Ugh. Love hurts. Especially when there are communication barriers...
I need to go study Korean.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
A Week of Many Firsts...(etc), Part 3; Field Day, Shopping Illiterate, Crazy Cab Ride
Yes, this post is continued from the previous two.
Thursday was 운동회 (Field Day!) at Allak. It...was...awesome. The whole school was out in the school yard for 4 hours playing sports and games and doing dances. The field days here are a bit different than the ones in the States but also quite similar. For example, there were a lot of running activities, and tug of war, and some very interesting miscellaneous activities such as ajump rope contest and kids pulling each other in sleds-type-things in circles. However, there were also many things that I had never seen before. For example, there was a dance portion where the younger grades - I'm thinking first and second, dressed up in fancy Korean clothing (very interesting clothing) and did traditional Korean dance...it was SO CUTE. Oh man. They also had a hula-hooping contest - at the time of watching I didn't know they had been practicing for two weeks, and I was thinking...HOLY CRAP Koreans are amazing at hula-hooping!!!! They were so crazy awesome good. I can't even explain. They were doing a routine type thing too, like watching a teacher who was leading them, and one of the things they had to do was jump in the air and continue to spin the hoop. They played in teams, and after a certain amount of minutes they had everyone stop who was still standing and counted the number of people on each team to see who won (very different from American individualistic culture - not making a comment of preference, just speculation and interest). But even with weeks of practice...still - they were amazing. Another game that was a bit different was similar to our "Capture the Flag", but instead it was like ""Capture the Captain", and instead of flags, each person (well, team - because they traveled in groups of three people - two people carrying one person on top) had a balloon around his head. So instead of trying to take the flag out of one's belt, you had to pop the balloon (I really like that idea!). So the object of the game was to pop the balloon of the Captain. It was awesome. There were kids on the sides waving huge flags with their team's color while the game was going on. So cool!
Also, the parents came, which I thought was very cool. Many of the games involved the parents (mostly relays)! How cool is that! So there would be family teams. :) And some games were just parents. I thought that was fabulous. There was also one game that involved teachers - the kids had to run up to a clipboard, and on the board it had a teacher's name written, and the kid had to run to get the teacher, and took the teacher's hand while running together to the finish line. That was so much fun! Aww :) Good times. Great times. :)
After that, the teacher's played volleyball at around 2:45p. They normally play every Wednesday but I haven't yet participated. It was so much fun! I am not good at volleyball though. Especially since I can't control the ball much when I hit it (when I bump it). Which I felt awkward about because I know Korea society is much more group centered than American society (one cool linguistic thing related to this is that they use the pronoun "we" and "our" much more often than "my/mine" - like for example one would never say "my mother", but "our mother", or "my car", but rather "our car." It is really really interesting!) so when I would bump the ball in direct reception from the other side and my bump hit it over the net I felt kind of embarrassed...oof...but they seemed to think I was pretty good anyways...haha. There are some really good volleyball players at my school! That was a really fun time. My co workers are very fun. :)
After volleyball we all went into the courtyard and had some sushi (I forget what kind - but it was just raw fish in a foam container, no rice or anything - I actually liked it!) and rice cakes and soju and makali (I'm not sure if I am spelling that right, but it is like a milk-rice-wine I believe). Good times :)
After that I rush to the bus to get to practice. We actually did an easy run on Thursday. It felt so refreshing!! I love running. I need to make sure I don't get hurt because I am getting into kind of decent running shape now and I can't wait to be able to do 2 hour runs!!!!! Ahhh!! Sooo excited. After that we went to get some Bibimbap - awesome korean food which is like rice with lots of vegetables and chili pepper sauce, normally accompanied by an egg on top or some meat (today it was an egg...I LOVE that. mmmm). Anyway, the woman came over to give us the Bibimbap, and she had only given me a small amount of the chili pepper sauce. Before I knew what was going on, Coach pointed to mine and said something. Apparently he told her to go get me some more sauce. :) :) I love how he knew that I would want some more!!! Ah. I love that when people know you that well so that they can do things like that for you that they know you will like. Even my best friends at home, when they make comments about "I thought of you when this happened" or "I saw this and knew you would like it" - that makes me so happy, because it makes me feel like people care enough about me to a) notice those things and b) make an effort to actively do something about it. Aww :) And he tells me, "Many times the restaurants will only give foreigners a small amount of the sauce because normally the foreigners don't like it. But you aren't a foreigner. You are Korean." :) :) :) LOVE ITTT
After that, I met up with some English-speaking friends! (I would say from Miguk - America - but two of them were from Canada so I can't say that) Anyway, that was a lot of fun. I needed to go shopping for a lot of things and rally wanted some moral support...I hate shoppinggg, especially for clothes, unless I mentally prep myself. And even so, I then like to go to a store where I know the clothes will fit (like at home, at Express or Banana Republic) so I don't have an anxiety attack trying to find clothes to fit my misshapen body. And it is especially difficult here because a) Koreans are smaller than me in general (even shoe sizes! Hard to find shoes. I'm buying open toed, and scrunching my toes into others), but also they don't really let you try on clothes in stores here. Many items are "one size fits all" - which is...sometimes true...
Anyway. I met a few friends and we hit up the stores. I first hit up Nike. For the third time since I've been in Korea. Nike can never let me down, I will always fit into things there. And I know the materials. And I can look at a shirt and make a good guess as to whether it will fit (with the style and all). So I go to buy a monkey load of things there (not really a monkey load but the amount to reflect one), and I'm at the register...and I see a soccer ball, and remember...crap! That was on my list of things to buy! (It actually was - I need one to strengthen the inside of my quads so I don't get hurt running my heart out), but I'm not prepared to speak about it in Korean...and I am with English speaking friends and some of them get by by speaking English so I'm thinking...I'm in a Nike store, the chances that they speak English are better than if it were a privately owned store...maybe I should just speak English and save them pain of listening to my broken Korean (I was clearly confused because normally I would have thought, sweet, opportunity to use my new verbs)...so I start pointing and speaking broken English (I'm a mess) and say, that - soccer ball? Are you selling that? It was on display so I didn't want to just grab it - but I didn't know the verb for sell and I forgot the verb "to be able to" and those were the ones that I wanted at the moment. So I'm thinking of the 12 verbs I know...and 'need' pops into my head. (Well first, 'have' - but then I would be saying, "I have that?" Haha. And I don't know how to put the direct object marker on the word "that", strangely enough. Of course I could try, but it is a little different from most nouns.) So I summon my vocab from the Rosetta Stone for "ball" and prepare my conjugated form of "need", and I say - in what I believe was correct grammatical construction - "I need ball." Hahahaha. Hahaha. Oh man. I was so nervous! But the guy who was trying to understand me when I was speaking broken English seemed impressed - so I'm thinking I used the grammar right...but he was probably thinking...what a weird sentence...hahaha. So I got my soccer ball!! Yayyy. Haha. That was a fun trip. I was laughing about that periodically for the rest of the night. And still right now.
After Nike, we walked around, I got a few other things I needed, and then I decided I was ready to go into a clothing store. My rule is I won't buy anything unless I can find AT LEAST two things that I like, because I don't want to have to make multiple transactions having to deal with people talking to me in Korean and me not understanding and them getting mad - I want to wait until I know more vocabulary. So we went in a small shop and started looking around. I so desperately needed clothes that I was looking at some things that I might have to drink before wearing and convincing myself that they weren't that bad...but then I started to find a few things. This store ended up being my savior...I spent another, but smaller, monkey load here - and I had just taken out a papa monkey load of cash from my Korean account so I wouldn't have to charge my life on my credit card - so I buy all of these things and pay in my huge wad of cash...it was an experience. Also, I don't think the women liked us very much in there - people tend to not treat me as nicely when I am with other Americans, actually. I mean, obviously I will be treated better (I guess obvious is not a fair word here, but in general) when I am with Koreans who can speak the language and all, but when I am alone I am treated pretty good too - I mean, I am quiet, and try to speak mostly in Korean...and it works out. But we were talking...laughing...I felt uncomfortable actually by talking and laughing but I'm thinking - I never go out with English speaking people, chill Catie - I mean, I got my clothes. It's all good.
