But where is "home" now? I think home can be anywhere you stay where you feel comfortable. I feel like I have homes in Seattle, Bellingham, and Australia, and although I've already been here six months (same time as Australia), I'm still not comfortable. I am very happy here and I'm having a great time, but I'm not "comfortable" in the sense that I could ever call this place "home." I think Korea will only ever just be a place that I've lived. And again, it's not that I'm not happy-- I love it here! But the culture is so vastly different. In America, you see people of different ethnicity and background everywhere you go, and you rarely question where they are from. They are simply American. But here, in a country so overwhelmingly homogeneous, your physical appearance will certainly betray you. We cannot "hide" in the crowd. Even the rare child born and raised in Korea by foreign parents will be considered an outsider. Learning the language is really the only thing foreigners can do to gain some ground. And I phrase that like it's a battle, but it really isn't. In my experience, Koreans are very warm and helpful to foreigners. But in my opinion it's the novelty of interacting with us that they really appreciate.
A lot has happened in the last two months, so I won't attempt to go into major detail because that would take an unfathomable amount of time for me to compose and you to read. I'll just list a few things to catch up.
- When last I left off, I was talking about a student of mine who I thought may have had some form of mild autism. Always providing bright moments in my day, he unfortunately had to stop coming to our school. His parents wanted him to focus on learning Korean, or so I've been told. I've actually lost quite a few students in the last few months. Some students I lose to other teachers as classes merge or move around, and some students we lose to other schools.
- I went to Seoul in January to meet with my friend Woosung, who is Korean but grew up in Australia. It was great to hear an Aussie accent again and we had a fun time exploring the city. We only really had a day because he was just stopping over in Korea on his way to America to visit his uncle. It was interesting to travel around with Woo because he still considers himself Australian and hence, a foreigner, but unlike me he can hide in the crowd. His family was staying with his grandmother and I was invited to stay with them, so I did. Everyone except his mother and grandmother left early in the morning to get their flight. I got up later in the morning and his mother gave me some breakfast while we talked. Quite a fun experience overall.
- The next weekend I went on another overnight ski trip. This time there was more snow and we had a grand old time on the slopes and at night in the resort. Went skiing three times in total this season and it was quite fun. Pretty cheap too.
- My old roommate Analisa moved out at the very end of January. There was no immediate replacement for her, so for awhile we had another foreign teacher one of our school's other branches coming in to teach her classes. We weren't sure if it was permanent or not. He already had an apartment in another part of the city and they offered to have him move in with me and be closer but he wanted to stay where he was, which was fine with me! I had about a month to myself, but eventually they moved him back to the other school and hired a new foreign teacher who now lives with me. She's 24 and from New York. We get along well and it's kind of fun being a "veteran" and watching her excitement at discovering the many wonders of this country.
- Valentine's Day was delightfully spent alone, but Kodi and I exchanged gifts and chocolates via snail mail and we are always able to talk through Skype. I also had some flowers delivered to her house. A few days later I got an email from the flower company saying that they had had a security breach and some credit card numbers may have been stolen. Hmmm. I called my credit card number and it listed off some recent charges, one of which was an attempted $512 dollar purchase from an online shoe store, which thankfully was rejected as being suspicious. Guess they really do monitor the purchases! Anyway, got it canceled but that's the first time I've ever been a victim of identity theft. Fortunately it ended as well as could be hoped for.
- Took a trip to Busan with my friends Max and Jeremy. We explored the city for a few days and while out on the first night we met a Korean guy who we made friends with. He showed us around to some hot spots and he actually came to visit us a few weeks ago. His English is pretty poor (not that our Korean is great) but it was good for us to practice with each other.
- I finally finished my TEFL course that I've been taking. It was an online course that I started way back before I even left to come here! Of course I slacked and didn't end up finishing til the last minute, but it was really helpful and I learned some great things. If I decide to pursue future teaching abroad options it will definitely give me a leg up.
- One of our Korean co-teachers named Sally invited us (when I say us I'm usually referring to Max and Jeremy, my default traveling companions) to come stay with her family in the country for a festival that celebrates the first full moon of the lunar new year. She warned us that it was reaaaally in the country and that there were no other foreigners around. That's exactly what we want! A real Korean cultural experience. I'll go into more detail on this part as I think it's one of the best experiences I've had yet. We took a few buses to get to he small town of Hapcheon and Sally's brother-in-law was waiting at the bus stop to pick us up. We drove a short ways and pulled up to the house. It was on a decent size property just off the main road. A bunch of kids were running around and were excited to greet us. We greeted the family and settled in. They welcomed us very warmly. That night we had dinner outside until it started raining a bit so we headed inside to keep chatting. The house wasn't really that big-- just a kitchen, then a main room, and a few small rooms off that-- but we had at least 10 people sleeping there. Many people slept on the floor as there was only one "western-style" bed (with a frame and spring mattress). In the morning we all ate breakfast on the floor around a small table. Our meals were traditionally Korean. Breakfast consisted of rice, bean sprouts, kimchi, lettuce, and soybean paste. After we ate we wrote down messages on pieces of paper that we learned would be burned in the bonfire at the festival. The burning represents a kind of release of the wish or message. It is a tradition during many ceremonies to burn things. After that we headed off to the festival. It was held in a big open field down by the river. While we were walking towards the field our family pointed out what appeared to be a giant tree in the middle of the field. They informed us that it would be the source of the bonfire. One part of the field had many tables and chairs set up under tents where people were eating and drinking. The community all chips in money and then they have tons of food and drink to share. We all tied our messages to the tree and found a table. We ate and talked a lot. The kids in the family really loved us and we had a great time playing with them. After an hour or two, the adults of the family went to see one of the aunts who was in the hospital. Jeremy, Max, and I went with Sally and all of the kids to a small town which was actually a giant movie set. It was really quite incredible. The whole town was very convincing, but all the buildings were of course empty. After that we headed back to the festival for some more eating. When night finally came and the full moon peaked above the mountains, the giant tree erupted in flames! It was quite a sight. Fireworks went off and people danced around as it burned. After it started dying down a bit we headed off back to the house. We sat around eating more and drinking makkeolli (a kind of rice wine). Finally we all started getting ready for sleep. Right before bed I was struck by a violet illness. I ended up being sick all night. I couldn't keep anything down. I was terribly dehydrated and weak. My stomach felt like it was twisted in a knot all night and I hardly slept. Some of the kids had a few problems too. Must have been some of the food. In the morning we wanted to go to a doctor but they said that they were closed, except for the ER and that it would be better to wait until getting back to Daegu. So I managed the bus ride back and Sally took me to a doctor where I got some medicine. Then I went home and slept for hours. Luckily I felt well enough the next day to go back to school, but it was a few days before I felt 100%. Despite having one of the worst nights I can ever remember, the trip was such a great cultural experience. It was also great for us to practice our Korean and the family to practice their English. I feel like my quick summary doesn't do it any justice at all, but I'll add some pictures later.
