pics:Okay so I have so much to say so I thought I would do this in an organized fashion.
Work:
Work is really good. I am getting used to my routine and it is officially Monday - Friday 11:30-1:30 adult classes at a computer chip company, I have M,W,F night classes at the government district office from 7-9 (which is a 5-10 minute walk from my house) and Thursdays I have a class with 20 kids from 4:30-6:30. Going to the factory everyday is quite the experience. I like it because I get to see a lot of the city and experience the city living. I walk 5-10 minutes down to the subway station close to our house and take the subway everyday for 2o minutes to a stop where there is a big HomePlus (like Wal-Mart) and that is where my taxi driver picks me up every day. The school contracted with her so it is the same lady every day which is nice. Then she takes me on another 20 minute ride outside the city into the industrial district. I love the adult students there. They have taught me a lot about Korea so far and we have had some really interesting classes. They are 2 classes of 10 each and there is only 1 woman in each class.
My taxi driver is crazy. She drives like a maniac and loves pumping the music. Wiper, you would definitely get car sick with her...haha...she's insane with gas, break, gas, break, gas, break but actually all drivers here are like that. They are very aggressive. I would never want to drive here. Anyway she gets me there so that’s all that matters. I am getting some personal Korean lessons (which I will talk about later) and tried talking to my taxi driver and she was laughing so hysterically when I tried saying see you tomorrow (which is Nae il bob si da). Anyway slowly but surely I am gonna keep learning things to say to her to make her laugh.
My night class is a great group of people. They gave me a Korean name. It’s Lee, Ga Hee (which means Beautiful Hope – Ga Hee sounds like Cah-hee so its kinda sounds like Carly without the r or l). Lee is my family name because Mrs. Lee in my class is super cute and has a daughter my age and offered to be my Korean mom. They love teaching me all the types of Korean food and have brought some sort of food to every single class, and last week they wanted to take me to a Canadian (western style) restaurant and it was the cutest thing. Everyone here shares food dishes, so we all ordered our own meal, but when it came, they all shared. I personally like it better because as most of you know I love trying everyone else’s food. For some reason it’s just an erg that comes over me when someone is eating something that looks good…I always ask “what do you got there?” and get a bite some way or another. So here I don’t have to play that game. Everyone shares everything! Its sweet! We got a great group photo of us in front of this pretty bell that is in a park near downtown. I think I will have a soft spot for all of the students in my first class. J They are too good to me.
My only class where I teach children is pretty insane. It’s 20 kids who are all around the ages of 9-13. They get pretty hyper but they are all beginners so we just play games, go over the text, and learn the alphabet. It is in a low-income area of Daegu, which takes about a 45 minute bus ride to get there. Again the commute is a little long, but I enjoy seeing another part of the city and another way of life here. It’s a government run program and some of the kids are SUPER cute. I gave them all English names, which was fun. I just used my friends’ names and other students I have met here. The lady who runs the program drives me home because she wants to practice her English, so informally every week she gets one lesson from me on the way home! She enjoys it.
New Friends:
I have made a couple Korean friends which is very helpful. Elyse has her co-Korean teacher from last year that has been a huge help to us. Her name is Sue and she helped us get cell phones. Sometimes they give foreigners a hard time with getting a plan, but she hooked us up with a good plan and she put it under her name, which avoided a lot of the foreigner troubles. She’s very sweet. We went out on the town with her last weekend and had some great Korean food.
Our second Korean friend is Im who’s English name is Justine (because she likes Justin Timberlake). She approached me last week sometime when I was shopping in her family owned convenient store and asked if I spoke English. I was pleasantly surprised that she DID so we had a nice conversation. She just got back from a 10 month exchange in Montreal so she was wondering if I wanted to get together for a language exchange over some coffee sometime. So that is how I am learning some Korean. She is going to teach me Korean, and she gets to practice her English while she is around us. She is 30 and is so sweet. She met someone while she was in Canada that helped her a lot, so she said when she came back to Korea, that she wanted to find a Canadian to help. And Elyse and I are those lucky Canadians! She was kind enough to take us to a local market to get us some used furniture to put in our apartment. We definitely couldn’t have done it without her. She then took us to a great restaurant where you actually get to sit criss cross applesauce and eat your meal. It was wonderful and we treated her to dinner because of what big help she was to us. Her father is the “president” I guess you would call him, of our local neighborhood. He is in charge of making sure everything runs smoothly and stuff like that. So I guess its good to know people like that. They will take good care of us. She loves Sex and the City, so we will definitely be going to see that movie with her when it comes out.
