I got racial stereotyped today!!!
Yeah, we were at Kumo World, this giant electronics store that also carries a lot of other strange things and I noticed a couple of booths selling blankets. Now for reasons I cannot ascertain, we only got comforters when we moved in, and it doesn't seem common for people to have normal bed sheets. You can buy them, but there's not a huge selection, which is totally cool. But we only got really thick comforters, so I was hoping to buy some thinner ones today. Now a major part of our first problem was language. We are working on learning a lot of things, but we haven't learned how to talk money. Usually the vendors are used to foreigners and write out prices or put them on the cash register screen, or type them out on a calculator. I've had plenty of vendors who speak enough to tell me the price in English. This woman apparently did not want to do any of those things. I asked her for the price, and wrote out a little won symbol and a question mark next to it and she told me a price in Korean. No problem, I still had paper out so I asked her to write it down. She wrote down 5,000 won, as far as I could tell. I'm thrilled cause I'm thinking that I can get one for each bed for under $10.00. I reach into my wallet and give her 10,000 won and she shakes her head at me. She tells me the price in Korean again, which clearly won't work as I've already had to bring out paper to get her to write it out. I again hand her the paper and ask her to write it out. Again with the 5,000 won. I think maybe she's telling me that they're two for one, so I offer her 5,000 won. Now she gets angry with me and chews me out in Korean. Finally I tell her I'm sorry in Korean and good bye in Korean. She glared at me and Steve as we walked away and I was annoyed because I really wanted those blankets. We get to the next stall that we find that sells blankets, and try to approach the woman there about buying a blanket. She pretty much refused to talk to us and sent us out of her store. She refused to give us prices and refused to talk to us. So tonight I will be sleeping again under my ridiculously thick comforter. Tomorrow I'm going to one of the blanket stores near the school. There's several, and one of them must be willing to sell a blanket to a white person who's just tired of being hot at night... So I've officially been the victim of racism. It was very strange because even here usually people accept the fact that we don't know what the crap they're saying and seem to find it novel to try to communicate with us.
On the up side I managed to order our lunch with out much help from the picture menu today. I asked the waitress to bring us two bowls of the soup with sushi please. She did confirm it on the menu with me, my accent must still be pretty thick, but she pointed at the right picture. So take that blanket lady. I didn't want your blanket any how... ok I really did, but now I'm glad I didn't buy it from you... at least until I go to sleep.
Good night everyone.
Showing posts with label Miranda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miranda. Show all posts
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Random things in Gwangju
Well, it's Saturday again. The morning started with an excellent Korean lesson, that left me feeling like I might actually be learning this language a little. I can sound out Korean writing now, and as many have told me there's a lot of English in the Korean language. They call it Kongalish out here. Now I have a pretty functional arsenal of Korean words that make navigating day to day life fairly easy. Not to say I can have big conversations with anyone, but I was able to let them know that I don't eat Kogi today (that's beef and pork) at the restaurant we ate at this evening.
We continue to wander around the city looking for new things we haven't seen yet. For having been here for about a month, I feel like we have a pretty good grasp of the city. We can ride the buses to the two or three places we need to go, and we can get in a taxi and go where we want to go and make it home most of the time. I know several of the street name now and understand where they go and how the meet up with each other. Each week we find something new that we hadn't seen before.
Today we got to meet up with some of our new friends after our English class. We caught lunch at a great mandu place in down town, and wandered the streets after looking at different stores. I really need to take pictures of the shirts that we find out there, I didn't have the camera today or I would have. Some of them are pretty funny. One of my favorites today was the one that had the simple silhouette of the Mikey Mouse head above the pocket, and the words "Black Mouse" written right above it. It's what you call to the point. Or the ones that try to use random English phrases as a catch phrase. Sometimes... well, sometimes they don't really understand what they're writing. The F word apparently makes pretty regular appearances on the shirts. I'm told it sometimes shows up on the kids shirts at the school. Today we found one that gave the directions for washing the shirt. (You know the ones, on the tag of the shirt). That was what was decorating the front of the shirt. Wash in cold water and air dry, or something like that.
Steve and I went on a little bus adventure this afternoon as well. We jumped on a random bus and rode it to where it dead ended. That was pretty far from where we lived, but we managed to find our way home. I'm beginning to understand what the buses do and where they go. It's pretty exciting.
