(no subject)
It's been SLIGHTLY cold these days, though there have been no ice storms here like there were in central Massachusetts, and I think the Koreans have been complaining an awful lot about weather that does not even require a scarf...but whatever. It's still too cold to go on far-off adventures, so I have been sticking to places that the subway go. This still gives me a lot of leeway.
Saturday I went to study with 지영, two hours of Korean and one of English. Man, she is totally the best teacher of Korean I know. We mostly practiced using ~기 때문에 (because) since I have been having some difficulty with it, and adding ~가 to the ends of verbs to make them nouns, sort of like gerundizing them. And then we read a NYT article about population growth and first world vs. third world consumption. Very very interesting.
I went and bought a couple Christmas presents for people who actually live in Korea, and then worked for about an hour and a half (giving speaking tests for an affiliated academy), and after that David and I went to check out convection ovens, which did not impress us, and then we went to my church's Christmas party. It was...not that awesome. The map we had was totally not helpful, since the subway station listed was NOT the one that was closest to the reception hall. So we had to take a taxi.
And you all know how much I hate taxis.
So anyway, we got there, talked a lot with this girl named Celeste, who had written her name in Hangul incorrectly on her nametag, so it looked like her name was "Taylor." And she tried to speak Korean, but it just wasn't working for her. I liked the food though, and there were cookies and we all got rosaries blessed by the Pope. So that's kind of cool. But the guy in charge, Tim, made all these stupid rules, about where we had to sit, and when we could get food, and...ugh. It was not a very celebratory attitude. I was glad David was with me, but, just, meh. I probably won't go to another church party for a while if they are all like that.
Today I slept through church (ack!) so I got up and made myself a really good breakfast that involved potatoes, then I fixed my internet (I was trying to make a video for Jason on Friday morning, but I broke my internet instead), and then I went to Ansan to meet David's best friends, his high school classmates. David's friends are awesome. Seriously. Only one of them has the chutzpah to speak English with me, but that is okay because I was too nervous about my Korean ability to speak Korean with them. I think my main problem is that I just learned the 요 form of verbs but I have no idea how to use it for the verbs I know. Ah well. I have to remind myself that I am still just in level one.
Anyway, they came along while David and I picked out a convection oven (you GUYS. I can't even tell you how happy I am that I can make pie soon!!!) which will be delivered on Friday, which is the only day I have EVER that I am not working on a weekday that is not an official holiday.
And we played pool for a while. We played pocket pool first because I don't know how to play Korean pool. We played 8-ball, where thankfully I was having a good day and didn't embarrass David horrendously (David and I were on a team). I only made the easy shots, but at least I made ALL the easy shots. We played three games and David and I won twice. Rock on.
Korean pool only uses four balls, but it is HARD. There are no pockets, just a table with four walls. There are two cue balls (two white ones or one yellow and one white), and two red balls. Here is how you play:
1. Decide how high you wanna play: to 50, 100, 150, etc.
2. Aim your cue ball and shoot at the red balls. Your cue ball has to hit BOTH the red balls in one shot. If it does, you get ten points and you get to shoot again. If it doesn't, you get nothing and it is your opponent's turn. If you hit the other cue ball, you lose ten points and it is your opponent's turn.
3. You play back and forth until either you or your opponent has reached the previously-agreed-upon number of points (50,100, 150, whatever). But the game doesn't end there.
4. In order to actually win, you have to shoot the first red ball, your cue ball has to hit THREE walls, and THEN it has to hit the other red ball. You have to hit your cue ball really hard to make this happen, and because of that, Koreans who are good at four-ball pool tend to hit the cue ball too hard when playing pocket pool.
Points are counted on an abacus-like thing on the wall.
You also get free juice and rice cakes. :)
After that we went and ate awesome food (table-barbecued pork and spicy bulgogi, and awesome kimchi made of garlic scapes, and sesame leaves.
I love sesame leaves.
So after that went went to a noraebang!!! which is a private karaoke room. We went to a reaaaaaally upscale one (it was my first time, but David said it was a lot nicer than the places they usually go), with heated floors and couches and TAMBOURINES. Sweet. So they mostly sang Korean songs and I sang English ones (I Will Survive, which, as it turns out, has a Korean version, and which they also sang for me, Hotel California, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, My Heart Will Go On (by request), and Piano Man.
Oh man, it was so much fun. I really like David's friends. They're such good people.
