Today I was invited to the exclusive, invitation-only birthday party of So Ye Eun, one of my fifth grade students and a recent addition to my list of favorite students. She’s been my lunch buddy all week because they have been eating at the same time as me and she honestly welcomes my company. Sometimes I feel a little weird eating with the students, like they feel uncomfortable because they can’t speak much with me. I usually end up explaining yet again that I don’t eat meat (Miss Jen, golgi an mogoyo???) and we talk about other foods we like. It’s a good time. Ye Eun and I share a passion for mushrooms and cheese. She is best friends with Kim Hye Jung, another fifth grade girl who has taken a shine to me. Both of them are also in my Friday afternoon class. They are so wonderfully enthusiastic for the most part, though Ye Eun struggles some with English in class.
I met the two of them at the bus stop on Saturday morning. They arrived breathless, five minutes late, because apparently Ye Eun lived far away. There must have been a sleepover the night before. We went to Buyeo for the day. I wasn’t really sure what we were going to do because we can’t explain very well to each other, but I had vague ideas of eating, jumping (?), and watching King Kong. We actually ended up shopping for a long time (found some GREAT Christmas gifts!) and the girls kept trying to buy me presents. I ended up with two pairs of somewhat tacky earrings because I got tired of saying no when they were so adamant in their desires to present me with gifts.
After shopping, we ate lunch at a place called Kimbap Plus. It was good and had everything I could want as a vegetarian in Korea—ramen, kimbap, and my current favorite, kimchi mandu.
Then they decided we should do this jumping thing, but I understood nothing beyond the word “jump.” When we arrived, I was surprised to find it was essentially a collection of four patched trampolines under a large tarp. It was fun, but definitely not what I was expecting. I mean, it was almost primitive! They were amazed when I told them that my family has one in our backyard in the U.S. What a luxury, especially in their eyes, I am sure. I don’t know what it’s like for other Korean children, but the ones in my family definitely do not have toys beyond drawing materials. I’m sure it would be unimaginable to buy children’s toys on the scale of a giant trampoline here in Korea.
fter jumping for what felt like forever, since I was constantly asked to bounce the two girls around (exhausting business), we headed over to the cinema. I was under the impression that there was no movie theater in Buyeo based on the reports of the other ETA, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only was there a theater, but it must at least occasionally show English movies, because we went to The Devil Wears Prada. Too bad I already saw it right before I left for Korea, but it was fun and I enjoyed it much more than I would have liked King Kong. I am not really sure what the girls thought…would it even be fun to watch a foreign film at that age? I’m sure I didn’t watch any when I was 12, but then again, we don’t see many in America, anyway. Plus, I think some of the subject material was probably shocking to them. After spending so much time here and watching some of their television shows, I found myself watching it somewhat through what I imagine would be their eyes and some scenes surprised me—you know, girls in their underwear, suggestive sexual comments, the entire premise of an unmarried couple living together. Yeah, I know, I’m becoming a prude. While we were waiting for the movie to start, I saw a bunch of my other students there. I had forgotten they’d told me the day before they were going to a movie. I think they saw the one other movie playing, which was in Korean, of course.
After the movie, we had a snack at Lotteria (kind of like Korean McDonalds), looked through a bookstore, and headed home. I was surprised to find that the Buyeo bookstore carried a few English books after all. They had all of the Harry Potter books, the Chronicles of Narnia, quite a few older English literature type books in both Korean and English, presumably for study, and a couple other random titles. Too bad I’ve read all the Harry Potters and the Chronicles of Narnia and the rest looked uninteresting. At least it’s something to fall back on in a pinch.
On the way home, the girls informed me that the day had been like a dream for them. It was fun for me, too, and I’m glad they were so happy with it. I can admit now that I thought the language barrier would be insurmountable with my students and they would shy away from spending time with me because of it, but they have surprised me with their enthusiasm for trying to talk to me, even if they aren’t always successful. They have spirit, they do!