Last night I had a dream that I carried my 6-year-old self up a mountain. As I carried myself, I noticed that I was both chubby, and very cute. I was also wearing white thick tights with patent leather mary janes, which is probably why I wore thick grey tights a la Catholic high school uniform to work today.
But the going up the mountain image makes sense because I've been pretty tired, nursing a cold that destroyed my voice and which disgusting cigarette smoke aggravated over the weekend. Maybe we shouldn't have ordered three pitchers of margaritas at Asha's welcome dinner on Friday night. But it was tex mex night, dammit, and like I said, us Mexicans have to represent.
At the top of the mountain I arrived at Vicky's wedding reception.... prima is not the only one dreaming about her wedding apparently. (Get ready for your "international salsa instructor" to arrive just for the wedding....)
But the going up the mountain image makes sense because I've been pretty tired, nursing a cold that destroyed my voice and which disgusting cigarette smoke aggravated over the weekend. Maybe we shouldn't have ordered three pitchers of margaritas at Asha's welcome dinner on Friday night. But it was tex mex night, dammit, and like I said, us Mexicans have to represent.
At the top of the mountain I arrived at Vicky's wedding reception.... prima is not the only one dreaming about her wedding apparently. (Get ready for your "international salsa instructor" to arrive just for the wedding....)
I have a nasty cold, and it was rough getting through the weekend. Try screaming "pa' 'bajo... Y!" over and over at a roomful of salsa students with a voice, already strained by a cold, that rapidly declined to a raspy 1-900 level. My voice is so altered, in fact, that moonkkang did not want me to record today. "It wouldn't be appropriate for children," I agreed with the sound engineer.
However, cold aside, wearing a cute new jumpsuit and "impact" bright red lipstick helped me to feel excited about strutting my stuff on Saturday night. So much so, that I decided to get on a mini stage and dance with blonde Korean Harry Potter and an entertaining Irish (I think) guy.
Exciting changes to salsa? Susy and I are teaching with Freeman, a cuban-style instructor who is going to Japan in two months. We will eventually be taking over his students, so at the moment, the three of us are teaching together. I have noticed that the guys who dance cuban style have a hell of a lot more "sabor" (flavour) than most other korean dancers. He trains his students to lead so well, it never ceases to amaze me. I couldn't stop exclaiming over the strong lead of one of the korean guys who got all embarrassed answering my compliments with, "Sorry, no English". So I told him in Korean, that he dances like a latino, and he managed to giggle while simultaneously leading me in a turn.
As an instructor, my biggest pet peeve is "flaccid spaghetti arm" and people violating the simple rule of this: the man leads, the woman follows. Sometimes I get so mad, I yell "man up!" to the guys, and tell the girls, "if you don't need someone to lead you, then dance by yourself."
Korean lessons
I have been taking private Korean lessons once a week since June. I have been exposed to a lot since then, little of which has been fully absorbed, but it has made a major difference in my life here. But now my teacher has accepted a university teaching position in China and will be leaving next month. I will definitely be sad to see her go - we have bonded during our one-on-one lessons and often go for dinner together after class.
She has taught me many things about Korea. Her take on the "personal" questions many people ask you when they first meet you (how old are you, are you married, what's your job) is that it's just a way to get closer, to learn more about you. She also gets points from me, because she teaches the YMCA's free lessons for female immigrants who are married to Korean men ("International Marriage Women" by the Y's terminology)- and these women often can barely communicate with their husbands.
Terrorism
Forget Al Qaeda. The real terrorists are 7-year-old Korean children who are reacting to being forced to study English locked in a dungeon - otherwise known as their personal study room.
This kid I am teaching was stressing me out. He gives me charlie horses, runs out of the room, and tried to shoot rubber bands at me. I made the charlie horse thing worse because I taught him the English word. So now, he'll start giggling and get a mischivieous glare in his eyes. He looks up at me and says slowly, "Teacher... charlie horse?" And then he dives for my thigh and throws all 20 pounds of his body into his fist.
This is bad because I suck at discipline. Yelling at him in Korean didn't work, and his mother doesn't do anything. One day he wanted to go to the bathroom, and I told him to wait five minutes. He proceeded to point to his crotch, say bathroom, then dropped his pants. How many more Korean males are going to flash me? Honestly!
This is bad because I suck at discipline. Yelling at him in Korean didn't work, and his mother doesn't do anything. One day he wanted to go to the bathroom, and I told him to wait five minutes. He proceeded to point to his crotch, say bathroom, then dropped his pants. How many more Korean males are going to flash me? Honestly!
Coffee Class
Because I love coffee and because I need it, and so one can "impress their friends" (thanks Ivan). I am taking a coffee course where we have learned how to make various kinds of coffee - from stove top espresso makers (greca in puerto rico), to hand drip, to weird contraptions that look like they belong in a mad scientist's lab in the 1800s. Next week is latte art, where I will have a chance to draw finicky little designs, a very "Melinda" thing that I usually take out on my nails, face, and in anything I bake. Here are some pics.
Also do check out Ivan's blog. He's a great writer and this explains a lot of what we do here in Korea... but sorry folks, only in Spanish. I was explaining to him my dilemma of wanting to write about things that might potentially offend people in Korea to which he wisely stated, "That's why I write in Spanish."
Free Hugs.
Just when you think you're getting used to Korea, you see random things like this that surprise you.
Last week after coffee class, I headed out with Ivan and Sunny. Free hugs were available from a group of girls and we went for it.
This week it was a group of middle or high school boys with their big signs in English and Korean. Ivan looks like a photographer. He has a large camera with a huge lens, and he is a foriegner. So he stopped, and took photos of this row of boys. They noticed. Then I walked towards them. The courtyard cleared. no one else was going for their free hug at this moment. I went up to the row of guys with my arms outstretched, and they all froze. As I wondered, hey, where's my free hug, it also ocurred to me that i had a choice... of.... adolescent boys. Not cool. Anyways finally one of them came forward and swept me into a bear hug. Here's a three-step photo interpretation so you can see the confident fellow.
I'll leave with a few tidbits before I press "publish".
I'm going to Japan next week to spend some time in Tokyo with Kaz. Dozo!
Number of times I've been flashed by a Korean male in the last six months: 2
P.S. to those who have asked, incidents such as these are not considered accurate data for size-related questions.
P.S. to those who have asked, incidents such as these are not considered accurate data for size-related questions.
Surprising discovery: I make the same monthly salary as an entry-level Samsung engineer
Interesting exchange with a Mexican-American:
Melinda: Well, people usually think I'm Mexican.
Arthur: Yeah! Doesn't that bother you?
Melinda: Wait - aren't you Mexican?
Arthur: Yeah. But it still bothers me that people assume it.
I'm actually working here, no posing whatsoever, which means this is probably exactly what I look like RIGHT NOW.
I'm actually working here, no posing whatsoever, which means this is probably exactly what I look like RIGHT NOW. 
1 comment:
I've seen free hugs being given T.O!
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