So anyways, we're doing pretty great out here in Gwangju. Hope everyone is having a great time in Texas.
Miranda
We continue to wander around the city looking for new things we haven't seen yet. For having been here for about a month, I feel like we have a pretty good grasp of the city. We can ride the buses to the two or three places we need to go, and we can get in a taxi and go where we want to go and make it home most of the time. I know several of the street name now and understand where they go and how the meet up with each other. Each week we find something new that we hadn't seen before.
Today we got to meet up with some of our new friends after our English class. We caught lunch at a great mandu place in down town, and wandered the streets after looking at different stores. I really need to take pictures of the shirts that we find out there, I didn't have the camera today or I would have. Some of them are pretty funny. One of my favorites today was the one that had the simple silhouette of the Mikey Mouse head above the pocket, and the words "Black Mouse" written right above it. It's what you call to the point. Or the ones that try to use random English phrases as a catch phrase. Sometimes... well, sometimes they don't really understand what they're writing. The F word apparently makes pretty regular appearances on the shirts. I'm told it sometimes shows up on the kids shirts at the school. Today we found one that gave the directions for washing the shirt. (You know the ones, on the tag of the shirt). That was what was decorating the front of the shirt. Wash in cold water and air dry, or something like that.
Steve and I went on a little bus adventure this afternoon as well. We jumped on a random bus and rode it to where it dead ended. That was pretty far from where we lived, but we managed to find our way home. I'm beginning to understand what the buses do and where they go. It's pretty exciting.
So anyways, we're doing pretty great out here in Gwangju. Hope everyone is having a great time in Texas.
Miranda
Harry Potter and Taxi Rides
So we got to see Harry Potter tonight with a bunch of teachers from school. Aside from the fact that the movie was just so so, it was a pretty good night.
As we were exiting the theater I definitely heard a girl complaining about the movie and it went something like this "I'm so pissed about the movie. Don't get me wrong, I'll still go see it again, but not 6 times like the other ones." Rough day for her apparently. Other than that, I won't get into the movie because 1. Erin has already threatened us and I don't want to die (although I don't know how she'd kill me, her being in another country and all, and she's already read the book, it's not like I can spoil the basic plot- You already know what's going to happen Fii) 2. It really wasn't that note worthy, other than there is popcorn in Korean movie theaters, but it's tiny, and they put lids on the sodas that have two straw holes in them so you and your sweetie can share a drink without giving each other swine flu... although I feel like you might still be swapping germs. Also, it was only 10,000 won for both of us, and we had to choose our seats. You actually have to do that when you buy your ticket. And the movie theater had 5 stories. I thought that was strange too.
While exiting the theater Steve and I also had the exact same experience, we both went from feeling like we were just out with some friends on a normal night in Texas to suddenly remembering that we were in a foreign country. It might have been when all of the Korean people were shoving us out of the way to get out of the theater. There's a lot of shoving here... probably because of the crowding. But it was a very odd experience.
No one should misconstrue this by the way to mean that we are sad or homesick, it is certainly not that at all. While we have missed all of you terribly, we are not sad here, or looking for ways to forget where we are. We are actually loving it here... but it's nice to have something familiar. It was like a little vacation from Korea. And it only cost me 5,000 won. (Which is less that $5.00.) Take that Cinemark at the Parks.
But I would say the funnier parts of the night took place after exiting the theater. (Some of which may stem from the fact that it was like 1:45 AM out here when we got out) (Oh and for all of the people worrying about us leaving a theater so late, it was with a big group, and was certainly safe.) The first one happened as we walked toward the door and realized that it was pouring rain. My umbrella, which I brought not because it was raining when we left the apartment, but because it rains off and on all throughout the day, was definitely still in the theater... 5 stories up, and through a throng of pushy Koreans who don't understand when you say "I'm sorry, excuse me" or they do, but choose to ignore you and keep pushing... the jury's still out. I decided to call it a loss. It was like 5,000 won, and I have another one. Steve and I huddled under his, each of us keeping one side of our bodies fairly dry. After walking for a while we hailed taxis. There were 8 of us, so we should have had room in just 2 cabs, but one pulled away with only 3 people in it. Steve and I got into our own taxi, and after a few tries I got the cabby to understand where I wanted him to take us. I thought that I was doing well, but when he repeated the address back to me I said "ane- yoh", which definitely means "no". The poor cabby then began to speak to me in an elevated voice, but all in Korean of course, and repeated the address. I carefully parroted back to him what the Korean teachers had told me to say, and he repeated it to me, and received the same "ane-yoh". At some point he just said our address and started driving. I'm sure he chalked it up to a Stupid Weihguke and went on his way. We pulled up to the apartments, and he asked me if I wanted him to turn in or go straight. I didn't realize that we were already at the apartments because it was so fast in a cab and we're used to walking. I told him to keep going straight, and then 4 feet in, realized that we were where he was supposed to turn in and told him to stop here. The poor cabby stopped, muttered at us in Korean, and took our won. We then had to walk through the rain up the hill to the apartment and it slowly dawned on me how the conversation had gone down, and why the cabby had been so confused... perhaps not my finest Korean moment...
