Or, "why I can't go clubbing".
In the time that has passed since my last update, things have been pretty wonderful. I went to a great parkour/ break dance/ hip hop dance/ comedy show called "Fireman" with my host family. The show was amazing, anyone who has talked to me recently has had to suffer through me raving about it. (I apologize if this is you, BUT IT WAS SOOO COOL). That same day, my host family also took me to the wax museum. The verdict on this event is that while cool, wax museums are incredibly creepy and I do not need to go though that again. Then, we had really wonderful sweet waffles.
I spent the Korean Thanksgiving holiday hanging out with my volunteer friends. On Sunday, we went back to the same palace that we had already been to because there was free admission as well as the opportunity to put on hanbok and take a picture for free. This entire day's experience was wonderful because we got to see some traditional dancing, but took a turn for the odd when some random Korean man wanted to take a picture with us (a group of foreign girls) for no apparent reason. Then, on Monday we went out to go experience the Korean nightlife. Even though I am most certainly not a night owl, I had a lot of fun. All of the other volunteers except for one enjoy partaking in alcoholic beverages, so I got to taste a Long Island Iced Tea that tasted like cleaning solution. We made a valiant attempt to get into a club because I wanted to dance and some of the other volunteers were willing to dance after drinking  bit, but we did not make it inside because you must be 19 in Korea to do so. (By valiant attempt I mean that we got into an argument about whether or not we should try, saw the police asking a bouncer about ID- ing people, and turned around to walk a different direction.
I am incredibly thankful that I was able to Skype with one of my best friends and get a tour of her dorm room this morning, which also meant that I got to see some of my other friends from high school as well as catch up on the gossip. Then, I also got to Skype with my dad! Needless to say, even though we got back from clubbing at 1:00 am this morning and I was up at 6:00 am for the first Skype call, things are shaping up to be a pretty great day.
Love y'all!
Elena

I was recently reminded while on Skype with my parents that I should make a record of the things that are going on around me in Korea before I stop noticing them because they are the norm. So without further ado, here are a few things that I have noticed in Korea:
1) A meal without rice and/ or kimchi is not considered a meal. (We went to an Italian restaurant yesterday and someone ordered steak. The first thing that came out after the steak was rice to go with it, even though there were 4 bowls of spaghetti already on the table).
2) The ambulance sirens sound like seals.
3) Everyone in the business world goes for a walk after they eat lunch. You can look around and see entire corporate offices walking outside together in full suits. (If it is raining, people take their walks through the subway station or some other covered area).
4) You can go many weeks without seeing bread with a crust. (By this I mean that the only bread I have seen so far in Korea is white sandwich bread, there is no crispy or crunchy crust to be found.).
5) People who fluently speak Korean sound like they are speaking around a mouthful of something when they get passionate about a topic. (Not all people and not all the time, but you can hear the difference).
6) As with many countries/ people, Koreans have a difficult time accepting the idea that a person is "American" because they live in the United States. Korean people who were born and raised in the United States are Korean by heritage, but they are still Americans. Also, my mother is American. She is a light- skinned black woman, but she is not from anywhere other than Chicago, Illinois.
Hope these were at least sort of funny!
EG

My creativity is being siphoned off into  a million different directions none of which is this blog, so I apologize for naming this post after a random song that got stuck in my head. (Special thanks and a shout out to Demi Lovato)
Today was an interesting day at work. we had our weekly Tuesday meeting which I participated in for the first time. I read aloud about somethings that I have already done and what my plan is for the rest of this week (making powerpoints) and stumbled really badly over one coworker's name-- luckily, she is the one who just got married, so she is on her honeymoon and was not present to hear me completely butcher her name. I could tell that my department gave me points for trying, though! I also bought some shirts today (one of which is exactly the same as another one I bought earlier but in a different color. I just cannot help myself when it comes with things patterned with Moomintroll!) Also, as I am sure you were all dying to know, there was oi kimchi (cucumber kimchi) at lunch today, and it was bomb as always!
Wedding Recap!
It was honestly a bit disappointing. It took me 72 minutes on the subway to get to the closest subway station to the venue, but when I arrived it turned out that the coworker who was supposed to meet me had to work that morning, so she was in a different part of Seoul at the YMCA where we work. Thanks to the helpfulness of three different people, I finally found myself on the correct bus, and by some miracle there was another lady there holding an invitation identical to the one in my purse. I initiated eye contact and hit her with what can only be described as "The universal facial expression for I'm lost and I think you're heading to my destination" as I held up my own invite. she nodded, and I followed her to the right place! The disappointment was in the fact that the ceremony was long and droning, and I was not close enough to get any good pictures, though I did manage to get into the picture of all the bride and groom's friends. Also, the food was good (there was jap che) so I was happy. We did not get to stay for the traditional part, and I think part of the reason for that was that each of the people getting married has to bow 20 times... But, the part that really disappointed me was not the fact that the groom did pushups in his suit, nor the fact that it was acceptable to leave halfway through the ceremony and go to the buffet while watching the ceremony on tv screens, but the fact that there was no dance party to enjoy and no cake.
In other important news, I got into contact with the other family that want to utilize my English speaking skills to keep their own fresh (they lived in the US for a while and do not want their children to lose their English skills) yesterday. They were wonderful, we talked about our favorite colors and I read them a book over a video message. Then, the younger daughter (1st grade) read me the giving tree. Even though my arm was asleep by the time we finished talking, it was an amazingly uplifting experience, and I look forward to speaking with them again soon! My host siblings and I bonded today over really bad yoga, falling on the floor, and the multilingual version of "let it go" as well as the game "Ninja". We laughed until we cried.
I realized while looking around today how different I truly appear in Korea. I seem too young to be alone in a new country. Both mature and immature at the same time, with the type of hair that is usually only seen on television. I suppose the true downside is that my shoulders are too large for anything with structured sleeves and I cannot wear any pants shorts or skirts because my posterior is of a caliber not often seen in this beautiful Asian country... *sigh* Oh well...

