South South Korea

• This weekend Sunny, her husband, and I went on a road trip to the southern part of the country. Sunny’s husband drove while us girls snoozed in the back seat for the 4 or 5 hour drive Friday night after work. Sunny’s husband was competing against 15 of his co-workers that weekend at a country club. Surprisinly, he won first place; even after only getting 2 hours of sleep that night. Her husband was sharing a room with 3 other guys and I think they spent to evening drinking and singing. Sunny and I on the other hand cleaned up and then went right to bed. We had a big day ahead of us and needed our rest. So no matter how many text messages she got asking for us to join the party she turned them all down.
• The next morning we were up at 7 and packed and out of the hotel before 8. Sunny drove us further south to a green tea farm. It was beautiful! Rows and rows of green tea growing on a hill side. We climbed to the top of the mountain and were rewarded with a breathtaking ocean view. Then, we made our way down the back side of the mountain, the shady side with no tea, and were rewarded once again with another 2 breathtaking views. The first was of fresh, cool, water falls. The second was of an ajima (pushy, older married Korean woman) who passed me on going down the trail in high heels. It was muddy and rocky from the waterfalls but that didn’t stop ajima! My jaw dropped! But surprisingly, she wasn’t the only Korean girl I saw hiking in heels, but she was the only one hiking faster then me.
• After a lovely lunch of seafood bimbibap we went to the next green tea farm. But not before getting our very own green tea plants! Now I can make my very own fresh green tea, I don’t even need to dry the leaves first, just take it straight from the source. At our next green tea farm I we were able to wander down the rows of bushes and found some green tea seeds. So hopefully since I can’t bring the actual plants home, I can bring some seeds and start my own plants when I get back.
Oh, I almost forgot, we also enjoyed some yummy green tea ice cream. So once I grow my plants back home, I am expecting to borrow mom’s ice cream maker and make my own green tea ice cream too!
• Next, we went to a famous Korean author’s museum. There was a really nice lotus pond and a replica setting for his book. It included homes and tools that the characters used in the book. Without knowing much about the book asides from the setting, which was the period after the war, it seemed like a Cinderella type story. Rich guy or girl falls in love a poor person of the opposite sex that works for their family. The replica village was very nicely done. You could go into the different rooms and practice using the various tools etc.
• After the author’s museum, we went to a folk village. This was not like any other Korean folk village I have been too. This one was actually a village. It was still active and in use by people who want to live a traditional life style. Sunny said that some of the houses were pensions and people pay to stay and live a “traditional Korean existence.” It was really neat to see people living, farming, like they have for decades; although they do have the addition of mechanical farm equipment like trucks and tractors. We were there before the sun set so I don’t know if they had electricity or not.
In addition to traditional homes, they also serve tourists traditional foods. One of these foods is bon-day-gee. Sunny was excited to share this dish with me. She bought a cup full and enthusiastically offered them to me. I should mention that bon-day-gee is a traditional dish from a time during the war when sources of protein were scarce. Bon-day-gee are cooked beetle larvae. Mmmmmm. And yes, I was brave enough to try it. It didn’t taste bad, and thank goodness they didn’t really pop in your mouth, just a squish. I have tactile sensitivity to any food that pops in my mouth like cherry tomatoes or fish roe.
When we were walking around the traditional village, snacking on bon-day-gee, we encountered a replica of a prisoners being punished. We got some great photos of our own form of punishment... being forced to eat bon-day-gee! Don’t worry, I am not going to have Sunny teach me how to make don-day-gee in cooking class so you are all safe from having to eat cooked larvae.
• After the traditional village, we drove to meet her husband in GwangJu. Here we had dinner together and then I boarded a bus for a 3.5 hour ride back to Seoul. Sunny and her husband live an hour away from my house on the other side of town so dropping me off at home would have been really out of the way for them. They were so nice. They helped me get my ticket, and her husband even boarded the bus with me and made sure I found my seat. So sweet of them! I slept the whole ride home. What a great weekend!

