Travel Log Korea from the begining and onward
Currently in South Korea.... Join the list by mailing korea@saradevil.com .
Well, the lunar new year has finally passed, so Happy New Year one last time if you have not already heard it from me. It was really really quiet in Daegu, and for the most part the biggest harangue of the weekend will be the commute back to the cities that most people live in. The traffic jam will be something like construction in Chicago with the first major snow storm of the year and a 100 car accident. In otherwords, people aren't getting anywhere very fast, but they will get there eventually. Sam and I watched a bunch of Korean movies, which was very nice, and ate allot of really expensive pears. Now you may be asking yourself, why pears? One of my youngest students from my POB class came to school Thursday with a very large present for me. Jae-ho is 4 years old american (he is 6 korean) and is by far the youngest student I work with and also one of the most advanced little kids around. He is not speaking almost fluent english, can read and write at a first grade level, and has stopped chewing on his pencils. When I first started to work with him his pencil box carried what looked to be pencils ravaged by a hungry beaver, but what, in fact, where just throughly munched on by Jae-ho. I met Jae-ho's grandmother during a POB Parent's Day class, and though she spoke no english she expressed over and over again how impressed she was with me, and how great a job I am doing, and how wonderful I am. I was really flattered, she even invited me to lunch, though she and her daughter don't speak any english at all. So, on Thursday she sent Jae-ho to school with a box of pears for his teacher. It was the class shift when Keesan suddenly called out "Sara, it's too heavy" and I looked up to see a very small Jae-ho with a hand on a box twice his size and Keesan explaining that the box was for me. It is customary to give gifts on this holiday and one of the common ones is a box of pears. Pears are, according to the several Koreans who tried to explain this box to me, very expensive and so a great honor. This particular box had been purchased at one of the very expensive department stores, and had ten pears. The pears are BIG. Really big. They are about the size of a cantalope, and have a very thick skin with light yellow splotches. I suspect that the price of the box ranged from 50 to 75 thousand won, making it quite a gift. And it was a very heavy box of fruit. The pears are delicious, have an amazing texture and flavor and are still be consumed. I have two on my desk now, and will cut them up for snacking throughout the day. In the meantime as I was going home I asked Mr. Kim for a ride for me and my box. Turns out he also had a box of pears, but he was a bit jealous of my box. Apparently his box had been purchased on the street, and so, comparitavely, my box was better. I was a little amused about the pear envy that ensued from my box of pears, but it seemed to be more funny than anything else. I'm going to try to attach a small photo of Jae-ho all decked out for our recent snow day. He really is too cute. Grandma keeps him quite well covered in the cold and it usually takes about 5 minutes to get him ready to leave class. Enjoy. |