In your eyes

Korea is well known for its trendiness in fashion. Whatever is new and popular elsewhere in the world, odds are it’s already caught on here. This gives me an interesting opportunity to dabble in an area that has never really interested me until now.

In this post, I’ll focus on the three biggest trends in eyes, and my experiences with them.

1. Fake glasses. I have excellent vision, but always envied people with glasses. My big sister had them since middle school, and of course I wanted to be just like her. In movies, the “big reveal” was when a girl took off her glasses to show, hey!, she was pretty all along (She’s All That?). Of course I’m now aware that that’s an overused movie trope, but I didn’t at the time.

Anyway, it came rushing back to me when I saw the overabundance of fake glasses on the streets of Korea. In a ton of different styles, some with plain glass and others with no glass at all, and usually less than 10,000 won ($10). At first, I gravitated towards the giant frames, as that’s what’s most trendy here right now, but they didn’t look right on my face.

Doesn't mean I didn't buy any! I've got thick rainbow frames with no lens (which my students LOVE), but I was still searching for ones that fit my face a bit better. I later came across two more and now I wear them often enough that my students think they’re real. That's right, I have three pairs of fake glasses. That I actually wear. In public. Come at me bro.

2. Contact lenses. Before I moved to Korea, I’d only seen colored contact lenses worn by cosplayers. Here, it’s normal to alter your eye color as often as your hair color (another thing regularly changed). Within colored contacts, there are a few choices. You can get natural colors that stay over your existing iris, looking no different than anyone else’s natural eye shape. You can get circle lenses, which are larger colored lenses that widen your iris by a few millimeters, giving them impression of larger eyes without getting the surgery*. Lastly, you can also get either of those options in any variety of colors. And I mean any variety. Purple, yellow, pink, black, white, or red, to name a few that are color only. Then you can get into patterns. I’ve seen some with tiny flowers printed on the side!

These are usually quite cheap too, and there are stores on every major street. As I said in another blog, I’ve always wanted green eyes, so I figured now’s the time! I went into a store with a couple of friends, hoping they’d help me pick out some good ones. The amount of options were a bit overwhelming, but we finally settled on one pair of natural green, and one pair of smaller brown circle lenses (I think the large circle lenses are super creepy personally. These just fit on the outside of my iris).

The green ones were 40,000 won, and the brown ones were 25,000 won ($65 together). They provided cases, contact solution, and eyedrops with the purchase. It took me entirely too long to get them on the first time, but when I did, I loved the green ones and am still getting used to the brown ones. Because they’re still a hassle for me to put on, I don’t wear them very often. For now, they’ll be saved for special occasions.

3. Eyelash extensions. This is something popular in the US too, but I’m honestly not sure where it started. Women have been using fake eyelashes for a long time, but eyelash extensions are a semi-permanent solution rather than needing to put them on and take them off every day. In this process, individual lashes (made from plastic or mink, depending on preference and price) are adhered to the base of your existing lashes. The amount and thickness of the lashes applied is up to you. If you want eyelashes that could create a windstorm, a full set is going to cost you significantly more than an ‘enhanced natural look’ half set.

Looking online, most salons that do this in the US charge at least $200 for even a half set, whereas a half set will cost you about 50,000won in Korea. Lasting between 4-8 weeks, it requires you to ‘refill’ the lashes when they fall out. I’m still debating if this is something I want to do myself, and I’ve heard lots of arguments both for and against. The most appealing reason is that the half set is still natural looking, and I wouldn’t need to use any eye makeup for my day to day. At night, I can dress it up, but let’s be real. I don’t need to dress up for pizza and Netflix. The most obvious downside is cost. To maintain the look, I’d need to refill the lashes every 6 weeks or so, which means paying at least $50 every six weeks. As someone who lives between the rock and hard place that are convenience and budget, this is the biggest obstacle for me.

So what do you think? Would you get any of these? Leave a comment!

안녕!

*yes, there is an operation that will widen your eyes, and yes it’s very popular here. However, I don’t have any personal experience, or know anyone that I’d feel comfortable asking about it, so you’ll have to do your own research for that one!

