess i could do it alone. or run over and grab one of the other girls, but it's just not the same. it'll be nice to come home to someone again.

in honor of the first snowfall, i shall recite the song i've been teaching my korean rascals. (it's in 5/4 time which i love and it's supposed to just be a chant but i put music with it and it's sounds really jazzy and exciting now. so try to imagine that):

snowflakes, soft snowflakes, gently are falling, magically making everything white.
snowflakes, soft snowflakes, gently are falling, magically making everything white.

i found this site that rates your blog from one of larry's posts. here is what i got:

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larry got a genuis reading level. some of his other readers got high school or college. and i get junior high. maybe it's b/c of all of my mispellings. i just can't stop chuckling every time i think about it. i wonder if there's anything lower than junior high or if i got the bottom of the barrel. like is there a 3rd-6th grade level? or a kindergarten reading level? toddler? infant? i hated junior high. i'll never forget the day i had to come in early to scrap gum from the bottom of desks b/c i had been caught chewing during class. (chewing gum of course.) and i found the notebook that my two best friends wrote notes to each other in throughout the day which turned out to be a "why carolyn is a loser" notebook. (their main reason was b/c i got more playing time on our sioux center christian 8th grade volleyball team than they did. totally legitimate.) i wonder what their rating system is based on.

i'm going to work on upping my rating to high school level.

friday

i'm not sure i've ever been so happy to see friday afternoon. i've got exactly 4 hours left of trying to teach new christmas songs like a dentist tries to pull stubborn teeth out of a screaming 4-year-old's mouth. it's been one of the longest weeks since i've been here i think. i woke up monday morning, looked in the mirror, and knew i was in for an excrutiating 5 days. monday afternoon, i thought...is it possible that it's actually friday and the world is just playing a mean trick on me?



but alas, friday has come. there's no better feeling then 6:31 on friday night, unlocking my bike, throwing my legs over the seat and pedaling as fast as i can, not looking back as the multi-colored tango pango sign gets smaller and smaller behind me. whooping and hollering all the way home in an effort to squeeze all the cheezy kids songs i've been singing 137 times a day for the past week, tearing up the stairs to my second floor apartment, throwing open the door, tossing on sweatpants and fleece as fast as i possibly can, ripping the bobby pins out of my hair, off with the rings and earing and necklaces, and then the beautiful feeling of settling into the couch for a weekend of no makeup, no singing, no yelling at snotty kids to stop using their drumsticks as a weapon, no controlling directors and looking ahead to a weekend of good movies, long walks through the park, mary's grey's anatomy dvds she got in china, and lots of the delicious pumpkin soup i made over lunch hour. mmmmmm, the thought delicious pumpkin soup sitting in my belly just might be enough to get me through the next 4--no wait--now 3 3/4 hours of this wretched week.

i'm not so sure what made the week so bad. it felt like getting through each day was like swimming through mud. i was so tired and unenthusiastic and to top things off, our director told me today, after 3 months of not saying anything, that i had to take out my eyebrow ring. i almost cried. it was like he was asking me to stop wearing colors. or asking me to start being boring. or asking me to change my name from carolyn to blah-olyn. but i will fight this! you can't take away my interestingness so easily!

dogs, indian food, marathons. what could go wrong?

it's been another eventful weekend. mary and matt went to china this weekend, and i was nominated dog-sitter for their 4 month old apricot poodle, wicket. (who i have been calling wicked for the past 3 months...whoops.) we had a really bonding 3 days together. we laughed, we cried, we (he) broke my favorite little statue that i took from home, we (i) gave him the death glare of my life and yelled uncontrollably for about 3 seconds before just leaving the apartment for a few minutes, we (he) is not as potty trained as mary told me he was, we (i) never want to look at another doggy pee pad again in my life, but after all of the ups and downs, we spent a really nice afternoon today laying in our courtyard cuddling to keep warm, making friends with other korean dogs and their korean owners, and despite the frustrations, it makes me want a dog to call my own. someday.

saturday hannah, raquel, and i went to insadong, which is a big artsy market, and then met bruce and lydia (some friends from the other side of seoul) for indian. yum. bruce and lydia came up to ilsan to spend the night, and then this morning, we all did the ilsan lake marathon together!!! well, that is what they called it. it was actually a 10k and a 5k, but the shirts say marathon, so if, at some point, i'm wearing the shirt and someone says something like, "wow, a marathon. that's so awesome. i've always admired people who can do stuff like that. you are my hero...", i may not correct them. hannah, lydia, and i did the 10k. and raquel and elly (elly is our korean friend that works at tango pango) did the 5k. here's some photos from the weekend:

at the insadong market, some koreans making some korean food. it's sort of a nut/seaweed/honey/rice krispie barish sort of thing. we think it's sketchy. well, actually, i didn't think it was sketchy until after a korean dude sampled one to me and as i put it in my mouth i heard gasps of horror and moans of disgust. i didn't know i was supposed to be weary of things like that, but apparently i am.


