gigantic organic apples and other random ramblings
The company I work for gave all of the teachers and staff a Lunar New Year's gift. Five kilos of giant organic apples. Just over 11 pounds of giant apples. Fourteen apples per box. I've eaten just one. Took me two days.
I gave 5 of them away last week to my kids as the grand prize in a grammar game. They were ecstatic. Jumping-around-the-classroom ecstatic. I had candy as a smaller prize, and the kids liked that, but they said that to have an apple is better because it is a healthy gift. The other teachers said that giving boxed fruit is a common New Year's gift in Korea. It conveys wealth. Apples are freaking expensive here. They are also giant. There is no such thing as a small apple, a green apple, a variety of apple. You can buy a humongous, reddish-skinned apple, and that's it.
For perspective, here is the box of apples with my wallet, my crappy US cell phone, a can of Korean 7up, and my cool Korean cell phone:
I love that the pop cans here are small. 250 ml max. 8.4 ounces. I can't finish a whole can of pop at home. Beer here, however, comes in the standard size bottles we have at home and also in 2 liter bottles. I think it's 2 liters; it might be 1 liter? It costs around $2. HOLY COW.
Here are apples with my adorable, lovely, cute, awesome Korean cell phone (complete with gay cowboy kitty courtesy of jen & angie in honour of Brokeback Mountain, which has 8 Oscar nominations!! how cool and well-deserved is that?!). My cell - called a handphone here - was only $50 -- just as much as my crappy overpriced US cell phone that doesn't even have any games. My cell here has a game I can't figure out b/c it's in Korean, a great camera, an really cool FM radio tuner, a super calendar (using Roman and Lunar dates), almost 50 ringtones, and even the ability to download karoke songs for noraebong practice. Can you tell I like it? *snort* Yep. It's awesome. I am spoiled for life. My phone isn't even that great by Korean standards.
The new work schedule is going really well. I love going in to work around 1:00. I've spent the mornings doing yoga, calling people at home, and catching up on sleep from the past month. I miss the kids I taught last month, very, very much, but my new students all seem to be fun thus far. They are all so smart. They get a kick out of asking me to say words in Korean during break, because I massacre the pronunciation. Mianhamnida is the favorite thus far. They can't understand how someone who looks Korean can't pronounce anything. ~lol~
Though, looking Korean is still up in the air. Some Koreans here think I am Korean, some think I am Japanese. Thus far, I have yet to see someone I really look like. It's weird. I've seen people who look like friends at home, people who look like my Korean co-workers, but no one I really look like. Maybe I have to go to Pusan. Maybe I'm a mutt. Hrm.
Did a little sightseeing this weekend with a few fellow teachers at Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was called the Kyongbok Palace when I was here 14 years ago, I think. Dratted changes to the romanization of Korean. ~lol~ I think the old way is easier to read with the correct pronunciation, but it's probably just what I was used to reading. Anyway, I want to go back to the palace in the spring when the weather is a bit nicer and take a tour in English. We just wandered around the palace grounds this weekend. Here are a few photos. Gyeongbokgung was first built in 1395, was destroyed at least once (in 1592), reconstructed in 1868, and is currently still being restored today.
the central building, with throne room:
brilliant colours - in the throne room:
every important building on the palace grounds has small statues stitting in a line atop the corners of every builing. i think they are there to guard the buildings from evil spirits, if I remember correctly from 14 years ago. the more important the building, the more statues it had. photos of the guardians:
many families were touring the palace, with many people in traditional dress for the holiday. we stopped for a while at a section that was full of traditional (?) games - spinning-tops, hackey-sacks, seesaws. here are a few random people shots ~
blue mouth boy with cotton candy:
a very small hanbok:
beautiful:
twirl:
trying to hack:
spinning tops:
More later. Sorry this post is a bit unorganized. Hope you are all well! I am slowly catching up on email and phone calls, hope to be in touch with you all soon. I'm off to sleep. Love to you!
