Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Of course, Koreans aren't celebrating, so I have to work today.  Oh well.  At least I'll do some fun turkey crafts and stuff with the kids.

 

Our big Thankgiving party will be on Saturday.  Tracy and I are cooking a Thanksgiving-esque dinner for a bunch of our friends.  We can't get turkey in Dangjin, so we'll have to settle for chicken (which can't be roasted either- no oven).  But we'll have stuffing and mashed potatoes and peach jello and cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes and corn and pie--- some of which were brought over from the US and others we bought in Seoul or found here.  The pies will be especially interesting since we only have a toaster oven....

The other interesting thing is that only 3 of the 10+ people will be American.  We'll also have a Canadian, an Australian, a Kenyan, a Philippino, and 4 or 5 Koreans.  This will probably be my most unusual Thanksgiving ever!

Annonymity

One difficult thing to get used to living in a foreign country is lack of annonymity.  At first, it's novel.  You're like a celebrity!  The extra attention is even enjoyable.  But after a while it can get old.  At this point I'm pretty used to it, so most days I don't even notice people staring at me, or it doesn't faze me for people to want to practice English on me.

But other days, I just wish I could put on a hat to hide my round eyes, tall nose, forehead creases and blondish hair and walk down the street unnoticed.  I wonder if this is what it feels like to be an ethnic minority in the United States...  Although, Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world, so differences might be more obvious and unusual than in the States....

A weekend in Seoul

I spent this past weekend in Seoul which almost always means more excitement than bumming around Dangjin :)

On Saturday Tracy and I headed for Seoul on the 9:00 bus.  Once there we got Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast/snack and hopped on the subway to go to Insadong (the arts & crafts area of Seoul).  It's a nice street to walk down with tons of souvenirs and artwork to look at.  Most shops sell the same things, though.  I did a good amount of Christmas shopping there.  When we reached the end of that area, we came out upon a busy road that I recognized from my trip to Seoul with Jason.  I was excited that I could get us around from there!  By this time we were ready for lunch, so we stopped at a Subway.  It's amazing how they smell exactly the same as they do in the U.S. and taste the same, too!  Definitely a good taste of "home."  Oh, and their chocolate chip cookies were probably the best I've eaten in this country so far.

From there we continued to Itaewon (the foreigners' district) to seek out some tastes of home to have for Thanksgiving.  Itaewon is so strange to me.  There are TONS of foreigners there.  Tracy and I are used to living in a small town with barely any foreigners, so at first we always turn around when we hear English and are surprised to pick up pieces of conversations and people walk past.  Anyway, we found a couple international grocery stores and bought some overpriced groceries (like a 3500 won can of cranberry sauce...).  That took more time than expected, so it was already time for dinner.  We chose an Indian/Pakistani buffet.  It was quite yummy!!  Also the first buffet I've been to here.  Our waitress was SO sweet.  I guess this is her first job or something, so she's trying really hard to give good service (and they don't even do tips here!).  We left a few pounds heavier than we came and waddled down to the subway station where Tracy and I parted ways.  She took the heavy bag of groceries and headed back to Dangjin, and I went North on the subway.  I had arranged to meet a new Korean friend at 8:00.  Here's the background on that: 

A while back I was googling "English Worship service in Korea" or something along those lines.  One of the results I got was AndyinKorea, a blog of a Canadian guy who was apparently very involved in a church here.  So, I left a little note on his guestbook mentioning that I was also in Korea and I didn't meet many foreign Christians and such.  Later, he emailed me and invited me to come to his church, Seoul International Baptist Church, the next time I was in Seoul.  So, I told him I'd be up this past weekend and he hooked me up with three Korean sisters who would show me a cheap hotel to stay in and help me get to the church.

So I met Ahn Jeong-Yeun at the subway station and we went to Starbucks and got to know each other a bit.  Then we drove to pick up her two sisters and their 5 dogs from the vet.  They took me to a hotel and helped me check in and planned to pick me up in the morning.  The hotel was nice and clean for 30,000 won and I should've gotten good sleep.  However, I had Starbucks way too close to bedtime.... it was a long night....

Sunday morning the girls picked me up and we went to Dunkin' Donuts in Itaewon where we met Andy for breakfast.  From there we went to church and I met a bunch of foreigners and participated in a great before service Bible Study and then the main worship service.  It was like I was whisked back to the U.S. for a bit.  Really, it was a reality check for me when the offering plate came around and there was won in it instead of dollars!  It was SO nice to discuss the Bible with people and pray with them in English that wasn't scripted!  I was certainly blessed.  After the service, the Ahn sisters, Andy and I joined two couples and their adorable children for lunch at Pizza Hut followed by Starbucks again.  So much western stuff!  And I felt really welcomed by those I was with.  It's great to just blend right in with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Eventually I got back to the bus station and headed back to Dangjin.  While it was nice to be around more foreigners for awhile, it was also really strange.  It was actually nice to go back to being the only white face around, strange as that may sound.

