Living in Korea has it's various ups and downs but the warm weather brings a lot of ups. One of my favorite things about the Spring and Summer months here is the readily available, cheap produce everywhere you turn. That might sound like a boring thing to be excited about but it's nice not to have to buy your produce in a big Wal-Mart like supermarket. Instead I have a variety of choices. I can buy gorgeous nectarines (5 for $1) from the old woman sitting on the road with her fruits and veggies in baskets in front of her. I can buy 10 plums for $2 from the tiny family-owned shop down the street where the couple behind the counter know me as a regular and smile genuinely each time I shop there. Of course I can always buy my lettuce and onions from the various men who drive around in pick-up trucks with a loudspeaker on the roof, blaring what vegetables they have that day and how much they are. The just drive slowly around town with a truck-bed full of whatever they're selling. It's nice to have so many options and it's nice to support small (sometimes extremely small!) businesses instead of large corporations. That's one of the many things I like about summer here.
Two downsides of summer in Seoul: mosquitoes and stinky streets. Something about the mosquitoes in Asia is not compatible with me. In the States whenever I was bitten, it was just a small red dot that itched a lot but was nothing more than an annoyance. Here my mosquito bites blow up to the size of a saucer and they BURN so badly! I showed the pharmacist and she couldn't believe it was a mosquito bite. It's not just Korea though, I seemed to have some kind of allergy to Asian mosquitoes - the same things happened to me last year both in Thailand and in Cambodia. Luckily it's only a problem in the hot weather when mosquitoes (Mo-Gees as the Koreans call them) seem to be everywhere. The hot weather also intensifies one of Korea's already existing drawbacks: stinky streets. Sadly because Seoul's sewage system is so bad, it almost always smell like...well...sewage. In the summer, that is. In the winter, it's not bad. Heat makes everything smell worse. But, after living somewhere for nearly 2 years, you get used to such things.
I'm really enjoying studying Korean despite the fact that it's extremely difficult and I feel like I'm not making a tremendous amount of progress. It's just so refreshing to be challenged academically and to be on the other side of the classroom after nearly 2 years of teaching. The hardest thing about Korean is that unlike many languages where my understanding of English, French & Latin would be very helpful, Korean is completely foreign and I can't find hints or clues in roots or prefixes. It's exciting to be studying something so different from my own native tongue, however, and it's fascinating how learning a language gives you insights into the culture itself. For example, Korean has certain endings and forms to be used when one is talking to an older person. You would be considered very rude to say hello to an older person without the appropriate form of the word. This is indicative of the huge importance Korean culture places on age and respect of the elderly. Also it's just interesting to learn the way a different culture says different things. One of my biggest gripes with the Korean language is that they have two entirely different sets of numbers. They have one set of numbers for counting and age and then a whole different set of numbers for money, months, dates, etc. The worst part is talking about what time it is. With time, you use one set of the numbers for the hour and the other set of numbers for the minutes! Aaahhhh! These two sets of numbers sound nothing alike either. Oh well that just makes learning the language even more exciting! Right now my study of Korean is just a hobby but it could turn into something more down the road which would be great!
I recently went on a ferry boat trip up and down the Han River in Seoul. Here are some pictures!
It's fun to be a tourist in your city - I never really feel like one anymore. Seoul is just where I live! Wow I bet you could have fun comparing that statement with some of my first blog ever posts in Korea! Anyway, enjoy...
watched the sunset over the river
one of my very best friends
The 63 building - famous in Korea
After the cruise we went to a place called "Vinyl" where you order your drink at a walk-up window and they give it to you in a plastic bag with a straw - I chose a "Melon Baller" - it was very yummy - lots of fruit and not a lot of alcohol which is exactly what I like! :)I almost forgot to mention that for my one-week vacation this year (7/23 - 8/1) I will be going back to Thailand with friends since I had such an amazing time there last year and have been dying to get back ever since. I am so looking forward to cheap pad thai, fresh seafood grilled on the beach, drinking out of coconuts, sleeping in bungalows on the beach...but I promise to blog before then!
