A Return to Abnormality

Ah yes, back in Korea. It almost feels like home, except for the fairly constant reminder that I'm in a foreign country. It has been very nice though to have a place of my own rather than moving around from hostel to hotel to camper, etc.

"Collectable Korean Quotes and Curious Quips"

There have been some pretty unusual situations Shannon and I have found ourselves in over the past few days. A lot of mine have had to do with an overnight camp I just got back from (which I'll get to shortly), and while generally all of this is a result of the language barrier between everyone, it's made for some rather interesting remarks.

"Don't use those toothpicks, they're from China." I don't know whether we shouldn't be using them because Chinese goods are bad, or if there was concern that the distance travelled to get here may have ruined them. Either way, Chinese toothpicks seem to be bad.

"I need to take a leak... I need to take a dump." This was my principal practicing English phrases for the grade 5 overnight camp. I managed to convince him (after I burst out laughing, which was extremely embarrassing) to instead go with "I need to use the toilet", though we also ended up teaching the kids "Nature calls me" which was kinda cute but not so crude. The next however, he just kinda sprung on everyone while we were practicing.

"No, no, no, listen and repeat me: I have diarrhea . Repeat! Di-a-rrhea!" To make sure the kids were properly equipped to explain to us in English when they got sick, we taught them how to say (among other illnesses) "I have diarrhea." I guess it's not that bad, but I still started laughing and turned bright red every time my principal had the kids sound it out slowly.

"I love you! I looooooovvvvvee you! WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAaaaaaaaaagggghghgh!" This came from a drunk Korean who decided to watch us play hockey one afternoon. At first he was a little scary, as he spoke just enough English for us to know he was yelling at us. Then he started up with the most maniacal laugh I've ever heard, and when he calmed down, he would tell us he loved us, say something in Korean, apologize to us, and finally start singing 'Country Roads".

It's the Lunar New Year right now (or Chinese New Year, if that's a little more familiar to you), and all the kids are on graduation week which means no school. My school however, did an overnight English camp for 15 of the grade 5 students. It wasn't quite the intense 3 days of English my principal wanted it to be, but it was pretty good for them. We travelled to the old capital of Korea visiting everything that remotely resembled a temple or shrine along the way. I actually got to learn quite a bit about Korean history and culture (some of it, such as the stories about General Kim Yu-Shin are rather shocking), but it was tough to find enough English to get a complete handle on what was going on. This problem was amplified when my principal would, before and after every stop, get me to introduce and follow-up on where we were going or had just been. Whoo, I tell you, I was a fish out of water for three days here, I felt like I hardly ever knew what was going on. My principal's English is good, but not great, so I was always telling the kids we were in one place when it was really another, that we'd be there for 30 minutes when it was only 5, or that lunch would be our next stop, and then 3 stops later we still wouldn't have eaten. It helps that they didn't really understand me though, so really I'm the only one who knows how much I was screwing up.

My principal, who is a very nice and wonderful man, has begun to consider me a part of his family. I think I'm very glad for this, but it does bring up certain cultural and communication differences between us that I don't know if I'll (or he) will ever be able to overcome. He likes taking me out for lunch these days, but I think he likes doing it because he feels I would like it, or that I would be lonely otherwise (he does it mostly on days Shannon's not around). He wants to teach me Korean, which is great, but when I ask how to say words in Korean, he just gives me the English definition. On our camp, he and I shared a room together, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - when I first got in the room, there was only a tiny single mattress on the floor, and while I sucked it up and told myself this was something I could do and feel comfortable with, I had a really tough time swallowing such a big lie to myself. We did end up with another mattress, so things weren't too bad. And to pass the time we had each night, we went to the sauna.

The Korean sauna is in fact just like any sauna, only there's has multiple saunas and hot pools, and showers to clean before and after, and everyone goes naked. I think most are divided by gender, as this one was, so it was actually rather comfortable. The first night was really quiet, and I had a nice relaxing time just sitting around, sweating or soaking. The second night, not only did we bring all the kids, but there were tonnes of other Koreans too. Now, I'm fine with sitting around without any clothes on, my body's not great but I have no problem with people seeing me when I'm fully disrobed, but it's a little strange when everyone is giving you constant looks as you're sitting there. The kids were fine, but for all these other Koreans, I was probably the first naked white guy they'd ever seen. How could they not take a long glance over at me?

Anyway, I'm back now, and blogging away as you can tell. Apologies for the long blog, this is two weeks in a row now where I've oozed as much info out of my brain as possible. Since there's no school right now, I've got very little to do so typing on the computer for hours on end is no problem. I should go to the dentist soon perhaps, as I think the old crown on my tooth is starting to come off. It's become very sensitive to hot and cold these days, and playing the didgeridoo makes it feel like it's trying to peel itself out of my mouth and off to somewhere that doesn't shake it around so badly. Whatever happens in the end, I'll be sure to post it up here. Thanks for taking the time to read!

Rich