I have a blogging back log that I am trying to deal with. Sorry this is not up to the present day.
I am writing this right before going to a briefing on our
trip to the DMZ. Yes, you do need to be
briefed before going to the DMZ because it is an ACTIVE WAR ZONE! And peace, it seems, is a little more
fleeting than most people would like to believe. At least, it is if you are talking to some
people. Other people think that it will
never happen. I am not really sure who
to believe. One thing is for
certain. At the DMZ, where you can
literally stare North Korean Soldiers in the eye, appearance and behavior
matter. For both sides.
But more about that after I come back from the DMZ. Now,
back to talking about last week.
On Saturday most people were just trying to rest and
recuperate. Heather, Cassie and I
visited a cat café. Yes, it is a café,
with cats walking around to be pet and played with. There were even cats on the espresso machine,
which I am sure would not pass a safety inspection back in the USA. But it was still a lot of fun. Cat and Dog cafes exist today because many
people cannot keep animals in their own apartments. So they go to these cafes to get their animal
fix. Just like us!
Sunday I went with Cassie to meet up with her old 4th
grade teacher who now works at a Christian International School in Seoul. That is the thing about going to a small
private school, it isn’t weird to still be friends with your fourth grade
teacher. We went to church with him and
his wife (international Lutheran Church, same church as last week), then went
to visit their school (the wife is a librarian, and he teaches middle school
and highschoolers). The school was what
you would expect of a private school back home.
But that is kind of the point. It
is a school meant so that international children do not have to adjust to the
Korean school system. On that note,
students with Korean citizenship are not allowed to attend the school, unless
they have lived out of the country for at least three years and therefore
cannot easily reenter the Korean school system.
Makes me wonder what the Korean school system is like, that it is a
problem for people to enter into it.
After that, we went back to their house for fajitas and
caramel apples. They were extremely
yummy.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pure class during the
day. We talked about everything from
Orientalism to colonialism to economics.
Tuesday evening we went to a show called Mizo, a modern Korean musical
love story with traditional instruments and setting. It was a lot of fun, but not necessarily the
“traditional” music that I think Marty was looking for. Wednesday night Heather and I went out for
dinner with Juisan, Heather’s buddy, then met up with a few other people from
our group and the buddies. We had a lot
of fun talking about accents and colloquialisms. And I have once again come to the conclusion
that English is a really hard language to learn. But given my failure to grasp even the most
basic of Korean, I am forced to conclude that languages are really hard in
general, at least for me that is.
I have to get going. I have to go learn about North Korea
Andrea
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