Korea

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #16: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Growing up, my family weren’t huge baseball fans. None of my siblings played baseball or softball (or even tee-ball as kids) and we didn’t live in an area with a Major League team. My grandfather was something of an Atlanta Braves fan, but apart from catching pieces of those games on television when I was at my grandparents’ house, I had no experience with baseball.

Jonathan, however, grew up with a sports-loving father and played baseball from a young age. He has many childhood memories of playing or watching baseball. He took me to my very first baseball game on our first wedding anniversary. We were in New York City so naturally we had to go to a Yankees game. It was an incredibly low scoring game, so I wasn’t overly impressed with the sport, but I enjoyed the atmosphere.

A few years later when we lived in North Carolina, there was a minor league team in Durham (the Durham Bulls) who actually had a really nice stadium not far from where we lived, so we went to a few games there as well as at least one Charlotte Knights game with friends who live in Charlotte. I could take or leave baseball, but I enjoy it as a social event.

Baseball is all the rage in Korea. In fact, our city has its own team (currently ranked #1) and stadium. So last Saturday evening we ventured out to Daegu Stadium to watch the Samsung Lions play. Fun Fact – Instead of teams being named after the city they play for like the Atlanta Braves or the Cincinnati Reds, in Korea the teams are named after their corporate sponsors. So Daegu’s team is called the Samsung Lions and they played against was called the KT Whiz.

Unlike at American sporting events, people are expected, even encouraged to get food outside of the stadium and bring it in with them and the food/drink of choice for baseball games is fried chicken and beer. Food carts line the street outside of the stadium where people sell fried chicken, squid on sticks, tteokbokki, and kimbap.

Another fun fact about baseball in Korea is that there are cheerleaders who dance around in front of the big cheering section. Maybe this exists in other places as well, but in the US, cheerleaders are typically only present at football and basketball games and it would be strange to see them at a baseball or soccer game.

There was a rowdy cheering section of the stands complete with Korean drums and lots of organized cheers, but they were on the opposite side of the stadium from our seats, so we were able to enjoy them from a distance. The stadium isn’t all that large though – in fact, it’s similar in size to the minor league stadiums I went to in North Carolina.

The Samsung Lions won 3 to 1. I think. I was obviously deeply invested or whatever. (Actually, it’s not my fault because there was a family sitting in front of us who clearly live on the American military base and they kept pulling out insane snacks I haven’t seen in years. So I was obviously distracted). Go team! Score some goal point units!

Injury. Ambulance Minivan to the rescue!

If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 15: That’s So Korean and Igidae Coastal Walkway

Last week I mentioned that we’d intended to take a day trip to Busan and had to postpone because of the rain. This past Saturday we cashed in our rain check and headed down to the coast for the day.

Busan is the second largest city in Korea (after Seoul) and is situated on the southern coast. It is also our favorite city in Korea. We like it because, with the water, the beaches, and an actual skyline, it has a more unique look and feel than any other city we’ve been to in Korea. We also love breathing in some of that fresh sea air. We can reach Busan in 45 minutes on the KTX (high-speed train) or 1 1/2 hours on the slow train.

We weren’t in a hurry so we took the slower train in the early afternoon and made our way straight out to the coast. We decided to check out a large park called Igidae which is located on a small peninsula with a seaside path along the rocky cliff edges. From the path we were able to look back and get a great view of Gwangan Bridge and Gwangali beach, one of my favorite bits of the city.

While we didn’t do extensive research we did learn a little bit about the name Igidae and its historical significance. Like nearly every historical monument or emblem in Korea, the story behind this park has to do with a Japanese invasion.

When the Japanese invaded Joseon in the late 16th century,

they conquered Suyeongseong Fortress and held a feast

to celebrate their victory at a high, open spot that

commanded pleasant scenery. Two Korean gisaeng

(female professional entertainers) were taken to the feast.

They seized a drunken Japanese commander

and jumped into the sea

as a reprisal against the Japanese invasion of their homeland.

Thus, the name Igidae, which means two gisaeng, was given to this place.

In Jonathan’s words, “So this, like all important pieces of Korean history, is a memorial to them giving Japan the middle finger.”

The path itself was very gentle and easy to walk with the exception of the suspension bridges which naturally terrify me. It just occurred to me that maybe my real fear is cables since both cable cars and suspension bridges produce this reaction in me.

It’s actually more of the dangling that I hate so much.

