Huh?

Browsing the shops at my local underground market, I spied what I thought was the most poorly designed sweatshirt around:

A few hours later, this gem stood out from the others:

And a stone's throw away, we found this one (shown with my friend Deyne):

PS - let me know if you want me to pick one/all of them up for you.

AKFP 4

Three things: Ears, Shoulder Pads, FRUIT PANTS.

(Spotted near Costco in Seoul.)

Bathroom Hats

Put on a hat and go to the bathroom.

At a spa:

At a coffee shop:

Bonus: No hats, but here's one from the zoo in Bangkok:

Cute Siblings Photo Op

You know how sometimes when you're hiking at an eco-center on the southern coast of Korea, you manage to capture the exact moment when a kid does a high kick for the camera (that his dad is wielding)? This was one of those moments.

(Also, must remember to buy coordinating sweatsuits for my future children.)

(Click to enlarge.)

The Loo

Ok, I'm well hydrated. So I visit a lot of bathrooms.
Here are some more signs I enjoyed recently.

At the Incheon bus terminal...

At a park in Suncheon...

Uh oh (again)

Who knew that a visit to see my friend Kate would involve the L word? Yes, I fell in love with her kitten. His name is Kimchi. He's ridiculously cute. I miiiight have a few scratches from his large talons, but his overall lovability all but made up for that. 

I'm so sad Kate & Kimchi live four hours away. He is as big as a tube of mascara!!

Whiz Palaces

Thank you, Leslie Knope, for introducing me to a wonderful euphemism.
And now, some WP signs to round out September.

One-legged and armless at a shopping area...

One-legged and a bit more geometric at a mall...

And for less than $1 you can buy your very own signs.

ATFP

Time for Awkward Thai Family Photos! Unfortunately, I was too timid to take a photo of what was possibly the most awkward family photo I've spotted to date. It contained nudity, so some censoring would have been necessary for online publication anyway. A description will have to suffice.

On a busy Bangkok street, amid several food and merchandise stalls was a photo shop. Outside the shop was a three-foot-tall glossy poster, an aerial shot of two adorable babies. Lying on their backs. Wearing colorful headbands. And socks. And nothing else. Certainly some people think baby nudity is no big deal, but I feel strange after accidentally seeing a tiny Thai twig-and-berries, so into the Awkward file it goes.

As a consolation prize, here's a photo of me and my orangutan friend at the zoo in Bangkok. It would be much less awkward if he would have stopped playing with his nipple long enough to take a photo. His handler kept yelling, "Bam! Bam!" which I'm guessing was either his name or how to say, "Stop playing with your nipple!" in Thai.

More Bathroom Signs

They continue to amuse me. So I'll continue to creepily take pictures of them.

At a subway station in Incheon.

These even use apostrophes correctly.

At a restaurant in Pohang (southeastern Korea).

And...the hair, the butt, the stance, the window on the porta-pottie? So many great and confusing things about this one.

Near a walking/biking trail in my neighborhood.

Third Time's the Charm?

I did it again. Two strikes in the plant killing department. Well, four if you count the individual plants I've offed. Turns out forgetting to open my exterior sliding door when the air conditioning unit (atop of which my plants reside) is running does not create a homey, greenhouse-like atmosphere. Rather, it creates an excruciatingly hot death zone. Sorry about that, plants. But an April - July run wasn't too bad! Off to a fresh start; maybe I  can keep these two kicking until November.

Just Kidding

Remember when I thought the rain had subsided? I was VERY WRONG. The rain returned with a vengeance this week and went so far as to kill 60 people and submerge over 6,000 cars. A Korean friend told me this is the most rain Korea has seen in 100 years. In just three days, 26 inches fell. And it wasn't a gentle rain. This is the heaviest rain I've ever seen - even with an umbrella, most of my clothing was quickly soaked, and often I couldn't even see outside my apartment window because of the torrential downpour.

I'm pretty sure the creek rose to the level of the blue arrows; my students were prepared for it.

I am fortunate to be away from the intense flooding in parts of southern Seoul and the devastating mudslides north and east of Seoul, but things still got ugly in Incheon. The chocolate river decided to make its way onto roads between my house and my school - the bus had to plow through a foot of muddy water and we drove past a tiny car stranded in the high waters. It was so surreal that I was too shocked to snag a photo. One student couldn't make it to summer English camp because a tunnel between her home and the school was filled with water.