I love you guys!
Elena

So, I have not been writing because nothing all that exciting has been going on. I had a fantastic bonding night with the kids and mom in my host family where we danced around and ate french fries and mozzarella sticks, I wrote over 1,000 words turning a re- occurring dream I have been having into a story, and I found out that people in Korea really do not like gay people. Also, I found out that tentacles are usually in cucumber (oi) kimchi-- at least at the YMCA where I work.
I went out to lunch with my department earlier this week, because apparently when people are getting married, it is customary to take your department out to eat in Korea. The cool part was that her fiance came along, and at the end of the meal he presented her with flowers while singing opera. He got down on one knee, and it was amazing, I almost cried. This guy does not look like a baritone, but his voice was amazing, and this is coming from a girl who is very picky about whose voice she is listening to. Basically, this was the highlight of my week!
Also, I head off to the wedding today, so I bought a nice dress yesterday. It is almost too short to be comfortable since I do not have the typical Korean body type, but I bought it because the woman in the store was really nice, it was the first store I have seen where you can try things on before buying them in the subway station malls, and I was in a hurry to catch my train.
I think it also deserves to be said that the pride I take in my hair has increased since coming to Korea. Straightening is not in the cards!
Love you all,
EG

Looking around on the subway today, I re-realized how important fashion is in Korea. Some of the noteworthy ones included a middle aged man in a blue pinstriped suit with this wonderful sparkly navy blue tie (it was on point) and an elderly gentleman in a complete checkered outfit that looked like a jumpsuit. Those guts had it going on today! One thing I noticed across the board is that shoes are very carefully picked to send a message in Korea. they are meant to hi-light certain style or juxtapose it, but it never looks like anyone just grabbed a random pair of shoes on their way out the door...
On that note, it interests me that in Korea, where people wear masks over their faces and coughing aloud is considered taboo, that so many other things are not. In the US, farts and burbs can be funny, but hacking, spitting, and picking your nose are perfectly acceptable things to do while on the go. Finding a hair in your rice is something to laugh at, and even though it turns my stomach, I realize that that is the nurture part of me, not the nature. I need to absorb more of the Korean lifestyle into me, even if that means thinking more about my shoes.

Also, I'm sure that you are all dying to know what kind of kimchi was at lunch today, so: There was bean sprout kimchi, regular kimchi, cucumber kimchi, and a bunch of other panchan that could have been kimchi, known kimchi or brushed against kimchi in a past life.

PPS: Tonight was awesome! I got to bond with my host family over silly faces, french fries, and mozzarella sticks (I'm saved!). It was an amazing experience!

Night night!
Elena (Walnut)

So maybe the vaguely spiny leaves I had for lunch were not really thistles, but I needed some sort of a cool title, so... Anyway, there were tentacles involved, and they were pretty good if a little rubbery!