There were many people out on the rocks picnicking, fishing, or just relaxing.

Quintessential Korean ajummas having a picnic on hard rocks while being covered head to toe lest the sun touch any speck of their skin.

Look at that stud!

At one point we passed what looked like a bunker built into the cliff. There was a sign explaining that these were barracks for the female divers who dove and collected sea creatures here. Then we saw these women selling said sea creatures for a fresh and tasty snack. I’m pretty sure most of these things were still alive.

We discovered a cave along the way complete with the obligatory rock piles. A naughty part of me always wants to knock those over.

We also grabbed a few pictures of other funny little Korean-isms. As we wind down our time here we’ve been putting more effort into gathering some of those things that make us laugh and say, “That’s so Korean.” For example:

English translations: “Here it is a copper mine!” The moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally come!

Two things about this – first, this man is just chilling doing standing pushups here on this railing. Second, this sign which has the distance to major international locations – Los Angeles, Beijing, etc. And then, also, Dokdo. Dokdo is a tiny island between Korea and Japan that both countries claim, but that Korea passionately insists belongs to them. “Dokdo is Korean Territory” is stamped on everything – random signs, notebooks from the stationary store, office supplies, Kleenex boxes, everywhere. I’ve heard there’s a channel that runs a continuous real-time feed of Dokdo. Dokdo is barely big enough to be called an island. It is literally two rocks in the middle of the sea. So, you know, right up there with Beijing and L.A.

On our way back for dinner we passed one of the outdoor gyms and I saw people using some of those giant hula hoops I’d seen on my hike last weekend. Blurry picture, but I was pretty excited.

We always enjoy our trips to Busan and this one was no exception. We hope to make it back a few more times before our Korean adventures are over.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #14: Unplanned Loveliness

Last weekend we were planning to go to Busan for the day on Saturday. Busan is the second largest city in Korea and it’s only 45 minutes away by high-speed train or 1.5 hours on the slow train. As Saturday approached, we looked at the forecast and realized that it was going to rain heavily starting Saturday afternoon. The appeal of Busan is that it’s on the coast with nice beaches and rocky coastlines, so being outside is essential to enjoying Busan. We knew that by the time we made it down there we’d only have a short time before the rain hit, so we decided to postpone until a nicer weekend.

Annoyingly, when we woke up on Saturday morning, it was stunningly beautiful outside. (This was only annoying because we’d cancelled our plans for bad weathe). It was cool and crisp and the sky was totally clear and blue. I decided to go for a run late Saturday morning to soak in the sun while it was still there.

I went to my usual weekend running spot – some biking/running/walking tracks along the river on the west side of Daegu. It takes about 40 minutes to get there from my apartment, which is why I only go on the weekends, but I really like this area.

View from my normal running track.

When I got to the river I decided to cross the bridge and run on the opposite side of the river from where I usually run. When I got halfway across the bridge, I glanced back the way I had come and noticed that there were steps cut into the hill (mountain?) behind me. I only thought about it for a split second, then turned around and got off the bridge to explore.

Hill/mountain I saw a path on from the bridge.

The beginning of the trail.

I started climbing and pretty quickly found myself up above my usual running path looking down on the river and the bridge below. (Sorry about the crappy photos, by the way. I wasn’t planning on hiking so I only had my phone with me and the camera on my phone just isn’t great).

The bridge I was on when I spotted the path.

You can see the track down below where I was planning on running before I got distracted.

Once I made it up above the river, I realized that the path kept going. In fact, there were numbered posts ever 100 meters or so along the trail. The post at the head of the trail was #34 (I think) and when I reached the first “peak” it was still in the 20’s so I knew there was still a lot of trail ahead. I didn’t know where the trail would lead, but I figured it would eventually take me back down and I could figure it out where I was from there. I pressed on.

I met this animal which I think was a kind of squirrel, but it had some strange rabbit-like characteristics, too, so I have decided to call it a squabbit.

About halfway through the trail, I came upon one of the ubiquitous Korean outdoor gyms. These things are everywhere. A funny thing about Koreans is that they are really interested in exercise and physical activity – hence all the hiking and gyms – but they are not interested in working out all that hard. I have almost never seen someone working up a sweat or doing anything strenuous. They will just use the equipment with no weight on it to casually do arm or leg exercises, but mostly they are just stretching and getting the blood pumping, often in very funny ways. It’s not unusual for me to walk through the park and see a man in his sixties hanging upside down from his knees on the exercise equipment to stretch his back. I encountered two more sets of gym equipment further on my hike.

