Nice Sunday

I slept kind of late today, maybe until 7:30 or so. It was a good sleep. I felt like I had overcome the jetlag and the effects of the decaffeinated coffee with caffeine. After having some de-caf green tea and a little of this rice cake I bought yesterday I dropped a load of laundry into the washing machine and walked down the street to buy some kim bap for breakfast. As I was walking there a woman rode past me on a bicycle and smiled. As she passed, I recognized her as one of the ladies from the kim bap place. It is funny to compare Korea to Japan. 6 years there and I could eat at the same restaurant and they would not give a hint of recognition. It was nice to feel like I am not invisible here.

After finishing my laundry I picked up Sonja and we walked to Wal-Mart. I know I'm supposed to boycott Wal-Mart, but they have a nice little food court and last time I found these great magnetic Korean letters for my refrigerator.

When we got there it turned out it was no longer Wal-Mart, but E-Mart. I don't know what the difference is, but I know there is a D-Mart near our campus. I wonder if there are A, B, and C Marts too.....

We couldn't find the Korean letters but we both bought a few things (I bought dried seaweed in little packets with paintings from the great masters like Van Gogh, Da Vinci, etc., and Sonja bought yogurt. We then went and had lunch in the food court. We both got tonkatsu - Japanese pork cutlet.

It was a lovely day. Warmer than yesterday, but still on the cool side with a nice breeze. We stopped at Baskin Robins on the way home and spoke to a man and his daugher who was very excited to see us. The daughter had CP and her father was very sweet with her. She kept smiling and was even more excited when my berry parfait arrived because it was the same thing she had. It got a little uncomfortable when Daddy asked us if we believed in God and started talking about his church. He gave me his business card and invited us to visit his apartment nearby and meet some of his friends. I think he was trying to recruit us.

We came back to the dorm and I took a nap while Sonja busied herself in her room. Sue and Elizabeth went to some mountain to hike today and the rest of the guys are gone.

I got up from my nap and took a walk to the park we went to the other night to listen to jazz and eat pizza and cocktails in a bag. The park was really busy today. In one section there were hundreds of older men. Many of them were playing GO, and some were just sitting and chatting. It was really an amazing sight. I can't imagine seeing anything like that in the US. Most of them were over 70, some were maybe a little younger. There were no women, only men.

In another section there were some women, but I imagined most of the women were at home cooking.

I kept walking and passed a swimming pool and a lake. Then I came to a little bicycle course that had a section set aside for kids on bikes with training wheels. I walked further and found a nice little pine grove with benches under the trees, and finally came across a really beautiful little temple.

I walked back towards the dorm, taking different streets and exploring different neighborhoods. As I approached the dorm, I decided to go to the little produce market next to D-Mart where we went last week. I got some really good plums there but really wanted a peach.

I went in and the husband was working. His wife and little boy were not there. He was sitting behind the counter looking a little bored. He jumped up and smiled at me, obviously recognizing me from last week. I picked up a little basket of peaches and he came over and said, "no". I was confused. Why couldn't I buy these peaches? I looked at him waiting for an explanation. He struggled with Korean and tried to use what few English words he knew. His gestures finally helped me to understand. "No good?" I asked. "Ah, yes, no good." he said, and then pounding his chest said, "honest".

I thought it was really sweet that he let me know the peaches were not good. They looked like they might be hard and maybe not ripe. So, I picked up a little basket of plums and said, "good?" and he said, "yes, very good!". He then went over to a box and pulled out a different kind of plum and gave it to me and said, "sample". I tasted it. It was the same plum we sampled last week when we were there. It was good, but there were none in a basket, and I didn't know how to ask for them. I looked around for something else to buy and he said, "apples", and then told me they were from his home village. I'm picky with apples and don't like apples that have been sitting in a warehouse for 6 months, but these looked like they might be freshly picked. I got a bag of apples.

My total was 5,000 won, about $4.00 US more or less. Somehow we started having a conversation at the cash register about something, I don't remember, but I didn't understand much of what he was trying to say. Then he said, "wait", and ran around from behind the counter to the box of plums he had me sample and grabbed a bunch and said, "sample". I thanked him and he continued to try to speak to me. At one point, he said something about Japanese, and I told him I spoke a little Japanese. That was when it got really funny. We started having a conversation in Japanese, Korean, English, and a little Spanish. For me the Spanish was sneaking in just because it is the one foreign language I feel most comfortable speaking. It was very odd. He told me he works for a Japanese company. I told him I lived in Japan for 6 years. We both laughed a lot.

Soon, my total went down to 4,000 won. As I got my change and picked up my bag, he said, "wait, wait", and again ran out from behind the counter and picked up a little plastic bag of something that looked like apple juice. He put it in my bag and said, you guessed it, "sample".

He was the sweetest guy I have ever interacted with anywhere. I came home and had a few plums which were very sweet, and a green apple, which was quite good. I have a lot of fruit though, and gave some to Sonja.

After I took a shower, I skyped Sonja and we arranged to go have dinner. We went around behind the dorm to a little neighborhood restaurant I went to the last time I was here that I thought served stews. It turned out to be a chicken soup restaurant. It had a nice homey, neighborhoody feel and I thought the chicken soup was better than what we ate at the other restaurant we normally go to. This one had a lot of rice in the pot.

We were sitting eating and one of the women in the restuarant walked by and took my ladle and mashed the remaining chicken in my pot. I wished she hadn't done that because then I had to pick through all of the bones, but I guess that is what you are supposed to do. The women who worked there were very sweet as well.

I thought when I came here I would be mostly working and not really enjoy being in Korea again because I thought the thrill of my first visit would not be there anymore, but I actually think I am having a better time this time than before. I am familiar with a little more of the food, I'm managing the language a little better (even though I still speak baby talk) and I am really enjoying my teaching. On top of all that, the weather these past few days has been amazing. Today we reached a high of 77 and when I went out with Sonja there was a deliciously cool breeze blowing.

I'm all set for the week, I have my copies all made and lessons all planned. All is good.