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bluelovesorangeI found the two months worth of pictures that I thought I'd accidentally deleted - they were on my netbook instead of my port. harddrive, and after looking through the pictures - I think it was the memory of what I thought had lost that was more dear to me than the actual pictures. The photographs are all ordinary snapshots - what I ate, my new (well, worn in now) blue chucks, the housewarming/Congratulations! You've survived 4 months and haven't had a total nervous breakdown cake, and mostly always of places and things. I don't take a lot of photographs of people and it's not that I'm a self-hating hermit who wanders out from her cave to send the occasional postcard - well, not always.
It always happens, I have these long rambling travelogues planned out and then when I have free time, I end up eating ice cream and watching youtube videos. When I'm away from the children, and on my free time, my life here in South Korea is not that dissimilar from how I was living in California. Which is....not bad, but not exactly great, I think. I left because I wanted to go on adventures, to change, to learn - and while I've learned that my tolerance for bureaucratic bullshit is remarkably high if there's a language barrier involved, I don't know if I've really changed. I am always my worst critic however, so take this with a grain of salt.
A Saturday ago, A and I were trotted out as the foreign teachers for an official meet and greet. After surveying the other schools (all part of the same franchise I work for, except that they teach more advanced students) our Korean head teacher turned to us and said "A is the best looking foreign male teacher here."
Which made me laugh a little bit inside, because A and KHT have a very fraught relationship, but in being proud of our school stakes, she at least stuck on the home team. And A is an attractive guy - 6 feet and up, slender but not emohipster skinny, and redheaded. I would never tell him this though as he's 23 and he doesn't need the extra inflation of his ego (and yeah, he can be a cocky bastard).
It was mostly the show off your foreign teacher dog and pony show - there were no impromptu grammar lessons on the spot (thank god) but there was a lot of cheery smiling and saying "Hi!" in a loud voice to prospective clients. We passed out fliers with tropical colored pens attached.
During a quiet moment, KHT pulled me aside, and much like her statement about A, told me 'you have gotten much more beautiful' and I was wearing my headphones (my defacto uniform when I'm not in the classroom is - headphones, clothing, comfortable shoes) and I didn't think I heard her correctly, so I asked her to repeat herself. She tried again, as if unsure of the right English word, and said the same thing. I thanked her - I'm terrible at this sort of compliment - I can take compliments and I can give them, but when it comes to explicitly stating things about my physical appearance from strangers, I don't know how to respond. I have never been the beautiful girl (and this is not fishing for compliments, so please don't) - I've had moments when I'm pretty or cute, but usually, I'm the funny, quietly scathing one. Or the judgmentalover-thinkingclever analytic one. Or you know, empress of all that is awesome. I should really get those business cards made up.....
It was just so unexpected.
Getting the internet is probably the third greatest thing that has happened to me since moving here, and as hyperbolic as that sounds - the speed, man. Things that used to take me hours or even days to download on my DSL connection - can happen in a matter of minutes. And this is all on a non-contract, 36,000 ₩ per month. That still kind of blows my mind.
So prior to moving and after - I had been catching up on the Golden Girls (Why some people culture meme and think of themselves in terms of the Sex and the City Girls when the Golden Girls are so much more hilarious and interesting, I don't know) and finishing Cinderella's Sister & Shinzanmono, my two Asian dramas of last season. I also watched Jotei Kaoruko: Electric Ginza Boogaloo and Hard to say I love you: aka the Twitter Drama and I'm never watching another Eriko Kitagawa drama. This season I'm watching Moyashimon (Horrible Fansubs provide/rip the subs that dramafever.com uses in their simulcast) because Nakamura Yuichi was in both Twitter and Jotei Kaoruko and while both dramas had their failboat moments - he was usually far from the fail fray. Well, mostly because his subplot in JK was secondary to the stupid relationship bullshit that went down with Juri Ueno and Eita's characters, and in JK, he was the 'romantic lead' and that meant...well, JK was a very special drama. It was gloriously trashy and terrible in the best way. Midnight TV, man. I'm also watching Hotaru no Hikari season 2 - I didn't watch the first season, but seeing how much I'm loving the 2nd season, and how much the secondary OTP is made of amazing win forever and ever, I may have to rectify that.
Cinderella's Sister probably had the best first four episodes of a drama I had seen - the arc was strong and clear and the characters were compelling, and the acting - amazing. Much like when jdramas get everything right, and it's untouchable - when kdrama brings the A-game, watch out. Absolutely something that Western tv viewers would be comfortable watching.
Then it suffered the inevitable kdrama fatigue of having too many episodes and characters kept on regressing and the plotline meandered to somewhere where points go to die and while the acting remained amazing, it was not enough to save the dragginess of the latter half. Cinderella's sister is a drama you need to marathon, one after another, to get the bitter and the sweet together and save yourself the frustration of waiting.
