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Published: April 1st 2008
Greetings. It's been 3 weeks since I last posted an entry. That's a long time for me. You may ask yourself, "Why, Kam? Why would you do that to us?" The simple answer is simply
I'm lazy. A sloth? No. But lazy? Yes. Hopping continents has started to take it's toll on me. In any case, there's been some changes to my itinerary, and other stuff that happened in the past few weeks that some of you
may find interesting. If you don't find it interesting, well...I don't know what to say. Sorry? Here's the dealio: I'm in Seoul. I've been in Seoul for some time now, after coming back from Gurye. I'll explain all this shortly. I'm planning on coming back to the states sometime in the near future.
To be exact, actually, the 2nd of April sounds about right.
WWOOFing? Well F That
---Before leaving for Gurye in Jeollanam-do, I had dinner with Gaia (one of the sisters who run this guesthouse in Seoul). She made me and some other people some traditional Korean food. It was her first time making it. Good stuff. The deal is basically we cook for each other (Mi Jung, Gaia, and I)
and the others clean. Sounds familiar.
I hate cleaning dishes. Call me a spoiled ex-cook if you must.
---Went to a PC Bang. Sounds exciting.
It's not. But they are VERY nice. "Bang" means room, so basically a PC Bang is an internet cafe, but all super fancy like. Big monitors, refreshments, about a 100 computers in every room. Crazy. Koreans
love computer games, so suprisingly there's almost always people in them. I burnt some CDs to back up my photos. Sound exciting?
You bet it was.
---Went back to the guesthouse (Goldenpond Guesthouse for all of you who are in love with pronouns) and tried to call STA Travel to change my ticket date. Well...that didn't go so smoothly. Apparently after 3 months of traveling my bank decided to suspect my debit card use as foreign fraud. Nice timing. Tried paying with my other credit card and STA's system crashed. Beautiful.
---Caught a bus to Gurye from the Nambu Intercity bus terminal. Interesting experience. They bus was nice, but I slept most of the way, so I don't have anything else to say.
---Got to Gurye. It was about 4 hours south. Called my WWOOF host and he came
to pick me up. He introduced himself. Blah blah blah, and we headed to one of his farms.
---Didn't work that day. But a little background info on my ex-host: he owned 5 farms, each "farm" was really a bunch of greenhouses, he grew seedling plants (usually pepper ones), each tray of seedlings sold for about 10$ - there was about 600 trays in each greenhouse - about 3 greenhouses to every farm, let's do math:
600trays x 3houses x 5farms x 10$ = $$$$$$$. Yikes. Lucrative business.
---Went to dinner. It was awkward. Sat with a bunch of his friends that have a weekly "business meeting" (aka, get drunk and eat). Didn't really say much, I couldn't speak Korean. They didn't say much to me either, they couldn't speak English. It was a certain type of pork Korean BBQ, where they grill pieces of pork on an electric skillet then eat it with side ingredients wrapped in a piece of lettuce. It was good. They also made me drink a whole bunch of soju. Good meal, only thing it was missing was conversation.
---Next day woke up early, at about 7. My host and I agreed that I would
work 8 hours one day, then not work the next day at all. Worked for me.
---So then I worked the greenhouses, which involved a lot of tray turning and watering. Hard on my back and legs. I enjoyed it though, and I liked being in the greenhouses, despite them being
exceptionally hot and humid.
---He took me to one of his other farms, and I watched/helpedsorta as he and his manager tried to dismantle a watering pump, and ordered me to do things in Korean to help them. I was confused.
If you could have seen my face it would have looked sort of like I was half constipated and half lost.
---Returned to the first farm, where my "WWOOFing house" was. I was told I would return to the other farm the next day to water.
I thought I wasn't working the next day, maybe it's just a language barrier. Like, "one day work, next day no work" really means, "welcome to slave labor, boy".
---My host sort of hmm'd and haww'd about what he should have me do. He sort of looked @ me every now and then like, "You should know what to do."
Well I didn't, so I sorta just stood around till he told me to "help the women." Very well.
