(Last night, after work, going down in the elevator with some middle schoolers. I had gotten a haircut on Saturday. )
Ricky: Teacher, why is your head so small? (Extreme Korean compliment!!)
Me: Huh?
Ricky: Your head, it is small.
Me: Oh, yeah. (Thinking). When I was young, I got in an accident.
Ricky: What?
Me: My parents, they ran over my head with the car. (Mimic action of tire running over my head). They squished it like this, so it's small.
Ricky: You are liar! (Pause) Why is George's head so big?
Me: Uh...it's like a balloon. You can blow into his ear and puff it up. Try it next time he's giving you dictation.
Ricky then leaves my side and goes into the convenience store in awkward, frustrated silence.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Friday, December 21, 2007
Kkeut!
Is the conventional way to write the Korean word for "end." My vacation is winding down - I finished my romp on the continent the day before yesterday (Wednesday), was abandoned by Bob and Laura (reference Bob's most recent post) at 4AM this (Friday) morning, leave for Seoul tomorrow night at 9, arrive on Sunday at 4pm, and teach the following day at 415.
In this post I'll just talk about the last few days in London. I got in on Weds night, from Milan, receiving sweet entry and exit stamps in my Visa book. Wednesday was a day of intense mass transit. I left my hotel in Genova, run by some weird old lady about whom I'll certainly tell you in my next post, walked to my former professor Stefano's office, and then he walked me to the train station. We said our goodbyes and I took a train to Milano Centrale, where I spent my last remaining Euros on: a bus ticket to the airport, a piece of foccaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes, a cup of tiramisu, and a bottle of drinking yogurt. I went to the waiting room and stuffed myself, then spent a little while trying to find the airport bus. I took the bus to the airport, killed time until my flight - actually I finished reading an Italian book that I had started on the train - then landed at London Gatwick, took the train to Victoria station, and then took 3 different subway lines to get to Bob's. He welcomed me in some nice pink pajama pants and offered me some leftovers.
I have been relatively busy over these last weeks, as I hope my later posts will prove to you, so I just took it easy yesterday. I got up late, shaved for the first time in too long (Bob has some sweet shaving cream), and did some grocery shopping and other errands with Laura. Then we came home and made some eggnog, risotto, and butternut squash, which we munched on when Bob came home from his silly 11-hour workday. Then we played a little bit with "Christmas Crackers," which, contrary to what you might expect, are not dainty little unleavened morsels. On the contrary, they're really corny party gags consisting of 3 toilet-paper sort of rolls, wrapped in shiny paper, strung together like sausages. A person grabs each end and yanks, and the contraption pops at one of the joints. The person who is holding 2 of the 3 wins, and inside of the middle joint there's some incredibly stupid think made of plastic. Laura got the lousiest die I've ever seen, I got a shoehorn, and Bob got a large yellow paperclip. Another one contained a multifunction comb/cookiecutter/astrolabe. The tubes also contained crowns made of wrapping paper, which we of course all wore, and really stupid jokes, which we of course all read.
After the festivities, we went to bed, and all woke up at 4, at which point Bob and Laura left and went to Spain or something like that. 41 hours before my departure! Best hosts ever! Since then - it's now 730pm - I've been bumming around their apartment, cleaning up our dishes from last night, eating leftovers, getting packed, watching stuff out of Bob's collection of movies and TV shows, and thinking of sinister things to do to their pad before I leave tomorrow night. Suggestions welcome.
In this post I'll just talk about the last few days in London. I got in on Weds night, from Milan, receiving sweet entry and exit stamps in my Visa book. Wednesday was a day of intense mass transit. I left my hotel in Genova, run by some weird old lady about whom I'll certainly tell you in my next post, walked to my former professor Stefano's office, and then he walked me to the train station. We said our goodbyes and I took a train to Milano Centrale, where I spent my last remaining Euros on: a bus ticket to the airport, a piece of foccaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes, a cup of tiramisu, and a bottle of drinking yogurt. I went to the waiting room and stuffed myself, then spent a little while trying to find the airport bus. I took the bus to the airport, killed time until my flight - actually I finished reading an Italian book that I had started on the train - then landed at London Gatwick, took the train to Victoria station, and then took 3 different subway lines to get to Bob's. He welcomed me in some nice pink pajama pants and offered me some leftovers.
