What's up with Jo?

Look at what I can do!!!!

2008-02-21T02:33:00.000-08:00

조하나 우마나

My name in Korean!

You can ring my bell.

2008-02-14T08:07:00.001-08:00

Hanging out with Mr. Boar.

Andrew asked if we could take a picture of the girl in her hanbok.

Gyeongju Temple: "Bulguksa"

Busan Temple: "Beomosa"

I witnessed the night Namdaemun Gate caught on fire.

This was the first thing I saw in Seoul, it's really sad to see it gone.

Teacher An-dae-roo

Bulguksa

Drum Ceremony @ Busan National Museum

Temples & Bells -- Bulguksa

You can ring my bell, originally uploaded by J.Umana.

I'm such a good tourist: camera around my neck, fully loaded backpack, peace sign in picture & a historical bell.

Insomnia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

So I can't sleep without the help of a sleeping pill and since I lost them on my vacation I haven't been sleeping much.

I don't think I look too sleep deprived, but today my student interrupts the class to say: "Teacher...You....Many, many dark circles."

All the kids laughed at me. It was great.

Overusing the word Fancy... Picture update

2008-01-31T01:58:00.001-08:00

Drinking Tea at a Fancy Tea Shop

Act Natural...

"Movie Sets"

Fancy Coffee & Sylvia Plath

The New & The Old

Hella People on the Metro

Fancy Bathroom Views

Overusing the word 'Fancy', originally uploaded by J.Umana.

This was a fancy bar in Hongdae.

Korean Pads.

2008-01-28T07:03:00.000-08:00

Pad commercials in Korea are weird.

1) A girl bumps into another girl. Girl #1 rubs her arm and looks off into the distance. The scene then cuts to a pad.
- So does that mean that whenever I bump into a girl I should be getting a free pad? Or do I owe her one? Or should i just be thinking about pads?

2) A group of girls are painting a room, having a good time laughing. Then we see a table with a bag of pads on it. Then back to the group of girls with 3:15 over them.
- 3:15 that's what time they all get their period? They can wear the pad for 3 hours and 15 minutes. I don't know about the 3:15? Any guesses?

3) A little wooden spoon is sprinkling what seems like green tea over some flat papery surface and then they dissolve. Cool effect right? This happens many times. Apparently the green tea has been absorbed into a pad.
- I don't know about you, but I'm not sure of green tea is suppose to be down there.

Japanese Toilet Training for Kids

2008-01-25T01:07:00.001-08:00

Best way to learn to use the bathroom.

My favorite part? The dancing poo poo.

Enjoy.

She's so cute...

2008-01-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

I was making some coffee in the teachers' lounge, I look over to John's desk and I noticed he had a framed picture of a little girl. I thought to myself-- he's pretty young to have children--so I walked over to take a closer look. I didn't need to walk too far to realize that it was an empty frame and that the little girl in the picture is the one that comes with the frame.

The bottom right corner of the frame reads:

Precious Moments
MONART
10 x 15cm

I couldn't agree more.... it was a moment.

Remember SARS?

2008-01-10T21:01:00.001-08:00

"Hi Seoul - Soul of Asia"

Plant Family

Winter Walk

Underground Mall

Gate #2

Out exploring.

My teddy bear hat.

Remember SARS?, originally uploaded by J.Umana.

I really wanted a face mask and finally got one.
I wear it at home while I knit.
The yellow pillow is "kitty".... isn't it cute?

The power of sharades.

2008-01-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

So my (lazy) right eye has been acting up--limiting my vision and giving me monster headaches. So I decided I needed to get an eye exam. But how to do that when my knowledge of Korean is greetings, apologies and the word delicious.
So when one of my classes was being lazy and didn't want to do their work I made one of my students write down what was happening with my eye, (while the other student wrote down Korean bad words---but that's another story).
I get to the optometrist, hand him my note and he brings me to the exam room. I sit there, he adjusts all that crazy machinery and I stare at a screen with numbers on it. With hand gestures: holding up fingers according to the number on the screen, a waving index finger for "no" and thumbs up for "yes/good" we were able to find a better prescription.
He punched the old lenses out and put in the new ones and in about fifteen minutes the world became clear again.
I wasn't mentally ready to pick out new frames; it's always such a process, maybe later in the year.

Cheers!

To a year full of adventures.

2008-01-01T01:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year y'all.

[It's a leap year, woo]

The Christmas House

2007-12-23T20:58:00.001-08:00

The Christmas House, originally uploaded by J.Umana.

