Update: still in Korea.
I feel a little bit old school writing a blog and not updating my "Twitter" account ... something that I don't have, and will never invest in. At first I was hesitant to even start a blog, in that it's a silly sounding word in the first place. (bog + log = blog?) But it is definitely trumped by "Twitter". Never will I "tweet". That's just not something a grown up does, and should be reserved for only Tweety Bird herself. (I am now referring to myself as a grown up). Look who just matured. But I also did reference Tweety Bird. Take what you can get.
I actually believe I called myself a grown up for the very first time this week at school, when a student asked me why it wasn't okay for him to marry me. (That's awkward enough in and of itself.)
First, let me give you a little back-story ... hopefully clearing up what now sounds like something out of the Michael Jackson files (may he rest in peace).
This week at school I am doing a lesson on future tense, and using the elementary fortune telling game "MASH" as a way in which to make learning English fun! That last sentence came right out of the Fulbright brochure. The basic concept is that I have students brainstorm three cute boys, three random numbers, animals, jobs, cars, and countries ... where I later tell them that one of each will be my future husband, number of children I have, pet, career, means of transportation, and country where I will live, respectively.
I usually end up marrying one of the boy students in the current class, birthing over 10 children, having a pet alligator, being a hobo, driving an Audi, and living in Ghana (seriously ... they all love Ghana). The students get a kick out of this, and then jump to determine their own futures ... most of which have them marrying famous Korean movie/music stars, having thousands of children with them, driving a garbage truck, and being the president of the Switzerland.
So as I was saying earlier, one of my students who's MASH game decided he would marry me, later approached me in the hallway (addressing me as "wife") and inquired as to when exactly we would officially get married. It was then that I informed him that it could not be ... as I am a grown up and he is my 16 year old student. Not to mention the fact that he will probably be too busy for me while he's governing the Swiss and dealing with his pet dinosaur.
Last week I attended Hwasun High School's annual 2nd grade picnic/mountain hiking/outdoor extravaganza at Manyon Mountain. The first and second grade classes were given a free day away from school, though it is mandatory that they must attend the picnic and mountain hike. This was met by many complaints and "uuuhhhggg"s from the peanut gallery. The peanut gallery being the second grade students. Keep up.
It was a beautiful fall day and we all met at the mountain around 10:00 am, where all the students and second grade homeroom teachers (including myself although I am homeroom-less) hung out in their hiking clothes ... which consisted of collared shirts, skinny jeans, and Keds. The only person I saw completely decked out in hiking gear (which included a walking stick) was one of the math teachers who didn't even attempt to climb the mountain, but rather hung around base camp all day ... which she was totally prepared for.
After hanging out at the base for about an hour the majority of us headed up the side of the mountain ...
The hike was a strenuous one ... full of twists and turns, dangerous weather, and dinosaurs.
Not really.
Although a couple of my students did try to convince me that at the summit was where all the dinosaurs lived. Apparently they think that because I'm a foreigner I also must be extremely gullible. The hike was pretty exhausting, though. We hiked for about an hour, until we reached a point where the trail ended and it was just really steep rocks. All the students who I was with (about 5 or so girls) then told me that it was much too dangerous and we should head back down and eat lunch. I figured they knew what they were talking about - these weren't the same students who said we would hang out with the cast of Jurassic Park. So I then scaled down the mountain, and back to base camp to hang out with all the teachers who opted not to hike.
About 30 minutes after I returned to the base of the mountain the rest of the 2nd grade students came down and showed me these flashy red stamps you get when you make it to the summit. Apparently everyone else went to the top except me and the other 5 students. So I sat there, disappointed, stamp-less, and had to look at every single student's picture they took of themselves on the top of the mountain ... which totaled about 300. Each.
After asking why I didn't climb to the top I explained that it was too dangerous and I came back down. It was then the general consensus that I (the American) was too weak to make it to the summit. This set off a round of "It's ok" and "Koreans just more strong". As the sole representative for America in Hwasun ... I think it's safe to say that a lot of my students think Americans are incapable of climbing mountains.
Sorry America. But at least we still have guns.
Last week ... in addition to failing to climb one of Hwasun's mountains, I attended the first game of the "Korean Series" in Gwangju.
Korean Series = MLB World Series (minus the hot dogs and obnoxious fans, and plus chairs that only small children fit in and squid jerky).
The Korean baseball league has about 12 teams total ... and I say about because I'm not exactly sure how many it actually does have. Although I'm fairly sure each province has one team ... but the many different people I have asked have given me many different answers, so I'm just going to go with "about 12".
Anyways, the two teams playing in the 2009 Korean series are the Gwangju Tigers (in my province) and the SK team from Incheon ... which I'm fairly sure are the butterflies. Intimidating.
Korean baseball doesn't mess around with any of the playoff or pre-world series games like how the MLB teams play about a million different games only to see who sucks too much to play in any actual games. They just take the top two teams with the best record and the winner of 7 games wins it all. This year the Tigers have absolutely dominated the area of Korean baseball domination ... and are continuing to do so now.
The first game was held in Gwangju ... thus why I went ... and it was insanely fun. Tickets were extremely hard to come by (so says all my students and co-teachers) but I lucked out and a friend's home stay family managed to score 7 tickets and let me have one. From what I can tell is that my friend's host father is some type of a gangster/hustler and "found" some tickets last minute. But he was unable to come to the game, giving me his ticket.
So I took his ticket, met up with my friend and her host family in Gwangju, and stood in line for about 30 minutes waiting to get in to the stadium. The tickets were only 15,000 won (about the equivalent of 15 American dollars ... or half the price of a pair of Gap jeans from 1998 on clearance). In Korea they also don't have assigned seating at baseball games (which I think is a little strange based on the fact that they have and take very seriously assigned seats at movie theaters) ... so we rushed in hoping to find seats. They also sold more tickets than there were seats because it was such popular game ... which caused many fans to have to stand the entire length of the game. Although those who had to stand didn't really seem bothered, they were too consumed with the game to care. We got to the stadium a little late and at first couldn't find any seats, but we quickly turned on our American-ness (so we pretty much just stood there with our eyes open) and a couple of guys from Jeju (who flew in all the way to Gwangju from the island to see the game) found me and my friend a couple of seats, and we were soon sitting among a mass of Koreans and awkwardly trying to yell cheers for various players the same way everyone else was.
(This basically consisted of me listening to the cheers in Korean, then attempting to fit in English words that I thought I heard in the same rhythm as the cheers. I'm pretty sure I was saying stuff like "Kim day hung car watermelon face") But I think it worked ... no one called me out on it and they kept giving me the thumbs ups - which I take to mean "Good job! You are awesome at Korean!".
The game was great and the Gwangju Tigers ended up winning - they had more players touch home plate than the other team.
However, I think the highlight of the night was the fact that me and my friend made it onto Korean national television within the first 20 or so minutes that we were there. Some blame it on our American-ness, I blame it on our awesome-ness.
My friend, Sarah's, school made her a sign in Korean that said something to the effect that she traveled all the way from America to see the Tigers win. Which, is not entirely true, but who's counting? If someone actually did decide to count all the things that I say while in Korea that aren't entirely true, I have a feeling it would be a rather large number.