Cultural Differences

• I got a great book the other day, its called “Ugly Americans Ugly Koreans.” It has fantastic examples of how Korea and American behaviors and standards differ. It doesn’t pass any judgment, just states cases of where we differ in our expectations. For example, “Koreans tend to eat without much talking, and then get up and go. Americans tend to socialize a little, eat with moderate conversation, and then talk a great deal afterwards. Koreans are more likely to move to a new location after a meal.” It’s a really helpful for me. Plus, it confirms many of the interesting observations and generalizations I may come up with.
• I am fascinated by the cultural differences I encounter. For example, in the dressing rooms, you often have to take your shoes off before entering, and then there are a complimentary pair of high heels to wear, just incase you only had your flats with you. Also, as Melissa knows, even if you want a bigger size skirt or shirt, if you try it on and it looks good on you, the shop attendant may refuse to give you a different size. She may insist that it looks fine and will not get you a different size.
• Another difference is that if you buy a beer at the liquor store, you can pull out the folding chairs and folding table and sit down with your beer (or soju) and drink it right there in front of the store. It is so much better than drinking in a smoky bar! You can just sit out on the street drinking a beer, people watching, and enjoying snacks from the GS.
Really, in Korea, it seems like you can drink any where. My book says that public drunkenness is acceptable unlike in the states where it often holds a social stigma and may even land you jail. But here, it’s common to see businessmen dressed in fine suits staggering down the street. Or, drinking beer at the movie theater like it was a US sporting event. Which I think is a great practice by the way! Vicki and I got two beers and a bag of popcorn for less then $8 total!
Even I am guilty of drinking in public. One day Sunny and I went to TGIF and ordered dinner and long island ice teas. Unfortunately, Sunny realized after we ordered that because of a holiday schedule the last bus to her home that evening was leaving in half an hour. So we ate our meals as fast as we could. She then asked me if I though they would have “to go” containers, and I thought she was referring to our left over meals, but she wasn’t. She meant “to go” containers for our long island ice teas! Sure enough, they gave us “to go” cups with lids and straws so we could enjoy our long island ice teas on the bus ride home. Sunny then apologized for having to rush when eating our meal, and hoped my digestion would be ok. I told her it would be fine, and plus, I had “tea” to help my digestion hahah! Defiantly a funny bus ride home that night!
• Another difference here in Korea is that people like to dress up for all occasions. In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen a relaxed Korean in a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. “You may seem some Koreans dressed more appropriately for an evening out at a fine restaurant than for a day hiking mountain trails.”
Yesterday it was pouring rain and girls were still walking around in mini skirts and open toed, high heel shoes. Rain or shine, they dress in style. This also goes for amusement parks. As my dad puts it, “You’re going to take photos when you are at the amusement park so you need to look good.” Makes sense right? This must be why the raft ride at amusement park has a huge tarp in the center that you pull over your body so you won’t get wet. I mean, you want to ride the rapids, but you also can’t get that silk skirt soaked, right?
• A lot of differences have to do with having and raising kids. An example I see often, and is stated in my book is that Korean parents are indifferent to the children disturbing others in public. “Most Koreans do not seem to be bothered in the least by children running around and making noise in public. Americans, on the other hand, think children should be strictly controlled in public by their parents.”
Oh, I also learned that when a Korean woman is pregnant she will have a lot of tangerines or oranges. I guess the fresh smell is supposed to help with the morning sickness. So, if you see a woman eating tangerines or oranges you can joke around that maybe she is pregnant.
After a woman gives birth she can go stay at a special care facility. Here, there are nurses to care for your baby 24 hours a day, and the job of the new mother is to sleep and eat. The mother can see her baby whenever she wants to, but her primary job is to take a few days to recover before being required to go back home and care for the new baby, her husband, and her household.
I think this is a great system. Maybe I should open up one of these facilities in Manhattan Beach or some other neighborhood where people can afford it. I would offer recovery yoga, facials and massages, etc. Too bad new born babies creep me out otherwise this could have been a great new business to pursue. You know me, I don’t think babies get cool till they are over a year old.
Another interesting difference I learned about is that Mothers lose their identity after having a child. I was talking to a woman who has two children and she explained to me that only at our work is she called by her name. Teachers, other parents, and even her own parents do not call her by her name. Once you become a mother you are referred to as such. So for example my mom would no longer be called Susan by her parents. They would call her “mother of my grandchild Renee.” Parents would call her “Mother of Renee,” or “Mother of Angela.”
I explained that as a teacher, I would only refer to a third party this way. So, I might say, “Nick’s mom came in to talk to me today.” Or maybe a parent referring to another parent from the same class may use this as well; “I invited Jane’s mom to help set up for the party.” But we would never directly call this person “Jane’s mom,” or “Nick’s mom.”
The woman from work said that there is now a change among some mothers because they feel they are losing their sense of self. I mean, to exist as “Susan” for the first 25 or so years of your life, and then all of a sudden, not to be called this any more, even by your own parents? I can see that this must be extremely difficult for a woman. You cease to be that person any more; your only importance now lies in your title as mother to this child. So, she said that some mothers are trying to use their real names with each other, but this is difficult to do. It’s just not customary, and breaking customs around here is frowned upon.

