2002-12-03 - 1:38 a.m.

Fri., Nov. 29, 2002

Chung came this morning and we had a good lesson. Finals are coming up, so next week is his last lesson before leaving for Wisconsin. We have been focussing on preparing him to deal with the differences from what he is used to, things he will encounter in America.

He asked me in a rather astounded tome of voice, "Is it true that Americans don't take off thier shoes when they go into their houses?" I assured him that it was true, and that it made a lot of floor-cleaning necessary. I linked it to the cold floors, keeping your shoes on helps keep your feet warm. Somewhere in the Dark Ages, Europeans forgot the Roman technique of heating the floors.

Koreans have such simple and elegant solutions for heating and cooling houses. Heat comes up from the floor, and, in the summer, cool air falls from the air conditioner placed up near the ceiling. It's all quite logical.

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Sunday, Dec. 1

Made up my mind to take the paper journal with me and make notes in spare time. I'll see how long I can stick to it.

3:20 p.m. {On the subway train...} A mom is reading English with her daughter, who's about eight, by the looks of her teeth. They're sounding out together from "The Catcher in the Rye."

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Mon., Dec. 2

23:00 -- Well, so much for lugging. I've been doing it, but haven't had spare minutes, what with getting into deep and serious conversations, doing the necessary housework and teaching today, this is the first moment.

Riding the subway (which I did for three hours today), it was too crowded to write. But I did have a lovely conversation with a retired civil engineer in his seventies, who was going to visit friends in Suwon. Retired folks get free passes on the subway and very reduced rates on the busses(25 cents U.S.). And they get to sit, if they want. Younger people usually get up and offer their seat. Even I get offered a seat quite frequently.

After Sunday's afternoon meeting, several of us stood in the sun for a good stretch of time, talking. A couple of the men and I walked up toward the subway. I was planning to go to the pibimbop diner and do some writing before the 7:30 meeting, but one of the men decided to accompany me.

He needed to talk, so we did for a couple hours. My experience working in mental health and substance abuse counseling came in handy. One good thing about working at the Waterville hospital was all the "in-service" courses that we employees took over the years. We got the latest information on a great many health topics. I shared a lot of it with him. Someone in his family has mental health issues. [I'm not being coy here, I hold to counselor's ethics on confidentiality.] We talked about the different types of depression and bi-polar disorder, their characteristics, and how co-dependency can make a bad situation worse. Then we discussed healthy ways of dealing with the person. If one becomes suicidal, finding out local laws on commitment to a hospital to get the meds regulated, problems with commitment, and so forth. There are certainly caveats related to the language barrier. This person sounds to me like one of those bi-polar types who get fearful rages when they're manic. That's not good. Neighbours may call the police. Well, enough speculating. I've agreed to act as a resource if the ill one agrees, but he's not going to push us together.

Down in Doksan, today's "Mom's class" went very well. Only three of the previous students showed up, but we had five new ones including two who were "sitting in" to see if they wanted to work with me. One of the students explained where they were in the 2 textbooks and how the former teacher had been using the texts. [Tomorrow, I need to go to Coex and see if I can find teachers editions of those books.]

I used the texts as a starting point (after a brief skimming of the relevant pages) and we compiled a list of vocabulary words as we talked about the topics: friends, sharing problems, the "time" tenses of verbs and how to use them.

We talked about cultural similarities and the long history of Maine-Korea trade. [There's a town in Maine named "Corea." By it's spelling, it was named long before the Japanese occupation.] Those old sailing captains often named towns for places to which they were attracted,- Sorrento is another example.

The students really got enthusiastic about asking me questions. I'd just explained that I'd come to Korea at the urging of my son, when my cellphone rang. and he was calling to see if I wanted to come to Sanbon after class! I told him I'd call back and announced to the class that we had a "coincidence" here. One of the gals piped up, "Speak of the Devil!" I praised her mightily. We all chuckled. Then we talked about "exclamation points" and when to use them. It was very stream-of-consciousness teaching, even though I kept looping back and tying it together. They were all very involved, though, and that was a good sign. I really had to pull myself away from them after class.

I got lost for about ten minutes on my way to the kindergarten, which is in a different building in this complex, but I circled back around and found it. The president was just coming out to look for me when I met her on the stairs.

The song for the little kids, "Put your finger on your nose," and the "Please, Thank You, You're Welcome" for the 6 and 7 year-olds went pretty smoothly. The homeroom teachers translated my instructions and comments and the kids caught on quickly. [This is really the way hagwons (private schools) should do it!] This kindergarten isn't a hagwon. It's more like a HeadStart program, so it actually focuses on teaching, not making money. The city government subsidises both the kindergarten and the mothers' class, which meets in the welfare office, I learned today.

The complex of buildings is low- to middle-income housing. One interesting note is that there are a lot more small family businesses in among the apartment buildings than there are in affluent Sanbon. The designers of "Ha-an-dong 3" were smart to leave space for Mom and Pop stores; they tie a residential area together into a community.

I caught the bus back to the train station and went to Sanbon. Jim told me, via phone, how to catch the bus to his place. I had no trouble and called him back when I got to his bus stop. All the apartment buildings look the same to me, but Jim saw me out his window. So he talked to me on the phone and waved from his balcony at the same time. That was all I needed to zero in! I was hugging him two minutes later.

He showed me his latest and most beautiful construction, a medium-sized drum that looks rather like a conga drum. He finished it with linseed oil which brought out the patterns in the woodgrain. He matched the pieces so that the stripes are paired,- it's really stunning and I can't begin to describe it adequately. When viewed closely, there are leopard rosettes in the wood, too (burling). He finished the head differently this time, and it looks very neat and strong.

We had a lot to talk about and I stayed for supper. Mrs. K. made a great brown-bean soup with veggies and tofu, plus all sorts of delicious "pan chan," including a fresh batch of kimchi. (Yes, she makes her own!) Awesome!

I think I figured out a work-around for a bug that's been giving their computer spazz fits. Something about Yahoo's popup ads was making the "illegal operation" message come up. I dubbed around and found that Windows was closing all apps when I minimised them, also. I'm really not sure what I did, but kept trying different permutations until I got a stable screen.

Well, I came back too late to pick up my photos today, so I'll do that tomorrow, too. There's a bunch of errands to run Tuesday. I'm teaching in Doksan both Wednesday and Friday, so I've got to adjust Chung's class, also.

Now, I'm going to the PC bang and post this before I hit the hay.

Thanks for coming by.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil in Corea

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