Chincha?!

I think this week is a good time to teach you all my favorite word I've learned since I came to Korea: Chincha.

So, it's fair to say that the phrase "REALLY?!?" is overused these days...am I wrong? I mean, it feels awesome to yell it, but I feel like since there's an SNL segment devoted to it... it's officially super trendy and mayyyybe sucking away my ability to expand my vocabulary.

Thank heavens for Korean.

"Chincha" is a phrase used JUST as frequently as "really," and certainly just as casually. I hear my students mutter it all the time (ah, teach-ah, chincha!), and it's one of the few words I can actually pick out if I listen to a Korean conversation. But to me it's a new and different word, and I think maybe that is all I needed to give myself the go-ahead on overusing and abusing one small piece of an otherwise huge and unknown language. :)

Anyway, the reason for clueing you all in to this word is this picture, taken from the window of my school on MARCH TENTH for goodness sake:

Can you see those huge flakes? Can you see the semi-substantial accumulation? CHINCHA, KOREA?!??! I was just getting ready for Spring! I was almost ready to retire my scarves (and that is SAYING something!) This week was a crazy week at work (holy drama), did you need to throw this one in the mix?!?!?! CHINCHA?!?!

In other news, the week wrapped up a lot better than I ever expected... despite our staff of 6 people going down to 4 in a matter of 2 days... turns out when one of the foreign teachers pulls a "runner" (leaves without notice to the school so that the school can't try and make them reimburse recruiting costs-- our bosses can be pretty obnoxious), they shape up and start treating the other foreign teachers to tourist tips, giving offers to take us places, and extra thank you notes on my lesson plans instead of just the usual signature.  :)

ALSO! Happy birthday in 2 days to Jess Hostetler, who loves birthdays more than anyone I know. :)

Rainy Days

So, now that the first post is out of the way... here's a fun story:)

Winter isn't a whole ton of fun if you're not skiing or cozy inside on a couch. The in-between season where it's just rainy and cold isn't a whole lot better... but there are definitely ways to make it awesome, especially if you've got some great friends. :) This past weekend Baeda came down to visit Bess and I, and contrary to our usual weekend-of-epic-proportion, we kept it reeealllyyy low-key. TWO movies in the theater (it's cheap here!), card games in cafes, and delicious drawn-out brunches. Not to mention.....

       a pirate fort.

Someone please tell me when that will EVER get old.

Better Late than Never?

It feels like 2 months is a long time to go without starting this blog that I had thought about before I left... I guess it was one of those things that gets more and more intimidating to do the longer you leave it alone. HOWEVER! After a double-team skype conversation today with my dear friends Emily and Sveta... I'm just gonna take the plunge. 

Where to start? I've been in Gwangju for 2 months now... and I don't really feel like I've dug in around here yet. I've 'adjusted' to living all alone (after going from years of group houses and my family and wonderful people all the time, this is a big deal), learned a few Korean phrases, made a bunch of children cry, been amazed at the generosity of the people here, been frustrated and angered by ways of operating that seem inconsiderate and backward, traveled to the 2 major cities of Korea (Seoul, Busan), spent quality time with old friends on the other side of the world, successfully navigated one of the world's largest subway systems (DC... you're like the country mouse of world subway systems), become extremely creative with cooking in the tiniest kitchen I (hopefully) will ever have, and clearly mastered the art of run-on sentences. :)

Let's just say for now that in a lot of ways Korea has been a battle of deciding who I want to be, and then acting on it. Do I want to just ride this year out, and try and avoid the discomfort that comes from getting out of this tiny square room I live in, or do I want to get messy and awkward and completely dominate the game of "guess what I'm trying to say to you without using any of the same languages"? That was a trick question. OBVIOUSLY I love playing the guessing game, and OBVIOUSLY I am really bad at being content sitting at home. Do I want to brush over tricky grammatical nuances and give these kids the gist of English or really delve into it with them in a school system that doesn't leave a lot of room for individuality in teaching style? (hint: that one's a lot trickier-- ENGLISH IS HARD and these Koreans are strict with their teaching schedules!) Do I want to suck it up and keep trying to enjoy kimchi or do I want to just stick to feeling slightly hungry after lunches at school? Ya... I'm thinking as of now that I'm not really ever gonna like kimchi. :)

A lot of these questions that I run into daily are really rather indicative of a lifestyle... and it's been challenging and interesting to realize that sometimes believing something is right doesn't make it that much easier to do. A basic life lesson, but one that still confronts everyone I think. Anyway, one of my goals this year is to really try harder to be deliberate in the way I treat people, do my job, and spend my time.

So, we'll see if this blog thing works out for me. :) As a parting gift, please be entertained by the travesties of name-spelling I encountered this week when I met some new students.....
Reachel
Cevan
Sarh (REALLY?!)
Ashly