Why hello, Korea

And so begins another edition of gaijin no nikki. Except I'm technically not gaijin anymore. I'm woeguk samram.

There are several obvious disadvantages to moving to a country where you don't speak a word of the language. Communication can be hard to come by, especially in Asia where the language is so different from anything you're used to. The simplest things can be difficult--like getting a domestic phone card from a convenience store, trying to find a payphone that accepts said phone card, and eventually navigating yourself an hour away from where you were told to go when you got off the plane (did that sound too much like whining?). You have to shop by pictures for the first couple weeks until you learn what that round shape on each of the yogurt containers is (it could be an orange, a tangerine, or a peach, but you have no idea which. You have to get used to the occasional stares of passersby (though this does depend on where you go; some places are used to having lots of foreigners around). And unless you have a handy local around who does speak both English and Korean, you might end up getting in a taxi that you shouldn't and end up several miles from where you want to be with a hole in your pocket from where the driver took all your cash just because he could (hasn't happened to me yet, but apparently it is common).

All that being said, Korea is pretty easy on the foreigners, as Asian countries go. Everyone is very friendly and willing to help you out if you get lost or need to figure out how to use that damn calling card. In most places, there are also lots of woeguk samram who are willing to lend a hand to their comrades. And the general quality of the English spoken by Koreans is good. Most will understand basic words and phrases if you are in a pinch and need help. There is also a myriad of familiar businesses and services that cater to foreign clientele. McDonald's, Starbucks, and Burger King are common in a lot of the modern Asian nations, but I was surprised to find out that there is a Costco in Seoul, and that my American Costco card works fine here. The crown jewel of these, of course, is the illustrious Taco Bell, situated on the American Army bases inside the commissary. If there is anyone who knows anyone who is stationed in Korea and would like to invite some friendly but hungry woeguk samram on a lunch date, please let me know. You will be compensated for your trouble.

On a personal note, I am currently staying at the house of another teacher in Seoul, rather than in Bundang in an apartment provided by the school. Due to unforeseen difficulties with the apartment, I have been temporarily relocated here while they try to find me somewhere else to live. I am not worried about this. You should not be either. It simply means that until further notice, I'm going to be stealing internet from someone downstairs and that I will be unable to use large amounts of internet connectivity until I moved to my permanent location. I will, however, try to update a little more frequently, while all this is still new and exciting. I did sit down with the intention of writing about my first couple of days, but, on second thought, they were pretty boring and involved a lot of me dragging around heavy luggage and spacing out while trying not to fall asleep on a stranger's couch. I'm still a little sleep deprived, but now it's more of my own doing and less of the dramatic change in location relative to the international date line. Wii Fit is a terrible, wonderful use of my time.

I'll leave you with a short list of things that surprised/delighted/scared me in these first 48 hours. Enjoy, gentle readers.

1. McDonald's is delivered by ninjas on crappy little motor bikes. I have seen their mad ninja skills as they weave through crowded sidewalks at fast speeds. It is amazing.
2. Koreans drive on the same side of the road as we do. Who knew?!
3. Winter sets in overnight. Literally. When I arrived Sunday it was 50 degrees. The next day at the same time, it was 20.
4. You can take a tour of North Korea for a couple hundred dollars. I think this is what I am getting myself for Christmas, provided that having a North Korean stamp in my passport doesn't get me detained at immigration later. And even if it does, I will still strongly consider it.
5. It is relatively easy to take animals from Korea to the United States. It is relatively impossible to take animals from the United States to Korea. The opposite goes for small children.

Sweet Home California

Well, after quite the difficult month, I am state-side again and still in the midst of finals and all the fun that is the end of semester. I am turning in most of my final papers by email, which is very gracious of my professors to allow, but its hard to work on things when you're also dealing with a pretty severe cold and allergies to everything in California. I'm making the best of it, I promise.

I'm sure that everyone knows the gist of the past month, so we'll leave that alone. All I can say for now is that if anyone should want to see my bright and smiling face (and get me away from some California boredom), I am currently accepting donations for plane tickets to visit pretty much anywhere in the U.S. I can't imagine myself sitting around California for the whole month and a half that I'm here, and while I am not working (since my job is in Japan, and I am not) I don't really have the money to support all the trips that I would like to make (like Washington state, Washington D.C., Texas, Chicago, etc...). I assure you, I am at least half joking.

I will post something about the time that Daddy and I had in Japan (and some pictures too) after I get school under control. Until then, feel free to call my American cell phone, which I now have with me at all times. I must say, after having the experience of the Japanese cell phone, my American one is really... boring. I almost feel like going to Verizon and demanding that they produce better quality phones for me to buy.