[A year ago today was my last day in Paris.
This year I'm in South Korea.
Life's pretty crazy.]

Since I live in the future it is already Christmas eve.

It doesn't feel like Christmas here, but it's okay because I don't really like holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to y'all!

Let me know what you got as presents.

Cheers!

bus rides, walks around town, restaurants.

2007-12-21T01:16:00.000-08:00

This might sound creepy, but I really miss being able to eavesdrop.

Updates

2007-12-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

1)Weirdest thing I've had to do for someone today: Brush their teeth.
That someone: Andrew.
Reason: Right arm in a cast, Left arm minimal movement.

2) My school got us business cards: I wrote out all my information and somehow they still managed to misspell my name. It's okay--I don't have anyone to give them to anyway.

3) My favorite things about Korean apartments:
- Laundry Closets
- The bathroom: the room itself doubles as the shower
- Doorbells with a camera and speaker -- Inside the phone has a small screen so I can see who's at the door and pick up the receiver to chat
- Heated floors

4) I have bad luck with electronics: My camera and my iPod both broke in the same week

5) Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You": it's following me around. It's like that one time Peter Griffin wanted music to play every time he walked, except mine isn't a cool melody it's a shitty Mariah Carey song.

Snowy Friday

2007-12-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

Best treat ever!!

First time I've seen it snow. I was super excited.

Street Food

2007-12-10T07:21:00.001-08:00

You can find street food vendors on almost every corner. They put everything on a stick.

Feeling Crazy @ Coffee:

Shinsegae Building

2007-12-09T20:44:00.001-08:00

I just wanted to see if I could do this.

Here's a little video.

I'll post some more pictures and videos soon.

Cultural Differences?

2007-12-07T02:55:00.000-08:00

I wasn't sure if i was going to tell anyone this story, but I told Nicole and she insisted I blog about it.

Let me begin by saying that the women here are totally okay with nakedness (maybe women in the states are too and I'm the only person who isn't), but the ladies just stand around the locker room doing their hair and make-up completely naked.

Anyway, the first night we went to the gym I'm in the locker room getting changed and a lady comes out of the shower, I can see her looking at me in the mirror, and I didn't think much of it because everyone stares here. She was looking a little too much for my comfort so i decided to say my best Korean hello. What I wasn't expecting was for her to begin a Korean conversation.

I panicked and I started freaking out---Korean naked lady talking to me, I don't know what to say. My hands began to drip sweat, so I blurted out "English Only," which I realized was hella rude, but she giggles while pointing at me and says "very beautiful," followed by a wink.
I got nervous, because I wasn't sure what the wink implied. Is that just the way things are done here? Must you wink after you compliment someone? I wasn't sure if she was being nice or if she was implying something else. I stood there for a second.
Then more naked ladies walk up to the surrounding lockers. I started feeling claustrophobic and I quickly mumbled the only other words I know in Korean, "Thank you" and ran out.

I didn't tell Andrew what happened, because he would have pointed out that it wasn't a big deal. And it probably wasn't, but you know how awkward I am sometimes. And I freak out a lot. And it really was just a locker room experience I didn't want to have.

[Note to self: Avoid communication with naked ladies.]

Bean Sprouts

2007-12-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

If you ever find yourself in South Korea working at a hagwon, here is something you should avoid:
-Eating raw bean sprouts.

My new obsession

2007-12-04T18:44:00.000-08:00

I have really long breaks at work and I thought I had done everything that could be done until i found: http://www.freerice.com

I love it.

The Korean Apartment

2007-12-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

Not the apartment, but the walk to work

The Bedroom: My bed has the red pillows and Arthur.

Yes, I brought my teddy bear to Korea

Rice Cooking/Eating: It is all I eat, it is ma-shee-suh-yo

Andrew getting ready for work

Our Kitchen/Dinning Room/Living Room

-Our Cozy Apartment

Yongsan Station

2007-12-02T03:48:00.001-08:00

Yongsan Station, originally uploaded by J.Umana.

I made a blog!

I'll post pictures and stories as often as possible.

This is a picture of Yongsan Station. It is the 1st thing I see when I walk out of the Dragon Hill Spa: which is where we sleep on our weekend outings in the big city.

I'll take some pictures of the apartment soon.

Cheers.

Seoul Gate

2007-11-29T19:57:00.001-08:00

Seoul Gate, originally uploaded by J.Umana.

My first full day in Korea.