Lord of the Eggs

Last month was our winter vacation, and for English teachers in Korean public schools, that means English Camp. My situation is unique in that my school collaborates with 4 other nearby schools to share teachers. All five teachers teach 2 lessons over 2 days (5 classes of each lesson) at every school, 10 days in total. Sounds complicated but it isn't. This year I wanted to do something more active and less lecture-y than normal. I opted to do an Egg Drop.

Lesson 1 consists of 20 minutes introducing vocabulary, explaining that we're going to be dropping eggs out of windows, and the difference between an egg cracking, breaking, and being safe. The last 20 minutes the students get into groups and design their 'egg house', what they will build around their egg to keep it safe after a 10 meter fall.

The next day, for lesson 2, students reform their groups, are given materials, and have 20 minutes to construct their egg safehouse. It's a frenzy of activity, and every student is engaged in the action. Next, we show off the final product and try to predict whose eggs will survive. And lastly, the drop. Moments of pure anticipation to see these creations of paper and tape try to oppose gravity, to little or no success.

For the 80 or so drops I did over 10 days, more than half were safe, and therefore could be used again. Great news! Proud kids and no mess, but one dilemma for me. See, I underestimated their abilities, and bought enough eggs for every group to have their own, plus some extra in case one broke during construction. Because of the high number of safe drops, I now have about 40 eggs sitting in my apartment.

And so we move to the second part of this blog: things to do with eggs! I was challenged by a fellow camp teacher (whose super awesome blog you can check out here). She actually challenged me to do more because I was bragging about the awesomeness of eggs. I think they're more versatile than shrimp, but I couldn't go full-Bubba. I was stumped at 12.

1. Scrambled Eggs. It’s tough to beat a classic.

2. Egg Salad. To be eaten as a sandwich or with a spoon, egg salad is pretty straightforward if you want it to be. If you'd rather experiment, you can add any number of things. I like to add relish and some chopped black olives to mine.

3. Fried Egg Sandwich. A regular occurrence in our family. Lightly scrambled egg reformed into a patty, melted cheese, ketchup, and toast. You can add ham if you wanna get real crazy.

4. Fried Rice. Excellent with frozen veggie medley (peas, corn, and carrots), but whatever fresh ingredients you want to add are also great. Cook it up with soy sauce and a little sesame oil, and you're good to go.

5. Drain and paint the shells for an arts n crafts project. Teachers are always looking for fun activities to do with younger students, and I think my first graders will like the change to paint some clean shells (if they don't break them first).

6. Cheese n’ onion omelet. Or any other fillings you want to add, but simple is enough for me!

7. Deviled eggs for a dinner party. Before I leave, I'm expecting to have a lot of time with friends, and no one can turn down a delicious deviled egg.

8. French Toast. With some cinnamon and vanilla? Yes please!

9. Egg drop experiment. Hey, it worked once! Might as well try it with some of my other students.

10.  Rice cooker frittata. Never again will I underestimate a rice cooker. Among its plentiful uses, I found a favorite recipe to make a quick and easy vegetable fritatta.

11. Eggs Benedict. I've never made a successful one myself, but I've watched plenty of chefs do it in real life and on TV. I'll have to make an attempt next week.

12. (On top of) Bibimbap. Many restaurants will crack a raw egg on top, to stir in and cook with the hot rice. Personally, I fry the egg separately and add it in with the yolk runny. Delicious!


What is your favorite thing to do with eggs? Do you scoff at my paltry suggestions? Let me know!

안녕!

10 Things to do Before Leaving Korea

Now that my time in Korea is coming to a close, I've been thinking about which things to prioritize. For this list, I've been asked by a friend to share my personal 10 things to do before I leave.

[These are in no particular order]

1. Go to SpaLand in Busan. Jjimjilbangs are one of those strictly Asian things (I'd say Korean, but the Japanese onsen is very similar). Getting naked and scrubbing and soaking til you're utterly relaxed is one of my favorite things to do, and the best place for it is SpaLand.

2. Eat everything. Jjimdalk, bibimbap, samgyeopsal, hoddoek, japchae, mandu, bossam (and those are just my favorites). This could easily be a whole separate list, but I've talked enough about my love for Korean food. I plan to eat nothing but Korean food for the next 6 weeks.