"Of course I know Indiana Jones. He's actually my father". "Yes, I love kimchi, and I really do think it cures cancer, swine flu, and can prevent AIDS".
Anyways, Sarah and I held up the sign like it was our job, and we managed to get on television. I wasn't able to actually see us on TV (remember, I was at the game) ... but one of my fellow teachers sent me a text about 5 minutes afterward telling me he saw me and that I am now a celebrity. The following week at school many of my students also told me that they saw me grace their tiny televisions ... as they actually were watching the game at school on their little cell phones.
(The phones here in Korea are legit - many of them also serve as televisions, cameras, and microwave ovens. I'm pretty sure Korea is where all the Transformers are from.)
So I am now an even bigger celebrity in Korea ... so far I think I've racked up about a solid 30 seconds of TV time. I'm just hoping to reach the full 15 minutes before I head home next July. Only 14.5 more to go ...
This week I made my host family some macaroni and cheese. I recently told my host sister that this was my all-time favorite food ... before going vegan. She got really excited (as most Korean kids do when they hear the word "cheese") so I told her I would make some for her and the rest of the family.
I then went to the store, bought some cheese and noodles, because in a house stocked with at least 150 pounds of kimchi there is no room for either. But the cheese here in Korea ... at least in Hwasun ... is what I would consider "not the greatest", and there is only one type, that being some ambiguous block of white stuff. It's not even labeled. There was a picture of a pizza on the package, so I figured it was mozzarella and set out to make white macaroni and cheese. It ended up being ok ... definitely not as delicious as anything that comes out of Betty Lou's kitchen back home, but edible nonetheless. As gross as I thought it tasted my host siblings loved it ... so I guess I will be making it again sometime. Sorry America, in addition to being a worthless hiker, I am bringing mediocre tasting macaroni to the Korean dinner table. Cultural ambassadorship fail.
Last Sunday I attended my host family's church, yet again. In the first couple weeks I asked to go with them, if only to see what a Korean Christian service was like. They took it that I wanted to go every Sunday ... and I have now found myself leading an English "worship" time with children every Sunday before the service for grown ups. Well, my Jesus English talk doesn't start until this Sunday ... and I have absolutely no idea what it will entail. Hopefully hand puppets.
But last week I went with my host mom and sister to church to what they called a "special" service.
Again, like most things in Korea, I had no idea what was going on. The pastor made all three of us sit up at the very front for the entire service. I was a little weirded out ... even more so when the pastor addressed me personally during his sermon.
There I was, sitting in the horribly uncomfortable pew that was made for people no taller than 5-2, zoning out (What do you expect me to do? The service is entirely in Korean.) ... when I heard the pastor break from his all his Korean rambling, lock eyes with me, and declare (in English) "Roren was crucified with Jesus". Exact words. Literal translation.
Before this, I have only said a pretty straight forward "hello" to this guy ... where/how he found out that I was crucified, and with Jesus, I have no idea. I think it's safe to say that no one else in the church had any idea what was going on, as I too was pretty confused.
So I looked at him, mouthed a "yep", gave him a thumbs up, and he went back to preaching.
Anyways, after learning that I too was present on Calvary, the sermon ended and some other stuff went down (again, in Korean) and I think I might have accidentally gotten baptized. I was sitting in the first couple pews along with about 10 other people, who all were "baptized" as my host sister's phone dictionary put it, simply by sitting there and nodding to the pastor. I definitely was sitting and nodding along with them all ... that's my main method of communication ... so I think a little of the baptizing juice might have rubbed off on me, intentionally or not. But I figure that if, like pastor man said, I was "crucified with Jesus", I'm pretty much taken care of.
But a plus ... maybe a baptism gift ... my host family treated me to lunch out in Ggwangju at a fabulous vegetarian restaurant, complete with faux meat and everything. My host mom was super proud and kept yelling to me that it was "lie meat!" and I should "eat all!". Eat all I did.
My youngest host sister Eun Su also got to come with us ... which is a real treat, because her Sundays usually consist only of studying, eating, studying, and more studying. But in order to save time and not have to return to Hwasun to pick her up, she came with us to church. However, she was not allowed to come to the service and had to sit out in the car and study. Seriously.
Koreans: 3
God: still 0.
In addition to maybe getting baptized and eating delicious veggie food, I had my first visitor in the grand city of Hwasun last week - my friend Sarah from Mokpo (the same one who gave me her host father's baseball ticket) came down and stayed the night with my host family and went to school with me to observe me in the classroom. This sounds kind of fancy-pantsy formal ... but she basically just sat in the back and took pictures of my students pretending to pay attention to me. It was really nice to have someone at school the whole day that I could talk to (in more complex sentences than "I like pears") and share the crazy things that go on in my classroom. If this were Burger King, I would have someone with me always ... maybe just follow me around school all day and not be the only person who gets gawked at in the hallway.
Sarah has blond hair and blue eyes - such an American - and she was pretty much the talk of the school that day. My students were amazed that I had other American friends and that I would bring them to school with me. It was as if they thought putting more than one American together would cause the next nuclear holocaust or something. Although, I'm pretty sure that only happens if there are 4 of us.
Also ... just thought I would let all of you back at home know that in my 3 or so months spent in Hwasun I have become a fabulous dancer. I can dance the paso-doble like a professional (so long as it is to the beat of various Korean pop songs) and am currently learning to master the cha cha cha. So far I have the first two chas down.
That third one is tricky.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Juicy Hartnett, eat your heart out.
Ok. So before you all Internet complain that I haven't updated my blog in what seems like forever, please note that it, in fact, has not been forever ... just 13 days.
I apologize for the delay in posting, which has been due to last week's traveling, the Fulbright fall conference, and my amazing ability to procrastinate when it comes to just about anything.
As I said earlier (in that last sentence) the past week and weekend was filled with traveling, and led to things such as taking a 6+ hour bus tour of one of Korea's most historic cities, being mauled by Korean high school girls, being disappointed once again by Josh Hartnett, and eating an unhealthy amount of tator tots.
If that doesn't clear things up, I don't know what will.
But as it has been established that I'm quite fond of bullet points ... again I will resort to them, as the way to best describe my past experiences. Funny that I'm using bullets now more than ever ... in Korea ... a country that is only familiar with the types of guns that shoot water, not bullets.
Last week my school decided that it was going to have mid-terms. Well, I'm pretty sure the nation of South Korea decided the high schools would have midterms ... something about trying to test the students' learning and stuff. In Korea 3 days of midterms = Lauren gets 3 days of freedom. Which was glorious. I decided to spend my three days not in Hwasun (I think I've explored everything this city has to offer ... so the Dunkin Doughnuts and post office) but instead Busan, which was holding the 14th International Pusan film festival.
(side-note: [Boo-san] is now Romanized and spelled "Busan" but a couple of years ago before Korea decided there was a right and wrong way to Romanize/English-ify all Korean cities it was sometimes written "Pusan" [Poo-san] (which I think is funnier, and thus better) ... so all the pictures I have of banners and whatnot Busan is generally spelled "Pusan", before the official Romanization of all Korean cities). You just learned something.