I really like this music video tie in the drama did of their insert song - too bad the actual drama didn't turn out this way:
Then there is Shinzanmono, a delight and a must-watch. It stars Abe Hiroshi as an eccentric police detective and Mizobata Junpei as his put upon cousin (!) and fellow detective as they try to figure out the truth behind a murder in the Ningyo-cho ward of Tokyo. It's one case spread out over 10 episodes and the little twists and turns and red herrings and brief character studies of the residents of Ningyo-cho and the caliber of the guests - TBS created a gem of a cozy mystery adaptation. I was kept guessing to who the real murderer was right up in the end and I was always waiting for the subs to come out to satisfy my curiosity - though I did watch eps RAW, I was just so impatient.
Meisa Kuroki and Osamu Mukai are also featured in Shinzanmono, so there's a lot of pretty in this drama - and plot, and story, and good acting and writing, so already four more reasons to watch this instead of another Fuji trendy drama. Because frankly, Fuji's getsu/trend/modern dramas have tended to suck for a while now - after you get over the oooooh pretty factor. Beautiful cinematography can't rescue pedestrian and lackluster writing. NTV, TV Asahi (and now TBS) have been doing much more interesting work than the big F, I think.
Not that the other channels don't have their flaws and similar failings in which dramas they produce and air - but Fuji is the biggest offender, I think. Fuji dramas always make a big splash but then something happens and it all peters out to a big meh. Also, I have never forgiven Fuji for the launching of Yamashita Tomohisa as big romantic getsu savior/hearthrob actor and ruining his hair and (forgive me if I sound like a particularly venomous or bitter ex-girlfriend, but the Yamalame has gotten to me) inflicting dead fish eyes on us for consecutive seasons. I mean, yes, the Kurosagi movie needs to DIAF as well, but seriously, Fuji. You are on fucking notice.
To wrap this all up - tangents! so many!
I'm currently obsessed with Mad Soul Child's theme for Won Bin's film Ahjussi, Stars' album The Five Ghosts, the Clash' Straight to Hell (yes, still), and watching the collected works of Takeshi Kaneshiro and Wong Kar Wai, Joseph Gordon Levitt (Rewatched 500 days of summer - liked it less the second time around, still loved the dance sequence, have Brick and Mysterious Skin to catch) and I finally saw some of True Blood (they're airing it in Korea, and I also just dled some eps)...yeah, I really like the theme song, but the crazy, it burns - in a might give me syphilis way. I enjoyed the books when I read them, but I think the tv adaptation and I will just have to be strangers.
I bought two pairs of flats and the first book in the Girl trilogy by Steig Larsson off of Gmarket the other day - not bad for being still functionally illiterate.
It always happens, I have these long rambling travelogues planned out and then when I have free time, I end up eating ice cream and watching youtube videos. When I'm away from the children, and on my free time, my life here in South Korea is not that dissimilar from how I was living in California. Which is....not bad, but not exactly great, I think. I left because I wanted to go on adventures, to change, to learn - and while I've learned that my tolerance for bureaucratic bullshit is remarkably high if there's a language barrier involved, I don't know if I've really changed. I am always my worst critic however, so take this with a grain of salt.
A Saturday ago, A and I were trotted out as the foreign teachers for an official meet and greet. After surveying the other schools (all part of the same franchise I work for, except that they teach more advanced students) our Korean head teacher turned to us and said "A is the best looking foreign male teacher here."
Which made me laugh a little bit inside, because A and KHT have a very fraught relationship, but in being proud of our school stakes, she at least stuck on the home team. And A is an attractive guy - 6 feet and up, slender but not emohipster skinny, and redheaded. I would never tell him this though as he's 23 and he doesn't need the extra inflation of his ego (and yeah, he can be a cocky bastard).
It was mostly the show off your foreign teacher dog and pony show - there were no impromptu grammar lessons on the spot (thank god) but there was a lot of cheery smiling and saying "Hi!" in a loud voice to prospective clients. We passed out fliers with tropical colored pens attached.
During a quiet moment, KHT pulled me aside, and much like her statement about A, told me 'you have gotten much more beautiful' and I was wearing my headphones (my defacto uniform when I'm not in the classroom is - headphones, clothing, comfortable shoes) and I didn't think I heard her correctly, so I asked her to repeat herself. She tried again, as if unsure of the right English word, and said the same thing. I thanked her - I'm terrible at this sort of compliment - I can take compliments and I can give them, but when it comes to explicitly stating things about my physical appearance from strangers, I don't know how to respond. I have never been the beautiful girl (and this is not fishing for compliments, so please don't) - I've had moments when I'm pretty or cute, but usually, I'm the funny, quietly scathing one. Or the judgmental
It was just so unexpected.
Getting the internet is probably the third greatest thing that has happened to me since moving here, and as hyperbolic as that sounds - the speed, man. Things that used to take me hours or even days to download on my DSL connection - can happen in a matter of minutes. And this is all on a non-contract, 36,000 ₩ per month. That still kind of blows my mind.
