Long Random Rambly Blog

It's been a long, yet somehow uneventful week. Then it hits me that, well, maybe I am just getting used to things here...

But then things happen that remind me of just how different I am. I've been noticing a lot this week that everyone around me is Korean, except for a handful of foreigners. Yeah, okay, I'm not THAT dumb. But, you know. Sometimes you forget that you are different until...

I tend to spend a lot of time at Homeplus/Tesco's, which is also a division of Samsung. Anyway, it's a department store/grocery store with a couple food places and the like. Next to the bank machines, there is a Christmas tree with a bench in front of it. On the bench is a very large green plush bunny with striped ears wearing a Santa Claus suit. Picture, if you will, me. Sitting on a bench. Next to a green plush bunny. Wearing a Santa suit. If you were you, which one would you stare at in disbelief?

So, this little boy walks by and points and says, "Meeguk-saram!" (which means "American"). I guess he thought the 4-foot tall green plush Tesco's Santa-Bunny came from the USA.

On a side note, never never never go to a Korean bank at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, looking for the one guy who speaks English.

Right, so I am only an interview away from spending next summer teaching in Japan. I can almost taste the wasabi.*

There was an envelope on my desk this morning from my Korean travel agent. I opened it with excitement and found... my friend's passport, with a brand spanking new visa for India. In what other country would people be so trusting as to send you someone else's passport, just because they know that you are friends and you will deliver said passport to said friend asap?

And, it doesn't feel like Christmas here at all. I've been doing Christmas activities at school, wore a Santa hat to all my classes today, showed my students Merry Christmas Mr Bean, and still, I don't feel all that Christmassy. There are lights, and decorations, and green bunnies in Santa suits and all that....Maybe it's because there is no snow.

Melissa and I are always joking about recording our walks/bus-rides to school. She is haunted by cars that drive on sidewalks, and the guy who bows to her because he thinks she's Mary (as in Jesus' mom), whereas I get the cute father-less children who live in my building saying "HellohowareyouI'mfineandyou?", a collection of ajummas selling ditch veggies in plastic bowls next to the bus stop and a veritable minefield of saliva and snot on the sidewalk. There's one kid who waits at the same bus stop as I do for the same bus. He spits, and I am not kidding, every 15 seconds.

And, I totally rock at telling my 600 students apart. So good, in fact, that I can differentiate a set of twin boys from each other (okay, it's only because they wear different glasses, but you know... it's still something!). I've either tried to learn their names (examples: Jo Eun-A, Lee Ok-to, Kim Ki-kwang, Kim Jae-ik, Ga-young, Eun-jeng...) or assigned them random nicknames (examples: Chingu, Bad Boy, Handsome Twin, Red Glasses, Bunny Slippers, Gorgeous, Blue Moon, Genius, Superman, White Glasses). Now, we just need to work on getting everyone to call me Virginia, not Melissa. Apparently, foreigners all look the same. Who knew?

The countdown can officially begin for India now. In one month, I will be standing in front of the Taj Mahal. Here's what I still need to do to prepare for my trip: exchange money, buy malaria pills, get my visa (which will be in my passport, which is probably going to be sent to my friend... I mean, who knows?), get hidden pockets sewn into my tank tops, pack, re-pack, un-pack again, buy a smaller backpack, buy a memory card, re-pack again, decide which toiletries really aren't necessary and pack again, find someone to take care of Mr Shane (hamster), figure out if a 41-hour train ride from Delhi to Goa is worth it, learn a few Hindi phrases, learn a few Tamil phrases, learn a few phrases of the rest of the 14,000 dialects of India, get a manicure and pedicure (okay, maybe that's not all that necessary), and read up on things to do on a 7-hour layover in Tokyo.

* To anyone who ever has paid attention to anything that I've ever said in the past 15 years, including "I am never going to teach in Korea", "I have no interest in ever visiting China." and "Japan? Why would I want to teach there?", well, you know, I reserve the right to change my mind. A lot. If you go back far enough, you can also find the infamous phrase "I am not going to become a teacher". Right. Whatever.