Well, it has come time to write the dreaded first post...dreaded because one is either talking into empty space (which seems a bit loony, in my opinion) or because one is expecting one's words to be the delight of others. It would come as a shock if this blog were to be the delight of anyone, so I shall assume I am talking to empty space...but hey, I like being loony. Perhaps it builds character. Or perhaps it keeps me awake in the afternoons so I can get over this past week's jet lag. Whatever this blog is for, it shall be what it shall be. And that's that, I suppose.
Not that I've thought about it much, but I wonder how many variations of banana exist in the world. There must be many. I thought I was quite the connossieur of bananas until lunch today, when I discovered the tiniest banana I had ever seen. It was a ridiculously small banana...otherwise I probably wouldn't mention it. I mean, it must have been the mutant offspring of some radioactive, secret-lab experiment bananas, but it didn't get any cool powers except its smallness. It turns out the banana would be the most ordinary part of today.
For the past few days, I've been residing in the dynamic city of Pusan, South Korea, as an exchange student at a international summer school program. I've never traveled abroad or been intensely exposed to another culture, so its has been quite the adventure! But I like adventure...it can take you places. I also think the word "exposed" has some negative connotations, but really, I don't mind enough to go back and change it to something else. Anyway....one of the new things I've learned is that remembering Korean names is HARD. Not that I ever thought it would be easy...I just didn't think I'd struggle this much. This lesson was reaffirmed today at lunch when I had gone through the lunch line of boiled fish, kimchi, spinach, rice, some brightly colored sauces and midget bananas (Yes, I've decided on midget. I don't think that word should be thought of as offensive to smaller that average folks...I rather like the idea of having a nickname for being yourself...there's no such nickname for folks of average height. It would be cool if there WAS.) So...after the midget bananas, I thought I'd just have a seat, finish my spot of lunch and be on my merry way to go Skype talk with my Papi, but NO. It wasn't to be that easy. One of the Korean students who's name I could not remember (I had only spoken to her once!) invited me to sit at her table, which really was quite nice of her. I just feel bad that so many people remember my name and I have such a hard time returning the favor. There aren't many Americans here, though, so I suppose they do have an advantage. As we all began our lunch, one of the people at my table noticed that I had assembled my lunch in the wrong fashion. (It always seems to be the case...and the Korean students loooove to fix my silly mistakes for me). So we go back to the lunch line, which was quite unecessary, I thought, so she could show me the right way of mixing some tuna-y substance with cabbage, carrots, rice and Sriracha sauce...and she wasn't stingy about any of it. So now I have this huge bowl of food, which I frankly did not have room enough to eat. And it turns out that she put a TON of hot sauce on it as well...Koreans do seem fond of their spicy food, which I am fine with, but this was a little beyond my abilities. Funny thing is, she did it on purpose! It's kind of funny in hindsight, because they all seem to find it humorous when even the skin on my arms flushes from the spiciness of the food. It was all in good fun; having meals with people who hardly understand what one is saying is always an interesting time! In the end, it was all good...I learned to pay attention to my food and now I'm definitely NOT going to forget her name. "Minjoo" :) Now if only I could remember the rest of their names!
