Monsoons, Stairs, Paper Food and Playing Matchmaker

Dear Monsoon,
Could you please cut your visit short?

Here I sit on this rainy sunday night, watching some Korean variety show that is featuring a Kpop group that I'm pretty sure are 12 year old boys, Lily has yet again successfully wedged herself between the top of her little house on the second floor and the top of the cage and is joyfully chewing on the cage bars, my tummy is full of Chumchee kimbap and "oh dang" soup, and writing this blog that is bound to be the shortest blog of them yet.

I wish I had more to say but I don't know if it was the rain or that I'm coming to a point where I'm starting to realize it's going to be very very difficult to readjust to being back home in a short 3 1/2 months (nothing is official or anything yet) and I'm feeling a little anxious and nervous, but overall my week was a little depressing. Once again, you've been warned..and I only have one picture for you :/

Nonetheless, let me share with you the things that have become somewhat mundane to me but may be somewhat interesting to my fellow westerners out there. Let's start with this weather.

Two words MON SOON! Actually, it's one, but just for the emphasis you should read it as two words. For the past 5 days it's been raining nonstop, and according to Mrs. Nam (who is strangely accurate with her weather predictions) it's supposed to continue for the next 10 days. This is my first monsoon, and I didn't even know we got monsoons here, actually, I didn't really even know what a monsoon was until Mrs. Ko explained to me that this happens twice a year on the Korean peninsula. Something about a front from the north that meets with a front from South over the Korean peninsula and blah blah blah..rain rain rain. Needless to say, the walk to work this week was more than uncomfortable. And you'd think this rain would just simply make things wet, but along with this monsoon came Mr. humidity. Ugh...I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through July and August.

Since pretty much every Korean shoe store does not sell sizes over 8's, finding rainboots has been impossible. Thankfully, I haven't left home on some sort of trip in the past 5 years without a good pair of water shoes.

I knew I would need them:


Anyhow, if it's still raining at this time next week, maybe you should come check on me...this rain and dreariness is going to make me a little wacky.

On top of this Monsoon, today, apparently there was a typhoon named Meari that hit South Korea, but from the news article it seems it hit north of Gunsan, closer to Seoul. We didn't feel anything really here, just alot of wind and surprisingly this afternoon, there was a tiny break in the rain, so I snatched up that opportunity to go running up and down the stairs behind my house. It felt really good to be out of this prison, I mean apartment.

As I was doing the stairs, which is something that is pretty regular for me on early Sunday evenings, I ran into this older ajumma. (older lady) She was taking the stairs at a snail-like pace, but she kindly let me pass her up more than once. Finally she reached one of the plateaus in the group of stairs and just planted herself there. She watched me go up and down the stairs for awhile and she would say things to me every time I passed her, I was imagining her saying something like, "you can do it! only 5 more! lookin' good!" One time that I passed her she offered me two cheese sticks, which my "short of breath" reply was "kwen chan eye oh" which means, "it's ok." A little while later she broke out a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of soju but everytime I would pass her she would try to cover it up and just give me a huge smile...such a lady :) Turns out that particular area is not only my personal stairmaster but it's a little secret hideout for one smiley, slow moving, slightly overweight ajumma. When I finished, I said goodbye, waved, and politely bowed to my new friend, but I have a feeling I will run into her again soon.

There were several things my kids said this week that made me laugh, but I can only remember one. On Thursday we were reviewing the questions and answers for "Have you ever" so I had them go quickly back and forth with each other, "Have you ever eaten sushi?" "Yes I have eaten sushi. It was yummy." Something like that. Finally after about the third set, we got off the question, "Have you ever eaten dung?" and Sam asks everybody, "Have you ever eaten 1000 won?" (the 1000 won is like our 1 dollar bill) and everybody stops talking and one kid says, "No I haven't." Then I said, "Sam, have you ever eaten 1000 won." He says, "Yes I have." The boy next to him scoots his desk a little further away and I say, "Sam, why did you eat 1000 won?" and he says, "I don't know." Just imagining little Sam stuffing the blue paper bill into his mouth and swallowing it is hilarious to me..definitely a highlight of the week.

So, like I said, the week was overall a little rough. I'm feeling anxious about coming back, finding another job, starting something new, readjusting to my motherland, reconnecting with people I haven't seen in a year or longer, etc. But there was one thing that really made me forget all my troubles and got me excited...I set up two Koreans on a blind date! This, also, was a first for me. You see, many Koreans have met their spouses on blind dates. Everybody and their mom has been on a blind date. It's not like an internet dating site or anything..it's the classic, you know somebody who knows somebody's who's lookin', know what I mean? So, anyways, I knew an older adult student who I only taught for a week while I subbed for a coworker. He's a great guy. Then on Thursday, I was talking to my company class about their plans for the weekend and one of my female students was like, "I have no plans. I need boyfriend." Then she tells me about how she's been on like 6 blind dates in the last couple months and how they were all tankers. So, I was like, "well, I know this great guy..he's this, he's that, so want me to give him your number." Bada Bing bada boom, with a few excited giggles from her and thank you's from the guy, they went out on Saturday night. I heard from him that it went well, so I'm excited to hear from her tomorrow. The whole thing was really too much fun for me..it's exciting knowing I could have started something "magical!" Too much, I know..but it was really fun, I just hope it doesn't blow up in my face..yikes..I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, here's to another week of walking to work in the rain, exercising in a gym that refuses to turn on the a/c, saying hello to at least 5 strangers who say hello first, forcing Lily to go without her noisy water bottle through the night, teaching English, and living life in South Korea :) Cheers