First daily blog from Korea!

This morning I had my daily Korean lesson with Ae-Ran from 10-11:30 as has become usual. I successfully passed the verbal "test" for the Korean alphabet and several words for simple household items such as bed, chair, door, window... In turn, I explained more American phrases to her such as: look out!...you missed the boat...deal!...let's talk turkey...do you want this for here or to go? She showed me pictures of her travel to New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, and her wedding & honeymoon. It was really neat to see. It was also a change of thinking when I asked her how long they were in Japan and she said, "Two days." At first, I thought, "that's not enought time for how long it takes to get there." But then I realized, "Oh, it's only an hour and a half flight from here!" She said it was one of those package-deals.

I took the camera to school with me so I could get you a picture of the lunch...and it was sooooooooo good today!! But I had failed to notice that the batteries were dead, so I'll have to try again another time! I will begin teaching next Monday(M,T,Th,F) English classes after school. I walked downtown to buy a storage rack (which was heavy) and a woman introduced herself as the mother of a boy in James' class and offered to give me a lift back home. She understood and spoke some English and said her son will be in my after-school class.
FOOD:
We have finally found something that is just as sweet in Korea as in the US...care to guess?? Good ole hershey m&m's!! I was kind of surprised because other candy has not been as sweet, even name brands. Of course, there is the option of Korean m&m's which are...you'll never guess!!...not as sweet!!! And then, this morning, I found something that is sweeter in Korea than in the US! Took me completely by surprise! Aloe juice. I was excited to find the aloe juice and was expecting the tart'n'tangy taste I'm accustomed to. What a surprise! I did not like the first swallow, but an objective 2nd swallow showed it to be not overly sweet, just sweeter than I am used to for aloe vera. It's more along the juice line instead of the medicinal line. One thing we really miss is popcorn! The only popcorn to be found is pre-popped and pre-packaged or microwave(expensive!). Since we were able to choose our appliances and we did not choose a microwave, popcorn is not an option. :(

Health:
The Korean people are very conscientious about their own health and the health of others. If they are sick, they wear masks until they are better...around town, in school, etc. We did not know this earlier when we were all coughing and sniffling! Their food and diet is concentrated around health and all meals are balanced. Overall they eat very little sweets, especially compared to the typical American...no desserts after meals at all. A sweet would be eaten as a snack, and (as you all now know) it would not be nearly as sweet as in the US. The snack would be small, too. No supersize bags or containers or servings of sweets. Generally, they are packaged in what Americans would probably call "child-size" or "lunch size."

Weather:

I just realized that I've not said much about the weather here. It is nice spring weather, like in Illinois at this time. I think it's just not as rainy here. We had a beautiful weekend, then Monday was drizzly. But if I had to compare, I'd say the rain here so far is more like in Oregon rather than Illinois...lighter. Many use umbrellas and continue to walk around in the rain. Yes, you get wet...it's not like the "dry" rain in Oregon!...but it's not the heavy, big drops of the midwest, either. It can get rather breezy/gusty, even here in town. The onion/leek/garlic crops all around are growing...they are about 10-12 inches high already. Everyone seems to have an herb 'n' greens garden here, no matter how small a space they have. I have noticed that it is rather dusty all the time, and that it always looks foggy in the distance...John read online that it is the haze from China's pollution coming over.