Ramblings

So it seems I am getting shit for being a bad blogger :) I knew it would happen. So on that note... some ramblings on Korea.

The monsoon season has come (and hopefully gone) in Korea. Yesterday was the first day in about 2 1/2 weeks that it did not dribble a drop of rain. While I didn't think the rain was really bugging me that much, I found myself feeling a considerable "spring" to my step yesterday and all I could attribute it to was no rain. Monsoon season is like everything, I heard about it and went "yeah yeah" thinking it would be no big deal, and it isn't, it's life in Korea; but it really is another one of those things you think you can imagine until it is upon you and then you are like, "huh? what is this". Everyone owns between 2 and 5 umbrellas and everyone still finds they need to steal one from time to time. Some days the rain is hard and relentless all day, other days it comes and goes steadily and yet other days it is just a slow steady drizzle. My mom told me the world is brown back home in Wisconsin and farmers are hanging out at the local convenient stores complaining about lack of rain and what it will do to the crops. Seems we should be able to wheel and deal with Mother Nature a bit, but alas, we haven't come that far and maybe have in fact regressed away from that idea.

Moving on...Teaching. I have a couple of funnies to share. A couple of my classes are young, maybe 8-10 yr olds (most of my classes are in this age range actually) and everyday we review new vocabulary words and everyday for homework the students have to make sentences using some of the words. I got one last week for the word "pot: like, I cook soup in the pot"; a boy wrote "I have lot's of pot"; I believe he meant "I have many pots". But my favorite is from a girl who often uses her electronic Korean/English dictionary and she writes phrases for her sentences to which I had a subject and have her rewrite. For example if the word is "reach" she might write something "to reach for the stars" and I will cross off "to" and replace it with "I" and she has a sentence. So one day she had the word "hung" like "I hung the picture on the wall" and her sentence was... lol ... "to be hung like a bull". I was like "hmmm, do I cross of "to be" and add "He was"?" I was laughing so hard and I couldn't imagine her electronic dictionary had this in it... the students were all "teacher, why?" as I was trying to regain control. The best. I wish that I was going to know this girl when she is about 20 to let her know the joy she brought me :)

And my last tidbit for today. I have a Peace Corps friend who is still in the PC who is here in Korea on vacation. She is coming to visit me tonight. She will be the second friend I have seen from PC since leaving PC. She told me on the phone that she is having culture shock being in Korea from Micronesia and I can imagine. It will be different to see her. The first time I hung with someone from PC we went camping and we even ate tuna and ramen on a lake in the forests of Wisconsin. He didn't have a can opener and handed me his knife and the can of tuna saying "Meli, I remember you are an expert at this." The whole weekend felt almost natural to our shared Chuuk experience, besides the fact we both drove up to the boat landing in vehicles, me in my car, him in a truck with a canoe on top. I doubt there is much chance that this weekend will feel anything like Chuuk recreated. Although people here do puzzle over the fact that I boil my water versus buying it, sometimes I hand wash my clothes, and I still raise my eyebrows to say yes (and strangely, I met a Nigerian who also does this and we had hung for some time before we both realized we could understand each other pretty well and that we both said yes this way). Every once in awhile I get a jolt of reminisce and remember something about my time in Chuuk that I had meant not to forget. Sometimes I feel like the world is pointing me back in that direction, back to Chuuk, back to the islands... I am sure this weekend will feel like that for me. In any case, I am looking forward to it.

One last thing I want to post for anyone willing to comment on it. I have been strongly considering applying for a couple of positions in Vietnam. I have told many people that I have been considering this and I received a disturbing reply. Someone commented that this would piss people off because "they (Vietnam) killed..." a family member of someone's. In reference, of course, to the Vietnam war. I had not considered that Americans feel animosity towards Vietnam and I had not considered that family and friends might resent me going there. Any comments?

I have a friend here who just came from teaching there, she is American. One of the things that intrigues me is the way she describes the people, it puts me in mind of Micronesia; or at least of Chuuk. She had taught here before and she says the ppl there are so much more friendlier than here and willing to engage themselves. I miss that.