ymca and coconet mirk but no new shoes

My Korean language class at the local YMCA is turning out to be kind of fun. I found the first week a little daunting, as there was a lot of reading out loud and I felt rather conspicuous with my lack of experience. This week though, we focused more on vocabulary. I hadn't realized there were so many Korean words based on English words. The Korean writing system, called Hangul, doesn't always translate perfectly to English because the Korean language is made up of different sounds, and some English sounds do not exist in Korean (there is no "f" sound for example), but it's pretty close.

"Sweater" in Korean characters, spells something like suhwetah
Earphone is iapone, waffle, wapul, escalator, esuhcalaita, and my favourite, apple pie, apul pai.
This phonetic translation seems to work well for the most part. My American friend was a little hurt however, when we got to the word latin american, which translated to something like ratin american. The sounds for "l" and "r" are often interchanged it seems.

I'm also really excited because the YMCA apparently gives courses in natural soap making! If the timing works out I'd really like to do this.



Coffee here is a little different than at home. Coming from a place where there is a Tim Hortons on every corner, it's been a little hard to get used to. There are coffee shops, but certainly not as many, and it's usually the fancier stuff; I'm a cheap, regular coffee kind of girl. Interestingly, a lot of the coffee shops take their names from American movies (Sleepless in Seattle), and themes are popular. They tell me there is even a coffee shop devoted entirely to Oprah. This weekend we made a visit to the Barbie Cafe:



Lots of pink...



and more pink! I tried the hot coconet mirk, and it was great, served in a big glass mug.



Afterwards, Emily and I decided we would try out this photo place where you can decorate your pictures Korean-style. It turned out to be much more complicated than we expected, and we had to ask the staff for help a few times. By the third time, the guy was literally running his hands through his hair in frustration... :-s

Today my main goal was to find sandals, so I went to large department store here where they sell clothing and groceries, feeling confident I'd be able to find something relatively attractive and inexpensive there. But I walked in and was overwhelmed by the crowds and couldn't find the escalator, so I got my peanut butter and left. Oh bother, maybe next weekend.



I've been working on some papier maché beads to brighten up my place, inspired by the ones Hanna made. Mine are definitely much lumpier and not as pretty, but they were fun to make :)

The birds

Last week I found some stretchers for a really good price at an art store here, and so this weekend I was excited to paint! I had been painting a little bit on paper, but I find canvas much nicer to work on. I decided to just paint for the sake of painting, with no sketching before hand and allowing myself no more than half an hour on each one. Just to have fun and get back into it. It's both really nice and a little scary how you can lose yourself when you do something you like; time flies and you can completely detach yourself from your surroundings.



Even the pigeons stare at me here.
This afternoon I spent some time at a nearby park, doing crossword puzzles and watching the kids and the birds. I was curious about whether or not there would be pigeons here in Korea, and if they would be the same as ours at home.



Happily, pigeons do live here too. Unfortunately they aren't any easier to photograph than their Canadian counterparts.



There were some elderly men eating snacks and chatting nearby, and they fed the pigeons, which helped somewhat to keep them in one place. I was impressed when one of the men stopped a little boy from chasing the birds, saying he should feed them instead (at least that's what I gathered from his hand motions, and that's what I like to think :)



I feel like I have to be somewhat sneaky when I take pictures of people. Sometimes I just hold my camera in my lap and tilt the view finder to get a shot, and pretend I'm looking at pictures I already took.







Last week I found a coffee table outside, and this weekend a cute little basket and a shelf (actually there were two wardrobe units a piano out there too, but I'm running out of room now) so I'm having fun decorating!

I hope you're having a good weekend.

Time

When I arrived in Daegu it was winter. Nothing that compared to winter at home, but nonetheless, there were no leaves on the trees and the mountains were gray. Now, it seems summer has arrived, or at least a very summery spring. Flowers have sprung up seemingly overnight, and everything is green. Today was so warm it felt more like July than April.



I sat outside during my break yesterday and took some photos as I sat in the sun. A lot of the cherry blossom petals have fallen off already, but some trees are still white with them. The bumblebees buzz among them by the dozens, and you are occasionally greeted with a whiff of their pretty smell. Such a nice contrast to the grit of city life.

Although I'm surprised at how quickly the season seems to have changed, it sometimes feels like I've been here forever; so much has happened and I feel like I've experienced so many things already. Time is something I think about almost constantly. I'm liking it here, but I still find myself counting the months ahead more than once a day. I break up the time in my mind, as though I can shrink it down somehow. Simultaneously, I am aware that in the long run a year is not that long, and I really should be enjoying every minute of this. As I start to carve out a life that feels normal, I can't help but think about my life back home in comparison. I feel like I'm living in the future, in the past through memories of home, and in two places at once.



