February 2009
59 posts
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January 2009
72 posts
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I love that little kids are so gullible. My kindies weren’t fooled for a second by the Santa Claus at the Christmas party; yet, they believe Sakura is friends with Superman and I have a pet monkey in my apartment (whose name is Elena… coincidentally the same name as the girl who asked me about it).
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Gotta Make Sure You* Vegans Are in Check
inkorea:
lauraallover:
lizozoa:
If it’s an animal that can no longer survive on its own in nature, I have no problem eating it.
(read: cows)
Well, would you eat people with Alzheimer’s? And you do eat plenty of animals that can survive on their own in nature (eg, fish), so I don’t see why it makes a difference. Since you’re trying to justify it, maybe you secretly want to be a veg,...
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shinhan, ih8u
Today I walked into Woori Bank down the street, opened an account, got an ATM card, and online banking (which means I should be able to wire money home via the internet). I should have done this three months ago.
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gotta keep you omnivores in check
lizozoa:
If it’s an animal that can no longer survive on its own in nature, I have no problem eating it.
(read: cows)
Well, would you eat people with Alzheimer’s? And you do eat plenty of animals that can survive on their own in nature (eg, fish), so I don’t see why it makes a difference. Since you’re trying to justify it, maybe you secretly want to be a veg, hmmm? ;)
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After work, a few of us went and got food across the street. When we walked in, this super cute little girl got really excited to see us, and I thought for a minute she might have been one of our students. But no. She kept laughing and smiling and was talking to her parents, and we heard “Miguk?! Miguk?!” (Miguk = American). She was so excited to see foreigners. So cute.
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octopus prime
I’m not sure how I feel about English. The average person growing up speaking this language their whole life will make major grammatical errors on a regular basis. Since it’s my only native language, I don’t know if that’s the case in every language, but I’m guessing it’s more common in English. Teaching it has made me realize how ridiculously disorganized...
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someone forgot to put their brain in today
I found this article on CNN about the looming apocalypse in 2012.
“Theories about what might happen range from solar storms triggering volcano eruptions to a polar reversal that will make the Earth spin in the opposite direction.“
Seriously??? Why are people this desperate to give up rational thought because of some creepy doomsday obsession? Do we need to have some impending...
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and are puzzles posted on the ragbag?
ragbag:
indeed. here is one that is really elegant and not too hard to solve but very satisfying.
Mr. Scott, his sister, his son, and his daughter play tennis. The best player’s twin and the worst player are of opposite sex. The best player and the worst player are the same age. Which is the best player?
p.s. there are no tricks involved—(e.g.) mr. scott is actually a billiard ball and...
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I heard this song THREE times this weekend. The...
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leeum samsung museum of art
Here are the four measly pictures I got from our art museum day.
Garnet being a creep.
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I don’t understand why some of my clothes have been shrinking. I don’t have a dryer or any idea how to even turn on the hot water for my washing machine. Maybe eating kimchi makes your limbs grow longer?
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새해 복 많이 받으세요 !
My city is deaddd. By now, everyone has left the city to swindle money from their relatives in honor of the Lunar New Year.
Even Gimbap Heaven, my reliable 24/7 food stop was closed by the time I got home tonight at 8. I made sure to stop by the grocery store before they closed so I could get some essentials so I don’t starve tomorrow. My birthday/New Year menu will consist of: cereal,...
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Last night, I went out to Itaewon and Hongdae. I met up with Morgan and we ended up at a super ghetto bar that was basically Seoul’s version of CO’s but with more Koreans and the bros were replaced by Army guys (for those of you who didn’t go to Illinois, imagine your feet sticking to the floors, bathrooms without doors or toilet paper, the same 25 rap songs looping through...
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many pictures of cute asian children
We celebrated 설날 (pronounced “Sulnal” and known as Lunar New Year) in Kindie today. The kiddies wore their hanbok, and looked adorable.
We had a little assembly with all the other kids, and they practiced this bow thing they do to show respect for their elders on Sulnal. My older kids had tried to explain it to me before, but all I got from it was, “we bow like this, then...
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inkorea:
lauraallover:
The girl K-Pop groups are awful. Here is 카라 (Kara) demonstrating several things I find annoying about Korean girls: orange hair, always wearing fake eyelashes, sporting shorts (and no tights) regardless of the weather, and ridiculous headgear.
Laura is just venting because I partied with all of these girls last weekend and they all fell in love with me while the ugly guy...
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Three days later, I’ve finally looked at some of the inauguration stuff. I love that so many Americans actually care about our president and finally have some hope. Here are some pictures from the Boston Globe that I liked.
