August 28, 2010
Today, Saturday, was my first day without school, EOEC people, or anyone really to interact with. Predictably, as I write this at 5:30pm, it has been very dull. I put away all my suitcase stuff, which fortunately all fits into the office bureau, and then the suitcases themselves went into my storage closet. I broke out my electric fan which I’m trying to use to cut down on AC. I decided to make a list of things I need for my apartment, which turned out to be pretty extensive. For example, I have a can opener but no spoon; dish scrubber but no soap; and no towels. I have been using my extra pillowcase as a towel. It has been surprisingly effective believe it or not.
I made my Korean ramen for lunch. (I bought it at the store with Mr. Kim, and he started to explain how to make it but I told him not to worry, all college students can make ramen). I have a hot water boiler but no spoon or bowl, so I used (what I assume is) my rice cooker bowl and ate it with a fork. I also made some coffee.
Prior to leaving the apartment, I decided to look up all the words for the things I wanted to buy. My dictionary is helpful, but not as extensive as I need. Korean is hard because it doesn’t use the Roman alphabet; rather, it uses hangul, a character alphabet. Each mark represents a sound, and together the marks form symbolic boxes and you have to kind of sound the word out, just like in Hooked on Phonics back in first grade. Once you sound the word out, you can look it up. All the books I’ve read insist hangul is easy to learn, but I disagree. Maybe I just need to work harder. So for each word I had to copy down both the pictures and the pronunciation. I tried to associate the sounds with the pictures, and I was semi-successful. My problem was that it was like some math problems… it seems easy as you go along with the problem and answers, but as soon as you have to come up with the answers on your own it’s way harder than it seemed.
So while I was working on my grocery list, I heard a bell noise and thought it was my doorbell. Turns out there is an intercom in my apartment and some guy was using it! It really freaked me out especially since I had no idea what he was saying, and I also still don’t know if it was just for me (maybe I was playing music too loudly?) or if it was just a general announcement for all the apartment people. Then when I left, there was a notice taped to my door handle with a phone number, but everyone else had one too so I didn’t freak out. I took it back inside and tried deciphering the characters but either I was just wrong or my dictionary didn’t have it. I’ll take it to school on Monday and ask Mr. Kim.
My excursion into Buyeo was partially successful. I found a grocery store literally across the street from my apartment complex and managed to ask for soap (Mianhamnida, puni? Literally, “Excuse me, soap?” Obviously I’m a very smooth conversationalist.). I mimed washing my hands because I wanted hand soap. I got hand soap (they’re obsessed with bar soap here for some reason), dish soap, face wash, and toilet paper. I took it back up the four flights to my apartment so I didn’t have to carry it around. I was determined to find a larger store so I could buy some utensils and bowls and plates and stuff.
Total failure. Being illiterate is awful. All the stores look the same to me unless I can peek in, and most of them were restaurants or places I couldn’t immediately identify. I did manage to find about five beauty shops and a stationery store where I got some tape to hang up my pictures, but nothing very useful. I really need to learn hangul because if I can at least identify a word, then I can look it up. When you don’t even know what a written word sounds like or how it’s spelled, you’re totally unable to look up a translation. But hey I found a bike store! I even went in but felt sort of awkward… I mostly wanted to see how much they cost, but I couldn’t find a price tag and didn’t know how to ask, so I just left.
An elderly man on his moped said hi to me. I thought that was nice, so I smiled back. I didn’t feel at all creeped out walking around Buyeo like sometimes I did in Paris even though here I stand out much more here. I do feel like people are staring, but I feel very safe. There’s lots of kids just hanging out with their friends, so if they can be out so can I.
One thing I’d like to comment on is the proliferation of pay phones here. In my apartment complex alone I’ve already seen two pay phones, and on my walk in town I saw several more. I’m really happy to see them because I have several people’s phone numbers (Sol, Elly, Kevin, my friend Misa who lives in Daejeon, Mr. Kim, and Seokyang school) but I don’t have a landline or cell phone, so without the pay phones these numbers would be totally useless to me. I feel a lot better knowing that if I get stuck somewhere, there will probably be a pay phone and if I call Sol, he’s my liaison to the school in case something is going wrong. I feel confident in his English too.
My Lonely Planet guide informs me that the Chungnam province where I live is “not the most scintillating of provinces,” which is sad. However, I’m certain that it would probably also label Indiana as “not the most scintillating of states” and I like Indiana just fine. Buyeo is actually the last capital of the Baekje dynasty, which is now 1,300 years old. There’s the Baekje elementary school right by me, and the Buyeo National Museum is almost within sight of my apartment. I need to go there sometime soon, maybe tomorrow if I’m bored. There are a lot of places in Korea I really want to go to after reading my guidebook… I just can’t wait to have Internet at my apartment so I can look up stuff and make plans with people. I also really want a phone.
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