On a random note, my kids have been fascinated with my eyes over here. They get right up into my face and stare at them, and when they ask me what color and I explain hazel to them they get very excited and bring more Korean kids to look at them. Either I'm amazing to them or a freak. They then point to their eyes and explain to me that they have black eyes, and ask me again what color my eyes are. Or so was my experience today. One of the children also climbed on my back while I was trying to grade papers and called me mamma... They have some very cute moments...
So it was a great day today, and was by the way, about 70 degrees through the larger part of the day, getting up to 75-80 only for a few hours in the late afternoon. Sorry to everyone in Texas.
Have a great week!
Miranda
As we were exiting the theater I definitely heard a girl complaining about the movie and it went something like this "I'm so pissed about the movie. Don't get me wrong, I'll still go see it again, but not 6 times like the other ones." Rough day for her apparently. Other than that, I won't get into the movie because 1. Erin has already threatened us and I don't want to die (although I don't know how she'd kill me, her being in another country and all, and she's already read the book, it's not like I can spoil the basic plot- You already know what's going to happen Fii) 2. It really wasn't that note worthy, other than there is popcorn in Korean movie theaters, but it's tiny, and they put lids on the sodas that have two straw holes in them so you and your sweetie can share a drink without giving each other swine flu... although I feel like you might still be swapping germs. Also, it was only 10,000 won for both of us, and we had to choose our seats. You actually have to do that when you buy your ticket. And the movie theater had 5 stories. I thought that was strange too.
While exiting the theater Steve and I also had the exact same experience, we both went from feeling like we were just out with some friends on a normal night in Texas to suddenly remembering that we were in a foreign country. It might have been when all of the Korean people were shoving us out of the way to get out of the theater. There's a lot of shoving here... probably because of the crowding. But it was a very odd experience.
No one should misconstrue this by the way to mean that we are sad or homesick, it is certainly not that at all. While we have missed all of you terribly, we are not sad here, or looking for ways to forget where we are. We are actually loving it here... but it's nice to have something familiar. It was like a little vacation from Korea. And it only cost me 5,000 won. (Which is less that $5.00.) Take that Cinemark at the Parks.
But I would say the funnier parts of the night took place after exiting the theater. (Some of which may stem from the fact that it was like 1:45 AM out here when we got out) (Oh and for all of the people worrying about us leaving a theater so late, it was with a big group, and was certainly safe.) The first one happened as we walked toward the door and realized that it was pouring rain. My umbrella, which I brought not because it was raining when we left the apartment, but because it rains off and on all throughout the day, was definitely still in the theater... 5 stories up, and through a throng of pushy Koreans who don't understand when you say "I'm sorry, excuse me" or they do, but choose to ignore you and keep pushing... the jury's still out. I decided to call it a loss. It was like 5,000 won, and I have another one. Steve and I huddled under his, each of us keeping one side of our bodies fairly dry. After walking for a while we hailed taxis. There were 8 of us, so we should have had room in just 2 cabs, but one pulled away with only 3 people in it. Steve and I got into our own taxi, and after a few tries I got the cabby to understand where I wanted him to take us. I thought that I was doing well, but when he repeated the address back to me I said "ane- yoh", which definitely means "no". The poor cabby then began to speak to me in an elevated voice, but all in Korean of course, and repeated the address. I carefully parroted back to him what the Korean teachers had told me to say, and he repeated it to me, and received the same "ane-yoh". At some point he just said our address and started driving. I'm sure he chalked it up to a Stupid Weihguke and went on his way. We pulled up to the apartments, and he asked me if I wanted him to turn in or go straight. I didn't realize that we were already at the apartments because it was so fast in a cab and we're used to walking. I told him to keep going straight, and then 4 feet in, realized that we were where he was supposed to turn in and told him to stop here. The poor cabby stopped, muttered at us in Korean, and took our won. We then had to walk through the rain up the hill to the apartment and it slowly dawned on me how the conversation had gone down, and why the cabby had been so confused... perhaps not my finest Korean moment...