Though I'm safe and sound (and dry), I didn't come out of the stormy patch totally unscathed. On Wednesday afternoon, a wind gust got the best of me and my $3 umbrella. RIP, cute pink polkadot umbrella (I had named her Janet). The friend I was on my way to meet for dinner graciously helped out by giving me a replacement: a pink Winnie the Pooh number. Can't really be picky when 26 inches of rain are falling.

Wind: 1, Lindsay: 0

The Can

It didn't take much time in Korea to realize many things I'd long taken for granted: not usually being the tallest person in the room, knowing how to count money, the ability to talk to children anyone. But then there was a whole separate set of things I realized I had taken for granted when it comes to the bathroom. First, finding one. Second, differentiating between men's and women's (often they both have at least one urinal visible from the usually wide-open door). Then there's the question of whether there will be toilet paper. Or soap.

Why I didn't learn the words for man and woman at the same time I learned "bathroom" (pronounced qwah jahng sheel), I don't know. Which would you choose when faced with these options?

Left: Woman (yaw) Right: Man (nahm)

At times I had to lurk outside, waiting for someone to enter or exit. Thankfully, many locations (such as the baseball stadium) skip the Hangeul and use pictures that not only make my life easier, but also are often pretty creative or amusing. So instead of lurking outside to find out which door to enter, now I lurk outside trying not to look creepy while taking pictures of the signs.
Here's a start - my collection is pretty extensive.

At a basketball arena.

At a temple.

At a cultural center.

AKFP 3

This weather-beaten gem's highlights are the shoelessness, the dad's strained hand-on-leg placement and the size of that boy's apple.

Eight Month Miracle

To help celebrate our eight-month-long relationship, Korea showed me things I hadn't seen in a long time. Sunshine! Blue skies! My shadow! We are now up to FOUR consecutive rainless days; maybe the umbrella-toting times are behind me. Of course, I bought a new one right before the sun came out.

Though I no longer show up soggy for school, I now glisten with perspiration. Somehow my Korean co-workers always look perfect, but I spend frantic minutes before my first class drying off with Kleenexes and reapplying deodorant. To my knowledge, there have not (yet) been any complaints about my appearance and/or scent.

The blazing sun and significant sweating are perfect justification for increasing my ice cream intake and trying to keep up with the Kims. There are days when I swear everyone I pass on the street is eating ice cream in some shape or size. One treat that's pretty popular with kids is a fantastic invention that trades the sometimes awkward licking of an ice cream cone – or the painful biting of an ice cream bar or the hassle of having a cup and spoon – for the slightly less awkward motion of sucking ice cream from a nozzle in a pouch. Ice cream in a bag is amazing.

And so begins the final third of my Korean teaching career. Saw a few things today that made me happy to be here:

T-shirt of the day -  On a fourth-grade girl: "Hello Boys!"

Awww moment of the day - A brother and sister, maybe 13 and 11 years old, were riding the bus. The girl was leaning her head on his shoulder for a nap, and he took off her little red glasses, gently replaced her head in a better position, then carefully folded the glasses and held them in his lap.

Hard to understand sign of the day - At a coffee and gelato shop inexplicably called Salpresso (exactly as it appeared):

  SALPRESSO

  Enjoy The Life

  Enjoy The Best Coffee

  savoring a smell of

  life as treating one

  -'s life. coffee at yo

  -ung days. there is

  a time when you n

  -eed coffee.

  how about having a 

  fascination of mind

Photos, photos

I added some more images to my Facebook album here, and started a new one. Check it out!
And check this out.

Tightrope Photo Op

It's Monday, so here's a cute picture of a little guy in a tiny tie walking on a tightrope. Taken at a festival in Seoul in early May.

(Click to enlarge.)

It's Pretty Here

First spring brought lovely cherry blossoms.

At the same time, these yellow flowers were everywhere.

Then an assortment of azaleas, lilacs and irises popped up.

I returned from the U.S. to find exquisite roses.

And these weird mystery trees are finally sprouting leaves. 

Heads Up

That's what I look like, according to my fourth-grade students. I may have changed a little over the last six months, so I hope no one is too shocked when while I'm in the U.S. for the next week.

And a warning about Korean habits/mannerisms I may have picked up:

• I might forget to leave a tip
• I'll probably use both hands to wave
• Instead of "uh huh" I will probably say "mmmm" to show that I understand
• I might bow at people
• If I see something cute I will probably say "aaaw" like in this clip
  (not Korea-related, but still a habit as of late)

Take Me Out to the Wyverns

As a belated birthday present, three of my co-teachers organized an outing to see a professional baseball game in Incheon. The SK Wyverns are #1 in the league and my fellow sixth-grade teacher Min-jeong is a huge fan, so I was happy to see what all the fuss was about.

