This is my first week in Korea.
I’ve gone through three stages of jet-lag. 1) Tiredness: sleeping long hours 2) Confused appetite: not knowing how much to eat and when 3) Distance: disbelief in reality, or perhaps the feeling that I can’t catch up with the present.
These hardly seem like problems. From what I recall of Dr. Randolph Persaud’s Cross-Cultural Communications class, I’m in the honeymoon stage of culture shock. Everything is exciting. Everything is new.
And yet I feel at home already. At least welcome. Yes, well come. It’s a good place to be! Hardly scanned the crowd through customs before I heard Yoonseo calling my name. Jae said gatherings would continue to be my welcome parties for awhile. So natural to hang out with my roommate Sarah. So exciting to reunite with Soyoung and Jong Eun. A coincidence that I met someone who knew them at church. A blessing that I do indeed love Korean food. Blessings upon blessings…
I’ve already worn hanbok, tried pine-needle tea (쌍화 차), found my way home from work and from the subway, explored the path that runs along a hill ridge near my home, purchased my favorite fruit: crunchy persimmon (감), learned useful phrases to use with one-year-old Lomie (Where is Auntie Kaia? = Kaia imo odiso?), gone on several walks to get out of the office in Deokso with Karen, accepted tea and tissues from street evangelists, joined the cooking and cleaning rotations (Tuesday lunch with Sunny, collecting paper recycling), had a thorough medical check in order to get an alien registration card, eaten octopus, anchovies, and unfamiliar mushrooms (at least the octopus wasn’t alive, I’ve heard that recommended…), hmm, then there was the sweet potato mustard pizza: they need to try that one at Jubilee…
Many things I say start with “At Jubilee,” but I think that’s natural, and hopefully doesn’t bother anyone. Sarah starts many sentences with “At Sarangbang” (the community she lived at in Korea).
I hung up my personalized Jubilee calendar at my desk in the office and added Don’s books to the library in the kitchen. In the situations where it’s possible, Karen words pop in my head, as if I should be able to use them. Sometimes it’s French phrases. I still have the death penalty and the eastern Congo much on my mind after my two week visit in Georgia in late February. It’s a time of transition, I bring many different things with me into this new environment where I find myself. I’ve even shared some paper unicorns.
Well, it’s getting late. That’s all for now. Last time I had a blog I posted 5 times in 5 months. I don’t expect this time to be much different. But, in the meantime don’t hesitate to email me. I promise to respond!
kaiaalicia 