Bullet points are much easier...
Learning Korean- a very slow process...so far we can order food ( a small range), beer and drinks, I can tell my kids to 'shut up', and 'repeat', also social graces such as 'thank you', 'hello' etc have been mastered...I'll call it a work in progress (our newly acquired cellphones have English-Korean dictionarys, and vice verse).
Masters in Konglish.
Korean buses- appear to be straight out of Bollywood movies...pic's to follow...One night in Gyeongju (this is while we were at the hotel orientation) our bus driver bowed to peer pressure and played club level (noise wise) K-pop, laser lights, and a colourful strobe...all while driving along a 100km highway! There's also frilly curtains, and embroidered or tasseled seat covers ala Martha Stewart.
Best bus driver (Ruth, you needed this guy for your 21st)
His party bus- complete with plasma tv, strobes and lasers.
Korean Homestay:
We arrived at the Kolon Hotel on Friday night, and were picked up by Korean families on Saturday. All 80 scholars from the Gyeongbuk province had a family each, and we stayed with them for Sat night! Jung-Min and her mother picked me up, revealling that apparently neither spoke a word of English, and took me to her fathers work. Mr Kim is a Korean traditional medicine practitioner, and spoke amazing English, Jung-Min also left the shyness behind and started to practice what she'd learnt on me...They showed me around his office, sat me in a deluxe massage chair, and left me...We waited for Mr Kim to finish work, and headed to a renown restaurant in Gyeongju for cold noodles- a Korean summer favourite...The texture of eating rice noodles with ice floating in the bowl is possibly not the best ever, also, Korean people eat huge lunches- something i'm (amazingly) struggling with!
After lunch Jung-Min, her mother and I headed back to their apartment- the first Korean home i'd seen since arriving- despite it being strange to imagine growing up without a backyard, pets etc, their home was huge (though not all are anywhere near that size) and pretty well set up! Stoked that afternoon naps were on the cards- Tamara (my kiwi roomate) and I had set a pretty standard routine while at Kyung Hee- the heat is a killer.
I later discovered that Jung-Min's brother (who was at school until 4pm on a Sat, and came home to do homework) had given up his bed for me, and was planning to sleep on the floor in the kids study (why not the super comfy couch, i don't know). That night the whole family (reluctant brother) took me to the Gyeongju lake for a swan boat ride, to watch a Korean folk performance, and back home for some hearty discussions over what country i prefer- Korea/NZ (a common question). Mrs Kim was an amazing cook, so i'm posting photos purely of what she fed me! The homestay experience was the best thing in this orientation so far, and the family is comming to visit Gaz and I in Chilgok!