I asked one of my Korean friends recently, when her birth date was. She didn't answer immediately, and so at first I thought maybe she hadn't understood my question. Then she hesitantly said it was May 13. Her boyfriend realized what we were talking about then and jumped in, correcting her by saying it was in fact June 25th. I thought this was a little odd and wondered if perhaps my friend was in somewhat of a bad relationship...afterall, she knows her own birth date, right? I let them bicker about it for a few seconds. It was a little awkward. Then, becoming aware of my confusion at the situation, they explained the discrepancy. Apparently, because my friend is Buddhist, her date of birth according to the Buddhist calendar is May 13th. However, according to our calendar it is June 25th (I may have this backward). There is something called Shadow Time, which is responsible for this difference in the two calendars. I haven't had much luck find information about it, so I'll have to ask my friend about it again.



My goal at the moment is to try and stop looking forward so much, and to stop looking back over my shoulder, to be more in the present. I've decided to take a Korean language course, and today I bought some canvases and paint; it's nice to focus on the smaller things.

Day to day

I hate to admit, I feel like I'm still experiencing everything here through a veil of homesickness and culture shock. I know it's normal for some people to have a hard time adjusting, I just wish I wasn't one of them! I've been lucky to have good people around me, here and at home, to talk to. They all say the same thing in one way or another; be positive, this is a good thing. How does that Dolly Parton song go? "One day at a tiiiiime, Sweet Jesus..." I can hear Chris telling me to please stop singing.
The roses are in my neighbour's yard.



View from my kitchen window. I really like the ornamental gates that are quite common in these small neighbourhoods.



Doing a little knitting. This is going to be a stuffed rabbit. If I can find the stuffing.



Did I mention there were some super nice people here? Ashley, a teacher from Vancouver, found this chair outside her building, and actually arranged for someone to come and pick it up and take it to my place. It's actually really comfy, and fits in with my feminine decor quite well.



Ah, my Hello Kitty toaster. It seemed like a score when I saw it at Home Plus-- the cheapest one there, and so cool!



Behold the toast it produces...every morning:
If I'm not there watching for the ribbon of smoke that indicates it's done, and if I don't forcibly slam it and slap it so that the toast comes out, I end up with a kitchen filled with smoke.



The odd thing is that one side always has this bizzare burn formation on it. Like it had an encounter with a landing spaceship.



Been doing a little painting and sketching too. When I get paid I'm planning on getting some stretchers.

Hope everyone is doing well, wherever you all are :)

A little bit of culture

This weekend, Emily (who is also from Halifax) introduced me to her favourite Juke restaurant. Juke is a Korean rice porridge. It comes in various flavours, and has a mild and comforting sort of taste. Typically, you are served several side dishes along with your meal. We had gimbop, which is rice wrapped in seaweed, and a cold soup. Afterwards we were brought a cup of rice "juice". It was by far my favourite Korean meal so far, and I'm looking forward to having Juke again soon.


Gimchee (or kimchee) is a fermented vegetable, usually cabbage, that is served with pretty much every meal. It's used to add to other dishes for flavour, and is often eaten on its own as a small side dish. I actually haven't found it appealing until I tried this stuff. It seemed a little less tangy and a little spicier than the kimchee I've had before. Sometimes it comes in small pieces, and other times you are given a pair of scissors to cut it with.



We picked a great day to visit Duryu Park, which is in the western part of the city. It's a really beautiful park, and the landscape seemed almost surreal.





The cherry blossoms are everywhere now, and they really are beautiful. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture with my camera how they float off the branches and fall to the ground.





Older men often sit together and play games. Sometimes they just sit together on picnic blankets and hang out.



At first we thought he was a woman, and as he walked by with his cart a few times, we wondered what he was doing. Then eventually he set up shop and put on some music, and started dancing while people watched. We were snapping pictures when suddenly he pulled up his skirt and revealed a huge plastic penis. We're still not really sure what the story is, but it looked like he either put something in the penis, took something out, or just touched the money to it (for good luck perhaps?). It happened so quickly, we both looked at each other to make sure we had actually seen what we thought we saw. I'm thinking there must be some cultural significance to this "show", since it seemed completely acceptable to everyone around. I will have to do some googling and post an update.