I gave 5 of them away last week to my kids as the grand prize in a grammar game. They were ecstatic. Jumping-around-the-classroom ecstatic. I had candy as a smaller prize, and the kids liked that, but they said that to have an apple is better because it is a healthy gift. The other teachers said that giving boxed fruit is a common New Year's gift in Korea. It conveys wealth. Apples are freaking expensive here. They are also giant. There is no such thing as a small apple, a green apple, a variety of apple. You can buy a humongous, reddish-skinned apple, and that's it.
For perspective, here is the box of apples with my wallet, my crappy US cell phone, a can of Korean 7up, and my cool Korean cell phone:
I love that the pop cans here are small. 250 ml max. 8.4 ounces. I can't finish a whole can of pop at home. Beer here, however, comes in the standard size bottles we have at home and also in 2 liter bottles. I think it's 2 liters; it might be 1 liter? It costs around $2. HOLY COW.
Here are apples with my adorable, lovely, cute, awesome Korean cell phone (complete with gay cowboy kitty courtesy of jen & angie in honour of Brokeback Mountain, which has 8 Oscar nominations!! how cool and well-deserved is that?!). My cell - called a handphone here - was only $50 -- just as much as my crappy overpriced US cell phone that doesn't even have any games. My cell here has a game I can't figure out b/c it's in Korean, a great camera, an really cool FM radio tuner, a super calendar (using Roman and Lunar dates), almost 50 ringtones, and even the ability to download karoke songs for noraebong practice. Can you tell I like it? *snort* Yep. It's awesome. I am spoiled for life. My phone isn't even that great by Korean standards.
The new work schedule is going really well. I love going in to work around 1:00. I've spent the mornings doing yoga, calling people at home, and catching up on sleep from the past month. I miss the kids I taught last month, very, very much, but my new students all seem to be fun thus far. They are all so smart. They get a kick out of asking me to say words in Korean during break, because I massacre the pronunciation. Mianhamnida is the favorite thus far. They can't understand how someone who looks Korean can't pronounce anything. ~lol~
Though, looking Korean is still up in the air. Some Koreans here think I am Korean, some think I am Japanese. Thus far, I have yet to see someone I really look like. It's weird. I've seen people who look like friends at home, people who look like my Korean co-workers, but no one I really look like. Maybe I have to go to Pusan. Maybe I'm a mutt. Hrm.
Did a little sightseeing this weekend with a few fellow teachers at Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was called the Kyongbok Palace when I was here 14 years ago, I think. Dratted changes to the romanization of Korean. ~lol~ I think the old way is easier to read with the correct pronunciation, but it's probably just what I was used to reading. Anyway, I want to go back to the palace in the spring when the weather is a bit nicer and take a tour in English. We just wandered around the palace grounds this weekend. Here are a few photos. Gyeongbokgung was first built in 1395, was destroyed at least once (in 1592), reconstructed in 1868, and is currently still being restored today.
the central building, with throne room:
brilliant colours - in the throne room:
every important building on the palace grounds has small statues stitting in a line atop the corners of every builing. i think they are there to guard the buildings from evil spirits, if I remember correctly from 14 years ago. the more important the building, the more statues it had. photos of the guardians:
many families were touring the palace, with many people in traditional dress for the holiday. we stopped for a while at a section that was full of traditional (?) games - spinning-tops, hackey-sacks, seesaws. here are a few random people shots ~
blue mouth boy with cotton candy:
a very small hanbok:
beautiful:
twirl:
trying to hack:
spinning tops:
More later. Sorry this post is a bit unorganized. Hope you are all well! I am slowly catching up on email and phone calls, hope to be in touch with you all soon. I'm off to sleep. Love to you!
posted by smochs at 10:55 PM
4 Comments:
Dang, if I tell Adam he can go to Korea and play hacky sack, we just might make it over. :P
You sound much better. Was so goodgoodgood to talk to you this morning! Must be all the healthy eating, with those e-freaking-normous apples. How can we get our American kids to be excited about getting fruit instead of candy??
