everything's just beachee...

Beachee, in case you were all wondering, is how Koreans pronounce beach. They don't do the whole lone consonant deal in the way they write words, and, as the "h" in beach follows a "c," a vowel has to follow the "h," thus beachee was born, and lunchee, and finishee (okay, finishee is because the kids can't remember that the word they want to use is actually finished and not finish), and orangee (but that's because the Korean word for orange kinda sounds like oraenchee). ANYWAYS, every English word seems to have an "ee" tacked on the end, maybe for good measure, maybe because they like messing with us. I've stopped correcting it for the most part, it's pointless, they just forget. I'm a bad Englishee teacher. You gotta pick your battles. At least the "ee" still allows the word to be understandable, and kind of makes it cute, I prefer to tackle the "r/l" and "p/f" interchangeability, because that is actually annoying and sometimes confusing. There's a huge difference between fox and pox.

Yesterday we had the day off school for the election.  Hurray!!! No more trucks driving around playing terrible songs set to the tune of English children's songs! No more dancing roadside ajummas! I was really getting sick of seeing the trucks with the loudspeakers bastardizing English children's songs on each street corner and crazy ajummas dancing along with the music. Or, might I say, swaying their hands around to the music. One of my Korean friends from school informed me that they actually make a decent amount of money doing the silly dances; we both considered going down to the office to sign up for it, but we were pretty sure you had to sign up a long time ago, and I didn't want to be the ridiculous foreigner that people aim for with their cars.

Anyways, Annie and I went to the beach, and Robyn and Brendan joined us for a while. Actually, we went to two beaches. We went to Manseongri, the black sand beach, which is actually just a darkly colored pebble beach. It sucks, and I never want to go there again. Best beach in Korea my ass. Either way, we stayed there for about an hour, and left when an ajumma bus drove up. Eighty ajummas literally got off the bus and immediately started burying each other in the sand. Apparently the Koreans believe the beach has some sort of mystical healing powers. All I know is, there's enough garbage and pollution on that beach to do the the exact opposite of what they're expecting.

Oh! And this old man carrying a fish walked up to us and started trying to talk to us. Of course, he only spoke in Korean, and we speak very little Korean, so it was an interesting time. He was really friendly, though, which is sometimes really rare in an ajoshee. Annie brought her dogs (Sailor Moon and Dirty Puppy) with her, and the ajoshee made the fish bite Sailor Moon, it was random and hilarious. The fish looked like a little shark. Anyways, all we could manage to decipher was that we think he wanted us to butcher the fish with him and drink soju. Random. That's Korea, though. Let's kill a fish and drink soju.

Koreans hate dogs, it's official. Some of them like them, but most are inexplicably afraid of them. Annie's dogs are tiny and adorable, and people still run and scream. A little girl even pretended to get bit by Annie's dog. It was ridiculous.

Anyways, the beach got too Korean-y for us (that sounds terrible, but ajummas can be really territorial and mean to young foreigners), so we decided to move down to Mosageum beach. When we were leaving, one ajoshee decided to point out that I'm ridiculously white, and then another pointed at my septum ring, yelled YEE!! (which means yes), and then pointed at Brendan and I, made a heart with his arms, and I think insisted that we date. To which I replied chingu, chingu!! (which means friends).

I love Mosageum beach. It's so beautiful, and here are some pictures to prove it:

It was beautiful outside, too, at least 22 degrees! There were quite a few Koreans there as well, but they were all younger, so they were fun Koreans, not the kind of Koreans that "accidentally" spit on you. We spent a couple of hours there, I got to try out my new mismatched bathing suit and go in the ocean. I've never been swimming in the ocean before! It was exciting! Even if I am afraid of sharks. I also got a horrible sunburn on my back, and, joy of joys, it's a random uneven splotchy sunburn. Ick. It's horrible, though. I can't even lift my arms up, and it hurts to shower. I put on so much sunscreen, but Korean sunscreen is sub par. Not impressed. I'm so burned I think my insides are burned, too.  Related to this, my sunburn has officially begun to blister... this is terrible!

Today we had class. Apparently I taught too many grade 6 classes this past week, and my last two got cancelled. I had to make up a bunch because we had yesterday off, but apparently we made up too many, and we got ahead of ourselves. It was odd. I was kind of sad not to teach 6-4 today, though. One of my favorite students is in that class, she's super smart and makes ridiculous faces at me all class because she knows I'll make them back at her. Fun times.

I accidentally picked my co-teacher's nose today, too. It was awkward. Serves me right for talking with my hands. She was bending down to pick something up as I was lifting my hands to make a shrugging expression at the kids and my finger went right up her nose, the kids thought it was great, her and I did not.

I also had to get her to yell at my after school class for me, today. They never listen to me and it was pissing me off, I got so frustrated I came back and told her that I couldn't teach them anymore, and three of the teachers went to go have a talk with the class. Either way, they started listening, but it still took me twenty minutes to do the first question with them because they hadn't been paying attention. And then they had the audacity to ask me for candy afterwards. So I told them that I wasn't going to give them candy, that they should be giving me candy. That, at least, got them to leave me alone.

Anywhoodles, I am now going to go figure out some way to nurse m poor sunburn, and probably make dinner and watch Sex and the City.

OH!  I am so excited for Sex and the City 2 to come out!!  Yes I am!  It doesn't come out here until June 10, and I have been watching wayyy too much Sex and the City in anticipation!  I downloaded all six seasons and the first movie and have been indulging myself in it ever since.  I never really got to watch the show all that much because my dad despises Sarah Jessica Parker, but I think she's fabulous and hilarious.  Either way, I've had a revelation while watching it... I used to think I was Charlotte, naiive and always on the lookout for Mr. Right, but I have apparently morphed into Carrie, relationship with Mr. Big and all.  I do not think I am happy with this.  It makes me put things into perspective when I watch it though, and I relate with her a lot, it's freakish, really.

Anyways, off to put away my laundry, make dinner, organize a bit, wash some shoes, and watch Sex and the City.

On a cute note to end this with, one of my kids in grade 4 yelled out "IT'S MY LATE!!!!" instead of "I'M LATE!!!!" during the role play we were doing.  Could these kids -get- anymore adorable?  Holy wow <3

Toodles!