On a random note, my kids have been fascinated with my eyes over here. They get right up into my face and stare at them, and when they ask me what color and I explain hazel to them they get very excited and bring more Korean kids to look at them. Either I'm amazing to them or a freak. They then point to their eyes and explain to me that they have black eyes, and ask me again what color my eyes are. Or so was my experience today. One of the children also climbed on my back while I was trying to grade papers and called me mamma... They have some very cute moments...
So it was a great day today, and was by the way, about 70 degrees through the larger part of the day, getting up to 75-80 only for a few hours in the late afternoon. Sorry to everyone in Texas.
Have a great week!
Miranda
Teaching in Korea
So I thought I take a second to talk about my new job in Gwangju.
The teaching has been a bit of a change for me. Not only am I dry and in a classroom, but instead of 4 kids max I'm teaching classes of 10-14 kids. Also, the ages seem to be significantly older than I'm used to. Most of my kids are between 8-12. But the kids are interesting to say the least. Here are a few things I've encountered so far in the classrooms.
1. Apparently there are several words in the English language that sound similar to Korean curse words. It took me quite a bit of time to figure this one out. The one that made my kids laugh was "huh". I use it all the time. I never did find out what it means, but I spent several days thinking I just had a giggly class. Every time I said "huh", which I learned was quite frequent, the kids would ask me to say it again and burst out laughing. After a couple of days they slipped and let me know that it was funny because it was also some type of dirty word.
2. Korean kids usually get hit in their classes, so being the teacher without a stick can be a little frustrating. They don't seem to respect the Foreign teachers as much because they know the worst we can do to them is send them in the corner, or send them to their Korean teacher, who will then yell at them and hit them. It is a viable threat, but somewhat difficult to carry out. Mostly I put kids in corners. Today I had three kids in the corner at one time. They wouldn't stop talking Korean, which is a big no no here. Other than that, usually after one kids goes into the corner, the other kids know you mean business and they shut up. If not, the next kid has to go to the corner holding a trash can. You can make them do a squat position in the corner as well. I haven't tried that yet, but may have to in the near future.
3. Korean doesn't use the same sentence structure or word usage as English (obviously). It makes for some very interesting sentences because they try to speak Korean to you using English words. I get a kick out of some of the things they write. At some point early on we must teach them the word Suddenly because it shows up in papers in the weirdest places. "Suddenly I opened the door" "Suddenly it was Saturday".
4. One of my new favorite sounds is confused Korean children. "Whaaaaaaa????" I hear it continually. "Teacher, whaaaaa????" "Teacher, are you Kurazzy?" They get very excited about all of it. Sometimes when we're doing difficult words or concepts I can get the whole class to do it. I may have to record it because it makes me laugh every time.
5. Most Korean kids are looking to be teacher's pets. The kids here share much more than in America, and continually share their snacks with me. I've pretty much always eaten what they give me, but occasionally I eat something they've handed me and then watch them lick their fingers and put them back in the Ramen bag or what not and question my decision. Mostly I just think it's cute that they want to share with their teacher. I did have to ban Spicy Ramen from my class the other day. They couldn't stay focused because their mouths were burning.
Mostly the kids are pretty good, although pretty rowdy. I do think it's a disadvantage that they can speak a language that I can't but I'm remedying that as fast as possible. It's also unfortunate that they know there's not much I can do to them other than send them to someone to beat them. But for the most part I can clap my hands and they quiet right down. They're very smart children.
Some interesting side notes.
This morning I went for a hike by myself. I didn't think about it, but it was the first time I'd been out by myself. Usually when Steve and I go out, no one does much more than stare a little too long at us. We rarely get approached by strangers. When I was out by myself, probably 10 people approached me to say "hello". One time it was a car full of very old men and when I waved and said "hello" back, they started to laugh and giggle like school girls. I found it highly amusing. I guess they don't feel comfortable approaching people in a group, but when there's just one of me, they want to say hello. Before any one gets nervous, it was all harmless attention. They weren't really interested in anything other than my skin and eye color. It was strange, but funny.
