Strangers at the door, USArmy in the north, and a bad knee!

If you’ve ever been to Sam’s Wholesale Club, you know how they have little samples of all kinds of different foods they want you to buy. Great promotional idea that some other grocery stores have picked up. Well, the Carrefour right next to my house has them as well. (They give away free things all the time. I got a Rubbermaid sandwich container with my cereal. I got a free Spam giftset with my cellphone, for that matter. Talk about cross-marketing!!) I sampled several of the things and last time I went in, the woman said, “One plus one” meaning if I bought one, I got the second free of the product she was advertising. So I figured what the hey. I bought it, took it home and cooked it, and had it with my dinner. When I say “it” though, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Because, truth-be-known, I have no idea what I was eating, buying, and cooking. It was sorta like a veggie burger, but in chicken nugget size. The woman said it was chicken, but there were vegetables in there as well. What vegetables, I don’t know that, either. But when I consider what I could’ve indulged in and still have half of in my freezer, I can pronounce what’s in the package, but I just can’t translate what the heck it is.

My second strange knock on the door came at 11:30p this past Sunday night. It was the Census people. The first knock was one morning the week prior. I have a camera and a speaker at my front door, so I can talk to and look at whoever makes the alarm sing “Fer Elise,” but that poses a problem when our languages don’t coincide. I opened the door and the first woman came in and sprayed some white stuff in my shower and under my sink, made me sign, and then left. I have no idea what this was about. When I opened the door for the Census lady, she gave me a surprised, “Oh!” Then said, “Englishee” and gave me a version of her questionnaire that I could answer. You know, simple stuff like how many bathrooms do you have, etc. But 11:30pm? Geez people! I’ve really gotta learn not to answer the door for strangers.

Common in a big city, but not in a small town like the one where I am from, is not seeing stars at night. There are a few areas of town where you can see the sky, peppered with stars. Unfortunately for me, where I live is not one of them. It’s not something I ever realized I’d miss or appreciate, but every night, I lay in bed and try to spot at least one before I fall asleep. What I’ve found is that if I wake up in the middle of the night (I drink so much water while I teach that a mid-sleep bathroom run has become more common for me) I can see three from my window. I actually get excited! I have to make sure that my “stars” aren’t coming in for a landing, though, because I am just a few kilometers away from the airport.

Americans use the signs of the zodiac, Chinese use animals, Koreans use blood type. Type A blood has a similar connotation as a Type A personality. Mr Lee was telling me that O blood type is more of a humane, laid back, giving person. We didn’t really go through AB, B, RH and all the others. He thinks I’m type A though, because I keep a planner and a “to do” list, and I have A type blood. Just an interesting take on things. It’s one of those things that you can’t help, but to them, it says a lot about you.

The weather here is getting cooler. Not freezing or miserable, but sweater weather. (We were actually supposed to have our first freeze this week. It was close, but not quite there.) Sometimes I just wear long sleeves and that’s okay. It’s nice, but Debbie tells me to wear a jacket. I thought I was a wuss when it came to cold weather, but I’ve heard Koreans are even worse. Regardless, I don’t like the bulkiness of winter. A big, heavy coat, lots of layers of clothes, insulated and massive shoes... I just feel like you oughta put me in a mattress and cut out a hole for my eyes and it’s the same thing.

Looks like there’s another LSU guy in Korea! I got an email from a fellow marketing major who graduated in December '04. He's in Tongduchon, which is up along the border with the North. Here’s an excerpt from his first email:

Where we go to on the DMZ is not very touristy. They should just call it the MZ
because there are soldiers, artillery cannons, tanks and razor wire everywhere.
It is kinda neat, they also have these big concrete structures with explosives
over the roads, so when the north attacks, they will blow them up so the north
can’t use the roads. It really hits home the fact that we could be at war any
moment. But there is a big observatory up there where you can look into N.
Korea. It is called Odusan Unification Observatory. Google it, I am sure there
are tours. It is kinda funny, after the South built the big observatory; the
North built a fake village across from it. Now they force people to live in it
and act like they are farming and doing well.

And another:

...no, we will not go to war anytime soon, but when you come up here in what we
call "Area 1" you really realize the potential, however unlikely it may be.
Also, I kinda exaggerated the showers and heaters. We stay out for a week or so
and come in for one night to shower and clean up. The rest of the time we keep
clean with baby wipes, and a lot of the time we are in our tanks, which are
heated.

Reminders like this one about not only how much hell our military goes through, but how easily things change and we could be at war are a little bit of a wake-up call. I’ve been noticing more anti-American articles from news sources all over and it’s disheartening. The US seems to have the worst reputation with the rest of the world now than we ever have before. I don’t think ole GW has the right equipment upstairs or desires to straighten this out before it gets worse in his remaining 3 years. (If you read about him campaigning for the governor’s election in Virginia, it said that the Democrats encouraged this because they thought it would help them out. Sure enough, the Democrat won the race!) I don’t expect it to affect me while I’m here, but I’d be some kind of livid if it did!


I’m going on a trip this weekend that I found out about through my Canadian friends who live around the corner. I’m pretty excited! It’s $10 for breakfast, lunch, dinner, the bus ride, admission and cable car, and of course a day full of hiking. I asked if there was a troop for loser hikers, but no such luck. My patella femoral syndrome (that’s for you, Ward) might act up, causing me to lag. All I have is New Balance tennis shoes and no hiking boots—I hope that’s not a bad idea! Mt. Daedunsan and Mt. Munsusan, where we are going, are on the mid-West side of the country in Chungchung-do province. I’m looking forward to checking out another part of the country!

Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed