Oh yeah...I teach, too.

It might be hard to tell, save for one or two posts on this blog, but...I am indeed a teacher.  I see, teach, laugh at/with, babysit, repeat words over and over for, high five, low five, avoid dong chims from, and really quite enjoy my students every day.

Sadly, my co-worker and I have decided to change schools later this month for a lot of complicated reasons, and I'm going to miss these monkeys in a pretty major way.  Turns out, I really, really love teaching 6th graders.  This school is different from most in Korea, as it is an accelerated learning program for very advanced English language students.  I rarely even realize that they are speaking a second language.  I really have a ridiculous amount of fun with them.  It's awesome to joke around with students on such a high level.  If I ever decide to teach in real life (real life?), I know what age I'll go for...  I wonder if students in America constantly tell their teachers they are very beautiful and look 21?

I have some really hilarious videos I want to show off, but I'm totally inept and can't seem to get them off my phone onto the computer...I send and I send and I send and nothing comes through.  Stay tuned until I understand technology.

Check out some Halloween photos in the meantime:

Things be happenin'

I missed a whole blog-month!  I've been a movin' and shakin' for the past 6 weekends and way too busy to sit at the computer during the week, so blogging has become less of a hardcore past time.  I'm also only clever and witty in person these days, my creative writing juices only come out of my mouth now, not my fingers.  This statement is only true assuming that anyone has ever been entertained by my blog before.  Or by me in person now...or ever.

I digress.

I've just received an incredible care package for my upcoming birthday full of all kinds of vegetarian goodness and love from my coworker/bestie in Korea's mama, and I'm high on loooooove. My little mama passed away 10 years ago this coming November, so there's been some mind-swirlin' counting down to the anniversary, but MAN, I can't even tell you what getting a package full of mama-love does for the soul, even if it's not your own mama.  Old Man Pops does a mighty fine job with his packages, but there's something different about a mama.

So here's to blogging about September and October while high on love:

1)  I got a  motorbike.  AND A DOG.  Both are wonderful and make life better.

I'm still a scaredy on the bike and stubbed my toe on it today while hopping off in a panic.  But Matty's perfect and just a foster; he is NOT coming home with me.  I'm only allowed to keep the imperfect dogs that no one else wants; this guys too good to stay with me.  I think I have a potential home set up for him, but I can't spill the beans yet.  Stay tuned and take solace that in the meantime knowing that I wake up in the mornings with a tiny paw on my eyeball and have a constant itty teddy bear on my lap.  He makes the ladies and gents swoon and totally completes me for now.

2)  Chuseok happened, otherwise known as Korean Thanksgiving.  Our plan was to go camping on a beach on Goeje Island, but Korea = rain, so we rented a minbok instead (a big room with a kitchen and bathroom) and camped indoors.  Even in the rain, I liked Goeje better than Jeju.  It's quaint and lovely and adorable and perfect.

Just as we arrived to the little port and beach town, we acquired a dog that we named Sir Scruffy.  He was amazing.  He gave us a full tour of the teeny town and ran around with us in the rain on the beach.  I had no doubts that we'd be bringing him home with us, regardless of the fact that my Matty was coming home the following week.  But we  were (meaning I was) ultimately talked out of it due to the fact that he was wearing a collar and obviously belonged to someone who enjoyed sharing his knowledgeable and furry little tour guide with foreigners.

We also saved his life.  As we were coming down a mountain where we found a random goat meandering around a field that Sir Scruff REALLY wanted to get at, we ran into a little old ajumma with a big collar and chain.  She wanted Sir Scruff.  And he did NOT want her.  She was clearly not his awesome owner.  As the others in our group walked away, m'ladies and I looked at each other and  promptly yelled "SAVE SCRUFFY!"  And we ran. Scruffy ran with us.  But little ajumma was not a quitter, man, she was a straight up slow and steady zombie lady following us all the way.  We lost her around a few corners and bends, and then to thank us, Sir Scruffy ran off with some Australian foreigners.  But I don't blame him.  Those accents are dead sexy.  Running from our zombie-ajumma was a real bonding experience and quite an exercise in our creative story telling.  I really need to write down the things we come up with.  I.e., Scruffy became a flying super hero ala Falcor, and we rode him across the sky to safety during the zombie apocalypse.

It was that kind of trip.

3)  Andong Maskdance Festival.  Masks and dancing and television superstars.  This is an international festival with dancers and masks and arts and crafts and no food.  Um.  I hate arts and crafts.  Also, festivals do NOT cater to vegetarians, nor to tiny folk villages.  My fellow veggie and I sustained ourselves for 48 hours on a bag of Sun chips, 4 bowls of rice, and two beans from an edamame plant we found.  However, Andong was still an awesome experience, and I learned that when I get lost in a maze in a village, rather than panicking, I will pull out my camera for a photo shoot with my favorite lady.  We saw some weird fireworks that involved lobbing giant balls of fire down a mountain and standing under falling embers, which was made even more absurd by the rampant Korean speakers going off in our ears excitedly yelling things that we'll never understand.  We were also interviewed multiple times about our experience in Andong, and two of my friends made it onto the national news; total superstars.

Aside from those noteable adventures, I've had multiple trips to Busan for fun because it's way more fun than Ulsan, and took a 7th trip to Seoul to meet with animal people.  Good things may happen in the future with that, stay tuned.  As for Busan, I've made a decision:  it's my next stop.  After a few months traveling next summer and a couple of months home for my brothers wedding, I'll head back here for another year in Busan.  The city and the beach are awesome and I can't say no.  I'm in love with Gwangalli.  A lot of things re: my travels are up in the air, but I've got some great things planned with some great people so far.  I can't wait and rea-hee-heally need to step up on saving my KRW.

Next month...Australia!  M'bro has 4 gigs down there, so it only made sense for me to book a trip to visit, particularly so we can be together for that 10 year anniversary mentioned above.  It's going to be beyond grandulous (grand + fabulous) to travel with M'bro, plus I actually even have friends in Ozland!  I met some pretty awesome Australians while traveling in Peru last fall.  I've forced them to be my penpals over the past year, and now I'll actually get to see them in person again. You're welcome, Australian penpals.

And that is that.  Month 5 begins this week.  How?

TOMS inserts = Korean academy fun

Old Man Pops sent me a care package a few weeks ago full of food (black beans!), clothes, and new TOMS.  I have packages sent to our school for two reasons:  1) I don't know my home address, and 2) I don't think a package would stay put outside my door all the live long day without some peek-a-boo neighbor "checking it out" for me.

It's as exciting for the kids as it is for me when I get a package at school.  While I was dancing around with my can of black beans, two of my students were obsessed with the inserts that came inside my new TOMS.  The enthusiasm lasted the entire rest of the school day - it was absurd. They were hats, gas masks, hackey sacks, umbrellas...you name it, they got creative with them.  Two weeks later, one of them showed up to class still playing with them.  Apparently...when kids go to school for 20 hours a day, shoe inserts are magical.

 

I'm concerned.

BAPS again

Remember this post about BAPS?  I wrote it before I was even in Korea, and I've since been able to visit and see the facilities and the dogs and meet 'the man', Leo Mendoza.  I've picked out a foster dog who will be coming home with me in a few weeks, and even aided a fellow volunteer and giant-hearted friend in putting together a BAPS fundraiser at a local bar.  I like this group. I like what they do.

Here's what I've learned in 90 days here:  Korea doesn't have an abundance of rescuers/welfare'ists/activists.  Sure, people like animals and think they are cute, but there's a severe lack of consideration for the quality and well being for another life.  Fish and other sea life are crammed by the hundreds in tanks outside of restaurants, chickens are stabbed in the heart and dropped to the ground at the meat market for customers to take home and cook, dogs, goats and other animals and crammed into cages filled with their own feces, waiting to be killed (I've seen with my own eyeballs dogs electrocuted out in the open), etc, etc. The mindset is that if the animal is for eating, it doesn't matter how it lives and feels and dies.  It's food, it isn't real.  But if it's not food, it's cute and adorable. At the meat market, the dogs for meat are living a holocaust on one side, and the white fluffy puppies for sale are 20 steps directly across from them, and no one seems aware of the irony.

So, people like dogs and think they are cute.  But, pet ownership is a new thing here.  People buy (problem #1, people BUY and never adopt - strays are "dirty") puppies and don't know how to treat them and raise them to be wonderful pets.  So they don't get potty trained and wind up with behavioral issues.  Naturally, they get dumped at the shelter. This is typical in any country, really.  But as mentioned, there aren't any rescuers here, there is no place for unwanted dogs.  The dogs have no options and are euthanized (hopefully humanely, but I'm not sure) or sold to meat markets.

BAPS is one of the few groups in Korea that routinely pulls dogs from shelters for a second chance.  They've got some great dogs.  Unfortunately, as any small group in a welfare-less  country, they have pretty limited resources.  The dogs all live in cages and only get a visitor every few days because there is not enough money and not enough man power for someone to visit daily.  Some dogs get into foster homes with foreigners, but since we are all here for such a limited time, they are often returned or jump around from home to home, which of course does a number on their mental stability and sense of abandonment.  It's certainly not a perfect arrangement, but, the alternative is hell, and the group is run by a man and his wife who have hearts of steel and they are constantly evolving to make it the best place possible.

Also, they are letting me take this little dude home.  I don't even normally *do* little dudes like this, I love the giant mutts.  But he's got some potty training issues that seem to be the only real reason he's not getting adopted, so I'm totally up to the challenge of fixing that in a snap in order to get him home for good (just not with me - I AM ONLY A FOSTER).

More incredible dogs:

Think they are cute and deserve better?  Think BAPS is doing a great job?  You should send some love their way.  You can donate easily via Paypal on their site.

Korea made my head hot

It's really hot here.  Humid hot.  Sweaty hot.  So I did this:

 

I kept it tied up nice and neat to send it off to the great Locks of Love.  

so peaceful..

This is the second time I've donated to Locks of Love.  Some child somewhere is/will be wearing me.  Is that weird?  I don't know.  And I'm still sweaty in Korea with short hair.  But there we go.

Jeju

Summer vacation came right at the peak of a major burn out:  I'd spent 4 consecutive weekends out of town, summer school (aka 13 hour days) had just begun, and I was insanely mentally disturbed from witnessing a Holocaust at a meat market in Seoul.

That entire weekend in Seoul before Jeju was just a series of flubs, from leaving my ridiculously important notebook full of animal welfare notes at the KTX train station on the way there, to leaving Seoul completely without my backpack and laptop and having to trek back and forth almost an hour each way to find it, followed that evening when I got back to Ulsan by a situation where I quite literally lost my mind and memory via a series of emails and felt like a total ass.   I can't recall a single time in my life where I've ever been so distrait by the insanity around me.  It finally occurred to me how affected I was by the burn out, so I put away the animal welfare stuff, set my FB profile to private and breathed in some zen and began the countdown to the almighty Jeju vacation.

Naturally, as icing on the cake, I got sick again and totally lost my voice to the point that we had to arrange other teachers for my classes.  My kids now call me "grandma" and speak to me in a wheezy Mafia voice.

The night before Jeju, I felt like total hell and seriously contemplated cancelling my flight.  I'm obviously so glad I didn't because it was an increddie trip with increddie people, but man, I was not up for a vacation.  It totally blew to not be able to talk the entire 5 days, and waking up with bloodshot eyes and massive amounts of snot each morning ain't no way to vacay.  But it was beautiful and I laughed so hard every step of the way, which in turn, caused more hilarity since laughing without a voice makes it appear as if you're silently convulsing.  There goes Kate again, being all epileptic.

Jeju Island Vacation 2011 included walking across millions of tiny crabs in the water/fireworks on the beach/massive mosquito bites (33 to be exact)/scooter'ing across Udo Island/naps on two different beaches/NOT hiking Halla/beautiful sunsets/LOVELAND/most incredible burrito of our lives/Couch Surfing host extraordinaire Jack Quinn/southern hospitality/BREAKING INTO A WATERFALL AT MIDNIGHT/night beach'ing/motorcycle burns/snuggley sick days/acro yoga/and so. much. more.

There are so many more pictures in my head.

The largest mountain in Korea is located in the center of Jeju and I was super pumped to hike that sucka', but we decided with my limited lung capacity that I would be an annoying hindrance, so I skipped seeing Mt. Hallasan and spent the day trying to breathe instead.  After everyone returned from the 9 hour hike, they made it clear that I didn't miss much as the entire trail was wooden stairs, which I've loudly voiced my disdain for before.  What is it with Korean mountains not having legit hiking trails?  Why with the stairs?

We also visited Loveland.  It's a sex museum.  Jeju is full of museums.  All kinds, obviously.  We really struggled over whether to visit Loveland or The Teddy Bear Museum.  But that's a total lie because what kind of crazy person would pick the Teddy Bear Museum over a sex museum??

All kinds of appropriate

Aaaaand, thanks to our totally unreal Couch Surfing host, we discovered Acro Yoga.  What's Acro Yoga, you ask?  Absolute amazingness, I tell you.  See an example here.  Seriously, watch that video.  We're so in lovey  This is what we looked like as beginners:

Total pros.

Five days, countless beautiful views, multiple undocumented memorable experiences, and the greatest travel buddies known to man....  I managed to infect two of them with my sickness, but neither  complained, and my incredible co-worker/bestie in Korea played 'Mom' the whole way.  She took care of everything, from speaking on my behalf, to making sure I had medicine, etc, etc and more.  She's got the 'Mom' card down, and now it's my turn to try and repay her:  the day before we left Jeju, she hopped off our friends motorcycle and accidentally set her leg directly on the exhaust pipe, which we found out later resulted in a serious second degree burn.  She's hobbling along now with her leg wrapped up, visiting the hospital each day for all kinds of crazy Korean burn treatment.

Turns out, it's serious.

And that was Jeju.  It is sort of assumed now that we'll be traveling together over Chuseok and we are currently contemplating where to book our flights.  The Phillipines are the cheapest option, but there's also a reasonable flight to Hong Kong out there.  And of course, there's still so much of Korea to see.  Stay tuned.  Traveling with a voice will be a whoooooooole different kind of adventure.

A short post about how I hate the American healthcare system.

I went to a doctor today.  That cold I had apparently festered while I thought I was feeling better and came zinging back to me on Sunday night as a sinus infection.

The visit to the doctor cost $6.  The medicine he prescribed cost $7.  I didn't even use my Korean insurance.  Granted, the pills come dressed in condom wrappers and they are totally unidentifiable.  But since my voice completely left my body a few hours ago and I currently sound like a goose honkin' around in heat when I try to speak, I'll take anything.

?

$14 overall without using insurance.  What would that cost in the US without insurance?  Or even with insurance?  I'm still paying off a few thousand to my US insurance just for the deductible from my surgery in November (which itself only cost a few hundred dollars).

What up, 'Merica?