Thursday
Anyways, I believe that my last post was on Wednesday, so I guess I will pick up on Thursday. On Thursday, I was busy studying for my final on Friday, so I didn't really do much of anything except for prepare myself for the test as well as table tennis. The good news is that on Thursday I found out about another championship I can participate in with my club at a university here in Korea. The guys invited me to play with them and so now I'm in training again ha ha.
Friday
Friday started off good, with me waking up early and doing some last minute preparatory studies for the final. I was definitely surprised by the test's difficulty when I got in and looked at it. I expected the listening part to be difficult, so that's not really a big deal, but the writing part was much harder than the teacher told us it would be. She said there wouldn't be a need for extensive and obscure vocab knowledge, but indeed there was. I missed a few short answer questions merely because they were the only words I didn't know. Them's the brakes I guess. I'm honestly not worried about it, though, because I feel confident I knew the majority of the questions.
After the test, we went out to Mie's for some comfort food, and then to Daegu with the Murray group. It was the first time they would meet their student aides, so I was hopeful they would enjoy the time with them, just like my group enjoyed our time. Seeing these student aides in action definitely made me miss the friends I made last summer. Just as the aides are really nice this year, our aides were great last year too. I was assigned to an aide that wasn't really familiar with Daegu, since he was from a city near Pusan. The group was Jennifer, Vicki, me, and the student aide. We saw a lot of downtown, and it was a great time, but I definitely felt like I wasn't doing a great job of helping show them around. There is just so much to see downtown, I wanted to invent a time machine so that I could have the luxury of stopping time and they could see all the really neat things I have seen. Maybe I'm supposed to feel like that, but it's definitely not a fun feeling.
Anyways, the Daegu trip went pretty well, I think. It didn't rain, and everyone got home safe.
Saturday
On Saturday, we were scheduled to go to Spa Valley, which is an amusement park in Daegu that offers a full indoor spa facility as well as an outdoor water park. It was going to be a great trip, especially since all the days leading up to Saturday were almost unseasonably hot. Just like in the movies, though, I woke up for a morning run on Saturday only to find out that the weather turned from nice and warm to not warm at all (almost cold in fact), as well as an unpleasant dreary gray color. Since it had also rained the night before, I couldn't go on my run. I went back to sleep, hoping that the weather would make a turn for the better.
It didn't. We went to spa valley, and it was definitely very cool now. When we arrived, the Murray people really wanted to participate in the Dr. Fish experience, like I had in Seoul. Spa valley's Dr. Fish was considerably different than the one I took part in, though. In Spa Valley, the Dr. Fish area was pretty much just a wading pool full of the tiny little carnivorous fish. If you were still long enough, they would swim right up to you and begin feasting on all the nasty dead skin you had to offer.
I was kind of hoping that this time it wouldn't tickle so much, because last time I laughed for twenty minutes straight. My hopes were quelled, quickly, however, because the fish were definitely just as ticklish as before. There was a new twist in my experience this time, though, in that my last trip to the public bath had left a smallish sore on my foot about the size of a pin head. It wasn't a big deal and was healing up as it should have been. However, I completely forgot about what it is the fish did, exactly (that is, I forgot the fish loved the taste of flesh). So, as I was getting my fish therapy, I started noticing that some of the bites were tickling so much as just aggravating me via slight pain. when I looked down, I found that the fish had smartened up and had nibbled my little sore to double its size or so. I couldn't blame them, really. Given the option of prime rib or sirloin, I would definitely pick the sirloin, so for those cute little fishies, given the option of plain-jane dead skin or real bloody flesh, it's understandable they wanted the real thing. I was wise to their plan, though, and then avoided the fishy prescription for the rest of the allotted time. After all, it was just as much fun to watch the others get nibbled on.
We finished our foot treatment, and all headed out to our own destination within Spa Valley. The place offered a public bath, several steam rooms, a couple of indoor pool rooms, outside hot tubs, and a large water park. The water park was cancelled out by everyone very early, because of the rain and the cold, so everyone wanted to try the spa type activities. Unfortunately for the Murray group, much of the spa activities were in the public bath, which meant that everyone had to be naked. I definitely can't blame anyone for not wanting to get naked in front of tens of strangers. As Americans, we're programmed to be afraid and ashamed of our bodies, especially in the eyes of those we share a common gender with.