My next Korean friend is Sunny who is one of the Japanese teachers that pick me up everyday from the ISU company. They drive me to the subway station and on the way we try having conversations in English. She too had a nice experience when she went to Japan with someone helping her out so she said she wanted to do the same and told me if I need ANYTHING to just give her a call. If I ever need to visit a doctor or hospital or just need help translating, she said not to hesitate. She would love to help and make my experience here memorable. How sweet isn’t it? Looks like I am going to have to be sure to continue the cycle of helping people when I get back to Canada. I will have to find myself a newly immigrated Korean. Anyway this leads me to my next point.
Craziest Experience in Korea so Far:
On Friday Sunny took me out for lunch with some of her friends from the University. She showed me around her beautiful campus and the area they all hang out in. She’s in her 4th year university studying Japanese as well as English. She took me out for some great Korean food (with Octopus and all) and then brought me to a sweet little café that had a piano and comfy couches everywhere. Anyway it was nice chatting with her and her friends and as I was leaving, she invited me to go to a wedding the next day. I didn’t hesitate at all to say yes because what a great experience this was going to be! Anyway it definitely was so far the best experience I have had in Korea. It was the craziest too.
I met her Saturday morning near the university campus. We walked to the beautiful temple following the sounds of traditional Korean musical chants and drum rhythms and eventually arrived at the beautiful ceremony. It was raining lightly but as with other mishaps that occur, the Koreans seem to look for the best in it and say that they will prosper and become really rich if it rains on their wedding day. I took photos of the ceremony and couldn’t believe that I was actually a part of this. The dresses and outfits where gorgeously detailed and were so amazing. After a 10 minute portion, the performers begin to play again and the bride was carried in a carriage-like box (box is definitely not the right word but that’s the only thing that will get my point across) that was decorated all elegantly with colourful tassels. Four monk looking men carry her down to another building where they performed the second half of the ceremony for family members only as the rest of the congregation followed to the chants. I was the only foreigner there and they realized that, so they invited me in to the “family only” portion and told me to take pictures. * I just want to add that Sunny didn’t even know the bride and groom, she had a friend that was performing the traditional music, so it was definitely a “wedding crashers” style invite! *
They didn’t seem to mind though, and let me come in and take pictures of the beautiful newlyweds. As they saw me taking pictures they insisted that we get into a pictures with them as even the professional photographer continued taking pictures. As I thanked and congratulated them in shock that I had just stepped up with the couple on their wedding day, having no clue who the heck this white girl was, the camera man asked if he could interview me. He asked me questions, in English, about the ceremony, if I enjoyed it, if it was my first time experiencing it and if I had any comments for the bride and groom. I explained how amazing it was that I could be there and how beautiful everything was and “congratulations to the bride and groom?!” It was the most bizarre experience of my life. And it wasn’t over either. As we were leaving, they insisted that I got into the carriage and get a picture. They full out put me in the carriage and took pictures of me. They were laughing and smiling and so happy to share their exciting day with me. Sunny later told me that on their happy day, they always try to include any foreigners because they want them to appreciate this special ceremony and have great memories of the Korean culture. Wow. What a memory indeed. They then invited us back to the reception lunch that was buffet style with amazing food and Soju and beer everywhere! The bride and groom changed outfits and came around to the tables to greet everyone. As I left, I couldn’t thank Sunny enough for bringing me to this amazing wedding! I got some great photos!
Ohh…I have so much more to say, but this is getting way too long…I will post this and then add another! I miss you all dearly and we now have internet and our Windsor # so send me an email if you want the # so you can give us a call.
LOVE YOU ALL! …and you will be hearing from me very soon!
1 comment:
Sounds incredible...take it all in!!! I'm not sure we are going to be able to find a scrap book big enough for this one!!!! Enjoy!! Miss You!!
Love Brenda xoxo
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