on the street by the market.








raquel, hannah, and i.











mmmmmm...... earl grey tea......mmmmmm....







doing some pre-"marathon" stretching.







check out our awesome race shirts. (they were all too smal. go figure. stupid tiny little asians.) from wunjuk (left) to oranjuk (right): elly, rocko, me, hannah, lydia. (lydia is dutch too! as if the height and blonde hair doesn't give it away...)





my first place medal! just kidding, everyone gets a medal. but again, if i'm every wearing it around, just, you know, as an accessory, and someone says to me "wow, a first place marathon medal! i can't believe you got first place in a marathon! beat everyone! wowzers! if only i could be more like you...", i may not correct them.

i am the potter...

this weekend, a group of us traveled outside of the city to a little korean village placed in the mountains to the korean version of pottery barn. it was a tiny little family-run pottery making place, where, for 15,ooo won (about 15 US dollars) you can spend a day learning the ins and outs of this beautiful art. we got a little time on the wheel, then spent the next couple of hours in a dingy room re-living the days of 6th grade art class. they brought out the long coils of clay and away we went. actually, not we, they. i opted instead to paint the bowl i had made on the wheel (well, actually a replica of the bowl that had already but put through the kiln.) i remember the horrible feeling of trying to do coil pots in the 6th grade and watching it turn into a misshapen lumpy looking blob that resembled the cookies i used to make out of mud that me and my sisters let "bake" in the sun on the ledge of the tree house when i was 5...) and i didn't really want to re-visit those feelings of disspointment and insecurity. so i painted and it was super fun! they will put them through the kiln and will glaze them for us and send them in the mail in a few weeks. what an exciting day that will be! "special delivery! one beautiful piece of art for a ms. carolyn sybesma. wow, you are some artist, mam." i
can't wait.

so anyway, this is me on the wheel being shown what to do by the korean instructor.





look at the bowl i made! look at my clay-ey hands! look at hannah in the background sneaking in on the picture! look how many sentances i can write with exclamation points!





it was a really beautiful place we were in. this was some of the scenery surrounding us as the sun was setting. i love korea.

a tango pango holloween.

our holloween extravaganza at tango pango. a WILD and crazy day. spent the whole morning decorating, hanging spider webs, covering windows with black paper, covering the lights with aluminum foil, taping pumpking all over the wall. and then the kids came in the afternoon for face painting, learning about holloween (they don't really celebrate it here), showing off their costumes, and trick-or-treating. this picture is of me and chung whan (aka power ranger pink--that's his english name he makes us call him.)


one of my favorite students yae chan.







the kids sitting and learning about holloween.







on the left, one of our naughtiest kids--min gyu. (but he's one of my favorites...i've always like the naughty boys the best...)











watching the crazy teachers do a crazy skit to the book "the old lady who wasn't afraid of anything." (i did sound effects on the piano.)










we had mummy wrap races where we each picked a kid and raced to see who could wrap their entire roll of toilet paper around them quickest. i definetely lost. turns out it's a lot harder than it looks. next year i'm practicing before hand...




the tang pango teachers! me as a cat. hannah in the back as a pirate. raquel in front as sporty. and mary on the right as an old lady.





...don't forget to check out my pics from last weekend on the post below here...

a korean holloween.

on the left--reuben zydhoff as shrek.

here's some pics from our the holloween party last weekend hosted by raquel and hannah (two of my fellow teachers) in their apartment just across the street from me. in this picture is all of the teachers at tango pango. i am on the far left in my facebook costume. hannah is in front as twister. above her is raquel who went as the DMZ (demilitarized zone--between north and south korea. is only hillarious if you live here...) next is mary who went as a dominatrix. and then on the far right is lucy--our korean teacher-- who went as a butterfly. whoop whoop for the tango pango gang!

myself and elly--one of our favorite people from work. she does the graphic design stuff, but she helps us with EVERYTHING--making phone calls, setting up appointments, coming with us to massages to translate (which she did for me last night...best massage i've ever had by the way!!!) and so so so much more. she went as an angel. and she is one.



me and some of my korean friends.







shane (superman) and sarah jane (a bunch of grapes.)