I just posted about my first trip to Seoul....... I've been back since then and Im going there to celebrate New Year's for vacation tomorrow. I've been here in Korea for five months now. Life is getting to be pretty standard.
Im looking forward to getting my haircut in the foreigner part of Seoul tomorrow by someone who doesn't think my hair is so different it's "like sheep's wool".
I missed blogging about Thanksgiving. I went to a foreigner church service where they were serving Thanksgiving dinner. My Korean friends called the turkey bland and cringed at the cranberry sauce...........Im not gonna lie I was a little offended. After all, not everyone can be skinny and avoid the all the carbs in stuffing. And after all the new Asian food I've tried!!!..............anywho
They had never heard a turkey gobble. After much coaxing...I finally obliged and joined the gobbling contest in front of two hundred strangers at dinner. I ran into the same people at the bar later that week who saw me make an ass of myself and they bought me a drink for my efforts....winning.
I just celebrated Christmas with a bunch of Brits, a Newfie (Newfoundlander), some Americans, and three Koreans who were Western-Christmas party first-timers. These were different Koreans than the Thanksgiving ones and they actually liked the food. It was so strange to see them poking at it like it was alien. They asked me what turkey and cranberry sauce tasted like before eating it...
The things you don't think about until you do............
I couldn't help but laugh out loud when they thought Christmas ornaments from the ceiling of the host-friend's apartment was "over-the-top"!!
.........needless to say we showed them the Trans-Siberian Orchestra light show houses on Youtube.
Apparently getting gifts on Christmas is only for young kids here. Usually only couples go out to celebrate Christmas while the rest go to church or stay home cause they're Buddhist and enjoy the day off (if it's in the middle of the week that is). It's like celebrating Valentine's Day.......gross
Fa-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-Ra-ing in the Subway Station downtown
All I have to say is: "Face in the CAKE!!!!" ....what a celebration....
OH! Its been a while since I've blogged: THERE'S A NEW GIRL IN TOWN!
We got a new girl at work who will probably read this. She's out of control and I love every minute of it. I've already been to two Karaoke sessions with her and our Korean friends and it has barely been a month. Here are some quotes of ours just for my memory more so than your understanding. Basically we could be a sit-com:
--I ain't got my cell-phone light!
--Me: "Cara, c'mon don't act crazy we like this place and wanna come back!"
Cara "Stop it Seth, you only live once. See, done"
What the hell does that little Asian girl sing in "Rush Hour"?
--Me "Does that really come up in conversation every time I'm drunk"
--Cara "No worries. Only for like 5 minutes."
"KEEEEEEEYYYYYYY"
And Cara if you're reading, I'm sure I haven't heard "Man in the Mirror" followed by the sound of glass shattering in that order for the last time..............Cara, un-phased by the broken glass says, "shit--well--we're outta beer"
The first time I met this uncharacteristically warm-weather-loving-Minnesotan-Moose, I was still hungover--why would you think any different of someone who's only gift for Christmas was a Soju bottle phone-charm???
QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you know what happens when you reach the end of the subway line?
I do....
I remember what felt like blinking and realizing that I was the only one in my halogen-white subway car. It was like something outta the Matrix. I couldn't see anything out of the windows and we weren't moving. I say "we" assuming that there was a person on the train with me. Then I heard the door beside me rattle and a man carrying a shiny work vest and a black box came out, mumbled something to me in Korean that must have been something to the effect of "just sit tight", and ambled off down the train only to get smaller and smaller with each door her went through. Then a little old lady appeared....I recognized her as the lady who was sitting directly across from me dozing before I had blinked to this moment. She was diligently, efficiently, yet apathetically, and unhurriedly cleaning the train. After about 7 minutes she was satisfied and went back to dozing....then the train started moving again....that's when I feel asleep ............again.........
What was supposed to be a 25 minute train ride had turned into a 4 hour odyssey;blinking my way from one side of the hour-long red-line route to the other. I hit my pillow at 10 am the next morning, but it's cool, I had napped at a 24-hour coffee shop after double-decker bus drunchies with Camille as the sun came up hours earlier.
15 minutes in bed and I got a text saying that the new girl "Cara" has just arrived and wanted to get lunch......I said I was feeling sick and would meet her later......what a first impression.....way to go Seth........I bought her dinner anywho.
RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE CAUSE THAT AREN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR THEIR OWN POST!
1. Coming home from Busan one weekend I saw a little boy climbing the subway chairs and mumbling a boy band song.....was that me when I was little??? K-POP IDOL IN TRAINING
2. I DISCOVERED A KRISPY KREME here....my student and I often have debates on which is better, Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme........horray for free-talking time in ESL speaking classes!
3. There is skin bleach in most of the make-up here because a whiter face is more beautiful........and westerners want to be tan........wow.........the grass really is always greener.
4. Just saw a Chinese woman cut paper by whippin' her hair..............SUCK ON THAT WILLOW SMITH
5. My boss is an ex-PE teacher/sports science major. he gave me boiled red-ginseng to drink for my cold because he's into Chinese medicine (even though ginseng is Korean)......nasty...but a cure all.......sold
6. Some Koreans STILL refer to China as the orient, or Oriental Medicine or history.....so....are you the pot or the kettle? EVERYONE'S A RITTLE BIT LASCIST!
7. There really is a Diagon Alley in real life (other than in Orlando now)......it's the Oriental Medicine Market that wafts it's bizarre smells from exotic fare like bull horn powder into the windows of my YMCA Korean class......
8. I am learning some contemporary worship songs in Korean. Same tune, different language. The university youth group is singing one of the staples and I picked up the syllables fast. Next thing you no I was teaching them the music and they were teaching me the words. It's fun to say that I can sing it in Korean! PS. I heard "This is the Air I Breathe" in Korean at a street-food stop last week. GLOBAL
9. New Favorite Drink name: "Black Mexican", a spin off of a Black Russian just with Jose
10. Koreans being short is a myth. They actually have been making their kids take supplements to grow taller and look less stereotypically Asian.......its China and Japan that are still shorter apparently
**BONUS FUN FACT or FICTION** I've been told that Japanese people get surgery to make their teeth crooked because they think it's more beautiful. ........Well, the Japanese do have the British teeth of Asia, so I'd believe that.
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