Not Japan but Korea

• So long time no write huh? Sorry about that! Every spare minute I had went to making my own website. That’s right! It was Allie Pippin’s idea, and Lucas’ prompting, that lead me to develop a website featuring pictures and descriptions of the activities I have participated in. Check it out if you have any free time. http://www.wix.com/rbazant/Resume_Bazant
• Well, since I have not written in so long I am afraid I must skip over the rest of my Japan trip. Really, you are just missing too many Korea stories so I can’t hold off on updating you on that. So if you are dying to know more about it please take a look at the Japan photos on my Facebook page.
• Asides from keeping busy making that website, I also have been keeping busy at the gym. Guess what Jackie, I started running again. Well, I walk for two minutes then run for 4. I do this for half an hour and burn 275 calories, twice a week. Then, I do other weight lifting and ab exercises afterwards.
I even get my friend Sunny to go with me sometimes. Although she is an expert at finding excuses not to workout with me. One time she came over to my house claiming that she didn’t have shoes to workout in so she couldn’t go. I gave her a pair of complimentary Lotte Hotel slippers to wear and told her we are going anyways! The next time she told me that we should make kimbap for our work picnic. I told her it was a great idea and we would defiantly make kimbap after we worked out! Hahaha! I won’t take any excuses from her!
• I mentioned making kimbap for my work picnic, but Sunny has been teaching me to make other Korean dishes as well. I have also made yubu chobap, and kim mu chim. Yubu chobap is actually Japanese. It’s the bean curds filled with rice. Kim mu chim is a seaweed salad with sautéed garlic stems. It is better than it sounds I promise. I have also been using my rice cooker. I love it! I will never cook rice in a pot on the stove again! If you don’t have one and you cook rice once a week or more, this is a must have item for your kitchen!
• Asides from working out and having cooking class together, Sunny and I also took a pottery class. It was my first time using a pottery wheel. It’s much harder than it looks. I needed a lot of help from the teacher, who didn’t speak any English asides from “Stop!” So, she would yell stop and take over for a bit and fix what ever I did wrong, and then hand it back over to me. It was a great experience. It will be fired and sent to my office sometime in the next week, so pictures of the final product will be available soon.
• The other weekend my friends Sai, Jay, Jay’s girlfriend, and I went to a house in the countryside. It was an artist’s compound with different cabins for showing films, displaying photography, and everyday living. It was amazing. It’s what I want to have someday. We got to enjoy a bimbibap buffet and listen to a concert by the pond. It was very special. I hope that someday I have a place similar to this and I can share it with you all as well.
• Oh, one last story before I end this blog entry (next blog will be stories of how Koreans and Americans differ). So I like to style my hair differently every day. I have short hair so I like to have fun with it. Some days I have my bangs out, sometimes they are to the side, or I may pull them back for a bump-it look. Other times I may put a headband in and wear the back wavy. Well, I get asked almost daily if I cut my hair. It’s really funny. Most of the girls at work wear their hair long and straight. Its strange, guys have really creative hair cuts and obviously spend time styling it, but the girls don’t often style their hair differently day to day like I do. So the result is… “oh, did you get a hair cut?” I just chuckle and say, “no, I just pulled it back /pined it up / let it down etc.”