I have been relatively busy over these last weeks, as I hope my later posts will prove to you, so I just took it easy yesterday. I got up late, shaved for the first time in too long (Bob has some sweet shaving cream), and did some grocery shopping and other errands with Laura. Then we came home and made some eggnog, risotto, and butternut squash, which we munched on when Bob came home from his silly 11-hour workday. Then we played a little bit with "Christmas Crackers," which, contrary to what you might expect, are not dainty little unleavened morsels. On the contrary, they're really corny party gags consisting of 3 toilet-paper sort of rolls, wrapped in shiny paper, strung together like sausages. A person grabs each end and yanks, and the contraption pops at one of the joints. The person who is holding 2 of the 3 wins, and inside of the middle joint there's some incredibly stupid think made of plastic. Laura got the lousiest die I've ever seen, I got a shoehorn, and Bob got a large yellow paperclip. Another one contained a multifunction comb/cookiecutter/astrolabe. The tubes also contained crowns made of wrapping paper, which we of course all wore, and really stupid jokes, which we of course all read.
After the festivities, we went to bed, and all woke up at 4, at which point Bob and Laura left and went to Spain or something like that. 41 hours before my departure! Best hosts ever! Since then - it's now 730pm - I've been bumming around their apartment, cleaning up our dishes from last night, eating leftovers, getting packed, watching stuff out of Bob's collection of movies and TV shows, and thinking of sinister things to do to their pad before I leave tomorrow night. Suggestions welcome.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Places I've Been
I last wrote on a Sunday. On Monday I took a tour and wandered around London. On Tuesday I did the same, but in a different area. On Wednesday I took care of some business down around the Piccadilly area, and on Thursday I few to Zurich and took a train to Bern. I hope to elaborate later about the London stuff, but I have a more pressing need to go over the last few days in Switzerland. Oh, you can visit Bob and Laura's blog to hear about the day Laura accompanied me on a tour.
Thursday: Arrived at 7PM, met Megan, wandered around in search of a restaurant. She showed me a statue of a dude stuffing little naked squirming babies into his mouth (pictures once I get back to Korea), supposedly inspired by a true story. We checked out some nice little Christmas markets, which were selling hot spiced wine and some arts and crafts stuff, but nothing really distinctly Swiss.
Friday: Megan likes to be at work around 9, so she gets up around 7:20, which means I was unfortunately unable to sleep in. It wasn't too bad, though, since I'm sleeping in a sleeping bag on her floor, so sleeping late isn't particularly pleasant. She went to work and I just hung around her room, getting my stuff in order, eating, planning for our weekend, eating again, and so on. Around lunchtime I took the train down to the Zentrum (city center), walked to her lab, and we went out for some take-out Indian food. After eating in some meal room in the lab building, we went out again to get some Swiss sweets, which we brought back to the meal room and ate. I had some little pie-looking thing, with a crust about 3 inches in diameter, then a layer of choco-fudge-pudding, then a layer of limey frosting, then a chocolate gem stuck into the top. Fantastic. I had intended to go wander around town, but I was stuffed and lazy, so I just walked around the lab with Megan and watched her do stuff to heart cells. I also peeked in the microscopes. Then someone came down the hallway ringing a bell - the sweet sound of tea time. We went back to the meal room again, where we found tea, cookies, cheeses, breads, and cold cuts. I had my first salame in over a year. Splendid. After our 3rd meal in 4 hours, we decided that no work was going to get done, so we packed up and left. We wandered around for a little while and then went to a few bars before coming home early.
Saturday: We had originally planned to go to Marseilles on Friday night and stay until Sunday afternoon, but we couldn't get tickets, so we opted for a more local weekend. On Saturday we got up nice and early (think 6:30) to catch the 8AM train for Geneva. The train ride took a little under two hours, so the fun began at about 10. First we went to the tourist info shop to get some brochures and walking guides, then I took over and demanded we try to find the residence of good old Jean-Jacque Rousseau. We found the street it was supposed to be on, and the cathedral next to it, which was just so-so, and we found the numbers progressing from 32 to 38. However, the philosopher's domicile, #40, was strangely absent. Where it ought to have been, there was a toy shop and a little animatronic bear blowing bubbles. You heard me.