I was proud of the group, though, especially since quite a lot of them participated in some of the "naked" activities offered. I think 4 girls got massages, and a couple of guys went into the public bath area. That was way better than what I thought it would be like. It's such a leap of faith for an American to do something like that.
As for me, I was familiar with the public bath "scene", if you will, and the novelty had definitely worn off. Instead of being ashamed and really nervous, now I mainly assessed the public baths on what they had to offer. Unfortunately, the one at Spa Valley didn't really impress me, so I didn't stay there long (mainly long enough to try the milk bath), except to get my shower.
The rest of the time at Spa Valley for me was spent enjoying the water park with one of the workers in the international office, Anna. Usually, Anna has been nice to me, but I had a feeling that she didn't really enjoy my company. I know it's a silly feeling to have, but clues come from the comments a person makes, and their body language towards you, their demeanor, and so forth.
I was definitely proven wrong in that regard, though, as she was actually really friendly towards me, and it seemed like all the non-verbal cues were completely changed for the opposite. I was wondering if maybe she had been a victim of the body snatchers, actually, because the change was so dramatic. All of that doesn't really matter, in the scheme of things, because I only care that I made another good friend here. We spent the rest of the day trying to take advantage of the water park's slides as they opened. Since the weather was rainy, the waterpark only kept enough employees to run one slide at a time, on an alternating schedule. So, I devoted the rest of the time to slide hopping, so that I could get a really fun time out of it. I did pretty much everything to do in the park, even though it was almost downright cold.
The park had an outdoor hot tub, so I used that to warm myself up again after splashing into the cold catch-pools of the slides. There were twisty slides and straight slides, long (and tall) slides, and short slides. We didn't make it to one, but with that as the only exception, I did them all (even the incredibly giant one that every water park has).
Along with the slide, I also did some other things, like rope walking, gymnastics on said rope over a wave pool, and even some high diving. It was all in great fun, except that on the high dive I definitely did something to my ear, whether it be busting my ear drum, or some variation of swimmer's ear. Anyways, it pretty much incapacitated me for a while. We were about to eave, and my ear was bothering me, so I decide dI would have a beer, to try and take my mind off the pain. Other pain goes away with a little alcohol, why should ear pain be any different?
Unfortunately, that hypothesis was definitely proved wrong. Amazingly, within just a few seconds, the pain I experienced was amplified greatly. I didn't understand it, and tried to just get through it. We went to Outback, and I got my food order in (Baby back ribs...it was heaven) but the pain just kept increasing. I broke down finally, and Anna helped me find a pharmacy. When we explained what happened, and how much pain I was in, the pharmacist just smiled and asked if I had any alcohol. Turns out, that if someone is suffering from an ear problem, alcohol is pretty much the worst thing they can do for themselves. It's one of the only pains which is actually increased with alcohol consumption.
So I managed to eat and make it through dinner, and just as quickly as the alcohol had increased the pain, the naproxen (aleve) that the pharmacist prescribed, took it away. Not only that, but the ear medicine was definitely working (let it be known that only two days later, I am completely pain free, and can hear again.
There's definitely something good to be said about the way in which Koreans handle medicine and prescriptions. many medicines (most, actually) are available over the counter, and the pharmacists usually know a good doctor to refer to if one is needed. The pharmacist is very skilled in knowing exactly what the patient needs, and it helps to cut down on the waiting time for treatment if the patient can get the medicine straight from the pharmacist. I, for one, was very happy with the care given to me, and the lady knew exactly what she was doing. While it may not be the best system, I believe there are certainly good things to be taken from the Korean way of dealing with medicine and patient care, in general. Maybe one day the U.S. will start taking notes (hopefully from everywhere, not just Korea).
