Visits

Even though school is finished for the summer, almost every day at least 1 student stops by to talk. I love that! It's so nice to have friends/students to talk to. Daniel comes by a few times a week, and I've enjoyed building our friendship. It's nice, whenever I have a question about Korea or Korean language, I remember it and wait to see Daniel. He's good at helping me with questions that I have, and I've really appreciated that over this last year. I hope that I'm as ready and willing to help international people in the states who want my advice/help with American things.

Last week we talked about underwater reservoirs, and how if your house is above them, then Koreans think that it is very unlucky, and ghosts haunt there. I guess kind of like lay lines. Only not having anythign to do with geography, but instead underground water. They use steel bars that move around when you find these underwater places. Kind of freaky. But interesting how everywhere in the world has similar "spooky" places and ways to find them.

We also talked about a theory that Koreans can all be put into 4 groups of people based on body and mind. It was so interesting! I guess because Koreans are a pretty pure group of people (they historically don't/haven't intermarried) that they can be categorized more clearly than say Americans could.

I came to a realization a few days ago. When I was first learning Korean, I could read easily, but first I would read through each letter in my head, and then slowly pronounce it. When looking at a page/board of Korean, it would all jumble in my mind, and no words would necessarily stand out. But during one of my talks with Daniel, the board was full of his writing, and I had no problem reading/pronouncing/understanding any of hte words. It is like reading English to me. I don't need to pronounce the words in my head first, I can just read them out. I'm not able to do it as fast as in English, but it's exciting to be able to have a base vocabulary and very basic understgadnign of how the Korean langtuage works. I'm so thankful for Daniel! He's been a good teacher/helper!!

Anotehr student came by Friday and was talking with me. After talking about a girl he likes, he asked about my guy relationships in the states and if I was planning to marry right away. I explained that I hadn't had an American boyfriend since high school, and he was shocked! He said that he expected that when I got to the airport that many American men would come up to me, tell me I'm beautiful, and ask for my phone number. He couldn't imagine anything other than that when people saw me. Haha! It was a very flattering idea... ^^