The real point here is the really cool ceremony I got to see on  Saturday. It was a first birthday party. In Korea, these are done a little bit differently than in the United States. This birthday is when the totlet chooses a symbol of what they will become. The choices are between a pencil, a microphone, a stethoscope, a gavel, a computer mouse, and money (there may be a few other objects that I am forgetting). Before the ceremony, everyone puts a slip in the corresponding box to the item they think is most likely to be chosen by the baby. In this case, the baby chose the gavel (symbolizing law), so a few of the slips were drawn, and those people received gifts from the mother and father of the baby. Also, as is the case with many Korean special gatherings, lots of money was placed into various envelopes which were also given to the mother and father (who had spent a butt- load on the buffet, the venue, the flowers, the MC, their fancy hanboks for the whole family, and everything else). Basically, it was really awesome and I got to hang out with and play with kute Korean kids! I also got to see what life was like outside of Seoul. My host mother called it "the country". I think it was a lot more like the suburbs. Scratch that, it was more like the development of half of Seattle, which goes to show that maybe Koreans should not be looking so closely at "big brother US" in the way of advancements (except maybe the whole gay people are okay thing).
On the note of culture, I had to explain to a bunch of people about why my hair was braided and up for the ceremony, since that is apparently not very common. I also had to explain that I am black, since I'm not quite dark enough to be seen that way here and Koreans as a whole do not know that black people come in shades from all across the spectrum of shades of brown. Also, one of my host mother's cousins who spoke English came to speak with me. Unfortunately, when he asked where I was from and I said "Seattle" he just stared blankly before saying "Oh, Seattle" very unconvincingly. Everyone at the table thought it was funny, and he left looking embarrassed. He was cute, but not cute enough....

Here's the thing: today was a really hard day for me for a various number of reasons, but the rain was not one of them. To start things off, today was September 11, which is always a hard day for me since I'm an American. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for most of the day, and the fact that it was raining a bit meant that my coworker and I took our walk around and inside of a bookstore instead of outside (and I don't feel like I have to tell you why I love bookstores. I will most definitely be going back). Also, there was cucumber kimchi today at lunch which is hands down my favorite kind (bean sprout kimchi is a close second). Basically, work was pretty awesome.
Tonight after work we were all supposed to go to a belly dance festival that the daughter in my host family was involved in, so I made my way to the right station (even though I was going to an area of Seoul I had never been to before). I got there just fine, but ended up looking for my host family for almost 1 and a half hours, during which time it began to rain, so i could not even see through my glasses. Then, after all of my walking, I gt a text message that the festival had been canceled due to the rain. While wandering around lost, I also managed to lose my transportation card, so that I had to figure out how to get home by buying a ticket. The machines for this type of thing in Korea are geared towards people that not only speak Korean, but already know exactly what to do (even with the English language setting). I will admit that after 4 tries for buying a ticket, I was crying and finally managed to find someone to help me. Eventually, I got back to the station where things were familiar. But, the misadventure does not stop there, because I ended up getting lost again, mostly because there are more than one exit for the subway system near where I live and I happen to be a bit directionally challenged, so I walked away from where I should have.
When I got home, I was exhausted, and all I wanted in the world was to be able to speak to my family. Lo and behold, I got on my laptop and immediately got a video message from my dad. I accepted, and a hard evening became instantly wonderful when I got to visit with some of the most important people in my life- My parents, my godbrothers, my sister- in - law, and their children. I have not gotten to see that part of my family in over 2 years (other than my parents, all of these people live in the Dominican Republic). Just like that, my day became exponentially better.
On another backpedaling note, as I walked around lost in the rain "Frozen" was everywhere. I never thought I would get sick of it, but... Just Kidding! I'll never ever get sick of Idina Menzel.
Que Dios La Bendiga!
Elenita

If you do not understand the reference in the title, you have probably never heard of the Musical Avenue Q. Moving on...
In an effort to blend in with the native population, I have attempted to camouflage myself. (When in Rome, I suppose...) I know, I know, I'm so funny! I should do stand up, but if I got tired, I would have to sit down... (cue canned laughter). The point is, I have noticed a few things that seem to be the norm and have tried to adapt accordingly. Almost all of the women here wear either trainers/ sneakers or high heeled shoes, so I have been wearing my wedge sneakers almost every day and my poor feet are not very happy with me.  Nearly everyone also draws in their eyebrows as well, so I act accordingly. Also, skirts and shorts  here are very short, but none of them that we have seen so far will fir more than one of my legs at a time, so my pleated pleather miniskirt has gotten a lot of wear. Also, here comes the most difficult part if Korean style for me. Jeans. For those of you who do not know, jeans are one of my least favorite things to wear. They never fit quite right, the seams dig in, and I just don't like wearing them, even if they "go with everything". I've been wearing them though, so as to not be the "wacky foreigner in elastic waist pants" (even though I miss them so).
Back to the ethnocentric part. I posted some of the pictures I have taken on facebook, and the comments surprised me. They all said something along the lines of "Oh, what a beautiful temple!". Here's the thing: I have not been to any temples yet. I have been to a traditional Korean house and a palace. Also, I would like to apologize for the way my complaints about nosepickers on the subway might have come across. I mean no harm, though I did think the guy spitting in the street behind me would accidentally spit on me...
Also, I was invited to the wedding of one of my coworkers today and found out that other than myself and one other young lady in the department, everyone is in a committed relationship! Interesting, no?
Bye bye, I'm ti ti!

