Anesthesia - Thursday Nov. 8, 2007

I’m still confused by the morning English Zone process. I’m supposed to be helping in the mornings, but I’m never quite sure what exactly that help is supposed to entail. This month, I’m supposed to communicate with students on the phone.

Classes went well today! My first class was kind of crazy, but that class always is. Plus, the teacher didn’t come today. I haven’t seen him since he told me that he was having some heart problems last week. I kind of developed my lesson even more while I was actually teaching it. I told the students that we would do the same activity next week and the table that finishes first will get candy.

My host mom came in to help in the English Village after lunch today. She was going to give me a ride to Julie’s, but I called Julie and she delayed the time. So, I just ended up taking a taxi. BTW…Korean language is a funny thing at times. You have to get the pronunciation perfect or many people don’t understand. Ex. In Chuncheon, during orientation, one ETA was trying to get to E-Mart. He said “E-mart ga chusaeyo.” Correct sentence, but the taxi driver didn’t understand until he said “E-marteu.” It’s a slight pronunciation change, but nonetheless a needed one. Today, when I got in the taxi I guess I said, “Keojang aparteu” instead of “Keochang aparteu” and the taxi driver had no idea what I was talking about for about 15 seconds. It clicked and he apologized; he didn’t need to apologize. He was really nice; he offered me a piece of gum too. Unlike in America, you don’t have to be uber worried about taking gum from strangers in Korea.

I did take gum from a stranger when I was younger. I was like 6. What did I know?! We used to stay at a chalet at Lake Michigan, and we always stayed next to the same family, so we were friends. Well, one of the daughters told on me for taking gum from a stranger, and I got yelled at by both their parents and my mom!

Julie and I talked about her job interview and apparently it went well. She might take a job near Seoul in about two weeks. She’s still confused and doesn’t know for sure what she wants to do. I know she won’t be happy if she continues to teach, so I’m trying to convince her that it might be a good idea to try something new. She has a good plan of trying it for a few months, and if it doesn’t work out, she can always come back.

I also got a call from Mr. Haw while I was there. He asked me to teach his English class from now on. He has to have surgery. I didn't completely understand the situation, but he has an unregulated heart beat. I thought he said something about operating on his leg, so I'm a little confused. I said that I would take over the class, which just means that I teach two 40 minute classes on Fridays instead of one. I really hope he's going to be okay!

I headed home around 5:30PM. My host mom and host sis got home minutes after I did with bags of Pepero. Let me explain. Pepero is like a stick biscuit with 3/4 covered in chocolate. If you know what Pocky is, it's the exact same thing except Koreanized. Well, November 11th is Pepero Day; created by the candy company, but something fun for children. So, they chose 11-11 (November 11), because it looks like sticks [of Pepero]. Since Sunday is a weekend day, most children are celebrating Pepero Day at school on Friday. I had wanted to get some as well, so my host mom took my host sis and me out to GS Mart. They were having a sale on a new style. 4 for 1,000 Won (4 for $1), which is super cheap! So, I bought a box of 32. I'm going to give them to the children at the orphanage, a few teachers, and my host sibs. I told my host sis that I wasn't giving any to her...just messing with her. She fake pouted for a bit and got over it. I told my host mom that I wasn't going to tell her that I was giving her some! It's supposed to be a surprise! LOL! 경찬 (Kyeongchan - my host sis) already told me that she's giving me Pepero on Sunday. Gotta love her!

I watched a few episodes of Alex Mac (yah, you know you love it!) on my computer after we got back. I just hung out until 10:00PM; that's when I was meeting Julie, Howl, and Jia to go to a coffee shop. My host father got home about 15 minutes before I left. I barely see him anymore. My host mom was joking around about how she hates night owls, because she never sees her husband anymore and I was going out tonight. She was just joking though! I really like my host mom!! She's such an amazing woman!

Howl, Julie, Jia, and I went to a really adorable coffee shop! Unfortunately, I will never be able to find it again unless I go with them again!^^ There was a beautiful place to sit outside, and inside there were red velvety booths with art everywhere! We sat around and talked for about 2 hours. It's a little frustrating at times, because even though they can all speak English quite well, they spoke in Korean. When Howl and Jia would try to switch over to English for my benefit, Julie (my friend and tutor) would always answer in Korean. She overestimates my ability to understand Korean, even though I've tried to explain that I don't really understand that much. She told Howl when I got in the car that I can understand 90% of Korean language! Are you kidding me?! I've been in Korea for 4 months with no prior Korean language background! She has a lot of confidence in me, though, which is super awesome of her!

I taught them the meaning of sketchy, and they tried to teach me the meaning of "oily." Apparently when someone is too much of a smooth talker, they are oily. Also a guy who keeps more than one or two buttons open on their shirt is "oily"; they used Ricky Martin as an example. The closest to the meaning I could get was sketchy; I know there's a word, but I couldn't think of it. Help me out!

I got home around 12:00, and my host mom was up watching a Korean movie; she helped explain it to me. This movie was crazy messed up. In English, it is called "Anesthesia." It is about a doctor who has to operate on his wife, because she is mysteriously ill after being stung by a bee. So, he cuts her open and finds a stone in her. She ended up coding on the table, and she died. Later, he finds a letter that explains that it was all about revenge. He gets a note explaining the whole thing. His best doctor friend released a few bees in front of the doctor's wife while she was sitting in the park and then injected her with something to knock her out. He then injected something into her stomach to create the stone. During her operation, the anesthesia wasn't administered, but she was paralized for some reason. So, she felt every bit of the surgery and went into shock and died because of it. ISN'T THAT SICK!! Think about it! All of this because he was operated on by his father and uncle when he was younger without anesthesia, hence the revenge. There's some random guy in all of this as well; I don't know who he is exactly, but he's helping the doctor figure everything out. He goes to catch the other doctor who committed all of the crimes and found the psychologist tied up. This random guy chased the doctor and the doctor ended up falling to his death. Oh, by the way, the doctor whose wife died, tried to kill himself out of guilt, but failed. So, while in the hospital, the psychologist that is supposed to be his friend turns out to be the actual murderer; he set the other doctor up. Whoa! Story twist! The random guy, who was on his way to jail for murdering the other doctor, managed to break out of the car and save the doctor who was about to be murdered in the hospital. The psychologist dies in a really sick way, too. He has a freaking long needle shoved ALL the way into his neck. YUCK! It was really nice of my host mom to translate for me though. She's super awesome!