Venture to Korea with Amanda & Abi
To all our friends, families, and vistors - thank you for visiting. We will be updating this blog as our adventure develops.
Name: Amanda and Abi
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Hiya! It's been a long time since I've written so here we go. The most exciting news by far is ....
LAST NIGHT I GOT HIT BY MY FIRST CAR!!!
My friends tell me I'm truly a Busan citizen now! Before you all start calling it was a very slow moving car, backing out of an alley and I didn't notice the impact as much as I felt my leg being pushed. I quickly moved out of the way, had no pain, but a bit of a shock. My Korean friend who was with me nearly hit something or someone else but I managed to talk him out of it. They're in a hurry here, that's for sure. What else is new? I've met some lovely new foreigners from Ireland this weekend and am going to join their hiking club and start doing some volunteer work with them. I think it'll fill up my time with more positive and productive activities than emailing and hanging out at the foreigner pubs. Am realizing that people are people all the world around and some are absolutely crazy. I witnessed a near west-side-story-type-street-brawl between some Americans and some theiving Russians. Although I yelled at them about how fighting accomplishes nothing, they didn't seem to hear me...surprise surprise. Lesson; never underestimate the volatile combination of alcohol and language barriers. Yuck! Halloween day is coming up this week and I got to teach my kids about dungeons, torture, burning people at the stake....ha ha. I'm sure I'll be getting a few calls from the parents but they said we could teach the history! I think I'll be a pirate, really whatever i can scrape up from my limited wardrobe should suffice. I find my kids struggling to insult each other in English, as they're not allowed to speak in Korean in my class, and have heard quite a few creative adjective and verb combinations lately. However the best by far, probably because I don't understand it, was one kid turning to another who was struggling to answer a question the rest had already figured out, and saying "you were made in Indonesia." I laughed so hard it took me a minute to discipline the offender. The girl he said it to didn't seem to understand and neither did I, it was just so random I found it to be quite entertaining. We've been hanging out at a coffee shop on the beach and always attracting passing foreigners and having some great conversations. Feels good. What doesn't feel good is that I actually miss Denny's. Not the food, just the setting. To be able to buy bad coffee for a buck and talk all night with friends is nice. We used to do it on the beach but it's getting cold for that and bars are getting old. That's all for now, life is boring but we've passed the three month mark! Go us! As always, love and hugs!
~abi
People have been requesting the address. I put it in our profile under "interests" but here it is anyway.
Abigayil Cisek or Amanda Mayer
c/o Kookje Language Institute
The Enhakgorae B/D 3F,4F 152-11
Allak Dong Dongnae Gu
Busan
Korea
607-100
Don't have to keep all the spaces between the lines either. Ok Love you!
us
Hi everyone! I've been getting some concerned emails about the North Korea situation and so I've been reading, probably not as much as Amanda, but between what I've read and what the Korean's around me say I'm not at all concerned. One of our coworkers is working on a statement for us to post here so you can get the first hand point of view but in the meantime, here are the top three reasons I'm not worried.
1. NK has had the ability and nuclear capabilities to blow up South Korea for ages and they haven't done it. I think if it was in their plan they would have executed it long ago. Besides, from what I know about nukes they are a costly effort and with the DMZ only 40 miles from Seoul, I would imagine NK would use convential methods, ground forces, missiles, etc, if it were planning an attack before going all out nuclear. If it were to use convential methods we have a lovely group of American soliders, I've even met a bunch, who are sitting up on the line waiting for an advance. (I know Bush has been talking about pulling people out...that's a whole different issue in and of itself) In addition all Korean history I've read points to NK's desire to reunify with South Korea which leads me to my next point....
2. South Korea's economy is booming. They have technology, resources and money. I would venture to guess NK knows that it would have a stronger international foothold if it were coupled with South Korea. The South Korean's I've spoken with express that they are the same people as those of the North and some even have family on the "other side" which leads me to believe NK isn't after South Korea. Japan maybe, but not South Korea. South Korea also has something North Korea doesn't, which leads me to my final point....
3. Food. When South Korean's talk about North Korea they most often talk about how poor it is, how there's no food and no resources. They speak about how the people are unhappy with their leadership and want basic needs like food, housing and hospitals. I highly doubt NK would consider destroying the nearest and most likely economic helper, especially as they don't stand much to gain.
I'd like to add an additional point which is this; people die in the states by the boatloads every year. From accidental death, gun crime, homicide, suicide, and the list goes on. The gun deaths in Milwaukee are currently quite high and any one of us could be killed by some random force at any time. I still consider myself and Amanda to be within that statistic. Judging by the way people drive around here and a near miss the other day, I fear we will be hit by busses much more often than I fear a nuclear warhead blowing us up. Happy thought huh?
Ok so please please realize that I realize that I'm really not at all very knowledgeable about global politics and of course I have no idea what is going to happen or what Kim Jong Ill is thinking. These are just the general feelings I'm having based on what little reading I've done and what my South Korean friends have told me. More importantly every South Korean I talk to laughs at the idea of NK attacking, literally! They continually say "don't worry about it" and "we don't worry about it" and "the war has been going on forever" and "Kim Jong Ill is crazy and has had nuclear weapons for ages." It might not sound settling but they really don't appear to be at all phased and if I've learned anything from my travels it is to follow the lead of the natives. When they get worried, I'll get worried and I'll let you know if you should worry. I think if things start to go sour, the foreigners will be the first to know as they'll be putting us on planes back home. Ok so that's enough of my uneducated babble, and it's far too serious. The next blog will be totally fun and entertaining, but here's one in case you're starting to think I'm too carefree. Love you all!!
Abi
Well I really wasn't posting too much but now that I've called home, I'm hearing that some people are actually reading this so I'll make a bit more effort. But first and foremost, I want to give super huge thanks to my future sister in law, Ms. Monaca, for printing these and bringing them around to the family! You're one in a million lady! Ok so on to South Korea. As I said before I was having some back pain and while the pain meds have been helping, my boss insisted that I go for some Asian medicine...acupuncture. Now I'm really a science girl and don't much believe in stuff that research doesn't support but after a week of being bothered I gave in. Luckily enough one of our students' dads is an acupuncturist so yesterday I went. After walking in and discovering that the table was a good 6 inches too short for me and heated, I was relaxed right away...then he stuck the needles in. Now I'm not afraid of needles by any means but it was a bit disturbing just having them sticking out all over. I kept imagining them getting ripped out somehow. He then hooked up some sort of electronic device to them (mini jumper cables maybe) and I could feel some voltage. Not too bad...then I smelled smoke...looked back and I was on fire essentially. They turned on a fan. After the pins they did "cupping" where they suck your skin up into little cups. Which was moderately painful and left some pretty creative looking bruises on my back. After the cupping more cups were attached...these were also attached to a power source and I was given some sort of electric massage. Very weird but soothing enough that I fell asleep. When I woke up it was time to pay...get this $5.00! Next time it's only going to be $3. Hoo ha! I'm sure I was given the foreign teacher discount but still. It definitely inspired me to do some research into what else acupuncture can cure...at that price I can come back perfect! Today is a day off for what my kids called "Korea is country day". I think Korea was declared a country on this day...they also mentioned something about a dog but I'm not entirely sure what they were getting at. We have to work tomorrow but my kids are having a snack and game party which they're all quite excited about. Then Thu and Fri are off as well. I think we're going shopping today as we got paid yesterday. Thursday I have a second date....and Saturday Evan and Jake, our Korean friends, are taking us to a temple on the beach. I've had a friend from Minnesota living with me for the past few days as she is in the process of switching jobs so that's been fun. Kind of like a slumber party. The other night on the beach we were sitting talking and a guy walked up to me and started calling me beautiful and trying to hold my hand. He then put his MP3 player on my ears and cued up "my heart will go on" by Celine Dion....how romantic! He then fell asleep.....strange strange things.... miss you all and love you more!
abi
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