Anyways, I traveled to Busan on Wednesday morning after frantically throwing everything I thought I would need for 6 days in my bookbag and heading to the bus station. Apparently the things I thought I would need would be only one pair of jeans, and a hairdryer. I traveled over to Busan ... which is a coastal city on the southeast coast of Korea (I'm fairly certain I mentioned this in my last post, hopefully you all have done your reading). I met up with some Fulbright friends and we had a grand time exploring Busan and checking out the city's film festival.
After arriving in Busan we automatically went to check out it's "famous" fish market. I don't know why anyone would actually want to go there, but go there we did. It was filled with fish (duh) both alive and still squirmy, various types of sea creatures, and tons of old Korean ladies. But as gross as it looked, it smelled really nice. False. We went to a fish market. It smelled like a fish market. But I got to check out the insane kind of things Koreans eat ... although to me it looked more like a market that you go to in hopes of stocking your aquarium with creatures that will make all your friends exclaim, "Oh that's interesting". On the up side, I did get to witness a small shark get dragged across the floor and have its insides sprawled out on the floor, compliments of one Korean ajumma who seemed to have a deep seated hatred for Jaws.
After getting my fix of smelly fish for the year we headed to downtown Busan to check out the festival activities and walk around and be touristy. We stumbled upon a lot of people setting up something that seemed pretty important, so we decided to loiter around and see what was going on. I'm still not exactly sure what we watched, in that it was all in Korean and I understood nothing of it, but I'm fairly certain it was the pre-opening ceremony to the film festival ... the opening-opening ceremony, if you will. And you will.
They laid out the red carpet and everything, so it must have been somewhat important. So we stood among other Koreans and watched people who I can only assume to be famous walk down the red carpet, say some stuff in a microphone, then walk back down the red carpet and take a seat. It was exciting. Although I'm not totally sure as to what we watched, or who we watched, I think it's safe to say we saw some famous Korean actors/actresses and some not so famous Korean actors/actresses (based upon the level of applause and wild cheering they evoked from the crowd). I cheered for some and didn't for others ... hoping to convince all the dedicated Korean fans around me that I knew what was going on. I think it worked.
We were then treated to a hip hop performance by a Korean hip hop trio (what, you thought they'd be a jazz group doing hip hop? Come on.) Again I couldn't recognize the song, but they were really flashy and many girls screamed, so I figured them to be the Korean equivalent of Kanye West. I figured 3 people with 3 rather large egos (I mean, they're famous, right) equals one Kanye West.
The next day we took a bus tour of Busan and saw some of the more popular, touristy places ... or at least what people of Busan thought was of note. Our tour consisted of checking out the UN cemetery honoring those who fought in and lost their lives during the Korean war, various beaches in and around Busan, and the area that hosted the yachting competition during the Seoul Olympics, which also conveniently was where the opening ceremonies were held for the film festival.
The cemetery was very nice (about as nice as a cemetery can be, I guess) and it was impressive to see the many graves and names of individuals who gave their lives to create what is now the country where I live.
After checking out various beaches ... no need to go into detail ... some sand, some shells, some beach ... we made our way over to the area which was preparing for the night's festival opening.
As we arrived to the staging area / red carpet / yachting place we were hoping to find out where to get tickets for the opening film ... word on the street (and by street, I mean some of the ETAs) said there were 400 or so tickets still on sale that they would release the day of the opening. After wandering around aimlessly for a little while and finding only Koreans and more Koreans and not tickets, we decided to just hang out and watch the celebrities as they entered the screening plaza via red carpet. But, luckily by the grace of the Buddha, a couple of Korean school girls approached us and told us where to go to get tickets (this wasn't as shady as I made it seem). We maneuvered our way around the craziness that was Korea and managed to find and grab a place in a pretty long line in hopes of scoring some tickets for the film. Many hours (4 to be exact) later we finally made it to the front of the line and happily bought our tickets - only 10 US dollars (approximately) and did a little happy dance because we were reassured that our waiting in line for hours on end was not completely wasted. Plus, I got a pretty great sunburn, a gross piece of corn on a stick, and a few pages deep into the book I brought with me.
We were also (maybe) on television. A couple of ladies, whom I took to be television anchors (only because they had a camera and I believe a microphone) came up to us and made us shout "I love you" into the camera and make the standard Korean cutesy hearts. We happily obliged and hopefully got a few seconds of fame on one of Korea's many television networks.
"New story at 10. Americans also watch movies."
After buying our tickets we rushed over to the red carpet area and waited for another hour or so to see some Korean celebrities and Josh Hartnett, the ultimate American beef cake. Josh is currently/already/I'm not sure starring/starred in a Korean film with two other Korean actors that is coming out soon/recently came out/has been out for years (Obviously it shows how much I follow his career. After "She's All That" I pretty much gave up on him.), so he made an appearance in Busan. It's not like he had anywhere else to be. I'm sure he wasn't missing the big premier of his next movie "She Wasn't all That", or something to that effect. Anyways, we pushed our way through the insane crowd of Korean teenage girls and a couple of the older Korean ladies who were desperately fighting to claim the best spot in which to swoon over the latest Korean heartthrobs. I'm a little ashamed to say that I was pretty much dominated (and by that I mean pushed around) by about 50 or so Korean girls (who weigh about half of what I do) and found my way into the outer edges of the mass surrounding the red carpet. However it was fine in that they were all about 5 feet tall and I could easily see over the tops of their little heads. But it was at this time that my camera's battery decided to die, so I gave up all hope of taking pictures to later sell to the trashy magazines and settled to just absorb the experience and try to come out of the mob alive.
It was actually extremely cool, and I got to see many famous Korean movie and television drama stars as the paraded down the red carpet and were the recipients of many girls screaming "I love you! You are so pretty! Marry me please!" (note: this is not a direct translation, only what I figured they were probably saying). We stayed in the mob for about an hour and a half anxiously awaiting the arrival of Josh Hartnett (or as the Korean girls would exclaim "Juicy Hartnett"), and it was rumored that he would arrive at 6:30 pm. I don't exactly know who started this rumor, but it was completely false. At about 7:45 or so we decided to give it up and head over to the outdoor venue where the film would be showed. And wouldn't you know it, that it was then Juicy Hartnett decided to show up and dazzle Korea with his white skin, double eyelids, and high bridged nose. (That sounds a little creepy, but that is exactly what my students tell me is so attractive about my face ... and the faces of everyone else that lives in the West).
So we missed Juicy Hartnett, but I can't say I'm too bummed. We even googled where he originally was from so we (the 5 of us Americans in the crowd ... pretty sure the only Americans) could yell that we came all the way from his hometown (somewhere in Minnesota) to show our support for him. Looking back on it I'm not exactly sure why I/we thought this was a good idea.
So after the letdown of missing Juicy, the opening ceremony began and we were treated to some opening remarks (that were so meticulously scripted it was almost painful) and several shots of famous celebrities in the crowd, including Juicy, we were able to watch two performances ... one of a folksy band/artist that was pretty lame. I mean, one of his songs was called "annyong". And then a performance by Girls Generation, one of Korea's most popular girl pop bands. They sang one of their more famous songs "Genie", but what I think stole the show was their rendition of "There You'll Be" (in English) - a heartfelt serenade to none other than Juicy Hartnett. As you may remember Juicy gave a stellar performance in the movie "Pearl Harbor" ... a movie which included on the soundtrack, the song "There You'll Be". Girls Generation decided that the best way to impress such an American dream boat would be to sing this song for him. They also dressed in cutesy little navy uniforms. It was fantastic. Throughout their entire performance the camera cut between them and Juicy, who was awkwardly sitting in his chair. I can only imagine the thoughts that were running through his head.
