Man I’m tired. These extra classes are playing havoc with my sleeping schedule, how rude!
Its stinking hot here today, my ice-cream consumption levels are very high. Its not my fault there’s a lovely icecream shop across the road, very similar to New Zealand Natural ice-creams. And they have yummy sorbet too, I just had a mango sorbet.
Last night I met up with a girl I met, (through a set of crazy coincidences). When I caught the bus down to Daegu from Incheon airport, I met an Australian couple who were here to visit their son, Nick. They were really lovely and excited about their visit, and we chatted quite a lot. I waved at their son Nick and his girlfriend when we arrived at the bus depot, but I didn’t ever “meet” them.
Then last week when I was trying to find the elusive downturn districts (and failing miserably) and happened to see a foreigner walking along my side of the road, and, crazy crazy, it was Nina, Nick’s girlfriend. She recognized me, and was fantastic at showing me where to go. Then last weekend, I went out for dinner with Ana, Tynessa, Connor and Sam, and guess who walked into the restaurant? Nina, Nick, and Nick’s parents! Remember that Daegu isn’t like Dunedin where if you’re there long enough, you know most people. Daegu’s population is 3 million. Crazy! Anyway, so last night Nina and I went out for dinner at Italy, Italy. She’s vegetarian too, thank goodness. We totally clicked: we have the same views on women’s rights, animal rights, attitudes while living in Korea etc. It was almost like she was a spy who been given a folder of info about me and was ordered to pretend to have the same interests as me. I think it will be good to have friends outside of school.
So, Italy Italy. It turns out that you can order your pizza in different shapes over here, so I just had to get the heart-shaped pizza:
Crazy Korean fact/happening: Meghan and I were walking from Main to Bomo school after morning classes, and we stopped at the crossing. An older lady who was standing in front of us ready to cross the road must have found us fascinating. She turned around and STARED. It wasn’t a sly glance from a far distance, it wasn’t just for a few seconds. No, no, she was standing right next to me, and she just stared, for several minutes, openly. Weird. In our culture, that’s just plain rude. Another cultural oddity is how people see no problem with telling it like it is when they talk about your appearance. Fellow students and teachers have no issue with saying “Teacher, you’re looking tired/ ugly/ fat today”. Its not seen as being rude at all, but its easy to take offense. In fact - as explained to me by my students after I must have shown some of my tummy, and one girl pointed at her slightly tubby tummy, said “hey teacher, I also have a fat tummy” – something like that is seen as a sign of friendship. If they didn’t like you, they wouldn’t be concerned. Still, it takes a bit of getting used to.
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