The first gym I stumbled on.

I also found several of these hanging on trees near gym equipment. I can only guess it is some sort of giant hula hoop. I would have loved to see someone use it.

It’s still early spring here, so there weren’t tons of flowers or trees blooming, but I did stumble on a few bits of unexpected beauty.

The cherry blossoms are out in full force. As you can see, the sky was already starting to cloud up by this point.

After about an hour of uphills and downhills and back uphill again, I came to the highest part of this mountain and took in the view.

The trail continued on going back down, so instead of turning around I continued to follow it. Along the descent I passed several stone piles like this one, which are typically seen on the path up to temples that are built high on mountains. I’m not sure why they were here in this case, but the idea is that people add to the stack as they pass by.

About half an hour later I made it back down to the bottom, though in a different place than where I’d started. And, lest we forget that I am in Korea, here is a picture of what the bottom of the trail looked like, haha.

This week’s adventure was about what my friend Meredith calls “unplanned loveliness.” It was about being willing to get lost – to wander with no agenda – to take the time to see the world around me instead of always being on a schedule. This adventure was about what can happen when you just say “yes” to what’s in front of you instead of thinking of all the reasons to say “no.” There is beauty all around us. All we have to do is take the time to notice it.

PS – Happy Easter, everyone!

If you have an adventure to share, add your link to the link-up by clicking the button below. You can also click this button to read other bloggers’ adventures. You can participate in all of the adventures or you can just do a few – no pressure. If you missed last week’s adventure you can find it here. And if you are new to my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure project you can find out more about it here.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 13: Fun Times With CoT

This week’s adventure is an ongoing adventure that started at the beginning of March, but this past week has been full of particularly good moments. For those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, you are probably familiar with my infamous Co-Teacher who I refer to simply as “CoT.” Many people have suggested that I start a Twitter or Tumblr or Instagram that is just for #stuffmycotsays. I’m open to the idea.

For those of you who wonder how I teach English to Korean elementary school students without speaking Korean, the answer is 1) lots of gesturing and using very simple words and 2) coteachers. In every class I teach I have a Korean coteacher. The coteacher’s role varies from class to class and person to person – in my 20 months of teaching in Korea I have had ten separate coteachers. Some have split teaching time with me, some have refused to let me do anything, some have refused to come to class and had me do everything, and some have more or less been in the room for classroom management purposes only. They have had different levels of English proficiency, different levels of interest in teaching English, and different levels of friendliness towards me.

Having experienced a wide variety of coteachers I feel qualified to say that current CoT is one of the weirdest people I’ve ever met, and it isn’t just because of language barriers or cultural differences or anything like that. I have been working with CoT since I started teaching in Korea, so we’ve known each other for 1 1/2 years. In the past, she was a homeroom teacher and I only taught 1 or 2 classes a week with her to her own homeroom class. This school year (which started in March) she became the head English teacher and I now teach all of the 3rd and 6th grade English classes with her. She also shares my office space with me and we sit next to each other any time that we aren’t teaching.

Some specifics about her: She is in her early 40’s and has been teaching for about 15 years. She begged for the English teacher position because she claims to very passionate about English education. Although some of our weird interactions could be attributed to the language barrier, I have worked with many Koreans with both higher and lower English levels than hers (hers is on the higher end, honestly) and have never had these kinds of interactions.

Now that you know where this is coming from, allow me to share some of my most favorite bits of conversation from the past few weeks:

I think CoT is actually a toddler:

I feel like if I look away for even one second she will destroy something. This morning I tried to show her how to use the Smart TV. As it was trying to warm up she pushed all of the buttons and promptly broke it. Then, I turn my back for on second while I was trying to figure out what she’d done and she takes the special pens that are designed to write electronically on the smart TV and tries to use them as erasers on the white board. I said, “Oh! Don’t do that. Those are special pens for the TV.” Then she picks up a dry erase marker and writes on the TV screen and uses the special pen to try and erase that. It’s 9 am and I am already exhausted.

No Time to Prepare:

CoT: I have cancelled the first week of classes because I had no time to prepare.
Me: Ok. Cool.
CoT; (finds ping pong paddles in giant mound of crap she has just moved into our office) Let’s play ping-pong together!
Me: Now? I thought you needed time to prepare?
CoT: Ok, not now. How about 20 minutes?