After the musical acts we were finally all treated to the film "Good Morning Mr. President" a comdey/romance/everyday kind of film about the lives of 3 of Korea's fictitious presidents and the things they had to deal with in office (i.e. relationships, emergency surgeries, winning the lottery, accidental farting, you know ... the usual stuff that bothers most presidents). The movie was pretty good however I didn't get the full effect, as I was frantically trying to read the English subtitles. But all in all I think it was pretty good, very entertaining ... and that's what movies are supposed to be, right?
Our last day/morning in Busan was spent visiting Hauendae beach, a fairly famous beach that was the location for the shooting of one of Korea's most recent tsunami disaster movies. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I hear it was disastrous. After checking out the last beach we all headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Gyeongju for the weekend. It was time for the annual Fulbright Korea fall conference ... 4 days of workshops, meetings, hanging out and reconnecting with other ETA friends, enjoying and learning about Gyeongju, and enjoying ourselves. (I kind of sound like a travel brochure right there.)
The conference was really great ... it was super nice to see all the 90 or so ETAs in one room, many of whom I haven't seen or talked to since we all left Chuncheon about two months ago, which now seems like such a long time. The meetings and workshops were very informative and helpful, though a little boring so I'll spare you the details. Just envision lots of people like me, sitting at tables, talking about teacher-y things and eating brownies and cheese.
But during the conference weekend we all (or almost all of us) got out in Gyeongju and toured the entire city. The entire city. It seriously took us about 6 or so hours ... and saw all that it had to offer. Fun history fact: when Korea was first united under the Silla dynasty way back when, Gyeongju was the capital city of Korea at the time. It holds a lot of Korea history and we were able to visit various Buddhist temples, tombs of ancient Korean kings, the Gyeongju national history museum, the oldest observatory tower thing in Korea, and other parks and lakes around the area. It is a beautiful city and it was really cool to see all the historical things. Never have I felt so young.
The conference was really great and way more interesting and helpful than I first imagined it to be. On Monday we all departed and went our separate ways again ... off into the real world of Korea ... you know, where people stop being nice and start being real.
My bus back to little Hwasun decided not to leave until about 4 in the afternoon, so myself and many of the other ETAs that were headed to that area hung out in Gyeongju for the day and visited "Gyeongju World" the biggest and best amusement park in town. There was pretty much no one there besides us, so we rode rides as we pleased, never having to wait in line. It wasn't as fantastic as any American amusement parks I have been to, but it did the job.
The past week/weekend was glorious ... a great way to enjoy the beautiful fall weather in Korea these days. Life is good.
I should try to market that phrase. Like put it on t-shirts or something.
I apologize for the delay in posting, which has been due to last week's traveling, the Fulbright fall conference, and my amazing ability to procrastinate when it comes to just about anything.
As I said earlier (in that last sentence) the past week and weekend was filled with traveling, and led to things such as taking a 6+ hour bus tour of one of Korea's most historic cities, being mauled by Korean high school girls, being disappointed once again by Josh Hartnett, and eating an unhealthy amount of tator tots.
If that doesn't clear things up, I don't know what will.
But as it has been established that I'm quite fond of bullet points ... again I will resort to them, as the way to best describe my past experiences. Funny that I'm using bullets now more than ever ... in Korea ... a country that is only familiar with the types of guns that shoot water, not bullets.
Last week my school decided that it was going to have mid-terms. Well, I'm pretty sure the nation of South Korea decided the high schools would have midterms ... something about trying to test the students' learning and stuff. In Korea 3 days of midterms = Lauren gets 3 days of freedom. Which was glorious. I decided to spend my three days not in Hwasun (I think I've explored everything this city has to offer ... so the Dunkin Doughnuts and post office) but instead Busan, which was holding the 14th International Pusan film festival.
(side-note: [Boo-san] is now Romanized and spelled "Busan" but a couple of years ago before Korea decided there was a right and wrong way to Romanize/English-ify all Korean cities it was sometimes written "Pusan" [Poo-san] (which I think is funnier, and thus better) ... so all the pictures I have of banners and whatnot Busan is generally spelled "Pusan", before the official Romanization of all Korean cities). You just learned something.
Anyways, I traveled to Busan on Wednesday morning after frantically throwing everything I thought I would need for 6 days in my bookbag and heading to the bus station. Apparently the things I thought I would need would be only one pair of jeans, and a hairdryer. I traveled over to Busan ... which is a coastal city on the southeast coast of Korea (I'm fairly certain I mentioned this in my last post, hopefully you all have done your reading). I met up with some Fulbright friends and we had a grand time exploring Busan and checking out the city's film festival.
After arriving in Busan we automatically went to check out it's "famous" fish market. I don't know why anyone would actually want to go there, but go there we did. It was filled with fish (duh) both alive and still squirmy, various types of sea creatures, and tons of old Korean ladies. But as gross as it looked, it smelled really nice. False. We went to a fish market. It smelled like a fish market. But I got to check out the insane kind of things Koreans eat ... although to me it looked more like a market that you go to in hopes of stocking your aquarium with creatures that will make all your friends exclaim, "Oh that's interesting". On the up side, I did get to witness a small shark get dragged across the floor and have its insides sprawled out on the floor, compliments of one Korean ajumma who seemed to have a deep seated hatred for Jaws.
After getting my fix of smelly fish for the year we headed to downtown Busan to check out the festival activities and walk around and be touristy. We stumbled upon a lot of people setting up something that seemed pretty important, so we decided to loiter around and see what was going on. I'm still not exactly sure what we watched, in that it was all in Korean and I understood nothing of it, but I'm fairly certain it was the pre-opening ceremony to the film festival ... the opening-opening ceremony, if you will. And you will.
They laid out the red carpet and everything, so it must have been somewhat important. So we stood among other Koreans and watched people who I can only assume to be famous walk down the red carpet, say some stuff in a microphone, then walk back down the red carpet and take a seat. It was exciting. Although I'm not totally sure as to what we watched, or who we watched, I think it's safe to say we saw some famous Korean actors/actresses and some not so famous Korean actors/actresses (based upon the level of applause and wild cheering they evoked from the crowd). I cheered for some and didn't for others ... hoping to convince all the dedicated Korean fans around me that I knew what was going on. I think it worked.
We were then treated to a hip hop performance by a Korean hip hop trio (what, you thought they'd be a jazz group doing hip hop? Come on.) Again I couldn't recognize the song, but they were really flashy and many girls screamed, so I figured them to be the Korean equivalent of Kanye West. I figured 3 people with 3 rather large egos (I mean, they're famous, right) equals one Kanye West.
The next day we took a bus tour of Busan and saw some of the more popular, touristy places ... or at least what people of Busan thought was of note. Our tour consisted of checking out the UN cemetery honoring those who fought in and lost their lives during the Korean war, various beaches in and around Busan, and the area that hosted the yachting competition during the Seoul Olympics, which also conveniently was where the opening ceremonies were held for the film festival.