 

And now it is cold here.  I just started wearing my winter coat.  And, I've decided it's ok to play Christmas music now.  I'm not sure if it will ever feel Christmasy here, though... maybe if we get some snow....

Happy Pepero Day

Today (11-11-05) is Pepero Day here in Korea.  A Pepero is a cookie-type snack.  It's long and skinny and dipped in chocolate.  There are different varieties, too.  Anyway, today's the day you're supposed to buy these snacks and give them to your sweethearts or your friends or your teachers (or, as the kids think, the teachers are required to buy them for the students!).  It's basically another Valentine's Day that's been created by companies in Korea.  Anyway, it's cute.  I think the little Pepero cartoon characters are especially cute.  Everything in Korea has a cartoon character!  Check out www.pepero.co.kr to see them.  There's a link at the bottom left for a Pepero song, too!  :)

A Few New Pictures

<---- Click on that nifty link and go to the album titled "November" to see my most recent pics.

The Plight of Single Korean Women

Behind all the modernities of Korean culture there is a lot of tradition that is still held to. One is the importance of marriage. The generally agreed upon best range for getting married is between the ages of 26 and 32. Everyone holds to this, it seems. When a Korean reaches this age they get tremendous pressure from their family and pretty much everyone around them. Especially the women. Let me illustrate: I have several Korean friends who fall into this category- girls over 30 who are single. Two, in particular, I spend a good deal of time with. It never fails when we meet someone new- they will be asked how old they are, and then if they're married, and why not, etc. They'll even be encouraged to find a boyfriend and get married (as if they had anything to do with it!). Seriously, it never fails. Always within the first conversation with someone new they get on that subject. Even when it isn't someone new people around them will start teasing them about it or asking where their boyfriend is. It's so bad that they never want to talk about age- they don't want anyone asking theirs because of what questions come next! And, they dread family get-togethers. When Chusok (kinda their version of Thanksgiving- the biggest family holiday of the year) was coming, they and other single friends mentioned dreading the weekend because of all the questions and comments they'd get from their relatives! Another tradition that's still widely held to relating to single women is the role of their parents. If a girl doesn't get married, she will likely live with her family. In this position, she's still under their authority, even for things like curfew. No matter how old they are! A woman of 35 or 40 may not be allowed to stay the night in another city, for example, even if she's with friends or relatives, simply because she's single! Coming from the individualistic society of the U.S. where everything is about freedom, this hits me as.... wrong, I guess. Strange, at the least. There is so much in Korea that resembles modern Western culture, but the deeper you look, the more you find these sorts of traditions holding on. Some are good, some are bad. I personally would like to see single women under less pressure to be married, and having the freedom to do things and gain experiences without being watched over like a teenager. Maybe because I'm allowed that freedom? The closeness of family here, however, has its good points as well. Nursing homes still seem like a foreign concept to Koreans (here in the small town of Dangjin, at least). It's taken for granted that children look after their aging parents or other relatives. They come to live in their home, and even if they're sick to the point of staying in a hospital the family is with them all the time. That is something we don't see much of in the U.S.

