Your Head Very Small

When I first wore a baseball hat in little league, I learned I had a small head. Having given up hats for the most part, I had forgotten how my head size compared to everyone elses until I got to Korea. "Your head very small" is a common follow up to, or replacement for hello. The sunglasses saleswoman was the latest in the many culprits. I think it's a compliment (Korean celebrities tend to have comparatively smaller heads) but saying thank you just feels weird.

What's in there?

"Ga-bang": Korean for bag. Gabang with popcicle stains on it.... it's really hot here, and hard to eat a popcicle on the bus.

Clockwise

1. Wallet - with lots of "man won" in it. "Man-won" = 10,000won (a little over $9.00USD)

2. Umbrella - carrying this around in case of the rain showers that are becoming more frequent as we enter the monsoon season.

3. Pencil case - a staple in every teacher's bag.

4. Foundation - lots of SPF.

5. iTouch - sometimes you just need to tune out all the students you see walking around the neighborhood..."OH! HI TEACHER!!!"

6. Oil strips - humidity has been over 60 % every day here for the past week... gross.

7. Gum - fights kimchi breath.

8. Free handphone - with handphone accessories : electronic bus pass and KIA Tigers themed screen cleaner.

9. 8GB USB - the number one thing I need to remember to bring to school because it contains all the ppts for my lessons... funny how such a tiny thing could be so valuable.

10. Lipgloss and chapstick - gotta keep them lips moist and glossed.

11. Sunglasses - to protect from the blazing sun on my walk to school at 7:30am. Sunglasses are a concept that most Koreans find weird or showy.

Conversation 1 -

Student: "Teacher, I saw you this morning wearing sunglasses."

Me: "Okay, so?"

Student: "Why?"

Me: ".....because it's f*ing sunny, duh!"

Conversation 2 -

Male co-worker: "Ah, Naomi, I saw you this morning wearing ....." indicates to his eyes and a kind of shading motion.

Me: "Yep, just trying to protect my eyes."

Male co-worker: "Oh, you looked like a movie star!"

Me: "......haha, okay!"

World Cup

This week I've been teaching my student's a dialogue about the world cup (see below). It also includes the Korean translation if you need/want to talk about the world cup in Korean.

Person A: Did you watch the game on Saturday?
너 토요일 경기 봤어?
Person B: Yeah, Korea won.
응. 한국이 이겼어.
Person A: Really? Was it a good game?
정말? 경기 훌륭했어?
Person B: Yes, Park JiSung scored 1 goal.
응, 박지성이 1골 넣었어
Person A: Wow! That’s great.

와우, 멋진걸

In addition to talking about the world cup all week with my students - we (well, more me than V) also made a calendar time table. Unfortunately, South Korea is 7 hours ahead of South Africa so, most of the matches will be played at either 3:30am or 11pm... not so ideal for us 9-5ers.

Korea's world cup slogans are:

"Fighting Korea!" - "fighting" is konglish for "go" or "I support" or something along those lines....

"Shouting Korea!" - hmm... I dunno

The big Q and A

Question: What do you do in Korea if wake up one morning, bend over to pick something up, and pull something in your back?
Answer: Go to Dr. Kang's Pain Clinic near Jeonnam National University.

Q: Why Dr. Kang's, when there are so many other hospitals closer to your home, you ask?
A: He speaks fluent English and even used the word "sedentary" during my consultation, he also has a very calm and kind bedside manner. And I didn't know this at the time, but Dr. Kang actually specializes in back pain in addition to his family practice.

Q: What did you do at the pain clinic?
A: I received a series of anti-inflammatory shots directly at the source of the pulled ligament. I also had, what Dr. Kang referred to as "electric shock therapy" (he might want to consider rephrasing this into a slightly less threatening expression). The "electric shock therapy" ended up being kind of like those electric chair massages but with more force and sharper contact.

Q: Did you get any cool drugs?
A: The perscription that I recieved was a mild anti-inflammatory combined with a very low, slow-release pain killer.

Q: How much did it cost?
A: The first visit (consult, shots, and physical therapy) was 17,400won and 2,000won for the perscription. The second visit (consult, one shot, and electric physical therapy, doctors note) was 15,300won and 2,500 for three days worth of pills.
Total for two visits and two perscriptions:
37,200won (about $30 US)

Q: How do I get there?
A: By bus: take any bus that goes to Jeonnam National University Backgate and walk south towards the end of the backgate. It's across the street from the Gwangju Buk Gu Chung (district office)

A Series of Fortunate Holidays

In May we celebrated two holidays (no school!!!)

May 5th - Children's Day
May 21st - Buddha's Birthday

.........and today (July 2nd) we also have a holiday for - Election Day!

So, what do we do with all these free days?

For Children's day we bought tickets to the KIA Tigers game:

beer, chicken and baseball!

8,000won/ticket

10,000won/box of fried chicken

and all the B.Y.O beer you could ask for!

Take that Mariners...

For Buddha's birthday we travelled to the ancient city of Andong.
We hiked up to the Bongjeongsa temple - which is about a 30 minute drive from Andong - and admired the beautiful view and hundreds of lanterns displayed for Buddha's Birthday.....

...And sampled the famously delicious Jjim Dalk (stewed chicken and vegetables in a spicy sweet soy sauce) and drank some Andong Soju.

The following day we walked around the Hahoe village - visited the traditional Korean village buildings (that people actually still live in!), and saw an amazing masked perfomance (which we didn't fully understand, but was awesome nonetheless).

And for Election Day we're planning on celebrating Vann's birthday... homemade cake and everthing!