The cemetery was very nice (about as nice as a cemetery can be, I guess) and it was impressive to see the many graves and names of individuals who gave their lives to create what is now the country where I live.
After checking out various beaches ... no need to go into detail ... some sand, some shells, some beach ... we made our way over to the area which was preparing for the night's festival opening.
As we arrived to the staging area / red carpet / yachting place we were hoping to find out where to get tickets for the opening film ... word on the street (and by street, I mean some of the ETAs) said there were 400 or so tickets still on sale that they would release the day of the opening. After wandering around aimlessly for a little while and finding only Koreans and more Koreans and not tickets, we decided to just hang out and watch the celebrities as they entered the screening plaza via red carpet. But, luckily by the grace of the Buddha, a couple of Korean school girls approached us and told us where to go to get tickets (this wasn't as shady as I made it seem). We maneuvered our way around the craziness that was Korea and managed to find and grab a place in a pretty long line in hopes of scoring some tickets for the film. Many hours (4 to be exact) later we finally made it to the front of the line and happily bought our tickets - only 10 US dollars (approximately) and did a little happy dance because we were reassured that our waiting in line for hours on end was not completely wasted. Plus, I got a pretty great sunburn, a gross piece of corn on a stick, and a few pages deep into the book I brought with me.
We were also (maybe) on television. A couple of ladies, whom I took to be television anchors (only because they had a camera and I believe a microphone) came up to us and made us shout "I love you" into the camera and make the standard Korean cutesy hearts. We happily obliged and hopefully got a few seconds of fame on one of Korea's many television networks.
"New story at 10. Americans also watch movies."
After buying our tickets we rushed over to the red carpet area and waited for another hour or so to see some Korean celebrities and Josh Hartnett, the ultimate American beef cake. Josh is currently/already/I'm not sure starring/starred in a Korean film with two other Korean actors that is coming out soon/recently came out/has been out for years (Obviously it shows how much I follow his career. After "She's All That" I pretty much gave up on him.), so he made an appearance in Busan. It's not like he had anywhere else to be. I'm sure he wasn't missing the big premier of his next movie "She Wasn't all That", or something to that effect. Anyways, we pushed our way through the insane crowd of Korean teenage girls and a couple of the older Korean ladies who were desperately fighting to claim the best spot in which to swoon over the latest Korean heartthrobs. I'm a little ashamed to say that I was pretty much dominated (and by that I mean pushed around) by about 50 or so Korean girls (who weigh about half of what I do) and found my way into the outer edges of the mass surrounding the red carpet. However it was fine in that they were all about 5 feet tall and I could easily see over the tops of their little heads. But it was at this time that my camera's battery decided to die, so I gave up all hope of taking pictures to later sell to the trashy magazines and settled to just absorb the experience and try to come out of the mob alive.
It was actually extremely cool, and I got to see many famous Korean movie and television drama stars as the paraded down the red carpet and were the recipients of many girls screaming "I love you! You are so pretty! Marry me please!" (note: this is not a direct translation, only what I figured they were probably saying). We stayed in the mob for about an hour and a half anxiously awaiting the arrival of Josh Hartnett (or as the Korean girls would exclaim "Juicy Hartnett"), and it was rumored that he would arrive at 6:30 pm. I don't exactly know who started this rumor, but it was completely false. At about 7:45 or so we decided to give it up and head over to the outdoor venue where the film would be showed. And wouldn't you know it, that it was then Juicy Hartnett decided to show up and dazzle Korea with his white skin, double eyelids, and high bridged nose. (That sounds a little creepy, but that is exactly what my students tell me is so attractive about my face ... and the faces of everyone else that lives in the West).
So we missed Juicy Hartnett, but I can't say I'm too bummed. We even googled where he originally was from so we (the 5 of us Americans in the crowd ... pretty sure the only Americans) could yell that we came all the way from his hometown (somewhere in Minnesota) to show our support for him. Looking back on it I'm not exactly sure why I/we thought this was a good idea.
So after the letdown of missing Juicy, the opening ceremony began and we were treated to some opening remarks (that were so meticulously scripted it was almost painful) and several shots of famous celebrities in the crowd, including Juicy, we were able to watch two performances ... one of a folksy band/artist that was pretty lame. I mean, one of his songs was called "annyong". And then a performance by Girls Generation, one of Korea's most popular girl pop bands. They sang one of their more famous songs "Genie", but what I think stole the show was their rendition of "There You'll Be" (in English) - a heartfelt serenade to none other than Juicy Hartnett. As you may remember Juicy gave a stellar performance in the movie "Pearl Harbor" ... a movie which included on the soundtrack, the song "There You'll Be". Girls Generation decided that the best way to impress such an American dream boat would be to sing this song for him. They also dressed in cutesy little navy uniforms. It was fantastic. Throughout their entire performance the camera cut between them and Juicy, who was awkwardly sitting in his chair. I can only imagine the thoughts that were running through his head.
After the musical acts we were finally all treated to the film "Good Morning Mr. President" a comdey/romance/everyday kind of film about the lives of 3 of Korea's fictitious presidents and the things they had to deal with in office (i.e. relationships, emergency surgeries, winning the lottery, accidental farting, you know ... the usual stuff that bothers most presidents). The movie was pretty good however I didn't get the full effect, as I was frantically trying to read the English subtitles. But all in all I think it was pretty good, very entertaining ... and that's what movies are supposed to be, right?
Our last day/morning in Busan was spent visiting Hauendae beach, a fairly famous beach that was the location for the shooting of one of Korea's most recent tsunami disaster movies. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I hear it was disastrous. After checking out the last beach we all headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Gyeongju for the weekend. It was time for the annual Fulbright Korea fall conference ... 4 days of workshops, meetings, hanging out and reconnecting with other ETA friends, enjoying and learning about Gyeongju, and enjoying ourselves. (I kind of sound like a travel brochure right there.)
The conference was really great ... it was super nice to see all the 90 or so ETAs in one room, many of whom I haven't seen or talked to since we all left Chuncheon about two months ago, which now seems like such a long time. The meetings and workshops were very informative and helpful, though a little boring so I'll spare you the details. Just envision lots of people like me, sitting at tables, talking about teacher-y things and eating brownies and cheese.
But during the conference weekend we all (or almost all of us) got out in Gyeongju and toured the entire city. The entire city. It seriously took us about 6 or so hours ... and saw all that it had to offer. Fun history fact: when Korea was first united under the Silla dynasty way back when, Gyeongju was the capital city of Korea at the time. It holds a lot of Korea history and we were able to visit various Buddhist temples, tombs of ancient Korean kings, the Gyeongju national history museum, the oldest observatory tower thing in Korea, and other parks and lakes around the area. It is a beautiful city and it was really cool to see all the historical things. Never have I felt so young.
The conference was really great and way more interesting and helpful than I first imagined it to be. On Monday we all departed and went our separate ways again ... off into the real world of Korea ... you know, where people stop being nice and start being real.
