Swallow's Nest (original) (raw)

April 5th, 2005

Hey People!

I'm here! And all is well... that is...besides the fact that I got questioned BEHIND the RED LINE about why was I going to Korea for a whole month and shouldn't I be in school, etc. Then of course we almost missed our flight out of Chicago because we could not find terminal 5. Lastly, after surviving a 14 hour flight (4 movies and 2 hours of sleep later) one of my bags happened to get misplaced (and of course it happened to be the bag that my camera, journal, vitamins, music and hair brush is in! So what do you know, I shall have to learn how to survive without them for the next few days.) But of course, like I said, all is well :) All is very well.

Only, I think I might be forced to faint from fatigue before the day is through, the time change does not agree with me. Ah, I shall have to nap this afternoon! As for right now, I'm heading out to a English Conversation Club and shall do my best to get a phone card at the same time.

AMAZING FACT FOR THE DAY - I ate breakfast on the floor, with chopsticks - and didn't even mess a bit! :) More later!

Love you all,

~Shannon

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April 9th, 2005

Hello everyone!

Thank you all SO much for your replies to my last note...they really, REALLY mean a lot to me. Thank you so much. I will reply to each and every one of them - it just may take me a while...:)
I am well and finally all recovered from my loss of sleep. Though, the days here are now so busy and long that I'm always ready to hit the sack at bedtime :)

These past few days we've been meeting with teachers, parents and students about tutoring. I'm simply amazed each day at everyone's kindness to me. As Anna is sitting there explaining what we are going to do (in Korean) I sit there trying to look interested and pleasant. You would not believe how hard it is to do so when you don't understand a word anyone is saying. After an hour and a half of sitting on the floor (with of course no back rest and no carpet...I never realized until now how much I use them! :) it can be quite a challenge. But they seem to think that it is wonderful that I try so I guess that is all that really matters :) They are delighted with the few Korean words I can speak...and well...the feeling is mutual, I can assure you. A smile works wonders but being able converse...well...it is such a gift. When I come across someone who can speak English quite fluently...it is such a delight to be able to talk with them (and this is me saying this...the shy, silent one:) Sometimes the things you miss most are the things you least expect.
As for the Korean food...it is lovely...yet so different! There is of course rice with every meal but their is also a variety of about 25 side dishes! The amount of food they make is amazing. So much of their food here is fresh too...the tomatoes are exceptionaly good! :) But their food is also twice as filling as ours. It's like eating a Thanksgiving dinner everyday...at evey meal! :) Also, if you want to let someone know how much you like them, in Korea you don't send them a card, you take them out to eat! :) And so I eat and eat and eat, not because I'm hungrey, but because there is food in front of me. Mi-na's father cannot see how I can survive on such "little" food! :) At every meal we eat at a little table on the floor with metal chopsticks that are TONS more difficult to eat with them wooden ones! The food slips everywhere! Also, not only do you take off your shoes before you go into someone else's house you also take them off before you go into a restaurant. They even have little cubbies for your shoes...it's so neat!

Also, everything is heated here. The floors - the toilet seat. In fact, the bathroom is quite amazingly actually. You don't shower in the tub...there is no tub...or anything to contain the water. You shower on the floor (there is even a beautiful drain in the corner) which of course leaves the floor wet 99% of the time. Which is probably why they go barefoot around the house:)
The mountains are beautiful...really, really lovely...and they are everywhere! So are apartment buildings. Infact, right in the city there are no houses at all! Just stores, cars driving really fast...and apartment buildings :) The place I'm staying in is on the outskirts of a town called Incheon (which is actually 2 1/2 hours south west of Seoul...I only just learned on the drive from the airport:). The home is lovely - and it is infact a house. But it is still so different. The main living space is all floor...used for eating, sleeping, watching TV and visiting with guests. The only chair in the house is in front of the computer desk! It really is all amazingly different!

I have to go now and get ready for a tutoring class...love you all and miss you lots!
God Bless,

~Shannon

P.S. THE MISSING BAG IS FOUND AND ALL IS SAFE :)

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April 14, 2005

Hello everyone!

Now, I have some really big news so if you're not sitting down - please do so now! Thank you. This past week we came to realize that with all the tutoring I am doing - my schedule does not allow me to visit my Korean friends who have moved back home or to do too much sightseeing (beyond the everyday life kind). Now everyday life is wonderful, but after coming all this way - we thought that it would make the most sense to see as much as possible. So now, the plans have been somewhat altered and I will not be coming home on the 28th. My trip has been extended for another two weeks - until May 12th. Before you say anything...I must admit that I do have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I love Korea, and could not dream of leaving it without first seeing all I can see and visiting my close Korean friends. On the other hand, if I wasn't under the obligation to make a wise, clear headed decision, I'd jump on the fastest plane home! Even though I am enjoying myself tremendously here, I do miss home so very much. So, the plan is I tutor until the end of the month and then for the last two weeks of my stay I will be visiting the ten or so Korean friends of mine who are dieing to show me their beautiful homeland - and of course touring the "not-so-close" sights to be seen. Okay...you can stand again...or keep on sitting as you choose. The rest of my news is not near as startling! :)

