I did it.. I denied the lure of the new yarn and finished the baby bootees that I was knitting

Ok, I actually had one bootee already finished- I just didn't want to finish the other one. I found this pattern on the Internet. It was a little confusing in places and I was knitting it without a photo. I can't credit the person who created the pattern.. because, I did a 'copy/paste' of the pattern to my email and printed it up and when I did that.. the website address was missing. Live and learn.

The bootees go with the little lace knitted hat that I finished recently.


Here's a photo of one of the magpies that are found in abundance here.

Things that I like about Korea

So, to balance yesterday's blog entry.. here are some things that I like about Korea.
*In no particular order...

1. Kim Bop.. seaweed wrapped around sticky rice and veggies. Bulgogi and Yaki Man Do (the only Korean foods that I like)

2. The amazing, easy to use, cheap subway system.

3. Milkis.. a Korean soft drink. It's wonderful.

4. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

5. The markets.. such fun just exploring.

6. The flower markets.. Wondeful and cheap flowers..

7. My neighborhood. I live in a very nice, interesting area and only 1 1/2 blocks from the subway.

8. The amazing yarn market. My favorite place to shop.

9. All of the other stuff that you can also buy in the yarn/fabric building.

10. The DVD seller on my street.. who sells old classic American movies.

Pet Peeves about Korea..

(Photo download thingy on blogspot isn't working right now.. so, this will be a word only posting. Sorry.)

I am one of those people that basically likes every place that I've lived. I'm able to see the good in all the different locations. However, each place you live also has things that just 'bother you', 'get to you', or irate you. Since, I've almost lived here for 3 years- I'm beginning to notice a few things.

AKA.. David Letterman (except in no particular order)

1. The spitting on the sidewalk. So nasty and some people just hauk (I have no idea as to how to spell that word) up some big ones and just spit it out.

2. The constant horn honking. I am not kidding on this one. The light turns green, the intersection is blocked by a bus, 3 cars that went into the intersection AFTER their light turned red.. and they honk at you! Does honking the car make the light turn green? Does honking the car make the cars stuck in the intersection/etc.. suddenly have the ability to move forward- even though traffic is blocking their path?

I mean, what can I do? My car is an old car and doesn't have that magic button you press that elevates your car- (ala FLUBBER- and old Disney movie) so, the car floats above the 'problem' and out of the way so the car behind you can suddenly 'press' the magic button in their car. *I've always thought that the horns on Korean cars must be somehow attached to the brake.. press on the brakes.. your car honks.


3. The shoving and pushing. I sometimes have dreams of having a megaphone and the ability to speak Korean and yelling at the crowds going up and down the subway or any sidewalk. "Don't push, Don't shove, walk to the right, walk to the right."

4. The motorcycles that pass you on the left. *I think that you can understand this one without any more explanation, right?

5. The motorcycles driving on the sidewalks.. (this has improved since the first two times that I lived here.)

6. Cars that try to squeeze in front of you - when your car is the first car already in line waiting at the railroad crossing (or at other places).. but, yet.. suddenly.. other cars are nosing their way in front of your car.

7. The lack of trashcans in public places. I have carried soft drink cans or other pieces of temporary trash many subway stops until I get home to throw something away.

8. Lack of water fountains. *I just take my own water bottles with me when I'm out for more than an hour.

9. The crazy drivers. *I have lived in many different countries and they are pretty bad here.

10. CARS that DRIVE THROUGH RED LIGHTS 'just because' SOMEONE isn't currently walking across the street or they start driving when the person has already walked 1/2 across the street. THIS one really bothers me. I can't even think of how many times someone has almost hit me and the light was RED for the cars driving through the red light! One of the last times it happened, I just happened to have an umbrella in my hand as I was crossing the street and I kid you not.. it was purely by instinct.. I wasn't in control.. but, I hit the front of the car with my umbrella (the car was that close to hitting me) and then pointed up to the RED LIGHT! Hey, you don't have to speak each other's language to know what I was trying to say. :D

** And, my most 'disliked item?': THE EVIL YELLOW DUST from China. It causes respiratory problems and I really have trouble with it. It usually arrives in the spring time- but, last year and this year it started in January.