3. Go ice skating/roller skating. Something I can also do at home, but in Korea it's relatively cheap and therefore easy to convince my friends to join. The fact that my favorite skating rink is next to a beautiful historical bridge certainly doesn't hurt!

4. Go to noraebang. Ah, noraebang: the experience of singing til you're hoarse and looking like an idiot in front of your friends. Drunken or sober, it's a great night of fun that I will feel so very empty without.

5. Buy cosmetics and skincare. For myself, or as gifts for friends and family, it's going to be hard to leave the diverse set of cosmetics stores and products. I'm absolutely sending some scrubs and creams ahead via post.

6. Get color contacts. Why not? I think I'd look great with green eyes. Given how popular they are, they're definitely cheaper than I could get them in the US.

7. Look longingly at hanbok shops. As beautiful as they are, I can't quite convince myself to buy one. The cost for a high quality hanbok outweighs the rare occasions I'd be able to wear it. I can, however, stare through the shop windows and mentally design my own.

8. Take a million pictures with my students. Well duh.

9. Visit a board game cafe. Such a great idea, and I really hope it catches on (or maybe it has already? It's been two years, what do I know?) in the US. Getting together with a group of friends and playing any of the dozens of games available always spells out a great evening. Games that demand hours of intense strategy and concentration, or 5 minutes of Jenga, a good time is had by all.

10. Learn how to cook. This one is contingent on my ability to sweet-talk my coteachers to teach me. We've discussed it for the last two years, but now that the clock is ticking, it's time to make my move. Some ingredients will be difficult to find, but I'm hoping that learning the basics will help me to find appropriate substitutes when available. Japchae and jjimdalk are at the top of my list!


And there you have it! Is there anything I missed? Want more info? Leave a comment or send me a message!

Til next time!
안녕!

Day in the Life

My schedule is different every day, but here's a layout of Tuesday, my busiest day

7:15     Wake up, shower, get dressed

8:05   Leave for school

8:15    Get to school, start a kettle of tea, switch to slippers, review lesson plans for the day

I've never been particularly tidy

8:50   Walk upstairs to the classroom. Gather materials, write on the board, clean desks

9-12   4 Morning classes

12:10  Go to cafeteria for lunch

Clockwise starting at 12: Radish Kimchi, red bean doughnut, persimmon jelly thing,
Korean curry and rice, fruit and rice cake in yogurt. Today was a good day.

Food waste gets dumped here

Separate chopsticks and spoons

Empty trays go here

Water station. There's no drinks with lunch, only after or before

12:30  Go back to office, review afternoon lessons (or watch YouTube videos...)

1:30-4:20   Afterschool classes (3 classes of grades 1 and 2 students)

Learning emotions

Seven dwarfs are a good practice for emotions. Plus the kids love Dopey :)

4:35   Leave for gym, workout

Seriously, no one wants to see that

6:00  Leave for home

6:10  Make and eat dinner

7-10  Either watch Netflix, review lesson plans, or do teaching homework
(in case anyone is curious as to what kind of assignments we do, I talk about it on my teaching blog)

10:00  Online certification class

11:00 Review the week's homework for certification class, make a schedule for the week

11:30  Go to bed

Exercising and Weight Loss in Korea

Howdy y'all!

I'm delirious with homesickness and can't find it in me to delete that line. Sigh.

To distract myself, I'm going to write about fitness and health in Korea, as well as throw out my own personal goals for the next 4 months in an attempt to establish any kind of accountability for my actions.

First off, let me say that body image in Korea will not be discussed at length here. That's a whole other subject, and one that has been beaten to death on a billion other blogs. The only thing I'll say is that it really sucks being a 'fat' foreigner (I put fat in quotes because many of my skinny foreigner friends are considered fat here. I must be a ham planet. But I digress).