The Year of the Rat

It has been a whirlwind around here the past couple of days. Between my birthday (and recovering from my birthday) and having our traditional Japanese New Year's celebration, we were very busy for the past week or so.

I can't say much about my 21st birthday other than that it was very American. My friends took me out drinking and we played games, ate food, and were generally load and obnoxious to the Japanese people around us. My friend Satoru did give me what I think is the best present ever though--a cactus that is currently sitting on my desk. He said it was to remind me of home (Texas, not Washington D.C.) All I know is that I drunkenly stabbed myself with the thing several times over the course of the night, and had no idea what I had done each time.

New Year's was something quite different. Shige-san and Asako-san invited my friend Luke over, since his family is away and all the rest of my friends already have guests. As part of the traditional New Years celebration, we spent most of the evening making hand-made soba noodles to eat after midnight. It's supposed to bring health in the New Year I think, but Luke and I, having never made our own noodles before, were really really terrible at it. Not to say that we didn't try. But eventually we ended up just separating the noodles so they could be cooked later.

I may have mentioned to some earlier, but my host parents were enthralled by the idea of eggnog. I tried to find an international food store in Tokyo that carried it, but had absolutely no luck. Which is how Luke and I ended up trying to make our own eggnog with real eggs and cream and milk and sugar, just like the pilgrims did it (joke). All I can say for that attempt is that at least the final product has the taste of eggnog. If you can ignore the fact that its like drinking malt-o-meal, then it's actually quite good. And as of yet, no one has gotten food poisoning from drinking it, so I think that all-in-all things could have been a lot worse. And for those of you who try to make your own eggnog at home, all I can say is that you need to keep a really close eye on that milk, and don't let your eggs turn into the scrabbled variety.

We spent the rest of the night cleaning the kitchen and watching Japanese TV, which some of the strangest and most oddly entertaining shows I have ever seen. There was no big screen countdown, just Shige-san's watch going off and us toasting in the New Year with sparkling grape juice and the gaijin soba that we had made earlier. It wasn't half bad, considering that Luke and I helped make it....

The next day, Asako-san and Shige-san and I went to pay our respects to the local shrine. The larger and most famous shrines are packed on New Years Day, and sometimes you have to wait two or three hours to get your turn to pray. The shrine is surrounded by lanterns, on which the names of the major donors of the shrine are written for good luck. After waiting in line for only about ten minutes, we were able to walk up and pray. The process goes: throw in money, ring the gong, bow twice, clap twice, make your wish or prayers, bow once, and leave. If you pay enough money, there is a place inside the shrine where you and your family can sit and pray for longer, but I've been told that its a lot of money, and not many people do it. Afterwards we drank warmed sweetened sake for prosperity (which felt a lot like our "eggnog") and then Asako-san and Shige-san and I all bought fortunes. Apparently I am only going to be having a little luck this year, with some health issues and quarrels with a friend. However, the person that I am looking for (aka my future husband) will apparently be appearing sometime in the near future. I think that's a fairly good fortune, don't you?

After all this, we went to Shige-san's parents house to do the traditional New Year's calligraphy. Shige's mother tried to teach me, but I guarantee that holding that brush and making the strokes is a lot harder than some people give it credit for. The brush is supposed to be held perpendicular to the paper, and you have to know when to press down and when to make your strokes longer and thinker for emphasis. I have four attempts, and by the end I was at least holding the brush right and making somewhat of the right shapes with my characters. All it says is nihon shogatsu, Japan New Year. Still, it was a big accomplishment for me.

Things are finally quieted down, with Shige-san and Asako-san getting ready for their trip to Guam in a couple days (a friend's wedding, I believe). I should be spending the time doing my research and studying kanji, but we'll see how it goes. All work and no play, right?

Ageshite omedetou to you all!

Happy Merry Christmas

Just a quick Christmas update--had Shakey's pizza for dinner with the other gaijin, followed by an awesome round of American card games and the exchange of presents (which is really me giving all my guy friends presents because they are incapable of buying things in advance). Doesn't feel like Christmas I suppose, since there was nothing to open from home, but that's alright. It's good to have a gaijin family on the other side of the world.

J-Christmas

It just doesn't quite feel like Christmas time, here halfway around the world. Sure, stores are filled with holiday decorations and red and green signs announcing sales and whatnot, but it's not the same. For one thing, the Christmas season usually marks the end of finals, the end of the semester. I have a full two weeks off school, but the past few have been spent going to class, taking notes, and doing other normal academic tasks. No tests to prepare for or papers to write. I'm looking forward to the vacation to be sure, but not quite the same way as I would coming off of two weeks of and late nights in the library and cramming for everything.

