| November 23rd, 2001 To all Americans, Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Not surprisingly, I didn't come close to a turkey on the big day but because it's not a holiday to anyone around here, it wasn't felt as a big loss. It's been awhile since writing in the trusty cyber journal. The last few months have been quite busy and the novelty of the website wore off a bit as the necessity to be in AC eased. Life has been fantastic. Since September, I've seen and done a lot of interesting things in Korea. Once the weather cooled a bit, life became much more enjoyable and it's much easier to wander about and see the sights. I don't miss the sticky hot days of August in the least. I've been making valiant attempts to be very cultural. I joined a Korean dance class for a few months and really enjoyed it. I ended up quitting, as I felt that it was keeping me from doing other things that interested me....so will therefore be missing out on the big performance next weekend than includes a solo number by every last clumsy foreigner. Darn. Last weekend I took a kimchi-making class. Kimchi is the staple side dish served with all three Korean meals. It's mostly cabbage with a lot of spices and bunch of other random stuff (needless to say, I won't be churning out batches when I return home). The class was great. Since I typically hate cooking, I was quite pleased with myself that I actually enjoyed the chopping and mixing and other things "cooking" involves. I don't think my ajima was very impressed with me though. The radishes apparently have to be a very specific length--not too short and not too long. There's no extra points for speed either, I quickly discovered. Anyway, I left the class with six kimchi-ed cabbages which are sitting in my storage room "fermenting". Winter kimchi sometimes sits for months before its served. I don't know how long I'll wait to dish mine out, as I doubt my taste buds will detect the difference. Recently, I've been riding my bike quite a bit and exploring some of the many beautiful mountains Korea has to offer. Sometimes the non-descript apartment buildings that dominate every view On Thursday I went up a big hill/small mountain very near my house and met an elderly Korean man who spoke English very well and was eager to chat. I was so pleased to finally meet someone like him, someone who'd lived through the Korean war and could communicate to me what life was like then, discuss the hardships and changes he watched in his country, and express how much he despises communism. He was 23 when the north and south were sliced and though his four siblings escaped, he never saw his parents again. He spoke of it in a very detached manner and I realize that I pass older Koreans daily on the street without recognizing that the majority of them have a similarly sad story. These days I'm spending heaps of time inside PC bahns. I bought an MD player and like nothing more (when I'm not being cultural, of course) than sitting in front of the computer stealing music, so hopefully I'll be more diligent about writing. |