The first e-update from Korea has been long waiting to be written.. alas, here it is. It is long and I am surrounded by about 20 kids playing computer games , so please be patient w/ me.
The move here, as you know, was extremely hasty and I felt very unhappy to have chosen this path. It did seem at times, though, that this was THE path I was being thrown into. My apartment was absolutely disgusting when
I arrived, but after my roomate arrived we cleaned it and after two weeks there is still so much to do to make it be normal. I have a roomate, her name is Steph and she is, as she says, an oil brat: Her father is in
the oil bussiness and she has lived in many different places, like Kuwait, Texas, and before Korea, Malaysia. She is v. anal and organized and she paid
A THOUSAND DOLLARS in excess baggage to bring her shit here. hehehehehehehe. I was very fortunate to have my other friend Stephanie Macphail with me in Minneapolis because i might have paid 50 bucks or so to bring shitty stuff that I can buy here in a second! =) But Stephanie Nimckok (my roomate now) is really cool
and we get along great. There must be some wisdom embedded in all the perfect friends and roomates I have had. =) Anyways, my neighborhood is v. quiet, there is a big middle school right in front of my apartment, which is
very, very lucky as it is unclear exactly where we live and the only way to tell taxis to take us home is to say we live behind block 13 and in front
of the kognun school. It works great. I walk to work, its just about 15 minutes and the walk right now is gorgeous! Sanbon is really pretty, with its
mountains and hills, and they are all spotted in green, red, and yellow. Koreans' desire to rebuild what the japanese destroyed also means there is a
gigantic tree every few feet. This is v. happy at times, but the fact that besides all the trees there is so many koreans everywhere also means there is no place to walk in the sidewalk. =)
(o.k. kids are fighting behind me.. it seems i'm in the only computer that is not being used for games.. they must not like that.. computer game dominance)
Work is bloody hectic. I teach three classes of preschool (art and crafts) and I have to feed the little buggers, thus, three days a week i have to arrive at school at around 11 am. Food is delivered from a restaurant dowsntairs and i rarely eat it.. i am not yet used to the many unhapy smells of korean food. (this is only to my non Korean nose... i am certain many of my american and mexican happy smells are quite disgusting to people from other cultures) =) Besides of preeschool I teach three different classes on MWF and four classes on TTh. i get home at around 9 pm each day and i am pooped by then.
Seoul is about an hour train ride from where i live, and the subway station is just about a 30 min walk from my apartment. I am going to try and
go every weekend to a different part of the city.. There is soo much to do!
i am still amazed at how a person who is unable to utter anything more than the most basic greeting can manage to live in this country. =) I
haven't experienced any bad vibes from people in the streets. No, wait.. there was one time. I was in the metro and this old guy was sitting in the 'old peoples' section and I was standing, you know, me being v.
considerate... and one seat opened next to the old guy (let it be clear that he was
an old guy like a grandfather and not like one of those nasty old guys).. so
he swiftly slapped my bum and told me to sit nex to him.. so, I did.. no sooner had i sat down that another old guy ran from what seemed the other end of the bloody train, yelling at me... =) the original bum slapping old
guy just laughed.. =) But apparently besides being yelled at by old men, the only other bad thing that can happen is to be asked if we are 'ruskis' or russians.. some russian women who come to 'work' here are prostitutes. But talking about russians, I went to this part of town that has one of the largest shopping centers of Asia (I did not know this, of course, and was there to meet up with the Ecuadorian folk music players I had met last week) and saw so many russian restaurants. Actually I have no idea if there were restaurants or not. This market, though, was crazy.. crazy, crazy! i mean so much stuff.. and so cheap.. this is were all the arabs come and buy
their clothes.. hahahaha.. for real! and i would to if any of it would fit!
Other notes on Korea: they recycle everything! The kids have school on saturday and many people have to work on sunday too ( and i mean 12
hr days), I passed through the stalls of fried larvae twice today and wanted so badly to stop and try it but i was alone and didn't want to make a fool out of myself. Seoul is v. smoggy... very, very. Everybody has this tiny
little dogs and whenever you see a big dog there is ALWAYS a big crowd around them.
Pizza Hut costs 30 dollars per pizza and it comes with a variety of pickels..none of which are spicy... =( And Korea is soooo similar to mexico.. oh my god, i am starting to sound like a broken record to
all my coworkers.. "oh, this is just like mexico".. =) it is sooo strange. But then again, that's what I say of everywhere i go. Um, they do not ferment
their beer naturally and thus it is best to stay away from korean beer that has been chemically fermented. Actually everything is v. chemical.. =)
Korean is soo hard! =) but again, I feel v. happy that english is so close to me. There is
not that many foreigners around here, which is hard.. since for most of my life abroad i've tried to remain far away from foreigners and now they are my only hope for a social life. =) most korean in sanbon do not speak
english. Mind you, when we went to evangelical church in seoul we found all
the koreans that spoke english.. too bad they were crazy. Finally since in Korean there is no difference between the letter R and the letter L,
my last name is ra-ra.. =)
