First Birthday With Family Perhaps?

My sister texted me yesterday, asking if I could come to Cheongju the weekend of my birthday. She said that we could celebrate my bday with family and then go out and drink together in the downtown area. I was a little hesitant at first to agree to this, as this would be the first time in my soon to be 28 years to celebrate my birthday with them.

I guess it sounds silly, I'm sure all that we'll do is eat cake and maybe I'll get some bday cash. But it will definitely be emotional for me, something that I'm not 100% sure that I want to experience. Having found my biological family has caused me to think a lot about my situation from all sorts of angles. Thankfulness for having grown up in the States. Relief that they're good, smart, and healthy people. Wonderment about how I would've been had I grown up here. Hesitation due to a fear of commitment. And the list goes on, and on, and on...

Also, whenever I visit my family, I never know what's going to happen, so who knows what this birthday party could actually turn out to be! Bees. Penises. Mountain hiking and drinking. One-armed grandmas. Man, what strange and quirky DNA I've inherited!!

Well I did agree in the end to visit, so I guess I'll report back on this in 19 days...

My Usual Conversations With Taxi Drivers

This is a translation of a conversation that I had with a taxi driver on my way home tonight:

TD: So your face looks really Korean, but you don't sound Korean. Are you Korean? You seem to speak English really well...
Me: Oh, no, I'm American.
TD: But are you Korean?
Me: Oh well, I was born in Korea, but I grew up in the United States.
TD: Ahhh, so your parents are Korean then....
Me: Well, I'm adopted, so I didn't learn how to speak Korean.
TD: Ahhhhh. Ok. I heard you speaking to that other foreigner in such fast English, but your face is so Korean, so I was just really confused!!
Me: Ah yes, when I meet Korean people, they think the same thing. So I usually have to explain.
TD: Haha.
Me: So do you meet a lot of foreigners in Gumi?
TD: Oh no, not many. Mainly Japanese people, b/c of the factories here.
Me: Ahhh, really? I didn't know that there were many Japanese people in Gumi.
TD: Yeah, and sometimes I meet Americans, but they have no manners.
Me: Oh really?
TD: Yeah, they eat sandwiches in my cab, and drink soda and then just leave the wrappers and cans on the floor. No manners! Sometimes they drink alcohol too, it's a mess.
Me: Really?? That's not good!
TD: Yeah, but usually I just meet Japanese people. Do you know any Japanese?
Me: No, not at all. I know some Spanish though. Can you speak Japanese?
TD: Me? No, but if I hear the person say, "Hai," a lot, then I know that they're Japanese.
Me: Ahhh, I know "hai." And um, "arigato."
TD: "Sensei" means teacher. And "saianara" means bye-bye.
Me: Ah right! I knew that. I guess I know some Japanese from watching movies.
TD: Haha. Oh you speak Korean really well.
Me: Oh no no no no!
TD: When did you first arrive in Korea?
Me: Two years ago.
TD: And you didn't know how to speak then right? So your Korean is good!
Me: Yeah, when I arrived, I could only say "Hello," and "Thank you." Other than that, I couldn't speak much else. Haha.
TD: What building are you in?
Me: Building 112.
TD: Hmm, where is that...
Me: If you go straight...
TD: Ah see, your Korean is good!
Me: Oh no no no!! Oh go left here please. Ah and left again here.
TD: Ok, here we are. That will be 4,700 won please.
Me: Ok, thanks! Have a good night!
TD: You too, bye!

*This whole conversation was in Korean of course. I really couldn't understand any Korean when I first came here. My Korean ability is still lamentable, but I was happy that I could understand this much tonight without much effort or stress.^^

BEES!!!!

So I went to visit my family last week (warning the next few posts will be all out of chronological order). This visit needs to be broken into two parts. The first one being about bees. Whenever I go to my grandmother's house in Cheongju, I just never know what to expect. In the short amount of time I have spent with them, I have seemed to rack up quite a few wacky stories, this one not being excluded from the bunch.