My bus back to little Hwasun decided not to leave until about 4 in the afternoon, so myself and many of the other ETAs that were headed to that area hung out in Gyeongju for the day and visited "Gyeongju World" the biggest and best amusement park in town. There was pretty much no one there besides us, so we rode rides as we pleased, never having to wait in line. It wasn't as fantastic as any American amusement parks I have been to, but it did the job.
The past week/weekend was glorious ... a great way to enjoy the beautiful fall weather in Korea these days. Life is good.
I should try to market that phrase. Like put it on t-shirts or something.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
추석 잘보내세요!
This past weekend every single Korean (and every single Fulbright ETA) celebrated the traditional Korean holiday of Chusok. There is no exact American equivalent to Chusok; just think Thanksgiving meets Christmas meets All Soul's Day - minus the turkey, football, Santa, and Catholicism and plus a lot of kimchi. It's pretty self-explanatory.
Chusok is a major Korean holiday (I've heard only New Year's Day outshines it) that is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. (If you don't quite understand the difference between the lunar and solar calendars, don't feel badly - I still have absolutely no idea how to read them or how they differ, and I've been here 3 months). Anyways, Chusok celebrates the mid-autumn harvest as Koreans visit their hometowns, extended family members, and remember their departed ancestors (and eat at least a pound of kimchi each).
I stayed with my host-family the entire weekend so as to get the "authentic" feel of a Chusok celebration. As this is the only time I have ever celebrated Chusok, I have nothing with which to compare my experience. All I can tell you is that it is by far the best Chusok I have ever been a part of ... but, it was also the worst. So there's that.
The Chusok holiday began on Friday (all schools canceled classes - that's just how important it really is) and lasted until Sunday. Three whole days of Korean holiday awkwardness.
The celebration began Friday afternoon, as my host-mother practically confined herself to the kitchen making tons and tons of food. Literally. I swear I saw her prepare at least an entire refrigerator full of kimchi. I don't know if she was expecting the South Korean army to drop by and have lunch, but she definitely prepared for it.
The good stuff didn't happen until Friday evening. After my host-mom was done preparing the food, she loaded two tables full of every kind of Korean food imaginable. Kimchi, an entire chicken (sans feathers), a whole watermelon, every type of vegetable and root you could ever imagine, about 30 variations of rice cakes, and some wine. My host-family explained to me that the food was intended for their ancestors to eat throughout the day (although I'm pretty sure I saw my host-mom and host-dad carrying the food back into the kitchen late at night after the ceremony - so maybe there is a little bit of Santa stuff going on). However, Friday night my host-mom, dad, sister, and brother preformed an "ancestral ceremony" which was about 10 minutes long and consisted of them each pouring wine for their ancestors and bowing before the table 4 times each, in the traditional Korean manner. It was pretty legit.
After that they were finished for the night and we snacked on some grapes in the living room. Eun Sue informed me that the ceremony was to draw the ancestors from their resting place (the cemetery, heaven, Nirvana, the bathroom ... I have no idea) and bring them into the living room to hang out with us for the next 2 days. So we ate some grapes with the ancestors ... no big thing. We did, however, not sit at the table, so as not to make them uncomfortable while they were eating the feast my host-mom prepared for them.
I have to say that the ancestors weren't very hungry ... the food was barely touched. We also didn't make conversation. I tried, but they didn't speak any English.
Early Saturday morning (the actual day of Chusok - Friday and Sunday are really just the slices of bread around the delicious Chusok peanut butter and jelly) was reserved for the visiting of the ancestral tombs and another ceremony, which I can only imagine to include more bowing and food giving. My host-father and host-brother headed off to do their duty around 7am Saturday morning. Initially I was to go with them, just to check out this fancy ceremony that I keep hearing about (mainly from my host-mother who enjoys practicing new words she is learning in English. This week, "tomb", "main menu", and "syringe" - the last not necessarily related to Chusok). So I woke up early, got ready to go, and then discovered that my host-father and brother left without me. Real nice.
Usually the entire family goes, but my host-mother was exhausted from cooking all day Friday, my oldest host-sister was asleep, and Eun Sue was made to stay home and study.
Apparently the quadratic formula and photosynthesis outweigh remembering the dead. I mean, what could they really weigh, anyway? They're ghosts for all I can tell - can't weigh that much.
But this was the first year that the entire family didn't attend the ceremony ... I just hope it has no relation to my being here. "Meh. We've got to take care of the American. We'll just hang around the house this year, and put in some extra good bows next year to make up for today".
So I stayed home (in hindsight I'm not too upset ... they hung out in the cemetery for over 4 hours ... not necessarily something I want to do early in the morning).
Saturday afternoon was filled with visits from random family members - my host-mother and host-father's brothers and sisters, and their children. While the "adults" sat around, ate, and argued about the merits of Catholicism versus Protestantism (as Eun Su later told me - don't think I have the Korean vocabulary to understand or take part in any such conversation), all of us "children" (yes - I'm still lumped into the "children" category and forced to sit at the kid table ... even in Korea ... somethings will never change) kept ourselves busy. For the kids under the age of 12 this meant playing computer games for about 5 hours. But for us children over the age of 16, we were forced to study. Yes, "we".
My parents recently sent me a GRE prep book (strangely they don't sell a lot of those over here, at least in English) in the mail, which I showed my host-family. They, especially Eun Su, were delighted, as this now means that we can study together Eun Su. Huzzah! No longer will she be confined to the depressing little room by herself anymore. She now has a cellmate ... so she thinks.
So when Eun Sue and her 16 year old cousin (a first grade student in high school) were sent off to the other room to study - seriously, they weren't allowed to take part in the holiday celebration ... education is that important - I was sent with them.
"Rauren! Study you with Eun Sue! Rots and rots of fun!"
Rots and rots of fun it was.
So during the greater part of Saturday I studied vocab words ... which basically translated into me doodling around for about 3 hours while listening to my I-pod. I would be a horrible Korean student - I've never enjoyed studying, and I'm not Korean.
On Sunday more family came over, had breakfast, and we ate some more grapes with the invisible ancestors. Man, they love grapes.
Throughout the weekend I served mainly as "the American on display". I was always the first person/thing to be introduced to the visiting family members, and always the topic of conversation for about the first 10 minutes, then banished to the study room.
Fulbright sent us an e-mail reminding us to be good "cultural ambassadors" this weekend ... still not entirely sure what that means ... I didn't wear my American flag sweater, wave around firecrackers, or sing any Toby Kieth ... but hopefully I still fulfilled my duties.
In addition to celebrating the greatest of Korean holidays, this past week/weekend I/we (practically all of Korea) celebrated my birthday as well. Turning 23 in Asia. Didn't really see that one coming - until I decided to come to Korea, that is. I did realize that spending a year here would cause me to celebrate one October 1st in the great Republic of Korea.
23 was pretty great, in that it's like I had two birthdays. One in Korea, then one in America. Due to the time difference I was literally given two days for celebration. And celebrate I did ... just not with Kool and the Gang - no matter how many birthday candles I wish upon and blow out.
I've decided that from now on out I will celebrate my birthday twice a year, on October 1st when it falls both in the states and in Korea. I think you pretty much are obliged to do so, once you've lived in Asia.
So for my birthday this year I celebrated in Korea by going to dinner and out to drinks with some friends in Gwangju, stealing some pieces of another teacher's birthday cake, and being treated to "American" food by my host-family. All in all, pretty good birthday.