It's about time to go home, and the buses are no longer running. So I had to take a cab home. It took me a few tries to get one because I was on the wrong side of the road (aka the driver would have had to turn around to take me to my location) and apparently they don't want to turn you around...or they are being extra considerate as to saving you money...) so I finally got a cabbie who knew Myung-Jang 2 Dong. I said the name of the Mansion that I like by, and he looked confused, so I said, "Allak Chodup Hakkyo?) (Allak Elementary School, a 20 min walk from my house but whatever) and he is like, ok. So I get in. Then he starts mentioning the mansion again, talking in the speed as he would talk to someone who understands Korean. I'm saying lots of "uhms" and "ne"'s (ne = yes in Korean)...and then he starts to mention Allak...I'm trying to tell him that I want to go to the mansion...but I didn't know how to grammatically create that sentence - two verbs at once (need to go, want to go), so I am just saying Mansion, mansion is good. But then he keeps saying "Allak, Myung-Jang 1 Dong" and I'm like...yes...but Mansion, Myung Jang 2 Dong...it was a mess. I'm thinking once I get to somewhere I recognize that is close I will just say "yogi choayo" - meaning, "here is good". And we did get to a place that was very close - we actually drove past the mansion! And I said, ooh, here is good, here is good! And he pointed and said, "Hyub-Jin-Tae-Yeong Mansion" and I"m like, yogi, yogi! But he didn't stop! So I'm like, crap. I'm going to have to walk 20 min back home, and I am tired. But whatever. He seems like he is going to do what he wants to do. But once we get to Allak, he points to Allak Elementary School and says "Allak Chodup Hakkyo" and keeps driving...! He turns left and says "left"...I'm like...uhmmmmm (out loud)..and he makes a few more turns and stops at an apartment building up a hill. I say, "aniyo, aniyo" (no, no). Allak is ok. I said that because he didn't seem to want to take me to the Mansion. But then he mentions the mansion and I said...yes, Mansion, please. So we drive past Allak and he points it out again...I'm kind of nervous...and thinking I'm going to have to be really forceful at some point to make him let me get out. But once we got near the mansion, I started giving him directions, and then he stops at the Mansion. He starts to say things and I'm like, no, here is good, here is good. Finally, he dropped me off. Thank goodness I wasn't in Boston or New York because that cab ride probably would have been $25 or $30. But since I was in Korea it was 5,200 won. :) Haha. That was kind of crazy though. I really really need to learn this language, and fast!
More happened today at school but I am too tired to talk about it now. :) And this entry is very long. So peace out. ;)
Thursday was 운동회 (Field Day!) at Allak. It...was...awesome. The whole school was out in the school yard for 4 hours playing sports and games and doing dances. The field days here are a bit different than the ones in the States but also quite similar. For example, there were a lot of running activities, and tug of war, and some very interesting miscellaneous activities such as ajump rope contest and kids pulling each other in sleds-type-things in circles. However, there were also many things that I had never seen before. For example, there was a dance portion where the younger grades - I'm thinking first and second, dressed up in fancy Korean clothing (very interesting clothing) and did traditional Korean dance...it was SO CUTE. Oh man. They also had a hula-hooping contest - at the time of watching I didn't know they had been practicing for two weeks, and I was thinking...HOLY CRAP Koreans are amazing at hula-hooping!!!! They were so crazy awesome good. I can't even explain. They were doing a routine type thing too, like watching a teacher who was leading them, and one of the things they had to do was jump in the air and continue to spin the hoop. They played in teams, and after a certain amount of minutes they had everyone stop who was still standing and counted the number of people on each team to see who won (very different from American individualistic culture - not making a comment of preference, just speculation and interest). But even with weeks of practice...still - they were amazing. Another game that was a bit different was similar to our "Capture the Flag", but instead it was like ""Capture the Captain", and instead of flags, each person (well, team - because they traveled in groups of three people - two people carrying one person on top) had a balloon around his head. So instead of trying to take the flag out of one's belt, you had to pop the balloon (I really like that idea!). So the object of the game was to pop the balloon of the Captain. It was awesome. There were kids on the sides waving huge flags with their team's color while the game was going on. So cool!
Also, the parents came, which I thought was very cool. Many of the games involved the parents (mostly relays)! How cool is that! So there would be family teams. :) And some games were just parents. I thought that was fabulous. There was also one game that involved teachers - the kids had to run up to a clipboard, and on the board it had a teacher's name written, and the kid had to run to get the teacher, and took the teacher's hand while running together to the finish line. That was so much fun! Aww :) Good times. Great times. :)
After that, the teacher's played volleyball at around 2:45p. They normally play every Wednesday but I haven't yet participated. It was so much fun! I am not good at volleyball though. Especially since I can't control the ball much when I hit it (when I bump it). Which I felt awkward about because I know Korea society is much more group centered than American society (one cool linguistic thing related to this is that they use the pronoun "we" and "our" much more often than "my/mine" - like for example one would never say "my mother", but "our mother", or "my car", but rather "our car." It is really really interesting!) so when I would bump the ball in direct reception from the other side and my bump hit it over the net I felt kind of embarrassed...oof...but they seemed to think I was pretty good anyways...haha. There are some really good volleyball players at my school! That was a really fun time. My co workers are very fun. :)
After volleyball we all went into the courtyard and had some sushi (I forget what kind - but it was just raw fish in a foam container, no rice or anything - I actually liked it!) and rice cakes and soju and makali (I'm not sure if I am spelling that right, but it is like a milk-rice-wine I believe). Good times :)
After that I rush to the bus to get to practice. We actually did an easy run on Thursday. It felt so refreshing!! I love running. I need to make sure I don't get hurt because I am getting into kind of decent running shape now and I can't wait to be able to do 2 hour runs!!!!! Ahhh!! Sooo excited. After that we went to get some Bibimbap - awesome korean food which is like rice with lots of vegetables and chili pepper sauce, normally accompanied by an egg on top or some meat (today it was an egg...I LOVE that. mmmm). Anyway, the woman came over to give us the Bibimbap, and she had only given me a small amount of the chili pepper sauce. Before I knew what was going on, Coach pointed to mine and said something. Apparently he told her to go get me some more sauce. :) :) I love how he knew that I would want some more!!! Ah. I love that when people know you that well so that they can do things like that for you that they know you will like. Even my best friends at home, when they make comments about "I thought of you when this happened" or "I saw this and knew you would like it" - that makes me so happy, because it makes me feel like people care enough about me to a) notice those things and b) make an effort to actively do something about it. Aww :) And he tells me, "Many times the restaurants will only give foreigners a small amount of the sauce because normally the foreigners don't like it. But you aren't a foreigner. You are Korean." :) :) :) LOVE ITTT
After that, I met up with some English-speaking friends! (I would say from Miguk - America - but two of them were from Canada so I can't say that) Anyway, that was a lot of fun. I needed to go shopping for a lot of things and rally wanted some moral support...I hate shoppinggg, especially for clothes, unless I mentally prep myself. And even so, I then like to go to a store where I know the clothes will fit (like at home, at Express or Banana Republic) so I don't have an anxiety attack trying to find clothes to fit my misshapen body. And it is especially difficult here because a) Koreans are smaller than me in general (even shoe sizes! Hard to find shoes. I'm buying open toed, and scrunching my toes into others), but also they don't really let you try on clothes in stores here. Many items are "one size fits all" - which is...sometimes true...
