Oryong
I am completely content with my Sunday mornings continuing to follow exactly like this. I just finished my breakfast in bed while looking out at my view. I have a cell phone next to me that is constantly humming with plan-making and a computer on my lap to record the adventures from past plans made. I feel like this sort of downtime will be precious in Korea.
Where to begin!? I feel like so much has happened in the past few days since I last updated.
I guess I’ll start with ‘collectivism’. Collectivism is a big thing here. The unit is prized over the individual and everything is done for the standing of the group. That’s becoming more noticeable now since I’ve been with my coteachers. We do everything together while at work. I wont even go up to throw something away in the trash without making sure that they too are ready to throw something away. Haha I know it sounds silly, but it’s a “clan” culture. My coteachers are lovely and adorable, so it’s not intimidating. And they are very aware of cultural differences and we both want to learn from each other which is very, VERY, very, nice.
The students have been amazing. Full of energy and questions. I only hope that my novelty doesn’t fade within the first month! Each teacher runs their class slightly different. In Miss Nahm’s classes (6th grade) I’ve been writing numbers on the board that pertain to my life and the students have to guess what they represent. (177 is a fun one because that’s my height in cm. The kids flip. Haha) After that I give an intro powerpoint that has photos of family, dogs, my artwork, me playing soccer, etc. In Miss Choem’s (5th grade) class things have been running a little differently. Before I gave my intro powerpoint she sat me at the front of the class and had every student come up and introduce themselves to me. (In English of course!) I felt like a queen because they would bow when saying goodbye. Hah!
After each powerpoint intro we opened the class to questions. They could ask me anything and boy did they ever... Highlights: Do you have children? Do you have a boyfriend? How tall are you? What’s your favorite Kpop star? Are you a team USA representative (olympic soccer)? Did you get plastic surgery? Have you met Obama? Have you been to Disneyland? Do you have mountains in America? How do I get tall like you? -And then there were some questions that my coteacher wouldn’t translate...hmmm haha
Waygook Reunion:
One day on the subway I ran into another “foreigner”. When that happens, regardless if you know the person or not, you usually say hi and act like they’re your long-lost friend. Haha Ironically enough, he was attending the same Daejeon party on Friday night that I was, he knows where I live, and he’s actually been inside my apartment. It’s a small (waygook) world.
The party Friday night was held at this “western” bar called The Cantina. Western as is “foreigner” not cowboys and indians -though some are themed that way! Almost every new and old Daejeon teacher was there. It was great to see everyone again; especially out of the confines of the KT. After hanging around The Cantina for a bit groups started to break off and do their own thing. Some went for karaoke, some to another bar, and some had no plan and just wandered. That’s what my group did. And to our lovely amazement and surprised we ended up at one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been: The Crying Nut. The Crying Nut is essentially a tiny bar located in an alley, in a railway car in the middle of the chaos that is the Time World district. (We’ve deducted that they call it Time World because it’s similar to the feel of Times Square. Crazy.) The bar was incredible. It was like you were in a movie. A loud, fire-breathing, synchronized-dancing kind of movie. Incredible. There was also a small birthday party happening in the corner and the girls from that group kept grabbing me to dance and pose in pictures with them. Haha So cute.
Yesterday was a recovery day. My feet hate Korea. All of my new shoes have given me...insane blisters and walking around Time World for hours on end in heels was not a good choice either. I skyped all day and went out at night. Last night I met up with people at the Oryong subway stop. It was a new area of town that we’ve yet to explore so we figured to just go for it and see what happens. After walking around for a bit trying to find a remote sense of English, we decided to give up and give in because we were so hungry. We can point to pictures, right? Haha We decided on this little hot pot restaurant where you had to option to sit on the floor. Our waitress was adorable and tried to speak a little English with us because she was a University student. We really didn’t know what we ordered and were afraid that we were either going to get a very little amount of food...or way too much. It was the latter. We also didn’t know how much it was going to be either...but, get this, after being served an incredible amount of amazing food it worked out to be only 40,000won. That’s roughly $8 per person. What? Amazing.
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| Oryong. |
After dinner we wandered the streets perusing the fish markets full of creatures in tanks, random little mini marts, and danced Gangnam Style in alleys full of fruit vendors. (Watch this right now if you don't know what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) We’re having too much fun here.
Not sure what today will hold. Maybe shopping or the art museum? I was invited to go hiking but...yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen. haha
Lol, I wonder what they said that she wouldnt translate haha thats to funny :) crazy kids!
ReplyDeleteps every time I comment on here, those passwords you have to type in so the computer knows your not an alien... yea always have to do at least 3 of them lol why do they have to make them so hard!? LOL