As my birthday fell on Chusok, it was nice in that I got one day off of school, yet had to share my special day with all those ancestors my host-family kept feeding. Kind of like having your birthday on Christmas ... no one really wants to share their birthday with Jesus ... how can you outshine being born to a virgin?
"Oh, your mom had you the regular way? Lame."
Anyways, on my actual birthday we did have school, and it was there I discovered that another teacher at Hwasun High School also celebrates his birth on the 1st of October. My co-teacher (whom I'm pretty sure was informed by Fulbright of when my birthday is) forgot all about it. Halfway through the day a cake was brought into our teacher's lounge, which I suspected was for me (wouldn't you suspect that too if it was your birthday?), however it turned out to be for the other teacher. In the middle of singing "Happy Birthday" I was confused when everyone shouted out a Korean name and not my own.
After then putting two and two together (4) I realized we shared the same birthday, excitedly told this teacher my new discovery, and instinctually gave him a high five. Awesome.
My co-teacher then began to understand that it was also my birthday (which she completely forgot about, but you can't really blame her because she's super busy with school) and then tried to weasle in a celebration for me, telling me the cake was half mine. Nice try, Kim.
But I got super fake excited and thanked everyone for this awesome surprise. It was such a good surprise that even they didn't know about it.
So I ate two pieces of Korean teacher's birthday cake and called it a day.
In addition to celebrating my birthday at school and with friends, my host-family took me out to dinner this past Sunday, for some authentic American food made by Koreans. We went to VIPS (a Korean chain that serves Koreanized American food) where my host-brother presented me with a birthday cake, my host-sister gave me some lip gloss, and my host-mom asked the waiters to bring us funny hats to wear while they sang me Happy Birthday.
It was great, the only disappointment was that Eun Sue couldn't come because she had to/was forced to stay home and study. So my host-brother video conferenced her on their cell phones to show her how awesome of a time we were having without her. He also made sure to let her see all the food she was missing out on, and held the phone up to everybody and instructed us all to taunt her, which my host-sister and mother happily did.
After I stuffed myself with delicious food (my host-mom was super impressed at how hungry I was and how much American food I could eat in one sitting ... I'm going to take that as a compliment) we headed home.
Sunday night I presented my host-family with the Chusok gifts I got for them, or should I say my parents got for them - DePauw paraphanelia (that makes it sound like drugs) shirts, socks, etc. They absolutely loved it ... especially my host-sister who is seriously considering going to college in the states.
We then gathered around to actually eat the birthday cake my host brother bought for me (I was too full of pizza and ice cream - I sound like a 5 year old - to eat it during lunch). So I ran to get my camera to document this cutesy cake, only to discover that sometime during the afternoon my host-mom got hungry and ate a huge chunk of it. Oh well, it still tasted great ... but you know how they always make the first piece extra delicious.
So that was my Chusok and birthday celebration in a nutshell (or blogshell). This week I'm gearing up for school mid-terms, which is basically me bringing a book to class and sitting in the classroom as the students study independently. I only have two days of classes this week, and the rest are scheduled for test-taking. So later this week I am headed to Busan to check out Korea's 2nd largest city (after Hwasun, of course) and the Busan International Film Festival that is held annually at this supposedly great city. I'm stoked and really hoping to watch some great films that I won't understand at all. After that I'm traveling down to Gyeongju for the Fulbright fall conference to get schooled on schooling and reunite with all the other Fulbrighters.
A week full of reading, meeting friends, traveling, and seeing films ... all while still getting paid. Pretty sweet gig.
So I leave you all with (I'm not ashamed to say) one of my (and every other Korean girl aged 12 - 25) favorite songs at the moment.
Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry".
Watch and enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6QA3m58DQw
N.B. This past week I yelled at a class (the first time ever) for being extremely noisy and disruptive. One of my students (whom I lumped in the "funny, but pretty annoying pile") stood up and started dancing and singing this song.
He's since moved into my "awesome" pile.
Chusok is a major Korean holiday (I've heard only New Year's Day outshines it) that is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. (If you don't quite understand the difference between the lunar and solar calendars, don't feel badly - I still have absolutely no idea how to read them or how they differ, and I've been here 3 months). Anyways, Chusok celebrates the mid-autumn harvest as Koreans visit their hometowns, extended family members, and remember their departed ancestors (and eat at least a pound of kimchi each).
I stayed with my host-family the entire weekend so as to get the "authentic" feel of a Chusok celebration. As this is the only time I have ever celebrated Chusok, I have nothing with which to compare my experience. All I can tell you is that it is by far the best Chusok I have ever been a part of ... but, it was also the worst. So there's that.
The Chusok holiday began on Friday (all schools canceled classes - that's just how important it really is) and lasted until Sunday. Three whole days of Korean holiday awkwardness.
The celebration began Friday afternoon, as my host-mother practically confined herself to the kitchen making tons and tons of food. Literally. I swear I saw her prepare at least an entire refrigerator full of kimchi. I don't know if she was expecting the South Korean army to drop by and have lunch, but she definitely prepared for it.
The good stuff didn't happen until Friday evening. After my host-mom was done preparing the food, she loaded two tables full of every kind of Korean food imaginable. Kimchi, an entire chicken (sans feathers), a whole watermelon, every type of vegetable and root you could ever imagine, about 30 variations of rice cakes, and some wine. My host-family explained to me that the food was intended for their ancestors to eat throughout the day (although I'm pretty sure I saw my host-mom and host-dad carrying the food back into the kitchen late at night after the ceremony - so maybe there is a little bit of Santa stuff going on). However, Friday night my host-mom, dad, sister, and brother preformed an "ancestral ceremony" which was about 10 minutes long and consisted of them each pouring wine for their ancestors and bowing before the table 4 times each, in the traditional Korean manner. It was pretty legit.
After that they were finished for the night and we snacked on some grapes in the living room. Eun Sue informed me that the ceremony was to draw the ancestors from their resting place (the cemetery, heaven, Nirvana, the bathroom ... I have no idea) and bring them into the living room to hang out with us for the next 2 days. So we ate some grapes with the ancestors ... no big thing. We did, however, not sit at the table, so as not to make them uncomfortable while they were eating the feast my host-mom prepared for them.
I have to say that the ancestors weren't very hungry ... the food was barely touched. We also didn't make conversation. I tried, but they didn't speak any English.
Early Saturday morning (the actual day of Chusok - Friday and Sunday are really just the slices of bread around the delicious Chusok peanut butter and jelly) was reserved for the visiting of the ancestral tombs and another ceremony, which I can only imagine to include more bowing and food giving. My host-father and host-brother headed off to do their duty around 7am Saturday morning. Initially I was to go with them, just to check out this fancy ceremony that I keep hearing about (mainly from my host-mother who enjoys practicing new words she is learning in English. This week, "tomb", "main menu", and "syringe" - the last not necessarily related to Chusok). So I woke up early, got ready to go, and then discovered that my host-father and brother left without me. Real nice.
Usually the entire family goes, but my host-mother was exhausted from cooking all day Friday, my oldest host-sister was asleep, and Eun Sue was made to stay home and study.