And.. this final one is just something that I miss.. I miss seeing land.. the outdoors, being able to just see nature w/out a city of 16 million being in the picture. I even find myself staring at the great outdoors featured in movies.

Don't get me wrong-- I like Korea very much.. but, I can tell it's time to go away for awhile.. to get a fresh outlook. Anyone want to send me their flight miles so I can go away on vacation?

Life's little joys..

Or how I 'most of the time' tend to see the glass half full..

1. On my way to work this morning, I got caught at the railroad tracks by the commuter train (it can arrive anytime in a 25 minute window). The big problem with getting stuck trying to merge into the 'side road- that leads to the main road' is that once you get on the side road.. you are immediately turning LEFT across 3 lanes of traffic and then you have to turn LEFT AGAIN within one half block to turn onto base property. Not easy and it is compounded even more by the train.. because, you now have a lot of cars in every direction that have been stalled by the train.. and the odds of there being a red light where you need to turn LEFT onto the 6 lane road are low.. and no matter what you now have TONS OF TRAFFIC in all five directions (there's another small road that merges into the 'side road') that have stalled by the train.. *WHICH is why my morning chant as I'm driving is.. "Let me in, LET ME IN!"

but guess what? A car actually immediately let me merge in.. (the unwritten rule of the road is that every other car lets another car merge in front of them.. but, this is Korea and it doesn't happen that much) and as soon as I got on the train tracks.. ready to turn left to CROSS 3 lanes of traffic.. the light turned RED so both lanes were stopped for me. THEN, as soon as I crossed those 3 lanes and got in the far left lane .. the light changed for me to turn LEFT onto base property!

2. My car did not die during all of this stopped traffic time... and part of my stopping is UPHILL.

3. The semester changed at our school two weeks ago and in one of my classes-- I had a boy.. how can I describe him? Oh, I'll give this example from the first day of class and you can decide what type of personality he has. The first day in art class, he kept being inappropriate in class- so, I took him in the hallway to have a little private chat with him and while doing so.. he actually said very sarcastically to me: "Are you FINISHED YET?" I told him that there was one more thing that I needed to do and took him to the office. I have him in art class every other day and yesterday.. he got a burr up his______ and something didn't go his way.. so, he refused to work and actually told me that if he got a bad grade.. 'it would be my fault!'

Well, I received an email today.. that the PRINCIPAL had changed his schedule.. he has been taken out of art class and put into SPANISH class! Oh happy day! And, it's fair.. because last semester-- I got two 'really beyond naughty' boys (to go along with the 5 others already in the class) that moved to my art class from Spanish- because they were 'failing and refused to do any work!' ALL of my classes were good - except for this one class that was full of children that made me feel sorry for and mad at the parents at the same time.. to allow their children to get that rude, disrespectful, defiant for that long.

4. I went to the commissary (our grocery store on base) and bought the toilet paper with the little embossed hearts for Valentine's Day.. (my birthday is the next day)

5. I stopped and got a cardboard box full of 5 kg of fresh from Cheju Island 'tangerines' from a guy selling them from the back of his truck on my street for only 3,000 won.. or about $3.75. The Korean tangerines taste so wonderful.. real tangerine-y. Reminds me of the kind that would be in my Christmas stocking when I was a kid.


And now.. I'm going to do some knitting and watch one of my movies on my new MEGA TV cable system.

Now, think about the little happy things that happened to you today and tell us about them.

The journey to MEGA TV...

.Well, it all started about 2 weeks ago.. when someone called my house and asked if I wanted to MEGA TV and 6,000 channels for only 8,000 won a month (about $9.50) and 3 free months.