I got some very funny papers today on Global Warming. The Korean teachers talked to them about the effects (well I did too, but I guess they went over it with the Korean teachers as well, because I saw stuff in the papers that I hadn't taught them. The thing that cracked me up was that most of them think that the world is ending. Several of them think that islands and countries are sinking under the water. One of them stated that Korea is going to sink under water and while some people might say that we can all go up to the mountains, she doesn't think that this will work because she thinks the water level will cover the mountains as well. One of them said all of this and added that it's too late to do anything except curb it's effects, but we're stuck with a screwed up planet. But the thing that they all agreed on was that global warming is killing polar bears, and we need to stop it. Let me tell you that it got Steve a little riled up.
Anyhow, so far so good.
Hope everyone has a great evening!
Miranda
The teaching has been a bit of a change for me. Not only am I dry and in a classroom, but instead of 4 kids max I'm teaching classes of 10-14 kids. Also, the ages seem to be significantly older than I'm used to. Most of my kids are between 8-12. But the kids are interesting to say the least. Here are a few things I've encountered so far in the classrooms.
1. Apparently there are several words in the English language that sound similar to Korean curse words. It took me quite a bit of time to figure this one out. The one that made my kids laugh was "huh". I use it all the time. I never did find out what it means, but I spent several days thinking I just had a giggly class. Every time I said "huh", which I learned was quite frequent, the kids would ask me to say it again and burst out laughing. After a couple of days they slipped and let me know that it was funny because it was also some type of dirty word.
2. Korean kids usually get hit in their classes, so being the teacher without a stick can be a little frustrating. They don't seem to respect the Foreign teachers as much because they know the worst we can do to them is send them in the corner, or send them to their Korean teacher, who will then yell at them and hit them. It is a viable threat, but somewhat difficult to carry out. Mostly I put kids in corners. Today I had three kids in the corner at one time. They wouldn't stop talking Korean, which is a big no no here. Other than that, usually after one kids goes into the corner, the other kids know you mean business and they shut up. If not, the next kid has to go to the corner holding a trash can. You can make them do a squat position in the corner as well. I haven't tried that yet, but may have to in the near future.
3. Korean doesn't use the same sentence structure or word usage as English (obviously). It makes for some very interesting sentences because they try to speak Korean to you using English words. I get a kick out of some of the things they write. At some point early on we must teach them the word Suddenly because it shows up in papers in the weirdest places. "Suddenly I opened the door" "Suddenly it was Saturday".
4. One of my new favorite sounds is confused Korean children. "Whaaaaaaa????" I hear it continually. "Teacher, whaaaaa????" "Teacher, are you Kurazzy?" They get very excited about all of it. Sometimes when we're doing difficult words or concepts I can get the whole class to do it. I may have to record it because it makes me laugh every time.
5. Most Korean kids are looking to be teacher's pets. The kids here share much more than in America, and continually share their snacks with me. I've pretty much always eaten what they give me, but occasionally I eat something they've handed me and then watch them lick their fingers and put them back in the Ramen bag or what not and question my decision. Mostly I just think it's cute that they want to share with their teacher. I did have to ban Spicy Ramen from my class the other day. They couldn't stay focused because their mouths were burning.
Mostly the kids are pretty good, although pretty rowdy. I do think it's a disadvantage that they can speak a language that I can't but I'm remedying that as fast as possible. It's also unfortunate that they know there's not much I can do to them other than send them to someone to beat them. But for the most part I can clap my hands and they quiet right down. They're very smart children.
Some interesting side notes.
This morning I went for a hike by myself. I didn't think about it, but it was the first time I'd been out by myself. Usually when Steve and I go out, no one does much more than stare a little too long at us. We rarely get approached by strangers. When I was out by myself, probably 10 people approached me to say "hello". One time it was a car full of very old men and when I waved and said "hello" back, they started to laugh and giggle like school girls. I found it highly amusing. I guess they don't feel comfortable approaching people in a group, but when there's just one of me, they want to say hello. Before any one gets nervous, it was all harmless attention. They weren't really interested in anything other than my skin and eye color. It was strange, but funny.