Sunday
Sunday's activities involved going to Gyungju, a very famous and historical city about an hour and a half away from the University. The reason for going to Gyungu was to see the neat historical things it had to offer, like burial mounds of old Silla kings, buddhist museums, and other historical goodness.
In its heyday, Gyungju was the seat of the most powerful city in Korea. With almost 1 million inhabitants, it can be compared to the size and the influence of Rome. It should be noted that even though the city was huge, and the kingdom...not-so-much, Korea has always had to deal with its powerful neighbors, China and Japan. Those foreign factors definitely kept the Silla kingdom from being recognized as one of the richest and most powerful civilizations to exist.
Anyways, we definitely saw some incredibly interesting place there in Gyungju. We go to explore the inside of a burial mound, as well as go to a traditional Korean restaurant and enjoy the "Full meal" as it's called. We toured some famous palace grounds, as well as one of the most famous buddhist temples in all of Korea. The place was absolutely beautiful, and there were some neat famous stories to go with them, including, but not limited to: a giant bell which only rings because of the blood of an innocent baby, as well as a Romeo and Juliet-esque story behind the construction of a pagoda. It seemed like the Murray people had a lot of time seeing all the stuff there was to see, there. I know I enjoyed it (I had never been there before).
Monday
Monday went by pretty quickly. I got to sleep in, and I even did some table tennis training. the guys in the building that I trained in were pretty helpful, and I got good practice in at the same time they were improving due to our playing time together. It's so much fun to play with the Korean people, here, because it's such an easy way to build friendships and talk with them on a 1 on 1 basis.
I went to culture class, and had a good time learning about Korean pop culture. We learned about some famous songs, movies, an other unique cultural contributions to the world that Korea has made. After class, it was time to teach my Korean students about America. When I arrived, I was informed that it would be our last class together, and that were sad we couldn't meet again. Even though it was sad that we couldn't meet again, at least in a class setting, I at least had a good idea for a fun game. The Murray people were upstairs enjoying the bounty of a successful cooking class, and I knew my students needed to see just what kind of English they could expect to hear when they came to America. They get some of that from me, too, obviously, but the more speakers they can hear, I feel like the better equipped they will be. So, I set up a little verbal scavenger hunt for them to take part in. Their task was to as assigned questions to the Murray people and find out who fit the assigned little statements I had given them to look for.
The scavenger hunt portion ranged from "Who is a professional cook?" to "Who just had a baby?". Along with the scavenger hunt portion of the game, there were also some "freebies" I gave them, which were questions they could ask anyone. The questions were like "I'm planning on studying in the U.S., what is the most important thing I should know?", and "What is your favorite thing about the U.S.?".
All in all, it was a great activity for them, I think. They mingled in with the Murray people, and all three of them get the majority of the questions answered. Another good side effect of the activity was that Murray really got to see a better example of "average" Korean english skills. The students I have on Monday have good english, but definitely not the caliber of english spoken by the student aides.
What makes that special is that they haven't learned yet what translates well, and what native speakers are more likely to understand. Therefore, the english they speak is many times just directly translated from what they would say in Korean. It really gives a look into the act of "in head" translation, as well as how Koreans would react to situations (observing this one isn't as hard, but in order to know what they're saying and thinking, having the direct translation definitely helps). The Murray people seemed to like it, and that's really all I could ask for.
After the little activity, I said goodbye to the group and headed off to Hayang with the Murray gang. Hayang is a little town outside of the university which can basically be compared with the town of Murray itself. It might actually be a little bigger, but it's basically the same thing. There's not much there, in terms of just fun things to do, but there is shopping, and supermarkets, and houses and whatnot. In Hayang, I went with Helen, Rachel, and Caroline, and we kind of aimlessly walked around, searching for nothing in particular. We did happen to find a couple of Koreans who were really enthusiastic to talk to us, and even wanted to follow us so that they could continue asking questions. We managed to break away from them, though, as they were talking our ears off, and headed back home. It was a good day, and hopefully tomorrow will be the same.
Also, let's hope I can blog tomorrow, so that I don't have to spend two hours in front of my computer catching up.
For Now
Aron Huckaba International Vagabond
No comments:
Post a Comment