Japan Day 1-2

• I know you all wanted to hear about my Japan adventure but I have been so busy every since my return I hardly had a chance to unpack. In fact, my carry on bag is still sitting in the living room area much to Tokey Pokey’s delight; jump on the bag, jump off the bag, jump on the bag, jump off the bag etc. Although it has been a while, I will try my best to remember the events that will interest you all most. I’ll leave the mushy romantic stuff to a minimum.
• So before I went to Japan I needed to get the rail pass. Apparently, you can not buy the Japan Rail Pass in Japan; it needs to be purchased through a travel agency or through JAL before you get there. So Lucas got his from a travel agency in the US and I tried calling JAL to get mine. They took down my flight information and said ‘yes’ then hung up. I had no idea what that meant. So I figured I would just figure it out at the airport. Well I went to the airport and the first person I talked to had no idea that JAL sold rail passes, not a promising start. She then asked her manager, who also had no clue. I asked if there was anyone else around that I could speak to and she pointed to a reservation desk. I walked over there and said “Rail Pass” and he pulled up a ticket with my name on it. Oh thank goodness! He had it all ready to go. So who ever I gave my info to over the phone did do something with it. I was happy to see things were going my way after all, until I hit a road block, of course! I pulled out Korean won to pay for the ticket and he said, “No, only Japanese yen or U.S. dollar.” What? I am still in Korea correct?!?! I had to take out more money from the ATM and exchange it to yen so I could get my rail pass. Long story short, I finally got the stupid pass. Which was a good thing because Lucas and I took the trains all over Japan. We went from Tokyo to Kyoto to Osaka and back again.
• Our first full day in Tokyo we went to a beautiful cherry blossom garden. I couldn’t believe our luck. These trees bloom for 2 weeks out of the year and we were there to witness it. I really can’t describe how beautiful it was. But I got some amazing photos to prove it. I really wanted to paint a picture of it though. There were so many people in the park painting.
That first day we also went to an electrons mega mall. But what I liked best was going to the fish market and beer museum. We went to the Tsukji Fish Market and found ourselves a great little shop to have sushi at. Freshest sushi I have ever had. Oh and for those of you who don’t know yet, I did start eating fish so I truly could enjoy the sushi.
After a sushi lunch, we went to the Yebisu Beer Museum. It wasn’t much of a museum although it had a few cool items like an old music box and some paintings of Japanese flappers. The good part was getting draft Yebisu beers.
• Day 2 we took the bullet rain from Tokyo to Osaka. It is unbelievably expensive! It was close to 100$ one way, for a 3 hour train trip. But it was the bullet train so I guess 3 hours was making good time compared to other trains we could have taken. Since we already bought our rail passes, we already paid for using as many trains as we wanted to for 7 days.
In Osaka we walked around a mega mall and went to a fish market as well. I saw the world’s largest edamame beans at that market! They were the size of a giants thumbs!!!
Lucas also went to and onsen, which is a bathhouse, at our hotel. I couldn’t go because I had tattoos, the sign said that I must refrain from, “drunkenness and tattooed.” So I just sat with a beer in a bubble bath and read my book in the tub while Lucas was making new friends. You need to ask him to tell that story.