Today I spent two hour of my life on a proposal that refused to save correctly. I had to generate a proposal/ plan in order to make the self- defense club I am trying to create as a part of my project at Seoul YMCA. However, the document did not save correctly because the computer is in Korean in addition to the fact that the software has not been updated so the formation of everything on the device is different from what I am used to. Luckily, all the information stemmed from things I started learning when I was around 4-6 years old, so it was not too much trouble to replicate, but it was quite a hassle! (the second version was not as good as the first, though the second version was a bit more concise with better wording) Also, today I met the president of all the YMCA's* in Asia (OK, so I was in the same room as him, breathing the same air-- and I was commissioned to save a seat for him). Anyway, everything was interesting, and the coolest part was how driven and excited all the people seemed to be involved and helping with youth. On that note, yesterday, the boss of our department (not the big boss) walked by my desk and saw me checking something on my phone. A few moments later, he came by again and offered me a book in English all about the history of Seoul YMCA. I thought that he was telling me to read it as work, so I read diligently for two hours before getting up to return the now finished book to him. I guess that he had just wanted to give me a thoughtful gift... AWKWARD!!!

*I forgot the apostrophe and autocorrect asked if I mean "Comcast"...

Or, My first day on the job
Okay, so maybe the title is a little bit misleading. After all, the day itself started just fine (other than the guy picking his nose across from me on the subway and the ajumma next to me on level 107 of Candy Crush-- I was on 29). All of us volunteers were supposed to arrive at Jongno YMCA at 10:30 am today, so of course I was there at 9:48 (I like to be early, sue me). So, I went and got coffee after standing around awkwardly for a few minutes. When I got back from that it was 10:22 and the other girls were there (except Finland; she starts work tomorrow, lucky girl!) Of course I started talking in a loud voice, paying no mind to the fact that chapel was going on right next door... (oops). Then, I was led away to my project (because I work in the YMCA building right next door). When I got there and was introduced, they had me sit down in a desk, and I have never felt more like the new kid on the block in my entire life. Everyone is at least slightly uncomfortable in a new situation, but I am the Queen of Awkward (seriously, I deserve a crown). Also, you don't know from awkward until you've been where I was today-- in a room full of people who all know each other and speak a language that you barely speak (and understand even less of), when nobody has told you what to do (so of course you sit there as silently as possible and draft a blog post...) To make matters worse, today I wore my new origami panda snap back and I kept fidgeting with it because I didn't know what to do with it (on, off, on off, put it on the desk-- If I put it on, is this disrespectful!?, Oh no, these people might think I did not make an effort to look nice since my hair defies gravity!....ahhhh!)

***WE INTERRUPT YOUR IRREGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG POST TO BRING YOU THIS ANNOUNCEMENT~ THE ANIMATED VEGGIES AND RAINDROPS IN FARM HEROES SAGA ARE RIDICULOUSLY CREEPY. WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?! THANK YOU.***

Anyway, I was so nervous to meet the boss and make a good first impression that my hands were shaking. I kept on jumping every time someone entered or exited the room, scared that upon meeting the boss I would do something embarrassing like miraculously speak Klingon or greet him in Arabic. However, I met the boss and the big boss without a hitch and lunch was great (even if there was a tentacle in my cucumber kimchi and the soup I thought was some water and rice mixture lit my uvula up like a match). My coworkers are all really awesome people (so far), and I may get to teach a kids self- defense class (yay).

Also, last night the whole family went to Costco. The funniest things were seeing the "Kirkland" brand written in English and the fact that most of the meat was imported from Aussie land. The Korean Costco food court has bulgogi bakes as well as chicken bakes, and some kind of strange mushroom soup, AND THEY GIVE REAL PLATES AND METAL FORKS& KNIVES TO EAT WITH!!!! (I guess that people here don't walk out with them under their arms like people would in the US...) There were also a bunch of interesting products and samples (even one of beer!) But, the sample that killed me was the fresh mozzarella with some balsamic vinegar (I died. I once drank a shot of balsmaic vinegar, it makes my complete. Take that Ms. Traditional Korean Doctor, I don't need a boyfriend with a good sense of humor, I just need my balsamic) Honestly, my life would not be the same without neon yellow, chocolate, musical theater, balsamic vinegar.... and tumblr and youtube, I guess.

The way home was okay. I got on a subway that I was not sure would get to  my stop, but it did!!! However, across from me (again) was someone picking their nose, but this time it was an elderly woman with a bag of dried chiles bigger than her and her husband's combined masses. (I guess she earned the right to pick her nose). The downside is that I had to pee... really really bad. In fact, it was so awful that I peed my pants right outside the door of the apartment. I was mortified. (In fact, I peed my dress, because I was not wearing any pants; I know, scandalous!). However, no one but me was home, so I was saved other than some weird looks from the dog (and then I did laundry and washed the floor; crisis averted).
The end. Don't judge me too hard, we have all had our embarrassing moments.
THINK POSITIVE:)