Anyway. I met a few friends and we hit up the stores. I first hit up Nike. For the third time since I've been in Korea. Nike can never let me down, I will always fit into things there. And I know the materials. And I can look at a shirt and make a good guess as to whether it will fit (with the style and all). So I go to buy a monkey load of things there (not really a monkey load but the amount to reflect one), and I'm at the register...and I see a soccer ball, and remember...crap! That was on my list of things to buy! (It actually was - I need one to strengthen the inside of my quads so I don't get hurt running my heart out), but I'm not prepared to speak about it in Korean...and I am with English speaking friends and some of them get by by speaking English so I'm thinking...I'm in a Nike store, the chances that they speak English are better than if it were a privately owned store...maybe I should just speak English and save them pain of listening to my broken Korean (I was clearly confused because normally I would have thought, sweet, opportunity to use my new verbs)...so I start pointing and speaking broken English (I'm a mess) and say, that - soccer ball? Are you selling that? It was on display so I didn't want to just grab it - but I didn't know the verb for sell and I forgot the verb "to be able to" and those were the ones that I wanted at the moment. So I'm thinking of the 12 verbs I know...and 'need' pops into my head. (Well first, 'have' - but then I would be saying, "I have that?" Haha. And I don't know how to put the direct object marker on the word "that", strangely enough. Of course I could try, but it is a little different from most nouns.) So I summon my vocab from the Rosetta Stone for "ball" and prepare my conjugated form of "need", and I say - in what I believe was correct grammatical construction - "I need ball." Hahahaha. Hahaha. Oh man. I was so nervous! But the guy who was trying to understand me when I was speaking broken English seemed impressed - so I'm thinking I used the grammar right...but he was probably thinking...what a weird sentence...hahaha. So I got my soccer ball!! Yayyy. Haha. That was a fun trip. I was laughing about that periodically for the rest of the night. And still right now.
After Nike, we walked around, I got a few other things I needed, and then I decided I was ready to go into a clothing store. My rule is I won't buy anything unless I can find AT LEAST two things that I like, because I don't want to have to make multiple transactions having to deal with people talking to me in Korean and me not understanding and them getting mad - I want to wait until I know more vocabulary. So we went in a small shop and started looking around. I so desperately needed clothes that I was looking at some things that I might have to drink before wearing and convincing myself that they weren't that bad...but then I started to find a few things. This store ended up being my savior...I spent another, but smaller, monkey load here - and I had just taken out a papa monkey load of cash from my Korean account so I wouldn't have to charge my life on my credit card - so I buy all of these things and pay in my huge wad of cash...it was an experience. Also, I don't think the women liked us very much in there - people tend to not treat me as nicely when I am with other Americans, actually. I mean, obviously I will be treated better (I guess obvious is not a fair word here, but in general) when I am with Koreans who can speak the language and all, but when I am alone I am treated pretty good too - I mean, I am quiet, and try to speak mostly in Korean...and it works out. But we were talking...laughing...I felt uncomfortable actually by talking and laughing but I'm thinking - I never go out with English speaking people, chill Catie - I mean, I got my clothes. It's all good.
It's about time to go home, and the buses are no longer running. So I had to take a cab home. It took me a few tries to get one because I was on the wrong side of the road (aka the driver would have had to turn around to take me to my location) and apparently they don't want to turn you around...or they are being extra considerate as to saving you money...) so I finally got a cabbie who knew Myung-Jang 2 Dong. I said the name of the Mansion that I like by, and he looked confused, so I said, "Allak Chodup Hakkyo?) (Allak Elementary School, a 20 min walk from my house but whatever) and he is like, ok. So I get in. Then he starts mentioning the mansion again, talking in the speed as he would talk to someone who understands Korean. I'm saying lots of "uhms" and "ne"'s (ne = yes in Korean)...and then he starts to mention Allak...I'm trying to tell him that I want to go to the mansion...but I didn't know how to grammatically create that sentence - two verbs at once (need to go, want to go), so I am just saying Mansion, mansion is good. But then he keeps saying "Allak, Myung-Jang 1 Dong" and I'm like...yes...but Mansion, Myung Jang 2 Dong...it was a mess. I'm thinking once I get to somewhere I recognize that is close I will just say "yogi choayo" - meaning, "here is good". And we did get to a place that was very close - we actually drove past the mansion! And I said, ooh, here is good, here is good! And he pointed and said, "Hyub-Jin-Tae-Yeong Mansion" and I"m like, yogi, yogi! But he didn't stop! So I'm like, crap. I'm going to have to walk 20 min back home, and I am tired. But whatever. He seems like he is going to do what he wants to do. But once we get to Allak, he points to Allak Elementary School and says "Allak Chodup Hakkyo" and keeps driving...! He turns left and says "left"...I'm like...uhmmmmm (out loud)..and he makes a few more turns and stops at an apartment building up a hill. I say, "aniyo, aniyo" (no, no). Allak is ok. I said that because he didn't seem to want to take me to the Mansion. But then he mentions the mansion and I said...yes, Mansion, please. So we drive past Allak and he points it out again...I'm kind of nervous...and thinking I'm going to have to be really forceful at some point to make him let me get out. But once we got near the mansion, I started giving him directions, and then he stops at the Mansion. He starts to say things and I'm like, no, here is good, here is good. Finally, he dropped me off. Thank goodness I wasn't in Boston or New York because that cab ride probably would have been $25 or $30. But since I was in Korea it was 5,200 won. :) Haha. That was kind of crazy though. I really really need to learn this language, and fast!
More happened today at school but I am too tired to talk about it now. :) And this entry is very long. So peace out. ;)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
A Week of Many Firsts...(etc), Part 2
So that was Monday and Korean lessons (Part 1). Tuesday - hmmm. Ok well I will talk a little about school on Tuesday (and also just in general about Korean children and dancing...) So, I love how third graders are uninhibited...when we sing songs, many times the children get up and start dancing like crazy. It is SO adorable. It looks like they are having harmless and extremely enjoyable seizures. And another thing that they do is tickle each other. Sigh. It's so cute. The teachers (or at least my co-teacher at Dong Sang) tells them to when the songs are in intermission from the verses (I don't know what that part of the song is called...shame on me...). Oh! And some of them will rub each others' heads...(sometimes it is harder than a rub, more like a scalp...somewhere between a massage and a beating). Ah. I'm so glad I have third graders! The sixth graders will sing too, but they don't dance like that - they are much more inhibited...naturally. But still.
Tuesday night I went for another swim with Chol. YAY. At one point during the swim I was doing a flip turn and pushed off of the wall into a man...that was interesting...hahaha. To be fair, it technically wasn't my fault because the rules (yes, even in Korea, I wasn't assuming the rules in the US were universal) of the lanes are you always stay on the right hand side. But I was swimming up on the right hand side, and did a flip turn, and went to push off into the right hand side going back, and he was right there - so he was coming up the lane on the left hand side and technically shouldn't have been there. Normally I would have come above water and said "I'm sorry", but people don't say "I'm sorry" in Korea when they walk into you - at least I have never heard it, and they taught us in orientation that Koreans usually don't say anything when they walk into you (for example if people are getting on on the subway and pushing their way through...I like it better actually, saves time). Anyway...come to think of it now, I probably should have noticed the man...whatever. But anyway, I didn't come above water, I just kept on swimming...?! I told Chol later and he smiled and asked if I had said "I'm sorry" and I was like...what?? Crappp. I definitely didn't...Oops!
Wednesday. Today, I gave out my first grades. ! (Yes, that punctuation is intentional.) We were doing the lesson "I Like Apples" in the 3rd grade, and they had a speaking test. There are four parts to each lesson (like 4 lessons in a chapter type-of-thing), and on the fourth part they have a test. Sometimes it is written, etc. Today, it consisted of the kids making a picture of the foods they liked (next to a smiley face) and the foods they didn't like (next to a sad face). Then, they came up to the front of the room and said "My name is ___. I like ___. I like___, etc, I don't like ___. I don't like___." I sat in the back and gave out grades. It was weird...I felt kind of powerful...haha. Mun-Jeong (my co-teacher at Dong Sang) told me to give grades of 1, 2, and 3 or A, B and C, so I did the latter. However, there was a lot of discrepancies between their abilities and more importantly, their efforts, so I gave out +s and -s (also, I didn't want to give a C as long as they showed any sign of effort because I know how hard it is to speak in front of people, so the lowest grade I gave was a B-, and that kid really wasn't trying much at all). Anyway. We didn't finish the tests so we will be doing more of that next week. That was a fun class!