Not Japan Part 2

• The other day I got a great art set from my friend Vicki (thanks again Vicki!!!!). We went together to the Andy Warhol exhibit and she brought the art set with her. It has oil pants, pastels, colored pencils, acrylics, and water colors. I can’t wait to get started on my first art project!
I can’t say I was all that inspired by the Andy Warhol exhibit, but I can see how his work has influenced pop art still being made today by other artists. I am glad that I did get to see his work in person; I had only seen photos of it in art class, oh, and in the movie Basquiat.
• I was watching that crazy Korean animal show on TV again. This time there was a man and his horse and they were sharing carrots and bowls of macoli (rice wine). Reminds me of the time Melissa was trying to give Tokey Pokey macoli, which for some strange reason he decided to drink it. It also showed a rabbit in a cute knitted sweater. Looks like I might have a new knitting project!!! Somehow I think Tokey Pokey would eat the sweater before I could even get the thing on him.
• The other day was my 10 year anniversary. This means I have been cancer free for 10 years. My friend Sai, from the Craigslist hiking club, and I went to a beautiful Buddhist temple and then to a German brewery to celebrate. It was a great day, and the best part was that there was not a crappy Korean beer in sight! No Cass or Hite at this place. The bar was called Octoberfest and they made good Wit beer served with lemon, instead of orange, but I can hardly demand perfection, I was just so happy it wasn’t Korean crap beer!
I also had some special anniversary celebrations with my girls from work. At lunch time, my friend Jae and I went for seafood rice soup and then out for tea and shared a cupcake. She had bought a chocolaty, fudgy, yummy cupcake from Paris Baguette and put large 1 and 0 candles in it for me. I got to blow out the candles and wish for another 10 years cancer free. It was so sweet of her!
My friend Hye Jung also gave me a little box of 4 different flavored cupcakes to celebrate the occasion. I was able to cut the cupcakes into 4 pieces each so that everyone who went out to dinner with me that night could have one piece of each. Sunny, Dasom, Hui Kyung, and I went out for Thai food that night after work and shared the cupcakes.
At first I was really upset that I couldn’t spend my anniversary with my family and friends from home, but my new friends here really made my anniversary special. And getting all that facebook love from my friends back home also helped me get over the fact that I am far from home and had do drop the plans I had once made for this momentous occasion.
• Now for some strange and gross stories… Vicki and I went out for lunch after we went to the Andy Warhol exhibit and we ordered a pizza to share. When they served the pizza they also gave us a bowl of what looked like apple sauce. Now, I have had honey in a bowl as a side for dipping the pizza but not apple sauce. But I thought, well, if they serve honey with pizza, why not apple sauce? Alas, as I should have known, things never taste like what I expect them to. It wasn’t apple sauce at all. Any guesses? Answer: pineapple. It had the right consistency and color of apple sauce but no, it was defiantly pineapple.
• Warning, this next story is once again about girls pooping. The other day at work I found myself in the middle of a girl-poop-sandwich!!! Let me explain that one. There are three toilets in the ladies room at work, and only the middle stall was open. Turns out that the girls in both the occupied stalls were taking their poop breaks. Hence how I came to be in the middle of a girl-poop-sandwich. One girl was flipping news paper pages, and the other one was using the bidet to wash her butt off so I was certain they were on their poop breaks. I don’t think I will ever get used to this!!!!

Not Japan Part 1

• I know everyone is expecting me to post stories about Japan but I can’t yet. I didn’t have time to write about my Korean adventures before leaving for Japan so I need to take the time to do it now before I start sharing about Japan.
