The Hike...

I had wanted to climb a mountain since I’ve been in Korea. Actually probably before I arrived, because I remember watching a YouTube video of some guy climbing Mt. Apsan which is the biggest mountain around Daegu, and I just remember it looking like something I really wanted do once I got here. Well I finally ended up going this weekend and it was actually pretty cool. Not quite as intense as I thought it was going to be, but for a Sunday afternoon, after a long weekend, it was just about perfect in the struggle category. Not an intense where you couldn’t feel your legs, but I certainly had to stop and take a break every twenty minutes or so. I went with my co-teacher and her husband. We had lunch (their lunch, my breakfast) in the park before we headed up the mountain and then went and drank some mokolii (rice wine) afterwards, which was much better than the rice wine I had had earlier by the way. There were still rice chunks in it, but not to the same extent as the previous experience.

On our way up the mountain, about ¾ of the way up, at a particularly challenging part of the hike, my co-teacher stops, looks at me and says, “This is a test for me.” I didn’t really know what she was talking about, but I was thought to myself, “maybe she’s challenging herself to be more active, I mean, she did tell me a few weeks ago she’s trying to loose weight.” She probably weighs 120 lbs. soaking wet and she’s worried about loosing weight… anyways, her husband is leading us up this mountain and he’s a good 20 yards ahead of us and we had only taken one break at this point so we were getting pretty exhausted.. Nevertheless, I stop and ask her, “What do you mean?” I was really curious what test she was referring to, or if she had just misused the word “test”. She responds, “My husband is making me skinny, because in Korea, men do not want fat wives.” I was taken back a bit by her bluntness, but at the same time it didn’t surprise me as much as it would have a month ago. I actually found it hilarious and I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud after she told me. I explained, “Actually, I think it’s similar in the U.S., but I can’t speak for everyone I guess.” She laughed and continued up the mountain. I tried to explain to her that she’s not fat and that she shouldn’t be worried about her weight being as skinny as she is but I don’t think it registered as she shrugged off the topic… She nodded and carried on the hike, we actually ended up climbing to the top which was more hiking than I was planning on doing on the Sunday afternoon. My co-teacher also kept reminding her husband and I that, “we work tomorrow, we mustn’t climb too far.” Which I was actually opposed to because I had never been up a mountain and I just really wanted to keep climbing even though I could tell she really didn’t. I couldn’t really tell what her husband was thinking. He would crack jokes every once and a while but for the most part he didn’t smile much and seemed to take life a littler more seriously than his wife…

Speaking of jokes, my co-teacher ended up inviting me to her house that evening for supper as sort of a thank you for talking with her in English a few times a week. She will call me, about three o’ clock everyday, Monday thru Friday and ask that I come upstairs and teach her English. This normally consists of me complaining about something, or her talking about how she “doesn’t understand” why one of her kids studies so hard but doesn’t get good grades… it’s seriously the same thing every week. But I don’t mind, it’s good to get out of my office and feels good to help her with something even though it normally turns into her helping me with something, i.e. figuring out when I get vacation days, figuring out my pay schedule or making sure that I get an air conditioner in my apartment before it starts getting ridiculously hot out. Supposedly Daegu has similar weather patterns to Minnesota, with the super cold, dry winters and the hot, humid summers… fantastic. Anyways, I meet her son’s at the corner of a bank near my house and they walk me to their home. She lives door-to-door, about a 7-8 minute walk, so it was pretty convenient. I walk inside and it’s a pretty big/nice apartment, at least compared to the apartments I had been in before, which just consisted of my fellow EPIK teachers. I told her she had a beautiful house and that I was surprised that it was so clean, because I usually make fun of her for having such a messy office. Her oldest son assured me that it’s not normally this clean and that they had spent most of the afternoon cleaning and preparing for my arrival. Which actually made me feel a little bit guilty because I wasn’t that excited to go there. I had just spent about three hours with her climbing a mountain and I see her everyday at work so the weekends are a nice getaway normally. But in the end it was actually very nice. She cooked a bunch of beef that she always assumes is my favorite because I’m an American and a bunch of side dishes. It was delicious. Her husband busted out some whisky which they also assumed I like because I’m American, and we sipped on some Scottish whisky for the remainder of dinner.

What I was going to say about jokes though was that her son wanted to hear an American joke… he had just explained to me a Korean joke which I didn’t understand at all but faked a laugh, to make it seem like I at least pretended to understand. But he sort of put me on the spot, he just said, “Tell me an American joke.” My mind went blank; I don’t know any American jokes… I thought for a while saying, “ummmmm”… to make sure he knew I was thinking. I had just started up watching ‘The Office’ again so the only thing I could think of was “That’s what she said” jokes… I thought to myself, “great! I can use one of these!”, forgetting that the only way to explain them to a foreigner was to explain something sexual. So I’m sitting there, on a pad on the floor as usual, sweating because their house was 100 degrees and I had just drank a few shots of whisky and an entire Korean family is staring at me, really expecting me to say something that will really tickle their funny-bone. They have this idea in their heads that all American’s are comedians… and fat. But anyways, they’re all staring at me, I’m sweating, thinking of a way to explain “That’s what she said” jokes without being sexually inappropriate and am just drawing blanks left and right. I begin to explain, “That’s what she said” and come to dead-end every time. I try about three different ones but when I realize they’re starting to get sexual again I stop and just kind of awkwardly laugh it off as if to say, “I forfeit this American joke thing, I can’t think of anything you would consider funny, and the only joke I can think of is referencing to out of context, sexual innuendos.”

I finally end up changing the subject and explain to them that maybe we have different senses of humor and that I couldn’t think of anything right then. Well we finished supper and my co teacher’s youngest son actually has a friend of mine that I met at orientation for an English teacher at his middle school. I introduce the family to facebook and show pictures of his English teacher, myself, friends from college and high school. I also show them a picture of my sister because the two boys really wanted to see what my sister looks like. I get to her profile picture and they both go, “Ohhh beaufiul.” I replied, “ I know! Right?” And then the youngest son says, “She looks Asian.” So I don’t know if their judgment was off or what because she most definitely doesn’t look Asian… unless most Asian’s have blond hair and blue eyes. It was pretty funny and I know Brittany will appreciate this story. Well, that’s all I have for now. I hope this finds everyone well and that I can continue to update you whenever something interesting happens!