I also got my computer set up at Dong Sang today, with a printer! Yay! :) Oh! Wow I almost forgot this part - ! So after class while I was studying Korean, I had a question so I went up to the board and wrote something and asked Mun-Jeong if it was right. We started talking about Korean for a little, and she was making a comment that "it is kind of difficult"m referring to a grammar point. And I said "oh, it's not bad, I know this stuff from Tamil." And I made an example on the board (in Tamil script - I haven't used that in a long time! Well, 4 months - but still). One example turned into one hour of explaining some Tamil grammar and pronunciation and the alphabet...it was AMAZING. Ah. I forgot how much I love languages! (Not that I don't recognize it here when I am learning Korean, but I get SO excited learning about different grammar points that exist in other languages that aren't in English. For example, one thing I was telling her was that in Tamil, you would never say "I am reading a book", because that sentence is too vague. You would always have to specify why you are reading the book - e.g. for your own pleasure, or for school, or to learn how to knit, etc. - and I was getting SO happy and so excited. I think I might of jumped up and down at one point...haha. I clapped my hands a lot too. I think I may have to pursue a career in Linguistics and/or Languages...maybe I can combine that with sports, like coaching/exercise physiology - that would be a PERFECT job - but I realized that I absolutely love languages and linguistics and I think I am going to start looking at schools online to see what is available. For next year. Or maybe the year after. I'm excited - one reason I came to Korea was because I didn't know what I wanted to do, and was hoping to figure that out here - and I might have done just that. Not that this would be a surprise to anyone who knows me, because I am a linguophile (sp? that's just ironic if I spell that word wrong...) at heart. Oops. I just realized I didn't close my parenthesis from several lines above... so here...)
Anyway. After school I went to PNU for my track workout. Coach said that today was going to be an easy run, and I'm thinking, ok, sweet. Nice and chill. But he also told me that he lost his swim stuff yesterday, along with his stopwatch (which he usually carries with him when we run). I didn't think anything of it, especially since he usually doesn't keep up with us when we run faster workouts...But we started nice and slow, and after about 5 laps he started picking it up (granted also it was raining - cool, and very low humidity - so easier to run faster) and I'm thinking, ok sweet, we are going to go a little faster. But he keeps going faster and faster and at about 5/6 of the way through the 40 minute workout he runs a lap at a 6:48 mile pace!! That KILLED me! I was reading off lap times because he didn't have his stopwatch (and mine doesn't give lap splits so I am both calculating the time of each lap in relationship to total elapsed time as well as reading the lap times off in Korean...that was awesome :) And I was saying "_minutes_seconds have passed" in Korean -I learned how to say 'has passed'... :) :) :) ) But after that lap (we had about 2 1/2 to go...I took off my watch and gave it to him and said "here, you take this" so that he could go ahead and know his splits because I wasn't planning on being able to run 2 1/2 more laps at a 6:48 mile pace..haha...but he slowed down a bit and ran with me the rest of the way. That was a SICK workout. Coach busts out the big guns. All because he doesn't have a feel for pace without his watch. So now I tell him he has no excuse to not do Ironman China with me. 6:48mile pace, after 35 minutes, not even breathing hard. SICK.
After the workout, we were all supposed to go to Dong-a University, where one of my teammates goes to school. Dong-a is having a festival this week and he invited us there for some wine and soju. I was really excited (and a little nervous...) about this. At dinner Coach asks me if I remembered that the festival was tonight, and I say 'yes...' and he asks me if I can still go. So I'm like, ok, sweet. This will be interesting. But apparently Coach wasn't going to come with us Wednesday and it was just going to be me and Song-in - and he ended up getting a bunch of homework that night so he could go...! :( They said they were probably going to go Friday, thought, and asked me how that was for me. I actually had plans on Friday though! I had just asked two of my co-teachers if I could take them out to dinner...and I hate to cancel something like that...but I really wanted to do this team activity, and go see my friend's University. I ended up asking my co-teachers on Thursday to reschedule, and I had also made plans for after dinner that I asked to reschedule. (I know what you are probably thinking...and if so, yes, it's true :) ) So I go to practice Thursday and make sure that we are still going Friday, and Coach says...mmm, maybe, I'm not sure. Ahh! Nooo. I hope we still go! In any case I retro-scheduled (ha I can't believe I have a situation where I am able to use that phrase) for the later activity, sadly assuming that I won't be able to go to the University tonight, but if I end up going I will just leave early :( Wayyy too complicated, I know.
I'm going to publish this now and go onto Part 3 because this is already too long.
Tuesday night I went for another swim with Chol. YAY. At one point during the swim I was doing a flip turn and pushed off of the wall into a man...that was interesting...hahaha. To be fair, it technically wasn't my fault because the rules (yes, even in Korea, I wasn't assuming the rules in the US were universal) of the lanes are you always stay on the right hand side. But I was swimming up on the right hand side, and did a flip turn, and went to push off into the right hand side going back, and he was right there - so he was coming up the lane on the left hand side and technically shouldn't have been there. Normally I would have come above water and said "I'm sorry", but people don't say "I'm sorry" in Korea when they walk into you - at least I have never heard it, and they taught us in orientation that Koreans usually don't say anything when they walk into you (for example if people are getting on on the subway and pushing their way through...I like it better actually, saves time). Anyway...come to think of it now, I probably should have noticed the man...whatever. But anyway, I didn't come above water, I just kept on swimming...?! I told Chol later and he smiled and asked if I had said "I'm sorry" and I was like...what?? Crappp. I definitely didn't...Oops!
Wednesday. Today, I gave out my first grades. ! (Yes, that punctuation is intentional.) We were doing the lesson "I Like Apples" in the 3rd grade, and they had a speaking test. There are four parts to each lesson (like 4 lessons in a chapter type-of-thing), and on the fourth part they have a test. Sometimes it is written, etc. Today, it consisted of the kids making a picture of the foods they liked (next to a smiley face) and the foods they didn't like (next to a sad face). Then, they came up to the front of the room and said "My name is ___. I like ___. I like___, etc, I don't like ___. I don't like___." I sat in the back and gave out grades. It was weird...I felt kind of powerful...haha. Mun-Jeong (my co-teacher at Dong Sang) told me to give grades of 1, 2, and 3 or A, B and C, so I did the latter. However, there was a lot of discrepancies between their abilities and more importantly, their efforts, so I gave out +s and -s (also, I didn't want to give a C as long as they showed any sign of effort because I know how hard it is to speak in front of people, so the lowest grade I gave was a B-, and that kid really wasn't trying much at all). Anyway. We didn't finish the tests so we will be doing more of that next week. That was a fun class!
I also got my computer set up at Dong Sang today, with a printer! Yay! :) Oh! Wow I almost forgot this part - ! So after class while I was studying Korean, I had a question so I went up to the board and wrote something and asked Mun-Jeong if it was right. We started talking about Korean for a little, and she was making a comment that "it is kind of difficult"m referring to a grammar point. And I said "oh, it's not bad, I know this stuff from Tamil." And I made an example on the board (in Tamil script - I haven't used that in a long time! Well, 4 months - but still). One example turned into one hour of explaining some Tamil grammar and pronunciation and the alphabet...it was AMAZING. Ah. I forgot how much I love languages! (Not that I don't recognize it here when I am learning Korean, but I get SO excited learning about different grammar points that exist in other languages that aren't in English. For example, one thing I was telling her was that in Tamil, you would never say "I am reading a book", because that sentence is too vague. You would always have to specify why you are reading the book - e.g. for your own pleasure, or for school, or to learn how to knit, etc. - and I was getting SO happy and so excited. I think I might of jumped up and down at one point...haha. I clapped my hands a lot too. I think I may have to pursue a career in Linguistics and/or Languages...maybe I can combine that with sports, like coaching/exercise physiology - that would be a PERFECT job - but I realized that I absolutely love languages and linguistics and I think I am going to start looking at schools online to see what is available. For next year. Or maybe the year after. I'm excited - one reason I came to Korea was because I didn't know what I wanted to do, and was hoping to figure that out here - and I might have done just that. Not that this would be a surprise to anyone who knows me, because I am a linguophile (sp? that's just ironic if I spell that word wrong...) at heart. Oops. I just realized I didn't close my parenthesis from several lines above... so here...)
