Countdown- Nine weeks to go..
It is cold today. Really quite cold indeed. The last week that my mum was here a couple of weeks ago it was getting colder in the evenings but it heated up again the following week. Last week was really tricky weather- that it to say that it was lovely and warm when I was heading to work and cold on the way out- a bugger to dress for all in all. But I was still wearing my sandals. But on Monday I had to dig out a pair of runners- 'proper shoes' - and socks just to stop my feet getting cold on the way to work let alone on the way home. Guess that Autumn is well and truly here and that Winter is just a hop, skip and a jump away.
I should have known it would be getting cold soon as there has been two very obvious signs of the decline of summer:
1. Tim has started wearing his suit for work again and
2. the kids have started wearing their jackets in class.
Now, while the first one is funny enough for those that didn't know Tim last winter the second one is really odd. Once winter starts fully the Koreans will be wearing their coats all of the time- classrooms full of jacket wearing kids, restaurants full of adults clad in their winter finest. And just me with the heater on trying to stay warm in a cardigan or fleece top. Once that heater is on you would think that the kids would get hot enough to take those jackets off but no- they just sit and get hot. Not that the heaters are out yet. But I am looking forward to one of my favourite Korean winter things- the under floor heating. I am not sure if I sung the praises of that loud enough last winter. It is great and the reason that Korea homes have no carpets. The entire floor is heated like a huge radiator which means that clothes can be hung on an airer anywhere in the room and they will get the benefit of the heat without blocking it from me. Most people will completely forsake what little use they do make of their furniture and move onto the floor full time. I, for one, will be popping a thin cushion next to the sofa and enjoying a warm bottom. All I have to remember is the valuable lesson that I learnt last year- don't leave chocolate in your bag if you intend to leave your bag on your heated floor for any length of time at all!
Korea feels very different in the cold. It even smells really different. The hagwon smells like it did when I first got here back in December in ways that I can't really describe but which can trick me occasionally into believing that I am newly arrived. Which is why it is weird when everything seems so familiar.
In fact it is odd altogether really that Mokpo looks so normal to me now. The traditional houses complete with kimchi pots on the roof or top of the gate look as familiar to me as the estate where my mother lives in England. I can read the signs much quicker than I used to (remember that they are all in Korean or bad English) though I still don't know what most of them mean. I even find myself wondering why people are staring at me sometime then I see my reflection in a shop window and remember that I look really different from the average inhabitant of this city.
It will be very odd to get back to Western society and not be the centre of attention though it will be nice not to have shop staff laugh hysterically just because I am speaking English. I am not looking forward to teenagers back home though- they scare me whereas here I am usually just asked where I am from by a bunch of giggling boys rather than worried that one of them might make off with my handbag (well, small backpack as I have never really seen the fun in a handbag- purse to all you North American types reading this). Will life still be fun when the very act of ordering beer isn't fraught with danger? I was in a local bar with my friends over here once when it took FIVE bar staff to take our order- despite the vocab to order beer being the first thing that I learnt in Korean (I am not daft and certainly know where my priorities lie!).
I can only guess what it will be like to go home and all the things which I grew up with seeming so odd to me. My friends and family had better brace themselves for an onslaught of questions about how things work in the UK (and what has been happening in Eastenders for the last year). I want to go straight to the Fish and Chip shop and get me a large portion of proper chips- with salt and vinegar and ketchup and garlic mayo- which should keep me going until I make it to the Chinese for some sweet and sour chicken balls and chicken chow mein! I am looking forward to it but if anyone knows of a Korean restaurant in London please let me know since I am sure that it is only a matter of time until I start craving Sam Gyup Sal again!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I should have known it would be getting cold soon as there has been two very obvious signs of the decline of summer:
1. Tim has started wearing his suit for work again and
2. the kids have started wearing their jackets in class.
Now, while the first one is funny enough for those that didn't know Tim last winter the second one is really odd. Once winter starts fully the Koreans will be wearing their coats all of the time- classrooms full of jacket wearing kids, restaurants full of adults clad in their winter finest. And just me with the heater on trying to stay warm in a cardigan or fleece top. Once that heater is on you would think that the kids would get hot enough to take those jackets off but no- they just sit and get hot. Not that the heaters are out yet. But I am looking forward to one of my favourite Korean winter things- the under floor heating. I am not sure if I sung the praises of that loud enough last winter. It is great and the reason that Korea homes have no carpets. The entire floor is heated like a huge radiator which means that clothes can be hung on an airer anywhere in the room and they will get the benefit of the heat without blocking it from me. Most people will completely forsake what little use they do make of their furniture and move onto the floor full time. I, for one, will be popping a thin cushion next to the sofa and enjoying a warm bottom. All I have to remember is the valuable lesson that I learnt last year- don't leave chocolate in your bag if you intend to leave your bag on your heated floor for any length of time at all!
Korea feels very different in the cold. It even smells really different. The hagwon smells like it did when I first got here back in December in ways that I can't really describe but which can trick me occasionally into believing that I am newly arrived. Which is why it is weird when everything seems so familiar.
In fact it is odd altogether really that Mokpo looks so normal to me now. The traditional houses complete with kimchi pots on the roof or top of the gate look as familiar to me as the estate where my mother lives in England. I can read the signs much quicker than I used to (remember that they are all in Korean or bad English) though I still don't know what most of them mean. I even find myself wondering why people are staring at me sometime then I see my reflection in a shop window and remember that I look really different from the average inhabitant of this city.
It will be very odd to get back to Western society and not be the centre of attention though it will be nice not to have shop staff laugh hysterically just because I am speaking English. I am not looking forward to teenagers back home though- they scare me whereas here I am usually just asked where I am from by a bunch of giggling boys rather than worried that one of them might make off with my handbag (well, small backpack as I have never really seen the fun in a handbag- purse to all you North American types reading this). Will life still be fun when the very act of ordering beer isn't fraught with danger? I was in a local bar with my friends over here once when it took FIVE bar staff to take our order- despite the vocab to order beer being the first thing that I learnt in Korean (I am not daft and certainly know where my priorities lie!).
I can only guess what it will be like to go home and all the things which I grew up with seeming so odd to me. My friends and family had better brace themselves for an onslaught of questions about how things work in the UK (and what has been happening in Eastenders for the last year). I want to go straight to the Fish and Chip shop and get me a large portion of proper chips- with salt and vinegar and ketchup and garlic mayo- which should keep me going until I make it to the Chinese for some sweet and sour chicken balls and chicken chow mein! I am looking forward to it but if anyone knows of a Korean restaurant in London please let me know since I am sure that it is only a matter of time until I start craving Sam Gyup Sal again!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted by Helen @ 5:26 PM
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