Aside from counting down the days until all the cold weather has left to go pester Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, there has not been all that much noteworthy happening lately, which is why there have been no updates. However, the end of last week brought some rather intriguing events. On Wednesday, as I was counting down the minutes until I could go home and take a much needed nap, my coteacher informed me that we would be attending a funeral in five minutes. Now I hadn't actually ever met the person whose father had passed away, but she was a fellow teacher (or so I'm told), and all the faculty were going, including the native teachers.
So we get in the car and drive to what looks like the basement of a hospital--a little strange--but I was thinking it seemed pretty normal by Korean standards. Everyone walks into the entranceway, picks up an envelope and stuffs it with money, myself included, as I was informed it was "a required custom" beforehand. Next we head into this room with flowers, all sorts of rice cakes and other objects of personal significance to this mystery corpse. Then I saw his picture, so at least I can assign a face to this event--I wish him and his family the best, I really do--its just that I really have never talked to, met or even seen this teacher before and I don't think she even works at the school anymore...whatever.
After we deposited our envelopes and wrote messages on them (I'm pretty sure she won't be able to read mine--that whole English thing) in this big box and we were all crammed in this little room, everyone proceeded to kneel down, place their hands forming a circle with their fingers, straight out in front of them and bow until their foreheads touched the ground. This seemed like something that took too much practice and elegance for us Westerners to accomplish, so Susan and I just looked at each other and sort of shrugged our shoulders. After that, everyone stood up and repeated the intricate bowing and standing process 6 or 7 more times--I am sure there is some sort of custom governing the number of stands and bows but for for now, you will have to cope with my ignorance, it was a bit of a sensitive time, so I didn't really feel like asking for a culture lesson. As Korean tradition follows, we then all sat in the room adjacent for food and soju. Overall, it was an interesting experience.
Friday evening, I was invited to the apartment of Jisun and Braven. Jisun worked at my school last year, and her husband, Braven is a 44 year old Canadian who has been here for 10 years and is now an associate professor at one of the universities in town. Incidentally, his father had just passed away and he brought back a bundle of Canadian liquor on his return from the funeral. I am not sure why Jisun likes me so much as I had minimal contact with her last year, but she does and my Korean coteachers, the librarian, Neo and I all went for drinks. We had a grand time, and at one point my coteacher, James, was even tearing up while explaining to me that he was glad I fit in so well with him and his friends. A heartwarming gesture.
After we were a couple fifths deep in Crown Royal Limited, Jisun asked me if I would be interested in going out with her little sister, who is my age, to "teach her English and explore Korea." This is a bit confusing, because Jisun speaks excellent English, and her husband is Canadian, so I'm not sure why they don't just teach her. I feel like maybe they have something else in mind. Anyway, I'll give it a shot and at least get to see some cool stuff. The journey begins at the icebreaking dinner next Saturday at 6:30.
