Google Earth and other assorted time-wasting

So, I’ve taken the time today not to plan my classes for the week, outline strategies for dealing with parents at our three solid afternoons (!!?!) of P-T conferences, or learn my Korean, but to investigate new methods of wasting time on the Internet. The tool of the day has been Google Earth, paired with Panoramio, a place you can store your photos so that they’ll be visible on Google Earth and another world photo map application. I spent at least an hour tonight uploading and meticulously posting some impressively uninspiring photos of our neighborhood and our apartment (admittedly, it would be hard to take an inspiring photo of our Woomi Apartment Tower, dear though it may be to us). When I made the mistake of clicking on “view popular photos on the world map” and realized that most people who waste their time in this fashion actually do so to post breathtaking photos of places people want to visit, I felt a little foolish, but only for a minute.

Just like the blog, Google Earth (which you should play with right now, if you haven’t already – in the U.S. you can even type in your address and immediately look at satellite photos of your home, but then again, since you have nice English maps of your area readily available, seeing your location from a regional bird’s-eye perspective may not thrill you quite the way it does us) exists and succeeds in part because it gives people the illusion of an instant audience. Hey, maybe it’s not even an illusion. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I found some mundane photos of places near our home here, just because they confirmed that I knew where I was on the (otherwise unlabelled) satellite map. Our new-ish suburbs are fairly uncharted, so maybe some other Suji newcomers can use my equally mundane documentation to get their bearings in the concrete-tower jungle we occupy.

This entry was supposed to go in another direction – I meant to talk about international school teaching in general, and lament what must be many teachers’ biggest and most paradoxical complaint: we’ve been provided with a delightful crowd of colleagues who, in many cases, share our tastes, habits, and ideas (not to mention our language and profession), so how the hell will we ever score a real Korean friend here? Our social needs are already taken care of, so how are we supposed to learn anything about Korea and Koreans beyond the superficial foods and basic vocab knowledge we’re solidifying now? I don’t think I have enough space or energy for that particular rant in this entry, so instead I’ll post a few random photos and go to bed.

On Sundays, Woomi Apartment sets up the weekly recycling party outside, with huge bins that appear some time in the morning (or later, depending on how much soju the security guards had last night) and attract all residents at some point in the day. I’m pleased to say that just about EVERYTHING is recyclable in this country. And apparently, if your neighbors notice that you’re throwing your recyclables in the trash, they can call the police on you!

We spent the afternoon at LotteMart, an enormous store with just about everything (except a section for un-hideous clothing or shoes for big western feet, unfortunately – they do have MGD samples, at least). Since I’m trying to eat healthier these days, I thought I’d try some of these miniature yogurt drinks that seem to garnish every health-food section in the grocery stores. I bought an 8-pack and the stuff tastes good enough. But some serious labor with my Korean dictionary once we got home resulted in some surprising news: this is a DIET FIBER YOGURT, and the name translates to – no joke – Happy Stool. I’m too ladylike to report on the actual effects of this product, but it may end up in the food waste section of the recycling party, along with all of my past experiments from the ever-popular “sweetened seafood” genre that one can never escape over here.

The National Geographic Photo of the Day is of New Zealand! It must be a sign. We’re still trying to scrape together a plan for the coveted most expensive Christmas flight of our lives . . .

Have a good week! I’m looking forward to some entertaining exposition about Korean parents after our upcoming conferences, so stay tuned –

Jess