After that we walked down toward the water (Lac Leman), looked at the famous fountain that shoots water waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy high up into the air, and crossed a bridge on our way to the old town. In the middle of the lake, connected to one of the bridges, is a little island, called "Rousseau's Island," which is, I believe, where he wrote "Reveries of a Solitary Walker," which is probably a cool book. Also, around the shores of the island, there were some odd-looking ducks with incredibly muscular necks. Really. Like python-necks.
We knew we had reached the old town when we found the cobblestones. We walked around, passed through some little fair with a carousel, and climbed up a huge hill to visit the church on top. It was a sweet Swiss Gothic church, all austere and imposing, and in the courtyard in front they were preparing for a fair, so we could smell burning wood and smoking ham. Also, about 2% of the people we saw were dressed in 1602 Swiss Garb, preparing for some reenactment ceremony.
We scoped out the church, and left once we had seen it al. We were getting pretty hungry by then, so we sought out a relatively cheap restaurant. Most places were selling spaghetti for 16 francs (14ish bucks) a plate, so we decided to try a fondue place where we could split a bowl for 22. I had never tried fondue. It was alright - it had a really sharp taste, and I think there was some wine mixed in. Anyhow, it was too much, and we couldn't finish. When we got the bill, we understood why: they had served us two portions instead of just the one that we had asked for. We also realized that they had charged us 10 dollars for a liter of water. I never thought it would be possible to get angry at Switzerland, but then again I never expected the gentle swiss to dupe me into buying a 63 franc meal. 63 because we also bought a chocolate-pineapple crepe.
Leaving that fiasco behind, we crossed the river again and walked for what must have been 2 or 3 miles until we reached the botanical gardens. We walked around for a while, disappointed in the lack of wild flaura and fauna, until we realized we were just in some random park. So we walked another 10 minutes and found the botanical gardens, some deer, some peacocks, and some interesting statutes. (Photos later). Then we headed to the UN building, mostly to see a statue of a chair with a missing leg, but it's closed on weekends, so we just took pictures of the gate.
Then we walked back along the lake for 45 minutes or so and crossed back into old town. We went for coffee in a bar and listened to them play the first song off of Kanye West's newest CD, which, incidentally, I enjoy. Once we were finally all warmed up again, we headed back to the church square. On the way, we ran into a fife and drum corps, and it looked like some people were just joining the parade, so we did too. We marched with them until we got to the church, where we broke formation to go look at the fire and cheesy reenactment of someone putting a ladder up on a castle wall. Except this ladder was put up against a residential building and didn't even go anywhere. It just landed about halfway up and was totally useless. We clapped nonetheless and basked in the warmth of the medieval torches.
We watched the corps do its little tricks and listened to it play its little music, and tried to buy some authentic medieval swiss snacks from one of the wooden shacks that had been set up. Instead, they put a little kit-kat type chocolate bar into a little rolled-up piece of dough and put it in a waffle press. Very lame. Then we tried the "vin chaud" (hot spiced brandy wine), which was decent, and then went into the church and sang/mumbled along to some hymns in French (we had a program). We listened to a little music there and then scrammed, following a parade of horses until we decided it was time to go home. Which we then did.
Next installment: Sunday's trip to Basel.
Thursday: Arrived at 7PM, met Megan, wandered around in search of a restaurant. She showed me a statue of a dude stuffing little naked squirming babies into his mouth (pictures once I get back to Korea), supposedly inspired by a true story. We checked out some nice little Christmas markets, which were selling hot spiced wine and some arts and crafts stuff, but nothing really distinctly Swiss.
Friday: Megan likes to be at work around 9, so she gets up around 7:20, which means I was unfortunately unable to sleep in. It wasn't too bad, though, since I'm sleeping in a sleeping bag on her floor, so sleeping late isn't particularly pleasant. She went to work and I just hung around her room, getting my stuff in order, eating, planning for our weekend, eating again, and so on. Around lunchtime I took the train down to the Zentrum (city center), walked to her lab, and we went out for some take-out Indian food. After eating in some meal room in the lab building, we went out again to get some Swiss sweets, which we brought back to the meal room and ate. I had some little pie-looking thing, with a crust about 3 inches in diameter, then a layer of choco-fudge-pudding, then a layer of limey frosting, then a chocolate gem stuck into the top. Fantastic. I had intended to go wander around town, but I was stuffed and lazy, so I just walked around the lab with Megan and watched her do stuff to heart cells. I also peeked in the microscopes. Then someone came down the hallway ringing a bell - the sweet sound of tea time. We went back to the meal room again, where we found tea, cookies, cheeses, breads, and cold cuts. I had my first salame in over a year. Splendid. After our 3rd meal in 4 hours, we decided that no work was going to get done, so we packed up and left. We wandered around for a little while and then went to a few bars before coming home early.