Apparently the quadratic formula and photosynthesis outweigh remembering the dead. I mean, what could they really weigh, anyway? They're ghosts for all I can tell - can't weigh that much.
But this was the first year that the entire family didn't attend the ceremony ... I just hope it has no relation to my being here. "Meh. We've got to take care of the American. We'll just hang around the house this year, and put in some extra good bows next year to make up for today".
So I stayed home (in hindsight I'm not too upset ... they hung out in the cemetery for over 4 hours ... not necessarily something I want to do early in the morning).
Saturday afternoon was filled with visits from random family members - my host-mother and host-father's brothers and sisters, and their children. While the "adults" sat around, ate, and argued about the merits of Catholicism versus Protestantism (as Eun Su later told me - don't think I have the Korean vocabulary to understand or take part in any such conversation), all of us "children" (yes - I'm still lumped into the "children" category and forced to sit at the kid table ... even in Korea ... somethings will never change) kept ourselves busy. For the kids under the age of 12 this meant playing computer games for about 5 hours. But for us children over the age of 16, we were forced to study. Yes, "we".
My parents recently sent me a GRE prep book (strangely they don't sell a lot of those over here, at least in English) in the mail, which I showed my host-family. They, especially Eun Su, were delighted, as this now means that we can study together Eun Su. Huzzah! No longer will she be confined to the depressing little room by herself anymore. She now has a cellmate ... so she thinks.
So when Eun Sue and her 16 year old cousin (a first grade student in high school) were sent off to the other room to study - seriously, they weren't allowed to take part in the holiday celebration ... education is that important - I was sent with them.
"Rauren! Study you with Eun Sue! Rots and rots of fun!"
Rots and rots of fun it was.
So during the greater part of Saturday I studied vocab words ... which basically translated into me doodling around for about 3 hours while listening to my I-pod. I would be a horrible Korean student - I've never enjoyed studying, and I'm not Korean.
On Sunday more family came over, had breakfast, and we ate some more grapes with the invisible ancestors. Man, they love grapes.
Throughout the weekend I served mainly as "the American on display". I was always the first person/thing to be introduced to the visiting family members, and always the topic of conversation for about the first 10 minutes, then banished to the study room.
Fulbright sent us an e-mail reminding us to be good "cultural ambassadors" this weekend ... still not entirely sure what that means ... I didn't wear my American flag sweater, wave around firecrackers, or sing any Toby Kieth ... but hopefully I still fulfilled my duties.
In addition to celebrating the greatest of Korean holidays, this past week/weekend I/we (practically all of Korea) celebrated my birthday as well. Turning 23 in Asia. Didn't really see that one coming - until I decided to come to Korea, that is. I did realize that spending a year here would cause me to celebrate one October 1st in the great Republic of Korea.
23 was pretty great, in that it's like I had two birthdays. One in Korea, then one in America. Due to the time difference I was literally given two days for celebration. And celebrate I did ... just not with Kool and the Gang - no matter how many birthday candles I wish upon and blow out.
I've decided that from now on out I will celebrate my birthday twice a year, on October 1st when it falls both in the states and in Korea. I think you pretty much are obliged to do so, once you've lived in Asia.
So for my birthday this year I celebrated in Korea by going to dinner and out to drinks with some friends in Gwangju, stealing some pieces of another teacher's birthday cake, and being treated to "American" food by my host-family. All in all, pretty good birthday.
As my birthday fell on Chusok, it was nice in that I got one day off of school, yet had to share my special day with all those ancestors my host-family kept feeding. Kind of like having your birthday on Christmas ... no one really wants to share their birthday with Jesus ... how can you outshine being born to a virgin?
"Oh, your mom had you the regular way? Lame."
Anyways, on my actual birthday we did have school, and it was there I discovered that another teacher at Hwasun High School also celebrates his birth on the 1st of October. My co-teacher (whom I'm pretty sure was informed by Fulbright of when my birthday is) forgot all about it. Halfway through the day a cake was brought into our teacher's lounge, which I suspected was for me (wouldn't you suspect that too if it was your birthday?), however it turned out to be for the other teacher. In the middle of singing "Happy Birthday" I was confused when everyone shouted out a Korean name and not my own.
After then putting two and two together (4) I realized we shared the same birthday, excitedly told this teacher my new discovery, and instinctually gave him a high five. Awesome.
My co-teacher then began to understand that it was also my birthday (which she completely forgot about, but you can't really blame her because she's super busy with school) and then tried to weasle in a celebration for me, telling me the cake was half mine. Nice try, Kim.
But I got super fake excited and thanked everyone for this awesome surprise. It was such a good surprise that even they didn't know about it.
So I ate two pieces of Korean teacher's birthday cake and called it a day.
In addition to celebrating my birthday at school and with friends, my host-family took me out to dinner this past Sunday, for some authentic American food made by Koreans. We went to VIPS (a Korean chain that serves Koreanized American food) where my host-brother presented me with a birthday cake, my host-sister gave me some lip gloss, and my host-mom asked the waiters to bring us funny hats to wear while they sang me Happy Birthday.
It was great, the only disappointment was that Eun Sue couldn't come because she had to/was forced to stay home and study. So my host-brother video conferenced her on their cell phones to show her how awesome of a time we were having without her. He also made sure to let her see all the food she was missing out on, and held the phone up to everybody and instructed us all to taunt her, which my host-sister and mother happily did.
After I stuffed myself with delicious food (my host-mom was super impressed at how hungry I was and how much American food I could eat in one sitting ... I'm going to take that as a compliment) we headed home.
Sunday night I presented my host-family with the Chusok gifts I got for them, or should I say my parents got for them - DePauw paraphanelia (that makes it sound like drugs) shirts, socks, etc. They absolutely loved it ... especially my host-sister who is seriously considering going to college in the states.
We then gathered around to actually eat the birthday cake my host brother bought for me (I was too full of pizza and ice cream - I sound like a 5 year old - to eat it during lunch). So I ran to get my camera to document this cutesy cake, only to discover that sometime during the afternoon my host-mom got hungry and ate a huge chunk of it. Oh well, it still tasted great ... but you know how they always make the first piece extra delicious.
So that was my Chusok and birthday celebration in a nutshell (or blogshell). This week I'm gearing up for school mid-terms, which is basically me bringing a book to class and sitting in the classroom as the students study independently. I only have two days of classes this week, and the rest are scheduled for test-taking. So later this week I am headed to Busan to check out Korea's 2nd largest city (after Hwasun, of course) and the Busan International Film Festival that is held annually at this supposedly great city. I'm stoked and really hoping to watch some great films that I won't understand at all. After that I'm traveling down to Gyeongju for the Fulbright fall conference to get schooled on schooling and reunite with all the other Fulbrighters.
A week full of reading, meeting friends, traveling, and seeing films ... all while still getting paid. Pretty sweet gig.
So I leave you all with (I'm not ashamed to say) one of my (and every other Korean girl aged 12 - 25) favorite songs at the moment.
Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry".
Watch and enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6QA3m58DQw
N.B. This past week I yelled at a class (the first time ever) for being extremely noisy and disruptive. One of my students (whom I lumped in the "funny, but pretty annoying pile") stood up and started dancing and singing this song.
He's since moved into my "awesome" pile.
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