After cancelling classes the entire first week of school so that she could prepare:

Me: What is your plan for class today? (It starts in 20 minutes)
CoT: I have no plan
Me: Ok, well…it’s the first class of the year so I thought we should introduce ourselves. I prepared a ppt. Do you want to introduce yourself and explain the class rules?
CoT: I have no class rules.
Me: Ok, well do you want to introduce yourself and then I’ll just do the rest.
CoT: Good idea.

CoT Gets Up in my Biz

CoT: Are you sick? You look sick today.
Me: No, I feel fine.
CoT: I think maybe you’re not feeling well?
Me: No, I’m fine. Maybe I’m a little tired. I’ve been tired this week.
CoT: Oh. Are you pregnant? (hopefully)
Me: No
CoT: Are you sure? (with knowing smile)
Me: Yes, I’m positive.
CoT; Hmmm…. (smiling to herself like she thinks I’m lying)
Are you taking Vitamin C powder?
Me: No, but I take it when I’m sick. Right now I take a multivitamin
CoT: Is it a capsule?
Me: Yes
CoT: Mmmm…capsule is not good for your body
Me: Ok

I’m not pregnant, woman. I just gained weight. Mind your own biz.

CoT Gets Up in my Biz pt. 2

CoT: Oh, Li-lee. Oh Li-Lee. I think you have a lot of clothes.
Me: Oh. Ok. (Maybe I do, but I have 8 – 10 combinations that I wear to school on a rotating basis. So I wear the same thing once a week to once every two weeks).
CoT: Every day, a new color. I do like all of your colors.
(90% of my work wardrobe is black, white, or gray)
Now every day when she comes in in the morning she looks at me and simply says, “Oh. White. White, white, white, white, white. You are wearing white.”

I Don’t Think That Means What You Think It Means

We discuss what we will do in class and I write it on the board.
1. Review 2. Dictation quiz 3. Textbook page 16, etc.
The first class arrives 5 minutes early.
CoT, with no preamble, runs to the front of the room and says. “Number One: What grade are you in?”
The children look like they have no idea what is happening. Some students aren’t even there because class has not officially started yet. I figure she changed her mind about the order of things.
As she dictates, I erase the first two things on the board and switched them so it said 1. Dictation quiz 2. Review
CoT: No no! Change it back. Review first and then dictation.
Me: But you are doing the dictation first. Like, you are in the middle of it right now.
CoT: No, just REVIEW first and then we will do dictation. (Big smile)
(Turns around to the class) Number Three – I’m in the sixth grade.

CoT Decides Depression is Not Serious

(Out of nowhere) CoT: How do you feel when you’re depressed?
Me: When I’m depressed I just feel sad and like I don’t want to do anything and like my life has no meaning or purpose.
CoT (huge grin): Oh, I am glad to hear that! That doesn’t sound very serious!

CoT Discovers Spring, Apparently for the First Time

I am trying to prepare for a class that begins in 5 minutes and which CoT has prepared nothing for.

CoT: Lily (in sing-songy voice where my name suddenly has four syllables), please come look out the window. Me: At what?
CoT: The flowers are blooming. Please come look at them.
They weren’t blooming. The trees barely have buds on them.
Me (nicely): Well, they are almost blooming. That will be pretty (I try to go back to prepping for class)
CoT (whiniest voice ever): Oh, Why won’t you look out the window? They ARE blooming. They ARE blooming. And repeated that like 6 times.

The Wonders of Spring, Continued

Arriving back after teaching with a different teacher all morning. CoT seems to have been waiting for me.
CoT: Oh, you are here! (Immediately goes to the window, opens it and looks out) Oh look, The flowers are blooming. They ARE blooming. Look at them bloom. I can count the blooms. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. There are many flowers. Do you see them. Wow. Oh Wow. They are moving me. Do they touch you?

Do they move you? Are you touched?

I Am a Poet and I Don’t Know It

CoT: Wow! We had a fresh spring rain yesterday. So nice. So fresh. So many flowers.
Me: The rain was heavy last night. I don’t know why the flowers didn’t break off and fall to the ground.
CoT: Wow. Your words. They are so poetic. What you said just now. So poetic.

Hours later.

CoT: Say again what you said earlier. I want to write it down.
Me: (I don’t even remember what i said) Umm…I don’t know why the flowers didn’t break off and fall to the ground?
CoT: (Repeats this over and over then says) Wow, you are a poet. I am with another poet.

