It said WHAT?!

The other night I went to E-Mart. I was looking around on the second floor. I went over to where they keep the cleaning supplies. The toilet seats are there too. I saw the labeling on something that was rather shocking. It said, "Sense fabric a piss pot Sheet cover." I could not believe this bad translation was on something available in a store like that. I think what was supposed to say was scented fabric toilet seat cover. I guess whoever put that on there was not taught proper English.

What's in a Name

Today there was a new student in one of my classes. She did not have an English name and did not have one in mind, so I gave her a list of possible names that I wrote as the students were listening to today's story. She chose Susan. I did not give her the possibility of some weird name that nobody has ever heard of and doesn't know if it's a boy's name or a girl's name. Most of the students have pretty normal names. As far as the ones who go by their Korean name, I don't know if they have a boy's name or a girl's name or some name that isn't a name. Kevin and Jack are pretty common for boys and Sally and Jenny are common for girls. Right now, I have three students named Chris, 2 Sams, 2 James, 2 Lauras, and 2 Amys. One student has had three different English names so far. He started out as Sonic, then Megatron, and now he is Pedro. I once had a student who went by Belly until she chose to go by Cindy. One student went by his Korean name and now he is Brocky. On the first day of class, I tried to get the students in my lowest level class to get an English name. I asked one of the students if he wanted to go by John and he adamantly informed me that his name was Joonho. I think the students in that class did not know what I was asking. I gave up trying to get them to use English names. I don't mind calling the students by their Korean names, but on that day, the names were not Romanized and so I had to write the Hangul for each student who did not have an English name. Then, I had to point to each name and ask the students what their names were. I can read some Hangul, but I read it really slowly and I make mistakes, usually with the vowels. Sometimes the students decide all of a sudden that they want to change their names. It gets confusing then. There is one student whom I have taught for three months and recently he decided he wanted to change his name from Jack to Harry because another student in the class is named Herald. More than once I've called him Jack since his name change. It's an instinct. "Jack! Get in your seat right now!" It's about like Grandma yelling "Rachel" when she was calling Sparkle.

No Overheated Pets Here

Yesterday, I went to E-Mart and paid on the second floor so I had to go up to the third floor to leave. As I walked over the the elevators, I saw something that I hadn't noticed before and have never seen in the United States. They have pet cages so that you don't have to leave your pet locked in your car as you shop. Many department stores here have parking above or below the shopping floors because the parking would take up too much space that could be used for apartments and office space. The third floor is the lowest level of parking at E-Mart and this is where I saw the cages. I don't know if they have them on the other parking levels or not. All the people have to do is leave the pet in the cage and take the key while they shop downstairs. If they had this kind of thing, people would not have to write to Dear Abby complaining that people leave pets in the car without opening the windows.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

I listened to a lot of Korean speaking on Wednesday and Thursday. Both of those days I had to come in early for conferences. Tuesday was also a day for conferences, but my co-teacher and I do not have any students at that language level and so we did not have to come. On each conference day, one pair of teachers would give a presentation to the parents about the procedure for the class. Since most of the parents do not speak English, the branch manager had to translate what the foreign teachers said during the presentation. The Korean teachers had to translate during the meetings. I had to give a presentation on Thursday. I talked to only two parents directly. Friday, we all had to come in early for classes because it was a national holiday. All the other hagwons were closed that day, but not the one where I work. Instead of holding our regular hours, we changed the times for four of our classes so that we could leave early. I left at 5:00. It was a bit different to be able to leave work when it was still light outside. The classes went a bit smoother too because several students were absent due to the holiday.

Answer to the Question of the Week

What is the main international airport in Korea?

• Narita International Airport-0 (0%)
• Gimhae International Airport-1 (33%)
• Incheon International Airport-2 (66%)
• Gimpo International Airport-0 (0%)

The correct answer is Incheon International Airport. It is 52 km west of Seoul and is located on a little island. It was officially opened in March 2001. Gimpo International Airport, in Seoul, used to be the main international airport, but it could not keep up with the increasing number of international passengers after the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Gimhae International Airport is in Busan. Narita International Airport is in Tokyo.

Slap Bracelets

They were popular when I was in elementary school and now they are popular here. I have seen several students wearing them. Today, I had to confiscate seven of them (one girl had five), because it is basically just a toy. The students just keep taking them off and slapping themselves with them to put them back on. The picture is an example of what slap bracelets look like and how they are worn.

Josey in Disguise Without Glasses

If anybody wants to see a picture of me with my ophthalmologist, go to this link http://www.hellolasik.com/eng_site/op_result/04_foreigner.asp?page_id=05. When you get there, hover over my name and you'll be able to see the picture. I couldn't get it off the site to be able to put it on here.

Teacher, Where Are Glasses?

Several students asked me that the first couple of days of the week. All the students had only ever seen me with glasses and so it was a change for them. I had to explain to them I no longer need them. I said to a few of them that I had surgery, but they really do not know what surgery means and so I told that my eyes are fixed. A student in my lowest level class saw me and was pointing at me and and tapping on another student. I'm guessing that he noticed my lack of glasses and was telling the other student. It's a strange feeling to not need the glasses anymore. I don't have to worry about finding where I put them the night before just so that I can see. I tried them on tonight and my vision was pretty blurry while I was wearing them. Before the surgery, I was -3.25 diopters in the right eye and -2.75 in the left eye. With the surgery and the glasses, it was way overcorrected. My vision has made a full circle in 15 years.

