Nemo Died - Sunday Nov. 4, 2007

I woke up at 12:00PM, and my brother looks me in the eyes and says "Nemo is dead." Luckily I knew what he was talking about. We have...well had two "Nemo" fish aka "Clown" fish in an aquarium in the dining room. The water hasn't stabilized to support sea life, and apparently the two Nemo fish couldn't handle it.

My host father went to his parents' farm today to pick persimmons. My host sibs had to go take a math test; from what I understand, it is a practice math test that my host mom paid for just to test her childrens' skills. Is that an odd concept for elementary schoolers? Do we have that in the states? I honestly don't know. The ETA's joke about how some things have just become so normal to us that we have a hard time distinguishing between things that are concepts in the states, and things that are concepts in Korea. While they were at their test, I just laid in bed and watched movies. It was so nice to just be able to relax!

At about 4:30PM, my host brother came into the apartment and asked me if I was ready to go to dinner. I wasn't exactly ready considering I had no idea that we were going so suddenly, but I got dressed and headed out with my host bro. When I got in the car, I asked my host sibs how the test went. My host sister said, "Not good." My host brother said, "Not bad." LOL! We met another family at a "meat" restaurant. Literally...meat! Restaurants in Korea are specialized for one type of food in many cases. My host mom kept apologizing, but it was okay. She wanted to take my host sibs out for dinner after they had the test. I always find something to eat; I wasn't too worried. I ate rice, grilled garlic slices (YUM!!), soup, and salad.

We headed over to other family's apartment. The moms are good friends, and my host bro is good friends with the boy in the family. The mom is super nice! She gave us a pumpkin that she had gotten from her father-in-law. So, I'm going to carve it with my host sibs...maybe next weekend. So far, I don't have any plans for the weekend.

My host sister and I played with the daughter in the family; she's a second grader. Have you ever had one of those moments where you become really grateful for the siblings you have, because the ones that could have been your siblings drive you crazy?! I had that moment! The girl is super cute and sweet, but she sort of drove me insane!

So, I went back to hanging out with the adults, and my host sis and the daughter played games on the computer. The boys were playing computer games in another room as well. We started talking about North Korea; she asked me how my trip went. She told me that her father-in-law left North Korea about 50 years ago without his wife or small child, and he hasn't been able to see them since then. He got remarried, and it is only recently that he has talked to his family about what happened all those years ago. She said it is their family's tragedy. I can't imagine ever going through such an experience.

We left after about two hours, because my host father had gotten home from his parents' house. He spent an hour and 1/2 picking persimmons. They aren't ripe yet, which my host sis and I realized after trying one.

My host father and I sat around and talked for about 1/2 an hour about the reunification of North and South Korea and what it would mean for the country and for other countries. We also talked about English teachers in Korea. The number of English teachers in Korea is dramatically rising.

I learned from Julie that native English speakers who teach English are much better paid than Korean teachers who speak English. Also, teachers in Seoul are paid much better than teachers in Wonju. How strange...to be paid more than a Korean who goes to school for years just because we were born into a language that other countries would later desire. I am not paid more than a Korean teacher, because of my program, but I'm still trying to grasp the concept that we have an incredibly valuable skill simply because of the location we were born.