---Went to dinner again, it was awkward again. Again, with his friends. Again I didn't say anything and wasn't asked anything. Again. Then he did something which I hated. He would always, when we were @ dinner, randomly tell me to go "sightsee". He would say it like I didn't have a choice. So I would just get up, walk the streets of a
very small little town, where nothing was open until I felt like I was permitted to come back. They didn't include that in Lonely Planet...
---Next morning, I was awakened @ 7 AM for breakfast. I can deal with that. But then he asked me in a very nice way to work for him that day too b/c his manager had business to attend to. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, so I complied, unable to politely say no. We went back to the farm we had been at the day before and I watered most of his greenhouse for him, which took a long time. Probably 5 hours. And I only did 2/3 of
it.
---I wanted to go back to the house to take a shower, and told him so. He said OK and that tonight his wife wanted me to go to his home city with him, where his wife and kids live, to have dinner. I said OK, but really wanted some alone time. When we got back to the house, I tried to hop in the shower, but just as I had jumped in, he yelled from outside that I was supposed to get dressed and come to lunch. I told him I would be quick, and he told me no. Flexible, I see. Very well. Then when I got to the table, I ate with him and his workers and his wife, and got made fun of for my clothes. Wha'eva, I dress how I want. I was pretty over him.
---Went to town and didn't come back till late, purposefully of course. Told him I was returning to Seoul the next day and did just that.
---Several things about him bothered me:
he was manipulative, did not treat me like a guest, and was too pisscontestish about my clothes. Just not a good situation for me. And I
missed Mi Jung and Gaia, who are the complete opposite of him, so I decided to return. Peace, Gurye
Back in the City
---The past week and a half I've been lounging, relaxing, and getting to know Mi Jung and Gaia better. We like teaching each other ridiculious things in Korean/English. Like, for example, "I'm going to put a cap in your ass".
---We had a party for the 2 German girls and I b/c we have been here for so long, so Mi Jung and Gaia wanted to feed us a feast to celebrate. So they made Korean BBQ, and we all had a lot of fun.
---So to thank them for cooking for us, last night I made Mi Jung, Gaia, and their brother dinner. Also joining us was a Chilean named Mario - nice guy. I made Italian chicken for them, making chicken roll ups (I can't remember the technical name - sue me, Jesse) with carmelized onions, spinach, shitake mushrooms, and mozzerella cheese. Then I braised them with a tomato sauce and served them with pasta. They really liked it, and I thought it was pretty good. So now we are all family.
---Apparently my
My fox face.
We call girly girls foxes and tomboys bears.name, Kam, sounds a lot like Kamal, when Koreans say it like they do other names, by adding an "Ahh" sound at the end of people's names. Kamal means monster. They think this is pretty funny. Hahaha...everyone gets a good laugh.
Genetically Speaking...
---About a week ago I went to Eastern Social Welfare Services after I was told by the Social Welfare Society that they couldn't help me. I made an appointment, and off I went.
---Met a social worker that handles cases from the agency that once handled my adoption, but is now no longer in practice. Her job was to provide post-adoption services to adoptees and birth parents. She had my file waiting for me when I arrived.
---She basically went through my whole case folder, explaining and translating everything.
---Learned some interesting things: my birth parents were married when I was born (contrary to popular belief, my birth parents lied with the social worker to get me adopted as the US does not accept adoptees from married Koreans), I had 2 biological siblings @ the time of my birth (an 8 yrold sister and a 6 yrold brother), I was born @ 2:50 PM in Songju
City in Kyongsangbuk-do province (this makes me a Libra ascendant, btw - balance your life!) on May 26 (despite my Korean birth certificate having a typo of May 24), my birth parents had minimal education (elementary) and worked on a farm (before I was born my birth father worked in an iron foundry). My birth father sounded a lot like me, quick tempered (I mean not anymore, but yeah when I was younger), in fact it says I was quick tempered in most of my inspection and intake forms, even as a baby. My birth mother was very "composed". I was super healthy, and only spent 1 night in an orphanage before being placed in foster care. I was a very unexpected child, as it came as a shock to my birth mother b/c she was on birth control @ the time. Basically, they couldn't afford to keep me.
