Lucy's Cool SBS Job

Meet Lucy, one of my cool Korean friends with a cool Korean job.

This fashionista was awesome enough to give me a tour of her territory in the SBS broadcast building in Mok-dong. Her job? She designs outfits for the broadcast anchors. Some get stripes, some get special colors, all get a look to keep the news fresh. This means she has to constantly watch the anchors to make sure a tie isn't crooked or a blouse creased. If they are, she runs down on set and fixes it in a commercial break.
As a journalism grad, I was thrilled to be back in a newsroom (I even got to meet an anchor) and also happy to see Lucy's workspace to be the perfect den of activity. Check out all those clothes. Every week, a driver takes her to scout out the new fashions at major designers. As a 24-year-old girl in a city as fashion-conscious as Seoul, she's gotta be good. Congrats, girl. Here's hoping you can accompany the reporters to the World Cup this summer.

Yu-Na Kim: Korea's Favorite Girl

A short walk down Gangnam's main drag in Seoul guarantees multiple poster sightings of South Korea's biggest celebrity: Yu-Na Kim. In anticipation of her expected Olympic gold medal victory, I went to the nearest Smoothie King and got a "Be White" smoothie. It was great, electrolyte flavor and all, although I'm not sure the title would go over well in the States.

Korea has good reason to be proud of their 19-year-old miracle. She's sweet, beautiful, talented and just a little bit sassy -- and she's slayed every possible competitor in the past several years -- except that one time with Japanese arch-rival, Mao Asada. The whole country is biting their nails for the golden girl, and with all the hype, I'm starting to feel nervously sick for her. Yeah, she's made a killing by promoting everything from cell phones to banks to tissues, but the weight of pressure in a perfectionist culture like Korea's is tremendous.

How will the country react if she loses? I don't want to find out.

In the meantime, I'll sing along to her grocery store commercial and be proud to be in Korea for the momentous moment. Yay Yu-Na Kim! C'mon, girl!

Mysterious English Machine

Strategically stationed outside my "English Zone" classroom, is what everyone calls, "The English Machine." Similar to one of those motion-detecting singing reindeer your grandma has, it speaks English every time someone walks by.

It's an expensive investment for the school, so Mr. Min, my co-teacher, was recently working himself into a frenzy trying to figure out why it kept shutting off. Yesterday, we were getting lunch, when some 4th-grade students rushed into the room yelling and pointing toward the hallway. At first I was worried when Mr. Min bellowed and jumped into action, charging out of the classroom toward the English Machine. He returned somewhat amused, but mostly miffed at the elusivity of a special needs student. After a lesson about electric conservation, the little guy decided that turning off the English Machine would be his personal contribution to saving the planet.