- I decided that I wanted a bit of physical stimulation other than walking to and from school every day, so I joined an ultimate frisbee league with Max. We both missed the first game to go to Hapcheon, but I have been going to the games after that. It's a really great community of people. Mostly foreigners, but pretty diverse in age, interests, and length of time in Korea (some only a few months all the way up to one guy who's been here for 12 years!). Last Sunday we had to play three games in one day because of the way scheduling the games worked out. We were at the field for about six hours but we had an hour break in between each game. Otherwise we probably would have died. I'm still sore, but it was great fun and our team got into a good groove and we played well despite losing one game (we won the other two). One of our teammates had his nose broken by a rather large fellow's elbow on the other team. Accidental, but it was quite a sight.
- A few weeks ago I went paintballing for the first time. I was kind of nervous because everyone says that it hurts a lot. My friend Jeremy and I went with a tour company that picked us up here on a bus and drove us up into the woods in the mountains. We met all the other people there, again mostly foreigners, and got set up. We got some pretty serious gear. Full coveralls, a chest and back pad, gloves, and a full helmet with a big plastic faceplate. We ended up looking like riot police. There were two teams of about 10 people and we played three games. The best place to get hit was actually the head, because we couldn't feel that at all, though it was startling to have paint suddenly explode all over your faceplate! The most painful hit I took was when someone hit me in the knuckle on my right hand. It hurt for about 15 minutes but was fine after that. Some other people got some pretty serious welts and one guy got a big gash in his arm from slipping and hitting a rock. Overall though it was a lot of fun and we got a nice BBQ lunch afterwards.
- WARNING - THE FOLLOWING MAY OFFEND OR ANGER SOME PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY DOG LOVERS. That's right, I ate dog soup. I did it because I was curious about what it tasted like and also because I wanted to say I had eaten dog. Some people know that some Asian cultures used to eat dog. Korea is one of those cultures. Though it isn't anywhere near common today, it does still exist. When the World Cup came to Korea in 2002, FIFA tried very hard to get rid of all the dog-eating and it was made illegal in most places. I believe it is still technically illegal, but it isn't strongly enforced. Anyway, I had been curious about trying dog but didn't really look very hard for the option. There is a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet guide and I had made plans with Jeremy and Max to check it out, but we never ended up going. Then one of Max's debate class students told us about a good place to go to get some dog soup which re-sparked our interest. One night after work we took a taxi to the restaurant which was really far out of the way and not near any other buildings. It was a pretty traditional restaurant with all seating on the floor. Definitely off the beaten path and no place that you would just stumble upon. We met Max's student there and he helped us order the dog soup. I asked him if he thought the dogs were killed there and he said that he thought it was probably like pork or any other meat where you buy it from somewhere else. People say that the dogs are tortured and beaten right before they are killed so that the adrenaline is flowing through their bodies and makes the meat better, but I choose not to believe that. Anyway, the soup came and it was really quite good. The broth was very tasty. The meat itself was incredibly tender and had a nice little kick to it. There were some vegetables in the broth and some other weird... bits. Turns out they were pieces of skin and some organs, we think the liver or stomach. It was basically a ball-shaped thing with whitish tubes sticking out. The skin was really chewy and slippery. It was pretty gross and hard to swallow. The organ was hard and rubbery. Chewing on the tubes was what I imagine chewing on surgical hose would be like. Some parts were good, some parts were kind of gross. Overall, it was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I'll do it again.
- Last Saturday I went on a trip to a bull fighting festival. There is a little magazine put out every month called Daegu Pockets, which has stories in English and Korean, reviews of restaurants and movies, maps of different areas of the city with lots of locations marked, and heaps more stuff. It's really a great resource for foreigners. The website is http://daegupockets.com/ if you want to check it out. Anyway, the nice folks at Daegu Pockets organized a huge trip to the festival in Cheongdo. There ended up being 4 busloads of us who went. The festival was pretty big. Lots of people around with a bunch of vendors selling random crafts. Inside the stadium were the bullfights. A ring of sand maybe 50 feet across. The trainers lead the bulls to the center and then pull their heads together and then they lock heads. They butt heads and scuffle around until one submits by running away. Not quite as exciting as I had pictured, but it was a fun day nonetheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment