Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day in Korea was super strange, I had to work, and it was just a regular day nothing too special really. In fact for dinner I ate waffles, self proclaimed gourmet 3 cheese eggs and bacon, it was tasty but not for Thanksgiving.

Please can someone tell me why people from home really think Koreans celebrate Thanksgiving, Korean Americans maybe, but Koreans born in Korea who have NEVER been to America, yeah NO THANKSGIVING! I had to tell mad people "Yes, I have to work its an American holiday", Koreans could careless about the pilgrims first meal with the Indians on November 26, 1621! My mom called me at 1:30am "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" all I could do is laugh, because when she called me it was Thanksgiving in America but Thanksgiving day was already over in Korea.

The team decided to cook on Saturday following Thanksgiving at a friends house because there was an oven there. Most Korean apartments do not have an oven so it would make it rather problematic to cook at one of our places. We had a friend who is in the military go to the grocery store on base, to get the essentials for a true Thanksgiving feast. With a list in hand he went to the store and got "everything on the list" and a feast is exactly what we had. We had Turkey (we named him Herb), curry chicken, greens, green beans, corn, mac n cheese, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, rolls, corn beard, brownies and cakes. Everything turned out SO good, I really forgot I was in Korea because we do not have access to this kind of food on a regular basis. It was a good time with great people and great food.
Still Seoul Searching...

"I can BUY you"

So recently Korea has been a blast and I am enjoying every bit of it however it has been hard to if that makes sense. I think because I am on the down hill side of things I am getting excited to get home. I have less than 100 days left in Korea can you believe it?! Lately I must admit, I have become "so over" some Korean ways.

Today in class we where having a conversation about things we can purchase I say "Ok class what are some things we can buy?". A student raises his hand and says "You teacher, black people, you know slaves", my jaw dropped! The student is one of my better English students and speaks well and often translates to the class. The thing that mad me so mad was the fact that he knew exactly what he was saying and what he meant. I then proceeded to say to the student "SHUT your mouth before I slamm you for free 99, also you just bought 100 push ups, how you like your change?" in my mind I was thinking, I guess you are my slave now huh?

Korean can be so crazy, and you would think I would be used to it by now but somethings I just can not get used to. Often times, Koreans think its ok to say what ever they want at any time. Now, if I mentioned the treatment of Koreans during the Japense occupation that would be a HUGE problem. I understand I am in a new culture and some things are NOT going to be like home, and thats becasue it is not home, but come on! You know what they say when in Korea do as the Koreans...right????