Saturday: We had originally planned to go to Marseilles on Friday night and stay until Sunday afternoon, but we couldn't get tickets, so we opted for a more local weekend. On Saturday we got up nice and early (think 6:30) to catch the 8AM train for Geneva. The train ride took a little under two hours, so the fun began at about 10. First we went to the tourist info shop to get some brochures and walking guides, then I took over and demanded we try to find the residence of good old Jean-Jacque Rousseau. We found the street it was supposed to be on, and the cathedral next to it, which was just so-so, and we found the numbers progressing from 32 to 38. However, the philosopher's domicile, #40, was strangely absent. Where it ought to have been, there was a toy shop and a little animatronic bear blowing bubbles. You heard me.
After that we walked down toward the water (Lac Leman), looked at the famous fountain that shoots water waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy high up into the air, and crossed a bridge on our way to the old town. In the middle of the lake, connected to one of the bridges, is a little island, called "Rousseau's Island," which is, I believe, where he wrote "Reveries of a Solitary Walker," which is probably a cool book. Also, around the shores of the island, there were some odd-looking ducks with incredibly muscular necks. Really. Like python-necks.
We knew we had reached the old town when we found the cobblestones. We walked around, passed through some little fair with a carousel, and climbed up a huge hill to visit the church on top. It was a sweet Swiss Gothic church, all austere and imposing, and in the courtyard in front they were preparing for a fair, so we could smell burning wood and smoking ham. Also, about 2% of the people we saw were dressed in 1602 Swiss Garb, preparing for some reenactment ceremony.
We scoped out the church, and left once we had seen it al. We were getting pretty hungry by then, so we sought out a relatively cheap restaurant. Most places were selling spaghetti for 16 francs (14ish bucks) a plate, so we decided to try a fondue place where we could split a bowl for 22. I had never tried fondue. It was alright - it had a really sharp taste, and I think there was some wine mixed in. Anyhow, it was too much, and we couldn't finish. When we got the bill, we understood why: they had served us two portions instead of just the one that we had asked for. We also realized that they had charged us 10 dollars for a liter of water. I never thought it would be possible to get angry at Switzerland, but then again I never expected the gentle swiss to dupe me into buying a 63 franc meal. 63 because we also bought a chocolate-pineapple crepe.
Leaving that fiasco behind, we crossed the river again and walked for what must have been 2 or 3 miles until we reached the botanical gardens. We walked around for a while, disappointed in the lack of wild flaura and fauna, until we realized we were just in some random park. So we walked another 10 minutes and found the botanical gardens, some deer, some peacocks, and some interesting statutes. (Photos later). Then we headed to the UN building, mostly to see a statue of a chair with a missing leg, but it's closed on weekends, so we just took pictures of the gate.
Then we walked back along the lake for 45 minutes or so and crossed back into old town. We went for coffee in a bar and listened to them play the first song off of Kanye West's newest CD, which, incidentally, I enjoy. Once we were finally all warmed up again, we headed back to the church square. On the way, we ran into a fife and drum corps, and it looked like some people were just joining the parade, so we did too. We marched with them until we got to the church, where we broke formation to go look at the fire and cheesy reenactment of someone putting a ladder up on a castle wall. Except this ladder was put up against a residential building and didn't even go anywhere. It just landed about halfway up and was totally useless. We clapped nonetheless and basked in the warmth of the medieval torches.
We watched the corps do its little tricks and listened to it play its little music, and tried to buy some authentic medieval swiss snacks from one of the wooden shacks that had been set up. Instead, they put a little kit-kat type chocolate bar into a little rolled-up piece of dough and put it in a waffle press. Very lame. Then we tried the "vin chaud" (hot spiced brandy wine), which was decent, and then went into the church and sang/mumbled along to some hymns in French (we had a program). We listened to a little music there and then scrammed, following a parade of horses until we decided it was time to go home. Which we then did.