Eating healthy might seem like an easy thing to do. Bread is minimal, portions are much smaller than in the United States, and the national dish of pickled cabbage is served with every meal. However, meat plays a huge part of the diets here, particularly fatty pieces of pork (삼겹살), marinated pork/beef (갈비) and the ever-popular chicken and beer combo (치맥). Not to mention the influx of all things Western. There's a McDonalds, Burger King, or Dunkin Donuts on every corner, and Italian and pizza restaurants popping up left and right.

"But Kate, just don't go out! Cook more, eat in!" Well, imaginary reader, it's often cheaper to eat out than to stay in and cook. Vegetables here are more expensive (the ones that aren't sweet potatoes or cabbage significantly so), and many aren't available at all. You can usually only buy in bulk, so risk half of your items going bad before being able to get to it. Protip: split with friends! Fruits are also difficult to find, especially familiar ones. Korean grapes are a mess to eat, and I personally hate them (thick skins and seeds, yuck). The only oranges are the tiny tangerines, watermelon and apples only come during their respective seasons, and I don't think I've seen a raspberry in 2 years. In short, everything that I'd count on to diet is either too expensive or inaccessible.

In addition, many of the methods I'd use to cook are taken from me. There are no ovens here, which was always my go-to for cooking meals that would last me a week. Buying one is an investment where you need to compare cost against the length of your stay and how likely you're able to resell it. Same goes for any cookware beyond the standard frying pan and small pot that you start with. Familiar ingredients will be hard to find and expensive even if you can find them (looking at you breadcrumbs). Perhaps if I knew that I'd be staying in Korea for an extended period of time, I could see myself adapting more to the style of cooking beyond that of what I'd done before at home. But as it is, it's something I struggle with.

Which brings us to exercise. It is astonishing how physically fit Koreans are. Hiking is definitely the 'in' sport around Korea, and it's normal to see a large percentage of people walking around in top-of-the-line, brand name hiking gear. Whether that's because they're going to use it that day or they just want to show it off remains a mystery. There are small exercise parks everywhere, long walking paths being paved (especially in my area, away from the city), and bike lanes designated on the sidewalks. Free exercise is not hard to find, but if you're looking for something indoors, get out your wallet. Gym membership prices here are through the roof compared to those at home. The cheapest I've ever found is 80,000won per month (about $80), and I've seen them go up to 120,000won. I've done trial days at several different gyms, at all price increments, and found that they're very similar: a lot of treadmills, 1 or 2 elliptical machines, some space for weightlifting, and any number of other weight machines (heck if I'm gonna list them all here) scattered around. Higher price means more treadmills and more machines, neither of which I prefer, so I went for the cheaper option. There is an option for a personal trainer, but that's lost on me. The woman I speak to at my gym spends most of her time telling me I am 'too much' and 'diet' (yeah, I got that, thanks) rather than being helpful by teaching me exercises. If your Korean is better than mine, maybe you'll have more success!

---if you just wanted information about Korea, you should probably leave now---

Now comes the part that makes me nervous. But I want this blog to be equal parts informative and personal, so I'm sticking with it. Unless I delete this part tomorrow. We'll see.

I'm leaving Korea in February, which is 128 days away from the time of posting. My goal is to lose 15kg before then, which is about 1kg/week, well within a healthy range. I've been working on establishing a weigh-lifting and cardio circuit that suits me, and am watching my calories more closely (easily the more difficult of the two given the problems listed above). I'm also skating regularly on the weekends, which is my stress relief as much as exercise.

I should say that all this was brought on by my friend (whose blog you can read here), who has gone through the most amazing and inspiring progress while I've been away. I'm so proud of her and so impressed that I felt increasingly terrible about my own inability to lose any of the weight I've been packing on all my life. Instead of rubbing it in my face of how awesome she is, she took the time to help me figure out which exercises I felt comfortable with, how to find a steady progression without straining or injuring myself, and introduced me to a bunch of articles, videos, and online communities that can help me maintain focus.

So far it's working! I've made some weight loss progress, but the biggest change is how I feel. I sleep better at night, have significantly cut down on snacking, and have more energy in my classes. Hopefully this is a system I can keep up with and maintain even after I reach my goal once I get home.

On that note, what kind of exercise do you prefer? Any motivational tips to share?
안녕!