I got some very funny papers today on Global Warming. The Korean teachers talked to them about the effects (well I did too, but I guess they went over it with the Korean teachers as well, because I saw stuff in the papers that I hadn't taught them. The thing that cracked me up was that most of them think that the world is ending. Several of them think that islands and countries are sinking under the water. One of them stated that Korea is going to sink under water and while some people might say that we can all go up to the mountains, she doesn't think that this will work because she thinks the water level will cover the mountains as well. One of them said all of this and added that it's too late to do anything except curb it's effects, but we're stuck with a screwed up planet. But the thing that they all agreed on was that global warming is killing polar bears, and we need to stop it. Let me tell you that it got Steve a little riled up.
Anyhow, so far so good.
Hope everyone has a great evening!
Miranda
Strange Moments in Korea
Strange moments here in Korea. After a week and a half, I now feel comfortable wandering up to strangers and pointing and using 1 word phrases in Korean until they understand me and point me in the right direction. Most of the time it works marvelously. Every now and then they just stare blankly, and in those moments we just move on to a sharper Korean.
What's been striking me recently (like within the last 2 days) is how easily we've fallen into our new life. We moved into our new apartment Saturday afternoon (it was Friday in Texas). We unpacked our 2 suitcases and this place feels like home. I almost feel like I've been here a few months. Already I love the little apartment. It's not huge, well it is by Korean standards, but by American standards it's not that big. But our recent lack of belongings makes the place feel giant. We actually have a room right now who's express purpose for the moment is housing my umbrella. I'm not really even sure what we'll do with the space. I'm beginning to realize how much surplus I had in my old life. The drying of clothes on racks as opposed to in a dryer may take a while to get used to. Basically we'll have to stay up on laundry because there's no way we could do 10 loads over a weekend like we used to in the states. We just don't have enough space to hang it all up. On the up side, we don't have that many clothes any more, so we could probably wash every piece of clothing we owned in 6 loads right now.
Our community out here is fabulous. Most Koreans view us as a strange but not unpleasant oddity. They don't seem to dislike us, but honestly they don't spend a lot of time interacting with us. Save the Korean teachers at our school. Some of them are fairly willing to spend time with the slightly confused and uncouth foreigners. One such teacher went with us to visit an English church service today. I'm not sure if the church is a perfect match for us, but since there's only about 4 English services in Gwangju we may have to make some compromises. Who knows? Perhaps the Lord will use them to give us new insight into Himself.
The foreign teachers are a pretty tight knit group out here. Most of them are at least 2-3 years younger than us, and almost all of them are a little more inclined to the night life than we are, but despite those differences we really like them, and they are very pleasant to work with. They keep telling us that you meet most of the other foreigners in the area at the local bars, but Steve and I have agreed that the bar scene isn't for us, and we're determined to find new friends other ways. We're hoping that getting plugged into a church will help us in that direction.
The new job is pretty ok, although it is funny being the low dog on the totem pole after being at Emler for so long where I didn't really have to think hard or fight hard to do a good job. It's been a real treat to work with Steven as well. It's funny getting to see him throughout the day. It's gone from being a little stressful to being pleasant. Don't take the stressful thing the wrong way, but Steve and I have lived almost separate lives for nearly 3 years, and being around each other 24-7 has taken a little getting used to. I think we're functioning much more like a couple and less like housemates these days.
They told us that homesickness would set in later on in our stay, say 4 months down the road, so while I'm very happy and content at the moment, I am a little nervous about what the future will bring. Korean lessons are a definite. We found out today about Korean classes we can take through the international center here, and I think we'll be setting those up early this week. I'm determined to learn this language.
The only other thing that we've got to learn in a hurry is the bus schedule. We've been way to cowardly to ride the bus as of yet, because we'd heard some horror stories about people getting onto the wrong bus and ending up on the wrong side of town, and such, but taking taxis is going to get too expensive. Plus our cabby who took us to church this morning nearly killed us by trying to turn left into on coming traffic while our light was red. A fairly common occurrence in Korea, but nerve wracking to us foreigners. Despite all of this crazy driving we have yet to see a wreck, or the remains of a wreck. The Koreans are apparently ninja drivers.
I can only leave you for this thought. We keep seeing this commercial on TV that has caused us significant mirth as well as confusion. It's what I would call a normal pizza commercial. Actually the commercial itself is fairly uninteresting, until they put the tag line up on screen. The company's name is Mr. Pizza. Their catch phrase "For the love of women". So we've been postulating on the meaning behind this very random statement (I'd put it up there with Oily Mom, something that was miss translated). Finally at lunch the other day I asked one of the Korean teachers about it, and she explained that Mr. Pizza's marketing bracket is women. So Mr. Pizza is basically the Pizza pimp. Think about that for a while. (Ok, don't really, it's probably only funny to Steve and I.)
