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isabellas_kiss
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Name: jen
Country: South Korea
Metro: Pusan
Birthday: 1/4/1980
Gender: Female
Interests: exploring life...often by means of...travelling, reading, writing, teaching, praying, theology, philosophy, history, cultures, painting, knitting, photography, patchwork quilting, pottery, camping, vegetarian cooking, longboarding, running, swimming, surfing, dancing, pondering, living
Expertise: trying new things!
Occupation: Education/training
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
MSN: hollograms@hotmail.com
Member Since:
8/18/2005
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| if you haven't subscribed to or bookmarked my new/old blog, do it NOW. this is the last time i'm posting here.
it's www.randomthoughtsfromascatteredmind.blogspot.com christmas pics and stories there!
also, check out www.myspace.com/jengal4
my link button is refusing to work, so, cut and paste people!!
love Jen
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| moving the show, folkssorry, kids... i've decided to move the show back over to www.randomthoughtsfromascatteredmind.blogspot.com so more people could comment....xanga is just too snobby when it comes to comments...so change your prescriptions!!
a new post with pics awaits you over there!
love Jen
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| how living in korea makes me feel better about myself:
1. it doesn't take much to make me feel like the funniest person in the world. like for instance - i drive a motorcycle. and i'm a girl. and i have blonde hair. OH MY GOSH - LOOK AT HER!!! SHE'S DRIVING A MOTORCYCLE!!! AND SHE'S A GIRL!!! AND SHE HAS BLONDE HAIR!!!! THAT IS SOOOO FUNNY!!!! LET'S LAUGH AND STARE AND POINT TO SHOW OUR AMUSEMENT!!!!! awesome. also, taxi drivers and starbucks servers and the like find it humourous whenever i speak any korean. i KNOW - it's SO funny!!! she knows how to say "please turn left here!" wow!
2. i am constantly feeling respected as a woman. like everywhere i go, people are telling me, "oh, so beautiful! so beautiful!" in the same breath that they ask me if i am a prostitute. well not in so many words, but they ask me if i'm russian, which here means, "so how much?" oh, plus there's the little matter of me teaching all the younger classes because i'm a woman. because naturally, women are better with younger kids, and older kids respect men more. even though our male teacher is a qualified elementary school teacher and i'm a qualified high school teacher. it's just so logical. and not sexist at all. (hehe, she said "sex!" quick! pretend we don't know what she means! play the language barrier card!")
3. i consistently feel validated as a serious educator. like for instance today, my supervisor told me that there have been complaints that i am not working the the textbooks fast enough. k, so my TEN YEAR OLD children who go to school from 9am-11pm are supposed to go through 8 pages a day, and that's only for MY class. then they've got 2 other classes to do homework for, in which they have to memorize like 100 vocab words, which they will forget by the end of the hour after the test and which they will never know how to use in a proper sentence. and THEN they've got to do their homework for Science Hagwon (academy), Computer Hagwon, and Math Hagwon. Yet I should be giving them more homework. Because piling on more work and showing the parents they've finished 400 pages in 6 weeks is totally the point of education. COMPRENDING something? RETAINING information? Actually being able to have a free-flowing conversation? What's all that? Complain! That darn teacher isn't pushing my child hard enough! He's actually ENJOYING her class!!!
4. so the number 4 has always been my lucky number. it's my birthday (January 4) and has always been my sports number on teams and such. here the korean word for 4 is the same word for "death." some buildings don't have the floor number 4, they change it to "F," because nobody, apparently, wants to live on the floor of death (can't figure out why). also, when i wanted to get my phone, and they asked me what number i wanted, i said "4444" and they gasped and said no! i guess they figured it would go over well - "call me! 010- 4572- death-death-death-death." perfect.
5. i feel the love from my students. little truth-telling weasels they are. "teacher! today shirt so ugly!" "teacher, what is THAT?" (pointing to a large red zit on my face). "teacher! you look like alien with 1000 babies in your stomach!" "teacher! you sick? you look sick." "teacher! that black sweater makes you look like witch!" just what every girl wants to hear. now excuse me while i go slit my wrists.
ah korea.....gotta love it.
J.
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| When other people say it bestI'm no farther foward, just further along.... (Bebo Norman)
cause me to agree what I know is best for me.... (Lauryn Hill)
And the following by Barlow Girl:
I've had enough of living life for only me
And reaching for the things that keep destroying me
So sick of envying the lives of so many I see
Somehow believing that they have what I need
My God's enough for me
This world has nothing I need
In this whole life I've seen
My God's enough for me
I can't explain why I suffer even though i live for You
Those who deny You they have it better than I do
Cover my eyes now so that my heart can finally see
That in the end only You mean anything
Who have I in heaven but You
Nothing I desire but You
My heart may fail but not You
You are mine forever
Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief....(father of a sick child, later healed by Jesus)
-J.
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| You know it's time to clean out your fridge when......you have to hold your breath every time you open the door to avoid the horrific stench.
...the candies you made for that Canada Day party are not the color you once remembered them to be.
...you have no more tupperware because its all being used up for leftovers, and you had a heck of a lot of tupperware.
...you have to figure out if the "best before" date on your yogurt was the 2nd of last month or the month before. And you consider trying it anyways.
...you can't tell if that vegetable is a green pepper or a half-eaten zucchini.
...you are afraid to open that bag of shredded cheese because you think you saw something moving in it.
...you wonder if that pool of water on the middle shelf might have samenella in it, and you're a vegetarian.
...there is an entire shelf full of half-drunken juices and pops from a party you had 3 months ago.
...you can't remember if that bread was raisan or plain white.....and then you remember that Korea doesn't have raisans.
...you mistake a jar of tomato paste for chunky salsa.
time to get to work, i think......!
J. | | |
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