Anyway. After school I went to PNU for my track workout. Coach said that today was going to be an easy run, and I'm thinking, ok, sweet. Nice and chill. But he also told me that he lost his swim stuff yesterday, along with his stopwatch (which he usually carries with him when we run). I didn't think anything of it, especially since he usually doesn't keep up with us when we run faster workouts...But we started nice and slow, and after about 5 laps he started picking it up (granted also it was raining - cool, and very low humidity - so easier to run faster) and I'm thinking, ok sweet, we are going to go a little faster. But he keeps going faster and faster and at about 5/6 of the way through the 40 minute workout he runs a lap at a 6:48 mile pace!! That KILLED me! I was reading off lap times because he didn't have his stopwatch (and mine doesn't give lap splits so I am both calculating the time of each lap in relationship to total elapsed time as well as reading the lap times off in Korean...that was awesome :) And I was saying "_minutes_seconds have passed" in Korean -I learned how to say 'has passed'... :) :) :) ) But after that lap (we had about 2 1/2 to go...I took off my watch and gave it to him and said "here, you take this" so that he could go ahead and know his splits because I wasn't planning on being able to run 2 1/2 more laps at a 6:48 mile pace..haha...but he slowed down a bit and ran with me the rest of the way. That was a SICK workout. Coach busts out the big guns. All because he doesn't have a feel for pace without his watch. So now I tell him he has no excuse to not do Ironman China with me. 6:48mile pace, after 35 minutes, not even breathing hard. SICK.
After the workout, we were all supposed to go to Dong-a University, where one of my teammates goes to school. Dong-a is having a festival this week and he invited us there for some wine and soju. I was really excited (and a little nervous...) about this. At dinner Coach asks me if I remembered that the festival was tonight, and I say 'yes...' and he asks me if I can still go. So I'm like, ok, sweet. This will be interesting. But apparently Coach wasn't going to come with us Wednesday and it was just going to be me and Song-in - and he ended up getting a bunch of homework that night so he could go...! :( They said they were probably going to go Friday, thought, and asked me how that was for me. I actually had plans on Friday though! I had just asked two of my co-teachers if I could take them out to dinner...and I hate to cancel something like that...but I really wanted to do this team activity, and go see my friend's University. I ended up asking my co-teachers on Thursday to reschedule, and I had also made plans for after dinner that I asked to reschedule. (I know what you are probably thinking...and if so, yes, it's true :) ) So I go to practice Thursday and make sure that we are still going Friday, and Coach says...mmm, maybe, I'm not sure. Ahh! Nooo. I hope we still go! In any case I retro-scheduled (ha I can't believe I have a situation where I am able to use that phrase) for the later activity, sadly assuming that I won't be able to go to the University tonight, but if I end up going I will just leave early :( Wayyy too complicated, I know.
I'm going to publish this now and go onto Part 3 because this is already too long.
A Week of Many "Firsts"; Track Workout Gone Wild; 운동회 (Field Day) at 안락 (Allak) - Part 1
I'm dividing this post up into two parts, because I'm not even going to pretend that I will be able to finish it in an hour and ten minutes (which is the amount of time I have until I go play volleyball with my co-workers in the schoolyard!! yayyy) Anyway. Ok I will start with the Korean lessons, because...that is abiding by chronological actuality (I could definitely take that sentence out and it would probably make this post better, but I am keeping it just to remind you all how much of a nerd I am).
A few days ago, I asked my co-teacher's friend 대길 (Dae-gil, but I will refer to him as Gil from here on) if he would give me Korean lessons. I've been in this country for over one month now and I know maybe 100-150 words, which is just sad. And most of them are nouns. So that really doesn't help me unless I want to act out every single verb (including abstract verbs like ''need' and 'seem', that would be interesting...) that I want to use if I want to be understood. Anyway. So I asked Gil because he speaks the best English out of every Korean that I have met here and spent more than a few hours with. So we meet at 6:30p and go off to a coffee shop and I start hammering him with grammar questions. Haha - I'm so glad I asked him to help me, because he explained everything so clearly, and understood everything I was asking (while I don't expect most people to be able to understand everything I say by any means, I think I assume that they would be able to answer my grammar questions, like "why do you add 'ga' to the end of this word?", because it is their language and I think I assume that that would be an easy question for them to answer. But even if they could answer it if I were asking them in their language (I can't assume that everyone would be able to answer every single grammar question I have even if it is about their language - some Americans might not even be able to identify an adjective - I know I have made a mistake on identifying certain adjectives once in a while...)...even if they could answer it in their language, there are the additional steps of a) translation, and b) trying to understand what it is I am actually asking - e.g. even if they knew which words I was using to ask the question, in their minds it has to make sense as to why I am asking the question and what information I am trying to retrieve. Do I mean 'why is it 'ga' ... as opposed to 'i'? ('Ga' and 'i' are the two subject markers which denote the same grammatical purpose, but their usage is dependent on whether the word ends in a consonant or a vowel) Or do I mean 'what purpose does 'ga' serve in this sentence?') <- Yes, that parenthesis is supposed to be there, I started this paranthetical phrase about 13 lines above, and I am aware that I added in about 3 or 4 sub-paranthetical phrases in between...I have probably lost most of my readers by this point because of the confusion...I'm sorry!!! It's stream of consciousness...not really but the same idea...anyways I'm sorry. I'm starting a new paragraph. Even though I am continuing on with the same topic.
I was talking about how I'm so glad I asked Gil to help me with Korean because he understood all of my questions. It literally took him 5-10 minutes to explain to me most of the grammatical questions that I had been trying to answer in the past 2-3 weeks by asking other people, but they couldn't explain them to me because of certain barriers that I explained above. It feels SO good to be able to make a sentence!!!! About a half hour later, his friend comes to join us (I forget her name...ahh!). She studies English - I don't remember if that is her main area of study or if she just studies it a lot - but she is very very helpful also. They taught me a bunch of the verbs that I have been wanting to know (and how to make present tense from the form they give you in the dictionary...that has been a burning desire of mine for weeks), and then she starts to make a worksheet for me from scratch!!! She starts out with a sentence, and divides it up into three parts - subject, object, and verb - and folds the paper and has a new piece of information on the right hand side of the paper for me to substitute into the old sentence to make a new sentence. And then on the left hand side of the paper she wrote all of the answers :) awww.
It is now 12:30am on Friday and I am just posting this first part...my co teacher came in at 2:30p and took me away to volleyball early so now I am way behind...but hopefully I will have time tomorrow to write more. So much more to tell...
A few days ago, I asked my co-teacher's friend 대길 (Dae-gil, but I will refer to him as Gil from here on) if he would give me Korean lessons. I've been in this country for over one month now and I know maybe 100-150 words, which is just sad. And most of them are nouns. So that really doesn't help me unless I want to act out every single verb (including abstract verbs like ''need' and 'seem', that would be interesting...) that I want to use if I want to be understood. Anyway. So I asked Gil because he speaks the best English out of every Korean that I have met here and spent more than a few hours with. So we meet at 6:30p and go off to a coffee shop and I start hammering him with grammar questions. Haha - I'm so glad I asked him to help me, because he explained everything so clearly, and understood everything I was asking (while I don't expect most people to be able to understand everything I say by any means, I think I assume that they would be able to answer my grammar questions, like "why do you add 'ga' to the end of this word?", because it is their language and I think I assume that that would be an easy question for them to answer. But even if they could answer it if I were asking them in their language (I can't assume that everyone would be able to answer every single grammar question I have even if it is about their language - some Americans might not even be able to identify an adjective - I know I have made a mistake on identifying certain adjectives once in a while...)...even if they could answer it in their language, there are the additional steps of a) translation, and b) trying to understand what it is I am actually asking - e.g. even if they knew which words I was using to ask the question, in their minds it has to make sense as to why I am asking the question and what information I am trying to retrieve. Do I mean 'why is it 'ga' ... as opposed to 'i'? ('Ga' and 'i' are the two subject markers which denote the same grammatical purpose, but their usage is dependent on whether the word ends in a consonant or a vowel) Or do I mean 'what purpose does 'ga' serve in this sentence?') <- Yes, that parenthesis is supposed to be there, I started this paranthetical phrase about 13 lines above, and I am aware that I added in about 3 or 4 sub-paranthetical phrases in between...I have probably lost most of my readers by this point because of the confusion...I'm sorry!!! It's stream of consciousness...not really but the same idea...anyways I'm sorry. I'm starting a new paragraph. Even though I am continuing on with the same topic.