Another thing is the fact that in the United States, Christmas is still largely a religious holiday. More people go to church on Christmas than any other day in the year, except maybe Easter. This is also exemplified by the fact that Christmas is largely a family holiday. People come together from all over to share presents, eat home-cooked food, and argue loudly (and often drunkenly) over stupid things. But in Japan, where the predominant religions are not Christian, this is a different story. Christmas Day is more for friends and significant others than families. My host parents, for example, are going to a friends house on that day to share in the traditional Christmas Cake--which is as far as I can tell the only real tradition the Japanese have for this day. Often boyfriends will take their girlfriends to Disneyland, or some other romantic spot. Families with children will sometimes have Santa Claus come give presents in the middle of the night, but all the children I've talked to seem to know that it's actually their parents leaving things out for them to find. Many business even stay open.

By contrast, New Years Eve is a predominantly family holiday in Japan. According to Japanese religious tradition (though I'm not sure if its Buddhist or Shintoist), the New Year is a time to reflect on family matters, go to the shrine together, and pray for health and happiness for your family. For a full seven days you do everything with your family, including eating all the traditional food and drinking sake together at night. I'm not entirely sure how this all works out, but I'm pretty excited to learn.

Anyway, I suppose between these two things, I don't really feel like I'm missing out on Christmas yet. I'm sure right now at my house, Debbie is screaming at everyone to keep the house clean, my Dad is unintentionally making a mess somewhere, and my brother is sitting up in his room trying to ignore everything. Whereas I'm sitting in my room (which is devoid of Christmas decorations by the way) thinking about the whole Christmas season and wondering when it's actually going to hit me that there will be no Christmas morning with my family, or delicious Christmas dinner, or Christmas fighting over the TV and wondering which Harry Potter movie we should watch. No Heidi hopping around through the wrapping paper, no badminton tournaments, and no watching Joie freak out over his new cat toys. Such a strange feeling....

The little things

It really is all about the little things in life. For instance, today for lunch Asako-san gave me a bagel and cream cheese. Real, honest to God Philadelphia cream cheese. I was so happy I nearly cried.

Updates anyone?

I could try to describe how busy I've been over the past month, but I don't think that describing anything could paint an accurate picture of my life right now. Things are getting better, to be sure, since the holidays are coming and I'll have more time to myself. Still trying to get things under control though, so just bear with me for a while longer!

Since Sophia University is on the strange Japanese academic year, my fall semester doesn't end until the beginning of February. So while my family in California (and Texas/Washington/Illinois) was enjoying Thanksgiving food, football, and quality family togetherness, I was cramming for my midterms, trying to remember half a semester of Japanese that I'm pretty sure I slept through. I didn't do so badly compared with some of my classmates. My Japanese course this year is repeating a lot of the things that I learned in my two years at GW, which makes for a good refresher course during the turbulence of getting settled in here. For the first time, my Japanese midterm included an interview section--me talking to my professor one-on-one for seven minutes. Sitting there waiting for my name to be called was nerve-wracking, but I managed to get through it okay. My biggest problem was that I kept speaking to him in plain form, when I should have been using my more formal verbs. You can read the last post I made for all about the verb forms.

My midterms for my other classes were just papers, so nothing too painful other than trying to find time to sit down and write them. I've started teaching English every week now on Saturdays from 11am-5pm. My classes are mostly kids, which makes for some interesting fun. They spend most of the lesson screaming at me (or each other) in Japanese, while I stand there with a smile plastered on my face telling them "Eigo de! eigo de!" ("In English! In English!"). My ability to understand Japanese has thankfully improved exponentially, so most of the time they can ask me questions in Japanese and I can understand what they're talking about. But answering them in Japanese? Not going to happen. Not only is my speaking ability not that great, but it's supposed to be an English class. They can learn English the same what I'm learning Japanese--by having the teacher talk to you so much that you just start to understand.

Like I said, things are settling down around here. There's only one week left until winter break (two weeks off!), so I'm trying to spend some weekends at home with my host family to make up for the fact that I won't be at home much over the break. Not that I think they mind particularly. Sunny (Taiwanese homestay sister) is leaving in about a week, so I think our family is going to have a big dinner tomorrow night to wish her well. I'm still not sure about my winter break plans (I really hope they include a trip somewhere, but you can never tell). I'm sorry about the lack of updates in both the blog and the photos, but as soon as something interesting happens, I'll be sure to let you know.