I arrived in Cheongju on Wed afternoon, and was greeted by my always cheerful one-armed grandma and a little while later my slightly slower but ever adorable grandfather. Later that night, we were joined by both aunts and my mom. However, my older aunt arrived first, carrying a shopping in one hand. (Oh and Paul was there too.) After some chatting, my aunt plops down on the floor with my grandma, and pulls something out of the bag. My grandma took off her shirt and so was sitting there with her pants and undergarments on. I was curious to see what was going on, so I plop down on the floor as well. What she pulled out was a small box, maybe the size of a small hand held game console. However I was quick to realize that whatever was in the box was moving. With a closer look, I realized that it was a box of live bees!

My aunt proceeds to open the sliding door on the box and plucks a bee out with a pair of tweezers. She then quickly beheads the thing, only to be left with the abdomen, pulsating stinger and all. I was freaking out b/c no one was explaining anything to me, and then she stings my grandma with the bee butt. My grandma let out a painful, "아이고!!!" My aunt then went in for the second kill. Like a minute ago, she plucked out another bee, and beheaded it. However unlike her previous success, she dropped the abdomen this time, failing to sting my grandma. Not wanting to get stung herself, she reflexively tried to brush it away from her. In the frenzy, she swiped the thing in my direction.

We look around and couldn't find the abdomen. I started to panic, and the blood started to pulse in my head. Where else could the bee stinger have gone, but down my shirt I thought. So I quickly lift up my shirt, flashing my family, and then pull down my bra. Low and behold, the bee! So I start yelling, bent over with my bra being held as far away from my boobs as possible, and my aunt comes over to tap my cup so that the bee abdomen falls out and onto the floor.

I collapsed onto the floor and told them that this is not something that we do in the USA. My aunt and grandma went into hysterics, laughing to the point of tears. So I guess this is something that not many Koreans do, but it's a way of localizing and applying an anti-inflammatory agent to the desired body part. My aunt explained that a while ago, she had knee pain, but after 100 bees, the pain and swelling in her knee had dissipated. Well I'm just glad that my boob didn't get an unnecessary dose of bee venom. By the sounds that my grandma were making, it did not sound like a pleasant thing.

High and Dry in Gumi (despite the rain)

So I learned a new word this week: 단수하다, which means "to cut off the water supply." Since Sunday night, the water supply in my town of Gumi has been completely shut off (save for a few hours yesterday morning, when they drained our building of its remaining emergency supply). Apparently the dam that holds the town's water supply was damaged during construction work. However this construction work was related to the Four Rivers Project, something which has caused a lot of controversy in Korea (as both a waste of money and a potential environmental issue). Regardless of this problem's origins, it has been a big pain in the butt!

Luckily today, the town has been delivering water via fire truck. (see above) As you can see, people from my apartment complex emerged from their dry homes, only to wait in the rain (oh the irony) to fill their kimchi containers and any random buckets lying around with water. I waited with my host family for about an hour, we filled 3 kimchi containers, one plastic jug, and 2 food trash buckets. Under all the umbrellas were a bunch of un-showered frustrated Koreans. And frustrated they should be! In my town and in two surrounding towns as well, half a million people have been waiting for water, with no clear timeline being delineated. That means half a million people who can't flush their toilets, take a shower, clean their dishes, etc etc.

It looks like our neighborhood's water supply should be fixed by tomorrow afternoon, but that could change. Right now I'm waiting for my host sister to finish her cold bath. By the yelps that she's emitting, I'm not really looking forward to mine. Luckily the little host sister is returning from China tomorrow, so she doesn't have to deal with any of this. I was actually hiking in the mountains with friends Sunday into Monday (pics soon to follow), so I've only had to deal with this since yesterday afternoon. However, I still haven't taken a shower since Sunday night... ok, sponge bath time!! >_<

NOOOOOOOO!!! 싫어! 싫어! 싫어!

So with only three months left, I am scrambling to collect Korean imagery to take home with me, to use in future art projects. So I open the newspaper to find this ad. Apparently Jeff Koon's "Sacred Heart" was just bought by one of Korea's big department store companies, Shinsegae, and so they are using the heart in an advertising promotion. And so I open the paper and all I see is "JEFF KOONS LOVES SHINSEGAE." All I have to say is GROSS!! 싫어! 토하고싶어!

As a side note, I know I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy these past few months, so I promise I will be posting some funny family pics and other strange accounts.