I was talking about how I'm so glad I asked Gil to help me with Korean because he understood all of my questions. It literally took him 5-10 minutes to explain to me most of the grammatical questions that I had been trying to answer in the past 2-3 weeks by asking other people, but they couldn't explain them to me because of certain barriers that I explained above. It feels SO good to be able to make a sentence!!!! About a half hour later, his friend comes to join us (I forget her name...ahh!). She studies English - I don't remember if that is her main area of study or if she just studies it a lot - but she is very very helpful also. They taught me a bunch of the verbs that I have been wanting to know (and how to make present tense from the form they give you in the dictionary...that has been a burning desire of mine for weeks), and then she starts to make a worksheet for me from scratch!!! She starts out with a sentence, and divides it up into three parts - subject, object, and verb - and folds the paper and has a new piece of information on the right hand side of the paper for me to substitute into the old sentence to make a new sentence. And then on the left hand side of the paper she wrote all of the answers :) awww.
It is now 12:30am on Friday and I am just posting this first part...my co teacher came in at 2:30p and took me away to volleyball early so now I am way behind...but hopefully I will have time tomorrow to write more. So much more to tell...
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Weekend Training; Bowling; Cooking Korean Food
Saturday started the same way as the past few Saturdays here in Korea except for one major thing: instead of being picked up to bike, I brought my bike with me in my new bike bag to meet the team. Taking the bike on the bus and on the subway was very interesting. It was a little difficult the first time because I wasn't sure into which positions I could move the bike without having everything slip out of place (basically the bike is in 3 parts in the bag: each wheel is separate and then the frame and everything else (e.g. aerobars and pedals) are one piece. The wheels are not held securely in the bag; rather there are big sleeve-type things for each wheel and they are located on the perimeter of the inside of the bag, so the frame goes in between the wheels). Anyway, I was being quite cautious of everything falling out of place especially since it was my first time taking it in the bag. Even though it was a Saturday morning, there happened to be a lot of people on the bus and on the subway (moreso than usual when I travel on the bus - because children have school on Saturday and today there were lots of girls in uniforms crammed in) and so I am chillin with this huge black awkward-shaped bag on a relatively small bus with lots of people. It was interesting. :)
Once I got off the bus I got onto the subway - which ended up being fine, especially after I was able to move the bag into a more vertical position (on the bus I had it laying upside down on the handlebars, and it was taking up a lot of horizontal space), which made me feel like I was being less of an inconvenience to other people. But everything ended up fine, and I met my team at 10am, threw my bike into the car, and we were off for Songjeong Beach to ride :)
The tendon in the back of my knee was still hurting me Saturday, although it felt a lot better than last night, for last night (especially after I tried to ice it - that was a badd idea) it was very sore and quite painful and I wasn't sure if I would be able to exercise today. But after heating it and stretching it a bit last night it ended up feeling a lot better, and since my knee doesn't extend fully when I bike, riding ended up feeling perfectly fine :). So we rode for just under 3 hours at a very chill pace - ahh I love biking! When we got back, we went to get some cheap and delicious noodles at the same place as last week, and then went to get some pappingsu (I'm not exactly sure how to spell that - but it is the Korean ice-cream type food with ice and beans and small rice cake-type things and a bit of milk product I think - sooo delicious - this pappingsu also had a lot of fruit) with Coach's wife and son. At this point we were experimenting with me speaking only Korean (this had been going on for an hour), so I was basically saying "uhhhhh...." and pulling out my phone to look words up in the dictionary every 30 seconds...haha it was frustrating not being able to speak!! But I gave up after about 90 minutes because I don't know enough grammar to put the verb in the correct form even if I can find the verb in the dictionary.
Anyway. After that, we went for a swim at 4p at the Grand Hotel in Haeundae (this schedule, biking in the am and swimming at the Grand Hotel at 4-5pm will always be our Saturday workout - although next week no biking because Coach has something planned for school in the morning :( ). The swim was kind of hard! We did our warm up and then did 20 x 50m sprint...!! Although I pulled (with a pull buoy instead of swimming normally while kicking) because it hurt a bit to kick, so I pulled 20 - 50m sprints...haha. It was actually cardiovascularly much easier for me because, well, it just is inherently (at least I think inherently) harder to get your heart rate up high when you are not kicking. However, this means that my arms are working overtime, and after even 5 sprints my arms started to feel somewhat numb...haha. But it was great. I was very tired while doing the workout, especially after the long bike and still recovering from not much sleep over the past week, but after the swim I wasn't very tired at all. We finished the workout, went to eat some delicious food, and departed for home.
My friend Chol had messaged me during the day to see if I had time to meet after I got home, so we met up around 10pm and he took me bowling. I actually think this is the first time I have even been "big-ball bowling" (as opposed to Candlepin, which they don't have in Korea). Since I don't think I have ever been big-ball bowling, I can't make a comparative comment between Korean BBB (big-ball bowling) and American BBB. But I can say that they are quite intense about it here (not in a bad way of course!) I didn't see one person there who didn't seem like they knew what they were doing - to put it in a more efficient way, I didn't see anyone there who looked like they had no idea what they were doing, whereas in the States (at least at Candlepin) there are definitely people there who are just messing around who maybe don't bowl much at all. It seemed like everyone at the alley that night had been bowling many many times, and their form appeared very impressive (at least to the layman over here). Chol actually told me that form is very important to Koreans during sport, and that many people get embarrassed if they do not have proper form (although he wasn't insinuating anything by telling me that, I was definitely one of those people, at least at the beginning of the night...the man next to us told pointed out that I was putting the wrong foot first - haha - which I am glad that he told me because once I got the proper footing down I was hitting 9 pins down with most of my first shots (what do you call a 'turn' in bowling? I have no idea...). Also at the bowling alley I experienced a somewhat awkward staring incident - a little girl came over to me on at least 3 separate occasions and stood in front of me and stared at me in a somewhat disturbing manner - like she was horrified at something I was doing - right up in my face - haha. The second time I said "An-nyong (hello, spoken to someone younger or sometimes same age as you) but she didn't flinch...haha whatever. It was weird though. But anyway, it was very very fun, and very interesting. I'm glad I went with Chol - he is a very interesting and fun guy, and I learn a lot about Korean culture from him.
On Sunday I woke up planning to go to Haeundae for a swim and a run, but Coach called right before I was about to leave and said that ocean swimming was cancelled (apparently this word can be spelled 'cancelled' as well as 'canceled'? Sorry for the jump off subject but I looked it up even though I always spell it with two 'l's just to make sure and there is a lot of controversy about the spelling of this word...I need the OED...!). I was so sad! The rest of the team went to swim in Grand Hotel but because I was so far away I couldn't make it in time :( So I left an hour or so later to meet them and go for a run. I didn't bring my wetsuit because I thought that I wouldn't have time to swim but I think if I had brought it I could have snuck in a swim, sadly! Oh well, I will know to bring it for next time. When in doubt, always, always bring extra workout equipment!! (What an amateur)
After running, we ate some delicious food (as always), and then went to a bike shop (I told Coach I wanted to buy a trainer so we went to try and find one :) ) But apparently bike trainers, at least quality ones, are not as available here as they are in the States...and we couldn't find one that was worth buying. There was one in the shop that we went to that I may have bought it if weren't for the two guys in "Ironman Switzerland" jerseys that came in to talk to Coach and said that they didn't recommend that style...Ironman Switzerland!!!! Oh man. Just seeing people with Ironman stuff on got me sooo excited! And I was wearing my Ironman Wisconsin jacket, so it was even better. Seriously, when you meet other people who have done an Ironman, you are instant friends. It's practically a rule. It's great. :) But they were very nice, and it's awesome to be able to meet all of these athletes and triathletes in Korea! My coach has been doing triathlons since 1987, which was the year in which triathlons first started being offered in Korea, so he knows probably most if not all of the serious triathletes in Busan and probably many of them in the rest of Korea. I can't believe how lucky I am to have found this team!!
