선풍기 = sun-poong-gi = ELECTRIC FAN

Everything's better with blue bonnet on it! Even a fan! 

Yes, the fan I saw at my doctor's office had a lacy blue... er... what would you call it?... dressing on it. At first I wondered why? Is it to make it look nicer? Or more sophisticated? 

Well, when I finally had to break down and drag mine out, I discovered it was full of hard-to-clean-out cobwebby-like dirt and grime. Maybe this is why, so as to decrease the amount of grossness inside the fan from being blown around one's apartment or office?

너무 = Nomu = VERY

What fun! I just had a splendid cab ride home!

Side note:  Yes, I tried the bus thing. I was really determined to take the bus, and NOT the cab, *to* and *from* the bus station to get an express bus ticket for tomorrow but it took me two hours just to get there! As you can imagine, I wasn't liking the idea of it taking another possible two hours to get back to my apartment, given that I don't know my way around well, I can't easily read the signs since they're all in Corean, I was tired, hungry, cranky, and yeah - I guess spoiled (in that I had enough money for a cab ride)... Besides, another couple hours would mean I wouldn't eat dinner until much later, and I was already ravishingly hungry, at 6pm.

The cab driver, in typical Corean fashion of down-playing his English abilities, had me repeat after him, "Hanguel mal nomu nomu oryowah-yo!" This is how I learned how to say, "Corean (language) is very very difficult!"

To say very beautiful:

nomu yep-o-yo

To say very spicy:

nomu maeb-da

To say very hot:

nomu tteu-geo-wo-yo

부채 = boo-chay = FAN

I'm slowly learning what are a must for a woman when stepping foot outside the house in such heat and humidity. 

One such necessity is a 부채, or a hand fan. There are, of course, sooooooo many cute ones. Here's an example of one I bought at a stationary store for $0.89, or 1,000 won.

(This hand fan is not to be confused with an electric fan which has an entirely different word.)

Today I used the 1995 Lonely Planet Korean phrase book (borrowed from Arden and Betsy - thank you!) as my fan before this purchase.

On break: Vietnam

Whew! Last week was a blast! I haven't posted anything in a while because there were two crazy last weeks of school, then the day after the last day of school, two teacher friends and I flew to Vietnam for a week's vacation!

What a wonderful time! (They stayed longer but I returned because of other previously-made plans, including my mother visiting - yay!)

Here's a shot I took at night near our hostel in the old section of Hanoi.

It seems to capture an accurate picture of Hanoi - the sugar-cane juice dispenser, the signs in Vietnamese (with tons of accents going every which way looking more like letters with confetti than marks denoting pronunciation rules), motorbikes of course, a tiny narrow shop visible with a skinny person in it, and of course the ever-present electric fan, a God-send in such heat and humidity! 

What do you think of the Vietnamese language? I'm guessing Vietnamese must be one of the most-difficult languages to pronounce; it's based on THREE different writing systems!

Korean Zoo Pictures

Somehow I got away from posting pictures. 

Therefore, here are some from last weekend's trip to "O World!" What is O World? It's a zoo, amusement park, and garden stuff, all in one. The other two foreign teachers/coworkers/friends I went with, and I, paid about $8 each for the adult ticket to see the zoo and Flowerland (the garden stuff).

"It was a very funny day," to quote my students' English diaries. [They mix up 'funny' and 'fun'.]

Hand-washing station, signs in Korean, man with balloon and child in stroller... Yes, similar to what you might see at a zoo in the United States...

Trash recepticals, sign for location of the nearest toilets, and kids sitting eating ice cream or something cold... Yes, very similar to what you might see in the U.S....

Jangma = Rainy Season

Rainy season, also called tsahng-ma or jangma (장마 ), started last week. Wow - I haven't seen lots of rain like this ever except for when it flooded in Alexandria, VA! But it's not raining now thank goodness.

Apparently I need to learn how to store food in such weather. I also discovered yesterday morning, Friday school day morning, that I was NOT well-equipped to walk in the river of a street to school. I had on my outdoor shoes and cutsey socks (which are plentiful here) and of course got soaking wet feet because there wasn't any way to avoid it.

I laughed at myself as I watched the two jnr or high school kids ahead of me, in uniform, carrying their outdoor tennis shoes in their hands, and wearing rubber sandals on their feet. Ah - so that's how some do it here! As I passed the corner barbershop, the man there looked at my feet and looked up with a slight smile/laugh on his face. I don't blame him for laughing! I say 'slight' because Koreans don't show lots of expression on their faces. (Maybe this is partly why they don't get as many laughter and wrinkle lines on their faces?)

So I stopped at the cornerstore on my way to school and bought some rubber sandals for $2 (that say "made in Korea") on them, and asked for a plastic bag in which I carefully placed my soaking wet outdoor shoes and drenched socks. The owner chuckled with me about my situation. He of course was already wearing his rubber sandals. He'd been putting out the recycling when I arrived. 

As for my outdoor shoes, they are still wet.

I bought the pink "hippo" boxes. (They have hippos on them. Picture soon.) They're used to cut down on humidity inside. I'll use them when I go on vacation (in two weeks!) so that my apartment doesn't get crazy moldy while I'm gone...

Now to read this:

Humidity and Mould: How to Survive the Korean Rainy Season

A first: Dinner at Korean family's house

A few weekends ago was a first! One of my co-teachers and I were invited to dinner at a Koeran family's house. We had a home-cooked Korean meal at a Korean family's apartment - it was delicious! Their apt was surprisingly American-like. It had a big screen tv, a family/living room with big couch, ottoman, and shelves around the TV with pictures on it, a rack of CDs, and even two piggy banks- one for each child. There were curtains in the windows, and the bathroom had a bath tub like ones in the U.S. 

The student's bedroom had a bed like most American kids wants (kind of like a loft with wooden edge), and lots of books in her room, and a few stuffed animal toys. The parents' bedroom was also very "normal" to what one expects in the U.S. at first glance. (I didn't want to extend my stay in their bedroom to make note of what is different...) 

We dined at a normal dining table in the dining room, just off of the kitchen, in which there was a regular fridge and freezer. One major difference though was the "kimchi" fridge out on the veranda. Kimchi is so strong-smelling that they keep it in a separate fridge!

All for now.  :)