• So I decided to go back and visit the facial and massage place near my house. Its only 30$ for a 2 hour pampering, and ever once in a while I needed to treat myself. This time I was more observant of my surroundings and found the various jars of what look like Plaster of Paris. So that stuff she smears on my face that feels like cupcake frosting is most likely a powdered mud or even more likely, actual plaster. This time, the face-frosting smelled like Strawberry Bubblicious Gum! Mmmmm. Once again, I feel asleep on the table, under my heated sleeping bag as I waited for my Bubblicious face-frosting to dry.
After I was done with my facial and massage, and had come back from the locker room dressed and ready to go home I was surprised to find my masseuse with a camera. Apparently, this masseuse was not the same masseuse I had visited before, and I was her first ever foreign client so she wanted to take a picture with me. Whether this was to prove that she actually had a foreign client, or because I was so beautiful (no snickering!), or because it was so rare to find a foreigner willing to put up with the Korean abuse called “a massage,” I will never know. And yes, I did take a picture with her. I only regret that I didn’t get a picture of her with my camera so I could post it on here.
• I did however get a picture of the lunch lady at my office cafeteria. I came down to lunch on April Fools Day, and she handed me a giant bag of popcorn. I was so confused, I just wanted some lunch and now I had enough popcorn to feed an army! She had to show me that I was the 176th person to get lunch that day and therefore had won the bag of popcorn. Apparently, as it was explained to me much later by Sunny, the Korean word for this type of snack is similar to the Korean word for ‘fool’ hence handing out ‘fool’ food on April Fools’ Day.
I had so much popcorn I didn’t know what to do with it all. I took computer paper and rolled it into a cone shape, stapled it, and then filled it with popcorn. Then I went around handing it out to everyone on my floor. Many of these people had never spoken to me so when I came over to their desk and handed them a cone of popcorn they were very surprised. I could only hold two cones in my hands at a time so I had to deliver the cones and then return to my desk to make more. Every time I came back, and I mean every single time, the person I had just given popcorn to walked away from their desk to share the popcorn with the other members on their team. Maybe they were assuming that I was not coming back with more popcorn for everyone? It was really strange! I would show up at someone’s desk ready to give them a cone of popcorn and they would already have a tissue with popcorn on it or a few kernels of popcorn in their hands.
Even though I handed out popcorn to everyone working on my floor, I still had more than I could eat by myself. So when the opportunity to give it all away came along, I jumped at the chance. One night after work, the office hosted another movie night. Since it is still not spring time (it snowed the other day) it was held in the basement of the office instead of on the roof like last time. So I brought my big bag of popcorn to the movie night and donated it. I was happy to be rid of it before it went bad and was wasted.
• I got the cutest ear buds ever!!!! They are little bumble bees!!! Buzz for Bazant!!! They were only 10$ and are nice and comfy in my ear holes. I got them from the Lotte bookstore when I went shopping for Lucas’ birthday presents. Of course, you go to get someone a present and you end up buying things for yourself! I did end up getting Lucas a really cool gift there.
I found a pill bottle with 100 pills for your heart. However, these pills are not really medicine. Instead, inside each pill is a blank scroll for you to write a message on. So I spent hours taking pills apart, writing little love notes, and reassembling the pills. I did this 100 times! But it was worth it, Lucas loved it. Plus, it was a unique and heartfelt gift. Awwwww, so cute!