Be Poetic! Do It Now!

CoT: Oh, Lily, please say something beautiful. Like before. What you said. Like poetry.
Me: Well, I’m not really sure what would be beautiful to you. The things I said before were just normal things to say.
CoT: Say something. A sensitive, emotional thing. Like yesterday, you said there was a bee and a butterfly in the classroom and you said it was “like a zoo.” The “like a zoo” part. That was so impressive. I have never experienced this before.

A few hours later…

CoT: The flowers are pink. Light pink.
Me: Yep, baby pink.
CoT: (Chuckles delightedly.) Oh yes! Baby pink! It is so cute. Today’s word is baby pink! Baby pink with Lily!

Then she sat at her desk and repeated “Baby pink” 30 – 40 times.

CoT Gives Me Prompts

I begin to suspect that CoT is feeding me prompts in the hopes that I will say something poetic.

CoT: What do you think of human beings?
Me: ?????

CoT: Remember the time your friend came to visit almost two years ago?
Me: Yes, I remember.
CoT: Can you tell me about that?

There are more stories, but they involve more strange personal details about my CoT’s life that I’m not going to share publicly. From this sampling, I think you can see how every day is an adventure with CoT.

I started sharing some of my conversations with CoT as a way to help myself laugh at what can sometimes be annoying and difficult to deal with all day long. Many of our interactions are the kind of things that can be frustrating or difficult in the moment, but become very funny in the retelling. And seeing these interactions in a humorous way has really helped me let go of some of the frustrations I feel towards her and to honestly see her with a lot more compassion than I did before. Never knowing what to expect from her had been bringing me a lot of stress – I had come to dread being at work and was beginning to get snappy and short with her in our interactions and had gotten to the point where I really dreaded going to school. Like so many other aspects of life in a foreign culture, learning to look at things with humor and let the weirdness be funny instead of frustrating has been so helpful for my peace and sanity.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #12: Hiking Apsan

For those of you who don’t know, Korea is a very mountainous country. The city I live in, Daegu, is located in a geographic bowl surrounded by mountains on all sides which means any direction you look, you can see mountains in the distance (Well, theoretically. Often it’s too hazy from the air pollution to see them clearly).

Hiking might just be the most beloved of all Korean past-times. After drinking. And noraebang (Korean karaoke). Koreans hike in style. If you are a Korean and are over 45, chances are that 75% of your wardrobe is professional-looking hiking attire. It is both a fashion and lifestyle statement.

Koreans are also super into stopping to work out at these random outdoor gyms that are in public places everywhere you look. Check out their hiking attire.

Koreans are also super into stopping to work out at these random outdoor gyms that are in public places everywhere you look. You can see an example of standard hiking attire on this gentleman here.

Jonathan and I both enjoy hiking and we’ve been waiting for weeks for the weather to warm up enough to make it pleasant. On Saturday morning we took off for our first hike of 2015. We decided to hike Apsan, one of the tallest mountains in the area which is located directly south of the city. We’ve hiked Apsan twice (3 times?) before, but it’s one of the easiest mountains for us to get to since we can catch a bus right outside our apartment that will take us all the way there.

Sadly, it’s not looking all that springy yet.

The very first time we hiked Apsan we’d only been in Korea for a few months and were completely winging it on the directions. We came out at a nice peak, but not the one with the observation deck and the cable car. Each time we’ve climbed Apsan since then we’ve tried to take a different path so that we could arrive at the peak with the observation deck, but each time, the path we choose converges with the main path at some point and takes us to the same place we’ve been before.

We stopped at this little temple along the path on our way up. This basically looks exactly like every other temple in Korea, of which there are hundreds and hundreds.

Cool dragon painting on the ceiling of the temple gate. My next tattoo? J/k.

I wish I could say that we victoriously found an alternate path this time, but after hiking excitedly for 20 minutes on a path that looked brand new, this path also converged with the one we’ve always taken. This time when we got to the top we decided to hike across the ridges and over to the observation deck. It took 20 – 25 minutes to hike over to the cable car and lookout point from the peak, but we eventually found it and were treated to a broader view of the city.

Me, striking a traditional Korean pose. (That’s not sarcastic. This is the standard pose for pictures in Korea.)

View from the observatory.

Jonathan giving me, “Smolder.”