A Wednesday in Dangjin

Here is a rather lengthy account of yesterday. I just wanted to give you a more thorough idea of a weekday in Dangjin. This was a little more exciting than most :) I woke up late, showered, read my pink Bible (finished off Proverbs) and ate my usual breakfast of tea and toast. I had honey on it this time, but sometimes I'll have peanut butter or strawberry jelly. If I really want to mix things up I'll eat cereal or oatmeal instead (both sort of a "splurge" with the prices around here). When 12:00 rolled around, Tracy and I walked down the street to take her pictures to be developed. On the way we observed the construction that's been going on in Dangjin for quite some time. I guess the "town" is getting funding from the government to become a "city," so they're doing a lot of work under the road and along the sides of the roads, in addition to all the buildings that are always being built or remodeled. Tracy dropped off a cd of her pictures at the Fuji Film shop (the only photo shop we know of, although I'm certain there are others--this one is just most recognizable to us), spoke English to the woman there who spoke Korean back to her, and yet still communicated what time to pick up the pictures. Then we walked back up the narrow street to check out a new restaurant that opened last week. It's called "Toast Tour." What they call toast is actually sort of grilled sandwiches (kinda like grilled cheese). But they make the strangest combinations! Ah, but before we get to that... So, Tracy and I walked in, hoping there would be English on the menu, but no luck. Thus, I began the arduous process of reading the menu. I can sound out Korean, it just takes a bit. Because this "toast" isn't native Korean food, the names on the menu were mostly adapted English words. Especially amusing is that "toast" becomes 3 syllables in Korean: "Toh-suh-tuh" :) Well, after reading through half the menu (of things like "pi-jah toh-suh-tuh," "chee-suh toh-suh-tuh," "ha-wa-in ham-buh-guh," "hos doh-guh," and "sa-seo-gee"), Tracy opted to point at a picture she saw- it looked like a club sandwich- and I decided to risk a "set menu" (sort of a combo meal). We both ended up with toasted sandwiches- hers with egg, pickle, cheese, and unidentifiable sauce, mine with egg, green pepper, a single piece of pepperoni, pizzaish sauce, cheese, and a strange yellow sauce. Both weren't quite the "western" flavors we were hoping for. And hers had none of the ingredients of the picture she had pointed to except for the bread. My combo meal also came with a sausage that had strange sauce all over it as well. The one exciting part of my meal was the pineapple juice I got. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. All in all it wasn't bad. Especially for the price. We're interested in going back and trying other things on the menu. Like maybe "cheese toast" is a regular grilled cheese sandwich... I'm also interested in trying the "hawaiian hamburger"- do you think it has pineapple on it? After lunch, it was time for work. I went to Mirae and pulled out my schedule to see what classes I needed to prepare for. Then I began looking through each book and choosing what activities to add to each lesson, writing a little lesson plan for each--all while listening to music on my mp3 player. For one class I decided I needed large posterboard to make a particular craft. So once I finished my lesson plans I took off for a nearby stationary store. It's quite huge and has a great selection of all kinds of school supplies- probably the best in the city. It would be easy to spend a long time there. But, I had to get right back to school to start class at 2:30. 2:30 is usually my favorite class. It's 6 2nd graders, and they're the smartest level at Mirae. Being young, they still enjoy learning and still have fun with fairly simple activities. Sometimes when I ask "What did you do today?" they'll really want me to understand something they don't know the exact words for, so they'll use all kinds of gestures or draw on the board and use whatever English words they know. It's great. They can be very hyper, but they're so much fun. At 3:30 I had my third grade class. Thankfully it's smaller than it used to be, but I still have some pretty ornery kids in there. It's SO hard not to have favorites! 4:30 has become the worst class of the day for me, usually. Sometimes 6:30. But my 4:30 classes are both so big, and the boys are just at the age of really getting naughty. And both classes have fairly low level English... At 5:30 I met with "Jenny," a middle-school girl taking private lessons at Mirae. I meet with her twice a week. She's been coming to Mirae as long as they've been open. She started when she was 6, so she's been coming for about 10 years. She also had the opportunity to go to California for 3 weeks this past summer. Because of all her experience with foreign teachers here she speaks English quite well. She's hoping to go back to the States as an exchange student once she's in high school. I hope she can go- she'd love it. This week the 6:30 classes have been small because the 6th graders from one of the schools in town are gone on a big field trip. It's been a nice break from the usual noisiness. Generally my voice is already shot by that point of the day so it's very difficult to talk loud enough to get their attention. But, with the small class this week, I just had them play English games like Scrabble. On Wednesdays that's my last class of the day. So after class I came back to the apartment for an hour and responded to some emails and did other stuff on the internet. At 8:30 Tracy and I went back to Mirae to meet up with the adult class. I teach the adult class on Tuesdays and Fridays and Cori teaches them on the other three days. One of the students is leaving in a couple weeks for the States to live in Boston. So, in order to give him a big send off, we had made plans to all go out as a class for dinner. The students chose a Chinese restaurant in town that is owned by one student's parents. It's a really nice place and the food was REALLY YUMMY! I'm always especially excited about the sweet and sour pork- it tastes like the Chinese I'm used to at home :). After stuffing ourselves there, they wanted to go for norebang. So the big group of us headed to a new norebang a few streets away. On the way, we met Sue and convinced her to join us. Norebang was great. There were so many Koreans that we got to hear more Korean songs than usual, and it's always interesting to hear what English songs they like to sing. For example, one of the picks last night was "Last Christmas." A little out of season, but still fun! Someday I'll learn how to post videos and let you see a clip I took. I didn't sing a whole lot, but mostly because there were so many people. And the audience really determines what I want to sing. Because some songs that are amusing to one bunch of people are just annoying to another bunch. Because we were with Koreans this whole time, we didn't have to rely on our measely Korean skills at all. And, we were treated to everything! So nice. After norebang, Tracy and Cori headed to a bar to visit with some other friends, and I came back to our apartment. The heating situation was finally remedied yesterday, so the apartment was actually quite toasty! It hasn't been that way for awhile. Soon we'll need to figure out the balance between hot and cold... Although it was after 11:00 pm, I had to get on the internet before bed. After all, that's when everyone at home is just waking up! So I Skyped with Jason for awhile before going to sleep. Thus ended Wednesday.