The Inca and Rouault

* Last week, all day the light outside my window seemed very strange. The light reflecting off the building next to me was yellow. I thought that the skies would open up and it was going to be the worst storm I've ever experienced. When I went out later that afternoon I found that it wasn't a rainstorm, it was a sandstorm! The sand was blowing in from the Gobi desert. Apparently these 'yellow sand' storms are pretty common here, but this was the worst it has been in 10 years. About half of the people walking around had masks on; I kept thinking, maybe I should stop and buy one. All of the cars parked on the street have a thick layer of yellow sand on them. Reminds me of home, after a fire when it looks like its snowing ash and the cars are covered in it.
* I have a new goal of learning how to cook one new Korean dish a week. My friend Sunny is teaching me. This week we made h-oh-dak! This was Melissa's favorite dish when she came to visit. Its like a Korean churro, but circular, and the cinnamon and sugar also has peanuts and sesame seeds in it. And now I know how to make it!!! MMmmmmm!!! Also, I guess my goal has now inspired Sunny's husband, who has committed to cooking one dinner a week for her. Apparently, having a foreigner that can cook better than he can has threatened him into proving he can be a better Korean cook than me. I was thinking about joining the Korean facebook know as cafe.naver and posting instructions and my experience as a foreigner making mundane, simple, Korean foods. If I do, I will post a link so you guys can have access to my Korean recipes as well.
* Well, last weekend was officially the first day of spring, so I decided to wear some spring inspired clothes. I wore a brightly colored dress that had pinks and blues, and all day long people were commenting about how bright it was. I guess that even though it was officially spring, people aren't dressing for it yet; they are still wearing blacks, browns, and dark greens. Its almost April people, can we wear a little color?!?!
For those of you who read my blogs regularly, you probably remember what happened the last time I wore a dress to work... it started snowing. Well, you can imagine what happened when I wore my bright spring dress that day, the storm clouds came rolling in to cover up that sunshine. And once again I found myself walking home with the snow falling. I swear, that is the last time I wear a dress to work until it is summer!
** I was walking to work and I saw some cute fuzzy white face under a car. I thought oh, what an interesting looking cat, it kinda looks like those smashed faced rabbits they sell at E Mart. I turned around to see the cat hopping, of course after that I had to go back and investigate the situation further. Sure enough, it was a rabbit hiding under a parked car. I couldn't believe it! I reached into my snack bag and pulled out some carrots for him, he took them and ate them right away! I wanted to rescue him but I also couldn't be late for work because it was my boss's first day back after being in Los Angeles for a week and I knew rescuing a bunny would not be a valid excuse for her as to why I was late to work. So I promised the bunny that I would come back at lunch and if he was still there then he could come home with me.
I came back at lunch time but he was gone! I was heart broken. I felt so bad that I didn't do the right thing and rescue him. Later that afternoon it started snowing, and I mean really snowing, like blizzard conditions! I was so worried about the poor bunny! My dad said it was ok because some kid coming home from school must have seen the bunny too and brought him home with her, and not to cook for dinner, but to keep as a pet. I'm sticking with this story so don't try to tell me otherwise!
* Whenever I ask Koreans, what are you doing this weekend, they usually answer, "I am going to church." Now, I don't know if this is a standard English phrase that Koreans learn when they are studying English, or if church is just the place to be on the weekends. Is it mandatory to go to church if you are Korean? I asked my friend Vicki who has been living here for 7 years, and she told me a very interesting story about what happened when a foreigner decided to attend a Korean church. She said that the person arrived at the church and the people were very welcoming and kind to him. They then lead him to the basement of the church where all of the other "not perfect Koreans" were located. Here he sat with Koreans with down syndrome, autism, sitting in wheel chairs etc. Since he was not perfectly Korean as well, he needed to be in the basement watching the church service on closed television. When Vicki told me this story I couldn't believe it, but it is just one of those stories that is so strange you couldn't make it up.
* Lucas, get ready for one hell of a show when you come to Japan! Apparently, my dance teacher wants to show off how much she has taught me in these past few months. She is burning me a cd with the music from class, and lending me a special costume from the performance team. Oh lord!!!! She wants me to do all the belly dance routines! Hahahah!
* This weekend I went to two different museums. I went to see the Inca exhibit, and Georges Rouault. The Inca exhibit had a lot of archeology finds. They even had some of the natural made mummies on display! Amazing!!!! The mummy of the woman still had her hair and clothing intact! She also had a mummified infant with her that was equally well preserved.
The next museum I went to was at the art center. I got to see many of Rouault's oil paintings. He was famous for his paintings of clowns, and of Jesus Christ. (You can draw your own opinions from that one without my help.) We actually went to the museum to see the Monet exhibit, but the line was longer than a water ride a Disneyland during a hot summer day! No joke! The estimate was a 4 hour wait to get into the exhibit, and once in, you will have to elbow your way to get close enough to see a painting. Thank goodness I went to the Monet museum in Paris a few years ago so I didn't feel the desperate need to stand in that line to see his work, as amazing as it is. Seeing Rouault was a good alternative, since I had never seen his work in person.
* After going to the museums, I went to Itaewon to the foreign foods market. Its a bit of a black market store, where they sell foods from both Costco, and from the army base. I spent $30 on dried cherries and granola. I know, I know, but sometimes you just need to splurge on comfort foods from home. I also went out for Indian food that night.... Mmmmmm, sometimes you just gotta treat yourself! Garlic Nann!!!!
** Today, I went hiking with a group I found on Craig's List. (I love Craig's List!) The hike didn't start off to well though. I had an email from the founder of the group that said,"take the green line to the Seoul National University, exit #3 of the subway, and be at the 711 near the exit by 9am. Well, I took the green line and got off the subway at the Seoul National University of Education, found exit #3, and even found a 711. I though I was doing pretty good for myself because I was even 10 minutes early. I got myself a coffee at the 711 and waited for the group to arrive. But by 9am there was no one there. So I called the leader and he told me that I was at the wrong 711. In fact, I was at the wrong Seoul National University! I went to the Seoul National University of Education, not the Seoul National University, both of which are on the green line!!! Who does that?!?! Who gives two universities virtually the same damn name?!?!? To be fair, in Korean, the names of the universities are totally different. They are only written similarly in English.
Once I finally arrived at the correct 711 at the correct exit #3 of the correct Seoul National University, I met with 3 guys and one other girl. It was a great group! I laughed so much! It was a nice hike, not too difficult, though there was a rock climbing section at the summit that was a little daunting. After the hike we all went to a good Thai food restaurant. Unfortunately, one of the guys left his $5,000 watch in the mens room at the restaurant and by the time he realized what he had done, it was gone. I felt so bad for him, his mom gave it to him, and now someone else just inherited a great watch. He handled it so much better than I would have! I would have been on the floor crying in a fetal position!