So prior to moving and after - I had been catching up on the Golden Girls (Why some people culture meme and think of themselves in terms of the Sex and the City Girls when the Golden Girls are so much more hilarious and interesting, I don't know) and finishing Cinderella's Sister & Shinzanmono, my two Asian dramas of last season. I also watched Jotei Kaoruko: Electric Ginza Boogaloo and Hard to say I love you: aka the Twitter Drama and I'm never watching another Eriko Kitagawa drama. This season I'm watching Moyashimon (Horrible Fansubs provide/rip the subs that dramafever.com uses in their simulcast) because Nakamura Yuichi was in both Twitter and Jotei Kaoruko and while both dramas had their failboat moments - he was usually far from the fail fray. Well, mostly because his subplot in JK was secondary to the stupid relationship bullshit that went down with Juri Ueno and Eita's characters, and in JK, he was the 'romantic lead' and that meant...well, JK was a very special drama. It was gloriously trashy and terrible in the best way. Midnight TV, man. I'm also watching Hotaru no Hikari season 2 - I didn't watch the first season, but seeing how much I'm loving the 2nd season, and how much the secondary OTP is made of amazing win forever and ever, I may have to rectify that.
Cinderella's Sister probably had the best first four episodes of a drama I had seen - the arc was strong and clear and the characters were compelling, and the acting - amazing. Much like when jdramas get everything right, and it's untouchable - when kdrama brings the A-game, watch out. Absolutely something that Western tv viewers would be comfortable watching.
Then it suffered the inevitable kdrama fatigue of having too many episodes and characters kept on regressing and the plotline meandered to somewhere where points go to die and while the acting remained amazing, it was not enough to save the dragginess of the latter half. Cinderella's sister is a drama you need to marathon, one after another, to get the bitter and the sweet together and save yourself the frustration of waiting.
I really like this music video tie in the drama did of their insert song - too bad the actual drama didn't turn out this way:
Then there is Shinzanmono, a delight and a must-watch. It stars Abe Hiroshi as an eccentric police detective and Mizobata Junpei as his put upon cousin (!) and fellow detective as they try to figure out the truth behind a murder in the Ningyo-cho ward of Tokyo. It's one case spread out over 10 episodes and the little twists and turns and red herrings and brief character studies of the residents of Ningyo-cho and the caliber of the guests - TBS created a gem of a cozy mystery adaptation. I was kept guessing to who the real murderer was right up in the end and I was always waiting for the subs to come out to satisfy my curiosity - though I did watch eps RAW, I was just so impatient.
Meisa Kuroki and Osamu Mukai are also featured in Shinzanmono, so there's a lot of pretty in this drama - and plot, and story, and good acting and writing, so already four more reasons to watch this instead of another Fuji trendy drama. Because frankly, Fuji's getsu/trend/modern dramas have tended to suck for a while now - after you get over the oooooh pretty factor. Beautiful cinematography can't rescue pedestrian and lackluster writing. NTV, TV Asahi (and now TBS) have been doing much more interesting work than the big F, I think.
Not that the other channels don't have their flaws and similar failings in which dramas they produce and air - but Fuji is the biggest offender, I think. Fuji dramas always make a big splash but then something happens and it all peters out to a big meh. Also, I have never forgiven Fuji for the launching of Yamashita Tomohisa as big romantic getsu savior/hearthrob actor and ruining his hair and (forgive me if I sound like a particularly venomous or bitter ex-girlfriend, but the Yamalame has gotten to me) inflicting dead fish eyes on us for consecutive seasons. I mean, yes, the Kurosagi movie needs to DIAF as well, but seriously, Fuji. You are on fucking notice.
To wrap this all up - tangents! so many!
I'm currently obsessed with Mad Soul Child's theme for Won Bin's film Ahjussi, Stars' album The Five Ghosts, the Clash' Straight to Hell (yes, still), and watching the collected works of Takeshi Kaneshiro and Wong Kar Wai, Joseph Gordon Levitt (Rewatched 500 days of summer - liked it less the second time around, still loved the dance sequence, have Brick and Mysterious Skin to catch) and I finally saw some of True Blood (they're airing it in Korea, and I also just dled some eps)...yeah, I really like the theme song, but the crazy, it burns - in a might give me syphilis way. I enjoyed the books when I read them, but I think the tv adaptation and I will just have to be strangers.
I bought two pairs of flats and the first book in the Girl trilogy by Steig Larsson off of Gmarket the other day - not bad for being still functionally illiterate.
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Date: 2010-08-09 05:40 am (UTC)also, awww.... i totally get what you mean with the complimets. i never know how to react either. that was so sweet of her to say that! altho, hah.. what? she thinks you were less pretty before? hahah... people are funny :)
yay for learning to use Gmarket! and for shoes!
i'm envious of your adventure, even if it's just a transplanted Korean version of Saf 1.0's life. I did the same thing when i was living in Italy and, even though my life was totally normal, it was also completely different. sitting around the apartment watching MTV there was somehow... better and more interesting than doing the same thing here :)