Beating the Breast

Flipping through the channels I came across a show called "Scandal" twice in the past four months. If a woman believes that her husband/boyfriend is cheating she calls this tv show up. TV show tails him to confirm if he is cheating and if so they let her out of the car and let the "real drama unfold." Faces, licence plates, and the names of businesses are blurred but the voices are tweaked to sound like chickmonks.

So why do I bring up this Jerry Springer-esk show? No, it's not the fact that a cat fight with chickmonk voices is perversly amusing on some level. The first time I came across this show, the woman was overcome not with wrath, but with incredible sadness. She got out her initial anger and now was squatting by the side of the road wailing. And I watched for the first time in my life when a person literally beat their breast.

Up until a few months ago, the only time I can remember hearing about people beating their breast was in the Old Testamont. And within the past four months I have personally witnessed it about a dozen times; none of which were are dramatic, but all of these people wished to express pain or frustration or hardships of some sort. I've even learned a common word to say while beating your breast.

But why do I remember just hearing about it in the Old Testamont and not the New? The Old Testamont was written to a Hebrew, a Middle-Eastern perspecive. The New Testamont was written to a Gentile, or Western perspective.

Shortly before coming here I was told it's called The Middle-EAST for a reason. That same night they gave stories from an Arabic nation where people were oversome with emotions and took a fist to their chest.

I've done well in Korea, in Taiwan, and in some poor parts in China. A mild form of curiosity hits with me wondering how well I would do just due west of here. It's suprising to know just how much is the same.

I Get to Stay Legal~

The Immigration Office finished with my immigration card, effectively a green card, and I was able to pick that up in Daejon today. With having that card I now have a social security number as well. With having that number I was able to transfer money to my US bank account, open a Korean band account, and get health insurance all in the same afternoon.

So I'm legal
Have health insurance
Bank account
Ability to wire money

Not bad for an afternoon.

We were paid this past Monday and I was able to exchange almost 30,000 Yen ($300) into Korean Won, which meant I had money to transfer.

The timing for getting paid is also good because tomorrow is the first day we have off for Chusok; the Korean Thanksgiving. I will be spending the next 10 days in Seoul, living at three different places, and be able to run around in the city. Looking forward to it.

Not All It's Cracked-Up To Be

After trying unsuccessfully three times to go horse back riding (1x no one told me until too late, 2nd time unclear on starting time, 3rd time canceled to rain) I was finally able to go tonight. We had to leave quickly so I only had 4 minutes to scarf down dinner before hopping into the school van. I felt like we were back in China upon seeing the style of driving; adventure with every turn and for the first time an unsteady stomach.

45 minutes to get there, 45 minutes to get back. A total of 20 students for 2 horses and beginning lessons which means we went around in a large circle with 10 minutes of riding time per student for this 4 hour tour.

My body is not exactly Asia-sized so the largest chaps were cutting off circulation (and then had me wait 20 minutes before I could ride). My feet are big and the stirrups small, so I could not get the ball of my foot through the stirrup which is impossible for leverage. They brought over a stool, which you could tell had spent most of it's life outside in the sun, so when I stepped on it my foot went right through. When riding the horse they kept telling me "10 cm" in Korean, which is fine except I wasn't sure how big 10 cm is until I finished my ride and used my cell phone to do a conversion (yes, I love this phone).

The ride was a nice 10 minutes and was relaxing for the most part...I guess. Oh and we sat through a lecture for 40~50 minutes which had nothing to do with riding horses (international trade and hopes for university classes with horses as the subject).

I'm ready for this vacation. I'm ready to go back to Seoul. Bring on Chusok and let's go back to the city~

Rick's "Uh 으" List

In English we write one letter after another in usually a straight line. In Korean we write letters in cluster form and when these clusters are put together you have words. My Korean name is Lee ChaDu (from Richard). It is composed of ㅇㅣㅊㅏㄷㅡ, but is written 이차드.
ㅈㅏ ㄹ -> 잘
ㅁ ㅏㅅ -> 맛

Each cluster has to have at least 2 letters in it, it cannot have just one. So words like "cheese," "card," or "English" must add either 으 (Uh) or 이 (E) to the end of the word to follow the cluster rule.

The problem is these added sounds are not dropped when they speak in English. So I put together lists of offending words and we did a few exercises with them. My favorite exercise is they must use at least two of these words in a sentence.

The following are some sentences made in class:
Eat a lot of food is stupid.
I have card enough (credit card).
I have enough game card (credit card again).
Tom is like France Cheese.
Wow! Taste is delicious.
I love Elvis cheese in France.
This weekend I will go to gorgeous place.
I have enough to money.
Wait happy weekend.

I now understand where a lot of that Engrish comes from~

The Importance of Rice

As Westerners we understand that rice is important in Asian culture but we fail to understand just how important rice is. I now present you "Rick's Guide to Rice" ~

With the format of "English - Korean"

Breakfast - Morning Rice (아침밥)
Lunch - Lunch Rice (점심밥)
Dinner - Evening Rice (저녁밥)
Dog Food - Dog Rice (캐밥)
Korean sushi - Seaweed Rice (김밥)
Japanese sushi - "Cho" Rice (초밥)
This snack item - (literally translated) 3-sided seaweed rice (삼객김밥)
Appetite - Rice Taste (밥맛)
To have a good appetite - (literally translated) Rice Good Eat (밥이 잘 먹히다)
Boiled Buckwheat - Buckwheat Rice (메밀밥)
Boiled Barley and Rice - Barley Rice (보리밥)
Meat, veggies and rice dish - Mixed Rice (비빔밥)
Boiled Rice - Uncooked Rice Cooked Rice (쌀밥)

When you order a meal you are in all actuality ordering rice and side dishes. So while we order things like barbecued meat we are really ordering rice with a side of barbecued meat. With exception to your rice, everything you eat at a meal is a "side dish."

Like Eskimos have different words for snow, Koreans have two different words for "rice" to tell the person if it is cooked (밥) or not (쌀).

You can add rice to most soups in the country as well and you will frequently see people mixing the two together. So enough though you are eating soup for lunch, you are still getting your rice.

Rain Rain

I love seeing the weather on tv whenever I am somewhere other than my hometown or LA. What is normal for everyone seems rather exciting and new. You are seeing something that no one else gets to see.

That is why I love seeing the satellite pictures from time to time; it affirms where I am.

The rainy season started about month and a half late and once it began it has stayed longer than normal. This last week started sunny and very quickly turned to heavy showers. Check out Weather.com's satellite picture of the area. Most of the peninsula is covered by a massive cloud that extends into China~

I can just hear it now: "It's cloudy in the entire South."