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Published: March 29th 2009
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Downtown Daegu
A side street in downtown Daegu full of street vendors selling Korean food. We finally have internet in our apartment! Wooo! We just got our alien registration cards this week (the cards that we needed before we could set up internet at our apartment) and now we are reconnected with the rest of the world. While the internet man was here yesterday (a really nice guy who spoke a little bit of English!! 😊 we were also playing around with the TV. We discovered that we get the discovery channel ( in English!!). It was a very exciting day!
Let's see... I'll catch up on some of the more interesting things that have happened during the past three weeks. 😊
On the Thursday during my second week at my school there was a teachers dinner. Everyone that works at the school was to be in attendance. After school at 5 o'clock everyone left school and went down the street to a restaurant. We took off our shoes and went inside to sit on the floor and eat for the next 2 hours. There was a whole lot of side dishes (vegetables: lettuces, sweet potatoes covered in honey(mmmm!!) and other vegetables covered in sauces and spices) and the meat (pork) was grilled in
a round grill thing at the table. After dinner many of the teachers as well as the principal, the vice principal, and administrators went to a bowling alley. We played two rounds and I never bowled so awful in my life.
That Friday Mike went out to dinner with the male teachers from his school. My favorite part of his stories from that is how they ate live squid. Now, that sounds gross to begin with, but then when you combine it with the details of how its little suction cups suck fast first to the chopsticks and then to the inside of your mouth, mmmmm. So sorry I missed out on that. :P haha
In South Korea there is a popular type of alcohol named soju. It can be bought everywhere. And by everywhere I mean, Mike and I were walking down the side walk last night and one of the street vendors was selling fruit and soju (it is legal to drink in public here). It is kind of like vodka with the alcohol content of wine. So one day, I was teaching one of my second grade classes, demonstrating how to use the phrase, "I'll
Hello Kitty!
Hello Kitty store in downtown Daegu. Notice the kids in their school uniforms. show you the way" when I said, "ok, so, I showed you the way..." One of the kids in the middle of the class got real excited (and confused) and shouted out, "SOJU!?!?" Ummm, no. haha.
Last weekend Mike and I went to see the Watchmen in a theatre downtown. When they translate the title of Watchmen into Korean it turns into Watchie men. hah Words translated from English to Korean often contain extra vowels. Korean is a syllable based language where as English is a stress based language. The thing that will really blow your mind is that what is a syllable to a Korean is not the same as a syllable is to an English speaking person. For example: in English the word tent is one syllable. In Korean it should be two: ten - t (eh) The (eh) sound is there because each syllable must have a vowel sound. The same thing happens to words like best and friend. In English they are both one syllable words. When pronounced by a Korean it turns into: bes - t(eh) and frien - d(eh). So anyway, we got tickets for the movie out in front of the theatre
and we had to pick where we wanted to sit. That was the first time that I've ever been in a movie theatre where my ticket had a seat number on it. The movie was pretty good and the best part is that English movies aren't dubbed, they just have subtitles. So Mike and I were able to enjoy the movie just the same as if we had seen it in the states. Another great thing about the movie was that we bought water at the theatre and it cost us 1,000 won which is about 90 cents. It was amazing. Not only did it cost 90 cents but Mike actually asked for it in Korean and got water on the first try. In all past cases an effort to speak in Korean has resulted in blank stares and confusion so it was really exciting to actually be successful.
This past Monday I arrived at school to find post it notes on my computer. Then I looked at the hard drive and realized that it was not the same one that had been there. At first I was freaking out because i thought that all of my files on
Downtown Daegu
Those buses are both our enemies and our friends. the computer (lesson plans, etc) were gone. With Katie's help I found where they backed up my files but for the life of me could not figure out how to get the computer into English. On the computer that I had been using, Microsoft office, etc was in English. On this computer it was in Korean. Not only was it in Korean, but it was microsoft office 2007 which I have never used before in my life. If you've used or seen 2007, you know that it looks nothing like the old microsoft office. So, it wasn't like I could even really try to remember where the buttons for certain functions were. Powerpoint was the most difficult one to figure out how to work because there are so many extra bells and whistles that are nice to use with powerpoint. In less than a week, I have not only figure out how to use PowerPoint 2007 but I have figured out how to use it written entirely in Korean. Basically, I sat there and clicked on every single button until I found the ones that I was looking for. It was a whooting good time let me tell you. :P
haha
Last night we went to a restaurant and ordered for the first time a real Korean meal (this happened by accident....haha). We originally went into the restaurant because Mike saw a picture outside of a hamburger steak that he wanted, but they didn't have it. Anyway the waitress came out with several side dishes and the a pan full of some mystery meat, noodles, and vegetables in a spicy broth. We ordered the small but it was more than the both of us could eat. The total cost: 14,000 W. At the current exchange rate that is about $11. Then we went to HomePlus which was ridiculously crowded at 9pm on a Saturday night. We picked up a rotor so that we can use the internet wirelessly, a clock, and a bigger pot and some soil for our poor ailing daffodil. Haha.
Unfortunately, due to our lack of knowledge concerning daffodil enemies, it would soon die due to the slug that we saw in the soil during repotting but did not remove. Oops.
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Danielle
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I'm so glad youre alive I was beginning to worry about you. It sounds like you are adjusting well :). I was looking through my phone the other day and saw your name... I was sad I just couldnt call you up to talk. :( I hope we can talk over skype soon I have som pretty amazing stories to tell you.