Of course I stayed too long, and now I am up late doing my honor's club workbook.
But it was totally worth it.
Tuesday!!! Is my Korean level test! Ack!
Saturday I went to study with 지영, two hours of Korean and one of English. Man, she is totally the best teacher of Korean I know. We mostly practiced using ~기 때문에 (because) since I have been having some difficulty with it, and adding ~가 to the ends of verbs to make them nouns, sort of like gerundizing them. And then we read a NYT article about population growth and first world vs. third world consumption. Very very interesting.
I went and bought a couple Christmas presents for people who actually live in Korea, and then worked for about an hour and a half (giving speaking tests for an affiliated academy), and after that David and I went to check out convection ovens, which did not impress us, and then we went to my church's Christmas party. It was...not that awesome. The map we had was totally not helpful, since the subway station listed was NOT the one that was closest to the reception hall. So we had to take a taxi.
And you all know how much I hate taxis.
So anyway, we got there, talked a lot with this girl named Celeste, who had written her name in Hangul incorrectly on her nametag, so it looked like her name was "Taylor." And she tried to speak Korean, but it just wasn't working for her. I liked the food though, and there were cookies and we all got rosaries blessed by the Pope. So that's kind of cool. But the guy in charge, Tim, made all these stupid rules, about where we had to sit, and when we could get food, and...ugh. It was not a very celebratory attitude. I was glad David was with me, but, just, meh. I probably won't go to another church party for a while if they are all like that.
Today I slept through church (ack!) so I got up and made myself a really good breakfast that involved potatoes, then I fixed my internet (I was trying to make a video for Jason on Friday morning, but I broke my internet instead), and then I went to Ansan to meet David's best friends, his high school classmates. David's friends are awesome. Seriously. Only one of them has the chutzpah to speak English with me, but that is okay because I was too nervous about my Korean ability to speak Korean with them. I think my main problem is that I just learned the 요 form of verbs but I have no idea how to use it for the verbs I know. Ah well. I have to remind myself that I am still just in level one.
Anyway, they came along while David and I picked out a convection oven (you GUYS. I can't even tell you how happy I am that I can make pie soon!!!) which will be delivered on Friday, which is the only day I have EVER that I am not working on a weekday that is not an official holiday.
And we played pool for a while. We played pocket pool first because I don't know how to play Korean pool. We played 8-ball, where thankfully I was having a good day and didn't embarrass David horrendously (David and I were on a team). I only made the easy shots, but at least I made ALL the easy shots. We played three games and David and I won twice. Rock on.
Korean pool only uses four balls, but it is HARD. There are no pockets, just a table with four walls. There are two cue balls (two white ones or one yellow and one white), and two red balls. Here is how you play:
1. Decide how high you wanna play: to 50, 100, 150, etc.
2. Aim your cue ball and shoot at the red balls. Your cue ball has to hit BOTH the red balls in one shot. If it does, you get ten points and you get to shoot again. If it doesn't, you get nothing and it is your opponent's turn. If you hit the other cue ball, you lose ten points and it is your opponent's turn.
3. You play back and forth until either you or your opponent has reached the previously-agreed-upon number of points (50,100, 150, whatever). But the game doesn't end there.
4. In order to actually win, you have to shoot the first red ball, your cue ball has to hit THREE walls, and THEN it has to hit the other red ball. You have to hit your cue ball really hard to make this happen, and because of that, Koreans who are good at four-ball pool tend to hit the cue ball too hard when playing pocket pool.
Points are counted on an abacus-like thing on the wall.
You also get free juice and rice cakes. :)
After that we went and ate awesome food (table-barbecued pork and spicy bulgogi, and awesome kimchi made of garlic scapes, and sesame leaves.
I love sesame leaves.
So after that went went to a noraebang!!! which is a private karaoke room. We went to a reaaaaaally upscale one (it was my first time, but David said it was a lot nicer than the places they usually go), with heated floors and couches and TAMBOURINES. Sweet. So they mostly sang Korean songs and I sang English ones (I Will Survive, which, as it turns out, has a Korean version, and which they also sang for me, Hotel California, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, My Heart Will Go On (by request), and Piano Man.
Oh man, it was so much fun. I really like David's friends. They're such good people.
Of course I stayed too long, and now I am up late doing my honor's club workbook.
But it was totally worth it.
Tuesday!!! Is my Korean level test! Ack!