I realize the title sounds a little dirty, but that’s basically what my day consisted of…nuns, and the dirtiest children of all time. I feel bad saying this, because I guess they’re really poor and essentially without parents, but still…I could hardly stand to touch them. How did I ever get myself into this crazy situation, you may ask?
Well, after spending Saturday brooding and reading and playing a bit of badminton with Eun Ho, Yeun, my host father, and his friend, we had a mysterious visitor. A friendly Catholic nun, actually. She showed up with Yoo Jin, one of my third grade students. I guess the nun (I forget her name already…oops!) visits the houses of some poor children in the community, one of which is Yoo Jin’s, and she wanted to come see me today. The nun lived for five years, I think, in Massachusetts and her English is pretty good. We had a little chat yesterday over my new favorite drink, mayshil (a variation of apple juice) and they invited me to go with them to see this cosmus field in Buyeo. Cosmus (sp?) is a really pretty flower that is blooming right now. It blooms white, pink, and purple. There are a lot of them along the sides of the main road, but this field in Buyeo was evidently quite a sight. I was thinking I’d go to the beach on Sunday and finally get out of the house, but this seemed like a good chance to see some kids and some of the local sights, so I said yes.
They picked me and Eun Ho up today a little after two—the nun, this woman named Helen (who I think is not quite right in the head), one of my second grade students, and his two younger brothers. They have a really sad story. Their mother is mentally handicapped, from what I gather, and the father is an alcoholic and in the hospital somewhere. So they are living with their grandmother, who is not quite all there, either. As a matter of fact, their grandmother could actually have been Helen…I didn’t put this together until now. Regardless, not a happy story. We picked up Yoo Jin and it turns out she lives near a place I walk to often. It’s not too far from our house—maybe I’ll have to visit sometime. Anyway, she’s an orphan, too. I didn’t hear the story about it. I have no idea who she lives with. She is the youngest of four. I have her sister in sixth grade and her brother in fifth grade, and I am guessing her oldest sister is in middle school. She’s a really cute girl and I like her a lot.
We went to the river in Buyeo after dropping Mi Syoung off downtown (if you can even call the center of a town of 20,000 downtown….). The cosmus field is right there, below the bridge that takes you in the direction of Hongsan. I can’t believe I’d never noticed it before. Not looking, I guess. It was nice, though. We had a little snack, of course, of some leftovers someone had donated to us this morning. I felt really bad I hadn’t brought anything. It didn’t occur to me that we would probably eat until it was too late. It turns out my host mother wanted me to bring a huge bag of chestnuts, but I wasn’t entirely certain that was what she was telling me this morning and I didn’t want to give away so many chestnuts without being totally sure that’s what she wanted. I mean, it was three gallon Zip-lock bags…you gotta make sure when handing over that kind of merchandise! I feel really bad about it now, though. She came running out with the bag as soon as we pulled up and I felt like an idiot. I should have taken them, anyway. Oh, well…next time.
After this strange little snack, we took a lot of pictures. I let Yoo Jin use my camera most of the day and she really got a kick out of it. I don’t like taking pictures, anyway, so I was happy to have someone else do it. Too bad there are WAY too many pictures of me now! I also took a walk with the nun and Eun Ho. She wanted to know all about why I was here in Korea. I felt she was a little critical of me at some points and I was a bit uncomfortable with some of her questions, but I guess I passed the test because she wants to do something with me later. We were talking about travel at one point, and after I said I wanted to travel a lot around Korea, she asked me what the purpose of that would be, because I obviously wouldn’t go just to see things but rather to study something. Am I missing something here? Seeing is educational, right? I guess she just meant it was expensive and was making some comment on my extravagance, which is fair, I guess. There are definitely better ways to spend my money. Still, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to get around the country some while I’m here. It’s not like I’ll come back anytime soon.
After that, we headed back to Hongsan. Along the way, we stopped at this place with a big cage full of birds. The kids got a kick out of it, but I thought it was very strange and was a little creeped out by it. Also, Helen kept grabbing and stroking my arm at this point and I was trying to avoid physical contact. I am just not a touchy person, which is out of place in Korea but most people leave me alone because I am still a stranger. You only grab your friends. Helen and I are not friends and I really didn’t like this attention. The ride home was actually somewhat horrible because the youngest child, who must have been two or less, kept screaming. He probably needed a nap, but at any rate, he was obnoxious. And soooo dirty and sticky…he kept trying to crawl on me and even drooled a sticky mess all over my foot and sandal. All this while yelling at the top of his lungs. It totally wasn’t even a real scream, either—just a “Give me what I want NOW!” scream. Believe me, I know all the different screams. I am an expert by now. I wanted to clobber him. Instead, they stopped and gave him yet another cup of Coke. Just what he needed, I’m sure.
We had dinner back in Hongsan—Ja Jang Myeong, my favorite Chinese dish. Unfortunately, this variety had beef all over, but I did my best to pick around it. One weird thing about dinner…there was a coffee machine there, and all the kids walked right over and helped themselves to a cup of pre-dinner coffee! I am talking about a third-grader, second-grader, first-grader, and preschooler. It was so strange, but no one else said anything, so I guess it was only me. I was intending to pay for dinner, but she sent me out to the car to keep an eye on the kids, so I didn’t get a chance to talk to her about it. Guess I needed to be sneaky and sly, but I am still not good at that.
When we came home, the nun talked to my host mother and father about what I’d told her—my desire to see the beach and start taekwondo again. So we’re going to the beach tomorrow, and the nun’s going to call about TKD for me. I was really happy she stepped in for me…saved me from bothering my co-teacher about it! I would have been happy making my way to the beach myself, but this is just as well. Get in some quality fam time. I do have to leave work early…hope it’s cool.
Tonight I just chilled. I was stretching earlier, and of course Eun Ho came over to stare at me around the corner like he always does, and then he started imitating me! Yeun did, too…it was so funny! For the record, I am MUCH more flexible than them. Should be, too, after how hard I’ve been working on flexibility! What silly kids!