I'm reading Guns,Germs&Steel (which is a fantastic book so far) and they've talked about how the population of Asia and Indonesia happened, blah blah blah. One of the points that he makes is that not all of Asia was completely dominated by population, language, and technology expansions out of China, but that all groups were at least influenced by China. In Korea, they used a writing system originally developed in China, and only now are they moving to, "its wonderful indiginous han'gul alphabet." So, that's presumably why names are changing. He does state that there was enough geographic isolation for Korea to retain its own language and its genetic distinctions. Which doesn't explain why you don't look like other Koreans, but does explain why you don't look Chinese. :) (Aren't you thrilled that I'll have more time to read about history and culture and give you more and more lectures? Yikes.) Speaking of which, just think about how different my dad looks from other Chinese folks, including his own siblings. It's only freaks like me who look exactly like their parents and brother!
Talk about your random ramblings. I'd better go back to work. I don't want them to fire me before I have a chance to quit. :D
apples - that's a lotta apples - everything sounds much easier with a more manageable schedule. i dig seeing all your pics!
i'm in charcoal line project tech now - who's crazy idea was this project anyways?? producing schmucing. actually - reservations are coming in - which is both exciting and intimidating :)
yay for brokeback - i'm rooting for it all the way.
even in japan, i was so amazed to see so many asian faces. in korea, i think that would be super cool and i would just be waiting to bump into someone who looks like me and then stare at them until they became uncomfortable.
by the way, my boss got a bigger office, so now i have a bigger cube. i dwell in an upgraded cube. you are in korea. me. cube. :) :) :)
miss you,
jen
I just had to drop a note to give you reason number 1,3543 not to return to the corporate world: I just got out of an hour long meeting in which I was read to the ENTIRE time off of the most boring PP presentation in the history of presentations and the least dynamic presenter. I think Ben Stein's character from Ferris Bueller could have been more exciting. My head is still aching.
It sounds like you're doing well! That's interesting about the fruit as a New Years gift. I think that'd be a great tradition to start here.
Well I need to finish up other mundane tasks before taking my sleepy head home for some much needed revitilization.
melinite ~ ohohohoh, dude, if you and adam come visit i would be so so so so so so so so so so excited beyond words!!!!! we could go to geongbokgung and play free hacky sack for hours. how is your weekend going?? agh, it was good to talk with you, and congrats!!!!!!!!! again!!!!!! so cool! i don't think we'll ever be able to get american kids to be excited about fruit over candy. not possible. unless we change our whole culture, and start valueing (valuing?) health above more than most things. the korean written language was developed at least a few centuries ago, i think, and a few chinese characters are still used today, but things are mostly in hangul. the problem comes in with the Romanization of the hangul characters. it's changed at least twice, i think. once in '84 and once again in 2000, so i'm used to the '84 letters. lots of things are spelled differently now. the english letters really don't do justice to the pronunciation, there are sounds in korean that don't make sense using roman characters. i am SUPER THRILLED to get history lectures from you, my brain has turned to mush in recent years, need to think more. :) ohohoh man, did it feel good to quit? wheeeeeeeee!
jen ~ ooooooo, luck with the concert!!!!!! it will be awesome!!!!!!!! am glad tickets are selling already, good sign. wh00t! i saw someone who looked like i think you'd have looked 10 or 15 years ago, it was weird. i did a double take one day 'cuz i thought kurt walked passed me. so weird. so awesome. i love it. can't wait to be able to talk with people when i stare at them. ~lol~ congrats on the bigger cube!!!!!! does it make your day a little better? a bigger cube is really an office, yes? dude. you in office. me in classroom, covered in whiteboard marker dust. eep. :p hope your friday is super!
amy ~ ooooooohhhhhhnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, that stinks! :( oh meetings. we have staff meetings every so often. so far they've not lasted longer than 20 minutes. it's been heavenly. i hope you had some paper and a pen and could doodle or write grocery lists of something during that meeting. gak. i don't know if i can go back to cubicle land after this. so far, this job has really reinforced that i am probably not going to be happy in most cubicle jobs. though i do miss having email and internet all day long. ~lol~ dude, totally start a fruit gift giving tradition at home, that would be awesome! you should see the grocery stores here, they're filled with gigantic gift wrapped boxes displaying everything from fruit to SPAM to medicinal roots and teas. i really love it here, amy. i hope you get the chance to spend time here! man, how are you doing? hope all is well!!!!!!!
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