As I mentioned above - I am tutoring quite a lot. Though, that too is different then we originally expected. I have 3 different classes, the first and the youngest consisting of two boys and two girls. The youngest girl is only 3 or 4 and she comes with her sister who is ten and quite shy. The youngest boy is 5 and well...a boy. A robot loving, hyperactive boy. Mi-na's 10 year old brother also joins our class which keeps us laughing half the time. He is the comedian in the family - though I for one don't know what I am laughing at half the time! My Korean is still somewhat weak. Anyways, I have the above class, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two hours right after they are done school. At least the formal kind. Korean students are ALWAYS studying...I don't know how these kids do it! My second class is right after the first, for two hours, on all the same days. Although the first class is by far the hardest to teach, the second is by far the eaiest. Two girls and two boys again - all twelve years old. This studants are really a joy to teach, they are so eager to learn and determined to be pleased! Also, they have the most BEAUTIFUL piano at their house (ehem...apartment...sorry)...the tone quality and touch is really lovely. I've been able to steal a few songs on it here and there when we are not rushing to be somewhere else. Having a piano at home for me to play whenever I wished is such a blessing - I don't think I shall take it for granted again too soon...I really do miss it! But now, for my last class there are three boys and one girl. Two of the boys are young, five and eight I think and the other two are eleven or twelve. The students in this class are quite quick, but have not had a lot of verbal practise with English in the past year or so. Many have forgotten what they used to know, so we are doing a whole lot of conversational practice with them. They are my weekend class as their schedule is really hectic. We do three hours each day. They all such a delight to teach though, in their own special way. I am so blessed to have the chance to teach them!

As for the weather, it's been mostly rainy here - with a day of sunshine now and then. But the rain here is different...it's humid. Not a wet humid like the Dominican Republic was...but a dry kind of humid. It's somewhat hard to explain :) The sunny days are beautiful but have a slight wind. They call this wind the yellow dust wind and it can make people quite sick. Everyone here seems to have a cold from it (including myself)! Though, I am feeling quite a lot better.

I must go now, I had planned to tell you so much more (about the family I'm staying with, etc) but that will have to wait for next time. I have no time!

Love you all and miss you SO much!

God Bless,

~Shannon

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April 19th, 2005

Hello all,

At dinner the other night I sat down to the usual bowel of rice, various kinds of kimchee and some other new, greyish things. Yes - the greyish things were definably new.

"It's squid. Raw squid." I was told.

Oh, I could handle that. I LOVE squid - and as for raw part - that just meant that it would have a lot more flavor. Not only could I handle anything raw - I even ENJOYED raw foods! I picked up the metal chopsticks I had come to master and went for a big long piece (which from experience I have learned that the bigger it is, the easier it usually is to pick up;). But this piece stuck...no matter how I pulled I could not get it up. Somewhat humbled by my feeble attempts at something I thought I had mastered, I tried for a smaller piece. This time I was able to pick it up without too much difficulty. After a somewhat uneventful trip from the hot dipping sauce to my mouth, I began to chew. It really wasn't that bad...it just tasted like chewy squid! As I reached out my chopsticks for another piece though, something happened that I had not quite counted on.

A piece of squid moved.

At first I thought I must be seeing things, someone must have bumped the table. But as the whole plate of squid began to whither and move as neighboring chopsticks dove in, expertly twisting in such a way as to dis-attache the tentacles from the plate, I KNEW I was not seeing things.

They were not only raw - but alive!

That insane thought was quickly confirmed by a pointed finger and giggle..."Look - they're moving! See - they're alive!"

And so they were. So they were.

With a somewhat wider eye and a growing upset stomach, I desperately dove my chopsticks into the mass of moving bodies once more. After a trying fight, I manged to disengage one moving mass from the others and lift it off the plate.

Don't think...I told myself...just chew. That's all I had to do. Just chew.

At least that's what I thought before it began sticking onto the inside of my mouth! Because you may not have tried it I will add that it is VERY hard to chew a wiggling, slithering mass that is stuck to the inside of your mouth. Very, very hard. I managed one frantic chew and a quick swallow...

....and the THING was gone.

And that was the last one I ever put in my mouth. For the rest of the meal I sat and watched fascinated as my friends expertly manipulated these moving creatures onto their chopsticks and then somehow got them down their throat. My esteem for my friends grew greatly that day - for I don't think I have ever seen anyone eat an alive, wiggling tentacle before with such ease and calm. The taste may not be all that bad...but when it begins moving...it's hard to get your head around....

One thing I must make very clear though is that the people here are SO very good to me. They treat me like a princess.

I get a ride to and from almost all of my tutoring classes. Halfway through each class we take a break and the mothers serve us water, tea, juice (sometimes all three at once!) as we eat whatever huge "snack" they haved prepared for us. They are always so concerned that I don't like the food...and so once they find out I really like something...I find myself eating it the rest of the week :)

The family I'm staying with won't let me do any housework or cleaning either - not even my own - because I'm a guest. Their grandmother insists that she do my laundry - because she likes to help me. If there is one word they all know in English now it is "thank you"...I use it so much....

They tell me that the "white girl" is sweet, charming and beautiful so they want to do many things for her. The other day they dressed me up in their traditional Korean dress and said that I was a real "Korean Princess" now.

I take that as the highest compliment. Even if it means eating a few whithering, live squids.

Love you all so much and miss you more then words can say.

God Bless you!

~Shannon