So many people everywhere.
I definitely cried watching them dance, ha.
He even made the front page here. It amazes me how interested people were...
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WatchDedicated to Morgan.
33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names →
The first thing I thought of when I saw this link: aglet.
The first word on the list: aglet.
For some reason, I will always remember the time my dad taught me that word.
(via wordjournal)
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Flight of the Conchords and the L Word just...
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“Me baby a chicken! Me baby a chicken!”
– De-Konglished this means: My baby brother/sister is a chicken.
The kindies are learning about the Lunar New Year stuff, so I asked them what year they were born in and then told them I was a Tiger. This led to them telling me which year all their family members were born in, including many kids...
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“Budging, cheating, nosy, pushy, flirting, “chill out,” ‘tude...”
– Applicable words and phrases that I’ve taught my kids recently. This says a lot about some of them.
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These are all facebook statuses of friends who are teachers. The first two are people I work with in Korea, and the last one is someone who’s doing a teaching program like Teach for America. Note how trivial our complaints are compared to the last one. I can’t imagine how different it would be to teach American kids. We have it sooo easy here. Although, cleaning up vomit is...
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I often wonder if we really ARE living in the...
(via lizozoa)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat
Maybe we are…
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Without fail, the first two questions I get asked here:
1. Where are you from?
2. How old are you?
Age is super important here since Confucianism is a big part of Korean culture. Even being only a few months older than someone gives you a slightly higher status in your social circle. I heard that the Korean teachers at my school got pissed at one girl for talking too much at a language...
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i'm hilarious. don't you forget that.
Every Korean guy I meet: Where you from?
Me: America. Where are youuu from?
Every Korean guy I meet: Hahahahahahahaha I'm from Korea!
Funnily enough, Sakura also uses that line. Charms them every time.
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inkorea:
“fun fact: there are no tampons in korea.”
—
morgan. oh. no. (via coffeeandacasio)
::sorry ladies, it’s true.
It is true as far as I know. But for any girls who want to come to Korea: they pack really easily… so no worries.
I love Korean heating (called ondol). My apartment heats up from water pipes under the floor, so it’s efficient and keeps all the clothes scattered on my floor warm for when I decide to rewear something.
But it sucks when I come home at night freezing, crank it, only to wake up sweating and practically burn my feet when I get up to turn it down.
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korean kids
Me: What is your favorite invention?
Lisa: Kimchi refrigerator!
[many families have a big fridge reserved just for kimchi]
Me: If you could do anything to make it better, what would you do?
Lisa: Make it bigger!
Then in another class.
Me: What are some of your personal records? Like, how many pieces of pizza have you eaten at one time?
Mary: Three.
Frank: Three.
Etc.
Me: I had FIVE last night. [It's true]
Class: (screams)
Me: What are some other records?
Toby: I've played computer games for 12 hours.
Michael: I've studied for 12 hours.
Pretty much sums up what boys this age do: computer games and homework.
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inkorea:
Korean Maroon 5 in the 7-11
It’s...
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Before I came to Korea, I loled through all the pages of pictures posted on the “interesting observations of a foreigner in korea” facebook group. I haven’t looked at it since coming here, so I decided to check it out. Still funny, but only because I’ve witnessed all of it firsthand. So here are some examples of Korean weirdness that I would like to share, but...
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Oh. My. God.
lizozoa:
Valentine’s Day is now less than a month away. FJUCK ASDIOUWEGPIWQEBMSFIOHURW NOOOO!
And then, one month later is White Day.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhh… Korea loves couples.
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konglish
In one of my MWF classes today, a student asked me if I watch dramas.
Me: Yeah! Coffee Prince...
Class: Ahhh!
Me: and I also like Full House.*
Class: [blank stares]
Me: Uh.. Pool Hah-wu-suh.
Class: Ahhh!
*After an email from my mom I feel compelled to add that this is not the 90s laugh-track fest featuring that guy who dated Alanis Morissette. It's a Korean drama starring Rain (a K-Pop star who sports a filthy mullet--coincidentally similar to Uncle Jesse's?), and it's both incredibly charming and completely stupid, not unlike the show that you were probably thinking of.
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inkorea:
This is my gay Korean voice.
...
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ragbag:
maluma or takete?
if you are not deranged in the head, then you think that the maluma is the round one. more here.
95% to 98% picked the curvy shape as [maluma] and the jagged one as [takete], suggesting that the human brain is somehow able to extract abstract properties from the shapes and sounds.
says raynor, “this is spooky.”
[The picture wouldn’t reblog, so just click on...
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