silk market
winter at the great wall
traditional tea ceremony
all hail mao: forbidden city
high fives with Jerry, our Chinese tour guide
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Oranges and ice cream
Koreans are so generous.
Just in the last few days I've had several cute experiences to defend this thesis. Yesterday, Kristen, Kate and I were riding the bus to Shinnae for a Saturday evening shopping/good coffee outing. The bus ride downtown is not terribly long, usually 30 minutes unless traffic is bad. Riding a bus on a Saturday afternoon/evening you can almost be guaranteed that you won't get a seat but rather you can expect to be standing, tightly packed, and holding any available railing space. Early into the trip the old woman that I was hovering over and trying not to fall in the lap of sees me holding my bag (Cuc, the one you made for me) containing very little, grabbed my bag and put it on her lap smiling sweetly to me as if to say, "No worries, your bag will be much more comfortable here." There my bag rode until we reached our destination a good 30 minutes later.
We're about ready to head home and decided to grab some delicious-smelling roasted sweet potatoes from a street vendor. We quickly realized the potatoes skipped the washing phase before they were roasted so we had to peel off the hot, dirty skins before we could enjoy its tastiness. Happy to find a line of trash cans close to the vendor (trash cans are really hard to come by in Korea) we start depositing our compost in the nearest can outside of a small convenience store. Turns out they were for cans and bottles as the concerned owner came outside to motioned us over to another trash, made for actually trash, can. So we stood huddled around the can eating our tasty treats when suddenly the owner (who we were sure had been irritated with us over our reckless peel throwing) came back outside and handed us each an orange. Wowie, wowie! To which I said, "I guess this just goes to show that you can throw your trash anywhere and STILL get an orange." (sidenote: that may not be true, I don't recommend trying this at home)
Also, recently while in a department store we ran into a fellow Mugeo ELC worker and his mother. We were introduced to his mother (who couldn't speak any English) and chatted just briefly before heading off on your seperate tasks. Friday night he joined us for Kat's birthday celebration and relayed a message to us from his mother who had said to him we were very beautiful and would like to treat us to ice cream soon. How'd she know I love ice cream?! So kind!
:)
:)
:)
And etc, etc, etc...
In conclusion, Koreans are very generous people. I like them. Also, I like ice cream. :)
Just in the last few days I've had several cute experiences to defend this thesis. Yesterday, Kristen, Kate and I were riding the bus to Shinnae for a Saturday evening shopping/good coffee outing. The bus ride downtown is not terribly long, usually 30 minutes unless traffic is bad. Riding a bus on a Saturday afternoon/evening you can almost be guaranteed that you won't get a seat but rather you can expect to be standing, tightly packed, and holding any available railing space. Early into the trip the old woman that I was hovering over and trying not to fall in the lap of sees me holding my bag (Cuc, the one you made for me) containing very little, grabbed my bag and put it on her lap smiling sweetly to me as if to say, "No worries, your bag will be much more comfortable here." There my bag rode until we reached our destination a good 30 minutes later.
We're about ready to head home and decided to grab some delicious-smelling roasted sweet potatoes from a street vendor. We quickly realized the potatoes skipped the washing phase before they were roasted so we had to peel off the hot, dirty skins before we could enjoy its tastiness. Happy to find a line of trash cans close to the vendor (trash cans are really hard to come by in Korea) we start depositing our compost in the nearest can outside of a small convenience store. Turns out they were for cans and bottles as the concerned owner came outside to motioned us over to another trash, made for actually trash, can. So we stood huddled around the can eating our tasty treats when suddenly the owner (who we were sure had been irritated with us over our reckless peel throwing) came back outside and handed us each an orange. Wowie, wowie! To which I said, "I guess this just goes to show that you can throw your trash anywhere and STILL get an orange." (sidenote: that may not be true, I don't recommend trying this at home)
Also, recently while in a department store we ran into a fellow Mugeo ELC worker and his mother. We were introduced to his mother (who couldn't speak any English) and chatted just briefly before heading off on your seperate tasks. Friday night he joined us for Kat's birthday celebration and relayed a message to us from his mother who had said to him we were very beautiful and would like to treat us to ice cream soon. How'd she know I love ice cream?! So kind!
:)
:)
:)
And etc, etc, etc...
In conclusion, Koreans are very generous people. I like them. Also, I like ice cream. :)
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