Get a breath of fresh air at the Daegu Arboretum

Now that fall has arrived, bringing a (very welcome) cool breeze, it's finally safe to come out of hiding! The Daegu Arboretum is a beautiful, free park where you can walk around, take pictures, and enjoy the outdoors.

The park is pretty big, with lots of different walking paths and free space for picnics, frisbee, and just hanging out. I personally think I'll go back with a book and find a quiet space to decompress. There were lots of families and couples there, strolling through the park and munching on kimbap, but it was still very peaceful and relaxing.

I don't know very much about botany, but from what I could tell they have a great variety of plants. A greenhouse for cacti, bamboo forest, hibiscus pond, and multiple gardens for different flower species. We spent a couple of hours walking through and taking photos. My personal favorite was the bonsai route.

It may not have been peak season for most of the plants, but it was still a beautiful day, and I would highly recommend it to anyone with a free sunny afternoon!


How to get there:

We had some difficulty getting there, and ended up taking a taxi. However, we were able to figure out how to get there once we got home. I would recommend going by bus, as it is a bit of a walk from the subway station (but Daegok, on the red line, is the closest if you want to work it out).

By bus: Take the Dalseo 3 (달서3) and get off at Daejin Middle and High School (대진중학교). From there, walk toward the obvious tree line and the entrance and map are at the base of the hill.

What's goin on?!

Yet again, I have failed this blog. I'm in the process of putting a 'Day in the Life' style blog together, but it won't be finished for July.

Best I can do now is an update. Lots of things happening here.

1. Summer Camp.   My school teams up with the four other elementary schools in my neighborhood and pools our resources (namely, Native English Teachers like me). The 5 of us travel between the schools, two days at each, teaching the same lessons. It's great system in that we can meet lots of different students, get to see the differences between our schools, and get to know each other better. It's a terrible system in that it gets boring. Fast. The same 2 lessons, 25 times each? 5 of lesson A one day, 5 of lesson B the next, then lesson A again at the next school, and so on. I'm smack in the middle of it right now, so I'm leaning towards irritated rather than interested.

2. Certification Class.   As I've mentioned before, I'm currently taking an online course for my teaching certification. While I'm excited that I'll have certification in hand when I finish teaching in Korea, I want to rip my hair out more often than not. Some assignments are worthwhile, and teach resources that I'm sure I'll use in my own classroom, but those are few and far between. It seems like the great majority are busy work intended to fulfill some kind of activity quota. The most frustrating thing is that the instructors are knowledgeable and very well-intentioned. It's a topic of discussion among my group members, and I'm certainly not the only one with the opinion. However, the ends justify the means in this scenario, and I'll continue to pump out the same repetitive information on the assignments that call for it. If anyone is interested, I've created a separate blog where a few assignments are required to be posted.

3. Teaching Exams.    In addition to completing the course, I must pass the required Praxis exams to get my teaching certification. Because I'm going for Secondary English Education, that means 3 exams: the Praxis I (general knowledge, like the SAT), a Praxis II exam about theory/method (for me, grades 7-12), and a content-specific Praxis II (English). Because there's only one test center in South Korea and tests can only be taken during the week, I have to be very careful about when to take these exams. During the school year would mean taking a day off of school, which the administration would seriously frown on, so that means using vacation days. Luckily, teaching summer camp on Saturdays gives me extra vacation days, so I've decided to take two of the exams just before vacation. The Praxis I will be easy. Acing the practice test before cracking open a study guide certainly helps that confidence! The other one I'm taking now is the theory exam, all about classroom techniques, laws, and who contributed what theories to the development of  formal education. Things that all seemed common sense when I registered for the test. Decidedly less so when I bombed the practice before studying. Unfortunately, the motivation to study is fleeting. So monotonous and boring! But I've gotta do it, and I'm slowly making my way through my study guide.

4. Vacation.   I'm going to Malaysia, Singapore, and Bali in less than 3 weeks. I got shit to do!

Let's just say I sleep really well at night. Most of this will calm down in a month, after the new semester starts. Heck, it'll calm down when I'm on my flight to Kuala Lumpur!

I should learn Malay...

안녕!