Anyway, no luck on the trainer. But Coach said I could borrow his. Normally I don't like to borrow things, but since I knew one week of having a trainer would definitely benefit me, especially since it is hard to bike near where I live and also because I can't bike at night, I accepted his generous offer. But once we got to his apartment, he brings down his trainer - very light, very nice - fluid trainer! yayyy - he says, I'm looking to sell this, so if you want it...!!! Yay!!! So he is selling it to me for a very very good price! :) Ahh I'm so happy! I have almost everything I need here now! (After I buy a few more clothing items I should be set!)
So I take my bike and my big backpack and my new trainer with me to the bus stop (S and S2 (my teammates) helped me bring them to the bus :) ) and I happily loaded all of my belongings onto the subway. I was afraid of how I was going to get everything back to my house after the subway though, because if I took the bus, I would still have a 10 minute walk (10 minutes with no oversize luggage), and it is all uphill too...at points VERY uphill (I love it)...I knew it was definitely possibly but it would be difficult. So I'm thinking of taking a taxi, but since taxis in Korea go by landmarks and not by street names, it is somewhat difficult for me to get a taxi (depending on where I am taking a taxi from - if I am somewhat close to my apartment then the driver should be able to find it), because I don't live near any significant landmarks. So I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get one (I have only taken one taxi in Korea so far and that ended up with me getting dropped off 40 minutes from my apartment by foot...haha). ANYWAY, I found a driver who knew where the Mansion (apartment building) across from my street is, so I jumped in, threw all of my things in, and rode the 7-10 minutes with my chainring poking into my left rib: the feeling of success :).
I got home at 4:40p and I had told Chol that I would probably be ready to meet around 5p (to do some Korean cooking! He offered to help me the other day), so I called him to buy myself some extra time so I could shower, but more importantly, so I could set up my bike on my trainer in my apartment....!!!!! I couldn't wait!!! Now my bike is happily set on the trainer, ready for me to ride, whenever I want (basically whenever I have free time in my apartment!). Ahh!! I'm so excited!
I met Chol around 6p, and we went to the Megamart, which is a huge supermarket. It is basically like a Shaws and a Walmart combined, with some small restaurants mixed in there as well (multiple floors). It's amazing. SO BUSY. So we go there, and he is asking me what I want, and I tell him...I have no idea! I want to be able to make Korean food for my team...what kind of Korean food is relatively easy to make? We start to look around, and he asks me what I have at home. I say rice, hot sauce, fruit...yup, that's pretty much it. A few noodles too. No cooking oil, no salt...nothing...haha. He looks at me in amused shock - "Really?" hahaha. So he says, "I'll call my mom and ask her what you should get..."!!! Aww!! Awww. He is so sweet. I'm so lame. Hahaha.
We pick up the essentials as well as some pig meat, lots of vegetables, eggs, etc. Spent a butt-load of money, but that is expected I think when you don't have any basic cooking ingredients...haha. We spent over an hour at the Megamart, and then drove back to my apartment to start my Korean-cooking education. Once we get back, Chol asks me to get out my rice, so I pull that out...and he starts laughing. "That's not rice!" ...? How do I get THAT wrong?
I need a new paragraph for rice. Even though I'm not going to go much into it here, but rice in Korea is kind of like snow to Eskimos - they have what, 50 different words for snow? Because it is omnipresent and so important to them that they can't just have one word for it or just one type (to be clear, that is the reason I am devoting a separate paragraph. I'm still not sure if I am being clear...sorry...). Anyway. So I bought a 1 kilo bag of rice. That should have been a warning signal right there...(all of my friends had been talking about how they couldn't find a normal size bag of rice in the supermarket but yet I found one that seemed normal sized...shame on me for not paying more attention...) - I thought this was normal rice because I looked at the pictures on the bags of this grain and the bags of the grain around it and it looked like rice, and what was in the bag looked like rice (not white rice but still I thought it was just like a hybrid or something...) but anyway, what I had bought was just something that people cook with rice as a rice-integration type of thing. You can't cook what I bought by itself. So we are chillin in my kitchen, missing the ingredient nothing much short of essential to a Korean meal...so we headed back off to the supermarket. Haha - wow. But Chol forgot butter also so at least we weren't going for the sole reason of my stupidity. Anyway, we get to the supermarket, and I saw what my American friends were talking about - the smallest bag of rice (pretty much, there might have been two or three other bags in the entire store that were less but they are very hard to find) was 10 kilo...yup. It looks like a bag of kitty litter, one of those big bags that you struggle to put in your shopping cart. Keep in mind that this is a city! And I don't have a car! So if I want to buy rice (or toilet paper...you'll know what I mean if you have been reading my blog), I have to walk 10 minutes downhill to the store, and then lug these monstrous amounts of goods up a 10-minute (plus fatigue-time) hill...hmm...I'm really glad I have nice friends with cars...
So we get back to my apartment and start cooking. He teaches me how to make 김치국 (kimchi guk, or Kimchi soup), and then he made some eggs and of course rice. The Kimchi soup was AMAZING. (He actually didn't think so because he added 파 (pa, which is green onion) at the end and then tasted it and started grimacing saying..."oh no...oh no...that's bad!!!" Haha - I thought it was great - really. I thought it tasted really good! But it's good to know that if I make that for my team that I should leave the 파 out. Haha.
So the food was delicious, lessons learned and conversation priceless, and around 11p he went home and I ate the rest of the soup :). It was a great, great day, and another amazing weekend. :)
Once I got off the bus I got onto the subway - which ended up being fine, especially after I was able to move the bag into a more vertical position (on the bus I had it laying upside down on the handlebars, and it was taking up a lot of horizontal space), which made me feel like I was being less of an inconvenience to other people. But everything ended up fine, and I met my team at 10am, threw my bike into the car, and we were off for Songjeong Beach to ride :)
The tendon in the back of my knee was still hurting me Saturday, although it felt a lot better than last night, for last night (especially after I tried to ice it - that was a badd idea) it was very sore and quite painful and I wasn't sure if I would be able to exercise today. But after heating it and stretching it a bit last night it ended up feeling a lot better, and since my knee doesn't extend fully when I bike, riding ended up feeling perfectly fine :). So we rode for just under 3 hours at a very chill pace - ahh I love biking! When we got back, we went to get some cheap and delicious noodles at the same place as last week, and then went to get some pappingsu (I'm not exactly sure how to spell that - but it is the Korean ice-cream type food with ice and beans and small rice cake-type things and a bit of milk product I think - sooo delicious - this pappingsu also had a lot of fruit) with Coach's wife and son. At this point we were experimenting with me speaking only Korean (this had been going on for an hour), so I was basically saying "uhhhhh...." and pulling out my phone to look words up in the dictionary every 30 seconds...haha it was frustrating not being able to speak!! But I gave up after about 90 minutes because I don't know enough grammar to put the verb in the correct form even if I can find the verb in the dictionary.
Anyway. After that, we went for a swim at 4p at the Grand Hotel in Haeundae (this schedule, biking in the am and swimming at the Grand Hotel at 4-5pm will always be our Saturday workout - although next week no biking because Coach has something planned for school in the morning :( ). The swim was kind of hard! We did our warm up and then did 20 x 50m sprint...!! Although I pulled (with a pull buoy instead of swimming normally while kicking) because it hurt a bit to kick, so I pulled 20 - 50m sprints...haha. It was actually cardiovascularly much easier for me because, well, it just is inherently (at least I think inherently) harder to get your heart rate up high when you are not kicking. However, this means that my arms are working overtime, and after even 5 sprints my arms started to feel somewhat numb...haha. But it was great. I was very tired while doing the workout, especially after the long bike and still recovering from not much sleep over the past week, but after the swim I wasn't very tired at all. We finished the workout, went to eat some delicious food, and departed for home.