Since we’d spent the additional time hiking across the ridge and I had a hair appointment to get back for that afternoon, we rode the cable car back down to the base. I am actually terrified of cable cars. I hate them with a passion. Nevertheless I have been in more cable cars in the last two years in Korea than anywhere else in my life. Go figure.

Hate cable cars so much.

This was the view from the cable car. Apparently.

The air quality has been particularly poor lately since this is “yellow dust” season – the time of year when tons of pollution from China gets blown over into Korea’s air. I think this year has been worse than last year and I’ve definitely noticed my throat, chest, and eyes being really irritated lately. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom which is always a brief, but beautiful time in Korea and we are looking forward to being outside more, so hopefully the yellow dust won’t stay for long.

Last year we did so many of the big things – we traveled to most areas of Korea and attended quite a few festivals and things like that. This year we’ve been a bit more focused on saving money, but we do still want to be sure to do the things we haven’t gotten around to yet. In May we have two short trips planned to Tokyo and Taiwan, so we’ve also been keeping things a bit chilled out over the past few months to save for those trips, but we are trying to assemble our Korea bucket list now that we only have 5 months left here. It feels like both a long and a short time and I really hope we can make the most of it.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 10: Putting a Ring on It

Living abroad can be exciting, but there are some really difficult things about it as well. One of the hardest things is missing out on important events in the lives of the people I love. Our first fall in Korea one of my roommates from college got married. On her wedding day I cried for hours because it felt so wrong not to be there. This week’s adventure is a story of me trying to be involved in the big moments from the other side of the world.

Last summer when I went home to the US for vacation, my best friend, Christina, flew out to my in-laws house to spend the weekend with me. At the time, she had just begun a serious relationship with a guy I’d never met – Andy. In the way of best friends, I knew almost immediately that this was it. He was “the one.” So I dragged her to every jewelry store in the mall and made her try on engagement rings. They’d only been dating for a few months at the time and I never would have done that under ordinary circumstances, but I was about to leave for another year and a lot can happen in a year. I wasn’t about to miss this.

Me and my Christina. Can’t fight a love like ours.

See what I mean? You can totes tell they want to be together forever.

Christina and Andy. Not quite as much love as Christina and me, but you can totes tell they want to be together forever.

It might have been pushy at the time, but I felt pretty validated when Andy started asking me about rings in December. If I’d been there I would have just taken him ring shopping, pointed out what she liked and didn’t like, and graciously tried on as many rings as necessary for him to get a visual. But I was in Korea, so I did the next best thing. I made him a thorough, 20-slide powerpoint complete with quiz questions and prizes that plays Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” throughout the presentation. (Remember, Andy has still never met me in person and so undoubtedly thinks I am a complete freak. Worth it).

This is the final slide of the powerpoint I made for Andy. For the record, Christina was not being picky and demanding about the ring. She would have been delighted by anything he picked out. I was the one being picky and demanding.

So I “helped” Andy shop for a few months. There was much conferring. There was much secrecy. Then, a few weeks ago I was skyping with Christina and she said, “I think he’s going to propose soon.” At THAT EXACT MOMENT I got a message from Andy.

“Are you still skyping with C? I have an excellent update.”

“Ring has been purchased. I’m picking it up in an hour.”

I stayed stone-faced like a baller. I deserve an award for this. I have a VERY expressive face.

Last weekend Andy and Christina got engaged. (Hurray!) I knew it would be happening while I was sleeping Saturday night which made me so excited I hardly slept at all.

If I had been there I would have met Christina at the door with champagne and a Brides magazine and I would have taken her to get a manicure the next day. Since I am in dumb Korea (just because everywhere that is not where my friends and family are is dumb at times like this) I had to improvise. Another awesome friend of mine who lives near Christina agreed to act as my agent and got the champagne and the bridal magazine and other goodies and brought them to her apartment while she was out getting engaged. The whole operation was a big success.

Didn’t we…er he…do a great job? Look at that bling!

Now to tackle my next trial – obnoxiously inserting myself into every part of the wedding planning that happens in the six months before I get back home. Challenge accepted.

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #9: Illegal Activities

I mentioned last week that I had another big adventure to share from our time in Seoul, but I wanted to make it it’s own post instead of lumping it in with the last one.

Last weekend in Seoul, I did something illegal. I got my first tattoo.

This was taken a few hours after I got it.

Tattoos are technically illegal in Korea. Only licensed doctors are permitted to administer tattoos to “patients.” And I seriously doubt this guy was a licensed doctor. So my tattoo is definitely illegal.