Hey, gotta pay the bills yo.
---I even got to visit the orphanage that I stayed @ for one night. It is in the same building as ESWS. There were quite a few babies there. At the time of my sojourn through the orphanage there were more kids there. Now there
is less of a need to give children up for foster care, so there are less adoptess waiting for families. The babies were divided into two rooms, "healthy" and "unhealthy." The unhealthy ones were mostly in incubators, but there were several @ the window (obviously premies) that held eye contact well and used their hands to feel around. It was a nice touch, I was glad I went. I asked about how to be a transporter for adoptees (the people who bring the children from their birth country to America to their new adoptive families) and the social worker informed me there isn't much of a need for this anymore as many families come to recieve their new children in person. In fact, there was an Aussie waiting for her child to be cleared for adoption while I was there. There was also a little girl (rather old for an orphan, about 5 months old), who had just been dropped off and taken into custody who was irate about the whole process (understandably), and she did not want to be around strangers.
So she screamed @ me for a while.
Movies & a Tea House
---Recently, Hyun Jin (Gaia)
has been working on her office for her new job as an english teacher for children. She just recently got this job, in fact Hyun Jin has been in Seoul only a bit longer than I have.
---She recently finished installing a large carpet and setting up a large projector and screen, so the other night we went to watch a movie on it.
---Before we left, Mi Jung and I had to wait around for a supposed guest who was supposed to show up but never did. Finally @ 11 we said, "wha'eva," and left. We were joined by a girl named Laure, who is studying here, but originally came from France. Laure is also adopted from Korea.
---We watched a movie called "Awake". Pros: Jessica Alba is hot. Cons: It sucked.
---Then Charles (for those of you who don't remember, the guy who lives in Mi Jung's apartment in exchange for English lessons) brought some random army buddies of his over and the situation definately changed mood. Mi Jung fixed a clock. It was grand.
---Mi Jung and Hyun Jin took myself and Laure to a very famous tea house yesterday.
---The tea house was located high up
on a mountain, and it is famous for it's views. It's a bit of a drive to get a cup of Joe though if you ask me, but I completely understand why people go there. It was a very lovely place with a terrific scenic outlook. We drank some coffee and talked/joked around using my camera. Hyun Jin is the youngest of 4, Mi Jung is the oldest, and Hyun Jin definitely has the "your toys are my toys" mentality. She's a super lady, I'll let it slide.
---Afterwards, we returned back to the guest house, and I headed out for my very last session of poker in Korea. For those of you who are interested, this was a good month for me. I recorded 7 winning sessions, 1 losing session, and 1 break even session.
---Last night I also ate some roman noodles that made me feel funny in my tummy. Damn you, Korean spicy food.
Update
---So Sheila, the wonderful lady she is, has decided to help me out by helping me get a ticket home for cheap. So, I'll be flying standby back to SFO then to SBP on April 2nd, Korean time.
---I have buy
some "nice" shoes and a shirt for this trip b/c I'm listed for a business class seat. Don't they know who I am?? I don't have to dress nice. I want to talk to a manager, here. Anyway, Hyun-Jin is helping me find clothes, since she thinks I am inept. Good observation.
---By the time you read this, I'll probably be on a plane. I'll follow up with one more of these to let you know how readjusting to the states goes. Should be interesting. For those of you who made it this far, cheers, I salute you.
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Dave Martino
non-member comment
you're alive!
Hey Kammy, I was wondering what happened to your blog! Sounds like an amazing, eye opening adventure. It is hard for me to imagine what walking into that orphanage would have felt like. Nice to see you got to share your Cafe Rio skills with the locs. I bet you blew their minds. Also, I must say I am jealous of that coffee shop though; mine had a stupid ocean view, but mountains would have been pretty killer. Anyways, hope you arrive home safely and with a hot new pair of kicks. Peace.