Next installment: Sunday's trip to Basel.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
I want to make my title in Korean but Bob's computer can't handle it
I arrived in London last night, some 15ish hours ago. It's now 8:30 on Sunday morning, and I've just woken up, so despite yesterday's bizarre schedule, I think I'm doing OK. Here's how a rundown of my trip:
Friday night
10PM get off work. Go to the gym, chat and keep score, say bye to the dudes.
11PM go home, snack, finish packing, read articles from bookforum, debate whether or not to sleep
1:30AM go to sleep
3:20AM wake up, shower, eat, go
4:20AM catch a taxi in front of my house
4:45AM Arrive at the bus terminal way early for my 5:20 bus
4:50AM Take an earlier bus. Sleep for 2 hours or so, snack at a rest stop, then sleep another 2.
9:00AM Arrive at the airport, check in, wander around duty-free shops and restaurants
1:00PM Board the plane. Note that they haven't upgraded the video system, so I can only choose between Ultimatum, Harry Potter, Thomas the Tank Engine, a movie where John Travolta crossdresses, two corny old Elvis musicals, and a bunch of chinese stuff. I decide to pass the entire 12 hours studying chinese characters, reading "From Shakepseare to Existentialism," eating whatever they will give me, and napping. I take at least 4 or 5 2-hour naps.
2AMish Seoul Time/5PMish UK time: Land, deplane, go to customs. As I'm in line, one of the customs agents with a lady at her desk yells out, "Can anyone here speak Korean?" Despite the fact that my plane came from Seoul and had lots of Koreans on it, some of whom must certainly have spoken English better than I do Korean, nobody spoke up, so I reticently raise my hand and wiggled it in that "kinda" sort of way. She asked me to come up, so I cut through about 15 minutes of people and helped the customs agent ask some questions to the Japanese woman who was having some trouble. My insane interpretation skills managed to get her into the country, though it's odd that the customs agent would take my word for anything. Anyway, as a reward for being a good samaritan, I got to skip most of the line. As if showing off weren't reward enough.
6:30PM: Bob shows up at the airport. Hurrah. We take the "tube" (IE subway) back to his apartment, have some dinner, sit around and chitchat for a while, and then go to bed.
Today, eventually we'll be off to some market with a funny name, and who knows what else. I'll take some pictures
Friday night
10PM get off work. Go to the gym, chat and keep score, say bye to the dudes.
11PM go home, snack, finish packing, read articles from bookforum, debate whether or not to sleep
1:30AM go to sleep
3:20AM wake up, shower, eat, go
4:20AM catch a taxi in front of my house
4:45AM Arrive at the bus terminal way early for my 5:20 bus
4:50AM Take an earlier bus. Sleep for 2 hours or so, snack at a rest stop, then sleep another 2.
9:00AM Arrive at the airport, check in, wander around duty-free shops and restaurants
1:00PM Board the plane. Note that they haven't upgraded the video system, so I can only choose between Ultimatum, Harry Potter, Thomas the Tank Engine, a movie where John Travolta crossdresses, two corny old Elvis musicals, and a bunch of chinese stuff. I decide to pass the entire 12 hours studying chinese characters, reading "From Shakepseare to Existentialism," eating whatever they will give me, and napping. I take at least 4 or 5 2-hour naps.
2AMish Seoul Time/5PMish UK time: Land, deplane, go to customs. As I'm in line, one of the customs agents with a lady at her desk yells out, "Can anyone here speak Korean?" Despite the fact that my plane came from Seoul and had lots of Koreans on it, some of whom must certainly have spoken English better than I do Korean, nobody spoke up, so I reticently raise my hand and wiggled it in that "kinda" sort of way. She asked me to come up, so I cut through about 15 minutes of people and helped the customs agent ask some questions to the Japanese woman who was having some trouble. My insane interpretation skills managed to get her into the country, though it's odd that the customs agent would take my word for anything. Anyway, as a reward for being a good samaritan, I got to skip most of the line. As if showing off weren't reward enough.