Well, I thought.. SURE.. I'm no fool.. do I want more than 3 'sometimes in English' tv channels or do I want 6,000 channels? Especially, when she assured me in broken English that there were 'many channels' in English!


Of course, you can only imagine.. the broken conservation. The only Korean that I know is: HOW MUCH DOES THIS COST? and THANK YOU...
The only Enlish that she knew was: MEGA TV, 6,000 channels, 3 months free service.
Well, I happened to have my sweet adorable housegirl at my apartment when she called. So, there we were.. me.. w/nil to no Korean, my Korean housegirl with some English being used as the 'translator' with the Korean girl who had quite limited English (but, more than my Korean, I must add) trying to figure out what the deal was.. and when could we get the ENGINEER to come to my apartment.. to install this magic MEGA TV with 6,000 channels?


Meanwhile.. there was a scheduled ENGINEER appointment for the following day at 5pm. The girl on the telephone called several times to make sure I was going to be there and to let her know when the engineer got there.. and let's just say.. it was a broken conservation at best with just she and I on the phone. However, the bottom line was.. I finally discovered that the Engineer wouldn't be able to come that day- but, would come the following day.. Saturday.


Saturday came and went.. w/ no Engineer in sight. Later that afternoon the Engineer called me.. and asked me if I read or spoke Korean.. and I told him that I did not. So, he told me that the MEGA TV was only in Korean and he canceled the appointment and service.


So, Tuesday cames around.. and the girl on the phone called again.. and the best that I could get out it.. was she wanted to know why I had canceled. She couldn't understand what I was saying about the man calling and telling me that nothing was in English.. so, I told her that I would find someone to call her the next day.


Enter.. our school nurse. She speaks fluent English.. she called for me and we finally got all sorts of answers answered. I can get SOME CHANNELS in ENGLISH.. and another appointment was made and I am happy to report: that the ENGINEER just left my house..


and.. I now have MEGA TV BABY! Ok, I can get only the Movies, Disney, Documentaries, and some CSI episodes in English. But, it's more than my 1 USA MILITARY CHANNEL in ENglish.. (which we will be losing in the immediate future) and the 3 Korean channels that SOMETIMES show American movies in English with Korean subtitles. *But, I never even notice the subtitles anymore. Biggest problem here? NO tv guide. Not a channel on the local cable channel.. nothing comes in your Korean mailbox in the apartment building. NOTHING. I can't tell you how many movies I've only seen 20 minutes or so of in the past 2 years.


But, now.. I have MOVIES.. MOVIES.. MOVIES.. and again, everything on the screen is in Korean. *But, I had the ENGINEER go over it with me and I drew all kinds of little boxes on paper so, I can eventually after many clicks and selecting different areas, all written in Korean, find movies to watch. Now, the titles of the movies are all in KOREAN TOO. However, the MEGA TV operates like a DVD player. When you select a Korean movie title.. click on it.. and the movie starts from the beginning.. so, the process is a little longer to select a movie..
but.. I have MOVIES IN ENGLISH.... on my NEW MEGA TV cable system!


What a deal.. and pass the popcorn.
Excuse me while I grab some knitting and a mystery (as in: UNKNOWN movie) movie

By the way.. there are not 6,000 channels.. they have 6,000 programs available. Of course, my selection is way lower than that.. but, it's way more than I had before the MEGA TV entered my life 30 minutes ago.

PS.. I'm not sure what all the problems was to get someone to come to my apartment.. since, any other time that I've had to have any kind of repairman come to my apartment- they've always been very prompt. I think it was a classic case of 'mis-communication.' :D

The Groundhog and the Magpie saw their shadows

We don't have groundhogs here in Korea.. but, there are plenty of the big black and white birds called: MAGPIES

So, whenever I've lived here and taught in the elementary classroom... I'd teach my elementary students about the Groundhog event that happens in the states.. but, since we are so far away that the groundhog seeing or not seeing it's shadow wouldn't affect our weather, instead we would check to see if the MAGPIE bird would see it's shadow.