I think this might be the first time I’ve broken the law knowingly. Thankfully, it’s the kind of thing that law enforcement seems to turn a blind eye towards most of the time. I’ve seen numerous tattoo shops in with visible signs in Daegu and the place I went in Seoul had a big sign outside and has a nice website. Every once in a while the police will decide to enforce this law (like they did at the international Inkbomb Tattoo Convention in Seoul last summer), but for the most part it’s a crime the way jaywalking is in the US.

Korean culture is still very conservative in many ways and for a long time tattoos were associated with gang membership. Nowadays this is changing a little bit, but it’s still fairly uncommon to see a Korean person with a tattoo and the law still stands.

So basically, my tattoo makes me feel like a bad-butt* on many levels.

[*I may be tatted up, but that’s no excuse to talk like a sailor! 😉 ]

The Story

I like (tasteful) tattoos. I’ve always liked them, even when I was in my self-righteous judgey phase, it was just a secret then. I’ve never gotten one before because I’d never thought of a design I was confident about having on my body forever. I felt that a tattoo should be meaningful, not just something I thought looked cool. (Not that there’s anything wrong with having a tattoo for the sake of the art, I just wanted mine to have a specific meaning).

There have been several times over the past few years that I’ve looked at pictures of other people’s tattoos and thought about what it would be like to get one and invariably I would dream that night that I’d gotten one and was freaking out because I regretted it. This subconscious reaction made me think I might never actually feel comfortable about getting one. At the very least, I knew if I ever did it wouldn’t be a spur-of-the-moment decision – it would have to be something I had no doubts about.

A few months ago I started working on a book. It’s a spiritual memoir that is centered on the work of grace in my life. As I started writing and dwelling on grace , I realized that grace is the thing that has marked me most profoundly. And it was suddenly clear to me that I wanted grace to mark my body the way it has marked my life.

For a few weeks after I first had the idea I used a marker to write the word on my wrist to see how I felt about seeing it there before I did something permanent. From the first moment that I did it, it felt natural. It reminded me constantly of God’s work in my life. I looked at it and I thought, “Of course. This belongs here.”

I didn’t have any plans to do it quickly, but I asked a friend who had gotten a tattoo in Korea where she’d had hers done and she told me the name of the shop in Seoul. We were already scheduled to go to Seoul a few days later. I asked Jonathan what he thought and he said, “If you’re ready, go for it.” So I did.

From the moment I walked into the shop I felt completely at peace. I haven’t had a moment of doubt or wondered at all if it was the right decision.

The Process

Before this I didn’t really know very much about the process of getting a tattoo, so I thought I’d share that as well in case you’re curious.

When we arrived a very old man greeted us. I think he is the shop owner, but at first I was like, “Um….is this old guy really the tattoo artist?” (He wasn’t).

My dear friend Asharae Kroll is a super-talented photographer, food blogger, and hand-letter artist and she custom-designed the lettering for me. Not only is it super beautiful, but it’s also even more meaningful to me to have a one-of-a-kind tattoo designed by my friend.

There was a young girl who did all the prep work for the tattoo. I’d sent a file with the lettering Asharae created and she printed it out in different sizes and had me choose one. After this, the girl traced the lettering on the back side of the paper in some sort of ink that would transfer onto my skin. Then she cleaned my arm with tons of disinfectant and drew a box in the exact place I wanted the tattoo. She rubbed some kind of petroleum jelly-like gel onto my arm and then pressed the stencil she’d made in place. The first time I wasn’t completely happy with the positioning, so we started over and did it again.

After that I had to wait 10 or 15 minutes for the stencil to completely dry and that’s when the actual tattoo artist showed up – a man who was maybe in his early 30’s. I laid on a table with my arm out to the side and he showed me the brand new needle he was using and then went to town.

Did it hurt? Honestly, it hurt as much as I expected it to. It didn’t feel good, but it wasn’t extremely painful. It’s a sharp stinging feeling, most similar to the way laser hair removal or some other laser procedure feels. The good thing is that he was only tattooing each little section for 10-15 seconds at a time. So just when it would get to the point where it was getting hard to sit still, he would stop and wipe off that spot and move over a bit. Since it’s pretty small, the entire thing took about 20 minutes to ink. It hurt while he was doing it and stung for about an hour afterwards. It has not hurt at all since then although for the first few days it was tender if my clothes rubbed it or I bumped it. It never really turned red and it didn’t hurt at all if I wasn’t touching it. I had to keep it clean and put lotion on it several times a day, but otherwise it was hardy noticeable.

