The typhoon has hit us hard, making weekend plans a bit damp. Clearly our intrepid selves weren't thrown and we ventured out making the best of our weekends. I find much solace in my weekend adventuring. On Friday So Yeon and Sungmi took me to a piano concert. It was a piano duet and was exactly what I needed to relax from a hectic week of teaching and noribang with co teachers*. *note on singing with co teachers, Stevie wonder is a sure bet. Saturday my day was destined for success after the purchase of a fantastic tee shirt with an important saying "Jesus Christ, I will save you." It's my most fashionable korean item yet!
After wondering around, Lindsay, Emerald and I hopped on the bus headed towards seogwipo. Everytime I get on the bus, I pray I make it to the other side of the island. Many people think I am overly concerned about the ride, but the physics of buses going around sharp corners at high speeds lead me to rationally think "hmm this bus could easily tip over." We made it alive and after our departure from the bus were immediately greeted by screaming school girls. We quickly found out they were students of Rafiq's and they sang his praises for quite a while. They kindly led us to the downtown area where we could shop. After asking where I was from, this one girl said "BOSTON!! I know Boston. Green tea, throw..boats." It wasn't green tea, but she was accurately referencing the Boston tea party. Yes the Boston Tea Party is part of the Korean social studies curriculum. I would speculate that we do not teach our students about anything in Korean history other than our involvement in the Korean war. But that's just a speculation.
We hit up the world sex culture museum under the world cup stadium. Unfortunately, all of the captions were in Korean,making it hard for us to understand information about the work. As I am sure you can imagine, the art many times, spoke for itself. They had quite a user friendly, practical museum shop. Next stop-Loveland, Korea's erotic statue park. Who knew in such a sexually repressed society, could exist such interesting tourist attractions.
The main attraction of our day was the soccer game. I had never been to a soccer game, but I envisioned a world cup atmosphere. What I was faced with was nothing of the sort. Rather a stadium almost 3/4 empty and a loosing team. The amusement was not the actual event but rather the company we kept. Rafiq, in traditional Rafiq form invited some mormon missionaries to attend with us. They obliged and while they tried to promote their religion to others at the game, they respectfully refrained from trying to convert us. They refused the alcohol we offered. I wonder what they thought of my shirt? They depicted the process of becoming a missionary for us. As they described it, they told me how they are told when they will receive a calling. Clearly skeptical and humored, I asked politely, as I was truely inquisitive, "so they can be that specific about when god is going to contact you?" They laughed and said "no no. We receive a call on the telephone." Now I don't know about you, but that was confusing. I thought when talking about religion, it was safe to infer that "a calling" was not literally a phone call. Show's what I know.
Rafiq brought his two host brothers with him to the game. If he was not the poster boy for alternative adoption policies, I don't know what would work. The rest of the evening was fantastic. We met Rafiq's host family and had the chance to sing traditional korean songs over soju, mekju and anju with their drummer friend. I think we committed to drumming lessons that evening. That would be rad.
The typhoon is wild. Forrest Gump put it best "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath." Umbrellas prove useless because they break in the wind. I had to take an alternate route home that drove all around the west part of the island. I once again thought I was going to die. Driving at such high speeds, I assumed we would hydroplane. Perhaps I do have an irrational fear of getting in vehicular accidents. But if you drove in Korea, so would you.
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