A great and terrible tragedy has struck the Korean peninsula. It is disrupting the daily lives of all of its citizens and has thrown the country into complete turmoil. Due to the heavier than normal rains of the wet season, the lettuce and cabbage crops suffered massive devastation. Anyone who knows anything about the Korean palate knows that everyday, with every meal Koreans consume kimchi. There are many different kinds of kimchi, but the most common it the cabbage kimchi. Due to the rains, the prices of lettuce and cabbage have skyrocketed, and by default the price of kimchi. Some schools have even stopped serving kimchi with their school lunches. They are hiding the kimchi in the grocery stores, and you have to ask for it behind the counters. Much like rising gas prices in the United States, the price of kimchi has become a daily topic of conversation. I don’t ever buy kimchi, so it hasn’t really affected my, but it’s kind of fun to hear my Korean co-workers complain about it so much.
Other than the price of kimchi, things haven’t been too exciting around here lately. This week I studied my Korean, taught…On Tuesday I tried to go see a friend of mine perform his traditional Korean music, but I was too late to catch the performance, so I just met up with some other friends who had seen the show. I made a new friend, and managed to spend almost an hour talking to him in Korean…I’m sure it wasn’t very impressive conversation, but it was good practice for me.
The next day I made sure I was on time, and managed to catch my friend’s show. It was really cool. There were hundreds of people there to cheer his band on. He plays the Korean Flute, I can’t remember the traditional name for it, but it has this haunting mournful sound, it’s really beautiful. They also all play the drums. If you ever get a chance to see a Korean drum performance it’s really impressive. It’s so loud it vibrates your chest.
Thursday I had my Korean class so I headed to campus. On my way there I got a call from my musician friend saying that he would be performing on my school’s campus that evening. Sadly I had class, so I couldn’t go, but I met up with him on my way to class and practiced my Korean a bit more. It’s fun having Korean friends with which I can practice my conversation skills. My new Korean class is a completely different dynamic than the other ones I was in. There are more students, and the teacher is moving at a really slow pace, at least it seems like it to me. However, everyone in the class converses in Korean. Even at break time in between class we all talk with each other in Korean, almost never switching to English. It’s going to be really good for my speaking, which is my weakest point.
This weekend I hung out with some friends. We went K-Pop CD shopping, which is always fun. Then we went shopping in Myeongdong. We decided to cap off our evening by going down to the Han River and watching the displays at the 2010 fireworks festival. Apparently it was a bigger deal than we had realized. The subway was so crammed that it took us a half hour to emerge from underground. Once we got outside, the normally spacious park was crammed full of people. We scouted out a spare bit of grass, barely big enough for the three of us to sit on, and then waited for the display to start. When it finally did we stayed for 15 minutes, and left in disappointment. It was not worth battling the hundreds of thousands of people who had shown up to see the show. I expected a lot more from the continent that invented the darn things.
Today was general conference which means I got to stay home and watch church on the internet. I love days where I don’t have to leave my apartment. It rarely happens, but when it does I take full advantage. I made French toast with banana milk, some alfredo, and since I ran out of peanut butter, I invented a new sandwich which consisted of a banana, strawberry jam, and syrup…it was actually quite good. All in all in was a pretty good day. Tomorrow starts another week. But they all go by so quickly that I’ll be writing an e-mail again before I know it. I love you all. Have an amazing week, and join the Korean nation in prayer that the kimchi prices will drop.
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