2005-09-20 - Just a little update:

It's the end of Thanksgiving weekend here in Korea. Most people went back to work today, but I didn't have to!

I spent a couple of days with Lola at her place in Gokseung, a small town northwest of where I am in Gwangju. We had a nice time - we went barhopping one night, yay! Also, we went for a walk and then we passed a house belonging to one of her students, and the kid's parents invited us inside and asked us to stay for dinner, so we did! We had some nice food, and good company. The kid's English was pretty good, and we used dictionaries a lot, but conversations were possible.

So these past few days I've just been taking it easy in my apartment. Doing laundry (it takes a while because there is not dryer and I have limited hanging space) and just relaxing. Later on I'll do some planning for the next few days.

Earlier today someone came to my door and I didn't answer it because I had just woken up. The person left a note though (in Korean, of course) but it had a number on it, as well as my name, so I phoned. So apparently someone is going to come to my place tomorrow at noon, but I don't know what for: my only guess is that it's to fill up my gas tank. Natural gas is used as feul for the house, and each apartment has a tank of its own. I know the heating system runs on natural gas for sure, but I'm not sure if my electricity is hydro power, or gas, or what. So I think that's what it is, but I am not sure. Tomorrow at work I will ask someone to help me and change the time so that I can actually be present to answer the door.

And then later on this morning someone came to the door again. This time it was two Korean women selling what appeared to be religious literature: my guess is either Mormon or Jehova's Witnesses (yes, they have them here, too). I find Korean salespeople tend to be kind of agressive compared to Canadian ones, so it took me a while to tell them I wasn't interested, even though it is pretty obvious that Korean is not my first language by any means. Never mind the fact that my Korean is very limited and poor. But I am able to say "No, thanks" and "That's OK" in Korean, and after repeating both phrases several times, the Korean women finally left.

Other than that, things are going pretty well. I'm stumbling through the culture with a small degree of success, which isn't bad, considering I've been here for a month now, roughly.

Well, I better get going and hang up this last load of laundry. I should add, I am able to figure out my Korean appliances, with some fumbling of the dictionary. And I can pretty well read Korean writing, I just have to work on what the heck stuff means, now! Yay for learning the Korean alphabet!