Here in Korea.. yesterday morning (Feburary 2 for us) was a cold, windy, and sunny day.. so, the MAGPIE did indeed see it's shadow.


I'll see if I can remember to take a photo of the big MAGPIE birds and insert the photo here, so you can see how big these birds are in real life. So, check back soon.

Speaking of birds, we have some tiny little brown birds that are in large groups on the ground and in the smaller trees in my apartment complex park areas.. so, I put some small pieces of yarn out on the ground for them yesterday to use as warm and soft nest building materials. I saved yarn scarps for my elementary students to put under trees when I teach on the elementary level.

Friday..

Last year, I taught 3rd grade. Here are 3 of my students 'signing' a sentence in American Sign Language. Whenever, I teach as a classroom teacher- I always teach my children the alphabet and about 200-300 words in ASL. They love it and it is very useful for visual direction cues.



Last year, I knitted 3 scarves that I donated to the RED SCARF PROJECT. This project is a program sponsored by the American Foster Agency and they asked for volunteers to knit or crochet scarves for college age students who had aged out of the FOSTER PROGRAM. One of the photos you can see the 3 scarves being held by my students on the front row. (By the way, this wasn't all of my students a few were absent that day.)

I had my students made 'pop up' encouragement cards in which they also offered 'education advice' to the college aged students. *I also have my students send 'pop-up holiday cards' to the soldiers in Iraq too. I had the sweetest class that I had ever taught last year.






Today, I was in my classroom and had just warmed up my lunch, when the principal came into my room to tell me that he had bad news. The school had just gotten word, that one of my former student's dad had just been killed in Iraq. I know that there is a war going on over there.. but, you just never expect it to happen to someone you know. Even if I am working on a military base in a foreign country.

Some of the dads, from last year, I never even met- because some were stationed at the DMZ and family members aren't allowed to live up there. This also enables their children living here in Seoul to attend our school on base.

However, this particular dad I had met several times. HE was so nice, humorous, and had grown up in a rural background the same as I had. On top of it all he was so good looking that it was difficult to look him in the eyes. However, he was the type of good-looking that wasn't even aware that he was handsome.. which just made him even better looking. His wife was adorable and as sweet as he was. They had two children. His son that was in my classroom and a three old daughter. My former student's dad was a Captain in the Army and a police officer for the military. Or an MP as we call them.

Korea is considered a REMOTE assignment. This means that most military personnel stationed here aren't allowed to bring their families- if they are married. If they come over here on a remote tour (married or single) their tour of duty is almost always only one year. However, if they bring their families they can stay two years and can get extended and stay three years. I'm not sure if you are aware of it or not- but, there is actually only a 'cease fire' declared between North and South Korea.

About two years ago, they started sending some of our military from Korea to Iraq. Samuel's dad was sent over there in late November or early December 2006. We sent messages to him from our class. IF they hadn't extended the tour of duty for those stationed in IRAQ.. he would have already served his year and would have been sent back here to Korea and as it was.. he only had a few weeks left before he would have returned to his family and the unthinkable happened. Kind of hard to believe that you can be stationed for a shorter amount of time in Korea.. than if you are in a warzone in Iraq. I think it should be the other way around for sure. Korea isn't quite the same as other assignments- there are a few dangers here.. but, come on.. no one should be stationed longer in a warzone than being stationed in Korea.


And now tonight, our military community from Yongsan Army Post in Seoul, South Korea, and two darling little children who haven't seen their dad in over a year and now never will, have lost one of our own.

So, look up and notice the sunrise or sunset today, be sure to be a little nicer to everyone today and tomorrow.

If you know anyone in the military.. say thank you to them and their family members and to all the civilians who work overseas doing their part for the military. Because, we are all a community serving.. even if only some are wearing the uniform.

Now, go back and look at the photos. In the first photo- look at the first little boy on the left. In the group photos.. he is in the back row and the third child from the left.