My friend Chol had messaged me during the day to see if I had time to meet after I got home, so we met up around 10pm and he took me bowling. I actually think this is the first time I have even been "big-ball bowling" (as opposed to Candlepin, which they don't have in Korea). Since I don't think I have ever been big-ball bowling, I can't make a comparative comment between Korean BBB (big-ball bowling) and American BBB. But I can say that they are quite intense about it here (not in a bad way of course!) I didn't see one person there who didn't seem like they knew what they were doing - to put it in a more efficient way, I didn't see anyone there who looked like they had no idea what they were doing, whereas in the States (at least at Candlepin) there are definitely people there who are just messing around who maybe don't bowl much at all. It seemed like everyone at the alley that night had been bowling many many times, and their form appeared very impressive (at least to the layman over here). Chol actually told me that form is very important to Koreans during sport, and that many people get embarrassed if they do not have proper form (although he wasn't insinuating anything by telling me that, I was definitely one of those people, at least at the beginning of the night...the man next to us told pointed out that I was putting the wrong foot first - haha - which I am glad that he told me because once I got the proper footing down I was hitting 9 pins down with most of my first shots (what do you call a 'turn' in bowling? I have no idea...). Also at the bowling alley I experienced a somewhat awkward staring incident - a little girl came over to me on at least 3 separate occasions and stood in front of me and stared at me in a somewhat disturbing manner - like she was horrified at something I was doing - right up in my face - haha. The second time I said "An-nyong (hello, spoken to someone younger or sometimes same age as you) but she didn't flinch...haha whatever. It was weird though. But anyway, it was very very fun, and very interesting. I'm glad I went with Chol - he is a very interesting and fun guy, and I learn a lot about Korean culture from him.
On Sunday I woke up planning to go to Haeundae for a swim and a run, but Coach called right before I was about to leave and said that ocean swimming was cancelled (apparently this word can be spelled 'cancelled' as well as 'canceled'? Sorry for the jump off subject but I looked it up even though I always spell it with two 'l's just to make sure and there is a lot of controversy about the spelling of this word...I need the OED...!). I was so sad! The rest of the team went to swim in Grand Hotel but because I was so far away I couldn't make it in time :( So I left an hour or so later to meet them and go for a run. I didn't bring my wetsuit because I thought that I wouldn't have time to swim but I think if I had brought it I could have snuck in a swim, sadly! Oh well, I will know to bring it for next time. When in doubt, always, always bring extra workout equipment!! (What an amateur)
After running, we ate some delicious food (as always), and then went to a bike shop (I told Coach I wanted to buy a trainer so we went to try and find one :) ) But apparently bike trainers, at least quality ones, are not as available here as they are in the States...and we couldn't find one that was worth buying. There was one in the shop that we went to that I may have bought it if weren't for the two guys in "Ironman Switzerland" jerseys that came in to talk to Coach and said that they didn't recommend that style...Ironman Switzerland!!!! Oh man. Just seeing people with Ironman stuff on got me sooo excited! And I was wearing my Ironman Wisconsin jacket, so it was even better. Seriously, when you meet other people who have done an Ironman, you are instant friends. It's practically a rule. It's great. :) But they were very nice, and it's awesome to be able to meet all of these athletes and triathletes in Korea! My coach has been doing triathlons since 1987, which was the year in which triathlons first started being offered in Korea, so he knows probably most if not all of the serious triathletes in Busan and probably many of them in the rest of Korea. I can't believe how lucky I am to have found this team!!
Anyway, no luck on the trainer. But Coach said I could borrow his. Normally I don't like to borrow things, but since I knew one week of having a trainer would definitely benefit me, especially since it is hard to bike near where I live and also because I can't bike at night, I accepted his generous offer. But once we got to his apartment, he brings down his trainer - very light, very nice - fluid trainer! yayyy - he says, I'm looking to sell this, so if you want it...!!! Yay!!! So he is selling it to me for a very very good price! :) Ahh I'm so happy! I have almost everything I need here now! (After I buy a few more clothing items I should be set!)
So I take my bike and my big backpack and my new trainer with me to the bus stop (S and S2 (my teammates) helped me bring them to the bus :) ) and I happily loaded all of my belongings onto the subway. I was afraid of how I was going to get everything back to my house after the subway though, because if I took the bus, I would still have a 10 minute walk (10 minutes with no oversize luggage), and it is all uphill too...at points VERY uphill (I love it)...I knew it was definitely possibly but it would be difficult. So I'm thinking of taking a taxi, but since taxis in Korea go by landmarks and not by street names, it is somewhat difficult for me to get a taxi (depending on where I am taking a taxi from - if I am somewhat close to my apartment then the driver should be able to find it), because I don't live near any significant landmarks. So I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get one (I have only taken one taxi in Korea so far and that ended up with me getting dropped off 40 minutes from my apartment by foot...haha). ANYWAY, I found a driver who knew where the Mansion (apartment building) across from my street is, so I jumped in, threw all of my things in, and rode the 7-10 minutes with my chainring poking into my left rib: the feeling of success :).
I got home at 4:40p and I had told Chol that I would probably be ready to meet around 5p (to do some Korean cooking! He offered to help me the other day), so I called him to buy myself some extra time so I could shower, but more importantly, so I could set up my bike on my trainer in my apartment....!!!!! I couldn't wait!!! Now my bike is happily set on the trainer, ready for me to ride, whenever I want (basically whenever I have free time in my apartment!). Ahh!! I'm so excited!
I met Chol around 6p, and we went to the Megamart, which is a huge supermarket. It is basically like a Shaws and a Walmart combined, with some small restaurants mixed in there as well (multiple floors). It's amazing. SO BUSY. So we go there, and he is asking me what I want, and I tell him...I have no idea! I want to be able to make Korean food for my team...what kind of Korean food is relatively easy to make? We start to look around, and he asks me what I have at home. I say rice, hot sauce, fruit...yup, that's pretty much it. A few noodles too. No cooking oil, no salt...nothing...haha. He looks at me in amused shock - "Really?" hahaha. So he says, "I'll call my mom and ask her what you should get..."!!! Aww!! Awww. He is so sweet. I'm so lame. Hahaha.
We pick up the essentials as well as some pig meat, lots of vegetables, eggs, etc. Spent a butt-load of money, but that is expected I think when you don't have any basic cooking ingredients...haha. We spent over an hour at the Megamart, and then drove back to my apartment to start my Korean-cooking education. Once we get back, Chol asks me to get out my rice, so I pull that out...and he starts laughing. "That's not rice!" ...? How do I get THAT wrong?
I need a new paragraph for rice. Even though I'm not going to go much into it here, but rice in Korea is kind of like snow to Eskimos - they have what, 50 different words for snow? Because it is omnipresent and so important to them that they can't just have one word for it or just one type (to be clear, that is the reason I am devoting a separate paragraph. I'm still not sure if I am being clear...sorry...). Anyway. So I bought a 1 kilo bag of rice. That should have been a warning signal right there...(all of my friends had been talking about how they couldn't find a normal size bag of rice in the supermarket but yet I found one that seemed normal sized...shame on me for not paying more attention...) - I thought this was normal rice because I looked at the pictures on the bags of this grain and the bags of the grain around it and it looked like rice, and what was in the bag looked like rice (not white rice but still I thought it was just like a hybrid or something...) but anyway, what I had bought was just something that people cook with rice as a rice-integration type of thing. You can't cook what I bought by itself. So we are chillin in my kitchen, missing the ingredient nothing much short of essential to a Korean meal...so we headed back off to the supermarket. Haha - wow. But Chol forgot butter also so at least we weren't going for the sole reason of my stupidity. Anyway, we get to the supermarket, and I saw what my American friends were talking about - the smallest bag of rice (pretty much, there might have been two or three other bags in the entire store that were less but they are very hard to find) was 10 kilo...yup. It looks like a bag of kitty litter, one of those big bags that you struggle to put in your shopping cart. Keep in mind that this is a city! And I don't have a car! So if I want to buy rice (or toilet paper...you'll know what I mean if you have been reading my blog), I have to walk 10 minutes downhill to the store, and then lug these monstrous amounts of goods up a 10-minute (plus fatigue-time) hill...hmm...I'm really glad I have nice friends with cars...
So we get back to my apartment and start cooking. He teaches me how to make 김치국 (kimchi guk, or Kimchi soup), and then he made some eggs and of course rice. The Kimchi soup was AMAZING. (He actually didn't think so because he added 파 (pa, which is green onion) at the end and then tasted it and started grimacing saying..."oh no...oh no...that's bad!!!" Haha - I thought it was great - really. I thought it tasted really good! But it's good to know that if I make that for my team that I should leave the 파 out. Haha.
So the food was delicious, lessons learned and conversation priceless, and around 11p he went home and I ate the rest of the soup :). It was a great, great day, and another amazing weekend. :)
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