So with that I'll leave you with a goodbye. Next time I get a shot I'll write on here about my new students as I've found them to be very funny for the most part.
Much love to all of you!
What's been striking me recently (like within the last 2 days) is how easily we've fallen into our new life. We moved into our new apartment Saturday afternoon (it was Friday in Texas). We unpacked our 2 suitcases and this place feels like home. I almost feel like I've been here a few months. Already I love the little apartment. It's not huge, well it is by Korean standards, but by American standards it's not that big. But our recent lack of belongings makes the place feel giant. We actually have a room right now who's express purpose for the moment is housing my umbrella. I'm not really even sure what we'll do with the space. I'm beginning to realize how much surplus I had in my old life. The drying of clothes on racks as opposed to in a dryer may take a while to get used to. Basically we'll have to stay up on laundry because there's no way we could do 10 loads over a weekend like we used to in the states. We just don't have enough space to hang it all up. On the up side, we don't have that many clothes any more, so we could probably wash every piece of clothing we owned in 6 loads right now.
Our community out here is fabulous. Most Koreans view us as a strange but not unpleasant oddity. They don't seem to dislike us, but honestly they don't spend a lot of time interacting with us. Save the Korean teachers at our school. Some of them are fairly willing to spend time with the slightly confused and uncouth foreigners. One such teacher went with us to visit an English church service today. I'm not sure if the church is a perfect match for us, but since there's only about 4 English services in Gwangju we may have to make some compromises. Who knows? Perhaps the Lord will use them to give us new insight into Himself.
The foreign teachers are a pretty tight knit group out here. Most of them are at least 2-3 years younger than us, and almost all of them are a little more inclined to the night life than we are, but despite those differences we really like them, and they are very pleasant to work with. They keep telling us that you meet most of the other foreigners in the area at the local bars, but Steve and I have agreed that the bar scene isn't for us, and we're determined to find new friends other ways. We're hoping that getting plugged into a church will help us in that direction.
The new job is pretty ok, although it is funny being the low dog on the totem pole after being at Emler for so long where I didn't really have to think hard or fight hard to do a good job. It's been a real treat to work with Steven as well. It's funny getting to see him throughout the day. It's gone from being a little stressful to being pleasant. Don't take the stressful thing the wrong way, but Steve and I have lived almost separate lives for nearly 3 years, and being around each other 24-7 has taken a little getting used to. I think we're functioning much more like a couple and less like housemates these days.
They told us that homesickness would set in later on in our stay, say 4 months down the road, so while I'm very happy and content at the moment, I am a little nervous about what the future will bring. Korean lessons are a definite. We found out today about Korean classes we can take through the international center here, and I think we'll be setting those up early this week. I'm determined to learn this language.
The only other thing that we've got to learn in a hurry is the bus schedule. We've been way to cowardly to ride the bus as of yet, because we'd heard some horror stories about people getting onto the wrong bus and ending up on the wrong side of town, and such, but taking taxis is going to get too expensive. Plus our cabby who took us to church this morning nearly killed us by trying to turn left into on coming traffic while our light was red. A fairly common occurrence in Korea, but nerve wracking to us foreigners. Despite all of this crazy driving we have yet to see a wreck, or the remains of a wreck. The Koreans are apparently ninja drivers.
I can only leave you for this thought. We keep seeing this commercial on TV that has caused us significant mirth as well as confusion. It's what I would call a normal pizza commercial. Actually the commercial itself is fairly uninteresting, until they put the tag line up on screen. The company's name is Mr. Pizza. Their catch phrase "For the love of women". So we've been postulating on the meaning behind this very random statement (I'd put it up there with Oily Mom, something that was miss translated). Finally at lunch the other day I asked one of the Korean teachers about it, and she explained that Mr. Pizza's marketing bracket is women. So Mr. Pizza is basically the Pizza pimp. Think about that for a while. (Ok, don't really, it's probably only funny to Steve and I.)
So with that I'll leave you with a goodbye. Next time I get a shot I'll write on here about my new students as I've found them to be very funny for the most part.
Much love to all of you!
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