Now, a week later, it’s mostly healed and is smooth to the touch instead of raised like it was initially. It feels like it’s always been there – like it was meant to be part of me.

This is what it looks like today. It’s still peeling a little bit but mostly healed. Also, thanks to this picture I am now self-conscious about how hairy my forearms are.

Fifty -Two Weeks of Adventure #7: Jellyfish Salad and Stingray Sprouts

My week 7 adventure turned out a bit differently than I expected. We are at the end of the Korean school year which runs March to February with a 5 week summer break and a 5 week winter break. My 6th graders graduate today and then we’ll have a 10 day break for the Lunar New Year and what they call “Spring Vacation” before coming back to start a new school year March 2nd.

Last week we had our end of the year teacher’s dinner. I intended to write about this as my adventure because last year’s end-of-the-year dinner was so eventful. Last year the dinner was held at a big wedding hall (you can read about my experience with Korean weddings here) where there was a huge buffet in a ballroom-sized room with a bunch of smaller private rooms off on the sides. So my school had a private room and after the meal there were farewell speeches where they had a champagne toast to teachers who were leaving and did a weird ceremony where they cut what looked like a wedding cake together with this giant knife. Afterwards, they brought in a karaoke machine and we had obligatory norebang time. Norebang is the Korean style of karaoke and it is wildly popular here, especially for “professional development” kind of events. Last year I had to sing “Call Me Maybe” as a duet with the 50 year old music teacher, Mr. Kim, and was treated to my barely five-foot-tall vice principal singing something in Korean while jumping up and down the whole time. It was a riot.

Needless to say, I had high expectations for this year. I was a little let down. Instead of the wedding hall we went to a small hole-in-the-wall traditional Korean restaurant where we sat on the floor (always tough on the knees and tailbone, etc after a while). There was only a brief good-bye speech for the teachers who were leaving. Then we ate a traditional Korean meal together, after which we all left and went home. It was anti-climactic, but it was my only adventure planned for the week, so it will have to do.

The most adventurous part of it was probably some of the food itself. A traditional Korean meal is 30 or more small courses or side dishes called “banchan.” The servers bring out dish after dish and everyone shares them (like, you just reach over with your chopsticks and grab whatever your want. You don’t get your own plate). I tried to get a few pictures of this, but my phone camera is awful and it was difficult because the teachers didn’t want to be in the pictures.

See what I mean. Awful camera and no good way to get all the food without getting the teachers.

Photo by: Brett on Flikr https://www.flickr.com/photos/savagecorp/20619135/

Among the more exotic dishes were the jellyfish salad (which I actually kind of enjoy) and a dish with stingray and bean sprouts in a red pepper sauce. Stingray is very stringy and kind of sweet, just fyi. There were whole cooked fish, which were delicious, but didn’t look appetizing what with their eyeballs staring at you, along with the little dried anchovies that look like nothing but eyes. There was yukhwe, a raw beef dish, and japchae (glass noodles with beef) and of course, kimchi.

Jellyfish salad – photo by Amy Dunkley

Big fish and little fish. Sorry this picture is so blurry!

People often ask me if I like Korean food and I never really know how to answer. I’m not an especially picky eater, though I don’t like my meat to be super fatty and I only like the octopus tentacles and not the whole baby ones with the heads attached, so maybe that makes me picky. There are some Korean dishes that I really love – bulgogi and jjimdak and dumplings and galbi (bbq). And there are others that I really don’t care for – makjang (pig colon) and raw liver and chicken hearts. Overall I would describe my relationship to Korean food this way – I like a lot of things, but only in small amounts. I enjoy them, but I only want one or two bites of each thing, not a whole plateful. Which is why these big shared meals work out well for me. I can get away with one or two bites of everything without seeming rude. Unforunately, in spite of eating it a few hundred times at this point, I still really don’t like kimchi which means I could never be fully accepted into Korean society.

We are headed to Seoul tomorrow for the Lunar New Year (a huge holiday here in Korea) and I have some bigger adventures planned for this week, so stay tuned!

Lily Ellyn

Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

Korea

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #16: Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure # 15: That’s So Korean and Igidae Coastal Walkway

Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure #14: Unplanned Loveliness