worky worky (sort of)

originally posted Wednesday, October 11, 2006

i am very close to finishing my first week of work. and it's been pretty easy. yesterday was the first day at a children's library. i got here at 10, but didn't have to actually do anything until 2, at which point i read to little kids and their moms for one hour. then i got to "take a rest" and read for another hour at 4. that's it. the rest of the time i get to email lots of people and look at my good friend video dog on salon.com. everyone here looks so busy, but no one knows how to tell me what they want me to do. i would be happy to check out books to people and just work as a librarian in a korean children's library, but i don't know how to tell anyone i want to do that. time to call on my good friend altavista babelfish. it's amazing the conversations you can have with the aid of an online translator. everything i say becomes something convoluted and poetic. unless that's just how i speak anyway.
i ate lunch with all my coworkers yesterday. the food was great. i even ate some fish that turned out to be very very good, despite the fact that some little pod things squirted in my mouth (heh heh). but it was very very awkward, not only because no one spoke english, but because there were 6 korean girls-all college students-who just gave me the evil eye the whole time. and i'm pretty sure they were making fun of me. sometime koreans sort of snarl at you when they speak, girls more than boys. but then they would laugh and look at me. i dunno. i think i want to eat lunch alone until i learn to speak korean.
random: on the tele last night as i was falling asleep, i heard something familiar. some tiny korean voice was singing "i have a mandolin. i play it all night long. it makes me want to kill myself." i was already shocked when i heard the magnetic fields in a dog food commercial stateside, but in korea? what the hell? i don't know what it was advertising, but i will buy whatever it is as soon as i know.
i was eating dinner last night when my door rings (my doorbell sounds like those rape alarm things some people put in their purses where if you pull the string it emits a shrill, obnoxious eardrum piercing sound). and there was a man standing there who just said "sopa" (sofa). so he propped my door open and then two dudes carried in a giant sofa and chair. so now my apartment is packed with furniture. honestly, i don't need a sofa and a big chair, but hell, if it's red-ish leather and brand new, why not. another note about the doorbell, yesterday morning my doorbell rang and there was a man standing there saying "hat." so i just opened the door and he walked to the back of my apartment, onto my balcony where his hat had fallen. 20 minutes later he came back and gave me a bottle of tea. so that was nice.
anyhoo, more later. i think i might actually get to do something now.