The Celebrity Hamlins

15 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in Family Ties, Strange Customs

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Costco doesn’t even exist in Maine that I am aware of – but here, it is akin to nirvana.  We arrived, or tried to arrive, around 4pm on Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend.  This was not a good idea.  Liane, the only one of us who can drive in Korea, legally, was directed into a traffic line that curled around the building and up the street.  So the rest of us jumped out into our shopping adventure.  The parking for this building is above ground, while the merchandise is actually below.  There are 5 subsequent floors dropping ever lower, and the lower you go the more expensive the goods.  We needed home goods and snacks, floors 3 and 2, respectively.

We had been told, before arriving here, that “everyone” in Daegu speaks English.  This is not true.  Not only do most people I have been in contact with not speak English, they have rarely seen a white skinned, blue eyed person.  They are not shy about staring (not rudely, though) or pointing and whispering at us.  (Which reminds me, this morning on my run, a man out on the trail hailed a very hearty “Goooood Mohning!” to me while his companion asked “how is your mama?” which I assume is the equivalent of “how are you, how’s your family?”  Very sweet, very genuine.)  Anyway, the funniest thing at Costco (besides the $12 Head and Shoulders) was when people started pulling out their phones to take our pictures, but covertly, as if they were paparazzi on the trail.  Guy,thankfully, towers over most everyone so he gets the most attention.  Plus he’s wicked easy to find when it’s wall to wall people fighting for their free samples.

Today was a day spent preparing my classroom and attempting to plan classes, though that’s difficult until I meet the students and know what they have done previously, what they are capable of and what they hope to accomplish in English this year.  Tomorrow morning is our staff meeting and then it’s full speed ahead with work.  For now, sleep.

Jet Lag and Dong-gu Park

14 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in Family Ties, Out in the Big World/Travel

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It’s after 5am and I’m waiting for the sun to come up.  I want to go up to Dong-gu Park and go running.  Supposedly it is well lit with lamp light, but I’m a little scared to go alone.  The radical time change has caused a jet lag that simply will not be ignored.  I am hungry at the oddest times, and have a perma-headache.  It’s cool that I’m up at 5am.  Yesterday it was 4.

We explored the park yesterday with the Odoms – Gary and Liane – and their kids Lilly and Roan. It’s just around the corner and up the hill from campus.  Cicadas, hidden in the trees, welcomed us to Korea with a cacophony of voices.  They are everywhere and grow louder and louder during each day.  As if being purposely kind, they quiet down at night.  They’re like spring peepers, only during daylight hours.

 Dong-gu Park includes a lake with a 2.8 mile path around it for “hikers”.  Music streams from overhead speakers for the exercisers’ – entertainment?  motivation? –  we’re not sure.  It’s kind of a cross between classical and something new agey.  We met lots of Koreans along the way – all decked out, and I mean ALL decked out, in hiking gear (for completely flat walking).  Some had walking sticks, many had hiking pants, boots, jackets and little cloths they cover their faces with, and a few of the elder women carried parasols.  It’s a serious business, this hiking. 

So we’re walking along, all 9 of us, and Guy’s carrying 50 lb Natalie because she’s got a blister, and she has to pee, and we come across an outdoor gym, just there, in the middle of the woods.  There are at least 20 “machines,” bright white and looking brand new, useful for a total body workout.  Each machine uses only the body for resistance.  The kids absolutely went crazy.  The people who were already there took to Luke right away.  That boy is a magnet, I swear.  They were fanning him with their giant fans, and helping him use the equipment.  They’re chattering away at him in Korean and he’s just smiling like he’s got the world on a string.  He says the only word he knows besides Anyong (hello) – “cansamnida” which is thank you, over and over. 

Further along we get to the equivalent of a porta potty, for Natalie’s relief.  She and I enter this little building, closing and locking the door behind us.  There is a toilet in the floor, and without hesitation Natalie whips off her clothes and goes to town, never asking what to do, how to do it, or why that toilet is even IN the floor.  So.  She finishes her business and we go to leave and…we are locked in.  It is over 90 degrees and there is no window to open or vent to be seen.  I know that Guy and Gary are somewhere close by so I start banging on the walls while continuing to try to open the door.  It was a scary 5-6 minutes while Gary basically broke the doorknob to get us out.  By that time the fresh 90 degrees felt like an arctic breeze.  Quite a moment. 

Also in the park; a stunning butterfly garden.  I tried to get photographs, but am unsure I captured the elegance and beauty inside the greenhouse. 

I’m going to stop this entry here.  I’m not even to 10am yesterday.  I want to try to add pictures – and I’ll pick up our story when I write again.  Next time – a trip to COSTCO.  Holy wall-to-wall people, Batman.

Utterly Random at 3am.

10 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Uncategorized

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26 hours until we hop our flights that will take us to our new … life.  Not our new “home”, that’s not accurate.  We’re leaving home and we’ll be returning home.  Daegu will be a temporary … place to live.  That is all.

No, I can’t say as I’m sleeping all that well.  Here are the things that are keeping me up at night:

1.  Do they have golf in Korea?  I don’t golf, mind you.  I’m just wondering.

2.  Is there decent coffee in Korea?  What about beer? 

3.  Do Koreans keep their fruit out on their counters in a big ol’ bowl or do they stash it away in the fridge?  Or, maybe they are daily shoppers, with only enough fruit for the day you want that delicious banana.  Oh, this is a hard one for the middle-of-the-night me.  No fruit!?  The horror!

My during-the-day mind isn’t nearly as active with all this ridiculous worry about things I can’t control (and don’t actually care that much about.)  At 3am I have no sense of humor whatsoever.  Is the city a safe place to run?  Is it considered normal to eat salad with dinner?  How far to the beach?  Should we take the bus or the subway?  What sorts of crazy street-vendor food should we avoid in order to NOT end up with…you know…gastrointestinal distress? 

Good gracious. 

This morning Luke said “It seems like just yesterday we decided we wanted to go to Korea.  Now it’s tomorrow!”  Indeed, it is.  Tomorrow.  The house is clean.  Our bags are packed.  They are full to overflowing, not unlike all the hopes we have for our trip.  We hope we are safe.  We hope we are happy.  We hope that as we come to the edge of this massive cliff in our lives, and jump – that we fly instead of fall.  Here goes nothing.