Exotic Fish and Stylish Mullets

I suppose South Korea is how I imagined it to be, so many times. The streets of downtown are flooded with people. People in a hurry. People who slow down and turn their heads when they see my foreign face and lighter hair. People who are consumed with fashion. Guys with pink shirts and stylish mullets. Girls in high heels at a baseball game, long hair, tiny purses. People who don't speak English, but speak Korean very slowly in case I can understand them. And people who can say "Hello!" and are so excited to tell me.

The street that leads up to my apartment is narrow with cars lining the avenue. There is a small food store on the corner, a dry cleaner's next to that, where the clothes are hung to dry on the sidewalk. There is no shortage of Korean restaurants, and the smell of fresh fish and octopus lingers in the air. I pass by tanks full of exotic fish and squid on my way to work. Across the street there are people outside everyday selling plants and dried squid. People live in high-rise apartments. I have yet to see a house, or a front yard. There are mountains to my right, and a Buddhist temple adjacent to my apartment building, on the left. I still haven't been. And I haven't even figured out how to use my washing machine and I've been here almost three weeks now.

Teaching English here is exhausting. The days are long, and the demands are endless. It was a little overwhelming at first, being thrown into the classroom with little training or knowledge of what exactly I'm supposed to do. I have 13 classes total, with the kids ranging in age from 6 to 15. The kids here go through so much school, it's ridiculous. I can't help but feel bad for some of the children I teach, who don't really have much free time away from studying. My last class begins at 8:45pm (and that's not the latest class at my school.) I have kids falling asleep because they've been at their regular school since 9:00am, and then went to another academy (for science, math, piano, etc.) and then came to English Academy right after. Long days for them as well.

As far as the food goes, it's hard to find vegetarian dishes here. I eat a few animals, but I'm not as adventurous with mystery meats as I am with mystery vegetables. Koreans eat a lot of meat here. If I were a bigger fan of kimchi, I'd probably be feeling like a queen. They love their cabbage here, too. It's growing on me, but I definitely miss vegetables that are freshly steamed, instead of pickled and fermented.

I'm going to start taking Korean classes in June. It's hard to learn Korean when we are only allowed to speak English with our students. I try to learn as much as I can, but it's hard to remember at first. I still stumble on the correct pronunciation of my apartment building when I'm catching a taxi to go home. And there are times when I have to fight the impulse to speak Spanish. Weird how that is. But I've caught myself a few times saying Spanish words when I'm trying to communicate with someone who speaks little or no English. I guess because I worked with a large Hispanic population back in the States, and only spoke either English or a little Spanish. So my mind registers "foreigner" as Hispanic. But then I quickly remember that Koreans don't speak Spanish, and that *I* am the foreigner here.