6:30PM: Bob shows up at the airport. Hurrah. We take the "tube" (IE subway) back to his apartment, have some dinner, sit around and chitchat for a while, and then go to bed.
Today, eventually we'll be off to some market with a funny name, and who knows what else. I'll take some pictures
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
곧곧곧
= soonsoonsoon
If all goes according to plan, I'll be leaving for London on Saturday morning. I'll be catching a taxi (reserved the night before) at about 4:30, getting a ride to the bus terminal, taking a 5-hour bus ride to the international airport, then waiting around for 3 hours until boarding my plane to London. I'll leave Seoul at about 1:30 and arrive in London around 5:30, despite spending 14 hours or so in the air. On the way home, I spend only 12 hours in the air, but I leave at 9 pm and arrive at 4pm the next day. Crazy how that stuff works.
My extremely tentative schedule is the following:
Dec. 1: Arrive in London
Until Dec 7/8ish: Mooch off Bob (and Laura) as much as possible.
Dec 7/8ish: Mozy on over to Switzerland and mooch off Megan as much as possible.
Dec 13/14ish: Move on down to Italy. If possible, stop in Domodossola and visit my Italian 101 professor. Also, if possible, find my way to Sils Maria, where Nietzsche lived during the springs.
Dec 15-17ish: Head to Genoa and meet my Padova literature prof. Maybe take a day trip to Torino, the home of an awesome poet, Pavese.
Dec 18-20: On to Verona to see another ex-professor and then to Padova to meet up with the old host family. Hopefully I can woo them into cooking some awesome stuff for me. If I don't gain an average of 0.5 pounds each day over the course of the trip, I'll consider it a failure.
Dec 21: Find a way to get back from Venice to England.
Dec 22: Fly out of Heathrow
Dec 23: Arrive in Incheon at 4ish. Take a bus to Seoul. Take the train to Daegu. Get home around 9 if I'm lucky.
Dec 24: Teach at 4pm.
Dec 25: Holiday. Choose from 3 or 4 new apartments that the bosses will have scouted out.
Dec 26: Teach in the afternoons. Move in the mornings.
Dec 28: Finish moving.
Dec 29-Dec 31: 3 day weekend. Company dinner. Maybe head downtown for the new year, though the lunar calendar isn't so important here...
January: Life goes back to normal.
If all goes according to plan, I'll be leaving for London on Saturday morning. I'll be catching a taxi (reserved the night before) at about 4:30, getting a ride to the bus terminal, taking a 5-hour bus ride to the international airport, then waiting around for 3 hours until boarding my plane to London. I'll leave Seoul at about 1:30 and arrive in London around 5:30, despite spending 14 hours or so in the air. On the way home, I spend only 12 hours in the air, but I leave at 9 pm and arrive at 4pm the next day. Crazy how that stuff works.
My extremely tentative schedule is the following:
Dec. 1: Arrive in London
Until Dec 7/8ish: Mooch off Bob (and Laura) as much as possible.
Dec 7/8ish: Mozy on over to Switzerland and mooch off Megan as much as possible.
Dec 13/14ish: Move on down to Italy. If possible, stop in Domodossola and visit my Italian 101 professor. Also, if possible, find my way to Sils Maria, where Nietzsche lived during the springs.
Dec 15-17ish: Head to Genoa and meet my Padova literature prof. Maybe take a day trip to Torino, the home of an awesome poet, Pavese.
Dec 18-20: On to Verona to see another ex-professor and then to Padova to meet up with the old host family. Hopefully I can woo them into cooking some awesome stuff for me. If I don't gain an average of 0.5 pounds each day over the course of the trip, I'll consider it a failure.
Dec 21: Find a way to get back from Venice to England.
Dec 22: Fly out of Heathrow
Dec 23: Arrive in Incheon at 4ish. Take a bus to Seoul. Take the train to Daegu. Get home around 9 if I'm lucky.
Dec 24: Teach at 4pm.
Dec 25: Holiday. Choose from 3 or 4 new apartments that the bosses will have scouted out.
Dec 26: Teach in the afternoons. Move in the mornings.
Dec 28: Finish moving.
Dec 29-Dec 31: 3 day weekend. Company dinner. Maybe head downtown for the new year, though the lunar calendar isn't so important here...
January: Life goes back to normal.
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