Hey, Four Eyes!

It has been several years since anybody has called me that, but nobody will be able to now. Friday afternoon I had LASIK. I wasn't planning on having the surgery until my last vacation time, which would be in February. I was going to go to Japan for this break, but on Friday the 12th, I decided that I was not going to go this time. I did not do much planning for it, and I really did not decide where I was going to go. I decided that instead, I would stay in Korea and take care of business, like getting the ball rolling on LASIK, looking into Korean lessons, and possibly traveling around other places in Korea. I did only one of those because on the 12th, I made an appointment with an eye clinic in Seoul.

I had been looking into different places in Korea for LASIK. Only one place in Korea had its website in English. I could have gone to a place in Pusan, but I would have had to take along a Korean speaker to translate for me, which I did not want to ask anybody to do. I even saw on thw website that one of the doctors had studied LASIK at Stanford and UCLA, so I knew for sure that he spoke English. I decided to spend my vacation time in Seoul so that if I did have the surgery, then it would not put a crimp in my plans. If I did not have the surgery, then I could sight see in Seoul.

I had an appointment for a consultation on Wednesday at 2:00. I had a little trouble getting there from the subway station but I called them and they told me how to get there. There were 24 tests that I had to go through. Some were to see if I was a good candidate and some were to see how much correction was necessary. After about an hour and a half to two hours, it was determined that I was a good candidate. I was given a choice between the Wavefront laser or the conventional laser. I chose the Wavefront laser because it is more precise. It would cost an additional 300,000 won. All in all, the surgery was going to cost 2, 300,000 won. They gave me a discount of 200,000 won and then would give me an additional discount of 100,000 won if I paid in cash. The day that that was quoted, the exchange rate was 1116 won to the dollar.

Since I was not going to have the surgery until Friday, I spent part of Thursday, looking for a Nonghyup Bank so that I could withdraw 2,000,000 won. I asked somebody at the front desk where there was one and he told me. I either did not follow his directions correctly or he told me wrong (or both). I did not find it. I remembered though that he told me Insadong street, so I went there and walked down the street. Eventually, I found one. I took a number and when it was my turn, I gave my passbook to the teller and wrote 2,000,000 on the back of my number. There was a slip that I had to fill out. I wrote down my account number and then he had some other customer who was leaving write something in Korean and then 2,000,000 won. After a few minutes of processing and him having another teller help him, he gave me the money in cash. Carrying that much money in cash is like carrying $2,000 in ten-dollar bills. I had to figure out how to get two bundles of money into my purse. I immediately went back to the hostel and put the money in a bag and put it in the freezer, since there was no safe for my jewels.

The next day, I had the surgery. I was a bit nervous. They had to redo some of the tests, but it was just the ones that determined the amount of correction. I had to put a gown on over my clothes and put on a hair net. They put several drops of anesthetic drops in my eyes. The surgery before mine had not started yet so I was able to watch one eye for that person done. Then I was taken into another room where somebody washed my face and put in more drops. Finally, it was my turn. I lay down on the operating table and then they covered my face. They did the right eye first and so they covered my left eye with gel so that it would not dry out. They taped my eyelashes down and then held my eye open. Then came the microkeratome, which is used to cut a flap in the cornea. Then the doctor lifted the flap and ablated the cornea with and laser. He then cleaned the cornea and put the flap down. He did the same with the left eye. Then "Congratulations" by Cliff Richard started playing. It was over. I rested a while in the recovery room. The doctor examined my eye with a slit lamp microscope again. I went back to the guesthouse where I stayed just for that night. My eyes were pretty sore so I just lay there with my eyes closed because they hurt less closed. Later, I went outside and was amazed by how well I could see. There were halos around lights, but that is normal while my eye is healing. I have three different kinds of drops that I have to use. My vision will improve for 1-4 days after the surgery and then will stabilize in 1-4 months. It's weird to be able to see.

The website for the clinic where I went is http://www.hellolasik.com/eng_site/index.asp.

Thank Goodness!

Thank goodness I live in Pusan and use the Pusan Subway System. I went to Seoul for a few days this week and used the subway there. It was a mob scene. Pusan has only three lines, but Seoul has 10. In Pusan, there are usually seats, and if not, then there are not too many people standing. In Seoul, there were times when there were more people standing than there were sitting. The people standing were packed in like sardines. If you want a seat, you have to be aggressive when one becomes available, or else somebody else will take it. People push and shove in the subway and nobody thinks anything of it because they do not know each other and so they do not have to be polite. If only that were the norm in American culture; many times in public I've wanted to shove people out of the way but did not. One time, in Dear Abby, somebody wrote in complaining that in New York, men do not give up their seats for women and some even run ahead to get a seat before the women do. Here, people give up their seats for old people usually. Men will stand so that their wife or girlfriend can sit if there is only one available seat. It doesn't seem like women expect men to give up their seats, going back to the fact that they are strangers and there is no obligation to be polite. In Pusan, people get on as other people are getting off. In Seoul, it really is impossible because there are so many people getting off, and it is necessary to empty some space before other people can get on. There are so many people on the subways. Friday night, I was waiting for the subway and there were two old men fighting. They were a little far away, but I could hear them yelling at each other, pushing, and one even kicked the other! They got on the subway, and they came to the car where I was and sat across from me. During the ride, they were talking and holding hands and even hugged each other goodbye! (More often than not, two same-sex people holding hands are friends and nothing more.)