Left: Am I a bad fan for not crying? Right: These bathroom signs took me a minute to interpret...

It was a busy night, but the 30,000-seat Munhak Stadium was far from sold out for this Tuesday night game. In true Korean fashion, the four of us had pooled our money and Min-jeong (after losing Rock, Paper, Scissors) was in charge of choosing and paying for the food and drinks our group would share. Lines were non-existent as we loaded up on hot dogs, spicy fried chicken, chips and pop. The vendor even threw in paper cups for sharing the drinks. With each sip of Coke, my cup reminded me that "The hope only happens to the person who is hoping." We didn't order any instant ramen, but there were hot water dispensers conveniently located throughout the stadium for all the noodle eaters. I was shocked to see that it's acceptable to bring in your own food and beverages - at one point the big TV in the outfield showed a group of young men unpacking their groceries and six-packs from a big cardboard box.

Our $20 tickets got us seats at a table a couple dozen rows behind home plate. The third-grade teacher Hyunjeong assured me that these are much better than the regular, narrow, $8 seats. Having a table was helpful when trying to eat fried chicken with chopsticks, but I was still not entirely smooth or successful. We had a great view as SK took on the Lotte Giants from Busan. The teams' cities and mascots were irrelevant - the fans almost exclusively refer to the team by the corporate sponsor. What a waste - the wyvern looks like an awesome and intimidating creature, according to my Google image search results. Yelling "SK!" just makes me think of cell phones and gas stations.

Each player had his own individual cheer, which the SK fans belted out while a few cheerleader/dancers pranced atop the dugout. Cheering is easy to follow when the majority of players' names are only three syllables long. Fourth-grade teacher Junki helped me learn a few cheers, my favorite/easiest to remember being "Sahm gu, sahm jin!" This encouragement for "Three pitches, three strikes!" worked a couple of times. There was pitching trouble early on, though. In just the second inning, the SK pitcher was replaced - the new pitcher was carted to the mound in a tiny car from the bullpen. Shortly after his dramatic delivery, he delivered a pitch that resulted in a grand slam. Min-jeong put her hands on her head and wistfully said, "Aye go." Junki taught me that this phrase is very versatile, meaning "how frustrating/I'm depressed/this is terrible/oh, man." I will be sure to use it every time I miss the bus, fumble my chopsticks, or discover that the shoes I bought yesterday just went on sale today.

SK came back with a couple runs in the fifth, about the same time the amazing orange full moon was rising over the picnic area beyond left field. There weren't many hits, but there were a lot of foul balls. Whenever the ump was running low on balls, a little ball girl would trot out to him with an Easter basket of new baseballs. Despite the enthusiastic fans, the choreographed dances, the Easter basket of balls, SK couldn't pull it together. They went down swinging wildly in the last inning, falling to Lotte 2-8. "Aye go," said the crowd.

With Min-jeong, Hyunjeong and Junki. Hyunjeong might be taking the loss a little hard.

Midway Musings

Spring! Sunshine! Flowers! 

Had a lady baboon been knocked up before I left Minnesota, she would have birthed her offspring by now! Maybe you didn't know that the gestation period for a baboon is six months? It's true, and it's the amount of time I've spent so far on my Asian explorations. I've made it half of the way toward graduating Korea (to borrow a phrase from my friend Benten).

May has been a mixture of rainy and beautifully sunny weather. Can't believe I used to constantly wear my warm brown jacket - soon I'll be shedding the bright orange uniform as well. The morning walk to work is green and lush and pretty toasty. Might need to take a cue from Korean women and use an umbrella to shield myself from those a.m. rays. And it's finally warm enough to go without a coat in school! I worried this day would never come.

The kids are always keeping me on my toes. For every student who refuses to participate in class and only says to me "Don't know English-ee," there is another kid who excels at everything and includes the phrase "As a result, we found the treasure," when writing instructions for a group treasure map. One of my favorite things is when I'm explaining something, then the light of comprehension suddenly clicks on and there's a big chorus of "Aaaahhhhhh!"s around the room. Another entertaining thing is when kids get a right answer or win a point in a game and they react like they've just won the World Cup or the Miss Korea Pageant. Every time. Today they even took it to the next level and acted like Oprah's audience members when she's giving out free stuff. The joy of the small things.

Girl Scouts and relay races. I never know what I'll come across at school.